#firesburn

jo was pregnant. they hadn't planned it, but it wasn't unwelcome - they'd spent a few weeks freaking out, taking turns to do so, so they both had support every time. but now was time to tell their children. walking into the house, eddie's, but it was hers & luna's now too. smiling when a little blonde girl comes barreling towards her - but she swings to the side, to her daddy, grabbing onto his pants & tugging so he could pick her up. "daddy! up up up!" she cheers happily, tilting her head, pleading eyes looking up at him adoringly.

the mother chuckles & walks further in, looking for the boy who stole her heart, even more than his father. "where's my sweet boy?" she smiles, finding christopher in the kitchen, looking like he was struggling to make sandwiches. "i can help you with that, buddy. what are we making? dad & i want to talk to you two about something, but we can make a snack first. i can appreciate a good snack."

there was a fire. there was a fire, but jo's first thought & worry was that a fire meant that eddie would be called out. that he would be there if she was hurt, he didn't need to live through that again, didn't need more pain around himself - the second thought was their children. theirs. eddie had become luna's dad & jo had become.. something special to christopher as well. she couldn't bear the thought of those kids experiencing more pain. but they'd have eddie - if he let himself heal again, once more. was there a limit to how many times a heart could heal itself? was his already too stitched up & bruised? she hopes not.

it takes a while - probably not as long as it feels. but someone carries her out, someone speaks her name so softly ... with so much love, in a way she'd recognize anywhere. @firesburn, her eddie. the best man in her life, in all of her life. holding her close to his body, & when the light hits her eyes outside, she coughs. at least that meant she was still alive. still breathing - although she had doubted it for a few seconds, thought that maybe the angel of death took face of the person you needed to see the most in your final moment. but no, it was real. he was there - he saved her. they weren't losing another person in their lives.

"'m okay," she whispers, voice hoarse from the smoke, another cough, but her fingers grip onto the firefighter jacket he's wearing. clinging onto him, eyes searching his for proof, but she isn't sure who needs the proof more. she just wants to ease the worry lines on his face. he probably has to go back in, even if she selfishly needs him to stay right there - right next to her. a tear rolls down her sodded cheek. "eddie, i love you." she hadn't gotten to properly tell him yet. sure they'd said it in front of the kids - they both knew it for sure. but they never got their moment to speak truth to their feelings.

tim's life had been falling apart for a long while, his wife had become an addict, she'd left one night - she didn't come back. now they were divorced, tim had finally found someone who loved him - really, truly loved him, but he fumbled it. he messed up, & he made the worst decision of his life. he ended things with lucy ... because she deserved better. he still thought so sometimes, but he missed her. he misses her so fucking much, every single second of the day. usually that was what he talked about in therapy - the therapist had told him not to take away lucy's own agency ... that thought haunts him still, when eddie speaks, he almost doesn't register it.

"oh - it took me too long, i didn't want that to happen to you." an honest confession. tim is trying, he's trying his best, to deserve his life. his love, tamara's affection, eddie's friendship. he'd even met christopher, which only made tim yearn more. he wanted kids of his own, not that tamara didn't count, because she did. she always will, he notes to himself. she was lucy's first, but they were both his girls - he would find his way home again, tired of walking aimlessly through life.

When Eddie first showed up at the 118, Buck could have never anticipated how much he would mean to him. What was once jealousy, as much as he loathes to admit, has turned to something else. Something he doesn't know how to describe. Plenty of people have tried to explain it to him, of course, but he tries to tune it out. After so many years of being told what to be and what to think, he liked taking whatever this was one step at a time.