“Eddie, stop being a grouch! You are ALWAYS a grouch!” Bobby snapped at him. Eddie never liked kids, well, except Christopher, but Chris was in Texas, and he was stuck in LA. Kids would come to the station every day, and Eddie hated it. He liked his alone time. Even during Christmas parties, or even his own birthday, he would go to a room and be alone for hours at a time to charge his social battery again.

Most understood, but then some didn’t. They thought Eddie was selfish, rude, disrespectful, and just plain and stupid for acting like this. Every time a kid would spend time with him for too long or too much, he got aggravated and snappy, but he didn’t mean to be… he didn’t want to be like this. Sometimes kids would repeatedly ask to see the model ladder-truck in his bunk, although Eddie would let them see, they would come right back half an hour later and ask again… and again.. and again- and Eddie would get pissed off and then become the bad guy. He hated it.

Eddie was sitting on the couch in the loft talking to the team and laughing when he heard a bunch of little footsteps run up the stairs… his heart sank.