911/911 Lone Star One Shots

Too Busy

"Where's Diaz?" Bobby looked around at his team before starting the morning briefing. He'd waited for his whole team to join him near the fire truck to go over shift announcements, but now it was nearly 15 minutes past the official start of shift and still no Eddie. "Buck, Hen, Chimney, either of you heard from him?"

"No." "Huh-uh." "Not today." The trio answered, checking their phones just in case they'd missed a message.

"Huh. Alright well, I'll start without him." He decided before diving into the announcements he had. Buck ignored everything Bobby said, too concerned with calling and texting Eddie and to ask where the hell he was.

"Buck." Bobby's voice got his attention, clearly not the first time he'd tried. "The morning briefing is over. Did you listen to a word I said?"

Buck looked up and realized the rest of the team had scattered, leaving just him sitting on the front bumper of the truck. "Oh, uh, yeah, of course I did. I just- Eddie isn't responding."

Bobby took a breath and nodded, sharing the same concern. "Okay. Why don't you-"

"I'm sorry I'm late, Cap." Eddie hurried inside, his duffle unzipped and his hair clearly untouched after waking up.

"Rough morning?" Bobby raised an eyebrow at his appearance.

"Busy." He nodded, letting out a stressed sigh. "Won't happen again."

"Better not. Go get changed." Bobby let him off the hook despite him being 25 minutes late.

Eddie started towards the locker room and Buck gave Bobby a confused look before following him.

"Did you forget your phone?" He asked, leaning against the glass as Eddie hastily changed into his uniform.

"No? It's right here." He pulled it out of his duffle and tried to turn it on. "And it's dead." He ran his hands over his face, clearly exasperated with the day already.

"What happened? Why are you such a disaster today? There's only room for one total disaster in this firehouse and I've held that title for a very long time." Buck spoke lightly, trying unsuccessfully to get a smile out of his friend by referencing Schitts Creek.

"I spent all day yesterday running around trying to get everything done around the house and help Chris with his school project and then Pepa called and needed me to help her get boxes down from her attic and then Chris needed to get to a birthday party across town and I got a speeding ticket and then a lecture from a 12 year old about getting caught because apparently, 'you can't get caught if you're going to do illegal things.'" He spoke rapidly, tossing his stuff into his locker and slamming it shut.

"Whoa, that sounds chaotic." Buck sympathized, concerned with how stressed his friend looked.

"That's not even all of it. I got home and Pepa called again because we got the wrong boxes down so I had to go back over. Chris forgot pajamas to sleepover at the birthday party so I had to take those to him. And when I finally got back home, the washer had broke and I had water all over the floor. Then this morning, I had to pick Chris up to run him to Pepa's and he took his sweet time getting packed up to leave and when I got to Pepa's, she needed me to change the batteries in her smoke detectors because they kept beeping at her but guess what? It wasn't the smoke detectors, it was just a noise on the tv. Then I got another speeding ticket on the way here so I was late." He vented before the alarms went off. Buck didn't have time to say anything as Eddie brushed past him to get to the truck.

Buck didn't bring up Eddie's ranting as they rode to the scene, instead spitting out fun facts and information through the headsets to entertain his friends. Every time one of his comments got Eddie to smile, he felt like he accomplished something. Like he was helping.