Reading Time: 149 Minutes

Title: Forever
Series: Like Ripples From a Small Stone
Series Order: 5
Author: DarkJediQueen
Fandom: 9-1-1
Genre: Drama, Established Relationship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Slash
Relationship(s): Evan “Buck” Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Content Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Violence – Graphic , Discussion-Rape, School Bullying, Off-Screen Child on Child Violence, Discussion-Ableism
Author Note: Eddie’s sister’s name is spelled Sophia in canon. I’ve changed it to Sofia.
Beta: ScarsLikeVelvet & Starkindler, Alpha: Starkindler
Word Count: 37,068
Summary: It was the only thing Buck and Eddie wanted, to be a huge happy family, and they are taking the steps needed for it.
Artist: Tintalle
Artist Appreciation: A big thanks to Tintalle who made me such beautiful art.

 

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Chapter One

“Carla, what happened?” Eddie asked as he walked out the door to see Carla talking to Ana Flores.

“I told you that everything is fine. He’s just got a few scrapes and bruises,” Carla said.

“I know that. Buck’s in with him right now. I came out here to figure out what went on.” Eddie could see the worry on Ana’s face, but he wasn’t sure what she was worried about.

“I’m sorry, Mister Diaz,” Ana said.

“What happened?” Eddie asked again. He was pretty calm, he thought. He had seen Chris and kissed his forehead before heading out. Chris had wanted comfort from Buck and Emma. Eddie hadn’t been upset about that because when Chris had hit his ankle the other morning, he had just wanted to be with Eddie. Emma had thrown a fit when Buck had tried to pick her up when she had hit the floor after tripping on one of her own toys. She had been upset more from that than actually being hurt. The terrible twos were coming in early for her.

“One of the other students brought a skateboard to school.”

“And Chris was pressured to ride it?”

“We are unsure about that,” Ana said.

“Well, I guess that I should talk to Chris about that. Is Principal Summers in to be talked to?”

“You don’t want to be with Chris?” Ana asked.

“Buck’s got him well in hand, and honestly, I’m the calmest head when it comes to these things.”

“I’ll take you to the office,” Ana said.

“Thank you for coming down here, Carla. I’ll make sure that the nurse understands that she needs to look at the schedule we have attached to his profile to check who to call and when.”

“It’s no problem, Eddie. I don’t mind it. I didn’t have another client today since I just got off an overnight shift with him. I got more sleep than you. Let me know what is going on and if Chris has any issues.”

Eddie nodded his head. He followed Ana through the halls. Buck knew the layout of the school just as well as Carla, but the layout confused the hell out of Eddie. He had gotten turned around so many times when he had come for parent-teacher conferences the week before. Eddie had also learned that Chris was taking the tsunami a little more blase than Eddie would like him to be. It had been a big deal because of what Buck had done, but it was still a tragedy.

“Ah, Mister Diaz,” Principal Summers said as Eddie walked into the office.

“Principal Summers, I don’t mind waiting if you don’t have time to talk to me.”

“No, I do. Please come into my office. Your partner is not joining us?”

“He’s got a lap full of two kids, or Emma has talked the nurse into letting her help with Chris’ cuts and scrapes. It’s a toss-up, really. Last time Buck cut himself, Emma was the one to put the band-aid on him.”

“Chris talks a lot about his little sister and your partner.”

“I’m shocked you are saying partner. We typically introduce each other as boyfriends.”

“Oh, that’s Chris,” Ana said.

“What?”

“Whenever he talks about the pair of you, it’s always partners, and he corrects others to it as well. I think he really likes that you are both work and love partners.”

“Let’s step into my office,” Summers said.

Eddie followed her into her office, and Ana came in after and shut the door before taking a seat.

“One of the other students brought a skateboard. His parents are on their way, but they work a good distance from the city during the week, and they will be here tomorrow morning to talk to me. Chris was asked if he wanted to use it.”

“And he said yes,” Eddie said. He rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “I’ll make sure and talk with him about that, but what is being done about the teachers who should have been watching?”

“Excuse me?” Summers asked.

“Well, was he the first to ride the skateboard?” Eddie asked.

“Not from what the other students had said.”

“And how do the four teachers who are supposed to be on recess duty miss other kids riding on a skateboard?” Eddie debated if he should have Buck come here or not. Buck was the one that had taken Chris to his last doctor’s appointment and picked him up during recess to do it. Eddie had been doing court things with his parents about visitation with Chris, which so far was being denied them based on what Chris wanted.

“I will admit that it hadn’t crossed my mind yet. Ana?”

“We were all talking when we should have been watching, I agree, but we should not be blamed for the children making a wrong decision.”

“Oh, no. I want you held accountable for not doing your job. A child who climbs the fence will learn not to do it again because of the pain that falling off and possibly breaking a bone gives them. Children make mistakes, it’s the way of life for them, but they are also supposed to have adults around to help them not do something really stupid that will hurt them if it can be helped.” Eddie texted Buck and asked him to come into the office. “Buck’s on his way. He’s talked to me about a few issues that he has noticed, but up until now, it’s not been a big deal, but I think now it is.”

Summers nodded her head, but she wasn’t looking at Eddie. She was still looking at Ana. It was just a minute before the door opened, and Buck came inside. Eddie looked back at him.

“Where are the kids?” Eddie asked.

“Patty is willing to watch them as Emma finds all of Chris’ cuts and cleans them up. Chris is more worried about his clothes. I tried to calm him down on that, but I think that you need to be the one to calm him down. So, what am I needed for?”

“Recess and the teachers talking to each other instead of watching the kids.”

“Oh,” Buck said.

“Mister Buckley?” Summers asked as she looked at Eddie with a shocked look on her face.

“Well, this is sudden, and I don’t have my notebook with me, but I think I remember it all. I came two weeks ago to pick up Chris from school for his doctor’s appointment that we had to reschedule several times, and we couldn’t wait any longer, so we had to get a school day time. Anyway, I pulled up and went to the office to sign him out before picking him up from recess. When I walked around the school to get him from the playground, I watched for several minutes as the four teachers on duty talked to each other and didn’t even look out into the crowd of kids.”

“I see,” Summers said.

“Then the day after parent-teacher conferences, we came for the tea lunch with your kid, and the kids who were on recess before lunch were the same. It was two of the same teachers from last time, so honestly, it’s a small group, and their bad habits are infecting the rest of the teachers.”

“Can you point out the teachers you have seen doing it?”

“I can, but honestly, I don’t want to. It was isolated events until this today. Yes, Chris was at fault for getting himself hurt. He knows better than to do things like that. While we have taught him that he can do anything, sometimes doing it takes precautions that he needs an adult for.” Buck moved to stand behind Eddie, putting his hands on the sides of the chair and leaning on it.

“Mister Diaz?”

“I agree that we will talk to Chris about that, and I’m glad you are taking the kid bringing the skateboard in seriously, but my worry is that the teachers weren’t keeping that close of an eye.”

“I’ll handle that. Are you going to take Chris home for the day?”

“Yes,” Buck said.

Eddie nodded his head. He wasn’t sure what Chris and Buck talked about, but it would be an interesting day with a sore Chris.

“Okay, just sign him out and grab his things from the classroom he was going to after recess. Then you are free to go.”

Eddie stood up, feeling Buck’s hand on his shoulder as he did so. Eddie wasn’t sure what the conversation between the three of them was going to be, but it aimed to be an interesting one.

Even Emma was quiet on the way home. It was like she knew that things were not the best.

“Kitchen,” Eddie said as he opened the door and stepped back to let Chris go inside. He watched the way that Chris moved and knew that he was sore. There was some bruise balm in the bathroom, so Eddie went to grab it to put on Chris when he changed the bandages later. It would hopefully stop Chris from becoming too stiff.

“We were just getting ready to make lunch. Are you hungry?” Buck asked after helping Chris up onto the stool around the island.

“No,” Chris said. He was subdued, which Eddie was sure about the way he knew he was in trouble. He wasn’t in trouble for being hurt but for making a bad decision.

“Are you saying that because you aren’t or because you are upset and don’t think you are?” Buck asked.

“The second.”

“Okay, then I’ll make some for you as well, and if you don’t eat it now, you can take it in your lunch tomorrow.”

“How much trouble am I in?”

“Well, that depends, really. Are you going to do it again?” Eddie asked.

“No, that really hurt, and I was so scared, and people saw me fall.”

“Well, the falling part isn’t a big thing. Do you think any of the rest of those kids who have never been on a skateboard aren’t going to fall?”

“Well, no.”

“I fell so many times, and I was older than you,” Buck said.

“Really?”

“Yes. Never be upset about falling off things. You just gotta get up and try it again, as long as it’s safe.” Buck looked at Eddie, who nodded his head.

“Chris, you could have been really hurt. We do a lot of things, but I thought you understood that we always make sure that you are as safe as we can make you when we do them.”

“You can do anything you put your mind to as long as you literally cannot do them, just like we have always said, but skateboards are hard. I didn’t know it was something you wanted to do.”

“I didn’t until I saw Jeremy on the skateboard. I have been doing so good at my balance, I thought I could do it.”

“And what did you learn?” Eddie asked.

“I couldn’t do it.”

“Chris, I’m not angry,” Eddie said. He waved Buck over to watch the stuff on the stove.

Buck took over and kissed Eddie’s cheek before shoving him toward Chris.

“I know you aren’t. I know your disappointed face, and I hate that face.”

“Well, I hate wearing the face, but I know I’m going to wear it at least a few more times with you and who knows how many times with Emma.”

“She’s gonna be a handful, and I’ll be laughing while away at college,” Chris said.

“You probably will be. So what do you think the punishment should be?” Eddie asked.

“No video games tonight, and I can only read that book I have to read for class next week.”

“That sounds good. I know you were looking forward to your new game. So go and get your Switch from your bedroom and bring it into the living room. Then go and work on the homework you have. I’ll call you when it’s time to eat. Principal Summers said she would email you everything you needed that you would be missing today that you can do here at home.”

“Did you get the ink I needed?” Chris asked.

“Yeah, it’s in the bag in your bedroom along with everything else you had on your shopping list for school needs for the rest of the year.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Chris came in for a hug, so Eddie gave it to him. When Eddie let him go, Chris went over to where Buck was adding a few spices to the meal and hugged Buck from behind. Buck wrapped his hand around and patted Chris on the back.

Eddie walked over as Chris left the kitchen to head to his bedroom.

“How bad off is he?”

“Showering is going to be fun for him, but mostly, it’s just superficial. He’ll have a few movements that will be hard while he’s bruised. Otherwise, he’s fine. His range of motion is just fine, so he didn’t bruise a bone or break or even chip anything. He told me he stayed loose like you taught him and didn’t clench up or try and stop himself with his legs or arms. All in all, he did pretty good at making sure that he didn’t mess himself up by doing something wrong.”

“I forgot to make sure that the nurse knew to check the linked calendar to see if we are working.”

“She said she kind of freaked out and didn’t think to check it until after she had already called Carla. She apologized to me. She’s been here a week. I remember seeing the other nurse having hip surgery after breaking it but hadn’t really connected it. She’s trying, and this was the first time a kid had been hurt on her watch, more than a gym accident. I talked her down.”

“Ah. I do remember talking about that a little bit now. I’m glad that if this was her first big kid getting injured thing, it was shit mild, a good learning thing for her. How did Emma do?”

“Another girl came in with a paper cut that wouldn’t stop bleeding. Once it did, Emma helped put on the band-aid. It was adorable as after she did, she kissed it. The little girl just let her do it and then left to go back to class.”

“Do you think that I handled it okay?” Eddie asked.

“You did. He knew better, but he’s a kid, and that means he’s going to mess up. He needs to understand that we allow him to do dangerous things when we are around, and we have made them as safe as possible. If he can’t respect that, we stop doing it.”

Eddie nodded his head. He sighed and leaned into Buck’s back.

Buck finished up the food and then snagged his phone. He laughed. “Maddie texted that she found a cute outfit for Emma. She’s going to drop it off when she gets off work.”

“Sounds good. When does she get off?”

“Seven. I told her I would have dinner ready for her, so she didn’t have to worry about it since she forgot hers at home.”

“We doing the fajitas tonight?”

“Yes, we are,” Buck said. He turned the stove off and then turned around in Eddie’s arms to wrap himself around him. “We are doing okay with him.”

“Yeah.” Eddie liked to hear it, though. It was good coming from Buck, Buck, who hadn’t had a good parent in his life. Eddie had years where his parents were good; Buck hadn’t.

—

“How are you feeling?” Guentzel asked as he sat down in the coffee shop across from Buck.

“Good. Really good. I’m happy, and I really mean that. I think that right now, I could be happy just as I am for the rest of my life, with you know, the changes that I can’t stop, like Chris and Emma growing up.”

“That’s good. So you said you didn’t want to talk in the office today. But you do here?”

“Eh, been cooped up over the last few days. I jerked my shoulder out, and so have been the man behind while I heal up. Eddie nearly took my head off, yelling at me for not keeping the sling on as long as he thought I should. I got the clear from my doctor, though. He’s just a big worrywart.”

“You said you need to see me, Buck.”

“I’m worried about the anger inside of me about the court stuff,” Buck said.

“You aren’t an angry person, Buck. The anger isn’t from a place where you need to worry about it. There was a court session today, wasn’t there?”

“Yes. Chris gave his testimony about how much happier he is with his father here in LA. Isabella asked many pointed questions, and Chris, most of the time, just stared at her until she said them in a way that wasn’t horrible to his father. The jury loved him. He was good and honest on there, but I’m pissed that he had to be up there. They don’t care about him. They treat him like a prize to be won, and it pisses me off.”

“Ah, I see why you didn’t want to be in the office today. Too close to the courtroom. I get it. So, you wanna get a refill and then walk with me? The park is lovely today.”

“Sure. I can get behind that.” Buck drained his cup and laid it on the saucer he had been given.

Ten minutes later, Buck had a large iced coffee in his hand, and it was pressed to his shoulder for a little icing. Guentzel was beside him.

“Where is Eddie, Emma, and Chris?”

“Over there.” Buck pointed over to where Eddie and Emma were on the soccer field with the group of 2 and 3-year-olds who were in beginners soccer. “Tommy got her into it as she loves watching soccer with all of us. She’s having the time of her life and running herself ragged. At that age, it’s more about teaching control and not letting them run off. It’s as good as anything to help her. She goes swimming with Lily every weekend. She’s got a social calendar that is bigger than mine.”

“So does Tommy bring her?”

“He usually comes with us, but today he’s covering another shift for someone else at the station. I figured that if you could meet now, it would work better for me. I didn’t want to pressure you, though. I know you don’t like meeting up in places like this.”

“I’m not worried about you developing feelings for me, Buck. I only really worry about things like this with people who will take it as more than it is. I don’t think you could ever even think of falling for me in that way.”

“No, you are too much of an asshole to me, and you hurt me. You heal me too, but you hurt me.”

“When is the next court date?”

“Monday. We are off. Thankfully the courts are trying their hardest to ensure Eddie’s off work when they schedule it. I think it’s cause he’s a firefighter. I don’t worry too much about it, honestly. It is what it is, and Bobby will make sure that Eddie has off.”

“Not you?”

“Well, he’ll try, but it depends on who he can get to cover us. I would rather Eddie be there than both of us.”

“Won’t that look bad?”

“That only one of us can go? If it does, then the jury doesn’t understand our lives at all.”

“PAPA!” Emma yelled as she ran off the field toward them.

“Ah, sorry about this.”

“No, it’s fine. I don’t mind seeing you with your daughter. It’s something I haven’t got to see. It might help me help you.”

Buck crouched and waited for Emma to get to him. He hugged her tightly.

“Ball?”

“Sorry, love bug. I gotta do this.”

Emma looked at Guentzel, and she frowned before huffing and stalking off.

“She’s a firecracker, huh?”

“She is. I’m not looking forward to her teenage years. Lily told me her mother was pretty much a big personality, and Lord knows that Eddie and I are as well. She’s pretty much doomed and so are Eddie and me.”

“I think you’ll do fine. I can’t wait to hear about it in our couple times a year sessions by then.”

“You think I can be down to that by then?” Buck asked.

“I think that you are pretty much close to there. Once we are through this court stuff, I think you’ll have what you need to not need to see me once a month. Of course, you can also still get a hold of me for any emergencies. You are my patient for however long you can stand me, even if I only see you once a year.”

“Yeah, I know that, but I guess I just feel lost.”

“You have what you need to stand on your own. I just want to make sure you can stand on your own with little issues. Look, you had a horrible start. You had a horrible childhood, and you spent a few years behind as you learned the stuff you should have learned in high school in your young adult years and then what you should have learned in your early twenties in the years after. It’s not the worst thing, but at least you are learning. You are someone who cares to be a good man. You have the lowest amount of toxic masculinity I have ever seen in a person. I am not sure where that came from, but I assume that it was just from your parents having no hand in raising you, really. They didn’t force it on you.”

“No, I don’t think they could have. I would have done the opposite of what they wanted anyway. I think I was pretty much set to not be like a lot of men.”

“You’ve said before that Eddie digs into some of that.”

“He does, but he learns. He checks himself. He started on the path of seeing how his father was before I came along. It was something to do with how his father was with him after he came home from war. Eddie doesn’t like to talk about that time in his life. I don’t pressure him because he dealt with it on his own. It’s a wound that is healed but doesn’t need to be brought up again and again. He wants to be better for Chris.”

“And how are you adjusting to being a father to him as well as Emma.”

“It’s felt like I’ve been that since the start, so there are no issues. Why are you bringing this up now?” Buck asked.

“I just want to make sure you know your place since you aren’t pushing to be in court with them every day.”

“I’m being pulled between two places, and I’m doing the best I can,” Buck said.

“That’s all I care about.”

—

Buck pulled a shirt on as he came out of the bathroom. He looked at Eddie lying on his side on the bed, reading a book from a series that Chris wanted to read, but they weren’t sure it wasn’t too gory for him.

“Hey,” Buck said.

Eddie looked up at Buck with a smile on his face.

“Hey, yourself. A shirt?”

“I’m a little cold right now. It can come off if I get warm. I just don’t like being cold.”

“I remember you saying you ran to the south when it got cold on you once,” Eddie said. He reached out and grabbed Buck’s sleep pants, and pulled him onto the bed. Buck stopped himself from falling onto Eddie hard enough to hurt, but Eddie had him on his back before he could get settled.

“What are you doing?” Buck asked.

“Well, you had your last therapy session on your arm today, and that means you are back at work in full. I wanted to see about having some fun.”

“And what kind of fun are you talking about?”

“I think we need to be naked for fun to happen. I’m going to get up and lock the door. You get naked.”

“I’m getting off the bed to do that,” Buck said.

Eddie shrugged, but he got up to get off the bed.

Buck stripped as he watched Eddie lock the door and then strip himself. He grabbed the lube before Eddie could and grinned at him when he noticed. Eddie lunged at him, and Buck dropped down and put his hand just out of Eddie’s reach. Eddie followed him and moved to where he was straddling Buck. Eddie’s eyes moved down Buck’s body, and he leered as he took in Buck’s half-hard cock.

“I haven’t even really touched you,” Eddie said.

“Hmm, we’ve not had the chance for sex for a few days. Not with Chris in bed with us after a nightmare and then Emma getting us up too early and having to do a lot of things when we are at home and off work.” Buck tried to move out of Eddie’s reach, but the man was like a slippery creature when he wanted to be, and before Buck knew it, he had the lube.

“Okay, now, you do as I say.”

“And if I don’t?” Buck asked.

“Then I’m gonna fuck you.”

Buck debated if he wanted to be good or not. The assumption was that if Eddie was fucking Buck if he wasn’t good, so that meant if Buck was good, he got to do the fucking.

Eddie waggled the lube back and forth a little before he sat back. He opened the lube and slicked up his fingers before moving his hand behind.

“Oh, really?” Buck asked. He grabbed at Eddie’s hips and pulled him closer. Eddie gasped and tried to stop, but Buck just pulled him up to where he could lick at Eddie’s cock as Eddie slicked himself up for sex.

“You are going to kill me,” Eddie said as he braced his hand on the wall and looked down at Buck as Buck sucked the head of Eddie’s cock into his mouth.

Buck kept his eyes locked on Eddie’s face as he licked the head in his mouth. Eddie pulled his fingers free of his ass a few minutes later, and he grabbed the head of the bed again before rocking fully into Buck’s mouth. He pumped his cock in and out a few times before he pulled it all the way out.

“Let go,” Eddie said.

Buck let go of Eddie’s hips and let him move down the bed a little, but Buck didn’t want him going far. He scooted up himself and put his back to the headboard. Eddie got close again as soon as Buck was where he wanted to be and slid down Buck’s cock.

“Why like this?” Eddie asked.

Buck said nothing as he pulled Eddie’s head in to kiss him. This might have started as something else, but this was what they were doing. Eddie rocked down onto Buck’s cock, and Buck rolled his hips to where they were always in motion between them, but their lips never parted.

Buck was the first to orgasm, and he held Eddie as close as he wanted with his arm around his waist and worked his free hand between them to get Eddie off. It wasn’t hard or anything really that earth-shattering, but it was good enough for the pair of them. It was messy and fun, and that was all that mattered between them.

“Chris wants you in court with us,” Eddie said.

“Bobby,” Buck started, but Eddie covered his mouth with his clean hand.

“Bobby will keep you off the shift if you want, and you know it, Buck. You just need to ask for it.”

“I hate being pulled between the two,” Buck said.

“I know, but Chris wants you there. I want you there. You’ve been staying as the man behind on most things for the station when I’m in court. You might as well just come with us.”

“Okay,” Buck said. He turned his face into Eddie’s neck and held onto him.

“We want you there if you want to be there. Do you want to be there?” Eddie asked.

“I do. I just have brain squirrels that won’t let me just say to Bobby that you guys are more important. I know that I feel it, and I know it’s the truth. I just can’t say it.”

“I’ll go with you if they put it on a day that we work again. I’m sure that someone will enjoy having an extra day, and we cover them.” Eddie pulled out of Buck’s hold, and he cupped the sides of Buck’s face to lean in and press a kiss to his forehead. It made Buck feel loved.

“I get scared sometimes,” Buck said.

“I know you do. I get scared as well. We are in so deep, and we were in deep long before we were a couple. I don’t mind it, but it almost means that things feel a little off sometimes. So just tell me when you think you need a little help.”

“I will. I promise. Just don’t get mad at me when I do.”

“Have I ever?”

“No, but that’s another issue I have, and you know it.” Buck poked Eddie in the side. They were a mess, and they needed to get into the shower. It would be good to do it, but he also didn’t want to get up and move away. He liked having Eddie in his lap. Hell, he just liked having Eddie in his arms no matter where they were.

Eddie, who Buck could sit in full silence with, and it was a wonderful time. Eddie, who let him ramble and talk and just be himself without trying to change him.

“I’m going to marry you one day, Edmundo Diaz. Just you wait and see.”

“Hmm, not if I marry you first.”

“Marry me first? It’s not a competition. It’s not like one of us would be more married than the other. We would be married at the same time.”

“I’m tired. Don’t give me shit for the weird shit I say when I’m tired.”

“You give me shit for the weird shit I say. Athena calls it our flirting,” Buck said.

“Well, Athena is not one to talk about weird flirting and doing things. I don’t even want to think about what she and Bobby get up to. So why don’t you get up, and then we can shower and clean up the bed and then go to sleep, so we aren’t both brain dead tomorrow?” Buck asked.

“Fine. I kind of don’t want to, but I also don’t want to wake up early enough to shower in the morning. So let’s go and do it now and then we can cuddle and sleep and try and forget everything but us for a little while,” Eddie said.

“Sounds good to me.”

Chapter Two

Buck picked up Chris from where he was leaning on the side of the truck after getting out. His crutches were on the other side, but Buck knew that Chris wouldn’t use them. The courthouse was too packed for that, and people were in a rush and not paying attention. It wasn’t safe for Chris to be on his own.

“Ready?” Eddie asked as he looked at Buck across the inside of the truck.

“Yeah. What about you, Superman?” Buck asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Chris said.

“Good. Then let’s get this over with,” Eddie said. He grabbed the crutches and shut the door.

Buck stayed where he was until Eddie came around the truck to walk with them.

“How are you feeling?” Buck asked.

“I’m ready to have this over with. Abuela is so upset by all of this. She doesn’t understand why her son is doing this.”

Buck nodded his head, and he changed his grip on Chris a little bit before they started over to the courthouse. They had taken the handicapped parking but parked pretty far in the lot, just so that they could get out of there without going through the parking garage for it. It would help them get the hell out. The courts were well aware of everything, and Eddie was more than willing to file a restraining order against his parents.

“Put on your game face,” Eddie said as he opened the door to the courthouse. They knew all the way to go after they got through the metal detector. Chris’ crutches were checked out and things they took with them. It wasn’t a lot to get them through quickly.

“How long will we be here today?”

“We have no clue. It could be just the morning, or it could be longer. We will just have to see. It’s the last round of questioning and the last chance they will have to show their side of things. So it will take as long as it takes. I have stuff for you in your bag, though,” Eddie said as he held up the backpack.

“Thanks for having my back, Dad.”

Buck kept his smile to himself at that. He followed Eddie up to the floor they needed, keeping his smile pretty even on his face. There were many people around, and he didn’t want to make it seem like he was approachable. He didn’t want to talk to anyone. There had already been one person who tried to hook up with him while he was in court.

He had been pissed off as soon as he realized it and shut them down harder than he normally shut anyone down. It had been the first time that someone had flirted with him with Eddie nearby. He hadn’t liked his reaction, but at least it wasn’t someone when they were on a call for work. He was able to learn his reaction and control it.

The courtroom was just as full as it had been before this. The rest of the 118 had wanted to be there that day, and Buck had been okay with it, but Eddie had been on the fence.

“Where is Abuela?” Buck asked.

“Over there,” Eddie said.

Buck looked to see that Abuela and Pepa were now sitting as far away from Helena and Ramon as they could get and still be in the same courtroom and sitting in the front row. It was interesting as hell. Buck wondered if Ramon and Helena even cared. In Buck’s opinion, it was not the worst thing in the world. He hoped that things wouldn’t hurt the family too much, but Helena and Ramon made their bed. They could lay in the bed they made.

“I wanna sit with Abuela.”

“Okay,” Buck said. He walked Chris over to Abuela, kissing both women’s cheeks as he set the boy down between them.

“How are you feeling?” Abuela asked.

“I’m fine, Abuela.”

“Mother,” Ramon said.

“We will meet up this weekend; I’ll teach you the recipe for Eddie’s favorite meal,” Abuela said as she looked away from Ramon.

“Sir, please move away,” one of the security team said.

Buck looked to see the man was looking right at Ramon.

“I”m trying to talk to my mother,” Ramon said a little louder than he should.

“And you are also over here with those you are suing. I will escort you over to your table and force you to sit if you don’t do as I ask.”

Buck could feel the glare from where he was. He mouthed “thank you” to the guard.

“Just a few minutes, let’s go up and sit where we need,” Eddie said.

Lily was already seated there, and she was on the phone with someone with a sour look on her face before she smiled, and damn, it looked like it was the best thing in the damned world to her.

Buck sat down at the table and raised an eyebrow.

Lily shook her head and just grinned.

The court was brought to the session, and the judge looked at Lily.

“Do you have anyone else to call forward today?” the judge asked.

“I do, however, since they are a witness for the other side, so I will just talk to them then.”

Buck laughed internally about that. He looked at Helena and Ramon’s faces to see that they were upset. Isabella looked like she had sucked on a lemon.

“Very well. If that changes, let me know.”

The witnesses that Isabella called were all character witnesses that spoke to how deeply involved in the community the elder Diazes were. That they were upstanding humans who loved their whole family.

Lily barely paid attention until a man was called up to the stand.

“Shit,” Eddie said.

“What?” Buck asked.

“Shush,” Lily cautioned.

Isabella walked over to the man after he was sworn in. The man was calm and collected.

“Mister Hamilton,” Isabella started. “Do you mind if I call you Derek?”

“I’d prefer Mister Hamilton, thanks.”

“Of course, Mister Hamilton, you grew up with Eddie Diaz, did you not?”

“Yes, and Shannon, his ex-wife.”

“You dated Shannon before Eddie, didn’t you?”

“I did. We broke up because we weren’t compatible. I pushed Eddie toward her.”

Buck saw the minute jerk that Isabella’s body made at that. It was like she hadn’t been expecting that.

“You wanted your best friend to date your ex-girlfriend?”

“Yeah, they were good together back then. It was after a while, though, as when Shan and I broke up, Eddie was dating someone else. Then when Eddie broke up with her, he came to me.”

“He came to you?”

“I guess I won’t have to get into this at all,” Lily said.

“This is one of your exes?” Buck asked.

“Not that way,” Eddie whispered in Buck’s ear. “We only ever had sex and sometimes a lot of it.”

“Yes, Ma’am. We had always had an understanding that if we were unattached and wanted sex, we would help each other.”

The reaction from Ramon and Helena said just enough for Buck to understand that they had never known this.

“You and Mister Diaz?”

“Yes. We were young and attractive with libidos to match. It wasn’t that hard to fall into bed. We were all good about condoms and safe sex. We only ever had one condom break, and we were both tested fully afterward.”

“So you don’t find it strange that he has settled down with a man and, by all evidence, plans to marry him one day?”

“Eddie loves who he loves, and that’s as much as I want to say on the subject. I told you that I would not break confidence as long as it’s something that wouldn’t have any bearing on a child.”

“How was Shannon with Chris from what you saw when Mister Diaz was in the Army?”

“She was good at first, but then things slowly changed. His parents were no help on that front.”

Buck felt like Christmas came early. It seemed like Isabella hadn’t prepped this person and was going off something they assumed about Derek’s relationship with Eddie and him still being pissed that Eddie and Shannon got together.

“What do you mean? How much can you really know about the situation?”

“I was there for Shannon for the first three years of Chris’ life. I helped her when Eddie’s parents refused because Shannon wasn’t doing what they wanted but what the doctor wanted.”

Isabella figured out that she wouldn’t get anything like what she wanted from Derek, so she gave up.

Lily stood up with a look on her face that wouldn’t be out of place on a cartoon shark about to get its prey.

“Mister Hamilton, thank you for coming to town today.”

“I live near enough in the area with my girlfriend.”

Buck didn’t like how Derek’s eyes darted to Eddie with that and then to the back of the courtroom. Buck turned around to look, and he saw a woman sitting back there who looked familiar. It wasn’t until she gave him a smile that Buck saw it. He had seen that kind of simile on Chris’ face. That was Shannon.

“Your girlfriend. So you are close with Mister Diaz?”

“No, we are kind of working on that. Until now, he thought I was living in El Paso. The last time I talked to him, I didn’t tell him I was up here.”

“Why?”

“It’s not a good way to jump back into their lives.”

Buck waved at Pepa and then back at Shannon.

Pepa turned to look, and her body softened. She gave Shannon a smile when Shannon noticed her and patted the bench beside her.

“Eds,” Buck said.

Eddie turned to look to see Shannon headed toward them. He nodded his head.

Buck knew that they had been talking for a while about various things to make sure that things were not going to pop up when it came to her past and the case.

“Your girlfriend is here?”

“MOM!” Chris yelled.

The judge reached for his gavel but stopped when he saw what was happening.

“We will step outside,” Pepa said.

Shannon held onto Chris, who was in her arms. Eddie didn’t look too upset about it, so it must have been something that had come up. Buck tried not to step into things when it came to Shannon unless Eddie asked him to participate. He was glad that Shannon was willing to step up for this.

“Thank you.”

It took a few minutes to settle down again, and the jury looked like they would burst into tears. Isabella looked like she was pissed off, which wasn’t a good look for her sitting there as she looked at the man on the stand in full view of the jury.

“Sorry about that,” Lily said.

“It’s okay. We didn’t get here on time today, or that would have happened beforehand.”

“So that’s your girlfriend?”

“Yes, Ma’am. We met up here one day when she was at rock bottom after her mother’s death. She was upset, and I knew the sound of her crying anywhere. I was pissed that everyone was ignoring her. Even other women weren’t coming over to ensure that she had a way to get home or someone to call. I took her back to my place, put her in the guest bed, and let her sob it all out. She moved in and never left. She left the guest room at one point but never my place.”

“And you don’t hate her for what she did?” Lily asked.

“I never wanted kids. I don’t mind Chris in my life if they ever work up to that. Shannon’s will to be a mom was kind of broken.”

“Objection, your honor,” Isabella said.

“Sorry, I forgot,” Derek said.

“You forgot what?” Lily asked.

“That I shouldn’t talk about what Shannon feels. I need to talk about myself. About what I feel.”

“It’s okay. We try and save the people we love from being hurt.” Lily turned to the judge. “I am done with this witness.”

“I have no further questions for him or anyone else,” Isabella said with a smirk on her lips.

“Miss Green, do you have any final witnesses?”

“Well, your honor, Shannon Diaz would be called as far as I knew. I would like to talk to her.”

Isabella sat down hard.

“I thought you might. I know that she showed up on the witness list for today only today. So I’ll allow this. You will go first.”

Lily nodded before she walked over to sit down.

“What are you so smug?” Eddie asked.

“The jury will be thinking why Shannon was going to be called up by Isabella and now isn’t. It’s going to make them think. I’ll be gentle with her. I have no clue how Isabella will be, but I assume that Isabella thought that Shannon would blast you, but it seems that Derek is fond of her and still fond of you, so Shannon can’t hate your guts.”

Buck was pretty sure that if Lily wanted to take over the world, or at least the country, she could. She had the mind for it, and Buck was happy that she was on their side. She was too talented for family law and should be in the sector that would earn her more money than she made.

“What do you prefer to be called?” Lily asked as she stepped up to the stand.

“Shannon, please. There are too many Diazes here today.”

“Of course, Shannon, what do you regret most about leaving Chris in El Paso?”

“Not fighting harder to show Eddie how much better it would be if he wasn’t around his parents. I don’t think it would have saved our marriage, but it might have saved my want to be a mother. I think that I was so happy when I made it up here to take care of my dying mother that I just never cared about coming back. I’ve been in therapy, and I’m working on myself, and I think that I’ll be a good friend to my son, but I don’t think I can ever be a mother to him again. I lay most of that at the feet of Helena Diaz.”

“Why?”

“I had my own issues, but every single thing that I did was second-guessed. When Eddie was in the Army, I had one of the best doctor teams for Chris. I had second opinions and sometimes even third. I had nurses who talked about the patients who had gone through the same thing I wanted Chris to go through. I had long detailed conversations with Eddie over email about what he wanted. He was given time to talk to me even when deployed if something huge came up about Chris. Then there was Helena sitting there and telling me that I was wrong. That I was hurting Chris for no reason. I want my son to have the best life that he can. It’s why I have stayed away, and I would have stayed away until I felt like I was fully better and knew that I would stay until this.”

“And you don’t think that Helena will be able to help Chris the way that he needs?”

“I don’t think so, no. They are getting older, and Chris has at least a few more surgeries that will put him into wheelchairs for at least a short time. They cannot lift and bathe him.”

“Home health care?”

“I was talked out of it by Helena because in her mind if it wasn’t me or them taking care of Chris, no one could. I could see for the first time when I left El Paso, and it made me feel ashamed for what I had allowed. I was a shitty mother for how I allowed them to warp me. Eddie might have taken longer to do what was needed, but he did it. He did what I couldn’t, and I felt like it would break me.”

“You gave up all rights to your son.”

“I wanted to make sure that Eddie knew that I would never be able to do anything to take him away from whoever Eddie had chosen for Chris. I gave in once, and while I want to say that I would never do something like that again, I can’t promise that won’t happen again.”

“You love your son.”

“I do. I love my son enough to stay away until I am sure I won’t hurt him again. This might be a long time, but I plan to keep in contact through email right now. If I am allowed. If Eddie says no, I won’t be upset about it. He knows Chris better than I.”

“And what about the tsunami?”

“I can understand being upset about it, but how could anyone know? If that had been Eddie or me there, no one would say a single thing. Eddie made sure that I knew he was safe. I trust Eddie with Chris’ life, and I trust Buck with his life as well because Eddie trusts him above all others. I agree that there is no one in the world that will fight more for Chris. If I can’t be there for Chris and Eddie can’t be there for Chris, I want Buck to be there. They will make sure that Chris has the best life he possibly can. They will make sure that nothing goes wrong and he’s given the chances that he can. I have some contact with Pepa, Eddie’s tía. She sends me pictures every once in a while. Let’s me know how Eddie is doing. I’ve seen how happy Eddie is with Buck. How happy Chris is with both of them in his life. You cannot tell me that two people whose children want nothing to do with them will give him a better life.”

“Thank you,” Lily said.

Isabella waited for Lily to sit down before she stood up.

“May I call you Shannon?”

“No, you can call me ma’am,” Shannon said.

“Okay. Now have you ever liked Helena or Ramon Diaz?”

“Yes, I have but not since the moment that I really got to know them. As soon as the shine wore off, they started to wear me down, and they were good at it. They made me think that it was all on me. That I was the one who was wrong. It’s why it’s taken me this long to get better enough to where I could make sure that even to Eddie, I can stand on my own. I was a shitty mother to Chris, and I want to be a good friend to him now.”

“Yet, you didn’t like Eddie after he got back.”

“No one was giving him time to get his head around being home. He was shot overseas, nearly died, and while he had time at the hospital, he wasn’t home. From the moment he got home, his family was there; I was there, putting pressure on him to be what we wanted him to be without overt pushing. If I hadn’t been as much of an asshole as I was, I could have talked him into going to where my mom was.”

“Yet, you trust him with your son?”

Buck tuned out what was going on because Isabella was just trying to salvage what she had no chance of saving. There was no coming back from this. There was no way that Eddie was ever going to allow most of his family into his life for fear of what his parents would do with that access. Buck looked back at where Pepa and Abuela were sitting with Chris, who had red eyes but nothing so horrible that he looked like he had been sobbing.

—

Eddie sat down in the small meeting room they had been ushered into as soon as they arrived. Eddie wasn’t sure what the hell was going on, but he was willing to go with the flow. He was adaptable. Chris sat down beside him, and he looked like he had gone through the wringer. Hell, Eddie felt like he had gone through a dozen wringers. Abuela and Pepa were already seated at the table.

“Where is Buck?” Pepa asked.

“He said he would join us later. I got a ride with someone else.”

“Someone else from the courthouse?” Abuela asked.

“Yes. I didn’t ask who as he had that look in his eye.”

“Who else is coming?”

“Just Buck and whoever he’s talking to. I assume it’s some friend of his. He makes them everywhere. I swear he can go into a bar fight and come out with three friends.”

“You love him because of it.”

“I do love him. So much.”

“That’s good to hear,” Buck said as he came in the door. He had a smile on his face. Then he looked behind, and it turned gentle. “So it wasn’t until I was nearly here that I realized that I might be making a mistake. Eds?” Buck asked.

Eddie was a little worried about what he would see on the other side of Buck.

“Hey,” Shannon said. She looked worried, and behind her was Derek.

“Come here,” Eddie said. He opened his arms for a hug, and Shannon came into his arms. “I don’t hate you.”

“I’m glad. Chris has gotten so big. He was excited to see me. Buck thought it might be a good idea to kind of figure out what we want to do in a low-key and open setting.”

“Well, Buck does have good ideas. Derek. It’s good to see you. You are most welcome.”

“I’m glad. Your guy here ambushed us. I was a little afraid. He’s like a brick house.” Derek looked Buck up and down. “He’s a treat.”

“Derek!” Shannon slapped Derek’s side, and she laughed. Derek pulled her to his side and hugged her tight. “He’s just…well, he’s not changed that much. We are all a lot older than we used to be. We can be adults, right?”

“Yes, we can be adults. You’d been talking about this with me for a little while, it’s earlier than we thought, but you said you were up to talking in court about all of this. It’s okay. We will work on this as we go. We might mess up, but things will be okay. We can’t mess him up more than my parents did me.”

Shannon laughed, and then she looked horrified.

Eddie looked at Buck and nodded toward the tables.

“Shannon, Derek,” Pepa said as the duo came into the room.

“Pepa,” Shannon said.

“Come and sit down so that we can figure out what we are going to eat at this place.” Pepa laid a menu down beside her and gave Shannon a pointed look.

“Of course.” Shannon didn’t let go of Derek’s hand, pulling him down beside her.

Eddie had planned on taking that seat, so he walked around the table and took the one on the other side across from Shannon. Buck sat down beside him and across from Derek.

“We have a friend of ours who is named Derek. He’s a good man,” Buck said.

“Okay?”

“Oh, sorry, I just wanted to warn you cause the first day you come over, he and the others he lives with will probably come over to make sure that you are good people as well. They mean well, but they can be assholes.”

“Five dollars!” Chris chimed in.

“Five? That’s a pretty big sum for the cussing jar,” Shannon said.

“Oh, yeah, no, that’s just when Buck calls his former roommates that.”

Buck pulled a five out of his wallet and slid it over to Chris.

“What is he saving up for?”

“He hasn’t told us. I am pretty sure that Pepa knows.”

Chris just gave them all a grin before he pulled his menu closer to look at it.

“He’s wonderful, Eddie.”

“Thanks. I try my hardest, but I think that right now, a lot of what he is is on Buck’s head. He and Chris bonded, and it helped me see what I needed to be for him. We all flounder a little, but we try our best.”

“Your parents were not happy with the decision today, especially the decision that they are not given direct visitation.”

“I think that Chris’ testimony was the main reason for that. It’s not like he held back anything. It was a good day despite it all. I didn’t expect to be out of there so soon, but then Isabella’s day was ruined.”

“How are you footing the bill?” Derek asked.

“Mirabella, actually. She’s not happy with what Isabella is doing. So she pretty much footed everything. I’m not that upset, given that she’s pissed off at most of the family but still doesn’t like my kid being taken from me. Buck’s made sure that I don’t internalize that I can’t afford this.”

“No one is prepared for their parents to sue them for their own child unless they are actually shitty parents. Abuela said that most people in the family have decided that they want nothing to do with them. They have been cut off,” Shannon said.

“I guess I don’t talk to most of them anyway. I am not all that worried about it, really. Some will get over it and talk to them again. It is what it is.” Eddie picked up his menu and saw that he had eaten this food before, just always take out, and Buck usually showed up at the house with it. Eddie had always wanted to know where it came from, but Buck had never told him. “You little trickster.”

“Took you this long. I assumed you would have found it out.”

“Buck, no one else in the world is just going to research a menu to find a place in a city this big.”

“Oh, really? Then what do you call the fact that I do?” Buck asked.

“Crazy,” Chris said.

“Oh, you have skin in this game, huh?” Buck asked as he looked at Chris.

Chris nodded his head up and down. He then cut off a yawn. “I think I need a long nap today.”

“I think so as well, mijo. Do you feel okay about it all?”

“They hurt you; they hurt me. They wanted to hurt Buck too. My therapist said that people who only think of themselves aren’t people I should really worry about the feelings of when it comes to making sure that I am safe. I shouldn’t seek to hurt them just to hurt them, but I don’t need to worry about keeping myself safe and it hurting them. I am allowed to have boundaries, and those boundaries aren’t a punishment even if Grandma and Grandpa think so.”

“And me?” Shannon asked.

“You were hurting, and you did what you needed to keep yourself from hurting more. I’m allowed to be worried about you not coming back, and you aren’t allowed to tell me how I feel.”

“I wouldn’t,” Shannon said.

“Good.” Chris looked at the waitress as she came into the room. She looked around, saw Buck, and smiled.

“Who should I start with?”

“Get Chris first,” Buck said.

The waitress nodded her head and walked over to start with Chris. Eddie saw the way that Shannon wanted to step in and help when Chris started to order a second meal, but Eddie just held up a hand. Shannon shut her mouth. When the waitress was at the other end of the table, Shannon raised an eyebrow at him.

“Part of that goes to Buck. Chris really likes half of each meal, so he orders both, and Buck gets what Chris doesn’t. It’s cheaper than doing the parts that Chris likes à la carte, and then Buck gives Chris half of his toast from his meal.”

“We were never this in sync,” Shannon said.

“We had love, but I think it was the wrong kind,” Eddie said.

“So do I. We tried, and we just didn’t fit. I’m glad you found him.”

“I’m glad as well.”

“DA!” Emma yelled from the side of the room.

Eddie spun around to see her running full tilt at him. Behind her was Tommy with a smile on his face. He dropped her bag just inside of the door and off to the side before slipping out again. Emma crawled up into Eddie’s lap and stared at Shannon.

“Who is that?”

“Tommy Kinard. Buck’s best friend, former lover, and all-around nice guy. He works at the 217; Buck actually replaced him at the 118. He has been with us in court some days, and others he watches Emma.”

“Who watches Emma if he was in court?”

“The rest of the house. Buck’s little family is pretty good to him. He and they are the reason why I was able to just step away from my parents. I could see how much they supported each other without an issue. They literally don’t give a shit if the other fucks up; they help them get straight and don’t drag them through the mud for it. Though, none of them have murdered anyone. That might change things, but I guess it depends on why.”

“Da, attention,” Emma said.

“I will pay attention to you soon, love bug.” Eddie wrapped his arm around her to hold her in place as Buck slid over a cup of juice that had been dropped off at some point while Eddie had been talking to Shannon. “You knew she was coming.”

“Yeah. It’s not family without her.”

“She’s adorable, Buck,” Shannon said.

“Thanks. Wait until her blankets move, and she screams you awake at two am because someone watched a scary movie while she was around.”

Chris looked a little sheepish at that. “It was once, and I know never to do it again. I didn’t expect her to watch it that closely.”

“Should he have been watching it?” Shannon asked.

“No. He had a babysitter that will no longer be babysitting him. It was a one-off,” Buck said.

“Who?”

“A new couple, well okay, not a new couple. They are out finally after sneaking around for years due to their own issues that no one was willing to push. So they are acting like idiots sometimes.”

“So they were making out instead of watching, and Chris got away with something, and he learned his lesson.”

“Yup. As soon as we figured everything out, we made sure that he was the one who got up with us to help settle her back down. It was about a week of it. Chris had the worst time of his life.”

“I don’t want kids. I don’t want babies, ever. I’ll adopt when they are old enough that I don’t need to do any of that.”

“You’ll change your mind,” Eddie said.

Chris shook his head.

“So, she a daddy’s girl or a papa’s girl?” Derek asked.

“Depends on what time of day it is and who was the last to tell her no. I told her no about ice cream, and she didn’t talk to me for two days, and I wasn’t working for either of them. She’s got all of Buck’s attitude in a pint-sized package that I can at least bribe a little bit. She really likes Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and I take advantage of that.”

“You are the one sneaking those to her? No wonder when I want her to do something, she looks for candy.”

“How is potty training going?” Shannon asked.

“Really good. She’s good during the day, but it’s the night that is the biggest issue, which we knew going in. We are moving along at a good pace. It’s been a challenge but not that bad.”

“Good.”

“Bread?” Emma asked.

“Sure, love bug,” Eddie said. He grabbed one of the stacks of toast that the waitress had just sat down along with butter and jam. “Blackberry, raspberry, or apple butter?”

“Apple,” Emma said.

Eddie picked up the packet of that and got it open to spread over the bread. The toast was already coated well in butter, so the apple butter went on smoothly. Eddie took a bite of it, and he nodded his head before laying it down on the plate in front of him that Buck slipped there. Emma picked it up right away and started to eat it.

“She’s a doll,” Shannon said.

“She is. I love her more than anything in the world, outside of Chris. I don’t think I could pick, and given how Buck’s parents were with him and his sister over the brother who died, I can’t even fathom wanting to deny a child love. I can’t understand how anyone doesn’t love every single kid.”

Shannon’s face fell, but then Derek said something into her ear, and she nodded her head and gave Eddie a smile.

Eddie had no clue what would happen now, but he was pretty sure that things would get messy for a while.

Chapter Three

Buck dropped his gear, and he rushed at Maddie. She was a little worse for the wear looking but no worse than she had looked that one time she had come home after being in a car accident when she was in her first week of college. Maddie threw her arms around Buck, holding on tightly before starting to sob. Buck sat down on the back of the ambulance, and he pulled Maddie into his lap. She felt so small right now.

Eddie walked over with a few bottles of water in his hands.

“I’ll do her check,” Eddie said.

“Maddie, you gotta let go. He needs to look at you. You can stay right where you are, but you gotta face him.” Buck was glad that Eddie was the one who came over to do it. It wasn’t going to be as good as Hen, Scott, Mia, or Misha, but he would know if any of them were needed or she just needed to go to the hospital.

“I did the best I could,” Maddie said.

“Good. You did good, Maddie. You saved as many as you could,” Buck said. It was devastation inside the dispatch office right now. Buck was sure that it would be a few days before it was open again.

Eddie did the check as quickly as possible, touching her the least amount. “Okay, you are good. I think some rest will be all that you need.”

“Thank you, Eddie,” Maddie said.

“You are most welcome.”

“I don’t want to go home alone,” Maddie said.

“Okay, you’ll come back to the station with us, and then when we are done with our shift, we will take you back to ours. We got a pull-out couch with your name on it. Emma’s bed is small, and Chris doesn’t do well outside of his own bed unless he’s in ours, and we don’t want to push him out of his bed.”

“I don’t want to be a bother,” Maddie said.

“No, you won’t be. You will be less of a bother if you stay with us. Buck won’t stay up half the night worrying about you. So yes, you can come and stay with us as long as you want. I know how this kind of thing can be a huge trigger. You can settle yourself into the bunk room and sleep if you need it or just be alone. We are all pretty good about hiding away and leaving people alone who need to be alone. Do you think that you can be around us?”

“Yeah, I want that. I do. I just don’t want to be alone, not like really alone.”

“We can leave you alone to call Doctor Copeland as well,” Buck said.

“Yeah, I think I need that. I think that talking to her will help me.” Maddie slipped off of Buck’s lap to sit by herself

Buck looked at where Bobby was talking with Athena. He made sure that Maddie was fine with him going over to where Bobby was.

“How is your sister?” Bobby asked as soon as Buck got close.

“She’s good. Well, she’s good enough as she can be right now. We are bringing her back to the station. She doesn’t want to be alone. She’ll go up to the bunks to talk to Copeland.”

“Of course, whatever she needs. I agree that she doesn’t need to be alone if she doesn’t want to. What’s her favorite meal?”

“Spaghetti with meatballs, but she likes one type of pasta above all, and that’s radiatori. I know our shop carries them. We can split off, and someone can go and get the stuff for it. It’ll be a good evening.” Buck hoped it would be. He wasn’t sure that he could make it anything better than good.

“Let’s get everything done up now, and then we can get headed home.”

Buck was happy to head home. The day had been shit. He hadn’t been happy about much that had happened that day. It seemed like they had traded things being shitty on Eddie’s front to have it being shitty on Buck’s front. He knew that life wasn’t fair, and life wasn’t much of anything easy.

The station was busy when Buck got in there with Bobby with him. Maddie had been okay going with Eddie and Hen back to the station in the back of the ambulance. Buck had grabbed a lot of ice cream for all of them to eat when dinner was over. Ice cream always followed spiced pasta of any kind. It was something that Maddie always did when they were younger. It had always been a good night then.

“How are you feeling?” Buck asked when he dropped the groceries on the table to be sorted through and stuffed where they needed to be. He snagged a bag of Twinkies and tossed them at Maddie.

“I’m good enough for now. Dr. Copeland has a full range of appointments, so she will head this way when she is done at the office. She wants to do an in-person meeting with me tonight. I told her I didn’t mind it at all. Even just knowing that I will be talking to her makes me feel better when even just a few months ago, it would have been something upsetting. I don’t understand how our parents came to hate therapy.”

“It’s out of their control, and they can’t pretend that everything is fine. It’s just easier to put it all down to everything is fine even while the world burns around them.”

“I think part of it might be that therapy would make them treat you better,” Eddie said as he came up the far set of stairs. He had a case of water in his hands. He dropped it on top of the island.

“What do you mean?”

“If they had gone to therapy, your father would have been raked over the coals for giving into what your mother wanted on everything when it hurt the pair of you. Their therapist would have told them about the bad choices they made when it came to having Buck. He was one of the first. There were a lot of issues around it then and even now. They wouldn’t be able to live in the world where they blame Buck for everything, and they didn’t want to do that, so they stopped going if they ever started to go in the first place.”

“I never thought about that,” Maddie said. She opened the Twinkie and walked over to where Buck was starting the water for the noodles. She sat down on one of the stools and ripped the Twinkie in half. She handed the other half to Eddie, who shook his head.

“If I eat that right now, I’ll not want to eat dessert, and I want ice cream. I saw how much was shoved in the chest freezer we have.”

“You guys really follow strict diets?”

“Eh, not so much, but I’ve never been a big processed food eater. I do have to watch what I put into my body to make sure that it’s not all horrible. If you listen to my mother, I’m feeding Chris nothing but ready to heat meals and buying drive-thru stuff all the time. I wouldn’t be able to do my job if I ate like that. Yeah, I sneak stuff, but I make sure that I’m not doing it too often. I like feeling good, and I love my job, so I want to make sure I’m fit for it.”

“You burn too much stuff,” Buck said.

“Okay, so I like to cook over high heat. You have Chris turning it down when I’m cooking now. It messes me up, but he just laughs when he does it.”

“You don’t need to cook over that high of a heat for everything. Just be thankful that I haven’t been teaching him how to cook, or he would just throw you out of the kitchen.”

“You keep threatening that but never do it.”

“No, because I know better. He’ll throw me out as well.”

Maddie started to laugh, and it drew Buck’s attention to her. She looked at Buck with a soft look in her eyes and her hand over her mouth to cover her laugh. She hadn’t smiled at him like that in a long time. It was a good thing. It was what Buck wanted for her, to be happy and healthy. Getting away from Doug was just the first step in her getting better. Buck knew that things would be rocky while she was in therapy. Buck took a lot of steps back for every step forward in therapy.

“So, what are we having?” Scott asked.

“Spaghetti and meatballs,” Eddie answered.

“Really?” Maddie asked.

“Of course, you are the one who is the most upset after the day, so your favorite meal with your favorite pasta.”

Maddie started to cry, and she looked like she needed a hug. Eddie walked over and wrapped his arms around her. Buck was thankful as he had just opened up the bag of ground beef to drop into the bowl.

“What can I do to help that doesn’t involve tears?” Scott asked.

“Well, I do need onions diced,” Buck said.

“Well, I don’t mind those tears. I just don’t like being leaked on.”

Eddie snorted, and Maddie laughed in the middle of a soft sob. Eddie rubbed his hand up and down her back as he worked on getting her settled down. It took a few minutes, and Buck had the beef and the turkey mixed together. Bobby was there then to start adding the spices to the bowl and the oats.

“Buck, what did you do to make her cry?” Hen asked.

“Talked Bobby into making her favorite meal. She cries at the drop of a hat, so don’t even try and blame it on me. She’s cried at a kitten walking around before.”

Maddie wiped at her eyes with the tissue that Hen handed over. “He’s right. I do cry very easily, whether upset or happy. It’s kind of horrible sometimes, but it’s me, and I learned to accept it a long time ago.”

“There is nothing wrong with crying,” Eddie said. He shook his head when Buck snorted. “Outside of you know the whole using it to make people do what you want, but then I don’t really consider that real crying since it’s put on. I’m pretty sure that it’s something that all people in the acting industry needs to be able to do it. I’ve seen a lot that I can tell are fake crying, but some look like their best friend really did die.”

“Those are the good actors and actresses,” Scott said.

“I have movies that I cry every time that I watch them,” Hen admitted.

Buck focused on making the food. He hoped that Eddie kept his mouth shut about Buck crying like a baby at Bambi. He had only been appeased by Eddie’s leaving the room cause he couldn’t watch the end of it. So it had been Buck and Chris crying all over each other.

“What movie makes you always cry, Buck?” Scott asked.

Buck shrugged his shoulders, and he sent Eddie a glare.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen many movies more than once.”

“What?” Scott asked. He looked around at the rest of the team, all scattered around.

“We didn’t watch many things like that growing up,” Maddie said. She huffed and dabbed at her eyes again. “I got a thorough movie education in college. I took a media studies class.”

“I didn’t. It wasn’t anything that would help with the degree I was going for before I was kicked out twice for grades.”

“Twice?” Hen asked.

“Undiagnosed ADHD that I had no coping mechanisms for. I learned a lot about myself running around the country and ways to adapt. I found that when I was fully engrossed in what I was learning, I could spend hours reading. The fire academy really helped me figure out myself on that front.”

“I remember Bobby saying you were top of your class in all aspects, just really rough around the edges,” Hen said. She looked at Buck like she was seeing him for the first time.

Buck wasn’t sure that he liked how all of them were looking at him. He wasn’t saying it to get pity or anything like it. He looked down at the meat as Bobby added the last few things. The scoop that they used to measure out the meatballs was laid beside him and then the tray for cooking them in the oven. Bobby moved over to start the sauce on the stove.

“We worked on those edges that his family should have helped him with years before, and he turned into one of the best firefighters I know,” Bobby said.

“So what movie makes you cry every time?” Eddie asked his eyes on Hen.

Hen nodded, and she spun into a tale.

Bobby’s hand on his shoulder helped to calm down Buck the rest of the way.

—

Eddie slipped up behind Buck in the bathroom. He had already locked the bedroom door, and while they were both already showered, Eddie wanted to get Buck messy.

“What are you doing?” Buck asked. He looked up at Eddie in the mirror.

“Playing,” Eddie said as he molded his front to Buck’s back. He dipped his head down to inhale the scent of Buck. There was something that Buck’s natural scent did to the stuff he used at home that made Eddie’s mouth water at the thought of licking Buck all over. Hell, he wanted to get his hands on him and just have his fun.

“Is the door locked?”

“Yes, it is. The bedroom door, I didn’t lock the bathroom door. Don’t want to have any issues getting you on the bed if I want you on there.”

“And what do you have planned for me?”

“Whatever I want. Didn’t make a decision at all. Just gonna go with what feels good.”

Buck shuddered as Eddie gripped his hip and then slowly moved his hand toward Buck’s front, slipping his hand under the edge of his boxers as he did. He ghosted the tips of his fingers over the skin just above Buck’s cock.

“What do you want right now?” Buck asked.

“I haven’t decided yet.” Eddie curled his fingers into a little scratch, loving the way that Buck first tried to get away, then he pressed into it when his body registered that Eddie wasn’t aiming to hurt.

“Why not?”

“Cause I just thought of it. I have an idea, though. How about you lean over, keeping your eyes on yourself in the mirror, and I’ll do what I want?”

Buck swallowed, his Adam’s Apple bobbing and his eyes showing his interest.

“Yeah, you like that idea a lot, don’t you?” Eddie turned his hand and snagged Buck’s shorts to pull them off him. He stepped back to go back to the bedroom to grab the lube. He debated snagging a condom for easy clean-up, but the thought of sliding into Buck was just enough that he felt like a quick clean-up in the shower wasn’t going to bother either of them. It was torture of the kind as Eddie looked into the bathroom to see Buck on his elbows in the bathroom and looking at the mirror and not at Eddie.

The trust Buck displayed as Eddie came into the room made his heart beat a little faster. Eddie laid his hand on Buck’s shoulder before drifting it down to cup Buck’s ass cheek. He looked to see that Buck’s eyes were on Eddie, so Eddie held up the lube but made sure that Buck saw he had no condom.

“Yes,” Buck said.

“Good. I’m going to enjoy making a mess of you.” Eddie slicked up his thumb and then two fingers, gliding his thumb over Buck’s hole, making Buck try and push back onto his finger. So Eddie snagged him by the shoulder with his free hand after dropping the lube. “Stay.”

“Fuck, Eds,” Buck whispered. He almost dropped his head, but he jerked his head up a second into the action.

“Yeah, keep watching as I take you apart.”

Buck moaned at that, and he groaned as Eddie’s thumb pushed inside. He kept it slow as he moved and waited for Buck to react.

“More,” Buck begged just seconds into Eddie having his thumb inside as far as it could go.

“That’s it,” Eddie said as Buck relaxed as he pulled his digit free of him. He pressed back in with two just seconds later and enjoyed how Buck was taking it.

There were times that Buck was so responsive that Eddie almost wanted to keep on doing what he was doing for as long as possible. He just wanted to have some fun with Buck and never stop. Eddie loved how Buck took his fingers, knowing that his cock would go in pretty much the same. It wasn’t long before Buck went down a little more, arching his ass toward Eddie.

“What? You want me to fuck you like this? Looking at yourself as you get fucked?”

Buck only nodded his head. He locked his eyes with Eddie’s in the mirror. His body shuddered as Eddie found his prostate and rubbed it.

“Fuck,” Buck gasped before trying to pull away from Eddie.

“Ah, go ahead. I’ll work you up again.”

Eddie worked Buck until he came, and that was when he pulled free and moved Buck to sit on the counter. He pressed himself up between Buck’s legs before wrapping them around him. Buck grabbed his arms and pulled him closer to kiss him.

Slowly they worked themselves back up to where Buck was hard again, and Eddie was aching to be inside of him.

“Still want me flipped over?” Buck asked when Eddie started to slick up his cock.

“Do you want to see yourself as I slid inside you?”

“God, yes, I do, Eddie.” Buck moved without Eddie even prompting him. He draped himself, overlaying his stomach on the edge and angling his hips to where Eddie had access.

Sliding into Buck was a little like going to heaven. He slowly pressed all the way in and enjoyed the feel of Buck fluttering around him. He stayed inside of Buck until the want to move became greater than the feeling of just having Buck around him.

Eddie pushed up and leaned over until Buck looked at him in the mirror. “I would stay like this forever if I could, pressed inside you. Feeling you around my cock, loving the feel of me inside of you.”

Buck’s hand shot back and tried to grab at Eddie’s hip, but they were both just sweaty enough that his fingers just slipped off Eddie’s body. Eddie pulled out just as slowly as he pushed in the first time.

Watching Buck, Eddie pushed back inside. He loved how Buck’s face changed as he finally got what he wanted. It might not be all he wanted, but it was enough. Eddie rocked in and out as slow as he could go until Buck’s body just gave out on him, and he dropped his head down and let out wonderful and lovely sounds.

Eddie couldn’t take it anymore. He pulled all the way out, manhandling Buck toward the bed and pushing him down onto it, and got back inside of him as quickly as he could; he pushed Buck’s legs into his chest and kissed his lover.

Buck came again shortly after Eddie began moving in him again, and Eddie let himself come as soon as possible. Eddie let Buck’s legs go, and he settled down onto the bed and held onto Buck.

“She’s alive, Buck. She made it, no worse for the wear, or at least not too badly off.”

—

Buck snagged an apple and waved it at the fruit vendor, who nodded her head and wrote down what they had gotten from her on the sheet of paper. They would settle up once the day was done, and they were freed from this. The snacks and water they carried on the rigs were good, but this lady had carted herself over to them and the people who were waiting to be cleared to get their cars out to make sure that they had something.

At this point, they were just on damage control to make sure the fire was out. The building was a total loss, but it was still heavy enough that there was no getting the cars out as they had to pass through a narrow gap between the burning building and the steel fence. All of them had been moved back from the building to give as much access as possible to the fire teams that were there.

Buck was taking ten to rehydrate and get something to eat in him that wasn’t protein bars.

“I’ve gone through half,” the woman said. She tapped where the apple bin itself was almost empty. The bananas were all gone. “Should I get more?”

“Nah, we are pretty close to done. Have many of the staff gotten anything?” Buck asked.

“A few. It’s mostly been the water. I’m glad for the cases you brought over. I don’t carry much on my cart since it’s heavy. I’m glad you guys do for things like this.”

“Yeah, we do it just for that reason. After me is Eddie. He’s the one I asked you to save that banana for.”

“Diaz, right? The lovely-looking tanned man?”

“The lovely-looking tanned and taken man.”

“Ah, love makes you even prettier.” The woman laughed when Buck started to blush.

Buck turned and left with a smile on his lips. He was sure the woman was old enough to have birthed Buck, yet she flirted. He didn’t mind. He knew there was nothing behind it.

Getting back where Bobby was, Buck looked at where he would be going back to work on spraying down. Eddie would be going after for a ten-minute break where they just mainly got out of some gear and opened their turnouts to get fresh air. It was a little break that did them wonders on longer fires like this.

“Your turn,” Buck said when he got closer to Eddie and tapped him on the shoulder. They transferred the hose easily before Eddie walked away. Buck looked back to see him go, the hose still blasting at the building. When he was sure that Eddie was actually taking the break he turned back to the fire.

Buck’s thoughts became only about the fire. He was solely focused on it like he always was. He knew that he was being watched by the other teams close to him since he was alone. He watched them as well when he needed to look away from the fire.

“BUCK!” Bobby yelled from behind him.

Buck closed off the hose, and he stepped back until he could see Bobby.

“When Eddie’s back in a few, I want you two to work on getting in the area that was just doused and see about working on the fire from inside that room.” Bobby pointed at where one of the trucks had put out a pretty nice-sized area. It wouldn’t be hard to get in there and do their work, and getting to the source was going to help them. There was still no cause that they could find. The investigators would find it, but it was rare for them to not be able to at least understand a little of how a fire started. The staff hadn’t been near where the fire had begun.

“You got it, Cap,” Buck said. He walked back to what he had been doing and would stay there until Eddie came to him. They were the team closest to that area that wasn’t on the trucks. It was a few firehouses there to contain it. The others were spread around. All of the staff that were on the grounds were found before the first truck had even gotten there.

The rest of the controlling the fire went like clockwork. They were able to figure out when the fire would do something crazy and anticipate. Buck was exhausted, and he was ready to go back to the station and get some sleep in. They would be taken off rotation for a short while to allow them to make sure that everyone was fine to snatch a few hours of sleep. They didn’t need to be worn out and make a mistake.

“Anything to report?” Bobby asked.

“Sheer exhaustion,” Eddie said.

“Besides the things I already know,” Bobby said with a quirk on his lips.

“Nah, I need like a day of sleep, but I know that two hours will do me some good,” Buck said.

“We will be off for four hours once we reach the station. We can go through a drive-thru and grab something on our way back, eat, clean up, and then sleep.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” Buck said.

“Well, Buck’s hit the pure exhaustion point; he’s not driving us back,” Hen said as she wrapped her arm around Buck’s shoulder. He leaned into her and sighed when she turned it into a full-on hug.

“I’ll drive,” Bobby said.

“Good. I didn’t want to anyway,” Buck said.

“Damn,” Eddie said. He tugged Buck from Hen’s arms and started to steer Buck toward the engine. “I guess you are tired. You rarely don’t jump at the chance to drive.”

“I can’t even flip you off; I’m too tired.” Buck pulled out of Eddie’s hold to head to the engine to get in there. Eddie still had his gear to stow, so he had a few minutes to just sit without anyone bothering him. He walked around the front of it to get in on the far side. He wasn’t gonna get in on the other side cause then he would have to move to the middle. He chose the jump seat. He opened the door as he heard something. Buck looked to the right, peeking around the door, and found nothing there. He looked to the left as he saw the car headed toward him. He tried to jump up into the truck, but the car caught his legs and took the door off. He got settled in the seat and waited for everyone else to arrive.

Buck knew nothing had been broken, but his legs were on fire. He let them hang for a few seconds before checking them over. He would be going to the ER.

The whoop of sirens made Buck feel good. He hoped that someone with a level head dealt with the idiot who had tried to take him out. There was a huge space for at least four cars to drive past the engine to get out. It was insane that the guy had tried to take him out. He got that they were pissed about it, but they could have gone home and then come back for the cars; most of the staff had done that. They were not that far from public transportation, and a few staff had others pick them up and would drop off other people as well. It wasn’t the LAFD’s fault that the people who designed this parking lot only had a single, narrow egress point.

“Buck?” Eddie asked as he came around the engine. He touched Buck’s side and nowhere else.

“It’s fine. Well, it’s not fine, but I don’t think I’ve broken anything. I’m gonna raise up, and you can get my pants off me,” Buck said.

“Okay. Hen’s getting gear and will meet us here. Tell me.” Eddie started to untie Buck’s boots and get them off his feet.

As soon as his socked feet were visible, Buck wiggled his toes, and it didn’t hurt him any more than what it already hurt.

“I got up here, but he caught the lower parts of my legs. I was not pulled out of there, though, as I kept on moving. I have not put weight on my legs, but I did a cursory check. They don’t feel broken. They are on fire, though, so I am not the best judge of that.”

“Okay, up,” Eddie said.

Buck got his arms under himself, and he lifted up to allow Eddie to get his lower layers off. He was kind of glad he had gone with one of his better pairs of briefs to work in today. They would make sure that he showed nothing off beyond the size of his cock, which everyone around him had seen encased in underwear before, so that wasn’t a big deal. He just hoped no news crews got sight of him. That was the last fucking thing he needed.

Eddie worked on getting him nearly half-naked. He got the pants down and off Buck without making Buck hurt any more than he already was.

Buck looked at his legs, and he nearly sagged down in relief when he saw that his legs were not swelling all that much yet. The faster the swelling happened, the worse it was going to be.

“Scott, get the ambulance over here,” Bobby said.

“Yeah, please, I don’t think I’m that hurt, but I want to be checked out,” Buck said. He lowered himself down, his legs screaming as he bumped one into the side of the engine.

“Not fighting on that?”

“I was hit by a car. I’m not gonna fight getting checked out. Not with my leg,” Buck said.

“Who do you want with you?”

“Scott and Eddie. Hen can go back and get some sleep. Drop me off, and then they can go back,” Buck said.

“I don’t deserve sleep?” Eddie asked.

“Like you are going to even leave the ER until I’m checked out. So don’t even on that,” Buck said.

“Well, you have a point. I’ll drive, and Scott can stay in the back with you to make sure nothing happens.”

Buck nodded his head. He didn’t want to fight, but he really wanted painkillers already.

—

Walking hurt like a bitch, and Buck was pissed at the world. He looked at Eddie, who was beside him as he walked into the firehouse.

“What’s the prognosis?” Scott asked.

“A few days off work, and then I go back to my leg doctor, and he’ll make the choice. I can do working out as long as I just use my upper body. No breaks, no fractures, no chips. Just a lot of bruising. Eddie’s got the paperwork. I’m to walk as much as I can without it hurting.”

Eddie left Buck where he was and went to get a chair.

“You need to go home, Eddie?” Bobby asked.

“Nah. Buck just needs to get his feet up. I thought I would stick him in the truck and let him sleep in there while I finish the shift, just in case you guys need someone on hand. Stairs are against the doctor’s orders.”

“Athena caught the man. There was a small chase. She’s throwing the book at him. Fleeing the scene after hitting a firefighter is going to make his life hard for a long time. He’s probably going to get fired for that alone,” Bobby said.

“Good. I’m pissed as hell,” Eddie said.

“There was a camera pointed at it, and the news crew got it all, and yes, they stopped as soon as they realized that you were getting kind of naked. They already handed over the footage. It’s aired on the news, but they kept your face out of it, but it’s not gonna be hard to figure out it’s you,” Hen said.

“I don’t need that again.”

“Buck up, Buck,” Scott said as he walked over with what looked like huge ice packs in his hands.

“Ugh, I hate you. You are no longer my favorite firefighter.”

“I was never your favorite firefighter. Even before Eddie here came along, it was always Tommy.”

“Speaking of Tommy,” Tommy said.

Buck turned his head to look over at him. Tommy was dressed in his work uniform and looked at Buck with a glare. “What are you doing here?”

“I was sent by Abuela, Pepa, and Chris. I’m pretty sure that Emma sent me as well. At least that’s what I think that noise was. We are just coming back from a call, and my captain said that instead of the 118 being down two guys, I could bring you home and then stay with you. Also, there is already a news crew outside of your place. Fame is not your friend. So I’m taking you to Abuela’s place. Then when Pepa gets there in about an hour, she’ll take me home. The couch is already set up for you.”

“I hate you all.” Buck didn’t mean it, and he knew that they all knew it, but he had to say it.

Chapter Four

Buck grabbed the ice pack that had gotten from the freezer, and he settled down on the couch after making sure he was set up for staying on the couch for at least an hour. He draped the pack over the bruises that were from the impact point. He knew that he was lucky as hell that he hadn’t been hurt worse. His doctor’s appointment had gone well, and he was just waiting for someone to bring his child back to him. Buck hadn’t wanted to bring Emma with him to the doctor’s office, so he had asked Stella to watch her since she was on a staycation.

“Fuck,” Buck said as the cold crept into his legs. He was used to it, but he hated it. He had done his simple working out that he was allowed now. Once it was sure that he wasn’t going to mess his body up anymore, he would be allowed to go back to his full routine. He was thankfully cleared to drive, and while pushing the brake and gas hurt, it wasn’t more than stretching out muscles that didn’t like the movement since they were sore. If they were able to be bruised, they would be.

Snagging the remote, Buck turned on the TV to hopefully get this new documentary screened before watching it with Chris. He wasn’t sure that things were going to be all that horrible in it, but after one gave Chris a few nightmares on death scenes, Buck liked to watch them first to make sure that it wasn’t too bad.

Buck was just about to reach over for his bowl of snacks when his phone rang. He grabbed it instead and slipped back to sitting before he looked at the screen. He assumed it would be Eddie, who might be bored at work and want to talk, but it wasn’t. It was Durand.

“Hello,” Buck said.

“Mister Buckley, this is Regina from the office at Durand. We are having a small issue with Chris, and he’s not talking to us about why he got into a fight at school. I called Mister Diaz, and he said he was at work, but you were not. Do you mind coming in so we can figure out what is going on? Now, Chris is not in trouble. He was attacked, and we have many students who agree that he was trying to leave when the other kid hit him. But the kids didn’t hear the first things said to Chris by the other child. This is the other child’s last strike, and he’ll be suspended for the rest of the year and will not be allowed back. Chris is also fine, and he was checked out by the nurse. I can’t figure out what is happening without Chris talking since the other boy will not admit what he did. He never has.”

“It’ll take me a few. I was injured on a call. I can drive, but I’m slow moving around.”

“Oh, that’s fine. We will wait. We have someone going and getting them trays from the lunchroom to be able to eat, and they are being kept in different rooms. Chris asked for work to do classwork. Now, we don’t have notations in your files. Chris asked for us to call Papa but didn’t give us who that is.”

“I’m Papa. Eddie is Dad.”

“Great. I’ll make that note. Not that it matters but given you both work the same shift, it’s telling when he gives us a name. He’s worked up, and we didn’t want to press.”

“I’ll help figure things out.”

“Seen you soon, Mister Buckley.”

Buck grabbed the ice pack and pulled it up. He walked to the kitchen to put it up for him to use when he got back. He texted Stella that he had to go and deal with an issue at Chris’ school, and he would call when he was back to have someone bring over Emma. He wasn’t sure what the hell was going on. He texted Eddie that he was heading to figure out what was happening with Chris.

The drive to Durand was thankfully short, given the time of day that it was. He was pretty happy with finding a good spot close to the doors as well. There was a guard who nodded at him when he came inside and headed toward the office.

Buck spotted Regina right off. She was one of the ones who were outside for children collection more often than not.

“Mister Buckley, Chris is right this way. He’s finished eating and is doing today’s reading for his English class.”

“Thanks.” Buck followed her to the room that Chris was in. It was in the nurse’s area, which was at least good and probably the only place that kids could be left that wasn’t the ISS rooms. Buck watched Chris for a few seconds. Chris wasn’t one to start a fight, and he knew how to leave one, but he also knew how to use his crutches to make sure that he could defend himself if someone came after him. Eddie and Buck both knew that just because Chris walked away didn’t mean he would be allowed to keep on walking. Bullies sometimes allowed it, and other times they did not.

“Hey, Chris,” Buck said.

Chris turned his head, and Buck knew that they would be stopping by the 118 before going home. The black eye that Chris was sporting would send Eddie into a fit, and it would be better where Hen or Scott could look at Chris for Eddie’s peace of mind.

“Tell me what happened. It didn’t have to do with your father and I in a relationship, did it?”

“Oh, no. I didn’t…” Chris looked behind Buck.

“I’ll be telling them what it’s about, Chris, but the kid is gone no matter what. He’s at the end of what’s allowed here before he has to be kicked out. So telling me is your best option.”

“Mister Buckley,” Regina said as she came out of the office toward him. “Did you want us to get the classwork for the rest of the day?”

“Yes, please. I’ll take Chris to see Eddie so that Eddie knows that Chris is fine. He’ll be back tomorrow, though.”

“Good. I’ll do that and have it all ready for you.”

Buck looked back at Chris and cocked an eyebrow.

“He wanted me to do his homework for him, and I said no. He told me I would do it, or he would make my life here miserable.”

“I see. What homework?”

“Science. I got the best grade in the class on the last few quizzes and the last test. He’s failing that class, and his parents are upset with him. I just wanted to get out of it, and I was going to tell Miss Flores, but he didn’t let me leave when I tried again; he punched me.”

“Yeah, I see the shiner. How does it feel?”

“It feels fine. It hurts when I say certain words as it pulls on my jaw bone, and that hurts up there, but I was checked out.”

“I’m sure that you were. So if I invite the principal into the room, you’ll tell her everything that is going on?”

Chris shrugged, and he looked down at his papers again. He started to work on what he was doing. So Buck went out to talk to Principal Summers. She was filling out paperwork of some kind.

“How is he?”

“He’s good. He’s acting a little off, but he might just be freaked out a little bit. He’ll talk to you about what happened. And I’ll sit in to make sure that he doesn’t clam up again. Is that okay?”

“Sure. That would work just fine.”

—

Eddie saw the Jeep drive past, and he looked at the time. Buck parked in the spot close to the doors, out of the way of the engines when they had to leave but closer than the normal parking. He grabbed his radio and slung it over his body as he headed to where Buck was just getting out of the Jeep. The man stopped, and he leaned against the driver’s side door.

“So, what happened at the school?” Eddie asked.

“Well, I have Chris, and he’s going to do some work at home. Do not freak out, Eddie.”

“What happened?”

“There was an incident with a bully, and Chris was trying to get away. The bully wouldn’t let him and then attacked. He got off one good hit, and Chris has a shiner. It’s more than the boy’s last strike, and he’ll be suspended. Once we talk to Chris, we can figure out if something more needs to be done. It’s all on video, and the principal will hand it over if we want it to be escalated above the whole he gets suspended.”

“We can decide that after I talk to Chris.”

“I already told Chris that he would probably get checked out here. He is talking fine, and the concussion check that I did came up just fine. He’s pretty good off, honestly. I think I’m more freaked out than he is.”

“It happens. I’ve had it happen more than once. He’s just all calm, and I’m a mess cause he’s hurt. The one time, he fell and cut himself. I was freaking out a little, and Chris was just sitting on the couch, just looking at me like I was crazy. I don’t think that much phases him. I wish that more did. I’m sure that we will find something that does at some point, but I don’t want to know what it is.” Eddie walked around the Jeep, and he opened the passenger side door in the back.

Chris was sitting in his seat with his stabilizer booster seat keeping him upright without taxing his body to do it. It was also going to help Chris if he was in an accident. Buck had recently upgraded all of the ones that were in the various vehicles for Chris. Tommy’s truck had one, and there was even a spare at the house. Pepa’s vehicle had one. Eddie hadn’t been able to tell Buck no, though.

“Wow, you look like you went a few rounds with a prizefighter,” Eddie said.

“Dad,” Chris said, but he finally smiled at that. He tipped his face up and showed Eddie the whole thing.

“How do you feel?” Eddie asked.

“Good. I feel more ashamed about what happened. The teachers all came running as soon as everyone started to scream when I was punched. The teachers were all good, and they took care of me. It wasn’t like last time. There were just a few of us, and it happened so fast. It hurt, but it was over quickly. I didn’t even fall down. I did the check on my limbs like you taught me, and I was fine. Except this.” Chris waved his hand at his face, and he rolled his eyes when Eddie touched around it.

“You are getting checked out by Hen or by Scott, your choice.”

“Misha,” Chris said.

“Misha?”

“Yeah, she likes Star Wars a lot, and she likes to talk to me about it. I really like her.”

“Okay, Misha then.” Eddie stepped back to let Chris get out of the seat on his own and slip out. He grabbed his crutches before going all the way out. He got himself steady with ease, and Eddie felt so proud that Chris was growing so much. He adapted to how the world worked for him and made the world his own.

“Good. I like her a lot.”

“I’m glad, mijo.” Eddie ruffled Chris’ hair, and he looked at Chris’ backpack in the back of the Jeep. Durand was a good school, but Eddie wasn’t sure that he wanted to keep Chris there. There seemed to be issues left and right there so far this year. He would talk to Chris over the summer, and they would make their plans.

Carla was more than willing to help him pick a new school; she had said it a few times when issues at Durand came up. Eddie stayed close to Chris as they went into the station proper.

“Hey, what’s with the Chief-in-Training being here?” Scott asked after glancing over at them. His head turned back, and he dropped the clipboard in his hands. “Hey, what happened?”

“A bully punched me,” Chris said.

“A bully punched you. Are you sure you are fine?” Scott moved over to crouch in front of Chris.

“Misha will look over me,” Chris said.

“Of course.” Scott stood up, and he waved them over to where the women were all working out.

Misha, Mia, and Hen all reacted as soon as Chris got into their line of sight. Misha was the first to make it to Chris as she was the one who had the least stuff that she was doing as far as items used to work out. She crouched in front of Chris.

“What happened? Have you seen a doctor?” Misha asked.

“No, I haven’t, but that’s why I’m here. The nurse said I didn’t need to see a doctor, but Buck wants a second opinion that is not Dad.”

“Cause Dad will say you are going no matter what,” Buck said.

Eddie bumped his shoulder into Buck’s and saw how Buck gave him a smile. Eddie would have probably taken Chris to the hospital, which would have upset Chris.

“Well, then who do you want, Mister Christopher, to look at you?” Mia asked.

“Misha.”

“Well then, let’s get this done. Is the ambulance stocked?” Misha asked as she looked at Eddie.

“Yeah, I got it all done. It’ll be just what you need. Keep out what you use, so I can restock quicker. I’m going to get Buck some ice as I think he was supposed to be icing his legs when the school called him.

“I would not say no to ice. I need it, and I know it.”

Eddie helped Buck over to a place he could sit down, which was the weight lifting bench. Buck settled down easily and got both of his legs up, and the pinched look around his eyes disappeared from his face as soon as he did. He caught Bobby’s eyes, and Bobby nodded his head. They already had a floater for the few days that Buck was gone from the team, and then he would be the man behind so that the station was covered.

Buck took the ice packs that Scott got him while Misha and Chris were off.

“So?” Eddie asked.

“Homework. It was over homework. Chris is doing well in classes, and one of the kids was afraid of failing out, so he thought that he could pressure Chris to do homework for him. Chris walked away, and the kid went after him. I think he didn’t want to talk about it because he was afraid of retaliation. I have no clue about the kids the other kid is friends with, but Summers is looking into that and making sure that things are safe for Chris. Chris was seen to be trying to leave, and the other kid grabbed him, spun him around, punched him, and that was when Chris hit him with his crutch to get away. There will be nothing done to Chris about all of it.”

“I wonder if he should be moved,” Eddie said.

“We will talk to him about that. It might get better next year. We will see how the rest of this year goes.”

“Yeah.” Eddie moved one of the packs when it moved a little bit. “Bobby is okay with me going home if Chris wants that. Morgan and the rest can handle things if needed.”

“Oh, hey, they had Morgan come and replace me for a few days? Where is he hiding?” Buck asked. His head turned to look around for the man that Eddie knew had gone to the academy at the same time as Buck.

“He’s cooking a late lunch after the call that ran long. Bobby’s letting him have free reign in the kitchen. So he’s having some fun. There will be more than enough for both of you to eat.”

“Yeah, he didn’t like the stuff the school gave him. I told him I would make him a rice bowl when we got home. I’ll take what Morgan makes, though.”

Eddie laid his hand on Buck’s shoulder.

“How are you really feeling?”

“Good. The ache is just the bruises, and the muscles are still kind of being bruised all around. I’ll be good by the time that I’m back. I’m much better than I was yesterday. Every day I feel just about half as much in pain as I was the day before. I’m good.”

“I’m glad. Now, you two are staying down here. I’ll get our food and bring it all down to us. I don’t want you on steps right now, and he’ll want to be where you are, and you will want to be where he is.”

“You know us so well.”

Eddie laughed, and he looked at where Misha had brought Chris over.

“I’ve got some new ice packs that we got as a sample system to pass out for things. I’ll get one from the freezer. It’s gonna be like a pirate patch, only it’ll cover the bruise, not his eye. That’ll help with the swelling. He’s all good, though. There is nothing that makes me think he needs to be seen by anyone. Do checks in the morning to make sure the swelling isn’t getting any worse, but other than that, he’s good to go.”

“Thanks, Misha,” Eddie said.

“Food?” Buck asked.

“Do you only think with your stomach?” Eddie asked.

“No, and you know it.” Buck waggled his eyebrows at Eddie.

—

Buck rubbed at the bridge of his nose, and he looked where the bedroom door to Chris’ room had just been slammed shut. It was just a few more days until Buck was back to work, and he was pretty sure that he and Chris would be happy when it happened.

“Papa?” Emma asked as she looked down the hall from the kitchen door.

“It’s fine, Emma, love. You head back and eat.”

Emma looked like she didn’t want to do what Buck wanted her to do, but she did. She disappeared, and Buck walked over to Chris’ door and knocked. He was about to open his mouth when something bit his foot. Buck looked down to see Noelle attacking a toy that was near his foot. He moved his foot and kicked the toy down the hall. Noelle chased after it and disappeared into the living room area where she would lose the toy under something she couldn’t get under and cry about it.

Buck loved that kitten to the ends of the earth, but she was in a mood lately. Buck figured that she would go through another bigger growth spurt and end up eating them out of house and home.

“Chris, can I come in?” Buck asked.

“No.”

“Okay, well, we will talk about the slamming of the door, which you know you are not allowed to do, and the screaming at me like that.”

“Go away! You are not my father!” Chris yelled.

The words hurt again, and Buck knew that Chris didn’t mean them. He was upset about not getting to go to the slumber party at his friends’ house, but Eddie and Buck had agreed that it wasn’t the kind of house that they trusted Chris to be in all night long. However, Eddie had been called in to stay over to cover up to half a shift while one of the other firefighters spent at least the morning in court over an issue of a fire and having to give his testimony.

So Buck had to be the bad guy, and he hated it. He hated it when Chris was upset with him. He knew that as a parent, it was going to happen. He didn’t look forward to Emma’s being upset with him the first time. He looked to the side and swallowed.

“Until you can come out and talk to me in a normal fashion, you can stay in there, don’t leave unless it’s just to go to the bathroom. If you get hungry, call for me, and we will talk first.”

“LEAVE!” Chris yelled.

Buck bit at his lip, and he headed to the bedroom. He stripped off his jeans and laid down on the bed. He had slept for shit due to nightmares after a newscast he saw about a blown-up fire truck due to poor upkeep.

A few minutes later, Noelle came into the room and jumped onto the bed. She licked at Buck’s face before she curled up in the nook made by his neck, chin, and chest.

He wasn’t sure what was going to happen when Eddie got home. He was sure that Eddie would back him up, but there was the fear that he wouldn’t. It was a fear that Buck was sure was wrong, but still, it was there. Just like the fear that he was fucking up with Emma.

There was not a lot of time until lunch, but Buck wasn’t sure that he would be hungry. There was food in the oven and a timer on his phone, which was out in the living room. If Eddie couldn’t get Buck to answer a text, he would call, and only then would Buck get up.

“Nap?” Emma asked.

“Yeah, Lovebug, I’m taking a nap,” Buck said.

It was only seconds before Emma was climbing up onto the bed. She got close and laid down along his body. Buck would hear Chris’ bedroom door open, so it was safe right now for him to go to sleep for a little bit.

The feel of a hand on his back woke up Buck. He opened his eyes to see Eddie sitting on the edge of the bed.

“I was inside a few minutes when the timer on your phone went off. I turned the oven off and went to find you. Emma’s in her room in her bed, and Noelle is with her. Chris is in his room and told me to go away. What happened?”

“Ugh, I need coffee first. I slept deeper than I thought I would. Did he stay in his room?”

“I think so. I didn’t see evidence of that. What happened?”

“He’s not happy about not being able to go to Samuel’s house.”

“The dad’s a drunk,” Eddie said.

“Yes, I know that, but Chris doesn’t understand that, and he can’t understand. Other kids are being let over. I tried to explain it, and he just went off on me. He got upset and stormed to his bedroom screaming before he slammed the door.”

“You were crying, Evan. Why?”

Buck rolled onto his back and stretched his legs. It all felt pretty good. He had run on the treadmill at the doctor’s that morning while Chris had played with Emma in the corner. His appointment the day before had been pushed because of an emergency. Buck had been more than happy to do it. It would allow him to go back to work on Monday.

“It was just Chris. He was upset, and he said things that hurt me. It’s nothing.”

“No, it’s not nothing. I make sure that Chris knows it’s not nice to do things like that. Words are not meant to hurt, and he knows it. What did he say?”

Buck shook his head. He didn’t want to admit it. He still had a little bit of a voice in his head that told him that Eddie would get tired of him like nearly everyone else had in his life. Tommy had stuck around, everyone at the house had, but he wasn’t around them as much now. They didn’t get as much of Buck as they used to, and therefore they weren’t able to get to where they didn’t want him around.

“Evan,” Eddie said.

“Stop,” Buck said.

“No, because you like it, but you don’t like how it sometimes makes you feel. I love you, and I hate to see you hurt. So please, just tell me. I want to fix this.”

“He told me that I wasn’t his father. I know that I’m not you, and I know he just said it to hurt me, but it’s just…”

“You are still working through a few things in therapy, and you think everyone will leave you. Chris hating you means I’ll leave you. Unless you are hurting Chris with intent, I would never leave you. That’s the only thing that would make me leave you, Evan, and you would never do that. You would rather kill yourself than hurt him.”

Buck closed his eyes, and he inhaled deeply before exhaling. He sat up on the bed and waited for Eddie to move to know what Eddie was going to do. He was pretty sure that Eddie would wrap his arms around him. It was just a few seconds later that Eddie did that. He cuddled up to Buck’s back and held on tight.

“He’s upset. What else happened?”

Buck went through it all, and Eddie held him tight throughout it all.

“Well, he’s gonna be upset at how much privilege he has lost over this. Let’s go and get lunch. The testimony only took a short time, so he returned, and I was sent home. It wasn’t the worst shit. I cleaned the Captain’s truck.”

“And I wasn’t there to see it?”

“No, sorry. It got dirty since Bobby did take it to a call last night with the little rain that we did have. We had a busy evening, but a dead night, so I don’t need a nap. Did that truck getting blown up give you nightmares?”

“Yes, cause everyone had to message me about it. It was okay. I just kept waking up. It wasn’t full-on nightmares. Still, the nap did me a lot of good. I don’t think he’ll come out and eat for me.”

“I’ll get him. You work on getting food served up for the four of us. I’ll handle making sure he knows that he needs to wait until lunch is over, and then we can talk.”

—

“Buck, I’m sorry,” Chris said.

Buck closed the book he was reading and laid it aside before looking at Eddie. Chris was standing in front of Buck with a sheet of paper in his hand.

“I’m glad you are sorry, Chris. You hurt me.”

“I know. I didn’t mean to. I was upset, and instead of working through my feelings, I took them out on you. I love you, Buck. You are my father. I didn’t mean it.” Chris started to cry, but he looked at his paper. “I love you so much, and I mean it. Daddy says that you cried yourself to sleep.”

“Well, not really. It was falling asleep anyway while crying,” Buck said.

“I don’t want to make you cry ever again.”

“Well, that’s not going to happen. I mean that honestly as well. You still have a lot of years in you. You will make me cry many more times, but they are going to be happy tears. You mean you don’t want to make me cry out of pain.”

“Yes, that,” Chris said.

Buck opened up his arms and waited for Chris to decide what he would do. Chris fell into his arms, and while he didn’t start to cry, to Buck, it felt like he might at any given second.

“Okay, mijo, come here and sit down so we can talk to you.”

Chris reluctantly pulled out of Buck’s arms. He let Eddie guide him to sit down in the middle of the couch. Eddie sat down beside him, and Buck got up out of the chair and walked over to sit on the other side of him.

“You can’t go to Samuel’s house because his father drinks a lot of alcohol. He’s currently in and out of the courts about it. We’ve been called to scenes where he’s gotten upset, damaged things, and hurt people. The other kids can all run and hide, and we can’t make their parents not let kids over. You can’t move that fast, mijo. You can’t get away from his father if he is drunk and tries to hurt you. We can’t risk that.”

“And that’s all that it is?” Chris asked.

“Well, that’s a lot, but yes. I was going to tell that to you, but you didn’t want to listen to me.”

“I’m sorry. Samuel said his dad’s been upset a lot lately but that his mother would make sure that he wasn’t allowed around anyone else.” Chris sounded bummed.

“Now, we had planned on having a camp out tonight in Tommy’s backyard, but we will stay inside after this. We can plan for a night out camping next time we have a few days off.”

“Okay.”

“You will also be without video games for a few days.”

Chris nodded his head, and he looked really bummed out, but there wasn’t much that they could do about that. Buck felt a little bad as Chris had been looking forward to camping out, but he didn’t want to do it without Chris. He would have to text Tommy. They might still go to dinner over there. It wasn’t going to be anything grand but burgers and hot dogs with a few staple sides.

“Can I get a hug?” Chris asked. He looked at Eddie, but his eyes darted toward where Buck was.

“Yes,” Buck said, and he gently pulled Chris into his lap and wrapped his arms around him to hug him.

Eddie moved over to wrap his arms around the both of them.

Chris didn’t want the hug to last long, he wiggled out from between the two of them, and Buck expected Eddie to pull back, but the man just grabbed Buck and hauled him up and into his lap, tipping Buck’s face to where they could kiss.

“Ugh, I’m going to my room,” Chris said, but he laughed as he said it. Chris did his version of stomping down the hall to make sure they heard him. It wasn’t all that loud, but it was something that he did to get Buck and Eddie to laugh.

“So you survived your first tantrum from a child that wasn’t a toddler,” Eddie said.

“It was hard as hell, and I never want to do that again, but I know I will have to. I hope I have back up this next time.”

“I can’t promise that. Who knows what we are going to be doing. So are you cleared to go back to work?”

“I am.”

“Good. Let’s celebrate.” Eddie laid down and tugged Buck on top of him.

“I just woke up from a nap.” Buck was confused about what Eddie wanted to do on the couch that would be considered celebrating until Eddie gave him a look.

Buck got with the program, and he settled on top of Eddie so they could make out some. It was something they hadn’t had a lot of chance to do over the last while. It was much missed.

Chapter Five

Buck woke up, and he smiled at the feel of Eddie behind him. He looked at the other side of the bed and saw Chris on the edge and Emma between them. This was the kind of day that Buck loved. His family was all around him. He moved his head a little, his neck hating how he was, and laughed when he felt Noelle up at his head. It made him feel loved.

Eddie moved, his arm wrapping around Buck’s waist, then his lips brushing Buck’s neck. It was so good to feel. Eddie was someone who touched a lot, but when they were asleep, Eddie touched a lot more. There was almost no time lately that Buck hadn’t woken up with Eddie touching him in at least one way. More often than not, he was wrapped around Buck or had moved to where Buck was wrapped around him. There was nothing better than this.

“Sleep,” Eddie said.

“Sorry, I am awake for the long term now.’

“Ugh, we have to work, and you are up before dawn.”

“I think Noelle woke me up. Sorry, I crashed early last night; what do you expect?”

“My boyfriend to stay in bed with me.”

“Well, I can’t go anywhere unless I wiggle down the bed. Chris and Emma climbed in with us. It’s why your ass is hanging off the edge of the bed.”

“We need a bigger bed. We will have to shop around for it. Something just as long but another few feet wide because Emma is just going to get bigger.”

“We can go looking later,” Buck said as he started to roll over in Eddie’s arms, wanting to see his lover’s face. “We can get that bigger bed that Chris wants as well. Unless you think that this bed will work for him?”

“We can see. If he wants this one, we will get a new mattress for him.” Eddie leaned in and just brushed his lips over Buck’s. His hand cupped Buck’s hip and pressed a few bruises that Eddie had left the afternoon before while Emma had been down for a nap.

“Quit,” Buck said.

“Well, we gotta do something with all of this extra time.”

“Not with the kids in the bed,” Buck said.

“Well, no. I thought that maybe we could lock the doors in the kitchen and have a little fun.”

“I don’t feel like cleaning up anything.’

“I was thinking more about having a lot of other fun with our mouths.”

“Then get out of this bed,” Buck said.

Eddie gave him a smile and did as Buck told him to do.

By the time they were in the kitchen with the doors locked, they were both giggling like idiots, but Buck got Eddie pressed into the door and kissed him.

On his knees, Buck loved the feel of Eddie’s hand in his hair; there was nothing better in the world, except maybe him pressed into the same door with his hand in Eddie’s hair as Eddie sucked him off.

When Buck came, he pulled Eddie up to kiss him. It was heavenly.

“I want this forever,” Eddie said.

“I know. So do I.” Buck brushed his lips over Eddie’s cheek just as a knock came on the kitchen door.

“NO KISSING!” Chris yelled.

Eddie laughed as he stepped back, ensuring they were both presentable. They were at least enough for Chris to see them. He unlocked the door and waited for Buck to move off it.

“We were just talking about adult things,” Buck said.

“Sure,” Chris answered. He was grinning as he said it. He was without his crutches but looked pretty steady as he came into the kitchen and went right for the island. “I want tea for breakfast.”

“It’s not that cold out,” Eddie said.

“Tea is life,” Chris answered.

“Oh, we are on that kick, huh? Okay,” Eddie said. He walked over to the cabinet of tea stuff that was always restocked, but Eddie and Buck were not the ones to do it. Eddie blamed the other house. He wasn’t even sure which one was doing it. “What kind do you want today?”

“That rose tea. Just rose, not the Earl Gray and rose one.”

“Okay, that’s Summer Rose, Eddie,” Buck said.

Eddie nodded his head and got the baggie out of the tea. He found the scoop they used.

Buck grabbed the water kettle, and he filled it up with water before getting it going.

“And for Emma?”

“Oh, I got something.” Buck slipped up behind Eddie and pressed his body to his back as he found the herbal rose blend from the market that they shopped at for work. He had checked it over, and it was pretty close to what they drank but had no caffeine, so they don’t have to worry about that with Emma.

“Honeybush?”

“Kind of like rooibos but not as astringent. I think she’ll love it, and it will smell close enough that she won’t throw a fit like last weekend. We also got the close enough stuff for all the teas we usually drink.”

Emma had thrown a fit of epic proportions a week before when she had not been given the same tea as the rest of the house.

Buck started making oatmeal for breakfast while Eddie got the cups ready with their little steepers. Emma’s would be cooled down with water to a warm enough temperature to not hurt her, but it still be warm.

The kettle went off as Buck dumped the oats into a bowl after measuring them out. He would eat out of the bowl, so it wouldn’t be any extra clean up.

The smell of rose oil filled the air, and Buck inhaled deeply. This was one of his favorites.

“Tea?” Emma asked when she came into the kitchen.

“I hate them,” Eddie said under his breath to Buck when he passed behind him when the timer went off that the tea was ready. “They are going to be addicted to tea.”

“There are worse things to be addicted to,” Buck said.

“This is true,” Eddie said.

Breakfast was just like every other morning, not enough time before they dropped Emma off across the street with whoever was watching her and then Chris off at school before they went into the station.

—

Eddie had heard the myths about life flashing before one’s eyes before they died, and he had never thought it was anything to put faith in. He hadn’t seen it when he had been shot down in Afghanistan. He hadn’t seen it any other time that he thought he was surely going to die.

The scenes were nothing new, the same ones Eddie thought about when he wanted to be happy.

Buck’s smiling face when he introduced Eddie to Emma the first time that Eddie knew she was Buck’s.

Chris’ happy face when he got to hold Emma when she was nothing but a baby.

Pepa when she laughed because Eddie had told her something that broke through the stoic reserve that she had.

Abuela pinching Eddie’s cheek as she taught him about cooking.

Buck’s soft face when he woke up in bed to find Eddie still there.

Chris’ face when Eddie and Buck told him that Buck and Emma would be staying.

Emma running up to him with flowers in her hand that she picked from Abuela’s house and carried to him, looking proud of herself.

Buck telling Eddie that he loved him for the first time.

Eddie knew that he had to get out of there. He had to do it himself. He wasn’t going to regret saving that boy, no matter what. If that was someone saving Chris, Eddie would hope that someone would do the same thing. If this was his end, Buck would take care of Chris. They would both miss him in ways that would never heal, but it was something that Eddie had made his peace with while under the dirt.

The drainage tunnel wasn’t hard to find, but it was hard to keep himself going even when he felt the tiredness from the cold seeping into his body. He was going to feel this for a few days, not being able to get warm.

Eddie felt that he was barely moving. He could just give up and let the world just go away. There were a few seconds where he felt like it was better to do that than to keep pushing with how his body was now starting to hurt. It would be so easy to just give up.

Memories flashed again, and Eddie found strength in the visions of Buck as he walked for the first time without crutches after his leg was crushed. It was seeing Emma in the hospital when he woke up. It was Buck looking at Eddie like he was the only good thing in his life while holding Emma.

Eddie pushed, and he pushed until he was in open water, and then he went up. He kicked with all of his might and gasped as his lungs were near to the point of making him inhale. He started to blackout from oxygen. The act of it felt like his lungs were burning as he kept himself from inhaling as long as possible.

He kept on pushing as the water got lighter and lighter. He broke the surface and gasped, shredding clothes as he did now that it wasn’t wasting oxygen to get out of it. It wasn’t hard to see where the team was. The lights that were still there were visible. Eddie kicked toward the closest shore, even though it was the farthest one from the team. He dropped more things there and tried not to shiver out of his skin.

The sound of talking had Eddie heading toward it when he got closer to where the team was. He was looking for one person and one person only. He pushed through two guys and found Buck standing right there looking like his world was gone. He was on the ground with Hen standing beside him and Scott with a cuff around his arm, getting his blood pressure.

“Evan,” Eddie said because he didn’t want anyone thinking that it wasn’t him.

“Eddie?” Buck tried to stand up, and he collapsed a little just as he was about up. He was covered in mud and looked like he tried to dig with his hands.

Eddie pushed himself until he was in Buck’s arms. They both dropped like rocks to the ground, wrapped around each other. When they stopped moving, Eddie got his arms to work, and he cupped Buck’s face. The only thing he wanted was to kiss him. The only thing that would make this right was Buck here in his arms. He wanted so much more, but there was no way it was going to happen. Not with having to be checked out, and he knew that Hen or Scott, or even both, would make him get checked out by more than him.

“I love you,” Eddie said.

“I love you, too.” Buck leaned in and pressed his lips to Eddie’s.

Buck pulled back after a minute, looking into Eddie’s eyes.

“Marry me,” Buck and Eddie said at the same time.

Eddie was about to say yes when his body tried to give out a little more. He lurched forward into Buck, who just groaned before moving Eddie into a fireman’s carry to take him to the back of the ambulance. There he submitted to the check that Scott was doing as Buck worked on cutting Eddie’s wet clothes off him. A thermal blanket was next, and Eddie just wanted to pull Buck down with him onto the gurney, but they would get yelled at for it.

“Only you two would propose at the exact same moment while kneeling in mud. Eddie, how are you feeling?”

“Worn out,” Eddie said.

“Okay, well, that’s good that you can talk.”

Eddie let Hen run through all of the checks, but she didn’t like the lethargy he had going on or his breathing.

“You get a one-way trip to the hospital, and you don’t get to say no,” Scott said.

“It had better be the only thing he’s going to say no to,” Buck said under his breath.

“Well, I guess we never did say our answer. So, how about on three?” Eddie asked as he looked away from the screen that showed the beat of his heart and looked at Buck.

On three, they both spoke, “yes.”

—

Eddie wasn’t sure what woke him up, but he was warm, which was something that he hadn’t been for a while. He opened his eyes and found that the room was dim, and the way he was laying told him he wasn’t at home.

“Sorry,” Carla said.

Eddie looked around to see Carla with Emma in her arms, the girl dead asleep, trying to sit down without making too much noise.

“Where am I?”

“Still in your room at the ER. Maddie’s taken Chris to the bathroom. He’s been sleeping over here. You were out of it when we got here.”

“Maddie’s here?”

“Tommy stopped by for a few minutes with clothes for the pair of you. He was too keyed up to sleep, so he asked for a little break at work to come and see you. I think also the station wanted a check to make sure that you really were alive. You were on the news. I didn’t let Chris see it.”

“Good.” Eddie rolled his shoulder to wake up Buck. He really needed to go to the bathroom. “I’m not cathetered, am I?”

“No, you are not,” Buck said. He slowly got off the bed and stretched a little before reaching out and tugging the blanket off Eddie. “Where’s Maddie and Chris?”

“They went to the other bathroom down the hall in case you or Eddie needed this one, and given how many liquids they have been putting into Eddie, I’m not shocked he needs to go.”

“He does. His leg does his wiggle thing when he needs to, and he’s laying down.”

Eddie stopped his leg from moving before reaching out to hold onto Buck as he slowly sat up. Buck got the IV to where he could get out and head into the bathroom. Eddie wasn’t going to trust his legs until he sat down again. He felt rested but still tired.

Buck didn’t allow Eddie to do too much on his own on getting to the bathroom, but at least in there, Buck kept his back to everything even though there were no body secrets between them.

“Buck,” Eddie said when he turned to wash his hands, but his legs were like jelly. Buck was there, holding him up as he got his hands clean. “Do not pick me up.”

“I wasn’t going to. Not safe with your IVs anyway. Once you get enough sleep, things will be different. They said you wore yourself out a great deal but did no other damage. Since you seem to be fully awake, someone will come in and talk to you as soon as we hit the button.”

“Is Hayden okay?”

“Last that I knew, yes, he was. Cold and they worry about pneumonia setting in, but he’s gonna stay in the pediatric ward here.”

Buck helped Eddie back to the bed and got him covered up with the blankets again, but he didn’t get under them himself this time. The door opened, and Chris came into the room with Maddie right there behind him, just holding the door.

“Is Dad awake?” Chris asked as soon as he was fully in the room.

“Yeah, mijo, I am.” Eddie pressed the button to tip the bed up a little so he could look in the room better. Buck hooked him back up to the vitals machine and pressed a button that Eddie was pretty sure made the nurses know that him going off it wasn’t his vitals crashing to nothing, and now that it was pressed, they knew he was fully hooked up again.

“Can I lay with you?” Chris asked.

“Sure thing.” Eddie patted the blankets, and he was happy when Buck got Chris into bed with him. Eddie wished it was big enough for all four of them, but even their home bed was barely big enough for that. Eddie looked over at where Carla had Emma in her arms, the girl still dead to the world.

“She woke up after about an hour of sleeping and was freaking out,” Maddie said.

“Why?”

“She was just screaming for you both. Lily was freaked out a little bit, and she called Tommy to ask about it, and that was when Tommy told her the rumor of a 118 firefighter being trapped in a well. So she called the station to talk to who was behind. Then she called me as I knew someone to talk to who could give her what she wanted. I came over to check in with Carla, and Lily had just got there.”

“I called when we were on our way here, and you were passing out from exhaustion. So we just all waited here. They are kind of turning a blind eye to the fact that there are so many of us in here.”

“That’s good. Now, why were you covered in mud?” Eddie asked.

“I’m not covered in mud.”

“No, not now, but you were. I assume you were able to shower?”

“I did, Eddie.”

“And yes, Buck, we would like to know why you were covered in mud.” Carla gave Buck a look that showed he wasn’t going to duck that question anymore.

Buck started to blush, and he ducked his head down for a few seconds before he shook his head. “The well collapsed, and until Bobby could pull me away, I was trying to dig you out by hand. It wasn’t exactly my finest moment, but he got me controlled, and that was when we were planning on how to get you out.”

“You were on your knees.”

“I couldn’t stand at that point. I was pretty much limp. I knew that I would be fine once we had a plan and I could help with something. I had nothing to do at that moment. Right about the moment you made your presence known, I remembered the layout of what we were working with and the feeder lines and old tunnels that could be in there. I debated getting down into the water with our lights and seeing if I could go through one into where you were. We had the oxygen with us to do it. It would be hard, but it was better than doing nothing.”

“Well, I had a reason to get out of there.”

“No kidding, I know of three off the top of my head,” Buck said. He looked at Eddie with such love in his eyes.

“Just kiss already,” Chris said. He reached up and covered his eyes while he was laughing.

Eddie got his arms to unwind from his son, and he started to tickle Chris a little bit. “I’m getting hungry.”

“Well, good cause the last message I got was that Bobby was coming with food from the place we really like. I am not sure which one is, so we will be happy with whatever he brings since it’s going to be better than liquid eggs from a carton and no salt.”

Eddie laughed, and he wrapped his arms around Chris again and sighed when Buck kissed his forehead.

“Who is hungry?” Bobby asked as he came into the room.

“I’m starved, actually,” Eddie said, and his stomach growled at that.

“Good. I have plenty of food. Maddie, do you mind taking this.” He handed over the bag he was holding and then reached behind to take more from someone else. “The rest of the team just wants to check-in, and then they promised to leave.”

Eddie was glad that no one was staying around for long at all. He felt good, not nearly as tired as he had been but tired enough that too many people would wear him out, and he wanted to enjoy time with Chris, Emma, and Buck before he needed to sleep.

The team left after five minutes with Scott promising some food for the next few days to be dropped off, meals that were easy to make with things already cut and prepared, just had to cook them or toss them in a pan for the oven.

Normally, Eddie would protest, but he was pretty happy with it. They had Chris’s show and tell, and while Eddie wasn’t ready for telling the kids about something that was going to be hard to explain without going into detail that was too old for them, he was looking forward to being in the class with him.

There were only a few short years until Chris wanted to distance himself from him and Buck to seem like he was older than he was. Eddie wasn’t ready for that.

—

Buck checked on Eddie, smiling before he pulled the door shut. He had been released as long as he promised to rest. Buck figured that he would wake up from the nap and be pretty much good. He had put himself to the edge of what he could with saving himself. Emma was in there with him while Chris was in the living room. They had been watching a documentary when Buck wanted to go and check on Eddie.

“Sleeping?” Chris asked.

“Yeah. He’s asleep, and Emma’s plastered to his side. So let’s watch more.”

“What kind of rings are you going to wear?” Chris asked as Buck picked up the remote to hit play.

Buck laid the remote on his leg before snagging the laptop he had been playing with. “Well, silicone rings have gotten really good over the last few years, but I was hoping that maybe your father would be happy with a tattoo ring. Given our job, it would be safer, and we could wear the silicone rings all the time but take them off to work, so we don’t break them. The stuff that we do can be hard on the hands, and I’m worried about what metal rings would do. We could get away with the silicone rings and how they do on hands. There are some really cool ones as well.”

Pulling up the page that Buck had been looking at, he turned to where Chris could cuddle into him and see the page.

“Did you really ask each other to marry at the same time?” Chris asked.

“Yes, and we are not going to be able to live it down in our lives,” Buck said.

Bobby had shown up with their breakfast and hadn’t stayed long, which Buck was happy about. He was rather tired himself, not getting a lot of sleep. Eddie hadn’t taken long to warm up, but the nurses were happy when they didn’t have to worry about him too much because of Buck being there.

Then Maddie and Carla showed up with the kids because Emma refused to be calmed until she saw them. As soon as she had, she had fallen asleep in Carla’s arms and then, after Eddie was awake and had eaten, had been put into bed with him. There had been oatmeal for her when she finally woke up while they were getting the discharge papers. It had been pretty easy to settle down and wait for Eddie to be released. Buck had the list of what he was supposed to look for, and since Eddie hadn’t taken in any water, he was pretty clear to go about his life with little worries. He wasn’t going to miss much.

Chris had been shuttled off to school since he got enough sleep over the night in the other bed in the room. Now he was home, and things were good, at least until Chris’ show and tell on Friday. It was luck that this happened on their longest stretch off. They were able to both relax.

“I can’t wait for you and Dad to be married, Papa,” Chris said.

“I can’t wait for it either. We have both never really talked about it. He’s been married before, and I have no idea what kind of wedding he had to your mother.”

“Mom showed me pictures once. It was pretty small. There were only a few rows of people. I don’t think Dad would want a big wedding again, but also, if you guys include everyone who we are close to, just that would be huge,” Chris said.

“Yeah, it would be.” Buck was actually kind of scared about how many it would be.

There was everyone at the 118 with their various family, the people at the house, who was pretty much just them. Maddie and Eddie’s sisters. Pepa and Abuela, along with maybe Shannon. Buck wasn’t as big on that, but she and Eddie had been talking through text since the end of the trial. Chris talked to her a lot as well, but that was a given, and it was just through emails that they could look at whenever they wanted. Chris couldn’t delete any without a password, and Chris didn’t have it. It wasn’t that they didn’t trust him; it was just that they didn’t want him protecting her if something else came up.

Their wedding would take on a life of its own if they didn’t do something about it from the start to limit it to what they wanted. Still, it might derail at some point.

“How do finger tattoos work?” Chris asked.

“Well, it’s a good thing to get for people who work in jobs that removing rings is needed. There are a lot of them. Some of the guys wear them, but your father and I do a lot of heavier rescue, and while our hands have never been injured, we can’t always play that safe, and I would rather not worry about taking a ring off.”

“Dad said that before when he talked about why he took off Mom’s ring. I know he kept it.”

“Yeah, it’s in the box with his dog tags in the bedroom. I’ve seen it in there before. I don’t hate her, you know that, right? She and your father gave us you. I can’t fault either one of them for that. I don’t want to have a world where you aren’t in it.”

“Same, Papa.” Chris leaned into Buck’s side a little more, and Buck brought up the search he had done for tattoos of rings, with the safe search on so that he didn’t have to worry about Chris seeing something that he shouldn’t.

Buck really didn’t want to have to tell Eddie that Chris saw a tattoo around the base of a cock. Which wasn’t exactly a turn-off to Buck, but he didn’t need to see it, and Chris really didn’t.

“Some of these are really pretty,” Chris said. He pointed at one that was made up of what looked like twinning flowers.

“They can be, but I will have to shop around for good tattoo artists.”

“What if I wanted to do that for a living?”

“I would make sure you got the best teacher and made sure that you did the best at your job.”

“You wouldn’t mind it?”

“No, Chris. I wouldn’t. I learned a lot of things while I was running around the country trying to find a job that I wanted. I learned the value of doing what you love instead of just getting by. If you can do what you love, you can be happy the rest of your life.”

“I like the stories of you on the ranch,” Chris said.

“I know that you do. I like telling them as well.”

Buck looked up as he heard a noise and found Eddie shambling down the hall. He was rubbing at his hair and yawning. He stopped when he saw Chris sitting on the couch with Buck.

“Is it that late already?” Eddie asked.

“Yes, it is. I mean, it’s just before four, so don’t worry about that. We have plenty of time for everything. I have a casserole in the oven, and it’ll kick up in temperature soon to cook for dinner. It’s on warm right now. It’s the one that your Abuela made for us.”

“I’m still really hungry, so that’ll be great. I’m gonna get a shirt,” Eddie said.

Buck laughed, and he flipped to a new page, and he showed Chris the rings that he thought would be good ones for them. The website had a lot of good rings, and Buck was having trouble picking the ones he wanted. He and Eddie would talk about it more.

“So,” Eddie said when he came back into the living room. He looked like he was pretty much just done with everything. “I want Buck cuddles.”

“Fine,” Chris said.

“Fine, fine, fine,” Buck said.

Eddie shook his head, and he walked over to the couch, looking at Buck as he did so. Buck shifted around when Eddie waved for him to do so. Eddie laid down, putting his head into Buck’s lap. He stretched his legs out and got comfortable.

“How are you feeling?” Chris asked.

“I’m good. The sleeping and liquids at the hospital helped a lot. I’ll be good for doing show and tell with you on Friday, mijo.”

“Okay, but if not, we can do it another time. I don’t want you to be unable to go to work.”

“I promise, I’m fine, Chris. I just didn’t like the thoughts I had in my head for part of being stuck down there, and if I could just get into bed with all of you and lay there for hours, it would do me a world of good, but that’s not gonna happen. So I’ll cuddle with Buck, and then tonight we will sleep in our bed.”

Buck began to card his fingers through Eddie’s hair. It felt so strange that just a day ago, they had locked the doors to blow each other in the kitchen, and now here they were engaged and thinking about that step in their life.

“So I have a pair of rings already,” Eddie said.

“Yeah?”

“I found them in a shop across town. Okay, well, that’s a lie. I saw a lady wearing one like it in the shop and asked her where she got it. I ordered them a month ago, in our rough sizes. They are silicone and will stretch out a little, so I got a slightly smaller size so they don’t get too big on us, though if that happens, we can just order more.”

“I was thinking the same but also getting tattoos.”

“Tattoos?”

Buck tabbed back over to the design he liked the best and showed it to Eddie, tipping the screen down so he could see it.

“Okay, yeah, I like that. We both have more than enough tattoos that we know that we will be good on that front. We could get those before we get married and actually swap rings on the day of, and then most of the healing can happen while we are on our honeymoon to wherever we want to go.”

“I haven’t even thought ahead that far. Just mainly the rings.”

“Hmm, I’ll talk to Abuela about a few things. She knows of some great places. She used to wander about the country a lot after she retired and before she became unable to.”

“We could always just pack up the Jeep and wander where we want.”

Eddie turned his head to look a Chris to see that he was reading a book; it looked like the one that had been bought a few weeks before for class. Buck was glad that he still liked reading, even if the book was for an assignment. There were so many kids whose love of reading was destroyed by school years.

Chapter Six

Eddie looked over at Buck, who was deep in thought as he stared at the tablet. They both had gone to the tattoo shop to get simple bands put on their fingers that could be turned into the wedding bands they wanted when it was time, but Buck had wanted that visible claim on each other that a tattoo engagement ring gave them.

“What’s he doing?” Scott asked as he sat down with a cut-up fruit and cheese plate. He scooted it a little closer to Eddie so that he knew that he was welcome to some of it.

Eddie picked up a slice of apple and toasted Scott with it before he ate half of it. “I think he’s looking at vacation spots for our honeymoon.”

“You are planning that first?”

“We are. We want to figure out what we want to do on said honeymoon before we plan when the wedding is. It’ll be easier that way so that we really do what we want and the wedding can come just before that. Bobby said that we could get three weeks off if we wanted, but a month might be pushing it. Three weeks sounds good to both of us, so he’s picking stuff he wants to see. I have already picked my things, but none of mine are a set time.”

“That’s a logical way to do it since you guys are still doing that road trip. I heard Montana was on the itinerary?”

“He worked at a ranch out there. He thought it would be fun to go and stay there for a day or two. Show me off. I doubt that he is thinking it’s showing me off, but I think it is. He was still a lot lost then.” Eddie snagged his water bottle and took a drink of it. He sighed at the cool water. It wasn’t hot, but the fire they had been working before coming back had made him still feel really hot.

“I’ve heard a few stories here and there from Buck that makes me think he was lost for a long time before he got here in LA.”

“That’s a good way of saying he was running from something he couldn’t ever understand. Which I am not sure how he and Maddie ever became good people.”

Buck got up and headed down the stairs to do who knew what. He still had the tablet in his hand, but he had left the notepad behind he had been writing on. Eddie was tempted to head over and look at it.

“Maddie’s influence from him was gone for long stretches where he was just with his parents and their lack of caring at all.” Scott’s words drew Eddie’s attention back to him.

“I think that nearly every single day. Buck’s been into a huge serial killer kick lately and has been reading many books on it when we are in bed. He loves to read just before sleep, and his Kindle having the low light backlight has worked wonders on that. Still, he talks about some of these people and their home lives before they became killers, and it makes me happy that Buck’s inherently good.”

“Amen,” Scott said.

“Who is hungry?” Riccardo called out.

“I am not going to fit into my tux,” Eddie said, but he smiled as he said it. He got up and walked over to the rail to see Riccardo had the delivery van for the restaurant there, along with a couple of people who were passing out meals. “You and he keep a list of things, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I know moods well, and who wants what kind of thing. Buck over there is in the mood for seafood and carbs.”

“He always is.”

“Eh, but he’s not in the mood for other meat and a lot of veggies. So he’s got the seafood carbonara. You have the sandwich with nothing but meat and cheese.”

“Hell, yeah. Where is it?” Eddie was about to rush down the stairs to get it because that sandwich came with the most wonderful truffle fries that he would have to beat Buck off of to be able to eat any of them.”

“Everyone up here!” Bobby called out from where he was at the top of the stairs blocking anyone from going down.

Eddie claimed his usual spot at the table, and he wasn’t upset when Buck came up the stairs with two bags of food. He beelined for Eddie and sat down beside him, handing over a bag of food that said Mister Buckley.

“Buck, this is your food.”

“No, I’m Mister Diaz cause I smell seafood in this. And I smell your truffle fries in that.”

“My truffle fries is correct.” Eddie pulled his food away from where Buck could get his hands on it without leaning over Eddie.

“I think we might need to separate those two,” Hen said as she sat down across from Eddie with a single food box. She popped the lid, and there was a salad inside.

It looked pretty good, and Eddie loved salads. He just didn’t tend to get them to go from anywhere. Unless he was just taking it out to his vehicle to eat it. That thing looked good enough to be something that Eddie might get when they went there to eat to see if he liked it.

“What is that?” Eddie asked.

“It’s their Cajun salad. Blackened chicken and shrimp. There are also small balls of chilled grit and cornmeal hush puppies.”

“Okay, that’s something I need to eat like now,” Eddie said. He looked at his sandwich, and he really did want it, but he also wanted that salad.

“Well, this one is mine, and I don’t want your sandwich or Buck’s carbonara,” Hen said.

Eddie looked at Buck, who rolled his eyes and nodded his head. “That’s fine, Hen. Buck and I will go there for our date tomorrow afternoon while Chris is still in school.”

“You two are disgusting,” Riccardo said as he sat down beside Scott at the corner of the table where there was barely any room, but he made it work.

“We are, aren’t we?” Buck said.

Eddie turned to him to see that Buck was popping a fry in his mouth. “Okay. Fry stealer. Go away.”

“Nope, in sickness, health, and stealing food,” Buck said with a grin on his face. He reached out for another fry.

Eddie slapped his hand.

“Look, he’s already trying to turn me into someone else,” Buck said.

“I’ll show you turning into someone else.”

“Athena, please,” Bobby said.

Eddie looked up to see Athena moving to sit down, so instead, she walked over and glared at Eddie until he got up to move. Everyone else on that side of the table moved down a spot so Athena could sit between them. Eddie turned to look at Bobby. “Do you really think that’s going to stop us?”

“It’s gonna stop me,” Buck said.

“Chicken,” Eddie said.

“Dude, I’ve been on the end of her disappointed face when I pissed her off with the baby that one time. I am not getting that look turned to me again.”

“You that scared of her?” Eddie asked. Before he could think of turning to his food, Athena turned to look at him and glared. Eddie felt like he needed to confess everything he had ever done wrong in his life, right down to jerking off to thoughts of Buck after their first day at work together.

“Okay, yeah, we are not doing any of that.”

“I didn’t think so,” Athena said. Her face didn’t change, and then it broke into a smile after a few seconds.

The rest of the meal was simple, with everyone talking over each other. Athena said nothing when Buck reached over and stole fries, but she also made sure that Eddie wasn’t able to slap Buck’s hands away anymore.

“I see who the favorite is.”

“I’m everyone’s favorite.”

“He’s gonna get a big head,” Scott said.

“No, he’s already got a big head,” Eddie said.

Eddie regretted his life as soon as he said the words. He wasn’t sure who started the snickering, but a few seconds later, it was all of the station laughing at his words.

“Well, Eddie, they already knew that. I did use the name Firehose when I was hooking up with people through apps.”

“Oh, you,” Hen said. She snagged a roll from Erikson’s plate and tore off a chunk before throwing it at Buck. She handed the roll back to Erickson, who just shrugged and took a bite. He started to dig into his food with a grin.

“What? Everyone here has heard that, haven’t they?”

“And this is the man you want to marry?” Athena asked Eddie.

“Yes.”

—

“Eddie, I found the perfect date for getting married, and it’s gonna work well to be able to take Chris and Emma for a few days at Disney when we get back, staying in one of the resorts and such.” Buck went into the kitchen, where Eddie was adding the last of the broth to the soup he was making for dinner. The kitchen smelled like heaven, and Buck was more than ready for dinner. The broth was from the last time they had made chicken and noodles and had broth leftover.

“Really?” Eddie asked.

“Yes. I’ll check about getting the cake in time and everything. We can do it with ease. There is more than enough time. It’ll be the week after Chris gets out of school, making sure he can help as much as he can. I know he wanted to help with a lot of things.”

“He did. So show me what it’s going to look like.”

“I don’t have that-” Buck stopped when Eddie gave him a look. “Okay fine. I’ll get the clipboard.”

Eddie laughed as Buck slipped out of the kitchen to get the clipboard he kept for all of their wedding stuff in a single place. He checked on Chris, who was sitting and playing his Switch with the headphones on, and Emma, playing with blocks in her room. It looked like she was playing Godzilla. There was a teddy bear ready to destroy the city she was building.

Buck came back into the kitchen to find Eddie filling up two glasses with wine before putting the bottle back into the fridge with the replaceable cork back in it. “We celebrating something?”

“No, I just really wanted wine tonight. It’s not like two glasses each is going to give us issues. Even if we are working tomorrow.”

“Okay. So here you go.” Buck laid the clipboard down and turned it to where Eddie could read over it. He picked up his glass of wine and sniffed it before taking a sip. It was one of Eddie’s favorites and had a bite to hit from its spices. Buck really liked it too, but it wasn’t sweet enough to be one he preferred over others. Still, it was something that he would drink.

“That looks good. I think I like this. Where is the newest guest list?”

“That’s on the table in the living room. I’ll go and get it.” Buck took his wine with him to get it, and he noticed that Emma had moved a few things into the living room, and on a check down the hall, she was carrying more blocks into the living room. She didn’t like to be left alone too long, even if she was the one who slipped out to play in her room.

The list was just growing by the day as those closest to them added in more and more people. There was also the listing of people that Bobby brought down as being political invites from the fame that Buck had as one of the faces of the LAFD. It was mostly just people who wanted to be there, not make a spectacle of it. Buck wasn’t sure what he felt about that, but he was willing to go along with it.

There was a thought in the back of his mind about how they would be better off just eloping and then having the wedding time itself be the reception. It would allow them what they wanted but also being there with their family. It was a thought, and it was something that Buck was thinking about more and more.

Tommy’s backyard wouldn’t be big enough if many more were added. They were not doing flowers; that part was already decided. There were going to be decorations in the yard that would be able to be reused for parties or various things like that.

Eddie was still sipping at the wine and looking at the papers that Buck had left in there. He laid out the guest list sheets for Eddie to look at.

“It’s getting to be a circus, isn’t it?” Eddie asked.

“Yes. It really will be. We can do it, though,” Buck said.

Eddie hummed as he pulled the papers closer and lifted the wine. “What’s Emma doing now?”

“She’s playing blocks in the living room. She had the new teddy bear from Build-A-Bear as Godzilla in her bedroom. It’s the bigger blocks, so it’ll be easy to clean up. Chris is still playing on his Switch.”

“I like the itinerary. It’ll be fun, I think. We will have the time to do what we want during the travel days and make it there to spend a few days then come home to spend the last bit with the kids.”

“Expenses?” Eddie asked.

“I’m still working on that. I have the budget going. I’ll let you know as soon as we have things settled on the whole front.”

Eddie nodded his head before reaching out. Buck wasn’t watching too close, so he was shocked when Eddie pulled him in. He got Buck between him and the counter, setting his wine glass down and then taking Buck’s from his hands.

“How long on food?” Eddie asked, and he nodded over his shoulder toward where the timer was.

“Five more minutes.”

“Good. We can have some fun.” Eddie brushed his lips up and down Buck’s neck. He got his lips around the bone at the back of Buck’s neck and sucked.

“Oh, this kind of fun, huh?”

“Yes,” Eddie said as he got his lips off Buck’s skin to go up further. He kissed up Buck’s neck until they were able to lock lips. It was so good. Buck held onto Eddie’s hips and pulled him in as their kiss deepened.

The timer going off had Buck groaning into the kiss.

“Later,” Eddie said.

“Oh, I know. I just don’t like it. I wanna keep on going.”

“So do I.” Eddie caught Buck’s hand, rubbing his thumb over Buck’s ring finger. It was a wonderful feeling knowing that soon they would have tattoos there to ensure that no one could ever think they were not taken.

“I’ll go and get Chris and Emma at the table. Are we just doing the pot on the trivet in the dining room?”

“Yeah, that works. I’ll get the rolls out of the oven and get them into a bowl, then you can grab those while I carry out the soup.”

Buck nodded his head and headed out to get the kids ready for dinner. Emma was already seated at the table, and she had a sheet of paper and her crayons out. She was drawing the teddy bear or something as close as she could get to it. There were just blobs on the page.

“Hey, Emma Bug, you hungry?”

“Yums?” Emma asked.

“Yeah, it’s yums.”

Emma grabbed her crayons and laid them off to the small stand to the side. She left the paper on the table before she ran to the bathroom at the back of the house. Chris looked up from his Switch and pulled his headphone off.

“Dinner?”

“Yup. Emma and I are going to wash our hands. Come along.”

“Okay. It smells good. Is that the chicken soup that dad got the recipe for?”

“Yes, it is. I’m glad we had some extra chicken stock to add to it. It smells great. How does it smell to you?”

Chris’ stomach growled before he could answer. He laughed and rubbed his stomach before heading toward the back of the house to wash his hands. Buck followed along behind him. Emma had the stool ready to climb up to wash her hands. Once Buck was in the room, she climbed up and looked at the taps waiting for Buck to turn them on. Buck turned the cold on first and then the hot, and Emma picked up the bar of soap that was just hers to use. She couldn’t pump the soap out, and after the horrible time with the automatic dispenser that she emptied because it was first, it was saved for when she was older.

Hands clean, Buck herded them into the dining room, and he found Eddie already setting down the pot of soup, so he went right for the kitchen for the rolls. Buck’s stomach demanded the food be in it as soon as possible. Eddie started to get out some soup for Emma so that she could hopefully eat pretty soon.

“Hungry?” Eddie asked when Buck’s stomach growled loud enough to be heard.

“Yes, I didn’t realize how much until I got the bread. It smells awesome.”

“It tastes just as awesome. I snagged the pepper and put it on the table since Emma won’t be able to eat it as spicy as we would all like.”

“Thanks,” Chris said as he reached for the shaker of the pepper blend they liked to add to things.

Buck waited for Chris to get done before he started to ladle the soup into Chris’ bowl. He stopped right where Chris usually liked it and served himself. He looked at Eddie, who was ripping up a roll for Emma to eat while she blew on the top of the soup that had been ladled out for her already. As soon as Eddie took his hands away, Emma grabbed a bit of roll and dipped just a little into the soup, and popped into her mouth to chew it. Eddie checked the stableness of the tray to her high chair, and he nodded his head.

Eddie pulled the rolls away as it looked like it was all she really wanted, but she needed to at least eat the soup stuff. Buck reached over for a roll, and Emma watched him carry it across the table.

“Bread kick, huh, Emma Bug?” Eddie asked.

Emma nodded her head, and she grabbed more roll. She ripped it into the soup again and nodded her head before chewing the roll bit. She picked up her spoon and leaned over to get a little of the broth out of the bowl. The high chair caught most of the food that she dropped, but she had seen them all eating on their own too much for her to want to be fed too often. The soup was the biggest issue, but a deeper spoon helped her get more into her mouth before losing all of the broth.

“Good?” Eddie asked his eyes on Chris.

“Yes, very good. I really like it,” Chris said.

“And you?”

“You know that I like it, Eds. I don’t shy away from saying I dislike something.”

“I just like checking.” Eddie laid his hand over Buck’s hand that was resting on the table. Buck turned his hand over to hold Eddie’s hand for a few seconds before he started to eat again, raising up his roll to snag a bite of it.

Simple meals like this at home were great. Buck just loved being with his family.

—

“Are you sure about the no flowers?” Hen asked as he dropped down beside Eddie on the couch in the upper area of the station.

“Huh?” Eddie asked. He looked up from the tablet as he was sure he hadn’t heard her right.

“I mean, I get no big arrangements but boutonnieres? A flower girl tossing flower petals onto the floor? Yo don’t want that kind of thing?”

“Nah, it’s outside, so we will have Emma throwing birdseed that once we are all done with that, the roll of fabric is gonna be picked up with ease and the seed tossed over toward where the bird feeders are in the backyard. Chris will carry the rings to us, and Emma’s just gonna be cute.”

“You both see this as your last marriage. I’m just shocked you want everything that Buck wants. You’ve been married before. You know what you like and what you don’t, but don’t you want what you want?”

Eddie looked at Hen, and he was confused. He was getting what he wanted, despite the circus, it was going to be with the people they invited, he was getting everything he wanted from the wedding. He and Buck debated everything, and usually, it was the thing that was easiest that they went with. It was easier to not have flowers. Eddie loved everything that they had planned. It was all easier on them and on Tommy and the bunch. Neither of them was interested in turning into bridezillas. Eddie had never thought that weddings were anything to stress over, but he had learned that the hard way that everyone thought that they had to be.

“I’m not doing everything that Buck wants. We sat down over the course of a week and made most of the decisions once Buck had figured out the best time to get married and not have to miss Emma’s second birthday or have it be something we would have to take Chris out of school for since he wants to help set things up. So, getting married when we are and then leaving for two weeks to come home in time for Emma’s birthday is the best thing.”

“Is that why you picked when you did?”

“Yes,” Eddie said.

“Huh, I guess that we never thought about anything more than just Buck picking the earliest date that he could.”

“No, there was a huge chart about dates about a few things I wanted to do and then things Buck wanted to do when we went on our little trip. Buck had a few more time-sensitive things, or they only happened on a certain day of the week. Mine was more general. I want to see this on our way to Montana.”

“I don’t get that part either. Why Montana?”

“It’s where Buck worked on a dude ranch. He did some of the stuff with people, but he also worked with the animals. It was the only place he really liked, and he thought maybe he could stay when he was going around the county. It just got too cold for him there. So he left.”

“He’s not talked about his time there that much. I guess I never thought he cared much about anything he did before he got here.”

“He did. He always said that it was a lot of wrong jobs to teach him what he wanted. He learned to love himself while he was running around, and it took a while for him to get used to life here and trusting other people, but he learned it, and he grew from it.”

Hen looked away from Eddie and over to where Buck was working with May over something she had stopped by to get help with from Bobby, who had been unable to help her. So Buck had jumped in to help on it.

“I guess I thought you were just giving in to Buck,” Hen said after a couple of minutes of silence.

“No, I get that. I do give in to him a lot, but I want what he wants about ninety-five percent of the time. Four percent of the time, I don’t care either way, and the other one percent, I do it cause I don’t want to deal with upsetting him, and it’s not the worst thing in the world. He does the same with things that I want.”

“You two have been in sync with each other since you got here. The way you two worked on the guy in the ambulance. The bomb squad guy was shocked that you two were new to being around each other. He said you two worked like a dream, and if he thought he could have stolen you both, he would have.”

“You are prying us from the LAFD when we die,” Eddie said.

Hen laughed, and she pointed at the tablet. “Need help?”

“Sure, we are working on placement right now. Forgive my drawing; I’m not that good at drawing with a stylus.”

“I can help with that.”

—

Buck rolled his neck and then his shoulders. He was ready to go and get some breakfast. He just wanted to settle in and relax, but the way that Bobby had been looking at him over the last half an hour as they all worked on paperwork after the call out they had just before the next shift started, he didn’t think he was going to get that.

“Bobby is looking at you,” Eddie said.

“I know he hasn’t stopped. He has looked at me so much I’m not sure I want to know what he wants to talk about.” Buck signed the last form before he leaned back and closed his eyes.

“Well, why don’t you find out, and we can either head home, or you can go with him to talk, which is what I think he wants, and I can catch a ride with Tommy. He can pick me up.”

“Sure.” Buck picked up the papers he had done, and Eddie his to his stack just as he stood up.

“Thank you,” Eddie said.

“Lazy ass,” Buck said.

“You love my lazy ass.”

“Don’t even,” Scott said.

“I wasn’t going to say anything sexual at all,” Buck said. He gave Scott a smile before heading over to where Bobby was sitting at the island. He dropped the files where the other had dropped theirs.

“How is the cut?” Bobby asked.

“Good. Pulls a little but has mostly stopped bleeding. When I get home, Emma’s going to want to look at it and then bandage it up. Maddie thinks she might want to be a nurse as it was something she did when she was little, before Daniel. So what’s up, Bobby?”

“I was hoping to talk to you about the wedding.”

“Of course, we can do that, but I’m like so hungry I could eat a cow. So if we are doing this, it’s got to involve food.”

Bobby looked over at Eddie with a strange look on his face. “I was hoping it could just be the two of us.”

“Sure. I’ll text Tommy to have him stop by and get Eddie. I’ll follow you in the Jeep.”

Bobby looked like he was going to ask Buck to do something else, but he nodded his head in the end. He looked at the paperwork that was in front of him. “I think it’ll take me about twenty minutes to get the rest of this done.”

“Cool. I’ll go over and do some wedding stuff on the couch. I’ll have headphones in, so text me when you are ready to go or come and get me. I’ll get changed into street clothes.” Buck walked back over to where Eddie was just signing his last thing. “I’ll text Tommy.”

“I already did. He was just leaving his station. So I’ll get packed up and take your stuff with me. We left the top off the Jeep, remember.”

“Oh, yeah. We did pull everything off, didn’t we? Thanks. I forgot all of that.” Buck kind of remembered it. He was glad that Eddie had remembered it. Buck would have been screwed on protecting his bag otherwise. He was glad to not have to worry about it because he wasn’t going back to Bobby’s no matter how much he wanted to have Bobby’s cooking in a one-on-one way. It would be a good lesson. Still, he didn’t want to be alone with Bobby since it seemed that Bobby didn’t want Eddie around.

Eddie stood up, and he tugged Buck in close before dragging him over to the stairs. They got dressed in silence and packed up their bags to take things home to swap out. Buck grinned when they were still alone when they were done. He pulled Eddie in to kiss him. It was just a simple press of lips, but they were allowed since they were technically not on duty.

“Okay, so I’ll see you at home?” Eddie asked as he handed over the keys to the Jeep.

“Yeah. I’ll text you where Bobby and I end up. Then we can figure out what we want to do for the day then. You don’t have to-” Buck stopped talking when Eddie glared.

“If that was telling me I didn’t need to pick up Emma from the house, you can just be quiet. She’s mine as much as Chris is yours.”

Buck nodded his head. He knew that. He also never wanted Eddie to feel like Emma was a burden.

“You can wipe that look off your face. She will never be a burden. You will never be a burden.”

“You know me so well.”

“Now go and do whatever you are going to do while Bobby finishes up.”

Buck pulled away from Eddie and slipped out of the locker room before heading up to sit where he told Bobby he would sit down.

Bobby was ready not long after, and Buck barely had time to get into the book on his Kindle app. Given LA traffic, the drive to a place closer to Bobby’s old apartment was not too long. The diner was small and kind of intimate but not enough to make Buck feel like he shouldn’t be there with Bobby.

“I just wanted to talk about the wedding. You and Eddie sent out the invites. It’s soon. Sooner than I would have thought it would be. Are you making rushed choices on anything? Even with the time coming so soon, you can move it. No one on the list would be upset about that.”

“I’m happy with everything and the choices we have made. It’s not the wedding of my dreams, but I need like three million dollars for the wedding of my dreams. This is the wedding I want right now with the money I have and the man I’m marrying. It’s everything I want and nothing of what I don’t want.”

“I just wanted to make sure. If there is something you want, I don’t mind making sure it happens as part of your present.”

“The only thing I want is the day to go off without a hitch. Eddie and I are getting the last few things down. We are all ready, and things will be fine.”

“If that changes, let me know. I saw the registry and what you guys had on there. If you have nothing come up that you decide you want for the wedding, or honeymoon, tell me what you want off the registry, if you don’t get what you really do afterward, and that’ll be Athena and I’s gift to you both.”

“That sounds good,” Buck said. He picked up the menu and looked at the options on there. It was the perfect kind of place. He loved the meal options, and he would order something that would keep him going.

“I’m glad you are happy,” Bobby said.

Buck looked at him.

“I didn’t think I would ever be happy. Not this happy and not with someone else. I always felt like something was missing, and while it was, I didn’t think I would figure it out or find something to fill it. I found it all in Eddie and Chris. I found my future, and it’s a bright one.”

“You did. You also didn’t run from it. I thought you might not grab it, but you didn’t push him away.”

“We were too tied together before we figured it out. I could never run from them.”

“No, you couldn’t. I could see that from the start.”

Buck nodded his head. He looked at his phone when it vibrated. It was from Eddie who asked if him he wanted to get married at the courthouse and use the wedding time to just have a party instead. Buck knew that Eddie had been bombarded with people just the same as Buck was.

Chapter Seven

Eddie checked his tie in the mirror and then looked behind him using the mirror to see Buck slipping his suit jacket on. Buck looked happy as hell and more than excited to head down to the party that was happening down there right now. There were few down there who knew what was going on. Beyond the two of them, there were only six, and none of them were talking. Hell, Emma couldn’t talk, and Chris was having too much fun pulling one over everyone else’s eyes.

“Ready?” Buck asked as he looped his tie over his neck and got it under the collar of his shirt so that he could tie it.

Eddie still wasn’t sure why Buck always did that. It was a strange as hell quirk, but it was a cute one. Eddie watched him as he tied off the tie, getting it snug up against his throat but enough to where it wasn’t going to bother him.

“There will be some very upset people down there,” Buck said.

“I know. My sisters are going to be livid, but I don’t care. We made the best choice for us, which is all that matters to me. I love my sisters, but even they were putting their ideas onto me and trying to sell them. They will calm down when they realize that I’m not letting them emote all over about it.”

“Well, taking on your parents head-on like we did makes sure that they know you can’t push them on it.” Buck stepped up to Eddie and straightened his tie.

“Ready?” Eddie asked.

“Yes, sir, Mister Buckley, I am.”

“You are a dork, Mister Diaz.”

Buck slipped his arm through Eddie’s, making their way down. Abuela was right there at the back of the kitchen, ready to open the door for them. The people were already standing around waiting for the music to start up for them to take their seats.

“Muy guapo,” Abuela said as she pinched their cheeks. She disconnected Eddie’s arm from Bucks and started the pair of them toward the outside to walk Eddie down the aisle.

Eddie was the first out the door with his Abuela just behind him until they could walk down the aisle side by side. Eddie got to the end, and he got a kiss on his cheek before Abuela took her seat. A minute later, the music changed to something that had most guests laughing.

Neither of them had normal wedding music played. Instead, it was songs that they liked, just the instrumental versions. It wasn’t the normal thing at all, but then they were not normal either. There was nothing normal about anything they did.

Buck came out the door with Maddie just behind him, a mirror of how Eddie and his Abuela had been. When Buck and Maddie got to the end of the aisle, Buck stopped, and he kissed Maddie’s cheek before he faced the guests.

“So, I know that you all came out here for a wedding, only due to pressures from other people and the constant asking about the wedding, we chose to do what we wanted when we wanted. So Eddie and I were married yesterday by a Justice of the Peace with six witnesses, even if two can’t actually sign that they were there as witnesses. We had the photographer there, so pictures were taken of everything. This was our day, and we wanted it to be low stress but having everyone pipe in with their wishes made it harder and harder for us to look forward to the day.”

Eddie stepped down to stand beside Buck. “We got married the way we chose to want.” Eddie saw a few flinch at that. They were not saying this to upset anyone, just hopefully make sure that they understood instead of putting that pressure on someone else again. “So instead of this being the wedding, we will have a longer reception. The food will be ready shortly and brought out when it is. The bar is open as long as we don’t run out of stuff. We have Ubers on tap to take people home. Please join us in celebrating. For those who want to look, the photographer has the raw images up on his laptop, and he will show them to people as he has a chance. He will still take pictures today as well. Let us have no stress. Enjoy.”

Maddie laughed a little, and she pulled them both in for hugs before she headed down the aisle. Chris moved away from his spot where he had walked down the aisle before they had gotten out there. Chris leaned right into Buck, and it seemed to turn things into a little bit of chaos as everyone there finally started to move. There was a flood of a few of them up to talk to Buck and Eddie while most of them moved toward the yard closer to the house.

Eddie was glad to see the members of the 118, as well as everyone from the house, wander away without an upset look among them.

Athena came up beside Buck, and she gave him a look before Eddie’s sisters stepped up to him. Their families were all off to the side, looking around like a little lost. Eddie hoped that they would start to mingle at some point.

“I’m sorry,” Sofia said as she moved to hug Eddie tightly.

“I know you are. You and Adriana were just trying to look out for us, but you and everyone else were doing the same thing. It wasn’t even just people telling us what we wanted; it was checking in to make sure that we were both getting what we wanted like either of us would not make sure the other was happy.”

“It’s funny to learn a life lesson from our little brother. We will spread around and get to know the rest of the people here. It will be a lot of fun to get to know a few of them. Come and find us at some point so that we can talk about a few things that will be not stressful at all.”

Eddie gave both of his sisters hugs as Buck picked up Chris.

“Marco!” Buck yelled out, earning him a lot of strange looks from ninety percent of the guests there.

“POLO!” Emma yelled back and then came running at them.

“That’s adorable,” Athena said.

“It started during swim lessons with Lily and then just grew to the best way to find her anywhere. I just hope that we never do that around someone called Marco who will try and reply to me,” Buck said.

Emma’s dress was beautiful and something she had picked out herself. It was simple cloth and pretty flowers all over it.

“You boys did this, and I am glad. I asked Bobby because you were both kind of short with Hen the other day. She understood that she had not done anything wrong, just that it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, as it were. I understand it all. There is a reason why Bobby and I did it. So, who was there? I assume that it was Emma and Chris.”

“Abuela, Pepa, Maddie, and Tommy,” Eddie answered.

“Good, the people you are closest to and a little bit of family. It’s good. Bobby and I still stand by getting the things on the registry that you don’t end up with today. The ones you want, not everything,” Athena said.

Buck opened his arm and pulled Athena into a hug. “Thanks. We will let you know. I think that we made out pretty good today. There is a present over there that someone didn’t even try and hide what it was with the wrapping, so the most expensive thing on the list has been bought.”

“I saw the wrapped grill over there.”

“Oh, no, that’s not just a grill; it’s a smoker as well. That thing can make a lot of food.”

“Yes, he’s been looking at that thing with hearts in his eyes for weeks. I feel like he’s looking forward to have it more than being married to me,” Eddie said.

“How could you ever say something like that!” Buck set Chris down, and he rushed at Eddie. He plucked Eddie, carried him over to one of the tables, and dropped him on there, wincing when the wood creaked. “I’m looking forward to the first bacon we eat in the morning that we have smoked ourselves. We can have a lot of fun with it, but it’s nothing without you.”

Eddie laughed, and he pulled Buck in for a kiss. He rubbed his nose across Buck’s when they broke apart. “I’m looking forward to having fun doing all of the things we can do with it, but you still have been hoping that someone bought it for us.”

“Well, I only put it on there so that people could go in together. The site allowed that you know. People to joint go in without having to talk to each other.”

“Is that why you went with them?” Eddie asked. He had remembered that Buck said there were a few reasons he had gone with the site over many of the others, but they had gotten distracted by sex, and Buck forgot to tell him.

“Yes. Then four days before the wedding, if the largest item isn’t bought, the money is moved around to other items, and the people are notified. There is a whole big thing about it that I remember my eyes glazing over a little. It’s a really nice site that allows for maximum working of things for both the wedding party and the guests. Especially guests who are a long way away. I sent the e-wedding invite to a few people I knew would want to know but didn’t care enough to go to the wedding here.”

“Those in Montana?”

“Oh, no. They said they would give us our stuff when we got up there.” Buck looked to the side as someone walked up to them.

“I was sent over to make sure you aren’t going to have sex,” Tommy said.

“Like we would do that around Chris,” Eddie said. He snagged Buck’s tie and brought him in for another kiss before letting him go. He dropped his legs down from Buck’s waist, understanding why someone thought they would have sex.

“Well, most of the people here are not that upset. There are a few, but the big wigs from the LAFD will stay and get some pictures of them with you and your family and then leave.”

“You been making sure we weren’t going to get raked over the coals about that?” Buck slung his arm over Tommy’s shoulders, and he turned him toward the crowd, and they headed off.

Eddie laughed and shook his head before following them. Emma and Chris were roughly where they had been left when Buck had decided to show everyone there that he could pick Eddie up. He was sure that more than a few were thinking of what that meant for sex.

“Dad, are you happy?” Chris asked.

“Yeah, mijo, I am. I’m so very happy. How about you?”

“I’d be happier with food in my belly.”

“Yums?” Emma asked.

“Okay, let’s go and see about getting you guys some snacks. I swear you are both bottomless pits, just like your papa.”

—

Buck tugged his tie out of his collar, and he sighed as it felt like the world was gone from his shoulders. He had no clue why no one would let them stay at their house. They were leaving the next day for their trip in the late morning. They had plans to be out the door before noon, but instead of just being able to work on things when they got up, they were forced into a hotel room for the night.

Eddie came into the bathroom, his shirt open, showing off the skin under it. Buck turned around to look at his husband.

“You like what you see, Mister Diaz?” Eddie asked. He slipped his shirt off and closed the bathroom door to get the shirt on the hanger inside of the garment bag on the back of the door.

“I do like what I see, Mister Buckley.”

“Someone is going to take us seriously on that, you know that, right?”

“Eh, I mean we will be hyphenating our names, but I kind of like calling you Mister Buckley.”

Eddie laughed as he stripped off his pants. “Doesn’t this all feel kind of anticlimactic?”

“You mean that everyone is all “you need your first night married to be at a hotel instead of at home” when that was last night, and everyone already shuttled us off to bed and took the kids from us?” Buck had already thought of that. Tommy had kept the kids the night before, and even Maddie had stayed over there to make sure that there were enough hands on deck to take care of the pair of them and work on party things as needed that morning.

“Yes.”

“Still, this is a nice hotel room. I’m glad that they did it even if I would rather be at home in our bed.” Buck dropped his arms onto Eddie’s shoulders and pulled him in for a kiss.

“It is very nice.” Eddie breathed over Buck’s lips instead of leaning in for a kiss. “While you were in there, there was a knock on the door. Champagne and strawberries with whipped cream delivery.”

“From who?”

“I don’t know. The card just has the name Howard on it. There wasn’t anything else on there either.”

Buck closed his eyes. He pressed his cheek into Eddie’s and just swayed there in place. “Chimney.”

“Oh,” Eddie said.

“Yeah, blast from the past there. I’ll make sure that Hen thanks him. I’ll see if there are any gifts from him in the pile. I’m not shocked that Hen told him I was getting married. I’m sure he asks about everyone else. I’m glad that they were able to keep their friendship. She told me a few weeks ago that he was in therapy. His half-brother came to live with him after needing to get away from their father.”

“I wonder how that went.”

“I don’t know. I didn’t ask much about it, or she didn’t offer a lot. She walks a fine line on that. He had a lot of anger in him back then. There might be a day where we can all talk it out, Bobby, Hen, Chim, and I. I don’t know.”

“Yeah, it sounds like it’s a mess even years later, but let’s talk about other messes.”

“What other mess?” Buck pulled his head back to look Eddie in the face.

“The one I am going to make of you,” Eddie said. He started to work on Buck’s belt. He pushed with his hands as he did it, walking Buck out of the bathroom.

Eddie was naked while Buck still had most of his clothes on.

“So your suit gets hung up, and mine gets to live on the floor?”

“You were the one who wasn’t getting naked fast enough. Your clothes could have a home in the garment bag if you had been faster.” Eddie got Buck’s pants open and paused long enough to get them down.

Buck kicked out of them, making sure they were pretty far from the bed, so no one tripped over them. The room’s lights were down pretty low but not so low that they couldn’t see each other. There was mood lighting around the bed, and it looked pretty intimate.

Despite rather being home, Buck was pretty happy with this.

“So, where is the present?” Buck asked.

“On the other nightstand. I poured the champagne into the glasses and tried a strawberry. The tops are already cut off. Now Mister Diaz, are you going to get on the bed and be good?”

“Well, that depends on what being good gets me and what being bad gets me.”

“Well, no matter what, sex. But if you are good, you’ll get my mouth almost everywhere.”

“I guess I’ll be good.”

“Then get on the bed after getting that shirt off. Athena offered us up cuffs just so you know.”

“So did Bobby. I shuddered, covered my ears, and did what Chris does when he tells him things he doesn’t want to know. Bobby laughed and let it drop.”

“I wish I had thought of that. I just told her that we had our own pair.”

“Eddie!” Buck tossed his shirt away, and he dropped back onto the bed, scooting up to where he could drop his head onto the pillow. He looked to the side to see the glasses and a veritable mound of strawberries. He was actually kind of hungry. They had spent so much time talking at the party that they hadn’t gotten to eat a lot. There was no sit-down dinner, but people had tables they could sit at and eat; most were ones that were already in the backyard, while others were borrowed from neighbors so that more picnic tables didn’t need to be bought.

“It just slipped out! She was giving me the look that if I didn’t take her up on it, she was going to slip them into a bag or something. I don’t need their sex handcuffs.”

“I’m gonna cover my ears and run screaming and sleep in the tub with all of the bedding if you don’t stop talking about them.”

Eddie got onto the bed, and he settled over Buck’s thighs as if that was going to stop Buck from bolting away. Eddie leaned over like he was going to kiss Buck, but instead, he grabbed a strawberry and bit off part of it, the juice from inside running down his chin a little. Buck wanted to push up and lick that off, but he didn’t. He was going to be good if it got Eddie’s mouth on him.

Before Buck could ask for anything, Eddie was trailing the strawberry down Buck’s chest and stomach. Buck inhaled and groaned before Eddie popped the strawberry between his lips, holding it there. He ducked down and gave it to Buck. While Buck was chewing it, Eddie licked up the trail of juice on Buck, his own chin leaving a little mess as well.

“We have clean sheets, right?”

“Yes, there is extra top bedding in the closet. I already asked. Ready to be used when we get this all pretty messy. I plan to have my way with you tonight and make us have to clean up.”

“Ugh, quit giving me pretty words and give me your pretty cock.”

“Pretty cock?”

“My blood’s not exactly in my brain at the moment.” Buck waved toward his groin as much as he could given Eddie being on top of him and blocking it. He could feel how hard he was.

“Thirsty?” Eddie asked. He sat up and had a wicked grin on his lips as he picked up a glass of champagne. He took a sip and nodded his head. “It’s just perfect. The strawberry taste in my mouth is pretty good. I wonder how it would taste if I still had a bit of strawberry in there.”

Buck reached over for one and popped it into his mouth. “Let’s find out,” Buck said around the berry. He pushed up to where Eddie could tip the glass into his mouth. The liquid started to bubble even more as soon as it had contact with the berry, and Buck laughed before he started to chew. He nodded his head and settled on one arm so that he could grab a berry for Eddie.

They worked their way through the berries and the whole bottle of champagne, touching and kissing, and in Eddie’s case licking, whenever they could. Buck was so aroused by the end that he was sure that Eddie just looking at his hole was going to make him come.

Eddie grabbed the lube, and he slicked up his fingers, pressing the first inside of Buck with sure fingers.

“I love you,” Eddie said when he was firmly inside of Buck.

“I love you too, sappy asshole,” Buck said as he rocked his hips a little to get Eddie inside of him a little more. Just like the night before, it felt good; it felt different yet the same.

Buck didn’t care what they did as long as they were close. That’s all he cared about.

Afterward, Buck came out of the bathroom where Eddie had left him to parade naked while making the bed again. Eddie was laying on his back under the covers and looking at Buck now. Buck got under the covers with him and cuddled in close. Eddie pulled Buck into where he was curled into him.

“So far, ten out of ten on the days married to you.”

“Oh, you are an ass,” Buck said. He pulled back and propped his head on his hand. Eddie’s hand with his ring on it lay on his chest. He reached out and touched it, rubbing his finger on the silicone.

“So two weeks of just us after tomorrow morning. I am not sure that we have ever had more than a single day alone. I think I like the idea but am also scared shitless about it,” Eddie said.

“I know. I’m glad that this is the day and age that it is because I don’t think I could do without video calls. I need to see her face every day.”

“I don’t mind being gone, but yes, I need to see his face every day. I am glad that we both feel the same about that. I’m glad we can both just do what we want to do, and neither of us makes fun of the other for wanting to see our kids.”

“It’s a lot of what draws us to each other. We are both nuts about our kids.”

“Yeah, nuts about them. That’s a good phrase.”

—

Eddie picked up the bag from the back of the Jeep, and he closed the door carefully. He looked at Buck through the window and saw that he looked just as nervous about waking up the house. The kids had been back at home with Tommy and Carla staying with them in turns since they missed their beds.

There were a few other bags in the back with their clothes, but the bags they were bringing in were the presents they had picked up for the kids and everyone else in their lives.

After being with Buck alone for two weeks, Eddie was sure that they were as close as possible. There were a few who thought they wouldn’t make it through the first few days. Instead, they had lasted the full two weeks and honestly were more in love than they had been.

“Shush,” Eddie said as Buck stubbed his toe and hissed right after taking off his shoes.

“You stub your toe on the damned stand, and you be quiet.”

Eddie rolled his eyes and put in the code to turn on the alarm again. He laid his bag down on the couch and turned on the small light that wouldn’t carry too far into the rest of the house.

“You thirsty?” Eddie asked.

“Someone is going to hear you if you get into the fridge.” Buck headed toward the back of the house just about the time that Eddie heard feet on the floor. It wasn’t going to be long before Chris saw Buck in the hall unless Buck got into the bedroom quickly.

Eddie knew that Buck needed to use the bathroom. Eddie hadn’t wanted to stop at the gas station like Buck wanted. There was no flush, so Eddie figured that Chris had not crossed paths. The hall bathroom did flush, and then there was the sound of Chris going back to bed. Eddied stayed where he was until he heard two other sets of feet headed to him.

Slipping into the kitchen, Eddie grabbed water from the case in the pantry. He cracked it open, took a drink, and flipped the light on. Tommy and Buck came into the room next. Tommy was just in a pair of shorts, and he looked like he had gone a few rounds with someone who loved leaving marks.

“Is that nail marks?” Eddie asked as he looked at Tommy’s hip.

“Yeah, new paramedic I met on a call that had two stations on it. He’s a good lay, and I feel like we might be able to connect in other ways. He’s coming to your welcome home dinner at the house. Is that okay?” Tommy asked.

“Sure. That’s tonight, right, and then it’s three days of us in Disney. You were able to keep it from the kids that we were coming home today, right?” Eddie asked.

“Yes. The adults all know, but none of us knew it would be this early. Why are you here before the sun comes up?”

“Wanted to have breakfast on the table for the kids when they woke up.”

“Getting Emma and Chris out of bed will be hard unless it’s for bacon.”

“Then we will make bacon.” Buck walked to the fridge and grabbed three pounds of bacon from in there.

“You had them go shopping,” Eddie said.

“Carla asked if there was anything we wanted for today, and I texted her what I wanted to make for breakfast. Want to get out the mandolin?”

Eddie did as Buck asked, and he knew that there would be potatoes and then eggs. Buck would cook the bacon first and then use the grease from it for the potatoes. It wasn’t long before the smell of bacon filled the kitchen and then the frying potatoes. It was the smell of home and the look of home as well.

Tommy slipped away and came back dressed in sweats and a T-shirt. He grabbed a loaf of bread while Eddie worked on cutting the potatoes. He didn’t start making the toast, but he did get everything laid out for it. “Juice?”

“Milk for everyone today, I think.”

“Then I’ll just get the glasses out. I’ll slip out when the kids get up.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it, making enough for you,” Buck said.

Tommy looked at Eddie, who nodded his agreement.

“Okay, I’ll stay.”

“Ugh, I hate you,” Chris said as he came into the kitchen.

Eddie turned to look where he was to see that his eyes were closed, and he glomped into Buck. It took a few seconds for Chris to realize that it wasn’t Tommy. He tipped his head up and blinked a few times. His glasses were around his neck like he sometimes did when he was home and sleepy. He propped his chin on Buck’s body and peered at him. It took a few seconds for who it was to get through his sleep-addled brain.

“PAPA!”

Buck wrapped his arms around Chris as he scooped him up and carried him away from the stove.

The sound of thudding footsteps said that Emma was on her way into the kitchen. Emma barreled in, and Eddie grabbed her.

“Dad! You home!” Emma wrapped her arms around Eddie’s neck. “Missed you.”

“Missed you too, Emma Bug. We are home now.” Eddie hugged her tightly, and he looked at Buck, who was finally letting go of Chris. Eddie got Emma ready for transfer, and Buck passed over Chris over.

“Never leave again,” Emma said.

“Well, we can’t promise that, but it’ll be a while,” Buck said. He got Emma up into his arms so that he could hold her tightly.

This was all they needed. This was all they wanted. Their little but strange family. Forever.

The End

 

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