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Buck would like to have it on record that this is not his fault.
If he really wanted to shirk the blame, it was technically Christopher’s fault, but Buck was really into the whole ‘Being Absolutely Nothing Like Phillip and Margaret’ thing so he wasn’t about to throw his eleven year old under the bus.
Still, it was because Chris was away at camp again this summer that Buck and Eddie found themselves embarrassingly bored and looking for things to do that weren’t each other. Enter: hiking.
— — — —
“See?” Buck gestures to the woods around him as he walks backwards up the trail. “This is totally better than the gym. All the benefits of walking on the treadmill but with more stuff to look at.”
Eddie just shakes his head and smiles.
The couple makes their way steadily uphill, Buck offering frequent facts about the surrounding terrain and plantlife. They stop for lunch at a lookout point along the trail, tossing carrot sticks into each other's mouths and exchanging peanut butter-flavored kisses.
It’s the sort of easy, fun, idyllic love that Eddie never believed he could have, or even believed was real. But it is real, it’s here right in front of him and it’s gently playing with his fingers.
Eddie leans his head onto Buck’s shoulder and sighs, pressing a kiss to his husband’s jaw. Buck glances down at him, smiling softly. “What?” Eddie hums, looking down at their legs, side by side as they dangle over the edge of the rock they’re sitting on. “Nothing, just happy.”
Buck does that bashful smile where he closes his eyes and ducks his chin. “I’m happy, too.”
The two bask in each other’s presence for a while longer. Eventually, they decide to gather up their belongings and start the trek back down the trail. Suddenly Buck stops, looking up a tree full of twisted and gnarled branches growing out of a massive trunk. “I’m gonna climb it.”
“Buck…” Eddie sighs.
“What? I did this all the time as a kid. Besides, we scale buildings for a living, Eds, this is nothing.” He’s already halfway up the trunk, reaching up into the branches.
Eddie props his hands on his hips. “Yeah, you also fell out of a tree and broke your arm when you were a kid, Maddie told me. And at work we have safety gear; ropes, harnesses.” His eyes hone in on Buck’s zero-traction running shoes. “Proper footwear.”
Buck finally seems content with his climb and hoists himself up to sit on a thick branch about fifteen feet above the ground. He grins down at his husband, swinging his feet happily.
“Very cool, Buck!” Eddie calls up patronizingly. “Did you want me to take a picture to show Bobby when we get back?” Buck flips him the finger and begins making his way down the tree. There’s a moment where Buck’s shoe slips a few inches and Eddie involuntarily sucks in air sharply through his teeth. But soon enough, Buck is safely on the ground in front of Eddie, looking very pleased with himself.
“Told ya it would be fine.” Eddie kisses the smirk off his face. “Yeah, yeah, I’m no fun.”
Buck grabs Eddie’s hand, lacing their fingers together. “Don’t worry, I love you anyway.” They continue on, hands swinging between them. They then come upon a rocky uphill section that has a pretty impressive incline. “You know…” Eddie says, arching a brow. “I can have fun ideas too; wanna race up?”
The other man crouches as if he’s on a starting block for a track and field event. “Three…two…one…Go!”
The two firefighters take off, practically on their hands and feet as they scramble up the rocks. They’re about halfway up the incline and Eddie is beating Buck. Then, from behind him, he hears a rough grunt and the sounds of dirt and rocks grinding together. He freezes, looking over his shoulder with wide eyes. At the base of the hill is Buck, motionless on his side.
“Buck!” He hollers, picking his way down as fast as he can. “Buck!”
The man in question groans, rolling onto his back. Immediately Eddie switches into Medic Mode and immediately his stomach sinks. Buck’s left foot is twisted at completely the wrong angle, his ankle already swelling. “It’s broken, isn’t it?” Buck grunts, throwing an arm over his face.
Eddie nods, palpating gently around the joint, apologizing when Buck hisses in pain. “Grab your phone, babe.” He says. “You’re not walking out of here on this, especially up that.” The medic jerks his chin at the rocky hill.
Buck grits his teeth together as he fishes in the pocket of his gym shorts for his cell. “Dammit.” Eddie’s eyes fall onto the phone in Buck’s hand. It’s been completely crushed in the fall. Buck drops the now useless device with a huff. “I’ll deal with that later. Get yours out.” Eddie starts to open his backpack before freezing, hands on the zipper. “Ididn’tbringmyphone.”
Buck furrows his brows together. “What did you say?”
“I didn’t bring my phone.” Eddie mumbles.
“What do you mean you didn’t bring your phone.”
“I mean that it is currently in the car and not on my person.”
Buck blinks at him. “Obviously I know that, why did you not bring your phone?”
“You have yours!” Eddie sputters.
“Uh, okay, what if the camp called about Chris?”
“They have your number too!”
“W-what if something happened to Pepa, or-or Abuela, or-” Buck is incredulous.
“I’m sorry our lives are so intertwined that everyone who could need to contact me also has your number!”
“So what, are you just going to stop wearing your radio on calls because I have mine?”
”Okay, I get it.” Eddie pinches his nose. “Clearly, we cannot call for help. So I’m going to reset your ankle and find something to splint it with.”
Buck nods, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Okay, yup, just get it over with.”
As tenderly as he can, Eddie takes Buck’s foot in his hands and wrenches in quickly to the side. “Arghah!” Buck screams, arching his back off the ground. Eddie moves to cup his husband’s face, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” He then starts scanning the area around them for pieces of wood he could use as a splint. Thankfully, the medic is able to find two relatively straight and sturdy branches. He pulls off his sweatshirt, using it as a makeshift bandage and tying it off with the sleeves.
Buck has propped himself up on his elbows, watching his husband work. “So, uh, what’s our next move here?” Eddie sits down on the ground next to him, bumping their shoulders together. “We have to figure out how to get you up that,” he gestures at the rocky slope, “and back to the car. I think it’s a little over a mile.” He looks at Buck’s injured ankle, assessing. “Maybe when we get to a flatter ground you can hop along but there’s no way you’re hobbling up that.”
Buck turns a sly face at Eddie. “You’re going to have to carry me.” The other man bites his lip, looking up at the hill with resignation. “Yup, I am.”
“Um, did you forget we took a solemn vow of marriage?” Buck smirks at his husband. “To have and to hold? You know, I’m not feeling very held right now-”
“Buck, I swear to god.”
“In sickness and in health?”
“Being a dumbass is not a sickness, if it was you would’ve been diagnosed a long time ago.”
“Ya know, ADHD is kind of a sickness, brings on a lot of ‘dumbass’ behavior-”
“Do not play the ADHD card with me; I will turn the PTSD card on you so fast.”
There’s a pause, and Eddie wonders if he went a touch too far.
“...Maybe that’s what it should stand for: Absolute Dumbass Himbo Disorder.”
Eddie takes a long, deep breath. “What the hell is a himbo?”
“Oxford defines himbo as an ‘attractive but unintelligent man’. May taught me.”
“No way ‘himbo’ is a real word recognized by the Oxford dictionary.”
Buck shrugs. “I’d tell you to look it up… but we don’t have a phone.”
Eddie raises his palms in the air, relenting. “Fair enough.” He stands and holds out a hand to help Buck up. “C’mon, let’s try and get you on my back.” With a groan, Buck is on his feet, pausing to breathe through the surge of pain with his head tucked into Eddie’s collarbone. “Okay, I’m good, I’m good.”
It takes a couple minutes, but Buck manages to awkwardly climb onto a crouched down Eddie’s back without putting weight on his left foot. The brunette shifts Buck’s weight upward, gripping onto the back of his thighs. With a grunt, he starts up the slope. Fortunately, the two of them are firefighters who work out nearly every day, so Buck is strong enough to cling on to Eddie so he can have a free hand for balance. It’s slow going, but eventually Eddie crests the hill, breathing hard. He sets Buck down gingerly on a large rock. The blonde squints down the expanse of the trail ahead.
“Maybe you should go ahead? I remember the rest of the way back; it’s pretty wide and flat, you might be able to get the truck up here.” Eddie shakes his head. “I wouldn’t risk it, the trail drops off on the sides and I do not want to deal with the truck in a ditch, too.”
“Besides,” he says in his This Should Be Obvious voice that Christopher has inherited, “I’d never leave you.”
Buck does his bashful grin again. “Let’s get going then.” Eddie crouches in front of the rock as his husband climbs onto his back once again. For a while, they’re quiet as they move down the trail. Despite their predicament, the day has managed to hold on to its earlier peacefulness. The ground crunches beneath Eddie’s feet and faint chatter of birds fills the air around them.
But even injured, Buck is still Buck, and he quickly grows bored.
Eddie shrieks at the feeling of something wet on the back of his neck, whipping his head backwards. “What the hell was that?” Buck presses a kiss in the spot he licked a moment earlier. “Got bored.” Smirking, Eddie fakes-out dropping Buck and the other man’s hands dig into his chest with a shriek of his own. “Watch it, because I could abandon you right here.”
Buck hooks his chin over Eddie’s shoulder. “Nah, you said you’d never leave me.”
The brunette huffs out a laugh. “Til’ death do us part and all that, huh?”
— — — — Later, in the car on the way to the ER…
“You know I’m gonna tell Bobby my broken ankle is your fault, right?”
“I’m gonna tell Maddie you were climbing trees again.”