Chapter Text
It seems almost impossible that once all was said and done, that Buck and Eddie could just, fall back into normalcy.
Buck hangs out with Eddie in his free time, Eddie stops going to the street fights, and the rest of their friends and family? Found it terribly disconcerting that Buck was so forgiving, but understood it was his decision to make and slowly but surely came around themselves.
Chimney is the first one to really forgive Eddie, he just decides one day the awkwardness in and out of work so he removes himself from the side of people being hyper aware of Eddie and Buck being alone in a room together. Much to Maddie's dismay, she's not a fan at first of Chimney forgiving Eddie, but she eventually comes around as well.
Hen is the next one to forgive him. She, on the other hand is less subtle about it though. Hen tells Eddie she understands his pain, his need to lash out and gain control of his life the way he had. However, she tells him it was not an excuse for him to hurt anyone else. Eddie takes her forgiveness and thanks her.
Maddie, of course, is hesitant to forgive, but she decides she has her own apologies to make and eventually owns up to her own mistakes as well.
"I shouldn't have brought our personal issues to your workplace." She tells him at first, but then unravels the big sisterly threats she has for Eddie, in case he ever fucks up again.
Eddie doesn't make any promises he can't keep, but does take her seriously as the shorter woman has to dish for him.
Athena and Bobby forgive him at the same time, sit him down and tell him they think of Buck as a son so of course they're going to be upset with him for a while.
So once the time passed and the rest of the 118 forgave Eddie (long after Buck did) life went on like normal.
Buck finds that his new normal with Eddie is better than it has ever been. They're closer, more open, they've figure out a system that allows one of them to spend the weekend with Christopher so the kid can have some normalcy in his life as well. Their system works, their friendship grows, and it's odd to think that not even two years ago, Buck was sad and alone and now, he has a family, a job he loves, and friends who love him unconditionally. And even if his past demons sometimes still consume him, Buck knows he has people in his corner rooting for him to fight and come back to them.
Eddie finds his new normal with Buck to be more than he deserves and he won't ever take Buck and their relationship for granted ever again. He's made that mistake, he's seen the side of him without Buck in his life and he hates it. So he spends everyday of his waking life making sure Buck knows he doesn't ever have to be scared of him or anyone else ever again. Eddie knows that he was wrong and he's made amends with everyone, but the guilt persists and he decides the best way to go about fixing himself is to seek therapy. He finds out not much later that Buck is too seeking therapy and they both smile and joke about how messed up they are.
But they're healing, they're working on their way to being their better selves and they're closer than ever.
So close that now they're both thinking of ruining their friendship to evolve their relationship into something else, something more intimate and neither of them would have expected to happen, but they welcomed it with open arms.