Chapter Text
The tsunami devastated the 147, their station will need to be rebuilt and most of the team's homes were flooded.
Eddie was one such victim, he’d lost the house he was renting, and damn near lost both his son and grandmother. They’d been out at the pier when the tsunami struck, if it hadn’t been for a good samaritan he’d have come home from a long, brutal day to not just a ruined house, but an empty one.
The way Abuela tells it, the man had been jogging in the area, wearing one of those weighted vests she’s seen Eddie train in, she’d noticed him because he looked so serious in a crowd of joyful people.
When the water receded he’d shouted a warning before the siren, immediately telling everybody to get to land, but he’d run further down the pier to get to them, losing the vest as he went. She’d told him to take Chris, that she could care for herself, but not them both. He’d just nodded, immediately trusting her wisdom and scooping Chris up with a “Nice to meet you Chris, I’m Buck!” and then they were running.
By the time Eddie found out they’d been at the beach for the first wave, they were both in the med tent at a base camp, hooked up to IVs and sharing a cot with an unconscious stranger, unwilling to leave him. Once he’d checked his family over personally he took a closer look at the man and noticed a medic alert necklace stating he was on blood thinners and flagged down one of the nurses running the area to get him bumped up as a priority transport. They got his casualty tag number so he’d be easier to track down when he’d been processed at the hospital, and Eddie took Chris and Abuela to her house which was thankfully unimpacted.
His landlord had taken his sweet time doing so, but he’d moved them into another of his properties while insurance got worked out and repairs started. It was a nice house in the suburbs, not far from the station he’d been reassigned to with Lucy- the 118. The house was furnished; the landlord was cagey about it, said the guy who’d been there had been late on rent for a while, and then unresponsive after the tsunami, so he was missing, presumed dead. Eddie didn’t feel great about sleeping in a dead man’s bed and using his dishes, but he felt worse sleeping on Abuela’s living room floor for another month. He changed the locks, installed some security cameras, and set them up as best he could with his tight income while they waited for the renters insurance to come in and cover all the clothes and such they’d lost.
Abuela was here often, and when she wasn’t here or at home resting, she was at the hospital with Buck.
Buck Doe is a mystery, nobody has claimed him and they didn’t know his full name or any of his information because he’d seemingly lost his wallet and keys during that crazy day. But he is rarely alone, Abuela was there praying over him or reading to him, translating the telenovellas, she even told him all about their family. She insists he’s going to wake up and he won’t have to be lonely anymore. He hadn’t talked about his soulmate, or even any friends or family while they waded through the aftermath; just asked about theirs and played games with Chris to keep him distracted from their reality.
Eddie comes by after every shift, bringing Chris if he can. He thanks Buck, helps the nursing staff with things like bandage changes, and tells the man about his work. Gossips about his new coworkers who seem closed off and sad, but won’t talk about why, speculates why there were two open positions at their station.
Buck has a cuff over his soul mark, it isn’t uncommon, but it makes Eddie itch. If he could see what it says, and it was unique enough, he could put it into one of the registries and see if he’s matched. Someone has to be missing this man.
But if someone has their mark covered, it’s considered taboo to look at it, under any circ*mstances. So he’d let the certified staff remove it, check for damage, clean, and replace the cuff without looking himself.
He thumbs over his own mark “You’re real?”, not a match for Chris’ mom, not a match for anybody he’s met yet. Once he got into being an emergency medic he figured it’d be the first conscious words from someone he’d treated for heat stroke or something like that.
As a firefighter it’s considered a bad idea to date someone you rescued, but he figures if they’re his soulmate it’ll be fine.
He’s shaving Buck, he’d been clean shaven when he fell into his coma, Eddie is determined to keep it up for him while he rests. It’s slow, fiddly work with the intubation tube, but it feels like the least he can do. While he works, he talks.
“We need some groceries, I think if I burn one more grilled cheese Chris is gonna take away my frying pan. I think I’ll get something pre-made that I can just put in the oven, that shouldn’t be too bad. I also need to swing by a hardware store, one of the bulbs in my rental’s bathroom is flickering and it’s making me crazy…
“I feel bad, I’m still relying on Abuela and Peppa so much to help me care for Chris, but this paperwork to get help through the VA or my insurance has my head spinning. They say they’re happy to help but I know Abuela is still scared after last time she was totally alone with Chris. She has no reason to be, but fear doesn’t always make sense…
“At work today we were at this pumpkin patch and there were these crows...”
It’s nice to have someone to talk to, even if the man is unconscious. He thinks Buck would be a good listener. He knows basically nothing about him, he was on blood thinners, he hides his mark, he ran towards people in danger, and he fought like hell to get an old woman and her disabled grandson to safety and then immediately passed out and stayed out.
The hospital staff can’t tell Eddie much about Buck’s medical situation, but there’s a pretty fresh scar on his calf that looks like it was a nasty crush injury and then probably a couple reconstructive surgeries. He also has rough hands and the minor scars of someone who has a very physical and possibly dangerous job. Once the bruising faded, it became clear that Buck was covered in distinctive marks, a birthmark and tattoos. Eddie is hopeful that once the chaos starts to die down, Buck’s description will reach the right person and he’ll be reunited. For now there’s so many missing person posters and so many Does, even the finger printing backlog is backed up with no sign of progress.
Eventually he has to go if he’s gonna make it to the market and home before Peppa has to leave for the night.
“G’night Buck, and thank you.”
He kisses the clean, curly hair on Buck’s head and walks out.
-
Get light bulbs
He’s looking at the post-it, it’s not his writing, but it’s on the inside of his front door, so it couldn’t be anybody else’s either.
Chris had a sleepover with Peppa last night, he’s been here alone. His landlord? That would be not just creepy but illegal.
Plus he hasn’t mentioned it to the landlord, hasn’t mentioned it to anybody, as far as he can remember.
He grabs the bulbs, installs them, and tries to forget about it. It’s weird, but it only happened the once, maybe he’d written it while over tired and simply forgotten.
Until it happens again.
“Don’t forget to save your work”
It’s on his laptop, which when he wakes it up shows the document he fell asleep working on last night with all the resources he’s compiled, trying to figure out overlaps and gaps, he definitely hasn’t saved and would be sh*t out of luck if he’d turned off his computer without checking.
But if he’d sleepily remembered to not just find a sticky note, but also a pen, and then write the note, place it on the laptop, and then put away both pad and pen, why the f*ck didn’t he just save it?
He’s sitting there staring at the writing, trying to fathom how and why, when his mark catches his eye.
Then he’s suddenly standing, chair fallen over behind him.
It’s a different “your”, but the writing is the same. Whoever wrote this post-it is his soulmate.
