Chapter Text
Buck was halfway through cleaning the coffee maker when his locker started ringing.
“Hey Buck!” Ravi called from across the kitchen. “It’s for you.”
Buck frowned automatically. Nobody really called the station asking for him unless something was wrong.
His stomach tightened before he’d even crossed the room.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Buckley? Hi, this is Little Acorns Daycare. We need you to come pick Theo up.”
Every muscle in Buck’s body locked instantly.
“What happened?”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Eddie straighten from where he’d been leaning against the counter.
Chimney stopped talking mid-sentence.
Hen looked over immediately.
Theo.
Something happened to Theo.
“He’s okay,” the teacher rushed to say, though her voice carried the kind of strain that made Buck’s pulse spike harder instead of easing. “He’s physically alright, but he’s very upset and we haven’t been able to calm him down.”
Buck was already moving.
“What happened?” he repeated, sharper this time.
“He became distressed during an afternoon activity. He’s been crying for over an hour now and he did vomit once from crying so hard.”
Buck’s vision tunneled.
Vomit.
Crying.
Distressed.
“Oh my God.”
“He’s asking for you.”
“I’m coming,” Buck said immediately. “I’m leaving right now.”
He hung up without another word.
“Buck?” Eddie was already stepping toward him. “What happened?”
“Theo’s daycare called.” Buck was grabbing his keys so fast he nearly dropped them. “He’s crying, he threw up, they said he’s inconsolable—”
“I’m coming with you.”
“No.” Buck shook his head instantly. “Stay here. I’ll call you.”
“Buck—”
But Buck was already gone.
The drive to the daycare was agony.
Every possible nightmare scenario rotated through Buck’s head in vicious loops.
Theo hit his head.
Theo fell off the playground.
Theo got sick.
Theo couldn’t breathe.
Theo was hurt.
Theo needed a hospital.
Buck’s hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles ached.
The daycare was only fifteen minutes away from the station, but it felt endless.
Every red light felt personal.
Every slow driver in front of him made his chest tighter.
By the time he parked, his heart was hammering hard enough to hurt.
Buck practically sprinted into the building.
The receptionist looked up immediately. “Mr. Buckley—”
“Where is he?”
“Classroom three.”
Buck was already moving again.
He could hear crying before he even reached the room.
Not loud anymore.
Not screaming.
Worse.
Those broken little hiccuping sobs that sounded exhausted and hopeless.
Buck’s heart cracked clean down the middle.
When he stepped into the classroom, Theo was curled up in a teacher’s lap near the reading corner, tiny body trembling with every breath.
The rest of the class was gone.
Outside the windows, Buck could see kids running around the playground.
Theo was alone.
His face was blotchy and red, cheeks wet, curls damp with sweat.
He’d changed clothes at some point; instead of the dinosaur shirt Buck had dressed him in that morning, he wore his backup spiderman shirt that he had helped Buck proudly pack into his backpack for his first day at preschool.
The second Theo saw him, he burst into fresh tears.
“Daddy!”
Buck crossed the room in three strides.
“Oh, buddy. Hey, hey, I got you.”
Theo practically launched himself into Buck’s arms.
Buck caught him automatically, lifting him against his chest while Theo clung hard around his neck.
“I’m here,” Buck murmured immediately. “I’m here. I got you.”
Theo sobbed harder.
The teacher looked deeply relieved.
“He’s been asking for you nonstop,” she admitted quietly.
Buck rubbed Theo’s back slowly.
“What happened?”
The teacher winced.
“We did a Mother’s Day craft after lunch.”
Buck stilled.
Oh.
“Oh,” he echoed quietly.
Theo made a miserable sound into his shoulder.
The teacher continued gently, “Most of the kids were making cards and handprint flowers for their moms. Theo got upset when he realized he didn’t have someone to make one for.”
Buck closed his eyes briefly.
“He started crying and couldn’t calm down. We tried redirecting him, but…” She sighed softly. “Then he got sick.”
Buck looked down at Theo.
Theo wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“You threw up?” Buck asked gently.
Theo nodded once, miserably.
Buck brushed damp curls off his forehead.
“It’s okay,” he promised quietly. “That happens sometimes when people cry really hard.”
Theo’s lip trembled.
“I don’t have a mama.”
Buck swallowed hard.
The words landed like a punch.
The thing was, Theo knew, in the vague disconnected way little kids understood things.
He knew Connor and Kameron weren’t around anymore.
He knew they’d died in the accident before he was old enough to really remember them.
But knowing something abstractly and having it shoved in your face in a classroom full of kids with mothers were two very different things.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Theo buried his face in Buck’s neck again.
Buck held him tighter.
“Can we go home?” Theo whispered.
“Yeah,” Buck said immediately. “Yeah, absolutely.”
Theo barely spoke during the drive home.
Usually he chattered constantly.
About dinosaurs.
About cartoons.
About snacks.
About how Uncle Eddie made grilled cheese better than Buck did.
About literally anything that entered his head.
Now he just sat curled in his car seat staring out the window with red-rimmed eyes.
Buck kept glancing back at him at every stoplight.
“You feeling sick, buddy?”
Theo shrugged.
“You think your tummy hurts?”
Another shrug.
Buck hated this.
He hated not knowing how to fix it.
By the time they got home, Theo looked exhausted.
Buck got him settled on the couch with a blanket and cartoons while he made toast cut into triangles because usually Theo liked that.
Today, Theo just stared at it.
“Can you eat a little for me?” Buck coaxed gently.
“I’m not hungry.”
“You threw up your lunch, Theo.”
Theo’s eyes filled again instantly.
Buck immediately regretted phrasing it that way.
“Hey, no, buddy, you’re okay.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“I know you didn’t.”
Theo started crying again anyway.
Buck scooped him up automatically and sat back down on the couch with Theo curled into his lap.
“It’s okay,” he murmured, rubbing slow circles against Theo’s back. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Theo cried himself out after a few minutes, going limp against Buck’s chest afterward.
Eventually, Buck managed to coax half a piece of PB&J toast into him.
It was something.
The rest of the afternoon passed slowly.
Cartoons played softly in the background.
Theo barely watched them.
Mostly he just sat curled against Buck, silent and sad and exhausted.
Every so often, seemingly out of nowhere, Theo would start crying again.
Sometimes quietly.
Sometimes hard enough his entire body shook.
Each time, Buck held him through it.
Each time, Buck felt more helpless.
Around five, Eddie texted.
Eddie: How’s he doing?
Buck stared at the message for several seconds before answering.
Buck: Not great. They were doing a mother’s day craft at school and he realized he had no one to make the craft for.
Eddie: Shit.
Buck: Yea. I barely managed to get some PB&J into him earlier.
Three dots appeared immediately.
Eddie: Want me to come over after shift?
Buck looked down at Theo asleep against him.
Part of him desperately wanted Eddie there.
Another part worried Theo might not handle people right now.
Buck: I don’t know… Theo might not be up to it :(
Eddie: Okay. Call if you need anything.
Buck almost laughed at that.
Need anything.
He needed someone to magically undo grief.
He needed Theo not to know what it felt like to miss people he barely remembered.
He needed to fix something fundamentally unfixable.
Instead he typed:
Buck: Thanks. Love you