Chapter Text
On the television screen the headline, War Hero Arrested For Murder, scrolls under the image of a beautiful young woman with a bright smile.
“And this is Taylor Kelly reporting with an update on the arrest of war hero Edmundo Diaz for first degree murder. Staff Sergeant Diaz served two tours in Afghanistan, where he was badly injured defending his team after his convoy came under fire. Awarded a Silver Star for his heroics, Diaz was invalided out and subsequently joined the Los Angeles Fire Department.
However this apparent hero has a dark side. Although married to his husband for two years, it was an open secret within the fire department that he was having a passionate affair with a work colleague.
Our channel was able to gather this exclusive footage while reporting the one-eighteen earlier this year. The fire service then blocked us from broadcasting the footage until now.”
The screen cuts to two men in turnouts standing at the back of a firetruck. They are standing just a little too close, leaning towards each other just a little too much. As the camera focuses in on their faces and the indefinable softness in their eyes and smiles, it’s easy to see they are in love.
Before the whole mess starts, Hen likes Eddie.
She wasn’t sure to begin with. Eddie’s a very pretty package but those first few weeks that’s all he was. Other than work he doesn’t talk, just stays glued to his phone. But gradually, cautiously, like a wary cat, Eddie slowly creeps out of hiding and lets them get to know him.
And really it would be hard to dislike the man. He’s kind, dedicated, competent; calm in a crisis and works damn hard. He’s also extremely easy on the eye (sure that’s shallow, but if she’s going to be gifted with eye candy, hell yeah is she going to appreciate the view). Frankly he’s so perfect, it’s a little annoying.
And on top of being a great at his job, Eddie is an adoring husband and father. Which Hen admires on its own merits and also because it gives her a family ally in the generally footloose and fancy free station. Eddie calls his husband whenever he can manage and he’s constantly texting him, he’s always smiling over some message or picture Evan’s sent him. Their little boy, Christopher, is adorable, (how could his mother just up and abandon him. Hen does not understand) his picture is Eddie’s lock screen and Hen has heard his rippling laugh when Eddie face times him before bed, even waved to him as she walks past.
Eddie doesn’t have any pictures of Evan, he ducks his head and looks awkward when Hen asks, says Evan doesn’t like having his photograph taken. She doesn’t push. To be honest she feels for Eddie’s poor husband, being married to that level of physical perfection would put anyone off having their photo taken.
And Evan seems like an anxious person. When the subject of parents comes up, Eddie huffs over how his Evan’s parents made him self-conscious which is the most ridiculous thing Eddie’ ever heard because Evan is beautiful inside and out. Hen thinks it’s sweet how defensive he gets over his husband but at the same time she thinks Eddie, perfect as he is, simply doesn’t get it. It doesn’t seem to occur to Eddie that, besides an excellent metabolism, he has the benefit of working a hard physical job so he doesn’t need to try and maintain his weight. All the while his unfortunate husband is desperately counting calories and drinking disgusting shakes and Eddie is, not quite laughing but definitely sighing over what he sees as his husband’s eccentricities.
Then there’s the two week period where Eddie comes in breathing fire because his husband is getting hassle from his work colleagues and he can’t do anything because Evan won’t let him go round and beat the shit out of the offenders. Bobby’s the one who points out that’s actually a good thing and Eddie practically bites his head off before apologizing and going to beat the shit out of the heavy bag.
Hen tries to talk to him but all she gets is anger for being so reasonable because why can’t Eddie’s work colleagues have the decency to be homophobic so Evan’s will treat him better. She raises an eyebrow at this insanity and Eddie apologizes again and she accepts because Eddie’s almost tearing off his own skin he’s so furious and unhappy. It’s not fair, he explains, he can deal with being hassled but Evan is too kind, too vulnerable to harsh words. Too good, his colleagues only know in the first place because Evan didn’t want to keep lying to them. And it’s getting worse because Evan’s too soft and non-confrontational to shut it down – although that appears to set off Eddie’s can’t criticize my husband instincts because he stops abruptly and instead Hen’s treated to a rant about Evan’s family, who do admittedly sound terrible.
After a fortnight of hissing and spitting Eddie comes in smug as a cat that’s got the cream – with battered and bloodied knuckles and a purple smeared bruise high on his cheek.
“They got in a lucky shot,” he brags, so cockily masculine Hen wants to smack him on principal. “See if they bother mi cielito again.”
“Should you be admitting this,” Chim jokes.
Eddie grins toothily, “Saves on any misunderstandings.”
Hen kicks Chimney to stop him digging any deeper, she doesn’t want to hear anything she’d feel obliged to tell Athena. Something clearly went down as Eddie’s on his phone even more than normal because Evan’s not going into work ‘for a while’. She feels awful for them both for the situation and because she doesn’t think Evan goes out much in general. Eddie’s turned down invitations on his behalf with the same awkward shuffling, looking so uncomfortable not even Chimney can bear to press the point. In time she’d hoped Eddie would convince his husband to join one of their team nights out. But Evan is shy, Eddie always grins reflexively when he says that, ducking his head as his cheeks burn.
Hen can see that, Eddie’s a private, self-contained man himself, it makes sense his husband is similarly quiet and reclusive. Though she does wonder how much Evan actually leaves the house, he’s even dropped out of the PTA. He works as a computer programmer of some sort, she guesses from Eddie’s moaning and groaning over the grief he gets from his husband and son who are ‘technology wizards’. Hen knows that feeling from dealing with her own rocket scientist. And Karen can definitely spend days locked up in her work. She had been looking forward to introducing her wife to Eddie’s husband and hoped together they could encourage Evan out from hiding. That was before, of course.
Because then it all goes wrong.
Because then Buck transfers to the 118 and Eddie stops talking about his husband.
Worse, he hushes the rest of them if they try to talk about his husband. Which they do, because the interloper should know Eddie has a husband who he adores.
Except that adoration is looking increasingly suspect.
Things do not get off to a good start. Stepney pulled his favorite trick of getting the newbie to change his shirt in full view of the station and Eddie had whistled loudly. The newbie looked up and grinned, swaggering out still shirtless.
“Hey hotstuff.”
Hen can’t deny that the newbie is attractive, nor can she deny the sparks shooting between him and Eddie as they grin at each other. She looks at Chim. He winces and mimes a burnt hand. Hen nods in agreement, they’re probably lucky the station doesn’t burn down around them.
Newbie remains shirtless until Eddie throws a shirt at him,
“Put this on and stop embarrassing yourself.”
“You’re all just overcome by my awesome.”
“Shirt.”
Newbie pulls on the shirt. It strains around his massive arms and Hen is wretchedly sure Eddie gave him one of his own shirts. The grinning at each other doesn’t stop until Chim coughs and starts,
“Hey.”
Newbie turns and flashes him a muted version of that bright grin. Even muted it’s still almost blinding.
“Hey,” says Newbie, “you must be Chimney, it’s great to meet you.” He shakes Chim’s hand vigorously, while Chim blinks half-stunned under the deluge of enthusiasm.
Newbie turns out to be Buck. Who Bobby brought in to partner Eddie on heavy rescue. Bobby had promised them Newbie had a proven track record, a little reckless maybe, he had been off recovering from trapping himself in a collapsing house, but Eddie would be there to steady him up. At the time Eddie had sighed like Bobby had been asking him to take on the weight of the world, now it looks like Eddie’s opinion on the newbie has done a 180. He and Buck can’t keep their eyes off each other, they keep returning to grinning each other like there’s no one else in the world. If Eddie wasn’t married, it would be sweet.
It’s not sweet.
Buck follows Eddie, practically bouncing with excitement, as Eddie shows him around. Hen can’t help but see the way Eddie touches him constantly. Not groping, but constant contact, hand on back, knock of elbows, nudge of shoulders, bump of hips, tangle of ankles as they sit down next to each other.
“Shit,” says Chimney, “maybe we should be glad Newbie’s into Eddie because otherwise Eddie’d be up for sexual harassment.”
Hen isn’t glad about anything in this situation. She doesn’t think Chimney is either. Bobby definitely isn’t, he looks more and more disapproving as the day goes on. There’s nothing he can do officially though because being too friendly isn’t actually actionable. Eddie and Buck remain delighted with each other although Bobby’s glowering displeasure does reduce their exuberance and Hen almost feels sorry for it. But while the deliberate touching vanishes, they still stand too close and look too long as if it’s too instinctual to be stopped. When they clamber into the truck they sit side by side and slump into each other. As they arrive on scene Hen sees them link pinkie fingers like a silent promise before they separate to get set up. Eddie checks over Buck’s harness and they fist bump, then Eddie sends him down on the winch. They work perfectly together.
Sadly, no matter how much they can’t keep their eyes or hands off each other, they continue working perfectly together.
Bobby quietly tells her and Chim if the catch anything actively inappropriate to let him know immediately and he’ll have Buck out of there so fast his head will spin but until then his hands are tied. Eddie and Buck are good at their jobs, there is no justification for removing either of them. The union will butcher him for getting rid of a man for getting on with his teammate too well. Bobby carefully doesn’t say, although Hen isn’t stupid enough not to know, that the optics of transferring one of his men for a gay relationship they have no evidence of would be terrible. Homophobia might still be rampant within the fire service but it’s well hidden. HR winks over ‘miscommunications’, ‘training accidents’, plain old ‘accidents’, and probably worse but anything obvious enough for the papers to call them on is thoroughly stamped out. (And by stamped out Hen means pushed underground. Sometimes she thinks all training seminars do is teach people how to keep their harassing of others better hidden). To be honest Bobby’s tolerant approach probably drives certain people up the wall, they’d like nothing better than to slap the label of homophobe on him and kick him out. They’d get rid of Bobby, the press would eat it up and call them heroes for doing it, and they’d get to smirk to themselves over the irony of it all. It’s infuriating.
So things continue as they are and Hen gets more and more uncomfortable. Because when Eddie does talk about his husband there’s now a mean, mocking edge to his words.
They’re in the loft at the station and Eddie is washing up. (Eddie doesn’t cook, it’s just better that way. His husband does all the cooking at home and Eddie was full of praise for him – until Buck joined them, now it’s all ay dios, my husband dragged us to three different stores just to get the exact type of sauce he wanted, I nearly broke it over his head and Buck will coo sympathically at him about what a hard life he has. Hen wants to break the sauce bottle over both their heads.) So Eddie is washing up and Buck is sitting on the couch theoretically looking up shit on his phone but actually eyeing Eddie as he moves. Hen decides to take another opportunity to remind them both that Eddie does in fact have a husband.
“So Eddie, tell me what exactly does your husband do?” she demands.
“My husband –”
And Hen hates the bright flash of a grin he shoots her and then Buck as if this is some great joke they are all part of.
“ – my husband doesn’t do anything but sit around on his lazy ass and watch me work.”
“But Diaz man,” Buck exclaims, collapsing back and flinging his arms wide as if he’s completely done for, “it’s such a great view.”
Eddie flicks soap bubbles at him. Buck attempts a glower but fails because his face just isn’t designed for that expression, then jumps up and bounds over to Eddie, bumping up against him like an overfriendly puppy, “Poor, poor Eddie, such a terrible husband you have.” They’re both laughing. Hen grinds her teeth. Eddie flicks more soap bubbles at Buck and it’s only her disapproving huff that stops things degenerating into a water fight. Eddie shoves a drying cloth at Buck and Buck rolls his eyes but starts drying anyway.
Hen gives up, it’s not as if she can order Buck to stop helping tidy the kitchen, so she goes and hides in the bunks.
Then there’s the time they get to a fire in time to see the homeowner carry his wife out bridal style and afterwards Chimney, who’s a sucker for that sort of thing, sighs over how romantic it was. Eddie, because he apparently doesn’t have a romantic bone in his body, says that a house burning down is never romantic no matter what the circumstances.
Buck laughs,
“C’mon, you’re telling me you wouldn’t burn down a house for someone you loved.”
“Obviously I would,” says Eddie smiling directly into his eyes half a breath from a kiss, “but that does not mean it would be romantic.”
“Actually,” Buck wraps one hand around his phone which they’ve all come to warily recognize as the sign for an impending Buckpedia download, “the Romanticism movement of the eighteenth century –”
“No, no, no,” Chimney waves both hands to cut him off. “Go back. Eddie are you telling me you wouldn’t carry that husband of yours out of a burning building?”
“Are you kidding me,” says Eddie as he laughs, “I’m not carrying him anywhere. He’s got like sixty pounds on me.”
Hen can’t say anything at all for a moment after hearing that casual dismissal and by the time she’s recovered her words, Chim’s clutching her wrist with one hand, and yeah, she gets it, she can’t verbally fillet Eddie for shaming his husband over his weight while they’re at work, particularly since they’re all still pretending not to know about the whole Eddie Buck thing. But hell, as she watches them giggle and jab fingers into each other’s ribs, she’s not sure how long she can stop herself from blowing up the whole situation. (Finally the two of them settle down and Eddie says, alright then, tell whatever the hell it was about the romantics, and god but this would be so much easier if she could just hate them consistently.)
But Hen never does end up blowing the situation wide open, or get the chance to complete the anonymous letter she and Karen were planning to send to Evan, because everything has gone to shit in a way none of them ever expected.
And Taylor Kelly’s report is still running. Hen knows it’s not fair, that it’s an irrational defense mechanism to put the blame on somebody who has nothing to do with the situation, but if she has to listen to Taylor’s gleeful voice or see her self-satisfied smile for one minute longer she is going to scream and she’s not sure she’ll be able to stop.
Her breathing is getting noisy to her own ears when Chimney stomps in from his own interview, snatches up the remote and kills the tv.
“Thank you,” she says fervently.
Chimney thumps his feet up on the coffee table, his arms folded in a grumpy hunch, “This sucks.”
“So, so bad,” she agrees. All she wants is to wrap her arms around Karen and for this day to finally be over. She looks over to Athena, and her tongue stumbles as she thankfully remembers to give her her title,
“Sergeant Grant, are we going to be able to leave soon? I’ve already missed picking Denny up from school. My wife is not going to be happy with me.”
There’s a mutter of agreement from the rest of the crew. They are all tired and grumpy. Their last shift overran by nearly three hours, and then they were called back to the station less than four hours later to be interrogated about Eddie, Buck, and their affair.
Because Eddie’s husband has vanished, and Eddie has been arrested for his murder.
Nobody can quite believe it but at the same time Hen remembers Eddie’s bruised, battered knuckles and – she doesn’t doubt in the least that Eddie would kill for those he loved but surely he would never –
Taylor Kelly has spent the last twenty minutes talking about the mysterious disappearance of Eddie’s wife, now matched by the disappearance of his husband. Hen had always wondered why Shannon had abandoned her son – but no, she shakes her head at herself. She’s letting Taylor Kelly’s broadcast get to her. The broadcast she knows is biased because Taylor is still furious with the 118 for losing her her big expose.
She rubs her tired eyes and focuses on Athena. Athena who hasn’t replied yet and is looking surprisingly tense for what should be simple information gathering.
“Athena? Are you okay? Can you tell us anything about the investigation?”
Athena looks at her Lieutenant, who showed up about an hour ago to supervise, and yeah okay Hen is missing something. No way did quizzing a bunch of firefighters require a Lieutenant’s presence.
“Athena?” she asks more urgently.
The Lieutenant gives a go ahead nod and Athena straightens up,
“Alright as you are aware Edmundo Diaz –”
Hen winces over the full name. Athena doesn’t think things look good.
“ – was arrested for the murder of his spouse Evan Diaz who has disappeared.”
“He could have just left though right?” Garcia pipes up. “I mean I’d have left. Probably after breaking Eddie’s nose, but yeah, you wouldn’t see me for dust.”
“Exactly,” Chimney agrees. “It sounds like you don’t even have a body. How do you know Evan’s even dead? He comes from like freaking Pennsylvania or somewhere. He could have just gone back home. No body, no crime, right? And Garcia has a point, it’d be weirder if Evan had stuck around.”
Athena twitches and Hen realizes that actually Athena rather agrees with them, at least the part about needing a body. When she speaks, Hen can tell by the way she looks straight ahead that this is the party line,
“Captain Drayson felt it was important not to allow sentiment to interfere with the investigation and it was vital to proceed as rapidly as possible to avoid any potential loss in evidence.”
Stepney laughs, he sounds slightly hysterical. They are probably all slightly hysterical. “Because if anyone would know how to get rid of a body it would be Buckley.”
The rest of the crew shout him down but they are laughing as they do it because yeah, if anyone would know how to get rid of a body it would be Buckpedia. He could probably give you a list in order of ease of use. Hen’s watching Athena though and she sees the way her friend winces.
“’Thena?”
“The lack of a body is unusual,” which is as far as Athena is going to go with criticizing a superior in public. “But, well to be honest it’s not looking good. Eddie broke down when they arrested him.”
Hen’s sharp intake of breath actually hurts. She hadn’t really believed –
“They had to drag him away in cuffs. He’s now clammed up and is not saying anything, even to his lawyer.”
She wraps her arms around herself because this is awful.
Athena sighs and straightens herself again. “But that’s a problem for the future. The most immediate problem is that we’ve lost Buck.”
“Lost Buck,” Chimney repeats blankly. “How do you lose a six foot two, near two hundred pound firefighter? It’s not like he could slide down the back of the couch.”
“We’re hoping one of you might have some idea where he could have gone. They wanted to pick him and Eddie up separately, so they waited for Buck to leave Eddie’s house before moving in on Eddie. They were supposed to pick up Buck at his apartment but he never arrived and the car that was supposed to be following him lost him on route.”
That does not sound good.