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“Sorry we’re late,” Eddie says, slightly out of breath, as she runs a hand through her hair. The other one is slipped into Buck’s, as she drags him into the firehouse.
Instantly, eight pairs of eyes—Bobby’s, Chim’s, Hen’s, and Ravi’s—land on them. Eddie isn’t sure why everyone looks so confused and shocked, until she looks back at Buck and— oh .
Her lipstick is still smeared all over his mouth, and there’s a very definite impression on the front of his T-shirt. The combination makes it look as though she grabbed him by the front and kissed him so hard both of them went insane (which she definitely did do, but no one was supposed to know that)
Well, shit.
There’s no explaining this, is there? She and Buck have been dating in secret for the past few months, waiting for the right time to tell people. Everything started when she’d gotten back from El Paso.
Well, okay. If she’s being completely honest, it had probably started on her first day at the 118. There has always been something between her and Buck. But she hadn’t really consciously realized that until the drive back from El Paso. She had just ended an hour-long Facetime call with Buck, for no other reason apart from the fact that the app was eating up her phone’s battery power, when it hit her.
It had all just kind of snowballed from there. She suffered in silence for about six months, until one night, she and Buck got concerningly drunk and decided, in their alcohol-colored stupors, to air out their deepest secrets to each other. When Buck revealed himself to be hopelessly in love with Eddie, she should have rejoiced. She did, kind of. Internally. But instead of telling him she felt the same way, she just nodded slowly, and said, I think I’m a woman . Everything’d finally clicked for her, when she’d said those five words. It was like she’d unlocked a missing part of herself, one she’d been trying to keep locked away for longer than she wanted to admit.
They’d talked about it properly in the morning. Eddie had finally told Buck what she’d been keeping bottled up inside for so long—she was in love with him, but also, she was undoubtedly trans, and if that changed things for him, she’d completely understand.
This doesn’t change a thing , he’d said, before kissing her.
And now here they are. About a year after this whole fiasco had begun, six months after entering into the best relationship of her life, and finally starting to publicly live her truth, and she and Buck are standing in front of their closest friends, their family , who had just found out about them.
When it feels like she can’t possibly bear the silence any longer, someone finally breaks it.
“Well,” Hen says, voice overwhelmingly serious, “I guess all of you owe me twenty dollars.”
“I believe we do,” says Bobby. He turns to Buck and Eddie. “I’m going to need you guys to sign some HR forms. I’ve had them ready for a very long time.”
Eddie whirls her head around. “What?”
“Yeah,” says Chim. “You guys have been very obviously in love since forever.”
Ravi chimes in. “At first, when I joined the station,” he says, “I genuinely thought you guys were dating. I mean, I was quickly disproven when I met Ana, but anyone with a brain could see that there was something there between you guys. I’m just glad you guys finally saw it.”
Buck sighs. “So all that secrecy was for nothing, then.”
“Wait. How long have you guys actually been dating?” asks Chim.
“Six months,” Eddie says.
“Six mo—” Chimney’s mouth moves into an O shape. “You managed to hide this from us for six months ? How did we not realize anything changed?”
“Because they’ve always acted insane about each other,” Hen says simply. “So when they actually started dating, we probably just assumed that all the romantic stuff was just normal Buck-and-Eddie behavior.”
In response, the room fills with assenting chuckles, while Buck and Eddie exchange disbelieving looks.
“Alright,” says Bobby. “Go get yourselves cleaned up. I want to talk to all of you about something.”
“So, Cap,” Eddie says once she sits down, “What did you want to talk to us about?”
“Well,” says Bobby, smiling, “As you guys probably know, LA Pride is on Saturday. The department has asked us if anyone wants to volunteer to man the LAFD float.”
“On one condition,” Buck quickly replies. “Do we have a list of all the firefighters from other stations who have volunteered?”
“Yes,” says Bobby. “And to answer the question behind the question, no, Tommy will not be there.”
Buck exhales. “Thank God. Then I’m in. Eds?” he says, turning his head towards her, eyes twinkling in excitement.
“Yeah, I don’t mind,” says Eddie, trying to sound casual as she grins at Buck. Her heart rate picks up as she agrees, pangs of nervousness running through her body. It’s not that she doesn’t want to go, because she really does. But she’s worried about being this unapologetically open. It took her so long to accept herself, and she isn’t sure if she’s ready to be her authentic self in front of so many people. But then Buck squeezes her hand, looking happier than she’s seen him in a long, long time, and the worries ebb away, just a little bit.
They arrive at Hen and Karen’s house early—it’s been designated the official meeting place. When Karen opens the door to Eddie’s knock, she’s already fully dressed, outfitted in a sea of sandy oranges and sunny pinks, matching the lesbian flag painted on her right cheek.
“Come in!” she says in a singsong voice, smiling widely. “Oh, you guys look great,” she clasps her hands together.
“Really?” says Eddie. “I’m wearing, like, a plain shirt and jeans.” Karen had insisted on buying Eddie her outfit, so she had entrusted her with the choice. Unfortunately, that meant that apart from her nail polish, alternating the colors of the trans flag across her fingers, she looked extremely plain in comparison to the explosion of pink, purple and blue that was Buck’s outfit.
“So?” says Karen, raising an eyebrow. “You still look gorgeous.”
Eddie blushes.
“Alright, Karen, don’t steal my girlfriend,” says Buck. Tonally, the statement is clearly lighthearted, but there’s an edge of jealousy to his voice. In his defense, that’s true for both of them whenever someone makes any sort of comment that could be interpreted as romantic. Buck, Eddie, and jealousy—they’re a package deal.
“Relax, babe,” Eddie says. “Straight, remember?”
God, that’s the first time she’s said that knowing she’s telling the truth.
It’s Buck’s turn to blush now, cheeks stained pink. Karen rolls her eyes. “You’re so embarrassing.”
They finally enter the house, and Eddie is immediately greeted with a hug and an uncharacteristic squeal from Hen.
“Wow. Okay. What is this for?” she says.
“It’s your first pride! And it’s the first time I get to watch someone experience their first pride month without it being discolored by the presence of Tommy Kinard.”
“Is that the criteria for your happiness?” Karen smirks. “A lack of that man?”
“Yes,” says Hen, at the same time Buck and Eddie both say “Obviously.”
“Hey, I completely agree,” Karen shrugs. “Alright, so…” she says, turning to Eddie. “We have a whole arsenal of queer stuff around here. There’s a shop nearby that sells a bunch of pride merchandise, and I’ve sent Denny to go pick up stuff about three times in the past week. They’re probably concerned about us over there. Anyway, there are capes, stickers, about thirty canisters of glitter…so take your pick.”
As she says that, there’s a knock on the door.
“Oh. I’ll go and get that,” says Hen. Buck absent-mindedly follows her, in a way that’s almost automatic, and Eddie has to laugh. Buck really does act like a puppy sometimes—attached at the hip to their owner. Except in Buck’s case, pretty much anyone they know can very quickly take on the ‘owner’ role. The point is, he very endearingly acts like a lost dog a lot of the time. Eddie loves him so much.
As Hen and Buck leave, Karen turns to Eddie. “So…are you excited?”
“Yeah, I am. Very much so,” says Eddie, grinning. “I mean, I’m a little nervous—okay, I’m a lot nervous. I’m not even a hundred percent sure why. Is that normal? I mean, did you feel like this the first time you went to a pride parade? Or did I just forget to take my anxiety medication this morning?”
“Well, those aren’t mutually exclusive,” Karen says. “But, yeah. I was. I actually didn’t go to one until I started dating Hen. It’s not like I was ashamed of myself or anything, not really. I was just kind of scared of being perceived . And it didn’t help that my field of work is heavily dominated by straight white men, because that added an element of me being worried someone would see me there and one of my coworkers would find out through some sort of convoluted grapevine.”
Eddie considers Karen’s words.
“Looking back on that, I think my fears were valid, but you can also see how they weren't particularly realistic. And you’ll be fine. Once you get over the nervousness, the parade is always amazing.”
“Alright,” said Eddie, feeling a little more at ease now. “Thanks, Karen.”
“Hey, it’s my job,” she says. “The other day, May called me the ‘protector of all queer women,’ and I take that role very seriously.”
Eddie chuckles. Just then, Buck and Hen finally return, followed by Bobby and Athena.
“Hey!” says Karen. “How are you guys?”
“Great, thank you,” says Athena, smiling. She’s wearing an elegant deep blue dress—very formal for the occasion, but very her . Her nails are painted in bright pinks and purples, matching the two bisexual flags in her hands. Eddie suppresses a laugh when she realizes what Bobby’s wearing—a starkly white shirt with FREE DAD HUGS written on it. It’s very sweet, obviously, but the sheer contrast it has with Athena’s intricately engineered outfit is comical.
“What’s so funny, firefighter Diaz ?” says Bobby lightheartedly. Apparently, Eddie isn’t as good at masking her emotions as she’d previously thought.
“Nothing!” she says, far too quickly. “It’s just the difference in outfits, y’know…” she gestures to Athena’s dress, and then to Bobby’s shirt.
“Well,” says Hen, “I, for one, think you look amazing.”
“Hey!” says Eddie defensively. “I never said he looked bad. I love the ‘free dad hugs’ thing. I just think the contrast is hilariously jarring.”
Bobby smirks. “Alright. What do you think of my sign?”
He holds up a large square of poster board, with I LOVE MY BISEXUAL WIFE written on it.
“Incredible,” Buck says. “Eddie’s going to have to make a ‘husband’ version of that for me.”
Eddie blushes. “ Husband ?”
“Boyfriend, I mean,” Buck says, cheeks somehow turning a deeper pink than Eddie’s.
Hen and Karen exchange a look.
“Alright, shut up,” says Buck.
“Nobody even said anything,” says Karen, raising an eyebrow.
“Whatever,” says Buck, looking away.
“You know what?” says Eddie, in an attempt to change the subject. “I think I should go get dressed right now.”
“Oh!” says Karen excitedly. “I cannot wait to show you the outfit I bought you.”
Eddie emerges from the bathroom in a cropped, sleeveless top, patterned in an understated pink-and-white plaid. She’s also wearing a sky-blue skirt (Karen had apparently spent ages looking for one in the exact color—she says her mission is to make Eddie look like a human pride flag, which Eddie is more than happy about).
“So, do we like it?” she asks nervously, addressing the room as a whole.
Buck’s jaw practically drops. “Oh my God. You look amazing.”
Maddie and Chimney, who’ve apparently arrived while Eddie was getting changed, give their approval in excited murmurs of agreement with Buck.
“Absolutely stunning,” Maddie says.
“You look great, Eddie,” says Bobby.
Karen grins. “See? I told you to trust me.”
“Never doubted you,” Eddie smiles back.
Her phone pings, in unison with everyone else’s.
118 and co: LA pride parade
May: Padma and I are going to be late :(
Should we just meet you guys there?
Ravi: seconding that, actually
Albert: yeah, someone insisted that I do his makeup for him and then ended up destroying my hard work because the shade of yellow was slightly off
Ravi: first of all, that was not yellow, that was straight up gold
second, albert covered the whole apartment in glitter so i’m not the only one causing lapses in our punctuality
it’s fine though he’s already gone to buy cleaning supplies
we’ll get to the parade on time, at least
Eddie laughs at the messages. “Alright. Should we leave, then?”
“Let’s go,” says Buck, interlinking his fingers with Eddie’s and smiling widely.
Eddie is sitting atop the LAFD float, aptly shaped like a fire engine. She and the others are wearing identical LAFD caps. Bobby isn’t with them, but practically all the other firefighters in their circle are there—they really know a lot of queer people. Apart from herself, Buck, Hen, Chim, and Ravi, Lucy Donato is also with them, as is Lena Bosko, who Eddie hasn’t seen in a while. They’re wearing matching rainbow-painted necklaces, shaped like two halves of a heart.
“So, you guys are together now?” says Eddie, staring intensely at the color-sprayed crowd in front of them.
“Very much so,” Lena says, smiling. “It took a while to realize she was the love of my life, but funnily enough, I first met Lucy the same day you two had your crazy-bitch grocery store fight. Everyone left, I stayed in that shop, she’d overheard everything, we got to talking, and…yeah.” “We didn’t actually go from friends to more until after I kissed Buck,” Lucy adds. “That was what made me realize I liked girls, actually.” Buck looks at her, affronted, which makes Eddie laugh. As Lucy recounts the night she asked Lena out, the float lurches forwards, the small truck tied to its front taking them through the crowd.
Waving the pastel-striped flag and tucking a jet-black strand of hair behind her ear, neatly placed under her LAFD cap, Eddie takes the loud and lively sounds of joy in and smiles. She’s never felt more free.
The sun blares down onto the parade, and Eddie wipes sweat from her brow. She’s having a great time, but her medical training is always there at the back of her mind, alerting her as to all the things that could possibly go wrong here. Useful in the field, not so great when you’re trying to enjoy yourself.
“You don’t think anyone here looks like they’re experiencing heat exhaustion or anything, right?” Eddie says, searching the crowd for signs.
“Relax, Eddie,” says Chim. “Everything is running smoothly. Look around. Not an injury in sight.”
“Yeah,” says Buck, hoisting a large pride flag into the air as they walk. “The only thing here that’s even remotely concerning is how heartbroken that poor kid hugging Bobby seems right now.”
Eddie’s head swivels around. A girl with the word hope printed across the back of her shirt in the colors of the rainbow has her arms wrapped tightly around Bobby, shaking and sobbing. It’s really fucking sad, she thinks, that someone’s parents could have reacted so horribly to them coming out that their reaction to acceptance, the bare minimum , ends up being so strong.
Then again, it wasn’t like the concept was new to her. Eddie really would kill to have her parents accept her. When she’d come out to them, they hadn’t reacted badly , per se, but their already-shaky relationship had become even more distant and unstable.
But it’s fine. It’s all fine. At least she’s here, now, with her hand in Buck’s and an atmosphere that, once she’s gotten over the initial nervousness of it all, is beautifully uplifting.
And then her eyes snap away from Bobby and the girl to what’s behind the metal fences that are containing the parade. Obviously, she knows that pride parades aren’t strangers to unwelcome and bigoted protests, but it never actually clicks until she gets a look at all the ridiculous signs they’re holding.
HELL AWAITS YOU , one sign reads, the words scrawled in bright red marker.
Another one simply says REPENT in a threatening block of text, and then there are all the miscellaneous and out-of-context Bible verses peppered throughout the signs the small group of people are holding.
“Fuck,” Buck says quietly, noticing the signs at the same time Eddie does.
“God, that’s despicable,” says Chim.
“Are they seriously just allowed to be here?” asks Eddie indignantly.
“There were a few of them the first time I ever went to Pride,” says Buck. “I asked Athena that, figured she could, I don’t know, use her LAPD sergeant powers, and she said that they unfortunately technically have the legal right to protest, so…” he trails off.
“Well, that fucking sucks,” says Eddie.
“Agreed,” says a voice from behind her. An oddly familiar one, she realizes, and her heart skips a beat. Not in a good way, not even remotely.
She and Buck both turn around with matching looks of fear in their faces, while Chim, mildly confused, turns around with them.
Taylor Kelly . She has hot pink extensions in her fiery red hair, and a bisexual flag pinned neatly onto the side of her chest. Eddie stares as she gets out her phone and snaps a photo of the protestors. “That is going in a very angry article about the endangerment of queer spaces.”
“Taylor!” says Buck, awkwardly, and way too loud. “What are you doing here?”
“Same as you,” she shrugs. “Celebrating my newly discovered bisexuality.”
“Not exactly newly discovered for me,” Buck says.
“It was less than two years ago. I’ve been keeping up with your social media. It’s recent enough.”
“Why—” Eddie begins saying, but Taylor cuts her off.
“Well, my girlfriend and I wanted to see what our exes were up to. We were…more than a little inebriated. Ana!” she yells in the general direction of a nearby group of people.
Ana ?
And suddenly, a woman appears, seemingly out of thin air. A woman Eddie thought she was never going to see again, but there she is. Ana Flores, with a lesbian flag painted on her cheek, and she’s kissing Taylor Kelly on the temple. “Hey, babe. What’s—”
Taylor gestures to Eddie and Buck, finally getting Ana to strip her enamored eyes away from her.
“Oh my God,” Ana says, simply. The shock in her voice is resoundingly clear. But then she grins, albeit awkwardly. “You look good, Eddie.”
“Thanks,” Eddie says, internally breathing a sigh of relief. “You too, by the way.”
“Congrats on the transition,” Taylor adds. “I’m glad you and Buck finally unpacked all your painfully queer baggage.”
Eddie smiles at her—a real, genuine smile, one she even surprises herself with. Somehow, she hates Taylor Kelly less now, a fact that she would have never thought possible even yesterday.
“S-so, uh, how did this happen?” Buck interjects, gesturing to Ana’s arm, which is now around Taylor’s shoulder.
“A dating app, actually,” Ana says, an edge of discomfort to her voice. “Tay was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, and her bio genuinely made me laugh out loud. Hadn’t done that in a while. Anyways, we got to talking, and then realized we knew each other. She was at your surprise homecoming party when you got back from the hospital, after, you know—”
“The shooting.”
“Yes. That. Everything just sort of escalated from there.”
“Well, I’m happy for you guys. I guess this all kind of worked out for us, right? Just needed to switch partners,” says Buck.
“Were we seriously that close to figuring it out?” says Eddie. “Wow. It could have all happened so much sooner.”
“Well, we got there in the end,” Buck says, clapping Eddie on the shoulder. “That’s what matters.”
Taylor laughs. “Exactly. Well, it was nice seeing you guys.”
Eddie, Buck, and Chim, now reunited with the rest of their group, are catching them up on the Taylor–Ana situation. As Eddie recounts their encounter, she sees Ravi’s mouth unwrap into a smirk.
“What?” she says.
“Nothing. It’s just—” he pauses, looking around at everyone. “Should I tell them, or…?”
“God, please,” says May, half-laughing. Her girlfriend, Padma, says something in assent, a wide smile on her face.
“Alright,” says Ravi. “We may or may not have seen Natalia and Marisol around here, and they were, like, full-on making out. It was very uncomfortable to watch.”
Eddie’s jaw drops at the same time Chim says, “No fucking way. Next you’re going to tell me, like, Tatiana is around here with Maddie’s homoerotic high school situationship. What was her name?” he turns to his wife.
“Sarah,” Maddie sighs, but with fondness in her voice. “But I don’t think that’s likely.”
“Yeah,” says Buck. “Maybe Eddie and I just keep turning our exes queer.”
“Objectively impossible,” says Eddie.
“Nothing is impossible,” Buck says. “I mean, even Lucy was here. There has to be something theoretically illogical at work.”
“That’s what you said about the whole Billy Boils thing,” says Eddie, rolling her eyes. “We don’t have magical rays of queerness that we blast at whoever we date.”
“I mean, when I visited Billy Boils’ grave, the curse did get broken,” shrugs Buck. “There was definitely something at work.”
“He has a point,” says Albert, unhelpfully. “But I don’t think you’re necessarily turning your exes queer. I just think that the sheer volume of your codependency was enough to make them bond with each other. Mutual connection over exes who were clearly in love with each other the whole time. You know, I had this girlfriend, Molly…” Albert segues into a long-winded explanation of a relationship he had in high school, a period of time in his life where he was very obviously into his best friend, so much that his girlfriend dumped him for said best friend’s ex. “Similar situation, is all I’m saying. I’m just glad you guys stopped terrorizing the women of LA.”
“Well, Buck hasn’t stopped entirely,” Eddie quips, and Buck shoves her good-naturedly. “Hey, I have been nothing but an extremely loyal, kind, wonderful boyfriend to you,” he says
“Well, I guess I can’t deny that,” Eddie says, smiling.
It’s the most perfect day Eddie could ask for, really. Apart from the blaring heat (she’s somehow on her fifth bottle of the juice she and Buck had brought from home), everything is amazing. It feels a little odd, but in a good way. Eddie’s not used to experiencing this much happiness. She hasn’t had a day this full of joy in a long time.
“You know,” Buck is saying, “The heat isn’t even that bad.”
“I beg to differ,” Eddie says, as a bead of sweat glides down her cheek. “It’s not a huge problem, or anything, but that’s an outright lie.”
“Not when you compare it to July 22, 2024.”
“What the hell was so bad about July 22, 2024?” Ravi says, jumping into the conversation.
“Well,” says Buck, face lighting up in that adorable way it does whenever he’s excited to explain something new to someone, “that was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth. Global average temperature of sixty-three degrees .”
“That’s not that hot,” Maddie says.
“It is when you remember that the average includes places like Greenland. Obviously, it’s never particularly warm there. Antarctica counts, too. And July is a winter month in Australia, so it’d be cold there. So sixty-three is pretty high considering the amount of countries that aren’t warm. But if you only want to consider America,” Buck grins, like he’s about to say something that’s going to rock everyone’s world, “The highest temperature on record was a hundred and thirty-four degrees. Insane, right? And it was right here in California too, actually. Pretty awesome.”
Eddie stares at Buck. It’s so fucking endearing , the way his smile widens every time he gets to tell someone about a topic he’s clearly put a lot of research and time into. God, she loves him so much.
“What is it?” Buck laughs, as he sees how fixated Eddie’s eyes are on him.
In response, Eddie grabs Buck’s face and presses her lips against his. She has to seriously fight the urge to pin him against some random person in this crowd and kiss him until they both go insane, but she settles for a short, yet passion-laced peck instead.
“What was that for?” he says, practically giggling, once she pulls back.
“You’re cute when you get excited,” she says, smiling at the instantaneous way Buck’s cheeks go pink at her words.
“You two are disgusting,” Ravi says.
“Shut up,” Eddie responds, only really half-listening, as she stares into Buck’s ocean-blue eyes. The moment is quickly interrupted by a very exaggerated gagging sound from Chim.
“How many times do I have to tell you people to shut up?” says Eddie, although she lets go of Buck’s face and breaks her stare away from him. She rolls her eyes good-naturedly at Chim.
Wiping sweat from her brow, she extracts a sixth bottle of juice from the bag Buck has slung over his shoulder.
“God, the sun is out to get me,” she says.
“At this point, you guys should have just brought some water,” Albert says. “The juice cannot be as effective.”
“It has some ‘organic hydration’ shit in it,” says Eddie, reading off the back of the bottle. “I don’t know, it’s more refreshing than water for me, so…” she shrugs.
All of a sudden, a loud “ Help! ” echoes from somewhere behind her. She and the rest of the 118 instantly turn around, and Eddie feels her body switch into firefighter mode, running toward the sound, running toward the danger. She pushes through a crowded circle of people, and finds the source of the scream. A panicked-looking man is standing over a girl, lying unconscious on the ground.
“Sir,” she says, propelling herself to the forefront of the crowd. “I’m a paramedic. What exactly happened here?”
“My daughter just—she just collapsed . I don’t know what happened,” the man says. “I can’t get her to wake up.”
“Alright,” says Eddie, whipping her head around for a split second. Where the hell is the rest of the 118? But she turns back quickly. This doesn’t seem that serious. She can do this herself. “Relax. I’m guessing this is a result of heatstroke. I’m going to do everything I can right now, but please call 9-1-1 for an ambulance. I don’t have all the resources I need, but whoever they send will. For now, does anyone have an ice pack or anything similar? Something that could be used to cool down body temperature? Even, like, a fan would work.”
“I do,” someone says, handing a portable fan to Eddie.
“Thank you,” she says. “Also, if anyone has a spray bottle with water in it, that would be great.”
“Oh, I have one of those,” the girl’s father says hurriedly, retrieving it from his bag.
“Okay,” she takes it from him, and starts gently spraying water onto the girl’s skin. Then, she places the fan next to her, hoping the combination will be enough to bring her back to consciousness.
“Protect the kids!” she hears a woman practically shriek, and turns her head towards the direction of the voice.
Right. The protestors.
“Exactly what I’m trying to do here, ma’am,” says Eddie, looking back down, just in time to see the girl open her eyes. In perfect timing, sirens start to blare in the distance.
As it turns out, everyone else who had been with Eddie had been trapped in the increasingly large, cramped crowd. Eddie runs through an abridged version of the events at the bar they go to after.
“Again, I’m really sorry you had to handle that yourself,” says Hen, taking a sip of her drink.
“It’s fine,” says Eddie. “I managed.”
“I just wish I could have seen you in action,” says Buck.
Eddie laughs. “You see me in action every day, babe.”
“And each time I internally go insane. I love seeing you be all competent.”
Eddie smiles. “I’m starting to think I could literally do anything and you’d say it’s the most attractive thing you’d ever seen.”
“And I’d be telling the truth. You are quite literally the most gorgeous woman in the universe,” Buck says casually, like he hasn’t just ignited a blazing, warm glow of happiness in Eddie’s chest.
After years of searching for it, Eddie finally knows what joy feels like.