Chapter Text
**Eddie's POV
Dinner at the Diaz house had become routine in the way all important things did.
Not planned.
Not discussed.
Just expected.
Christopher did homework at the kitchen counter. Eddie cooked whatever he could throw together after shift. And somewhere between six-thirty and seven, the front door usually opened with too much energy and a voice calling—
“Something smells edible. Should I be worried?”
Buck.
Always Buck.
Until tonight.
Eddie glanced at the clock mounted above the stove.
7:12 PM.
The pasta was getting cold.
Christopher kept looking toward the hallway every few minutes without realizing he was doing it.
Eddie stabbed at the sauce with more force than necessary.
“He text?” Chris finally asked.
Eddie wiped his hands on a kitchen towel. “Said Theo had a rough day.”
Christopher nodded slowly.
“Oh.”
Just that.
Not disappointment. Not really.
Something quieter.
Eddie hated it immediately.
“He’s busy,” Eddie said, too fast. “Kid’s adjusting.”
“I know.”
Chris went back to his math worksheet, but his pencil barely moved afterward.
The silence in the kitchen stretched strangely. Too noticeable. Like someone had turned down the volume on the room.
Eddie plated dinner anyway.
Three plates out of habit.
He stared at the third one for a second too long before putting it back into the cabinet.
Chris noticed.
Neither of them said anything.
Buck had started fostering Theo three months ago.
At first, nothing really changed.
Buck still came by after shifts. Still took Chris to physical therapy sometimes. Still collapsed onto Eddie’s couch like he lived there half the week already.
Then slowly—
missed calls.
Late replies.
Canceled plans.
Small things.
Understandable things.
Theo had nightmares. Therapy appointments with Buck and Theo. Daycare center dropoffs. A tantrum in a grocery store once that left Buck shaken for days afterward.
Eddie understood all of it logically.
That didn’t stop the irritation crawling under his skin anyway.
Which made him feel like an asshole.
Theo was just turning four,fostered by some he just met. Scared of being left behind. Jumped whenever voices got too loud.
And Buck—
Buck looked exhausted lately.
Not tired. Exhausted.
Like he was holding himself together with caffeine and stubbornness.
So Eddie swallowed every selfish feeling before it could become real.
“You okay?” Chris asked quietly.
Eddie blinked.
“Yeah.”
Chris gave him a look that was way too perceptive for a fourteen-year-old.
“You keep checking your phone.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
Eddie reached for his water glass instead of answering.
His phone stayed face-up beside his elbow through the entire meal.
Buck never texted again.
**Buck's POV
Theo was asleep on the couch by the time Buck finally sat down.
One sneaker hung halfway off his foot. Cartoon reruns played softly in the background even though Theo had long since passed out sometime during the second episode.
Buck carefully pulled the blanket higher over his shoulders.
Theo stirred instantly.
Buck froze.
“You leaving?” Theo mumbled sleepily.
The question hit harder every single time.
“No,” Buck said softly. “Just grabbing my phone.”
Theo relaxed back into the cushions.
Buck stood there for a moment longer than necessary.
Then he walked quietly into the kitchen and finally checked the messages he’d ignored for the last two hours.
Three from Maddie.
One from Chim.
Nothing from Eddie.
For some reason, that bothered him.
Buck frowned slightly and opened their text thread.
Buck: Sorry. Theo had a bad day. Rain check?
Seen 6:41 PM.
That was it.
No sarcastic reply from Eddie. No Chris says you owe him garlic bread. No You alive over there?
Just silence.
Buck leaned against the counter and rubbed a hand over his face.
Today had been bad.
Theo got overwhelmed at the daycare center after another kid snatched his toy. The teacher called Buck during shift change, and by the time he picked Theo up, the kid had completely shut down.
Buck spent the last four hours trying to coax him into eating, talking, or doing literally anything besides staring blankly at the TV.
He was so tired.
Not physically.
Deeper than that.
Like every decision suddenly mattered in terrifying ways.
Did he say the wrong thing? Push too hard? Not hard enough?
Was Theo sleeping because he finally felt safe or because he’d emotionally exhausted himself?
Buck had never been this afraid of failing before.
Not even during probation.
The worst part was—
he didn’t know how to ask for help anymore.
Not with this.
Eddie was good with Chris because Eddie was Chris’s dad. Hen always seemed naturally capable. Bobby had years of experience.
Buck just felt like someone pretending to know what he was doing.
The kitchen felt unbearably quiet.
Without thinking, Buck opened Eddie’s contact.
His thumb hovered over the call button.
Then Theo shifted in the other room.
Buck lowered the phone immediately.
Tomorrow, maybe.
He could handle one night on his own.
Couldn’t he?
Back at the Diaz house, Eddie stared at the untouched third chair long after Chris went to bed.