Chapter Text
December 2013
Eddie and Buck
"Hey." Eddie says walking up to Evan after he finished the dishes. Evan made omelets for everyone and the chore Eddie assigned himself since being home has been the dishes.
Evan was sitting on the couch reading a book he got out from the library about orcas and SeaWorld, with Christopher on his play mat next to him. "Hey! We finished his exercises and now he's just chilling."
Chris presses a button on his play mat and it says to him "The cow goes moo." Christopher begins to make little mooing noises back at the play mat.
"Nice, um, actually, so." Eddie is stumbling over his words. "Shannon thinks we should 'bond' or something? And is kicking us out of the house to go do something while she takes Christopher to speech therapy."
Usually Friday speech therapy was Evan's job because Shannon had class and Evan had worked a grocery shift from 12am-6am and then has a bar shift later. "Sure, I forgot that Shannon's done with this semesters classes. What do you want to do?"
"Um, great question." Eddie replies. "Do you like baseball?"
"Eh, I was always more of a football guy, tight end!"
"Oh, I was going to suggest batting cages." Eddie misses baseball a lot, but he wasn't good enough to go pro straight out of high school and well, college might have been his chance, but making sure Christopher and Shannon have what they need is most important.
"Oh yeah! You played right? Shannon said you were really good, I mean I'd be down to try batting cages with you. I've never really tried baseball outside of a unit in gym class." Evan could see the appeal of repeatedly hitting something as hard as you could.
"Cool, then, um, let's do that." Eddie says picking Christopher up from his play mat. "I'm gonna drop the little guy with Shan and then we can head out? If you're ready?"
"Sounds good!" Evan gets up and goes to his room to change into better clothes for physical activity.
He gets why Shannon is orchestrating this, she thinks Evan and Eddie should try and be friends too because it will be better for Christopher. It's not like him and Eddie haven't been getting along, but there has been some weird energy when Eddie doesn't know a part of Christopher's routine and Evan steps in to correct him or make it go smoother. Eddie gets a far off look as if he'd want to be upset with Evan, but can't be and that is what makes him upset at himself. Evan gets it. He doesn't know if he'd have made the same decision in Eddie's shoes, to leave, but he thinks he would have considered it if it meant his family was taken care of.
"Ready!" Evan calls, walking out of his room and over to the vestibule to put on his sneakers.
Eddie is standing by the door, shoes on with a long bag slung over his shoulder. "Cool, I'll drive."
They head to the old truck Eddie bought the summer before college. Shannon had her own sedan that she bought with some help from her aunt and the money she saved from the law firm. Neither car was from the last decade and both had mileage. Shannon and Eddie both said Evan could use Eddie's truck and he does sometimes when he has Christopher, but mostly he still uses public transit when he's traveling just himself.
"So, how are you liking El Paso?" Eddie asks, trying his hand at small talk, which is a skill he has never been good at.
"It's got some good scenery and the desert is cool. I miss the ocean and surfing, but for all the places for the Jeep to kick it, it's definitely not the worst. It helps that now I have some friends." Evan gives Eddie a megawatt smile. "I've moved around a lot. The only place I had something like this was Tennessee, I think I told you about that. Jim and his family. They were really good to me. I still send back money to his wife. It's hard she's back at work and has less time with the kids. I know she was planning on going back once their youngest hit high school, but it's different because of what happened with Jim."
Eddie feels for Evan. "I thought you were from Pennsylvania?"
"I am, but if you're talking about if I have a good relationship with my parents, the answer is, I never did, not really. But that's a story for another day." Evan changes the topic of conversation to shine back in Eddie. "So, what's your favorite part about baseball?"
"Oh," Eddie thinks for a minute. "I think fielding. You're trying to predict where the ball will go and then you need to throw it to get it where it needs to go or run to make the out yourself. I played short stop, so it was a versatile, but man was it fun. Also hitting a home run, best feeling in the world, aside from the one time we managed a triple play. That was definitely the crowning achievement my baseball career."
Evan listens as Eddie tells the story about his one time getting a triple play in high school, it's the first time Evan has seen him look like he's 21 years old. He wishes he could help change things so that Eddie could be a 21 year old getting scouted for professional teams, but that's would mean the coolest little dude in the world wouldn't exist and that would be sad. Maybe it's sad that Evan's best friends are a married woman and her 2 year old, but he wouldn't trade that for anything.
When they get to the cages, Evan realizes that hitting a small ball being shot out of a machine at 60 miles an hour is a lot harder than he thought it would be. Eddie helped him get set up and showed him a stance and how to change the machine settings. After missing a few times, he pauses to watch Eddie.
Eddie is slowly upping the speed of the pitches every 2 hits. He's currently at 80mph. Evan watches as his whole body flexes, not just his arms, but from his feet all the way through his arms to the bat. He also can't help be notice how wonderfully the baseball pants cling to Eddie's thighs and the sleeves of his t-shirt cling to his biceps. Evan takes a long sip from his water bottle to help put these feelings away before something starts to stir.
Eddie hits the ball and then pauses his machine. "You doing okay?"
"Uh, yeah." Evan stumbles over his words. "Just a lot harder than I expected."
"Why don't I watch for a second and then I can give you some pointers?" Eddie asks.
Evan knows that he means it innocently, but his brain smash cuts to all of the romcoms Maddie made him watch as a kid, and now has the image of Eddie coming up behind him and wrapping his arms around him to show him how to use the bat properly. "Uh, sure."
Evan is blushing and Eddie worries he might have picked the wrong activity. He didn't mean to embarrass Evan. "Listen if I could teach my friend Sampson how to hit a ball, I can teach you. Trust me, he was hopeless at everything athletic."
"Yeah, uh, sounds good." Evan says still blue screening from the idea of Eddie pressed against him. That is the man who is married to your closest friend at the moment, Evan tells himself to try and get his mind back on to baseball.
Evan focuses and locks in on the ball. He swings a touch too late and too high and grazes the top of the ball. "I see what the problem is!" Eddie says, walking over to Evan's spot.
Eddie readjusts Evan's stance a little, asking him to widen his legs a bit more and moves his arms into a better position. He can't help but notice that Evan is very muscular. "Try that." Eddie says stepping away. "The rest is all timing. Which comes with practice!"
Eddie watches Evan's next go at hitting the ball. Evan connects with a good sounding thwack. He turns to face Eddie huge smile on his face. Eddie is hit with the thought that Evan is so hot and loving and is frequently alone with his wife which cannot be good. Evan is hit with a fast ball going 60mph because he forgot to pause the machine.
Eddie immediately runs in and turns off the machine. "Are you okay?"
"Just a little bruise. I'll be fine." Evan says, lifting up his shirt. "How bad does it look?"
Eddie's first thought is that Evan works out. His second thought is that he should probably get Evan some ice.
"I'm going to get you some ice!" Eddie says jogging to the first aid station. This is not particularly uncommon. He wraps it in a towel and goes back to Evan. Eddie places a hand on Evan's shoulder and uses his other hand to hold the ice pack in place. "This should help reduce the swelling."
Both points of contact are making Evan blush. He decides that tonight he's going to see if anyone at the bar would like to have a fun night with him because clearly it's been too long.
"I got your back." Eddie says smiling at the pun.
"Or I could have yours?" Evan suggests.
"I think I'd like that." Eddie says. It's been a while since he made a good friend.
---
Eddie, Buck and Shannon
"Hey, Evan?" Eddie asks over breakfast three days before Christmas.
"What's up?" Evan says opening the waffle iron and placing the square on a plate, so Eddie can cut it into bite size pieces for Christopher.
"Shannon mentioned yesterday that you weren't coming with us to my parents for Christmas." Eddie stops with just the statement of fact.
"Well, yeah, we didn't think it would go over well with your family to, you know, explain who I am to everyone in a way that they would actually believe the truth, which is that Shannon and I are friends, and nothing more." Evan carefully spoons the next batter into the iron, and then placing some cut up blueberries into the batter before adding another spoonful of batter on top. It's been extra nice because Shannon is off from school, so she can stay and eat breakfast with them, instead of running off to college. He's been liking having more people to cook for.
"Well, now I'm home." Eddie states.
Evan turns around to look at Eddie who is looking anywhere but Evan. "Eddie, what are you getting at here? Yes. I will be alone for Christmas, no, it won't be the first time. I'm mainly excited about Christmas because I think Christopher will like the gift that I got him, as well as the books I got to read with him."
"Come with us. To my parents." Eddie says in a rush still not looking at Evan.
The waffle iron beeps, letting him know it's almost done. "You want me to come, to your family Christmas. I'm not family and I'm pretty sure even with you there my presence will be pretty hard to explain."
"Listen, over the last couple of months, you've become important to my family. Which is important to me. I feel like we've all gotten to know each other the past few months and well, the last few days it's been nice." Eddie doesn't look away from his important job of cutting Christopher's waffles. He likes the little routines that have come into place since he's been home. He likes how he got folded into the chore list (mainly the dishes because some people won't trust him in the kitchen to cook). He likes that he wakes up next to his wife and then can go and grab his son for some quiet time in the morning.
Shannon walks in on the tail end of the conversation with Christopher on her hip. "Wafs!" Chris exclaims.
"That's right waffles for breakfast!" Shannon places Christopher in his chair and gives him his fork with a specialized grip to make it easier of him to grab. Eddie puts the cut waffle and drizzles a slightly watered down syrup over the pieces. "So what are we discussing?"
Evan places the blueberry waffle down in front of Shannon. "Blueberry or chocolate chip or both?" He asks Eddie hoping to avoid this line of questioning.
"Both. And I was inviting Evan to Diaz family Christmas." Eddie says not letting him derail the conversation.
"Oh," Shannon says softly. "I would like if Evan spent Christmas with us, but do we think your parents would be okay with it?"
"Listen, I know they can be, a lot, but they're not monsters. We'll say Evan is a friend with no where else to go, which is the truth. Worse to worse, I'll tell Abuela that he had no where to go and then she'll be ready to adopt him." Eddie didn't think Evan should be alone when Christopher could have him around. "I just want Chris to have everyone who's important to him around on Christmas."
Both Evan and Shannon soften a little at that. To be honest Evan wasn't sure why Eddie of all people would want him around his family, but it makes sense that he'd want it for Christopher. "Well, if you run the interference with your family, I'm on board with Evan coming. Another person to add to the sassing people group chat."
"If you guys are sure. I'd love to come!" Evan says placing Eddie's waffle in front of him.
"Great then it's settled!" Eddie grabs some butter to put on his waffle. "We're all going to my parents for Christmas."
---
"Hey, mom. Hola, papi." Eddie says helping Evan carry the 4 different pies he decided to make, while Shannon holds Christopher. "We, uh, brought pie, and this is my friend Evan I told you about. He made the pies."
"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Diaz. Thank you so much for inviting me into your home." Evan says with a warm smile.
"Helena, Ramon." Shannon says with a nod at each of them. "Merry Christmas."
Helena's eyes narrow at how Christopher is dressed. "Come in, come in, before Christopher freezes out here without a hat on!"
---
Maybe Eddie should have listened to Evan and Shannon, as Helena drags him into the kitchen.
"Who is this man really?" Helena asks scandalized. "Is Shannon cheating on you?" Up until this point whenever Christopher would mention 'Ev' she was under the impression he was an imaginary friend.
"What?" Eddie asks, trying to sound as incredulous as possible, even though at one point he definitely thought the same. "No, Evan is a friend and helps Shannon with Christopher."
"You've been letting her leave my precious grandson in the hand of a stranger?" Helena clutches a hand to her chest at the thought of what could happen to her delicate grandson at the hands of this stranger.
"He's not a stranger. His name is Evan Buckley and he's been in El Paso because his car broke down. He met Shannon through his job at the grocery store and they became friends."
"Friends." Helena spits out the word like it burns. "I'm sure that's what they tell you as they live together in sin. I would have thought you to be smarter than this Edmundo."
"How did you know Evan was staying at the house?" Eddie asks.
"Christopher talks, I mean sure it's not complete, but I thought this 'Ev' was an imaginary friend who made the 'wafs', but apparently he is your wife's lover." Helena whisper yells. She doesn't want to ruin the entire holiday and embarrass the family even more with this new added scandal of her son who was a teen parent's wife's lover coming to the family function.
"Mom, it's not like that. Evan and Shannon are friends. Evan and I are friends. He's not dating Shannon. Shannon is my wife and she is not cheating on me." Eddie slowly opens the door to look into the living room from the kitchen. "Look!"
Evan is currently on the ground holding court for all of the little cousins. His cousins also have several young children from around 10 months to 4 years old. All of them are gathered around Evan who has Chris on his lap reading a story. "He's a guy, who is good with kids and is helping Shannon with Chris while I'm on tour. Nothing more." Eddie smiles as he see Shannon having a minute talking to his sisters and favorite cousin Luciana, enjoying herself for a change at a family function.
"Fine, but when this blows up on your face, don't say I didn't warn you." Helena huffs. "Come, help me pass around the canapés."
Eddie goes to help her with the trays as that was their cover for going into the kitchen. Eddie grabs a tray and beelines to the table to set it down. "Everything alright Eddito?" Abuela asks.
Eddie looks again at Shannon's laugher and Christopher playing with his cousins. "Yeah, I think this is a good Christmas."
"You know, your friend Evan is very good with the kids." Abuela says appreciatively. "Does he work with them?"
"Kind of, he works on a ranch with a petting zoo." Eddie says.
"Oh, well maybe we should try to do a family trip while everyone is still in town." Abuela says with a smile.
"I think he'd like that." Eddie says. Abuela sends him off and he starts making his way towards Shannon.
"Hey Eddie!" His cousin Valentina says. "I have a question?"
Eddie is a little confused, because despite him and Valentina being the same age, they aren't very close. She's a little too outgoing for Eddie. "What's up?"
"Your friend? Evan?" She leans closer to him. "Is he single?"
"Um, I think so?" Eddie says awkwardly. "But I don't know if he's looking for a relationship right now?"
"That's fine by me." Valentina says walking away and going to sit down next to where Evan has broken out the Shrinky Dinks and is telling the kids he's going to help them make sun catchers out of them. She walks over and puts a hand on his shoulder. Evan turns his gaze on to her confused for a moment before his million watt smile breaks out on his lips.
Eddie shakes his head and continues on to Shannon and his sisters.
"How was the dressing down that mom gave you?" Sophia asks, crunching down on a pretzel stick.
"The usual. I continually am bringing shame upon the family by being blind to the fact my wife is cheating on me and then actually allowing her to bring the home wrecker over here for Christmas." Eddie says, stealing a handful of pretzels off of Sophia's plate.
"Hey!" Sophia exclaims. Eddie just sticks his tongue out at here.
"I told you." Shannon sing songs. "At least it looks like Evan is having a good time."
"Or at least he was until Valentina got her claws in him." Luciana says with a smirk. Looking at how hard her twin is trying to get Evan's attention, but his focus always quickly returns to the kids.
Sophia snorts. "I mean I can't blame Val for this one. Evan is hot and good with kids." Both Eddie and Shannon elbow her. "What? I'm just stating a fact. Am I lying?"
"Yes, Evan is attractive." Eddie says. "But he's our friend and y'all shouldn't be out here trying to make things messy by getting involved."
"Listen, y'all brought him here." Luciana says.
Evan, meanwhile, is having a really good time. Growing up it was just him and Maddie and his parents. His dad was an only child and his mom's bother didn't have any children, so there were no large family gatherings. Just a stuffy holiday party with the other kids from their parent's country club.
He doesn't mind being relegated into being the local child wrangler. He came prepared! After the Lego set was put together, he broke out the Shrinky Dinks.
"So how long are you going to be around for?" Eddie's cousin Valentina asks.
Evan can tell she's flirting, with her hand on his arm and eyelashes fluttering, but he has no interest in messing up the good situation he has staying with Shannon and Christopher, so he's playing very oblivious to her advances. He kind of wishes they met under different circumstances because she's extremely attractive. "Oh, until my Jeep is fixed. It broke down right after I crossed over from Mexico."
"Ev! Look!" The oldest of the bunch, a 4 year old girl named Maria holds up her master piece. "Tada! It's a fish!"
Evan can see where she was going with it. There are fins and a tail and while a little on the abstract side with wobbly lines, it is in the colors of Nemo. "Did you draw Nemo?"
She gasps. "How did you know?"
"It looks just like him!" Evan says smiling. He see Chris pointing at the green colored pencil and he passes it to him.
Helena has returned from the kitchen again and seeing the coloring supplies is colored pencils, well, she can't have that in her home! "Excuse me? But the children cannot have colored pencils! What if Christopher hurts himself with the sharp edge?"
"Oh, well, I'm watching the kids to make sure they're okay and Christopher and I do this activity a lot." Evan says trying to stay calm. The last thing he wanted to do was cause a scene.
Eddie heads over to run interference with his mom and Shannon comes over to help the kids with their coloring as a second pair of eyes. "Mom, relax, it's Christmas and this is going to make a fun little keepsake that the kids and parents can have as ornaments."
"Yes, but the pencils they're so sharp!" Helena argues.
"Shannon and I will stay here with Valentina and Evan and make sure no one hurts themself, alright? That's almost a 1 adult to kid ratio." Eddie says sitting down.
Helena huffs. "Fine!" Then she walks away, pulling Ramon into the kitchen to probably vent her frustrations to him.
Isabel walks over. "So, this looks like fun. How does it work?"
Evan lights up as he explains the Shrinky Dink process to Eddie's Abuela. Both Eddie and Shannon look at each other and smile because they could tell Evan was getting anxious after the interaction with Helena. They both decide to join in on the fun and make their own pictures.
---
Dinner is an awkward affair.
"So, Evan, what do you do for work?" Eddie's Tío Andre asks.
"I work as a ranch hand, a grocery store stocker and a bartender. I'm trying to save up money to fix my car." Evan says going red at the attention. All of Eddie's aunts and uncles are out to see who this strange new comer is.
"Three jobs!" Tía Annmarie exclaims. "You must be so busy. What brought you here for the holidays?" She asks with heavy implications about why Evan wasn't celebrating with his family.
"Oh." The corners of Evan's mouth turn down slightly. "Um, well, my parents like to vacation for the holidays. They're currently in Fiji." At least according to his mom's Facebook post. "My parents use the opportunity of my sister and I being out of the house as a reason to travel. It's just the 4 of us. My sister celebrates the holidays with her husband's family. But they're so far away and while saving for the car, I figured I'd stay in town." Evan is glad he spent time rehearsing his answers or else this would be much more awkward.
Abuela interrupts and changes the focus on to a different one of Eddie's cousins. Evan has never been more thankful than for her intervention.
Every time the conversation trails back toward Evan, Eddie's Abuela tries to intercede, but they do get some answers out of the interrogation.
"Where are you staying?"
"He's staying at my house with Shannon and Christopher." Eddie interrupts before Evan has a chance to think about a lie. "It's nice to know that Shannon and Chris have someone else there." Eddie ignores all of the his family exchanging sad pitying looks and then asks "Can you pass the tamales?"
"So you help take care of Christopher? How are you coping with his, additional, needs?"
Shannon wants to put her head in her hands. Eddie places a solid hand on her shoulder to showcase she's not alone this holiday. Evan is the one who answers before Eddie has a chance to. "Yeah! Christopher is a really great kid! Evident by his really great parents. And as for his needs, I mean no person is the same as another so we all have 'additional' needs. If you're referring to his CP, I've been helping with his therapy schedule and he's my workout buddy. We do his exercises and then I do mine."
Eddie's aunt seems stricken by the answer. Aunt Laura married into the family and doesn't see to know how to cope with the back talk. Eddie and Shannon exchange smiles before both smiling at Evan defending their son to their family. Evan shoots them back a wink.
"So, Evan, anyone special in your life?" Valentina boldly asks once they've all moved to the living room for the dessert bar. Evan's pies are a big hit.
"Nah, it's been just me and the Jeep for a few years now. I'm not really looking for a relationship right now. I have my hands full with the three jobs."
"And trying to sleep with my son's wife." Ramon mutters under his breath in Spanish.
Eddie glares at his dad, opening his mouth to tell him off, when Evan replies in fairly passable Spanish. "I'm just a friend and a roommate to your son's family."
Ramon looks at Evan in shock. Isabel interrupts, "Ramon, that is enough. This young man is a friend of Eddie and Shannon's. We should be grateful he able to help support them adorable bisnieto."
Things taper off after that and the minute Christopher becomes a socially acceptable amount of tired for them to leave the
4 of them practically run out the door.
As Eddie is on his way out Isabel pulls him aside. "I like your friend Eddito. I think he's good with Christopher and makes both you and Shannon happier. It takes a village to raise a child, young people forget that, thinking that they have to do everything alone."
Eddie gives her a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, Abuela."
---
The next day Shannon woke up to Eddie pressing a kiss to her shoulder. "Good morning."
"Good morning." Shannon turns so they can face each other. "Thank you for being there yesterday and for inviting Evan. Aside from all the nosy aunts and uncles and your parents, I think he had a good time."
Eddie smiles at her and caresses her cheek. "I just hope he's ready because I don't think Abuela was kidding about descending on him with all the little cousins at the petting zoo."
"Oh, I know she's not, I got a text already to the great-grandkid group chat." Shannon says.
Eddie's hand stills. Shannon is part of a family group chat that he isn't in. "Hey." Shannon calls, Eddie looks back at her. "Listen, you can't use your phone abroad, and you're in the family What's App okay. This is for like local planning, which when you're half a world away, you're not very good at. But we still love you."
Eddie nods and presses a kiss to her lips. "Okay."
They both hear the clamoring of pans and it's clear Evan is awake. "Should we help with that?" Eddie asks.
"Nah, he's got it, I want to just lie here and enjoy the moment." Shannon and Eddie rarely have had the opportunity for a quiet moment like this in a while. It brings Shannon back to when they would lie together under the bleachers at school and face each other and just talk. That's what she misses the most, the talking, having her best friend by her side. "What one hope you have for the future?"
Eddie is transported five years in the past to the last time she asked him that. Right before graduation. Right before she moved. His response then had been 'You and me, happy.' She smiled and laughed. Her response 'That sounds pretty good to me, but let's add rich in there too.'
"You, me and Chris, happy."
Shannon smiles wistfully. "That sounds pretty good to me, but I'm starting to doubt the rich part ever coming true."
Eddie lets out a snort and then they're both in tears from laughing too hard. Shannon looks up at him. She knows she loves him, but she's wondering if she's in love with him. She wonders if she ever was. Shouldn't she miss more than their talks? Shouldn't she want to use the opportunity to get a quick moment together to make out or more? Instead there's no desire there, just content to be with Eddie, talking, like they used to. So instead of starting something in the moment she says, "We should move."
Eddie doesn't seem upset by this turn of events. "Yeah, Evan said he had big plans for today." Before Eddie invited Evan to Diaz Christmas, they had been planning some, in Evan's words, 'epic', holiday shenanigans for today and Evan insisted on keeping those plans. Neither Eddie or Shannon know exactly what he has planned.
They emerge from their room. "Good morning!" Evan smiles, cheek dimpling. He's in an apron, Christopher is in his chair watching Evan cook, his small play set of kitchen toys out and he's ready to help Evan.
Shannon and Eddie look at him and then each other and smile. "What's for breakfast?"
They all try to ignore the sinking feeling that Eddie will only be here for the rest of the week as Evan makes a huge spread for them. "Pancakes and bacon! We're gonna have a great day today!"
"Sounds good!" Eddie says with a smile. Evan's grin is radiant as he goes over the play for the 'Best Boxing Day Ever!'