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“She’s not my partner,” Eddie interrupted harshly as the Detective referred to Bosko as his partner, “my partner is out due to injuries, Bobby brought her in to cover for him but she’s NOT my partner.”
“OK, so who’s your partner?” the Detective asked in order to get Eddie to answer his questions.
“Buck. Evan Buckley,” Eddie supplied as he watched a wave of understanding come across his face at Buck’s name.
“Isn’t he…” he trailed off as he realized that the firefighter in question was suing the city and the LAFD.
“Is there a problem?” Eddie countered as he sank back in his chair as he caught the gaze of another firefighter from the 122nd who was another fighter that Bosko had offered up to the police for leniency in her charges.
“Detective Daniels?” a uniform officer called from the other side of the room.
“Coming,” he got up from his chair, “remain here,” he ordered as he headed out of the room.
“Conners, right?” Eddie called out to the other firefighter.
“Right, Diaz?” he replied as leaned against the wall, “they picked you up from the raid?”
“No,” Eddie shook his head, “I got pulled over, you?”
“I was on shift,” he gestured toward the uniform, “Do you know why they picked us up?”
“Bosko,” Eddie supplied as he gestured his head toward the windowed office where she was sitting with her back towards them.
“Fuck,” Conners cursed, “why…” he trailed off with a frown forming on his face.
“My thought is that she’s trying to push blame off of her and offer up anyone else she can,” Eddie replied as their attention was drawn toward Detective Daniels who was reentering the room with a familiar figure following closely behind him, “Buck,” Eddie sighed as he shot a threatening look over at Conners.
“Your free to go, Firefighter Diaz,” Daniels handed over the release papers to both him and Conners and waved them away.
“What…why…?”
“I understand why you didn’t say anything,” Daniels glanced at Buck thoughtfully, “I’ll keep your names out of the report.”
“Thank you,” Buck nodded his head in thanks as he gently pushed Eddie toward the exit.
“Buck, why did you?” Eddie questioned as soon as they were cleared from the police stations.
“I told them that you were with me,” Buck glanced over at Conners before returning his attention to his partner, “and that the reason you weren’t saying anything was because of the lawsuit but that I wasn’t going to let you get charged in order to protect me.”
“Buck,” Eddie sighed as he realized that Buck may have just sacrificed his chance to come back to the 118, in order to help keep him out of jail.
“My choice,” he countered as he glanced over at the other firefighter, “Buck, and you are?”
“Conners,” he replied as he grabbed his hand, “but why did they release me?”
“Cause if Eddie had an ironclad alibi then Bosko was probably lying about the rest,” he supplied as he pointed toward where he had parked his jeep, “Need a ride?” he offered.
“Yeah,” Conners replied as he realized that the rumors about the blond-haired firefighter probably weren’t the entire story, especially if he was willing to disobey the no contact order with his house.
As they pulled away from dropping off Conners, Eddie turned his full attention to Buck who was heading toward his place, “Why?”
“Because you came to me for help,” he replied as he recalled the disheveled Eddie who had appeared at his door hours before, barely managing to escape the police raid at the fight.
“Thank you.”
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