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It wasn’t often that Buck stayed over at the Diaz house lately. Not because it was a problem to have him stay over. Instead, Eddie usually insisted that Buck head back to his loft and his actually comfortable bed instead of the lumpy couch. In Eddie’s mind, after having Buck basically move in during the duration of his recovery, he deserved some time to himself.
For the record, Buck didn’t agree at all, but he wasn’t going to fight with Eddie. Not on something so simple. He did fight with him on moving out, but he’d lost that fight. He wasn’t exactly proud of failing that one.
But on this night, Buck had already planned on staying over. Christopher was having nightmares due to some of his classmates deciding to watch a horror film that reminded him of the tsunami while at a sleepover. By being close, Buck could hopefully hold off the worst of the nightmares.
Both men sat on the couch staring at the muted television, long after putting Christopher to bed. They’d had a long shift, on top of worrying about Christopher, and weren’t really in the mood to do much of anything at that moment.
After sitting quietly for what felt like forever (or in reality, about thirty minutes), Buck shifted and propped his bad leg up onto the coffee table. He didn’t want to admit it to anyone, but it had been aching all day.
“You okay, Buck?” Eddie’s question broke the silence in the room. He had noticed Buck lagging towards the end of their shift, but he hadn’t complained or winced, so Eddie was willing to let it go until he said or did something that made him question it.
“Yeah, just- just aching a bit. Long day. Your shoulder okay?” Buck wasn’t the only one in pain. He’d caught Eddie several times massaging the area around his latest bullet wound, but didn’t want to call attention to it until they were in private, away from Christopher.
Eddie gave Buck a look. “I’m fine. It was a long day.”
“Tell me about it. If I had to do another rope rescue, there may have been issues.” Buck had come close to slipping halfway down during their last rescue due to a rock breaking free, but he’d caught himself. Of course, it was his bad leg that got jerked, so he was in pain for the last two hours of their shift, including during their final rescue.
“You mean you don’t love slipping on a cliff and nearly yanking my arm out of its socket?” After having to hold Buck’s rope while he readjusted on the fly, he’d already been in pain. And then, at their final rescue, he ended up helping move several disabled cars, making his shoulder almost scream in pain.
Buck shook his head. “Nah, I don’t like seeing you in pain.” He took a moment to rub his leg to relieve some of the aching.
“Neither do I.” Eddie paused before continuing. “Does… your leg always bother you after some of these long shifts?”
“Not normally. I guess it’s just bothering me more than normal lately,” Buck said. “I’m seeing my doctor next week to make sure there’s nothing wrong. It’s after your follow up appointment, actually.” He glanced down at his phone to confirm.
Eddie snorted. “Are you still keeping up with my appointments?” He reached over to grab Buck’s phone, but Buck quickly pulled it out of reach.
“Nope!”
Eddie tried to grab his arm to pull him back, but he managed to yank both of their long term injuries in the move. Buck bit back a curse to keep from waking up Christopher. His leg had fallen off the coffee table and banged hard on the floor.
“Shit, sorry!” Eddie whispered, holding his shoulder tight to his chest.
“You’re a dick, you know that?” Buck snarked, not entirely mad about it. He knew that it was an accident, but it did hurt pretty bad.
Eddie rolled his eyes, actually feeling sorry that he’d hurt his friend, completely ignoring the damage to his own arm. “Didn’t do it on purpose. I just wasn’t expecting to hear that you still keep track of all my appointments.”
“... Christopher’s too, actually. If I can help out in any way, you know I will.”
For once, Eddie felt speechless. He knew that Buck was on their side, that he cared and wanted them to be okay, but now seven months after the shooting, to still be there for him 100%? And not tell him? There was a part of him that just felt relief. He wasn’t doing this alone.
“Buck. Thank you for caring for us.” Eddie’s words were sincere, honest in a way that he still had to fight to bring out. Having been raised to keep emotion to himself, it was hard to even say thank you when accepting help. But Buck… Buck broke those barriers by just being himself.
The man in question gave him a serious nod. “I’ll always care for you guys. You’re my family now, too.”
Eddie settled an arm over Buck’s shoulder and let the conversation lapse in a comfortable way. It was a good way to spend the rest of the night.