Archive of Our Own

The thunder boomed loudly from outside, disrupting the relative peace that had accumulated in the station.

"Jesus," Hen exclaimed, looking up from her book. "That one had to be the closest yet."

"You didn't count?" Chimney asked from the space next to her on the couch. "Number one rule of boy scouts."

"Well not all of us were in boy scouts."

Chimney shrugged. "Well I for one, counted. It was ten seconds."

"So ten miles."

"Look at that!" he exclaimed with a smile. "You're a natural scout."

"What about scouts?" Eddie asked, walking over to the living area and sitting down on the adjacent sofa.

"The lightning thing," Chimney said pointedly. "You know, count the seconds between thunder and lightning to figure out how far away it is?"

"I guess," Eddie said, pondering the thought. He hadn't been in any scouts program for a while, none of them had. "So how many seconds?"

"Ten."

"Okay, two miles."

"No," Chimney replied, scrunching up his face. "One for every second. Ten miles."

"Going on some outdated information there, bud," Eddie shook his head. "It's five seconds for every mile."

Chimney scoffed, pulling out his phone. "Let's see who's actually correct," he said in a righteous tone.

The face he made a moment later was indicative of the result, he wasn't a great masker of emotions.

Eddie gave him a smirk. "I rest my case."

Hen laughed. "So much for such an acclaimed boy scout."

"You didn't know either!" he shot back.

"I wasn't in scouts!"

"I'm revoking your honorary title."

"Wow," she sarcastically exclaimed. "Whatever will I do now?"

"I don't know Hen, perhaps go out in the woods with one of those survival guides?"

"I'd last longer than you."

"Longer than the actual scout? I did this professionally if you didn't recall."

"I don't think it counts as professionally if you were, what?" Eddie cut in. "Like ten?"

"I still get my title. Hen gets hers revoked."

"Okay," Eddie said, getting up once more. "I'm revoking both of your titles. Gonna go make sure our second ambulance unit is all stocked up."

Hen picked up her book again, relaxing into the couch once more. "Just keep the doors open, latch system's still being weird."

"Way ahead of you," he yelled back in acknowledgement.

…

The new latch system had gotten so annoying in the past few days.

It was apparently some safety feature for when they were transporting patients. There were a couple instances of the back doors flying open on the road, so now all the older models had to get some electronic latch feature.

And just through that 118 luck, theirs managed to break on day three.

Eddie was halfway through restocking all of the surgical masks in one of the cabinet compartments when he heard a voice from behind him.

"Hey Eddie, you got a minute?" Harry asked from outside the rig.

"Yeah, 'course," he nodded back. "Just, you know. Keep the doors open."

Harry nodded.

"So, what's protocol for lightning strikes? Like, I've worked stormy shifts before, but it seems pretty gnarly out there."

Eddie just shrugged, turning back around to finish his task. "We go out like normal, unless they take us off the grid. In that case, we just stay in until we're back on or our shift ends."

"Do they do that?"

"Not much," he said, closing the mask drawer and moving onto gloves. "I've seen it happen a couple times. Only if we lose power, really. We have the backup generators, but those are becoming less and less reliable."

"Old models?"

"I think so. They used to work real well, and then something happened with that landslide, or something." He shrugged, turning back towards Harry. "Never really questioned it."

Harry nodded in understanding. "Stay prepared, then. Got it. Thanks Eddie," he said as he began to walk away.

Eddie turned back around, thankful he didn't need to remind Harry about the doors again. He was pretty good with that kind of information, though. The Grant household had always been pretty thorough from what he could tell.

The biological Grants, that was. Buck had observed the same tendencies over the years of his osmosis with the family, but it never quite stuck.

"Need any help with that?" he suddenly heard that same voice ask from behind.

Eddie shrugged. "Pretty good with masks and gloves. Should be—actually," he said, turning to face Buck. "Can you go grab more IV kits? Hen said we got another shipment the other day."

"On it," Buck said, running over to where they kept their medical supplies.

Eddie laughed as he got on the task so suddenly, he always was so adamant to help.

He heard Buck's footsteps slowing down once he got to the approximate area of the medical cabinets, and then speeding up once more after a few minutes. Eddie quietly chuckled to himself.

"Okay, so this was the only box I could find," he said, stepping up into the the rig and placing the box down on the gurney.

"Thanks, I'll get to those in a minute," Eddie replied.

"I'm already here, might as well help out. It's the right door, right?"

"Yeah, but just make sure—"

Eddie heard the clicking noise of the door shutting before he was able to finish his sentence.

"Shit," Buck muttered under his breath immediately, trying to push the door back open, to no avail. "Won't budge."

Eddie sighed, softly slamming the drawer with the gloves shut. "It's fine, I'll just radio for Ravi or someone to reset the breakers."

Buck guiltily nodded, shooting a quick "Sorry," from under his breath.

As Eddie reached for his radio, a loud CRACK was heard all around. Suddenly, everything went dark.

The two just looked at each other for a moment, or rather looked at the dark shadows that they could hardly make out. The open doors were bringing enough light into the rig, but now that they were shut and the power was out, it was almost complete darkness.

"Did we just—" Buck started.

"Yeah," Eddie confirmed, nodding. "We got hit."

"That's—okay. Does that mean the doors are good now?"

Eddie thought about it for a moment. Perhaps the locks being electronic meant that they latched off once the power went off. They had only had them for a handful of days—he still didn't really know how they worked.

Not waiting for a response, Buck turned back around and started finagling with the handles once more.

But of course with their luck, the doors didn't budge.

"It's gotta give at some point," Buck tensely muttered, still trying to jerk the handle.

"It's a safety precaution," Eddie started. "They're not gonna give unless you physically break them down or something."

"Maybe I'll just have to do that then."

"Buck."

He stopped, turning around to attempt looking at Eddie.

"We're stuck. And I don't particularly want to get yelled at by Chim for breaking the rig."

"Well—hang on a sec," he replied, moving around Eddie to the front of the ambulance. "What about the driver door? The passenger's? Aren't those—"

"Same system," Eddie cut him off, though that didn't stop Buck from climbing into the driver's seat to try and wiggle the door open.

Eddie could feel the vehicle moving underneath them with the amount of force Buck was putting into this door-opening endeavor. It was quite endearing, in a way. If it wasn't for the agitating nature of the situation, Eddie probably would have laughed.

Buck finally gave up a moment later, making his way back and sitting on the gurney, putting the box on the floor. He put his back up to the door of the ambulance, he didn't want to look at that thing right now.

"We're stuck," he agreed.

"Buckley! Diaz!" Chimney's voice suddenly crackled over Eddie's radio. Somehow Eddie forgot he had it on hand. "Power just went out. Where are you guys?"

"Buck got us both trapped in the rig," Eddie replied, making a face Buck probably couldn't even see. The lights in the ambulance weren't on before, but they had the light from the station coming in from the then-open doors.

It was silent for a minute before Chimney spoke again. "We've had the system for six days and you guys already got stuck?"

"Shocking, isn't it," Eddie joked back.

"Okay, in my defense," Buck started, not really thinking that whole sentence through. "Yeah. I guess I just forgot."

"Uh huh," Eddie said before radioing Chimney again. "Any idea on how long it'll be before you can get to us?"

"Hard to say, I'm assuming it depends on how long the power's out. We can go try and reset the breakers, but I don't think that's gonna do anything."

"Are they taking us offline?"

"Dispatch hasn't come in yet, but probably. You two are offline at the very least," he half-joked.

Eddie glared up at Buck once more, though this time he could mostly make out his face. Their eyes were slowly adjusting to the lack of light.

"I'll keep you posted though."

"Got it, thanks."

Eddie put the radio down, finally sitting on the bench opposite the gurney.

"So," Buck started after a moment. "What should we talk about?"

Eddie thought about it for a moment, but his mind came up blank. Small talk came so naturally to them, they never really had to think about it.

"Weather's been nice recently."

"Oh god," Buck exclaimed in agony. "Don't tell me we've reached the only-talk-about-the-weather stage of our friendship."

Eddie laughed. "One of these days. Uh, are we still good for the aquarium on Saturday?"

"Yeah," Buck nodded. "I think so. I was reading up on their website, and kids under three get in free. You think we could convince them that Theo's a year and a half younger?"

Eddie laughed. "Are you that much of a cheapskate?"

"Hey, it's ten bucks that I might not have to pay. Seems pretty worth it to me."

"What's gonna happen to the fish then, huh Buck? Are they all gonna starve due to your negligence in paying?"

"Okay first of all, the Los Angeles Aquarium gets like, millions in donations every year. Plus, I technically have a connection that works there. So really, we're doing them a favor by paying at all."

Eddie thought about it for a minute. "Wait, are you talking about that random lady from that carnival call a couple weeks back? That just so happened to work at the aquarium?"

"The one and only," he beamed.

"The lady you spoke to one time and haven't seen since."

"She knows me by name."

Eddie didn't feel like arguing with that, so he just nodded. "Right."

"Anyways, we're paying for the three of us. And possibly Theo, if we must. But—oh! There was some Thai place around there that was getting pretty good reviews, did you wanna maybe check that out?"

"Sure," Eddie nodded. "Chris likes Thai."

Buck nodded, and they fell into an odd silence once again.

"Okay, um," Buck started a minute later. "Would you rather be a human with the brain of a chipmunk or be a chipmunk with the brain of a human?"

Eddie made a face. "Where the hell did you pull that from?"

Buck shrugged. "One time I fell down a rabbit hole of this Would You Rather Reddit post when I was looking for something online. I've got like twenty of these locked and loaded."

"Of course you do," Eddie chuckled. "So do you have the same lifespan if you choose to become a chipmunk, or do you die after 2 years or however long they live?"

"Uh, you'd still live the same amount of time."

"So it's like a super-chipmunk?"

"Well maybe not, so no, I guess. You'd live—how long do chipmunks live?" Buck asked.

"You asked the question, bud. Pretty sure you're supposed to be the chipmunk expert here."

Buck made a face. "I can scan the Chipmunks Wikipedia page, but my phone is up in the loft kitchen, it'll have to wait. So which one are you picking?"

"Well hang on, I have more questions."

"This is Would You Rather, Eddie."

"Not really seeing the point there. Anyway, if you choose the human with chipmunk brain option, do you just kinda walk around aimlessly all the time or are you deadset on survival?"

Buck rolled his eyes, but went along with it. "Deadset on survival, I guess."

"Would I still be like, foraging in the woods and shit?"

"I think so. You'd probably live out there full time."

"Then I guess chipmunk with the human brain. Maybe I'd outsmart all the other chipmunks."

"Outsmart them how?"

"I'd sneak into a grocery store or something, grab a bunch of berries. All those acorn-chewing fucks would have their minds blown."

Buck laughed. "Pretty sure chipmunks have access to berries."

"Okay, maybe not berries. Bet they haven't had like, snickerdoodles, though."

"Are those even safe for chipmunks to eat?"

"Again, not the chipmunk expert here."

"Oh, I get it. Because I brought up the question, I suddenly have a PHD in chipmunk studies. Also, pretty sure most grocery stores don't just carry snickerdoodles."

Eddie thought about it for a moment. "Okay, then I'd break into your house and steal some. I would still have all my prior memories and everything, right?"

"I guess."

"Okay, then that's settled. What about you?"

Buck looked almost surprised. "Me?"

"Yes, you. Which one do you pick?"

He pondered for a moment. "I gotta say, you make a good argument with the snickerdoodles."

"So who's house are you breaking into to get some?"

"Mine?"

"But eventually you'd run out. And you can't really make more, because—you know. The whole chipmunk thing."

"Okay. I'd go over your house, write out the recipe—do chipmunks have opposable thumbs? Doesn't matter. Then I'd hope that you got freaked out at the idea of a magical chipmunk claiming to be your best friend and heed to the advice written. And also, not burn them."

"Yeah, you might run into some trouble with that last step."

"I probably would," he chuckled.

"Got any more?"

"Hm?"

"Good Would You Rather questions," he elaborated.

"Oh, uh. I do, but you just went into like, some existential crisis over chipmunks. The rest of them are way deeper than that already."

"Buck," he deadpanned. "What the hell else are we gonna do?"

He thought for a moment, his mind coming up blank and empty.

"I guess you're right."

"I usually am."

"Okay, uh, would you rather get married right this second or stay single forever?"

The question threw Eddie off. Buck was right, it was more of a tonal shift than the last one. He had been thinking about relationships as sparingly as possible lately, that was a problem for another day.

"Do I get to decide who?" he asked. "Or is it just random?"

"Random, I think."

"Oh. Then hell no."

The abruptness of Eddie's response caught Buck off guard. "So you're telling me we sat here for five whole minutes debating chipmunks but that one is a no-brainer?"

Eddie shrugged. "Pretty much. Would you?"

"That—I don't know," Buck answered. "It depends."

"Pretty sure you've gotta make a choice here."

"Well I guess—would you be able to get a divorce? Like if nothing works out?"

"Probably not, kinda defeats the purpose of the whole thing. Unless you had to wait a bunch of years, or something."

"I think I would if I got like, a survey or something beforehand."

"A survey?"

"Yeah! Like I could write down traits for the ideal partner and it'd match me up with someone automatically. Actually, that sounds kinda nice."

"Okay, so what are your ideal traits?"

Buck just looked at him for a minute.

"In a partner?" Eddie clarified. "You know, for your survey?"

"Uh," Buck awkwardly laughed. "I gotta say, haven't really given it much thought. I guess someone who's good with kids? I don't know, pretty basic, but that's the big one."

Eddie nodded. "Makes sense."

"Maybe someone who indulges all of my little interests. Or tolerates them, at least. Someone I can talk to, have real honest conversations with."

"Uh huh."

"I don't know, I think that's mainly it. Not too picky," he laughed.

"So it's just personality? No physical attributes or anything?"

"Nothing I couldn't live with. I've dated—god, a lot of people. I stopped really caring exactly how people look a long time ago. It's all about that personal connection, you know?"

Eddie nodded. "I—yeah. That makes sense."

"So what about you? What's on your list?"

Eddie leaned back, thinking about it for a moment. His mind was coming up with a whole lot of blanks.

"Haven't really thought about it."

"Come on," Buck scoffed. "I went, you gotta come up with something."

"Okay, okay. Uh, I mean I guess a lot of what you said makes sense. Good with kids, honest conversations. But someone who'll call me out on my shit," he added. "Doesn't just go along with whatever for simplicity's sake. And maybe someone who already—I don't know. Forget it."

Buck furrowed his brow. "Come on, man. I'm not gonna judge you."

"No I-I know that. I just—I really don't know what it was I was gonna say."

It was a non-answer, they both knew it. But that was a conversation for another day.

"So," Buck started again, moving on. "You think you're ever gonna find someone who matches all that criteria?"

Eddie thought it over for a moment. "Potentially. I gotta be honest, I'm not really looking right now."

"I think it's definitely possible. I mean, Ana seemed to fit most of those boxes pretty well."

"Yeah," he sighed. "She was pretty great. But we didn't work for—other reasons."

"I—remember," he said awkwardly. "But uh, hey. There's always someone else out there."

Eddie looked up at him and smiled. "Yeah, I know."

"Good. So uh, back to it, do you have any?"

"What?"

"Any good Would You Rather questions?"

He pursed his lips, shaking his head. "Not really, Buck. That's more your territory."

"I don't really—"

They both jolted by a sudden banging on the door.

"Guys!" A muffled voice said from outside the rig. "You still good in there? It's Ravi!"

The two exchanged a glance before looking back at the closed door.

"Yeah Rav, we're good," Buck half-shouted back. "Any updates?"

"Cap's trying to reset the locking system downstairs, but the power's still fried for the most part. Pretty sure the only thing on the generator is the lights and some of the kitchen stuff."

"The kitchen stuff?" Eddie asked, just loud enough for Buck to hear.

Buck just curled his lips and gave Eddie a shrug.

"Do you have any time estimate?" Eddie cut in.

"We don't know yet. Cap's saying it might be until we get power back."

A collective sigh was made throughout the ambulance.

"But hey!" Ravi continued. "At least it's you two, and I'm not the one stuck in there."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Buck asked with faux offense. "We're great."

Ravi paused before answering. "Eddie's fine."

Eddie laughed. "Good man, Rav."

Buck gave him a pissy look.

It was silent for a few moments, signaling that Ravi had probably walked away. They couldn't really hear much from the actual station, the walls of the ambulance were pretty thick.

"Do I really suck that much?" Buck broke the silence with.

Eddie chuckled. "I mean, I've heard the horror stories from when I was in Texas."

Buck looked amused. "Wow, now Ravi's spewing out my business."

"Pretty sure he was airing out his grievances."

"You know, I really thought you of all people would be on my side here."

Eddie shrugged. "Gotta tell it like it is."

"Okay," Buck laughed out. "If you insist. Back to that list—"

"Oh god, I thought we had moved on."

"Do you think it'd be like a general LA thing or more of like a worldwide thing?"

"Buck, this is your addition to your question. Pretty sure you get to be the judge of that one."

"Because if it was an LA thing then it'd be great, but I don't think I'd do a worldwide thing."

"No interest in moving?"

"I love my job too much," he confessed. "And my people."

"Your people?"

"Yeah, the 118, our—our family."

Eddie smiled at the sentiment. Because Buck was right—they were one big family, had been one for years now. It wasn't something he had ever consciously noticed, he just woke up one day and realized he was a part of it, for good. Nothing in Texas had ever come close to that feeling.

"Yeah," Eddie agreed. "I don't think I'd choose the thing either. Rather be with you guys."

Buck smiled, but there was something else behind it. Almost like his brain was telling him something he didn't want to believe.

"Uh huh—but, I'm sure there's plenty more people for you out there. Like, there's so many possibilities."

It was a little odd that he kept circling back to this idea, but Eddie brushed right past it.

"Yeah it's—I don't know. Like I said, not at the top of the priorities list."

"Dude, I know," Buck laughed. "I've tried to set you up on like, three dates already."

Eddie tensed. The reminder was coming back to him like a ton of bricks. Was this the right time?

"I really don't think that's gonna work out. I appreciate it, don't get me wrong. But I think you could be putting your contributions—elsewhere."

Buck tilted his head in confusion. "Like set someone else up?"

"I guess."

"I mean I could, but I don't know. You're like my only close friend that's still single. And Harry's like way younger than me. That'd be weird."

"Okay," Eddie stopped him. "Don't play matchmaker with Harry. Kid's basically your little brother."

"Well I need someone to play matchmaker with," he whined. "All the reality TV Maddie keeps making me watch is making me antsy for it."

Eddie made a face. "Your sister has you watching reality television?"

"Well—well not exactly. It's just usually on when she's watching TV, and I'm not gonna make her switch the channel, or whatever."

"Sure Buck, that's why."

"Okay, if you saw some of the stuff they come up with for these shows you'd be roped in too. Don't try to convince me you wouldn't be."

"Guess we'll never know."

"Oh, we'll know. I'm making you watch Real Housewives next time you come over."

"Are you serious?" Eddie laughed.

"Dead serious."

"I'll surely be looking forward to that."

"You should be," Buck beamed. "It's a public service. You'll be thanking me soon enough."

Eddie gave him a look. "Will I?"

"Oh, just you wait."

Buck shifted around on the gurney, his body getting too restless to stay still. Eddie was surprised he hadn't started pacing around the small space by this point. It had been almost a half hour last he checked. That look on his face came back, like he was debating whether he should say something or keep it to himself.

"Buck," Eddie said knowingly.

"Yeah?"

"What's on your mind?"

His lips twisted, giving Eddie a half-smile. "Why would anything be on my mind?"

"Come on," Eddie said dryly. "I know that face. Whatever it is, you can tell me."

Buck sighed, lightly shaking his head. "I'm not gonna keep nagging you about the whole dating thing if it's truly what you want, it's just—I don't know. I worry, I guess. I worry that you're just sulking by yourself or whatever, and this whole not a priority thing is gonna turn into a permanent excuse."

Eddie pondered for a moment. "I—guess so. That obvious, huh?"

"A little," Buck said, not quite meeting Eddie's eyes. "You just—you deserve that. A-all of it—you know, the whole good with kids and someone to talk to thing. And I don't want you to stop looking just because nothing's fully worked out yet."

"I'm not fully—" he paused. "Opposed, to looking. I guess I just have a pretty specific thing I'm looking for here. And it's a thing that's—it's not very easy to find."

"Look, I get it," he replied earnestly. "I mean high standards and all, pretty justified. But hey, I'm sure there's some woman out there that is patient enough to put up with you."

Eddie went quiet for just a second too long.

"Who said anything about a woman?"

All of the small little noises in the rig seemed to fade away, all Buck could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat. He could only see was the little gleam in Eddie's eyes, his pupils growing impossibly wider in the darkness of the vehicle. Something unreadable flickered beneath them.

"What?" he managed to spit out.

"I—" Eddie started, the words seeming to die on his tongue. "I'm gay, Buck."

Buck just stared back at him, completely frozen. His mouth stayed just slightly agape, and his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets. For the first time, Eddie couldn't stand to look at him. He shifted on the bench until he was angled just slightly closer to the door, looking away into nothingness.

The air was thick with tension, with so many words yet too much reluctance to say any of them.

This wasn't supposed to be a big thing. It wasn't supposed to change anything.

"Are you gonna say anything?" Eddie asked after another moment.

Buck looked like he had a thousand thoughts running wild in his mind, while simultaneously having none at all. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.

"When—how long have you known?"

Eddie gave him a weak shrug. "I don't really know. It wasn't a conscious realization I guess, it was just—" he paused. "Finally putting words to something that had been there for a long time."

"Were you—were you planning on telling someone? Telling me?"

"I was trying to. I've been trying to figure out how to say it for weeks, it just didn't come up I guess."

Buck's eyes widened. "It didn't come up?"

"Pretty much."

His expression curled into something of amusement, a twinge of humor threatening to laugh its way out.

"Pretty much?" he echoed. "Eddie, it's a pretty big deal."

"Well I don't know," he half-snapped back. "Now you're sitting here freaking out, so I guess I should have thought about it more."

"No I don't mean to—" he cut himself off, closing his eyes for a second and taking a deep breath. "I'm really proud of you, that must have been difficult," he said much softer.

"It was," Eddie admitted, looking back to Buck once more. "But then I guess I realized it was you I was trying to talk to. And I really don't know anyone I needed to tell more."

Buck was quiet for a moment, but this felt like a different type of quiet.

"I'm glad it was me," he said earnestly. "I—I don't really know why, but I just am."

Eddie gave him a nod.

The air was still charged, it seemed like one off comment or wrong move would make the whole rig combust. Buck's face kept shifting, like he was still contemplating something, mulling over god-knows-what in his head.

Eddie didn't have a clue, that was for sure.

"You're thinking," he said.

The statement snapped Buck out of his thoughts, as he turned to look at Eddie again.

"Is this all—" Eddie started again. "Okay?"

"Yeah," he replied much too quickly in an octave much too high. "Yeah, everything's great, Eddie. I'm just—so happy for you and everything."

"Uh huh."

"If you need any advice at all, I mean seriously, I—I'm always here to help. Like with anything at all."

Eddie squinted his eyes at Buck. "You're being weird."

"How am I being weird?"

"Well first of all, you're rambling. You only ramble when you're extremely impassioned about something or when you're nervous. And right now, I'm thinking it's the latter."

"I'm not nervous," he laughed. "I'm just—adjusting."

Eddie widened his eyes. "Adjusting?"

"Not adjusting—that's—more like, I don't know. This is something new. For both of us, I mean! Not like, bad new, just, you know. New new."

"This is really affecting you, huh."

And suddenly, something in his demeanor shifted. The nervous rambling energy faded away, an agitation starting to brew.

"What do you want me to say, Eddie?" he snapped. "That I've spent the past however-long trying to justify whatever it is we have, trying to convince myself what I feel for you is normal best friend stuff? And then you go and you—you drop this on me, and now I don't know what to feel."

"Whoa I—I wasn't trying to imply anything. When you told me everything, it was normal."

Buck almost laughed. "Oh, if you heard any of the shit I've been talking to Maddie about these past few months, I'm sure we'd be far past normal."

"Maddie?" he questioned. "What's she asking?"

"She's not the one asking anything. It's me, I guess. I'm the one that keeps pestering her with all these ramblings, or whatever you'd like to call them."

"Ramblings? Ramblings about what? Buck you're confusing me—"

"This," he said, pointing between the two of them. "Because I spent so much time convincing myself that it was just what we do, and you have too, I guess. But it doesn't even matter. It's fine, I got over it. But now you—you're here and you're not straight and I—" he stopped himself. "Now I'm trying to get over it again."

Eddie looked down at the ground, nodding. The implication of Buck's words finally caught on. He didn't know exactly how to respond.

"I don't really see why you'd have to get over it."

Buck gawked at him for a moment before responding. "Eddie, what?"

"Look I'm not—" he stopped, looking back up at Buck. "I'm not trying to assume anything, but if this is something that you're trying to convince yourself you can't have, maybe you should reconsider."

"You don't know what you're talking about," he shook his head. "Either you don't understand what I'm saying, or you're not thinking clearly—"

Eddie stood up, turning around so that he was sitting on the gurney, next to Buck. "I'm thinking clearer than I have in a long time."

Buck just stared at him for another moment. He had almost a hurt expression on his face. "This—no. This can't happen. Something will go wrong, I'll fuck up, and then everything will be ruined. And I can't have that happen, Eddie, I just can't."

Boldly, Eddie put both of his hands on Buck's, which were fidgeting restlessly in his lap. The man snapped his gaze towards Eddie, the hurt on his face being replaced with a hint of shock.

"You aren't going to mess anything up," Eddie said in a quiet but reassuring voice, looking Buck directly in the eye. He tightened his grip on Buck's hands, squeezing them both firmly. "And this won't ruin anything. I promise."

"How do you know that?"

Eddie smiled. "Because I love you."

And it was the least hesitant thing he had said all day. He said it with every last ounce of certainty, a truth like any other. The sky is blue. The grass is green. Eddie Diaz loves Evan Buckley.

Buck looked like he was experiencing a technical delay. His mouth opened to speak, but no words came out.

"You're serious?" he finally asked, voice as light as a whisper.

"Yeah," he nodded. "I really am."

"Can I just—would you let me—"

"Anythi—"

His sentence was cut short from Buck surging forward and capturing Eddie's lips in a kiss.

Eddie's head jerked back on reflex before immediately melting into it, reciprocating the kiss and bringing his hands to the sides of Buck's face.

Buck was the first to break the kiss a moment later, shaking his head and giving Eddie a look.

"Sorry, that was so—I should have asked."

"You did ask," Eddie laughed. "I just didn't have time to respond."

"Yeah," he anxiously replied. "That's the problem.

"Buck."

Buck looked up at him.

"I wanted you to kiss me, if that wasn't clear."

"Well—it was mostly clear, but I don't know. What if you were telling me all of that platonically."

Eddie took a moment to process what he just said before keeling over his sat position and starting to laugh uncontrollably.

"Oh my god, you thought—you know what? Part of me isn't even surprised."

"Okay," Buck laughed. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"One time you asked me if I was sure about wanting to go to that restaurant with you even after I brought it up and made the reservation."

"How was I supposed to know you weren't just doing all that to make me feel better?" he asked defensively.

"You're such a dork."

"But you love me for it," he hesitantly replied.

"Yeah," Eddie said with a smile. "I really do."

Something flashed behind Buck's eyes in that moment. His warm expression dropped almost instantaneously, like all of the color was drained from his face.

"Oh my god. I never said it back."

Eddie chuckled. "I was gonna start to worry about that pretty soon."

He sat up, still leaning on the back of the door. "Eddie Diaz, I love you too."

"Yeah," Eddie said, leaning over again. "I know."

He met Buck where he sat, kissing him again after what had felt like an eternity apart.

Buck leaned further against the door, bringing his arms up around Eddie. Eddie's hands found the familiar place on the sides of his face, as he deepened the kiss.

They didn't know how long they stayed like that, sitting over one another on a gurney that surprisingly hadn't moved. Perhaps the wheels were locked.

Before either of them could react, they heard another click, and the door that Buck was leaning on suddenly disappeared.

Eddie's limited reaction speed had somehow allowed him to move his hands to the back of Buck's head, but it didn't stop the two of them from succumbing to the nature of gravity.

"Alright we finally—whoa!" Chimney said, jumping out of the way as the two of them toppled over onto the concrete ground.

"Fuck," Buck weakly exclaimed as he finally processed what had happened.

"Are you okay?" Eddie all but shouted in his face. He had landed on top of Buck, with both knees hitting the ground harshly. Thank god it was only a few feet. He lifted Buck's head a couple inches off the ground, moving his own to assess any possible injuries.

"Yeah I'm—good," Buck said, still a little out of it.

"Were you two—" Chimney started, before he was cut off by Hen's laugh just a couple feet away.

Buck and Eddie finally looked up at the two of them. Neither looked too incredibly surprised.

"Do I have to file off an incident report now?" Chimney asked, a hint of laughter threatening to break though the serious facade he was trying to put up.

"You might," Eddie said, looking down at Buck. He awkwardly shuffled off him, letting the other man slowly sit up.

"You okay?" Eddie said again, less panicked this time.

"Yeah," Buck said, looking at him. "Might have one hell of a bruise now, but I'm good."

Eddie looked at him bashfully. "Sorry."

They just looked at each other before Chimney broke the silence.

"Do you two want to actually get up now?"

They snapped their gazes towards him once more, as if they had collectively forgotten they weren't alone.

"I think I'm good on the floor for now," Buck said, looking up at the rest of the building. "I take it the power came back?"

"No," Chimney shook his head. "We're still running on the generator. I was able to find some emergency breaker they put in for the rigs, though. Figured you guys would have heard Hen knocking."

"We were—" Buck started, before Eddie finished his sentence.

"Preoccupied."

"That's a word for it," Hen remarked. "We should still check both of you out though, that was a bit of a nasty fall."

The two looked at each other, giving a collective nod.

"And, we're still offline," Chimney added. "So we're gonna go over to that couch, and you two are going to tell the story of what the hell just happened."

Hen glanced over to him. "Are you sure you wanna know?"

He looked back at her. "At this point, I have to."

"Do we not get a say in this matter?" Buck asked, still on the ground.

"I don't think we do," Eddie replied, looking at him, then at Hen and Chimney. "But that means we're telling the whole story. Including the chipmunk part."

The two of them blinked at him. "The what?"