Author's Note: Humanity….is many, many things. Today I saw it do something good for someone else who could possibly never pay the others that helped her out back.
It was just a short video clip on FB about a woman who worked at her local body shop who had been having some financial troubles and her coworkers stepped up to really help her out so she wouldn't have to quit. And, well….ikindamadeitathing.
Enjoy!
For Renée...
"Ok, Mr Vincent, you've seen the joint. What do you think?," Eddy McGee said as he collapsed into the old green and tattered desk chair behind his just as old metal desk.
"Well," Edd said as he gingerly sat on the edge of the chair in front of the desk. "Like I said before, I'll need time off in the afternoons for class on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. I can do weekends if you give me some prior notice, but other than that, I'll be happy to take the job if the offer is still on the table."
Eddy cocked a brow at the young man in front of him and snorted.
"Fuck, yeah, it's yours! I need you to start Saturday, though. We'll be swamped because it's the weekend and the more people I've got in here to help out, the better."
"What time?," Edd asked as he pulled out his phone and brought up his clock app.
"You'll have to be in at least by 530 that morning to start coffee and check the messages and shit," Eddy sighed. "Is that good? I mean, it's a job, kid, so you gotta prioritize things."
"That's fine," Edd grinned and Eddy let loose a loud sigh of relief before picking up his grimy office phone and ringing up the shop. "Yeah, Johnny, I need ya to come to my office so you can show the new guy around and get him set up real quick…Yeah, we got one. He starts Saturday, so I need his shit set up today…yeah, cool. By the way, where's Barr? I've got some classics he needs to look at...Thank God. Tell him to get Rolf to look at his shit again as soon as he gets here because I know it just can't be the timing belt."
With a nod and grunt Eddy hung up the phone, and then pulled a name tag out of a drawer in his desk. Unlike most of everything else in the office and body shop for that matter, the name tag came in a new package.
Edd took it with eager hands as Eddy said, "Label it yourself. Lots of the guys go by nicknames around here, so whatever you want to be called, we stick with. You'll still need to learn everybody's real names because you'll have to look over their files in a few weeks because it'll be tax time soon and I ain't trying to have the IRS on my ass. But we ain't too formal around here. Keep it simple, alright?"
"Yes, Sir," Edd nodded and Eddy shook his head on a snicker.
"Call me, Eddy. As a matter of fact, I'm making that an order," he said pointedly and Edd's eyes went wide, but Eddy held up a hand to stay him and then pointed out the window that overlooked the body shop's garage. "See that big guy with the buzz cut?"
Edd nodded as he saw a tall redhead write on a clipboard as he next to a blue haired, brown skinned young man who was as tall as he was and the blue haired mechanic walked around the car they were looking over and pointing out various things on it.
"That's Ed. We call him Lumpy because he bit of a doofus. And if your name is Eddward, that makes three Eds in one spot. So it's best to stick to the nickname thing like I told ya."
"Oh," Edd sighed as he realized that what he considered professionalism was bound to cause more confusion than not.
"Just put Edd down on your name tag so the people that come in will know what to call ya. You'll be Office Edd and Lumpy is Lumpy and I'm Eddy."
Edd worried his bottom lip between the gap in his front two top teeth as he thought.
"Ok, I'll be Office Edd," he said decidedly as Johnny walked in.
"Johnny, meet Office Edd," Eddy said as he nodded towards Edd and Johnny gave him a quick once over before grinning.
"Nice to meet ya! Let's get you started," he said as he led the way to the front office.
Edd quickly settled into his new position as the office clerk at Peach Creek Body Shop.
He split the part time position with Jimmy, who was dating Lumpy's little sister, Sarah. As they were both college students, hours were worked around to accommodate them both and Eddy was just happy to have someone at the front of the office regularly.
And Edd quickly learned why.
The mechanics could virtually make their own hours as their skills made it easy for them to pick and choose which types of vehicles to work on and when.
Since the body shop was the only body shop between Lemon Brook and the city, they had their fair share of work to do, but some people were better at some things than others.
Lumpy and the blue haired mechanic that Edd found was named Rolf, and the biggest thorn in Eddy's IRS avoiding side, considering his permanent foreign resident status was always under a cloud of political scrutiny, both worked on trucks, crossovers, and SUVs.
Johnny was a whiz with foreign cars, and Kevin took up the rear with classic muscle cars, motorcycles, and domestic vehicles in general.
They all helped each other when they could, at work and at home.
There were potlucks on Saturdays as it was their busiest day and there was never any real way for them to catch a break, so having food in the front office's tiny break room was lifesaver.
The biggest benefit for safety conscious Edd was that his car was always ready for the road.
It was a simple 2007 Ford Focus, which meant that it was Kevin's to look at first.
When he was at work anyways.
Eddy absolutely refused to fire him and when Lumpy mentioned that he was thinking about quitting, Eddy told him to make sure that Kevin knew he'd kick his ass and then send him back to work if he even tried to wiggle out of not coming in for good. But his work ethic was terrible in Edd's opinion.
His usual schedule was Monday, Tuesday, and Friday all day, at least that was what Eddy told him to put Kevin down for. And even then he wouldn't show up til damn noon most of the time. Saturday's were mandatory for all the mechanics, but in the six months Edd had been on the job, Kevin was in for one Saturday a month.
When he wasn't taking the bus, he was being dropped off by a blond wearing a smock Edd noticed as a beautician's smock as his best friend and roommate, Marie, had a good dozen of them in multiple colors and even more hair color stains on them herself.
Edd cut him some slack when he found out that the young blond that dropped him off was his own best friend and she was always there to help him out, but Edd was nicer than he was for letting Marie keep a bag of smocks and a mini hair color kit in the trunk of his car.
"Just me and my shit in my car," he would say wistfully before going back to the task at hand of either checking the tire pressure or changing the oil in Edd's car.
Edd would usually chuckle and head back to the office, but one light Thursday afternoon when Kevin was picking up a shift because he missed the last three, he questioned his "me and mine" motto.
"After all the rides Nazz has given you and you still won't let anyone else in your car? Your mother never taught you to share, Kevin?," he teased.
Kevin's face fell into a small smile as his usually tired, but still bright green eyes looked so sad.
"She did. Does," he chuckled before sighing sadly. "But maaaan, like my dad gave me that car, so it's kinda special you know?"
Edd nodded as he remembered playing with his father's well taken care of Phillips Mechanical Engineer 1200 kit as a child. When the man passed away his freshman year of college, he inherited it and put it in the display case his mother got him when he started to win awards for all his robotics tinkering.
"Yes, I do," Edd nodded. "What kind of car is it?"
"1968 Mustang Fastback," the redhead grinned and Edd gave a low whistle which made Kevin cock a brow.
"My mother owns a 1977 Corvette," he shrugged as Kevin reeled.
"She WHAT?!," Kevin gasped as he tossed the shop towel over his shoulder and put his hands on his hips.
"Baby blue, white interior. Still has all the stuff it came with," Edd grinned as Kevin's shock took over his face and he looked like Edd just told him he owned Peach Creek's candy factory or something. "She takes care of it herself, though."
"I love your mother," Kevin said lowly and Edd laughed.
"I'd say the feeling was mutual," Edd winked before knocking the wind out of Kevin's sails. "But you have a Mustang soooooo…"
"Yeah, yeah," Kevin groaned before slamming the hood of Edd's own Ford close. "You're gonna need a tune up soon and I know I'm good for the next couple of Saturdays because Nazz is letting me borrow her car while she goes out of town and shop guys get first dibs on my shit."
Edd pulled out his phone and brought up his calendar.
The coming Saturday he was going to an engineering conference to network, but the following Saturday was just another regular Saturday.
"Not this Saturday, but the next is good for me," he said and Kevin nodded.
"Put it on my schedule!," Kevin called to him as another car honked to be let into the body shop and Edd headed back to the office.
Edd did his best to keep Kevin's schedule booked by Eddy's orders, but things still weren't coming together for the redhead like any of the others in the shop thought they should.
While he did his best to keep out of the office gossip, because he had his break with Lumpy and Johnny, he soon found out why Kevin was one of the best employees Eddy had with the worst attendance record Edd had ever seen.
The redhead's father died when he was just 15 and his pension from his job at the local candy factory was small. His mother's teacher's income was small as well, so he started working two weeks after they buried his father to help out.
Things were ok for a good decade, then his mother got sick.
The medical bills started to add up, and things got even more expensive once they found out that she had fibromyalgia. She would live, but taking care of herself was going to cost a pretty penny and it was going to be a few years before she could get on Medicare or social security which would help elevate the expenses her illness was taking on her bank account.
Kevin had moved out at 19, and after a series of roommates, couch hopping with Nazz at one point, he got to be on his own by the time he was 24. But he came home as soon as his mon started feeling bad enough to actually complain about it.
And his only vehicle was a car that was only barely older than Eddy.
He refused to sell it, and no one blamed him. But between his mother's expenses and the car's, he was bleeding money and coming up as dry as the Sahara.
"Is there any way we can help?," Edd asked one day over a quick break with Lumpy and Rolf as Kevin did inventory in the garage to make some kind of money since this particular Saturday was light and Edd's car was good for another 5000 miles.
"We've tried," Lumpy sighed and Rolf shook his head.
"He's too prideful to ask for it outright, so we never know what to give him," Rolf said quietly as he shrugged his shoulders before heading back to the garage to pull a Porsche Macan GTS out of the garage and Edd rolled his eyes as Eddy wiped a tear away and waved goodbye to the teenage owner who took off like a speed demon as she and her girlfriends squealed and blasted their music like the obnoxious youngsters they were.
"What needs to be done on it?"
"He won't really say," Lumpy said as he stood and stretched before walking out to help Rolf get a Mercedes on the lift so the foreigner could change the oil and he could run a diagnostic on it as it was ticking according to the doctor who owned it.
When Edd's mother pulled in to drop off a few things she bought for he and Marie's apartment that she thought they could use, Kevin's eyes lit up when he saw her roadster, and only Eddy caught the way the wheels turned in Edd's own as he introduced the redhead to his biology professor and Corvette expert mother.
"$2500?"
Edd nodded as Jimmy jotted the number down and looked around the room.
"Put me down for $250," Eddy said as he pulled out his wallet.
"I'm dry, man," Lumpy said as he shrugged apologetically.
"But soon we won't be," Rolf grinned.
"Wha?," Lumpy said in sheer confusion.
"We've got at least $500 coming in between us in a week because spring break starts in like two weeks," Rolf said as devious smile crossed is face and Edd snickered as what looked like dollar signs ran across Eddy's eyes.
"Put us down for $500," Lumpy said as he gestured between himself and Rolf and Edd nodded as Jimmy took more notes.
"I can do $150," the blond said as he added his name and gift to the list.
"Sorry I'm late!," Johnny said cheerfully as he came into the living room and Edd shot Marie a grateful look that she just shrugged off as she headed to the kitchen to get Johnny a soda. "What're we doing? Where's Kevin?"
"We're trying to get some money together for Kev," Eddy said as he tapped away on his phone. "What you good for?"
"$450," Johnny said quickly as he pulled his wallet out.
Edd and Jimmy both blinked at him but Jimmy eagerly took the money handed to him anyways.
"Put me down for $200," Marie said as she came into the living room and handed over two crisp $100 bills.
"Marie –"
"Shh, you," she giggled as she put a finger to Edd's lips and the ravenette rolled his eyes as he shook his head away from her. "He helps you out, and he seems cool. Plus from what you told me, he seems like he needs it and is gonna use it right, so I'm helping."
Edd shot her a look that meant she'd get fussed at later, but she shrugged because she knew she was right.
"What are we up to?," Edd asked and Jimmy did the calculations.
"$900 here now," the blond said. "And I'm guessing we'll get the rest in two weeks?"
"Put me down for $400 and I'll give it to you when I see you Saturday," Edd said as he opened the banking app on his phone and transferred some funds.
"Ok that leaves us with $1000 to cover between now and when the spring breakers leave," Jimmy sighed, hoping against hope that Ed and Rolf would be able to cover their end of things.
Eddy nodded before shooting Lumpy a glance and the big guy cocked his unibrow. Edd watched their silent conversation with interest as Rolf shook his head and Jimmy said, "Not it!"
Johnny sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he asked, "Am I gonna need bail money?"
"Nah, this is just a soft scam," Eddy chuckled and Lumpy snorted.
Jimmy shot the two Eds a look and Eddy waved him off as he said, "You won't even be there for it so you're off the hook."
The blond sighed before he, Johnny, and Rolf suddenly all sat up and railed into Eddy for wrangling Edd into one of his scams.
"Hey!" the host protested. "I'm sitting right here!"
"And since this whole thing was his idea anyways," Eddy pointed out, "he's gonna help."
Eddy's tone struck Edd as odd and his gut whirled a bit.
"Help?"
"Help," Eddy grinned and Lumpy giggled.
A week later, Edd finds himself in front of a newer office building in downtown Lemon Brook. He's dressed in a suit and tie, and thankful that Marie could squeeze him in for a haircut at the last minute because he needed to be at his professional best for this, so it meant his beanie had to stay in the car.
Shaking off his nerves, he stepped out of his vehicle and made his way into the office building of one Angela Jackson, owner of Lemon Brook's Lady's Street Team, a motorcycle club known just as much for its fleet of pink Kawasaki's as its members charity work.
The not for profit was heavily involved in providing a place for school age girls in Lemon Brook and Peach Creek to safely learn how to grow into kick ass women, as well as helping families get the resources they needed to help them not just survive, but thrive.
Kevin had met Angela when his mom got sick and the principal at her school linked her with The Princess of Charity in getting his mom some help that her basic insurance couldn't cover.
When she found out he was a mechanic, she made sure her motorcycle club went to him to have their work done.
But, Kevin hadn't been paid for some of it as some of the riders were single mom's or single riders whose incomes were too tight to pay right away. Ang would add up the totals and make sure that if she owed someone some money, they'd get it.
Lately, however, she had been avoiding Eddy.
Then Jimmy.
She knew everyone in the shop so it was no good to send them over to collect.
But Edd was new and she was the only person between the two towns that he hadn't met that used Eddy's body shop regularly.
Thing was, that she wasn't meeting Edd.
She was meeting Double Dee, a whiz kid junior in the engineering department and the head of the Engineers Union at Peach Creek State College. And she was giving them their $2000 sponsor's check for the semester.
It was late, but it was going to be in Edd's hands.
"I'm truly sorry about this, Mr Vincent," Angela said as she signed the check and handed it to him with a flourish. "The economy tanked and between that and the government funding drying up left and right, I've been drowning instead of swimming, ya know?"
"Of course, Ms Jackson," Edd nodded, praying that he was maintaining his composure because he felt like he was drowning as well.
When Edd mentioned that Angela's charity was late with their sponsorship check during one Saturday lunch as her organization was one of the few in town that kept the club regularly in the black, Eddy's interest was piqued.
Edd was a good kid, straight A student, involved in all sorts of things at school. Eddy could see him doing all sorts of big things with his degree, and was just happy that he was working for him without complaint about the low pay and lack of any real benefits.
Economy tanking or not, as far as Eddy was concerned, it was shitty for Ang to screw over two of his best employees.
So to make it up to them, he put some feelers out and made sure that Ang would finally pay something for once.
A councilman with a Harley, a real estate developer with a fleet of pickup trucks, and the catcher for the minor league baseball team in town all made small, but considerable donations to help the charitable woman out. As such, she could start making good on promises made when the harvest looked plentiful and full, and the workers, many.
Edd didn't know what to say to Eddy's plan when he told him about how he could help their short fall without it hurting them.
But it was for Kevin, so he went along with it.
When he found that he could help out himself with said plan, he was quickly all for it.
Check in hand, he went to the bank and then took his club treasurer to lunch to explain things to her.
Considering that he had already fronted the club $1000 for various things over the course of the semester, he'd take the rest as pay back for himself so the club wouldn't be over their fund limit with the school.
And since he had gotten back his money through a few cash prizes at some engineering competitions, he didn't bat an eye when he gave it to Jimmy a week later as Rolf handed over his and Lumpy's contribution as well.
Jimmy batted his eyes, though, to get the tears out of the way. Edd handed him a tissue as Rolf patted his head and went back into the garage to get back to work.
"He's gonna be so surprised," the blond sniffled as he tucked the money and a note with it into an envelope.
"Well, that's kind of the idea," Edd smiled but Jimmy shook his head.
"No, no," he protested softly. "It's like…it's not like he's prideful, he just thinks he's being a burden and he's always scared he'll never be able to pay people back. Like, I've known him since we were kids. Well, I was the kid," he giggled. "But yeah. He's always tried to be there for other people but after his dad died, he figured out who was just using him because he always had a way to help people because his dad had a bit of money because you know the factory pays good. When he needed it, people either turned their backs on him or were always on his ass about him paying them back. So he's been careful about making his own way. But when he sees this, though…"
Edd looked at Jimmy in a bit of shock and awe as some of the truth of the matter came to light. He had only wanted to help Kevin get to work and do what he loved as he seemed to want to do it versus just treating it as a job.
And see the car he talked so much about.
But after Jimmy wiped his face he saw Edd worrying his lip between his teeth, something he always did when he was thinking hard about something.
He did it before introducing himself to the crew as Double Dee, which is what most of his friends called him because of the two D's in his name.
He did it before he started talking about his father on a regular basis as it was bittersweet memory for him to talk about the man who influenced so much about who he was trying to become as a man and as a person.
And he did it when it came to anything about Kevin.
The blond was surprised that his lip wasn't cut up and bleeding with the way he'd worry it when it came to their wanna be workaholic friend.
"How are we gonna give it to him, though? I seriously doubt he'd like it if we all handed it to him at once or something," Edd said as he picked at his fidgeting fingers.
"You're staying late to give him a ride home, right?"
"Well, yes and no," Edd said. "He couldn't get to my car til late today, so I have to stay because Eddy and my mother have both said I'm not allowed to leave town til he looks at it and he said Nazz couldn't come get him so I figured could help him out."
Jimmy laughed and said, "Uh huh," as his giggles died away, ignoring Edd's blushing glare.
"Look, just slip it into his bag or something and he'll see it when he gets home," Jimmy said as he stood and slipped him the envelope and made his way out the door.
"Are you sure I can't give you any gas money for this?," Kevin asked as Edd headed to his cul-de-sac, which was across town from Edd and Marie's small apartment near the college.
"Nope," Edd grinned. "Consider it payback for looking her over, and just a test ride before I put it on the road."
"Ok," Kevin shrugged. "Where you headed this time, anyways?"
"Just Myrtle Beach for a conference."
"Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Robots in the sand!," Kevin teased and Edd groaned.
"Yes, there will be some competitions and I'm sure a few will be outside, but robots and sand on the college level don't get along well," the ravenette sighed as he pulled into Kevin's driveway and his mother waved to them from the front door as she checked the mail.
"I'm sure anything you guys build will be great," the redhead winked before he hopped out of the car and tossed his bag and a wave over his shoulder as he went inside, the envelope that would help him better help the woman he was hugging at the door just barely peeking out of the side pocket.
Edd didn't see Kevin for the next week, but Eddy told everyone to not worry about it.
But Edd worried and Jimmy bought him some chapstick.
The following Saturday, he rushed out of his apartment as he overslept because he forgot to set his mandatory Saturday work alarm.
And the roar of a muscle car hit him as soon as he hit the sidewalk out of his apartment.
His jaw dropped as a cherry red 1968 Mustang Fastback slipped next his Focus.
The car gleamed a bit in the early morning sunlight and Edd's heart raced as fast as he knew the racing stripe going along the middle of the classic car's body could go once Kevin opened the engine up.
"Hey!," Kevin smiled as he stepped out of the car and Edd just gave him a small wave. "C'mon get in! We need to go to Roy's Donuts real quick because I told Eddy I'd buy breakfast when I came back."
Edd just nodded as he stepped off the curb and Kevin ran to him to take the crock pot of what he knew to be some kind of stew or soup out of the ravenette's hands and put it in the milk crate he kept chained down in his trunk.
Next to a small canvas bag of black beautician's smocks.
When Edd slipped into the passenger seat, his heart took flight.
He remembered so many fast rides in his mom's car, but something about what was happening now was different.
"I can't believe you're giving me a ride," he giggled breathlessly when Kevin got in and started the car.
"Fair is fair," the redhead shrugged as he backed the car out of the parking space and coasted to the road. "Oh and thanks, Dee," he said as he waited for traffic to clear.
Bright, but slightly confused blue eyes snapped up into his grateful own and then he smiled and those blue eyes lit up like the sun that was just starting to rise.
"For?"
"I know it was you that got me the money and I –"
"But –"
"Don't be so modest, Edd," Kevin said as he shook his head and handed Edd the note that Jimmy wrote that explained everything.
"I just wanted you to be able to help yourself is all," Edd said shyly as he tucked the note into the glove compartment.
"Yeah," Kevin said quietly as he ran his hands over the steering wheel of his car and shook his head.
The only people in his life that had wanted that for him were his mom, Nazz and the guys at the shop, but no one had been able to figure out a way to get through to him until Edd.
With fresh eyes and ears on his situation, Edd managed to formulate a plan that would give Kevin a hand up, not a hand out. As long as he could get to work, they'd all be ok because they would know that he was ok.
Not a penny would be paid back in the monetary sense, but the payback over the course of their lives as they got to keep their connections by maintaining their friendships like their cars, would come back to them in infinity loops through time.
When he told Nazz about what Edd had done for him, she told him he owed him a ride.
He balked, not because of his rule, but because of why he'd be breaking it.
Anyone that got a ride had to be really fucking special.
His dad asked his mom out and then proposed to her in this car.
For all he knew he was conceived in it.
Edd had grown from his friend to his work husband to someone he wouldn't shut up about to everyone as long as Edd wasn't in earshot.
So if he gave Edd a ride, he'd had to admit a few things to himself about himself and he wasn't sure if Edd would understand let alone feel the same way.
Especially, since no one heard much of a peep out of Edd regarding his feelings, but he sure did show them with the way he'd schedule Kevin's work, making sure he was available for rides that the redhead only rarely took him up on because of their different schedules, and that when Edd needed him to look at his own car, he was there, no questions asked.
Kevin didn't want to read too much into things, but Nazz was right.
And so was Edd.
"Kevin?"
Kevin snapped his head to him, and Edd gave him a small smile as he pointed to the now empty road.
"Traffic's clear."
Kevin nodded as he eased the car on the road and Edd pulled his sunglasses out of his messenger bag.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the ravenette lean back in the seat, the epitome of geek cool with his beanie, simple black Ray Bans, grey Converse, khakis, and purple polo.
"Cute," Kevin thought as he hit the first stop light and then pulled on his own blue aviators and a quick moment passed before he caught Edd staring at him. "What's up?," Kevin asked as he shifted the car's gears a bit while they waited for the light to change.
"You look like a race car driver," Edd said as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
The redhead had on his usual tan work coveralls, but with the glasses and in the fast car, he did look a bit like he should be on the race track, not on 5th and Blackberry Lane in simple Peach Creek.
Kevin cocked a brow before turning his head back to the empty road and the light turned green.
"Hold on."
Edd out right screamed with glee and tapped his fingers on the ceiling of the car as Kevin laughed and opened the engine up and they shot down the road and into something they both knew was starting fast, but like a ride in the country on a lazy Sunday afternoon, it'd be easy on their minds, warm their hearts, and revive their souls.