Death took you from me, but One Day Ill Find You Again

Chapter 4

Eddie wanders into the firehouse on autopilot, he just turned up, did his job, and went home. It had been a year since the tsunami and Buck was still missing. The whole team had posted information around town and even to neighbouring cities about him just in case he ended up in another hospital and was in a coma.

Coming to work now was more of a chore now. His relationships with his work friends he used to call family were even more strained. They kept telling Eddie he needed to start moving forward as they had, even though Maddie had started to move on, she would bring up Buck loads when it first happened, but now she rarely mentions his name.

Once dressed and his things locked in his locker he glances at the locker that belongs to Buck, Bobby made it so no one could touch it. He places a hand on it and sighs deeply.

"Hey, Diaz." Lena's voice comes.

"Hey." Eddie says and walks off and out of the lockers wiping the tears that had started.

It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to her, it just felt like they were replacing Buck, he knew deep down they weren't that they needed the support but still giving her Buck's gear space was a kick in the teeth.

He makes his way up the stairs and can hear the others laughing and joking, which soon stops when Eddie arrives at the top of the stairs and makes his way to the kitchen to get a coffee.

"Are you going to have some breakfast today?" Bobby asks, Eddie can see him walking closer.

"Coffee is just fine, thanks cap." Eddie says he had reverted to calling people by their proper names. Nicknames felt too personal, his logical thinking was if he wasn't close if anything happened to them it wouldn't hurt as much.

"Eddie, you rarely eat, I doubt you eat properly at home either, as your captain you need to eat more especially on shift. Please don't make me order you." Bobby requests.

Before he could reply the bell was ringing and they were on the way to a fire downtown. As they thought about the fire Eddie missed how Buck would ramble about something to keep the boredom of using the hose to spray the same patch go quicker.

Eventually, the fire was out and the clean-up started, the team was talking but Eddie kept his distance from them. The ride back was hard, listening to them talk about plans for their days off and what they would do with their families hurt so much. He was glad when the truck finally pulled into the station. As he got off the truck he wished it would just pull out again.

"What are you doing here?" Eddie questions when his eyes land on Athena and Maddie.

"We were asked to attend, we got here and they were already here." Maddie says pointing to a group of firefighters standing at the back of the station talking to the fire chief.

Eddie doesn't care, he walks to the gear room and undoes it all, he can hear Bobby's voice trying to find out what was going on, but is brought out of his thoughts when Lena places her helmet down in her spot, well Bucks.

"Quiet today Diaz? What do you think the bigwigs want?" She asked, he didn't mind talking to Lena she was like him kept it to themselves

"Knowing our luck budget cuts or we've done something wrong." Eddie says as he pulls off his turncoat.

"118! Upstairs now!" Bobby's voice echoes through the building.

"Right, let's get the telling off over." Lena jokes.

It earns a small smile from Eddie, they make their way upstairs and Eddie can see the rest of the team is sitting down, taking a seat next to Lena, they all look at Bobby who looks at the chief.