Chapter Text
January 27th
Eddie was giving Buck that look again.
Buck didn’t understand it, but no matter what look Eddie gave him, he wasn’t going to say anything about it.
“You’re sure you’re okay?” he heard Eddie ask from the doorway of their bathroom as Buck washed out his mouth.
“I’m fine,” Buck muttered in response as he used one of the face cloths next to the sink to wipe his face off.
“Really?” Eddie asked as he crossed his arms and leant against the doorway. “Because last time I checked, you just spent the last fifteen minutes throwing up in the toilet.”
Buck huffed. “Just ate some bad food yesterday,” he said as he stood up and moved past Eddie to go back into their bed. It was just past five in the morning. They didn’t need to wake up until seven. That was another two hours they could sleep.
“You ate something bad three days in a row?” Eddie asked as he watched Buck walk past. “And you’re the only one in the house who's been getting sick?”
Okay, maybe Eddie had a point with that, Buck thought as he laid down in bed and grabbed the bedcovers. But at the same time, as soon as he was done vomiting he felt completely fine afterwards.
“I’m taking you to a doctor later,” Eddie said as he climbed into bed next to Buck, pulling him into a hug against his chest.
“If I say yes can we finally go back to sleep?” Buck asked as he tried to go back to the dreamstate he had been a short while ago.
“Sure,” he heard Eddie say as he drifted off.
Life had been growing great for them the past year or so. The Christmas before the previous one, Eddie had proposed to Buck, shocking most of everyone they knew, who had all expected Buck to be the one who would propose. They had a simple wedding and bonding ceremony a couple months later, and not too many crazy things happened in their lives in the following summer, other than Chris officially entering his ‘teenage phase’ that was.
Surprisingly, last September didn’t have any ‘September Disasters’ as Buck had started calling them after the last couple years, except for their roof springing a leak and needing to be repaired, but there were no natural disasters or catastrophic tragedies to fuel their nightmares for months to come.
In fact, the entire last calendar year didn’t have any such incidents that would have one of their family or friends in the hospital. Not even for a twisted ankle or to check for smoke annihilation damage after a large fire.
Maybe that was why suddenly being brought into their doctor’s office by Eddie had Buck protesting so much.
“It was one time Eddie, I probably just ate something bad yesterday, this really isn’t necessary,” Buck complained as Eddie pushed him over to one of the chairs in the waiting room. “How did you even get an appointment today anyway?”
“I asked nicely,” Eddie said as he sat down next to Buck and began filling out the form a receptionist handed to them when they walked in. “And don’t act like I didn’t hear you puking yesterday either.”
Buck grumbled as he crossed his arms and sank further in the chair. Eddie began reading the form and answering questions. It was the standard form, with all the regular questions. ‘When was your last appointment with us?’ ‘Have you been admitted to the hospital in the last two years?’ ‘Do you have a family history of x, y, or z…’ Although Eddie paused when he got to the question that asked, ‘Are you pregnant or trying to become pregnant?’
Eddie thought it over for a moment. It wasn’t impossible, per se. They had been having sex fairly often, as any newly wed happy couple would do. Buck wasn’t on any type of birth control and Eddie hadn’t been using any condoms or anything. But pregnancies in male omegas were rare, not impossible, but really rare, even when couples were trying for a child. He and Buck hadn’t really been trying, they had come to the mutual conclusion early on that in regards to any future kids and pregnancies, they would just accept it if it ever happened, but that was it.
“Buck,” Eddie said quietly, nudging him with an elbow. Eddie showed him the form and pointed at the question. “Is it possible?”
“Is what possible?” Buck asked as he read the question, and reread it, blinked his eyes and reread it again. “That I’m pregnant?” he asked, eyes growing wide.
“Your heat last month,” Eddie said as thoughts ran through his mind. “The one right before Christmas…”
“What?” Buck said, turning to look his husband in the eyes. “Do you think…?”
“It’s not- it’s not impossible, right?” Eddie asked.
“No,” Buck said after a moment of silence. “It’s not impossible.”
“We’ll see what the doctor says,” Eddie said as he checked ‘yes’ on the box and continued down the form.
A couple minutes later, they were called in for the appointment.
The nurse that called them back quickly went through all the initial doctor appointment essentials, checking vitals, asking why they felt the need to come in. As she looked over the form they filled out in the waiting room and rethought the symptoms Buck described going through, she decided to note it for the doctor. The doctor then called for a blood test.
Once the results came back, the doctor nodded to herself. The results were exactly what she expected.
She walked into the small examination room and the two men turned their eyes to her, thier expresisons a mixture of nervousness and eagerness.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” she greeted them, smiling. “So I hear you came in today because you think you might be pregnant?” she asked Buck.
Buck slowly nodded. “That’s right.”
“Well we ran a blood test,” the doctor started. “And I will have to say a congratulations are in order, gentlemen.”
“You mean?” Eddie asked.
“That i’m-” Buck started.
The doctor nodded and held out a chart showing the test results that came earlier. “Yes, you’re pregnant.”
January 29th
Eddie pulled into the parking lot of the firestation and put his truck into park. Before he turned off the engine, and before Buck got out, he grabbed hold of his arm.
“Eddie?” Buck asked, looking over at him.
Eddie turned his head and shoulders to face Buck. “When we get inside,” he started. “The first thing you have to do is tell Bobby.”
“What?” Buck responded, his eyes growing wide. “But-”
“This isn’t just something you can’t not tell him,” Eddie said, pulling Buck’s arm to his chest. “You have our kid growing in you now.”
Buck sank back in the car’s seat. He knew when Eddie was right, and the man was definitely right when it came to this. “Fine,” Buck nodded. “I’ll tell him when we get inside.”
Eddie let go of Buck’s arm then, and moved to get out of the truck, Buck doing the same. They both walked into the fire station then. Bobby was already upstairs making breakfast, as was his usual, and when Buck began to make his way to the locker room to get changed, Eddie grabbed hold of his arm.
“Buck,” Eddie said, motioning up to the kitchen.
“What? Can’t I get changed first?” Buck asked.
Eddie gave Buck a look then, a look that Buck knew he would have to listen to. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll go talk to him now then.”
Eddie watched as Buck made his way upstairs. Luckily they were early today, and the few people on their shift that had arrived before them were still all in the locker room, which meant Buck would have some privacy as he talked with Bobby, or at least the privacy to ask to speak with the man alone.
February 9th
Barely two weeks had gone by and Buck was already bored out of his mind. As with every firefighter that got pregnant, he was pulled off the regular responder rotation almost immediately and given a desk job. Thankfully Bobby was able to give him one in their station.
Although the job wasn't nearly as fun and exciting as the usual firefighting was.
Station Training Manager.
Bobby had said that he had been doing the responsibilities of it while the main department tried to find a replacement for the last person who worked this position.
It sounded important at first, until Buck realized what it actually entailed. Which was mostly sitting at a computer looking at excel sheets of random numbers and dates buck had no hope of understanding within the next eight months.
The worst part of it was, he was no longer on the regular shift rotation. Instead of working the normal firefighter schedule of twenty-four hours on and forty-eight hours off, with an extra shift off every three weeks, he worked the standard nine to five, five days a week. Buck guessed it made sense. There was only one training manager per station. There wasn’t any real reason he had to stay overnight for this job. Still, one of the pluses about working together with his alpha was that they nearly always worked the same shifts, and had the same schedule of free time versus work.
Overall though, the job was boring… painfully, tediously boring.
He was glad this wouldn’t be his forever job.
But still… he had to last another eight months like this?
Buck wasn’t regretting it, God no. It’s just that… he hadn’t expected just how long he would be waiting around for, and what all this waiting would feel like. What was he going to do for the next eight months?
He let out a long breath as he dropped his head onto the back of the couch.
There was no one here for him to even talk to right now though, everyone was out on a call, and he had no idea when they would be back.
He lifted his head back up and looked at the computer screen again. The numbers swam in his vision.
Sigh, he needed a break. He stood up from the desk then and left the small office, going to see who was around right now.
Today was an A-Shift day, so his usual shift mates were around today. Although currently, most of them were out on a call. If he recalled correctly, it was a small dumpster fire outside of a restaurant. They had left over an hour ago now, so hopefully they would be back soon.
Buck started to head in the direction of the stairs, intending to go up to the kitchen to find something to snack on, (He was pregnant and he was hungry, he was sure no one would have a problem with it, even if he had eaten a large breakfast with everyone less than two hours ago.) when he overheard a crash of metal on metal right before his head peaked over the floor of the mezzanine.
He quickened his climb a little, to find Ravi on the floor of the kitchen, metal pans and dishes spread out around him.
“Ravi?” Buck asked. “What happened?”
He let out a small pained groan. “Just fell trying to put the dishes away.”
Buck blinked. “Do you need help?”
“Oh no!” Ravi said as he stood up, grabbing a pan. “I got this, I don’t need to bother you with the-”
“Ravi, you better not say it's because I’m pregnant,” Buck said. “It’s picking up dishes, not running into a burning building.”
“I- I didn’t mean it like that!” Ravi exclaimed. “I just don’t want to bother you with whatever you’re doing.”
Buck shook his head. “All I’ve been doing all day is looking at a computer screen, I can take a break from that,” he said as he picked up a bowl from the floor and got to work helping Ravi clean the kitchen up from breakfast.
As Buck walked back downstairs, he paused at the bottom. He never got that snack he went upstairs for. Damn.
February 12th
It was the moment the two of them had been looking forward to for the whole week. And as the nurse brought the ultrasound rod onto his stomach, a slight shiver ran through Buck due to the sudden cold temperature, and he eagerly looked toward the small screen by the bedside.
It took a moment and a couple motions of the rod for the image on the screen to come into focus and they were able to see something that remotely resembled a growing human.
A small… very tiny human in the very early stages of development. In fact it looked more like a blobby bean, but they just had to hope it would one day grow into a human being.
“They’re so small,” Buck said, looking at the screen, his eyes full of wonder.
“Y- yeah,” Eddie said, agreeing with him.
It was amazing, he thought, how something so small right now would end up growing into a full blown baby in another six months, then a full teenager like Christopher in another twelve or so years, then an adult, and so on.
“Eddie,” Buck turned his gaze from the screen around to his husband. “That’s inside of me.”
Eddie paused for a moment to look at Buck’s face. “Yeah, it’s kind of crazy.”
February 25th
Buck groaned as he felt another twisting motion inside of his stomach. Seconds later a flush of liquid came rushing up his throat as he vomited it out into the toilet bowl in front of him.
“Buck?” he heard Eddie’s voice call out softly as the alpha walked into the bathroom. “You okay there?”
“What’s it look like?” Buck groaned, resting his head on the cool porcelain of the toilet seat.
Eddie grabbed a small hand towel and wet it in the sink, then sat on the floor next to Buck as he wiped his face off and began to rub circles into Buck’s back.
“I thought this phase was supposed to be over by now,” Buck groaned as he leant into Eddie’s touch.
Eddie continued to rub circles into Buck’s back. “They said this could last throughout the first trimester, sometimes even into the second,” Eddie said, trying to comfort the omega.
Buck could only groan even louder at that. “You mean I’ll have to deal with this for that long?”
Eddie could only wince in sympathy at that question. Yeah, maybe he should have rephrased that little bit of information.
Buck’s stomach rolled again, and another wave of bile raced up his throat, landing in the toilet bowl he hung his head over.
“Oh,” Eddie said as he looked down when Buck brought his head back up. “That looks disgusting.”
Buck groaned, then hit Eddie in the chest. “Not nice,” he grumbled.
March 18th
For the vast majority of Shannon’s pregnancy, Eddie was deployed, so he didn’t get to experience all of the pregnancy milestones and symptoms with her and Christopher. Shannon was also only a beta, and a female, obviously, so Eddie knew that her pregnancy wouldn’t be the same as what Buck was experiencing now.
Eddie knew this. He also knew that omegas weren’t supposed to get heats while they were pregnant. That was, what many of them claimed, to be the one upside of being pregnant.
So he was confused why now, on the date that, based on Buck’s last heat before his pregnancy started, Buck would’ve started his heat, Buck was showing all the early signs of going into heat.
Signs such as gathering all of their pillows, blankets, and other soft things into their bedroom. And spending more time having physical contact with Eddie. Buck had already been giving him and Chris more hugs, and stuff since his pregnancy started. But in the last couple days, just about every second that Eddie was home Buck had been pressed up against him in some way.
He couldn’t help but feel like he should talk to someone about this. But who?
He didn’t think Buck would realize what he was talking about, probably saying it was one of his ‘weird over the top and incorrect conclusions.’ He could talk to Bobby about this, but he didn’t want to worry the man, and Bobby always worried about Buck. Hen and Karen were both betas, they might know something, but they’d probably just refer him to someone else. Chimney… Eddie was not going to bring this up to Chimney.
That left Buck’s sister, Maddie.
Buck’s sister who tended to have a worried and overprotective streak when she suspected something was wrong with her brother.
Well… Eddie could only hope she didn’t freak out this time.
And to his luck, Eddie was able to meet with Maddie, alone, later that afternoon, when Buck had insisted that Eddie bring over some of the cookies he and Bobby had baked the day before.
“Oh, Eddie!” Maddie greeted him, surprised to see him in front of her door. “What brings you here?
Eddie lifted the box in his hands up. “Buck wanted me to bring you some,” he said, greeting her. “Hey Jee,” he smiled down at the toddler standing behind her mother’s legs.
“Uncle Eddie,” she smiled at him, noticing the box of cookies in his arms. “You brought cookies?”
“Yes, he brought cookies,” Maddie said as she turned around to pick her daughter up and set her on her hip. “Lets go to the kitchen and eat some.”
As they went into the kitchen and set the cookie box on the kitchen counter, Maddie turned to face him. Eddie looked a little jumpy, squirmy if you could call it that. “So can I ask Why you’re here?” Maddie asked. “It looks like you’re here for more than just dropping off Buck’s cookies.”
“Oh, yeah…So um… before I go, there’s something I wanted to ask you about,” Eddie started, slight nervousness lacing his tone.
“Oh,” Maddie said as she took a bite out of one of the cookies. “What is it?”
“It’s just- Buck has been…” Eddie started, but trailed off.
“Buck has been?” Maddie repeated, her eyes growing worried in concern for her younger brother.
“It’s nothing bad, I don’t think,” Eddie was quick to reassure her. “It’s just, in the past couple days… how do I put this? He’s been… different the last couple days.”
“Different how?” Maddie pressed on asking.
“Like, more clingy,” Eddie said. “And he’s been gathering all of the blankets and pillows… It’s almost like…”
“Like he’s going into a heat?” Maddie asked.
“Yeah,” Eddie nodded his head. “It’s like when he is going into heat. But that’s impossible right? He’s pregnant.”
“We…” Maddie said, thinking. “Have you ever heard of false heats?”
“False heats?” Eddie repeated, questioningly. That was a term he had never heard of before.
Maddie’s eyes widened at his lack of recognition. “You’ve never heard of them?” she asked.
“No,” he shook his head. “Should I have?”
Maddie let out a sigh as she dropped her head to the table. Then picking it up again, she began explaining.
“It’s… basically… exactly what it sounds like,” Maddie began. “It’s a heat… well, his body thinks it should be going through a heat, since part of his brain is still working under the same schedule from before he became pregnant. But at the same time… it’s not exactly a heat.”
Eddie was silent for a second, his mind processing the information that was just dumped into his head. It made sense… sort of. “So what do we do now?” Eddie asked.
Maddie’s face scrunched up for half a second before she responded. “You do… you know… what you normally do when Buck has a heat.”
The dots slowly connected in Eddie’s head, Maddie watching his face the entire time. “Oh,” he said, he felt as his face grew red. “... Oh.”
Maddie nodded then. “It’s really not anything you need to worry over,” Maddie explained, rubbing her chin in thought. “I don’t think.”