i say this because the narrative never really seemed to care about marisol as a character, which consequently meant she was consistently treated as an afterthought in the storyline about her boyfriend cheating on her. which makes some amount of sense because that plot was always chiefly about how eddie chasing shannon’s ghost was always going to blow up in his face and hurt chris. he didn’t have to have a partner for the emotional affair with kim to be wrong, because the main concern of the narrative was about him betraying his son. therefore, marisol’s largely unexamined presence was unnecessary and only served to bog the main thrust of that storyline down.

I can't get myself together

I've been running for forever from your ghost

Tagged by @diazsdimples @snowviolettwhite and @cal-daisies-and-briars

Sorry but the conclusion to 7x07 has me by the throat. I was immediately torn between an “Eddie comes to his senses before going on his date” fic or a “Kim has a dead husband who looks exactly like Eddie too and they make each other Worse” fic, and, uh, the second option won.

Before Kim knows what she’s doing, she’s walking out the door and speaking to him. She tries to treat him like a regular customer, afraid to come on too strong, but he seems just as interested in her as she is in him.

His voice is the same as Marcus’s, too.

He tells her his name is Edmundo, but goes by Eddie. He tells her he’s a single father, and her heart creaks.

They’d been trying for a baby, before Marcus died.

Kim doesn’t really think about what she’s doing when she asks for his number, and then, while she’s ringing up the candle she sold him, for dinner.

Kim is charming.

So is Tommy.

Eddie is grinning from ear to ear, but always seems to be looking anywhere else except meeting Buck's gaze...

... and Buck is giving Eddie the exact same look as when Ana showed up at the firehouse and Ravi made the mistake of uttering the word "wife".

Tommy, at a certain point, manages to get Buck alone and tells him, "You gotta cool it with the way you're eyeballing Eddie. I think you're making Kim uncomfortable." (What he doesn't say is, "you're definitely making me uncomfortable")

And Buck's like, "Well something weird is going on. That woman looks just like Christopher's mother."

Tommy goes, "Lots of people have a type, Buck. It's not that unusual to date someone who kind of looks like an ex"

And poor Buck is like, "No, you don't understand. If I didn't know she was dead, I would swear to you that was Shannon."

And Tommy kind of frowns and says, "How well did you know her? I thought she died not that long after she and Eddie reconnected."

And Buck's like, "I mean, I didn't. Not really. I met her a few times. But, you know, I see her photos all the time when I'm at Eddie's place and Tommy it's weird how much they look the same."

Tommy's been to Eddie's house. He didn't look too closely, but he vaguely remembers asking after a picture of a woman with dark hair and bangs and being told it was Eddie's late wife. Kim is blonde.

The thing is, Tommy knows a red flag when he sees one. And his newly out of the closet boyfriend being weirdly intense about his very close best friend's new girlfriend? That's fucking scarlet.

But they're in the middle of a double date, and Eddie and Kim are probably wondering where they've gone, so now is not the time to open up a conversation about whether this particular red flag is a deal breaker.

So they head back to the table, and everyone is smiling, for the most part, but Buck is still being weird, and Tommy's definitely uncomfortable by this point, and Eddie keeps darting his eyes between the two of them like he desperately wants to know what they were talking about, and Kim seems kind of puzzled at how the energy at the table has taken a turn suddenly, but it's fine. It's fine.

At least, until the waiter clears their plates and asks if they'd like to see a dessert menu and Eddie automatically replies, "What do you think, Sh-"

And he catches himself before he actually says the wrong name, but it is not a graceful recovery. He kind of freezes for a long moment before he clears his throat and forces a grin and says, "Should we see what they have, Kim?"

And Kim tells him, "I don't really like sweets all that much. I'll take a potato chip over a piece of candy any day. But I'm happy to look if you'd like dessert."

Shannon had a sweet tooth. Even when they were really pinching pennies, she'd always reply to the offer of a dessert menu by saying, "Come on, Eddie. It can't hurt to look!" with a playful grin in his direction. And every time, he'd agree to split something knowing he'd only take a bite or two before letting her have the rest.

It takes Eddie just a moment too long to respond, so Tommy's the one who ends up saying, "I think we're good with just the check, thanks."

And technically, no relationships end on that date. But all four of them walk away with some uncomfortable new awareness of an extra person hanging over their relationship like a specter - Shannon's ghost lingering between Eddie and Kim, and Eddie creeping in at the edges of Buck and Tommy's relationship with Buck getting closer and closer to the edge of understanding exactly what that means.