Title: It's Just Hair
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Character Bashing
Fandom: 9-1-1
Relationships: Eddie Diaz/Evan Buckley
Tags: Angst, Getting Together
Summary: Why is there a hospital visit if it was a joke and just hair?
Word Count: 3,770
Beta: Grammarly



Eddie came out of the bunks, and he had a cup of coffee in his hand from where Buck had dropped it off for him before he had gone to the shower. Despite having showered a few hours before after they had all gotten back from the car accident, Buck liked to wake up with a shower. Eddie found it endearing, and he loved that Buck always left him coffee as well.

Things had been a little off since the whole thing with the lawsuit, and Eddie knew he needed to expand on more of why he forgave Buck. He had been read the riot act by Pepa about the whole thing and how much things were not Buck's fault for anything. Pepa had gotten the transcripts of the legal part of things and the look into the union from where Buck had called and tried to figure out what he could do about it. Only he had gotten someone who believed that no matter what, Bobby was right to keep Buck from working and had dismissed the claim without a single bit of looking into it.

It had been a shock to the system for Eddie, but he hadn't really explained his side of things to Buck. He had been shitty as hell about all of it, really, and cutting Buck off from Chris had been the worst part of it for the both of them. Buck had tried to go through Carla since he wasn't allowed to contact anyone at the 118, but he had gotten approval to see Chris, given everything. Eddie figured that Buck's lawyer had been planning on using that as well. Then Pepa had pointed out that multimillion-dollar suits being closed with just the person going back to work was rare, and the size of what Buck was offered to go away proved that he was right; Buck had been treated differently.

Eddie had also noticed that the main ones who came back weren't considered white, so while that might have been a good reason for other captains, Eddie knew it wasn't. It was the kind of thing that could be seen really badly. If a person of color was allowed back to work after more serious things without the hoops that Buck jumped through, it wouldn't be good. Eddie knew it wasn't why Bobby had done it, but he had done a lot of damage.

Buck had been back to work a few weeks, and things had mostly calmed down on that front. It had been a good shift. Eddie just wanted to have a lot of fun and not have to worry about much at all, but that was kind of impossible, given that Buck had been a little different. He still brought Eddie coffee after they had a callout. He still seemed to be the same.

Eddie tried to push all of the thoughts away. It was hard when it was early morning, and there was nothing else to think about to keep his mind off it.

The scream from the showers had Eddie dropping his cup and taking off. He heard the shatter, but he didn't care. He knew the scream. Eddie was the first to make it into the showers with Hen and Bobby on his heels. There was only a single shower going, and the screams were coming from there.

Eddie found Buck under the water, washing out his eyes. His hair was full of something, and Eddie wasn't sure what was going on.

"Buck?" Eddie asked. He looked back to see that Hen and Bobby had stayed back to give Buck some privacy. The others in the station were behind them, staying back as well while Chim was coming through with a medical kit, but he stayed back as Bobby held out his hand.

"It hurts a lot. I was...using that scrub on my body while my conditioner sat in my hair since there was no call-out and such. I...then it started to burn, then it got into my eyes."

"Okay, I'm going to step closer and get all of the stuff out of your hair, then we are going to get you washed off and into underwear. Then Hen and I can look at you."

"Okay. It hurts a lot."

"Bobby, grab the conditioner and keep it with you." Eddie looked back at Bobby to see a few of the newer guys who didn't circle around them that much standing at the back of the area, laughing a little bit. Eddie nodded toward them, and when BObby came forward to get the conditioner and turned around, he looked. It was good to see that Bobby looked upset.

"Any trouble breathing, Buck?" Hen asked.

"No, just my head burns, and my eyes are really bad. I had trouble keeping them open to wash them out."

"Okay, I'll get the eye wash we use to clear debris as much as possible. Now, let Eddie do what he's doing, and I'm going to go and get you clothes and clear out the rest of the shift from watching you."

Eddie focused on Buck, touching his shoulder before he touched anywhere else. The legs on Buck made it a little hard to do this, but Eddie didn't want him down where he would have to move a lot more to keep him under the water. He pulled Buck's head back a little to get the stuff out of his hair. Eddie knew the smell right away, and he turned to Bobby.

"Nair," Eddie said. He turned back to watch as some of Buck's hair started to come out. He closed his eyes as he knew that Buck was going to be upset. It wasn't a good thing to have his hair just falling out. Buck's conditioner needed to be on as long as possible, and he indulged when he could here and at home. The Nair had been on long enough to actually make his hair fall out.

"He's not going to be working, and I'll be taking him to the ER," Eddie said.

"That bad?" Bobby asked.

Hen came back with a pair of Buck's boxers and a shirt as well. The rest could easily be gotten on him once they were out of the shower area.

"His eyes are very swollen. I don't think that he's going to escape going with Hen," Eddie said.

"And he's not going without you. I'll keep this with me and make sure that I start a report. Hen, please pack up all the rest of his shower kit. I'll be submitting it all for testing. We can't really have the lockers fingerprinted."

"Testing?" Hen asked.

"Nair," Eddie said.

"Someone put Nair in his bottle. It's in his eyes and burned his head. So, I'm getting his body cleaned off to make sure that the reaction stops. Cap, no one else touches him but me and Hen," Eddie said.

"Of course, I'll get them all in the loft and settle them. I'll see what I can get started on this and have the next captain start it. After the issues, I think it's best if I take my hands off it and not touch beyond preserving evidence. I'll make sure this is good."

Eddie knew Buck was listening, but the pain had to be massive. Eddie knows how that kind of thing felt. He had used Nair on his head once before when he had been a teenager and wanted to not shave his head as often when he had gone through a phase.

This wasn't going to be pretty, and Eddie knew it.

---

The officer's arrival in the curtained-off section that Buck was sleeping in wasn't good.

Eddie knew that Bobby had been going to make sure it was taken care of.

"Is he awake?"

"No, he's gotten some pain medication, and it knocked him out."

"I'll leave my card and the detective that has taken on the case. I came here to get his statement. I'm looking for Eddie Diaz. Do you know where he is?"

"That's me. Need to talk about what I saw?"

"More your reactions to it as well as a little more on the background of what is going on at the station right now. I have a note here from your boss. I just left the 118, where there is a lot going on. Is Buck okay?" The officer handed over the paper.

"Yeah, his eyes are burned, but the doctors don't think that he will suffer long for it. A few days of having his eyes covered while they heal up and then glasses for a while to make sure that the sun doesn't damage them anymore. He'll be fine."

"Good. I'm Officer Dulac."

Eddie raised an eyebrow at the man.

"No, my father did not like Arthurian legends, but I grew up reading them. You want to do this in here?"

"No, I want Buck to sleep. There is a waiting room down the hall from here. I was told I could use it to make calls in if I didn't want to be in the room with Buck." Eddie stood up and stretched slightly before waving for the officer to go first.

"How had your shift gone?" Dulac asked as soon as they were in the room.

"Good. It had been normal, the kind of shifts that kept us busy without being overwhelming. There had been a little bit of downtime in the evening before we were gone for a while."

"Who stayed as man behind on the last run?"

"Green. He's the newest guy. Transfer from another station. I don't remember where exactly. It's nothing I really cared about, so I didn't try to remember it. It sounds horrible, but I don't need to know. He's here now, and that's all I care about."

"And what are his interactions with Buck like?"

Eddie hesitated on that for a few seconds. He would call them good. Green hated Buck, but it had been something from before Green had got there, and it wasn't the lawsuit as that had been after Green had got there. It was the kind of thing that Eddie didn't care about. He knew Buck and knew him well. Green had no idea who Buck was and treated Buck differently because of something.

"Green and Buck rarely interact. He goes out of his way to stay away from Buck outside of calls. I thought it had to do with something personal, so I never pressed Bobby about figuring it out. We don't have to be friends to work together. On calls, Green and Buck work well when they have to. Is he?"

"We are not fully sure, and I can't really confirm it, but I'm sure you are smart enough to figure out things based on what I ask you. What about Buck's interactions with Chimeny Han?"

Eddie exhaled and leaned back on the chair he was sitting in. He crossed his legs and tried to figure out how to say what he had been seeing. There was a lot of shit going on there, and he wasn't sure what would be the good thing to say that wouldn't derail the whole situation.

"Buck's interactions with his sister are his own. I have come to understand that there is a lot of trauma there, even before Maddie's dead husband entered the picture. Maddie's said before that their parents are good people but bad parents. I know that Buck never talks about them. No one even knew he had a sister before she showed up here in LA about a year ago. I was still new to the place, and I made a few mistakes when I first interacted with Buck, but I realized that while some razzed him out of fun, others were a little more mean, right until they met Maddie. I'm talking about Chimney there. He was smitten with her, and she was with him, even though she was on the run from her abusive husband. It ended with Chimney being stabbed after making friends with the husband under an assumed name. Then Maddie was kidnapped and nearly died, but she won. Doug was dead, and Maddie and Chim decided to take a break."

"And?"

"And Chim went back to treating Buck like shit because he took out his sort of break up with Maddie on him. Then, the lawsuit happened, and things just kept on getting worse. It came to a head just before the bomb went off under our truck, and Buck was injured. Buck was near the point where he was going to file a complaint. Then, the lawsuit, and now he's back. Chim and Maddie are back together, but there is a lot of trauma there, as Maddie doesn't like that BUck came back to work. She thought he needed to get into a job that was less risky. Never mind the fact that she doesn't do the same with Chim."

"So you are saying there is a lot of resentment there between Chimney and Buck?"

"Yes."

"Anything else you think I should know?"

"Buck wouldn't hurt anyone. He doesn't even like to kill spiders that are poisonous that make it into the house. I have no clue what kind of reason anyone would have for doing what they did when Buck is the sweetest man in the world. They can give a lot of reasons, but in the end, I won't work with whoever did it. I know you aren't in control of that."

"No, but it's a good note to put down. Now, the detective may follow up with this, but Bobby Nash said we should talk to you before you buckled down in your house with Buck and didn't let him out for a few days."

"It's a good point, as I would. So, what else do you need?"

"That's it."

Eddie nodded. He thought about what else it might mean. Asking about Chim and Green had to mean something. Eddie could see Green thinking it was okay with the caustic jokes that Chim had been saying all the time around Buck and then the few pranks, but the biggest issue was that none of the pranks had been something that could injure someone.

"I have a question. What kind of legal course is there?" Eddie stood up as he wanted to get back to Buck. He didn't want Buck to wake up alone since he couldn't see right now with the gauze wrapped around his head to keep the pads in place that were covering his eyes.

"Well, there is the civil suit that can be filed to get money damages; in this case, it's the hospital bills that his insurance wouldn't; on the other side, this was a form of assault and battery. Pranks like this can still cause legal trouble. LAFD legal team, HR, and the union are all up in this right now, so there will be a lot going on. So don't worry about a lot of that. It will take a while to get this figured out, but it will get figured out."

Eddie nodded. He held out his hand to shake Officer Dulac's hand before he waited for the man to leave before he went out as well. It was the kind of thing that made Eddie question a lot about Buck's relationship with his sister.

"Everything okay?" the nurse who had just taken over asked.

"Yes, just getting my statement on things leading up to this is all. How is he?"

"Still asleep. We noted the reaction to the medication in his file. It's nice when he does need sleep, but other times, it wouldn't be good if he needs to stay alert. Do you need a meal of some kind?"

"If he's still asleep, I thought I would just pop down and get something."

"Of course, I'll call if he wakes up before you get back."

"He won't."

Eddie knew he couldn't promise that, but he also knew Buck was pretty out of it. He was still, and he was only still when he was deeply asleep. It was not going to take long for him to wake up, though.

---

The door opened, and Eddie looked over to see it was Maddie. Eddie stood up and pulled the curtain that blocked most of the room from where she was as Buck was in the bathroom. He was still in a gown since they were waiting on Pepa to drop off the clothes she was getting from the house for him before being dropped off at his truck to bring it over since Eddie had ridden in the ambulance to the hospital. Bobby had offered, but Eddie didn't want him here unless Buck said yes. Pepa had offered, and she had been watching Chris, but Paco was watching him now. Eddie wasn't sure where Buck would want to go, but Eddie hoped that he got him to want to come home with him. The loft wasn't the place for him.

"What are you doing?" Maddie asked.

"He's just in a gown and told me to keep everyone out until Pepa gets here with his clothes. They cut his shirt and underwear off him, and it was what he came here in."

"I've seen him naked before."

"And that was with his consent when he was younger. I am not letting you in beyond the curtain until he tells me I can. When he's out of the bathroom, I'll ask him when he wants to see you."

"He's my brother. Let me in, or I will have you thrown out of the room."

"I don't want to lay hands on you. I was raised never to do that to women, but I will block you from going in here and toss you out of the room. I'm his medical proxy, and while he can make his decision, I am allowed to make these."

"You think that they will stop me from seeing my brother?"

"I think that even a nurse would have an issue with you demanding to see him when he's naked."

Maddie crossed her arms and started to cry a little; a few tears just leaked from the corners of her eyes. "You are being mean."

"No, I'm being firm on the boundary that Buck asked me to set. He wanted me to make sure no one else came in here, not even the nursing staff, until Pepa got here with his clothes. I'm going to hold to that and make sure that he's happy about everything, Maddie. I'm not going to break that. You can do as he asked, or I will have you thrown out."

"I want to hear from him that he wants me gone," Maddie said, and she gave a subtle smirk.

"I want you gone," Buck said.

Eddie laughed a little, and he peeked around the curtain. Buck was slowly feeling his way to the bed. "You sounded like a herd of elephants when you went in there, and you come out quiet?"

"I heard you talking to someone, and I wasn't sure who it was, so I used the wall to make sure I didn't make a single noise. Maddie, please leave until I get dressed in clothes. It's bad enough I'm blind at the moment until I can get my eyes healed enough, but to add, you stomping all over the boundary I set just tops it."

"How did I know that you set it? Maybe Eddie just wanted you to himself. He's in love with you, you know that, right? It's why he was so upset about everything when the lawsuit happened. He just wants you all to himself."

"Leave, or I will scream for security," Buck said.

Eddie couldn't breathe. Maddie turned and left, but the damage had been done. He debated leaving. Pepa could drive Buck home, and then Eddie could take her home after she came to get him from whoever he got to. It was the kind of thing that made Eddie afraid to even move.

"Get around here, Eds. We can talk about how much you hate being stuck here right now, and then when we are back at your place, I can tell you about how my sister deals with not getting her way on things."

Eddie debated for a few seconds just leaving, but in the end, he would never leave Buck that vulnerable. He came around the curtain all the way and then settled the chair out of the way of Buck getting back into bed. He was unhooked from everything, and the nurses had given him a dose of topical pain cream with a good amount of antibacterial stuff in it on the top of his head as well as his eyes. He didn't know what kind of things he needed to be looking for since the Nair had left him with a chemical burn all over. There were oral medications that Eddie would be going out and getting, as well as something for dinner for them before going back to stay in for the night.

"She does that thing often?"

"Yes, when she doesn't get what she wants, she just airs shit that she knows would hurt someone. Her best friend, growing up, was afraid to come out as a lesbian to her parents. Well, when she refused to go over and ask the guy that Maddie liked in high school if he would date Maddie, Maddie just blurted it out in front of her friend's entire family. She wasn't safe and ended up having to go and live with an uncle because her parents kicked her out that night. Maddie never felt sorry for it and said it just came out. She did it to hurt you and hope that I would kick you out and demand that she stay. Or you would just leave. It's fine. Don't worry about anything."

Eddie waited for BUck to just sit on the bed, but he walked over to where Eddie was instead and gently touched Eddie's face.

He was frozen, and Buck felt around for Eddie's lips before leaning in and kissing them gently.

"No worries, Eddie. We've got work to do and more court shit now, but at least we will be on the same side this time."

Eddie agreed that it was a good thing that they were on the same side. He caught Buck's hand to stop him before kissing Buck back. They had the time they needed.

The End