Work Text:
It isn't the first time that Chris has thought about getting a Father's Day present for Buck.
Now, it's true that Buck isn't technically Chris' dad. It's equally true that he and Chris' Dad aren't together - which is good for everyone, because the resulting fallout would have made Chris' decision to go to El Paso two years look like a trip to Target.
Also, Chris is painfully aware that, despite his dad's dependence and reliance upon Buck over the years, Eddie can get jealous. It's almost funny the way he mutters under his breath about the things that have to do with Tommy, ankles, jealousy and competition - because Chris' dad has a wild jealousy strike that takes over any time Chris talks a little too fondly of Buck.
There's a line there, that Chris understands most of the time (and forgets other parts of the time, because understanding your father isn't something they give teenagers a manual for) that he's supposed to love and trust Buck, because his father trusts him enough to make him Chris' legal guardian.
But he's not supposed to love him too much.
And so, Chris has always understood that no matter how much work he put in, Buck wasn't ever supposed to get a Father's Day card from him.
But Theo is in the picture now - has been for an entire year - so technically… it won't be from Christopher.
~*~
The first thing Chris has to do is convince Buck - and more importantly, his dad - that he is capable of going. Now, Theo has actually calmed down a lot in the year that he's been here -
(And boy, Chris has thoughts about why that is, and none of them are very kind to Theo's dead parents; as a member of the dead parent club, he kind of thinks maybe he should just keep those thoughts to himself, so he does)
-and Chris really does think that he can handle Theo just fine on his own. But he knows his father won't believe that. Even before the deal with Abigail and the whole human trafficking deal at work, Chris' father had been over protective. Those two events only made it worse.
As for Buck… well, he's been a little extra cautious since they got back from the Nashville trip…a year and some months ago.
(Chris has a lot of opinions about that trip too; mostly, he knows Captain Nash was a good man and everyone loved him - and hey, Chris was fond too - but he's not quite gotten over the fact that Captain Nash just assumed that they'd be back from El Paso; that Chris' rightful anger hadn't been anything more than a transitional phase in his father's life.)
So to win the battle, Chris has to call out the big guns.
"Oh, honey," Carla says over the phone. "I miss my favorite Diaz now that you're all grown up! And Buckaroo got himself a baby Buck too? You know I will be there. Name the time and place."
Neither his father nor Buck have ever won any arguments against Carla, and this time isn't an exception.
~*~
Theo is still very squirmy in the car. He's always squirmy. It's okay; Chris's legs do things he doesn't want them to do too.
"What do you want to get Buck for father's day?" Chris asks Theo. He sits in the seat next to Theo, instead of upfront with Carla.
Theo looks at Chris thoughtfully, and for a moment, his legs stop bouncing. "A plant," he says. "And one of those BIG cookies."
"A plant?" Carla asks, and Chris can hear the confusion in her voice.
Carla probably remembers the old Buck - the one who had acted impulsively and argued with lawsuits and didn't have time for plants. That was years ago, but if Chris has anything in common with Buck, it's that people don't want either of them to have grown up any at all in the past nine years.
"I accidentally killed one of his!" Theo explains. "I didn't mean to."
Carla blinks, then shrugs like the champion she is. "I've killed many plants in my day, Theo."
"Yes, but he was sad," Theo says. "And every time we go to the store, I ask for the cookie and he says we'll get one some day! And so he must really want it. So we should get it for him! A plant and one of those really BIG cookies! The ones that are as big as the cart!"
Chris laughs. He knows what Theo is talking about.
"The cookie cakes," Chris tells Carla. "They have them in the bakery at Ralphs."
"Oh, convenient," Carla says. "They also have a nice little display of plants at Ralphs, too."
"YAY!" Theo says. "A plant and a GIANT COOKIE."
It is probably the best teamwork that a Buckley and a Diaz have ever done together, Christopher thinks.
~*~
The trip to Ralphs starts out well, but quickly gets derailed not once, but twice.
They start out well enough. They enter the store and immediately, Theo's gaze falls upon the only "kid car carts" left.
On the plus side, it is a fire truck. On the negative side, it looks like this particular shopping cart was made sometime around the time Chris was born.
"Oh, I'm sure it won't hurt. I've got this, Christopher," Carla tells him, as she straps him in.
"YAY!" Theo shouts - it's a little too loud for some person passing by, but honestly, who cares? If they're going to be that upset by a kid, they're probably miserable anyway. "It's a FIRETRUCK, Chris!"
"That it is," he says, and Carla pushes it over to the plant section first. He's glad, mostly, that he doesn't have to push it himself. It looks like a full body workout. His physical therapist would hate him forever.
Theo twists his whole body around to look at the plants, quite the feat since he's technically strapped in, but it's the Buckley in him - defying physics and expectations.
"SO MANY PLANTS," he says, his voice more excited about plants than most kids should be, and Chris watches as Theo contemplates the plants' worthiness.
"How about this one?" Carla asks, picking up a large stripped potted… thing. Chris doesn't know enough about plants to know what it is, exactly. It's not a lily, a rose, or a tulip. Also not a sunflower.
It could be literally any other plant, honestly.
"Mmm, NO, I don't like it," Theo says.
"Fair enough," Carla says, with the soft laugh that had calmed so many of Christopher's worries over the years. He's missed her so much. "How about this one?"
That one is definitely a tulip of some kind. He wonders if the tulip can survive two very ADHD people currently living in the Buckley home.
"NO," Theo says.
"Well, you certainly have some strong opinions, young Theo," Carla says, and she looks like she's about to pick up a third plant when Theo clasps his hands together and points.
It's a succulent - which … is technically a plant.
"THAT ONE! Chris! Look! That one!" Theo says excitedly.
Chris looks to the plant he's pointing to, and he picks it up himself. "This one?" he asks Theo.
"Yes!" Theo says excitedly. "It's little! It's a PORCUPINE STARFISH PLANT!"
"It's called a succulent," Chris says, because that's what Buck would have said to him. He wouldn't have made fun of him for not knowing, but he would have told him the right answer too - so that he could know.
"Porcupine starfish!" Theo insists. "And they're little! They NEED us. They need a firefighter! To save them! Because they're little!"
"Fair enough," Chris says. "You want to get two?"
Theo gasps. "CAN we?"
They get four, of course.
~*~
The next hiccup happens in the bakery.
Theo picks out the cookie cake monstrosity pretty easily. "That one!" he says. "It's pink! Like Buck's favorite sweater!"
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Chris hears his grandfather telling one of his cousins that "Men don't wear pink."
The pink cookie cake went directly in the cart, in the back, right next to the four little four succulents.
"Now that is a Father's Day present," Carla says. "Buck will love it."
Now, that could have been a perfectly fine thing to say, in Chris' opinion. Except that when he shifts on his crutches to turn around so they could leave, he glances over at the bread section to see a very startled looking Tommy Kinard.
Tommy Kinard, whose face tells Chris that he heard "Father's Day present" and "Buck" in the same sentence.
Oh no, Chris thinks. How do I fix this?
Because while Chris doesn't consider himself an expert at love, he is an expert at high school drama, and unfortunately? Everyone that Chris loves most has the romantic maturity of Ayden and Zoe when discussing whether or not Ayden had been flirting with Riley last week at the pep rally.
And he doesn't have to be an expert to know that making the complicated … situationship between Buck and the guy he's never gotten over more complicated… is a shitty Father's Day present, actually.
(Though, Chris admits - maybe it's not a situationship any longer when you've been pining for what? Two years?)
"Tommy!" he calls. "Hi!"
Well, why shouldn't he? He's always liked Tommy. What's not to like about a cool helicopter pilot that alternated flying into hurricanes, causing bisexual awakenings, and saving the lives of at least four people who Chris cared about?
(Chris isn't supposed to know about all four of those people - but you learn amazing things when you listen, and cerebral palsy has a great way of making people think your ability to understand their hushed words magically diminishes. But Chris' hearing has never been affected, nor has his ability to understand.)
Tommy glances down at the sourdough loaf. Then he looks at Christopher, then back down at the sourdough, as if it will save him.
There's a pause that's only broken by Theo's voice: "Hi, TOMMY! I'm THEO!"
Tommy - who flew helicopters into places that needed medics, who has saved four people Chris loves , who works as a firefighter every day, who never treated Chris differently just because he is different - seems to reboot when the kid speaks to him.
Thank god. Breaking the cool pilot ex would also be a terrible Father's Day present.
Tommy walks around the bread basket display to stand in front of the cookie cake stand. He glances in the cart, sees the succulents … and doesn't say anything about them. Probably a wise choice, really, because what can you say about succulents?
Tommy smiles at Theo, and Chris' fingers itch to grab his camera. It feels like something that should be preserved.
"Hi, Theo," Tommy says. "That's a pretty good looking cookie cake you have there."
"Not a cake. A GIANT COOKIE," Theo corrects.
"Ah, my mistake," Tommy says.
Then he looks at Theo and Carla and then back to Chris.
There are questions there. Chris isn't sure he has the answers. Still, unlike some people in his family - or all of them - his mother did teach him some manners.
"This is Carla Price," Chris says. "I told you about her, remember?"
Carla extends her hand, just as Tommy says, "Oh, yes. How could I forget the miracle worker?"
Carla laughs as she sakes his hand. "I see no reason to be humble," she says. "But thank you. That's too kind."
Theo, restless and bored now, because ADHD can only allow him so much time to be still and quiet, says, "WE'RE GETTING THE GIANT COOKIE FOR Buck! Do you know Buck?"
Tommy clutches his sourdough in a way that definitely ruins it. Oh, it's going to be smashed forever.
A guy who used to fly into hurricanes and war zones before that suddenly freezes up - all over an ex.
They really are ridiculous. Both of them.
"He and Buck used to date," Chris fills in for Tommy, who shoots him a look. It might mean should we tell a five year old that?
Maybe. Maybe not. Chris is 16, not a child-rearing expert, after all. At least that is his current defense strategy.
"Oh, I see I have missed some developments," Carla says. "Which is … too bad, really. I would have liked to have heard all about this one."
"It was a long time ago," Tommy tells her. "Not much to report."
The expression on Carla's face says she knows as well as Chris does that that particularly tidbit is full of shit, but she just does the eyebrow thing she used to do whenever Chris' dad used to say outrageous nonsense.
"Was it cause of me?" Theo asks, and it takes about five seconds for that to register before Chris starts to wonder why leaving the house today was a good idea. "Did you go away because of me?"
Tommy, for his part, looks like he's also been stabbed in the chest. But he kneels down and says, "Hey, no, of course not. We - uh. I went away before - mm. You weren't in the picture yet. Why would you think that, Theo?"
Theo looks at him with as much thoughtfulness as a five year old can muster. "I'm loud. Sometimes I do things I'm not supposed to do. People get mad. Not Buck. But sometimes other people."
"Well," Tommy says. "I stole a helicopter a couple of times and also flew into a hurricane, so I also do things I"m not supposed to do."
Theo looks delighted. "YOU SHOULD COME TO OUR PARTY," he says, suddenly back at full volume, all introspection gone. God, Chris is never having kids, as much as he likes this one. It seems exhausting.
"Hey, Theo, why don't you and I go look at the candles with Carla?" Chris says. "You can't have a giant cookie without candles, can you?"
"Candles cause fire," Theo says firmly, repeating what he's no doubt heard Buck say. "But Carla's a grown up, so it's okay!"
"That's right, sweetheart," she says, as she pushes the cart over towards the candles. She can see him from there, but … it gives him and Tommy some privacy.
"We missed you. Well. I did. But I'm pretty sure that Dad does too. He doesn't have a lot of friends who fly him to Vegas, after all," Chris says.
Tommy's face makes approximately six different expressions, all of which mean he's biting his tongue to keep from saying something bitchy.
His mom used to do that, back when they lived in El Paso - before Dad came home. It's one of the strongest memories that Chris has of her.
"I know he blocked you - I overhear things I'm not supposed to, and he and Buck are pretty loud when they argue," Chris says. "But that's how dad deals with break-ups. He makes sure they're final. You're not the first person he liked and let into his life then completely blocked once things … got iffy."
"I'm sorry," Tommy says, and he squeezes the sour dough loaf again. "In fairness, I didn't exactly fight to repair it, either."
"No," Chris agrees. "You didn't. You didn't fight for Buck, either, I guess, because he's still clearly not over you."
Tommy lets out a short, brittle laugh, the kind that sounds the way Abuela's peanut butter brittle feels when she snaps it in half at Christmas time.
"Buck made his feelings - the ones he doesn't have - clear the last time we … tried," Tommy says. "Listen, it's been great seeing you, but - "
Some things aren't Chris' business. But some things would never get fixed if you let the "adults" take care of it.
"He's had a horrible year," Chris interrupts, and Tommy stops talking. In fact, his eyes narrow in on Chris' face.
"How … horrible? Is he alright?" The question is so gentle. God, in a better world, Tommy would have gotten to meet Mom and she could actually be here dealing with everyone's bullshit, actually.
"After Bobby died, he tried to transfer, and Chim threw a fit about it. So you know what Buck did in response to that, because leaving his family has never been something Buck has ever been able to do," Chris answers. "And then Chim got promoted to Captain and my dad became a paramedic - "
"Like, legally? Is he licensed?" Tommy interrupts.
Which, hey, valid question.
"Honestly, we have decided not to ask that question. Or at least the 118 has."
"That … doesn't sound … legal."
"Anyway, so Buck lost his work partner, suddenly got thrown into training the stepson of his dead father figure to be a firefighter in the job that killed said father figure, had to watch Hen and Athena almost die in space, had to deal with some random guy living in his house spying on him, had to watch Hen come back and almost die - she's fine by the way - had to travel across the country to fulfill the decree of his dead father figure, had some big blow up with my dad on the way back, got in a car accident, got kidnapped, got tortured, and then got addicted to pain medication and suspended from his job," Chris said, and the look on Tommy's face would have been less horrified if Chris had said that Buck had decided to start eating kittens for fun.
It's almost enough to make Chris stop.
But he's not done.
"And then, just when he got sober and everything was okay," Chris adds, "The friends that he donated sperm to died in front of him and left that kid without a dad, so Buck had to step up and take care of him with more than one person suggesting that his recovery makes him an unfit parent."
Tommy looks over at Theo. Chris knows what he's doing, because he's seen Maddie do it. He's counting all the little parts of Theo that look just like Buck.
"Is he … how's he doing?" Tommy asks, his voice the kind of gentle that the poor sourdough loaf really deserves. Then, before Chris can answer, "Of course he's fit. What a stupid argument."
"He could use someone who wants to fight for him," Chris says, as nonchalantly as he can.
"There's … nobody else?" Tommy asks. "It's been - "
"Is there anybody else for you?"
Honestly, talking with Ayden and Zoe would be easier at this point - and Zoe has an entire Spotify "playlist" for their relationship that is literally just Taylor Swift's Folklore album.
Tommy looks sheepish, and that sourdough is done for. "No," he says. "I .. uh. Tried. Nothing stuck."
"Yeah, nothing stuck for him either," Chris said. "He did also try. Did I mention that? Because that ended in the people he was trying to date deciding consent meant not telling him they were married to each other."
"That's … not how consent works," Tommy says slowly. "And it feels like you should have stuck that in your monologue about his bad year."
Chris laughs, because Tommy's bitchiness has always matched the people he's loved most.
"Yeah, maybe next time I'll edit it in," Chris says dryly. "I gotta go, but maybe take Theo's advice. It's a mini party at my dad's on Saturday at two."
"I'll think about it," Tommy says, which is never a great answer from people are old enough to have already graduated high school, but the way Tommy's face keeps squinching up makes Chris almost have hope.
"Oh, and Tommy? Buck makes a much better sourdough than the one you murdered today," Chris says. "Which he learned to do when he was sad over the first time you broke up. You should ask him about it, maybe."
And that? Is a great time to dip right out of the conversation, Chris figures.
~*~
Over lunch, Carla asks a few gentle questions, the kind that are appropriate for five year old ears, and Chris answers as many as he can.
"Well," Carla says as Theo begins to stick his peas into his mashed potatoes that were too lumpy, "It seems like a lot of things have certainly changed around here. You know, there was a time the most complicated love life Buck had involved Abby deciding she wanted to fly away to Europe."
"Did she steal a helicopter?" Theo asks, because apparently the most important parts of the conversations today have been pink cookies and stolen helicopters.
So far, out of his extended family, Theo has the most sense, clearly.
"No," Carla laughs.
Theo pouts. "Did she grow wings? In a cocoon? Like a butterfly!" He briefly abandons his stack of lumpy mashed potatoes in time to ask.
Carla pretends to think about it. "You know what? I don't think she did. I think she took a regular old boring plane. She was as pretty as a butterfly, though."
"Butterflies are UGLY. They're WORMS with WINGS!" Theo proclaims, which isn't quite true, but that seems like the kind of correction Helena Diaz would make so Chris does not.
He also ignores telling Carla that Buck's Abby used to be Tommy's Abby… because that's another thing he wasn't ever supposed to overhear, he's pretty sure, and also because he thinks it's pretty funny. Certain adults in his life don't agree with that, though, so maybe Chris won't share that particular tidbit.
Instead he says, "If you think Buck is having a wild love life, wait til you hear about my dad. It's a tragic tale that involves Catholic repression and doppelgangers of dearly departed mothers."
Carla's face looks approximately the same way that Hen looked last week when she was trying to teach Denny how to drive a stick shift, which really, is the appropriate reaction to anything related to Eddie Diaz's love life.
~*~
Tommy does not come to the Father's Day party.
Chris is disappointed, but not surprised.
"The problem with the people in our family over the age of 18," he tells Denny as they sit in the corner and watch Buck have a very serious conversations about George the Succulent and Mr. Poop the other succulent (And the two unnamed succulents, which seems unfair) "Is that they lack sense."
"Are you just realizing this now?" Denny asks.
"A fair question, but no. It's just particularly pissing me off today," Chris tells him.
"Why? Your dad do something? Buck do something? Oh, god. They aren't really getting together are they? Because apparently there's a betting pool - "
"Who is running this betting pool and why do they hate me, Buck, and my father in that order?" Chris demands. "Denny, I love them both, but if they ever tried to get together, I would pull a reverse Parent Trap and if that didn't work? I would literally walk back to El Paso."
"Sounds extreme. I could drive you."
Chris has been in the car with Denny. "I would walk."
"Man, you are mean," Denny says, without any heat at all, because he too has been in the car with himself.
Across the room, Theo is excitedly eating a very … unwisely large portion of cookie cake. Buck glances down at his phone.
Buck looks startled at first, like someone jumped out behind him at the ridiculous haunted house that Ayden took Riley to last Halloween (Zoe does not know about that, but literally everyone else does.)
Then the startled look starts to melt into a smile that manages to be confused and happy at the same time. He kind of squirms in his seat, and a light blush starts to take over an alarming portion of his face.
Now Chris knows perfectly well that the text is from Tommy because he just heard Buck and Maddie talk about Buck being single two hours ago.
"I'm not always mean," he tells Harry, with a deserved bit of smugness.
~*~
He's also feeling very smug when Buck asks him if he wants to babysit next Saturday.
"Theo and I make a great team," he says.
"He says he had a lot of fun with you," Buck says softly. "That you were nice to him."
"Yeah, well, I had a good role model in the 'not related but is a great babysitter' department," Chris says easily.
Buck's eyes look suspiciously wet, and Chris feels a little smug about that, too, because those are happy tears.
~*~
His father is, predictably, not as smug about the chain of events that could lead to Buck and Tommy reconciling. Which Chris has to hear about when Buck and his father decide to have a late night argument about it ahead of the date itself.
Technically, Chris is asleep. In actuality, someday, they will remember that these walls are thin and that he can hear everything.
Well, maybe not everything. But enough of the relevant bits and pieces to know that this conversation is another Buckley - Diaz fight/disaster.
"- Don't know why you can't be supportive - "
"Because it's a bad idea, Buck. He - "
"- Used to be your friend. And by the way, blocking him was really fucking childish - "
" - Bad timing. "
" - Much longer do I have to wait for it to be good timing?"
"-Kidnapped - "
"I was there!"
"Drugs and taking advantage - "
"-Throw that back in my face?"
"- A baby! Be responsible!"
"Never acted like this about anyone girlfriend - "
"You yourself said he was transitional, not permanent - "
"Transformative! It's not the same!"
"-Never this stupid about any girlfriends!"
"Homophobic! Just like your dad!"
The living room goes quiet long before the door slams. Chris waits a minute before he sits up and opens up his phone.
Chris: dad just lost his best man privileges. good thing I look good in a suit.
Denny: Who is getting married?
Chris: nobody yet. Buck someday. maybe.
Denny: You'll have to fight Ravi I think. Maybe Harry too.
~*~
He doesn't have to fight Ravi or Harry, as it turns out.
Because a year later, Chris, Ravi, and Harry all stand next to Theo while Buck and Tommy say "I do." Chris' dad does attend… in the front row.
Theo, now six, turns around as the music plays, and tells Chris in a very loud whisper, "MY DADS GOT A GIANT COOKIE FOR AFTER. ISN'T THAT AWESOME? "
"Yeah, buddy," Chris says. "It is."