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"How do you feel?" Buck's voice rang out from behind him. He did not look up as the man plopped down by his side, streching out on the cold beach.
The wind was clawing at Eddie's skin, making him shiver. This was nothing new. Eddie had been cold for weeks by now. Any remaining heat once in his body had been dragged out of him in the ambulance alongside Shannon's dying breaths. His veins had frozen alongside hers, paralyzing him in a mocking imitation of rigor mortis.
"Cold," Eddie replied.
'I'm as cold as you are about to be,' he had morbidly thought when a shrill tune had signaled Shannon's heart was no longer beating.
"I feel like a chunk of frigid stone, scratched and broken. Ugly and marred," Eddie closed his eyes. "Sucking the warmth out of the world around me."
Silence sat heavy between them.
"You should leave, Buck, before I steal your warmth too."
He already had in a way. Bucks eye's had gone cold the day Eddie told him he and his wife had decided to reconcile. That was when warmth had started seeping out of Eddie. The day he woke up in Buck's burning embrace, the night he fell asleep shivering next to Shannon.
Buck grabbed a small pebble from the beach and closed his hand around it.
"I better put some of that warmth into this pebble then."
The wind dragged another shiver out of Eddie. He did not look at his former lover.
"Hey," Buck said motioning for Eddie to hold out his hand, placing the now-warm rock in his palm and folding his fingers over as cover.
"It's only a pebble, but it's warm and I want to share it. You are not stealing my warmth. I am giving it to you."
"It's a pebble, Buck," Eddie protested and opened his hand. "You make it sound like a promise. I don't deserve it."
Buck smiled. "I believe you do."
Eddie turned to face him. "I went back to Shannon. I told you to forget about us and left you. She's dead because I did."
"Her death is not your fault. You left for Chris, not because you wanted her more than me. I know you loved me. You choose Chris' needs over your wants, I am proud of you for that."
Another moment of silence passed between them.
"If I keep this I might siphon all of the heat out of you. Leave you cold or dead or broken." Eddie whispered.
Buck gently cradled his cheeks and nodded towards the pebble. "We'll share it then, it will keep me warm too. Keep us warm and alive, together."
'It's a pebble, Buck,' Eddie thought, putting it in his pocket. 'It might not be enough.'
"It's a pebble, Buck," he echoed years later, holding it in his hand next to a ring. "A pebble and a promise that kept us warm and together. For us that was enough."