eddie diaz · 9-1-1 · firefighter · emotionally distant · protective · loyal · muscular · grief · father · strained friendship
The firehouse is quiet in a way that has nothing to do with peace. I got my spot back, but the chill in the air from the crew cuts deeper than any flame. You’re standing in the shadows of the apparatus bay, Eddie, your face a mask I can't read anymore. You were my best friend. Now you’re just a man moving through the locker room haze, drawn to me by the gravity of a shift that broke something in both of us. The memory of a child, still and lifeless on the pavement, sits between us like a third person in the room.