The dull beeping sound was the first thing he woke up to before fading back out. There were flashes of his army days, mainly him in the hospital bed after being shot, they started to make him stir more, not wanting to relive the memories.
His eyes slowly open and take time to adjust to the bright room. The first thing he does is wiggle all his toes and fingers just to make sure and lets out a sigh when they do. Looking around the room he can see a bag and coat on the chair which he recognised as Abuela's, but she was nowhere in the room.
He moves to sit up and that's when his head reminds him to stay still. Feeling around the bed he finds the call button and presses and within seconds a nurse appears at the door.
"Mr Diaz, nice to see you awake, how do you feel?" She asks.
"Ermm, all things considered, but what happened?" He questions, in the fire he didn't recall being hurt.
"Well you took a very nasty hit to the head, which caused you to black out and also the loss of blood from the pieces of glass didn't help, to be honest the firefighters were surprised you were moving at all, I will go get the doctor." She explains.
Eddie sat there trying to piece together what had happened, he remembered the guy joking about a bomb and then Louise had spoken to him making him turn and then the explosion. He guessed the explosion sent the glass flying at him, so much for bullet proof he thinks.
Thoughts trail off to Clive who most likely hadn't made it that close, then to Louise he hoped she was ok, that's something he would find out soon enough.
"Edmundo, you're awake." Abuela's voice makes Eddie lookup, breaking him from his thoughts.
"Yeah, how long was I out?" He questions if it had been days Chris would be worried.
"Just the night, it's the day after the explosion. Don't worry Shannon knows what happened mainly because it was all over the news.
"Great, what did she say?" Eddie asks, he knew she would most likely blame him if she had to have Chris longer than they agreed.
"She obviously moaned at first saying that she couldn't have Chris longer than the week you had agreed, but soon shut up when I told her what for. I stated she wouldn't have him as long as he would come to me if you weren't better." Abuela states.
"No doubt she hated that." Eddie chuckles but starts to cough.
"Take it easy." Abulea explains, passing the cup of water to Eddie.
"Sorry, just you know she is. She wasn't happy with you know.." he hated saying it out loud.
"That your gay, Edmundo it's ok to say it. I'm not like your father or that bruja." Abuela smirks.
Eddie knew she was right, Shannon was a witch, especially when he came back from the army injured and told her the truth about himself.
"True, but still she is Chris's mum."
"When it suits her."
It goes quiet and Eddie feels there is tension, he didn't mean to make it awkward but Chris did deserve to see his mother every now and again, he just wished she would want to do it more.
"Nice to see you awake Mr Diaz, how do you feel?" The doctor asks as he walks in.
"To be honest ok, though by the sounds of it I shouldn't guess the pain meds are good." Eddie chuckles.
"Yes that they are, so looking at your injuries, you will be able to go home tomorrow and will have to pop to a nurse to have your bandages changed on your back, but the nurse can explain that. But any symptoms that arise come straight back." The doctor explains.
"Thanks." He replies.
The doctor leaves and Abuela talks some more but leaves when he starts to yawn indicating he needed rest so he drifts off.
The next few days go by quickly, Eddie is back home and able to move easier by the day, he catches up with Louise and they pay their respects to Clive who was the only one killed. It was going to be a few days till Chris returned but Abuela had already stated she was having him for at least a week till Eddie was 100%. He had also been interviewed several times by the police going over everything over and over just in case he remembered something else, they were annoying but he got it and the sergeant explained there shouldn't be more interview's. But gave her card to him in case he remembered.
Eddie had phoned his boss about the possibility of work situation as he really hated been off and even offered to move to another office till his was rebuilt, the boss explained for Eddie to pop into a branch across town to come and chat, so Eddie finds himself in the car with Abuela on the way to the office to meet him.
"Edmundo, are you sure that you should be heading back to work so soon, it's only been a few days." She says.
"I know, but.. it's… I need to do this ok." He tried not to sound angry, it's just he was fed up of playing the thing over and over in his head, he just wanted something to take his mind off the whole thing.
"You need time to recover and to process everything that happened. You lost a friend."
"I have, look I lost friends in the army, and life goes on and the dead are forgotten." He says.
"Edmundo Diaz, we do not speak of the dead like that, they are not forgotten." Abuela raises her voice.
"But they are, you look at my army buddies, no one at the force really talks about the ones who died, there's just a name on the wall and that's it." He explains.
"I know how stubborn you are so I won't push you on this, just take it easy." she explains.
"Thank you." he replies.
The rest of the journey is met with silence, Abuela knew him so well so just let him think it over. As they pulled up to the post office Eddie took note of how busy it was with people queuing down the street, obviously due to his one being closed.
"I will wait here for you, you shouldn't be too long I hope." Abuela says.
"Yeah, just a meeting and see what I can do. I just hope they let me come and work even a few half shifts." He replies.
He starts to make his way to the main entrance, in the corner of his eye he can see the queue staring at him as he gets close to the main entrance which had two police officers standing either side.
"Queue is that way sir." The office states pointing to the queue.
"Oh, no I'm not a customer, I work for the post office. I'm here to see the manager, ask him, tell him Eddie Diaz is here." Eddie explains, noting how the officers look at each other before signaling the floor staff.
Eddie stands and watches as the police officer explains and the floor staff wander off, Eddie can see the office was big like his but there with massive gaps where police stood with dogs, the security was tighter than an airport, he sees the manager wandering through the shop towards the door.
"Eddie, so glad to see you. It's ok officers Eddie works for us." The manager explains.
The officers nod and let Eddie pass, though the groans from the queue made him chuckle. As they wander through they are stopped while a security dog sniffs Eddie, which he didn't mind given the incident. As they get through he sees people at the counters and some stood to one side at the writing desks obviously sorting something they had forgotten to do.
"Eddie, just wait here, I need to sort something." The manager says.
"Yeah that's fine." Eddie explains as he watches as the manager heads to the main counter desk to talk to someone.
"Why are forms so hard?, I mean why do they need to know that?" A voice from the writing desk makes Eddie look over, the man had his back to him but he could tell he worked out and was tall.
Seeing as the manager looked to be dealing with a problem Eddie decides to help the customer considering the floor staff seemed to have disappeared. He makes his way over and fear starts to creep in, was this a right thing to do? What if they attack him?. But looking around the building and all the security he knew he was safe.
"Hey, can I help with anything?" Eddie asks.
The guy turns around and he's definitely a few inches taller and has blonde hair and then the eyes land on Eddie and he feels his heart skip, but then a sudden realization.
"Aren't you…."
"The firefighter who saved you, yes." the guy smiled, Eddie tried searching his memory for the name he said.
"Buck?" He says, and then sees the smile grow bigger.
"Nice to see your memory wasn't damaged, shouldn't you be at home resting?" Buck questions.
"Yes, but I hate staying at home. It gives me too much time to think so I came in to see if I could do some work. Anyway thank you again for saving me. Sounds like you need saving from some forms though? So can I help?" Eddie asks.
"Please, I need to send this parcel to a friend in the United Kingdom to which the grumpy woman gave me this and said go fill it, oh and I need to redirect my mail to which the other grumpier man gave me this, these forms are evil." Buck chuckles.
"Hey, they're not so bad, they're easy really." Eddie explains.
"Yeah, if you work in the Post Office, of course you know what to do." Buck snickers.
"Oi, did I say how to save us in the fire?" Eddie throws back.
"Touche, I think I shall call you Marlin, or Mr grumpy gills." Buck says and Eddie looks at him and Buck throws his hands up in the air and starts laughing.
"It's fine, I will leave you to the forms, good luck." Eddie laughs as he turns to walk away.
"Awww don't, I need to get this done and head to work I start in an hour." Buck pleads.
"Fine, as long as I get to call you dory." Eddie smirks back.
"Ughh ok, How does someone that works in the post office know disney films so well?" Buck asks, whilst Eddie looks at the forms.
"Simple I have a kid, so this customs form needs information, so what's inside?" Eddie asks.
"Why do they need to know that? They have x-ray machines at the airport." Buck says.
Eddie just turns and raises his eyebrow at Buck and waits and waits and then Buck puts a hand to his mouth as the answer hits him.
"Shit… I mean sorry. Guess you guys need to know, believe it or not it's all jerky, twenty packs of them." Buck says smiling.
"Really twenty? Why so many?" Eddie says as he finishes filling in the bits he can.
"They can't get it over there, and they pleaded I send some so here I am trying." Buck replies.
"True, so you need your address here and then your signature there and then that form is done." Eddie explains, the whole thing was weird helping the guy who had saved him just over a week ago. Life was funny.
"Thanks, now for the redirection, who knew moving meant so much to do." Buck says.
"Oh I know, so the main parts are easy, old address and then new. How long do you want it for? And when to start from?" Eddie asks.
"Erm, I've already kinda moved out, and a few months doubt I would have anything anyway." Buck says, and Eddie can sense some sadness to it.
"I'm sure your new place is great." Eddie says. He didn't know why he had said it.
"Thanks. Looks like i'm all done. I owe you one." Buck says.
"I'm sure we can call it even, after all." Eddie chuckles.
"Yeah guess so, so you said you have a kid, bet they were worried about you." Buck says as he picks up the parcel and forms.
"He sort of doesn't know, he's with his mum this weekend, we're separated, so kinda glad he was away." Eddie explains as he walks with Buck yo the queue line for the counters which wasn't long due to them only letting someone in as someone left.
"Eddie, sorry about that, how about we go and talk in my office." The manager says as he walks over.
"Yeah sure." Eddie replies.
"Ah Mr Buckley, how are you? Sending a parcel today?" The manager asks, looking at Buck.
"Yeah, and I've told you to call me Buck. Eddie really helped me out who knew overseas parcels could be so complicated, going to keep it internal from now on." Buck says smiling.
"Eddie is one of the best, such a bad thing that happened." The manager says and Eddie looks at Buck who looks at Eddie and they laugh, to which the manager looks at them both.
"Oh, I saved Eddie." Buck just says casually.
"Ah right, well thank you. Now we will leave you to it, cone on Eddie, im sure Mr Buckley has work to be heading to." The Manager says, so they start to walk off.
"I said call me Buck, see you in here hopefully Eddie." Buck shouts.
"Hopefully, see ya later and thanks again Dory." Eddie chuckles as they head through the doors, looking quickly behind to see Buck laughing.
They head in to the back room and talk about the job and the manager questions why Eddie wants to return after something so serious but with his record the manager wavers and explain he can come and do a few days a week for the next month and they will reevaluate the situation, but Eddie must get signed off by his doctor and the hr team beforehand so he knew he was going have fun with that part.
They head back out of the office and the manager who's called Nick directs him behind the counters to introduce him to the other staff, to which he realsies Buck was right they were grumpy and nothing like Helen or Louise, but hopefully he would see them soon enough.
"So, you're the one that annoying firefighter wouldn't shut up about." The woman sat at the counter, looking at the name tag that said Ruth.
"What's wrong with him? He was nice." Eddie questions.
"You helped him, now he will annoy us with silly questions and ramble about random facts. It took us ages to get him to stay quiet at the till, so thanks for that." she snarks.
"Well it's our job to help the customer and listen no matter what they ramble about." he replies, this was going to be a fun time.
"Yeh easy for you, you will do your temp cover here till your office is reopened and then head back there leaving us with him and any other customer you make nice with." the man on the other side says, his name tag said Tim.
"Well maybe you should give him a chance, anyway I owe him, he did save mine and my colleagues life, so you know some gratitude for him." Eddie replies back, trying to hold his tongue.
"He had plenty of that after he was crushed by the firetruck, no more now, right some of us have work, see you soon." Ruth snarks and turns to call the next customer, Tim does the same.
Eddie follows Nick out and leads him to the main entrance.
"Sorry about them, there… not the friendly people but it's what we have." Nick chuckles.
"Look it's fine, if they don't want to deal with Buck or any other happy customer I'm up for taking them." Eddie smiles back.
"I will hold you to that. Now go get the stuff so we can get you to work." Nick explains and shakes Eddie's hand and he leaves the building.
As he walks to Abuela he was happy he could be working again and a part of him thought back to what Ruth had said about the firetruck, he would rewatch it later, but a part of him hoped he would see Buck again but he knew he wouldn't, Buck's new address was the otherside of the city so nowhere near this branch or his own branch. Fate had stopped him again for maybe finding someone.