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It's Q word day at the station. There hadn't been a call in a couple hours. All the chores were done and the 118 crew were lounging around. Most of them had their heads in their phones. Bobby abandoned them in the loft area to go work on paperwork in his office. (Though it was mostly to get away from Buck’s constant complaining that he was bored)
Hen and Chim had laid claim to the couch while they doomscrolled TikTok occasionally stopping to show the other a video. Buck’s sideways in one chair currently in a deep dive about some German cannibal (No one really understands why). He keeps blurting out random interesting facts he thought the other should know (Did you guys know that one guy actually volunteered to be eaten? Who does that?). Ravi had pulled a stool from the kitchen island and sat between the couch and chair while he browsed potential properties virtually.
Eddie was in the other chair, looking at Facebook for the first time in years just to see if there was any good gossip he could share. Scrolling through his not very extensive friends list, clicking on random profiles to see if they had posted anything interesting recently. Kyle from high school was tagged in a post a couple months ago announcing his third child in the last 2 years. Unsurprisingly they all had different moms. Eddie guessed Kyle never left his 1.0 phase of life. His cousin Izzy, who is about 4 years older than him, and he hasn't seen since he was about 9 years old, is clearly caught up in a multi-level marketing scheme. Her last 30 posts have been about recruiting people for her fantastic opportunity. He quickly unfriends and blocks Carter after scrolling through some of his hard right posts. Then he sees someone he hadn't thought about in years: Lena Bosko.
He and Lena never tried to have a friendship after their blow up at the firehouse all those years ago. She told him he was a bad friend and just stormed out. He did apologize to her via text, but she never responded, and he didn't try very hard to make amends. He had bigger issues to worry about at the time and by the time those issues were dealt with, he didn't feel a need to fix it. Buck was a big factor in that. He deemed Lena a terrible influence after Eddie confided in him that she was the one that introduced him to the illegal street fighting rings. Apparently, she never unfriended him on Facebook, so he decided to go take a look and see what she was up to. It seemed like most of the recent posts were ones she was tagged in. There seem to be a lot of broken heart and prayer hand emojis in all the posts. Eddie wasn't reading them really. Just looking for something Lena herself had posted. He finally read one after scrolling for about a minute and not seeing anything from her. “I can't believe you are gone. 💔🥀” one post read. “Gone but not forgotten. 🙏🏻” Another one said. Eddie sees dozens of these messages as he scrolls.
“Holy shit!” Eddie says a little too loudly, “Did Lena Bosko die?” He looks up at his team, shock written all over his face.
“Oh yeah.” Answers Chim almost too casually. The man barely looked up from his phone. “Like 3 months ago or something. Before you came back from Texas.”
“It wasn't on duty from what I heard.” Hen says, glancing up at Eddie. “I think someone told me she drowned in a hot tub.”
Eddie’s jaw drops. “How does that even hap...” he starts to ask before Chim interrupts.
“No. No. That's not right.” Chim argues, putting down his phone. “I heard she was out on a hike and got caught in a random mudslide.”
“You are both wrong.” Ravi jumps in. “I was talking with Julie on B-Shift, and she said she was out surfing and got attacked by a shark.”
“Why does this keep getting more ridiculous?” Eddie asked honestly, just confused at this point. “Next person is gonna tell me she dried up in the desert or she fried the death tanning.”
“Oh, we had a call like that one time actually.” Hen says “Literally the guy got stuck in a tanning bed that had apparently been messing up. He ended up having a stroke from the steroids he was on.”
“Wasn't that the same week the guy got eaten by a lion at the zoo?” Chim asked
“He was eaten by a tiger.” Hen corrected. “But that was just mother nature getting karma. Because he killed a protected lion while on a safari hunting trip.”
Eddie turns to Buck. His boyfriend is still deep in his phone, like he is unaware of the conversation happening around him. “Buck, did you know about this?” Eddie asks him.
Buck looks up and shrugs “Yeah. It's not like it was someone important.” He then goes back to his phone.
The other four just looked at him as if he had grown another head. “Oh my God.” Eddie rolls his eyes. “You are still mad at her. She is literally dead Buck. You can let go of the grudge now.”
“Yeah, well I'll forever hold a grudge for the person that mocked you putting Chris in therapy after everything he went through at the time and then convinced you illegal fight clubs were a good idea” Buck shot back. “I don't care if they are dead or alive.”
“Whoa! What's going on?” Bobby asks, stopping at the top of the stairs.
“Eddie just found out Lena Bosko died while he was in Texas.” Ravi answers, clearly amused by everything.
“And apparently Buckaroo didn't tell his boyfriend because it ‘wasn’t anyone important’” Hen says using air quotes, also fighting laughter.
Bobby's eyes widened a bit before turning to Eddie, “I’m sorry Eddie. I thought Buck had told you. I know you and Lena were friends.”
Buck scoffs, not looking up from his phone. “We hadn't talked in years, Cap.” Eddie says, shaking his head at Buck. “Do you know what happened? There seems to be a lot of conflicting stories.”
“I am not a hundred percent sure.” Bobby says, shaking his head. “I heard that she was going skydiving and the plane they were using went down.”
“Seriously?” Ravi asked, raising an eyebrow. “Why does every story get crazier? What's next gonna tell me she tumbled off a cliff while climbing a mountain?”
“One would think, as much as the LAFD likes to gossip, that someone would make sure to get the story right.” Chim laughs.
“I actually think it's because everyone is such gossips that nothing stays straight.” Bobby chuckles.
“Only think straight about this firehouse is you Cap.” Hen fires back, causing everyone (even Buck) to break out in laughter.
Bobby raises his fist up, “Ally.” Smirking at them all.
Everyone laughs harder, Ravi almost falling off his stool. “And we appreciate it, Cap.” Hen says tears of laughter in her eyes.
“Seriously, I was mostly just shocked, that's all.” Eddie says, noticing the smile fall off Bucks face. “I kinda wish I had known.” This comment makes Buck scowl more at his phone.
“Our bad Eddie.” Chim says smirking at Buck. “We thought your BFF, turned lover, that you were face timing multiple times a day said something about it.”
“Again, I didn't think it was important in the grand scheme of things, okay?” Buck defends, “You had Chris’s stuff to worry about at the time. And you said it yourself; you hadn't talked in years.”
Eddie shakes his head, if they weren't on shift, he would walk over and kiss away the scrunched up annoyed look Buck has on his face. “I am not mad.” Looking directly at Buck so he can see the soft look he is trying to send him. “And you are right. I did have a lot of things going on at the time that were more important. I am just curious what happened.”
Buck sighs, “Literally she was crossing the street and got run over by one of those ugly Scion Cube cars.”
Everyone just looks at him. “Why do you know that? Like down to what car hit her. Do you know what color it was too?” Ravi asks teasingly.
“It was purple.” Buck says, almost against his will. “Honestly, this should be a lesson on why jaywalking is illegal in most cities and why you should always use the designated pedestrian crossings.” There is just a moment of shocked silence, followed by every descending into laughter.
“Is it wrong to say, that has to be the lamest way to when you are literally a firefighter?” Chim asks, still laughing.
“All right guys” Bobby tries to reel them in, “Let not be disrespectful. It's still sad she passed so young.”
Eddie sees a look go across Buck’s face that screams he doesn't think it's that sad. Eddie wisely doesn't draw attention to it. Just sends him a small smile. Suddenly the alarm rings.
“Finally!” Buck says as they all race for the engine.
“Hey.” Eddie says leaning over to Buck, once they are on their way, grabbing his hand, “I promise I am not upset about you not telling me. I was just curious about what happened.” He can visibly see the tension leave Buck's body.
“I promise I wasn't trying to keep it from you.” Buck says, looking at their joined hands. “I was just trying to focus on getting both of you back here.”
“I know.” Eddie said, trying to pour as much love into their hands as he could. “We are here now and not going anywhere you can't come too.” Buck smiles at him.
“What are we dealing with Cap?” Ravi asks, interrupting Buck and Eddie's heart eyes.
“Looks like a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle. The witnesses are reporting only minor injuries.” Bobby says, as everyone just looks at each other.
“Was the vehicle a crappy purple Scion?” Eddie asks, smiling at Buck.
The entire cab descends into laughter.