Chapter Text
“I’m just saying,” Buck said, slamming the door of the fire truck, “it’s wild to think that you used to have more bones, and as you grow, they just merge, and now you have, like, 100 fewer bones than when you were born.”
“Buck, we all stopped listening to you five minutes ago,” Hen replied, grabbing her gear and meeting the rest of the firefighters around the side of the truck. Ravi and Chim didn’t even try to hide their snickers as they too gathered their bags. Eddie at least had the good grace to turn his half-smile out of Bucks view, even if it was a moment too late.
Buck feigned hurt and clutched his hand to his heart. Lighthearted riffing with his team was like a cool breeze in the blistering heat. A refreshing blast that had him closing his eyes and tilting his head back, welcoming the feeling. He was about to reply with his own halfhearted jab back at her when their captain, Bobby Nash, started talking.
“All right” He began, situating himself in front of his team, “911 operators got a call from a woman claiming she was standing in her kitchen when she heard a loud crash, then yelling for help outside her window. Before she could figure out what house it was coming from, the yelling stopped, but she wanted us to check to make sure everything was ok. We’ll split up and knock on doors, if nobody answers do a perimeter search.” Bobby looked each of them in the eye to make sure they had understood, then began pairing off his team and giving them areas to search.
Each pairing listed off caused Buck's heart to jump a little. It had been a busy shift and as much as he loved everyone in the 118, he was hoping he would get a few moments to catch up with-
“Buck and Eddie, you take the west side of the street.” Bobby’s voice interrupted Buck's thoughts.
“Yes!” Buck hissed out before he could stop himself.
“Don’t act so happy to not be my partner,” Chimney whined, but he was smiling as he elbowed Ravi, his own search partner.
“Hen, you’re with me to interview the caller,” Bobby concluded, and the group split up to search.
“Ready to knock on some doors?” Eddie’s voice was close behind him, and Buck flinched a little.
“Y-yeah, let's go.” Buck stammered in reply.
They knocked on the first door and waited in comfortable silence before a middle-aged man answered. After a few questions, they parted ways with only the knowledge that he had heard a crashing sound but hadn’t thought much of it.
“I hope that man is never my neighbour,” Buck muttered once they were safely out of earshot of the man’s door.
“Eh, some people just mind their own business. I’d prefer someone like that over a neighbour who called the cops every time I dropped a bowl in my kitchen.” Eddie said as they turned to walk up to the next house.
“When I’m bleeding out on my kitchen floor because I fell on said broken bowl, I’ll remember your comforting words, and die knowing that none of my neighbours have called 911.” Buck had meant it to be a joke, but Eddie’s reply was colder than he had expected.
“Don’t joke about that.”
Before Buck could backpedal, Eddie knocked on the second door. This silence was less comfortable. It stretched on for so long, Buck began to open his mouth to speak, but the door finally opened in front of them.
It was an older woman holding a small child. She told Buck and Eddie that he had heard the crash, and the yelling, and had even gone next door to see if everyone was alright, but nobody had come to the door.
“I would have investigated further, but my granddaughter started to cry.” She bounced the little girl on her hip once and Buck warmed a little when the girl nuzzled closer to her grandma and giggled slightly.
“That’s quite alright ma’am. We’ve got it from here.” Eddie replied and turned to head back down the path.
Buck waved at the little girl, then followed behind his best friend.
There was no answer at the door of the third house, but there was a path around the side that led to a small courtyard. Buck watched as Eddie radioed to the rest of the team the address of the suspected incident and followed down the path behind him.
Buck saw what had made the crashing sound immediately. A large windowsill flowerpot lay shattered on the concrete courtyard. Dark soil mingled with broken bits of terracotta, plants with roots still packed together, as though newly planted, spilled in every direction. He almost took a sigh of relief, thought that maybe nobody was hurt, and a hook on the window box had just come loose, until Eddie breathed out “Buck.” And pointed to the side of the house.
A tall ladder was leaning against the plastered wall of the building, reaching almost to the roof, and just below the second-story window a woman hung unconscious upside down, leg caught at a wrong angle between the rung and the wall of the house.
Before long, the rest of the 118 came rushing around the side of the house and got to work with their rescue. Eddie made sure the ladder was safe before Buck climbed up to secure the woman hanging from it. When Buck got to her, she woke up and, in her shock, almost wriggled free from her unfortunate hold. He was able to calm her down enough to get her secured on a backboard and lowered to safety where Chim and Hen set to work assessing her leg and checking for any head injuries.
Once the immediate danger of the woman falling was over, Buck could think about how he and Eddie had known their roles in the rescue before Bobby had instructed them. The fluid interactions, knowing what the other needed before he said it. Buck hadn’t even double-checked Eddie’s work securing the ladder, he had been busy gearing up while he had done it, he just trusted he had done it right. Trusted him with his safety.
When Hen and Chimney had given the go-ahead to move the woman to the ambulance, Buck and Eddie stood to the side to watch them pass.
“Wait!” The woman called to Hen and Chim, and they stopped the gurney, “What are your names?” It took Buck a moment to realise that she was addressing him.
“Ahh, I’m Buck, and this is my partner, Eddie.” Buck gestured to said partner standing beside him, who shot the woman one of his killer smiles.
“Thank you for getting me down.” She smiled at them, even though she must be in extraordinary pain.
“No problem, just next time, maybe hire professionals to handle your second-story flowerpots.” Buck tried not to cringe at what he said, hoping it hadn’t sounded like an innuendo.
“Will do. You two make a cute couple by the way.” The woman said before she closed her eyes and groaned, obviously in pain, and Hen and Chimney hurried her to the ambulance.
Buck and Eddie had been mistaken as a couple so many times, Ravi had started to keep a tally on the firehouse fridge. He usually laughed it off and explained it wasn’t like that, but this time a strange heat settled in his chest that he couldn’t shake. Eddie, obviously brushing the comment off, said something about putting equipment away, and headed after the rest of the 118, leaving Buck in the empty courtyard with the new weight in his chest.
It had only been a month since he and Tommy had broken up, and though there was still some sadness there, it didn't hurt like it used to. He had spent those weeks really thinking about his bisexuality, unpacking past behaviour and looking at it under new light.
He had purposefully left Eddie out of that reflection, though he wasn't entirely sure why.
Most of the flowers from the fallen window box had been crushed into the dirt in the emergency, but one plant had rolled out of the way of stray boots and gurneys and lay near Buck's feet. Its roots still in the shape of the plastic pot it came from.
He wasn’t sure why he did it, maybe it was this feeling that had moved from his chest and settled in his stomach, but he lent down and picked up the unfamiliar plant. It had no flowers yet, and Buck couldn’t name this plant from leaf shape alone. But a few buds were growing. Soon it would bloom, and he would be able to name it.
He bundled it close to his chest and went in search of the rest of his team.