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2023-03-13
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Break Glass in Case of Emergency

Summary:

Eddie’s mind wandered to the red folder, tucked high up in the back of his closet. He recalled back to a conversation he had with Buck, almost a year ago at this point:

“It’s an insurance policy; a break glass in case of emergency. A trump card.”

“One I really hope we’ll never have to use.”

“But if we have to, we’ll be really glad we did this.”

When hospital policy doesn't allow Chris, as an unrelated minor, to visit a comatose post-lightning strike Buck in the ICU, Eddie has a solution. Unfortunately, that involves sharing some pretty personal information in a waiting room filled with the 118.

Notes:

6x10 Spoilers! After all the angst that was 6x10, and the impending angst that I am sure 6x11 will be, I just needed something a little more heartwarming. And since my default reaction to every Chris/Buck interaction in the show is "just adopt him already" I decided to just run with it. Let's manifest it together.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

“What do you mean they won’t let him in?!” Eddie had dived out of the shower to answer the phone call from Carla. If she was calling so quickly after she had taken Chris to the hospital to see Buck, Eddie thought that could only mean one thing. Apparently, a phone call could mean two things, and although this was the better option, it still wasn’t good.

Eddie had driven home to tell Chris what had happened to Buck. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Chris had demanded to see Buck as soon as possible and Eddie, who had thought they left temper tantrums behind at age six, was witness to the beginning of what promised to be an epic meltdown when he had told Chris he needed to shower and change first. So, Eddie had reluctantly bundled him off with Carla and promised to join up with them as soon as he could.

“They won’t let him see Buck,” Carla repeated patiently, though Eddie could tell she was annoyed with the hospital staff. “Apparently the only way minors are allowed into the ICU to visit are if they’re directly related to the patient.”

Eddie huffed as he wiped dripping shampoo out of his eyes. “Buck is Chris’ godfather, for chrissake. He’d be Chris’ legal guardian if something were to happen to me. Does that mean nothing?”

“Believe me I tried. It was a no go.” There was a note of caution in Carla’s voice. “And uh, that may have been mentioned within earshot of several 118 members who didn’t know about your will, so…” her voice trailed off.

“I’ll prepare for the third degree.”

“Do you want me to bring Chris home? He wants to stay but –”

Eddie’s mind wandered to the red folder, tucked high up in the back of his closet. “No – no, let him stay. Listen – I’ll get him in to see Buck. He just has to be patient for a little bit. I’ll be on my way shortly.”

“Eddie, I’ve already tried every loophole, favor, and trick to get him in.” Carla sounded resigned, and Eddie already knew she’d have done everything in her power to get Chris in without her needing to say so.

He sighed. “Just – trust me, Carla. I’ll be there soon.” He recalled back to a conversation he had with Buck, almost a year ago at this point:

“It’s an insurance policy; a break glass in case of emergency. A trump card.”

“One I really hope we’ll never have to use.”

“But if we have to, we’ll be really glad we did this.”

Well, it was definitely an emergency and Eddie was definitely about to break the proverbial glass by swinging the equivalent of a fire axe through it.

* * *

The Firefam had been rotating through visiting Buck all morning. Currently Albert and Carla were sitting with Buck, so Hen was doing her best to watch a sulking, furious Chris until Eddie arrived. Not that Chris was going to go anywhere other than his hard plastic waiting room chair unless it was to see “His Buck”. Hen’s heart was breaking for him, and there was an ongoing text thread of increasingly desperate, b-movie worthy schemes to sneak Chris in. The current leader was to hide Chris in one of the gigantic wheeled laundry bins under some towels.

Hen scanned the room. Bobby was on what must be his hundredth recitation of the rosary, and Athena sat pensively next to him. Maddie and Chimney were curled up into each other. Maddie whispered urgently at her partner, who seemed catatonic. Chimney was taking it especially hard; he blamed himself for not fighting Buck more about going up on the ladder.

Carla had indicated that Eddie was going to handle it. Other than getting physical, Hen wasn’t quite sure what the firefighter had in mind that the crew hadn’t tried already, but she tried to have faith. Eddie would never let them keep Chris and Buck separated.

A distressingly short amount of time later (because Hen knew how far Eddie’s house was from the hospital and it was nowhere near close enough to account for his travel time) Eddie stormed into the waiting room, covering the distance to the nurses’ station in long, angry strides. Eddie threw a red folder onto the counter and began a furious but quiet conversation with one of the nurses. Hen glanced around the room; Eddie’s entrance had caught the attention of everyone waiting for their turn with Buck and all eyes were locked in on where the nurse and Eddie were arguing.

Only snippets of the conversation floated far enough for Hen to hear, but what she did hear had her holding back a snort. “What do you mean, ‘not on file’,” Eddie had hissed, “He just got here. How does he have a ‘file’? Where do these ‘files’ even come from? Do you just have one for everybody in LA? Dios do you have a Hildy back there or something?” Fortunately, the nurse seemed more amused than distressed so Hen chose not to intervene.

After a quick read through the folder, the nurse took it with him and disappeared behind the double doors. Eddie, deflated but not defeated, walked over to Chris, who looked equal parts nervous and hopeful. Eddie rested a hand on one of Chris’ shoulders.

“Mijo, they just need to make some copies for their records and then we’ll get you back to see your Buck, okay?” Chris nodded, then shakily stood up to pull his dad into a hug.

“Eddie, how?” that was Maddie. Nurse-in-another-life-Maddie who was familiar with all things hospital bureaucracy and seemed surprised at how quickly the nurse had folded. Eddie didn’t answer her, or even acknowledge her, but leant down and kissed Chris on the top of his head.

How indeed. Guardianship paperwork (and wasn’t that a surprise in and of itself) wouldn’t kick in unless Eddie was dead or incapacitated. It would have to be somethi-

It hit Hen in that moment. Exactly what Eddie could’ve shown them.

“Eddie” she breathed as she shook her head. Her exhortation was part laugh, part exasperation, part admonishment, part wonder, part ‘are you fucking kidding me right now’ and part about a thousand other emotions. Eddie glanced at Hen and gave her a little smirk, still holding onto Chris. Holy shit. Hen let out a low whistle. “When?”

“Last year, after I got back from El Paso and was rejoining the 118.”

“When what?” Chimney interrupted, eyes darting between Hen and Eddie. “Hello? Some of us are still clueless here – what did you do?”

Eddie took in a deep breath through his nose before he answered Chim. “Buck adopted Christopher.”

Hen gauged the reactions of everyone in the waiting room. Bobby’s mouth was wide open, Maddie’s eyes were about to bulge out of her head, and everyone appeared to be in varying degrees of shock. Everyone, including Christopher, and except Athena. Athena just looked smug.

Bobby found his voice first. “Why?”

Eddie glanced around, probably looking for the nurse to have returned so he could escape the conversation. The nurse, however, was conveniently absent. “My parents were still talking about taking Christopher or having us moving back to El Paso. Even though the guardianship in my will would be valid and binding, they could still fight it.” Eddie rolled his eyes. “No way they could challenge an adoption without getting laughed out of court. We didn’t anticipate this specific situation, but we did think about other hospitalizations. This would make it easier for Buck if Chris was ever in the hospital and I wasn’t there yet. It was supposed to be a ‘break glass in case of emergency’…” he trailed off with a little shrug.

“Well, it’s an emergency, and you definitely broke the glass.” Smug was not a good look on Athena.

Chris tugged at Eddie’s shirt. He looked awed and sounded somewhat hopeful, “why didn’t you tell me? Does this mean Buck’s my dad too?”

Eddie broke apart from the hug and kneeled in front of Chris, so he could look him straight in the eyes. “Buck and I . . .” Eddie paused, voice thick with emotion, “Buck and I wanted you to set the pace for your relationship. A piece of paper doesn’t make him your dad, but he can also be your dad without a piece of paper.” Eddie half smiled, probably the most he could muster considering the situation. He placed a hand lovingly on the side of Chris’ face, and brushed Chris’ cheek with his thumb. “He’s kinda been your dad for a while now, huh? But we didn’t want you to feel pressured or make you feel like anything had to change unless you wanted it to.”

Chris didn’t provide a verbal response but did re-engulf Eddie in a hug.

Hen reminisced on her and Karen’s experience adopting Denny. Erm, D. It was a mess, in part because they needed Eva to sign away her parental rights. Shannon’s death, unfortunate as it was, at least made that part simple. But something else was tugging at her mind.

“Eddie,” Hen began carefully, only somewhat aware that she was pulling on a thread that might unravel, “second parent adoptions aren’t easy or cheap. Multiple home visits, investigations, meetings with social workers, hearings, interviews. Paying for all of them. It adds up. And takes time.” The unasked question was clear: how did you manage all that without telling anyone, especially Carla?

The nurse had returned – rotten timing for Hen, really – and was beckoning to Chris and Eddie. Eddie shot Hen a mischievous look as he stood and turned towards the waiting nurse. He answered as he began walking over, “good thing we didn’t do a second parent adoption, then.”

Eddie and Chris were through the doors before the second bombshell really hit her.

“No.” Hen was in absolute disbelief. No way.

“‘No’, what, Hen?” Chimney was, apparently, really slow on the uptake today. “Care to enlighten the class?”

Cautiously, Hen explained. “In California, when you’re looking at adopting a ‘partner’s’ child,” Hen threw up air quotes around partner, “it’s usually either a second parent adoption or a stepparent adoption. Stepparent adoptions are less expensive and much more streamlined, especially if there’s no other party to contest it.”

“Stepparent?” Maddie squeaked, realization slowly dawning on her. The rest of the room still seemed confused.

“Stepparent.” Hen repeated, deadpan. “Those idiots got married.”

* * *

“You’re married.” Maddie’s voice was flat. She was actually glad her parents had decided staying at the hospital was ‘too difficult’ because she could already imagine their reaction and it wasn’t pretty. Eddie and Christopher had returned from visiting Buck to let the Doctors run some tests, and it had been, to Eddie’s chagrin, right back into the inquisition.

“We spent a couple hundred bucks to save a couple thousand bucks, and a couple months. And a massive headache. Win-win-win for us.” Eddie sounded unrepentant. Defiant, even.

Maddie let out an exasperated sigh. “Were you planning on telling anybody?”

“Honestly, no.” Eddie shrugged before continuing, “we’re not, together, it was for Christopher. And if either of us ever wanted to get married to someone else, we could get a divorce and the adoption would still be valid.”

Bobby had been quiet, but his eyebrows suddenly furrowed as something occurred to him. “Obviously, we have other things to worry about right now. But don’t your HR files need to be updated?”

Eddie had the decency to look sheepish, a hand reaching back to awkwardly scratch the back of his head. “Uhmn, well, you see, Bobby,” he tried to flash what the rest of the 118 had termed a Buck Smile ™, but on Eddie? It just made him look constipated. “It all happened before my reinstatement, so, uh, when I met with HR, I just included it in all of my updated paperwork. And uh, had them to add it to Buck’s too. It’s been available for you the whole time.”

Bobby arched an eyebrow at Eddie. “You know I never look at HR files.”

“Wha, what – but you’re such a diligent captain, why would I ever think that?” Eddie tried to sound sincere but was floundering under Bobby’s withering gaze. It was glorious payback for the bomb he dropped and then left Hen to explain.

“Because I didn’t know I was Buck’s emergency contact until the hospital called me about his emergency tracheotomy, and Buck also knew that?” Bobby deadpanned in response.

“In fairness, Cap, you probably should look at our files more often,” Chimney responded with a snap of his gum, smirking at Bobby. Bobby hated paperwork.

Bobby sighed and looked around the room. “Any other surprises I should be aware of before I thoroughly review all your files?”

Eddie grimaced. “Well, there is one other thing –”

Eddie didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence. A doctor had swept into the waiting room and called out “Family of Evan Diaz?”

“Shit.”

* * *

The doctor was just informing them that Buck had been returned to his room, and that visits could proceed. Chimney had loudly declared that he wanted no part in the conversation that was surely coming, and shepherded Chris back to Buck’s room.

“I can explain” Eddie began. Athena snorted. He sounded exactly like Buck saying: ‘now don’t be mad’.

Carla crossed her arms. “I think you better, Edmundo.”

“When we were discussing adopting Chris and getting married, Buck had made a comment about how he had always anticipated taking his partner’s name when he got married. Buckley would only ever be a reminder of his childhood, and while he had made ‘Buck’ his own, he never felt like he could claim the whole thing.”

Some puzzle pieces fell together. “Hence why he taped over the “ley” on his turnout locker?” asked Bobby.

Eddie nodded. “Exactly. And if I were…gone… and he had to take care of Chris, it’d be a lot easier if they were already sharing a name. Fewer questions, less awkward explanations. So, I told him he was already our family and a Diaz in everything but name. Why not make it official, even if it was a secret? He was adopting Chris; he has half my Abuela’s family recipes. Chris loves him, my sisters love him, my Abuela and Tia love him, I lo-” Eddie, caught up in the moment, caught his slip too late.

Eddie went very still, mouth still open. Like maybe if he didn’t even breathe, he could turn invisible. Athena rose from her chair and walked over to where Eddie was standing. She stood directly in front of Eddie as his gaze fell to his shoes.

“Look at me, Firefighter Diaz.” Athena was using her Sergeant voice. Eddie reluctantly lifted his eyes to meet Athena’s.

“When Buck wakes up – and that is when, not if, because we are not entertaining any other options – you are going to do three things.” Athena waited for him to nod. Eddie looked terrified, and honestly Hen would have looked like that too under Athena’s penetrating stare. “You are going to wait for him to be lucid enough to consent. You are going to ask for his consent. And then you are going to kiss that boy on the mouth.”

Eddie did a credible impersonation of a fish, what with how he was working his mouth, trying and failing to formulate a response.

“Firefighter Diaz. I hope you don’t plan on kissing him like that. Were my instructions unclear?”

“N-no.”

“On the mouth, Firefighter Diaz. Or I will handcuff you to his hospital bed.”

Bobby broke in, pleadingly, “Athena,”

“No, Bobby,” answered Athena, turning to Bobby while wagging her finger at him. “I have put up with this foolishness for long enough. No more.”

Athena turned back to Eddie; her eyes narrowed in feigned annoyance. “You know, one of you firefighters had a saying. A proverb, even. What was it? Oh yes. ‘Tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone’. Sound familiar?” Athena arched an eyebrow but didn’t wait for Eddie to respond. “I think you know that is especially true after today. Now, go splash some water on your face and then join your son while he sits with his other dad.”

Summarily dismissed, Eddie turned on his heels and walked away, probably grateful for the opportunity to flee the scene.

* * *

It took Buck several days to wake up, and several more days for him to be considered anything close to lucid. But one Tuesday Chimney strode into Buck’s room and found Eddie in a chair, pulled up close to Buck. Which wasn’t unusual. What was unusual is that Eddie looked inordinately pleased with himself, like the cat who caught the canary, and Buck was absolutely beaming.

“Either they put you back on the good stuff, Buck, or there’s an update you need to share.” Buck didn’t answer, but his smile grew even brighter – though Chimney hadn’t thought it possible before seeing it. Buck grasped Eddie’s hand, interlacing their fingers as he pressed against Eddie’s side, resting his head on Eddie’s shoulder. Eddie had a smitten look on his face as he pressed a kiss against Buck’s head.

There was a simulated shutter click as Chimney snapped a photo of the lovesick duo. They didn’t even protest as Chimney sent it out over the Firefam group chat (where it was received with uproarious approval).  

Notes:

Stepparent vs second parent adoption description in California is as accurate as my desperate googling would allow, but I am not an Attorney.
Also, Eddie is me watching any show, always wondering how hospitals just seem to magically have files on every patient as soon as they're through the door.