Call it the way I see it!

I wholeheartedly believe, that Eddie’s mental state will take a turn to the better, after he talks to Buck/break down (and our hearts in the process) in front of Buck.

History shows exactly that.

The Santa's village talk:

And we cannot ignore the kitchen talk:

That was followed by that:

And ended with Eddie feeling more settled in the end of the episode:

There's also fools:

That ended with this:

And recently:

That ended with Eddie breaking up with his gf who he was miserable with:

(Sorry, i need a minute. He just looks so good in that shirt 👀)

And last but not least, was a fraction of a moment, where Eddie was on the verge of a panic attack and Buck stepped in and gave him an anchor to hold onto until the whole crisis was over:

I've hit my limit on gifs per post. But the point is, that Eddie stopped talking to Buck about the big things, concerning himself. And for once, because they both suffered that specific trauma of the shooting together, Buck let him get away with it.

Either out of guilt, fear, shame, overprotectiveness, an overwhelming sense of not knowing how to fix this one or just the fact that he himself is in pieces and not sure how to reassemble them both together without losing it completely or all of the above, Buck didn't push. And Eddie continued to isolate himself to a point where Christopher’s own fears, rage, and helplessness were enough to knock Eddie completely off for a loop that his defense mechanism wasn't equipped to handle.

Personally I wondered why Buck wasn't there when they were decorating for Christmas, I also wondered why that specific conversation of Christopher's fears was done with Carla.

Because Buck didn't know anything about it beyond the nightmares, and I'm thinking that Eddie, while not wanting to face his own trauma, is also trying to shield Buck from the mess that is his life, not wanting to add to what Buck is already going through and not wanting to reawaken the trauma that plagues Eddie, because they were both there, and both are very aware of that.

Historically, Eddie doesn't do well without Buck, and even though this time it's of Eddie's own doing, Eddie will still spiral until his rock, sounding board, anchor call it what you will, grabs a hold of him and grounds him again.

Buck will have to push, again, like only he can, and I am so here for that.

Wow this was longer than I planned it to be, if you made it this far. Thank you!!

Happy Wednesday my loves!! ❤

In continuation to 9-1-1 4x01, I spot a potential new buddie paralleled to bathena:

1. When Bobby speaks to May when she starts to work at the dispatch center. It was the same day Athena got back to work. 

Bobby: Don't be scared. MAY: But she's out there, Right where they're saying there could be a landslide. Bobby: She's probably just helping out with evacuations. May: Aren't you worried? It's too soon. Bobby: Hey, your mom is doing her job. And I'm sure she'd want you to be doing the same. Actually, that's a lie. She still wants you to quit. Now in S5b, Eddie is not in danger anymore, but Buck is still very much out there, and no, he is not Christopher’s father, but we all know he may as well be. 

And Oliver did say, he has a scene with Christopher in 5x11, and we also know that Buck is going back to working on his own, and back to his fun S1 Buck rescues. I can see Christopher, now no longer worried for Eddie, being scared for Buck. And both Eddie and Buck will have to find a way to allay Chris’s fears. Also I do hope Eddie is smart enough to send the kid back to therapy. 2. This is Athena’s speech to Silvia, when she tries to convince her to evacuate her house, and that is also the first day when Athena is back at work after she was injured in 3x17.

Athena: “You know, today was my first day back on the job. Six months since I last put on this uniform.” “I was injured, Line of duty. Took some time to heal. Silvia: “Not everything heals in six months.”  Athena: “You're right about that. My arm's fixed, but the rest of me? I even lied to my husband this morning. Told him that I would be all right, didn't mention that it took everything in my being to get out of that bed this morning and pick up this badge. Then I lied to my captain. Hell, maybe I've been lying to myself.”

Athena is admitting to not being healed, mentally. And we can assume, that Eddie wasn’t healed either.  Him leaving in my opinion, is more because he wasn’t sure of his own mental shields/strength anymore. Athena has been through therapy, has probably been injured and hospitalized before, May even seemed well adjusted when visiting her in the hospital, but you could see it was Harry’s first time.  With both her kids worrying about her constantly, she never left the job. She thought about it, was close to retire as she told Bobby later on, but she never did, because she is sure that this is who she is, that this is her place, and she draws strength from the people she loves. Eddie, was in the same position as Athena after 4x14, but we don’t see him meeting with a therapist, I’m guessing he had a psych eval before returning to work, but at this point he knows what he needs to say to get the seal of approval, and was probably back to firefighting as soon as he was cleared.

Buck like Bobby did with Athena, did try to check with Eddie, (as we can see in 5x03 and 5x08) but Eddie seemed to be reluctant to touch on the shooting subject. The panic attacks are merely a symptom to the problem. But where Athena worked through her problem, and leaned on her family, Eddie tried to carry everything alone until that house of cards came crumbling down. An unsettled parent makes for an unsettled child, and I’m betting leaving the 118 won’t solve any of the problems Eddie is facing. Because even if leaving was a knee jerk reaction to Christopher’s fear, it was merely an easy way out for Eddie, who’s probably still living in that moment where a sniper’s bullet shattered his hard earned comforting reality.

I was listening to Athena talking and all I could think about was “hell, that’s probably what Eddie’s has been thinking when he got back to work and was still living that awful moment because he never really dealt with it.”

These two scenes seemed to stand out to me as possible parallels for the S5b buddie progression, My mind is buzzing with thoughts!! Share yours with me too!!