Reading Time: 123 Minutes
Title: Ripples
Author: DarkJediQueen
Fandom: 9-1-1
Genre: Drama, Established Relationship, First Time, Het, Slash
Relationship(s): Ali Martin/Evan Buckley, Evan Buckley/Tommy Kinard
Content Rating: NC-17
Warnings: *No Mandatory Warnings Apply, Explicit Sex, Infidelity
Beta: V.Mures & Starkindler
Alpha: V.Mures & Starkindler
Word Count: 90,377
Summary: Evan Buckley’s life changed, for good and for bad when Ali sticks by him after the ladder truck bombing.
Artist: didbuckygetaplum
Act Three-The Crescendo
Chapter Eleven
Buck picked up his cup of coffee, and he sipped it once to check it before he headed for the back door. He slid it open, tested the temperature outside, and then, when he stepped out, he shut the screen door to keep any bugs out of the place and to keep Bella inside of there. Two and a half months in his new place, and the morning routine was still the part that he loved the most. He walked to where he had gotten a little table big enough for two, maybe three people, and he settled in there. He sipped his coffee again.
A nightmare had woken him up earlier than he wanted to wake up, but he was pretty happy with a little more time this morning. The nightmare had been standard bog fare for a bad day at work, which the day before had given him. They had lost more than they had saved, but then again, they were called to the worst of the worst in the city. He had seen Tommy three different times. This was out of the ordinary, given that none of the rescues needed a helicopter assist to get a team where they needed to be. No, it was all med flights to get someone the help they needed. One of the three hadn’t made it to the hospital alive, despite everyone doing all they could.
Buck was doing better at helping himself through things with death on the job, but the nightmares still happened sometimes, especially when he was overly tired and had been. Even after getting home, he had felt tired all day, but not able to nap, he knew that it was more mental than anything else. He was pretty good at settling in and not thinking too much about the job when he wasn’t on it.
The sound of a door shutting at Tommy’s place, and Buck looking over to see Tommy with a cup of coffee in hand, heading over toward him. Buck looked to see that Tommy’s kitchen lights were barely on, which was why he hadn’t noticed the guy was awake as well.
“Nightmares?” Tommy asked as he opened the little gate that had been put into the fence between them. There had been a spot of wood that had been rotting at the ground level, so when Buck had noticed it, he had talked to the owners of the place, who wanted to handle things on their own now that the realtor had found Buck for them. He had told them that he was friends with the people next door, and he would pay extra for a gate to be put in that place if they paid later for a real fence to be put in if he didn’t end up buying the place. They had gone for it, and Buck and Tommy had worked on it on a day when they were off.
“Yeah, you?”
“Same, with a little of my Army years thrown in.” Tommy walked up the stairs, and he settled in at the table with his leg pressed to Buck’s, which was normal now. The little things that were more than friendly, but Buck was still not pushing back on them. He felt like he was ready, but he wanted to make sure before he made the first move. He didn’t need to have issues, and the biggest thing was trust. He trusted Tommy the friend, but he wanted to make sure that he could trust Tommy the boyfriend, and it wasn’t Tommy who was the issue with that. It was wholly him, and he knew it. Tommy knew it as well.
“There are days the job sucks. It makes the ones we save feel like they are more precious, but you hate the loss of life when it’s not their fault.”
“I know.” Tommy pressed his leg to Buck’s a little hard, and Buck pushed back. “What are your plans today?”
“Hmm, Maddie’s working a double because someone brought in food that made all of the shift sick as hell but Maddie and Josh. They are spewing things from both ends. Maddie did not eat it because it smelled off, and she told as many as she could, but they all decided that it tasted good, so it didn’t matter. They are regretting that.”
“Ugh, that sucks for them. So you have all day?”
Buck nodded. He sipped his coffee and looked out where the sun was just starting to come up. He looked at the light on the side of Tommy’s place that was soft and helped to light up Tommy’s backyard when he wanted it to. Buck had installed one like that in his backyard as well. Not bright enough for anything but moving between the two places.
“Oh shit,” Buck said. He looked at his watch to see the date. “No, I don’t, not if we want to be alone. Chris and I are going to the zoo today. He wants to escape the house and the last-minute wedding plans. He also wants to escape the guilt trip that Eddie’s still trying to land on him for not wanting to be the ring bearer. He’s staying up there as Eddie’s best man, but he doesn’t want to do that part. It’s not even the age thing; it’s the idea that he doesn’t want to be supporting the wedding like that. He’s not mean to Ali, but he doesn’t want her mothering him. He loves the hell out of Carmen because she’s innocent in all of this.”
“Ah,” Tommy said.
“But I can ask him if you can come along. He likes you.” Buck had been happy about the first time that Chris had met Tommy, which was when they had been getting Chris’ bed in the guest room set up. Buck had to buy stuff for the room; he figured that he should make sure that Chris would like it, but that it was also good for other guests as well. Chris had bossed him and Tommy around on the whole thing, and it had been a good day. Chris had invited Tommy to stay for dinner, and Chris asked about him a lot. Buck hadn’t told Chris about the fact that he wanted to date the man.
“If he seems hesitant at all, I don’t want to go. I want him to have his time with you as much as he wants to have. I know that with Carmen around, he wants to spend time with his sister as well.”
“Yeah, he does, but he sees her all the time after school. Carla watches her as well when Ali’s working and Eddie’s working. It helps Carla make more money, and she’s fine with that, but Chris sees her a lot. He confessed to me that he was glad that he wasn’t able to care for her the way she needed, as he was afraid that Ali would think that he was going to watch her when it was just Ali and him there with Carmen.”
“He’s too young for that anyway, but we both know that some people don’t care about anything but themselves.”
“I doubt that Ali would want him to watch her anyway, even if he could. She was all in on the motherhood thing when we were together.”
“Yeah, I got that from what little I heard Sal talking about it when it came up when I was around your team on drink nights back then. Sal had said that he had rarely seen anyone who was so excited for an accidental pregnancy.” Tommy shifted his leg a little, and instead of it moving around Buck’s, he hooked his foot around one of Buck’s and just stayed like that.
“It would be bad to have our first date be my day with Chris at the zoo, right?” Buck asked.
“I don’t know. I think there could be worse first dates out there. Are you ready?”
“I think that I’m honestly as ready as I can be, and at this point, waiting is just because I’m scared.”
“You’re scared that I’m going to hurt you?”
“No, I’m scared that I’m going to freak out in some way.”
“About the fact that I’m a guy?”
Buck shook his head. He thought about the porn he had watched, the jerking off he had done to the picture of Tommy in his head, the dreams he had where Tommy made him see stars, and he woke up with wet underwear because it was all too good. The play he had already done with his fingers and even with a dildo he had bought.
“Then it’s something that only time will help. You are having trust issues, and I understand that. I mean, I’m not going to like it if you demand to know where I am at all hours.”
“Yeah, no, that would never happen. It’s just…”
“You were hurt, and you’ve done the work to make sure that you aren’t going to think that everyone is going to cheat on you. You have to be the one to pull that trigger. I’m right here, and I’ll be right here a little longer. I get lonely, too.”
Buck knew that Tommy had gone out a few times, coming home late, and Buck knew that Tommy would never cheat on him. There were few people in the world that Tommy hated more than a cheater. Tommy had shared that his father had been abusive as fuck, but he had also cheated on his mother a lot. Never even trying to hide it, and when she got upset at it, he had beaten her. There was no way that Tommy would ever cheat because he had seen the way that it had been done to his mother to hurt her. It had been more abuse than had been heaped on her.
“Then if Chris wants you to come with us, let’s have it be our first date,” Buck said.
Tommy let go of his coffee mug, and he laid one of his hands over Buck’s. “I’m happy. Now I’ll have to find the right outfit to wear.”
“Chris and I are going in blues and greens. He wants to wear a green shirt and jeans. His shoes will be green, and his socks will be blue. He already told me what he’s wearing, and he wants me to match him. I’ll make sure with him if he wants you to match or clash with us.”
Tommy laughed. He picked up Buck’s hand that he had been covering and kissed the back of it. “I’ll wear whatever he wants me to as long as I have it. I’ll check for matching stuff, the shoes will not match.”
“Yeah, neither will mine. I don’t own a pair of green shoes. I have blue, though, and I have green socks.” Buck laughed, and he shook his head. He knew that his friendship with Chris freaked some people out. Buck didn’t look at him like a son, nothing like that at all, but a friend. He knew that it was weird, but he really liked hanging out with Chris like he used to hang out with Eddie. He liked hanging out with Derek, Ariel, and Abigail, and sometimes, when he could get Sal out.
“When it gets to a reasonable hour, I’ll text Eddie to have him ask Chris.”
“How is that part going?”
“Eddie’s thinking about getting Chris a phone so Chris can handle his friendship with me on his own. I think that Eddie misses me more than I miss him. Or at least he still misses me when I only miss him some of the time, when something happens that I would love to share with him.”
“Like?” Tommy asked.
“A rescue that Eddie would love, and sometimes personal things. I can’t trust him again, though. We might have been able to save the friendship if he had told me after the first time. It just…it was nine months of lies. Carmen was born early, so nine months, not ten months. Still, with the time beforehand, I guess that one could say ten months.”
“You are still a little hurt over it.”
“Not really, not like I think about it daily. I don’t for the most part. It was life-changing, though, and so it’s not like I’ll never think about it again, but I feel like I’m ready to start dating again without thinking that the person is going to cheat on me with my best friend, which I need to figure out who to call my best friend.”
“Out of?” Tommy asked with a smirk.
Buck pulled his hand from Tommy’s to slap him on the arm for his cheek. Tommy laughed. He shifted his chair closer to Buck, all the way around the table to where he was sitting next to Buck, where he could touch him. “Jake will be very upset if you pick anyone who is not him.”
“Oh, I know. Derek’s pushing it at work while Ariel and Abigail just laugh at him. I think that he’ll be my work best friend, and Jake will be my personal best friend.”
“Your very own Miriam and Sal,” Tommy said.
Buck groaned, and he leaned into Tommy, enjoying the way that it felt to be in Tommy’s arms, at least when Tommy wrapped his arms around him. It felt good. To be in someone’s arms like this. He was looking forward to the date. Even if Chris was going to be there. When Buck dropped Chris off, they could head to a meal of some kind that could be the real date, unless Tommy didn’t want to. The fear was there that Tommy would see Buck and Chris together, and the way that they were, and step back from it all. That he would not want to be with Buck anymore. That fear sounded a lot like his mother, telling him that he was too much. It sucked so much, and he hated it.
Still, there was good in what was going on at the moment. He could be happy; he just had to stop letting the doubts creep in.
—
Buck looked at where Tommy had Chris on his shoulders, just like Buck had done a few times when it came to certain animal enclosures and how many people were around them. This one was one that didn’t have an empty-looking area, and on someone’s shoulders meant that he was up above the crowd and could see over the foliage around the edge.
Chris and Tommy had gotten along well. There had been breakfast out beforehand because right after they finished their coffee, Chris had texted using his father’s phone that he wanted breakfast at that one place that did breakfast tacos that his father hated to go to, but Buck loved. That was when Buck called, and like always, Chris was the one to answer. Eddie sometimes answered, but he said nothing other than “hold for Chris,” which was good. They spoke when they had to and didn’t when they didn’t need to. Buck wasn’t sure that he would ever forgive, not like that. He put it all behind him; the forgiveness was his penance that he didn’t need to forgive himself for what they did to him, but he didn’t let it turn into anger or anything like that either. He just lived his life the best way that he could. Which meant that the relationship between Eddie and Buck was never going to get back to anything like what others wanted it to be.
Tommy turned to head back to where Buck stayed to make sure that he wasn’t blocking too many people with his height, as the small show ended with the big cats moving to the shade to drop down and rest. Tommy kept a hold of Chris’ legs until Buck reached up to take Chris off Tommy’s shoulders. Buck wondered how long it was going to take for Chris to tell him that Tommy had to come to all of the zoo trips now because it meant that Chris could do that more often.
Breakfast had been the point where they decided if Tommy was coming with them. Chris had interrogated him a good deal. Buck hadn’t wanted to tell Chris that he and Tommy were going on a sort of date while at the zoo with him. He didn’t know if he wanted Chris to know and have the boy keep it from Eddie and Ali. Buck didn’t want them to know until he and Tommy were a little more settled. He didn’t figure that Ali would care about the guy thing, and he hoped that Eddie didn’t as well, because it could make it hard for Buck to get time with Chris.
“Was that fun?” Buck asked when he got Chris down onto his feet.
Chris took his crutches from where they were leaning against the fence, where they had been left when he had gone up on Tommy’s shoulders.
“Yeah, it was fun. Tommy’s harder than you. Not by a lot, but enough that my butt hurts,” Chris said.
Tommy laughed.
“I like to work my upper body a lot. I’m a lot of rock-hard muscle,” Tommy said. He even flexed a little, which made Chris laugh.
The two of them had fallen into fast friends, which was good. Buck wasn’t jealous because Chris still very much preferred him, and he was glad because he would hate to be replaced by his boyfriend in Chris’ eyes for everything. There were going to be things that were more attractive in Tommy. Like they hadn’t told him what Tommy did yet, that was for then they stopped to eat lunch because breakfast had been enough of a rush, and Buck didn’t want to have to deal with being late to the zoo because Chris couldn’t stop asking questions. Chris knew he was a firefighter, but that was it. The whole flying thing wasn’t there.
“Where to now?” Tommy asked.
“Lunch in the closed area so I can cool off a little,” Chris said.
“Yeah? That sounds good. I think I could do with a lot more water.”
Buck checked their water and saw that all three of them were pretty low. It wasn’t too warm outside, but the sun was bright and made it feel warmer than it was. So they angled toward where the restaurant area was that Buck and Chris loved to eat at. When they were walking, Tommy brushed his hand on Buck’s back and then across his ass a little, something that Buck had done first a little while before. It made Buck feel like he was wanted.
“Buck, who is your best friend?” Chris asked when they were getting near the doors.
“Why?” Buck asked.
“Because you are mine and I want to make sure that you have someone who is not me because you need an adult best friend.”
“Well, you are right that you are one of them, and I have three.”
“Three?” Chris turned to look at him.
“Yeah, Derek at work and Jake from next door fight about who is my best friend, so I’m going to make Derek my work best friend and Jake my personal best friend. Then there is Tommy. He’s my bestest best friend.”
“But you like him,” Chris said.
Tommy was the one to crouch down and get Chris out of the walking path so that they could talk. Tommy always went down to Chris’ level to talk to him, which was a good thing. It made Buck know that he had picked a good man.
“There are people who think that their spouse being their best friend is the best thing, well, spouse or significant other, if they don’t want to get married. Evan and I have been building up that best friend thing for the last few months.”
“So this is a date?”
“It’s sort of a pre-date,” Buck said as he crouched down to match the level the other two were already at. “Tommy wanted to have a date today, but I said that you were my priority, and he was okay with that.”
“You are important to Evan, and that means you are important to me.”
“Dad and Ali don’t know you are dating again. I’m not going to tell them,” Chris said.
“You don’t have to keep it a secret.”
“I don’t tell them anything about you. They know that. It’s a boundary, and I’m allowed to have them. Miss Sammy tells me that all the time.”
Tommy looked at Buck with a question in his eyes.
“Miss Sammy is his therapist. She’s helped him get back on track with loving his father and not disliking him as much. She’s helped him understand that adults are just as flawed as there is no reason to think otherwise. Which Eddie didn’t like at first, but in the end, it means that Chris can love his father for who he is.”
“Yeah, Miss Sammy makes sure that I have a place where I can talk about my feelings, even when they are too big for me. I really like her. She tells me that I’m allowed to have my friendship with Buck, and as long as Buck’s not hurting me and it’s not suspected that he’s hurting me, I can have that friendship and not have to tell them everything. Buck’s an adult. She tells me that it’s like divorced parents and keeping things healthy between them when it comes to things. I don’t tell Buck what I do with Daddy, and I don’t tell Daddy what I do with Buck.”
“That’s good. I’m glad that things are working out well there. Miss Sammy seems like she’s working well for you. I’m glad because good people like that are even hard to find when it comes to therapists. There is a balancing act there. I hated the first three that I met with after joining the LAFD, and finally found one who could help me.”
“What did they help you with?”
“Let’s go inside, and we can find a spot away from others to talk about it,” Buck said. He stood up and moved to behind Chris to shield him from the people around as he stood up. Chris didn’t stumble, but he didn’t want anyone running into him by accident and making him go down.
Tommy stayed on his haunches until Chris was steady. Then he stood up and moved to hold the door open for them. The automatic door was there, but Tommy liked to hold the doors for Buck, so it extended to Chris as well.
They looked at the offerings from the three places in the pavilion-like place, and then Buck and Chris went to pick a table while Tommy waited for the food. Once Buck had Chris settled, he went to get them refills on their water as well as the other drinks they had gotten to go with their meals. It was a little bit of an act to get the stuff back to the table, but Buck was more than capable.
“You have an adorable family,” a little old lady said as she passed by where Buck was waiting for a line of traffic to go through to allow him to the table.
Buck just blushed, and he nodded. He knew that most would think that they had adopted Chris, and it was crazy to correct that with strangers. It wasn’t like it mattered at all. They could think what they wanted. It had taken Buck a little while to get used to not correcting people in public when he was out with Chris. Still, things were good that people thought that he and Tommy were a couple. It was good, and it made Buck feel good.
“Are you good?” Tommy asked when he set down the tray.
“Oh yeah, they had that one drink you like, so I got it for both of us,” Buck said.
“Thanks,” Tommy said before he kissed Buck on the cheek.
Tommy took the seat on the other side of Chris, with their backs to the windows and their gazes all into the main area. The little table area was the only one that was going to be easy for Chris to get in and out of and had cushioned seats, which was something that Chris liked to have at this time of day.
“What did the therapist help you with, Tommy?” Chris asked once he had his food arranged on the plate to his liking and his suite ordered his chicken strips and fries.
“I grew up in a time when being gay wasn’t really looked at good, and then my father was really homophobic and the Army was as well, then I joined the LAFD and the first captain I had hated anyone who wasn’t white, male, and straight like him so I had a lot of trouble coming out and accepting that I was gay.”
“I learned a little bit about things like that from Marcy at school. Her moms is married, and she knew that it took her mom a long time to accept that she wanted women for the same reason. I want to learn more about it, but Dad says that part of it is too over my head at the moment. He wants me to wait until I’m a teenager before doing a deep dive on everything.”
“Yeah, it’s not pretty, and there are a lot of very adult topics that you shouldn’t be learning about right now until you have a broader wisdom to accept them for what they are.”
Chris looked at Tommy with a look that was trying to figure out if Tommy was calling him stupid or just young. Chris seemed to accept the young aspect and went back to eating.
There was silence until Chris took a drink of his pop. “What do you do for the LAFD? Are you like Dad and Buck? Or like Hen and Chim? Or Bobby?”
Tommy finished chewing, and then he grinned at Buck before looking at Chris again. “I fly helicopters and sometimes planes.”
Chris turned to look at Buck, giving him a look as if he was very upset at Buck’s never telling him. “And you kept this from me?”
“It was always going to be brought up at lunch because we didn’t need to spend a long time at breakfast and miss the first thing you want to see when we got here.”
Chris launched into so many questions that Buck was glad to be on the side where he didn’t have to talk. He listened to what they talked about while he looked around the lunch area. The day was going pretty well so far. It was going to be a good day, even if the date tonight had them both too tired for anything. He thought about what they had next and how long they had to hang out there. They were ahead of what they wanted to see before lunch because a few animals were not being interesting enough for Chris to spend too long staring at them.
“Can you take me up sometime?”
“We will have to ask your father, and there are permission forms for it, but yeah, I have a helicopter that I can take you up in. I use it for teaching people, usually those who are looking to get into it through the LAFD or other agencies in the city.”
“Bucky?” Chris asked.
“Yeah, he’s not taken me up yet. I got a mild concussion the last time it was planned. So, how about Tommy gets me the forms that need to be filled out, and then I’ll send them home with you, and you can ask your father?” Buck asked.
Chris nodded and seemed really excited about it. He finished off his food and then went for his drink and found it was mostly empty. Buck took it from him and handed over his own for Chris to get the drink he needed. Buck filled up Chris’ cup, and he stopped when a little girl handed up hers to be filled up. Buck looked around for a parent to see a lady with a baby in her arms who was fussing. She nodded her head.
“What would you like?” Buck asked.
The girl pointed to the second set of drink machines and then pointed at the orange one. Which was one that Buck knew kids really liked. He had never really liked it as a kid, but he could understand why kids liked it. He opened the lid on the cup, and he checked to see how much ice was in there. There wasn’t much, so he added a little bit more before filling it up. He made sure the lid was on tight before he handed it over. The girl held it with both hands before she took a sip. She nodded.
“Thanks, Mister,” the girl said before she turned to head out.
Buck looked at the mother who was smiling and mouthed her own thanks. The baby was settling down, so it seemed like it was just a fit. He understood getting help, though. It was something that Buck had learned a long time before when it came to things like that. Things would be better if people learned how to ask for help when it was needed. He turned to head back to the table, where Tommy and Chris were talking about something to do with a helicopter, and there were even drawings on napkins. Buck knew that Tommy loved flying, and he was glad that Tommy had been able to get into a part of the LAFD that he loved after the shitty beginning that they had at the 118, just like he was happy that Chim went at the same time.
Chris was the first done, despite the amount of talking he was doing, so he just stood and asked Tommy more things about flying helicopters. Buck knew that something was up when he kind of hesitated a little bit and then stiffened.
“Dad’s helicopter was blown up overseas. He was hurt, and it was what discharged him from the military.”
“That can happen. I was never shot down like that. I had instances where a good shot landed, but I was able to at least make a good landing of it and get my people into a safe area where we had time to set up to protect ourselves while help came to get us. The only honest-to-goodness crash landing that I had was when the motor blew on the tail. It was just a poorly looked at part, something that, after that, all of the ones with the same were looked at, and it was a failure of the replacement part. I crashed because I couldn’t control it, and it was something that I was unable to control. I was injured, but I was the most injured of the group, and I was still able to move around and help get us the hell out of there as we were behind enemy lines.”
“So Buck’s the only one who hasn’t been in a helicopter that went down?”
“Well, I’m sure that most of your family hasn’t, but I know your father was in the Army, so of the guys in the Army that you know, both of them have gone down in a helicopter.”
Chris nodded. He picked up his drink and looked at Buck next. “I don’t want you to go down in a helicopter like that.”
“I don’t either. A car accident when I was the only one on the road a few years ago was more than enough.” Buck said. He wondered what brought that up, but figured it was something to do with what Chris had been thinking about when it came to his father. He hoped that therapy would help him deal with those issues.
Buck finished his food, and then Tommy was a few minutes later, both of them a little more sober than they had been. Buck wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, but Chris getting excited about the reptiles next was enough to be contagious to draw them both into a little more excitement.
They left the zoo at closing time, and Chris was tired but not so worn out that he wasn’t going to want to eat dinner that Eddie or Ali made for him. Buck wasn’t sure how that was all going, and he honestly didn’t need to know or want to know. That was the biggest reveal for him that he was fully over Ali and Eddie, other than passing thoughts. He didn’t care about their life at all. Chris was good at not talking about them outside of things that affected him, like when Carmen got colic or when Ali was sick and passed it to all of them. It was that kind of thing.
Buck looked at Tommy, and he grinned at him as Chris made his way to the front door. “Ready for that full date?”
“More than.”
Chapter Twelve
Buck heard his cell phone ringing, and he ignored it because his hands were covered in slime from the marinade that he had on the beef. He made sure the meat was down in the stuff as much as it could get it, and then he went to the sink to wash his hands. The sink that turned on with a touch when needed was kind of perfect. It worked well for what he needed, and he was glad that he had found this place to stay. He had never thought it was a good idea, and he knew the parts could fail, but this was so damned good. He wanted to have it in all of his kitchens from now on. There were still the normal handles to turn it off and such, but there was the touch feature.
He rinsed off his hands as much as he could get them before he pumped his soap into his hand and started to wash, making sure to sing the song that Maddie had taught him as a kid to wash his hands. It made sure that he did it for long enough, and even now, he did it when it was needed. Before he was done, his phone started to ring again. He shook his head and waited for his hands to be washed enough to not spread anything before he rinsed them and then dried them just as the ringing stopped. He headed to his phone and picked it up as the ringing started again. He frowned at Maddie’s name on the screen. He accepted the call and put it to his ear.
“Sorry, Maddie. I had raw meat all over my hands and didn’t want to touch my phone until my hands were clean.” Buck heard Bella making war on the mouse toys that he had tossed in the living room earlier. She would take a break and then go again. She had taken well to having a massive house to play around in.
“It’s fine. I have an emergency. I have nothing to wear on this date,” Maddie said.
Buck laughed, and he settled into the counter and looked out his window toward the backyard. It was barely morning. The sun wasn’t even really up yet. “You are getting ready for a date tonight already?”
“No, he’s…it was supposed to be last night. He picked up a case a couple of days ago, and then last night it jumped up. He racked out in the station last night and has today off. Lou wants to do a breakfast date since he had to cancel on me last night. I have night date clothes, but I don’t have anything that would work for breakfast.”
“You do,” Buck said.
“What?”
“That soft pink dress with the purple and yellow flowers on it. That, paired with a necklace and a pair of the chunky wedges you have, would be a good date outfit.” Buck thought about the stuff his past girlfriends wore for breakfast dates and even the ones that he had met just to get that out of the way before they had sex.
There were the sounds of Maddie moving things in her closet, and Buck listened as it happened. He knew that he was right about the dress. It was even soft enough that Evan knew that once Lou touched her, he wasn’t going to want to stop, which was part of what Evan thought would be good. They had stopped dancing around each other, and Buck was happy for it. Maddie needed someone like Lou in her life.
Lou Ransone was divorced; it had happened a few years before, and it was something he brought up with ease. He and his ex-wife just didn’t fit. She needed more attention than he could give her while working the job that he worked. She asked him to quit his job and do something that would have him home every single evening at the same time. Lou wasn’t going to give up his career in the LAPD for that. So they had parted. Lou had given her what he felt was reasonable, but she had wanted more because she felt betrayed by him. The judge who had seen over it had been unimpressed. Lou had been in the LAPD when they had met, and he had never once told her that he was going to leave the LAPD. So, she had been given what was fair and made to move on from it all. Maddie had told Buck all about it.
“How did you think about this?” Maddie asked.
“I thought about what I have seen of some of the ladies I’ve been on a date with. So this is date number four, right?” Buck asked.
“Yes, it’s date number four. Get that out of your head.”
“What? He’s been a gentleman so far, and I know that you want something more. You might have to make sure he knows that you want it before he will even make a single move. He knows very well what you went through. He didn’t work it, but I know that Lou’s close with Romero and Athena. So, he has to know. If Athena knows that you are dating him, she’ll tell him even more than you probably want without getting into the personal part of things.”
Maddie huffed, and she flopped onto the bed. Buck heard the noise of it and the sound of her breath leaving her as it always did when she did it because she threw herself too hard on the bed. She always had.
“So are you telling me to wear my sexy underwear?”
“Or no underwear. I am not sure what kind of man he is on that front. Definitely one of your sexy bras. That way you feel sexy.”
Maddie made a noise, and Buck knew that he had hit the head on the nail with that. Maddie didn’t think she was sexy. While he was not the one to help with that, he knew that she also just needed him to tell her that she wasn’t crazy.
“Look, I’m not going to tell you that you are sexy, that’s creepy as hell, and while we have our issues, we don’t have those issues. You know that you are beautiful; you have been told that over and over by normal people and creepy assholes. You know that you will be breathtaking when you make yourself up. You know that this is just going to be a good meal and a good talk. He’ll not push the boundaries unless you let him know that they can be pushed.”
“He’s not given me a single sign that he wants me,” Maddie said.
“I think he has, but you’ve missed them. You were talking to Josh about your last date while sitting on my couch, and I heard the parts you missed. He offered to take you to his place.”
“Yeah, because he knew that the accident and the roads to my place were all blocked off. There was no way to get there without….oh,” Maddie said.
“Yeah. You were so focused on the accident that you missed that. I didn’t say anything before because I didn’t think that I needed to, but you missed that. He would put you in his guest bedroom if he had one, or his bed, and he slept on the couch if you even once made him think that you didn’t want sex.”
“I cock blocked myself,” Maddie said.
“You did. It’s fine. Just make sure that he knows that sex is on the table and then take him back to his place, or your place, and rock his world.” Buck made a face as he said it because while he could think about Lou and sex, the idea of Maddie and sex just made him feel a little icky. “And can we please drop this one?”
“Sure. I’ll make sure that I’m sexy and that he knows that I’m up for anything that he wants, which might not be today if he’s too tired. Still, sexy me will be at that date. Just not hooker sexy. How is it with your guy?”
“Pretty good. We have a dinner date tonight, and then we both work tomorrow. I’m getting the food ready for dinner tonight. We are grilling out since the weather is so good. I have the meat marinating in the fridge, or it will be in the fridge as soon as I get it covered with cling wrap. I have the rest of the stuff prepped and ready as much as I can. I have a breakfast casserole in the oven for me for breakfast when I get off the phone with you, and it’s done. It’s still got like half an hour.”
“And will you be home when I get off my date?”
“I will probably be home. I might go on a run, but I’ll be around the area and will answer my phone as long as you promise not to tell me the nitty-gritty details.”
“I promise. You still can’t hear that one song, can you?”
“She looks like you, Maddie. So no, I cannot hear it without thinking about nasty things.”
“So, exactly how long is his cock?”
“Jesus. Maddie Buckley, I’m going to hang up on you.” Buck did just that before he got to hear anything else from her about Tommy’s cock. They had made out a few times but hadn’t done much more than that.
Sex wasn’t off the table, but Buck wanted to be settled down into himself before he did that deed with Tommy.
There were a lot of things on his mind about when he wanted to have sex with Tommy. He knew that Tommy was waiting for Buck to make the first move, and things were good. Buck loved sex. He wanted to have it, and he wanted Tommy in a bad way. He jerked off twice last night to the thought of sex with him, but he had built up this huge thing in his head about him and Ali and sex. There had been a lot of it before the bombing, and he had thought that she was going to leave him over it. He had no idea what he was going to want to do about it. He felt like maybe he needed to just get it over with. There was too much planned on it that he needed to get over. Then he would think about talking about it with Doctor Copeland and found himself feeling like an idiot because they were supposed to have worked through all of this.
A knock on his door had Buck jumping. He turned to see Tommy standing on the back porch with what looked like a carafe of coffee in his hand. Buck made a face, and he went to the door to answer it.
“Saw you were awake and moving around way too much for this time of day.”
“I was working on getting things started right tonight. The meat’s ready to go into the fridge to be ready to grill for us later. I have the veggies cut up as well because I was working on my breakfast.”
“It’s too early,” Tommy said. He set the carafe down on the counter and pulled Buck into him. He wrapped his arm around Buck’s waist and held him close to kiss him.
Buck was into the kissing when his phone went off, and he rolled his eyes before breaking the kiss. He picked up his phone and looked at the message. It was Maddie, and she was showing off what she looked like along with a suggestive text. “My sister is a menace.”
“How is she a menace?”
“She’s got a breakfast date with Lou. He had to cancel last night’s date, and she wanted to know what to wear because she had no idea. I helped her, and then it turned into a discussion of the sex date. Which made me want to bleach my brain.”
“Detective Ransone is too much of a gentleman to make a move that she hadn’t telegraphed that she wanted, especially given the whole thing with her ex-husband.”
“Dead husband? Ex-husband? Ugh, I never know what to call Doug. Like, yeah, he’s dead, and she’s technically a widow on that front, but she had left him and was in the process of divorcing him, so dead makes it seem like it’s a bad thing that he’s dead. Ex-husband doesn’t fit because they were still married when he died.”
“What does she call him?”
“Both. It’s just…a weird place to be. But yeah, I told her that when he invited her to his place that night, when she was dropped off here instead of at her house, that he would have gladly sexed her up. She hadn’t even realized that.”
Tommy laughed, and he rubbed his nose on Buck’s. There was a smile on his face.
“I never had to worry about that,” Tommy said.
“Yeah, it’s a place where I am not sure what to feel. I’m glad that we can talk about those things, but Maddie has this weird space in my head where she’s kind of my mother because she’s who raised me, and she’s also my sister, who I know is sexual, and it shouldn’t be too horrible to talk about things like this.”
“Who gave you the sex talk?”
“School nurse. We had a class about it, and when Maddie was back that summer, she tried to talk to me about it, and I told her I had that talk and I had condoms. I had in-date condoms.”
“In-date condoms are good. So, how long until food’s ready?”
Buck looked at the timer on the stove. “About half an hour. I was pretty quick because I did a lot of the dinner prep while I was prepping the casserole. Like the smaller parts of the veggies for the skewers went into the casserole once chopped a little finer. Why?”
“Hmm,” Tommy said as a way of an answer. He pushed on Buck a little until Buck started to move, and Tommy directed him to the counter and pressed him to it and then kissed him. Buck dropped his hands and gripped the sides of Tommy’s shirt and kissed back with just as much fervor. He loved this kind of kissing, where it seemed like the point was just kissing. Tommy trailed his hands down Buck’s sides and then gripped his ass and held onto it for a few moments as they kissed and turned deeper. Tommy tasted of coffee and that sweet cream that he loved in his coffee on mornings when he was indulgent. Then the hands on his ass lifted, putting him on the counter. Then they trailed down and coaxed his legs into wrapping around Tommy.
Buck was getting hard, and his sweat pants were going to do nothing to hide the erection he had going on. He got his hands under Tommy’s shirt, and then he knew that this was going to be more than half an hour. He could turn down the temperature and cover the casserole to make sure that it finished cooking, but didn’t burn. He wanted to keep Tommy right there, though. He also wanted to have him spread out on the bed.
Tommy broke the kiss and breathed hard as he looked Buck in the eye. “Bed?”
“I’ll join you. I need to make sure that breakfast doesn’t burn.”
“You aren’t going to chicken out?” Tommy sounded worried, like he was afraid of what it would do if Buck did back out of this.
Buck shook his head. He had read enough erotica and seen more than enough porn when he figured out that he wanted Tommy so that he knew roughly how things were going to go, no matter the sex act, but he did want Tommy. This hurdle was one that he would clear and be good with. He just needed to get past it. Tommy had to know what was going through Buck’s head because he didn’t leave the room while Buck worked on making sure the casserole didn’t burn.
“Speaking of condoms.”
“I’m clean,” Buck said as he closed the oven and turned off the timer. He looked at the time. Then he turned to face Tommy. “I got tested to hell and back after Ali. Yeah, I am pretty sure that she was only having sex with Eddie, but I have no clue who Eddie was having sex with outside of Ali. I mean, just because they were doing what they were doing doesn’t mean that Eddie was staying faithful to her as well. So I got tested, and they did the follow-ups for HIV and stuff recently. I’ve had no risky blood contact at work either.”
“Yeah, I got that test not too long ago because an idiot was in the bird when I was not flying and helping Miriam get them settled. They ripped out a piece of metal from their side, and the blood spray got into my mouth as I was talking to her at the time. Do you want to go without them or use them? I don’t care either way on the whole clean-up process unless I’m out with a boyfriend and we are having sex in a club or something. I never want to have to clean up like that. Outside of plugging up after to keep it all inside.”
Buck’s ass clenched at that idea. Bent over and being fucked by Tommy, and then when he pulled out, pushing a plug in to keep everything inside of him, and then they went back out to hang with friends. There were a lot of things that Buck was going to have a lot of fun doing with Tommy. Buck got back up on the counter and spread his legs as soon as Tommy got close to him.
“I don’t care either way. I kind of like the idea of you coming on me. In me.” Buck was used to being open about things like this, but there was something about this that made him start to blush. They had discussed sex a few times, usually about things that they liked and did not like. They just hadn’t gotten that far on it.
“Hmm, you make me wanna do a lot of wicked things. How about you driving this time?” Tommy asked.
Buck looked at him like he had grown a second head.
“I mean, I’ll still fuck you, but how about you do everything that you want while we get to that part. Maybe even finger yourself so that I can watch it. Show me how much you want this.”
Buck nodded because that was exactly what he wanted. He’s doing it all and letting Tommy bask in the attention before getting to that part was very good. He really liked it. He kept his legs wrapped around Tommy, and he looped his arms around his neck to hold him in place. “I have lube in the bedroom and condoms, so those are all there. I have been watching and researching a lot of things, and I love having my own fingers in my ass.”
“That’s good. It’s sometimes a stumbling block for some people. There is no reason that you have to like anal stuff, though.”
“Hmm, I had girlfriends who sometimes slipped a finger inside of me when blowing me. So that never really got me freaked out about anything.”
“Hold on,” Tommy said as he reached back and gripped Buck’s legs.
Buck knew what was coming, but he still gasped, and he held onto Tommy even tighter when the other man picked him up. He was fucking aroused, and this made it even more as he thought about Tommy holding him up against a wall to fuck him. It was going to be a lot of new things that he learned about himself. It was the kind of thing that made Buck’s head swim because he could do the same for Tommy, and the idea made him want to try it as soon as possible.
Tommy stopped them twice on the way to the bedroom to press him to a wall and kiss him, keeping their arousal right where he wanted it as they made their way back. Even getting into the room didn’t stop him. The sound of the door shutting was like it was muffled. Buck was glad that Tommy remembered the time that Buck had said that he had learned to shut the door when he jerked off because Bella attacked him once while he had been stroking himself.
Buck was dropped down onto the bed, and Tommy looked at him with a smile on his face. Buck looked up at him, and he grinned back before he got his shirt off. He was just in socks, so it wasn’t going to be as hard as Tommy to get naked. Tommy was in a full outfit with a belt on his jeans.
Buck scooted closer to the end of the bed, and he pulled Tommy close, working the belt on his jeans open and then carefully undoing the button and then the zipper. It was something else to see his cock there, trapped in his underwear. Buck wasn’t even wearing any. He looked up at Tommy and saw that he was watching with rapt attention as Buck got a hand on Tommy’s cock inside his underwear and pulled him out.
“First cock like this?”
Buck nodded.
“Do what you want because if I’m gonna be honest, you looking at it like that could get me off without touching me.”
Buck snorted at that, but he got the cock all the way out, and he loved the size that Tommy was, which was just a little thicker than his, but seemed to be the same length. It was going to be a mouth and an assfull. He wanted to see what it felt like inside of him, but he also wanted to just worship it. He had felt it before when they made out, and there had been over the clothes grinding, but they never went to the point of full frottage when it came to their making out. He wasn’t sure what stopped Tommy, but for Buck, it had been that it wasn’t enough. He was sure that if they got down to little clothes and were really rutting, that he could.
The head was a mouthful on its own, and Buck licked at the slit there, and he found that Tommy tasted much like his own. He had tasted that years ago, and sometimes even when he was jerking himself off, he would lick his hand clean. There was nothing wrong with it. He was curious by nature, so it was very much something that no one should be shocked that he did.
“I don’t leak a lot unless I’m really aroused after a first orgasm.”
“Really?” Buck asked. He pulled down Tommy’s jeans a little more, but he didn’t want the clothes off him just yet. He wanted to savor this with Tommy fully dressed, his shirt was being held up by the man to make sure that it didn’t get in the way, so maybe that could come off. Buck picked at it, and then Tommy laughed before stripping it off. “I leak a lot. From the moment that I get aroused.”
Buck let go of Tommy’s cock and leaned back to show Tommy the wet spot on his sweats. “That’s just from all of this.”
“Hmm, that could be a lot of fun.” Tommy wiggled, and his cock bounced around a little.
Buck leaned back up to take the cock into his hand again, and he licked the head again before taking it into his mouth. He licked the head with his tongue, and he made sure that it was all wet before he took more into his mouth. He had figured out a long time before that he didn’t have a gag reflex, not like most did. He could get gagged, but he had to do a few things to get it going. He bobbed a few times to really get the cock wet, and he made sure to stroke what he didn’t have in his mouth with his hand.
Tommy cupped the back of his head and moaned as Buck started to blow him. Buck knew what he liked, and he hoped that he was doing it justice. He didn’t care that this wasn’t pretty. No first job was ever going to be something that would be arousing just from the looks of it, not like in porn. His leg was aching a little, or he would gladly get on his knees and really give Tommy a show for this, but he just resigned himself to this. He got his other hand into it and let them cup Tommy’s balls, and then massaged them while he still bobbed there on Tommy’s cock.
“Close, so you had better back off,” Tommy said.
Buck whined as he came off Tommy’s cock. The coming in his mouth could come later, maybe even later that day. He wanted to feel him inside of him.
“Get naked,” Tommy said as he took off his shoes and kicked them to the side of the room that didn’t connect to the bathroom.
Buck dropped back on the bed to raise his hips to get his sweats off, and then he got his socks off.
“No underwear?”
“Nah, I didn’t feel like it this morning.” Buck spread his legs to show off his cock and watch as Tommy got the rest of the way naked. He marveled at how ripped Tommy was, getting bigger by the looks of it, too. It was hot as fuck. He loved it so fucking much. He wanted to see what else he could get Tommy to do for him when it came to putting on a show. Tommy walked to the bed and knelt up onto it, and stopped when he saw Buck’s leg. He rubbed his fingers over the scars on his leg from the surgery that had been done to put the rod in place. He kissed the worst of them before getting between Buck’s legs, and he stared down at him.
“How do you want to do this?”
“I can get on my knees. My leg aches too much for it sometimes. It’s something that will happen on and off the rest of my life, not enough to make me stop, but enough that it would ache, and I don’t make it ache like that unless I’m at work.”
Tommy nodded, and he cupped Buck’s knees before running his hands down the front of Buck’s thighs. “Evan, you can do whatever you want, but I will say that seeing you under me like this is too good. So we can have me fuck you, or you can lie there, and I can take a ride on your cock.”
Buck shook his head. “It’s probably not romantic, but I kind of want to get the whole thing where I get a cock in me out of the way.”
Tommy snorted, and he dropped down to kiss him. It was no less involved than the kissing they had been doing in the kitchen, and Buck let himself touch, finding all kinds of muscles that were hard as he touched. He ran his hands down Tommy’s back to cup his ass and pull their cocks together. It felt fucking good. Buck knew that Tommy was going to do whatever he wanted, but this was so fucking good. He rutted them together a few more times before he broke the kiss. He fumbled in the drawer to get the lube out. The first bottle he found was the one that was pretty much empty, and he found the second that had opened just a day before, he hadn’t used it, but he had gotten it open cause it was bitch to get those bottles open and he didn’t have to fumble with it like this.
“Been jerking off a lot?” Tommy asked.
“So much. I really love orgasms.”
“So do I,” Tommy said. He sat back and coaxed Buck’s legs off him.
Buck hadn’t realized he had wrapped them around him like that. He didn’t want Tommy to leave him. He knew that he was the one placing so much on this, but he felt like he had the right to be freaked out by starting up something with someone. He had thought that he and Tommy would be together, but the fear of being hurt again was too much sometimes; Tommy had been patient. Buck hadn’t been so fucked up that he had made his trust issues Tommy’s issue. He didn’t care what Tommy did when they weren’t together. He didn’t care about a lot of things, but he had to learn how to manage himself.
He knew this was part of why he had put so much into this act, letting Tommy have him this way. It was like the last barrier, and he had put it there himself, but still, he really wanted Tommy’s cock inside of him.
“You gonna put on a small show for me? Slick up your fingers and show me what you do when you are here alone?”
Buck swallowed because he could put on that kind of show, but it wasn’t the only show. He would have to save that for later. He shrugged, and he opened the lube. Tommy scooted back to allow Buck to have the access he needed without having to move around too much. He slicked up his finger and then left a small dollop on his fingers to get right at his hole. He spread his legs a little more, and then he canted up the one to get Tommy a good view of what he was going to do. There were so many things he could do to show off how good at sex he was, but this was something that he felt made him vulnerable. He traced his fingers over his hole a few times, watching Tommy, who was staring at his hole.
Tommy didn’t care about a show, he just wanted to see Buck finger fucking himself. It didn’t have to be perfect. It didn’t have to be some grand sexy thing. Buck swallowed, and he thought about how much sex was a show to him, how he had to perform. Things with Ali had been good near the end before she got pregnant; it had been a lot of fun. Orgasms for the hell of it. Fun. Buck wanted to get back to that, but with someone who was worth the risk.
Buck pushed his first finger inside himself, and he loved it. The angle wasn’t the best, but at least his shorter torso was good for something. He pulled the finger out and slipped back in with two because he loved the feel of two inside him better than one. He knew that this was about getting his hole used to having something inside of it, but he could spend an hour on someone’s fingers if he were up to it. He thought about Tommy putting him on his front, holding his chest to the bed, and just fingering him until he came before he was fucked.
“What are you thinking about?” Tommy asked.
“What makes you think that I’m thinking about anything?” Buck looked up at Tommy’s face, and Tommy looked at him with a grin on his lips.
“You are leaking more than you were a moment ago, which makes me think that you thought about something.”
“You’re putting me on my front, holding my chest to the bed with a hand on my back, and fingering me until I come, and then you just slide inside of me and take me.”
“Yeah? You like that? Me making you take my fingers until you come?”
Buck nodded because he did. He loved that idea. “Just not right now.”
“No, no. Not right now. You wouldn’t be able to take that much stimulation at the moment. Three fingers, Evan.”
Buck checked that his fingers were still slick enough, and then he pushed back in with three, canting his hips up to get the angle he needed to make his hand not ache. He loved this feeling so much. When he had done this while learning about sex, he hadn’t really done much with it because he thought that meant nothing. Now he wondered what would have happened if he figured out before recently that he was into guys. The kind of sex he could have gotten up to before this was something that made him want just to have a lot of fun. He loved it, and he wanted it.
Tommy’s hand was gentle as he pulled Buck’s fingers from his ass. Then he was wiping them clean using what looked like his underwear. Buck hadn’t even realized that he kept that stuff close enough to use it for that. Then Tommy was pushing inside of him with three fingers. Tommy’s fingers were a little thicker than his, and Buck went crosseyed as he looked at Tommy as he filled Buck up. Tommy pulled those fingers free, and then he was slicking up his cock.
“You look drunk.”
“Cock drunk.”
“Can you be cock drunk without having a cock inside of you?”
“I did. In my mouth, it made me go numb in the best way.”
Tommy laughed, and he draped himself over Buck, angling his hips to where he wanted them, and then there was the head of a cock at his hole. “Yes?”
“Yes, fuck yes, get inside of me.” Buck wrapped his leg that Tommy wasn’t holding in place around him, and he pulled him with it.
Tommy slowly pushed inside him, and it was such a strange feeling. He didn’t hate it, but it felt so fucking different than the dildo, which was stranger. He wondered if this was the same as what it felt like for a woman to get a cock in her pussy. Buck coaxed Tommy into kissing him, and then Tommy bottomed out inside of him. Buck got his other leg around him, and he kept Tommy close. He wanted it like this. Not something where Tommy checked on him. He wanted to kiss the hell out of him and make it so fucking good. He loved the feeling of Tommy as he slowly pulled out and then pushed back in.
All Buck could think was that he was so pissed that he had missed so many years of this kind of sex. He knew that now that this barrier was out of the way, he was going to want to have Tommy sexing him up as much as he could get him to. He also wanted to have Tommy’s ass, have Tommy sucking his cock. There was so much fun that they could get up to. He wanted to. He wanted to have the time of his life with Tommy as he learned all about what he liked and how they didn’t when it came to this kind of sex.
This was very much making love and not fucking, fucking was fun, but this was something that was full of emotion. Buck didn’t want to stop kissing, and thankfully Tommy didn’t seem to want to stop either. They kissed and touched. Buck learned how Tommy’s body felt as it was fucking him, and he made sure that Tommy touched where he wanted as well.
Buck’s cock was trapped between them, and it felt so good that he was sure that he was going to be the first to come. He groaned when he felt himself getting closer. He wanted to be there for when Tommy came, so he allowed himself to tip over that edge, coming with his hands on Tommy and his body full of Tommy. He groaned, and he made sure that Tommy knew he could keep on going as Tommy slowed down as Buck’s orgasm washed over him.
Tommy broke the kiss to bury his face into Buck’s neck as he canted Buck’s hips up a little and changed the angle to slide back inside of him. It felt good, even though Buck was too sensitive. He cupped the back of Tommy’s head and then kissed his cheek as Tommy came.
“I love you,” Tommy said
Buck knew that it was too soon, but he didn’t want Tommy freaking out. “I care a lot for you, and it’s not love yet, but it’s getting there.”
Tommy slumped down onto him when he tried to get away, but Buck held onto him.
“Sorry,” Tommy said.
“No, it’s fine. You have a lot less baggage than I do. I don’t mind that you love me before I love you.”
Tommy stayed mostly on top of him but slipped to the side so that he could look Buck in the face. “I didn’t mean to say it. I’ve been holding onto it and trying not to freak you out. I just have no filters in the wake of an orgasm.
“It’s fine. I promise. I’m not going to run screaming.”
“Good, because if I’m being honest, I feel like running away screaming.”
Buck laughed, and he grabbed Tommy’s hand to hold it. Just as he lay it on his stomach, it growled. He was hungry as hell. Now that this part had been sated, the other hunger he had was rearing its ugly head.
“Let’s get cleaned up and then feed you,” Tommy said.
Buck could get with that plan, and he hoped that Tommy wanted to stay all day and they could lose themselves in sex. It sounded like the perfect day.
Chapter Thirteen
Buck grabbed the jaws, and then he headed over toward where the wreck was. It was big enough that more than one house had been called out, and it was Buck’s luck that one of them was the 118. Things were better with Eddie on that front, but he didn’t want to work with him. He had forgiven them, but he wasn’t going to forget, and he didn’t want to have to deal with him. He could forgive for his own well-being and still kind of hate Eddie’s whole being.
“You good, Buckley?” Derek asked as he stepped up beside him to help him with the extraction.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“Good. We have Harbor en route with two birds for the two priority transfers. So you will work with Wilson on getting this one the care they need until the bird gets here. She knows where to meet the pilot.”
“My pilot?” Buck asked.
“Yes, very much your pilot.”
Buck grinned and dropped it off his face as he got near the car. There was no reason to be smiling as he worked on getting this person out. That wasn’t the kind of thing that would look good to the person.
Hen was in the passenger seat, keeping the patient as alive as she could, even as the patient was trapped. Derek had gotten the collar on the woman before Hen had gotten into the car to help keep her stable.
“Ma’am, close your eyes, even though you’ll have a cover, the sparks can make a lot of light, and the flashing wouldn’t be good for you.” Buck knew that the sparks made a lot of light when they went up inside a car, and the lady had already had a seizure from the accident.
Derek had the saw ready to make the cut that needed to happen to allow the jaws to do what they needed to do. There were very few spots that they could cut in without hurting the woman with the way the car had crumpled around her after getting smashed into, not just once, but twice, from what the bystanders had said.
“She’s seizing again!” Hen yelled over the sounds of the saw.
Derek kept on cutting because they needed to get her out of the car. Buck was ready for what was coming, and as soon as Derek shut off the saw, he was there with the jaws and got in there to spread the metal. He hoped that they could get the metal spread enough to pop the top, but on the other side, Derek was going to have to cut her out from the top, and that would take too much time. Hen could barely get to the lady from the way that the side of the car had crumpled on that side, but she could help to keep the blood flow from the metal in the lady’s side down as much as possible.
There were a few things to do about this, but Buck hoped that they could figure out how to keep her alive.
Buck heard the arrival of the first helicopter to take the one victim who had been gotten from the other side of this car, with a spinal injury, and going to a different place than this lady. He checked what he was doing from a different angle, making sure that he wasn’t doing more harm than good. Then the metal gave way, and they were in. Derek helped them get the lady out of there, and they all made sure not to jostle the metal in her side. They were packing the wound to keep the blood flowing as little as possible. Then Derek was gone, and it was just Hen and Buck. The lady was out like a light from the pain of moving her, but she responded to pain stimuli, so Hen wasn’t too worried. The blood loss and the pain were enough to keep someone from staying awake.
“Ready to move? I hear the other helicopter inbound,” Buck said.
“Yes, we are good. Just be careful,” Hen said.
Buck didn’t take offense because speed was the game, and they needed to be very, very careful with that metal inside of her. The first thing that Buck had done was get that cut off her as close to her body as he could before Hen had gotten in there. He had picked the wound then, but the little movement that came from getting her free of the metal from the car had been enough to make it bleed more, but it had slowed down now.
The landing zone had been cleared and marked as soon as they had figured out that they had not just one but two different transports via helicopter. Buck hadn’t been one to clear it, but he knew where it was.
They were waiting for Tommy to get landed in the clear zone, their patient covered with Buck’s turnout coat to keep her safe from debris until she was transferred to the lighter-framed gurney for the trip. Tommy had eyes for only Buck once he was down, and the bird was waiting to go up again. Buck smiled at him, and then he focused on the lady and getting her moved. Miriam was the one who came out to help with the transfer on Hen’s side of the gurney, and they all got it over there quickly and efficiently. Hen gave the information that they had on her, as well as her purse, over as soon as Miriam had her loaded into the back of the bird. The purse had been the only thing the woman wanted to go with her.
Buck and Hen backed off and watched as Tommy took the helicopter up again. Then they were turning to get back to the job. Buck stuck with her as she checked over a few people who were on the side of the road, got themselves out of the cars, and were just waiting to be cleared by a paramedic, since there were other cases that needed more attention. It was time for them to get the attention that they needed. Buck did a few checks on the ones who were up and moving around and sent them toward the side where everyone who was cleared was. One of them was one that he felt may have needed a little bit of a look from Hen over him.
Wrecks like this sucked; one small thing would snowball into a wreck. Buck just hoped that no one died. He looked around for what to do because more than enough firefighters were dealing with the last few cars that were left. The arrival of more stations had made it a lot easier. There were too many critical patients, and that meant that a lot of ambulances and wheeled vehicles went most of the time, at least one of the two engines headed their way. It helped clear it all. There were already city people there ready to get the areas cleaned up and the cars out of there for the people to get their things out of them while waiting in city lots until they were either towed to be fixed or to be junked.
“Hey,” Eddie said as Buck passed him.
Buck stopped, and he looked to see that Eddie was handing him a bottle of water. “Thanks.”
“Welcome. You got a moment?” Eddie asked.
Buck looked at him, but Eddie nodded over his shoulder to a small family, and it looked like they were trying to get things out of the car. There was a kid sitting on the sidewalk who was looking at the crutches in front of her that were crushed. She had a leg that was in a cast and looked like she was about to cry.
“She’s in a lot of pain and, without crutches, can’t move herself. I told her that I would find someone who could help me. I tried to get her up, but her leg ached too much. It’s a fresh break, but she was protected and didn’t get hit on her side of the car. The bridal carry isn’t good for her bad leg on either side. So I thought we could move her together, each one of us taking a leg and her body.”
“Sure. Let me get a little more water into me.” Buck had seen the girl at the start, still in a car that had everyone else cleared out. He hadn’t thought much about it because the rest of the family was milling around the car. He hadn’t been assigned to check on them, so he had pushed them out of his head.
“The van is over there, and it’s her aunt’s. The family tried to move her as well, but they are not all quite strong enough to do it without hurting her. Hen cleared them and said that the pain didn’t settle once she was home and lay out in bed to head to the ER as soon as she could. Someone else is getting a new pair of crutches, but given the gridlock around this, it’s gonna be forever, and she wants out of the sun.”
“Yeah, I would too. It would be best to get her leg up as well.”
“Yeah, she’ll have the middle seat to herself.”
Buck looked over at where the van had been allowed to get right to the edge of everything, a cop standing and talking to the driver. It was good that they were making sure that no one tried to run them off. The van was parked so that it would be easy to get her in there with her leg so that it would go up on the seat with ease. There was already a kid in the back seat. Buck could see their head poking up above the window like they were playing with themselves, which they probably were. Wrecks were boring once the big initial thing had happened. Then it was just a waiting game to get the hell out of there.
They worked just as in sync as they used to, which was not abnormal, but Buck felt like it should be hard to work with Eddie again. He still felt like things were a little weird between them, but they could both be professional. It was hard sometimes, but Buck wanted to be known as someone who was more settled in his job.
“Buckley, when you’re done, I need your help,” Sal called out from close to where they were.
“You got it, Cap,” Buck said. He focused on what he was doing again, and the teenager looked to be tired as hell. He climbed into the van to help settle her down on the seat with her leg safe and tucked into the back of the seat. “How does that feel?”
“A lot better.”
Buck looked down at her leg, and he hesitated. “Can I roll up your short leg a little bit?”
The teenager looked at someone who was not in Buck’s line of sight, and then she nodded her head.
Buck did as he said, and he rolled up the short leg. It was a pair of long shorts, and they covered the top of the cast that was on her leg. He saw the swelling, but it wasn’t enough to cut off blood flow.
“Hye, Eddie, get some of the packs, would you, four of them.”
“You got it.”
“Okay, I’m going to wrap three ice packs up here and then one down on your foot, wrapped so that they stay in place. If the swelling that you are seeing here doesn’t go down once you are settled here for a while and take something, along with keeping the ice packs on there for a while, then you need to go to the ER. The swelling might be the break having moved and making it all swell, or it’s from it being down and the movement of getting you out of it all.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Buck pulled the short leg back down, and Edde was back with the ice packs. He had activated two and was squeezing them, and he had the wrap they used for it. Buck nodded his thanks, and he took the other two packs and popped the packet inside to get them activated. He laid the first on her foot when it was ready, and she hissed but didn’t jerk away from it. He carefully got her leg up to get the wrap under the upper leg and knee to give the ice pack a small but good barrier so her skin didn’t get injured from the ice on her. Then he got the three packs all around and wrapped them. Then he took the pack off her foot and wrapped it carefully before laying the pack back down. The foot was the most worrying for him. He trusted that she had been cleared and had probably been given the same instructions. It might have been Eddie moving her that caused the swelling, the body hating it, but it could have been anything else as well.
“Is she good?” a man asked as he stepped up.
“Are you the father?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, yeah, she’s good. I put the ice packs to help with the swelling. Are there people who can help move her later?”
“Yes, we have four people who can do it at the house, and we have a wheelchair that she can use until we can replace the crutches. She’ll be allowed to just sit and do as little as she wants.”
Buck went over what he had told the teenager already, and he made sure the Dad knew the more worrying signs to look for with her leg and how long to keep the ice on her leg. The mother had the other two kids ready to get into the back of the van by the time that Buck was done. They thanked Buck and Eddie, and then they went on, allowed to head out through the engines and ambulances that were around.
“Thanks again,” Eddie said as he held out his hand for Buck to shake.
Buck shook his hand, and he gave Eddie a smile. They were on their way to working together again, at least when their stations were called together to work a scene, which could be a lot.
Sal was sitting in the back of an SUV with a grim look on his face. Buck headed over to him to see what was going on. He saw the kid in the back on the other side of the SUV, and the kid was hiding mostly under a blanket. Buck really hoped that the kid wasn’t hurt. He couldn’t see a parent or any adult around there.
The kid was about four years old, based on size, or what Buck could tell about the kid.
“This is Buck,” Sal said as he got out of the SUV and waved for Buck to sit down.
“Hi,” Buck said as he sat down. He had no idea what the hell was going on, but he looked at the kid to see that there were bruises on the one wrist that he could see, which had a death grip on the blanket.
There was a single finger that was waved at him. Buck turned to look at Sal.
“You are in charge of Rose here. She’s going to be taken to the ER, but we had to assign someone to stay with her at all times.”
“What’s going on?” Buck asked, his voice low.
“This isn’t the car she was in; this is the one that she ran and climbed inside of once the wreck happened. She was hiding in the trunk area and had the blanket around her, never calling out when people called or asking if there was anyone else in there. She was found because she sat up, and I saw her.”
Buck knew that a kid hiding like that, given what was going on, meant that there was something wrong going on.
“Child services are backed up, and there is no one else who can do it, so I was told to send a firefighter of mine with her. We have a judge who has signed off on you making the decisions for her based on what you know.”
“Okay,” Buck said.
“I got her name and where she is from,” Sal said as he got closer to Buck and leaned over to whisper in her ear. “Her mother was found dead in her bed at the house. The mother was recently awarded custody of her child after the father proved to be abusive. There is no family on record other than a grandmother who has dementia. It was part of the reason the father thought that he should have custody. Only his parents have been barred from being alone around children after having all of their children taken from them years ago. Even the father of the Rose here was taken from them and raised in foster care. He went back to his family as soon as he aged out and the courts couldn’t keep them apart anymore.”
“So, a family of crappy people. Why not a cop?”
“Because her father was a cop, and now she’s scared of all cops. Athena was over here a little bit ago, and she freaked out with her as well. So we hoped that maybe a firefighter could be used. The judge signed it off. Athena made sure of that. So, I voted for you. Where is your phone?”
“In the engine. I’ll get out of my turnouts as well, and then you can take them back.”
“You got it. Talk to her.”
Buck turned to look at Rose, and he smiled at her. “Hey, Rose, my name is Buck, or Evan. Whichever you want to call me. My full name is Evan Buckley, which is where the Buck came from.”
“Mommy’s dead.”
“Yeah, that’s what Sal here told me. That’s so sad. I’m so sorry.”
“He did it. Daddy killed her so that he could get me.”
Buck hoped that she hadn’t seen it and just went off what the father said. Buck wondered where the father was. He looked around to see if there was anyone who was paying too much attention to them, but there wasn’t. He had no idea what the father looked like, and he needed to know that.
“I’m going to slip out and stand up to get my turnout pants off so that my boss can get them back to the station while I go around with you. How does that sound?”
“No one else is coming in?” Rose asked.
“Nope. No one.”
“Okay.”
Buck stood up, and he took off the suspenders part first and worked his way out of the rest.
“I need to know what the father looks like.”
“Athena texted you a picture of him, and it’s on your phone. I’ll have you check that you have it. The cops and other firefighters who are helping with crowd control have his picture as well, and so far, he’s not been seen. We found his car, and there was a person from another car who said that he got out of his car, looked all through it, and then called for the girl a few times before looking at a few other cars, and then when the cops started to get here, he just took off and never came back. There is no chance that he’s not going to try to find her again. So you’ll have a police escort in the ambulance that we use to get you out of here, and then you can shift her on the way to the ambulance, which we are going to get right here. Hoping that he can’t see you get her in there. It’s not going to stop him, but it’ll at least slow him down.”
The day had started out pretty good, and now it was shit. Buck and Tommy had gotten an early breakfast and had been making plans for lunch the next day, but that might just be stopped by the issues with all of this. He was going to take care of Rose, and that was going to be the end of it.
“I think that I can handle that.” Buck handed over his turnout pants, and he watched as a few other firefighters got closer to them. Sal walked away with the turnout pants, grabbing the jacket from where Buck had laid it on the SUV hood. Buck sat down again, and he looked at Rose, who was staring at him with wide eyes. She was on alert, which should never happen like that with someone so small. “How old are you?”
“Three, almost four.”
“Yeah? That’s so big. I need to check you out, but I think that can wait until we are in the ambulance. I need to make sure that the crash didn’t hurt you.”
“Why?”
“Well, where we take you to get checked out depends on what is going on. If you have a head injury, we would take you to one place or the closest hospital.” Buck knew that the protocol was to take her to a hospital that was furthest from the wreck to make it harder for her to be found. It wasn’t like the LAFD was used to this kind of thing, or they had more than one time of doing it, and Buck had been part of making sure that his wife was taken was hell and gone away from the abusive husband a time or two. Most abusers would go to the closest place or the other places that were used for overflow in the case of mass casualty events. The further they could get Rose, the better chance they had of catching the father before he could get anywhere near her.
“My leg hurts and my arm.”
“Okay, what about your head?”
Rose shook her head.
Buck was glad, but he also knew that sometimes the pain from one area covered up pain in other areas.
Sal came back with the phone, and Buck unlocked it and checked his messages. He found the one from Athena and opened it up. He stared at the face. He leaned closer to Sal.
“I saw him at the start of it all. He was with the cops, talking to them.”
“Shit,” Sal said.
Buck wondered what the cops knew about what was going on with this. “What division was he out of?”
“County, so not LAPD, but still, they work closely with LAPD on things, so we can’t discount that. Athena was already keeping things close to the vest on this. So it was very much not spread around, but I’ll let her know in person as soon as we get you loaded up. I’ll change where you are going and make sure that Athena contacts them on her cell phone.”
Buck was going to make sure that they didn’t go where they were supposed to, so Sal thinking that right off the bat was good.
“Buck, I’m thirsty,” Rose said.
“I’ll get you juice once we get into the ambulance. How does that sound?” Buck knew that orange juice was packed into the ambulances to make sure that they had stuff on hand for diabetics and others whose sugar might crash too much. It would be good to give it to her to help her settle down as well. He would make sure that she had no issues that might prevent her from eating or drinking. He knew that he was being used because Sal thought that he worked well with kids, which he did.
“Okay,” Rose said.
The sound of the ambulance backing up had Buck look around to see it coming at them, the perfect angle to block most of them from seeing them, and the rest could be easily done with others standing around. A small group of other firefighters came over to talk to Sal, and it gave them the cover that they needed.
“You can bring the blanket with you and come over to me. I’ll get you into the ambulance, and once we are in there, we are extra safe.”
Rose stared at him, but she dropped the blanket and crawled over to climb into Buck’s lap. He held onto her and used the blanket to cover her up a little bit. She huffed but didn’t say anything else about him covering her up like that. Then they were getting out of the SUV. He went right for the ambulance, and there was no one else in the back of it. Up front was Hen, though, and the window was open so they could talk to each other. The back doors were shut, and then there was the bang that they were good to go.
“It’s just me up here, Buckaroo,” Hen said.
“Who is that?”
“She’s one of my friends. Her name is Hen. She’s a paramedic who is going to make sure that I’m not doing something wrong when it comes to looking you over.”
“She’s nice?”
“She’s the nicest. Hen, this is little Miss Rose. Rose, this is Hen.”
“It’s lovely to meet you, Rose.”
Buck settled Rose down on the gurney, and he gave her the blanket to hold if she wanted. He thought about the stuffed animals that they had in there and wondered if they were in the same place they used to be inside of here. He opened the door and found a small bin of them. Rose might like that better. He pulled it out, and Rose gasped as she saw them. She grabbed the purple cat that was in there and tucked it close to her body. Buck put the bin back. He smiled at her, and then he focused on what he needed to do to check her over. She could have so many issues, but forcing her wasn’t going to work.
“I need to look at you. There is just us in here, and no one else can see. Even Hen can’t see.”
“Daddy hurt me when I screamed and tried to get back to Mommy after he killed her,” Rose said.
Buck closed his eyes because this was going to be the worst day of the kid’s life, and she was so fucking small. She was too young for this shit.
“Okay, well, I need to look at those sores. I think that I have a shirt in here that I can get you in afterward if you don’t want to get back into those clothes.”
Now that Rose was untucked and sort of sitting down. She had blood on her. That was going to need to go into an evidence bag. He had those, or at least things that worked as evidence bags, because sometimes they had to collect shit and write it down for the chain of custody and shit.
“Will you help me?”
“Sure thing. I’m going to get a bag to put your shirt and pants into, and then we will get your shoes into a different bag.”
“Because of the blood?”
“Yes,” Buck said. He wasn’t going to lie. He needed to make sure that he didn’t lie to her about anything at all. It felt like the right thing to do.
“Okay.” Rose laid her new friend down, and she held up her hands just as Hen hit a bump, but he had a good hold on Rose’s thigh, so she didn’t get off him. He wondered what was going to come of it and figured that it would be interesting to see what was going to happen next. It wasn’t a good interesting, but it was going to be interesting.
Getting her stripped down, and he didn’t see blood on her skin, so it was just on her clothes, so he didn’t worry. Her arms were what had the marks on them and the shirt that he had would leave them uncovered. He hoped that no one really stared at her. There were a few seconds where Buck didn’t know where they were. Then he looked out the window to see that they had pulled into the 118.
“We are just making a stop. No one is going to open the back doors. This is just in case. No one saw you put her in there that we know of, but just in case.” Hen sounded like she wanted to do some damage. She got out of the front and shut the door, then she went around, and Buck could see her head at the back window.
“Thanks,” Buck said loud enough that the sound came through the door. Hen knocked back in answer.
“This shirt is like a dress,” Rose said.
“It is. At least it’s warm enough outside. We will stay like this for a few minutes, and then we will get going again. We just want to make sure that your daddy isn’t following us, and if he is, then we would get a little creative.”
“Can I nap?” Rose asked.
“Sure. I’ll cover you with the blanket, and then I will want to strap you in at your waist to make sure that if you hit a bump, you don’t bounce out of the bed.”
“Okay, that’s fine. Do you like me?”
“I do. Do you like me?”
Rose nodded, and she looked tired. She looked like she could fall asleep at the drop of a hat now that she felt safe. She moved to lie down and curled on her side with the cat clutched to her chest. She waited for Buck to cover her up, and then she slipped her hand out, and Buck reached out to hold it. He had no idea what was going to come of this, but he knew that until he had to leave her, he wasn’t going out.
Hen knocked on the door, three taps, so he knew that they were getting ready to go again. He braced himself, and then she was backing out of the station. It must have been all clear. He figured that they had an unmarked police car that followed them to where they were to make sure.
The rest of the trip to the hospital was fast and easy. Well, as fast as LA traffic was. Buck hoped that they didn’t try to take him away from her because he had a feeling that she would throw a fit about it. It made him want to make sure that she was safe until her family could come and get her.
Athena was waiting in the room that they had taken them to. It was in the secure section of the ER and was for those who needed protection or needed to be stopped from harming others. The room had a tap badge section.
“Who is that?” Rose asked.
Buck looked down at her to see that she was awake. She was looking at Athena.
“That’s my really good friend. Her name is Athena. Athena, this is Rose.”
“Hello, Rose. Who is your friend there?”
“EB. I named her EB.”
Buck swallowed because EB was his initials. He didn’t think that crying was a good idea. Athena touched his shoulder and then smiled at him.
“Are you okay telling me what happened?”
“Okay,” Rose said. She sat up and held out her hands.
Buck picked her up and moved her to the new bed that she would be in. It was massive, and she looked so small. Buck tucked her in again, and he settled at her side, sitting on the bed. Athena wasn’t telling him to leave, so he wasn’t going to.
“Mommy told me to hide, so I did. I went into this little cubby in my bedroom. I stayed in there until I heard her scream in pain. I shouldn’t have left, but I did. She was in pain. Then I saw Daddy stabbing her. I ran at him and tried to make him stop. He grabbed me, and then he did something to her. I didn’t see because of how he was holding me. Then he started to tug me along with him. I tried to fight him. I tried to get away. I wanted Mommy. Did she die?”
“Yes, sweetie, she did,” Athena said.
Rose started to cry, and it was just tears, no sobs yet, but Buck figured that it would come soon. He looked for the tissues and found them. The box was pretty much full, so he was glad about that. He tugged them closer and then focused on Rose again. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but he figured that it was going to be interesting to see what was going on. He would have to be what she needed until someone else came to do it.
The story kept on, and it wasn’t very long, but Buck’s heart broke at the damage done to the girl. She looked at Buck and then held out her hands. Buck picked her up, and he moved to lie down in the bed. Athena helped him get his boots off and set them off to the side, then he lay down with Rose in his arms. She curled into him and pretty much dropped off to sleep again.
“Well, Buck, you’ve gotten yourself claimed as her caregiver for now. She has no family that we can track down. At least not that hasn’t already been removed from the ability to have kids in their custody. The mother had no family. We know where they were staying, and there are uniformed officers and a detective headed there to look at the house. She ran from him, took the girl, and ran when she got full custody and he was given no custody. She did it all by the book, but things just ended up not being good. She hadn’t made it far enough away yet. She was working a job that was paying her under the table, by the looks of it, because she had money in a bank, which we monitored to make sure that he hadn’t drained it. A lot’s happened in a short time, but protective services are working on getting you approved to take her.”
“Why?”
“Because this girl ain’t gonna trust many people, and we already know that she’s going to have a hard time with it. You are a good guy, and we have people who are more than willing to help you settle. Bobby’s already getting her some clothes that are not LAFD oversized shirts.”
“She called it a dress. So I have a feeling that she’s just fine with it.”
Athena laughed. She reached out and touched his shoulder. “I’ll make sure that no one comes to bother you alone at the moment, let her get some sleep, and then they will want to look at her, but the assessment that you gave Hen that she gave the hospital makes me think it’ll just be bruises on her arms.”
Buck was kind of tired himself, and he figured that he could nap with her for a little bit. This was going to throw a kink in his plans, but he could do it for a little while. There was no one else to do what he could do right now, and he would take it.
Chapter Fourteen
Buck had no idea what to do. He honestly didn’t. He looked at where Rose was asleep in his bed with Bella sitting at the foot of the bed staring at her. So far, he hadn’t been able to find a bed online that she liked, so he hadn’t bought one yet. It had just been a few hours, and then Rose had wanted to nap. She wanted to be where Buck slept, so he had allowed that. He headed out of the bedroom carrying Bella with him because he didn’t think she was going to hurt her. He just didn’t want Bella waking up scared.
There was a knock on his door so Buck aimed for the front door. He wasn’t sure who it was going to be. He had told Maddie that he didn’t want her around right now. Rose was still very, very scared about a lot of things. She was going to be with him for a while. There would be a few things that would be changing for him for a while. He was going to have to focus on her, and he had no idea how to do that.
“Coming,” Buck called out when the knock came again. He stopped breathing when he saw Tommy standing there on the porch when he opened the door. “Tommy.”
“I came over to see if you wanted to have a little backyard picnic,” Tommy said. He held up his hand that held a basket for them.
“I uh…fuck,” Buck said. He waved his hand and headed for the living room.
“Also, I brought over a pair of baby monitors. So that you can be in a different room from her and hear a scream if she has a nightmare.”
Buck turned on his heel and looked at Tommy. It was supposed to be mostly a secret.
“Bobby knew that you would be overwhelmed, and he talked to Athena about telling me or not. In the end, Athena told me so that I could get you help when you needed it. She also thought of the baby monitors, but didn’t want them to just show up, even with her name on them.”
“I was angsting over how to tell you,” Buck said.
“I like kids. I never knew if I wanted to raise them, but things would be okay with me dating you and you being a single father at the same time. I know you wanted kids. I remember the look on your face when you were telling me about how much you loved that baby until you held her in your arms. I knew even then that dating you meant that I needed to face the idea of being a father or leave you behind. As much as I can say without being in the role, I want to be.”
Buck pulled Tommy in for a hug. He wasn’t sure what he felt at the moment, but he really did like the idea of doing this with Tommy. He doubted that being with Tommy was going to ruin the chances of adoption. The paperwork for him to be a foster parent in emergencies had been fast-tracked. He hadn’t even realised there was a process for it, but Athena had told him all about it. Being a firefighter made it a lot easier. Cops, firefighters, and medical staff had tracks for getting approved faster due to what could happen when it came to one of them helping a child in need and the bond that could form.
The thing was very much something that had thrown a boulder in his life.
Tommy rubbed his back and held onto him.
“She watched her mother being murdered. I think that you being outside when she wakes up is good. I’ll get the monitor set up and then join you.”
“Good. That’s good. I’ll set up the food, and I picked up some things that Athena said she liked when you were getting Rose’s food in the hospital.”
Buck felt something crack inside of him. He had already been all in on the Tommy train, but he also felt like having someone who was willing to help him with the crazy thing of taking in a broken kid like this and helping made him settle down. He was more than willing to use Tommy to help him with this because he had been messed up, and they both had. Where Buck might overstep, he hoped that Tommy would rein him in and vice versa.
This was going to be the thing that made or broke them. He had no reservations about that. It was going to be a little while before Rose would feel safe there with him, and he hoped that Tommy didn’t scare the fuck out of her. Tommy was big like Buck, and that meant that it wasn’t strange to think that she could scare him. Buck finally pulled out of Tommy’s embrace, and he let go of Tommy. He looked at Tommy’s face and hoped that this didn’t break them. So far, Tommy was in it, but what if Rose hated him? What if she was scared and it took a long while for her to warm up to him? What if Buck wasn’t able to keep Rose long-term?
There were so many what-ifs as Buck headed for his bedroom to set up the monitor in there. He found that it was simple to set up, and the one that was to go with him could be clipped to his pocket, which made it nice if he was moving around from room to room. She was a little older than what was needed, but given that she was scared, and a nightmare could happen, this could stop her from getting too deep into the nightmare. It wasn’t like Buck was going to be in the same room as her all the time. No, he was going to end up having to make himself leave rooms she was in at some point when he didn’t really have anything to do, and find something to do.
By the time Buck joined Tommy again, Tommy had everything set up in there. He stopped to watch the way Tommy fussed over the position of things. Tommy was just as nervous as Buck was. Buck took a step down off the porch and stopped when he heard a noise on the monitor. Tommy’s head shot up like he hadn’t heard Buck coming back out, and he stopped what he was doing. Buck waited to hear what was going on when he heard Rose softly call his name.
“Be right back,” Buck said. He turned around to head back inside as Rose called his name again. He shut off the monitor on his hip to stop any feedback from happening, and then he set it on the stand just inside his door when he came into the room. “You feel a little better?”
Rose nodded her head. She held out her hands, and Buck walked over to pick her up. She was in pajamas that had been brought to her by one of the nurses in the ER from her kid’s bag that she had with her. He had been told to keep them for now, and if Rose didn’t like them, Buck could bring them back. If Rose liked them, he could keep them until she grew out of them and then donate them if they’re in good condition.
The nurses had helped him get into the headset of what he might need. One of the male nurses had been the best at what he was to expect because he and his girlfriend had adopted a kid a while before in a closed adoption, his best friend’s kid, who had been in the wreck that killed both of his parents. It had sucked to hear about it, but it was at least closer to what Buck would be going through with Rose than most of the other nurses there.
“I’m hungry,” Rose said as Buck stepped through the doorway of the hallway.
“Well, that’s good because we have some food waiting for us. Do you remember me telling you about how I live next door to my boyfriend?”
“Tommy.”
“Yes, Tommy. Well, he’s here. We were getting ready to have a picnic. Do you want to join us or have me make you something in the kitchen to eat?”
“Picnic,” Rose said.
“Yeah, picnics are great.” Buck really wouldn’t know because he hadn’t really done them. He had that one planned with Abby, but she had canceled due to her mother, which Buck had understood.
Tommy was still sitting down on the blanket when Buck came outside with Rose in his arms. He looked at her and smiled, giving a little wave.
“Hi,” Tommy said as Buck set Rose down on the blanket since she didn’t have shoes or socks on. The yard was safe, but Buck didn’t feel like washing her feet. She had bathed once the cops had told him that he could do that with her at the hospital. It had been surreal to give her a bath in the tub that he was allowed to give her a bath in. It was made for older people who needed to sit down, but he made it work for them. Rose had told him what to do, which was good, and he helped her, but also let her do what she could do.
Buck thought that tonight was going to be the point where he lost all control with her, and she threw a fit because bedtime wasn’t going to be with her mother. There were going to be bumps along the road, and he knew it. This was just the first phase of what life was going to be like.
“Hi,” Rose said. She cocked her head to the side. “Mister fireman?”
Tommy’s eyes widened, and he sat up a little straighter and crossed his legs. He looked at Rose for a few long moments. “Oh my.”
“Tommy?” Buck asked. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he wasn’t worried. Whatever this was, it was a good thing.
“I was going out and getting food for everyone when there was a lady and her daughter who needed a little help getting a cat out of a tree. It had escaped from the bookstore because of kids who thought it would be fun to terrorize the cat. They were trying to coax it down for the owner. It was too high up, but I could reach the lower branch, and I held up Miss Rose here to coax the cat even closer. I put her on my shoulders and let her do that, and with one hand, I grabbed the cat when it got close.”
“We helped the kitty,” Rose said. She rushed over to Tommy and just collapsed into him, crying a little bit.
“It was just a few weeks ago,” Tommy said.
Buck nodded. A good memory of Rose with her mom and Tommy had been there for it. Tommy had at least one glimpse into the life that Rose had with her mom, a story that would help her remember that her mother loved her, because it wasn’t like Buck had any of them. He was already planning on writing down everything that Rose told him about them, but she was young, and there was so much that she might not remember. Or be able to say.
Rose’s stomach growled a little bit, and it made her and Tommy laugh. Buck made himself sit down, and he waited for Rose to leave Tommy’s arms. Rose sat down beside Tommy and patted the blanket on her other side. Buck moved around to where he was bracketing her on the other side.
“I like Mister Tommy living next door.”
“I do, too.” Buck knew that things were not going to be all roses with this. Just because she knew him and associated him with a good memory didn’t mean that Rose was going to be just happy.
There was every single chance that she would get jealous if she thought that he was not giving her enough attention, even if he was giving her all of his attention when she was around him. For a while, it was just going to be while she was napping for him to get time alone with Tommy. He was okay with that. Tommy seemed like it was going to be okay with him. They would have to talk more once Rose was down for bed, if Tommy stayed around that long.
—
The scream woke Buck from a dead sleep. He shot up and felt Bella getting up, hissing as she did. She wasn’t liking the new addition to the house. She didn’t go after her but she didn’t get close to her at all. He stumbled off the bed, nearly falling when trying to get his foot into the slipper. His floor was always too cold, and he liked the hardwood, but there were times when he felt like maybe carpet would be better. He headed across to Rose’s room, and he sat down on the bed. It was her first night sleeping in her own bed after Buck had bought it. There had been a few trials over the last couple of days, with her starting in there, but she never really made it all the way to sleep before saying she wanted to sleep with him.
Buck had looked into it, and the research was divided on allowing kids to sleep with parents after trauma, as she had gone through. So Buck was just doing what he felt was right. He rubbed his hand up and down Rose’s back because she was in a nightmare, and she could hit hard, and she was good at thinking about it if he tried to pick her up. He just rubbed her back until she settled down and woke up from the nightmare.
“Daddy killed me too,” Rose said before she started to sob. She crawled into his lap and stayed there, crying softly as she held onto the only anchor in her life that she had left.
Buck closed his eyes because it had been the same nightmare the whole time, where, after killing Rose’s mom, the dad turned to Rose to kill her too because she fought him too much, didn’t love him enough, and was crying over someone who didn’t deserve it. The way that it sounded, it seemed like Rose had him say something like that before because she was too young to be making things up like that.
A soft shuffle of feet had Buck looking at Tommy, who looked just as tired as Buck felt. He had forgotten Tommy was in bed with him. Buck wasn’t back at work yet, still on leave for the time that he had off because of this. It was going to happen soon, though. Buck was going back to work. They had four different day cares to check out that day, before ending the day with Rose’s first appointment at a therapist’s place. There had been a lot of looking into the right one of the list that had been given to him, which would be covered by the state. Buck’s insurance was being processed for the change. There were add-ons for foster kids, which had been a shock to Buck, but he also understood it. The state took care of most things, but there were abilities to add to it to make sure that the kids were getting the help they needed.
It was the first night Tommy had stayed over with Buck. Buck hadn’t wanted to have him over quite yet, but Rose had asked him if he would be staying, and Tommy had asked her if she wanted him to. It was a lot with her right now, but Buck hadn’t wanted to overwhelm her. In the end, she had wanted him to, so he did. She already had them both wrapped around her fingers, and Buck knew that he was going to have to introduce things slowly on the howl side of things, making sure that she knew there were rules over more than just not answering the door and other things like that.
“You okay?” Tommy asked.
“As good as I can be. I’ll head back to bed with her in a few minutes.”
Tommy nodded, and he slipped away again, leaving them alone.
Buck was mostly sure that she was going to want to sleep with them. He wasn’t sure how that was going to look. The social worker on the case already knew that Tommy was going to be staying around. She had come for a visit when he was around, and he had been good with her in the lady’s eyes. Claire was the name of the social worker, and she was sympathetic to what he was doing. She was happy that they had someone whom Rose was attached to for her to be with. That was the hardest part after something like this, finding someone the kid trusted, especially finding the whole thing about what her father had done and the job he had.
“Can I sleep with you and Mister Tommy?”
“Of course, sweetie,” Buck said. He stood up, carrying her with him. He had tissues at his bedside, those that used to be used for something else, but now they were mostly used for cleaning up tears and blowing noses.
Buck missed sex. It felt wrong to say it, but he did. He missed it a lot. It had only been a few days of it with Tommy before Rose entered their lives, and he missed it. He wasn’t sure what the hell to think about that, but he figured that it was okay to miss it because Tommy was hot.
It was good that Buck had something to look forward to when it happened again. He hadn’t had Tommy and sex for long and missed it. At least Rose wasn’t a baby who needed constant attention that drained her. There was usually just a single nightmare at night. Buck never wanted to resent her for it, and so he knew that he needed to figure out something when it came to that. Even if it was shower sex with Tommy while Rose was taking her nap with the monitor on high in the bathroom with them. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to have sex in bed. He would have to change it, yes, but now the bed was more about Rose than sex. It was a strange feeling.
Tommy already had the bed set up with an extra small pillow that wouldn’t hurt Rose’s neck between their pillows. It made Buck fall in love with him a little bit more. He loved it so much. He wanted to have Tommy around him all the time now, and he knew that it was going to get worse before it got better with Rose. Tommy always asked Rose if it was okay if he stayed for a meal, and tonight was the first time she had asked him to stay overnight. Buck just hoped that when things got a little more settled, she wouldn’t get upset when Buck had to work. He had been thinking of half shifts for a while. There was that option, and given the whole pseudo paternity leave he was being given with all of this, he was happy to spend part of that time getting things set up so that he didn’t have to go back for full days.
Buck set Rose down on the bed, and she had EB with her, clutched in her hand. She accidentally hit Tommy with EB as she got settled down beside him and her head on the small pillow she used when he was sleeping in the bed. It was now between him and where Buck would be sleeping, which was different from where it usually was. Tommy covered up a little, enough so that Buck could get into the bed as well. He looked at the picture, and he thought about the child he was going to have. The betrayal and the way that he had been so pissed off at the world because of Ali and Eddie. Betrayal by the two people whom he never thought would betray him.
Tommy looked up at Buck when Rose looked at him, too. The soft look on Tommy’s face said it all. Tommy knew what Buck was thinking about. It was good that Tommy seemed to know Buck so well, even after the short time they had been closer. It made things easier. Buck still got his words mixed up, and he said things out of order, but Tommy was patient and allowed Buck time to get his head on right and repeat it the right way without getting pissed off.
“Bucky,” Rose called out when Buck took too long to get into bed.
The name was newer from her. It was something that Chris sometimes called him before all of this. Buck still had Chris on occasion, and it was going to be interesting to introduce him to Rose. He hoped that it wasn’t where the breakdown happened. Of course, Chris’ secret weapon was that his mother was dead too, but Chris hadn’t seen it. Buck hadn’t told Chris about Rose yet, but he figured that the word had spread in the LAFD about it because the LAPD didn’t seem to be able to keep their mouths shut on it. There were a lot of things that could go wrong, but they had Rose’s father in custody. He had been found with ease and was being processed. Thankfully, the courts were keeping the person who had his kid from him, and hopefully, no one thought that he deserved to know. Buck doubted he was going to get bail.
“Sorry, I got a little lost in my head,” Buck said before he moved to climb into the bed and under the covers. He slipped his arm over Rose’s stomach and waited to see what she did. She gripped his arm and moved it up where she wanted it.
Rose said nothing; she was already close to fully back to sleep just from Buck getting back into the bed.
“What are you going to do if she wants both of us every single time?” Tommy asked.
“I have no idea.”
Buck really did have no idea because it was too soon for him and Tommy to be that serious. He hoped that with time and the lessening of the nightmares, they could go back to normal, have someone watch her when they went on a date. Of course, that meant that someone else had to be introduced to her. Buck liked the idea of it being Miriam and Jake. They were childfree but didn’t hate kids. Sal was a good option for watching her. He loved his kids and could easily get all of them to be good friends. Buck was spoiled for choice when it came to that, but first, he had to get over the hurdle of the first appointment, which Claire would be at, not in the room, but there to wait for the results.
It was fucking scary.
—
“She’s as adjusted as I would think she could be,” Donovan said as he sat down.
Tommy was with Rose in the room where she had been talking to Donovan, and they were coloring.
“What else can be done?” Buck asked.
“Nothing right now. You are doing well for someone who has had no kids before this.”
“I was unloved as a child. It took a lot for me to accept that when I…” Buck looked away. He knew that his meeting was for him as much as it was for Rose. For Claire to decide this really was the best. So he went into it all over with new people. The whole thing with Ali and then Eddie. The baby that wasn’t his that he had loved from the moment Ali said she was pregnant, and the way that love died as soon as he realized he wasn’t the father.
“That’s a lot, but you processed it,” Donovan said.
Buck nodded his head. He knew that he had. He had forced it with Doctor Copeland. “My therapist is Doctor Copeland. She and I have not met since I got Rose, but I am sure that there is something you two can talk about. I’ll sign whatever you need for that.”
“I know her well; we’ve shared cases like this before, traumatic loss of a parent with a surviving parent. I do have forms, and I’ll get them to you to sign at the end if you give me a few minutes.”
“Then you think that he’s a good placement?” Claire asked.
“I am honestly not sure that you could have searched out a better one. The bond formed between them isn’t a hindrance. She has already started to want to sleep in her own bed, which is good. Sometimes kids don’t want that. She feels safe because he gets to her when nightmares start, which is good. I have another session with her in two days, and then we can work on a plan to get you back to work for those half days you were talking about. There is no good timeline; it’s all on the kid’s end with that. If the first one freaks her out too badly, then you wait a while.”
Buck nodded. He was getting bored with being at home, but he could find other things to do. Even if it was going to Tommy’s and working on some of the upgrades he wanted to do with his place. There was also getting stuff for Rose’s bedroom, but Buck didn’t like getting too much in case she ended up not staying with him long term.
“And adoption?” Claire asked.
“I think that if things stay like they are, adoption will be better in the long run than foster care. I see in the notes that no family has been found that is willing to take her because none of them know her well at all, or are too old. Or in the case of the father, the family lost all rights to have kids. Adoption would make her feel like she has a family, more than just being a foster kid.”
“Do you see a reason right now why that shouldn’t be Mister Buckley?”
“None at all. Of course, this is just the first visit. There is no reason to think that it would change, but I would keep with the court’s guidance on that one.”
Clarie nodded, and she stood up. “I’ll get this filed, and we will work on getting everything taken care of in a legal manner. Buck, Donovan, have a good day.”
Then it was just Buck and Donovan.
“I would like to see your boyfriend with her. She talked about him a good bit about how he saved a kitty from a tree and how he helps her when she asks for it. I don’t think that it would be harmful for her to be in his care when you are not around, but I want to see how you three are together.”
“I can look at his schedule. He works the same shifts as I do, but sometimes it’s different because of the needs of a pilot.”
“I see. I don’t mind it taking a while.”
Buck was glad because he knew that sometimes things had to be done at certain times. He had already been given a list of things for his house for the next visit; the first had gone well enough. There was a lot of stuff that wasn’t needed cause she wasn’t a baby. Still, Buck had childproofed the cabinets that held things that he didn’t think she needed to get access to. Then there were a few other things that he had to make sure were in places that Rose wouldn’t go snooping, or at least he hoped she didn’t.
All of his sex things were either in his closet or in the drawer on the side of the bed he used the most. He would hopefully hear her if she was going to get into the drawers that much.
“You are doing well,” Donovan said when the silence stayed on for too long.
“Thanks,” Buck said. He was worried about it; hell, everyone should be worried about it. It was more than enough to make him stay up at night sometimes.
“Are you feeling okay?” Donovan asked.
“Yes, sorry. I’m just…worried. I have so much to do and shit. Then there is the whole thing with people thinking that I’m taking her to replace the kid that should have been mine. There is a small bit of that worry inside me as well.”
“I can’t say that you love her. It’s a short time, and there is a lot of stuff going on in your head, but I think that you took her in because she needed you. No one else. You. People will see that in time, or they won’t. The people who don’t see it need to be put out of your life anyway. They hold you to this standard of the fact that you are not changing. There is no change to be had for people like that.”
Buck nodded his head, and he looked at where Rose was still doing what she was doing. He felt like maybe this was as much a therapy appointment for him as it was for Rose. “And she’s really doing okay?”
“Yes, she’s doing as well as she could with what she saw. There is no linear progress; she could wake up tomorrow and be back where she was when you first found her.”
“I remember that from the little bit of stuff that was gone over with me when I was with Doctor Copeland at first, because of everything that happened. She told me that I would move around the healing scale at my mind’s pace and no one else’s.”
“Yes, she’s handled more than enough people to know that is true. Do you think there is anything that you need at the moment that you are not getting?”
“No, I think I’m good. I have people around me, and I’ll slowly introduce Rose to them. We are thinking about introducing Tommy’s neighbors next, and then his best friend. I live next door to Tommy, so Miriam and Jake are over at my place just as much as they are over at Tommy’s, depending on where Tommy is. They are childfree but love kids. I’ve never asked why they don’t have them. It’s not my place.”
“That’s a good way to look at things, very much not the norm for a lot of people. They think that they are owed information that is never theirs to begin with.”
“I have dealt with that a lot in my life.”
“The information that was given to me by Claire talked about you suing the LAFD?”
“No, I went to the union. It would have gone the full legal route if the union hadn’t taken my issues seriously. It’s what caused me to move houses. I lost some of the people I thought were my family in that, but it was worth it because I got a new house where people treat me with respect, instead of still seeing me as the probie who had issues.”
“And your captain is okay with giving you time off for this?”
“Oh, yeah, the captain of the house is retiring, and she’s training her replacement at her own speed, but Sal’s got it.”
“Sal, as in your boyfriend’s best friend?”
Buck nodded. He glanced at Donovan, who was smiling. “Like I said. The LAFD is a family, and I made myself a new one with people who show up as much as I show up.”
“That’s good. Next visit, I’ll tackle more things with her. I give just what you all owe me to give to your social worker, outside of the mandated stuff, if that were to ever happen.”
Buck was glad because he was pretty sure that things were going to go a little crazy before they got better; they always did for him.
Chapter Fifteen
The blood-curdling scream had Buck jumping out of bed, his feet got tangled in the sheets, and he went down, his head cracking off the floor. He groaned in pain and then got up again, the world swimming just tilted. He still made it into Rose’s room. She hadn’t wanted to sleep in his bed the night before, and it seemed that she had been late on her nightmare because Buck had been deeply asleep. He sat down on the bed and turned on the light. He touched Rose’s back and rolled her to her back from her side. She was crying, and as soon as she saw he was there, she launched herself at him. She clung to him, crying.
The nightmares had been different lately. She was afraid of losing him, and it all melded in her head. The DA and everyone involved in the case deemed that Rose’s father was going to lose all parental rights. That was going through the family court side of things at the same time that his criminal case was going. It was making for a lot of worry on Rose’s part. Thankfully, the case was going well enough, and Rose didn’t have to be in the room with him. Donovan had already given his report to the judge. Lawyers involved stated that making her face him in any way like that would be detrimental to her mental health, which thankfully, the judge was okay with making sure that if they needed anything from her, her father wasn’t in the room. The judge would talk to her alone. It was working out so far.
“Why are you wet?” Rose asked when she calmed down.
“Wet?” Buck reluctantly let go of Rose, and she leaned back from him. Her eyes started to water.
“You are bleeding.”
“Shit, okay, um, go and get my phone, please.”
Rose seemed like she didn’t want to leave him, but she did. She went into his bedroom and then came back with his phone in her hand. She looked really worried.
Buck turned on his camera, and he flipped it around and checked out what was going on. He found the cut on his head, and it looked like it might need stitches. The world was still a little wonky as well. He just might have a concussion. He didn’t know. The screen was hurting the hell out of his head.
“I’m gonna call Tommy and have him get Miriam for me, okay? Then she’s going to check me out, and if it’s needed, we will go to the hospital.”
“Miriam can do that?”
“Yeah, she’s an air medic. She’s trained a bit more than Hen is trained on things.”
The first visit between Hen, Karen, and Denny with Rose had gone pretty well. Denny was a sweet kid who knew that something was up for Buck to have custody of her like that, so he had treaded very carefully around things.
“Should I go unlock the door?” Rose asked.
“Yes, please, and then come back here, okay, I’m a little dizzy, so I don’t want to get up and move anywhere right now.”
Rose ran, and Buck nearly yelled at her not to run, but he stopped himself. If that were him, he would be running to the door and then running back. Buck shifted to put his back to the headboard, and he pressed the icon to call Tommy. The phone rang three times.
“Evan?” Tommy asked.
“Um, I need help.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Rose screamed really badly, and it scared me when I was half asleep. The nightmare didn’t come at the normal time. I got tangled in my sheets, and I went down. I didn’t know that I was bleeding until after I was in the room with Rose. I have a cut on my head, and I’m dizzy. Looking at my phone is making my head throb.”
“I’ll get Miriam and head over to you.”
“The front door is unlocked. Rose is coming back from doing that right now.”
“Need me to stay on the line?”
“No, I’m not in danger of passing out. I put myself on Rose’s bed with the headboard at my back. Be prepared for her to cling to you. Check on Bella, too please.”
Tommy made an affirmative noise, all traces of sleep gone from his tone right then.
Rose came back into the room as Buck was hanging up with Tommy. “He on his way?”
“Yeah, he’s gonna wake up Miriam, and they will be over soon.” Buck patted the bed beside him, but Rose climbed up, and she lay against his chest. It will work for now. He wasn’t that hurt, but this was the first hurt that Buck had gotten since she had entered his life a few weeks ago. It wasn’t going badly so far, and now it seemed that there were going to be more things in there. He hated that this might just give her nightmares. He didn’t like it, and he didn’t like that he was going to be delayed in going back to work.
The return to work date had been set already, and he had been happy about it. He had child care set up, and Rose loved the woman. She ran a daycare out of her house and did it strictly for firefighters she liked. Her husband was a firefighter, but he loved kids, and they had never been able to have their own due to both of them having issues. So she had started the daycare for others at the station, and it had grown a little bit outside of the station as time went on. Rose liked the kids there, and she didn’t charge an arm and a leg. She even did overnights for the single parents in the group.
Buck blinked, and Miriam was sitting down on the bed. He blinked at her again and then looked to his side at Tommy. Rose wasn’t even on him anymore. “I think I need to go to the ER.”
“Why?” Miriam asked as she put on gloves.
“Because I just got off the phone with Tommy, and Rose was on me, and I don’t remember feeling her get off me, and it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long since I got off the phone.”
“Okay, that does sound like you need to go to the ER, but we don’t need to do an ambo for it. I’ll drive, or Tommy will drive, and we will all go. Jake’s still dead to the world, but I left him a note. I’m going to get you cleaned up and that wound bandaged. You are right, it does need stitches, and I could have done them easily. You got a bag packed?”
“Yeah, my work bag is packed, and Rose’s bag is packed in her room for her first day at the daycare next week.”
“Okay. Tommy will take care of Rose, and I’ll take care of you for right now. Tommy, get the bag in a car or truck or something and check on the cat.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Tommy said. He still had Rose in his arms as he turned from the room.
“You remember what happened?”
“I heard Rose scream. It was blood-curdling. Usually, I hear the start of it over the monitor before it gets that bad, but I was dead asleep. I jumped out of bed, got tangled in the sheets, and went down. I cracked my head on the floor and then came running in here. The dizziness didn’t really set in until I had sat here on the bed, and Rose noticed the blood before I did.”
“You were too focused on her, which is not a bad thing. It’s what’s saved lives before. It’s good for you to remember it. I’m not too worried about the severity of the concussion. The time slipping happens with a concussion, as you know. You probably zoned out on things.”
Buck was glad that Miriam was there to settle things down. He probably would have been freaking out if not for her.
—
The ER wasn’t nearly as packed as it could be, but Buck knew that with his concussion, he was going to be going back before a lot of them; still, he got the looks of resentment when he had been taken back. The scans of his head had already taken place. He had been scanned to hell and back to make sure that he hadn’t had something worse happen. The X-ray he had seen already didn’t show any breaks, and that was good. The rest of it was going to make sure that the rest of him wasn’t too off. While waiting for the results of the scans, he had been stitched up.
Rose moved from Tommy’s arms to Buck’s bed whenever Buck could have her with him. She was scared, and Buck knew it. He was kind of glad that he would have time with her after this, and they would have an appointment with Donovan in a few days because it was the normal time, but he could always call to make another if it was needed, if she didn’t calm down from this.
A knock came at the door, and Buck sat up a little, using the bed remote to get him up before the doctor came in with a nurse behind her. There was more medication in the nurse’s hand.
“Your concussion is mild, which is good. There are no other issues going on, the swelling is normal, and we are not worried about it. This is some meds to help with the pain and swelling, but it’s not going to thin your blood, just to be safe. We will let you get this in you, and then once you are done with it, you’ll be discharged with scripts.”
“Can I get them filled here?” Buck asked.
“You can. Our pharmacy is open all day and night. If you want to sleep, you are more than welcome. This will take about an hour to transfuse, and then we will get you out of here. It should help with the dizziness as well to allow you to get home and settle into bed. Sandra, here is going to go over what you are to do and not to do so that all of you can hear it.”
“Me too?” Rose asked.
“Yes, of course, you are going to be the best at taking care of Dad, aren’t you?”
“She’s…” Buck stopped when Rose nodded her head so hard that her chin was hitting Buck’s ribs as it went up and down.
“I’m the best,” Rose said.
Buck wanted to cry. He loved the girl; he knew that, hell, anyone around him knew that. And he knew that she cared for him, but that didn’t mean that she loved him or wanted to have him called Dad. Though after the way that her father had ruined her life, anyone else named Dad was a good thing.
“Good. Good. Now, are there any questions at the moment?”
“No,” Buck said. He normally would shake his head, but that was hell no, because that hurt like hell.
“Good. Sandra will take care of you.” The doctor left the room.
Buck couldn’t remember the doctor’s name, and he had given up asking it because it just wasn’t sticking. Sandra’s name would go away as soon as she was out of the room as well.
It was Miriam who focused on what Sandra was saying as she got the medication bag hooked up to Buck’s IV. The saline had been there, going in case he needed to start throwing up to keep some fluids in his body. He was glad that the throwing-up part of things had not happened. He was going to have to deal with throwing up because it might still happen to him.
Buck laid the bed back down because sleeping a little bit sounded good. Tommy and Miriam were going to take care of Rose because they had been doing so since they had come to his place to check on him. They were going to make sure that she was taken care of, and that was all that mattered. It was going to be interesting over the day because he needed someone to stay with him. After all, there was no chance he was going to be able to cook food, given what was going on with his head, not for a day or two.
“Buck,” Sandra called, and she shook his hand a little bit.
Buck blinked a few times and looked at her. He was really freaking tired, and he wanted to sleep.
“Is Tommy the one going to be staying with you?”
“Is that what he said?” Buck asked.
“Yes.”
“Then yes.”
Sandra nodded and turned away from him. Buck closed his eyes again, and he rubbed up and down Rose’s back as she lay on top of him. They could both get some sleep in. Buck would relax since Tommy was going to be taking care of him.
—
Not being able to watch TV sucked. At least there were documentaries that Buck didn’t mind listening to. Tommy took Buck and Rose home with him for the first part of the day, so that Tommy could get some stuff around the house done. Tommy’s sound system also allowed him to play stuff and have the TV off. It was down low, and Buck just drifted in and out of sleep. Thankfully, they were past the point where people with a concussion had to be woken up every little bit, even if Rose checking him on him didn’t wake him up, her soft fingers touching his throat where Tommy taught her to feel for the thump of his heart, and how to watch for his chest rising and falling wasn’t missed.
Bella could take care of herself because Tommy had made sure her dry food was topped up before they had left and her litter had been cleaned before Buck had gone to bed. She would be fine alone until they got there later that day.
Buck sat up slowly because he needed to pee; the fluids were still making him have to pee a lot, and he hated it. Tommy’s bathroom, attached to the hallway of his downstairs, was at least a little bit good. It was big enough for Tommy, which meant it was big enough for him.
“You need help?” Tommy asked.
Buck looked over to see him standing in the doorway of the living room from the kitchen area with a smile on his lips.
“No, I’m good. Just gonna go slowly. Where is Rose?”
“Backyard playing a little bit. I promised that I would check on you every few minutes, and I will go out and report to her that you are breathing just fine. She’s taking this better than I thought she would.
“Agreed.”
Buck was careful as he slipped into the bathroom, did his business, and washed up. He wasn’t feeling as tired as he wanted to go to the kitchen and sit in there as Tommy worked on food and whatever he was doing on his laptop. Buck thought that it might be something to do with bills. Buck had as many of his automated as possible. He had two that had to pay that he couldn’t do automatically, but he set up a calendar alert to pay them on the day that they are first due and not near the end of the pay period.
The kitchen was bright, but thankfully, it was natural light that didn’t come from a light in the ceiling, and that meant it wasn’t as harsh on Buck’s head. He sat down in the breakfast nook that was his favorite part of Tommy’s house. It was cozy.
Buck’s stomach growled, and he laughed when Tommy turned around to look at him, which made that much noise.
“Snack?”
“Um, yeah, sure that sounds good.”
Tommy opened up the oven, and he picked up something that was sitting in there and carried it over to Buck. He laid it down. It was a plate with five pieces of bacon. He smiled at Tommy before picking up a piece and snapping off a bite of it. It was the perfect kind of bacon, crispy while still full of flavor. Tommy did really well on bacon.
“How do you feel? Really?” Tommy asked.
“Sore as hell but pretty good. My head is aching, and I know that it’ll last a few days. She’s not blaming herself, is she?”
“A little, but in the way that all kids are, not because of the whole mother thing.”
Buck was glad. It was his biggest worry that she would blame herself for what was going on, instead of realizing that it could have happened with him getting up to pee. He had nearly tripped on things before, but the rush was what took him down. He would never tell her that. He didn’t feel that she was out of place because it was something to help her not feel like she had done it.
“Do you think that she’s taking things too easily?” Buck asked.
“No, I don’t think so, Evan. I think that she’s taking things in stride and trying to be good. She’ll have issues, we will have to deal with tantrums and the like, but her life changed, and she’s still rolling with the punches.”
Buck thought about being her age and how he would have gone through his mother being killed in front of him and his father taking him. He couldn’t see either of his parents ever doing that. They would never care. It was more likely that his father would kill his mother and then just leave him there with her body and walk out of their life. The thing with family annihilators was that they were trying to “save” the whole family or make it so that no one else could have the family. That wasn’t the case with his family. He had to learn how to deal with things in a good way because the way that his family dealt with stuff wasn’t going to work at all. He knew that.
“Do you want something else?”
Buck looked at the plate of bacon. It was empty. He hadn’t realized that he had eaten it while thinking. He mourned that he didn’t get to savor the taste, but he would get more with breakfast. “No. I’m good. Should I go and get her?”
“Yes. I’m nearly done with the potatoes.”
Buck wasn’t sure what was on offer for food, and he figured that whatever it was, it was geared more toward Rose, which was fine. Buck would rather that. It was small, but it showed that Tommy was putting Rose in front of Buck a little bit, unlike Buck’s own childhood. Tommy’s parents also never really put him first, either. His mother did as much as she could, but she stayed with an abusive man. Buck knew it was more nuanced than that, but it boiled down to the fact that Tommy would have had a better childhood not in the same house as his abusive father, and just like Buck had been emotionally abused more than anything. Back then, the neglect wouldn’t be seen as much of anything because he had food, clothes, and he went to school. There were no marks on him, but these days it was looked at as something else.
Moving still sucked, but Buck needed to do some of it to get his body to not lock up on him. He knew that his bandage on his head needed to be changed and that would come soon, but first, to get some food in him, then pills, then Tommy could check his stitches on his head.
Rose was sitting in the middle of the backyard, petting a kitten. Buck stared at the kitten and looked around. He was so focused that he didn’t notice Tommy coming out after him.
“Oh, she tamed him,” Tommy said.
“That’s a kitten.”
“Yeah, the mother was killed not too long ago, and most of the kittens were caught, but that guy refused to be caught. He’s mostly old enough to be on his own, and we have food out for him. I hadn’t seen him in a week, so I thought that someone else had caught him.”
“You never said anything.”
“You’ve been dealing with so much with Rose that I just kind of forgot. Looks like she might be getting a pet,” Tommy said.
Buck nodded because it seemed like Rose was. She turned her head to look at him, her eyes big and pleading. Buck was going to be the owner of two cats, it seemed. He didn’t really mind at all. He liked cats. He wanted to get Bella a friend but thought that a second cat could come later after Rose was settled down but the universe was giving him a kitten. “It’s probably going to want to follow you into your house.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me.” Tommy laughed, though, and stepped back from Buck.
Rose stood up and carried the kitten with her toward them. “Can I keep him?”
“You sure can. Tommy can call to make an appointment with the local vet, and we can see about getting him checked out and everything that he needs shipped over to us. I’m sure that we can find a delivery service for everything that we need because I don’t have enough litter boxes and nothing that is kitten sized. Tommy will have to do the research with you because I can’t look at screens.”
Tommy made a noise that told Buck that he hadn’t thought about how Tommy would be doing the heavy lifting at this point in time. Buck just smiled to himself. It wasn’t like he planned it, but this was a good outcome for it since it was a little bit of payback to Tommy.
—
Buck checked on Rose, who was asleep in her bed with Daredevil asleep on the pillow beside her. The kitten liked to sleep in bed with her, and the nightmares had been less since he did. It was the best outcome over the last three weeks with her. The kitten was really good at making her happy, so Buck didn’t mind, and even when Rose was at daycare for a little while after Buck got off work, he didn’t mind entertaining the kitten because Bella sure was not entertaining the kitten.
There had been additions to the house that allowed for Bella to get away from the kitten. They were getting better about being together but Daredevil was slowly learning that Bella would search him out when she wanted him around. They could play for a while and then she would leave him alone.
Donovan thought that the kitten was the best idea, something for Rose to focus on, and she could talk to it in a way that she might not feel like doing with Buck, even though she trusted Buck a great deal. Bella and her had never connected in that way and that was okay. Not all pets loved everyone in the house. The daycare was also working out for her. Soon she would be starting school, and there was a way to get her to school on the mornings when she had it. The whole thing was a lot of work, but it worked out in the end. Buck knew that Claire was working to make sure that Rose was going to be fine by the time she started school. Rose had been in pre-school before all of this, and they were working on getting her caught back up to where her peers were on things, and going further than that. Buck used his time with her to his advantage, and even at daycare, she was taught stuff with the other kids who were not in school yet. It was working out, and that kind of scared Buck.
Slipping away from Rose’s room, Buck headed back to his bedroom. He found that Tommy had woken up and was looking at him through sleep-heavy eyes. It was probably too much too soon with him and Tommy, but in the end, it didn’t matter because they were both intending with what they were doing. It was going to work, or it wasn’t going to work, and it was all down to what kind of life they both wanted. Tommy wanted them both right now; it could change in a day, or a week, or even years down the road. There was so much shit that was going on that Buck wasn’t sure what kind of things he was even going to end up having going on with it all. He just knew he wanted the life he had right now. It had been messy to get there, and it was full of pain on all of their sides, but maybe it was what made it all worth it.
“You look like you’re thinking deep thoughts,” Tommy murmured as Buck got close to the bed and slipped under the covers. The door was mostly shut, and it would creak when it was opened up more than that.
“Just thinking about what got us all here. All three of us. I wouldn’t change anything in this world, outside of saving Rose’s mom.”
He and Tommy nodded, hummed a happy noise as Buck settled back into his arms. They were both in a pair of sleep shorts, Tommy because he hadn’t felt like getting a clean shirt, and Buck because it was what he slept in with Tommy in bed with him. Tommy put off too much heat for Buck to sleep as he normally did. Tommy pulled Buck even closer to him, and his hand slipped down into Buck’s shorts.
“Tommy,” Buck whined, but he didn’t stop him. His cock thickened as it was gripped, and he groaned before he wiggled back to press his ass to Tommy’s cock. He wiggled again and was given a low moan for his efforts.
“Maybe we should take off the shorts,” Tommy said.
Buck agreed because it would be a lot better for him to do that than to have to get new ones to sleep in because he didn’t sleep naked at any point in time at all. When Rose’s nightmares were more under control and everything was better, there would be locked doors and nakedness, but right now, they both agreed that Rose being able to get them was more important.
“Maybe,” Buck said, but he got his hand down to wiggle then of him, tangling them down at the bottom of the bed using his feet. He felt Tommy doing the same, and then there was just naked skin pressed to him. Buck loved this. He had not thought much about the difference in sex beyond things he loved that Tommy did to him, even with sex being few and far between when it came to them because of Rose and then Buck’s concussion. Sex was usually like this right now, one of them behind the other and rubbing and stroking.
“I wanna feel you,” Tommy said.
Buck wasn’t sure what that meant until he heard the snap of the lube, and he was being pressed forward a little. Buck angled the way that Tommy wanted him, and then there were fingers between his cheeks. He groaned and turned his head to the pillow, muffling the sound. The door was shut, so that wasn’t an issue, but still, Buck wanted to keep quiet. He waited to see what Tommy did next, and then there were fingers back, and they were slick, two pressing inside of him. He figured that Tommy had been having good dreams to be like that when Buck had gotten up to check on Rose. He had to pee, and he checked her any time he had to get up to pee in the night.
“Yes?” Tommy asked.
“Yes.” Buck was more than happy to have Tommy fuck him like this. Buck had been the one to do this to him just a few nights before; it had been when they got into bed, though. Buck plastered to his back and a condom in hand.
“Condom?” Tommy asked.
The idea of cleaning up made Buck want to say yes, but then he thought about how he was going to shower in the morning anyway, and so what if they got messy. He could put his shorts on and then just sleep like that. Messy sex was the best sex for him.
“No,” Buck said.
Tommy groaned and his teeth closed around Buck’s shoulder before he licked that spot to say he was worried about the little bit of pressure from the teeth. The two fingers were slicking him up, and he was so fucking relaxed that Tommy could easily slip inside of him like he was. Tommy seemed to realize that, and then he pulled his fingers free and lifted Buck’s cheek to give Tommy access. He lifted his leg to give better access, and then the head of Tommy’s cock was pressed to his hole. Buck closed his eyes to savor the feel of Tommy filling him up without a condom on. There was not much difference in the way he felt, but there would be when Tommy came.
Buck had loved it the first time he had been inside Tommy without a condom, and he felt like maybe they should do it more, but with life, things were just easier if they didn’t have to deal with that mess. So Buck didn’t say much at all about his preference.
Tommy didn’t stop until he was pressed to Buck’s back, his hips slotted to cradle Buck. He gripped Buck’s hip to keep him right there before he started just to rock, ever so slightly. “You feel so fucking good wrapped around my cock.”
“Tommy,” Buck said, because it felt so good that he didn’t know how to deal with this. He loved the way that Tommy felt inside of him, or how Tommy felt wrapped around his cock. The best way that Tommy felt was when he was sucking Buck’s cock, or Buck was sucking his. It felt strangely more intimate than this even.
Tommy didn’t touch Buck’s cock, and when he reached down to do it, Tommy grabbed his hand. Holding it so that Buck couldn’t get free. Not that he wanted to. Tommy had found his prostate with ease, and it was like he was being fucked perfectly.
“You like?” Tommy asked as he rolled his hips even slower, making Buck moan a little more at the feeling of the way that Tommy was using him. It wasn’t even the using part. It was just that he was making Buck feel so fucking much.
“Yes,” Buck said.
“Yeah? I’ll have to do this more then. Wake you up by slipping my fingers inside of you, and then my cock. Get you off while making sure that your cock isn’t touched.”
Buck tipped his head back, and Tommy moved a little to where he could kiss along Buck’s shoulder, then his teeth closed around the flesh there again, holding on but not too hard. It made Buck’s cock jerk, and he knew that he was going to come too soon, and then Tommy was going to keep on fucking him. Buck whined, and he hoped that he didn’t get too loud.
Tommy kept rolling his hips, and when he put a little more pressure on Buck’s skin, Buck came, but Tommy didn’t stop. No, he kept on going to make Buck feel like he was going to break apart with the way that Tommy was hitting his prostate. They had been figuring out what Buck liked and didn’t like, and he thought he might like overstimulation, Tommy keeping on fucking him after he had come and not stopping, just keeping on going.
Buck’s skin felt like he was on fire, and he could feel his arousal ramping up again. He couldn’t see his cock, the room was too dark for that, but he knew that it was getting hard again. Tommy shifted the angle of his hips and therefore his cock a little more, and then it was there, rubbing just right the way that Buck needed to get off again. He wiggled his arm that he was sort of lying on free, and he grabbed his pillow, pulled it toward him, so he could muffle the sounds because he was getting too loud even to his ears.
“I’ll have to do this again sometime when Rose is at school. Put you on your knees or maybe even your back, hold you in place as I fuck you to orgasm, and then just keep going. Maybe sometime I’ll use a toy for it. Press it inside of you and fuck you through one orgasm and then another, then maybe a third. See if you sob and cry about it.”
“Please,” Buck begged, and he had no idea if Tommy could understand him from the way he was covering his face with the pillow, but the whining could be heard. His cock was hard, and it ached with the want of orgasm. He was so fucking close already.
“Made to be used,” Tommy said, and he picked up the pace a little like he was chasing his own orgasm, finally.
Buck tried to hold on, and when he felt Tommy getting erratic with his thrusting, he let himself finally start to come. He groaned, and he felt Tommy coming inside of him, and it triggered his orgasm even faster. Tommy held him close, and when he could speak, he told him how good he was, how good he felt, how much Tommy loved him.
They stayed like that until Buck finally felt like he needed to get cleaned up a little, but he hated to leave the embrace of Tommy and the way that Tommy held him when they were like that, like Buck was precious. Buck held Tommy like that, too, holding onto him like he was something that needed to be cherished. Like he was something that was good in the world. They made their own little family with Rose at the center, but they took care of each other, too.
Rose came first; she always would be, but they didn’t forsake each other as well.
“Love you,” Buck said.
Tommy hummed as he rubbed his nose across Buck’s skin. “You too.”
It was all Buck needed.
Epilogue
Buck was nervous as hell. He looked to make sure that everything was set up for the party. They were going to have a lot of people there, and it was going to be a big surprise to most of them what the party was for. All of the 118, except Eddie, were there. There was no saving that friendship there. Buck hadn’t even really tried, and he didn’t feel like he was missing out on anything for not trying. He just moved on with his life and did what he needed to do.
“Evan, calm down.” Tommy wrapped his arms around Buck from behind and held onto him.
Sal was talking to Rose and his own kids about the party and a few other things. Daredevil was on his leash and sitting at Rose’s feet. Right now, he was her emotional support kitten. She wanted him around her when she was home, and he seemed inclined to actually be a good little kitten. He still had his kitten moments, and he was very much into doing them through the house at two in the morning and waking up Buck and Tommy, but never Rose. Bella was inside of the house and she would stay in there, away from people and the noise of them. For being so brave when he and Ali had gotten her, she had become a Buck person pretty much wholly. She deigned to let Tommy hold and love on her but still didn’t like Rose that much.
Miriam and Jake were in the front yard of the house, and they were getting ready to greet people as they came to the party. It was supposed to be a normal party, just a simple garden party that was being held at Tommy’s place.
Buck and Rose pretty much lived there now. They were taking their time getting everything out of the other house and making sure that Rose was good and didn’t need to go back to the other house before Buck gave up renting it. The landlord was pretty happy with the arrangement so far. It allowed some work to be done in the few rooms that were empty, and the work gave Buck a break from the rent as well. When it was all good, they would give up the house and live with Tommy full-time.
It worked for them, and it was all that mattered in the long run.
“Sorry. I’m afraid of what will happen if they find out.”
“You had a different kind of wedding than Bobby and Athena, yes, it was at the courthouse, but you had Bobby there. You had Hen. I had Sal, Miriam, and Jake; that was all that mattered.”
“Rose too,” Buck said.
“Well, as if she would be anywhere else.”
Buck laughed. He remembered the hell that Bobby got for doing a courthouse wedding with Athena, but the compromise for this one had been that they would have a party afterward. Buck looked at his hand, and he raised it, looking at his and Tommy’s hands with their rings on them. This was going to be a good party, even if Buck had to murder people for it to be good. Rose was at a good place where she wouldn’t mind a lot of people around her, who would be people she had met before but didn’t know well.
“Your team is here,” Tommy said.
Buck looked to see Derek leading the way with the rest of the people from his shift that he had gotten close to. Abigail and Ariel were right behind with gifts in their hands. Buck narrowed his eyes. He had said it was just a party, so someone had spoken out of turn because one of those was for Rose, with the cats all over the wrapping paper, and the other was for them because there were fire trucks and helicopters on that paper. Kids’ papers, but still cute. It was just like them to do that kind of thing, even if they said no presents.
There was so much happiness today, and it was all to celebrate the last thing going through—the adoption by Buck and Tommy. Tommy had gone to Claire on his own months before to add him to it all. Only for Claire to have already worked on the start of that paperwork, and she had been going to ask them if it was something they wanted. They got married and then went to another part of the courthouse just days later to go through the paperwork to adopt Rose.
Now everything was done. Buck knew that everything with her had been done a little out of order, and the courts had done as much as they could to fast-track everything, given what was going on.
“What about the father?” Tommy asked.
Buck looked at him and shook his head. Tommy kissed Buck’s forehead. “He gave up his rights as part of the deal. The courts allowed him to go where he can be close to his parents in exchange for his giving up his daughter. If he ever does get out years down the road, we will be told.”
That last part had happened behind closed doors afterward, and because of Rose being sick, Buck had been the one to be there for that. They knew that he had given up his rights, but they hadn’t been told much at all about it until Buck pushed it.
It had been a busy as hell week with a wedding, an adoption, and a party.
“Everyone is here,” Athena said as she came up to stand beside them with a smile on her face.
“Thanks, Athena.” Buck looked at Tommy and nodded his head.
“Let’s get it over with,” Tommy said.
Buck waved for Tommy to lead the way to where they had settled the main part of everything, and they headed that way. He waited for Tommy to get where he wanted before he took up a place right close to him. It was something that he liked to do, put himself close to Tommy, and be right where he needed to be. He looked at the rest of the people who were now looking at them.
This was his family, some of whom were still healing up from issues, but mostly, they were doing pretty well.
“Thank you all for coming here. This party has three reasons for happening, even if I just said that I’m going to have a big party to celebrate life. It’s celebrating the life that I made. First off, this is a housewarming party because Rose and I moved in with Tommy.
“Dad!” Rose yelled, and she took off toward them. She was grinning and jumped into Tommy’s arms. Tommy caught her with ease and put her on his side so that she could look out at the people who were all gathered around. “Together.”
“Together,” Buck said.
There were awws from all over the gathered group of people.
“There are two people here beyond Tommy, and I know the full reason for this party, and they kept their mouths shut, so someone else found out,” Buck said, and he looked at Ariel.
“I might have been at HQ when you were there submitting the change in forms,” Abigail said.
Buck was shocked that it was Abigail who had found out about it.
“What did you find out?” Sal asked.
“These two got hitched and adopted a kid,” Derek said.
“You told him about the adoption before me?” Sal asked.
“I did.” Abigail looked unrepentant about it.
Buck laughed. This was exactly like he thought it was going to go, but with Miriam and Jake getting yelled at by Sal.
“We did get married because we wanted to make that family for Rose, and she wanted it as well. Then we went down to another part of the courthouse, and we signed the adoption paperwork with everything fast-tracked. Once we have the full paperwork in our hands, we will make the needed changes with the LAFD,” Buck looked at Sal, and then he looked at Bobby, who looked proud as hell.
“I knew that you slipped away, but we just assumed you were trying to get caught and thrown in jail for doing something you shouldn’t in a bathroom stall of the courthouse,” Hen said.
Buck laughed at that, and Tommy outright snorted. “No. We went through the whole process of the adoption, and then we went to that little diner that you guys talked us into. Mostly, this is a party to celebrate Rose being adopted. We all wanted something to celebrate, and we thought that this was a good way to do it. And to tell those who were not there at the wedding that we got married, and then everyone that we adopted a kid. So, have fun, eat food, and enjoy a good day.”
Sal was the first to approach them, mostly because he had Daredevil in his arms with the leash still attached. Rose had been excited to go up to them and jump into Tommy’s arms, but she trusted Sal with her cat, one of the few people who were allowed to have possession of the cat when he wasn’t with Rose.
“You two are going to pay for this,” Sal said. He nodded towards where Gina was looking at them with a little bit of a cunning look. It was going to be interesting for a while to deal with people’s emotions.
Thankfully, Buck had already set up good boundaries after everything with Bobby sidelining him from the job. It made it a lot easier for him to get to where he was able to figure out what he needed.
“Are you happy?” Sal asked as he looked at Tommy.
“Incandescent,” Tommy said.
Buck thought it was a good word to describe what he felt as well.
Life was hard, but with Tommy at his side and Rose with them, they could do anything.
The End
