Chapter Text
Two weeks ago, an unconscious body was pulled out of a strong rip, taking on a lot of water in the lungs and revived by lifeguards. An Ambulance rushed through the beginnings of summer traffic, a race against the clock to Maturin Beach.
Two days ago, a decision was made as a preventative measure from more close calls to keep a team of Paramedics based on the beach for quick action and less ambulance trips.
Eddie Kaspbrak was the lead Paramedic on the small team he's worked with for the past five years. Stan and Eddie have been partners for years and friends for longer; growing up in the same small town will do that to people, the both of them almost inseparable it only made sense that they would continue into the same career paths.
Eddie could only watch as the third member of their little party wormed her way into their life and more impressively, into Stan’s heart. Patty Blum was what the duo needed, a cheerful balance to constant scepticism and blunt bedside manner.
With the stress of a new field job, Patty’s positive outlook was more than welcome by the two men as they started their first stationary job at Maturin Beach.
“Eager for the first day Eddie?”
“Oh yeah, real excited… love the chilly breeze, stupid tourists who don’t know any better and the little bits of the beach i get to bring back home in my shoes” Eddie couldn’t be more sarcastic if he tried, stomping his feet into the sand... God I hate sand...
“What time did you say the head lifeguard was going to get here?” The truth was that Eddie already knew, Head lifeguard Mike Hanlon starts his shift everyday at 6am and the rest of the day's lifeguards trickle in shortly after for their 6:30am start.
“Bill said we would get a briefing from the head lifeguard when he starts at 6, what are you eager to start your day already?” Stan questioned.
Looking out towards the beach he knows that this is going to be one long summer.
Coming down from the promenade was Patty making her way back from the now new morning coffee run tradition, trailing behind her was a taller man, wearing the signature light and navy blue Lifeguard jersey, carrying his own coffee and duffle bag to his side.
“Stan! Eddie! Look who I met at the cafe!”
“Good morning guys, pleasure to finally meet you. I'm Mike” Mike introduced himself giving both Eddie and Stan firm handshakes and a truly comforting smile.
“I’m just about to open up the tower, if you want to follow me up and i'll give you a run down of how things are going to work.” Mike fetched the keys out of the duffel pocket and made his way up the stairs to the tower.
Following Mike inside the lifeguard tower, Eddie looked around at the walls covered in different posters and photos of procedures, weather reports and other small tools.
Plucking the weather map out of the sleeve on the wall he turned to the three and began to explain the weather predictions and what kind of troubles they would be experiencing.
“Some people are saying that this is going to be the hottest summer on record, even with the stormy forecast for next week,” Mike explained.
“This means lots more people will come through, more cases of heatstroke and depending on the temperature of the water, with the winds pushing more of the ocean temps through you can see an increase of hypothermia cases… looks like we are in for a good time, I'll show you around now” Mike’s calm demeanor really made the severity of the cases they’ll see seem like just another day at the beach.
The large windows that covered the front panels of the tower made Eddie realize that there were no blind spots in a job like this. The wide span of the beach surprises Eddie, the length almost doubling from his view before on the sand.
A small group of surfers cautiously dip their toes in the waves as a couple jogs down the beach; as Eddie surveys the scene, thinking it's almost calming, serene even.
Maybe he can get used to early mornings at Maturin Beach.
Mike leads them though the tower touring their medical care operations, what the lifeguards have on hand and their heavy duty life preserver gear. Gesturing down the beach Mike explains how lifeguards are called to specific areas of the beach through the surrounding landmarks.
“HA! Loser, I beat you again!”
A fiery redhead slams her hand on the side of the lifeguard tower making a loud, echoing bang.
“That you have m’lady” another man jogs up behind her,
“Do better next time, you don’t get paid enough to keep buying my victory espressos … oh!” She twists around to meet three new faces in the tower.
“We have company today”, the young lady makes her way through the tower to the platform where the rest of them are and introduces herself.
“Hi I’m Beverly Marsh but please just call me Bev, and this is Ben Hanscom” Ben waves when he’s mentioned, then continues to grab a set of keys off the wall and head back outside.
“I’m Patty, this is Stan and Eddie, it’s a pleasure to be working with you this summer!” Patty introduces them all in her polite and cheery ‘Patty’ way.
“Well good luck settling in guys, if you need me to run over anything or have any other questions I'll be across the path in the surf club office” Mike says as he’s about to leave
“Mikey are you working on the beach fest yet?” Bev calls before he’s left the threshold.
“Beach fest? What’s that?” Patty questions the room,
“The annual Maturin Beach fest, live concerts, food trucks and too many party goers, here at the beach for the weekend”
“Yeah it’s in a couple weeks and I need to get all the confirmations through and get more volunteers to work that weekend”
“Alright Mike, have fun with that we'll try not to disrupt you too much!” She says waving him off.
Bev walking over to the window facing the beach and grabbing the binoculars on the desk in front of her asked “I’m sure Mike showed you all the important stuff yeah?”
“Yeah, he gave us a short rundown on your first aid and first response protocols as well as your defib packs and oxyrevivers” Eddie explained back to Bev.
“If you wait around for a bit, I’ll introduce you to some more of how we work around here” Bev says, searching along the beach through her binoculars, she lands on the small group of surfers along the south end, watching them before putting the contraption back down.
“That's great but I think me and Patty might quickly check out your beach buggies and move the rest of our equipment to the tent, But Eddie will happily stay, Right Eddie?”
Stan offers on his behalf, not even waiting for an answer and leaving the building with Patty in tow.
Now with just him and Bev in the tower, the silence between them is disturbed by the quiet conversation between Stan, Patty and Ben outside and the rustling of the sliding doors covering the beach equipment downstairs.
Scanning the walls, in between posters of first aid acronyms and ‘how to spot rips’ there are a mix of polaroids, drawings from kids and developed photos of the staff; moments frozen in time in a constantly moving environment.
Two polaroids next to each other stand out more than the rest, both of a person doing the same pose in front of a rescue board.
One a teenager, no older than 16, lanky and wearing the iconic red and yellow surf rescue volunteer uniform and the other an older man, similar looking but bulkier and much taller, probably only early twenties now wearing the light blue lifeguard jersey doing the same two thumbs up in front of another board.
Eddie is no Sherlock Holmes but he can put two and two together pretty well, if it wasn’t for the fact that the two individuals looked similar it could have been the hand written captions at the bottom.
‘First day!!’ ‘Graduation!!’
“That's Richie, he's working today as well, you’ll meet him soon” Bev says now watching over his shoulder, startling him with a slight jump.
“Ah ... oh right...uh, he seems like he’s been doing this a while then?” Eddie suggests to her, looking back to the photos on the wall.
“Yeah, believe it or not, Richie is the only one of us who started off as a surf clubbie, or you know ‘surf rescue volunteer’ as they are really known” she states with air quotations.
“Knock Knock” a deeper but slightly nasally voice comes from behind him, as Eddie turns around he's met with who he recognises as Richie, he's taller than he thought and wet…
Why on earth is he wet?
“Aw c’mon Bev you don’t need to show everyone that comes through those photos, it’s getting embarrassing” Richie whined, walking over to grab Beverly in a playful headlock and she laughed him off.
Eddie looks on, watching the way Richie moves through the tower, following his gaze down from his head to bare torso eventually landing on a wetsuit covering his lower half, Richie was obviously a surfer, no doubt one from the group spotted on the beach earlier.
Eddie catches himself and snapping his gaze away before he’s caught.
“Why don’t you dry off and put on a shirt before you become our first case of hypothermia this summer”
“Oh? And who might you be, short stack?” Richie accuses turning around and extending a hand to Eddie with a wink.
“Name’s Eddie, I’m one of the Paramedics that's working with you this summer” he responds, providing a firm shake back.
“You two get acquainted, I’m gonna help Ben put out the flags” Bev says as she grabs her radio and heads towards the exit.
“Okay Bevvy, give Benny-Boy and good kiss on the lips for me” Richie teases, making obnoxious kissy noises all while Beverly flips him off effortlessly over her shoulder earning back a chuckle.
“Alright ParamEddie, what's on your agenda today? Save some lives? Be a hero?” Richie takes a seat at the desk and grabs the binoculars that Beverly had used earlier and scans over the beach.
ParamEddie really?? The fuck is wrong with this guy?
“I think it’s your job to be the hero, I’m here in case you mess up” he scoffed
“I get it, the hero’s burden is too much to carry on your small frame, don’t worry little one I’ll carry it for you,” Richie jokes, standing up and clapping Eddie’s shoulder on the way past.
“I’m not ‘little’ asswipe!..I”
“Popsicle Eds?” Richie offers, interrupting Eddie.
“Are you kidding me it’s not even 7am, those things are loaded with sugar you’ll crash from your sugar high and render yourself useless before you’re needed!… you know what? No, I’m not doing this...Call me if there’s an emergency” Eddie quickly rushes out before Richie could say one more stupid thing and break his arguably low patience.
“Hey, sorry we ditched you earlier but we got the rest of our stuff down” Patty greets Eddie handing him his chilled water bottle as he enters the tent.
“How was the other guy, Richie?” Stan asked
“Stan, to be honest …. Between me and him, only one of us will make it off this beach sane at the end of the summer and I don’t think it’s going to be me.” he huffed, taking a seat and looking out towards the rolling waves, trying to go back to the calming and serene feeling he felt before.
This is going to be a long fucking summer…