Chapter Text
We need to talk.
Olivia stared at the text message that came in from Eddie as she paused momentarily from her morning routine to check her phone.
Nothing good ever comes after ‘We need to talk’
She quickly sent the message and continued her morning routine, brushing the tangles out of her hair, with her phone on her bedside table, the sounds of her morning playlist reaching her ears via her AirPods. Putting her hair in her signature french braid, her phone didn’t bother her again, until the phone rang, and she picked up the call via her Apple Watch after seeing it was Eddie calling.
“Hey.”
“Do you have time to meet for coffee or something? Or maybe just come over to talk? I mean, I can come to you instead if that’s what you want.”
“It’s fine, I was planning to go bouldering today but I can get there in 30. But do we need to have this conversation in person?”
“I’d rather not have this conversation on the phone.”
“Heading to the car right now.” Olivia was quick to lock up and head out.
“Okay, I’ll see you soon.”
Olivia was already at the elevator by the time her conversation was done with Eddie. Whatever it was he wanted to see her for, she had to admit that she was absolutely thrilled at the excuse to see him, despite having spent the better part of her free time for the past week keeping herself busy and active to give herself some semblance of normalcy after her birthday.
The car ride was uneventful, the sounds of Olivia’s playlist filling the air. And surprisingly on schedule, she was pulling up to Eddie’s driveway. Before she could talk herself out of it, she stepped out of her car to knock on the door.
And before she could even step through the threshold of the door frame into Eddie’s house, she was greeted with Eddie grabbing her face and his lips pressing against hers in a momentary burst of desire before the moment passed.
“Good morning,” Olivia greeted Eddie, out of breath and confused as she took a half step back. “You wanted to talk? How about letting me in first?” There was a slight nervous tremble to her voice as she pushed her way through to walk past Eddie.
As Olivia turned around, Eddie closed the door behind him. “I’m sorry...I’ve been dying to do that all week,” he apologized quickly before he said, “I wish you would have told me about the transfer sooner...”
“Would it have made a difference?” Olivia’s hazel eyes locked on his.
“I guess we’ll never know...” Eddie paused, carefully picking his words. “I just wanted to get on the same page with you but you wouldn’t take any calls or answer any texts last week.”
“Yeah, sometimes when there’s a lot going on in my life, I just kinda...retreat.”
“Tommy mentioned that. He said that once you had the time you needed, you would always come around.”
“Yeah...I had a lot going on between my last shifts at Harbor and getting the transfer finalized...” Olivia let out a sigh. “I shouldn’t have come here. We agreed to keep my birthday between the two of us. There’s nothing left to talk about.”
“But what if there was?”
"Then we need to lay all the cards out on the table here, Eddie. This is never gonna be some happily ever after love story between us, you know that right?"
"What if I told you that's not what I'm after?"
"You're either a liar or you're about to make a promise you can't keep. You know better than that."
“If you want to put cards on the table, Olivia, fine, let’s put them all on the table now.” Eddie’s eyes lit up with an intensity that took Olivia by surprise. “My entire adult life’s been defined by duty and obligation. My family. My career. I just met you and you showed me how to just be me. You’re the first person to make me feel like I mattered outside of duty and obligation.”
“It’s because you do matter, Eddie,” was all Olivia could manage to say as she studied him, trying to find the words to respond to him, resisting the urge to reach out and touch him somehow and keeping him at arms length.
“I can’t just pretend nothing happened between us.”
“I’m not asking you to do that...” Olivia sighed, a pleading look in her eyes. “I’m just asking you not to tell anyone.”
“You want to keep this from Tommy and Buck?”
“Yes.” The word escaped Olivia’s lips before she could stop it, her guilty expression gone as quickly as it appeared.
Eddie shook his head. “I’m sorry but I don’t understand, why would you want to keep this from Tommy?”
“I have a personal rule that I don’t talk about my personal life at work. He knows why. And it just kinda stuck as a rule. Which he would argue shouldn’t apply anymore since I no longer work at Harbor. But that’s neither here nor there.” There’s a pause before Olivia finally allowed herself to look at Eddie. “How long is Christopher away for?”
“I would hope he decides to come home for school in August instead of extending his stay in El Paso...he’s starting high school; I’ve missed too many milestones, I’d hate to miss another one.”
“All I know is that I like spending time with you, Eddie. Not the soldier, not the medic, not the firefighter, not the father, just...you.”
This was more than just waiting to see who would let go first while holding hands. This time, they were playing some sort of emotional chicken here, trying to figure out how much they would dare to risk on something more than a one night stand. And Olivia knew that whatever she was willing to put on the table, she was going to struggle to match Eddie’s energy. It would have been easy for her to let go first, to walk away, to run from a situation that scared her. But that would mean admitting (at least to herself) that whatever she and Eddie had going on actually mattered enough to scare her.
“I’m not actually looking for forever, not this time. All I know is that I like how I feel when I’m around you. And if you’re asking me to keep whatever we have going a secret from my best friends, I’ll do it. But you have to take a look at yourself and figure out why you’d keep things from the one person I’ve seen who worries about you and cares so much about you. I’d hate for you and Tommy to fight over secrets. They always come out in the end.”
“I know.” Olivia glanced at her Apple Watch for a moment before she continued to speak. “Eddie, you’re a great guy. And...I’d like to spend more time with you. I think that it would be best if at work, we stay professional and we keep things between us unless there’s a possibility of this getting serious.”
“Okay...” Eddie let his voice trail off, sensing there was more coming, doing a bit of a head tilt.
“I need you to promise me one thing though: No falling in love. When Christopher gets back, when the summer’s over and you have to be a Dad again, I want us to walk away with no hurt feelings, no messy breakup adjacent event, just...no falling in love.” In that moment, she felt her intensity match Eddie’s, her eyes locked on his.
There was a moment’s pause before the words slid off Eddie’s tongue. “No falling in love, I promise.”
Olivia wasn’t sure who was more surprised by the response although she was assuming it was her. She had no reason not to trust Eddie’s word, Tommy and Evan trusted him so it had to be that she could take him at his word.
Before Olivia could respond, Eddie smiled at her. “Could I convince you to stay for brunch?”
Olivia exhaled, a viseral reaction to the release of the tension in the room. “I have plans today, actually. But we’ll talk after tomorrow’s shift.”
Eddie nodded as he reached for her hand to squeeze it. “At least we’ll have the summer.”
“At least we’ll have the summer,” Olivia echoed. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Before she could properly pull herself away, Eddie pulled her in for one last kiss, tender and playful. And then he released his grip on her.
Whether she was ready or not, her first day at the 118 as a paramedic had arrived. Much like the day before and every day before that, she engaged in her morning routine, keeping herself grounded and managing her nerves.
She had pulled out of the parking lot of her apartment building and tried to enjoy the longer cross town drive she would have to get used to driving, She’d been relaxing to her driving playlist partway though her drive when a call came in, the cacophony of voices filling her car.
“Morning!” Tommy’s voice came through first.
“Hey, Paramedic Chambers!” Tanner called out.
“Good morning, Sunshine!” River greeted her next with a teasing tone.
Olivia couldn’t help but giggle. “Morning, you guys!”
“Wanted to take a few minutes during the morning switchover to say hi. Lucy’s on her way out but she’s here too,” Tommy’s voice took over, leading the conversation.
“Hey Liv!” Lucy chimed in at the sound of her name. “Good luck today and say hi to everyone for me!”
“Will do, Luce!”
“We just wanted to call you before your first shift with the 118 and check in,” Tommy explained.
“Wanted to send some good vibes,” Tanner pipped up, “Tess says hi too.”
“Good luck on your first shift,” River added with a calm, gentle voice. “I’ll know you’ll rock it. I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks you guys! Hope you guys have a good shift too,” she replied.
There was a moment before Tommy’s voice came back on the line. “You know, I really want to be supportive here...”
“I know, it’s fine.”
“I know we didn’t really get a chance to talk at the dinner last week, but we are okay. At the end of the day, if this is what makes you happy, I can’t stay upset, even if I wanted to. It just hurt that you thought your best friend would get in the way of your happiness.”
“I know. And I’m still sorry about that. I just...”
“I know. I get it. We’re fine. We’re good. I promise.”
“Can I ask you a question before I go?”
“Sure.”
“I’ve been wondering about this all week...why did you tell Eddie about the vintage I drink? You could have made recommendations about the wine I usually drink, but why did you go the extra mile? What did he say to you?”
There was a pause for a beat before Tommy replied, “He just wanted to do something nice for you and he didn’t want to come to the dinner empty handed.”
“The dinner that you invited him to.”
“The two of you seemed to be getting along really nicely at the gala. I just thought...”
“I literally met the guy like, two weeks ago?”
“Don’t read into it too hard, Liv. Evan wanted you guys to meet, hang out. I’m not playing matchmaker. If I was, we’d be talking about River right now.”
“No, we wouldn’t. You know what the rule is; it’s your fault it exists.”
“For the record, the rule is that we don’t talk about who you're dating at work, remember? And since you’re not at Harbor anymore...”
“We’re not going to talk about River. I’m declaring the topic off-limits.”
“Why?”
“Because falling in love with a first responder was never part of the plan, especially someone who throws themselves into the fire on a regular basis. And it’s different when you’re in the fire together. That makes love feel like the worst idea.”
“Olivia...”
“It’s not something I want to talk about anymore. Drop it.” There was a moment where Olivia stopped talking as she pulled up to the 118 parking lot before she said, “I gotta go. Movie night soon. Your pick. Bye.”
Hanging up the call, a vehicle in the parking lot caught her attention and she mentally prayed to any and every powerful entity in existence that her gut feeling was wrong. She stepped into the firehouse in the midst of a conversation.
“Have you guys seen the roster? There’s no acting captain listed.”
Stepping up to the trio, recognizing both Eddie and Evan, she looked to the man who had just spoken and said, “No acting captain? I was told to report to Acting Captain Wilson.”
“Olivia!” Evan quickly greeted her, scooping her into a hug as she gave Eddie a small smile over Evan's shoulder. “Yeah, I thought Hen was acting captain.”
Olivia’s eyes traveled from Evan to the two others joining them, Hen and Chimney, nodding in recognition as they joined the conversation.
“Nice to see you again, Olivia,” Chimney chimed in casually, recalling their brief encounter at the medal ceremony.
Hen turned to Olivia and she gave the younger girl a warm greeting, “Welcome to the 118, Firefighter-Paramedic Chambers. Glad to finally see you here.” And then she added to the rest of the team, “No Captain Wilson today, I do believe I’ve been replaced.”
And she could feel the tension increase tenfold as she clocked the arrival of one Vincent Gerrard. All the prayer in the world couldn’t help this situation. She hated being right.
“There was a concern downtown about a leadership deficit here and I’ve been sent here after your former captain put in his two weeks notice to put things in order.” He eyed Olivia with a flicker of recognition in his eyes and he added, “Line up and inspection in ten. I need to have a word with our new Firefighter-Paramedic.”
Olivia stepped forward to follow Gerrard into the Captain’s office, giving a casual glance over her shoulder at the confused faces behind her, her own confused expression evident on her face. It didn’t escape her notice that Evan was already on his phone texting away, and it didn’t escape her notice that Eddie was giving her a concerned look in the midst of the confusion, but it wasn’t like she could do anything about it.
“Well well well, look at you all grown up, following in your father’s footsteps.”
Closing the door behind her, Olivia spat out, “It’s been 28 years. You don’t know me. And for the record, I’ve moved away from being a firefighter. Going back to my roots as a paramedic. I’m walking my own path. ”
Gerrard surveyed Olivia, picking up on the tense posture and the attitude, the crossed arms and the spark in her eye. “You’re much taller than I remember, but you still have the same attitude, one I would suggest you keep in check if you want your time here to go smoothly.”
“Are you threatening me, Captain?” Olivia narrowed her eyes at the older man leaning against his desk.
“It’s not a threat. But it would be a shame if the team were to find out about our connection and distrust you for it. It would hinder you from getting integrated with the team and doing your job.”
“I haven’t seen you in 28 years. You mean nothing to me. If my father ditched you, I’m sure he had a good reason.” A beat. "I don't know what your angle is, but if you want to get to them, you're going to have to go through me. I know about your history with the 118."
“It’ll be my word against yours, Little Bird. Just think about it.” A moment’s pause before he added, “Your transfer says you’ll be taking over a paramedic spot but you will be expected to suit up and provide ground support. Can’t let all of that skill go to waste here.”
Gerrard stepped out of the office, leaving Olivia fuming at the situation and the use of her childhood nickname. She needed a moment before she could integrate to the team at large. After five minutes had passed, the alarm sounded for a call and she sprung into action, heading for the locker room to get ready.
I can do this.
She let that one thought linger as she jumped into the ambulance with her new teammates.