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1. Christopher
“Dad, can Buck take me to bed?” Christopher asked as he stood up from the couch. The movie credits were rolling, and he knew better than to beg to stay up later. The Friday routine was dinner (cooked by Buck, because he was the better cook. He didn’t dare tell his dad that, though), cleanup, a movie, then bed. The grown-ups stayed up and watched another movie, probably one that he wasn’t allowed to, and drunk beer. Sometimes Buck stayed over, sometimes he didn’t. Christopher liked the nights that he did, because it meant he could help him make pancakes or waffles for breakfast. And then sometimes the three of them would go out to the zoo, or the park, or a museum, or to see a movie. Like a proper family, he always thought, just him and his two dads.
“Of course, I’ll take you, come on Superman!” Buck smiled. His dad offered to pick the movie, and Buck told him not to pick anything “too girly”. His dad said that it was usually Buck that picked the “girly movies” anyway, which made Christopher laugh.
“Night dad, love you!” He called from halfway down the hall.
“Night, mijo, love you too!”
As soon as he’d brushed his teeth and put his pyjamas on, he crawled into bed. Buck sat at the bottom of the bed, like he always did, and asked if he wanted a story. Christopher shook his head and rested his head on the pillow.
“No, I’m tired, Buck. But can I ask you something?”
“You know you can ask me anything.” Buck replied as he took Christopher’s hand. “What’s up?”
“Well, um, do you love dad?” He asked. Buck’s face went all weird, he noticed, and he looked down at his comforter before he spoke.
“Um, yeah, Chris, you know I love you and your dad. He’s my best friend.” He said, almost too carefully.
“Yeah, but you’re dating now, right? So do you love him like that, like love love him?” He thought he knew the answer, but he had to hear it from them. Because if they did love each other like that, it’d be perfect, right? They’d be a proper, happy family. Almost as happy as he was when his mom came back.
“Uh, we’re not dating, Chris. Why would you think that we were?” They weren’t? How could they not be? They went out for dinner at least once a week. They shared weird private jokes. They looked at each other in that way that made Christopher want to puke sometimes. And Buck stayed over some nights. OK, he slept on the couch here, but when they stayed at Buck’s, they slept in the same bed. Dad said it was because Buck’s stairs were “a deathtrap”, but he thought that secretly he liked sleeping beside Buck.
“I just thought...never mind, I thought wrong.” Christopher sighed. How could he have gotten this wrong? Or were they secretly dating and didn’t want to tell him? But Buck would never lie to him, he always spoke to him like he was grown up, not a little kid. So that couldn’t be it.
“OK, well I do love your dad, but as a friend, OK?” Buck gave him a smile and brushed the hair from Christopher’s forehead before leaning down to give him a goodnight kiss. “Night, kiddo.” He murmured, and Christopher rolled over so he was facing the wall, mumbled goodnight and closed his heavy eyes, falling asleep almost instantly. Buck got up and walked to the door, pausing for a moment in the doorway to watch him before heading back to the couch. Sitting beside Eddie, he reached over to the table for his beer, then leaned back.
“You’ll never guess what your son just asked me...”
2. The Women
The next Saturday night was wine night at Hen and Karen’s house, and as usual, Eddie was the only man there. Not that he minded, of course. It got him out of the house, and he didn’t have to worry about childcare because the boys were happy for an excuse to stay up playing the XBox, eating too much candy and drinking soda.
“So, Christopher told Buck he thought we were dating.” Eddie laughed when there was a lull in conversation, but looking around the room, he noticed no one else was. “What?” The four women exchanged glances, and Karen nodded to Hen to take the lead on this one.
“You mean you’re not?” She asked.
“Of course, we’re not, why would you...? Did you all think we were?” A collective mumble of “yeah”s echoed around the lounge.
“No offence, Eddie, but the two of you are...pretty close, even for best friends.” Karen pointed out gently. “And it's obvious that you’re both...” She tried and failed to find the words she was looking for, not wanting to say the words “in love with each other”. Because if Eddie didn’t know, that would probably freak him out.
“Attracted to each other.” Hen finished. “You come into work together, you stay at each other’s houses...We all just thought you didn’t want to tell us yet.” Eddie stared at them all in turn. Hen, Karen, Athena, and Maddie.
“Maddie, you’re his sister!” He exclaimed, and she shrugged before taking another sip of wine.
“I thought that those dates he said he was going on were covers for dating you, I just figured it was none of my business. Where is he tonight, anyway?” She asked.
“On one of those dates. With Jessica.” His voice dripped with disgust. Jessica was one of the women Buck had rescued the previous week, she’d come over to the firehouse to thank them a few days ago and she was all over him like a rash, stroking his bicep, twirling her hair, batting her eyelashes...it was clear she just wanted to date him for his looks.
“Oh.” Athena raised her eyebrows. “We don’t approve?”
“Wait, is she that blonde that was hanging around?” Hen asked and Eddie nodded. “Then no, we don’t approve.”
Glad to have someone else on his side, he grabbed his glass and held it to his lips. Throwing his head back and letting the alcohol flow into his mouth, he was unaware of the looks that the women were giving each other.
“So, when are you telling him you’re in love with him then?” Eddie almost spat out his wine at Maddie’s comment. Swallowing the mouthful that he had, he practically slammed the glass on the table. He could deny it, he was good at hiding his feelings, well until they all came exploding out at once...
“Um, never. There’s no point.” He groaned. “He’s made it clear that there’s nothing more than friendship there. I’m just gonna need to get over it.”
The four women tried to argue, but Eddie held his hand up. End of conversation. None of them dared to say another word about it that night. At least, not in front of him.
3. The Patient
The side of the car had been hit by another, and the woman inside, Sarah, seemed relatively unscathed apart from a massive cut to her head. Buck had volunteered to sit and keep an eye on her, to try and keep her conscious, as Eddie worked on freeing her.
“What do you do?” Buck asked, anything to keep her awake, and to take her mind off the fact that her car door was being noisily taken off its hinges.
“I’m a chef.” She replied as she winced in pain. “Sorry, my head is killing me.”
“It’s OK, we’ll get you out soon enough and get some painkillers in you.” Buck tried to reassure her. “I like to cook, although I’m probably not as good as you. I’m not even as good as my Captain, although he’s been teaching me new recipes.” Just keep talking, Buck, the door’s almost there. Just another couple of minutes...
“Yeah? What kind of things do you make?” She closed her eyes, and Buck shook her shoulder.
“No, no, don’t go to sleep, you need to stay awake right now, OK? We’re almost done.” He tried not to sound frantic, but was aware he was failing miserably. “I’m going to make a carbonara on Friday night.”
“Sounds nice. Send me the recipe and I’ll pick up the ingredients when I go to the market tomorrow.” Eddie interjected, and Buck nodded, promising him that he would.
“Oh, how long have you two been together?” She asked, glancing up at Eddie, who was working on the last little part before the door would come right off.
“Oh, we’re not. We just hang out on Friday nights, I make dinner, he gets the beer.” Buck replied, also looking up at Eddie, who looked like he was biting his lip hard. His eyes screwed up for a second and he took a breath before giving the jaws one last snap. “You OK there?”
“Uh, yeah, fine. Wanna help me take this off now?” His voice sounded weird too, but Buck didn’t say anything, just nodded and walked around to the other side of the car, grabbing one side of the door while Eddie took the other. As soon as it was off, Eddie practically dived at Sarah, and Buck stepped back to let Hen in with the stretcher.
Once they got back in the rig and started to head back to the firehouse, Buck noticed that Eddie was still acting weird. He was staring out the window, and his headset was on, but he didn’t seem to be listening to the conversation. He didn’t even react when Chimney told one of his stupid jokes, and normally he’d have at least rolled his eyes at him or gave a sarcastic comment. Placing his hand on Eddie’s arm, the man eventually turned his head, and Buck motioned for him to take the headset off for a second.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, leaning in closer so no one else could hear.
“It’s nothing, I’m just tired.” He sighed, but Buck could tell he was lying. He’d been acting like that ever since...ever since Buck had said that they weren’t dating. Wait, what? Did he want to be dating him? No, that couldn’t be it, he would have said something, right? He’d just laughed when Buck told him that Chris thought they were dating, so it couldn’t be that...
Eddie put his headset back on and returned to his previous position. Helplessly, Buck glanced over at Hen, but she just shook her head, as if to say “leave it alone.”
“Well, I’m here if anyone wants to talk.” He said pointedly into his headset. Eddie didn’t even respond.
+1 The One Time They Were...
Buck sat on the chair at Bobby and Athena’s house, watching as Eddie, who was dressed as a 1920s gangster, danced with Karen, a witch, in the makeshift dancefloor in the middle of the room. It had been Bobby’s idea to hold a Halloween party for everyone, and everyone seemed to be having fun.
“Stare at him any longer and you’ll burn a hole in his suit.” Maddie whispered in his ear as she crept up behind him.
“Ha ha, very funny.” He muttered back while she pulled up a chair beside him.
“You really need to talk to him.” She urged, and Buck opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, Christopher came bounding up to him, looking completely adorable in his Green Lantern costume. Not that Buck would say that out loud, because that would be “so embarrassing” to a ten-year-old, and didn’t he know that he wasn’t a little kid anymore?
“Hey, can I stay with Denny tonight? Hen said it was OK as long as I asked my dad.” He gasped, completely out of breath from running around with his friends. “And dad’s busy, and really, you’re my dad too now, so...” He trailed off, and Buck couldn’t help but laugh.
“I was wondering how long it’d take you to play that card. As long as it's fine with Hen and Karen then it’s fine with me. I’ll let your dad know once he finishes dancing.” He held out his hand to ruffle Christopher’s hair, but he was gone as quickly as he came, yelling “thanks Buck!” behind him. Tentatively glancing over at Maddie, because he knew she heard every part of that conversation, he wasn’t surprised to see her looking at him like he’d suddenly grown another head.
“OK, what the Hell was that about, Evan?” She asked. Buck just grinned, shrugged and turned back to watching the couples dancing in front of him. “Evan, talk to me! You’re Christopher’s dad now too? Are you and Eddie...?” Buck eventually turned back to her, placing a finger to his lips.
“Fine, but you cannot tell anyone, OK?” He murmured, pulling the chain from under his shirt which held his wedding ring. Maddie opened her mouth, but no words came out. “The other day, when I said that I was going hiking for a couple of days? Yeah, I kinda didn’t go hiking, we went to Vegas instead.”
“Evan Buckley!” She managed to hiss. “What the...?”
“Technically, its Buckley-Diaz now...” He whispered back. And as the song finished, he stood up and walked over to the makeshift dance floor.
“Can I cut in?” He asked Karen, and she smiled, letting Eddie go so Buck could take her place. They danced slowly around in circles, Buck’s hands on Eddie’s waist, Eddie’s around Buck’s neck.
“We’re child free tonight, Chris is staying with Karen and Hen.” He whispered into Eddie’s ear. “He played the ‘but you’re my dad too’ card with me.”
“Thought he’d wait at least a week to pit us against each other.” Eddie muttered back, hoping that this wasn’t going to be a problem.
“I know. But it means we have the house to ourselves, and really, we haven’t had a proper wedding night alone...” Buck pointed out.
“Well, Evan, that sounds like a great idea. We really need to tell everyone, though.” Always the sensible one, Buck thought as he buried his head into Eddie’s neck, not caring who saw now. It was all going to be out in the open soon enough. He was actually surprised they’d managed to keep it secret for six months. That day when that patient thought they were a couple, Eddie had avoided him for hours after they got back, and didn’t even look at him all through dinner. As soon as dinner was over, however, Buck dragged him to the roof, away from everyone else, and demanded to know what was going on. Eventually, Eddie yelled that he was in love with him, and Buck did what anyone would do – he just walked over and planted a kiss on his lips. They’d been together ever since.
“I know. We could just put our rings on after this dance and let them figure it out.” He suggested. And that’s what they did. Athena noticed right away and dragged them into the kitchen to yell at them for keeping it a secret. Bobby walked in halfway through and hugged them, saying that he always knew that they’d end up together. It took everyone else around an hour to catch up, and by the time the party was over, they’d had an impromptu toast from Bobby, had made speeches, and the women had been starting to plan their wedding reception.
“Love you.” Buck smiled as he started up Eddie’s car to drive home. He felt his husband’s hand squeeze his leg, and he blew him a kiss.
“Love you too.” Eddie murmured, staring out of the windscreen, praying for no traffic on the way home. He didn’t want to wait any longer for their belated wedding night, especially when his husband was looking so beautiful tonight.