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Eddie had a skip in his step. His son was waiting in the driveway, he stood up to his mother, and he was finally getting his child back. He hopped back to his car and drove home with Chris chattering away beside him.
When he got home, his first thought was to call Buck to give him the good news.
Chris went to his room to sort out his things and Eddie sat on the couch, opening his phone to facetime and pressing the familiar contact.
Eddie waited for an answer as the phone rang out. When Buck didn’t answer, he furrowed his eyebrows and was preparing a super normal, super platonic text to his friendly best friend when he saw that he was getting a call back. The little worm in his brain pulled out the trumpet and started playing triumphantly.
“Buck!” Eddie answered as the phone connected
“Hey Eds, what’s up?” Bucks face filled the screen
“Buck… What are you- Where are you? Why do you look like that?”
Buck wiped his forehead with his dirty glove.
“I am at Hens.” He turned the camera around to show his handiwork. “I am fixing my mistake.”
“Ohh-kay…” Eddie still didn’t really understand. Why was he gardening? Out of everything, why gardening? Why wasn’t he like, cleaning the gutters or something? “Anyway, I’ve got some news!”
“Fire away!”
Eddie smirked “Chris threw up and now he’s coming to live with me!”
“What?”
“Yeah! I told him he had to and he was excited I was going to be his dad again, which, admittedly did hurt a bit. Why did he think I didn’t want to be his dad anymore?”
“Was he sick?” Buck looked concerned
“Who?”
“Chris…”
“No? Why would he be sick? Did he say something to you?” Eddie couldn’t really follow what Buck was getting at.
“No, you just- you said that he threw up.”
“Yeah, he did. Don’t worry I took him away from my Dad after.”
“Eddie,” Buck looked as if Eddie had just confessed he steals people’s left shoes and replaces them with a slightly smaller version. “Why did he throw up?”
“Chess.”
“Chess made him throw up?”
“The chess tournament.”
“The chess tournament made him throw up?”
“Yeah! He was nervous.” Eddie rolled his eyes. “He was afraid of disappointing my parents, so he kept playing despite the fact he hates it”
“He hates chess? I thought he liked it!” Buck readjusted his position so he was sitting cross legged on the dirt
“So did I! But, evidently not.” Eddie looked into the distance as if he were considering his past. “Just like ballroom dancing.”
“Ballroom dancing?”
“Yeah, when I was a teenager my mum kept signing me up for ballroom dancing championships. I liked it at first, but after that it just became a chore and filled me with nerves and dread.”
“You did ballroom dancing?” Jesus, what’s up with Buck today? Why wasn’t he following the conversation.
“Yes, Buck, I never threw up but I was close to it before I quit.”
“Eddie, why did I not know about this?”
“You did! Shannon was my partner, that’s how we met.”
“You met Shannon through ballroom dancing and then got her pregnant?” Buck stared through the screen as if he were imagining young Eddie and Shannon effortlessly dancing around the crowded room.
“Yeah, I think that was the whole reason I got with her honestly. She was my best friend, and I loved her, but I was never IN love with her.” Eddie confessed
“You were never in love with Shannon?”
“No, plus, I’m pretty sure she was lesbian. She always seemed interested in women in a way I never was, and not interested in men in the way I am.”
“Lesbian? Interested in men? Eddie, you’ve lost me.” Buck looked red, maybe from the sun?
“Yes, I’m gay, she’s gay, everyone’s gay.”
“You’re gay?”
“Yeah! And in love with you.”
“Eddie, What-“ At that moment, Chris walked out of his room and Eddie looked up to meet his eyes.
“Mom was gay? You have known you’re gay? You’re in love with Buck?” He questioned his father.
“Oops,” Eddie looked back down at the screen to meet Buck’s eyes. “I’ve gotta go, Chris overheard. Bye, Buck, love you!”
Buck opened his mouth to respond but Eddie had already hung up.
He tried to not dwell over the last third of that conversation. Eddie’s gay, cool. Eddie’s in love with him, cool. Chris is moving back in with Eddie, ultra cool. Eddie did ballroom dancing and that’s how he met, married, and impregnated his lesbian wife, ultra weird.
And if Buck began to scour the internet in order to order a life sized cut out of young Eddie and Shannon in the middle of a championship to put in the bunk room, that was no one’s business other than his, the delivery guy, and the firehouse.