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„But, Daddy, I want you home for Christmas”, Christopher cried. Eddie had to steady the iPad his son was holding. It broke his heart to see his son crying. Christmas was two weeks away and all his nine-year-old wanted, was for his Daddy to come home from Deployment.
Eddie saw the tears in his husbands eyes. “I know, baby. I wanna come home too. I tried to get an earlier leave, but my Commander denied it. They need me here. Please, don’t be mad, buddy”, Buck begged. “I’ll be home in four weeks. That’s in twenty-eight days.”
Christopher sniffled. “I’m not mad at you, Daddy. I’m sad. I wanted you home for Christmas.” Now Christopher was full on pouting. If the situation weren’t so sad, Eddie might’ve laughed. “I wish I still believed in Santa, then I could’ve asked him to bring you home by loving force.” Now Eddie actually burst out laughing. His husband too, although a very wet laugh. Christopher stopped believing in Santa just this year. So this was their first Christmas without visiting the Mall to wait in line for Santa.
“We will FaceTime on Christmas Day. I promise, Superman. I’ll watch while you open your presents.”
“You better be”, Chris grumbled.
Buck let out a belly laugh. “When did you become so cheeky, baby?”
“He spends too much time with Uncle Chim and Auntie Hen”, Eddie answered and tickled his son’s side. Chris started to giggle and finally lost the pout.
“Yeah, should’ve known. I can’t wait to meet-” They heard shouting in the background and the sounds of rotor blades starting up. Buck turned around and shouted orders.
“Guys, I have to go. I’ll call you later. I love you.” Buck threw them a kiss.
“We love you too, Daddy”, Chris called and the call ended. “Be safe”, his son whispered. Eddie put aside the iPad, pulled his son on his lap and held him close.
~*~
Eddie started at the 118 six months ago, after they moved from San Diego to Los Angeles. This was Buck’s last tour as a Navy SEAL before his retirement. Christopher didn’t know about it yet, they wanted to surprise him at Christmas. But his Deployment was extended and he couldn’t get the time off to fly from Iraq to LA.
Buck and Eddie met in Afghanistan ten years ago. It was hate at first sight, at least on Buck’s side. Not only because of the long standing rivalry between the Army and the Navy, but because Buck felt threatened by Eddie. The hot shot medic trying to be a damn hero in defusing a live Grenade stuck in a soldier’s leg. Buck was the residing Demolitions expert, thank you very much. But after successfully removing the Grenade they fell in love fast and hard.
They had obstacles to overcome pretty early in their relationship, which only brought them even closer together.
They were stationed on different sides on the continent. While Buck was stationed in Coronado on the West Coast, Eddie was stationed in Fort Bragg on the East Coast. Also on Eddie’s last leave, before he met Buck, he got a girl pregnant and she was due in a couple of months.
Eddie wanted to retire to be there for Shannon and his kid, but the medical bills were piling up. Shannon had a difficult pregnancy and Eddie didn’t want to leave her hanging. His parents tried to pressure him into a marriage but Eddie refused flat out. Shannon was a lesbian and he was gay. They only hooked up because they thought they could fuck the gayness out of each other. Obviously that didn’t work.
After Eddie and Shannon had a long talk, and Shannon meeting Buck, they decided to co-parent their child together.
When Shannon reached her due date, Eddie took leave and flew back to the States. In that time Buck and Eddie went old school and wrote letters to each other. They still talked to each other on the phone, but there was something romantic about writing each other letters.
When Christopher was born both parents were over the moon. Sadly, Shannon only held her son for a few minutes before she bled out and died. During the delivery Christopher was stuck in the birth canal. Something ruptured inside of her and she bled out in minutes. And so Eddie became a single parent.
He retired from the Army and moved to San Diego, to the dismay of his parents, who wanted him home in El Paso.
Soon after Christopher was born Buck returned from Deployment and they moved to a house on base. A year into their relationship Buck proposed to Eddie. They married a couple of weeks later in an intimate ceremony, with only Eddie’s parents, sisters, his Abuela, his Tia Peppa and Buck’s sister Maddie in attendance.
Eddie’s parents quickly accepted him being gay, after they had a long and exhausting Diaz-Family-Meeting. Buck’s parents on the other hand never accepted him being Bi. With Maddie’s help Buck got a scholarship to Annapolis and graduated Top of his Class before joining the Navy SEALS.
For a time, Eddie was a stay at home Dad. After Chris was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy when he was two, Eddie tried to find help. The doctors’ appointments, the physical, speech and occupational therapies, the surgeries, the bureaucracy were quickly overwhelming the young couple. Through an ex-girlfriend of Buck’s, they found Carla. Who was a godsend.
And even though Buck’s job paid relatively well, him being an Officer, the bills piled up quickly. Eddie’s pension from the Army wasn’t enough, so Eddie decided to join the Fire Academy to become a Firefighter/Paramedic.
Over the years Eddie worked at a Fire station in San Diego, while Buck climbed the ranks in the SEALS.
But with every Deployment Buck got more and more tired. He loved his SEAL Team, but the war never ended. There was always going to be an enemy. After a couple of close calls, Buck decided to retire.
They wanted to move to Los Angeles. Buck wanted to be closer to his sister, who moved to LA after she got a divorce from her abusive ex. And Eddie wanted to be closer to his Abuela.
Buck was ready to retire Lieutenant Commander Diaz and just be Evan Diaz.
~*~
Eddie threw himself on the Couch and heaved a big sigh. Damn he was tired. He was twenty hours in his twenty-four-hour shift, and for the last ten hours there were back to back calls.
“Is your husband coming back for Christmas”, Hen asked as she handed him a cup of coffee, which Eddie took and thanked her.
“No. He didn’t get leave. He’s the Demolition expert on his team. It’s hard to find a replacement.” Eddie scoffed. “Well it’s not hard to find one, but his Commander is picky as fuck. He loves Buck and no one is better than my husband.”
Eddie was proud of Evan, even though it sucked that he couldn’t be home for Christmas.
“I’m sure Buck wants to be home, just as badly as you want him to be home”, Bobby said reasonably.
“Yeah I know; you should’ve seen the look on his face when Chris started to cry. It gutted him that he couldn’t be here.”
Bobby nodded and as he was about to say something, he was called by one of his other firefighter’s. “Cap, there’s someone on the phone for you.”
Bobby turned to Chimney.
“Chim, do me a favor and peel the potatoes please. I’ll be right back.”
Chimney washed his hands at the sink and addressed Eddie. “Do you know what he wants to do after he’s retired?”
“Yeah, we talked about it. He wants to be a firefighter too. He applied for the Academy and got in”, Eddie answered proudly.
“I can’t wait to meet him”, Hen said with glee.
“Yeah, he said the same thing about you guys.” And Eddie told them of the last FaceTime call he had with his husband.
Bobby came back soon after Eddie finished the story and took over again from Chimney.
“Who was on the phone, Bobby”, Hen asked. Bobby looked kind of shifty. Hen and Chimney looked at each other. Eddie missed it, as he was reading a text message from Evan.
“Chief Alonso. He wanted to tell me, that we have Christmas off, but we need to work on New Year’s Eve.”
When Lunch was served, Bobby addressed the core group. “Athena and I would like to invite everyone for Christmas Day lunch, if you all are up for it.”
~*~
The two weeks that followed where a little more subdued than Eddie anticipated. Chris was moping around the house, not feeling the Christmas spirit at all. And no cheering up from Carla or Eddie with Ice Cream was helping Chris out of his funk. He missed his Daddy. Buck wasn’t able to FaceTime leading up to Christmas.
Eddie didn’t want to tell Christopher the real reason why. The reason being that Buck’s convoy was ambushed after their last FaceTime call. Everyone was relatively fine, thankfully no one died, but they were all banged up. Eddie FaceTimed Buck right after it happened and it wasn’t pretty. Well don’t get him wrong, Evan will always be the most beautiful human being on the planet to Eddie, but his face was a map of cuts and bruises. One eye was swollen shut, a long cut went from his forehead into his hairline, another cut on his cheek. Eddie didn’t want to know how the rest of his body looked.
~*~
On Christmas Day Christopher woke him at six in the morning. While Eddie brewed himself a pot of coffee and trying not to fall asleep standing up, his son tried to call Evan.
“Dad, he’s not picking up”, Chris whined.
“Try again in a couple of minutes. Maybe he fell asleep. Baghdad is eleven hours ahead, mijo.” Eddie tried to reassure his son.
But minutes turned into hours and Buck didn’t pick up the phone.
Christopher was understandably heartbroken and didn’t want to open his presents. He went into his room and shut the door with a soft click.
Eddie tried calling Buck too with no answer. He was more worried than angry. There could be multiple reasons why his husband couldn’t pick up the phone.
During the morning Eddie tried to console his son and cajole him into coming to Bobby’s and Athena’s. With the promise of constantly trying to call Buck, Christopher agreed.
They arrived at the Grant-Nash household at noon.
They thought they were the last to arrive, but Athena informed them that Maddie wasn’t there yet.
“Merry Christmas, you two. When Maddie and Chimney arrived, she realized that she forgot Christopher’s presents. So she had to drive back. She’ll be here soon.”
Athena kneeled down and hugged Christopher tightly.
“How are you, baby? Why the long face?”, she asked.
Christopher sniffled. “Daddy didn’t pick up the phone when we tried to call him”, he whispered, his eyes brimming with unshed tears.
“Ohh, baby, I’m sure there’s a good reason why he hasn’t picked up. You know your Daddy would do everything in his power to be here.” Christopher nodded. “What did you get for Christmas?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t open the presents. There’s no point in opening them, when Daddy can’t see them.” Christopher shrugged.
Eddie and Athena shared a sad look. Athena caressed Christopher’s cheek softly.
“Let’s see if we can cheer you up a bit. Come on.” Athena guided the boys to the rest of the group. Everyone wished them a merry Christmas and tried to cheer Chris up.
Twenty minutes after they arrived the doorbell rang. Athena went to open the door and Eddie knelt in front of Christopher to tie his shoelace. His son had his back to the front door and couldn’t see the figure coming down the stairs.
Eddie let out a gasp when he saw the fire fam parting like the red sea, to reveal none other than his husband.
He had a slight limp and his cuts and bruises, though faded, were still visible. He was still in his fatigues and looked tired.
Christopher turned around and when he saw his Daddy, he immediately started crying…so did Eddie. Buck knelt down and embraced them both at the same time. Christopher dropped the crutches, tucked his head in his Daddy’s neck and hugged him as tightly as he could.
“Oh, baby, I missed you so much”, Buck whispered and put his face in his son’s curls. Inhaling the scent of home. “I’m sorry I missed your call this morning.”
There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Everyone was clapping, whooping and crying. Maddie filming all of this with her cell phone.
Christopher looked at his Daddy, taking in all his injuries and carefully dabbed away the tears.
“It’s okay, Kid.” Buck let out a sob/laugh. “I forgive you”, Christopher said seriously. Everyone started laughing, including Buck.
“Phew, thank god. So tell me, what did you get for Christmas?”
“You.” The whole group aww’ed at Christopher. Buck hugged his son again.
“I got something for you, baby.” Buck took both of Christopher’s hands. “You remember when you said, that you wished Santa would bring me home by loving force.” He nodded and everyone laughed. “Well your wish came true. Though this Santa was grumpier than the real one and looked a lot like your uncle Steve, but I digress.” Christopher giggled, he loved his uncle Steve and his uncle Danno. They always showed him the coolest stuff. “Well your uncle Steve helped me with the paperwork. I’m officially retired. I never have to leave again.”
Christopher’s eyes got really big and watery. “Really?”, he breathed.
“Yes.”
Christopher threw his arms around his Daddy again and hugged him tight. When Christopher finally released him with a “Best Christmas present ever”, Evan turned to his husband.
“Hi, Soldier”, Eddie whispered.
“Hi, Husband”, Evan whispered back and reached for Eddie’s hand with his wedding ring. “I’m home.” He caressed the ring.
“How are you here? I thought you-“, Eddie was still dumbstruck.
“McGarrett took pity on me. On us. After,” Buck looked at Christopher, who was attached to his waist like a monkey, then back to Eddie and whispered “the accident, he decided to send our Team home. As of today Lieutenant Commander Evan Diaz, US Navy SEAL and Demolitions expert, is officially retired. I’m only Evan Diaz now. Husband, Father but still an expert.” Everyone laughed and clapped again.
Eddie took his husbands face between his hands and kissed him with all that he had.
A merry Christmas indeed.
“Can we go home now? Presents must be opened.”
The End.