Work Text:
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”
“Dad?”
Eddie’s lungs seize in his chest. “Christopher?” Around the room several heads swing in his direction, but Eddie is solely focused on the shaking voice on the line.
There’s a shuddering breath and a sniffle, and all of Eddie’s parental instincts fight against his recent training.
“Chris, can you tell me where you are? Is Buck with you?” The last time Eddie had seen them, Buck had scooped Chris up excited about their weekend together while Eddie was working.
Buck had sent him photos of the two of them at the Science Centre just a few hours earlier.
“Chris?”
“We’re in the car,” Chris says, his voice thin and cracking. “I don’t know where— we were going home.”
Eddie’s fingers fly across the keyboard. “That’s okay. We’ll work it out together.” He glances up as Sue comes to stand beside him, half-expecting her to take over the call.
She connects to the call to listen in, and nods for Eddie to continue.
“Where were you coming home from?” Eddie asks. “Was it the Science Centre? You know Buck sent me photos of you putting out a fire at that new exhibit.” He still hasn’t heard anything from Buck, which is worrying. It’s Buck’s cell phone that Chris is calling from. Eddie recognises the number now that he’s paying attention to it.
“Dad, I can’t— he won’t wake up and I—” Whatever he says next is lost among the choking sobs that echo down the line and Eddie’s heart breaks for his kid.
“Chris, c’mon deep breaths. You can do this.”
There’s a commotion as more lines in the room behind him, but it’s just background static as Eddie works to calm Chris down.
“Eddie.” Sue lays a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. “There have been multiple reports of an accident on the Santa Monica Freeway, one of the vehicles matches Buck’s Jeep. Help is on the way.”
“You hear that? Help is coming,” Eddie tells Chris, the clenching in his chest easing just slightly. “Are you hurt?”
“My head hurts,” Chris admits through shaking breaths. “And I can’t get my seatbelt off.”
“Leave it on,” Eddie tells him. It doesn’t sound like Chris is badly injured, but Eddie doesn’t want him moving around too much before the paramedics get there, just in case. “Can you see Buck from where you're sitting?”
“Yeah, he’s moving Dad. I think he’s waking up.”
“That’s really good,” Eddie says, and the band in his chest loosens a little more. “Tell him the firefighters are almost there.”
“Buck, the firefighters are coming. Dad sent them to save us.”
Eddie can’t help the wet laugh that escapes him at Chris’ words and he wonders how he managed to raise such a wonderful kid.
He can hear the echo of sirens now, and after that it’s a blur. He disconnects the call so he can call Chris back on his cell phone, staying on the line until he's been freed from the car. He speaks to one of the paramedics briefly, and after getting the name of the hospital, promises to meet Chris there.
By the time he arrives at the hospital, Chris has already been taken into the emergency room but Buck hasn’t been brought in yet. Eddie finds a nurse who leads him through the double doors to Chris’ cubicle; she also let’s them know when Buck arrives and brings periodic updates while Eddy sits with Chris through x-rays and scans.
He may have fudged the truth a little to make it happen, implying that Buck was Chris’ other dad, but he doesn’t feel any guilt about it. It's close enough to the truth anyway.
The nurse had been by earlier to let them know Buck was being admitted, at least for the night. Maddie had been by too, popping in to ask Eddie if they needed anything on her way up to see her brother.
The doctor arrives not long after to tell Eddie he can take Chris home.
"Dad, when can we go see Buck?" Chris mumbles the words against Eddie's chest. They're sitting on the bed together, waiting to hear if he can take Chris home.
Eddie tightens his arm around Chris' shoulders.
"Soon," he promises.
“Hey.” Eddie gives the hand he's holding a squeeze when Buck stirs again.
It takes a moment for Buck to get his bearings, blinking down at Chris who’s fast asleep, plastered to his side. He glances over at Eddie.
“I thought you went home.”
“Chris wanted to stay,” Eddie tells him with a shrug. “And so did I.”
Buck looks down at Chris again and lifts his hand, the one without the IV, to smooth back the curls falling across his forehead.
“I’m sorry Eds.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Eddie reassures him. They’ve already had this conversation but between the concussion and the good drugs, he suspects Buck’s memory is a bit fuzzy. Eddie had explained earlier that another driver had lost control of their car, clipping Buck’s Jeep and sending it into the guardrail. They were both lucky to escape with relatively minor injuries.
He gives Buck’s hand another squeeze when it looks like he might argue.
“Chris has already demanded you come stay with us when you get out of here.”
“I don’t want to be a burden,” Buck says, his voice cracking. “You have Chris to think about and I—”
“You will always have a place with us,” Eddie says, leaning forward to grasp Buck’s hand in both of his. “Always. Leaving the 118, leaving firefighting, it was never about leaving you, Evan. And I’m sorry that I haven’t made that clear.”
Buck stares down at their clasped hands, a faint flush painting his cheeks red.
“Get some rest,” Eddie tells him. “Tomorrow, I’m bringing you home.”