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The last thing Tommy ever expected was to see his father in Eddie Diaz.
He thought Eddie was a good man. He loved his kid, showed up for Chris in a way Thomas Sr never would have dreamed of for his own. Eddie never hit him, never cursed at him, even with his disability, Diaz never took it out on Chris.
But this…
Tommy moves before he can even think about it.
Eddie’s face is flushed with anger, a simmer pot boiling over its offset lid. It’s found its escape. It’s found an easy mark.
Evan flinches and Tommy moves.
Then it’s not Eddie standing before them. Not Eddie that’s yelling at Evan—again, because Evan’s already told him about the last time—it’s not Eddie who’d moved up from jabbing a finger in his best friends face to pushing at his chest.
It’s his father, eyes blood shot and wild, hair askew and spittle flying with every horrible word Tommy can still hear. It’s the shove before the punch. To get twelve-year-old Tommy away from him and into hitting distance. Into belting distance.
He had thought Eddie was a good man. But Tommy knows what can happen to a good man. They can be bad. They can die. They can twist and morph through trauma and grief and become completely unrecognizable. They can look like your father, uncle, nephew, best friend—but in the end that goodness is no longer good.
Evan stumbles back and Tommy feels something break inside of him.
He’s not the kind of man to default to anger. But then, he didn’t think Eddie was either. He didn’t think his father would be when his mother was still alive. Tommy moves. Sudden and swift like lightning and he catches Evan’s arm in his grasp, and unheeding of the entire 118 around him—Hen, Howie, fucking Gerrard all watching the scene unfold—Tommy reaches out with his other hand.
It takes no time at all to get Eddie away from Evan. A twist. A yank. The feel of grinding bones beneath strong fingers meant to control multimillion dollar air craft.
“Tommy!” Eddie snaps, half bent over with his arm twisted behind his back and flailing to keep upright as the pilot keeps him on the precipice between falling and popping his arm out of his socket.
“You touch him again Diaz,” Tommy warns on a growl. Voice low and threatening. Promising. On the corner of his awareness Tommy feels Evan’s familiar palm settle in the middle of his back.
But Evan isn’t asking him to stop.
Mind, Tommy doubts Evan is able to think much past the filth and garbage his best friend just spewed at him when Eddie found out Hen decided not to be Captain. When he found out Buck had been asked if he would consider it.
“Tommy.” Hen whispers, but it’s not a warning. It’s an attempt at peacekeeping yes, but it sits on top of her own simmering anger, and a long buried part of Tommy thrills at them confronting this kind of bullshit together.
Eddie tries kicking at him, and subconsciously Tommy feels the blow to his shins, but the Texan can’t get the leverage he needs to make it hurt. Because that’s what Eddies good at normally, tommy thinks.
“Now you listen to me Diaz.” Tommy orders, stern and commanding and protective. “You’re going to walk away-“
“The hell I am!” Eddie snaps and fights harder, brown eyes livid as they glare up at the man he once thought was a friend.
“—or I will drag you out of here myself.” Tommy continues. “You’re angry and upset and that’s completely fine. But- you DO NOT get to take that out on Evan. Ever. He has done nothing but try to carry your ass through this entire mess you made for yourself with your own son, and he has done everything he can to carry all of you through losing Bobby.”
The hand on Tommy’s back curls into a fist in his shirt and Tommy almost immediately drops Eddie with the sudden urge to whirl around and draw Evan into his arms.
But as much as Evan needs a hug, and as much as he wants to comfort him, Tommy thinks right now Evan may just need someone to stand up for him even more. To deflect the pain when it’s his own supposed best friend lashing out at him.
Tommy wishes someone had done the same for him when he was a child. But he can do that for Evan now. Until his ex-boyfriend can find the courage to do tell Eddie to shove it. His voice is like ice as Tommy finally lets go of Eddie, and Tommy hates how he feels gleefully vindictive at the red mark his own strength has left on the other mans wrist.
That bruise will fade, but Eddies words to Evan will stay with him for so much longer. Feeding his insecurity and abandonment issues like bloodmeal feeds an oak.
“You’re going to go back to Evans and get your shit, then you’re going to find a hotel room, and if Chris asks why, you’re going to be the one to tell him. Tell him that you can’t keep yourself in check anymore. ” Tommy’s voice—his entire body shakes with anger. “You will have to explain to your son how you keep expecting Evan to fix your messes and blame him when it’s not his fault. You will have to tell Chris that you can’t be trusted not to take a swing at your own goddamn best friend.”
Eddie jerks forward into Tommy’s space but an old weathered hand slaps on his shoulder with a strength that belies it’s age. A rage that belies everything he used to stand for.
For the first and only time in his entire life, Tommy doesn’t hate Gerrard being anywhere near him.
“Son, it’s time you get out of my fire house.” Gerrard demands.
Maybe it’s the rank, maybe it’s Eddie finally coming to his senses and seeing the way Hen and Chim have moved to flank Evan behind Tommy, maybe it’s all the extra prying eyes of the rest of the fire house around them that gets Eddie to grit his teeth and step back.
“And Diaz.” Tommy whispers, voice even as he still looms protectively in front of Evan, “If you ever dare and try to blame Evan for Bobby’s death ever again, I will drop you out of a helicopter in the middle of the pacific.”
Eddie doesn’t look at anyone else, eyes glaring solely at Tommy as he snaps back. “You talk a lot of shit Kinard, but you’re not a part of this family and you never will be so you should just stay out of it.”
Tommy feels the temperature of the firehouse drop like polar vortex descending from the sky. There’s movement—sudden and terrifying—to his left and Tommy watches in awe as Evan darts out around him. His normally sweet face is clouded in anger and Tommy swears his blue eyes are made of ice in that instant.
His heart swells, and Tommy hesitates for a moment, watching as a righteous fury takes hold of his… of his…
Tommy moves to intercept Evan, to draw him back from where he’s moved in front of Tommy, swapping their places as a shield for the other—but Hen’s familiar hand on his arm stops him.
Hen shakes her head when he turns to look at her. “Let him be, this will be good for him.”
Tommy looks back at his man. Maybe they’re exes right now but not if this blow up with Eddie is anything to gauge by.
Because Tommy never expected to see his father in Eddie Diaz… but he does. Yet, instead of the anger he thought he’d feel at that, Tommy’s overcome by a huge wave of pity for the other man. A man who squandered the love Evan gave him for years, the way his own father squandered his.
And Tommy… he doesn’t want to be one of those people who wastes love.
Not Evan Buckleys love.
He curls a hand in the back of Evan’s shirt. Feels Evan reach back for him as he lays into Eddie. Finally giving his friend, a piece of his mind.