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It’s been almost two months since Eddie announces to the 118 that he and Marisol are no longer together. Honestly, the whole thing hardly warranted a full-scale announcement; they had been naturally growing apart for a while and the formal breakup was just them both recognising that fact. Two months later, very little has changed: nobody has joined or left the firehouse, and miraculously they’ve all managed to avoid any life-threatening injuries or natural disasters. Everything is going well, in that everything is perfectly normal.
Eddie has been going to therapy on and off for around four years by this point, and yet Frank still manages to surprise him. In this case, the surprise comes in the form of Frank’s response to Eddie’s usual short description of the events of his week.
“I want you to tell me about your history with relationships.” Frank says.
Eddie’s response isn’t entirely words, given that his brain has momentarily turned off. Eventually he manages to regain control of both his conscious thought and his muscles enough to ask “Why?”
“I’m aware of your current relationships, given that you’re happy to talk about your friends and colleagues.” Frank explains. “And we’ve discussed your relationships with your family in quite a lot of detail before, but I’m only aware of the very broad strokes when it comes to both your past relationships and specifically your romantic relationships.”
Eddie considers this point. “I guess that makes sense. I don’t really… talk about people when they’re gone. And I don’t talk about dating much. I think-”
Frank gives him that look he always does when he can tell Eddie’s about to try and avoid saying something particularly self-aware. “Go on.”
“I think talking about romantic relationships feels kind of pointless when the relationship is either new or already failing.” Eddie forces out. “I never had problems telling people about Shannon, actually, before we got married and had Chris. Even in the Army I would tell people about her. But ever since then- I guess I haven’t really felt like that again. I thought I was close, with Marisol. But then everything started to slow down and before I knew it we had basically already broken up. We just stopped talking.”
Frank frowns ever so slightly, considering his response. “How much time before now have you spent trying to conceptualise your feelings about this topic?”
Eddie thinks Frank knows the answer. “None?”
“I think that will make a good task for this week.” Frank concludes. “I want you to spend some time either writing about these feelings, or you could talk to someone about it if you feel comfortable. I’m not going to set a time limit, I just want you to try and do it at least once.”
Eddie nods. “I’ll try. Thanks, Frank.”
He isn’t planning to talk to anyone about it. But then Buck is at his house a couple of evenings later, and suddenly Eddie thinks back to Frank’s assignment. The decision makes itself before he’s really aware he’s considering it.
“Buck, I want to talk to you about something.” He says. They’re just sitting in Eddie’s living room, some movie playing quietly on the TV that Eddie’s barely been watching. Buck turns to look at him.
“Yeah?” He says, tone inquisitive. Eddie rarely starts conversations like this, so it makes sense that he’d be curious.
“Frank gave me some homework this week.” Eddie starts. “He wanted me to think about my feelings about relationships? He said I could just write about it if I wanted, but I kind of want to talk to you. I don’t-” He stalls, unsure how to phrase what he wants. “Can you tell me first, what it… What does it feel like, being with Tommy? Like, specifically when you’re not with him, I guess.”
Buck looks thoughtful, and Eddie feels immediately sure that this was the right choice. Buck can be impulsive and loud, but he has some kind of sense for when Eddie needs him to be exactly like this, really considering his words and able to deliver them just the way Eddie needs to hear them.
“Being with Tommy makes me happy.” Buck starts. “When I’m with him, I always feel like he’s paying attention. He makes me feel like he really sees me and appreciates who I am. When I’m not with him… It’s not like I’m thinking about him constantly. But a lot of things make me think of him. Sometimes I find myself wishing he was there, just so I could feel as- special, I guess, as I do when he is there.”
Buck pauses, looking over at Eddie from where his gaze had shifted to stare, unfocused, at the TV screen. Eddie hums quietly in acknowledgement, considering what he’s said.
“I never really felt like that.” He admits. “Except with Shannon, in the beginning.”
He looks down at his hands, folded in his lap, and then breathes in as he looks back up at Buck.
“I don’t think it was the people I was with, really.” He says, and the breath leaves him almost involuntarily. “I think I feel differently about relationships than most people. I don’t- I hardly remember what it felt like, before I was with Shannon. I know I thought about her a lot, when I hadn’t seen her recently. And when I had. And I just wanted to, to talk to her? She was so beautiful, and she was funny. I remember she used to tell the same stories over and over again, because she could never remember who she’d already told it to. She must have repeated one story three or four times to me in one week, but I never felt annoyed or bored because she was just so important to me.”
Buck is smiling, and Eddie realises he’s smiling too. He hasn’t talked about Shannon like this in years, the memories always overshadowed by what happened later on.
“I had such a big crush on her,” he continues, “and I’ve never felt like that again. Am I-”
Buck reaches out when his voice cuts out, putting a hand gently on his shoulder. “You’re okay.” He says, and it’s the most boilerplate response but somehow it still works. Eddie takes another long breath.
“I know I’m not broken. Frank would definitely not approve of me even considering it. But… I don’t know what I am.”
“That’s alright,” Buck reassures him, and his hand is still steady on Eddie’s shoulder, one thumb rubbing a soothing pattern over his collarbone, “you don’t have to figure it out now. You can keep thinking about it, and talking to Frank and to me, if you want. Or you can just decide that it’s not affecting you at the moment and you don’t need to put it into words. Whatever you want.”
Eddie leans into Buck’s hand on his shoulder. “Thank you.”
They sit together for a while, TV still quietly playing. Buck eventually moves his hand away from Eddie’s shoulder so that he can shift slightly across the sofa and press himself up against Eddie’s full side, from shoulder all the way down to their ankles, which Buck gently knocks together with a small smile.
“You’re my best friend.” Eddie says, quietly. It’s not a secret, but the thought he’s really trying to convey now feels like it might be.
“You’re mine.” Is Buck’s response, and normally Eddie wouldn’t push, but something must have loosened up in the conversation earlier because he feels the need to press on.
“I’ve never felt like this about anyone else, either.” He says, and that’s definitely closer. “You’re my partner.”
He can see Buck is beginning to understand, his lips parting minutely as Eddie’s meaning hits him. “But it’s not the same as with Shannon, is it?” He says, perfectly interpreting Eddie’s words as always.
“No.” Eddie says. “I know this isn’t like that. It’s not a crush. I don’t even really want anything different than we already have.”
“Just this,” Buck says, “just being with each other.”
“Yeah. Maybe I want… more often? It might be nice to keep you here some nights. Wake up together in the morning.”
“Do you want me to stay over tonight? I’m getting breakfast with Tommy tomorrow, but it’s probably even closer to here than my loft.”
Eddie nods, leaning his head to the left to rest on Buck’s shoulder. “You should probably talk to Tommy about this, shouldn’t you.” He says. “I know we’re both sure this isn’t… it’s not like that, but it’s not like just being friends. He might not be comfortable. I don’t want to get in the way of you and him.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Buck agrees. “I can talk to him tomorrow. As long as he seems okay, we should all talk together too. You’re both important to me, I want us to all be on the same page.”
Eddie looks over at the clock. It’s late enough. “We should get some sleep. Then you can talk to Tommy in the morning and we can arrange another discussion.” He pulls away from Buck reluctantly to stand up, turning back towards him and reaching out a hand. “Come on.”
Buck looks a little surprised but doesn’t question Eddie, just taking his hand to pull himself off the sofa. They don’t talk much while they get ready for bed. Buck’s slept at Eddie’s enough that they have a routine down, and it’s not hard to adapt that to end with Buck taking the right side of the bed instead of the sofa. Eddie falls asleep easily.
In the morning, things are largely the same. Christopher is unsurprised to find Buck in the kitchen when he emerges from his room for breakfast. Buck doesn’t eat anything, given that he’ll be meeting Tommy for breakfast soon, but he still happily makes eggs and toast for both Diazes before he leaves. As he grabs his keys and heads to the door, Eddie catches his wrist to stop him.
“Thanks, Buck. I hope your breakfast goes well.”
Buck's smile is wide, and something wars briefly across his face before he pulls Eddie into a tight hug. “I’ll text you after to tell you how it goes.”
He releases Eddie and heads for the door, calling out a goodbye to Christopher as he leaves. Eddie stays standing behind the closed front door until he hears Buck’s Jeep pull away, and then he lets out a huff of breath and returns to the kitchen to finish his breakfast.
As promised, Buck texted Eddie once he arrived home from his breakfast date. His message seemed positive, but a small part of Eddie’s brain can’t help but overanalyse it looking for the hidden catch. Tommy agreed to meet up with them both the following evening at Buck’s loft, so Eddie spends the day beforehand alternating between internally freaking out and berating himself for freaking out. By the time he drops off Christopher at a friend’s house and drives over to Buck’s he’s fairly certain he’s played through at least five separate worst-case scenarios.
He pulls up into his usual parking space outside Buck’s building and sits for a second before getting out. He tries telling himself everything will go okay. He doesn’t really believe himself, but at least he tried. He opens the door and climbs out.
Tommy is already there when Buck opens the front door, sitting on one of the bar stools in the kitchen with a beer open on the counter in front of him. Eddie smiles at him and hopes it doesn’t seem too forced, although Tommy doesn’t seem to be fully at ease either, so at least it isn’t just him. Buck grabs Eddie a beer from the fridge without asking, handing it over with a soft smile.
Tommy clears his throat a little awkwardly. “Should we just… start then? What do you guys want to talk about? Buck said that you’d been discussing your relationship and you thought that I should be kept in the loop, but I didn’t really get what he meant, if I’m totally honest.”
Eddie nods, and sits down a seat away from Tommy, moving slightly to the side to allow Buck to sit between them. “I’m sure he told you it’s not romantic.” He starts, and Tommy nods. “Yeah. I had to do some thinking, I guess, for therapy. And it made me think about Buck. And I realised… we’re not friends, exactly. We’ve been something more than that for a while, we’re just only acknowledging it now.”
Tommy frowns. “So you’re saying you want to… essentially be with Buck, just without anything romantic? I get why you wanted to talk to me about it.”
“I think the main thing is talking about boundaries, really.” Buck chimes in. Eddie suspects he may have been researching in preparation for this. “So, like, for example I want to make sure I’m spending at least an equal amount of time with both of you. I don’t like the idea of making one of you feel more important to me.”
Eddie nods. “I think my main boundaries are physical? I want to try and let myself be more physically affectionate with Buck, but I don’t want to make anything feel weird.”
Tommy contemplates this. “I believe you, that it’s not romantic. I can’t say I really understand what you guys feel for each other, but I could see from the start that it was important to both of you, so I think I’m okay with what that looks like changing a bit. I still want to be with you, Evan.” He looks up at Buck as he says this, and his expression is fond, and Eddie knows they can make this work.
They spend the evening hashing out the general rules based on what everyone wants. Eddie wants more physical contact, which Buck is perfectly happy with. Tommy is okay with Buck and Eddie sharing a bed, as long as it isn’t every night, so they agree that Buck won’t sleep over more than half the nights of a normal week. The only real difficult point to figure out is when kissing is brought up. Tommy initially suggests it, saying he wouldn’t be comfortable if they hadn’t discussed it.
“Kissing can be platonic, sometimes. I’d feel better if I knew what was likely to happen.” He points out, which seems fair.
“I hadn’t thought about it.” Eddie admits. “I don’t think it’s off the table? Nothing that isn’t very chaste, but I wouldn’t be opposed to that.”
Buck agrees, and they decide that if it feels natural, Buck and Eddie might kiss, but that for now that isn’t on the table, while they’re still figuring everything out. Similar rules apply when it comes to their friends and family- Eddie particularly doesn’t want to have to explain everything, and he knows that people will have questions. They ultimately decide that they might start being more open in the future, but that in the present they will keep things restricted to their houses.
A lot gets discussed, and once they’ve finished they all feel so tired that neither Eddie nor Tommy particularly wants to have to drive home. This prompts another discussion about whether all three of them could sleep in the same bed, but they quickly realise that with each of their physical sizes they would have to be very happy to lie on top of each other to be able to comfortably fit into the same bed, and Eddie and Tommy definitely aren’t. Buck still has air mattresses from when everyone stayed at his loft during the pandemic, and soon Eddie is falling asleep in Buck’s living room, feeling much more secure with the addition of their mutually agreed upon set of rules.
Naturally, not discussing their newly upgraded relationship with their friends and family doesn’t apply to Christopher. They decide to let him bring it up if he wants to, still not entirely sure how to start that conversation having managed to stumble through it with Tommy.
Chris brings it up a few weeks into their new arrangement, when he arrives home from school to find Eddie stretched out on top of Buck on the sofa taking a nap after a particularly draining therapy session. He waits until they’re all sitting around the table for dinner before he gives Eddie an inquisitive look that Eddie has learnt signals an intense round of questioning.
“Why are you and Buck always cuddling recently?” He asks.
Eddie has been considering how to explain things to Christopher, and ultimately decides that just being blunt and trying to directly answer his questions is the easiest option. “We talked about what we both wanted in our relationship, and we decided that we wanted to cuddle more.”
Chris nods. “Buck is still dating Tommy, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.” Buck says. “Me and your dad aren’t dating, but we realised we’re not exactly friends either.”
“You’re best friends.” Chris says, as if explaining something incredibly simple to a toddler.
“Yeah, we are.” Eddie says. “And Buck is my partner. We have each other's backs.”
They had briefly discussed whether there was a word that fit what they were to each other. They already used partners to describe their working relationship, and it felt right to simply extend that into the rest of their lives, too. But Chris was absolutely right, too- they were best friends.
“And we decided that we want being best friends to look like this, and that’s okay.” Buck says. He’s done far more research over the last few weeks, trawling various forums to find people with similar relationships. Sometimes he’ll read a story out to Eddie while they’re sitting together, somehow always picking the ones that Eddie will find the most relatable. He’s nearly made Eddie cry on multiple occasions now with this new habit. It’s hard to complain.
“Well obviously.” Christopher says. He receives far more comprehensive relationships education than Eddie ever remembers from his childhood. “Relationships all look different, because people are all different.”
Eddie smiles. “Exactly. Do you have any other questions?”
“No.” Christopher says. “But if I think of any I’ll tell you.”
Over the following week, he does in fact think of more questions, and frequently appears in the doorway of whatever room Eddie is in with a serious expression. Sometimes he decides the question is more of a Buck question and texts him instead of finding Eddie, which Eddie knows because Buck will reliably screenshot every question and send it to Eddie followed by a long string of various heart emojis. Once, notably, there is a goose in amongst the string of hearts, and Eddie refuses to stop making fun of him for it.
As usual, Eddie is blown away by how considerate his kid is. All his questions are thoughtful and sensible, and he considers every answer carefully before responding. Eddie has no idea how he managed to get this lucky.
It's not exactly a surprise that people at work gradually begin to notice. After around a month of the new arrangement Buck and Eddie are already settling into it enough for certain things to become instinctual. On more than one occasion one of them has automatically dropped onto the other’s lap on the sofa in the common area and had to quickly move onto an actual seat. They begin to find it more and more difficult to reign in all the little touches that they've finally allowed themselves to have, hands on shoulders or arms or backs as they move around each other's space as naturally as they always have.
The first person to comment on it is, unsurprisingly, Chimney. He comes across them sat together on the couch, sides pressed tight together the way they always are now, and makes some inane, well-meaning joke about how they look like an advert for healthy masculinity. It's funny enough that Buck laughs quietly and Eddie cracks a smile, and the conversation moves on without a fuss.
After that, the comments only become more frequent. Pretty much every one of their coworkers says something at some point, with Ravi mysteriously being the exception. Another month in and Buck and Eddie spend the hour immediately post-shift exchanging stories about who said what that shift. Stories start to turn into complaints as their coworkers prove to be more tenacious than previously anticipated, and Tommy ends up having to ban the topic altogether in the interest of keeping everyone from becoming too frustrated.
Unfortunately, this only serves to prove their initial thoughts right, with no incentive to actually tell their friends about their developed relationship given the now inevitable barrage of likely poorly worded questions and comments that would ensue.
At some point during Buck’s research he comes across the term queerplatonic. He raises it with Eddie after an hour-long deep dive into the concept, and they agree that it seems to fit what they have. Nothing really changes because of it, but Eddie is able to tell Frank that they've found a term they like, and everything feels a little more official.
Given their initial openness to the idea, it's not a surprise that they start kissing eventually. The whole thing is, like the rest of the relationship has really been, incredibly natural and slightly underwhelming.
Eddie instigates it, technically, but it doesn't even feel like enough of an event for it to matter who did what first. They're settling into bed after a particularly gruelling shift, both on their sides facing each other. They have a routine for this, by now: they both lie down, one of them will mutter a goodnight that's more of a grunt than anything else, and then Eddie will sit up just enough to turn off the lamp before they both pass out. This time, after Buck grunts out a goodnight that's barely more than the initial “g”, Eddie sways in towards him as he levers himself up to turn off the lamp, presses a soft kiss to his mouth just off-centre, and immediately falls asleep on his shoulder mid-movement.
He does remember in the morning, although there is a confusing moment where he's not fully awake but Buck is staring intently at him having said “Do you remember?” and nothing else, and after a quick reassurance that yes, he remembers and yes, it was intentional and good and something they can keep doing, they move on.
Kisses become part of their repertoire of physical contact with only a little more difficulty than anything else. The first few feel slightly awkward, but they soon learn to recognise when it's the right moment, leaning in to each other for gentle presses of lips to hair or mouth or shoulder like they've been doing it since they met.
They have to be more careful around the fire station, though. It's obvious that if anyone saw them kiss several incorrect assumptions would be made and they'd be in for an uncomfortable session of explanations. It's hard to resist sometimes, when Eddie has the overwhelming urge to kiss the wrinkle between Buck's eyebrows when he's confused, or to bury his face in Buck's shoulder on the drive back to the firehouse after a difficult call.
They're careful, as much as they can be, and in the end it's not a moment of high emotion or overwhelming exhaustion that breaks that care. Eddie is sitting on the sofa on his phone about halfway through an incredibly mundane shift. He hears Buck come up behind him and smells coffee, leans back to accept the cup. His head is tilted upside down over the back of the sofa, and as Buck leans down to press the mug securely into his hands he reflexively moves upwards to press a kiss of thanks to his lips.
Given that pretty much every member of their shift is either in the kitchen or around the sofas, it definitely doesn't go unnoticed. There's a brief moment where everyone is silent, presumably too surprised to speak despite the past few months of constant prodding at Eddie and Buck's relationship. Eddie is frozen in place with his head still hung over the back of the sofa, but Buck moves around it to set their coffees down, just as everyone else regains the ability to speak and the firehouse turns into a cacophony of overlapping questions and exclamations.
Eddie tips himself forwards to put his head in his hands and allows himself one long, self-indulgent groan before he looks up again.
“Okay, look, can everyone shut up for a second and let us explain.” He says, standing up when his words have no effect and letting out a short but effective whistle. “Look, this is kind of complicated and it's going to require explanations that we really didn't want to have to get into at work, or at all if I'm honest.”
“What’s so complicated?” Chimney asks. “You kissed, you've been way more touchy-feely recently, you're clearly together and just keeping it a secret. None of us mind, it's cool.”
Buck shakes his head, frustration already beginning to show on his face. “No, actually, we're not together. I’m still with Tommy, and I would have said something if that had changed.”
“Okay, so what, you're with Tommy and Eddie?” Chimney presses. He doesn't seem like he's trying to be deliberately obtuse, but with the context it's hard to find the question anything other than annoying.
“He literally said we're not together. I don't know how to make it any clearer.” Eddie says, trying not to snap. “If you must know, we decided after some discussion that our relationship is more queerplatonic than platonic. No, I don't want to tell you what that means right now, either look it up or ask when it's actually a good time. Yes, we kiss sometimes, no, we aren't secretly harbouring romantic feelings from each other. Does that clear things up?”
Without waiting for an answer, Eddie grabs Buck by the hand and pulls him away to the bunk room. It's not storming off, he's just removing himself from an unproductive situation. It's fine.
The resulting situation is about as terrible as they’d been expecting. After hugging it out in the bunk room for as many minutes as they could, they had to resurface and face their coworkers, and specifically their coworkers’ many questions.
“Why’ve you been hiding this for so long?” Hen asks when they return from the next call. Eddie doesn’t get the chance to respond before Chimney is bounding up to them.
“I asked Buck about the queerplatonic thing, but he didn’t really explain that well. How do you know you aren’t attracted to each other? I mean, the whole thing kind of seems…”
Eddie sighs, ignores him, and turns to Hen. “This. This is why.”
Just like with the past few months of teasing and comments about their physical affection, the crew seem to have an endless fountain of questions ready to go with the new discovery. Eddie genuinely starts to consider how many times you can be asked whether you’re “really sure” about your own feelings before it becomes legally justifiable to start committing crimes instead of responding. Buck doesn’t fare any better, given that he was already out as bisexual before the whole thing started- at least Eddie has the ambiguity of his as-yet-undefined sexuality to avoid any questions too far down that route. Buck, unfortunately, is subject to the full package.
“Someone asked me if we have sex. I don’t even know their name, I think they’re on B shift maybe, and they just came up to me as I was leaving and asked me that. Like, how can you think that’s an okay thing to ask someone?” He complains, sinking into Eddie’s sofa and immediately lying down with his head in Eddie’s lap, feet tucked up to the sofa arm.
Eddie automatically starts to run a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry. People are stupid sometimes.” It’s not really enough, but what’s he supposed to do? There is, unfortunately, no way to force people to behave normally and in a manner befitting the workplace environment. Not ethically, anyway.
Buck groans, rubbing his hand over his face. “I wish people could just- I don’t know, see that we never invited them to ask us any questions. It’s none of their business.”
Eddie hums in response, sensing there might be more. He’s proven right as Buck continues, “The worst thing is when people ask me about Tommy. Some people seem to think we broke up. Other people have actually asked me why I would cheat on him so openly. They act like I’m doing something wrong, even though we literally talked to Tommy before any of this and made sure he was okay with everything. I don’t know how to make them stop. It’s so overwhelming. I hate it.”
Eddie doesn’t respond, knowing nothing will really be right to say in this moment. He has an idea, maybe, of how to help things a little, but right now Buck just needs support. He shifts himself sideways until he’s got his back against the arm of the sofa, pulling Buck with him as he swings one leg up underneath Buck to rest against the sofa back. Now, Buck is resting against him, reclining with his head against Eddie’s chest, Eddie half-lying underneath him. It’s a fairly common positioning for them these days, with whoever has faced the worst of the questioning that day getting to lie on the other, free to complain for as long as they need without it becoming too uncomfortable for either of them.
Eddie saves his idea until later, once Buck has relaxed a little and they’re both in a better frame of mind. He poses the thought when they’re both sitting up in bed, passing the time between starting to feel tired and actually wanting to fall asleep.
“What if we organise some kind of get-together for the 118?” He says. “We haven’t had a proper big thing since Maddie and Chimney’s wedding, and I feel like everyone would be amenable. We could invite Tommy and as many 118 people as we can handle, and then maybe they’ll see us all together and… I don’t know, maybe they’ll understand better?”
Buck hums thoughtfully. “Yeah, that could help. And you’re not wrong about a get-together being somewhat overdue. I’m sure Chris would be up for it.”
And so they begin to form their plans. They decide to invite everyone to Eddie’s for the gathering, rather than trying to have it at Bobby and Athena’s, given that they’d feel much more comfortable on home turf. It does have the disadvantage of meaning they’ll have to wait for everyone to leave before they can get any real space, not to mention having to clean up, but it’s manageable. They get Tommy on board fairly quickly, given that he too has been subject to Buck’s exasperated rants about the frankly embarrassing questions he’s been asked by coworkers. Soon enough, the day of the get-together rolls around.
Tommy arrives early to help set up. He’s spent enough time in Eddie’s house that he’s gotten fairly comfortable there, which Eddie is grateful for. The three of them and Christopher prepare all the necessary dishes and furniture, getting out the food they provided along with empty plates for people to eat off of as well as spare serving plates in case anyone bringing food needs one. Christopher is given permission to play video games during the event, as he has a new game he absolutely has to show Denny, and it’s not like they’re really getting together for any serious reason.
People start arriving as they pass the time they told everyone to arrive after. The Wilsons are amongst the first, likely having been egged on by Denny given the speed that he races off to find Chris. Eddie’s house soon begins to fill up, despite the limited number of people they’d invited given the relatively small space.
They hadn’t really made a specific plan for how to gently expose people to their relationship, beyond inviting everyone and Tommy and then not trying to hide anything from them. The get-together is incredibly normal, with everyone eating, chatting, and nobody having any major medical emergencies, so that at least is good.
As the hours pass, with a few people leaving early for prior commitments, Eddie finds himself on the sofa with Buck and Tommy. The living room is empty besides them, the majority of people remaining in the kitchen. Buck is sitting between Tommy and Eddie, with his head resting on Tommy’s shoulder and his arm around Eddie. None of them speak, happy to just relax together and recuperate from the busy afternoon.
Eddie hears someone enter the room, and turns his head to see Hen. “There you guys are.” She says. “We’re going to leave now. Thanks for organising this, it was a great idea.”
Eddie hums his acknowledgement, and beside him Buck verbalises the same to Hen, thanking her for coming. Soon after, the last few guests leave, and the house is quickly quiet again.
“Do you think that will have worked, then?” Tommy says.
Eddie isn’t entirely sure, and says so. “I hope so, though.” He admits. “If it hasn’t, I don’t know what will.”
It’s a few days before they have a shift, with the get-together having been strategically arranged in one of their longer stretches off. Almost as soon as Eddie arrives at work, Hen manages to catch him.
“I know I already thanked you for hosting,” She says, when Eddie tries to preemptively stop the conversation, “I just wanted to say something else. I’m sorry about how everyone’s been acting. Myself included. It goes without saying that what you and Buck have is unique, but that doesn’t give us the right to grill you about it. I’m going to try and quietly stop the questions, as far as I can. It’s the least I can do.”
“Why now?” Eddie asks. He has a strong suspicion, but he wants to hear it voiced.
“When I saw you, in your living room, just before we left the other day. You and Buck and Tommy all together on the sofa. You just looked happy with each other.”
Eddie allows himself to smile, just a little. “Thanks, Hen. I’m glad you understand now.”
Hen reaches out and pats him lightly on the shoulder, clearly ending the conversation. “Like I said, it’s the least I can do. I’m just happy you’re happy.”
Eddie keeps smiling as he walks away towards the locker room. He thinks she might be right.
He is happy.