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Despite working for the LAFD for nearly twenty years, there weren’t that many times that Tommy had wound up in the hospital. There was that one time that Chimney had to pull him out when he passed out due to a methane leak, and another time after he injured his shoulder about six months before Bobby came to the 118. But other than those two instances? There were a lot of minor and some major bruises, a lot of days he went home sore, and a couple twisted ankles from playing basketball, but he had gone an almost twenty year career as a firefighter with not that many injuries.
Certainly not as many compared to Buck, Eddie, and Chimney.
Although since he started hanging out with the 118 again, Tommy was suspecting that some of their luck was rubbing off on him. (Everyone at Harbor agreed.)
It all started when, two weeks after he and Buck officially started dating, they went on a hike just outside the city with Bean. While they were going down the mountain back to Tommy’s truck, he lost his footing and fell, almost tumbling straight down the mountainside. He didn’t get any injuries that would put him out of work, but he did have a series of nasty looking bruises on his right arm and leg.
A month later Tommy hit his head on a call. He was fine, didn’t get a concussion or any bruises or anything, but got a cut right above his eyebrows deep enough to require stitches.
And two months after he got those stitches taken out, Tommy wound up in the hospital yet again.
He shouldn’t have volunteered to fill in for Johnson on ground crew today.
He had gotten caught in a building collapse during a warehouse fire. Somehow his helmet had gotten knocked off. It wasn’t until his team had gotten him out and loaded in the ambulance that he lost consciousness and remained that way until after they got him to the hospital. When he woke up, the small headache he had in his head was at least ten times worse, and the loud noises of the MRI they stuck him in did nothing to help.
“Tommy!” Tommy winced when he heard Buck’s loud voice as Buck rounded the corner of his hospital room.
“Buck, shhh,” Lucy whispered to him and Eddie as they walked in. “You boy’s got a nasty concussion.”
Buck looked over at his boyfriend on the hospital bed, and Tommy looked rather worse for wear. A large bruise on the left side of his head, spreading from under his hair to the left side of his forehead. His eyes were closed, and he had a pained expression on his face, but he was definitely still awake.
“Tommy,” Buck said, much more softly, as he walked over to him. “What happened?”
“Building collapse,” Tommy mumbled.
“Do they know how bad?” Buck asked.
Tommy hummed as Lucy said. “They took him for a CT scan about an hour ago. Doctor should be by to talk about it soon.”
“Scan sucked,” Tommy added. The loud noises of the machine did nothing to help the pounding in his head.
Like Lucy said, Tommy’s doctor came in less than ten minutes later. He said that Tommy had a grade 3 concussion, and that they wanted to keep him overnight. If all went well and no complications appeared, he would be discharged the next morning.
“They want to keep you overnight for observation?” Buck said when the doctor left the room.
“Yeah,” Tommy said as he sank into the bed, closing his eyes. “S’what happens when you get a grade 3 concussion.”
Right, Buck told himself. That made perfect sense. Buck gave Tommy’s hands a soft squeeze. “I don’t want to leave you here alone,” he said, speaking softly.
“You don’ have to,” Tommy said, halfway to falling asleep. “You can stay.”
Buck hummed. “But what about Bean?” he asked. “He can’t stay alone.”
“I can watch him,” Eddie said from where he was sitting across the room reading from a magazine he stole from the waiting room.
“What?” Buck asked, looking over at the other man.
Eddie looked up, making eye contact with Buck. “Bean’s Tommy’s dog right?” he asked. Buck nodded. “I can watch him for a night. He’s like ten pounds right? How hard can he be?”
“He’s eight pounds,” Tommy said, half groaning.
Eddie rolled his eyes, standing up from the chair. “Exactly what I said. He can’t be that hard at that size.”
Buck eyed him. “Just because he’s small doesn’t mean he’ll be easy,” Buck said, suddenly defensive of the little guy. Being defensive of Bean was more of Tommy’s thing. And yes, while Bean did tend to be an easy dog to take care of, that was just due to his personality, it had nothing to do with his size.
Buck looked at Tommy. “What do you think?” he asked.
Tommy answered without even opening his eyes. “If Eddie wants to watch him he can.”
“You sure?”
“Um hmm,” Tommy hummed. “S’fine.”
Buck nodded, then grabbed ahold of Eddie’s hand and pulled him into the hallway.
“Where’re we going?” Eddie asked as he followed him.
“I need to tell you everything you need to know about Bean, and Tommy doesn’t need our noise,” Buck said.
Eddie sighed as he followed him. “What do I need to know?” he asked.
“First,” Buck started. “Don’t let him jump off of any furniture… or go on stairs, it’s bad for his back. Second, if you take him on a walk, make sure to put a harness on him. Also, don’t let him go up to big dogs. He always thinks he’s the same size as them until he’s standing next to one.”
“Should I be making a list?” Eddie asked as he pulled out his phone.
“Yeah, that would probably be good.”
Buck went on to give Eddie a list of about fifty things he needed to do while watching Bean. Eddie suspected that if Buck had access to a clipboard he would be having a field day reading off of it right now.
“His treats are in a jar on the kitchen counter,” Buck finished. “You should probably give him a treat first, just to show him you’re a friend. But don’t give him too many, weight gain can be very bad for his breed’s backs.”
“Okay, okay,” Eddie said. “It’s just a dog,” Eddie shrugged. “How hard can watching him be?”
“He’s not ‘just a dog,’ Eddie,” Buck said. “Bean is Tommy’s dog.”
“Alright,” Eddie nodded. “Bean is a special dog. Now do you want me to go check on him? Or keep me here all night?”
Buck let out a sigh as he held out a keychain to Eddie. “The silver key will let you into Tommy’s house,” he said. “Now please go take good care of him.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine,” Eddie reassured him.
Eddie parked his truck in Tommy’s driveway and got out, taking the keys Buck had given him out of his pocket to unlock the front door. As he did so and slowly opened the door, he heard the sound of a dog’s barking coming from somewhere inside, followed by the small scattering sound of paws running across the hardwood floors leading to the door.
‘Ruff! Ruff!’
Eddie turned his head to the right, and standing in the hallway leading inside stood a barely eight inch tall dog - who didn’t exactly look happy to see him.
“So, you must be Bean,” Eddie said to himself. “You’re smaller than I expected.”
Bean barked two more times at Eddie before turning around and running off to somewhere Eddie didn’t know.
“Well then,” Eddie hummed. “It seems Tommy didn’t train you to be a guard dog.”
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Bean Tip #5: Bean doesn’t like walks. Don’t take him back inside until he uses the bathroom.
Maybe he underestimated the dog, Eddie was beginning to think. Although he would never be able to tell Buck or Tommy about this. The two men would never let him live it down.
Buck had told Eddie that at some point in the evening, he would need to take Bean out on a walk. He said it didn’t need to be a long walk, down to the stop sign at the end of the street would be fine. Just enough to give Bean a chance to use the bathroom again and get a bit more energy out.
Eddie was fine with it. The stop sign was only a couple houses down.
Getting Bean ready to go outside was a whole nother matter however. Eddie easily found the leash and harness Buck insisted the dog needed, when he turned to face Bean however, Bean ran away from Eddie to one of the rooms in the back of the house.
Eddie followed after the dog, seeing him run into Tommy’s bedroom. He cursed, he didn’t really want to go into the other man’s bedroom of all places, but if it was what he had to do to get the dog to go on a walk…
He just wouldn’t touch anything. It would be like Tommy wouldn’t even know he went in there.
Eddie looked around the room, but didn’t see any sign of the dog.
“Oh, where’d you go?” Eddie asked. Eddie peaked inside the open door of the closet on the other side of the room. Bean wasn’t in there.
Then he heard something shift behind him. But the only thing behind him was Tommy’s bed. Shit.
Eddie went down to his hands and knees and peeked underneath the bed.
Bean was under there alright. He managed to wiggle inside and was sitting in the back, behind a bunch of boxes Tommy had stored underneath the bed. There was no way Eddie would be able to get to the dog without pulling out half the stuff under here.
“Come on Bean. Can you come out of there?... Please?” Eddie asked the dog.
‘Ruff,’ Bean softly barked back, which Eddie took to mean ‘no.’ Maybe even a ‘get lost’ as well.
Eddie shook his head. The last thing he wanted to do was drag out half of these boxes so he could get the dog all just to take him on a walk so he could poop. But he also didn’t want the dog to poop under the bed.
He sat back up and let out a long sigh as he thought over what he could do.
Bean took the opening then and ran out from under the bed, past Eddie, and out of the bedroom. Eddie followed after the dog, taking a half second to close the door to Tommy’s bedroom so they wouldn’t wind up back in there again. Eddie found Bean in the dog bed in the living room.
Eddie eventually got Bean all harnessed and leashed up, a task that took a whole lot longer than it had any right to take.
“Now lets go,” Eddie said as they walked out the front door and down Tommy’s short driveway towards the sidewalk.
Eddie stopped three feet away from the end of Tommy’s driveway when he felt a force pulling on the leash. He turned his head to look down at Bean, who was squatting down on the ground, refusing to move.
“Oh, we’re not going back now,” Eddie said. He blew out a breath when Bean didn’t move. “We haven’t even left your driveway.”
Bean only sank further into the ground at those words.
Eddie let out an annoyed breath as he remembered what Buck said about taking Bean on walks. “I don’t want to carry you all the way down to the stop sign!”
Bean continued to try and pull his way back to the front door.
Eddie rolled his eyes. This was ridiculous.
Only Buck and Tommy’s dog would be this… this… weird.
Eddie shook his head, picking the dog up into his arms, and Bean fit rather well into the crook of his elbow, and turned and walked down the street. He swore he looked ridiculous as he did so, and thanked God that he was in Tommy’s neighborhood and not his own.
When he got down to the stop sign he gently set Bean down on the ground, and the dog immediately began pulling him back to Tommy’s house, fully intent on getting home.
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Bean Tip #6: The only food Bean won’t eat off your plate are the vegetables.
There was just something about that dog’s eyes. They were telling him something.
Eddie had no idea what they were supposed to be telling him.
‘ Ruff ,’ Bean let out a soft bark.
“Go on,” Eddie tried to shoo him away. “I filled your bowl up over there,” Eddie said, pointing at his food bowl across the kitchen, right next to the newly filled up water bowl.
‘ Ruff ,’ Bean let out another bark.
Eddie rolled his eyes as he turned away from the dog and towards the bowl of chicken and rice he had just made sitting on the counter.
It wasn’t much, but without making a mess of the kitchen, it was the only thing he could think to make with what he found in the kitchen.
“Ruff,” Bean let out another bark.
Eddie looked down at the dog.
“What?” Eddie asked. Bean continued to stare up at him.
Eddie rolled his eyes and picked a carrot off of his plate. “Fine then, you want this?” he said as he squatted down and held the carrot slice out to the dog. Bean walked forward and gave the slice a sniff, then turned his head.
“Really?” Eddie asked. “It’s covered in sauce.”
Bean continued to ignore the carrot slice. Eddie just stood up. “I offered you some and you declined,” Eddie muttered to the dog.
‘Ruff,’ Bean barked again at Eddie.
Eddie looked back down at the dog. “I offered you some and you didn’t want any! Go eat what I put in your bowl!”
‘ Ruff,’ Bean barked again.
Eddie let out a breath. “How am I arguing with a six inch tall dog?”
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Bean Tip #8: Even though Tommy’s house doesn’t have a doorbell, Bean will bark his head off if one goes off on TV.
After dinner and letting Bean outside one last time for the night, Eddie felt that it was still a little too early to go to bed. He decided to watch some TV for an hour or so instead. Bean meanwhile, went straight to his bed in the middle of the living room and curled up on it.
Eddie didn’t know what exactly he was watching on the TV, some sort of sitcom show that he didn’t know the name of. He was really only half paying attention to what was on TV, more focused on scrolling through things on his phone, he registered the sound of a doorbell going off for whatever was happening on the show, followed a couple seconds later by Bean letting out a soft bark.
Eddie lifted his head up from his phone to look at Bean. Bean wasn’t looking at him, but rather in the direction of the front door. He was still all wrapped up in his dog bed, so Eddie didn’t think anything of it, instead turning his focus back to his phone.
Then another doorbell sound went off from the TV.
Bean let out two more, slightly louder, barks that time, but he didn’t get up from the bed.
“Bean, stop barking,” Eddie said to the dog.
And then two more doorbell rings sounded on the TV.
That caused Bean to finally get up from the bed and run over to the front door, this time he was barking non stop.
Eddie sighed, shaking his head as he got up to follow after the dog. “Bean, there’s no one there,” he said. “It was just the TV.”
Bean was still barking at the nothing that was outside the door. Eddie shook his head again as he reached down to pick the dog up in his arms. As he walked back to the living room, another door bell went off on the TV, making Bean try to squirm out of Eddie’s arms. Eddie held him firmly, not wanting to drop the dog as he sat back down on the couch. He grabbed the remote, flicking through the channels trying to find something that wouldn’t have doorbell sounds.
Ah, sports. There weren’t going to be any doorbells in that.
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Bean Tip # 11: Bean has a habit of… humping people. But don’t worry, it means he likes you!
Eddie didn’t remember bringing the dog into bed with him when he decided to go to sleep. He remembered Buck telling him before he left the hospital that while Bean usually slept in bed with Tommy at night, there were often times Bean didn’t like doing so with new people. And if Bean wasn’t snuggling up to him before he decided to go to sleep, to just leave Bean alone in the living room that night. The dog had more than enough beds out there to keep himself comfortable.
And well… Bean had been keeping his distance from Eddie for most of the evening.
So Eddie went to bed in Tommy’s guest bedroom, after making sure the door to Tommy’s bedroom was closed so that he wouldn’t have to go rifling through the man’s things when he needed to take the dog out the next morning. He hoped what Buck said was true and that the dog could make it through the night without having any accidents.
He was deep asleep, and woken up by something in the middle of the night.
It felt like a… he didn’t know what to call it.
Eddie lifted his head slightly and looked down. In the dark light, it took a couple seconds for his eyes to adjust.
He saw Bean standing over his leg. And just how did Bean get up there? There weren’t any steps leading up to the bed or anything. Then he saw that Bean was standing on top of Eddie’s leg. No, it was more than that. Bean was straddling his legs. And moving…
Oh, God, Bean was humping him!
Eddie moved to the opposite side of the bed to dog was on, leaning up against the headboard, how legs curled up against him, staring down at the dog in the middle of the bed who was looking back without a care in the world.
“What the hell dog?” Eddie hissed at Bean.
‘Ruff,’ Bean barked back.
Oh yeah… ruff.
Tommy’s dog was just humping him. Hell, that was the closest Eddie had gotten sex in the last four months.
And it definitely wasn’t wanted!
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Bean Tip #15: Let Bean sleep in as long as possible. He’s a menace when he gets out of bed.
Whenever Eddie talked to dog owners, they almost always talked about how their dogs would wake them up in the early hours of the morning, long before anyone had any right to be waking up unless they absolutely needed to.
So when Eddie woke up at 8 a.m. undisturbed, he thought something was up. For a second he was confused. He was in Tommy’s extra bedroom. He had only spent the night here once before when he and Buck had gotten a little too tipsy to be able to make it to their houses for the night. But nothing like that had happened recently.
Then he remembered offering to watch Tommy’s dog the night before. It was after 8 a.m. and the dog hadn’t woken him up though?
Even though he never had a dog himself, Eddie knew dogs well enough, and that could only mean one thing - Bean was getting into trouble somewhere.
Eddie got up out of the bed and raced out of the room, going first to the living room and stopping dead in his tracks. There, in the center of the room right in the middle of the space between the couch and TV, was Bean, curled up into a little donut, fast asleep.
At the sound of Eddie’s footsteps, Bean picked his head up and looked at the man, looking at him as if to ask ‘Why are you waking me up?’
After staring at Eddie for an awkward amount of time, Bean let out a small huff and then moved his head back to where it was, curling tighter into a ball.
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Eddie’s Bean Tip: No matter what you do, Bean us a weird dog and will like Buck and Tommy more than you.
It was around ten a.m. the next morning, Eddie was spread out on Tommy’s couch, trying to find something to watch on the TV when Bean finally left Tommy’s bedroom running past him in the living room and up to the front door.
“Bean?” Eddie asked as he got up and followed after the dog.
Then Eddie heard the sound of the door unlocking and opening, Buck standing in the open doorway with Tommy a couple feet behind him.
Bean barked and jumped up, his front paws on Buck’s shin.
“Oh, hey little guy,” Buck said as he reached down and picked the small dog up into his arms. From where Bean was up at their chest level, he tried to get over to Tommy, eager to finally see his favorite human. “Sorry little guy,” Buck said. “Tommy’s head is still hurting.”
“I’m going to bed,” Tommy said as he walked past them, his head still clearly in pain.
“How’s he doing?” Eddie asked Buck.
“They discharged him this morning and told him to be on basically bed rest the rest of the week,” Buck said. “I just have to wake him up every four hours. Anyway, how did this guy do?”
“You guys have the weirdest dog ever,” Eddie said as they walked into the kitchen. “You know he tries to hide his treats in his bed, completely fails by the way, I could still see them.”
Buck laughed at that as he looked at Bean and scratched the back of his neck. “I know, he does it all the time, isn’t it hilarious?”
Eddie shook his head. “Weird dog… weird owners…”