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“I think I need to lodge a complaint.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You. Aren’t. Here.”
Buck jerked his head away from his phone with a muffled curse, Jay Halstead’s growled voice still echoing through the speaker.
It was true, Buck was stuck in Los Angeles while most of his shift was having fun exploring Chicago. He instead was sitting in the Diaz house living room, now abandoned textbook tumbled to the floor. Christopher had just gone to bed, a long day of academic testing having exhausted him enough to not make it through two chapters of their latest book before falling asleep.
(Buck had also managed to temporarily block most of the 118, considering they kept sending “Wish you were here!” pics. Jealousy was a bad look on him.)
For Buck, that meant he could finally make time to call his old military buddy, since their plans had very much fallen through due to departmental shenanigans.
Three weeks had passed since Buck had received the news that he wouldn’t be traveling to Chicago with most everyone else. While initially he’d been annoyed at Bobby for not allowing him to go, it turned out that Bobby’s hands were tied. The order had come from above, a battalion chief that didn’t like Buck and was doing what they could to hold him back. This denial had come on the heels of other rejections, as Buck had been trying to do certifications and was unable to get into certain classes as well. The only reason it had gone unnoticed until now was because the timing was so spread out.
But this move ended up more discussion. After delivering the news, Bobby had started looking into things and noticed the discrepancies. One thing was that Buck had initially been allowed into certain courses for certifications, only to be dropped more than halfway in due to “overcrowding”. That didn’t sit well with the Captain so he made some careful inquiries.
As it turned out, the battalion chief was one of the few who opposed allowing Buck to return after his ill-advised lawsuit almost four years prior. By denying anything that Buck attempted, it was his way of trying to force Buck out without getting in trouble. Unfortunately for him, Bobby wasn’t about to let that pass.
All of the details had come out only a few days before the conference, which meant that Buck might have been able to go, if not for the fact that both Tia Pepa and Carla came down with the flu and were completely out of commission. With Abuela still in Texas for a while longer (as the pandemic was still raging onwards) and most of the other 118 families either traveling with or unable to work around his testing schedule, it was down to Buck to watch over Christopher. He’d been disappointed, but accepted it. While it sucked that he couldn’t be there to network or see Halstead, taking care of Christopher was always something he was willing to do.
Speaking of Halstead…
“Explain again why you aren’t here?”
Buck sighed into the phone. “Because I’m taking care of my best friend,” he said for what felt like the millionth time. After all, at this point he was on his third phone call with Jay and probably the eighth mention.
The Chicago detective let out some grumbles on his end of the phone, which had Buck rolling his eyes. “Look, you know if I could have been in Chicago I would have. That was the plan as soon as you reached out. I can’t help it that someone decided to try to screw with my career.” He paused, then added, “Again, anyway.”
“I know, just sucks. Mouse came into town today to surprise me. His first leave since returning to the Rangers. It would’ve been hilarious to have you pop into Molly’s and freak him out.” Jay chuckled. Buck could hear the sounds of muted conversation coming from the background.
“You at Molly’s right now?” he asked. It had been a place Buck had wanted to stop at. A bar ran and operated by local firefighters, one that worked to benefit all the firefighters in Chicago, as well as other first responders? Just stopping in would have been worth the cover charge.
Jay gave a negative grunt. “No, I’m chasing something down. Trying to find some guy’s addresses is more trouble than it’s worth,” he said.
He sounded almost out of breath, Buck noted. Before he could voice the thought, the doorbell went off. He jumped up to keep whoever was out there from hitting it again, if only to let Christopher get some quality rest.
“Hang on Jay, someone’s at the door,” Buck said before peeking out the living room blinds. There was a car on the street, one he’d never seen before. Turning, he could just make out someone leaning against the wall next to the door, phone also in hand. “Wait. You son of a-”
He threw open the door to see Jay Halstead in all his casual glory sanding on the Diaz porch, duffle bag set right next to him. The man had an easy smirk on his face as he waved with his phone almost sarcastically.
“Long time no-” Jay didn’t get to finish his sentence. Buck reached out and dragged him into a tight hug. Jay wasted no time in returning it just as hard.
“What the hell are you doing in Los Angeles?” the firefighter asked once they broke apart, washed up, and settled on Eddie’s couch.
“It’s a long story,” Halstead said, bottle of water in hand. “Two days ago, this firefighter walked into the 21st District with a letter for me. I just so happened to be right there, and we got talking. Turns out, the letter is from this guy I served with-”
“That got your unit out of-”
“This is my story, shut it Buckley.” Jay couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “Anyway, we talked. And as it turned out, he knew who I was. And he happened to mention where his best friend was, who just happened to be that guy I served-”
Childish giggles broke Jay from his overemblished storytelling. Both turned to see a head poking into the living room, not even trying to hide since the owner of the head was supposed to be in bed.
“Did we wake you, Chris?” Buck asked, starting to stand to get between Christopher and Jay.
“No, j-just wanted some water, Buck.” Christopher yawned. “Who are you? A friend of Buck?”
Jay nodded. “And your dad’s. My name is Jay.” He held out his hand for the teen to shake. “I’m a detective from Chicago. Your dad thought Buck needed another friend while he was out of town, to keep him out of trouble while you were acing your exams.”
Christopher gave him a blinding smile. “Thank you for taking care of Buck for me!”
For his part, Buck exaggeratedly rolled his eyes. “Let me get that water for you, Chris. Jay, don’t tease him. He still needs some sleep.” The man walked out of the room while both detective and kid shared a chuckle.
Three minutes later, Chris gave a sleepy goodnight and was on his way to bed. Buck settled back down on the couch with a sigh.
“So. To make it simple, you talked to Eddie and decided to fly out to LA?”
Jay nodded. “Basically. I had already taken the leave. As long as I’m back in Chicago by next Monday, I can stay for most of the week.”
Buck nodded. “And I’m your tour guide? You better be paying me.”
“Pay?! You owe me for saving-”
“Who saved who?”
The two paused, looked at each other, then burst into a tired laughter.
“Okay. We can plan out your impromptu vacation in the morning. Crash on the couch, I can take the-” Buck was cut off by the ping of his phone. A quick glance showed it was from Eddie, late as it was.
If your surprise has arrived, go crash out on my bed.
Buck rolled his eyes. Even two thousand miles away, Eddie was still changing his plans. Well, at least he’d have a better sleep.
After a few more minutes, the men bid goodnight and Buck crashed out on Eddie’s bed, barely noting that someone (Eddie?) changed the sheets before he left. Off to dreamland they went.