Chapter Text
Eddie walks through the front door of his home, closely followed by Christopher and Ramon, leaning his walking stick against the wall he limps to the couch and lowers himself onto the seat.
It’s the first time they have been home since his none-wedding two days ago, he and Chris had been staying at Abuelas house with their family, Eddie had wanted to make sure Evan would be moved out before they returned home.
Christopher heads straight to his bedroom, still very upset with his dad for sending Buck away, Eddie flinches as the house practically shakes at the force of his bedroom door slamming.
“Eddie,” Ramon coaxes gently while taking the seat next to him.
“Don’t Papi,” leaning back he closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose, “I heard it all from Mami, Adri and Abuela, I just want to be left alone, I know you all just want to help, but I feel like such an idiot, I let a complete stranger into my life, my sons life, my house, my bed. I should have trusted my instincts, I had this nagging feeling something wasn’t right, but I was happy, so I ignored it.”
“Eddie, I’m not excusing what he did, it was wrong, but it came from a good place, he shouldn’t have let it get as far as it did, but he did the right thing in the end and came clean and you must have seen how devastated he was when he saw how much he hurt you-“
Eddie sits up abruptly, “you’re defending him? after what he did, he lied to us all….got Chris to lie.”
“You know that’s not true, he didn’t ask Christopher to lie, that little boy saw something special in Buck and took to him straight away, they connected, Chris told us he just wanted Buck to stay so pretended to know him.”
“What about Sophia then, she knew all along and still let me fall in lo-, let me trust him, why?”
“She saw how happy you were and wanted you to be able to live the life you’ve denied yourself, she could see how much you liked Evan and wanted to help out her little brother, did she go about it wrongly, maybe?”
“Maybe, Papi, she straight up lied to me and convinced me to just go for it.”
“She did and were you happy?”
“That’s not the point,” Eddie turns away from his dad, swallowing hard, forcing back the tears that are stinging his eyes.
“Ok son,” he gets up while giving his shoulder a squeeze, “I’ll get going, give you some time to yourself, give me a call if you need help with anything.”
Eddie walks Ramon to the door and gives him a quick one armed hug, he watches his dad drive away before closing the door and heading to the kitchen to switch on the coffee maker, looking around he feels an involuntary pang at the loss of a certain blonde, shaking himself he pours his coffee and sits at the kitchen counter, taking a sip his eyes land on a photograph stuck to the fridge that wasn’t there before.
Coffee forgotten, he limps over to the fridge, tears sting his eyes when he realises it’s a photo of him, Buck and Chris in their wedding suits taken before they left for the courthouse. Eddie knows Evan must have printed it and left it behind, as he removes the magnet holding up the photo a folded piece of paper falls to the ground. Eddie carefully crouches down to retrieve it, easing himself into a kitchen chair he unfolds the paper and swallows hard.
Dear Eddie,
I need to start this by saying how sorry I am for hurting you, it was never my intention. I know what I did was wrong, but I need you to believe that it came from a good place.
In the beginning it was purely about making sure you would be okay, after all you probably saved my life, but the more time I spent with your family, I grew so fond of them and I adored your son, he is the single greatest kid I’ve ever met, and then there was you Eddie, you are such a beautiful person you made it impossible not to fall in love.
I know I should have told you the truth, my sister and friends tried to tell me, but I just couldn’t bare to lose you and your family, I’ve never had a loving and caring family before, I have my sister and fire family, but not what you have, they genuinely love you and want you to be happy, and they just accepted me into their lives and made me feel loved.
So I ask you please don’t be angry with Sophia she wanted to help her brother or upset with Christopher, just wanted his daddy to be happy.
Eddie I need you to know that I was not lying to you on our wedding day when I said I loved you, am in love with you, I’ve never meant anything more in my entire life, if I believed in soulmates you would be mine, I hope you believe that.
It’s weird but when I saw you I had this feeling that we were always meant to meet, pulled together by invisible stings, like there’s an alternative universe out there where we met under different circumstances, maybe you strolled into my fire house as the handsome new recruit and we became best friends who fell in love, where we got married for real and you, me and Chris were a family, I really like that universe.
I hope you can forgive me and know that my feelings were truly genuine.
Good bye Eddie, all my love, Evan xx
He doesn’t realise he is crying until drops land and dampen the paper, folding the letter he lays it on the table.
“Dad?”
He quickly wipes his eyes and turns to see his son standing in the doorway holding onto the wall.
“Hey superman, you ok?”
Chris walks over slightly unsteady without his crutches and looks up at his dad sadly.
“I’m sorry daddy.” Eddie lifts him onto his lap and buries his face in his soft curls.
“It’s ok Chris, you don’t need to be sorry, I know you’re sad and that’s ok.”
Chris places a hand on his dads cheek and wipes at a stray tear, “are you sad too dad?”
He nods, “I am.”
“Is it because of Buck? because he fibbed?”
“Yes.”
“But I fibbed too dad and you’re not mad a me, so you don’t have to be mad at Buck if it makes you sad, you can just forgive him too and he can come back.”
“Oh kiddo,” he soothes his hand up and down his back, “it’s not that simple.”
“Why?”
“Grownup stuff.”
Chris leans back and looks at Eddie seriously, “then grown up stuff is stupid, if you love Buck and he loves you and you’re both sad without each other, then why not just be together and be happy?”
Eddie gently takes Chris’ small chin between his fingers, “when did you get so smart huh.”
Chris giggles and shrugs.
“Ok superman, you must be starving, what do you say to pizza and your choice of movie.”
Chris slides off his lap and heads through to the living room calling back, “cheese, tomato and pineapple pizza and Jurassic World.”
Eddie chuckles, “you got it,” he picks up the letter and photograph and shoves them in his back pocket, then grabs his phone to order their dinner.
~~~~~
With Chris tucked up asleep in bed, he scrolls through Netflix until he finds a movie to watch, but as hard as he tries he can’t concentrate as his mind continues to wander back to the letter, was he wrong to be angry, to have asked Evan to leave without letting him explain, no he had been hurt and humiliated, the man he loves had lied to him.
He pushes himself off the couch the best he can with one good arm, turns off the tv and limps through to his bedroom hoping some sleep will help clear his mind, he opens a drawer looking for a pair of sweatpants to sleep in, he pulls them out and underneath he sees a hoodie he immediately recognises as the old stretched LAFD top that Buck liked to sleep in, he picks it up and breathes it in, it smells distinctly of Buck with hints of coconut, he slips it on, pulls on his sweats and climbs into bed.
Just as he feels himself drifting off to sleep his brain jolts him awake, the man he loves, not loved, that’s what he’d thought, ‘the man he loves had lied to him’ but in the letter he said that he wasn’t lying about being in love with him.
He grabs his phone and presses call.
“Do you know what time it is?” Sophia mumbles having been abruptly woken up.
“It was real wasn’t it?”
Sophia chuckles, “yes baby brother, that’s what we’ve all been trying to tell you, what finally got it through your thick stubborn skull.”
“Mostly Christopher.”
“That makes sense he is the brains of the operation.”
“But um Evan also left me a note.
“Ah ok, you know I’m sorry for what I did Eddie, but I just want you to be happy and I know that Evan makes you happy.”
Eddie nods even though Sophia can’t see him, “I know I’m not angry with you, I was just in denial, but you’re right he makes me so happy, I love him Sophia.”
A loud happy laugh floats through the phone, “I know you do you idiot, so what are you going to do about it.
“Well, I’ve got an idea.”
~~~~~
(A few days later)
Buck strolls into the 118 heading towards the locker room to change when he is stopped by Bobby, Hen and Chim.
“What’s going on?”
“Oh nothing,” Bobby shrugs innocently, “we just wanted to be here when you met our new recruit.”
“Huh, I didn’t know we were getting a probie?”
They move aside and point to the locker room as a familiar figure walks out wearing, wait is that his old hoodie.
Bobby, Hen and Chim discreetly make themselves scarce, as Buck slowly walks up to Eddie and is about to ask him what’s going on.
Eddie extends his hand, “hi Eddie Diaz nice to met you.”
“Um. what!”
Eddie smiles at how cute and confused Buck looks.
“I don’t suppose you’re in the market for a best friend are you?”
“Eds, I don’t-“
“Actually can we just skip the best friends part and go straight to the being in love part?”
“Eddie please, what’s going on?”
Eddie walks up to Buck taking his hand with his good arm, “Evan, I love you, I want the alternative universe you described, you, me, Chris, a family, but I want it in this universe, I’m in love with you, you’re in love with me, and that’s what matters most, so let’s start over, come home, I miss you, Chris misses you, hell my Abuela misses you-.”
“The letter?”
Eddie laughs, “yes the letter, it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever read, when you wrote about how you felt that we were always meant to meet, I felt that too, and you talked about an alternate universe where we met and fell in love, I thought why can’t that happen, so here I am.”
Again he extends his hand, “Eddie Diaz, good to meet you.”
Buck laughs and takes his hand, feeling electricity through his fingers, “Evan Buckley, but you can call me Buck, great to meet you too.”
“Now I know we’ve just met, but can I kiss you Buck.”
“God yes.” Eddie slides his hand to the back of Bucks neck pulling him in until their lips touch for the first time in the most perfect kiss ever.
They pull apart slightly but Buck keeps his hands firmly on Eddies hips, “I love you so much Eds, and I’m so sorry-“
Eddie kisses the apology away, “no more apologies, I love you and I want to be with you, so why don’t you just come home with me?”
“I want to, but I have to work.”
Bobby suddenly appears at his side, “your shifts covered Buck, why don’t you and Eddie get out of here, I believe there is a certain little boy who is desperate to see you.”
“Thanks Cap.”
Eddie takes his hands, “come on let’s get out of here.”
They head out hand in hand.
“Eddie wait.” He turns back as Bobby calls him.
“I know this whole probie thing was just for fun, but if you did actually want to consider joining the LAFD, I think you would be a great asset, just think about it.”
Eddie salutes playfully, “thanks Bobby, it’s funny you mention it, I’ll let you know.”
They jump into Bucks jeep and head home.
~~~~~~
Eight months later:
“Welcome to Station 118 probationary firefighter Eddie Diaz.” Bobby shakes his hand.
“You know Hen, Chimney, and of course Buck.”
Eddie nods at Hen and Chimney then turns to Buck.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
He glances back at Bobby, who nods.”
Eddie gets down on one knee as Buck gasps.
“Evan, I thought I should do this properly this time, he holds out a ring, Evan Buckley, will you marry me?”
“Yes, yes, god Eddie I thought you’d never ask.”
Eddie stands up and slips the ring onto Bucks finger, “well I didn’t think we should rush into things,” he answers sarcastically.
Buck drags him in for a passionate kiss, “I love you, you idiot.”
“Keep the PDA to a minimum in the firehouse.” Bobby calls with a smile.
They are then hugged and congratulated by their friends.
One month later they are back at the courthouse, this time the only tears that are shed are tears of joy.
Later that night after their reception which was held in Bobby and Athena’s backyard, Eddie and Buck are snuggled close on a garden swing, Chris happy on Bucks lap, when he sits up and looks at Buck seriously.
“Buck?”
“Yeah superman?”
“When did you fall in love with my dad?”
Buck chuckles “that’s an easy one Chris,” he turns to look Eddie in the eye and says, “while he was sleeping.”
The End - and they all lived happily ever after.