Chapter Text
A couple weeks had passed since the celebration of Jee-Yun’s first birthday, and with it the anniversary of that time Albert almost died. Maddie had started back at dispatch at the beginning of March, and there had been many happy tears on Buck’s end when they got the first call in almost a year that had his sister’s voice on the radio. He might have also tried stalking her vicariously through May and Josh during her first shift, until the two of them got annoyed and stopped replying.
Maddie and Chimney started couples therapy the month before, with Buck and Albert switching off who got to watch Jee-Yun during the sessions. Unless they were on shift, then it was the Lees. Buck wasn’t quite certain how much progress his sister and her boyfriend were making on the home front. He knew she was still sleeping on the air mattress next to Jee’s crib on the nights they were both home, but he was assuming they were still managing to live together alright. At the very least, Maddie hadn’t made any noise about either of them moving out, which was a relief for him. Chimney had made her so happy, once, and he didn’t want to be responsible for ruining that.
Of course, he made the mistake of voicing that thought to Eddie, who then proceeded to bring it up with Copeland at their next joint therapy session with her. She had not been impressed with his attempts to defend it, and then spent the entire rest of the session questioning him on the reasoning behind such a statement.
On top of the couples therapy, Chimney and Maddie were both going to their own personal sessions. Ruth, a nurse from the clinic in Boston that Maddie had stayed at and the person who had accompanied her on Christmas to her brother’s wedding, had helped her get set up with a psychiatrist in Los Angeles that she started seeing almost as soon as she was back in town. And Chimney was seeing Frank on the regular, a requirement from the brass for his return to work.
At the station, Albert was still partnered with Hen, who had welcomed it with open arms after being subjected to the psychological warfare that was Eddie “opening up to others.” Since Ravi’s probationary period was up, the younger Han was now the sole probie at the station. Although, whenever someone shouted out “Probie!” at the top of their lungs, Ravi still ended up responding almost every time. Like Pavlov’s dog hearing the dinner bell.
And on the topic of Albert and Ravi…
“How many more places do I need to sign?” Albert groaned, dropping his pen onto the pile of papers he had been going through so he could shake out his wrist. He and Ravi had finally told Bobby about their relationship at the start of the shift, weeks after Buck gave them the shovel talk while Eddie menaced them with an ax on Valentine’s Day. The captain had made a comment about something being in the station’s water supply, before going into his office and coming out with a small mountain of paperwork for the both of them to get through.
“The department really, really likes covering its ass when it comes to relationships between its employees,” Buck said, grinning at him. He and Eddie had volunteered to help the two of them get through everything, since they’d done it before.
“I think this is actually more than what Buck and I had to get through,” his husband commented, pointing out a place Ravi almost missed initialing.
“Because I already had half of it filled out for you,” Bobby said. He’d sat down with them, but seemed content to simply watch them wade through it all as he sipped at his coffee. “I did a bit at a time, waiting for the two of you to spit it out.”
“Were they that obvious?” Ravi asked. The young man had come to the station long after Buck and Eddie had officially become Buck-and-Eddie, so he hadn’t been there for the start of it.
“I caught them making out behind the trucks one Christmas,” the captain said. “So yes.”
“Months of being terrified of what he’d do if he found out,” Buck said with a sigh, shaking his head. “Only to find out that he’d known literally the entire time.”
“I kept telling you he wouldn’t react badly,” Eddie reminded him.
“There’s a reason I’m in therapy. I mean, besides just about everything that’s happened since then.”
“There are two reasons, and their names are Margaret and Phillip.”
Buck couldn’t really argue against that, so he just shrugged and tapped on the table in front of Albert, prompting him to pick up his pen and get back to it.
“You still have half the pages to get through, Probie.”
“I will make you the man behind if you don’t get through it before the next call,” Bobby said. “Both of you.”
“Just power through it, Alley Cat,” Ravi said, blindly reaching out and patting his boyfriend on the arm. A moment later, his head shot up with a look of abject horror, while Albert’s face turned an impressive shade of red.
“Rav,” his boyfriend whined, covering his face.
“Pet names are nothing to be ashamed about,” Buck assured them. “Isn’t that right, babe?”
“Si, mi sol,” Eddie said.
“But do try to keep it to a minimum on scenes,” Bobby said, with a pointed glance at Buck.
“Why are you looking at me like that, pops?”
“You know why.”
“I think that’s covered by this page actually,” Albert said, holding it up. “Blah, blah, behave professionally and with decorum at all times in the public eye while wearing the LAFD uniform and symbols, blah, blah…”
“You know what else is covered by that?” Buck asked, slanting a grin at his husband. “Screaming at your best friend in the middle of the grocery store because you couldn’t talk to him for a couple days.”
“It was more than a couple days.” Eddie refuted, crossing his arms.
“It wasn’t even an entire week.”
“Hold on,” Hen interrupted from the next table over, where she’d been going over a medical textbook while sipping her own coffee. “Did Buckaroo just make a joke about the lawsuit?”
“He did indeed,” Bobby confirmed, nodding.
“What lawsuit?” Ravi asked, young and curious.
“And look at the time,” Buck said, hurriedly getting out of his seat without even glancing at any timepiece. “I really should get started on those chores. Good luck getting this all done, guys.”
He gave both Albert and Ravi pats on the shoulder as he rushed past them to the stairs.
“Why do we even need to promise not to take any station vehicle out for inappropriate personal use?” was the next question he heard out of Ravi’s mouth, and he started walking faster to the sound of Hen’s cackling.
“Step one, we’re gonna ride alongside that pickup truck and match its speed,” Bobby informed them. They were responding to a call about a family who was being held hostage with a bomb attached to their vehicle, set so they couldn’t drop below a certain speed. If they did, it exploded. Eddie had made a comment about recognizing that movie, but it had flown right over his husband’s head. “We have to move fast, so the One Forty-Seven is here to assist. Buck, once we’re in position, I want you to jump into that truck bed. Eddie will give you a hand. Somebody from the One Forty-Seven will be doing the same.”
“Alright, we’re falling back,” Athena told them, her cruiser slowing down to give them room to maneuver.
“Do not fall,” Eddie ordered.
“Never,” Buck promised, opening up the door and scrambling to the top of the ladder truck, his husband following along behind him a moment later.
“One Eighteen is on the move,” Bobby informed everyone over the radio. “How are we doing, One Forty-Seven?”
“Donato, heading out to meet you now,” a woman’s voice responded. A moment later, she popped out of the side door of the 147’s engine, climbing to a matching position to theirs on its roof. Eddie absently noted how she was doing it alone, without anyone to watch her back.
“Okay, I’m just working out how to do this,” Buck told him, sounding nervous as he eyed the gap between the ladder truck and the pickup he needed to leap onto. Across from them, Donato took her chance without an ounce of hesitation, landing almost gracefully in the truck bed.
“That is a woman who does not have a kid to get home to,” Eddie commented. He patted his husband on the back and a moment later was watching with his heart in his throat as Buck jumped across to join Donato. The pair clipped anchor lines to where they could and then popped the back window out of its frame, letting it hit the pavement in their wake.
“Let’s move to position two. Ravi, get topside with Eddie,” Bobby instructed, the ladder truck falling back and moving so it was right behind the pick up truck. “Eddie, extend the ladder.”
“Ladder’s on the move,” Eddie announced into his radio. “And remember, do not move the driver.”
“What? Why?” Donato demanded.
“There’s a pressure switch under the gas pedal,” he explained, clipping on his own anchor line and climbing to the end of the extended ladder. “No more pressure, no more truck.”
There was radio silence for a few moments as Buck and Donato got the two kids out of the back seat, getting them harnessed up and ready to be handed over to Eddie and Ravi. An electronic road sign to the side of the street had him cursing, however.
“Eddie!” Buck shouted.
“I see it!” he shouted back, lifting up the second kid and handing them off to Ravi farther down the ladder. They had about two miles of freeway left, and at the speed they were going, those two miles would be gone in a blink. He was stuck clinging to the sides of the truck’s ladder, listening to the parents in the truck wasting time arguing over who was going to stay behind and risk being blown up until Athena managed to convince the mother to climb to safety.
“Buck, Donato, grab the mom and evacuate the pickup now!” Bobby ordered. “We need to fall back and let the bomb squad get to work.”
Eddie reached down, grabbing the mother and helping her onto the ladder. He noticed Donato pick something up and reach into the cab, but he was too busy keeping the woman from falling onto the road to focus on what the other firefighter was doing.
“One Eighteen, heads up,” Donato suddenly said over the radio. “Dad’s coming your way.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Eddie demanded, forgetting for a moment that she couldn’t hear him over the wind. Swear to God, if she did something that resulted in him having to tell Chris that Buck wasn’t coming home, he’ll show everyone just how unprofessional he could act while wearing the LAFD uniform and symbols.
“Then who’s driving the truck?” Bobby asked, sounding just as concerned as he was.
Eddie watched with increasing anxiety as the dad climbed out of the truck cab, waiting for it all to go wrong because someone decided to out stupid his idiot husband. Buck got a harness onto the dad, and then Eddie heaved him up to safety, guiding the man to Ravi.
“Dad’s on the move,” the captain announced.
Buck stepped back from the ladder, helping Donato clamber out of the window into the bed of the truck and then Eddie’s waiting arms, because of course he was making sure everyone else got to safety before himself. And then he lost his balance, stumbling backwards as the distance between the trucks started to grow.
“Buck!” Eddie shouted, practically shoving Donato into Ravi. The other man steadied himself and then took a running leap, barely managing to grab onto the end of the ladder, his chest slamming into the edge. Eddie hauled him up, patting him down to reassure himself that his husband was in one piece. “I told you not to-”
“I didn’t!” Buck complained, doing absolutely nothing to get away from Eddie’s concerned inspections. “We should uh, probably…”
“Right, c’mon.”
“Vehicle evacuated,” Bobby announced, the truck slowing to a stop as they eased themselves down to the roof. “All units fall back.”
Ahead of them, the truck kept going, eventually crashing to a stop at a construction site. Eddie tensed, waiting for the explosion that he was certain was coming. Any second, now. Any second…
“So the bomb was a fake?” Buck asked, breathing heavily, when several moments passed without anything happening.
As if it had been waiting for its cue, the bomb finally went off, turning the family’s truck into a fireball before their very eyes.
“Nope,” Donato said from where she was standing next to Ravi.
“I’m hungry,” Eddie announced, working the controls to retract the ladder. The others turned to stare at him: Donato and Ravi in incredulity, and Buck with utter fondness. “What? We haven’t had dinner yet.”
“...still have no lead on the source of the bomb or even a motive,” Taylor said, reporting over footage of them evacuating the small family. The 118 along with members of the 147 had gone to a pub after the call, since their shifts had ended at the same time. So now he was wedged between Hen and Buck, with Bobby and Lucy Donato across from them. “But the family of four is safe tonight, thanks to a truly daring rescue. Just incredible how two of LAFD’s finest pulled this off.”
“Two?” Eddie repeated, scowling at the TV hanging on the wall above the bar as everyone else cheered and applauded. She did that on purpose, he knew she did. Messing with him was one of Taylor’s favorite pastimes, even after they started getting along better.
“That’s the second time they ran it this hour,” Lucy proudly told them. “We’re, like, the best action show on TV.”
“You’re gonna do wonders for their ratings,” Buck said, clinking his glass together with hers.
“Yeah we are.”
“Ratings,” Bobby said, rolling his eyes. “That is something only an LA firefighter would care about.”
“What did they, uh,” Buck started, the smile on his face warning them all that he was about to be a little shit. “What’d they care about in Minnesota, pops? Cheese?”
Beside the captain, Eddie saw Lucy mouth ‘Pops?’ to herself.
“It’s Wisconsin that’s cheesy,” Bobby corrected. “In Minnesota, we care about the official state grain of wild rice.”
Eddie and the others all fixed disbelieving stares upon the older man.
“There’s an official state grain?” Hen asked.
“Yeah,” the captain said, looking sheepish.
“Wait, you were a firefighter up there?” Lucy asked, sounding far too shocked than was really necessary in Eddie’s opinion. “Oh wow.”
“Yeah,” the captain said again, sounding proud instead of embarrassed this time.
“I thank God I’m an LA native,” she said. At the looks everyone gave her, she continued, “I can’t imagine doing what we do every day in subzero temperatures.”
“Because running into fires in a hundred degree weather is so pleasant,” Eddie quipped, unable to help himself.
“A little Alberta Clipper never hurt anybody,” Bobby said. “It’s good for your skin.”
“I don’t know what that is,” Lucy told him.
The captain opened his mouth to educate her, but someone else was already excitedly doing it for him.
“It’s a fast-moving low pressure system that brings cold air down from Canada during winter,” Buck said, grinning proudly. At Bobby’s pleased smile and Lucy’s raised eyebrow, he ducked his head, suddenly shy. “I was, uh. Looking up the weather so I knew what Chris needed to pack for the trip next month.”
Eddie’s husband was the sweetest man ever, and if he was any less capable of behaving himself he’d show everyone in the room just how much that meant to him.
“So you did your homework for that but didn’t know there was a state grain?” Hen asked, shaking her head and clicking her tongue in fake disappointment. “You’re letting your father down, Buckaroo.”
The statement had Buck smiling bashfully, as he always did whenever someone acknowledged that not-so-pseudo familial relationship he had developed with Bobby and Athena. Looking confused, Lucy opened her mouth to say something before seeming to think better of it, shaking her head instead.
“Alright, guys. Tell you what, I’m calling it,” Bobby announced, standing up to go. “Listen, seriously, you guys did great work out there. Even though you did disobey an order, Lucy.”
“Come on,” she protested. “I was passing the gas pedal and the steering wheel on my way out.”
“You went in after Cap said to evacuate,” Eddie pointed out. He was not letting that go, still slightly annoyed with her for putting his partner’s life in danger like that. For God’s sake, they had only just started making progress with breaking Buck of the habit.
“Where’s Ravi and Albert?” Bobby asked, glancing about. “I was going to say goodbye to them, too.”
“Last time I saw them, they were necking in the corner,” Hen said, sounding amused.
“Hopefully they know to keep marks below the collar,” the captain said, playfully glaring at Buck and Eddie. Both of them shrugged unrepentantly, making him shake his head with a laugh. “Good night, children.”
“Night!” they chorused.
“Hey, Diaz. The fun one, Buck,” Lucy specified when they both looked at her, making Eddie scowl and Buck snicker. “Want to go play pool?”
“Sure!”
“I’m fun,” Eddie complained to Hen as he watched his husband run off with a new friend.
“You’ve been glaring at her off and on all night,” the paramedic said.
“What she did was incredibly reckless and could have cost me my husband,” he said, pulling Buck’s half-finished basket of fries over to himself.
“I dunno, it sounds like something Buck himself would have done.”
“Oh, in a heartbeat,” he agreed, nodding. “But only if it was just himself he was putting in danger. He’d have put his foot on the pedal and told the guy to get out.”
“I think you’re just incredibly biased,” she said, pulling out her phone to check it.
“Probably.” Eddie glanced at her as she frowned down at her screen. “What’s up?”
“I invited Chimney to come out with us,” Hen answered with a sigh. He did his best to keep the scowl from his face, and luckily she wasn’t looking at him. “But I guess he’s not showing.”
Eddie stuffed a handful of fries into his mouth to keep from saying anything unkind. She glanced back up just in time to catch him at it, and rolled her eyes.
“You know, he is practically your brother-in-law,” she pointed out, sounding very unimpressed with him. “Even if they don’t end up getting married, even if they decide they can’t work things out, he’s still going to be around.”
After taking a moment to chew and swallow, he told her,
“None of that means I have to like him.”
“He used to be your friend.”
“That was before he turned into a complete dick, punched Buck, and then did his best to cut him out of both his and Jee’s lives,” Eddie retorted. “I reserve the right to be pissed at him for however long I want.”
“He was worried about Maddie, and he was hurting.”
“I’m gonna quote Copeland here: that’s an explanation, not an excuse.”
Hen fell silent with a sigh, conceding the fight for the moment. It wasn’t even that Eddie was still angry with Chimney - though he was, he most definitely was - but he knew his husband couldn’t hold a grudge for very long. It was almost inevitable that Buck and Chimney would go back to being buddy-buddy. Hell, Buck had straight up said he wanted them to be friends again one day.
Eddie’s husband was a treasure who did not know his own worth, and that was so very frustrating at times.
He spent the rest of the night watching Buck play pool with Lucy, who seemed to have made it her goal to get the man as drunk as possible. At least, Eddie assumed that was the case, what with all the drinks she kept plying him with. She mostly succeeded in annoying herself. The more he drank, the more Buck kept bouncing back and forth between the game and his husband, draping over him affectionately and smothering him in kisses.
Finally however, it became quite evident that it was time to get him home.
“C’mon, mi sol, let’s get you out of here,” he said, coming up behind him and wrapping an arm around his chest, his other hand taking the cue stick away and setting it down. “You’re going to be suffering at drop-off in the morning.”
“Babe,” he whined. “I’m winning!”
Buck had steadily started missing more and more shots as the night went on, so Eddie severely doubted his claim.
“Fine. If you can tell me how many of the white balls there are-” He paused for the inevitable giggling. “-then you can keep playing.”
“Uh.” Buck turned to the table and blinked blearily. “There’s uh… There’s this many.”
Both Lucy and Eddie looked at him, waiting for him to tell them how many that was.
“Oh!” he finally said, raising a hand with all the fingers splayed out.
“How many drinks did you give him?” Eddie asked Lucy.
“I honestly lost count,” she said, shrugging.
“I should have left with Cap,” he said, shaking his head in despair. “Okay, let’s go find everyone else and then get out of here.”
It turned out that Albert and Ravi had both gotten an Uber out of there already - without telling anyone, rude - so it was only a matter of getting a very drunk Buck and a very tipsy Hen into his truck. He also made sure there was a bag for both of them, because he would not be scrubbing vomit out of the upholstery, damn it.
The Wilsons’ abode was the first stop, and Eddie helped Hen inside, because he didn’t want it on his conscience if she tripped and broke something between the curb and her front door, or if she got distracted and wandered off. Karen opened the door as her wife was in the middle of getting the key into the lock, repeatedly missing it with increasing giggles.
“No, sorry, wrong house,” she said, shaking her head, trying and failing at keeping a straight face.
“Funny, Karen,” Eddie groused, nudging Hen inside. He followed, making sure his help wasn’t needed.
“Karen! Baby! Honey!” Hen cried, happily throwing herself onto her wife. “You’re so pretty…”
“So it was a good night, then?”
“A very good night,” the paramedic said. “Even though Chim didn’t show.”
“They ate, they drank, they were merry,” Eddie said. “And now you and I are stuck making sure they aren’t dead come morning.”
“How bad is Buck?” Karen asked.
“He made a new friend who kept giving him drinks,” he said. “I’m going to suffer tonight, and he’s going to suffer in the morning.”
“Married life is grand, ain’t it?” she said, and he couldn’t help but agree.
After spending another minute or two talking with Karen and making sure he wasn’t needed, Eddie made his way back outside and to the truck. He opened the door and smiled at the sight of Buck slumped against the window, drooling on the glass.
“Let’s get you home, mi sol,” he said, reaching over to run a finger along his birthmark, before starting the engine again and driving off.