Work Text:
Eddie's just finishing tidying up his living room when he hears the knock at his front door. "Coming!" Eddie shouts, moving through the house. He opens the door to see Karen, holding her favorite bottle of wine. He waves to Hen, already backing out of the driveway while Karen steps through. They have monthly true crime and wine nights, which started during his recovery after being shot. Before, he and Karen were friendly enough at the 118 family nights, but not close. When he got shot, Karen started bringing him food and visiting, which soon turned into one of Eddie's most treasured friendships in his life.
"What are we watching tonight?" Karen asks, already moving into the living room. Eddie already has his pick this time queued up ready to play, and he's ready to unwind. Christopher is at a sleepover, and Buck is working an extra shift, which always unsettles Eddie, just a little bit. It's always unnerving to not be working around his boyfriend, but they both know that it's necessary sometimes.
Three bottles of wine, and two shots of tequila (each) later, the movie still hasn't been played, but Eddie and Karen are involved in a rousing game of True American (they love New Girl too, sue them). Of course, True American isn't really built for two people, so it's mostly them shouting nonsensical historical quotes while jumping on furniture and drinking beer.
"There is nothing to fear," Karen slurs.
"But fear itself," Eddie finishes for her while teetering on the arm of the sofa. Karen's crouched on the coffee table clutching a can to her chest, grinning widely. Eddie loses his balance and falls on the sofa with a soft "oof" while Karen cackles and promptly loses her balance too. In this moment, Eddie is so happy with his best friend (don't tell Buck), happiness enveloping him in a golden warmth that leaves him speechless sometimes. He's never had a female friend like this, a friend who is smart as a whip, kind, a total badass, and a goofball all wrapped up in one incredible person. In high school, he was popular enough, but he didn't have any true friends that he could confide in. He had comrades-in-arms in the Army, and he's so grateful that he had them while deployed. He found his family with the 118 and Buck is the love of his life, but his friendship with Karen is different from any other relationship in his life. Karen's confided in him that she feels the same way too. Her colleagues are fun, but they're not like this. Eddie feels free with Karen, a totally unabridged version of himself that only those closest to him are able to see.
"Eddie," Karen whispers from where she's still sprawled on the floor.
"Yeah?"
"I'm going to be so hungover in the morning." Eddie laughs at Karen's face, nodding his agreement. Thankfully it's a rare Saturday that he has off, and she doesn't have to work on the weekends. He plans on sleeping until Buck comes home and hopefully makes something greasy to soak up the alcohol currently in his system (honest to goodness, that man is the love of his life).
"Yeah, we're going to pay for this in a few short hours," Eddie groans, standing up, then offering his hand to Karen to help her up too. When they're both collapsed on opposite ends of the couch, Eddie finds an episode of The Golden Girls to play softly in the background while they chat. Eddie tells her about Christopher's new teachers that he and Buck met with last week, and how the conversations with his parents are going now (better, but they're still working through a lot of things). Karen tells him about her work, and he listens even though she's an actual rocket scientist, so he understands only every other word. For the second time that night, a knock sounds at his front door. Only stumbling once, he manages to open it to find Hen in the doorway, while Karen is giggling behind him trying to find her shoes.
"Come on baby," Hen says. "We've got to get home before 2 AM this time." Eddie and Karen both scoff at the reminder of the night they went to a cowboy themed bar (it was actually Karen's pick) and stayed out until 1:30 before calling their respective partners to come pick them up. It wasn't their fault that they'd made lots of friends who all wanted them to stay out! Technically, Karen made friends, and Eddie tagged along, but still. Both Hen and Karen hug Eddie before leaving, and he heads inside once their headlights disappear from view, and he heads to his bedroom to sleep.
What could be a few seconds, or hours, later, Eddie feels the other side of the bed shift. He can barely make out Buck's outline in their still dark bedroom, but he recognizes Buck's arms as they cradle him to the other man's chest. "Mmm," he mumbles, which could mean anything from "I feel like death" to "I love you more than life itself" right now in the moments between sleep and consciousness. Buck laughs gently and runs his fingers through Eddie's hair to make him fall asleep again, and Eddie doesn't wake again until the smell of omelets wakes him up in time for brunch. (He wakes up with the hangover from hell, videos on his phone that he and Karen filmed the night before, and the love of his life in the kitchen, and a sense of peace he's never known until recently).