FRIENDLY FIRE: A 9-1-1 fanfiction

Part Eighteen: Dumb Decisions

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EMMA

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"I'm not gonna lie, I'm kind of glad I'm missing all of this," I sighed, taking another sip of the soup in a thermos Eddie had handed me the second I stepped into his car.

Eddie snorted, shaking his head, his eyes trained on the road, "Yeah, you're lucky his lawyer hasn't tried to invite you to a hearing too. He decided to hit hard, brought up Shannon dying and all."

"Jesus," I shook my head in disbelief, "that's disgusting. I mean suing the department is one things but revealing personal details...I don't know that just feels wrong on so many levels."

"Buck's never been good at thinking ahead," Eddie sighed, "this is just another example of that."

"Has he tried to apologise?" I turned in my seat slightly, stifling a yawn as the heat in the car started to make me drowsy.

"A few times, it's just hard to listen to him when everything just keeps getting worse and worse," Eddie explained softly, reaching out to turn off the heating.

"And that's why you're punching people for fun now?" I combated carefully, "Are you imagining his face on everyone you hit? Because sometimes they aren't Buck's, sometimes they are just regular Bill's, Bob's and... Bailey's?"

"That was the only name you could think of?" Eddie threw me an amused looking, coming to a stop in a makeshift parking lot.

"I'm tired and that wasn't the point," I argued, looking outside at the lights shining down into a fighting ring, "the point was that you want to hurt Buck back but you can't so you're hitting everyone but him."

"Deep down he doesn't mean any harm, he's just thinking about himself," Eddie shrugged, "I think he regrets it now but it's too late. Bobby's being monitored and all our dirt is out in the open, none of us are happy with Buck right now."

"That's fair," I sighed, closing the soup thermos, "so let's go punch some people. You'll feel better."

Eddie smiled slightly, cracking open his car door to step outside, waiting for me to get out too before starting to lead the way towards the fighting ring. "Lena's already here, so keep an eye out."

I focused my eyes on the ongoing fight, stopping in the crowd watching the two men trying to beat each other, their eyes murderous as they circled each other. One had a weak knee and the other had an injured shoulder; shoulder guy would win but it would be close... at least that was my guess.

"Hey," Eddie grasped my hand after retracing his steps to me, "don't get lost in the crowd, there's a lot of people here." He pulled on my hand slightly, "I found Lena by the beers."

"Who are you fighting?" I asked, dodging the arms of people as they cheered on the fighters, "Anyone worthy?"

"He's a cop," Eddie told me, moving me to walk beside him, his arm going around my shoulders, "he won a few matches over the month but he always uses the same moves. I can beat him."

"Should I be betting on you them?" I grinned up at him,

"We are not here to bet on people," Lena's voice piped up and she joined my other side, holding out a chilled beer bottle, "we are here to watch."

"Eddie's here to fight," I protested immediately, "I think we should support that."

"By betting on him?"

"Or just by betting," I shrugged, "I haven't seen the competition yet, I don't know if I should place all my cards in one place yet."

Eddie scoffed, letting go of my shoulder to frown at me playfully, "You think I'm gonna lose?"