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“Houses 118, 125 and 132 please respond. Structure fire. Location being sent to your devices. Over.” The disembodied voice came from the speakers. The 118 quickly sprung into action, diving downstairs in a semi-orderly fashion and heading towards the lockers that held their gear.
“Buckley, you stay behind!” Gerrard yelled from somewhere behind them. Buck rolled his eyes and turned around, staring the captain down. He was sick of it, he wished Bobby was back. At least he had a rota of who was to be “man behind”, everyone took a turn, and if it wasn’t feasible for say, Hen to be behind because it was a medical emergency, someone else would switch and she’d do it next time. It was fair, it worked, and no one got mad. But Gerrard? He seemed to decide on a whim, and his whim was the person he decided he liked least that day. And it seemed that Buck had pissed him off a lot lately, because he’d cleaned and swept and organised more often than he’d been out on call in the past three weeks since that asshole had come back and declared himself leader.
“Why? I haven’t been on a call in weeks!” Buck exploded, quickly realising that the only thing stopping him from landing a punch on his smug face was the fact that Eddie had his hand on his shoulder, rubbing circles on it with his thumb.
“Because fairies don’t fight fires, Buckley. I’m not having any goddamn queer on my rig. You’ll probably just stand and flirt with whoever gives you attention anyway. Isn’t that what all you so-called bisexuals do? Sleep with whoever will have you?” Buck felt his hands curl up info a fist. Eddie or no Eddie, he’d happily land one on that bastard’s cheek in a minute. He’d rather be fired than stay in this place one more minute. The place that used to be his home, well, it wasn’t anymore. Just an empty firehouse with dead memories.
Eddie’s hand moved down, wrapping around Buck’s fist, stroking the back of his hand gently, urging him not to do what Eddie knew he was about to. The silence was deafening, no one dared say a word, no one even dared to move until Hen stepped forward.
“If that’s the case, I’m staying too. Call another house to go, because I’m one of those, what did you say? Queers? In case you’ve forgotten, I am married to a woman.” And everyone watched as she stormed back to the locker room to change out of her turnouts.
Chimney was the next to move, following Hen through the doors, calling out “Sorry, bisexual!”
“But...but you’re married to a woman!” Gerrard shouted, and Chimney just shrugged.
“Doesn’t mean I haven’t slept with guys in the past.” He retorted. And Buck didn’t know if he was being serious or not, but it didn’t matter now, he was gone.
Out of the corner of his eye, Buck saw Ravi stand up straight and hold up his hands. “Pansexual.” He winked over at Buck and joined the others.
“Wha-that’s not even a real thing!” Gerrard protested, and in spite of himself, Buck opened his mouth.
“It is a recognised sexuality and it means that he is open to love regardless of gender identity. Around 2% of Americans aged 18-34 identify as pansexual.” He wanted to add ‘so, there’ and stick his tongue out, but he wasn’t that childish. OK, maybe he was, but he knew he was on thin ice as it was, and that maybe wasn’t the best idea.
Gerrard muttered under his breath and narrowed his eyes at Buck and Eddie. Especially Eddie, who had somehow managed to unfurl Buck’s hand and interlace his fingers between the spaces.
Across the room, he saw Hen standing outside the locket room, phone in her hand, talking very loudly to whoever was on the other end of the line.
“Yes, I understand we’re the closest, but Captain Gerrard isn’t letting us go. He said something about not being allowed in the rig.” She paused for a second, and Gerrard turned his attention to Eddie.
“Diaz, get your ass in that rig or you’re being written up for insubordination!” He growled, stalking over to the others, who were now standing in line beside Hen. Ravi was currently touching Chim’s face, looking at him softly and saying something about his skincare routine, the older man grinning as he mentioned some kind of moisturiser he used that Albert had brought back from Korea last time he was in town.
“Sorry, Cap, just following orders. Or have you changed your mind? I mean it’s kinda hard to keep track, first you say I’m not allowed, then you’re telling me to go...” Eddie tried his best to look confused, glancing from his captain to the open door of the truck and back again.
“What the Hell are you talking about? I just said get in the goddamn truck!” Gerrard shouted.
“But you said fairies don’t fight fires. Or did I hear you wrong?” Eddie ramped up his confusion, subtly nudging Buck with his shoulder, their hands still intertwined. “So by your reasoning, I’m not allowed because I’m gay.” He raised his eyebrows, challenging the so-called captain. “Is this some kind of new departmental policy or something? Because I didn’t get the memo.”
Gerrard opened his mouth to say something, but Hen beat him to it, marching over determinedly, her gear back on. “Chief says we’re to go to the fire quickly. The 132 is there now but they need backup. Ravi says he’ll stay behind.” She ordered, quickly taking the Captain’s role that she should have had this whole time. “And we’ve decided that we’ll order pins for next month. It is Pride month after all, the LGBTQ+ community needs to know they’re safe with us.” She finished, climbing up onto the rig, Chimney following behind her. Eddie let go of Buck’s hand and scrambled into the back, winking at Buck before he slid into his seat. And quickly, Buck ran over for his gear, jumping in and almost falling on Eddie’s lap as the vehicle moved before he got a chance to sit down.
“Hey, uh, guys.” He whispered, beckoning them forward, his headset discarded on the seat beside him, “Thanks, you know, for pretending for me. I, uh, I really appreciate it.”
“Who said we were pretending?” Hen grinned, pulling Buck into her.
“Just for the record, I was.” Chim interjected. “Please don’t tell your sister I was flirting with Ravi, though? She’ll never let me live it down.” Buck let out a laugh, vowing to keep that one in his back pocket for later. Maybe for the next time they were drunk together.
“Eds?” He asked, almost too quietly, but Eddie just shrugged.
“Wasn’t the way I wanted to tell you all, but I wasn’t lying.” His voice had a nervous tone to it, and Buck just pulled him into a tight hug, the same way that Eddie had when he had come clean about him and Tommy.
“I’m so happy you felt comfortable enough to tell us. I’m so proud of you.” Tears pricked both their eyes, and Buck felt himself break into a grin.
“So, are you seeing anyone?” Hen asked, ready for the gossip, and Eddie pulled away from Buck and sat back in his seat.
“Kinda, someone Pepa set me up with. We’ve been on a couple of dates and he’s nice. He’s so pretty too. Blonde, blue eyes, a cute smile...” He started to gush. And Buck didn’t know why, but he felt something uneasy inside of him as Eddie listed all this guy’s wonderful traits. Hen nudged his foot and gave him a sympathetic smile like she knew something. He didn’t have time to ask, though, as the rig stopped suddenly and Gerrard started to bark orders at them.
The fire took hours to put out, and they were all exhausted, hungry and cranky by the time they got back to the firehouse, but the first thing they all noticed, pretty much at the same time, was the smell of dinner wafting through the building. It almost smelled like the past, like the three cheese pasta bake that they used to have all the time, back when the person in charge wasn’t Gerrard but...
“Bobby!” Buck yelled, the first one to see him standing over the balcony. “What are you doing here?” He didn’t reply, but he nodded his head to somewhere behind them, and suddenly a voice came from that direction.
“Vincent, a word?” The Chief called, and the whole crew turned around and watched as the captain followed him wordlessly to his office, then bounded upstairs to envelop Bobby in a massive group hug.
Fifteen minutes later, after Bobby had insisted they all take a shower before dinner, the group sat down at the table laden with pasta, garlic bread and salad, Buck and Eddie dishing out the food. They’d only taken a few bites when the Chief walked over.
“I’m going to need statements from all of you about what happened today and what has happened in the past few weeks. Please email them to me as soon as possible. Captain Gerrard has been suspended pending investigation and Captain Nash has generously volunteered to fill his place in the meantime, although if the stories I’ve heard from firefighters Panikaar and Wilson are true, I can guarantee that he will not be returning. I’ll leave you all to eat, but keep up the good work everyone. I’ve heard good things from other houses, and I’m impressed.” He smiled before walking away to let the 118 celebrate the return of their Captain. And maybe, just maybe, he told dispatch to go easy on them if possible for a few hours. They should really get to know their new Captain again, after all.