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Chimney was, by no means, a gossip.
Did he enjoy a good scandal? Of course, everyone did, surely. And maybe he had indulged in the spread of a scandal or two in his time at the 118, which is why the rest of the team teased him about his love of gossip.
Because you can love something and not be that something, right?
Hen scoffed and raised an eyebrow high on her forehead when he asked her just that as they were packing down from their last call.
"Last week you told me that Simon from the B shift wears his wife's perfume," she said.
"I never said it was a bad thing!"
"I never said that you said it was a bad thing," Hen retorted.
"Because it's not, it's actually quite subtle and spicy," he said, making Hen chuckle and shake her head. "Doesn't change the fact that it's true."
"Or the fact that you couldn't just sit on that information, you had to share it," she said.
"With you," he said, as though it was his defence strategy. "I mean you're Hen."
"You also told Buck, who told Eddie," she said.
"Uh, does that not also make Buckaroo a gossip?"
"So, you agree, you're a gossip?"
"No, I'm saying that if I am, Buck is," he shrugged.
"Buck tells Eddie everything, and Eddie doesn't care," Hen said. "And you also told Ravi."
"He heard me tell Buck something and I couldn't just not tell him after that."
"Uh huh."
Chimney made a tsk sound with his mouth and Hen dropped it with a smile as they headed up to the loft to relax.
Buck and Eddie were already in the kitchen, Eddie helping Bobby with lunch while Buck was asking them odd questions to ponder over as they worked.
Hen thought Chim had dropped the train of thought, but as they approached the counter he leant on the edge and looked between Eddie and Buck before pulling up the chair beside him.
"Settle something for me Buckley," he said, and Eddie may have mumbled 'thank god' at the distraction, making Bobby smile. "Am I a gossip?"
"Absolutely," he nodded, not skipping a beat as Chim's mouth dropped open in offence.
A loud 'ha' came from Hen over on the couch.
"Well that's rude," he said, and Buck shrugged. "I don't think I spread that much gossip, do I?"
"On Monday you told me that Josh from dispatch went on a disastrous hot date on the weekend," Eddie said, raising an eyebrow at him.
"A few weeks ago you said that Ravi was thinking of getting a motorcycle," Bobby said with a mischievous grin.
"That's just general conversation!" Chim protested.
"And that you thought it was a terrible idea and that we'd be getting a call out to save him in no time," Bobby gave him a look of mock disapproval.
"Yeah, and last week you told me Eddie was having trouble in paradise with his new man," Buck said, making Eddie's brow furrow as he looked over at Chim.
"I'm not having any troubles," he said, making Buck jump back in.
"Never said I believed him," he grinned, sharing a sparkle in his eye with Eddie that everyone else missed.
"I think this tells you everything you need to know Chimney," Hen said with a smug look as she leaned over the back of the couch to leer back at him.
Chim huffed out a sigh and shook his head, leaning forward over the counter as if it wasn't worth it to argue the point now that he knew the rest of them were on Hen's side.
"Hey, maybe that can be your New Year's resolution," Buck said with a gentle nudge to Chim's shoulder. "Don't spread gossip."
"Maybe yours can be limit the philosophical questions to a max of two per day," Eddie said to Buck, and Bobby chuckled from beside him.
"And Hen's can be not to be such a Debbie-Downer!" Chim said loudly, making Hen glare over at him.
New Years was fast approaching, it was in fact just days away. The team at the one-eighteen were working it this year, which was less exciting, but it was because they got to have Christmas with their families this year which no one was complaining about. Currently December twenty-nine, their plans for the two days off after New Years had been a hot topic.
"Are you and Athena doing anything on your days off then Bobby?" Eddie asked, looking up at him as he wiped his hands lightly on the sides of his thighs.
Bobby shrugged, stepping back to let Eddie open the wide oven doors so he could slide in the biggest tray of lasagna anyone has ever seen.
"We might go out to dinner," he said. "But more than likely we'll be cleaning out the kitchen, it's long overdue."
"What a thrilling post-New Years you have planned there," Chim said dryly, and Buck snickered beside him.
"Alright wise guy, tell me you've got something better planned," Bobby said with a raised brow, and Buck laughed out loud because he knew Chimney absolutely did not have better plans than that.
"I am on dad duty," he said. "Maddie's on shift on the second, so I will be painting, having tea parties, and taking at least one nap in the middle of the day."
"Why does that actually sound good?" Hen said, staring off wistfully across the firehouse before turning back to Eddie. "Christopher's away with your parents, isn't he? How are you dealing with that?"
He made a grunting sound and his forehead knit together between his brow. Buck's fingers twitched as he resisted the urge to reach out and give his hand a supportive squeeze.
"It's fine, they get in on New Year’s Day, they'll pick him up from Pepa's and take him down to San Diego for three nights," he said with a shrug.
"Sounds like it's fine," Chim said with a smack of his gum and a grin, making Eddie glare back at him for a moment.
"No really, I'm okay," Eddie said, and this time he let the tension slip out of him as he stepped back to lean on the counter behind him and fold his arms over his chest. "I know he misses them, and he'll have a good time, they can just be a little..."
"Condescending?" Hen offered.
Eddie made a little chuckling sound and shifted his head side to side like he was contemplating it.
"Sometimes, but it's more that they can be insufferable about 'how much Christopher misses us'," he said. "They still haven't forgiven me from moving away from El Paso."
"Sounds like a few romantic days alone with your man then," Chim said with a flutter of his eyes.
"Alright," Eddie said as he threw a dish towel in his direction.
"How about you Buck?" Bobby asked, ever the peacekeeper.
"Not a single thing," he said, leaning back in his seat and nearly falling, making Bobby take in a deep sigh. "Might just get on top of on my reading."
Hen snorted from her spot on the couch, knowing if there was one thing Buck was getting on top of, it wasn't his reading list.
"Well, aren't we all super exciting in our old age," Chim teased, and a smile spread through the group.
New Years on shift, was never a quiet one. Each year there was a bet on how many accidental firework accidents they would get called out to. The record is five, that year they only made it to two, although there was a curious case of someone exploding a microwave with leftover Christmas turkey, and then a subsequent argument as to whether that counted towards the total.
They had an hour or so with no calls as it drew closer to midnight, Buck pulling Eddie into a quiet corner so they could kiss as the clocks ticked over into a new year, whispering an I love you against his lips and hearing it echoed back before they were reluctantly parting and sneaking back into the loft with the rest of the team to celebrate. Not without a sly smile from Hen of course.
And in true holiday fashion, the bell began to ring just eight minutes in, sending them all back out on call again.
By the time the shift was over they were exhausted, and Buck went back with Eddie to his place to just sleep things off, telling him not to mope around because Christopher wasn't there.
It was a hard feeling, being in the house without him, but Eddie knew it was only going to get more and more frequent now that he was getting older. He also knew that Chris loved his grandparents, and regardless of his own feelings towards them from time to time, he deserved to spend quality time with them.
Buck woke up early on their first day off to make them breakfast, he would have let Eddie stay in bed, but the man had a biological clock that didn't physically allow him to sleep in.
At around ten Buck got a call from Chimney asking him if he wanted some Uncle Buck time with Jee so he could take some lunch to Maddie at dispatch. With no real reason why he couldn’t, Buck agreed, telling Eddie to meet him at his place later.
Jee made the happiest sound to see him when Chim dropped her off. It made his heart swell and filled him with a kind of love that he treasured. It helped that he had gotten a lot better at minding Jee by himself the more he did it. He was even starting to understand some of her babbling.
Unbeknownst to Buck, but when Chimney had come to pick her up, he had left her bag of spare clothes and toys. This included a rather important naptime toy that wasn’t missed until Chim and Maddie tried to get her down for the evening.
“God, I never grabbed it from Buck’s place earlier,” he lamented as Jee blubbered against his side.
Maddie let out a sigh and got up to head over to the fridge.
“You can go and take a visit to Uncle Buck then, and I will use the art of bribery until you get back with Mr Moo,” she said, taking out a pint of ice cream and waving it over at Jee, whose tears were very quickly forgotten.
Chim grumbled, but it had been his memory that got them into this situation, so he got up and grabbed his keys to head over to Buck’s place.
He completely forgot to call before he left, hoping that when he pressed the buzzer Buck would be sticking to his plan of catching up on his new year’s book list. To his surprise, Buck didn’t answer the intercom, he just buzzed him straight up.
Chim didn’t question it.
As he knocked on the door to the apartment, he heard Buck call out a low ‘come in’ and so he tried the door handle, finding it unlocked.
“Hey Buck, sorry to call in so late I forgot to – oh my god!”
He tried not to let his words come out in a yelp as he hurriedly averted his eyes and turned himself around, while a very naked Buck scrambled to cover up any valuables, finding only a kitchen towel to place over himself as he stared back at Chimney, completely panic stricken.
“Chimney?” he said, voice higher than it should be. “What are you doing here?”
“You buzzed me in! I forgot Jee’s baby bag earlier – why are you naked?” he said, still not wanting to look up.
Despite Buck having covered himself, he didn’t think he would ever get that image out of his head.
“I was expecting someone,” Buck said, as though that were obvious. “I mean, not you–”
“Obviously not me,” Chim said.
“Just, you know, a booty call,” Buck said, and Chimney wished he didn’t feel the need to explain further. “A regular, casual, no strings… thing.”
“And this is something somebody wants to be confronted with on opening your door?”
“I mean, that’s kind of the point,” Buck said, and Chimney finally looked up.
Buck looked mortified, an expression on his face that surely war mirrored in Chim’s as he clutched at the small towel. Chim’s lips twitched in amusement.
“This is not what I was expecting when I left my house,” he said with a light smile, making Buck let out a huff of a sigh.
“Can’t say I expected my night to go like this either,” he said, cheeks flushed crimson. “Can I… put on some underwear so I can get your bag?”
Chim nodded quickly and turned to face the door, laughing a little to himself because wouldn’t this make a funny anecdote back at the station.
Only, there was that little problem of the New Year’s pact he made with Hen, no gossiping.
Buck cleared his throat as he walked back towards Chim, holding out the bag to him, now wearing his underwear as Chim turned back towards him, hiding his smile.
“Ordinarily I would complain about this, but given the circumstances,” he grinned with a gesture to Buck’s blue boxers.
“Alright,” Buck shook his head with a laugh as his cheeks flushed hot. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No, no, no, no, you have done enough, too much, even,” Chim said, holding up a hand and making Buck shake his head while he pressed his tongue into his cheek.
He folded his arms over his chest with a sigh.
"I'll just let you get back to... all of this," Chim said, letting out a little laugh.
"Are you going to stick to your no gossip pact and just... keep this to yourself?" Buck asked.
"I'm a man of my word," Chim put a hand over his heart and made a face like he was wondering how Buck could even doubt his integrity on the matter.
"Good, because Maddie would definitely have something to say about it," he chuckled, putting his hand to the back of his neck as the flush began to subside from his cheeks.
"Secret's safe with me Buckley," he said, hoisting the bag over his shoulder as he headed out the door.
He couldn't help the grin on his face, it was such a ridiculous situation to find himself in, and as much as he did want to immediately text Hen and tell her, he had promised to try and control the gossip.
As he took a step away he felt the strap on the bag slip out of its clip and a number of items tumbled out.
For a moment he stared down at it all scattered across the floor, a rogue bottle rolling off down the stairs to his right, wondering if he could learn telekinesis in the next thirty seconds, but eventually he leant down to collect it all, grunting as he took the few short steps down to grab the bottle.
That's when he heard the sound of the elevator whirring as it came to a stop on Buck's floor.
He should have just continued minding his business, collected the last of the items up and continued down the stairs to go back home with Jee's beloved Mr Moo safely secured.
But, old habits die hard, so he grinned to himself as he took another two steps down and just out of sight, but with enough of a view of Buck's door to get a sneak peak at his hot date. He had earned it, enduring full-frontal naked Buck had earned him a glimpse into his secret booty-call. Surely.
What he didn't expect was to see Eddie walk out of the elevator doors, bottle of red in his hand as he tried to fish his keys out of his pocket. For a moment he thought the three of them would have a very awkward shared trauma story to discuss in two days at the station, until Buck opened the door in his boxer shorts and a big sigh as Eddie looked him over with a grin.
"This how you're greeting me now?" he said, making Buck shake his head. "I mean, I'm not complaining about it."
He reached out and slipped the tip of his finger into Buck's waistband, giving it a snap before letting his hand slide around his waist and leaning in to kiss him.
"I was planning on greeting you a little differently, didn't exactly go to plan," Buck said, stepping back to let him inside and closing the door behind them.
Chimney stood frozen in place.
Had he really seen what he thought he'd seen? Eddie? And Buck? Not just Buck and Eddie, but Buck and Eddie.
"Holy shit!" he hissed to himself, realising that he was still loitering in Buck's stairway and hurrying further down the stairs for fear one of them would come back through the door and he would be caught out.
When he reached his car he sat down in the driver's seat, staring out the front window, the image of Eddie reaching out to Buck, the kiss, the nakedness. Eddie was Buck's booty call, there was no other explanation.
And the thing was that Chimney had meant it when he told Buck his secret was safe with him, really he had.
Because Buck hooking up with someone? He could keep that safely locked inside. Buck hooking up with Eddie? Absolutely in danger of slipping out.
He was reaching for his phone before he even had a chance to talk himself rationally through it, frantically searching for Hen's number and clicking dial.
“Hey Chim, what’s up?” Hen said on her answer, the sound of the television playing lightly in the background.
“Hen!” he hissed. “I have to tell you something, you’re not going to believe this!”
“Are you telling me it is day two of the year and you’re already gossiping?” she said, straight to the point.
“No, listen, I have to tell you what I just saw!”
“Oh, I don’t believe you,” she said, and he heard Karen say something with amusement in the background. “Chim, be strong. Not everything needs to be shared around.”
“But this does!” he pleaded. “With you at least.”
“Keep your gossip to yourself Chimney, you can make it one week at least. Now go and do your dad things and don’t you dare text me!”
She hung up quickly and Chim just sat back in his seat. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be gossiping, but this was the gossip of the year, maybe even the decade. How the hell was he going to keep it bottled up inside?
~
Somehow Hen's words got through to Chim enough to stop him from telling the secret to Maddie the moment he got home. She could tell he had something on his mind though, eyeing him suspiciously until her shift the next day.
Of course, he spilled the beans to Jee as soon as Maddie had left for work, but all she could focus on was 'Uncle Buck' and asked Chimney if they were going to his house for tea. At least it gave him an outlet for his gossip, he needed it before his shift the following day.
Almost as soon as he got in Hen gave him a warning look, followed by a 'do not even try it' and a cautionary finger.
This was the definition of torture.
And if he was giving Buck strange looks throughout the day, it seemed like Buck was just attributing that to the fact that he had caught him quite literally with his pants down the day prior. At one point towards the end of the shift he even came over to thank him for keeping it to himself while Chimney nodded three too many times and said the word 'sure' until it stopped having meaning.
Turns out holding onto scandalous information was harder than he had anticipated.
They were only on the day shift, so by the time the afternoon rolled around and they were in the locker room preparing to head home for the day, Chim asked if anyone wanted to stop off for a drink before they did.
Hen shrugged, "I suppose I can come down for one."
Chim nodded and looked to Eddie. "Any more takers?"
"Nah, not this time," Eddie said. "Christopher conveniently forgot to tell me until this morning that he has a project due tomorrow, that he hasn't even started. So he's at tutoring for another hour and I need to get started on that."
He shook his head with a smile and turned to Buck.
"I could use a hand, if anyone wanted to come by and help out," he said, and Buck smirked over at him.
"Yeah, I can come over and do it with you," he grinned as he slung his bag over his shoulder.
How had Chimney been so blind?
"Good thing we carpooled then," Eddie teased, giving a small wave to Hen and Chim. "See you guys in the morning."
Chim watched them walk out together, talking between themselves and Eddie laughing at something Buck said with a nudge of his elbow to Buck's arm.
"I've got to tell you something," Chim said once Buck and Eddie were out and into the parking lot.
"If you're about to gossip to me then I don't want to hear it," Hen said as she closed her locker with a soft 'bang'.
"Even if it's huge?" Chim asked and Hen raised an eyebrow.
"Howard," she warned. "Let's just get to the bar and have a drink, settle... whatever's going on in there."
She gestured at him with a circular hand movement, and he made a frustrated sound but reluctantly agreed.
They headed to a bar up the street and ordered a drink, Chim being overly fidgety, tapping his fingers on the table and picking at the label on his beer.
Hen just narrowed her eyes at him and kicked him from under the table.
"Would you stop?" she said. "It's like you hear one bit of information and it tries to escape any way it can."
He huffed, looking up at her as he thought it through in his head.
"This information? Yeah, it does," he said, looking back intensely.
"You know something?" she said with narrowed eyes, half a question and half a distrustful statement. He didn't know what she knew, surely not.
"Do you know something?"
"I didn't say that I know anything," she said.
"But there is something to know?"
"Not that I know of."
"Good," Chim said with a shrug.
"It is," Hen nodded, taking a swig of her beer.
"Okay so I can't tell you," he said slowly after a moment. "But, what if you found out on your own?"
"Well that's not gossip, is it?" Hen said, as though that was obvious.
Chim took a moment to nod and think, staring back at her before he gave a shrug and sat back in his seat.
"Okay," he said, and she eyed him cautiously.
She knew that look, he was scheming something.
"You know maybe we should just go over to Eddie's place and help out with that project," he said, and Hen shifted in her seat. "Could be a fun little one-eighteen bonding moment."
"I'm sure it doesn't need more than two adults," Hen said with a shrug.
"Oh come on, it will be fun. Might even play a prank and show up at the back door to surprise them, give them a real fright."
"Don't do that."
"Why not?" Chim asked, his eye contact becoming increasingly intense as he stopped blinking. "Am I going to see something that I shouldn't?"
The two stared one another down across the table. It was like they were both waiting for the other to draw, but Hen could see by the crazed look in his eye.
"You know," she said slowly.
"And you know!" he said, reaching up and pointing at her over the table and making her sigh. "Buck and Eddie?"
"Buck and Eddie," she said dryly, putting her beer to her lips and taking a long swig.
"It's just unbelievable!"
"Is it?" she said with her brow cocked and half an amused smile on her mouth.
"Well... no, probably not, but I found out two days ago and haven't told a soul, I need a minute here!" he said with some flailing involved, almost spilling his beer before taking a sip.
"And you can't tell anyone else," Hen said firmly. "Not even Maddie."
Chim made a strangled sound like it was going to be the death of him but Hen's glare intensified.
"I mean it Chim, don't you think Buck would want to tell her himself?" she said.
"She's my wife!"
"And I never told Karen about what you did at the firehouse Christmas party when most other people had left, she's still my wife."
"I thank you for that," Chim said, pointing to her and sitting back with a sigh. "Fine, I won't tell."
"Good. They just want to stay in that safe little bubble where they don't have to deal with any of the drama or questions for a while," she said. "They're happy, and they deserve it. They'll tell everyone when they're ready."
"But, wait, they told you?" he asked.
"No, I just found out because they're both idiots who can't hold a story together, it's a wonder only the two of us know," she chuckled.
"So..." Chim said after a moment. "What else do you know?"
"What I want to know if how you found out," she said, followed by a very important clarification. "And this isn't gossip because we both already know. Plus I think if you can't talk about this with someone it's going to explode out of you in the absolute worst way."
"Well, let me tell you a hilarious and deeply scarring story then."
~
Eddie lay across the couch with his head rested comfortably in Buck's lap as his fingers ghosted through his hair and Christopher sat on the armchair as the television played in front of them. He was slowly starting to fall asleep, the feeling of comfort and safety so warmly wrapping around him in a way he couldn't ever remember feeling.
"Dad," Christopher said, bringing Eddie back to the world of the semi-conscious. "You're not even watching."
"I'm watching," Eddie said, creeping in closer somehow to Buck and giving him a light tap to continue stroking his hair.
Buck chuckled, the vibration of it jolting Eddie lightly.
"You're pretty talented if you can do that with your eyes closed," he said, and it was Christopher's turn to laugh.
"Okay, you're not allowed to both team up against me," Eddie said, making no effort to reopen his eyes as he gave up the charade of watching and rolled onto his side until his nose was nuzzled against Buck's belly.
Buck smiled down at him, resuming the way his fingertips pressed down into Eddie, over the back of his head and into the tight muscle at the back of his neck, making Eddie sigh appreciatively.
"If you start snoring can we send you to bed?" Christopher asked, and Eddie scoffed.
"I do not snore, Buck snores," he replied.
"You both snore," Chris said. "Can I make popcorn?"
"Sure bud," Eddie said with a shake of his head. "You need a hand."
"I can use the microwave dad," he said, getting to his feet and slowly making his way to the kitchen.
Eddie groaned against Buck, making him laugh again.
"I am not ready for a teenage son," he grumbled.
"You say that every week and honestly, he's not that bad," Buck teased. "I mean you should hear the stories Gina from B-shift tells about her daughter. Christopher is a saint, trust me."
Eddie smiled, because he knew that already. His complaining really stemmed from the fact that he was scared to let go.
"That wouldn't be gossip, would it?" he said, and Buck rolled his eyes.
"Come on, only Chimney swore he'd stop," he shrugged. "Still can't believe he didn't tell you about... the incident."
"The walking in on you naked and waiting for me incident?"
"I'm sorry, was there another incident I should be referring to?"
Eddie laughed and rolled onto his back so that he was staring up at him with his head still resting comfortably in Buck's lap.
"He's probably told Hen, to be fair," he said.
"I know, but at least he doesn't know the other thing."
"Right, he's seen you naked but at least he doesn't know about us," Eddie grinned.
"I mean, I think I could be ready to start telling people soon, I just don't want anything to change," Buck said, scrunching up his eyes and shaking his head a little. "I know that sounds..."
"Hey," Eddie said, sitting up and scooting close until he could lean in and press a kiss to the corner of Buck's mouth. "I know exactly what you mean."
Buck was quick to catch his kiss and deepen it, closing his eyes and melting into him.
"You guys do that a lot."
They pulled back to look up at Chris who had walked in with the bag of popcorn in his hand, turning his nose up at their kissing.
"Yeah, yeah," Eddie said, sitting back and lifting an arm to let Buck slot in under it. "One day there'll be someone you want to do that a lot with."
"Dad," Christopher said with a smile, looking down at his feet with a flush in his cheeks as he started walking back to his chair.
Eddie and Buck exchanged a glance, Buck's smile growing while Eddie seemed to instantly sprout more grey hairs.
"God help me," Eddie mumbled, pressing another kiss to Buck's temple.