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“Did you know-” Loud sighs echoed throughout the firehouse.
It was a seasonably hot day in Los Angeles. Amid an already scorching summer, the A-shift crew of the 118 felt every moment of the heatwave. The AC unit that had gotten them through so many difficult summers had finally bitten the dust.
The groans and creaks of the coveted machine strained under the ministrations of a few crew members who supposedly knew how to fix things. Bobby wasn’t opposed to calling for professional help, at least someone who could tell an AC unit from the whole HVAC system.
Unfortunately, AC units all over the county were dying left and right. When Bobby called he was unsurprised to find himself on a waitlist. They either had to fix the AC themselves or wait in line.
“Did we know what, Buck?” Eddie asked from where he was sprawled out beside the couch.
They all knew that heat rose, but the coolest spot in the House was the floor of the loft. Eddie and Buck were happily sharing a shaded patch. Never mind, they were absolutely in the way of anyone trying to get to the kitchen.
Buck was a fountain of information. He loved to learn and loved to tell people what obscure things he learned about. Most days, his coworkers were happy to indulge him in whatever random facts spilled out of his mouth. On ‘104 degrees at 3 p.m.’ day, Eddie was the only person who wanted to hear Buck talk.
Of course, Eddie always wanted to hear what Buck had to say. Neither of them could see Hen at the kitchen island trying to create a breeze with her makeshift fan. Her familiar expression of fondness spoke of how one day they would figure their shit out. If only Eddie was braver and Buck wasn’t an airhead.
Buck lifted his head to smile blindly in Eddie’s direction. Eddie opened one eye to return the look but was much more gooey about it.
Hen rolled her eyes at Chimney but remembered her usual partner-in-crime wasn’t there. Bobby was behind the counter cutting watermelon, but sharing a knowing look with him wasn’t the same. Buck was basically Bobby’s baby, so he never seemed to pick up on Eddie’s desire to climb his son like a tree.
“Did you know, that the hottest recorded day in Los Angeles history was ten years ago this September?” Buck’s head dropped back behind the coffee table.
“How hot was it?” Bobby asked sectioning the fruit into baggies. They had a surplus of melon because of a clerical error when they went to the grocery store a few days ago. He will never know why Buck and Chim thought he wrote nine watermelons instead of four. It was a good thing they had plans for most of it so it wouldn’t go to waste.
“113 d-degrees, but the heat index was like 180 or something crazy like that.” Bobby looked up from his task to stare at Buck’s feet where they stuck out from behind the couch.
“That seems hot,” he resisted the urge to wipe the fantom sweat from his brow.
“Yeah, kind of a lot of people died from extreme heat that year.” Buck tapped his foot on the railing in a staccato rhythm. His overly long legs had no trouble reaching the metal rungs.
“Makes sense,” Hen said reaching over the counter to grab a water bottle from a wet cooler. “Eddie.” She tossed the bottle to the brunette while nodding at Buck. “Everyone needs to be hydrating. Annoyed is one word for what I will be if we have to pull out IVs for anyone who thinks water is optional today.”
That prompted some hands digging into the cooler. They weren’t conserving water, and having a furious Hen coming at them with a needle, wasn’t worth it.
Eddie broke the seal before taking a long drink. He nudged Buck’s leg and watched him take a swig, too. Eddie slyly eyed the younger man and kept nudging until he took two more big gulps.
“T-they think this year could be even hotter, cause y’know… climate change,” Buck said examining the empty bottle before tossing it at the other man. The look of utter betrayal Eddie gave him when the bottle bopped him on the forehead brought a smile to the blonde’s lips.
Eddie wasn’t sure if he wanted to pelt his partner with a plastic missile or pull him into a kiss to wipe the grin off his face. The choice was taken from him when he heard Bobby’s subtle cough. He didn’t even need to look at his captain, he just rolled his eyes while dropping the bottle to his side. His forearm brushed against Buck’s soft, freckled skin so he turned his face into the juncture of his elbow.
Eddie shook his head, he and Buck touched all the time. They high-fived, hugged, and patted each other all the time. He refused to make a big deal out of goosebumps and heart palpitations. Besides, it was far too hot for any of them to touch each other.
“Alright, kiddos and kidettes, I brought the goods!” Chim’s voice broke Eddie out of what was quickly becoming a flustered panic. A few slow, deep breaths brought him right back.
Chim jogged up the stairs carrying two overflowing grocery bags. The second the AC sputtered its last breath, Chim jumped up to run out of the firehouse yelling about having the ‘perfect thing.’
The seasoned paramedic stepped over Buck and Eddie, not questioning why the pair were laid out like starfish. He passed a bag to Hen who emptied the contents on the counter.
“That’s a lot of milk, Chim,” Hen said, pulling cartons out of the bag like a clown car. There were strawberry, blueberry, melon, and banana milks. Chim wasn’t sure if everyone would want the same flavor so he got creative with it.
“We’ve got a lot of fruit, so we needed a lot of milk,” he said putting a few cans of fruit cocktail next to the growing pile of milk cartons and soda bottles. He also pulled out a bunch of bananas and two frozen bags of berries.
“Why did you bring more fruit?” Bobby asked gesturing to the baggies filled with watermelon littering the island. “That’s one thing we have enough of.”
“Yeah, but whoever mistakenly bought that much watermelon didn’t anticipate the variety of milk flavors at the store, and wanted to make sure we had a variety of fruit to go with them.” Chim smiled innocently at the Captain and was barely deterred by the eye-roll he received.
Buck and Eddie finally left their spots to check out Chim’s spoils. The kitchen island had turned into a tropical oasis of fruit and mixers. Buck grabbed a carton of blueberry milk to read the ingredients. He’d only ever had flavored milk when Maddie used to bring strawberry syrup home when he was a kid.
“Okay, so we have all the fruit, including the fruit cocktail,” Chim said looking over the bounty. “The fruit goes into the milk and then we add the soda. We have pitchers here, right?”
Bobby nodded grabbing the pitchers they only used for holidays from the lower cabinets. He handed two to Buck and two to Eddie. “Take these to the table, we’re running out of room over here.”
“It’s like summer camp,” Buck chirped. He loved group projects, especially kitchen-related ones. Eddie smiled softly at the blonde. Of course, Buck would be excited, when wasn’t he?
“Everyone grab a different type of milk, don’t mix the flavors, it’ll muddy the Hwachae,” Chim said taking his pitchers and a couple of cartons of banana milk.
Bobby, Buck, and Eddie grabbed their milk cartons as Chim instructed them to make the dessert. Hen supervised while taste testing the fruit for quality assurance purposes.
Each batch got two baggies of watermelon, a couple of slices of banana, as many berries as they could fit, a splash of fruit cocktail, and equal parts Sprite.
The punch wasn’t hard to make, but it was hot and Buck got bored easily. So, after making his two pitchers, he joined Hen in fruit testing. They agreed that the frozen berries stole the show.
“Oh, hey, I have something to add,” Eddie said moving to the fridge. He pulled out a Superman lunchbox that Buck bought Chris. Eddie commandeered it even though he rarely needed a lunchbox with Bobby in the kitchen. He only had it today because Tia Pepa brought a ton of carambola back and he wanted to share them with the team.
“Can we add these?” he asked pulling out the berry. “They just ripened so they should be pretty sweet.”
“What’s that?” Buck asked reaching around Eddie to grab a carambola from the lunchbox.
“The things I wanted you to try,” Eddie said taking the rest out when Chim said the ‘more the berrier’. “Tia Pepa brought them back from her trip. My dad got them from a guy in Colombia.”
“Oh, the star things?” Buck asked. “They look like deflated beach balls.”
Bobby chuckled, “Yeah, they do now, but,” He grabbed a carambola from the pile and sliced the end off. “When you cut them, they look like this.”
He held a star-shaped slice out and Buck took it to sniff the strange fruit. “Smells tangy.”
“Yeah, these are the bigger, sweeter ones. There are smaller ones that are like sour candy, I swear.” Eddie said taking a slice from their Captain.
Buck popped it into his mouth, noting the sweet and sour tinge from the flesh. That sour taste followed the fruit down his throat. He coughed and stuck his tongue out after swallowing.
“No good?” Eddie asked savoring in the familiar taste from his childhood.
“Eh, it’s not bad, kind of like a crabapple, I guess?” Buck cleared his throat, still feeling the itch on the back of his tongue.
“They’re not for everyone, but we could put them in one or two of the drinks for the more… adventurous,” Eddie smirked at his best friend continuing their everlasting battle of one-upping each other for nothing more than bragging rights.
“I love adventure, that’s a commonly known fact about me,” Buck said grabbing a handful of sliced-up carambola that Bobby had just finished cutting.
“Buck-” Bobby admonished lightly. His head shook with amusement as Buck ate the handful and grimaced through the buzz and shocks of tasting too many sour things at once.
“See!” Buck said sticking his jolting tongue out at Eddie.
“Very good, Buck,” Eddie said watching with fascination as a blush crawled up Buck’s neck.
“Yeah, you showed him,” Hen added. She had just finished mixing the last pitcher and placing plastic spoons in the cups. Chim was busy adding ice cubes to the waiting pitchers.
“Mmmm, my tongue feels weird,” Buck said trying to scrape the feeling away with a paper towel.
“Okay, I think these are done!” Chim exclaimed ignoring whatever Buck was doing with his tongue. “Everybody, grab a cup, it tastes better before the soda goes flat.”
The firefighters of the 118 flocked to the kitchen. They would do just about anything to lower the temp in their firehouse-turned oven.
Eddie poured a cup of blueberry Hwachae adding carambolas for a little extra kick. He grabbed a strawberry-filled cup for Buck adding more bananas because he knew they were his favorite.
Buck, for his part, went back to the couch. He was still scraping at his tongue like he could remove his tastebuds if he tried hard enough. Eddie chuckled sitting down beside him and handing over a cup.
“Was it really that bad?” he asked sipping a surprisingly refreshing drink.
“No,” Buck said even though he habitually ran his tongue over his teeth.
Eddie was suitably distracted by the motion but covered up his staring with another gulp from his cup. “Take a drink, it’ll go away soon.”
The lingering sensation died down after Buck did as he was told. “Wow, this is great. Good call, Chim!”
Chim was fielding a lot of gratitude from his coworkers. He was glad a dessert his mom used to make him every summer was cooling everyone down on a miserably hot day.
“Do you want to try mine?” Eddie asked offering his drink. Buck eyed him suspiciously while sipping from his own cup. Eddie bounced his eyebrows and flashed him a mischievous smile.
“H-How many of those star things did you put in there?” he asked.
“Carambola. And only like two or three, you big baby.” Eddie laughed fishing a star-shaped chunk out and waving it in front of Buck like it was cursed.
“Mean,” Buck said leaning back just in case.
A little time went by of people enjoying their drinks and hiding from the heat. The AC was probably a lost cause, but Bobby did appreciate the effort. He would call the repair place again after they finished in the kitchen. He also needed to start thinking about supper.
The alarm hadn’t rang in over an hour so they were overdue for the heat getting to someone and making them do something stupid. The firefighters of the 118 had dispersed around the firehouse always on alert for their next call.
He glanced at Buck and Eddie on the couch. He knew Chim and Hen thought he was ignorant of what was going on between the two. He wasn’t sure if Buck knew how enamored Eddie was based on the heart-eyes the brunette was always sending him. Bobby had seen Buck throw his fair share of moony looks back, though, but neither had figured it out, yet.
He couldn’t tell what they were talking about from how far away he was, but he could see a red blush on the back of his kid’s neck, and that was proof enough. Their nervous dance could be considered cute. He wanted them to be happy and had friendly, but stern, talks queued up for when they were ready.
He shook his head and was going back to his tasks when he heard, “Buck, are you okay?”
Bobby’s head shot up so fast he got dizzy. That sentence was never good.
“What’s wrong?” he asked hurrying to the couch.
Hen and Chim moved together, flanking their Captain. The concern in his voice and Eddie’s panic had Chim moving past the couch. He jogged to the pole and slid down. Something told him they were going to need a medical bag.
“I-I don’t know,” Eddie stuttered fearfully, leaning heavily over the hunched form beside him. One hand rubbed Buck’s back while the other searched for a pulse. “He said his throat was getting itchy and then he started wheezing. His pulse is erratic and his skin is turning red.”
Bobby barely registered his own gasp when he and Eddie helped him sit up. Buck looked terrible. His skin was red and irritated with patches of white hives. His breath came in faster and shallower wheezes making it sound like he could barely breathe. Their biggest concern, however, was the swelling and light blue sheen around the skin of his eyes, nose, and mouth.
“Oh my God!” Hen yelled, urgency and fear laced in her words. “Lay him down, lay him down!”
“What? What’s happening?” Eddie asked anxiously. They were just joking around and drinking some milk and now Buck looked like he was dying.
They laid Buck down, Eddie moving so he could kneel next to his legs while still having a hand on his wrist. His other hand migrated to Buck’s ankle to rub at a clammy sliver of skin.
Hen ran to the railing to yell at Chim. “Make sure you have an EpiPen in there!”
“Epipen?” Bobby asked running a nervous hand through Buck’s sweaty hair. The wheezing had lessened with his change in position, but Buck was still far too quiet. Worry and anxiety dripped down the Captain’s throat like acid. “Buck’s not allergic to anything but Naproxen.”
“Yeah, that might not be true,” Hen said kneeling next to Buck to unbutton his uniform and get a better look at his chest. She was met with more hives and worse swelling. “He’s in anaphylaxis.”
“What?” Eddie yelped, his grip on Buck’s ankle tightening.
“When did this start?” Hen asked accepting a medical bag from Chim. He pulled out the blood pressure cuff and a penlight. Hen found an EpiPen in the bag. They worked in unison like they did for every call. Buck being the patient wasn’t new, but they hated it more every time.
The firefighters in the loft watched on from a loose circle around the couch. They didn’t want to crowd their coworkers but were also worried about their resident golden retriever. They weren’t sure what to do without the firehouse puppy yapping excitedly and getting into trouble. That’s what they loved about him.
“BP’s low, 90/60. Pulse is skyrocketing and shaky. Pupils are responsive. O2 is in the tank. Low 70s.” Chim reported confidently. During his examination, Hen moved down to Buck’s thigh, rubbing a flat area to ensure his leg was properly stretched out.
She jabbed the needle into the meat of his flesh. It was necessary, but that didn’t stop Eddie’s heart from jumping at the dull sound it made.
They waited, everyone holding their breath with anticipation. The rest of the firehouse breathed with him when Buck gasped, finally taking a full breath.
Eddie felt like he was about to pass out. What just happened? Why did that happen?
“Okay, that’s it, Sweetie. Nice, slow breaths,” Hen said, her chest aching with the fear of what could have happened if there weren’t fully prepared paramedics standing two feet away at the time.
Chim tracked Buck’s vitals and reported that they were returning to normal.
Bobby ran a hand over his face to compose himself. He felt the familiar terror that appeared when one of his kids was in danger. “Okay, let’s get him downstairs, we’re taking him in.”
Buck groaned but wasn’t coherent enough to argue. Bobby almost wished Buck would have complained because that would mean he hadn’t practically asphyxiated.
The main crew of the 118 bundled their youngest down to the ambulance. Hen wasn’t worried he’d stop breathing, but EpiPens were only so useful. They hooked him up to an IV to push antihistamines and cortisone, but that wasn’t a long-term solution.
Bobby handed off command of the House to Perkins and told him they would be back as soon as possible. He also called them in for light duty barring an all-hands call.
The drive to the hospital was laced with tension. Buck was conscious, but not very lucid. He kept trying to take Hen’s glasses and pull Eddie onto the stretcher. They wanted to keep him still and calm, but he was pretty distracted the whole time.
Presbyterian wasn’t packed, but the ER was buzzing when they rolled up. Buck got back relatively fast. Bobby and Eddie were allowed back since they both had medical proxies.
From there it was a simple breathing treatment, some oxygen, and more fluids through an IV to help with the swelling. Buck was coherent and breathing on his own within the hour. The doctor wanted him to stay for an allergin test, but his life wasn’t in any danger.
Chim excused himself to call Maddie to let her know what happened after the doctor stepped out.
Buck was still woozy from lack of oxygen, but at least the hives and swelling had gone down. “What happened?”
“We don’t know,” Bobby said from his seat near the bed. He stepped out earlier to call Athena and let her know what was going on, but other than that he wasn’t moving for anything.
Eddie was in the opposite chair from Bobby across Buck’s bed. He was pale from the scare at the firehouse but regained color with every easy breath Buck took.
“You were fine, and then you started itching your arms and wheezing,” Eddie added, his fingers splayed next to Buck’s knee on the thin hospital sheets. A twitch in his arm kept telling him to touch the younger man, to check that he was really there.
“I thought you were only allergic to Naproxen, kid,” Bobby said leaning forward in his seat.
“I am- I was,” Buck said fiddling with the nasal cannula that was doing nothing useful. Hen reached over and placed it back where it was supposed to be.
“So, what was that then?” she asked, running her hand over his forehead like she was checking for a fever even though he didn’t have one. “Something in the drink?”
Buck shrugged. “I’ve had all of those things before-”
“Except the carambola.” Eddie groaned. He brought his hands up to bury his face. “Did I almost kill you?”
“No!” Buck said immediately. He tried to move toward Eddie but got tangled in the wires and tubes connected to him. “I-I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
Buck turned sad eyes on Bobby willing him to say something comforting.
“Eddie, even if that’s what it was, you didn’t know. I don’t think Buck even knew, did you?”
Buck shook his head but stopped when the throbbing was too much. “That’s never happened before. There was one time like six years ago that I ate something that made my mouth itchy, but nothing like that. It wasn’t your fault, Eddie.”
Buck waited for Eddie to look at him before smiling brightly so he could see that Buck was just fine. Eddie still felt guilty, but his main concern was that Buck was feeling better. Blaming himself and shutting down wouldn’t help with that. He smiled back softly. It was just like the loveable idiot to care so much about Eddie’s feelings when he was quite literally in a hospital bed.
Chim slipped back into the room telling Buck his sister would come see him at the end of her shift. The doctor said he would be there for the next few hours with all the tests they wanted to do. Luckily, they could narrow them down if he only had to be tested for the berry he ate.
“What did you eat that one time that made your mouth itch?” Hen asked.
Buck thought momentarily, pulling up memories from when he was a bartender. “Um, it was actually a drink. I’m not sure what it is in English, but everyone in Peru just called it Paloma Estrella.”
“Paloma…” Eddie muttered. “Star? Did it have Star Fruit in it?”
Buck blinked at him. “I don’t know, what’s a Star Fruit?”
His friends groaned in a tone he recognized. “Did I miss something?”
“Oh, buddy, it’s a good thing you’re pretty,” Chim said expertly dodging Bobby’s swat.
“Buck, sweetheart, the fruit Eddie brought, that’s a Star Fruit,” Hen said gently like she was explaining something to Denny. Except Denny probably would have already put two and two together.
“N-no, Eddie said that was a carm something. Carma Bella?” Buck said, trying to get the same word to roll off his tongue. Eddie thought it was a cute and valiant attempt.
“Carambola and I think that is a Star Fruit,” Eddie tried to hide a genuine smile behind his hand. “That’s why it’s shaped like that.”
Chim whispering, ‘So pretty’ in awe went ignored.
“Oh, okay, well then yeah, I guess it’s that, but now we know,” Buck said forever looking on the bright side. That’s what everyone loved about him. The most heinous things happened to Evan Buckley, but keeping him down for long was impossible.
“So the next time I offer you something that could potentially kill you, what are you going to say?” Eddie asked, his eyes softening even further in fondness for this silly man.
“I love adventure, that’s a commonly known fact about me,” Buck said with a tired grin, relishing in the groans for once.
-fin-