Omg, am I actually writing something with some plot and substance? Hopefully, we'll see how this goes.

I actually don't know where the idea for this came from, but I love this trope. I hope you enjoy!

The building was encased in a bright orange glow. Visibility was almost nonexistent as Buck and Eddie searched. It seemed to be abandoned, but Bobby still ordered a sweep as it was popular building for homeless, transients, and squatters. Because of that, it was suspected to be arson, consistent with several other arsons to buildings similar to it.

"Clear." Eddie said after doing a walk through of a room on the second floor.

"Alright, one last room and we can get the hell-" Buck fell silent as he felt the wood breaking under his feet.

"Buck what-" Eddie said as he saw Buck freeze, the wood creaking as he walked slowly.

"Eddie wait don't!" Buck screamed out, knowing what would happen as she as Eddie's foot touch that part of the floor. Before either of them had a chance to move, the floor gave in under them, sending them down to the first floor concrete.

XXXXX

Eddie inhaled deeply as he shot up, the action lending to his pounding headache. He was confused as he took in his surroundings. Gone were the flames and the screams of their teammates in his ear, instead he was in bed. He studied the strange red comforter and creme colored sheets. A bed that was not his. He looked under the covers at his clothes. His uniform had been replaced by a plain white muscle shirt and navy blue shorts.

He heard moans and turned his head to see there was someone next him with their back turned. So he was a obviously not alone. The body turned towards him in it's slumber, letting him see the face of his best friend. Even with all the confusion, seeing Buck's face filled him with a sense of calm, but it created 20 more questions. What the fuck happened?

"Eddie?" Buck asked, voice thick with sleep. "Eddie!" Buck shot up in the bed and surprised him by pulling him into a hug, before Eddie could respond he pulled back, the look in his eyes excited and intense, "you're okay!" The look in his eyes changed to confusion, "wait, you're okay? How are you okay?" Buck took a second to take in their surrounding, "didn't we fall through the floor of a building? I remember that happening. Where are we? This can't be a hospital."

"Yeah, definitely not a hospital," Eddie commented as he looked around at the mahogany bedroom furniture that he didn't remember belonging to either of them.

Buck threw the covers off of himself and Eddie and examined himself. "I don't appear to have any injuries," he saw his normal body scars and the surgery scars on his leg, "no more than normal anyway."

Eddie didn't say anything as he got out of bed to have a closer look at the photos he spotted on the dresser. There were three: one of him, Chris, Buck at his initiation ceremony that he remembered taking; one of him, Chris, and Buck, with Buck holding a baby, looked to be newborn, swaddled in a pink blanket; and the last one... Eddie's throat caught. He picked up the photo and held it closer. It was what looked to be a professional wedding photo, by the quality of the photo and the way they were dressed, of the two of them. If that wasn't enough to prove it, the matching gold bands on their fingers were in clear view of the camera. Wait...

Still holding on the photo, he checked his left hand to see the same band in the photo on his ring finger. He felt like he should be freaking out, but he was frozen, not knowing how he felt about this at the moment. That's what was scaring him more, the fact that he didn't have the urge to freak out. He's woken up in a home he doesn't recognize, in bed with his best friend, that he just realized he's married to, looking at photos he's never taken, and he's not freaking out. He didn't know what to do with that. Instead, he was just gonna do what he did best, figure out what the fuck was going on.

Eddie sighed. "Dude, I don't remember taking this photo," turning towards Buck, he sees him holding a photo from the night stand on his side of the bed. Eddie felt chills at that. Buck held it up and it was another one of just the two of them. As he held up the photo Eddie didn't miss what he was looking for: the gold band on Buck's left hand.

"Nope can't say that I do, either. I don't remember any of these," Eddie jerked his thumb behind him towards the photos, "except one. Especially this one," walking back over to the side of the bed, Eddie lightly tossed the photo towards Buck. Eddie stuffed his hands in his pockets as he waited.

The shock on Buck's face as he lifted the photo said everything. Much like Eddie, Buck looked at the photo, then noticed the band on his hand. "I... um... what?" Buck swallowed audibly around the lump forming in his throat, "are we... are we married?"

Eddie took his left hand out of his pocket and held it up, "looks like it," he said as calmly as he could. He just kept repeating to himself that they were going to figure this out.

"Oh my god," Buck scrubbed his hands over his face and stared at Eddie. Eddie didn't no what to say at the moment, so he settled on nothing as he watched Buck start to pace.

"Eddie, what's happening? What is this? Where are we?"

"I have no idea, but we need to find out."

"How? We don't even know how we got here," Buck looked around the bedroom, "or where here even is. I don't recognize any of this stuff being yours or mine."

"Well, let's start with what we know. Based on the photos, it seems we are firefighters, still or too," he said slowly as he turned back towards the dresser, eyes drifting back to the middle picture.

"Hey, what are you looking at?" Buck asked as he walked over to him. "Woah, who's baby is that?"

As much as he didn't want to admit to himself, especially with him still clueless as to what was going, to chain of events were leading to one obvious answer. He could be wrong, a part that was bigger than it probably should have been hoped that he wasn't. He'd delve further into that once he gave himself to really think this whole crazy situation through. For now he's compartmentalizing it in the back of his mind like he's done most of his feelings thus far.

Eddie was going to share his thoughts with Buck when they both heard the sound a crying sound. "Am I going crazy or is that a baby crying?" Buck asked.

"Given our current situation, we both might be going crazy, but I hear it, too." Eddie walked towards the door on the other side of the room, where it sounded like the cries were coming from.

"So, I take it that isn't a bathroom or closet," Buck joked drily. The nervousness could be heard in his voice as he trailed behind him towards the door.

Eddie took a deep breath before a slightly trembling hand turned the nob. They found the door led to a beautiful nursery. Eddie was frozen in admiration while Buck moved towards the crying baby. The walls were a light purple with the furniture and crib being white wood. The color scheme is kept throughout everything else in the room, blankets, covers, and the like. The open closet housed a number of clothes. Stuffed animals and other toys could be seen throughout the room. What really caught his attention was the stenciled lettering above the crib that read Celina Buckley-Diaz. The letters were written in white cursive surrounded by moon and stars. Well, that answers that question.

Moving his focus towards the child, who's cries had turned to whimpers upon seeing them, Eddie saw her standing in the crib, making "grabby hands" at Buck and saying what sounded like "dada". The way she was standing almost unaided made Eddie think that she had to be over one year old, most likely less than two, so one and a half, maybe. Buck appeased the child by picking her up. The chil - Celina - had settled into to Buck and her cries stopped instantly. Eddie watched as Buck unconsciously smiled down at her and she smiled back, reached up and put a hand to his face.

"So, we're married with a kid, well, kids including Chris?" Buck tested the words, eerily calm. "I'm a father." He watched a range of emotions cross Buck's face as looked at Celina.

"That's what this is looking like." Eddie answered back as he walked over to both of them. Taking a closer look at her, he saw how much she looked like him, having his nose, dark brown hair, tanned skin, and hazel eyes. He couldn't resist running his thumb along her soft cheek. It caused her to let out one of the sweetest giggles he thinks he's ever heard.

Eddie tore his eyes away from Celina to meet Buck's, who was already looking at him. He wasn't sure what he was seeing in them, he just knew it was most likely behind these feeling of warmth coursing through this body. He knew he really need to examine what all of this meant to him. Later. Tearing his eyes away and stepping back, breaking the connection, Eddie put his mind back on the task at hand: figuring what the fuck was going on.

Clearing his throat, "I think we should explore the rest of the home."

Buck looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "yeah, yeah. I was thinking the same thing. I mean, it couldn't hurt," Buck looked down at the baby still in his arms, "we might also need to find this one some food," Celina was trying to put the necklace Buck had on in her mouth. "Is that it, baby? Are you hungry?" Celina nodded. "You are?" Buck asked the baby exaggeratedly, "well we need to do something about that."

Eddie shouldn't be surprised at how good the baby was with the baby. Buck's always been amazing with children. It was just seeing the two of them interact took it to another level. "Ready?" He asked Buck.

"I have no idea." Eddie felt the exact same.

The two of them and Celina exited the nursery, back into the bedroom, and out into the hall. Looking around, the home looked to be pretty sizable for a one level. It couldn't be an apartment. The walls were standard beige, wood floors. Eddie opened the door to the room next to theirs and saw it was a bathroom, based on the toiletries on the counter and clothing haphazardly thrown around, it was probably theirs.

"That's gotta be Chris's room," Buck said as he pointed to a room towards on the other side of the hall, "I'd know that poster anywhere. I just got it for him last week." Eddie recognized it to. When they walked to the room and opened the door, it was semi clean and empty, but completely recognizable. From what he could see he knew everything in it belonged to his son.

"The first thing we've finally recognized in this place," Eddie couldn't tell if that made him feel better or not. They were all deep involved in whatever this was. "Let's keep going, hopefully they'll be some other stuff they recognize."

Eddie was wrong. As they continued on, they'd found the house was a beautiful, spacious 4 bedroom. Each area more unrecognizable than the last. Though, it had everything, really: kitchen with modern appliances and marble counters, living room with a fireplace, dining room, electronics all over the place, a big front and back yard with a pool, even a play room for the kids. It was a dream home, if Eddie were being completely honest with himself. A home he'd dreamed of for Christopher and didn't think he'd ever be able to afford. Maybe, this was what this all was, a highly elaborate dream. The thought's been crossing his mind on and off since they "woke up."

As Buck if was reading his thoughts, he said, "maybe this is some super detailed strange dream. This is way too much to be a prank," one of Eddie's initial thoughts was that it could be a prank. He quickly abandoned that for the same reason.

"Yeah, maybe. Only thing is who's dream is it and why do we seem to be sharing it?" The implications that this was a life that either of them would dream about overwhelmed him. He flopped down on the couch and sighed in frustration.

"I have no idea," Buck said as Celina started to become fussy in his arms. "Oh yeah, we need to get you something to eat." He looked towards Eddie, "can you take her while I look and see if Dreamland provided us with food?"

Eddie huffed out a laugh, "yeah, give her here. I got her." Eddie said as he took the squirmy baby from Buck. Eddie leaned back in the plush couch and bounced the baby on his thighs to distract her. "Do you know what's going on, baby girl?" He got a couple of babbles in response before she stuck two fingers in her mouth. "Yeah, I didn't think you did."

He spotted the black laptop on the coffee table in front of him and got an idea. "Maybe, this will have something on it that'll explain what's going on." Eddie settled the baby on his lap, comfortably and flipped up the top. A family photo of the four of them stared back at him. Eddie clicked on the photos icon and scanned through the saved photos. Their were a lot of Chris and Celina. Their friends and family appeared in a lot and some other kids that he didn't recognize. So their lives were the same, but key details had been altered, he guessed. He came across a video. He clicked on it and saw Buck holding Celina with a cake in front of them, Eddie could hear his voice out of frame so he must have been filming, as everyone sang "Happy Birthday". Celina babbled in recognition. "do you remember that?" He asked her.

He closed out the video and photos, noticing a blinking reminder in the corner. When he clicked on it, a color coded reminder list popped up telling him to not forget the cake for the party at Bobby and Athena's on Saturday. He read another reminder for the day about Christopher spending the day with Abuela. It was comforting to know that they had the support of their family and friends in this... this... he wasn't sure what to call it. This other life?

Another few minutes had passed and Buck hadn't returned, "you okay in there? Did you get lost?"

As soon as the question was out his mouth, Buck returned with an arm full of food: a few jars of baby food, a couple of sandwiches, and a jar of pickles, and big bag of chips. He placed all of the food on the coffee table and sat in the armchair. "This place is decked out. We've got food for weeks."

"Buck this isn't some vacation," Eddie told him without looking away from the screen.

"I know that, I wasn't saying it like it was," Buck opened one of the jars of baby food and closer so he could feed Celina. "It's just, something about this feels more permanent than it probably should." Buck paused.

Eddie closed the top to the laptop down and looked at him, "yeah, I get that. I feel like that, too. I can't, for the life of me figure out what's going on or what any of this means." He watched as Buck feed Celina. The baby was happy to be eating, completely oblivious to what was happening around her.

"I don't wanna say this, but..."

"But..."

Buck sighed. "You don't think we're dead and this is like heaven," Buck looked around, "or hell? But this is too nice to be hell, right?" He had a hard time trying to decipher if this was pleasure or torture himself.

Eddie would be remiss if he didn't admit the possibility wasn't one of his initial thoughts. He didn't want to give the thought much weight, not wanting to think about the possibility, about leaving Christopher. His catholic upbringing and views on the afterlife not withstanding, he wasn't sure if he believed in all of that anyway. He just didn't think that's what this was. "I don't think that what this is."

"I don't wanna think that's what this is. So what is it then? Are we delusional? Is this some shared delusion?" Buck finished feeding Celina and she wanted to be let down to get to get to toys she had in the living room.

"I honestly don't know what this is." They watched fondly as Celina toddled over to the indoor playhouse that was kept in the living room.

Eddie heard Buck's gasp and tore his eyes away from Celina to find him wide eyed, "what?"

"Remember that movie we watched last week with Chris. You don't think..."

Eddie knew exactly where this was going, "Buck, no."

"You don't even know what I was going to say."

"I absolutely do, because I remember the movie. No. No, we were not magically transported to some alternate life to be thought some big lesson. This isn't some subpar Hallmark movie," Eddie said incredulously.

"I mean, it's possible." Buck mumbled as he crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat.

"No, it not." Eddie raised his brow.

"Dude, look around. We're in a literal dream home, married, and have a baby with both of our last names. We are so far beyond what we thought was possible, that anything is possible at this point," Eddie had to admit that Buck had a point, Do you have another explanation for this?"

"Well, no, but-" Eddie was interrupted by a knock at the door.

TBC?

Let me know what you think?