Chapter Text
Buck looked toward the hallway Eddie and Maddie had disappeared down. They’d been gone for a while, and he was beginning to be afraid that only one of them would come back. Maddie hadn’t said anything to him in the hospital, but her eyes had been sad and worried as she watched him, and he’d caught some of the glares she shot Eddie when she didn’t think he was looking.
He was afraid this would turn into another situation where she had decided what would be best for him and would try to push him to see it her way. They had gotten better at just being brother and sister, especially after Jee’s birth, which gave Maddie an outlet for her mothering tendencies, but she was always worse after he was in the hospital.
Plus, she’d nagged him to get back out there after the lightning strike, her pointed comments about wanting to be an aunt someday unintentionally hurtful. Before all this, she’d thought he spent too much time and energy on Eddie and Chris when he should be building a relationship with someone else. He hadn’t been able to convince her that he was happy on his own. Not surprising, since he hadn’t been happy, but he’d been okay. He’d thought he’d resigned himself to living on crumbs of affection from his Diaz boys and being their best friend.
And then had come Marisol, and Kim, and Chris leaving, and then Eddie leaving.
He could see now that his crisis had been building for a while. Everytime Eddie couldn’t grab breakfast after a shift because he was meeting Marisol, or had plans on their days off with her, all those nights Buck watched Chris when he thought Eddie was out with his girlfriend but he was actually seeing the dopplganger of his dead wife, the week he tracked Eddie down at basketball because he hadn’t seen him outside of work in days and he felt like he was shaking out of his skin.
At one point, he’d even considered agreeing to a date with that beta Tommy who’d been sniffing around Eddie just to keep him away from his family, but that wouldn’t have been fair to either of them. And he would have had to go out with someone who wasn’t Eddie, let himself be touched, courted, by this random guy. He couldn’t do it. He didn’t tell anyone about the proposition, worried that they would encourage him to explore it, that it would become another thing they teased him about.
He was jolted out of his thoughts by Pepa sitting down next to him and grabbing his hand, intertwining their fingers and aligning their wrists so she could share her scent with him. He looked down at their hands in wonder. They had never done this, despite their years of acquaintance.
She patted the back of his hand, tutting, “You are family now, Evan Buckley, and this is what we do for family.” Pepa leaned in closer, saying under her breath, “Not that you weren’t family before. I was just waiting for my idiot of a nephew to open his eyes.”
He huffed out a laugh and squeezed her hand. She squeezed back, grinning at him fondly.
“Now, between myself and your captain, the fridge and freezer are full, so you won’t have to worry about meals for a while. You can focus on resting and letting Eddie spoil you. When you are up for it, Mamá would like a phone call. She’s been praying for you.”
“She has?” he asked, surprised.
“Of course.”
“So, she’s okay with all this?” he asked, waving a hand around at himself and the house generally.
“Evanito, you don’t think Eddie managed all this on his own? I know you love the boy,” she said, clucking her tongue, “but as soon as he heard you were in trouble, he went to pieces. Mamá rallied the troops to get him back to your side and to get all his stuff back here. He was useless.”
He could feel his cheeks heat, still not used to the idea that everyone knew how he felt about Eddie. He’d been hiding for so long that it was mortifying to contemplate that everyone in the room was aware that he was in love with Eddie.
He still hadn’t told Eddie plainly, only implied it. Eddie had been braver than him, saying I love you in the hospital, repeating it when they woke in the morning, when they went to bed, when one of them left for a moment, and when they came back together. Buck hadn’t said it back, only smiled, or ducked his head, or pretended to be asleep. The words, those three little words, that were somehow meant to convey the enormity of what he felt for Eddie, were still locked tight behind his teeth, waiting for a moment that felt right to confess something that, apparently, everyone already knew.
“I’m sure he wasn’t completely useless. He got Chris on a plane.” Buck defended.
“You should have Chris tell you the story of his dad in the airport,” Pepa said, laughing. “According to Chris, Eddie ‘weaponized his wet cat energy’ to get them on the flight.” She patted his hand. “Mamá is thrilled that you will be joining the family officially. We all are.”
Buck grumbled, “Not everyone.”
“Everyone who matters,” Pepa insisted. “Don’t worry about my idiot brother and his puta wife. They never should have kept Chris in the first place, and the rest of the family knows that. We’re on your side.”
“I just hate that there has to be sides,” Buck said.
Pepa reached up to squeeze his cheek. “Of course you do, because you are too sweet for this world. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that you turned out to be an Omega.”
“Thanks, I think?” he said.
“You will be a good Omega for Eddie and Chris. And Eddie will be a good Alpha for you. I know it scares him, but it’s really not that hard when love and respect are present. You two have a solid foundation to build your nest on.”
From across the room, one of Pepa’s grandchildren called out, wanting to show her something, and she got up with a quick kiss to his cheek.
Buck let his head fall back against the couch, closing his eyes. As nice as it was to see everyone, he could feel himself starting to get overwhelmed by all the scents in his space. He hadn’t realized how muted his senses had been by the blockers and suppressants until he’d been forced to go cold turkey.
Now, it was right on the edge of being too much. He didn’t know how to separate out everyone’s individual scents unless they were very close to him, and the resulting cloud of mixed aromas was smothering him.
Around him, his family chatted, their familiar voices and laughter fading into the background as he concentrated on breathing. He didn’t even notice when he started to whine low in his throat, and the room fell quiet.
Suddenly, there was a wrist under his nose, Eddie’s familiar scent overriding everything else, and he huffed gratefully as notes of wood fire and cold night air filled his lungs. Above him, he could hear Eddie’s commanding voice ordering everyone out of their house.
He was hauled up and hugged close, his head tucked next to the scent gland on Eddie’s throat as he sensed people moving around them. The chest pressed against his rumbled with a soothing growl, Eddie’s hands sweeping up and down his back.
Once Buck felt calm again, he raised his head and looked around to see that they were alone. “Chris?” he asked.
“In his room. Do you want to eat something, or set up your nest?” Eddie asked, his hands dropping to Buck’s waist to keep him close.
“Tired,” Buck said.
“Nest it is. Will you be okay on your own while I put away the food, or do you need me to stay with you?”
Buck thought about it. He was feeling a bit better, the shakiness being replaced by a bone-deep exhaustion. He knew once he was in his nest, he wouldn’t want to let Eddie leave. Plus, he had never made a nest before, and he didn’t want Eddie to see him fumble his way through it. This house was the only place he’d ever wanted to nest, and until now it hadn’t been possible.
“Let’s divide and conquer, and then nap,” he said.
“Good plan, Omega,” Eddie said with a smirk. He squeezed at Buck’s waist one more time before stepping away and heading back to the kitchen. Buck made his way down the hallway, stopping outside Chris’s door to smile at the sounds of a video playing in the room that had sat silent for too long.
Entering Eddie’s room, their room, Buck was touched to see a folded stack of freshly scented t-shirts and blankets from his family sitting on the end of the bed.
“Okay, Buckley,” he muttered to himself. “Omega’s have been doing this for thousands of years; you can figure this out.” He picked up a blanket and got to work.
He was just about to doze off in his new nest when he felt Eddie climb in behind him, fitting his body close and placing his wrist on the pillow near his nose. He gladly inhaled, the last of his tension bleeding out.
“It’s a beautiful nest, Omega,” Eddie rumbled in his ear before dropping a quick kiss on his mating gland and relaxing behind him.
Buck hummed in response and let himself drift off, safe and snug and truly at home for the first time.
———————-
The house was silent outside his door as Chris opened Discord on his computer, anxious to finally check in with his California friends. He’d seen Denny and Mara at the hospital and today at the house, but he hadn’t had a chance to reconnect with his school friends since his return. With no phone, since the one his grandparents had purchased for him was left in Texas, he’d had no way to let them know that he was back.
He could look for his old iPad, but that would take time to charge. Now that he knew that his friends hadn’t forgotten about him, he was anxious to hear about what had happened over the past year.
He typed in the password and huffed in frustration when it didn’t work. He hit the forgot password link and then went to open his email to wait for the reset message.
Sitting at the top of his inbox was an email from his grandmother. He hesitated before opening it, not really caring what she had to say. He could get his dads, but he worried that the email would be more of his grandmother’s criticism of Eddie, and he didn’t want him to see it if he didn’t need to.
He clicked open.
My darling Christopher,
I’m sure you must be so scared right now, but don’t worry. You will be back home in Texas soon. I have a lawyer and we are building the case for Abuelo and I to have custody of you, as we always should have. I have heard about your father’s unfortunate choice of a new mate, and I’m sure his deviant tendencies will convince the court that you belong with me.
I tried to report your father when he took you, he had no right to go behind my back like that, but the police said he was allowed. It was some friend of his, sticking her nose in other people’s business.
Once you are back in El Paso, I think we should plan a long vacation to Mexico. Would you like that? We can go back to the village your great-grandmother is from, reconnect with family down there. I’ll talk to the teachers at your school and see if you can go remote for the rest of the semester.
Hang in there, champ. You’ll be home soon.
Love,
Grandma
He finished reading the email, the words swimming before his eyes. He couldn’t believe this bitch.
After everything she’d done to him, making him think his dads and his friends didn’t want him, monitoring everything he did online, pushing him to play chess even after he told her it made him feel like throwing up, and controlling his access to his mobility aids so he was practically a prisoner in her house, she really believed he would want to come back. Would welcome her interference in his life.
Well, she would learn soon enough that he wanted nothing more to do with her. As soon as his dads were awake, he’d show them the email so they could take care of it.
But first:
Dear Evil Bitch,
Fuck off
Disrespectfully,
Chris Diaz