Chapter Text
Chapter One
Buck walked into the 118, a spring in his step. He stopped dead as he smelt something different in the station. It was fresh, only just arrived there from what he could tell. This wasn't a lingering smell from another shift. He could also smell that Bobby almost had breakfast ready for them as well. He glanced around, trying to find the source of the smell. It didn't take long for him to determine that it was coming from the locker room. A Werewolf was in his station. This could be bad, while Vampires and Werewolves were known to the world at large, and there was no war between their two peoples. It just wasn't often that a Vampire or Werewolf were able to work together.
"Morning," Bobby greeted, looking happy, "We have a new recruit."
"Yeah," Buck said, turning to face him before he could look at the locker room.
"He was supposed to go to station 56, but it turned out that he wouldn't be able to work there. A shifter there took an instant dislike to him and tried to attack. We're hoping that he'll be able to settle in here," Bobby said as Hen and Chimney walked over.
Buck nodded, wanting to say something, but with Chimney around, he kept his mouth shut. The man was a bigot when it came to those on the supernatural scale. Vampires, Weres, and Magic users of any kind were often targets of his. Buck was his usual target, always trying to find a way to entice him into doing something that would prove him right that any type of supernatural was dangerous. Buck had easily ignored most of what the man was doing. Even when he had cut himself to try and induce a blood frenzy. Buck had never devolved into one at all. Able to overcome the Blood Thirst that most Bitten Vampires had.
"Come on, I'll introduce you all," Bobby said as he led the way to the locker room where the man was changing into his uniform.
"Cap," the man said as soon as Bobby entered the room. He frowned as he looked at the three coming in behind him. His eyes locked on Buck and his mouth dropped. "Oh."
"Yeah," Buck snorted.
Bobby looked between them and then sighed and closed his eyes, "Fuck, I forgot all about that," he said as he looked at Buck and said, "I'm sorry Buck."
"It's... okay Bobby," he said.
"No, I dropped the ball here and I should have made sure that this was going to be okay first before I brought him here," he said, shaking his head.
"Look, can me and..." he trailed off, not even knowing the werewolf's name.
"Eddie Diaz," the man said.
"Let me and Diaz talk for a few moments, we might be able to compromise or something for now," Buck suggested.
Bobby nodded, "You can use my office. Call me when you decide something."
"Thanks," Buck said, "come on, let's go talk this out."
"Sure," Eddie said, with a firm nod and a slightly worried look on his face.
"You'll end up with a destroyed office," Chimney muttered as he watched them go.
Buck closed the door behind them as soon as they were in the room, "Sorry about just dragging you in here like this to talk. I... don't have that much of a problem working with others, even Shifters, but they mostly like to avoid me. I do have a blood supply here if I need it. Cap keeps it locked up until then and a couple of emergency bags on the ladder, where I usually sit."
"Right, I don't.. have a problem either. I still have no idea why the shifter at the 56 attacked me. Nothing is going to be done, saying it's a Shifter problem and not an LAFD one," Eddie said, "I'm..."
"I get it, and what you need to do to find the reason, you’ll need to talk to the Supernatural Liaison at the HR. They're called Cassie Micheals, she's good and she will get to the bottom of what happened. I'm not sure I would want a shifter if they couldn't control their aggression. I know some shifters find it harder to control than others, especially those who are bitten and not born. But, this doesn't bode well for those this shifter firefighter meets out there if they are attacking someone that isn't a threat," he added, shaking his head as he looked at him, "I'll help you where I can on this."
"Thank you, and as for me coming here. I'm sorry, I didn't know there was a vampire here. If there was, I would have turned Captain Nash down and tried to find another station," Eddie said, biting his lip.
"The ball was dropped a bit, but it isn't going to be too much of a worry as long as we can get along. Since we're not fighting or anything, I think we should be okay. I don't feel like you're a threat to me at all, and I have a good sense about that."
Eddie laughed, "Well, I was former Army, but yeah, I was a combat medic, so while I saw action, I also tried to keep out of it a bit more."
Buck smiled, "I'm Evan Buckley, but I go by Buck around here. Word of warning, Chimney is going to push you to basically Hulk out or something. He's been trying with me since I got here, but since he hasn't crossed the line yet, nothing can be done. Bobby's been trying to catch him out, but with him brushing off certain things as 'jokes' he gets away with it. Hen tends to back him up a lot as well, make sure to call them both out on any bullshit. Oh, and Chimney will try and get you to side with him against me, he really doesn't like me. I can smell that much on him," he added, "So mostly Bobby, myself, and a couple of the others are ready and waiting for him to cross it. Make sure to read up on all the LAFD rules, okay, all of them, because if he crosses one of them, we have him."
"I will, thanks for the advice, I did go through them, but I'll go through them again," he said, "Thanks. Let's work on getting to know one another as well. It might help in building teamwork between the two of us?" he then suggested.
"Sounds good, and you're welcome, now, let's tell Bobby that we’re going to give this a go. Hopefully, it'll be fine," Buck told him.
Eddie nodded and the two of them headed out of the office to find Bobby waiting nearby. "Cap," he greeted.
"So, what's the verdict?" he asked, looking between the two men.
"We're going to give this a go," Buck was the one who answered. "We're going to try at the very least to talk things over and get to know one another as well," he said, looking at Eddie and getting a nod.
"That's good to hear, and sorry once again for not realizing. Sometimes I forget that you're a Vampire Buck," Bobby said shaking his head, “you do very well at being just like everyone else."
"Yeah, I know," he grinned, "Come on, I know you've been cooking and I want some."
"Come on, I'll introduce you around, Eddie," Bobby said as the two followed their captain up to the loft.
XxXxX
Eddie got off the phone around halfway through their shift. He had taken Buck's advice and gotten in touch with the Supernatural liaison within the LAFD and talked to her about the attack. She had just gotten back to him about what had happened at the 56. While some of the werewolf's team were willing to forget what happened, a few hadn't and had made a file to make sure that it was taken care of. They hadn't believed that it was because there was something wrong with Eddie.
"You okay?" Buck asked as he looked at the man.
"I found out why he attacked," he answered quietly.
Buck frowned, "Oh?" he asked, wondering if the man would continue.
"Something to do with my ex. I don't... want to get into it at the moment, but it looks like he might be charged with assault," he added, "A cop should be heading here to take a statement from me so that it can be logged properly. Cassie is pissed that they tried to get away with it, by saying I was dangerous without even knowing me."
"If you want to talk, I'm around. I get that some things are private and they should be. Too many fucking gossips around here, if you ask me," he snorted, as he could see a few that were looking in their direction. Chimney was the one that was staring at them.
"Yeah," Eddie said, "I've already heard a few things being said when they think I can't hear," he rolled his eyes.
Buck snorted, "Yeah, they forget a lot about what I can and can't do. I know Chimney believes that I will attack him as soon as he's drawn blood of any kind."
"Oh, he believes I'll attack him if he growls at me. He's done that three times so far," Eddie laughed.
"Yeah, he keeps reading all those weird theories about the supernatural and believes it all. He uses them against me and sometimes even out there in the real world. I know he's been hauled off twice because of the bigotry. There are more reasons why he gets away with it, but we should talk about that another time," he said, his voice lowering to such a level that even Eddie had a hard time hearing the words.
Eddie nodded, "When I get more settled in, I'll be happy to have you around my home, so we can talk more," he said.
"Sure," he nodded, smiling a little only for it to drop when he noticed that Chimney was heading over to them, "Here we go," he murmured.
"Well, the vampire is playing nice for once, and with a shifter at that, I thought the two of you would have been at each other's throats, trying to tear them out, or taking a big gulp of blood or something," he said, a little sneer on his face.
Buck and Eddie looked at him and then back at each other. "Do you feel like tearing out my throat?" Buck asked.
"No, what about you and drinking my blood?" Eddie returned to the question, wanting to laugh at how ridiculous the man was being.
"Nope," he said, shaking his head, "Sorry, Howard, but if you're looking to get a rise out of us, you're not going to win at this. We're both highly trained supernatural beings, or we wouldn't have been able to get into the fire academy, let alone be part of the LAFD."
"You'll mess up at some point, and I'll be the first to tell the brass that they should have listened to those who said having the supernatural around was a bad idea. The hunters are right that they should take you all out," he snapped at them before turning around and leaving again.
Buck wanted to say something, instead, he clenched his fists and breathed as deeply as he could. "I hate that man with a passion, he has no idea what Hunters are fucking like. What they do to the supernatural when they corner them."
"Anyone caught doing it is facing jail time and in certain places execution," Eddie said with a little frown.
"Doesn't stop a lot of them from working in the shadows," he said, shaking his head. He was going to say something else when the alarm went. "Come on, let's go show Chimney how many people will give us numbers, and make the bastard green with envy since he can't get someone at all," he said as he heard that the emergency was at a strip club.