Word Count: 3,049
Warnings/Spoilers: None in particular for this chapter.
It was exhausting to empty equipment out of the truck because they all knew that everything had to be packed back into it again later. Even though it was for a good cause, and deep down he was excited about it, he still wished they could have a supply of gear that didn't have to be unloaded just for the purposes of a fire safety demonstration at the station.
"Hey, you good?"
"Yeah, it's not that heavy." Buck flexed his arms to lift the jaws higher, winking at Eddie hovering nearby with empty hands. "I'm stronger than I look."
Eddie rolled his eyes, catching up with Buck settling the jaws down by placing one of the heavy saws beside it. "You need to watch your step around all these things when you can't see properly while carrying something. Wouldn't want you breaking your other leg tripping over all this."
Buck raised his hands, shoving Eddie's arm lightly. "I'll break yours if you aren't careful, Diaz."
Eddie raised his arms, loose fists in front of his face and a grin on his lips as he inched forward. "Bring it, Buckley."
"Idiot one and idiot two, please don't fight when the children have arrived," Hen sing-songed, appearing from around the side of the truck with a clipboard that she was writing something on. Perhaps tracking the inventory of items that had been removed to ensure everything was returned later. "Especially when one of those children belongs to Eddie."
Buck tried desperately to maintain a serious and dignified expression when he met Eddie's eyes.
"Who's one and who's two is the real question," Eddie muttered to him and Buck made a rather undignified snorting sound that left Eddie laughing.
"You're older. That makes you idiot one, right?" he teased before checking his shirt was tucked in and his collar was correct and brushing nothingness off his shoulders just for something to do.
He had a feeling Eddie would have made a joke him about looking nice for Christopher but Eddie was doing the exact same thing.
"Hi!" A bright, light voice pulled him out of his fussing. Bobby strode past him and Eddie to shake the teacher's hand. She was an older woman with blonde hair, wearing a lavender cardigan over a grey dress. "I'm Mrs Roberts. Thank you so much for doing this! The kids are so excited."
Behind her, at least two dozen kids stood in pairs. Towards the back, Buck could spy Christopher craning to see them. Beside him was another woman who was younger, with brunette hair and dark eyes that were sweeping over the station to take it all in.
"Not a problem at all, ma'am. We love teaching the kids about fire safety and reducing anxiety about calling 9-1-1." Bobby released her hand and turned towards the assembled kids. "Well? Don't just stand there, everyone! Find a seat so we can show you all the cool things!"
Buck noted the way Eddie shifted and glanced at him, spying the fidgeting hands at his sides like he longed to approach Chris and give him a hug when Chris waved at them. He pressed his lips together to avoid smiling and focused on the role he was meant to play in their presentation by demonstrating equipment and talking about his role in the team.
Even though he knew Chris's sole focus was on him and Eddie which made him want to stand taller, it was easy to slip into going through the motions after they'd done so many presentations to so many groups of kids, like Harry's school group last year. He held up the saw when required so that Eddie explained what they used it for, then they swapped roles so Eddie could hold up the jaws and Buck provided the explanation. Bobby periodically asked the kids questions and took turns choosing the volunteers from the flurries of hands that went into the air. Hen and Chim talked through some of the basic medical procedures for saving a life and explained the importance of calling 9-1-1 and listening to the operator's instructions. They showed some of the equipment they might use in life-saving circumstances, like the defibrillator, and why it was so important that a call was made as soon as someone didn't seem okay.
Once the main portion of the presentation was out of the way, it was time to divide the kids into exploring the trucks in a small group or providing a quick tour around the key areas of the station.
"Have fun," he muttered to Eddie, who was on truck exploration duty. It was usually the least exciting, but most demanding, job because you spent most of the time telling the kids not to push the buttons or twist the dials. Bobby had stuck Eddie on it for a while now because, as he explained it, Eddie had a way of 'keeping the kids in line' when he requested they just look at the control panel and climb into the truck. Even so, Eddie's nose wrinkled while Buck skipped away, finding his small tour group of restlessly excited youngsters accompanied by their teacher. When he glanced over at the truck, he saw the other brunette woman leading Chris toward the vehicle and Eddie holding out a hand to his son.
"So, who's ready to see all the parts of the firehouse?" he said, turning his attention back to the kids and flashing them a huge grin.
A chorus of high-pitched "Meeeeeeeeee!"'s greeted him and he gave two thumbs up, gesturing to the kids to follow him. He pointed out the bunk room and the locker room, explaining that sometimes they had to catch sleep whenever they could because a 24-hour shift was exhausting if they hadn't slept. The gym hardly needed an explanation but one kid with pigtails asked how often the equipment was used if they were out saving lives or sleeping so much. Her eyes went very large when Buck explained that there were some people who preferred to be in the gym instead of sleeping, and several kids tittered at the idea of no sleep.
He led them up the stairs and showed off the kitchen area and a young boy whooped at the gaming console attached to the television, which made Mrs Roberts remind him about keeping his reactions appropriate. Then he took an even smaller group of kids who weren't afraid of heights across some of the upper rafters that criss-crossed the firehouse, explaining how useful it was to be able to see the top the trucks after a call to check everything was safely cleaned and stowed.
With his first tour finished, he pointed towards the stairs and they followed Mrs Roberts so they could start climbing through the trucks.
"Mister Fireman?"
A small tugging on his shirt drew his attention downwards to the girl with pigtails. Her hands were covering her face but there was already blood leaking past her clamped fingers.
"Uh oh." He blinked several times, then cast his eyes around. Everyone else had already gone downstairs. "Uh- Alright. Come with me." He patted the back of her shoulder, steering her towards the kitchen where he grabbed the roll of paper towels. Tearing off several strips and dampening them with water, he crouched in front of her. "Let me have a look, sweetheart."
Eyes welling with tears, she lowered her blood-soaked hands to expose the smears of red over her cheeks, mouth and chin. "Is it really bad?" she whispered, bottom lip quivering.
"Nah, honey. I've seen worse," he said, offering her a gentle smile to try to comfort or calm her and holding up the paper towel. "Do you want me to do this?"
She nodded, a tear slipping down her cheeks.
He lightly dabbed at the blood near her temples that had to have been smeared by her fingers. "Does it happen often?" he said, deciding to run some light diagnostics while he cleaned. She wrapped her hands around his arms, her big blue eyes sad.
"Sometimes." She made a small shrugging motion. "It's more common in summer but it happens at school too for no real reason."
"That sucks, kiddo." He kept cleaning, occasionally pulling her jaw down slightly so that her head tilted forward and allowed any other blood to trickle free. "It's not much fun to be seeing your own blood, huh?"
Damp eyes blinked at him. "I- I can taste it in my throat and mouth too. It's yucky."
"I'll get you some water after this, okay?" He wiped carefully at her lips, then rid her jaw of the lines of red. "Almost good as new."
Her smile wavered. "Thank you, Mister Fireman."
"Buck," he said, offering her a smile that she tentatively returned. "You know Christopher? He's the son of my best friend, Eddie."
"You're friends with Chris and Mister Diaz?" Her eyes grew very wide, her lips parting in excitement. "Chris is so cool! He's always smiling and laughing and he draws the best pictures in class! I like him! He's really smart and funny!"
"That's great to hear. I think he's pretty awesome too." Blood gone, he gave a satisfied nod and threw the paper towels in the trash then filled a glass with some water. "C'mon. Everyone's probably wondering what happened to us and you've still got a truck to check out if you wanted."
She nodded, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she descended the stairs and joined her original group that was gathered by the truck near Eddie.
"Chim took the other- Wait. What the hell happened to you? Whose blood is that?"
Buck followed Eddie's panicked stare to his wrists and arms, which were covered in blood stains.
"Oh. Uh- The kid-" He looked around until he found her sitting in one of the chairs, sipping from the water and swinging her feet. Realising he had blood on his arms from her hands meant he hadn't thought about cleaning her hands because he'd gotten distracted talking about Chris and Eddie. "Nosebleed."
"Oh." Eddie still stared at him, lips pressing around words that maybe weren't appropriate for small ears to hear. "You, uh- You should probably clean that up. It'll freak the others out. It'll definitely scare Chris when he sees you."
Hearing that made it clear that he probably did look like something out of a zombie movie and the last thing he wanted to do was scare Chris. "Yeah, yeah. Okay. Are you cool with the kids?"
"Go," Eddie insisted with a wave and Buck jogged towards the bathroom to clean up.
When he got there, he could see why Eddie had stared at him in such fright. Somehow, there was also a child-sized handprint of blood on his face. He couldn't try to explain that one, he didn't remember the girl touching his face, but he scrubbed it off anyway and then noticed darker splotches on his shirt which could've been water or blood. Deciding not to take any chances, especially if they had a particularly messy call, he unbuttoned his shirt and went to retrieve a fresh one from his locker.
He was still buttoning it when he emerged and returned to the gathering of students hovering near Hen and Bobby and still asking a myriad of excited questions. The young brunette that had seemed to be accompanying Chris was now standing closer to Eddie and Eddie, Buck couldn't help noticing, looked relaxed with a faint smile on his face as he leaned against the truck.
"You know, the navy uniforms look good on you," she was saying as Buck approached them. Her voice was sweet but her eyes raked over Eddie with unmistakable interest and Buck had to fight the urge to laugh, vomit or bite her head off. Even at work, even in the station with Eddie's kid nearby, some woman was using the sort of pickup lines that Buck had usually heard at seedy bars in the early hours of the morning. "It really brings out your eyes."
"I think it's just so that you don't see all the bodily fluids we encounter," Eddie replied, clearly not giving her his full attention, but the woman seemed unperturbed by the gruesome image that Eddie was apparently trying to conjure.
"Black would be a good look too," she continued and Buck rolled his eyes and detoured, seeking Christopher sitting beside the girl with pigtails.
"Hey, champ. Did you have fun?" he said, crouching by Chris' seat.
"Buck!" Chris wrapped his arms around Buck's neck in a clumsy hug. "It was the best. Thank you."
"No problem, kiddo." Buck ran his fingers through Christopher's curls and then held him with one arm while he looked the girl over. Her hands were clean. He wondered if Eddie had helped or someone else in the station had intervened. "Your friend here had a bit of a nosebleed earlier. You think you can keep an eye on her til you get back to school in case she needs Mrs Roberts' help?"
"Why didn't you tell me, Amanda?" Chris demanded, sounding every bit like his exasperated father as Amanda tugged at one of her pigtails shyly.
"I didn't want you worrying," she said, eyes huge as her gaze shifted between Chris and Buck. "Mister Buck took care of it for me."
Chris shook his head even as he leaned into Buck. "Thank you for helping Amanda, Buck."
Buck fought his smile as he squeezed Chris. "Not a problem, bud. How are you feeling now, Amanda?"
She offered a nervous smile and held out the empty glass to him. "Better. Thank you for the water."
Collecting the glass, he gave one last squeeze to Chris before releasing him to sit next to Amanda again. "Helping is what I'm here to do." He gave a brief pat to the top of her head and then went upstairs to the kitchen to get rid of the glass. The last thing he needed to do was put the glass down and it broke because someone didn't know it was there, scattering shards far and wide and potentially damaging a truck tyre when they rolled out to a call.
Soon enough, the excursion of kids had disappeared back to the bus and the clean-up of the tools and equipment began. As far as Buck was concerned, it was the worst part about the whole exercise. Even more than being stuck on truck exploration duty and pleading with kids to leave the oh-so-tempting dials and buttons and switches alone.
On one of his trips back and forth, Buck passed Eddie whose eyes were distant and his brows were slightly furrowed.
"Hey, you alright?" he said when Eddie joined him by the side of the truck a minute later, a coil of rope around his arm.
"Yeah, just…" Eddie shook his head as if to dislodge whatever was stuck in his head, the frown deepening. "Just thinking, you know?"
"Yeah." Buck lifted the jaws back into their compartment, checked everything was tucked in securely, and then shut the door. "Don't hurt yourself with it though."
Eddie hummed as they returned for another load. "What would you do if you got someone's number?"
Buck almost tripped over his own feet when he immediately thought of the brunette that had been unashamedly flirting with Eddie. It was an odd question, completely out of the blue, but given the way she'd sidled up to him, complimented his uniform… There was absolutely no one else it could have been. His heart flared with something hot and painful that he refused to acknowledge for long. He balled his hands before moving to lift the next item, purely as a distraction from how he felt.
"Call it and see where it took me," he said with a shrug, needing to play it cool and like he was entirely unaffected because Eddie deserved to be happy, and Eddie deserved to move on if he felt like he was ready. Buck had already accepted that nothing could ever happen between them and who was he to be the gatekeeper for his best friend's happiness? "It's a new year, remember? Leaving last year behind?"
"Yeah, I guess," Eddie mumbled, surveying the remaining equipment scattered across the floor.
Buck wondered how much Eddie was thinking about Shannon, and how much Eddie might always think about Shannon, and how much Eddie might never be able to stop thinking about Shannon.
Every pulse of his heart left a new bruise against his ribcage that he wasn't sure he'd recover from.
It was impossible to ignore how frequently Eddie checked his phone during the next shift. It was something Buck hadn't seen him do since Shannon had re-entered his life a year ago and it made his skin crawl. He tried to focus on other things, anything else, but it was damn hard when Eddie seemed to be around so often with a slight smile on his face when he withdrew his phone to check it, tapping at the screen before pocketing it again.
Even on the calls they had to make, Eddie didn't seem entirely present and Buck knew Eddie was wondering if he had any fresh texts.
"That look will give you wrinkles early," Hen teased, elbowing him as she sat beside him on the couch.
"Have you ever wanted to hate someone?" he said, voice edged with more darkness than he would have liked. Her eyebrows rose, lips pursing, as he exhaled and tried to lessen some of the anger coursing through him.
"Depends. Who are we hating? And why?"
Buck shook his head, flipping through the magazine. "Nothing. Forget I said anything."
"Buck." Her hand touched the back of his arm, something softening in her eyes and her voice as she gazed at him. "Are you okay?"
He gritted his teeth and gave her the most forced smile he'd given anyone the last few months. "I'm fine, Hen."
She didn't look like she believed him for a second but she also didn't push.
He wasn't sure he would have coped if she had.
The loathsome feeling he was starting to suspect was jealousy was sickening. He should just be happy that Eddie was happy, right?
~TBC~