Chapter Text
“What’s up with Buck?” Hen asks, pointing to where Buck was curled up on the sofa, hood completely over his face, occasional sniffles being heard. Chimney shrugs from where he’s sat at the table reading.
“He wouldn’t let me near him, I called Maddie to ask if he’s ever acted like this before and she just said she’ll be there in 5 minutes and hang up. Maybe it’s just a Buckley thing. I don’t know” He answered. Hen looked at Buck with growing concern.
“It must be serious for her to just leave work like that, what did he do when you came over?” It felt weird talking about him like he wasn’t there but they were speaking quiet enough that Buck wouldn’t hear. Before Chimney entered, Maddie came running up the stairs asking where Buck is frantically, they pointed to the couch, completely stunned. She didn’t have her bag with her so she must of just ran out of work. She walked up to him and sat on the floor in front of him.
“Evan? It’s Maddie” She said softly, running a hand over his hooded head. Buck opened one eye and sobbed loudly, moving quickly he threw himself at Maddie, still half on the sofa. She caught him and hugged him back, brushed her hand through his hair. “You’re okay, let it all out” She whispered, Hen and Chimney watched discreetly, astounded.
It took 5 minutes of holding Maddie so tightly it was almost hard for her to breath for his sobs to calm down. The tears stopped and he regained his breathing, thanks to whispered reassurances from Maddie. She said something different to him that Hen and Chimney couldn’t hear before standing up, and despite the fact Buck was bigger than her in every way, she pulled him up with her to a standing position where he rubbed his eyes furiously and hiccupped. Maddie rubbed his back gently with a sympathetic smile on her face. Extending her hand, Buck interlaced their fingers together and Maddie walked them slowly towards the stairs. They walked down them at an antagonisingly slow pace, when they were at the bottom, Hen and Chimney carefully moved over to the railing and watched them knock and wait by the Captains office before walking in.
Disappointed that they couldn’t see anymore they went to go sit back down but as they did, Bobby, Buck and Maddie came out. Almost a second after they went in, and Bobby walked with them to where they assumed Maddie’s car to be. Bobby kept his hand on the small of his back, Maddie’s hand still in Buck’s. They watched as Bobby gave Buck a quick – fatherly – hug before they disappeared through the exit and Bobby walked back, spotting them at the rails. He raised his eyebrow, and walked towards them.
“Buck’s gone home, you two are gonna have to do a bit of extra work since Eddie’s off today too. Sorry about that” Bobby said as he walked up the stairs, approaching to where they stood by the rails.
“Is he okay?” Hen asked. Bobby shrugged.
“I don’t know, I don’t understand it fully, Maddie said she’d send me some more information so I can read up on it later but he’s not in the right headspace to be working. Maddie says she’s going to spend the night at Buck’s today but she’ll be home tomorrow, Chim” Bobby explained.
“Is it... like a bad mental health day? I know Buck gets them, Maddie has to go over and stay with him until it passes to ‘make sure he’s safe’” Chimney said, remembering a couple times when Maddie had dropped everything at a phone call from Buck, it happened once on a date.
“I don’t know, it’s best not to speculate, okay? Maddie’s gonna look after him. He’ll be okay” Bobby said authoritively.
Maddie looked after Buck until 7pm, when she got a call from Josh saying that they really needed her to come back to work this evening since a flu was going around with the night shift workers. She hated to leave Buck but Josh sounded incredibly desperate and she could do with the money. Usually, she would have called Bobby but he was still on shift so the next person she knew Buck would be safe with was Eddie. She let Buck know she was going on the balcony to make a call and dialled his number.
“Hey Maddie, is everything okay?” Eddie said, picking up on the second ring.
“Hey Eddie. Yeah everything’s okay, I’ve just been called back into work but I’m looking after Buck so-“
“Is he okay?” Eddie interrupted.
“That’s longer to explain. He’s okay, physically but I need you to come and stay with him. Have you ever heard of age regression?” She said, there was a long pause on Eddie’s end.
“Not much, I know it’s a coping method and a state of mind that reverts back into being a child” Eddie said, sounding confused.
“Yeah, I take it that you don’t know this but it happens to Buck sometimes. He doesn’t do it voluntarily but his age regression is different. It’s... sad. He cries a lot and shuts himself in the dark, hugs the stuffed animal I got him when he was 3 and just doesn’t move for hours, Eddie.”
“What would he need from me?”
“Reassurance, promises of safety. Just knowing you’re there will do him some good. I know it’s a lot to ask of you”
“I’ll always look after Buck. I have his back, remember? That means through anything. I’ll be there in 10. Thanks for calling me” Eddie says, hanging up. Maddie chuckles realising Eddie lives 20 minutes away from Buck and steps back into the loft. Taking the stairs two at a time, she sees that Buck has curled in on himself more and has the stuffed sheep pressed right against his face.
“I know you like the smell but you’ve got to make sure you can breath properly, sweetheart”
“M’fine” he sniffs, taking his face away from the sheep anyway. Maddie reaches out and strokes his cheek comfortingly.
“I have to go into work. I’m really sorry, Evan but Eddie’s coming round okay, he’s gonna look after you” she says softly, watching as Buck’s face screws up in discontent. “I know but he’s safe, isn’t he? He’ll look after you” She repeats, more for herself subconsciously but Buck nods.
Just as he says, Eddie arrives 10 minutes later. Texting that he’s outside because he didn’t want to scare Buck by using the doorbell or scaring Maddie by using his key, so she went out to meet him after saying her tearful goodbyes to Buck. Maddie sent a reassuring smile to Eddie as she shut the door to the loft gently and checked that no one was in the hallway before she started speaking in hushed tones.
“He’s not really talking that much but he knows you’re coming over and he’s not sad about it so that’s good but I think he’s littler than he was earlier today” She explains.
“What do you mean?” Eddie asks, he’s eager to get in and see Buck but understanding what’s going is more important so he keeps his feet planted on the floor.
“When I picked him up he was probably about 8 years old but now I think he’s around 5 or 6 so he’ll need to be called Evan”
“That’s okay”
“Yeah but... I don’t know how to say it... he asked me that whenever he’s younger than 7 to not let him be near men in case he calls them daddy” She says hesitantly, she knows for Eddie to completely understand that she must tell him but something in her still doesn’t want to. Something in her wants to crawl into bed with Buck and hold him like she used to until he felt happier again. “It’s not a sexual thing, the age regression or the name calling. If it was I would not be helping” She adds, just in case, trying to lighten the tense mood.
“Yeah no I know, don’t worry” Eddie says, smiling at her joke. “I don’t mind him calling me what he wants, anything that’ll help him feel better”
“Sometimes I forget how much you love him” Maddie says, a little in awe.
“Of course, I do, he’s my best friend” Eddie said, immediately. Maddie grinned, checking her watch.
“That’s a talk for another day, I have to go, but I’ll be back later. It’s only for 4 hours if Josh doesn’t let me go early”
“Chris is at a friend’s for the night so don’t worry about rushing, feel free to go home after work”
“Thank you!” She says, speed walking off to her car before she’s late. Eddie wasted no time before he pushed open the door and took his shoes off at the door. Calling up to Buck and getting a small noise in response. Eddie climbed the stairs loudly so Buck could hear him and was met with Buck under the covers in his most oversized hoodie and joggers.
“Hey buddy” Eddie says softly, Buck turns to look at him with an adorable scrunch in his nose, Eddie smiled at him and got one in return even though he was still squinting. He sits on the edge of the bed, “Were you sleeping?” He asks, Buck shakes his head
“Hungry” He whispers. Eddie smiles at him again. Buck doesn’t understand why Eddie’s smiling at him so much but it makes him smile too.
“I’ll make you something, any requests?” Eddie stands up, Buck shakes his head. He squeezes his leg and tells him that he’ll just be downstairs and to speak if he needs anything. Rummaging through Buck’s cupboards he found some thin sliced bread and jam and cut the sandwich into 4 triangles to bring up to him.
Buck had turned over so he was facing the stairs when Eddie came back, watching him. “Sit up for me, so you can eat” Eddie said kindly and Buck grumbled but sat up nonetheless, before Buck ate, he stared at Eddie and patted the bed next to him. Eddie walked around the bed and climbed on, sitting above the covers next to Buck, and Buck started eating. Getting through two triangles before his arms got tired and Eddie put the plate on the bedside table.
“Who’s our friend?” Eddie said after a while, pointing to the old sheep sat in Buck’s arms. He grinned and held the sheep out for Eddie to see, its head flopped downwards and it was a little green but he could tell how much Buck loved it.
“Shaun” Buck said, Eddie was a little stunned at seeing Buck smile for the first time this evening.
“Shaun the sheep? Nice. Can I hold him for a second?” Eddie asked, Buck nodded and Eddie gently took Shaun out of Buck’s hands and examined it.
“He smells nice” Buck said shyly. Eddie sniffed the sheep, feeling like it would be weird to do in any other context, it smelt very faintly of lavender. Eddie assumed it used to smell more potent and that the smell was more comforting to Buck than nice but he didn’t want to offend so he just nodded and gave Buck the sheep back. Eddie watched as Buck sheepishly brought the toy to rest against his chest. Eddie opened his mouth to say something before hesitating, Buck saw and cocked his head to the side in a question.
“I was going to ask if you wanted to cuddle and watch a movie?” Eddie said, Buck nodded. “Okay, let me get comfy and then you get comfy, okay?” Buck watched as Eddie got himself under the covers and laid down on the pillows, signalling for Buck to cuddle up. Lifting his arm up, Buck sifted to lean against Eddie and rest his head half on his chest and half on his shoulder. Placing Shaun in between them, so Buck could still hold him, Eddie grabbed the TV remote and flicked through Disney+ until Buck pointed at a film and Eddie pressed play. 10 minutes into the film he sees Buck's eyes dropping and is about to say that it's okay to fall asleep before he hears a very quiet whisper,
"Goodnight, daddy"
"Goodnight, bud" Eddie replies, not knowing it Buck heard him before he fell asleep but hoping he did.
Turns out, Josh did let Maddie off early after 2 hours because he found more people to come work shifts and knew Maddie had to get home to Buck. She didn’t take Eddie’s advise but she did take a more casual route to Buck’s apartment. Getting there, she had a small chat with the doorman and took up a parcel that had arrived for Buck, quite happy that the elevator was working this evening.
She knocked on the door before using her key to get in but realised her efforts were useless because the loft was completely quiet minus Hercules playing softly on the TV and soft snores that she knew were Bucks. Quietly she climbed the stairs to check on her brother to see him snuggled comfortably in Eddie’s side, Eddie’s arms wrapped around him safely and Shaun the sheep pressed underneath Buck’s arm where he hugged it around Eddie so he was hugging both of them as tight as he could. Maddie smiled happily, it was 9pm and she knew that Buck would have the best night sleep that he’s had for a long while. She snapped a picture, sent it to Eddie and Buck’s phones and then sent off a quick text to Bobby.
Maddie: [image.png1827]
Maddie: Looks like Buck and Eddie are fed and asleep for the night. Buck will probably come out of regression slowly when he wakes up so he’ll need the day off tomorrow too.
Bobby: Glad to see they’re okay. I’ll give Eddie the day off as well, could you write a note for him and leave it somewhere? Thanks for the update.
Maddie: Absolutely! Have a good night :)
She wrote the note – telling them that they both had the day off and to call her at any time if needed – before locking up the loft and going back home, to surprise Chimney, for the night herself.