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Eddie Diaz in 9-1-1 | WANNABES (8.08)

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I feel like some sort of creepy old man replying 2 my mutuals selfies. wow... ur so beautiful.... I could build u a house...

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like obviously as we all know eddie will not actually move to el paso. due to the fact that buck stumbled in on him Looking at houses and chewing on the idea and this is tv. but since buck doesn’t know he’s a character in a comedy-drama procedural he will experience very true and genuine emotional torment over the idea of his soulmate moving away. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

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and well the thing is Eddie also does not want to leave LA. like yes Buck is gonna feel bonkers crazy clawing the wallpaper about it we all know this. but I feel like people are almost forgetting also. that Eddie wants to be in LA. their life is in LA they've built a home in LA. he does not want to leave the 118 and his family and everything and go to El Paso he does not want to live in El Paso he does not want to live near his parents. and he doesn't want Chris to be there. he just wants Chris happy and to be with his kid and since he thinks there is no budging on Chris coming home and he is trying to let him have that agency he never got as a kid. he is willing to put everything else he wants aside to go to him instead because he loves his baby which. he is such a good dad forever but a significant part of his arc so far this season has been about how operating as if sacrificing his happiness is a necessary evil ultimately doesn't serve him or them as a family. and it is not going to be what Chris wants for them either and they're gonna TALK ABOUT IT and CHOOSE JOY! anyways this is gonna be good :)

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eddie madney stan seriously

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too little, too late

(8x08 coda) (buddie) (1.2k) the episode chose violence and so did i :) spoilers for 8x08, and hey, guess what? this is my 100th 911 fic! it feels right that it's an evil one <3

The real estate agent has an irritating voice. It’s pitchy and run through with vocal fry, and if Buck has to listen to her talk for another second, he might actually tear his hair out. And it’s definitely about her voice. Nothing to do with the largely helpful information she’s handing over to Eddie like candy on Halloween.

“Anyway, we can touch base again once you’ve had a chance to look over those listings. I’m sure we’ll find something for both of you to love!” the realtor says.

Buck smiles. It feels brittle and fake.

“Thank you so much,” Eddie says with all the sincerity Buck can’t quite muster. He ends the call and sits back against the couch.

“That, uh—that went, um—” He’s choking on the positivity he’s trying so hard to exude. “—well,” he manages.

“Yeah,” Eddie says. He runs a hand through his hair. “Seems easier than I thought it was going to be.”

Easy.

That’s—

Yeah.

“You know you—you don’t have to buy straight away,” Buck says as casually as he can manage, which is to say, not casually at all.

“Buck,” Eddie says with a sigh.

“I know!” Buck says, throwing his hands out in a gesture of surrender. “Just—maybe you want to make sure, you know? Before it’s—it’s permanent.”

“I can’t keep missing out on his life,” Eddie says quietly.

Buck swallows. He knows. He knows! Knows it like he knows there’s going to be an Eddie-and-Chris shaped hole in his heart for the rest of his goddamn life.

“I don’t want you to,” Buck says, and it’s maybe the first honest thing that’s come out of his mouth since he sat down on Eddie’s couch.

Bile rises in the back of his throat as he realizes this might be one of the last times he gets to sit on this couch, in this house, with this man.

Eddie drops his head into his hands. “I don’t—” He cuts himself off.

“Have you told Bobby yet?” Buck asks. His breath catches.

“No,” Eddie says.

“Oh,” Buck says in a rush of air. “That’s—” He wants to say good. He can’t say good. Eddie needs—he needs—

Eddie lifts his head from his hands and his eyes are shining. “I don’t want to,” he admits. “I thought—”

“That he’d want to come back,” Buck supplies when Eddie doesn’t finish his thought.

He nods.

“He still—he could still—” Buck starts.

“He’s not going to change his mind.” Eddie cuts him off. “He doesn’t hate me. It’s worse than that. He doesn’t care.”

Buck’s chest feels tight. “He—he loves you, Eddie,” he says weakly.

“Maybe before, but—”

“He does,” Buck insists. “And—and if this is what you have to do to make sure that stays true I—I get it.” He does. He gets it. He’d do anything for Christopher. He’d—

It’s the worst feeling in the entire fucking world, but he’d give up Eddie for that kid. Is. Is giving up Eddie for that kid. A sob jumps up in Buck’s throat. He fights it back.

“I want to believe you,” Eddie says.

Buck knows that he doesn’t.

“Have you, um. Have you talked to Chris about this yet?” Buck asks, feeling a little bit like he’s just laid his neck across the base of a guillotine.

Eddie shakes his head. “No, I—I’ve got to do this, whether he wants me to or not.”

All at once Buck’s angry. Angry at Eddie, angry at his parents, at fucking Kim, at himself, and maybe even a little bit at Christopher.

“Eddie, you—you told him he could come back!” He says, a little louder than he means to. “Doesn’t he deserve to know that’s not going to be an option anymore?”

Eddie’s gaze snaps to his. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“He’s got—he’s got friends here, and—and Carla, and—” He can’t say it. He doesn’t have the right to say it, doesn’t have the right to feel like he’s already lost a limb and now they’re taking a lung, but— “and me,” he finishes quietly.

Something like devastation flashes across Eddie’s face. “Buck, I—”

“No,” Buck says quickly, standing up from the couch. “I shouldn’t have—I’m not—”

“Buck, wait,” Eddie says, following him as he retreats toward the door.

“I, um—I forgot, I have to—I promised Maddie,” he tries to lie.

“Please don’t go,” Eddie says, and god, how many times in Buck’s life has he yearned to hear someone say that to him and mean it. How many nights has he driven home from Eddie’s wishing he’d been asked to stay.

This thing building in his chest, this thing of anger and grief and regret—it hurts. Every breath he takes is a little more constricted, a little less effective.

Eddie looks at him, and Buck sees it. That thing he’s always wanted to see. That thing he didn’t even know he wanted from Eddie until right now and it’s—

There was a small, naïvely hopeful part of Buck that really still believe that if someone loved him enough, they’d stay. Eddie loves him, looks at Buck like he’ll break his heart when he walks out the door, and it still isn’t—

Eddie loves him, and it isn’t enough to make him stay.

Buck is in love with him, he realizes, and it doesn’t fucking matter because he’s leaving. Like Abby and like Tommy, except Buck didn’t know how much hurt he hadn’t even discovered yet, because this isn’t Abby or Tommy, it’s Eddie, and Eddie—

Eddie’s supposed to be the one that stays.

Buck shakes his head and shuffles back until the doorknob is digging into his spine. “I have to,” he breathes, a grossly distorted reflection of what neither of them has quite managed to say.

Eddie opens his mouth like he’s going to ask again, like he’s going to beg Buck to stay, to show him all these awful pieces of his heart that he’s just found so he can remind himself that it’s not too much to leave behind.

Buck’s out the door before he can say another word.

He throws himself into the Jeep and all but fishtails it out of Eddie’s driveway. He makes it three streets away before he has to pull over.

The first sob surprises him with its softness; the second with its violence. He wraps his arms tight around his stomach and, god, he tries to breathe. But there’s not—there’s not enough oxygen in the entire world to make up for the way his lungs refuse to expand in the face of this loss.

He has to—he can’t—Eddie needs him to pull it together. To—to help him. To support him, and god help him, Buck will. There’s nothing Eddie could ask of him that he wouldn’t give. Nothing Eddie could do, Buck’s realizing, to make him love him any less.

Hot tears spill down Buck’s cheeks. He takes a shuddering breath and wipes them away. His vital organs are crumbling, so what?

He’ll set himself on fire if that’s what it takes to keep Eddie warm.

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buck is like okay. cool. got dumped by my first boyfriend, baking scones for no reason like i'm some fucking sad sack. whatever. Eddie what are you up to lately. moving to texas? fucking of course you are. kicks rocks. good goddamn luck selling this house after i kill myself right here in the living room. also don't worry about inviting me to come to texas with you even though the son you're going after is one that i basically also raised. i guess that's literally not even a big deal at all. doesn't seem like it matters to you at least. literally do not even mention it to me. okay. also my sistermom who btw is pregnant. she is getting kidnapped by a serial killer. sure. whatever. why not. also i am bisexual now of all things. killing myself forever and ever. might as well eat nothing but microwaved pizza rolls for the rest of my stupid unfair piece of shit life because nothing matters. ugh.

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buck throwing himself into being a good great supportive best friend by helping eddie househunt and pack (bc he failed in his initial subconscious job of Fixing It and having chris come home). and eddie watches and smiles and plays along while thinking. huh. he's taking this. really well. like it doesn't bother him that I'm leaving. like he's perfectly fine seeing me go. which is good. which is fine. its fine. meanwhile buck is actually experiencing an internal core meltdown

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waiter! one toxic lesbian situationship please

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lbr the reason why they (Tim Minear and Big Network) didn't show us buddie house hunting onscreen is because they know that the realtor would have immediately assumed that they were buying a house together. as a couple. a married couple. a gay married couple. and they couldn't show that to us because slowburn is still cooking. it's not ready to be removed from the oven yet.

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Nurse!Eddie MHMMMMM😋

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buck is going to come up with like insane fantasies in his head about eddie just living life in his new house and its going to drive him fucking bonkers. he's going to look at every house and be like here's where eddie will eat his cereal in the morning he will probably pick this bedroom to sleep in and give the other one to chris and maybe he needs a third one just in case someone visits and heres his bathroom it has a big mirror where he will shave his beautiful face and heres the garage where he will park his fuckass truck when he drives home from the el paso fire station he will work at maybe with his new partner in the front seat terrified because he doesn't UNDERSTAND eddie's road rage and getaway driver habits he doesn't know HE SHOULD OFFER TO DRIVE to avoid that situation and then maybe eddie will smile at his new partner and say do you want to come into my house and spend time in it with me do you want a key new partner? do you want to live here with me? you're my partner you'll never be a guest in this house i live in so many miles from los angeles

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EVAN BUCKLEY in 9-1-1 8.08 - Wannabes

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this is the exact face i want eddie to be making when he sees his parents again. [hundred-some bodies on you voice] oh you both wanna talk about parenting?

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THEY DID WHAT TO MADDIE 😦

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buck used his key, came in with a gift basket of baked goods, offered to make eddie snickerdoodles, thought eddie was watching porn, pointed out eddie was wearing a fancy little button down, said they can look for homes in el paso TOGETHER ON THE COUCH, then was hit in the head with the realization that his best friend might be leaving him. literally what the fuck ever

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eddie is moving to texas so he can run a black ops style saw trap mission on his parents (<- help me manifest this). and buck had an oh moment and metaphorically fell to his knees about him leaving. television can be beautiful.