"Don't think you're going to be needing those med kits," Bobby announced as Eddie, Mari, and Buck entered the yard. The woman huffed and shouldered her gear bag, glancing down at the pool where the victim floated face down.
"Huh," she vocalized.
"Yeah, Crime Scene Unit's on the way," Athena explained. "We just need to get a medical confirmation that she's dead."
"On it," Chimney called. Mariana was grateful because while she talked a tough game, crime scenes really weren't her thing. Her husband and her best friend, however…
"Chimney's being weird," Buck hissed.
"How can you tell?" Eddie asked, craning his neck and crouching down slightly to see the body better. Buck, rather than answering, got distracted by the gate.
"Hey, whoever killed her kicked that gate in good! Clean footprint on it."
"Well, that foot would be mine," Athena replied. "The gate was latched shut from the inside. Front door was locked too."
"If everything was locked when you got here, how'd the murder get in or out?" Eddie asked.
"Eh, trellis fence in the back wouldn't be too hard to scale," Mariana mused. Everyone turned to stare at her and she sighed. "Are we honestly surprised at this point?"
"It's a locked-room mystery," Buck exclaimed.
"A locked-yard mystery," Eddie corrected. "What do you think? Home invasion gone bad? Murder for hire?"
"Was she married? 'Cause...y'know. The husband is usually the culprit."
"Are we making a true crime podcast?" Athena asked.
"Ignore them," Mariana sighed. "They watched Dateline and all the Netflix crime documentaries over the summer." She nudged Buck with her elbow. "By the way, when I go missing, go for Eddie first."
/
"Hey, dinner's going to be ready in half an hour," Mari announced as she stuck her head into the bunk room. Buck looked up from his phone and sighed.
"I have a therapy session. Save me some, please."
"Yeah, of course. I didn't think you had therapy today." The brunette climbed onto the bed next to him and laid down, relishing in the moment of just being able to relax for a bit. She had been on her feet running from call to call, working on the trucks and restocking, and doing her share of chores.
"My parents."
"And that's a bad thing, I'm guessing."
He laid down next to her, tossing his phone on the small regulation night stand next to the bunk and staring up at the ceiling. Mariana tilted her head to look at him better, reaching over to poke his cheek. Buck shot her a confused look and she shrugged.
"Always cheers up Chris," she explained.
"You're such a mom."
Mariana reared her head back with a startled look in her eyes before a surprised laugh fell from her lips. She stared up at the ceiling and laughed once more.
"Holy shit, I'm a mom."
Buck let out a snort, nudging her leg with his. Mari grinned and looked over at him once more, her smile softening.
"You deserve to feel loved by your family, Buck. Blood or not. No matter what happens, I will always be proud of you. You're my brother and I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm always loyal to my family. Anytime you need me, you call."
Hopping off of the bed, she patted his knee and headed for the door. "I'll tell Bobby what's going on and he'll save some food for you."
"You're the best!"
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."
She headed down the hall, finding Eddie sitting in his usual bunk. The brunette immediately diverted her steps, hopping onto his bed. He laughed at her action and pulled her into his chest. Mariana immediately pushed against his chest and let out a dramatic whine.
"Noooo, I refuse to be seduced by you when we're on shift!" she exclaimed.
"You're so dramatic," he drawled out. "I was just getting up anyway." Eddie slid one arm under her knees and the other around her back, swinging her up and into the air. She let out a surprised shriek, her arms winding around his neck.
"Put me down you big oaf!" she exclaimed, but she laughed as he set her down. They made their way to the main area where the rest of the team was getting ready for dinner.
"Where's Buck? Is he joining us?" Bobby asked as he set the roast chicken on the stove top.
"On the phone with Dr. Copeland," Mari explained, grabbing some plates and passing them to Eddie to put on the table. "Emergency therapy session."
"Again?"
"Yeah."
"He had to ask her for advice on some, uh, de-escalation techniques," Eddie added.
"What, is he afraid his parents' visit is gonna turn into a hostage situation?"
The sounds of silverware crashing onto the table and floor drew everyone's attention to Chimney who scoffed and bent down to grab them.
"What?" he deflected.
"What do you think they're like?" Hen asked. "The parents, I mean. I look at Maddie...and then I look at Buck and I'm like...there's a story there."
"You have no idea," Chimney muttered. Mari reached around Eddie to place a napkin at each plate as Chimney continued speaking. She paused, turning to stare at her friend as he rambled.
"None of us has any idea. Just too bad, 'cause you know...if we all knew, we could talk about what we know and then we'd all know it. No one would be stuck keeping anything to themselves, alone, with no one to talk to about some potentially explosive information they really wish they didn't know."
He looked up to find everyone staring at him and then his eyes landed on the shortest team member. Mariana's glare could make a grown man cry and Eddie was honestly a saint for being able to withstand it. Chimney pivoted on his heels and bolted for the pole.
"I gotta go," he announced.
"Do we even wanna know what that was about?" Eddie asked.
"No." "Definitely not." "Nope."
/
Thanks to the soft sounds of Food Network in the background and Eddie's hand running through her hair, Mariana was nearly asleep on the couch when the call came. She blindly reached her hand out and tapped along the coffee table until Eddie took pity on his wife and handed her the offending object.
"'Lo?" she answered tiredly.
"Mari?" Buck whispered, his voice breaking slightly. She immediately sat up, pausing to show her screen to Eddie who nodded. The brunette made her way to the back door and stepped out of the house, moving to sit on the patio.
"I thought you had dinner with your parents. Is everything okay?"
"It...didn't go well."
"Where are you? Are you safe?"
"Yeah, I'm at home. I just...I didn't want to be alone. Just for a bit. Did I wake you up?"
"Nah, you saved me from Eddie's lame TV," she lied. "What happened?"
"I don't want to talk about it. I just-"
"Don't want to be alone," she chuckled. "Well, you came to the right place. What do you want to talk about? I'm planning on starting our garden soon. Diego and Christopher are kicking ass at online school. Eddie almost broke his finger trying to put a shelf up in the laundry room."
The brunette laid back against the concrete, her eyes fixed on the dark sky above her. LA pollution obscured the stars from view, but she didn't care. It was nice to just look up once in a while.
"One time you mentioned to me that you felt like a failure after Luis died. That nothing you did was ever good enough because you failed every time. How did you get past that?" Buck asked quietly.
"Therapy," she replied bluntly before softening her tone. "My therapist made me realize that I was so focused on my failures that I didn't realize what I had in front of me. I let all the dark things pull me under and sometimes, they still do. But I have something and someone pulling me up and out of the waves. Eddie, the boys, you, the team.
You, Evan Buckley, are my best friend because you have a heart of gold and you never leave a man behind. Your loyalty is both your fatal flaw and the greatest thing about you. The fact that your parents can't see the amazing person you are means that they've only had themselves in mind. You're better than that. You're more than what your parents say about you, Buck. Blood doesn't necessarily mean family."
Silence filled the line before he cleared his throat and sniffled. "Thank you. I wish I could tell myself that and believe it."
"You will. It's hard but you will. I promise you."
"...so tell me about Eddie almost breaking his finger," he changed the subject. Mari didn't push him and instead launched into her story about her overconfident husband and his boasts about putting up the floating shelves without instruction. They spent an hour talking before Buck finally said goodnight, leaving Mari to stare at the black screen of her phone with a resigned expression.
The back door slid open and footsteps sounded behind her. Eddie sat down next to her and gently took her phone out of her hand before helping her sit up. She laid her head on his shoulder and sighed.
"He's got us," he reminded her.
"I just wish he knew that," she said quietly.
"We'll help him. We'll make sure he knows. All of us. We're a team."
Mari felt her lips quirk up at his comment and she raised her head so she could look at him better. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say we're a family."