Work Text:
"Careful, I don't think 9-1-1 has a protocol for fixing a door.", Maddie tried to joke and to Buck's understanding, failed.
He knew his sister meant well, but he really wasn't in the mood for it. "Sorry.", Buck said insincerely, "Didn't mean to slam it."
He put his bag down and took a breath. He hadn't really felt like going home after work since he wanted to talk to someone and as it obviously couldn't be Eddie this time, he decided to visit his sister. Maddie herself had the day off and had been enjoying a quiet day at home before her brother and his tense mood interrupted her evening.
"What's wrong?", Maddie asked, noticing Buck's need to talk and making space for him on her couch. "Did something happen at work?"
Buck sighed and sat down next to her, picking up the glass of water she had prepared for him and took a sip before speaking. "It's Eddie."
"Oh.", Maddie exclaimed and gave Buck a look that he couldn't quite decode.
"You remember how I mentioned something was wrong with him the other day?", he asked to which his sister nodded, recalling when Buck, Chimney and her were having dinner together the previous week. "It had something to do with him joining a fight club or something? I think Chimney mentioned it.", she answered.
Buck scoffed. "Oh, so Chimney knew as well before I did. Great."
Maddie gave Buck a sympathetic smile but didn't say anything, encouraging him to keep talking.
"You know, I thought he was still a bit mad at me. That he would talk to me eventually. Because that's what I'm here for, right? I'm supposed to be his best friend. I'm here to listen to him, to help him when he needs me, to tell him he's being stupid and putting his life in danger. And don't even get me started on how this could have affected Christopher. It's like he didn't even think about what he was doing at all. If he had just..." Buck loudly exhaled again, stopping his sentence there as he got more and more frustrated.
"If he had just talked to you?", Maddie ended her brother's sentence.
Buck nodded. "It's not just that he didn't talk to me. It's that everyone else seemed to have known before I did. You want to know how I found out?", Buck angrily shook his head. "Remember Lena, she replaced me when I was gone, she's working at the 136. We met them at a call out and she asked if Eddie got suspended because he wasn't with us. Before I could ask why she would think that, Bobby cut in telling her that it's Eddie's day off and that everything was sorted. It seemed I was the only one that had no idea what they were talking about until Bobby filled me in. I just stood there, having to find out because of a stranger that my best friend was repeatedly putting himself in danger for weeks and wasn't even able to talk to me about it."
The anger, hurt and frustration was probably written in Buck's face. Thinking about it just made him want to yell at his friend even more.
"So you haven't even spoken to Eddie about it? Maybe there's a good reason he didn't tell you. Maybe, he didn't want you to get angry at him. He probably knows how stupid it was.", Maddie tried to comfort her brother and even though Buck appreciated the effort, it didn't really work.
"Well, if he wanted to avoid that, it backfired. I'm mad.", he snapped.
"I think you should talk to him. Call him. Christopher should be in bed by now, he should have time to talk to you.", Maddie suggested and handed him his phone that he had put on the table before.
"No. I can't. Not today. Not yet.", he declined and put the phone down. Suddenly his anger shifted and he got anxious.
"Why not?", Maddie asked confused.
"Because..", Buck started to say but it was obvious he had problems expressing himself. "Because I'm not just mad at him. When I heard what happened and that he talked to Lena about it and not me.. I...", Buck stopped again, not being able to get the words out. Telling his sister meant admitting it to himself.
But Maddie would never let it go and talking about it was actually the reason Buck came here in the first place.
He took a deep breath. "I think... I think I got jealous."
"Buck..", Maddie sighed and put her arm around her brother, now squeezing him. It seemed as if she knew where this was going.
"I think it.. it made me realize...", Buck felt his eyes filling up a bit, he was scared. "I think I may have feelings for Eddie."