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It wasn’t often that Buck arrived at the loft very late. So late, in fact, that Carla and Christopher had taken over for Aislinn the dog sitter, who had two finals back to back in the morning.
Buck (and Eddie, by the fact that he wanted to see his own son that evening, damn it) were so late in fact that Christopher was already in his pajamas and set up on the couch for an impromptu sleepover, reading The Hidden Oracle out loud to Audie. Carla had taken over the kitchen, warming up one of Buck’s frozen meals so that the firefighters would have a warm meal to come home to. She hadn’t asked to do so, instead just deciding to.
Eddie stumbled in first, looking cold but moderately awake. He took a second to greet Carla before heading over to give Chris a hug, as well as giving Audie her customary pets on the head for protecting his son. Buck was only a moment behind, yawning.
“What on Earth happened to you two?”
Buck had been setting down their bags when Carla spoke, startling him. “Carla? What- where’s Ais-?” Another large yawn cut off his question, so large in fact that he had to grab his kitchen island to keep from falling over.
Carla and Eddie shared a look. Eddie had been the one to call Carla and ask to head over to the loft. He’d called from Griffin Park, where they’d been looking for a young boy who had gotten lost playing hide and seek for over six hours. When he’d noticed the time, he’d taken a moment to make the request, having remembered that Aislinn’s exams were upcoming and she’d been stressing about getting enough sleep. Of course, considering that they’d finally found a clue as to the boy’s location only two minutes after that call, it made sense that telling Buck had completely slipped his mind.
“The kid ended up climbing the side of the Santa Monica mountain range,” Buck said, grasping gratefully at the large glass of water that Carla had wordlessly handed him. He pulled himself onto one of the stools with a rather large groan. “He’d gotten lost in the caves or something, ended up thirty feet above us. It was faster to free climb.”
“Which he did,” Eddie grumbled, “Since he’s the only one who is certified to do so right now.”
Audie picked up on the mood that her owner’s mate wasn’t exactly happy. She gave Chris a quick lick on his face before hopping off of the pull out mattress and making her way across the loft to sit at Buck’s feet, giving the man a glare that was as hilarious as it was mildly terrifying. Buck reached down to give her some loves, doing his best to ignore the dark look coming his way from his partner.
“Hey, Cap asked if I could! It would have taken hours to walk through the caves.”
“You had your hands on the rocks before Bobby finished asking. You were prepared to climb without any gear!”
Chris started giggling from the pullout, making both men pause and look at him. Audie had retreated to his side, firmly planting her head in his lap.
“Boys, eat something before you get some sleep,” Carla ordered, pulling out the premade lasagna out of the oven and pointing at it. Eddie nodded, properly chastised. He made his way over to the kitchen, lowering his voice as he and Carla discussed the changes in their schedule for the next day or so, as their shift had ran almost six hours over, so they’d been given an extra half shift off to make up for it.
Buck joined Chris on the pullout, letting Audie crawl between them. Chris resumed reading out loud, giving Buck the time to finally calm down and rest from the overly long and stressful shift.
A few moments later, after Carla slipped out to head for her own bed, Eddie was plating up servings of lasagna for both him and Buck when he realized that it was too quiet in the loft. He made his way over to the living room and almost fumbled for his phone.
Buck was dead asleep against the back of the couch, head tilted back, lightly snoring. Chris was curled up next to him, finger still holding his page in his book. As for Audie, she was almost entirely on top of Buck, also completely onto dreamland.
“Well,” Eddie murmured. He sent the pic off to Bobby before muting his phone. “I guess food can wait.” He quickly wrapped out their abandoned dinner and joined his son and partner on the bed.
Sleep was quick to come.