2 Chapter 2 Eddie's POV

The 20th November had been a weird day the team had been on several calls ranging from multi car collision to an OAP stuck in a bin, there last call was to a clown who had been set on fire by a kid because the kid didn't like clowns. The team pulled into the station talking about the incident with the clown as they all jumped out Eddie watched Buck leave the truck before him and noticed he was shivering at even the mention of clowns, it was quite amusing.

He followed the team and listened into the conversation trailing behind watching Buck talk and making hand signs that he usually does when he talks, Eddie enjoyed being behind Buck when he spoke, as he used his hands to explain his shirt would tighten around his muscles.

"I understand why the kid did it, clowns are freaky as. " Buck says laughing "if it was up to me I would ban them" he continued.

"Just because you don't like them doesn't mean you set them on fire." Hens says as he noticed her giving Buck a stern look.

"Yeah, they're not so bad, I mean we work with a clown every day" Chim grins looking at Buck and laughing Eddie starts laughing with Hen, while they walk up the stairs to get some food.

Sat around the table Eddie watched Buck piling his plate up with bobby's meatloaf, wondering how one lad could eat so much food but then looked at his muscles showing through as he moved about his shirt tightening around and begun to admire him

"What" Buck Asks

"Just are you going be able finish all that?" Eddie says back and smiles, he watches as Buck looks at him and gives him a cheeky grin as he gets a ladle full of Bobby's special gravy and pours it all over, Eddie shakes his head at him and starts to eat his food.

Whilst the team were all eating, they all begun to chat amongst each other discussing what everyone was doing that night as most of the team had tomorrow off.

"Well me and Karen are having a family night." Hen says as she sat down.

"Athena and I are taking Michael and the kids out" Bobby mentions as he takes a sip of his drink.

"How are they handling everything with Michel?" Eddie asks as he looks across to Bobby giving him a sincere smile.

"I don't think it's fully set in yet, but were ready for when it does" Bobby replies

The team continue to eat and talk amongst each other, trying to finish their food and enjoy it before the alarm goes off again.

"What about you Chim? Have you got much planned?" Buck asks staring at Chim.

"As a matter of fact, I do indeed, I'm taking Maddie on a date, were going to karaoke bar." Chim gives Buck a cheeky smirk as Eddie watched Buck face drop at his response.

"Seriously? You're taking my sister there for a date? You're always there." Buck points out chuckling as everyone looked at them both, Eddie looked over at Buck and gives him the why did you say that look.

"Well when you actually have a date with someone I'll come to you for some advice… but seeing as you haven't had one in… ooo… ages ill pass on your dating advice." Chim responds grinning as the team starts laughing; Eddie was unaware how loud his laugh was.

Eddie thinks to himself it had been a long time since he saw Buck go on a date, he was either helping him out with Chris or sorting other problems out. When Buck is on calls he watches as he flirts with the women which gets Eddie annoyed wishing it was him Buck would flirt with but it proved Eddie point that Buck was straight and wouldn't look at Eddie in any other way apart from just a best friend. Eddie had drifted off into his deep thought but was brought back to reality when he heard Buck comment again.

"What you laughing at Diaz? I haven't seen you go on a date either in ages." Buck says sharply looking at Eddie who realised he had laughed rather loudly at the joke.

"Hang on don't bring me in to it." Eddie held his hands up in a joking defensive way. "Anyway I have Chris to think about first"

"You can't keep using that all the time Diaz." Hen says looking up over at him with a soft smile.

Eddie sat there didn't know what to say, he knew they were right but at the same time if he said he was going out tonight with Ana there would have been so many questions when all it was is a friendly drink. Eddie soon realised that it had been awhile he had seen Buck go on a date and wondered why, he thought back to what Buck said about how he felt after Abby and Ali maybe he was waiting for the right woman.

They all finished up their food and Eddie watched Buck start cleaning up and start washing the dishes, Eddie wondered over to the sofa and sat down joining Hen and Chim and begin chatting to each other.

"So… Eddie! why haven't you been on a date? It's been a while since Shannon" Hen asks wording it carefully.

"It's just hard you know, after Shannon, Chris found it hard and with everything else that happened like the tsunami and his nightmares I need make sure he is settled again before I start going out there" Eddie says looking down at his feet as he ran his hand through his hair.

"We understand man but you have us for support, if you ever need us we can have Chris or come watch him at yours while you're out, you have to make time for you" Chim points out as he gives Eddie a soft sympathetic smile.

"Thank you guys, it means a lot that I have the support from you guys, I just have to take it as it comes." Eddie shrugs as he looks over at Buck cleaning away.

"Guess he's enjoying the cleaning, he's got a full on hum going on there." Hen giggles.

"Always count on Buck to give us entertainment" Chim laughs.

"He is definitely 1 in a million I don't think I've ever had a friend like him" Eddie says and Hen and Chim both nod in agreement.

There chat is cut short as the alarm goes off and they rush down and get in the truck, once in they wait for Buck who was trailing as he was drying his hands with the towel, throwing it aside and hopping into the truck. once in they set off , It was a classic car on fire the guy had left the on and it had overheated setting on fire, on the way back to the station Eddie looked at the time 17:58pm he still had an hour to go and he knew it was going drag as Buck was finishing at 18:00pm and he always played games the last hour whenever they finished together but not this time.

"I can't wait get home and relax, it's been a full on day, topped with that creepy ass clown we had to attend to" Buck says

"Why don't you go out?" Hen pointed out.

"Could do, Eddie you fancy it?" Buck asks, Eddie turned and thought for a moment, he didn't want tell anyone about the drink with Ana still

"Sorry I can't, I got plans sorry, maybe next time?" Eddie responds smiling

"Well I aint crashing your date Chim so night in front of the TV it is." Buck laughs as he gets out the truck Eddie watched Buck head to the lockers, so Eddie, Hen and Chim all stood outside the truck and was deciding who was on cleaning the truck they played rock paper scissor and Eddie lost so he started cleaning the truck and Hen decided to help him

"Tell you what Chim, considering we are cleaning the truck here why don't you go and try to speak to Buck to see if you can get him out." Hen says sharply pointing over to the locker room where they can see Buck looking at his phone.

"Good luck you will need it, he looks like he is going start moping." Eddie laughs

"Thanks, now I wish I lost the game, ill need more than luck" Chim says as he makes his way to the locker room.

Eddie and Hen start cleaning the truck, starting to take out the used equipment to do a check on them and clean it up, as they're doing this time had passed and before long Buck is walking out saying goodbye to them and heads for his Jeep. Eddie sets his cloths aside and jogs over to Buck tapping him on his shoulder.

"Hey sorry that I'm not free, I just got Chris's parent teacher thing" Eddie says knowing he is lying but he doesn't want Buck to feel bad that he can't hang out tonight.

"Wasn't that last month?" Buck quizzed Eddie, Shit! Eddie thought as he forgot he had shown Buck his report card, at times he wish Buck didn't remember things so well at times.

The room fell silent as Eddie realised he hadn't responded to Buck and saw him glancing at him with an 'I know you're lying' look.

"Come on were best mates were meant tell each other everything." Buck points out nudging Eddie playfully.

"Well I may be taking Chris's English teacher Ana out for a drink and Chris is staying at his abuelas" Eddie says, finally conceding he has to tell the truth he can feel his cheeks going red

There was a few seconds delay before Buck had answered and all Eddie could do was stare at Bucks beautiful face wishing he could run a finger over his birthmark down his cheek his train of thought was broken when Buck finally answered him.

"Good on you, I understand why you kept quiet it's a big thing but good luck" Buck said with a big smile and pulls Eddie in for a hug he uses this opportunity to take in Bucks aftershave he smells heavenly and then Buck pats him on his back and breaks the hug as Buck jumps in the jeep

"See you tomorrow when we go shopping and good luck" Buck shouts to him giving him a honk as he begins to pull away

"Yeah see you" Eddie waves.

Eddie watches as Buck drives off, and walks back in to the firehouse to continue to clean the truck with Hen as they finish up its 18:30 only 30 minutes till Eddie can finish and go home, he joins Hen at the kitchen and can hear Chim on the phone

"Yeah Maddie, he seemed pretty down that he had no one to go out with tonight." Chim explains running his hand through his hair. "Of course, if you want him there he can come too."

"Well it looks like Chim's date night with Maddie is out the window, looks like Maddie wants Buck to come out." Hen whispers to Eddie nudging him to get his attention as she hands Eddie his coffee.

"Looks that way doesn't it." Eddie says as he takes a sip.

"Well that's my date night over." Chim huffed as he joins Hen and Eddie and smiles as Hen passes him a cup of coffee.

"So why is your date night off? You were looking forward to it earlier to impress Maddie with that beautiful voice you have." Bobby chuckled walking over with his coffee joining them.

"Chim told Maddie that Buck was sad." Eddie grinned as Hen begun to giggle.

"Well she deserved to know her brother has no one to hang out with" Chim hissed looking annoyed at the others.

"You should have waited to tell her when you were half way through your date." Bobby pointed out shaking his head as he shook a sip of his coffee.

"Well I would have appreciated that idea about five minutes ago." Chim laughed looking at Bobby who was grinning.

"Look, we all know when Maddie asks him he will say no, we all know how Buck Is, stubborn, he won't want to crash your date night it's your date night man." Eddie pointed out nudging him.

"Eddie does have a fair point Chim, I love the way he will do anything for anyone and Denny loves him like he's his own uncle, he's like an adoptive uncle and its lovely, it's the same for you Eddie with Chris look at the way he does things to help even with Athena kids too, the boy is a saint I tell you." Hen smiles.

"You do have a point; he is great with everyone its lovely." Chim agreed as they all nodded.

Eddie stood there thinking about what Hen had said, it was true Buck did go out of his way for everyone especially him and Chris, Buck had set him up with Carla to get Chris sorted, he was there for Shannon's death even after the lawsuit Buck was there and they were back on speaking terms, that's what made Eddie love him so much but it also hurt him that he couldn't have him.

They spent the next 20 minutes chatting away but Eddie didn't really focus, his mind was miles away from the conversation thinking about Buck.

"Eddie?" Bobby voice echoed as Eddie came to, turning to Bobby.

"Yeah sorry what you say?" Eddie asks realising he wasn't listening to the question.

"What you got planned tonight you never said? What were you thinking about? You look like you were in deep thought?"

"Oh I'm helping my abuela out and just things at home" Eddie shrugged.

They all looked and saw it was time to go the other shift had come up the stairs and Bobby had walked over to brief them, Eddie walked in to the locker followed by Chim who was smiling at his phone

"What's got you so happy?" Eddie asks

"Buck has decided he isn't going intrude on our date night" Chim said smiling

"Glad you're happy, enjoy and I'll see you after the day off" Eddie says as he starts getting changed, once done he heads out says his goodbyes and hops in his pickup, a reminder on his phone goes off, get shopping and a list comes up on the screen when he opens it. He also sees a message off Ana

'Still on for later?' he smiles and messages back

'Yeah meet you at the bar around 8:30 just getting shopping then changing'

After he sent the message he headed out the car park of the station and went to Bobs cash and carry, when he got to the car park he opened his phone and loaded a app up he was greeted by pings and a list of profiles, he looked at the messages he had and answered a few then looked at the profiles and one caught his eye the profile name was Babyblueboi it had a picture of a bum which he liked and when he read the profile it pretty much sounded like the right guy

'Hey, thought I message you, as you seem to want the same things so I was wondering if you want to chat, if so give me a message back'

He sends the message then closes the app and his phone and heads in to the store to get the shopping he needs, once done he packs it in his car and heads home, as he's driving he calls Abuela to see how everything is going

"Hi Abuela" He says

"Hello my dear how was work? You ready for your date tonight?" She asks, her voice was always soft and comforting.

"Work was okay, and Abuela! I've told you it's just a drink nothing more." He sighs shaking his head.

"I can hear you sighing down the phone, a man going out for a drink with a woman in my day is a date, so you're going on a date tonight my dear." She laughs down the phone.

"It's not a date, we are friends. How's Chris?" He asks trying to divert the topic.

"Whatever you say my darling boy, he's okay he's just having a nap at the moment, now stop your worrying and go get ready for your date and I will see you tomorrow." She reassures him.

"Ok goodbye" Eddie says sighing at the frustration of her at times, sometimes she as stubborn as Buck is.

"Bye my dear" she replies as she hangs up

Eddie pulls up into his drive, he grabs his shopping and runs it into the house, throwing his keys on the side as he shuts the door he begins to unpack his shopping. Eddie turned checking his phone it was only 19:45, it hadn't taken him long to put his shopping away, Eddie sighed realising he has only twenty minutes to get ready as he knows it's about a good fifteen to twenty minute drive to the bar and he doesn't want to be late. He orders his uber to arrive in twenty minutes and quickly runs to the bathroom stripping off to hop into the shower, he then heads into bedroom getting dressed grabbing his keys he quickly, he heads to the uber getting in he decides send Ana a text.

"I'm on my way see you soon x"

He then looked at bucks name wondering whether to text Buck or not, he decided it's best not too, he didn't want the questions. After fifteen minutes the uber stops outside the bar as Eddie thanked the driver and got out. Walking through the bar doors he starts looking around for Ana to see her waving him over.

"Hey, it's nice to see you." Eddie says giving her a kiss on each cheek.

"Nice to see you to, glad you made it on time." she replies smiling

"What you having to drink?" Eddie questions her moving his way to the bar.

"Dry white house wine please." Ana gives a sweet smile as she leans on the bar. "I'll go grab us a seat over in the corner."

Eddie nods as he turns and orders himself a pint of beer and Ana a large dry white wine, he carries them over to her and sits down next to her as she gives him a big smile her cheeks rosy as he smiles back. Ana cheeks were always flushed bright red, no matter how much she tried to cover them up with makeup it never seemed to hide them properly.

"Well this is weird isn't it" she starts the convo as she takes a sip of her drink.

"What is?" Eddie asked puzzles

"Us, here having a drink, anyone would think it's a date, to be honest most my friends think it is" She laughs as she rolled her eyes.

"Only if they knew eh" Eddie winked.

They both looked at each other and started laughing.

"How is the other half?" Eddie asks with a smile on his face

"She is good, she's working tonight" Ana says with a smile

Since they met they hit it off and not for the reasons everyone thought Ana had a girlfriend and she knew Eddie was bi as he admitted it after he confessed how he felt for Buck and needed someone who didn't really know him or anyone at the firehouse plus It kept people off his case.

"That's good to hear" Eddie replies drinking more of his beer

"So any luck finding Mr right?" she asks giving him a wink

"You already know the answer to that, I have Mr right as a friend and nothing more and I accept that, and I've had no luck with the app you suggested either it's just all weirdo's" he starts to laugh shrugging his shoulders

"I could have told you that" She pointed out rolling her eyes.

They spend the next hour chatting away about their work places and how life isn't fair, Eddie goes on about Buck more than he should and Ana points it out to him so he stops it gets to 9:30 Ana is on her 2 glass whereas Eddie has had at least 5 or 6 bottles of beer

"Well I think it is time we head off some of us have work" she winks giving him a playful nudge.

"True and I'm shopping tomorrow, getting some Christmas stuff sorted" Eddie explains

"Get you been all organised and let me guess, Buck will be there" she teased.

"Shush you! but yeah he will, he will know what the best stuff get Chris so makes it easier for me" Eddie explains giving a smile not realising his cheeks were turning red.

"You're going red; every time I mention Buck you always go so Rosy. Come on I'll give you a lift home, saves you getting a taxi home." Ana smiles at him

"You sure?" he asks.

"I wouldn't offer if I wasn't sure, so come on" She says

They both leave as they walk out Eddie is focusing on his phone letting his Abuela know he was on his way home, but wasn't watching what he was doing and tripped on a loose kerb and landed on the sidewalk face first cutting his head and the sound of his phone dropping and going in to the drainage gutter. Ana rushes over to help him up.

"You alright?" She asks worried about him.

"Yeah I'm fine, just me being clumsy as always and not paying attention, it looks like I'll be needing a new phone." He jokes as he picks his phone up it was soaking wet and had a massive crack on the screen.

"Well you need get that head looked at" she points out checking the cut on his head.

"Take me to my Abuelas and I can get it sorted she lives closer than I do." Eddie explains

They walk to Ana's car and he directs her to his Abuelas, they pull up outside

"Thanks for the lift and for listening to me." He says as he leans over and gives her a hug

"Anytime, make sure you get yourself checked out and will speak to you tomorrow when you sort your phone" She gives him a concern look but had a soft sincere smile.

Eddie climbs out and walks to the front door of his abuelas and knocks on once the door opens Ana drives off

"Eddie what happened?" abuela asks pulling him inside.

"Oh I fell wasn't paying attention" he explains and she goes in to the kitchen to get the first aid kit, when she brings it she sits Eddie down and begins to clean it up as Eddie winces.

"How did it go tonight" she asks curiously

"It went good, where is Chris's phone?" he asks.

"On charge in the kitchen, do you need it?" she asks giving him a puzzled look

"Yeah I need ring Buck let him know I have no phone and I know his number in Chris's phone" He explains

"I'll go get it in a minute let me sort this cut out" she explains as she cleans the cut and applies a bandage

"Oh do you have that old phone I gave you when I got the new one, Ill use that till I get my current one back, I know it has my old sim in with the old number so I can use that for a few days" he explains

"It's in the kitchen as well ill put it on charge for you" she heads into the kitchen and Eddie follows he looks at the time its 10:27 he picks Chris's phone up and calls Buck

"Hey buddy why you up so late? You ok? Do you need me?" Buck asks, Eddie's heart melts at how quick Buck is to offer support to his son if he needs it.

"Hey its Eddie, sorry I borrowed Chris's phone" Eddie responds softly.

"Everything alright why you on Chris's phone" Buck enquires

"Long story" Eddie chuckles.

"The date didn't go so well then I'm guessing?" Buck asks

"It wasn't, never mind when we left I fell over and dropped my phone so it broke, I got get it fixed and also banged my head on the sidewalk so got a cut there as well" Eddie explains.

"What! Do you need me come check you over?" Buck instantly asks and Eddie's heart hurts more

"It's ok I'm at abuelas she looking after me, Ana dropped me off and then she left" Eddie explains

"So if everything is ok why you calling so late" Buck asks, Eddie could have sworn he sounded snappy but it was late in the evening

"I just wanted let you know that's all, I know you will try later or tomorrow morning to text or call me and I won't answer and I know how panicky you get so just letting you know that's all, you alright you sound annoyed?" Eddie explains knowing exactly how Buck can be

There was a silence for a minute and Eddie didn't know what was going on

"Buck?" Eddie says again to get Bucks attention

"Sorry just been a long day and Maddie was pestering me so kind of put me in a mood" Buck says

"Ok as long as you're ok, we still on for tomorrow heading to the shops try get ahead for Christmas" Eddie asks

"I'm down for coming, but don't know why you want shop so early though" Buck laughs

"Well I have seen the list of stuff Chris wants so need get to it plus I don't want leave it last minute and miss something and as you know we can be super busy if not working" Eddie says

"True, I suppose I can get some of mine done to, well I best head bed I'm knackered today as really taking it out of me" Buck says Eddie can hear him yawning down the phone

"Sleep well and don't dream to much of clowns" Eddie chuckles down the phone

"You're such an ass, why you have to go say something like that? if I have a nightmare now ill make you suffer for it tomorrow" Buck laughs

"Cya"

"Cya mate" Buck says as he puts the phone down.

Eddie then picks up the spare phone whilst it was charging, he turned it on and booted it up as he starts to download some apps such as Whatsapp and Facebook and Grindr setting up his profiles on them, Eddie opened up Grindr to see if he had any interest, as he flicked through messages he noticed Babyblueboi had responded

'It was a good day, busy because of work but also a long night, what about you?'

Eddie looked at the message and a small smirk appeared on his face, he thought for a moment how to respond as he didn't want to come across desperate.

'It was a good day, busy because of work but also a long night, what about you?' he replies

'Was an ok day but that's work for you spent most of the night in didn't feel like going out, what kind of work you do?'

Shit! Eddie thought for a moment, he didn't want to give away too much information about himself so soon with where he works, he didn't want give away his work place straight away in case it came back to haunt him, he had heard of the stories of people turning up to their workplaces and stalking them.

'I don't like to tell people straight away, I'm not new to the app but not been on it in this area before, and I'm not been funny but I have read too many stories of stalkers and people getting beat up when they meet people, so let's chat some more, I don't expect you tell me where you work don't worry. What you like do outside of work?' he replies hoping that's a good enough answer giving some insight but not too much.

'I completely understand, I have had a few weirdo's in my life so I know it can be daunting especially when they know where you work, with my work I have keep active so I like to train as much as possible but also hanging out with friends and going out drinking'

Eddie sighs as he sees the guy feels the same about talking about work which makes him feel a bit easier talking to him

'I like to train as well, keep myself active, I don't mind going out but I have situation at home and family so can't spend loads of time out but make the most of what I can do, you watch any sports?'

They spent the next two hours chatting about sports, films and everything about the gay life and how it really isn't there type of scene amongst other topics, as they sat talking time seemed to have flew by as Eddie noticed it was 2:20am, thinking it was now time to call it a night, he knew he had a long day to come once him and Buck got to the store, they will be spending hours in there so he needed to head to bed.

'It's been nice talking to you, we have so much in common and you sound like a sweet guy maybe we can talk more maybe via text?' He sends

After 20 mins and no answer and Eddie starts to wonder if he has scared the guy off or done something wrong.

'Hello, you there?'

3am still no answer so Eddie starts to wonder if the guy is ghosting him or fallen asleep, so he sends one last message before he heads to sleep

'Guessing you either asleep or not want to talk, give me a message'

Eddie leaves the phone on silent and heads to sleep. He woke up at 7:30am by Chris's phone going off, getting up he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and dragged himself over to the phone to see Buck had texted him asking what time they should meet. Eddie smiles and texts back to meet at lunch at the mall; he puts his phone down and crawls back into bed hoping to catch a few more hours before he must go meet Buck.