Masks - can represent both transformation and concealment - and there is the concept of people wearing more than one mask - wearing different ones depending on the situation.
The show has several times referred to the first responders uniforms as being a type of mask and played on the idea of people being more than their uniform or people hiding behind their uniform - it is a kind of mask.
Then there is the fact that a mask is a major part of the firefighters kit - which is a full face mask that supplies oxygen and protects their face from the heat of a fire - it feels like a very obvious angle to consider. Especially when you think of buck taking off his mask in order to save Sal in buck begins. So I’m thinking we’re going to get something that plays into the idea of taking off a mask and putting g yourself in danger.
Something something something about removing protection but also about removing oxygen - something about removing the thing that keeps you alive but only doing it when you have no other choice - the idea of taking off your oxygen suply in order to live.
Which all rather plays into Eddie’s arc rather perfectly - especially if this is indeed the episode in which he shaves off his moustache. Then there are multiple metaphors behind the mask - with moustaches being the only facial hair firefighters can have.
The idea of Eddie realising his ‘face mask/ oxygen’ is compromised and the only way to survive is to take it off - cut off the oxygen supply. The mask being both a metaphor for the protective masks Eddie has been wearing all his life as well as a metaphor for his mothers treatment of him - Eddie has been inadvertently breathing in her ‘oxygen’ and by removing the mask and stopping breathing in that oxygen he is freeing himself of her control and allowing himself a chance to escape and live his life on his own terms.
Masks are also fitting with Helena as well - her mask slipping and her true intentions being revealed - removing the mask covering Eddie’s eyes.
There could also be a play on masks with Christopher as well - his mask of anger and hurt etc (which he’s entitled and justified in having) finally starts to slip and fade - tying into the Helena and Eddie mask metaphors as well.
Not to mention that masking is a term often used to describe autistic experiences- the idea of wearing a mask to fit in with your environment- of mimicking people in said environment in order to fit in/ to blend in and go unnoticed. Autistics often describe not knowing g who they are because they just wear masks all the time - until they burn out from the energy consumption that takes.
It was well known in the 118 that Eddie Diaz did not believe in curses. Or magic. Or superstition.
Everything had a rational explanation. Calls happening in sets of three? Coincidence. Crazy calls during a full moon? Maybe it was just a busy night. Leaving the station without boots causing chaos? That's just common sense.
He only refrained from saying the word quiet on a shift to keep the team from flogging him due to their unchecked paranoia.
Eddie was proud of this fact about himself. He thought it made him tougher, immune to the smaller absurdities of the job. Why create more problems to fixate on when everything was taxing enough on its own? There were plenty of real things to worry about.
This aversion to superstition served Eddie well throughout his tenure as a fireman. He didn't think twice about anything other than what was concrete. And even though it was Halloween, he remained unfazed.
So when he rolled into the station on October 31st, loaded down with bags of candy and cheap trinkets to contribute to the station's festivities, there wasn't a thought in his head but excitement for the incoming influx of kids that he so enjoyed.
Buck, as always, greeted him at the door, eager to show him the decorations he had come in early to hang.
"Oh, and over there, we've got one of those weird animatronics that's going viral," Buck said excitedly.
Eddie watched him bemusedly as he led them around the bay. He noticed Buck tense as they came to a stop at a table in the middle of the floor where the rest of the team was gathered.
"And this...is cursed." Buck cringed, wearily eyeing the coffin holding an eerily realistic mummy that Chimney and Bobby had set up.
"There's no such thing as curses, Buck," Eddie chided playfully.
"Yes, there is!" Buck argued, "And they made me take it out of the box and put it together. So now I'm cursed, too!"
Eddie rolled his eyes and shook his head at Bobby and Chim, "You guys really shouldn't antagonize him like this? He'll have the whole building cursed before the night's over."
Little did he know, he had probably just jinxed Buck.
***
It was a perfectly normal, fun night. The trick or treaters loved the decorations, and Eddie and Buck enjoyed answering the kids' excited questions about their job.
By the end of the night, they were worn out and crashing from the candy they'd snuck from the giant bowl Hen had been manning.
By 10:00, they had all crashed in front of the tv upstairs, sprawled here and there across sofas. Buck had only managed to get to the foot of the couch before he laid down unceremoniously in the floor, Eddie's hand draped nearly onto Buck's chest from his makeshift bed above.
They were all nearly passed out when the alarm began blaring. Muffled curses mixed with the bells as they hauled themselves up and down the stairs.
"It's always just when we get comfortable," Chim groaned. "Like it's watching us."
It was a disturbing but quick call. An elderly lady had died in her home, and only the neighbors had noticed after they hadn't seen her out for a couple of days.
They had taken care of her and were back in the firehouse before midnight, though the mood certainly wasn't as light.
Buck cut a wide path around the mummy as they reentered the station, and Eddie chuckled endearingly. That warm feeling that he got sometimes when he looked at Buck consumed him.
He followed Buck upstairs to the bunks, and they passed out on their respective beds side by side. There were no more calls that night.
***
Eddie awoke the next morning well-rested, which admittedly scared him.
Guess there weren't any calls in the night.
He rolled over to an empty bed beside him and figured Buck had risen early like he sometimes does to make breakfast. When he entered the kitchen, Buck was nowhere to be found, and the rest of the team were gathering their things to go home for the night.
He quickly showered and changed, eager to get home for the day and work on Christopher's room, which he was repainting in anticipation of his hopefully soon return.
"Where's Buck?" he asked Hen on their way to the parking lot.
She eyed him, "You don't know? Bobby sent him home sick early this morning."
Eddie raised an eyebrow questioningly.
Hen just shook her head and gave him a look that said call him before she got into her car.
Eddie didn't call Buck, though. The second he turned onto the highway, he was hightailing it to the loft to check on him. Buck never left sick, so he couldn't imagine what had to be wrong with him to wind up home just a few hours before he would be off anyways.
He took the stairs two at a time, the first aid kit from his truck clutched in his hand. He of course didn't knock, letting himself in with his key. The scene behind the door stopped him.
Buck, clad in sweats, was propped up in his reclining chair, and Tommy was standing over him with a look that went beyond disgust plastered across his face.
"I'm telling you, I'm cursed," Buck stressed, and Eddie could tell that the edge in his voice had surpassed any kind of joking from the night prior.
"Oh, c'mon Evan, do you really believe that?" Tommy scoffed, still quite a distance away from his boyfriend.
"Yes, I do believe that, and -"
Both men abruptly stopped when they realized Eddie was there. Buck whipped around to face Eddie, and Eddie's heart dropped for a moment.
So that's why he was sent home.
Buck's face was covered in welts - more like blisters - as were his hands. Eddie wondered if they were in other places that he couldn't see as well.
Eddie studied Buck, assessing every inch of bared skin to come up with some kind of treatment. It was obvious that Tommy wasn't going to touch him if his facial expression indicated how he felt.
"What the hell happened to you?" Eddie asked, hurrying to Buck with his kit.
"I was just telling Tommy it was that damned mummy in the firehouse. If Bobby and Chim hadn't made me touch it, I would be fine!" Buck exclaimed.
"Evan would you stop!" Tommy said, "Can you believe this Eddie? This man is a firefighter who deals with weird shit all the time, yet he still chalks this up to some insane curse that isn't even real."
Eddie studied Buck for a moment. The welts were red and angry and looked like they were fit to burst. Buck's eyes were tired, like he hadn't rested at all last night. His soft curls laid gently on his forehead. The look in his eyes pled for some kind of sympathy on his behalf and betrayed to Eddie that Tommy, despite being his boyfriend, was not helping this situation. In fact, Eddie thought he was far too hostile for something like this.
"Maybe Buck's right," Eddie shrugged, and he felt his partner's eyes widen from beside him, "Can't do anything about it but try to heal it."
Tommy rolled his eyes and stalked toward the door.
"Where are you going?" Buck called out.
"I'm leaving. I'm going somewhere where people have sense enough not to believe in whatever childish thing this is."
As the door closed, Buck closed his eyes and slumped farther into the chair.
"I knew that was coming," he whispered.
Eddie knew he should feel sorry for Buck - and he did, just not for his relationship issues - but he couldn't help feel a small weight lift off of him with Tommy's absence. The tension wasn't something he was used to with Buck, and it had dissolved immediately when he left. Now, it was just them, and it certainly wasn't Eddie's first time tending to an ailing Buck.
"Let's see it then," Eddie said, a soft hand gently reaching out to grab Buck's chin and turn it to him.
He studied the welts and made quick work of rifling through his kit, which he was proud to keep stocked with everything under the sun to treat most injuries. He was an army medic, after all.
Eddie cleaned around the wounds on Buck's face, applying cream to them gingerly, before working his way down his arms. He reached Buck's hands, which weren't nearly as bad as his face.
"Eddie, you don't even believe in curses. You made fun of us last night for them," Buck said, wincing as Eddie worked on a particularly tender wound.
"Yeah, I know," Eddie said, "But somebody has to be on your side. I wouldn't leave you hanging like that."
He finished swiftly after that and packed up his things. As he stood up from where he had crouched in the floor in front of Buck, he felt a hand grasp at his. Buck was holding onto him, pulling him ever so slightly closer.
"Thank you," he whispered, and there was a glimmer of something in his eyes that Eddie didn't get to see often.
"It's no problem, Buck. It's what we do," Eddie practically whispered back.
"No, Eddie. I mean thank you for staying with me. For seeing me. I know this isn't your first choice."
"Don't be ridiculous, Buck. I'll always be here."
And as they locked eyes, Eddie felt something shift in him. This man who he had dedicated his life to - who he credited for pulling Eddie back from the edge every single day - was thanking him for something far more significant than his medical skills. An understanding of himself that he'd always been on the verge of but had never quite been in reach.
Oh.
Oh.
This thing that had been growing in his chest all these years, that pang of something that had been egging him on every time he looked at Buck or thought of him or spent time with him - it was crashing down on him like a tsunami wave in this moment.
It was love. Of course it was love.
Buck slowly let go of Eddie's hand.
"Hey Eds?" he asked.
"Yeah Buck?" Eddie responded, half in a daze.
"Will you stay a little longer?"
"Of course I will."
And he did. He would have stayed for the rest of his life if Buck would allow him to. He would stay here until they both looked like Bobby's and Chim's cursed mummy if Buck would be so generous as to let Eddie waste away with him.
They spent the rest of the day right where they were, and Eddie radiated from his self-realization. And while he couldn't have Buck, not now at least, he would have these moments to revel in his presence. And maybe one day, when Buck realized that Tommy wasn't nearly as compassionate as he had thought, they could talk about it. And if they didn't, Eddie could live with that, too. So long as his best friend was by his side.
Eddie Diaz still didn't believe in curses, but maybe he did believe in fate.
