Chapter Text
It was the end of today’s shift. As always, Buck and Eddie were walking out of the fire station towards their cars, reminiscing their day.
“I can’t believe these actually happen. I thought that was just a cliché, that people liked to joke about.” Eddie said, still comprehending the callout they have had earlier today.
Buck laughed, “Everyone thinks that. And then they are up that ladder, rescuing a cat from a tree.”
“Yeah.”, Eddie chuckled, but then got distracted when his phone rang. He answered.
“Hey. Carla? Is everything okay?”
They had arrived at Buck’s car at this point, but he decided to wait for Eddie to finish his phone call before leaving, wanting to make sure everything was okay.
“It’s okay. I understand. Don’t worry, I’ll cancel my plans and take him…. Yeah… See you.”
When Eddie hung up, Buck immediately asked if everything was okay.
“Just Carla, she was supposed to take Christopher tonight as I’m meeting with a few old friends that are in town, but she has a family emergency and can’t take him.”, Eddie explained and then started typing in his phone, cancelling on his friends, but Buck stopped him.
“I can take Christopher.”, he offered, “You go meet your friends and pick him up at my place after.”
“You sure?”, Eddie asked, considering the offer but also not wanting to burden his friend.
“Yeah, you know how much I love hanging out with him. Also, we haven’t had a game night in ages and I still have yet to manage beating him at UNO. How is it that I keep losing to an eight year old?”
Eddie laughed, “You do know he’s cheating, right?”
“What?”, Buck said genuinely surprised, “No. You can’t cheat at UNO. And I’m sure Chris wouldn’t do that. I’d like to think he was raised right, you know.”, he smiled and gave Eddie a little shoulder bump, which has kind of gotten to be a habit, every time they joke about something.
“He has you wrapped around his finger, doesn’t he?”, Eddie joked, happy about once again being reminded that he had Buck’s support on everything when it came to Christopher.
“Don’t pretend like it’s not the same with you.”
Eddie smiled and nodded in agreement. Talks like this really showed them how good friends they were, both not having a lot of people to talk to this familiarly.
“Anyway, Chris is with my abuela right now, I can get him and bring him to your place or if you want you can also pick him up yourself, if that fits with you.”, Eddie said before getting his car keys out.
“I’ll get him, no problem. It’s on my way back anyway.”
Eddie approved, before saying goodbye by patting his friend on the shoulder and then turning around. Buck waits for Eddie to reach his car, before unlocking his own and driving home, thinking about what to cook for him and Christopher tonight.
Excited to hang out with Christopher, Buck made his way to Eddie’s abuela. She answered the door, telling Buck that she just got Eddie’s text about the change of plans. Then she called for Christopher who apparently was still in the living-room. His face lit up when he saw Buck.
“Buck!”, he exclaimed and walked over to give him a hug.
Buck loved it. He really enjoyed being around Christopher and was just as excited when he saw him.
“Where’s Carla?”, Chris then asked. Buck assumed he didn’t know yet.
“She can’t tonight, so you’re getting to hang out with me. Hope that’s okay buddy.”
Chris yelled in excitement, “Of course. You’re letting me do way more cool stuff anyway.”
Lovingly Buck ruffled Christopher’s hair and then turned back to the woman standing next to him.
“It’s so nice of you to help out so much.”, she says giving Buck a friendly smile. “Eddie is really lucky to have a friend like you.”
“I’m the lucky one, getting to hang out with the best kid. Christopher is really special.”, he looks back at Christopher who is putting his shoes on. Buck sometimes wonders how he found himself in a situation where someone would trust him with his kid. Mostly though, he was just glad about the time he gets to spend with Christopher.
Eddie knew it was later than he had told Buck that he’d be gone for. But he figured it wouldn’t be an issue as he knew how much Buck and Chris enjoyed each other’s company. He made his way up to the floor Buck’s flat was at and while in the elevator, once again looked at the Selfie his friend had send him a few hours ago. 43 pictures he now had, in a seperate folder as he knew Chris would want to keep them, of Buck and Christopher, smiling or making silly faces. He appreciated getting the updates from Buck when he was with Chris, but he also wondered if Buck kept sending them because he feared Eddie didn’t trust him with Chris after what happened at the Pier. Though it was probably more about Buck not fully trusting himself.
When he stood in front of Buck’s door he decided not to ring the bell, as it was already late and even though he tried to convince Buck not to leave a spare key under his doormat he knew the idiot still had it there. Not wanting to wake a possibly sleeping Christopher, he took the key and unlocked the door. It was quiet in the flat so he didn’t say anything and walked over to the living room. The scene to which he walked on made his heart burst. There was his son, crawled up next to his best friend on the couch. Both asleep but an open book about firefighters on Buck’s lap, as if they fell asleep reading it. The scene was so peaceful, part of Eddie wanted to take out his phone and take a picture to capture it. But before he could even properly think about it, he saw Buck move which shook him out of his almost-trance.
Buck slowly opens his eyes and first thing he sees is a man standing in his living room. He almost jumps up from the sofa in shock, before he realizes the boy sleeping next to him and that he just woke him up by moving too fast. He looks back at the man only now processing that it’s Eddie, here to pick up Christopher.
“Geez, Eddie you scared me.”, he says and rubs his eyes.
“Sorry.”, Eddie quickly apologizes but also tries to hide a smirk.
When Christopher fully awoke he noticed his dad as well. “Dad! Buck read me that book you got me and then fell asleep before he finished it.”
“No I did not. You fell asleep first, mister.”, Buck insisted but wasn’t so sure himself if that was the truth.
“Yes. You drool when you sleep.”, Chris said, trying to prove his statement.
“Oh, so you drool.”, Eddie teased Buck and walked over to Christopher.
Buck snorted and shook his head. There was no point in trying to fight something Christopher says, he can’t compete with the boy. Also, he knew it was true.
“Don’t worry Buck. At least you don’t snore like my dad.”
Eddie felt his face turn red, he knew he snored sometimes, just didn’t think it was audible in Chris’ room. Buck laughed, “Okay buddy, enough with the calling people out. I’ll get your stuff so your dad can take you home.”
Buck got up to collect all the legos laying around.
Christopher turned to his dad, “Buck and I will go to the zoo next week, they have a baby lion there and I want to see it.”
Before Eddie could comment on that Buck cut in, “Only if that’s okay with you of course. We just talked about it and I said we would have to check with you first.”
Eddie smiled “Yeah, sure.”, he turned to Chris, “Is your dad allowed to come along as well?”
“Maybe.”, Chris says, “If he lets me have as much candy as Buck always does.”
Buck blushes and looks over to Eddie, hoping that comment wouldn’t make him question Buck’s sense of responsibility. “I’m sorry.”, he says “But you know I can’t resist Christopher’s pleading look.”
Only now Eddie noticed the empty candy-wrappers on the table. He laughed. “I get it. He got the sweetness from his father.” he teased. “I will just make sure he doesn’t end up having a Sugar Shock and I guess we’ll be fine.”
They make their way to the door as Eddie feels they have taken up enough of Buck’s time already.
“Thank you again.”, Eddie says as he opens the door, “For always helping out like that.”
“Always a pleasure.” Buck says as he ruffles Chris’ hair before turning back to Eddie. “How was your night?”
“Great. Yeah. Good talks. Some laughs. You know.”, Eddie answered shortly not really feeling like there was anything special to tell about his night. To be honest, he enjoyed those few minutes with Buck and Chris more than the hours he spend with his old friends.
Buck nods but doesn’t say anything. Neither does Eddie and they end up just looking at each other for maybe a few seconds too long.
“Goodnight then.”, Eddie finally breaks the silence.
“Goodnight.”, Buck says and then moves to his knees to face Christopher. “And goodnight to you buddy. Don’t give your dad too much grief, yeah?”
Chris nods and gives Buck a hug. “Goodnight, Buck.”
Before they finally leave Eddie can’t stop himself from making another teasing comment, “Try not to soak your pillow.”
Offended Buck shakes his head, “Goodnight.” He closes the door as Eddie walks aways laughing, Christopher in front of him. When the door is closed Buck smiles as well. On days like these, the world seems like a really nice place to live in.
The following week went by as always. Eddie and Buck being a team at work, joking a lot, having fun, enjoying the time they spend together and with the team. They had also had a really nice day at the zoo. Christopher enjoyed it a lot and with Buck’s help even got his dad to buy him some of his favourite sweets. As usual, when the three of them went out together, some people told them how adorable “their” son was and how nice it is that he has “two dads”. Buck and Eddie never get offended by it, they just thank them and then never give much more thought to it. They never felt like it’s something they have to discuss, being sure they know what the other thinks about it anyway, without actually thinking about it themselves.
That week’s friday morning, Buck went to work with a happy mood and a little spring in his step. He walked towards the lockers, where Hen, Chim and Eddie were already getting ready.
“Good Morning everyone, isn’t it a beautiful day today?”, he says as he walks in.
“You’re in a good mood.”; Hen notes.
“Hot date?”, Chim then asks, looking to explain Buck’s mood.
But before Buck could answer himself, Eddie cuts in with a snort as if Buck having a date was a ridiculous assumption, “He’s having Christopher tonight.”
“Yeah, I do.”, Buck says, “And I have a really nice evening planned.” He was really excited to show Christopher that he got him the lego set he wanted, so he could leave it at his place and not have to bring his own every time he went to Buck’s which had gotten a lot recently.
“Okay. Actually, when was the last time you were on a date?”, Chimney asked changing the topic back to Buck’s dating-life. Which was non-existent and everyone knew it.
“Was there ever anyone after the earthquake-girl?”, Hen then asked, knowing the answer was no.
Eddie tried to give Hen and Chim a look to stop them talking about this, as he knew Buck didn’t like to talk about what happened with Ali.
“Well I’d like to say I’m on a dating hiatus, okay? Doesn’t mean I will end up alone and bitter.”, Buck then said, not wanting to go into it further.
For some reason Hen and Chimney exchanged a look that neither Buck nor Eddie seemed to decode.
“What?”, Buck then asks, wanting to know what it was about, but before he could get an answer the fire alarm went off and their conversation was over.
When they arrive at the scene, the police is already there. While Athena fills Bobby in on what happened, Buck and Eddie get some of the gear.
“Thank you again. For letting me have Christopher today.”, Buck says, still excited.
“Well he seems to enjoy your place more than ours lately so it’s good.”, Eddie says, not sure what his intention was with that statement.
“You know that’s not true, right?”, Buck tries to reassure Eddie, hoping this wasn’t something he actually believed. That Chris liked hanging out with him more than his dad. Buck knew that wasn’t true and if it wouldn’t have seemed a bit weird, he’d tell his friend that the subject he and Chris talked about most was actually Eddie.
But before they could continue the conversation, Bobby called them over. It was the usual car crash scene they had already expected. What Buck had not expected though, was the injured person’s leg being stuck below the car. Just like his had been those months ago. He must have missed Bobby’s instructions because suddenly everyone moved and rushed to the scene. Buck froze for a second, staring at the image in front of him, not the seeing actual one, but the memory of his accident. The others hadn’t noticed Buck staying behind, it was just Bobby who realized after a few seconds. He then walks up to him.
“Buck, you okay?”, he asks worried. It got Buck back to reality and he was finally able to shook the image out of his head. When he looked over at the scene again, he saw Eddie looking at them worried, now also having noticed Buck staying behind.
“I’m fine.”, Buck assures Bobby and then quickly makes his way to the others to help them.
It didn’t take long for the rest of the 118 to notice Buck being a bit distracted and definitely not in his good mood anymore.
On the way back to the station, Buck seems to miss all the worried looks the others, especially Eddie, keep giving him. No one really talks until they’re back at the station getting changed.
“Brought back some memories?”, Hen asks Buck, and supportingly puts her arm on his back.
Buck nods, “Yeah, but I’m okay.”, he says, only half convincing everyone.
Eddie worried, questioning if he should offer to take Christopher so Buck could rest, but he decided it was probably a good distraction and thinking about the good mood Buck was in before, maybe Chris could bring that back.
When Eddie goes to pick up Christopher from Buck’s that night, the young boy is already asleep. Buck was still awake this time, but he looked really tired. “Thank you, for letting me spend time with Christopher today. We had a great evening.”,Buck says less enthusiastically than Eddie was used to. It still seemed genuine though.
“No problem.”, Eddie answers. He could obviously see that Buck was still bothered by what happened at work and if it hadn’t been for his sleeping kid, he definitely would have stayed and tried to talk to Buck. Trying to get him to open up and help him feel better. Be there for him and make sure he was okay. But he had to get Christopher home. Eddie went to carefully pick Chris up from the couch, deciding that he should try to keep him asleep.
Buck and Eddie only exchanged a few words to say goodbye before Eddie left. It worried Eddie, a lot. They usually joke, or tease each other. It was always something Eddie enjoyed but tonight the atmosphere felt cold. Reminding him of when Buck used to hide in his flat, not wanting to get out of bed for days.
When he finally arrived at home, having successfully not woken up Christopher, he carried him to his bed. Of course it was now that Chris moved and slowly opened his eyes.
“Go back to sleep.”, Eddie said softly, tucking Chris in.
“Where’s Buck?”, Chris asked with his sleepy voice and Eddie explained to him how he fell asleep and then slept on the whole way back home.
“Is Buck gonna be okay on his own?”, Chris’ voice now sounded as if he was again only minutes away from sleeping.
“Why do you ask?”, Eddie answered, curious if Buck had said anything to him.
Chris yawned and only gave a small answer before falling back to sleep.
“He seemed sad.”