Work Text:
There were times where Eddie believed Christopher’s heart was too big for his tiny body.
He loved with everything he had once he trusted someone.
Eddie had seen it most prominently with Buck and Carla.
He’d taken to Carla immediately, she’d won him over with her humour and how she always treated him like the little man that he was instead of like a kid with a disability. Chris had often commented that adults tended to make him feel like a child, like a baby, because he was a little wobbly on his feet. He just wanted to be treated the same way anyone else his age was, and Carla was one of the few people who did that for him instantly.
Buck was Buck. He was the joy in a conversation. He was warm and inviting and craved people’s love and affection as much as Christopher wanted to give it. He loved to learn, loved to teach, and had a beautifully sweet nature, which was probably what made him click with Christopher straight away.
After the tsunami, Eddie knew he’d never really be able to keep Chris and Buck apart. They’d trauma-bonded on top of the friendship they’d already struck up, and Eddie had seen the parental spark in Buck that lit up just as brightly as Chris’ need for a second parent.
They’d had a minor setback following the lawsuit, but that absence really did make the heart grow fonder. The instant the two of them were allowed to speak, they were spending every moment they could together. If Eddie or Carla had their own business to attend to, Buck was there in a heartbeat to take Christopher to the zoo, the aquarium, a movie, a doctor appointment, or just to school in the morning.
Buck didn’t bring it to anyone’s attention, but he always had juice boxes and Chris’ favourite snacks in the doors of the Jeep. Eddie had seen them one night when he ended up in the backseat, trying to find the phone he’d dropped. His heart had almost exploded. He’d found someone in Buck who wanted to take care of Chris as much as Eddie did.
And Chris, bless him, wanted to take care of Buck, again, just as much as Eddie did.
Yeah, Chris’ love for Buck was very different to the type of love Eddie had for him, but it was there nonetheless.
That was why, months after the lightning strike that took Buck away from them for three minutes and seventeen seconds, Eddie found himself wide awake at two in the morning, sitting at the head of his bed with his phone in his hand, waiting for the call from Buck as the thunderstorm loomed overhead.
The call never came, but Christopher’s knocks did.
“Come in.”
Chris looked as restless as Eddie felt, standing in his doorway in his pyjamas.
“Can’t sleep, bud?”
“We need to check in with Buck,” Chris said with determination, and Eddie checked his phone again. Still nothing.
“It’s the middle of the night,” Eddie pointed out and Chris shrugged. “He could be sleeping.”
“No one’s sleeping in this storm.” He had to raise his voice that little bit to be heard over the well-timed clapping of thunder.
Eddie sighed and called Buck, letting the phone ring on loudspeaker so Chris could hear Buck’s voice when he answered.
Only, he didn’t answer. It went straight to voicemail.
If he was sleeping, it would’ve rang.
Eddie’s heart clenched. Chris was already heading back to his room before Eddie hung up.
“Get your keys,” Chris ordered, and Eddie would’ve said something about it if he hadn’t already slipped off the bed, reaching for his sweatpants and a hoodie.
Christopher already had his raincoat and boots on by the time Eddie had shot Buck a quick message telling him they were on their way, and had his own shoes on.
He drove very carefully to Buck’s home, noting that far more homes had their lights on than they normally did that time of night.
The drive to Buck’s apartment complex was as natural to Eddie as the drive home to his own house. He’d done it so many times over the years that he barely had to think about it.
The storm got heavier the closer they got. By the time Eddie was parked beside the Jeep, the rain was coming down so relentlessly that Chris more or less just jumped on his back instead of insisting on running up to the front doors himself.
Eddie wasn’t actually sure if Chris was so eager because he wanted to stay as dry as possible, or if he was that concerned for Buck.
He received a message from Buck just before they got into the lift telling him that he was fine and that they didn’t have to brave the rain to see him.
Too late.
Eddie didn’t bother letting him know that, not when he was a minute away.
Buck was sitting on the floor by the balcony doors when Eddie let them in. He looked tired, but happy to see them.
“Hey guys,” he smiled and opened his arms wide for Chris to fall into them. For all of Chris’ complaints about not being a baby anymore, he didn’t put up a fight at all when Buck wrapped him up in a hug on his lap.
Eddie’s heart ached at the sight.
“You’re soaked,” Buck laughed into Chris’ hair. “You dorks, were you worried about me?”
“Yeah,” Chris said with a happy sigh. Knowing that someone you loved was okay was one of the best feelings in the world, and Chris’ face reflected that.
“I’m fine.”
He said it just as a flash of lightning lit the loft up.
“Your phone went straight to voicemail,” Chris grumbled as Eddie pulled a dining chair in close and reached out to run his hand through Buck’s hair as he sat.
It was maybe a little more intimate than he should’ve risked, but he was just so overwhelmed with emotion.
And, God, Buck leant into it and it was perfect.
Either one of them might’ve sighed at the contact.
“Maddie kept me on the phone for like twenty minutes,” Buck explained. “She wanted to make sure I’m alright, too.”
Of course she did. Buck’s phone was on the floor beside him and lit up with a message from Bobby moments later. Eddie huffed out a laugh.
Everyone was concerned for him.
“Why are you on the floor?” Chris asked and Buck shrugged. Eddie’s hand was still in his hair.
“If I’d stayed in bed while talking to Maddie, I would’ve fallen back asleep. I don’t like the couch…” Honestly, the less said about the couch in Eddie’s presence, the better, “I would’ve slept on the armchair. I dunno. It just felt like it was the right place to be.”
He looked up at Eddie as he said that, and Eddie completely understood what he meant by it. They were certainly right where they needed to be at that moment.
“You were sleeping?” Eddie asked, his voice low.
Buck shrugged again. “I think everyone else is struggling more than me. It’s not like it was traumatic for me. I mean, physically, yeah, but not nightmare-inducing. If I’d seen any of you dangling like that, though...” He looked away, towards the window, just as another strike lit the sky up. “I don’t think I’d be able to sleep much after that.”
“I really didn’t like seeing you connected to that machine,” Chris confessed into Buck’s shoulder, and Eddie watched as Buck tightened his arms around their kid.
“Oh, buddy, I’m okay. The machines did what they needed to do to help fix me.” He gently pried Chris’ face away from his shoulder to look him in the eyes. “You did what you needed to do, too. I hear you told me I had to come back, and I did.”
That broke Chris. The tears streamed down his face before the first sob tore its way through his throat, his arms went tight around Buck’s neck.
It was relief, it was fear, it was love, it was tiredness, all mixed together, and Buck rolled with it, holding on to Chris like he’d held on to his own life.
Eddie wasn’t far behind. He slid off the chair to sit beside Buck and gathered him up in his own hug, holding both the man he loved and the child they loved together, tears in his eyes for the first time since Chris’ words to Buck in the hospital.
He’d tried so hard to not let himself feel what he felt when Buck was dead and recovering. He knew he needed to be strong for Chris and Buck while they dealt with it, and then it seemed too late for him to process.
But his two loves were crying and he felt so fucking much for the both of them.
The three of them clung together until Chris’ arms went slack. He’d cried himself to sleep.
Buck was a little weepy when he tilted his head to gently knock his forehead against Eddie’s temple. “We should get his hair dry before we let him sleep properly.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Eddie said and Buck laughed softly.
“Oh, there is no way I’m letting either of you out of my sight, not when you’re both so needy.”
Eddie turned his head and smiled against Buck’s birthmark. “That’s so magnanimous of you.”
“I try.” He shifted Chris on his lap a little, got his arms around him securely so he could stand safely with Chris. “The raincoat should come off first.”
Chris roused a little as Eddie tried to get his arms out of the coat, but was out again by the time he was slipping the boots off.
Eddie expected Buck to set Chris up on the couch when he disappeared into the bathroom to grab a towel for Chris’ hair, but found them both on the bed upstairs.
It was Buck who reached for the towel, who dabbed at the wet locks with a tenderness Eddie understood.
“It kills me that I upset him like that,” Buck said softly and let his own hands brush through Chris’ hair to check how dry it was. He must’ve deemed it dry enough, because he tossed the towel towards the ensuite, then pulled the blankets up over him and Chris.
It was with deliberate movements that he pulled the blankets back on the other side of the bed.
It was an invitation that Eddie wasn’t going to turn down.
He held a hand up, a sign for Buck to wait for him for a moment, and disappeared down the stairs to check that the door was locked and that the lights were all switched off, before he could return to ease himself into the bed behind Buck after shucking his wet hoodie and sweatpants.
“You’re such a dad,” Buck laughed, one hand on Chris’ chest, like he needed to feel him breathe or have his too-large heartbeat beneath his palm, as if that wasn’t the pure image of a parent.
Eddie curled an arm around Buck’s middle. “You love it,” he breathed into the back of Buck’s neck.
“I do.”
It was little more than a whisper, but, to Eddie, it was as loud as the thunder.
He pressed a kiss right below his hairline, and felt Buck’s quick intake of breath.
“You’re such a dad, too. His dad.”
Thunder boomed above. The storm seemed to be getting heavier, rather than moving on.
“He makes it easy to love him.”
Eddie pressed in closer, spooning Buck as if he’d done it a million times before, like being curled around Buck was where he was meant to be.
“He’s not the only one,” Eddie said and Buck turned his head a little.
“We’re doing this?”
Another flash of lightning.
It brought with it the memory of Buck dangling dead from the ladder. His arm tightened around his waist, and he pressed his closed eyes to the back of Buck’s neck.
“I’m ready if you are.”
Buck reached back, finally taking his hand off Chris’ chest, to scratch his fingers through Eddie’s hair. “I think our son is going to be very excited.”
Eddie’s laugh was a little wet. He was sure Buck could feel his tears against his neck.
“You know he’s going to wake up with the sun. We should try to get some sleep.”
It was Buck who laughed quietly that time. “I was fine sleeping earlier. Everyone else was struggling. I’ll be out in like two minutes at this rate.”
His hand returned to Christopher’s chest. Everything felt like it was where it belonged, Eddie thought, as he finally allowed himself to rest, knowing that the two most important people in his life were safe and within arms’ reach.