eddie doing a bit more ubering in LA while his re-cert/re-hiring back to the LAFD is happening and someone seeing the pic maddie took of him buck and chris after they moved back officially stuck to his dash and going “You have an adorable family.” 😊
“Huh?”
“The picture? With your partner and his kid?” eddie catches the confused look on their face in the mirror. “I was just saying you three look like a very happy family.”
“Oh.. uh,” he looks down at the picture, smiling automatically, though a little dazed too, “Thank you.”
So, uh it’s been a while. At least, since I’ve posted some writing on here. 😅 but here’s a lil something that popped into my brain today.
S9 speculation | Past Character Death (Bobby)
Tommy stood in front of the new gleaming plaque that read: Captain Robert W. Nash Memorial Station 118. The ceremony had been beautiful—a recognition for the service and sacrifice of a great man, and hero—if a little overwhelming.
He looked around the room, seeing the people still carrying grief, the ones smiling through the pain, and the ones who had begun to heal. His gaze, however, searched for one particular face. He finally found him, standing by the food table at the back, and made his way over.
“Hey, Ravi…and uh, Eddie.” His voice was casual, but then his gaze slid to Evan. “Ev—” He almost stumbled, correcting too quickly. “Buck.”
Eddie snorted at the attempt to backtrack, Ravi just smirked into his plate. And Evan—made things awkward.
“T—Tommy, hey…uh, hi.”
“You said that already,” Eddie added unhelpfully.
Tommy fought the urge to roll his eyes, keeping his attention on Evan.
“Right. Yes. Um…did you taste the cupcakes?” Buck blurted suddenly. “ I made them myself. Here.” He thrust a plate of them into Tommy’s hands.
“I didn’t…Thank you. I’m sure they’re amazing.” Tommy accepted the plate.
They shared a dopey smile until someone coughed, reminding them they weren’t alone. Evan laughed awkwardly while Tommy excused himself to talk to Chimney—taking the cupcakes with him and ignoring the muttered well that was painful that was uttered behind him.
A little while later, Tommy was mid-rant with Chimney about a movie he’d seen recently when his phone buzzed. He pulled it out to see a single word:
Roof.
Tommy quickly made his escape, barely stopping to come up with a good excuse.
The door had barely clicked shut behind him when two hundred pounds of muscle and desperation slammed into him. Evan’s mouth was hot and insistent on his, and Tommy let himself be kissed breathless before tugging him in tighter by the waist.
“Evan,” he groaned against his lips, breaking the kiss just enough to breathe. “They’re going to find out.”
“Sorry,” Buck murmured with a sheepish smile, already leaning back in. “Couldn’t wait.”
Tommy hummed, kissing him deeply again before cupping his face gently, stopping him with soft pressure. “Hey, how are you doing with all this?”
The grin slipped from Evan’s face, and he almost regretted asking, until Evan squeezed his hand. He folded forward, resting his head on Tommy’s shoulder. Tommy cradled him close, fingers running soothingly through his curls.
“I miss him,” Buck whispered into the crook of his neck. “But the station being named after him—it makes sense. It feels right. We were always his.”
When he finally lifted his head, Tommy saw the shine in his eyes. Grief was still there—it would always be something he lived with. But so was strength, and a clarity he hadn't seen in a long time. Steady and hard-won.
“He was a great Captain,” Tommy said quietly. Then added, “And a great dad.”
Buck sniffled. “Yeah. He was.”
Tommy pressed a kiss to the birth mark above his eyebrow, lingering there. “Ready to go home?”
Buck’s answering smile put the sun to shame, bright and real. “Yeah. Let’s go home.”
(Of course the moment they pulled the roof door open, they were greeted by three very distinct stares. Hen’s raised brow, Chimney's open-mouthed gasp, and Eddie’s unimpressed expression.
Ravi was nowhere to be seen; he’d walked in on them enough times already, thank you very much.)
since the show has gone out of its way to have buck be super pathetic and embarrassing recently, i think it’s time to even the scales. this season, i need eddie to be down BAD. i need to watch him make a fool out of himself in a historically big way. i need every character and viewer to cringe out of secondhand embarrassment. it needs to be crystal clear to the entire audience that they are equally in love and loserish about one another. and i know what it will take for him to get there.
let’s think about two of buck’s recent crashouts. the one over eddie making a new friend, and the one when eddie was leaving for texas. where he was ordering basketballs to the firehouse and begging for eddie to notice him lifting at the gym. where he was sabotaging renters and being passive aggressive with a dog in front of all their coworkers. what do these have in common? buck felt that his position in eddie’s life was threatened or being taken away. he thought he was losing him. and we all know that abandonment issues is buck’s shtick, but his boyf has his own. think about the most odd, embarrassing moment eddie has had in the show. the time his freak matched buck’s biggest hits…
the grocery store fight. eddie, calling a man he’s known for a year, a deadbeat in public. causing a disruption and acting crazy for all the grocers to see. THAT is a crashout. and how did he get there? buck was suing the department and out of eddie’s life (for what… a week at this point?). all eddie needs to start acting crazy is for buck to seem like he’s leaving him. and eddie hasn’t had one of these moments since then. because unlike buck, eddie has had no reason to fear their weird partnership is getting snatched away. he’s too comfortable…
eddie doesn’t need to get all pathetic or panicked because right now, he has unwavering confidence that buck is a permanent fixture in his life. he will always have his partner that he can be essentially married to without the actual label. eddie can ignore his sexuality for as long as he can play house with buck because he’s content with their family how it is. sure, he wants more, but what he has now meets a lot of his needs. and buck hasn’t ever given him reason to question it. buck’s boyfriend wasn’t taking away from eddie’s time with him. buck was just as active in eddie’s life with or without a partner. no relationship has ever taken priority over eddie and chris, they’ve always been the top spot. eddie doesn’t think that will ever change.
but maybe it has to. maybe eddie needs to be afraid of losing buck in his life. because buck, definitionally, does not have an immediate family in the way the rest of his friends do. and going into season nine, i think he’s going to be very aware of that fact. his dad just died, and his entire firehouse is being restructured. eddie just came back, but his leaving is fresh on his mind. buck wasn’t asked for his input on the moving, and he wasn’t in a place to expect that. because even though they act like it, eddie isn’t his husband. chris isn’t his son. he doesn’t have that claim to them. and maybe he’ll see this and think oh. i’m going to end my days alone in an empty house forever unless i actually try and change.
so he’s showing a real commitment to finding a partner. someone-to-start-a-family-with partner. and he’s serious about it, so serious that he is spending time away from the diaz household and out with other people. enough for eddie to be shaken. enough for him to realize that this arrangement they have isn’t forever. buck is actually going to start a family of his own, eddie isn’t going to be number one anymore. this thing he was so sure of is about to slip through his fingers. he’s going to lose buck, for real, unless he does something.
and so he’s panicking, and he hears buck is going to speed dating. maybe he even sees it as a reminder on buck’s phone, and he totally wasn’t snooping he swears! and he says ravi… want to go to this thing with me... it’ll be fun!! and so him and ravi go, and they see buck (what a coincidence!). and eddie proceeds to sabotage every single person at that event for buck. he tells them all about how amazing he is (what a good friend and wingman!), can’t think of a single bad thing to say about him. GUSHES about him, to the point all the dates are convinced this is an entanglement they don’t want to be a part of. eddie has intruded on buck’s plan, embarrassed himself, entrapped ravi, and shown his full pathetic cards.
Notes: Wrote this as speculation for S9 after seeing that post by Anirudh on IG.
Summary: Buck hasn't told the 118 that he and Tommy are back together yet, so he gets roped into a speed dating event.
Words: 2.1k
Read on Ao3
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It was only too easy to keep it to himself. Buck hadn’t expected that. He wasn’t used to not having Hen and Chim and Eddie in his business. Poking their noses in and asking questions and noticing all the little things and putting it all together. None of them noticed, not even when Buck explicitly told them he had a date when Chim bemoaned Buck not being able to babysit Jee and Robbie that one time.
Chim was too preoccupied with convincing Hen that she wanted to watch his kids and Hen trying to get out of it. Eddie didn’t even say anything, but then again things had been different between them.
There was so much space between him and Eddie and yet it was something else no one seemed to notice or care about. It helped, Buck supposed, that with Chim at the helm and Eddie getting paired up with Hen that had left Buck and Ravi working together. It was what Buck wanted, but it was still weird that he didn’t ask or poke fun or any of that.
Ravi was the one that said, “have fun on your date” before he left and again not one of them asked Buck about his date.
“Your niece and nephew miss you, Buck,” Chim called after him.
“And I’ll see them in a few days,” Buck shot back and he heard Chim continue to try and convince Hen. He’d likely get her to agree but not without paying for it.
It wasn’t like Buck had intended to hide anything. At first, it was all so tentative. New. Buck didn’t want to say something and jinx it by bringing in opinions. He’d already acquiesced to Chim’s wishes for him to stay at the 118 even when he felt mostly trapped rather than like he was making a good choice. The last thing he wanted was anyone making him doubt himself about reconnecting with Tommy.
Buck hadn’t been looking to reconnect with Tommy exactly, but they had exchanged a few texts here and there after Bobby’s funeral but it wasn’t until Buck was told by Eddie that he’d need to move out. Told. Not asked. One mention of it to Tommy in passing and suddenly Tommy was showing up to help him pack up his things and even letting him store them in his garage so he didn’t need to get a storage unit.
After that, things had just progressed and more importantly they’d talked everything out. All cards on the table with expectations and wants and needs and apologies from both of them for how it had all fallen apart. A new start. A better start. One where they both knew what the other wanted. And yes, maybe they’d moved a little fast, but they were both on the same page.
A couple of months after officially getting back together, Buck still hadn’t managed to tell anyone. He really didn’t think it mattered if he did, especially when no one asked or wondered what Buck was doing when he wasn’t on shift. They were all busy with their own stuff. Buck had his own stuff too and most of it was spending time with Tommy.
The only person to figure it out wound up being Ravi. He’d been staying with Ravi after Eddie all but kicked him out, but once he and Tommy got back in the swing of things he’d missed a night or two and Ravi had noticed at once.
But, he didn’t officially know until Buck finally found a house he liked. Buck’s new house was small but quaint. Perfect for him. It was a two bedroom one and a half bath. Most days Buck was still shocked that he’d been able to buy it. But, when it came to it, his parents had offered to help and Buck hadn’t been able to say no.
He’d been in the process of looking at apartments to rent, never finding anything he liked when they arrived in LA to meet their new grandson. Somehow, Buck had wound up being talked into looking at more than just apartments. He fell in love with the house and the ball was rolling before he could stop it, his parents offering to help. Then, the house was his and Buck was finally leaving Ravi’s apartment.
Other than Ravi and Tommy no one offered to help Buck move. They knew he was moving. Chim and Maddie had definitely mentioned it to Hen. Eddie had been aware too. But, no, it was just Ravi and Tommy. Ravi had taken one look at Tommy and just muttered an: “I knew it” and left it at that.
So, when the too chipper twenty-something year old woman they saved on a call invited them all to a singles night speed dating event, Buck had no excuse. Buck didn’t have an excuse not to go. The way that Chim, Eddie, Hen, and even Ravi had turned to look at him when the invitation was issued to any of the singles on the team had meant that they just wouldn’t let it go if he begged off.
Then, Maddie had somehow gotten involved. She was encouraging and asking him what he was going to wear and giving him advice. If it hadn’t been for Jee and Robbie, Buck had had expected her to show up at his house to pick out his clothes.
Buck supposed he could have tried to point out the whole thing was too heteronormative for him, but then again Buck was still attracted to women so that felt pointless. Suspicious even.
So, he showed up. Reluctant. A little bit annoyed. But he showed up.
The restaurant was nice and the set up was setting the mood. Two person tables were scattered with some space between them, each table had a candle and the rest of the lighting was dim. It set the mood for sure.
“Hey, look who made it,” Ravi said, grinning. Knowingly.
“Well at least someone is enjoying themselves.”
“Someone has to,” Ravi said.
Buck rolled his eyes. “This is going to be awful.”
Ravi just laughed. Eddie arrived around then. “Ready, guys?”
“Wishing it was already over,” Buck said.
For all that Tommy had laughed at him when Buck explained the predicament, there had also been a look in his eyes that had made Buck want to text everyone about him and Tommy. In the end, he hadn’t.
Buck didn’t know why he couldn’t just say it. Explain how it all happened and how happy Buck was. How sure he was that he and Tommy were it and that sooner rather than later they’d talk about living together and maybe even propose. God, he wanted to marry him.
So, he wound up at a table. He could spot Ravi at his table and Eddie at his. A woman took the seat across from his as the event began. She was pretty and smiling.
“Hi,” Buck said. “Let me start by saying I am not an option tonight. I got kinda roped into this but I have a boyfriend.”
“You’re gay?” she asked.
“Uh. No. I’m…I mean I still like women. I’m just in a relationship.”
Things only went worse from there. He was glad when their time was over.
The next woman didn’t let Buck say anything before she jumped into talking about herself. Buck let her. He didn’t get a word in the whole time.
Number three was nervous enough to let Buck tell her it was a lost cause which then meant that she relaxed enough to ask him for tips since he was in a relationship and had to know something about dating if he’d gotten to that point.
Buck almost laughed but in the end told her to be herself.
The fourth was Natalia.
“Buck,” she said with a laugh. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“You too,” Buck said and then told her about Tommy.
She found the whole thing hilarious. “Never change, Buck, chaos just follows you around.”
A few more dates went by and he was over the whole thing. He wanted to be home on his comfy couch or at Tommy’s house on his comfy couch watching a documentary or one of the romcoms Tommy loved so much. He wanted cuddles and soft kisses and a hand in his hair. He wanted to be in his pajamas and for Tommy to be wearing one of his soft flannels. He wanted snacks on the coffee table. He wanted nothing to do with any person that wasn’t his boyfriend.
Another woman sat down. She had a nice smile and her curls fell loosely around her heart shaped face.
“Hello,” she said. “Angelica. And you are?”
“Everyone calls me Buck,” Buck said. “And I’m sorry to disappoint but I’m actually taken.”
“Oh,” she said. “Then why the hell are you here looking like that giving us singles hope?”
Buck told her about Tommy. The break up. The hook up. The getting back together. The way he couldn’t tell his friends and so he’d gotten pulled into this night.
Which was of course when somewhere down the line a couple started screaming at each other and then the candle fell and caught the table cloth on fire and apparently that was enough to set off the sprinkler system and the fire alarms. He stood up at once and Angelica followed his lead.
Everyone was walking towards the main entrance, drenched.
Buck tried to spot Ravi and Eddie but couldn’t find them in the crowd. Eventually, he saw Ravi talking to one of the women. She looked familiar, but turned away and in the dark Buck just figured it was one of the women he’d shortly dated earlier in the night.
“I guess this was a bust anyway,” Angelica said. “My friends told me this would be a good idea. I’ve been alone for so long now and they thought it was time, but I just don’t know…this just tells me maybe it’s not.”
“Hey, don’t give up. There’s always love somewhere. Did you hit it off with any of the other guys.”
She pursed her lips. “You know, there was the firefighter. Eddie.”
Buck didn’t know if he should tell her to run for the hills or encourage it. She seemed like a nice person and Eddie’s track record made him hesitant.
“Uh, that’s…we work together,” he settled on. “Full disclosure, he has a kid and he still has some unresolved grief about his wife.”
Her expression changed. “I…my boyfriend passed away four years ago. Love of my life. Maybe…maybe what we both need is someone that understands what it’s like to lose someone you love.”
Buck pulled his phone out. “If I give you his number, you have to promise me you won’t tell him about me and Tommy.”
“Sure,” she said with a laugh.
A firetruck and ambulance arrived, then. The 217. Of course.
The door opened and a familiar figure stepped out. Buck only really had eyes for him.
“Hmm, eye candy,” Angelica said.
“That’s Tommy,” Buck said.
“Oh. Wow. Okay, yeah, you did good. Very good.”
Tommy spotted him, ran towards them. “Evan,” he breathed out his name.
“What are you doing here?”
“I was kinda restless at home so I went to see if they needed help and I was over my flight hours. Are you alright?”
“Just a little wet,” Buck said. “Sprinkler system took care of the very small candle fire. I don’t think there’s any injuries either.”
“Good,” Tommy said and then took his turnout coat off and put it around Buck’s shoulders. “You’re shivering.”
Angelica next to them let out an “Aww.” When they looked at her she just smiled. “He’s a keeper.”
“Yes, he is,” Buck said, leaning forward and kissing Tommy.
It was as thrilling as ever to kiss him. Not out of nervous energy or because it was new. It was the familiarity. The knowing what to expect and loving every moment of it. Tommy hummed into the kiss and when he pulled back, he was smiling.
When Buck opened his eyes and Tommy stepped back, he found Eddie and Ravi starring at them. Eddie with his mouth slack with surprise he was trying to hide and Ravi with a mischievous grin.
“Wow, I had no idea this was happening,” Ravi said.
May standing next to him slapped his arm.
Buck just grabbed Tommy’s hand, squeezing it. The cat was out of the bag and he didn’t care. He was sure that Eddie would spread the info to Hen and Chim. Chim would tell Maddie. May might mention it to Athena and Harry. Buck didn’t care what they said, but he did care about Tommy and the life he wanted to build with him.
Actually I want Buck to be moving as part of the S9 opening disaster. Maybe he's at an apartment viewing or maybe he's actually moving out that day but let there be parallels about how Buck moving feels like a disaster to Eddie even though he can't explain why and Eddie is pissed and stressed out that this big disaster is going down and Buck is not around both to have his back or for Eddie to know he's safe, Buck should be with him, and in the end Buck's would-be new apartment is destroyed and Buck's like "well I guess it's back to square one on the moving front, at least I have Eddie around to help me out with his recent househunting experience hahaha" meanwhile Eddie is starting to realise why Buck acted so insane about his move and is like "well better this happened now than after you'd moved. That place clearly wasn't cut out to be your forever home" and that's the kick off to a 9a Eddie exploring the meanings of these feelings arc ending in a midseason finale confession.
okay rambling time! i know we should probably mange our expectations for 9x05, BUT…… they made sure to show us in the first episode that something feels off with buck and eddie, they teased us with jealous!buck and they made the tension palpable. after that, we dived into the opening emergency, which concludes next week with 9x04. now, we don’t know how much of that episode will be spent on the emergency, but hopefully we’ll get something more character-heavy, at least at the end? and maybe we’ll still only get buddie crumbs, or maybe they’ll start to introduce us to that tension again. and then the next episode will be 9x05. now, we know some things about all the other characters, but we know next to nothing about what is going on with buck and eddie. where is buck even living? has he found his new home yet? is he living on the floor of his six-month-old therapist nephew??? and we know even less about eddie. chris is there, yes, but we haven’t seen him yet and we don’t know how’s their relationship after coming back home. we already know dias de los muertos will be an eddisode, but i think it’s safe to assume we’ll get a lot of buck as well? they are the only two characters we virtually still don’t know anything about after the beginning of s9. so yeah. my expectations are high
I won’t pretend I’m not disappointed we didn’t get some kind of Buck & Tommy resolution in the s8 finale. But I don’t see that as an indication that the show is done with their story. A large chunk of season 8 was dedicated to growing their relationship and then pining for each other while they were apart. Just as I was confident 8x06 was not the last time we would see Tommy, since the story required some kind of closure from the breakup, I’m very positive we will get some resolution to their story in s9.
I hope it’s them reconciling and trying again. But even if it isn’t, something to wrap up this chapter in Buck’s life is needed before he can move onto anything else romantically. Otherwise, it just doesn’t make any narrative sense.
And unless Lou has objections/conflicts to filming s9, it makes more sense for them to advance their story together than it does for them to end it, considering how invested the audience has become in Buck&Tommy. It would be a lot of work and time to build something new from the ground up. I’m feeling really optimistic for what’s to come!
if (and when??) tdp gets renewed what do you think those seasons would be called?
I would expect them to be the names of Deep Magic concepts tbh. A tome in Aaravos' (house?) prison is "The Four Ancient Gifts" which could relate, even though we have 3 seasons in arc 3 and not 4. My best guess off the top of my head would be Truth, Power, Love, and/or Destiny
