Chapter Text
‘Eddie’
Quiet
‘Eddie!’
Quiet. Just blood drops fall down with a very unsettling sound
‘Firefighter Diaz!’
‘...no’
Hard inhale
‘I won't be talking to hallucination…’
Pause
‘I'm not in the mood for hallucination…’
‘And what are you in the mood for? Dying alone in the elevator?’
Chuckle
‘Precisely… hell’
‘What?’
‘I'm talking to hallucination!’
***
He can't vividly remember how he ended up in the elevator. Only pictures. Dark chapel. Pain. Bloody handprint on the hospital wall.
Oh yes. That's how. He tried to get back to his team. But the elevator stopped. And now he's stuck here. Amazing.
He's stuck and he's hallucinating! It's even more amazing!
‘Diaz, you need to cover the wound now, you're bleeding too fast.’
‘Do I look like I have a bandage in my pocket?..’
‘Improvise then. Can't imagine you wouldn't figure it out’
Eddie grins
‘Can’t imagine you died.’
Long pause interrupted by Eddie tearing up his t-shirt. Only then he gets an answer
‘I'm sorry I guess. Not that it was intended.’
Eddie grins wider. Presses the wound with his t-shirt and exhales through his teeth.
‘I thought so. Cause you here means I am also dying. And also not intentionally.’
‘They’ll find you soon.’
‘They won't. They won't even search.’
Pause
‘I missed a lot.’
Eddie chuckles
‘Oh yes.’
He inhales
‘You're missed more, Bobby.’
***
‘You're still bleeding too much’
Eddie chuckles and fixes his improvised wound dressing
‘That's not the worst part.’
‘Elaborate?’
‘You're still here. So I'm still hallucinating. That's worse. Hell. Maybe it's guilt?’
‘Guilt?’
‘When Maddie called me… I was so sure it's Buck. When she said it's you, at first… I felt relieved. I'm still ashamed of it.’
For some time Eddie hears nothing. Then there's laughter.
‘Please, don't. It's totally natural. He's your friend.’
‘He… is. I'm not sure we're on the same page though… I think I'm gonna be sick.’
‘Don't move. Why did this elevator stop in the first place?’
Eddie moves anyway, sliding down to the floor in the very corner
‘It's a safety system. The guy stabbed me is here for your wife. She has to be protected.’
‘Athena? How, why?’
Eddie blinks, hoping Bobby to disappear. He doesn't. Only then he answers
‘I'm not a psychic. I know she's shot. In the ICU now. Hope she makes it through.’
‘So… she's here.’
‘Yes. You should be there with her too, not wasting my time, apparently, I don't have much.’
‘I'm your hallucination in the end, right? So you think 118 is there, that's why they won't search for you?’
It has an unexpected response. Eddie laughs
‘It's not about me, that's all… well, and that's not good.’
He takes off his t-shirt from his wound and squeezes it.
‘Have… no idea I have so much spare blood.’
‘Where’s the knife?’
Eddie doesn't answer. He slowly blinks and raises his eyes to the only source of the light there, emergency lamp
‘Eddie, where's the knife, did you take it out?’
‘I'm…a professional pa.. paramedic’
His speech gets less coherent
‘He took it himself.. very.. greedy…’
***
‘You need to put more pressure on your wound’
‘... I'm trying.’
Eddie suddenly giggles
‘So now…I'm arg…arguing with..a hallucination…’
‘And you proceed. You need to stay conscious.’
Giggles become laughter
‘Not that.. I'm capable of.. getting out.’
‘They will find you. 118 is a family. Always was. Always be’
Eddie scoffs and slowly blinks
‘... I shouldn't have gone to Texas. I.. should have been there for you’
Hell he misses Bobby's smile
‘And what would have it changed?’
‘Most probably…nothing. My place…I…’
He slowly blinks again
‘Open your eyes now. Speak. Where have you been stabbed?’
‘Right side’
‘You're impossible. The place!’
‘... Chapel.’
Pause
‘Eddie… open your eyes! So, chapel. Why? You're not very religious’
Eddie slightly nods. Then opens his eyes and watches the emergency lamp blinking
‘You were. I was there instead of you. Athena…is your wife. You would do the same.’
***
‘You can't sleep’
Eddie slowly turns his head from the lamp. Painfully inhales
‘I kinda… need some privacy’
‘You have all of it, you're stuck in the elevator’
‘You're… still here’
Chuckle
‘Technically speaking, I'm inside your head… no, don't sleep. Press the wound!’
‘It … almost stopped bleeding… anyway’
The trick is - he knows it's not a good sign. He just can't do anything about it here. So why bother?
‘Tell me. Why do you think they won't search you?’
Eddie tries to grin
‘My phone… is in my… pocket. Did you hear it ring?.. by the way… my phone.’
Eddie squints, moving his hand from his wound, and gets the phone out. Blinks several times to focus
‘You're going to give them a hint?’
And now Eddie laughs. Almost lightly
‘God, no… I'm pretty sure…they're busy… I just… I need to send a ..text’
‘To who?’
Eddie blinks again, everything is so blurry he misses his passcode twice before finally unlocking the phone
‘Chris. I… need to text Chris.’
‘So he calls someone?’
Another laugh from Eddie sounds muffled and struggled
‘To say… I love him. He has… to know… I don't forget about him… even now.’
***
He presses ‘send’ but holds the phone in his hands
‘Press. The. Wound. You told me you're a professional paramedic so act like one!’
‘Does it… matter? I…’
He thinks about… another text. Luckily, gravity decides before him and his phone, slippery from his own blood, falls down.
Eddie smiles again and leans his head back onto the elevator wall. And looks at the lamp again. Still blinking. Is it getting brighter?
He inhales again - he tries to take deeper inhales but it's kinda painful - and smiles for some reason
‘Don't.. Eddie?’
‘Still here. Listen… why… why you. My .. sick mind.. could come up… with anyone’
‘That's the question for your sick mind. You were stabbed in the chapel.’
‘Not… not so deep.’
‘You're bleeding out on the floor of the hospital elevator alone in the dark’
Eddie tries to wink but just closes his eyes
‘Pretty… much.’
‘You sure you don't want to talk about it?’
‘Yes… Maybe… if I… keep silent… you'll go away’
‘I won't. I could be your hallucination. But I'm your captain. I won't leave you alone.’
Eddie just slightly nods
‘... thanks’
***
‘Eddie. You dropped your wound cover’
Nothing, only shallow and rapid breathing
‘Eddie!
Eddie just drops his head down. Then slowly opens his eyes. Everything is blurry. His t-shirt he used for his wound lies next to him soaked in his own blood. His jeans are soaked in his own blood. Even his phone is in the blood puddle. He didn't know he had so much spare blood, that's for sure. Most probably not all of it was spare.
The phone is still there. It still doesn't ring. There's a text but Eddie can't even move his hand to take the phone and read it.
And it's… light. It's too much light for the one emergency lamp.
‘Diaz’
‘No…stop. E.. enough. I'm …done’
‘The hell you are. Power supply is restored. You need to press the button. To get to the ER floor. To get to your team.’
‘No…’
‘That's an order! Move yourself!’
Eddie giggles
‘You're… hallucination…of my…late captain… you.. you don't have…an authority…chain of command…’
He giggles again
‘Move’
Eddie finally makes an attempt to raise his head and look around. Failed attempt
‘I.. can't’
‘You dug yourself out of the well. You dig yourself out of here! Move!’
Eddie doesn't move
‘You…died. Maybe… my turn.’
‘You weren't there. It wasn't a turn. It wasn't a choice. It's not a choice for you.’
‘I.. know… choices are… not for me..’
‘Nice topic to discuss with your therapist after. And now - move!’
Who knew hallucination could be so annoying.
Eddie moves his hand a little to the button panel.
He's pretty sure he didn't make it. But someone did.
Cause the last thing he feels before fading away - the elevator moves.
***
***
‘Wait, where's Ed…’
Buck doesn't finish. The elevator door opens down the hall.
And it's followed by scream.