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Eddie is at the station, sitting at one of the tables in the loft going through some paperwork he brought from home. It’s the beginning of the school year and there are so many papers the school has asked him to sign and read through, that you’d think he was buying a house.
Over the afternoon a lot of people had come and gone, fluttering around him as they go about their lives, but only Hen remained.
She took the fact that he’s been silent for most of the afternoon to really focus on her studies while still enjoying someone else’s company.
Eddie is going through the last block of paperwork when Hen exhales loudly from beside him and announces she’s done for the day. “I can’t. My eyes don’t work anymore.”
“Tell me about it.” he grumbles, eyeing the stack of papers he still has to go through miserably.
Hen twists around in her chair. “Jones, bring me some of that sweet nectar, please.”
Jones, who had been in the middle of pouring himself a cup of coffee, snorts and salutes her. “Aye-aye, ma’am!”
“Don’t call me ma’am! The last thing I need today is to be reminded of how old I am.”
Eddie lifts his head. “You doing okay?”
Hen gives his a reassuring smile. “Yeah, don’t worry about it. I’m just tired. Ready for a nap. Or some gossip.” she adds pointedly when Jones joins them at the table.
“Your actually not sweet nectar.” Jones announces with a little bow as he sets Hen’s cup in front of her. She smiles at him in appreciation and they bump cups with a conspiratorial smile when he sits down.
Jones is a notable gossip. If there is anything you want to know about who did what, who is doing who or who went where, Jones is your guy.
Eddie doesn’t interact much with the guy on a regular basis, but he knows Chim and Hen love to catch up with him from time to time. They’re not the only ones, apparently.
Kira, a badass paramedic who Eddie sometimes feels very intimidated by, hears them as she’s passing through and says “ooh, gossip.”, and promptly sits down next to Hen.
For a few seconds, Jones sips at his coffee and pretends he doesn’t know what they want, until Hen finally breaks and kicks him under the table, making him choke. “Oh god!” He wipes his chin and glares at Hen. “Good thing I’m surrounded by paramedics.”
“Eddie is not a paramedic. Technically.” Hen says, unapologetic.
“Ha ha.” Jones wipes at few drops that fell on the table when he got startled. “Do you want the gossip or not?”
Eddie tunes them out. He distractedly absorbs some of the information they trade but not enough to catch the details. Guillermo the probie was fired last week over apparently - utter incompetence, Tonya got a nipple piercing (why does Jones know that??), and Thomas and Valerie broke up and can’t stand each other now, leading to Bobby having to make sure they’re not on the same shift from now on. He’s pretty sure there’s more but that’s about all he retains.
“That’s what I keep saying, you don’t shit where you eat.”
Hen groans in disgust. “Don’t say it like that! I hate that expression, it’s so unnecessarily graphic.”
“Don’t crap where you eat?” Jones suggests.
“Better, but still, the visuals alone..” Kira shudders.
“Don’t dip you pen in the company ink?”
“Does that even work for a fire station? Not exactly the office vibe.” Hen inquires.
“Hm, yeah.” Kira says with raised eyebrows. “Better than the alternative, at least.”
Jones waves her off. “It doesn’t really matter, the point still stands. You don’t get romantically involved with your coworkers. Even if you end it well, you’re just adding unnecessary drama to your lives. This isn’t Grey’s Anatomy.”
Chim, who had been listening from the kitchen for a few minutes now, comes to join them at the table. “Oh my god, have you seen the firefighter spinoff they did?”
Eddie raises his head. He’s never watched any firefighter tv-shows. He knows there’s a bunch of them out there now but it feels weird watching a show about his day to day life, praising fictional characters for what he and his friends do on a regular basis.. it has always felt a little.. vain, perhaps?
Hen rolls her eyes. “Let me guess, they use the bunk room to have sex all the time. I bet it happens on the first episode.”
“Nope! Captain’s office!” Kira exclaims delightedly and Chim grins, nodding in confirmation.
Okay, not worth a try then. He turns back to his paperwork. He has read the same sentence five times already. He would get it done much faster if he got up and tried to find a quiet corner somewhere, but his papers are spread out all over the table and he’s almost done... fuck it, he’s staying.
“God, that is so unrealistic and so dumb. Don’t these people have work to do? What are you gonna do when the alarm rings in the middle of it?”
A round of laughter follows and then Hen comments.
“Even Buck at his worst knew to keep it out of the station.”
Buck at his worst. What Eddie wouldn’t give to see Buck at his so-called worst. Everybody is always talking about how insufferable he was, always telling the craziest stories about him but the Buck Eddie met is a completely different man.
As much as he would hate to admit it, he has a weird fascination with Buck 1.0 that he’s never dared to share with anyone. It’s not like he thinks he would particularly like that version of Buck, but that doesn’t stop him from listening avidly whenever they start sharing stories of the not so good old days.
He sets his pen down, dropping all pretense at not listening to their conversation.
“Yeah.. he made sure the truck was out of the station before he did anything.” Chim jokes.
Eddie still can’t believe Buck used to steal the firetruck to go have sex with strangers. Trying to reconcile that Buck with the Buck that was so serious about his job that he almost worked himself to an early death trying to come back to work, seems... inconceivable.
Eddie blinks away images of Buck choking on his own blood. That night still haunts his dreams.
“Okay, true, that boy, seriously...” Hen shakes her head. “Still, he didn’t sleep with anybody from the crew.”
Jones snorts and then looks promptly horrified when Kira smacks him on the arm. “Sorry, sorry!”
They all turn to stare at Jones with interest.
Hen leans forward. “Jones... what do you know that we don’t?”
“I’m-” he looks at Kira with a pleading look as if she can save him from Hen. “I don’t-“
“Jones, spill.”
Jones glances at Kira again and Eddie sees her shaking her head, but he caves anyway, his words coming out in a rush. “Kira slept with him on his first week here.”
“I hate you so much.” Kira declares before turning to Hen. “Jones slept with him after his probie ceremony.”
“Kira!”
“What, you snitched first!”
Chim finally sits down. “Wait, what?”
Eddie feels like he’s just been hit with a sack of bricks. Buck is bi?
From the way they all turn to him, he must have said it out loud.
“Uh, yeah.” Chim replies considering him carefully. “You didn’t know that?”
He shakes his head. No, he didn’t.
Why is that piece of information making his heart feel like it’s gonna explode? Why does it feel suspiciously like hope, this feeling that is blooming in his chest?
He doesn’t even know what his face is doing, but going by the pitying looks he gets, he suspects they know exactly what he’s feeling.
Hen lays a hand on top of his. “Oh honey.”
“Hey, what’s up?”
Eddie turns at the sound of Bucks voice. He’s coming up the stairs and looks worried, if his frown is any indication.
Eddie guesses it has something to do with Hen’s hand on his and the way they were all looking at Eddie before Buck interrupted them.
Eddie doesn’t even care that the others can see right through him in that moment. He gazes up at Buck, emotions naked on his face. He has a chance.