Chapter Text
The plan had been written down in three different places.
Once on the whiteboard in Buck’s kitchen in blue dry erase marker with little doodles around it because Theo liked the drawings.
Once in Buck’s phone calendar with alarms attached to each stop in the day.
And once—most importantly—on a sheet of printer paper Theo had decorated himself with crooked stars and an alarming amount of orange crayon.
SUNDAY FUN DAY, Buck had written at the top in bubble letters.
Theo had added approximately seventeen backwards letters underneath.
Buck had stuck the paper to the fridge like it was priceless art.
For the first time in a long time, he’d gone to bed Saturday night feeling like he was finally getting this right.
Not perfectly.
He didn’t think perfection existed anymore.
Not after the last few months of sudden custody hearings and social workers and emergency placement approvals and learning how to braid dinosaur-themed shoelaces because Theo refused to wear any other shoes.
But good.
Good enough to make pancakes shaped like dinosaurs.
Good enough to take his kid to the park and the trampoline place and home again smiling.
Good enough to deserve the quiet, sleepy, “Night, Dad,” Theo had mumbled before falling asleep.
Buck had stayed awake for another hour after that, staring at the ceiling with his chest aching around the word.
Dad.
It still felt fragile sometimes. Like saying it too loudly might break something.
So Sunday mattered.
Sunday was supposed to be proof that they were figuring this out.
Which was why Buck frowned the second he stepped into Theo’s room the next morning.
The curtains were still drawn.
Usually, Theo was awake by now or at least wriggling around beneath the blankets.
Instead, he was curled tightly on his side, breathing through his mouth.
A soft, wet sound escaped him.
“Snf.”
Buck’s stomach dropped instantly.
“Hey, buddy?”
Theo blinked his eyes open slowly.
They looked glassy.
Buck crossed the room in two steps and crouched beside the bed.
“You okay?”
Theo sniffled hard, nose pink and shiny.
“Tired.”
His voice sounded rough.
Buck pressed the back of his hand against Theo’s forehead and swore under his breath.
“Okay,” he murmured immediately, all thoughts of pancake batter and trampolines evaporating. “Okay, buddy.”
Theo leaned into his hand with a tiny whine.
“You’re really warm.”
“Don’t feel good.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Buck reached for the thermometer on instinct now.
Parenting had turned his house into a strange little minefield of supplies—children’s medicine in the cabinet, Band-Aids in every drawer, tiny socks somehow everywhere.
The thermometer beeped.
101.8°F
“Okay,” Buck repeated softly.
Theo’s lower lip trembled. “Park?”
Buck smiled immediately, easy and reassuring even while worry settled heavy in his chest.
“Nah. We can do the park another day.”
“But pancakes—”
“We can make pancakes literally anytime. Besides, I think today’s gonna be a couch day.”
Theo sniffled again, congestion thick enough that the sound rattled.
“Oh.”
Buck brushed sweaty curls off his forehead.
“Hey. Wanna know the coolest thing about being sick?”
Theo looked suspicious.
“You get unlimited cartoons.”
That got the tiniest smile.
“And,” Buck added gravely, “blanket nest privileges.”
Theo considered this very seriously.
“…With snacks?”
“With snacks.”
“Okay.”
Buck laughed quietly.
The laugh disappeared twenty minutes later when Theo dissolved into miserable tears because his nose was too stuffed up to breathe properly while drinking juice.
“Oh, hey, hey—okay, okay.” Buck gathered him up instantly, settling Theo against his chest. “Slow down.”
Theo coughed wetly into Buck’s shoulder.
“Easy.”
Snf. Snf.
Buck grabbed tissues one-handed and carefully wiped Theo’s streaming nose while Theo squirmed unhappily.
“I feel yucky.”
“I know, buddy.”
“I can’t breathe.”
“You can breathe. Your nose is just clogged.”
Theo sniffed thickly, immediately proving the point.
Buck guided the tissue back toward him. “Blow for me.”
Theo blew weakly.
“Harder.”
Fwshhh.
“Oh, wow.” Buck blinked. “Okay, that’s impressive.”
Theo giggled once before coughing again.
By ten in the morning, the living room looked like a pediatric urgent care waiting room.
Blankets everywhere.
Half-empty juice cups.
Children’s Tylenol.
Tissues piling up in embarrassing quantities.
Theo remained firmly attached to Buck’s chest.
Every time Buck tried to shift him onto the couch cushions, Theo woke enough to whimper and cling tighter.
So Buck stayed put.
The cartoons changed three times.
Sunlight crept across the floor.
Theo drifted in and out of sleep against him, hot little body limp with fever.
Buck’s phone buzzed periodically with texts from Maddie.
Maddie: How’s Sunday Funday?
Buck snorted softly and typed back one-handed.
Buck: Running a fever. Very snotty. Extremely offended by medicine.
Maddie’s response came immediately.
Maddie: Oh no…sounds like you when you’re sick.
Buck: Rude.
Maddie: True ;)
Theo stirred against him with a congested snuffle.
“Hh…snf…hih…”
Buck automatically reached for tissues.
“Hah…hah-haitshoo! aitch! Hahh-he’tchiew!”
“Oh, bless you.” Buck wiped Theo’s nose gently while Theo groaned pitifully.
“My head hurts.”
“Yeah?”
Theo nodded miserably.
Buck checked the clock.
“Okay. We can do more medicine now.”
“Nooooo.”
“Yep.”
Theo attempted to burrow deeper into Buck’s chest in protest.
Buck laughed quietly despite himself.
“You’re not escaping.”
It took ten full minutes and one bribe involving future ice cream, but eventually Theo swallowed the medicine with dramatic suffering.
Buck rewarded him with applesauce and forehead kisses.
By noon, Buck realized he hadn’t eaten anything.
He also realized his throat hurt.
Just a little.
Probably from talking quietly all morning.
Definitely not because Theo had sneezed directly into his face approximately six times already.
“Hih…hihh…”
Buck barely had time to turn before Theo sneezed explosively against his collarbone.
“Hah’tschoo! Choo! Choo!”
“Oh my god,” Buck laughed helplessly, grabbing more tissues. “Dude.”
Theo blinked watery eyes at him. “Sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize for sneezing.”
Buck wiped his nose again.
Theo immediately sniffled thickly.
“I’m yucky,” Theo muttered.
Buck smiled. “Yeah. Kinda.”
Theo finally fell into a deeper sleep around one in the afternoon.
Buck should have moved him.
He knew that.
His back ached.
One leg had gone numb.
He desperately needed water.
Instead, he sat perfectly still on the couch with Theo sprawled across his chest because every exhausted line in the little boy’s face had finally softened.
Buck rested his head back carefully.
Just for a minute.
The next thing he knew, he was jerking awake to Theo coughing harshly against him.
Buck blinked blearily.
His neck screamed in protest.
The room had gone dimmer with late afternoon light.
Theo whimpered.
“I’m here,” Buck rasped automatically.
His voice sounded rough.
He cleared his throat.
Definitely just tired.
Theo pressed his feverish face against Buck’s chest. “Daddy?”
Buck’s heart squeezed painfully.
“Yeah, buddy?”
“Don’t go.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Theo fell back asleep almost immediately.
Buck stared down at him for a long moment.
Then he reached for another tissue because Theo’s nose was running again.
Sunday night arrived quietly.
Buck managed soup.
Sort of.
Theo ate maybe six spoonfuls before losing interest and curling back against Buck.
By then the fever had climbed to 102°F.
Buck tried not to panic.
Kids got fevers.
This was normal.
Probably.
Theo sneezed repeatedly into the blanket.
“Hih! Hih-aitch! Aitch! Haitchoo!”
“Bless you.”
Snf.
Buck rubbed tired circles over Theo’s back while opening another pack of tissues.
The house smelled faintly of vapor rub and soup and sickness.
By nine, Theo was exhausted enough to cry whenever Buck tried putting him in his own bed.
“Can’t breathe,” he whimpered thickly through congestion.
Buck gave up after the third attempt.
“Okay. Okay, c’mere.”
So Buck carries Theo back to his bedroom and settled himself against the headboard instead, Theo sprawled on his chest beneath blankets.
It was the only position Theo could sleep in without waking congested and coughing.
Buck turned on the bedside lamp low enough to barely glow.
Then he sat there. All night.
Every couple hours, he checked Theo’s temperature.
Every hour, he wiped Theo’s nose.
Every thirty minutes, Theo sneezed himself awake.
“Hihhh…hih…Aitch! Aitch! Aitch! Hahhh-He’tchiew!”
“Easy, easy.” Buck caught tissues beneath Theo’s nose quickly. “Blow for me.”
Fwsshhh
Theo groaned.
Buck rubbed his back until he settled again.
Around three in the morning Buck realized his own nose had started running.
He scrubbed at it absently.
Probably exhaustion.