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Karen was not one of the smartest people that Hen knew for no good reason. She was intelligent and articulate and damn good at her job. She was an amazing mother and an incredible wife and if Hen had learnt one thing in her marriage it was that Karen was usually right. It was good practice in marriage anyway to believe that your spouse was right, but for Hen she had seen it enough times to know that for a minimum of 9/10 times, Karen was bang on the money.
It maybe should have been less of a surprise when Karen turned to Hen one day, seemingly apropos of nothing and said, “Buck and Eddie will be engaged by Christmas.”
Hen only didn’t do a spit take because she had been smart enough to put down her coffee to gaze lovingly at her wife while she spoke (sue her, Karen being beautiful was just another thing on the list of Reasons Why Hen Was the Luckiest).
“Uh, they’re not together?”
Karen raised one eyebrow. “Sure they’re not.”
“I love you, but this time you’re wrong.”
“I don’t think I am.”
“Unless you’ve got insider information that I don’t know about, Buck and Eddie aren’t together.”
“Aren’t they?” Karen said, annoyingly smug.
“They’re not. Buck emotes too loudly for the rest of us to not to be aware of it. If something had happened he’d probably come in looking drunk on love the next day.”
“And Eddie?”
“As repressed as ever, so definitely not secretly dating Buck behind our backs.”
“I didn’t think he was,” Karen pointed out.
“You just said they were together,” Hen retorted through a smile.
“I said they weren’t not together. There’s a difference. They just haven’t realised it yet.”
“And you think when they do they’ll go from what they are now to immediately engaged?”
“Hmm,” was all the reply Hen got.
“I could maybe see them getting together by Christmas? You’re right in that it’s only a matter of time,” Hen said, trying to find a common ground to give her a half-win at least.
“They’ll be engaged.”
“I really think you’re wrong this time, babe.”
“We’ll see,” was all Karen said in response, sipping her coffee like she was once again waiting for Hen to realise that Karen had won again.
* * *
The conversation kept running round in Hen’s mind. October passed in a flurry of Halloween activity, and she felt like she was keeping a closer eye on Buck and Eddie than she had been before. Every time she caught them staring at each other for a beat too long or doing their silent communication thing she thought to herself, well, what if Karen was right again? It wasn’t that she didn’t have faith in her wife, years of marriage had taught her that, but she wasn’t sure that even if Buck and Eddie had feelings for each other that they would remain anything but oblivious to them.
Hen started cataloguing things, taking any and all information home for Karen to analyse over. Secretly Hen thought that maybe her wife needed to get invested in a soap drama that didn’t involve her co-workers but she never voiced that opinion to anyone but Chim. Chim just suggested that they start stashing popcorn around the station just in case anything did ever kick off, and as much as Hen loved her best friend she couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.
Once she started actively looking for things, it seemed like every other day that Hen had something else to report.
“I think Buck is taking Chris trick or treating because Eddie picked up an extra shift.”
“I think they might be wearing matching costumes.”
“Can confirm that they’re going as Nemo and Dory. Buck can barely tell the difference between Mission Impossible and The Matrix and got very defensive when I couldn’t remember the name of an animated fish.”
“Buck has at least 100 pictures on his phone of the two of them in costume. Eddie somehow has just as many even though he was working and missed it.”
“Apparently, they went past the station to surprise Eddie so he could be included.”
Every time, Karen just poured a glass of wine, got out her notebook and dutifully wrote it all down with as much detail as she was given. Hen asked once what the information was going towards but Karen just smiled that secret smile that meant Hen was just going to have to wait and see and she let her wife have her weird quirks in peace.
Before too long the season was changing once more and fall was giving way to the sleepy slumber of winter that was beginning to spread through the air. Sure, L.A. in winter was still much warmer than a lot of places, but the temperature was still beginning to dip a little. If Hen saw Buck and Eddie huddling a little closer on the sofa she didn’t say anything about it. If they wore the wrong hoodie she let Chim or Ravi be the one to point it out while chalking it down to them inexplicably still sharing a locker even though she could have sworn that Eddie definitely had his own one now.
It wasn’t just the things that they did, it was all the fragments of conversation that kept drifting around the firehouse that always seemed to tie the two of them together.
“Yeah, of course I’m having Thanksgiving at Eddie’s, who did you think was going to cook?”
“Buck, who’s picking up Chris today, is it Carla or Abuela?”
“Eddie, can you text your sister back so she stops bothering me.”
“You’re still coming for lunch on Sunday right because Pepa wants to make your favourite cookies if you are.”
“Hey Eds, can we stop by the shops on the way home? Forgot Superman requested spaghetti for dinner.”
Sometime in early December Hen had to concede that Karen had been bang on the money and that they just didn’t realise how married they sounded. Not that it made Hen any more certain that they would jump from not realising to rushing down the aisle but Karen seemed to know what she was talking about.
Even Athena seemed to be on Karen’s side. They were having their usual catch up at the Grant-Nash household when Athena turned round and said, “I told Eddie he better take good care of our boy.”
“Did he say something to you?” Hen asked.
“No but I’ve got eyes and I ain’t no fool. Whether he realises it or not he’s in love with that boy so I just wanted to know that he’s got our blessing for whenever he decides to make a move.”
“You think giving him a parental blessing will help him?” Karen had asked, a soft smirk on her face from having Athena on her side.
“I don’t know if anything will help that boy. I don’t think he’s even realised that Buck likes boys, let alone likes him back, but it might at least get him to consider it,” Athena replied.
“How did Eddie miss that Buck was bi? He’s not exactly subtle about it?” Bobby asked, returning to the conversation with a new bottle of wine.
“Cap, Eddie wasn’t around for the Buck 1.0 era. He’s been a lot quieter about advertising who he’s dating since Eddie’s been around,” Hen pointed out.
“Wonder why that might be,” Karen joked.
They sat in silence for a moment before Bobby spoke again. “They’re good for each other.”
“Of course you would say that, you’re the one who played matchmaker in the first place,” Athena laughed.
“Cap!”
“I just thought Buck needed someone to ground him, I didn’t think it would end up like this,” Bobby said, throwing his hands up in mock surrender. “But I really am proud of the person he’s become.”
“You just wish they’d stop pining at work,” Athena joked.
“‘Thena you’re not around to see the pining, it’s just getting worse,” Hen pointed out before turning to Karen to ask, “What was it they did the other day?”
“The jumper thing or the movies thing?”
“The movies thing.”
“They were compiling a list of absolute must see Christmas movies taking into account which ones they saw last year, which ones Christopher had never seen and which ones Buck still incredibly hadn’t seen either so they could make sure to fit in enough movie nights to see them all.” Karen rattled off the information and looked to the rest of them with a grin on her face. “I’m telling you all, engaged by Christmas.”
“And married by the new year,” Bobby replied.
“Robert Nash, if you think our boy is getting away with a courthouse wedding when he deserves a big party to celebrate the two of them you are sorely mistaken,” Athena threatened.
“I’d listen to your wife, Cap, they’re usually right.”
Hen kept it to herself that she wasn’t sure if anything short of a Christmas miracle was going to make Karen right this time.
* * *
Turns out the Christmas miracle that Hen had asked for involved a faulty door lock and a literal closet. She was all ready to laugh at the irony later, when they were away from the scene they were meant to be dealing with, but Chim was snorting next to her and she couldn’t resist grinning back at him there and then.
“Are you two okay in there?” she asked, ignoring Chim’s jokes from behind her. Once she got the muffled shout that they were okay she told them to hold tight while they dealt with the patient. With that she turned her back and dragged Chim away, hoping that they would take the opportunity of being locked in together to actually talk.
* * *
Being locked in a room because their patient was worried about her dog and kept demanding they check on it, going off to find it and the door shutting closed behind them was not how Buck saw his day going. At least it was L.A. so it was a massive walk-in closet bigger than the room Buck had stayed in when he had first got to California but there was still something vaguely scary about being trapped in a room with no way out.
“Diaz, Buckley, do you copy? We’re with the patient now and we’ll come get you after we get her all sorted out,” Bobby’s voice through the radio seemed to echo in the small room but Buck was sure he was imagining it.
“Yeah, Cap, we copy. We’re all good in here for now,” Eddie responded before Buck could get the chance.
“Okay, we’ll be with you as soon as we can. Hang tight.”
The radio fell silent and Buck used the sudden silence as an excuse to wander round the room a bit, absently looking at all the dresses hung up and the rows of shoes. “Imagine having a house big enough to just have rooms for clothes.”
“Hmm,” Eddie only hummed in response but Buck knew that was Eddie’s way of saying that while he was particularly invested in the conversation that Buck was free to start ranting if he needed to.
“Do you ever think about moving?” Buck asked instead.
“Do you mean move to a house like this? You know a firefighter’s salary doesn’t cover Hollywood mansions, Buck.”
“Nah, I just meant to a bigger house. Christopher’s growing and I think he’s asked me if you’re getting a puppy for Christmas like 5 times already.”
“Sneaky one that kid, asking you to ask me because he knows if he comes straight to me I’ll just say no,” Eddie chuckled.
“Yeah, I just told him I knew nothing but if he wanted to start the Diaz family pet campaign that I’d be all for it but that he might have better luck asking for a cat.”
“So you’re the reason he asked to go to the cat shelter twice last week,” Eddie said with his fond smile he always got when he talked about Christopher. It was the same stupid smile that made Buck’s heart flip over and he ducked his head away from it.
“Guilty. You know I can’t say no to him.”
“So you just make that my job.”
“Well you are his dad,” Buck pointed out with a small laugh. He looked over at Eddie, waiting for a snarky comeback but instead Eddie wasn’t smiling and was staring blankly at Buck like he had only just noticed him.
“Eds? You okay?”
Eddie shook himself out of whatever he had been thinking about and looked right at Buck. “Hmm, yeah,” he said absently.
“You sure?” Buck willed his voice to stay level so he wouldn’t start panicking.
“Yeah. I think I’m more sure than I have been for a long time,” Eddie said slowly, like he was checking the truth of his statement as he said it.
“Uh-huh,” Buck said disbelievingly. “You want to tell me why, because honestly man you’re starting to scare me.”
“You know how there’s the fun parent that the kid goes to first when they want something because they know there’s less of a chance that they’ll be told no?” Eddie asked.
Buck nodded his head slowly, not understanding how that connected to whatever was going on with Eddie. “I guess? But what’s that-”
“You’re Christopher’s fun parent.”
“I’m what?”
“You’re Christopher’s fun parent. The one he’ll go to first because he knows you can’t say no to him.”
“Eddie, come on, you’re the fun parent, I’m nothing, I’m not even his -”
“Don’t you dare,” Eddie whispered furiously, crossing the room to stop Buck from finishing that thought. Buck hadn’t even noticed the divide between them until it was gone but the axis of his world settled now that Eddie was right in front of him again with no space between them. “Don’t you dare finish that thought. You’re his parent in every sense of the word. You help him with his homework even when you have no clue what’s going on, you make his sandwiches exactly the way he wants even when he changes his mind halfway through, and you calm down his nightmares when I don’t get to him in time. Hell, you’re in my will to be his legal guardian if anything happens to me.”
Buck was quiet for a moment. “We never talked about that.”
“I thought I’d said all I needed to.”
Buck shook his head slowly. “Eddie, I can’t read your mind. Just because it was a hypothetical decision didn’t mean it didn’t change my world. Every time I look at him that’s all I think about. That kid could be mine one day if anything ever happened to you and I can’t do that.”
“Wait, you said you’d never refuse it?”
“And I wouldn’t, that’s not what I mean,” Buck was quick to reassure Eddie, not even realising he was holding on to Eddie’s chest at first. Buck was about to move his hands away and take a step back but Eddie caught his hands in place and kept him in place.
“What did you mean then?”
Buck took a deep breath and stared at their joined hands resting on Eddie’s chest. “I mean I don’t want to have to lose you first. All I can think when I see Chris is that you would want him to be mine but I want that without having to lose you because I don’t think I could cope with that and…”
“Marry me.”
Buck looked up in shock. Eddie looked like he couldn’t quite believe what he’d said, like he’d accidentally thought out loud.
“What?” Buck managed to squeak, trying to extract himself again but Eddie just squeezed their hands, refusing to let Buck go.
“Buck, you’re already our family, Christopher’s and mine’s. I don’t want you to be scared to say that because you think I have to be out of the picture for it to happen because he’s already yours. You’ve been raising him for a lot longer than I think either of us realised and I am so sorry that I didn’t see what’s been right in front of me this whole time. Buck, you’re my family and I don’t want to keep living in denial about that.”
Buck blinked once, twice, a couple more times in quick succession before he found his voice again. “So you’re just going to propose without taking me on a date or even kissing me first that’s so rude- - mphff!”
Buck’s protests were cut off by Eddie leaning forward that last precious few inches and finally kissing him. It was sweet and ferocious and felt like Eddie was trying to prove with one kiss that he had meant everything that he’d just said.
When he pulled back they were both grinning and Buck immediately tugged Eddie forward to kiss him again, unable to break his smile as he did so. “Ask me again,” he mumbled against Eddie’s lips.
Eddie pulled back enough to look right at Buck. “Evan Buckley, I love you. I think I’ve always loved you and I know I want to keep loving you for always. Will you marry me? Be mine? Be ours?”
“Yes,” he laughed, unable to stop the tears welling up nor able to stop smiling. “Yeah I think I can do that.”
Getting engaged wasn’t how Buck saw his day going either but as he stared into his fiancé’s eyes while they waited on their rescue, he couldn’t find it in himself to complain.
* * *
Once the patient was all dealt with, Hen and Chim made it back to the walk-in closet to get Buck and Eddie back, with Bobby and Ravi on their heels.
“Time to get them out of the closet,” Chim smirked, unable to resist the joke.
“No more jokes, we left them in there a lot longer than we thought we would have to,” Bobby pointed out as they got ready to bust the door down. They yelled through the walls for the boys to stand back and popped the door off its frame.
Hen wasn’t sure what she was expecting when they got to them, but the two of them standing against the back wall, holding hands and looking like they’d won the lottery was something she’d only hoped for.
“Everything okay with you two?” she asked, unable to keep the smile off her face.
“Oh yeah, we’re good,” Buck grinned. “Just got engaged.”
Hen thought her brain had blacked out for a second but it was Chim who made them repeat it and after Eddie confirmed it they said their congratulations and quickly wrapped up at the scene so they could get back to the firehouse to celebrate. Buck and Eddie kept their hands linked together the whole way home, shooting each other blinding smiles as though they were the only people around. Hen couldn’t resist taking a quick picture of them and sent it to Karen with a simple caption: you were right.
Yeah, so maybe Karen was always right. Or maybe she was just a good judge of true love. Either way, Hen knew that the news that Karen had gotten this so right was probably going to be just the Christmas present Karen had actually wanted. Hen was still going to give her the rest of her presents though. Her wife might be a romantic who predicted one marriage, but Hen still knew what she needed to do to keep hers in good spirits.
Karen was thrilled with both the necklace with the little boy charm Hen had picked out for her, and the news about her personal soap drama coming to a happy ending. Hen laughed so much at the 118 gift exchange when she realised the notebook with all of Karen’s research was gifted to Eddie with the first page in Karen’s neat script reading: These are all the reasons you’re already married so hurry up and get your man x
By the looks on both Buck and Eddie’s faces, finally figuring everything out was the best gift they could have given to themselves. Chris excitedly telling everyone he got another dad for Christmas was just the star on the top of the tree, the last piece of everything falling into place for their happy ending.