#wipocalypse

[eddiediazsmiling]

I feel like an underrated alive!Shannon scenario is people mistaking buck and Shannon for being siblings since they do look so much a like.

I imagine someone who knows Shannon and knows she's Chris's mom sees Buck and Chris together and makes a comment about how nice it is that he's taking his nephew out. And buck is like I'm his step-dad. And everyone is so embarrassed. The person who came up to them especially. Like she just told Shannon's husband he looked like her brother how do you recover from that?

I think Chris catches on to why his mom's friend is being so awkward first and tells her that when he's out with his dad and Buck people think Buck's his bio dad and his dad is the step-dad so she's not the only one who thinks they look a like.

Buck is still confused. yeah he and chris look alike but most people assume father and son like chris said.

It isn't until chris recounts the interaction to Shannon later that he gets it. Well chris spells it out for him really.

"Mom we ran into your friend earlier and she thought Buck was your brother.

But from then on it keeps happening but it happens when Buck and Shannon are in the same place. And I think it's the thing that finally gets them to bond. Specifically messing with people about it. And by people I mean Eddie.

One of the parents at Chris's school always looks at Eddie weird and he doesn't know why but it's because Buck and Shannon told him that they are twins and when Eddie came out as gay he went from dating Shannon to dating Buck

[eddiediazsmiling]

Eddie falls asleep on Buck's shoulder. Or maybe they're sharing a bed, and Eddie cuddles up to Buck in his sleep. Either way, Eddie is cuddled up to Buck, asleep, and starts having what appears to be a steamy dream. Buck is surprised when Eddie wakes up by himself and doesn't automatically freak out and push himself away from Buck. Buck's confusion shows on his face, and Eddie comments on it. Buck says, "I was waiting for your reaction when you realized it was me and not some hot babe."

Eddie, still half asleep with no filter, says, "I'm gay, you are the hot babe." He realizes what he just said and literally plays dead. He just becomes floppy and refuses to engage with anything Buck says

Here's the fic I wrote inspired by this post

[eddiediazsmiling]

Part 1

Buck arrives at the restaurant 20 minutes early. He called ahead to make sure Eddie's favorite table was available and asked them to add some candles, something he typically wouldn’t do, but he wants it to feel extra special after all. If everything goes well, this will be the last first date he ever goes on.

The owner of the restaurant Manuel meets him at the front. Buck and Eddie have been coming to this restaurant for years at this point and it’s become one of their favorites. It doesn't hurt that they receive extra special treatment for saving Manuel's life on a call. 

“Ah buck it’s great to see you, you're a little early so the table isn’t quite ready yet.”

“That’s fine man, I'm just a little nervous.”

“That’s understandable. Can  I see it?”

“See what?”

“The ring! What do you want to do with”

“Manny…’

“I can put it in his meal before serving it or put it in his glass..’

“Manny there is no ring I'm not proposing.”

“Well why not? Eddie’s a great guy and so are you!”

“i agree?”

“So why not… oh I get it you're gonna propose soon but not here!

“What?

“You think my restaurant is not good enough for a proposal. Is my food not good enough? Do I not create an intimate and romantic atmosphere?” 

“No, the food here is excellent. In fact you’re probably Eddie's favorite restaurant in all of Los Angeles and the atmosphere is perfect for a proposal… or a first date that you really want to go well with, which is what this is.”

“Wait what?”

“Yeah so I finally got my head out of my ass and asked Eddie on a date.”

“Really i thought…”

“Yeah apparently Eddie and I were the only ones in the state of California that didn't know we were in love with each other." 

“Oh well sorry about that i um overreacted… it’s just that no one in the seven years that we’ve been open has ever proposed here.”

“No one? that’s insane. I've seen people propose in line for KFC  before. Nobody?

“That’s what I thought! 

2 hours earlier

Maddie is sitting on the wilsons couch sipping wine with hen and karen while chimney entertains the kids, helping jee participate in the game denny, mara, and chris are playing when she receives a call from eddie. The thing is Eddie never calls maddie directly. He either tells buck or chim to pass on the information.

“Hey Eddie, what’s going on? Is Buck okay?”

“Yeah maddie bucks fine. Wow we really should talk to each other more when it’s not the middle of an emergency.”

“Is it an emergency?”

“No, I do need someone to… talk me out of doing something crazy.”

“Crazy like how?” At this point all of the commotion in the living room has ceased although they can only clearly hear Maddie's side of the conversation they have all attuned to the fact that Eddie Diaz is about to do something insane. Again.

“Crazy like proposing on a first date crazy.”

“What? NO! Eddie? You definitely CANNOT PROPOSE ON A FIRST DATE!” Everyone in the room looks horrified besides jee who has no idea what's going on, bertie who is somehow still asleep thank god  and oddly enough chris. Who not only doesn’t look horrified he looks HAPPY.

On the other end of the phone eddie can definitely hear the voices of chimney, hen, and karen. He should have asked maddie if she was alone oh well.

“You can put the phone on speaker maddie I know everyone can hear us.”

“Really dad you weren’t going to tell me!” he hears chris say but he doesn’t sound angry just really annoyed. 

“I haven’t decided whether or not I'm going to do it.”

“NO!”  

“That’s it i’m calling bobby and athena!” announces chimney.

“Who is this woman that you’re planning on proposing to? Asks Karen calmly.

“Oh maddie buck didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what? Where is buck anyway? How of all people is he not involved in this?

“Probably getting ready for our date.”

“Buck’s your date!?”

“You asked us to take Chris for the night and didn’t even mention it was so you two could go on a date?”

“Chris knows and I thought buck would tell maddie who would tell Chim who would tell everyone else.”

“So wait not only are you going on a date with buck but you want to propose to him.”

“Yeah, oh wait i’m getting a call from bobby.”

“EDMUNDO DIAZ DO NOT PROPOSE TO RANDOM WOMAN ON THE FIRST DATE! Athena admonishes in lew of a greeting. As Eddie adds them to the conference call.

“It’s buck.” Hen and Chim chime in.

“What? 

“It's not some random woman Eddie is going on a date with buck and has also decided to ask buck to marry him.”

“Okay? Explain. Bobby sternly demands

“Well buck asked me to go on a date with him and i said yes ofcourse so buck planned to meet me at my favorite restaurant. 

“Okay and that equates to getting engaged, how?” “Well earlier I realized that it probably wouldn’t be that different from the hundreds of times that me and buck have been there over the years. I mean buck knows where my favorite table is and what i would order and it’s not one of those places that i order the same thing from everytime. And it also has a lot to do with how we even decided to date anyway.”

“And how was that?”

“It was a long story but I basically told them that when I was little I saw Buck as my bonus dad because they treated each other like they were married.” Chris interjects.

“Yeah that. This maybe our first official romantic date but we’ve been partners for years at this point.”

“You could have just said that you know,” chimney chides

“I was aware of how crazy it sounds. I need someone to stop me from doing something crazy and ruining my relationship with Buck.”

"You won't," Maddie promises

"I think you should do it," Bobby states confidently

"Really? Eddie responds

"I second that, really?" interjects Athena

"I think that, as crazy as it sounds, you know what you want, and I think you're right, you guys have been than just work partners for a long time. I've seen you make decisions and weather storms together in ways that show just as much commitment and understanding of each other as any marriage vow.

[eddiediazsmiling]

I think when Chris was younger, maybe 7 or 8, just at the point where Buck and Chris are super close but not too old that he would know the implications of what he's saying, he once told someone that Buck was his bonus dad.

Chris later has to clarify that Buck isn't his stepdad; it's like when your dad's friend is so close that they're like brothers, so you have an unofficial uncle, but instead of brother, it's like they're married. round three, the adult is like You mean like dating and Chris is like They would kiss if they were gay, but they're not, so it's like they are like a married couple, but they're not.

I'd like to think this conversation happens with like Chris's art teacher, and like six months after Eddie and Ana break up, she has lunch with her former colleague, and this somehow comes up in conversation

Chris randomly remembers this happening, maybe he finds some old art he did as a kid, and it jogs his memory. He's a teenager now and has way more understanding of the implications of everything he said. His dad is gay and in love with Buck, and he has no clue. Or were in love maybe, but his dad and Buck have only gotten more like that, so maybe still in love. And Chris is like What the fuck do I do with this information. He considers that maybe they tried dating once, but it didn't work out, so they stayed friends. But none of his dad's exes have wanted anything to do with him, and when would it have happened? No, he definitely thinks that neither of them has a fucking clue. which really it kind of explains a lot. His dad doesn't really date unless someone around him says he should. When he does date, he always has some big freak-out.

Should he say something to his dad?

Meanwhile, Eddie is freaking out because he did finally get a clue and A) is worried about how he's going to tell Chris, B) doesn't think Buck feels the same way.

So they all start acting weird around each other. Buck's acting weird because he thinks he knows something

When they finally talk about it they end up arguing about who goes first before Chris just blurts out, "You're in love with Buck."

And Eddie's like How did you know and Chris says he didn't know that Eddie knew that he was in love with Buck, and tells his dad the story.

Eddie isn't fully convinced that Buck returns his feelings. he honestly feels stupid for being in love with Buck for literal years and not even realizing it. He's probably the last to know at this point. It's probably why Buck is acting so weird.

Chris thinks that repeating this story to Buck as well will be the solution.

"It's true, I guess, if both me and you're dad were gay, there's a good chance we could date." Buck concedes reluctantly.

Chris refuses. REFUSE'S to let this go on a second longer. So he pretends to be as obtuse as Buck and his dad obviously are. and yells for his dad

"What Chris?" his dad says still on his way to the living room where Buck and Chris are.

"Can I sleep over at Denny's when you and Buck go on your date?"

"If it's okay with Hen and Karen. But Buck hasn't asked me on the date yet, so I don't know when it is

part 2

[eddiediazsmiling]

Buck showing up at Eddie's door is part of Eddie's joy it's not interrupting it eddie doesn't feel the need to stop what he's doing and put on pants because it's buck. Buck may have shown up in a bit of a bad mood but he immediately hands eddie a beer as he walks in. It's exactly what he would want to happen in better circumstances

[eddiediazsmiling]

chris has a rebellious phase where he sneaks around, goes to parties and drinks you know dumb teenager things because he's still hurting and therapy isn't helping as fast as he'd like it to. so he makes poor decisions.

Inevitably someone at one of these parties gets alchohol poisoning and everybody else runs. I think it needs to be someone who was at the party because of chris maybe even denny. chris is told to run but calls 911 instead

chris doesn't give dispatch his or denny's name but of course the 118 respond to it anyway. dispatch has trouble locating them at first.

and oh my god I think this could have lawsuit arc levels of drama and anger. I think logically, rationally and proffesionally if a kid brought his friend to a party and that friend ended up with alchohol poisoning hen would be stern but empathetic towards that kid. but it's her son who nearly died. and well she almost let a woman that she used to love enough to cheat on her wife with die because she messed with her son so i think there would be some tention there. because of the nature of the 118 hen pulling a pretty standard parenting move of not letting chris be around denny anymore after this incident is enough. the implication that it's chris's fault and that he's a bad influence on denny would be enough to cause arguments.

chimney the best friend vs captain chimney having to decide how to handle a dispute between members of his team. knowing what bobby would feel about it versus wanting to defend his best friend even if she might be wrong. moving one of them to a different shift is as good as picking a side but he needs two paramedics who are not at war with eachother.

(maybe bobby is alive but he's permanately forced to retire and he can't just step in and solve all of their problems as much as he wants to step in and mediate this situation for the sake of his family. but chim is captain. for once all of bobby's advice is how to handle the conflict on a personal level he's not their captain he's just their friend)

while hen and eddie are being overprotective parents at eachother buck is the one who has gotten to talk to both chris and denny about it. denny in no way blames chris for what happened in fact chris was the one who kept reminding denny he didn't have to drink if he didn't want to that he didn't have to just because chris was. denny is devastated that he can't talk to chris because in his mind chris saved his life. he stayed despite whatever consequences he might face. chris one hundred percent blames himself for what happened he's hurt that he's not allowed to see denny. he hasn't even been allowed to see that denny is safe for himself or even talk to him. although chris is convinced denny's better off without him.

that karen and buck are texting eachother trying to get their respective partners to calm down and resolve the issue (although in this case it's another example of buck coparenting chris and acting as eddie's partner despite not dating him)

buddie partners again but maybe hen is mad because eddie gets something he wanted and is petty about it so buck gets put with hen in the ambulance for a few calls and that's rough because buck is chris's other parent but they're able to be more civil about it. throughout the different calls buck wears hen down to be more objective.

in the end there's a call where two kids put themselves in a dangerous situation to see eachother after their parents say they're not allowed to be friends anymore and the injuries are complex enough that eddie and hen have to work togther and realize whats really best for their kids

[eddiediazsmiling]

buddie really has the funniest trope set up. They have the only one bed trope on lock, but they also have the reverse trope, too many beds readily available to them, too. Putting both of them in one fic would be juicy and hilarious, too. Buck and Eddie, who are so used to sharing a bed at home that they start squeezing themselves into a single bunk when they take naps at the station.

It drives Ravi insane

hen and chim are boiled frogs about it (so used to buck and eddies shennanagains that they just shrug about it)

Bobby (ALIVE) is super conflicted about it because their performance is up a crazy amount, like 30% or something, after they started doing this, there's no rule about it, but it feels like something Bobby shouldn't be letting them do, and would be hard to explain to higher-ups.

[eddiediazsmiling]

Something to this affect has probably been said before but buck realizing that no romantic partner could possibly compete with what he has with eddie not necessarily a feelings realization. But maybe an acknowledgment that eddie already fills any role a romantic partner would in his life. Except his realization is friendship is just as if not more important than romantic love but any romantic interest of his wouldn't understand him putting eddie above or even equal to them so he stops trying. He starts leaning into eddie as his partner. But this come with i don't have to have sex with everyone i have feelings for and I don't have to have feelings for everyone i have sex with. So basically he starts getting his emotional needs met by eddie and his sexual needs filled by hookups. It's fine not great buck definitely likes relationship sex way better than hookups. But it's alright practically equivalent to a couple of relationships he's had. He doesn't see an alternative To this.

This, however, is the torment nexus for eddie. His best friend who he has recently realized he's in love with is treating him like a partner in some ways then going off to have casual sex with strangers. And everyone is concerned with the seeming return of buck 1.0.