Chapter Text
They were finally back in the engine after a series of the most ridiculous, back to back calls one could imagine.
Some kids at a fast joint decided it would be a fun day for a science experiment and threw ice into the deep fryer. There goes one of the 118’s favorite fast food joints.
More idiotic children that decided it would be even more fun to hit all the buttons in an elevator and then have the audacity to panic when it got stuck.
Those damned pranksters back at it again, deciding it would be absolutely hilarious to superglue several public restroom seats, claiming too many undeserving victims.
And that was only half of it. Thankfully, they were on their way back to their station and preparing to go offline for a few hours for a break.
“I’m telling you, we’ve been cursed ever since the first call today!” Chimney exclaimed in exasperation.
“I don’t care how many times you say it, the 118 has never been, and never will be cursed,” Eddie bites back.
“We’ve been cursed since before this morning,” Hen spoke up annoyed, “ever since Brad showed up as Bobby’s understudy, we were doomed.”
Eddie rolled his eyes, “That makes no sense Hen, he’s not even here right now.”
“And thank God for that!” Chimney cried out, “How can any one person be so insufferable?”
“I know a few,” Hen deadpanned, bringing a chuckle out of the group.
“I don’t know anything about curses, but I think Hen might be on to something,” Bobby finally spoke.
Eddie groaned and his face turned sour, “No, not you too Bobby. I thought you didn’t give into this crap!”
“I don’t, but that dude is starting to become a real pain in my neck, worse than any of you,” the man smiled at his own joke, “It’s seriously a miracle he didn’t make it today.”
“I don’t know what I would’ve done if he were here to add onto the chaos that today has been,” Hen agreed easily.
“It’s been like any other day you guys. With or without Brad in the mix.”
Eddie would agree that the man was more annoying than life itself, but he was good at not letting people like Brad get to him.
Just like he wouldn’t let a busy day get to him. At least not to the point where he was convinced it was a cursed one.
It was a bit of an odd one without Buck though, he could admit that much. He knows that if he were here, the blonde would definitely feed into the curse thing, but for some reason it bothers him a little less when Buck’s the paranoid one.
He never let himself ponder on why that might be though, always attribute those moments to being his best friend.
Speaking of him, Eddie’s surprised he hadn’t heard from the man once the entire day. If there’s one thing he could trust Buck to do on a day off, it’s to blow up his phone with the most random things.
Eddie reached for his phone to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating the lack of text messages and was met with empty pockets.
He sighed, realizing he must’ve left it back at the station. Which makes a lot more sense. But it wasn’t like him to forget it.
That just goes to show how busy they had been.
It wasn’t his first priority when he got back to the firehouse. No, it was getting out of his turnouts, washing up, and eating.
It was only after Eddie fully unwinded and relaxed that he even bothered looking for his phone, which also took a while. Maybe everyone was right when they said there was an old man trapped in his young body.
When he finally found it though, his body immediately tightened back up.
Over 20 missed calls from Buck, several voicemails and a handful of text messages, all a variety of Eddie, please call me ASAP and if that didn’t make his heart drop, he didn’t know what would.
His mind was racing at a million miles an hour of possible scenarios that warranted this much from Buck.
He scrambled to finally return the calls which were irritatingly not being answered now. It did nothing to quell the building panic, and neither did realizing that the calls were from hours ago.
What the hell happened to Buck?
Before even thinking to ask the others if they also received calls from Buck, Eddie began to playback the voicemails.
“Damn! Eddie, I was really hoping you’d pick up this time. Could you call me back, like, as soon as you get it? It’s kind of urgent-”
Well if that wasn’t the most unhelpfully vague voicemail he’d ever heard. He wasted no time going to the next.
“Eddie, I don’t really have time to explain this to you, but you really need to call me back. This is really important!”
His knuckles were white from how tightly he was clutching his phone.
He paused for a moment, forcing himself to take a deep breath and think for a moment. Eddie really didn’t want to panic like this before even knowing what the hell was going on, but it was kind of hard considering it was his best friend that was (possibly) on the line.
He knows that if there was truly some emergency while he was working, Buck would’ve called 9-1-1. And if it was a grave emergency, he doubts Buck would’ve had the chance to call, let alone leave as many messages as he did.
All Eddie could do was cling to those thoughts as he attempted to call the man again.
The line ran for a frustratingly long time and Eddie was worried it would go to voicemail, but-
“Eddie, hey man!”
And if that wasn’t music to Eddie’s ears.
“Buck!” he called out, loud enough to finally call the attention of the rest of the 118 to himself. He’d be embarrassed if he wasn’t so worried, “What the hell is going on man?”
“Oh nothing crazy. I do-”
“Nothing crazy!? You can’t just blow up my phone like that and say it was nothing crazy Buck,” he snapped back. He’d ask for forgiveness for the attitude when Buck gives a reasonable explanation.
“Oh yeah, sorry about that,” the man had the audacity to sound sheepish, “I just really needed you to answer the phone. It really was urgent in the moment, I swear, but we’re all good now. We’re actually almost at the station.”
Still the annoying vagueness.
“Jesus, Buck, you can’t do something like that and expect me not to worry,” Eddie’s body finally sagged in relief before he fully processed the words.
“Wait, you said we. Who’s we?”
There was a pang of silence on the other end and for a second Eddie was about ready to tear his hair out again.
“Hey dad.
Eddie’s heart nearly fell out of his ass and he almost dropped his phone hearing his son’s voice.
“Christopher?! I-is that really you?” His voice cracked but was somehow full of emotion.
Now he had the 118’s full attention.
“Yeah, it’s me dad.”
Eddie released a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding and his knees almost gave out. He pressed his hand to his chest, as if it would do something to steady his racing heartbeat.
“Surprise!” Buck yelled out, sounding giddy out of his mind.
Eddie was going to murder Buck for the whirlwind of emotions he was just put through.
“How-What-When-” he really didn’t know what to ask first.
“It’s a long story, we’ll explain when we get to the station. We’re about 10 minutes ou-”
The sentence was abruptly cut short by what Eddie would, going forward, describe to be the most horrific sound of his life.
It was the most jarring thing he’s ever heard; tires screeching, the sickening crunch of metal against metal, glass shattering with ear piercing cracks, and a heavy thud that could only come from something massive colliding with a car.
“Buck!” he cried out, much more visceral than the first time, “Christopher! What the hell was that?”
The team exchanged worried glances and began to approach Eddie. They were getting just as much emotional whiplash as Eddie seemed to be getting.
He was only met with static, the silence stretching unbearably long. He trembled as he called out to them again.
“Buck? Chris? Answer me, damnit!” he pleaded, desperate for a response.
Still, he was met with silence. Despite that, he didn’t dare try to hang up. It was still static-y, but the line wasn’t dead.
His mind raced and panic seized his body. His breaths started coming out in rapid puffs as his brain tried to piece together what he’d just heard.
The team rushed to his side now, seeing no point in pretending they weren’t eavesdropping.
“Eddie! Eddie, what just happened man?” Chimney exclaimed.
Clearly the man was in no state to be speaking, but they’d still try to get information from him. They’d first need to help him get his breathing under control, lest he have a panic attack.
“Eddie, I need you to breathe with me,” Bobby directed, laying a firm hand on his shoulder, “In and out.”
The man didn’t even notice when Hen took the phone out of his hand and quickly put it on speaker.
“Hello? Anyone there?”
All they could hear were garbled noises, but they sounded chaotic nonetheless. Muffled shouting, movement of heavy machinery, maybe sirens if they listened hard enough.
It made everyone’s stomach churn. Eddie could only imagine the worst case scenario.
“Please, God,” he whispered, struggling to get his breathing under control.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, a weak and broken voice crackled through the line.
“D-dad…”
It was like a bucket of ice had been poured over Eddie, the single word filling him both relief and dread.
Hearing his son’s voice did bring back some modicum of sanity and he began to regain his composure, as much as he could. There was something for him to cling onto.
“Chris? Oh God, Chris, are you okay? Where are you?”
But the static began to fluctuate and Eddie sprang into action before anyone else could blink.
“Stay with me Christopher! I’m coming, just-please stay with me!” he pleaded as he sped through the firehouse, getting his turnout gear back on. His words and movement spurred everyone else to follow.
It took under 5 minutes for everyone to load into the truck and head out. They initially didn’t know which way to travel, but somehow, after regaining the ability to think, Eddie pieced together that they must’ve come from the airport if Buck brought Christopher from Texas so soon.
The entire time, other members of the 118 took turns speaking in the hopes that they’d hear something more from Christopher, or just a single word from Buck. But what they finally ended up hearing was absolutely heartbreaking.
“B-Buck! Buck wake up!” Christopher pleaded, voice hoarse but sounding desperate all the same.
Eddie’s breath hitched as his body began to tremble again.
“Chris! I’m here bud, coming right to you,” he called out shakily, “Are you hurt? Can you move?”
“M-my whole body hurts dad,” his voice broke, “but, B-buck’s not-he’s not waking up.”
Everyone’s breath hitched at that, minds going into overdrive. Eddie’s heart hammered painfully in his chest as tears began to pool his eyes. He didn’t want to give into it before and hearing Christopher’s voice gave him hope at first, but this was starting to seem like the other half of his worst case scenario.
The distress was clear as day in his face, so the others continued speaking on his behalf.
“What do you mean he’s not waking up Chris? Is he breathing?” Chimney probed, trying to remain calm.
“Uh- I don’t-I don’t know. There’s blood everywhere and-and he’s just-he’s not moving!” he cried, fear laced in his tone.
Eddie clenched his jaw as a few tears slipped, but he quickly wiped them away. His mind didn’t stop racing, stuck between the sheer terror and the need to stay calm for his son and his own sake.
“Listen to me, Christopher,” he tried to keep his voice steady, “Stay where you are, okay? Keep talking to Buck.”
“Help is coming kid,” Bobby added, “We’re almost there.”
It was such a punch to the gut to audibly hear his child crying over the phone, where he could comfort and hold him.
“Buck…please wake up. Please.”
Eddie, and now Hen, couldn’t stop the flow of tears at that moment.
In that moment, everyone in the truck prayed to every God, deity and higher power they’ve heard of. It was all they could do until they got to them.
Eddie included. He knew he had to keep it together, if not for himself then at least for his son. Praying was all Eddie could do to keep himself from completely unraveling then and there.