The Realization
“Now that is a beautiful man,” Chim says, Hen turning in the direction he’s looking.
“Where’s the lie? And I like girls.” She agrees, and Buck just has to turn now because Hen thinking a man is good looking is a rare, rare occasion.
Buck hates the way his breath catches in his throat. ‘Fucking hell. Hot.’
The man in question looks up at that, and Buck has to turn and make sure Hen and Chimney aren’t staring at him to make sure he didn’t say it aloud. They aren’t, and so Buck turns to Bobby and promptly asks, “Who the hell is that?”
“Eddie Diaz,” Bobby starts, but Buck can’t focus on what he’s saying because suddenly there’s a voice in his head.
‘I’ve gone insane. That’s it. LA has officially made me crazy.’
Buck is suddenly really hopeful that that’s a fact, because ‘What the actual hell.’
“You okay there? Buckaroo?” Hen is asking, and he snaps his attention to him, nodding.
“Yeah, sorry,” Buck starts, desperately thinking of an excuse. “I can’t remember if I started the washer this morning.”
“The washer?” It’s Chim who breaks his thoughts this time, and Buck nods, smirking as he turns to him and starts walking backwards away from them.
“Bunker pants chafe!” Buck calls, and Hen and Chim both make sounds of disgust as they disappear towards the loft.
‘Why do you know that?’ Buck doesn’t scream, he doesn’t. The way the man, Eddie, is looking at him and biting his lip to keep from laughing doesn’t mean anything.
“Jesus Fucking Christ,” Buck whispers, shaking his head and walking quickly up the stairs to the loft. He was going fucking insane, god he was going insane and it was all because they got a probie who was hot.
‘You’ve said that twice now.’ Buck honestly doesn’t know if that thought is his or whatever bastard it is that’s in his fucking head.
“Buck!” Bobby calls, and Buck turns quickly, eyes wide and a little panicked as his gaze settles on Bobby who immediately looks concerned. “Buck?” He repeats, but Buck shakes his head and rushes right back down the stairs.
“Buckley!” Bobby yells after him, and Buck thoroughly ignores it, rushing into the safety of the locker room to hide out only-
“Glass walls aren’t exactly the best for hiding,” And god fucking damnit it’s the same fucking voice.
“It was a great design choice, really,” Buck agrees, because what the hell else is he supposed to do?
He was running away from his captain because he was freaked out over the fact that there’s a voice in his head and ran directly into a room with said voice. ‘God, I’m really going insane then. That’s it. I’m done, I’m dying. Brain tumour, take me now.’
‘I’d rather you not keel over from a brain tumour. I don’t think Bobby would believe it wasn’t me.’ The voice, god fucking damn it, Eddie, says. He opens his mouth, to actually say something, but then the bells are blaring and they’re both rushing for the trucks.
Buck honestly couldn’t tell you about most of their shift, blissfully unaware of everything that was happening around him. Every once in a while the voice in his head - Eddie, he reminded himself - would snap at him to pay attention and he’d quickly get back to whatever it was he had previously been doing.
He wasn’t really there until they were in the back of the ambulance, Eddie’s eyes widening as their patient pulled the towel away from his legs.
‘God, fuck.’ Eddie’s voice sounded in his head, and then Eddie was slamming his hand against the partition of the ambulance, “Pull over! Now!”
Buck turned towards him, brows drawing together in confusion when the voice flooded in his head again, ‘Practice Rounds have blue caps.’
Buck turns back towards their patient, raising a brow at where Charlie had once again lifted the towel from his leg, ‘He really needs to stop doing that.’ only for his eyes to widen at the gold peeking out from his skin.
“Hen! Pull over!” Buck shouts, carefully pressing the towel back over Charlie’s leg, “Stop lifting this.”
Buck zones out again for most of the wait, not listening as Eddie is updating Bobby on what’s happening or as Bomb Squad finally joins them. He’s not listening until he hears Eddie in his head again, ‘If I get blown up in the back of an ambulance after going through two tours, I swear-’ Buck is quick to cut off his trail of thoughts.
“I’m in.” He says, and Eddie and Bobby are both staring at him wide eyed, but then the guy from Bomb Squad is nodding and leading them towards their trucks to get geared up.
‘You don’t have to do this.’ Eddie’s voice is insistent, Buck ignores it, listening as the guy in front of him explains what to do to him.
“I’ll see you in there,” Is what Eddie says as he walks past him, nodding to Bobby as he goes. ‘You don’t have to do this.’ Is what echoes in Buck’s head.
“All right, listen, Buck. You don’t have to do this.” Bobby says as they start towards the ambulance.
‘Broken record,’ He thinks pointedly, turning to Bobby and smiling. “You think I’m gonna let the new guy have all the fun? Besides, you wanted us to bond. We might end up real close.” Buck says, and Eddie gives him a pointed look as they reach where he’s waiting at the back of the ambulance.
“I think we’re past that,” Eddie mutters as he passes the box over to Buck, he takes it easily, climbing up into the back and settling on the bench as Eddie pulls himself into the ambulance behind him.
“How are you doing there, Charlie?” Eddie asks as he’s settling on the bench, and Buck decides he’s fine to zone out a bit again, focusing on setting up the box beside them and prepping what they need without really listening to their conversation.
“...Maybe she’ll be able to tell me in person in about a minute.” Charlie mutters as Buck zones back into the conversation, he’s quick to shake his head.
“Afraid that conversations going to have to wait.” Buck says, turning to look at him. “Nobody’s leaving this life tonight.” He reassures with a soft smile.
Buck and Eddie move around each other easily, and when Charlie’s speech starts to slur Eddie turns to him expectantly. Buck nods before he’s even started asking the question, Eddie asks it anyway, giving him an out he knows Buck won’t take.
“You ready?” Buck nods again, and this time Eddie nods with him.
It’s a blur as they move, Buck carefully pressing down on either side of the wound as Eddie works on removing the grenade, ‘Ease up a little.’ Eddie instructs, and Buck does so without thinking.
“You’ve got it right? So, just pull it out now?” Buck asks when Eddie doesn’t move for a minute, thoughts running a mile per minute and Buck can’t actually catch any of the clipped sentences Eddie sends his way.
“Got to be careful,” Eddie starts, sighing quietly, ‘The sensor measures distance based on how many rotations the shell made after launch. The key is not to turn the shell as we pull it out.’
“Okay, yeah, so don’t turn it,” Buck agrees quietly, watching the grenade carefully. ‘You’ve got this.’
Eddie manages to get the grenade out, and Buck reaches for the box quickly, holding it carefully as Eddie lowers the grenade into it. Buck smiles, looking up at Eddie proudly, and then his foot slips a little on the blood in the ambulance and the box tilts in his hand, the grenade rolling a little as it does.
‘I swear to god, Buck.’ Eddie warns, and Buck’s eyes widen as he stares down at the grenade worriedly. Eddie sighs, reaching out and carefully tilting the lid of the box closed. ‘Let’s just get him out of here, yeah?’
Buck nods his agreement easily, freezing mid movement and staring down at the box with wide eyes. Eddie shakes his head, quickly unlatching the gurney and pushing it out of the ambulance before turning back to Buck and taking the box from him. Buck jumps down from the rig carefully, Eddie setting the box down before climbing out after him. They jog as they push the gurney away, ducking under the tape and passing Charlie off to hospital personnel.
“You’re a badass under pressure, brother.” Eddie says, and Buck turns towards him wide eyed, taken aback by the sudden compliment.
“Me?” He double checks, and Eddie smiles as he nods, dropping a hand on Buck’s shoulder.
“Hell yeah. You can have my back any day.” Eddie tells him, and he swears Buck’s smile could light up the parking lot.
“Or, you know, you,” Buck trails off, voice a little quiet, “You could have mine.”
Eddie laughs at that, shaking his head and nodding, Buck had no right being so cute when he said that. “Deal.”
Bobby joins them, smiling at Buck with that proud-dad smile of his. “Nice work, fellas. I’m glad you both made it out of there.”
“Guys a professional, Cap. I was never really worried,” Buck says, and then, because of course the universe would time it like that, the rig explodes.
Buck and Bobby both flinch, and Eddie turns towards it before turning back to Buck who’s turned quickly to stare at him incredulously. ‘You almost got me blown up.’ Buck sounds a little offended, but mostly exhilarated, and Eddie smiles at him.
“You guys hungry?” Eddie asks, and Buck’s brows furrow as he stares at him.
‘Snap to, I’m buying.’ Eddie continues, and that seems to get Buck’s attention, lips quirking up, ‘Only yours, don’t you dare offer the others.’ He continues, and Buck’s smile widens as he nods, tossing an arm over Eddie’s shoulders and guiding him towards the trucks.