Title: Marathon of Life
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: No Warnings Apply
Fandom: 9-1-1
Relationships: Eddie Diaz/Evan Buckley/Shannon Diaz
Tags: Getting Together
Summary: Life was a marathon, not a race.
Word Count: 3,267
Beta: Grammarly



There was nothing but the pounding of his feet on the ground and the music that was blasting through the earbuds. It was hot outside. He loved it when it was hot outside, and it made him sweat. He was training for a marathon that was going to be happening in a few months. It was going to be a good thing for him to do one thing that was for him.

Eddie looked around the cul-de-sac as he started to round the furthest point. The cul-de-sac was quiet this time of day, and Eddie loved running then as well. He knew that it would start to get busy when people started to get home from work, and the kids came home after a day of running around. It was why he was running when he was. It was very much the hot summer days; it was the best time for him. He sometimes missed the heat of El Paso but not enough to move anywhere in the state of Texas again. He wasn't going to give his parents access to him.

There was just another month until he was fully working again and able to contribute to the house again in a meaningful way. He was getting paid while at the academy, but it wasn't what he would be making when he graduated and got put into a station. He needed to get something going on that.

Of course, Shannon was on a date at the moment. She had pushed him to go out on one as well, but he wasn't sure what his full feelings on the open marriage they had going were. He agreed to it and was more than happy to have Shannon trying to find someone else who made her happy. Eddie just wasn't sure what that meant for him.

A soft chime over his headphones had Eddie grinning. Only Shannon and Buck could get a hold of him when he was running. Eddie pushed himself to get back closer to home faster so he could talk to Buck a little more. He felt like there was something there. Buck was in the LA area, and he was working as a firefighter. Eddie had been matched up with him as part of a small program that connected recent graduates with those who hadn't graduated yet to help them through getting their feet under themselves as they got through it all.

There wasn't anything about not getting attached, so Eddie hoped that maybe soon he would finally talk the guy into meeting him for lunch or even breakfast on the weekend, and Buck was getting off shift.

Eddie knew he had a lot going on in his life, and Buck had been open about everything in his own life, from his girlfriend leaving him behind as she went to find herself and how everyone at his station was calling her his invisible girlfriend. Eddie had tried to get Buck to put a stop to that, but it seemed that he was not willing to rock the boat and cause an issue.

As he rounded the corner, Eddie paused as he saw the Jeep parked in the spot behind Shannon in the driveway. He frowned as he didn't know that Shannon was bringing her date home for sex just an hour before Chris got home from being out with Pepa for the day. Eddie wasn't sure what he thought about that, so he slowed down and pulled out his phone. He found that the message from Buck wasn't anything close to what he thought it would be.

Buck: So, that girl I went on a date with last week? She invited me home to meet her husband as she thinks I would be good for both of them. Eddie, help. I have no clue what the hell to do here.

Eddie looked up again at the Jeep and frowned because he knew that Buck had a Jeep. He wasn't sure what the odds were about there being two men with Jeeps being at the homes of married women. Eddie also kind of thought it was karmic justice to have Shannon bring Buck home after Eddie had been kind of lusting after him for a month and wanted to go down on him. He had seen what the man looked like after seeing him on the news a few times. It seemed that someone at the LAFD was all about making sure he was in the spotlight as much as possible.

Getting up the courage, Eddie headed to the house at a steady pace to help him cool down a little. He figured if it was Buck in his house, he was just going to thank whatever God there was in the world that dropped the man into their laps. Shannon had met her beau a while back at a coffee shop, and she had flirted until she found out he was dating someone else. Then two weeks ago he came and told her that he was alone again. Right around then, Buck had told Eddie that he wasn't going to wait on Abby to come back. It had been strange, but now Eddie wondered how much he hadn't noticed that was the same between them.

Opening the door, Eddie listened, and he heard talking in the direction of the kitchen. He plucked his headphones out of his ears and dropped them into the case to charge them again before he headed to the side of split the house around the kitchen that his bedroom was on. It was an oddly shaped house, but it worked for them. The kitchen was more Shanno'ns domain as Eddie just didn't like cooking, and he was more than willing to leave that to her since she liked to. He knew how to, he just didn't like to, and Shannon hated running the vacuum. The division of labor was good, and it worked for them, even as they lived closer to roommates who sometimes had sex more than anything else. Eddie still wasn't sure what they were going to end up doing.

Eddie showered as quickly as he could; he wanted to get this part of things over with as quickly as possible. If it was Buck, there would be a conversation; if it wasn't Buck, there would be a conversation, but it would be shorter. He would extract himself from it for as long as possible.

"So, why are you in a pair of bright pink shoes?"

"Because there is no reason to gender colors. I will wear a head-to-toe pink outfit down to my underwear if I need to."

Eddie knew that voice. He landed in the doorway of the kitchen. Watching as Buck stood at the island in the middle of the room that served as counter space as well as a place for a few gadgets that Shannon used for tea. It was a morning ritual that Eddie hadn't gotten into. Chris loved watching Shannon with it.

The tea had come out of her therapy sessions after they had moved to LA right after Eddie had been discharged from the military. It had been hard to see her breaking herself down, but in the end, she had come out of it stronger, and Eddie had gone himself. It was part of what he was running for. The marathon supported many mental health facilities in the city, ranging from vets to new mothers. It was a lot of good that was being done. Eddie needed to get himself up the rest of the way, but his training was helping with that as well.

"Well, that's good, but why pink?"

"My mother hated it when I even wore a touch of pink in anything growing up. There was a lot of shit in the house that was more about acting like a good person and nothing to do with being a good person. So when is your husband getting here?"

"He's home already," Eddie said.

Buck spun around and looked at Eddie for a few seconds, his mouth opening and closing. Buck's gaze darted up and down Eddie's form.

"You can't just sneak up on people like that."

"Eh, it's good for you to have a little bit of a jump scare. So, my wife thinks you will be someone I like, or she wants to share you between us. Which is it?"

"The second thing," Shannon said. She grinned at him, leaning over the counter a little, her shirt showing off the swell of her breasts. She was wearing one of the bras Eddie loved. She had gone for everything that was in her wheelhouse to get him to agree to what she wanted. He just wasn't sure that she really knew everything that was going on.

"That's good. He's hot enough for us, but I have to wonder if you really told him everything."

"Eddie?" Shannon asked. She pushed herself up to where she was standing fully up.

"Did you tell him what I do? Or will be doing it as soon as a station picks me up? Did you tell him my name?"

"No, I've told him the stuff that matters. Who cares about that?"

"Did you tell her what you do for all giving?"

"I said I was worked for the city," Buck said. He laughed a little. "Recognize me from the news?"

"That and the Jeep, the text begging for my help since you were being taken home with the girl you went on a date with last week to see if her husband wanted to keep you as well."

"I...Eddie?" Buck asked.

"Eddie?" Shannon asked. She looked at Buck. "Oh, my God. This is that firefighter you have been talking to about the job? The one you said you would ask on a date over a text?"

"You were going to ask me out?" Buck demanded.

"I was, yes." Eddie stepped a little closer to Buck but moved to the side to get the water in the kettle going. He wanted tea and would get it if he had to kill Shannon to get it. He knew enough about it not to piss her off that much while he made it.

"What kind do you want? I was about to make us some of that spicy white peach tea," Shannon said as she shoved him out of the way.

"That works for me. I just wanted something that wasn't beer or coffee, and we don't have that juice I like right now since the store ran out of it last time."

"You two are like catfishing me or something, are you?" Buck asked. His gaze darted to the door. It was the back door it would just lead to the fence that surrounded the backyard. Eddie was pretty sure that Buck could go over that fence if he was so inclined.

"No, I promise, Buck," Eddie said. He held out his hand and approached Buck like one would a scared wild animal. "We've got a few marriage issues, but we aren't using them to hurt people. We love each other, but it's something closer to friends than this deep romantic love. There is nothing in this that is meant to hurt others. Our ideal want was finding someone that we could both love and sharing them as a triad but in the end, we knew that was a pipe dream."

"Until now," Shannon said.

"You have a kid."

"We do. His name is Chris." Eddie pulled out his cell phone and found a few pictures that were his favorite. He showed Buck.

Buck took the phone, and he smiled at the pictures.

"He's going to be here in about two hours, just in time for dinner. I asked his caretaker to keep him a little longer as I had a few adult things I needed to talk to Eddie about. It was only a little bit of a lie," Shannon said.

"And you expected me to what? Agree to fuck you both right now?" Buck asked.

"No, I know you are a little scared, but please, I never once said anything about sex," Shannon said.

"True, you did not. I'm just...feeling a little ganged up on here. It's a little strange to have this happen."

"Very true."

The kettle went off, and Eddie went over to take over that even if Shannon got upset at him. She was the one that brought Buck home; she could deal with him freaking out. It wouldn't be easy to get him calmed down with both of them ganging up on him. This would be much easier in the long run.

Shannon did well at talking to him as Eddie got the water into the cups and dropped a little bit of tea into each cup. He added a little extra to his cup as he liked it stronger than Shannon liked hers. It would be trial and error on Buck's, but at least this wasn't a strong tea in case it was too strong.

"You are being serious, right?"

"We have a kid in this," Shannon said as she held out her hand for her cup of tea.

Eddie handed it over, and he smiled at her before getting Buck's tea to hand it over to him. There was a tray for each of the steepers on the island.

"And that doesn't mean anything. You forget my job. I see the parents that only care about themselves all the time. You are not the kind of woman that would do anything to your son. You might have gotten lost in your mental health issues and nearly did something unforgivable, but in the end, you and Eddie got out of there."

Eddie knew that Shannon had talked to Buck about a lot of things that had been going on. Shannon had kind of unloaded on him one day while drunk at the bar they met at a good bit of the time.

"I know, and I'm still in therapy to help mitigate caretaker burnout. I check in once a month on that, and he helps me figure out ways to stop it all from getting as bad off as it was. Not having Helena and Ramon around is enough that I don't get into that dark place again."

Buck nodded and turned his head to look at Eddie and pay attention to him. "So you connected those dots, but you've not said much about what Shannon's plan is and how you feel about it."

"I go with the flow a lot more than I did in the past. I meant it when I said I was going to ask you out soon. Over a text, but still. I'm okay with all of this, honesty. What's for dinner, Shan?"

"I ordered delivery stuff. It's set to arrive around six, so we should be settled. I thought that Chris could meet Buck today, and we can see. We have a lot to talk about, but in the end, Chris' liking of Buck is going to be the big thing."

"This is true." Eddie knew, and he knew that Shannon knew that Chris was going to love Buck. There was just something about the facts spirals that Eddie got over texts that he knew Chris would love.

"So, let's see where this goes for all three of us," Shannon said.

"I might regret this, but okay," Buck said. He looked at Eddie before he looked away for a few seconds.

"Let's," Eddie said.

---

There was something about having a noisy house to come home to that had Eddie feeling like he was floating on cloud nine. But of course, the house was silent when Eddie came inside, and he wasn't sure what was going on with that. Chris should be there and annoying Buck to no end since he had stayed the night with Shannon while Eddie had been doing a full-on twenty-four-hour shift simulation with a lot of call-outs and even a few times helping others with random things. It had been an interesting night, and Eddie felt like he just wanted to go to sleep.

The silence wasn't something he thought would be good, except when he stumbled to his bedroom, he found that his bed had two other bodies in it, and they looked rather tired themselves.

"This is not what I expected when I came home."

"Denny was having a sleepover, and as soon as Chris found out about it, he wanted to go, so after dinner, he headed to Hen's house to have a weekend of fun, which I was not aware was something would be happening so soon," Shannon said.

"Our son abandoning us his first chance?" Eddie asked.

"Yes."

"Well, it's a good thing that we are both also tired. Get in bed," Buck said. He rolled over and draped himself over Shannon. It was cute to see it.

Eddie went to the bathroom to change into his sleep clothes in there. He had stripped them off in there and forgot to put them on his bed. He was unsure of what was going to happen in the bedroom, but he really did hope it was sleep.

"I set my alarm for two hours. I know you need to get in a little training for the marathon you are doing later this month. So, we can run together, and then Shannon can make lunch." Buck didn't turn over as he spoke, but Eddie still slipped into the bed him and pressed along his back.

Buck had been staying over more and more, moving between the beds with ease and never really making it all more than just a normal sleepover that Eddie could figure when it came to what Chris saw. Of course, Buck was also still living in Abby's place, and Eddie knew that part of that was why he was at Eddie and Shannon's so much.

"Before we have dinner after I do a little training, how about w go and get your things out of Abby's?" Eddie asked.

"Why?"

"So you can move into the guest room you always put your things in. We might still be a lot new at this, but you hate it there, and at least you won't have to make up a reason to stay here every night that you do," Shannon said.

Eddie smiled and pressed his lips into Buck's neck when he didn't try and get away. Shannon didn't move either, just let Buck work through things in his own mind. Eddie was hopeful that he would say yes but would not be upset if Buck said no. Buck was still hesitant about the relationship between the three of them. He didn't want to do anything wrong that would scare off Buck, but he knew that it was a big thing that could go either way.

Buck was happy, but there were times he would sabotage this if he freaked out too much. It was a slow process, but it was one that Eddie knew would bear them fruit. Buck was happy right now; Shannon was looking at Buck like he was something that made her life wonderful.

Eddie was happier than he had been. Buck wasn't worried about them leaving him behind even though they were married. He was happy with what he had going on in his life, and Eddie was glad of it.

This was the marathon, not the race, and Eddie would go as slow as needed to make their little family happy.

The End