Reading Time: 66 Minutes

Title: Storm
Series: The Body is a Work of Heart
Series Order: 2
Author: EAlexBeau
Fandom: 9-1-1
Genre: Established Relationship, Family, Kid!fic, Pre-Relationship, Pregnancy, Romance
Relationship(s): Evan Buckley/Tommy Kinard, Shannon Whitt/Sal DeLuca, Eddie Diaz/Marisol
Content Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Hate Speech. Single instance of anti-vaxxer mom, Non-Graphic Child Birth, Character Bashing
Author Note: I’m gonna start it right now, Eddie is not a great guy in this. Throughout season seven I fully believe Eddie was mentally spiraling, long before he saw Kim. I wanted to explore how his mental status affected his parenting and relationships. But after this season? Yeah, I don’t look upon him very favorably. Beyond that I do have two big jump scares her. One with a minor character suspected of being exposed to measles because of unvaccinated children and that same minor character being believed to be kidnapped at one point. Neither of these happen, but there is the temporary worry that they have.
Word Count: 39,582
Summary: With the help of his best friend, older brother, and his pushy therapist, Evan Buckley survived his son Isaac’s pregnancy and now he wants another baby, but there’s a few problems. One, Eddie is dating someone new now and firmly doesn’t want a third child. Two, Buck craves a life partner, not just a co-parent. Three, he has a massive crush on an old friend of his soon-to-be brother-in-law. The universe might just have a few tricks up it’s sleeve for him.
Artist: Drake
Artist Appreciation: A round of applause for this gorgeous artwork everybody! Gotta admit I made this story’s cover my laptop background!

---

---

CHAPTER SIX

“You’re doing fine, babe,” Buck laughed from the backseat next to Audra as he watched Tommy triple check no cars were coming before turning.

“Just want to get you both home safe,” Tommy retorted.

“You will, just drive normally. You and I both know driving too cautiously can be just as dangerous as not being cautious enough.”

“You’re right. I’ve responded to plenty of those accidents.” Sitting behind the passenger seat gave Buck the perfect view of Tommy so he was able to see as the older man relaxed. “Our VIP still asleep?”

“Out cold. Not surprised. The second that Isaac was in a moving car he would be sound asleep. I think it’s because I was constantly moving when I was pregnant with them.”

“Maybe. I bet the hubbub of the station would put her to sleep, too.

“Are you sure you don’t want to tell your sister before tonight? She’ll probably be really hurt to know you waited so long to tell her,” Tommy pointed out.

“I’m sure. Maddie and I have a really complicated relationship, especially when it comes to our kids. Maddie got PPD and had a thyroid issue that exacerbated it. She used Covid as an excuse to isolate herself after Jee was born. She was embarrassed and didn’t want anyone to know or help her and Chimney. It all came to a head when Isaac was a week old, during that huge blackout.

“Maddie came over with Jee and tried to take Isaac. She was already unstable and then she saw some bruises from when he was born and my sister lost it. Shannon and my midwife, Ella, were there and we had to call paramedics to sedate her. They put her on a psychiatric hold and we had Jee, so we called Chimney. He was working the recall, but Bobby sent him home to settle Jee somewhere. When he got to my place he was just as out of it as Maddie. Chim yelled at all of us and then things escalated to the point that he tried to punch Shannon, but Daniel showed up and took the hit.” Buck saw Tommy’s eyes get wider and wider in the rear view mirror. “Daniel pressed charges, because Maddie was in an abusive marriage before Chim and needed to know he was capable of violence if stressed enough. A police report would give her a more unbiased source of information and a security that we didn’t make anything up.”

“I’ve known Chimney for almost twenty years. I can’t believe he would do that. I believe you that it all happened, but it’s still hard to reconcile the man, the paramedic, I knew with someone who would behave like that.”

“You’ve gotta understand, he had a lot of issues he never dealt with. Then I came in, a cocky probie who reminded him of the kind of people your old captain would hire. It made me an easy target for his ‘caustic humor.’” Buck made sure to use the finger quotes here to emphasize his sarcasm. “He was also extremely jealous of how much attention I get from women on calls. Chimney got better after his accident, and more so when he started dating my sister.

“But I haven’t forgotten how he used to treat me and he brings out personal life into work a lot. Maddie and I fight or she ignores my boundaries. He tries to fight her battles at work. And I was there for his accident. He caused it. Chim got mad when me and Bobby pointed out he was lying to his girlfriend when he complained about her turning down his proposal. He stormed out, angry, drove recklessly while speeding and was lucky to be the only person hurt. So turning to violence when upset? Didn’t surprise me,” Buck explained.

“I changed from who I was when we met. I can’t be too surprised he changed too,” Tommy sighed. He pulled into Buck’s driveway and turned the engine off before racing around the side to help Buck out and then get Audra.

“We’re constantly changing based on our experiences in life. But he experienced a lot of bad and didn’t deal with any of it in a healthy way, so he didn’t necessarily change for the better.”

Buck unlocked the front door and gingerly walked over to the couch, Tommy just behind him. Normally people hovering around him, like Tommy was, aggravated Buck. But the way Tommy made sure he was comfortable didn’t make him feel fragile, or like he wasn’t capable. It made him feel precious. Once Buck was settled and comfortable, he unbuttoned his shirt and took Audra so he could feed her.

“I’m gonna go get our bags and put them in your room for now. When I get back, we can come up with a game plan,” Tommy offered.

“Sounds good. I do want to go get Isaac from daycare when Addie is done nursing. I haven’t seen him in days,” Buck nearly whimpered. This hospital stay was the longest he’d been without his son since he was born.

“I know you miss Isaac, but you did the right thing, keeping Isaac and Addie separate until you were sure he was over the flu. Hell, he could’ve endangered other children we didn’t know,” Tommy reminded him. The older man sat next to Buck for a minute, just holding and kissing his temple until Buck finally sent Tommy to go get their bags out of his Jeep. Daniel had been amazing and installed Audra’s car seat and then dropped off for the two men to go home.

“So,” Tommy began when he came back. Buck instantly handed him Audra to burp before taking her back so she could continue nursing. “You mentioned your sister has problems with respecting your boundaries. Are you afraid if you told her now and asked her to stay away she wouldn’t do that?”

“Pretty much. Plus, she and Chim have no secrets from each other. Anything I tell Maddie, she tells Chim. Even if I ask her not to. It’s a pact they made after her PPD.“

“Beyond it not being her place to tell your secrets to anyone, I know Chimney when he’s asked to keep a secret. He tells everyone,” Tommy agreed.

“I want to tell people myself and have some privacy for all of us while we adjust and bond,” Buck sniffed. His second pregnancy may have been mostly symptom free, but his hormones were going crazy in what Ella had called the fourth trimester when she treated him after Isaac.

“I’ll back you up on kicking people out. I can’t and won’t make parenting choices for Isaac, but I’ll back your choices when I can. And if I don’t agree for whatever reason, I’ll stay out of it.”

“I really appreciate that, Tommy. But I hope if we make it, you get to know Eddie and Isaac well enough to feel comfortable enough to make your opinions on big choices known. You’re Addie’s dad, you’re part of this family now,” Buck reminded him. He smirked and continued with, “You’re stuck with us. Forever.”

“When you guys showed up at Harbor, willing to risk everything for Bobby and Athena, I was jealous. You guys were one big family and it seemed like I just missed it,” Tommy quietly admitted, twirling one of Audra’s tiny curls around his finger. “My birth family sucked. But now I am part of the One-Eighteen family. I have a family of my own with a daughter. And I don’t know how to be part of a family.”

“You’ll figure it out.” Buck hesitated with what he wanted to say next, but if they want to make their parenting and romantic relationship work, then they need open and honest communication. “I’m scared to be Audra’s dad. I’m terrified actually. What if my dysphoria makes me unable to connect with her or play with her because the games are stereotypically ‘girl’ games. Daniel thinks I’ll be ok, and I already plan to work on it in therapy. But it doesn’t make me feel any less scared.”

Tommy just carefully maneuvered so that Buck was leaning back against his chest. Audra unlatched for a final time and Buck burped her before bringing her back to his chest, Tommy’s arms wrapping around them both to hold them. “I look at you two together, Evan, and you just glow with your love for her. You love her with everything you have, sweetheart. Just like you love Isaac the exact same damn way. And I fully believe that your love will win out over your fears. Working with your therapist will only help you know in your heart what you believe in your pretty head.” Buck felt Tommy freeze behind him and thought he knew why.

“Your eyes are so pretty when you laugh. They absolutely sparkle. And your smile is so beautiful, you looked incredibly handsome on our date,” Buck listed. “You can call me pretty. I’ll tell you if it makes me feel dysphoric.”

“I need you to tell me if anything I do ever makes you uncomfortable or dysphoric. I absolutely refuse to mess with your mental health. Promise me, Evan,” Tommy begged.

“I promise. I want us to work out, so I need you to promise me the same. Tell me if something I’m doing or saying upsets you or makes you uncomfortable.”

“I promise. And I was thinking about something we could do to balance learning to parent and learning to be partners. I want a dedicated check in every week, where we talk about any issues we may be having. If we do it with a therapist even better. But I also want a dedicated date night. Maybe not every week, but at least every other week. At home, out doing something, doesn’t matter. And I won’t say we can’t talk about Audra, but she shouldn’t be the main topic on these dates. They should be about getting to know each other better,” Tommy laid out his plan. It was too soon to be thinking about love, but if this kept up, Buck could definitely see himself falling madly in love with Tommy.

“I like that separation between us as Audra’s parents and us as Evan and Tommy. I’m guessing you mentioned having dedicated time for us to talk about any issues so that we don’t bring them up on dates?” Buck guessed. He carefully twisted around in Tommy’s arms so he could see the older man without disturbing Audra.

“Pretty much. I think we need pretty firm boundaries for what we discuss and when we discuss it while we learn to balance everything. In time, I think we’ll be able to loosen those boundaries. We just need to build our communication from the ground up first.”

“I think we’re off to a good start.”

“We are. Now, let’s go get Isaac,” Tommy said, sliding out from behind Buck and putting Audra back in her car seat before helping Buck up.

Buck was antsy the whole drive to the daycare, barely distracted by Tommy’s attempts to plan dinner. Upon arrival he felt like a weight was off his chest when Tommy parked outside of Isaac’s daycare. He’d hated Isaac not being able to come to the hospital. But now Isaac was officially fever free and Buck was home and he needed both of his babies with him.

“Still no response from Eddie?” Tommy asked him as he fought with the seatbelt, clumsy with impatience.

“Not yet. They’re probably on a call. I’ll ask him who was supposed to pick up Isaac when we stop by.”

“Addie and I will be waiting right here for you and Zac,” Tommy promised, looking at Buck in the mirror when he opened his door. Buck would probably choose to sit next to Audra during drives for another week at least.

“Zac, huh?”

“I don’t want him to feel left out since all of us have nicknames.” It was endearing how sheepish Tommy was when he explained his reasoning behind the name to Buck.

“I love it,” Buck assured him with a wide smile before disappearing into the building so he could sign Isaac out. There was a new receptionist that Buck hadn’t met yet that gave him a look but he ignored it for now. Some stranger disapproving of his joggers and button down combo was nowhere near as important as getting his child and going back home.

“Hi, I’m Evan Buckley. I’m here to sign my son Isaac Buckley-Diaz out for the day,” he stated, handing over his ID so she could confirm who he was.

“He’s already been signed out,” she monotonously told him, not even looking up from where she was painting her nails. “His mom, I think.”

“Excuse me? My child doesn’t have a mother. So who has my child?!” Buck growled.

She gave a quick look through the computer and then went back to her nails, still not looking at him. “Can’t tell you. You’re not on the list.”

“I want to talk to the director. Where’s Grace?”

“Not here. Some meeting across town,” the receptionist said, finally looking up at him. “You need to leave now.”

“Not until you tell me who the fuck has my son!” Buck roared.

“Leave or I’m calling the police.”

“Don’t bother, I’ll call them myself!”

Buck’s hands were shaking, his heart absolutely pounding as he pulled out his phone and dialed the three numbers that no first responder wanted to call.”

“Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?” The voice was unfamiliar and Buck didn’t know what to think about it, it was good or bad that the person on the other end of the call didn’t know him.

“This is off duty firefighter Evan Buckley. I think my son has been kidnapped from his daycare at four-forty-seven Washington Avenue,” he hurriedly told the dispatcher, trying to give them all the relevant information that he could.

“Why do you think that your son has been kidnapped? Is there a custody issue police need to be aware of?”

“The receptionist said Isaac’s mom picked him up, but Isaac doesn’t have a mother, he has two fathers. I have joint custody with his other father, Edmundo Diaz, currently on shift with the One-Eighteen. Other than the two of us, only four other people are on our son’s authorized pickup list and three of them are working and the other one is out of state.”

“Can you tell me exactly what happened today?”

“I was in the hospital for several days and Eddie was with Isaac. He’s two and a half. I was released so I came to pick Isaac up, but was told he was picked up by his nonexistent mother and that sometime between last Wednesday and today I stopped being on my son’s pickup list. The receptionist won’t tell me anything else and even if someone else on the list had picked Isaac up they would have told me.” The more details Buck gave, the more he panicked, and now he was starting to shake.

“Police officers are on their way. Can you contact Firefighter Diaz? Confirm that he dropped your son off this morning?”

“I’ve tried texting him multiple times to tell him I was picking him up, but he didn’t return any of my texts. I assumed they were on a call.” Buck whimpered, hormones only amplifying everything he was already feeling. And making it easy for his mood to switch to rage as he glared at the receptionist rolling her eyes at him.

“Don’t do that. My son is missing, you’re telling me I’m not on the list when I was one fucking week ago, and you have the nerve to roll your eyes at me?!” he growled. Buck almost felt satisfied to see her begin to cower back from his anger, but that wasn’t the kind of person he was and his worry for Isaac overload almost any other emotion. He was so overwhelmed that he missed the doors opening behind him.

“Evan, sweetheart,” he heard Tommy call, causing Buck to whip around, still on the call with dispatch. The sight of his boyfriend (and they had settled on that title for now) standing there, Audra’s car seat in his strong, sure grip calmed Buck’s heartbeat by just a smidge. Isaac was missing but Audra was safe in front of him. “You didn’t come back out. Is everything ok?”

Buck broke down, dropping his phone and collapsing to the floor. “I c-can’t f-find Isaac-c. He’s n-not here and I can’t g-get hold of Ed-Eddie either,” he stuttered between sobs.

“Shit,” Tommy muttered. “Ok, let’s get you into a chair. Did you call nine-one-one?”

“Y-yeah,” Buck confirmed as Tommy helped him up and into one of the hard plastic chairs available in the daycare lobby. “The, the po-police are on their w-way.”

“Ok, I know you’re scared, but the police will be here any minute and they’ll help us figure out what’s going on,” Tommy tried to calm him down. “What can I do to help you until they get here?”

“Addie,” Buck whimpered, eyes trained on the sleeping newborn in her car seat.

“Do you want to hold her?” Tommy checked, reaching for Audra as soon as he saw Buck start aggressively nodding. Not even seeing Audra’s newborn scrunch could make him smile. Not with the reality he was facing.

“I n-need to know she’s ok,” Buck continued stuttering, bring his daughter to his chest.

“Addie’s ok. She’s safe with us, Evan. And soon Zac will be too,” the older man comforted him, wrapping his tiny family in his arms. “Tell me a fun fact, or just a random one.”

“What?” Buck croaked, shocked by the order.

“Tell me a random fact. First one that pops into your head.”

“… there were eight documented séances held in the White House by First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. The First Lady two administrations before Lincoln’s, Jane Appleton Pierce, is also suspected of holding at least one séance with the Fox sisters, early spiritualists. Both of the women were trying to reach their dead sons,” Buck rattled off. “It’s believed by some that they may have opened a door and possibly accidentally invited a demon into the White House.”

“I was there once for an event when I was still in the army. One of those goodwill, handshaking events. The idea of a demon there is terrifying. Good thing ghosts and demons aren’t real.”

“Literally every President, or at least a member of their family, since the Pierce Administration has a story about a paranormal encounter in the White House,” Buck argued, slowly coming out of his panic attack. “We have proof that there are unexplained things that happen, why can’t it be the paranormal?”

“Hmm. You’ll have your work cut out for you if you want me to believe,” Tommy chuckled.

“So if I said qui-”

“Now let’s not be reckless,” Tommy hurried to cut Buck off. The blond just looked at Tommy with a smirk and a tilted head. “You made your point and I concede there are forces outside of our control and understanding.

“Are you feeling better or at least calmer now?”

Buck took a moment to focus on his breathing and his body. He hadn’t stuttered at all while talking about the paranormal history of the White House, his heart had slowed down to a more normal pace, and his mind felt much clearer so he answered affirmatively while bouncing Audra.

“Good, because the police are here,” Tommy said.

Buck turned toward the glass doors to see two police officers entering the daycare. He didn’t recognize either of these officers either.

“Evan Buckley?” the older of the two officers asked, walking up to the men.

“That’s me. I’m Evan Buckley.”

“Can you tell me when you last saw your son?” The older officer was clearly taking point on this and pulled out a notebook.

“Saturday night. It was my custody day and I was asked out on a date by Tommy. Th-this is him. My captain, he’s basically my surrogate father, Bobby Nash insisted that I should go on the date and offered to watch Isaac overnight. So I dropped Isaac off at about six-thirty pm. But I ended up in the hospital about halfway through our date. Turns out I was in labor following a cryptic pregnancy. The doctors kept me and my daughter for a few days and I called Bobby and then I called Eddie Diaz, Isaac’s other father,” Buck explained.

“And what’s your relationship with Mr. Diaz?”

“He’s my best friend. I’m trans and I wanted a baby, so Eddie offered to be my sperm donor. I knew he wouldn’t be able to just be fun uncle Eddie so I offered to co-parent and we came to an agreement to live together for a couple of years. We still have a custody agreement and specified days to make it easy to live apart later.

“But we’ve been fighting lately. When I called him Sunday morning to tell him I’d unexpectedly given birth, Eddie and I fought about his girlfriend. I didn’t even get a chance to tell him about Audra, just that I was in the hospital.”

“Could Mr. Diaz have just not dropped your son off this morning?” the officer checked.

“No. We had an agreement to always tell the other when we wanted to keep Isaac out of daycare for any reason. And the receptionist specifically said Isaac was signed out,” Buck told him. “She won’t tell me who though, just that she thought it was Isaac’s mom. But he doesn’t have one.”

“He’s not on the approved list,” she huffed. “I shouldn’t have even told him that much.”

“Do you have proof of parentage and custody?”

“I took photos of those documents, they’re on my phone,” Buck answered, exchanging Audra with Tommy for his phone, grateful that the older man had picked it up for him. “I also have a photo of Isaac that I took on Saturday morning.”

“That’s very helpful, thank you.”

The younger officer stepped forward then. “Is it possible someone else on the list could have picked your son up today?”

“No!” Buck denied. “Eddie and Bobby are at work. We’re firefighters with the One-Eighteen. So’s my brother, Daniel, and Bobby’s wife, Sargeant Athena Grant. And neither of them would ever pick him up and not tell me beforehand. The only other person both Eddie and I agreed on and put on the list was his aunt, but she’s in Texas right now.”

“Have you been able to reach Mr. Diaz?” the older officer asked, giving his partner a look until he stepped back again.

“I’ve been trying to text him all morning. I assumed he was on a call.”

“We’ll ask dispatch to reach out to Captain Nash. In the meantime, you said you two fought over Mr. Diaz’s girlfriend. Can you tell me why?”

“I don’t know her very well. They’ve been dating for almost a year but Marisol has rebuffed my attempts to get to know her. I’ve told Eddie that I’m not comfortable with her babysitting or caring for Isaac on her own because of it. Tommy and I ran into them on our date and they announced that Marisol was moving in, without asking me or my brother, the other homeowners. We fought about it Sunday morning. I told Eddie that Bobby and Athena would help with Isaac and Eddie insisted he and Marisol would handle it,” Buck recounted.

“Is she on Isaac’s pickup list?”

“Absolutely not. It’s a hard limit for me and we can’t change it without talking about it.”

“Dispatch reached Captain Nash. They were wrapping up a call but are on their way now.”

The older officer took a few more notes, going over the documents that Buck had pulled up. He seemed to be done with his questions for Buck and turned to the receptionist.

“And your name?”

“Kelly Samuels.” Buck really needed her to stop rolling her eyes.

“She’s not the usual receptionist,” Buck added. “Stella Mellark is.”

“She’s on vacation,” Kelly told the cops. “I’m the temp.”

“Any chance you can clear this all up?” the older officer, and Buck really needed to learn their names, asked her.

“Nope. He’s not on the list and neither are you. Not on the list, no information, those are the rules.” Kelly’s voice still had no emotion or inflection.

“Isaac’s my son.”

“Not. On. The. List. And if the cops want to know, they’ll need a warrant.”

“Hopefully this is all a mistake and Mr. Diaz has an answer for us,” the officer told Buck. “But if he doesn’t we’ll get a warrant. We’re going to do everything we can to locate your son.”

The officer had barely stopped speaking before sirens could be heard from outside and the One-Eighteen ladder truck was visible through the glass doors. The truck had barely stopped moving before Eddie was jumping out and barreling through the doors.

“What’s going on? Dispatch called Bobby and said Isaac was missing?” Eddie gasped, Bobby and the rest of the team not far behind him.

“I got discharged from the hospital this morning and I wanted to see Isaac. I texted you multiple times that I was coming here to get him,” Buck grit out, ready to start crying again. “But the receptionist said someone, who she thought was Isaac’s mother, signed him out and won’t tell me who since I’m not on the list. But everyone who is on Isaac’s list are either at work or out of state and they would all tell me they were picking him up.”

“So you called nine-one-one and said Isaac was kidnapped?”

“Yes! Because my son is missing from his daycare and no one on the list could have gotten him. And the receptionist is saying I’m not on the authorized list?! What was I supposed to do, Eddie?!” Buck snapped, defensive of his choice.

“Mr. Diaz, are you aware of your son’s current whereabouts?” the lead officer asked, breaking the men up before they could devolve into a true shouting match.

“I’ll go see if Kelly will tell me,” Eddie sighed.

Eddie walked over to the desk, almost every eye in the room on him, Audra the only exception. He and Kelly had a quick hushed conversation before Eddie came over, looking relieved.

“I’m sorry, officers. This was all a big misunderstanding. Monday morning I tried to switch out Buck’s older brother, Daniel, for my girlfriend, Marisol Gomez, on the pickup list. There was some kind of error and Buck was removed instead. Isaac is fine, Marisol decided to sign him out early,” Eddie explained.

“No!” Buck hissed. “I don’t want her alone with him!”

“Mr. Diaz, I suggest you call your girlfriend and have her bring the child back,” the older officer firmly instructed Eddie. Now that Buck at least knew who Isaac was with, he was able to focus a bit more and noticed the name Young on the officer’s uniform. The younger officer had Allan on his uniform.

“Isaac is safe with her,” Eddie argued.

“I’ve told her I don’t want her alone with Isaac. I told you on Sunday she wasn’t supposed to be involved in Isaac’s care while I was in the hospital. Outrage custody agreement doesn’t let you override me and make unilateral decisions!”

“Mr. Diaz, call Miss Gomez,” Officer Young ordered again. “Mr. Buckley has made it clear he is not comfortable with this arrangement.”

“She may have your permission, but she doesn’t have mine. Either she brings Isaac back right now, or I find out how likely kidnapping charges will stick.”

“Ok, let’s calm down,” Tommy interjected, coming to stand by Buck’s side. “Eddie, how would you feel if Evan put me on Isaac’s pickup list without telling you and I just signed him out without telling anyone?”

“Buck wouldn’t do that,” Eddie dismissed. “And it’s different. I’ve been dating Marisol for nearly a year and you’re just his friend.”

“Boyfriend. Tommy is my boyfriend and my baby daddy,” Buck corrected. “I had a baby this weekend, by the way. That’s why I was in the hospital for the past few days.”

“We just met Tommy and you’re trying to pass your kid off as his?” Buck wanted to shake Eddie for his tone of voice, some mix of incredulous and teasing.

“No, you idiot! I met him last summer at a queer club. We talked for over an hour at the bar and then hooked up in the bathroom. You would know all of this if you didn’t make assumptions and trample past my boundaries about Marisol on the phone Sunday!”

“Marisol was training to be a nun! Isaac is perfectly safe with her!” Eddie continued to argue.

“She what?!” Buck snapped. “That just proves my point! I don’t know Marisol well enough to leave my son with her!”

“As someone who spent a lot of time with nuns as a child, I can confirm not all nuns are good with children or even like them,” Bobby piped up. “But what it ultimately comes down to is Buck doesn’t know Marisol so he doesn’t trust her to be a caregiver.”

It was clear, upon looking around the room, that no one was on Eddie’s side, so Buck got to watch him slink off to call Marisol.

“Can you please sit down, Evan? You only gave birth three days ago,” Tommy reminded him.

“Addie needs to be fed soon. We were supposed to be home by now,” Buck grumbled.

Eddie returned just as Tommy had Buck settled in a chair, clearly not happy. “Marisol will meet you at the house. She took Isaac to a park near us.”

“I’m calling a family meeting. When are you off shift?”

“I’m sending him home as soon as we’re back at the station,” Bobby announced. “Go home and figure this all out.”

“I’ll call Shannon in the car.”

 

CHAPTER SEVEN

Buck looked around the living room, making sure everyone was comfortable. Daniel hadn’t been able to leave work, but he’d given his vote for Tommy to temporarily move in. Since that was the only part of the meeting that he was really needed for, it wasn’t going to be a problem. Shannon had taken a seat next to buck on the love seat, facing Eddie in the armchair. Tommy and Sal were on the couch across from Buck and Shannon, looking a little lost. Tommy and Eddie had protested the older man’s presence, but Shannon and Buck had insisted, citing how this meeting affected Audra and therefore Tommy deserved to have a say. Shannon had then volunteered Sal to be part of the meeting too as moral support for Tommy.

“Does everyone have a notebook and pen?” Shannon asked. Buck and Eddie held theirs up and Tommy and Sal slowly nodded. Seeing their confusion at the innocuous question, she turned to them to explain. “Son the notebooks are to make sure we have a record of what was discussed. During one of our very first family meetings, before the boys moved in here, we talked about Chris attending a covid safe event. At the meeting Eddie and I agreed to let him go because Chris needed some socialization with his peers, but then Eddie organized a family dinner to introduce his then girlfriend to his Tia and Abuela. Eddie thought we hadn’t made a final decision yet, I thought we had. Now we take notes and always have a minimum of three people in the meeting so we’re actually clear on what happened in the meeting.”

“Huh, that’s actually a really cool idea, especially for a family with so many different connections,” Sal agreed.

“I want to clear something up before we get into the event that made me call this meeting,” Buck announced. “Eddie, when I called you on Sunday morning, you assumed that I was in the hospital because I ‘did something reckless’ after first assuming I was calling for a ride because I got so drunk I needed to spend the night on Tommy’s couch. You then called me selfish and unreasonable for telling you not to involve Marisol in Isaac’s care while I was in the hospital.”

“It’s not like either of those scenarios haven’t happened before,” Eddie argued. “You’re reckless at work and end up in the hospital all of the time. And you’ve passed out on my couch because we drank too much in the past.”

“That’s the keyword. Past,” Buck emphasized. “I haven’t drank that much at once since pre-covid. During covid you, Hen, and Chim crashed in my old loft and none of us did much drinking. By the time all of you had moved back out, I was actively trying to get pregnant, then I was pregnant, and finally I had Isaac.

“As for being reckless, I haven’t been reckless by your standards for the exact same amount of time. My brain works differently, it processes rescues differently and I calculate risks based on that. But even excluding all of that, most of the time it is not my fault when I get hurt at work, it’s just a freak, unavoidable accident. And if I am reckless occasionally, let me remind you of one thing. You cut your line.”

“I needed to save that kid!”

“And anytime I’m ‘reckless’ it’s to the benefit of a victim. You don’t have a leg to stand on.”

“Now, let’s clear up what happened this weekend. Nine months ago I went out with some of our friends and met Tommy. We talked for a while and hooked up in the bathroom because we were both tipsy. Before I could get his number or give him mine, Paige found me and pulled me away. Two months later I decided to have another baby and less than a month after that I stopped my T. My period never returned and the fertility clinic did a pregnancy test that came back negative. I had very minor symptoms that were explained by other things and no reason to think I was already pregnant,” Buck explained, glaring at Eddie until he started taking notes. “Not knowing I was pregnant, especially under those circumstances, was not reckless or my fault.

“After we met Tommy at the cruise ship rescue I wanted to see him again, but other than a tour cut short, you either kept me busy with Zac by switching our days or were already occupying Tommy’s time. And the trivia thing? Dick move. I thought you were inviting me to something I would enjoy, too, and you asked me to ‘watch Isaac and Chris for a few hours.’ It felt like you were asking me to babysit my own child.

“I wanted to see Tommy and pin you down so we could figure out a time to have a long talk, so I went to the basketball game. I felt jealous and left out and when I tried to check you I got dizzy and lost control of my strength. Afterwards I took Isaac to the ER and Tommy brought you to urgent care. When you came home, he and I talked and Tommy asked me out, pending Isaac’s measles test results.”

“Why did Isaac need a measles test?” Shannon asked.

“Last Wednesday I had group and Eddie wanted to go out with Tommy. Chris ended up spending the night with you, but Eddie dropped Isaac off with Laraine. You want to tell her what happened next, Eds?” Buck prompted, staring him down.

“I didn’t know her kids weren’t vaccinated,” Eddie immediately defended himself. “I thought they had simple colds. Laraine said they’d had fevers for a couple days but they were still active and playing so I figured they were low grade and didn’t see a problem leaving Isaac there.”

“But I’m guessing Isaac got sick and Laraine thought it might be measles?” Shannon guessed.

“Yep. I called here to warn her about his sudden fever and she said her kids had a fever and a rash. I lost it and took Isaac to the ER for a test.”

Shannon turned her ire on. Eddie. “What the fuck? You never would have done that with Chris. Active or not you wouldn’t let Chris spend time with someone with a lingering fever.”

“Chris’ CP makes him susceptible to fevers and negative reactions to fevers. It was safer to just try and avoid it. But Isaac isn’t immunocompromised and exposing him to simple colds will help build his immune system,” Eddie argued. Buck had to wonder if the man realized he was just digging himself a deeper and deeper hole. Tommy and Sal’s heads just kept swinging back and forth like they were watching a tennis match. “If I’d known Mikey and Janey were at risk of measles I wouldn’t have left Isaac there.”

“I can understand that motivation, but I don’t agree. When Isaac is older it’ll be different, but at two-years-old it’s still a dangerous practice. It honestly feels like you’re overcompensating when it comes to not needing to be as hyper vigilant as you needed to be with Chris,” Buck realized aloud.

“It’s also what your mother did with you. Saying that exposure to that crap was good for you. Hell, I remember her complaining about how none of your cousins ever got chickenpox so she couldn’t organize a play date and expose you to it,” Shannon pointed out.

“I’m not saying Isaac should be exposed to chickenpox instead of vaccinating him against it!”

“No, but it’s the same reasoning,” Tommy nervously chimed in. He looked unsure of if he was allowed to contribute, so Buck caught his eye and gave him a subtle thumbs up to let him know it was fine.

Buck was struck by a sudden thought, remembering something he learned when he was doing research into the vaccine schedule for Isaac. “Eddie, were you ever vaccinated against chickenpox? Because if you get it as an adult it has some serious potential side effects, including secondary infections, encephalitis, and shingles,” Buck ranted.

“I got vaccinated when I was ten after the doctor talked my mom into it,” Eddie calmly answered, giving Buck a raised eyebrow like he thought the younger man was overreacting. “And even if my mom had still refused, the army would have required it.”

“Ok, good. Going back to what happened this weekend, y’know, before we get even more off trac. Isaac’s rapid test came back negative so Bobby and Athena insisted on watching him overnight so I wouldn’t cancel my date. By the time we left the restaurant, I had realized I was in labor, so we went to the hospital. Audra was born later that night at about two a.m. The doctors wanted to keep us for a few days for observation and it wasn’t safe for Isaac to visit. That’s why I called you on Sunday morning. No other reason.”

“You could have just told me that when you called Sunday morning.”

“When, Eddie? When you called me unreasonable for not being comfortable with Marisol? When you assumed I was admitted for doing something reckless? When you breezed past me telling you we needed to talk about it and ended the call since you said your piece and didn’t want to actually listen to me?” Buck ticked off each of his points on his fingers as he made them, trying to drive home how much Eddie had controlled that phone call. “How about when you insisted Marisol would be moving in and I needed to just get over it?”

“You do this all the time, Eddie,” Shannon sighed.

“Do what?” he questioned, crossing his arms like he could physically defend himself from the conversation.

“You make a choice about something that affects more people than just you. Then someone, typically me or Buck, protests that choice and the effect it has on us and the kids, but you just double down. Like when you signed up for another deployment without consulting me at all,” Shannon reminded him. Buck settled in for the ensuing argument. It wasn’t the first time they’d fought about this topic in front of him.

“We needed the money and the insurance for Chris,” Eddie snapped back.

“That wasn’t any less true when you were discharged but you figured it out. And I know I didn’t make it any easier by running away,” she quickly added before Eddie could bring it up. “But as hard as it was for you to raise Chris until I came back, try adding him as a toddler with limited communication skills, worrying about your spouse in a war zone, and your fucking mother constantly calling me a bad mom, and then maybe you’ll start to understand how my burnout and mental health got so bad that I ran for two years. And when I came back you were fine with sex, with asking me to talk to Chris’ school, but not with me seeing Chris. You continued to make choices for our son without consulting me or talking about how we would work toward reinterpreting me into the decision making process. Is it really such a surprise I got tired of that and wanted a divorce?

“But the point was you reupped without talking to me. We could’ve found a solution for Chris’ care, but even if we couldn’t, it was still a choice we should have made together.”

“This is exactly what I was worried about when you offered to be my sperm donor,” Buck added. “That you would behave like you were the only parent in Isaac’s life and make choices that affect all of us without talking about it to anyone. Marisol moving in is just one of the most recent examples.”

“She’s not moving in anymore,” Eddie softly admitted, blushing in embarrassment and not looking anyone in the eye. “I didn’t know about the nun thing either until this weekend. We talked last night and we agreed that we didn’t know each other well enough to move in together.”

“That is a major thing to not know about someone that you’ve been dating for the better part of a year, Eds. And you want me to trust her with my son? Moving her in is like saying you’re planning to make her Zac’s stepmother, especially after we talked about you being a ‘nester’ a few weeks ago. Is it any wonder I want to know her myself before trusting her with Isaac?”

“When we talked in therapy before Isaac was born, you said that we should be able to trust each other when it comes to one of us knowing someone better and leaving Isaac with them,” Eddie grumbled.

“I was talking about when he would be, like, seven, old enough to advocate his needs, in a short term situation like sleepovers. One of our romantic partners watching our toddler for even a few hours is a very different situation,” Buck countered. “There’s an implied level of trust and future expectations. That is a situation where we both need to know and trust that person.”

“You won’t even give her a chance to prove herself!”

“I have asked her to hang out with me and tried to initiate conversations with Marisol in group settings. She’s the one resisting my efforts. I need you to back me up on this, Eddie. Tell Marisol that she needs to make an effort. Because that other thing we talked about before Isaac was born, how I need to not feel like your partner is trying to step into the role of mother and replace me? That’s how I feel right now.”

“Buck’s right, Eddie. Christopher is thirteen, so I’ve let him decide on the boundaries he wants with Marisol and I’ve stayed out of it unless Chris asks for me to intervene. But now Marisol seems to think she can approach her relationship with Isaac the same way. If Chris was Isaac’s age, I would have some serious concerns. Would she expect to adopt him? Is Marisol still religious? Would she want him baptized? To go to church every Sunday? Being Catholic doesn’t automatically make one homophobic or transphobic, but what are her true feelings about that? Why did she leave religious service?” Shannon rattled off all of the questions she could think of off the top of her head.

“Ok, I get it. You guys need to know Marisol better before you really trust her. I’ll talk to her,” Eddie conceded, looking like he’d sucked directly on a lemon. The conversation was paused so everyone could take notes and get a drink. Buck checked on Isaac, who was having a ball playing in the dining room ‘fort’ the Buck had made out of sheets and the table. When he got back to the living room he found Tommy bouncing a fussy and awake Audra.

“I’d almost forgotten how often babies need to eat in the first couple weeks,” Buck laughed, getting settled then taking the baby so she could nurse.

“I’ll fix Isaac’s pickup list at daycare when I drop him off on Friday,” Eddie offered.

“You’ll make sure it’s exactly what we already agreed on,’ buck responded. “Any changes to it need to be made together. And if you want to change it later, then we’ll need to talk about it, but you’ll have to give up Tia Pepa.”

“She picks up Isaac more often than Daniel does,” Eddie argued.

“I don’t care. Our agreement was Bobby and Athena and then we each got one choice. Any changes after that needed to be made together,” Buck reminded him.

“It’s getting so exhausting needing to constantly remind you of our official co-parenting agreement and schedule. Lately it feels like I’m parenting with a teenager.”

“I mean, that kinda makes sense, in a way,” Shannon muttered under her breath. When she noticed everyone in the room looking at her, she explained what she meant. “Eddie never got to be a teenager, not really. He was constantly under pressure from his parents, responsible for himself and his sisters. Then he was in the army, on the medic track no less, so he wasn’t acting like an idiot like other guys his age. Then we had Chris.

“Now, this is just a theory, I’m no psychologist, I’m studying midwifery. But I think you’re seeing Chris being a normal teenager, spending time with friends and exploring girls, and I think you’re envious. You never got that same experience so now that you see it in Chris, you’re mirroring that behavior, seeing what it’s like. You’re also at a point where most parents would gain more, I guess you could say independence. Their kids don’t need them as much. And since Buck can pick up the slack with Zac, you feel like you have a safety net there and don’t need to be ‘on’ as much.”

“Don’t say it,” Eddie moaned, turning pleading eyes to Buck.

“Go to fucking therapy. Again. And keep going, don’t stop just because you think you’re ‘better,’” Buck singsonged, rubbing Audra’s back to keep her calm while she nursed.

“No one is trying to say you don’t love your sons or that you’re a bad father. But you aren’t being a very good co-parent,” he continued much more seriously. “I’m not going to kick you out when Isaac turns three and we don’t have to live together anymore. But if you choose to move out, then I want to change our custody agreement.”

“We have equal custody, we agreed on that before he was even born,” Eddie paled at Buck’s request.

“We can keep to our plans for sharing holidays, birthdays, and big events. You’ll still have equal say in big decisions.” Buck paused to burp Audra before moving her to the other side. “But for every day? I think that, for now, I need to have majority custody. I had my time figuring out who I am and what I want in life, which is something you need. But you can’t do that and be responsible for a child. You’ll still be Isaac’s dad, no one is taking that away from you. Tommy is my boyfriend and Addie’s dad, but he isn’t trying to replace you in Isaac’s life.”

“Evan’s right. If we work out, I’ll love being Zac’s stepdad. But right now I’m still getting to know all of you and Evan and I are trying to figure out our own co-parenting relationship outside of our romantic one,” Tommy backed up Buck’s statement.

“Can you balance all of that and being more responsible for Isaac?” Eddie questioned, his tone the most judge mental Buck had ever heard it. “Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to take on more responsibility for Isaac?”

“Theoretically, sure. But realistically, no. In the last month you’ve gotten a babysitter or requested a switch for roughly half of your Isaac days. You’re skipping our support group, being more antagonistic during our conversations, brushing me off. You need to figure out what is going on with yourself, you need to prioritize yourself right now. Which means you can’t focus on Isaac,” Buck calmly explained. “We can revisit our original agreement in a few months or a year, depending on how therapy goes.”

“I’m divorced,” Sal spoke up, finally joining the conversation. “My wife and I weren’t the perfect couple, but we loved each other regardless. About seven and a half, almost eight years ago, we had a miscarriage. I was already bitter about being passed over for captain of the One-Eighteen and Nash trying to fire me. It got worse after we lost the baby and I threw myself into work and getting promoted. I wasn’t a good husband and other rifts started to show in our relationship. I was caustic, casually homophobic in that way Gerrard and my father both encouraged. I had my wife, begging me to go to therapy, to communicate, to stop drinking so much. It took her throwing me out and realizing the only person I felt I could turn to was this mook,” Sal waved vaguely at Tommy to show just who he meant. “We hadn’t talked in years, but I wanted my best friend. Took a chance that he lived in the same place and just showed up. Caught him with a guy and broke down right then and there. Realized how much I’d probably hurt my best friend.”

“Is there a point to this story? And why are you and Tommy even here again?” Eddie pouted.

“Tommy is here because he has skin in our game. Anything that goes on with you affects Isaac, which affects me, and then Audra. Since Tommy is her other dad, he’s affected too. Sal is here for moral support for Tommy and because what happens to you affects Chris, then Shannon, then Sal,” Buck patiently explained, burping his daughter again and passing her over the coffee table to Tommy.

“And the point of this story is that you have people who see that something’s wrong. They want to help you before you lose everything like I did. Take the damn help, even if you don’t like it. Right now buck is offering you a temporary physical custody change. But if you stay on the path you’re currently on, ignoring him and acting like you’re Zac’s only parent, do you really think he won’t just get tired of it and sue you for sole custody?”

“Buck wouldn’t do that. And why are you all calling him Zac? His name is Isaac.”

“Literally everyone else in this family has a nickname. I didn’t want him to feel left out so I started calling him Zac,” Tommy shyly explained. “Guess Sal and Evan picked it up.”

“You call Buck his actual name,” Eddie pointed out.

“Tommy and I talked about that and I love when he calls me Evan. I feel like Tommy sees all of me when he calls me Evan. Not just a firefighter, not just who I was as a teen. And I also love that Tommy came up with the nickname Zac for Isaac. And Eddie, keep treating me the way you are and I will sue you for sole physical custody,” Buck warned. “I didn’t originally want a co-parent with Zac, just a donor. But I didn’t know how to turn you down and I knew you wouldn’t be comfortable with just letting me parent, so I insisted on therapy so we could figure out how to co-parent before I got pregnant.”

“I don’t want to fail Isaac like I failed Chris,” Eddie whispered, his voice barely audible.

“You aren’t. You’re taking care of your mental health so you can be the best parent possible. And if you realize what’s best for you both is weekends we aren’t working, the occasional weekday for overnights, and family dinners and afternoons out, you still won’t have failed,” Buck comforted his partner. “But if things keep going the way they are, if you keep alienating me, then I don’t think anyone will be happy with the outcome.”

“I’m not saying that I agree with any of this. I-I need to think about all of this.”

“Go to group tonight,” Buck suggested. “Talk about it. We have a new person, Victor. He’s a single dad to a kid born before his transition. Cool guy, you missed his first two meetings. Has a love-hate thing going on with Captain America.”

“I mean, Iron Man is cooler,” Eddie joked.

“Take that blasphemy back. Cap is awesome. Vic’s only issue is that his deadname is Stevie Rogers and he was in middle and high school during the first and second phase of the MCU. Substitutes and new teachers all thought that his name on the roll call was a prank. His folks had no clue who Steve Rogers was when he was born.

“But in all seriousness, go talk all of this out in group.”

“I will,” Eddie agreed. “Anything else we need. To talk about before we conclude this meeting?”

“Just one more. Tommy and I both agree that we don’t want him to miss any of this early time with Addie. Daniel is okay with Tommy moving into the guest room for a month as a trial. If it’s working we’ll have another meeting. If it’s not, then Tommy and I will talk out a new solution,” Buck hesitantly explained, tapping his pen against the notebook in his lap and averting his eyes. “You know how important this time is for bonding and I need his support while I’m postpartum.”

Eddie took a minute before answering, his own pen twirling in his grasp. “I’m not a fan of it considering how angry you were about Marisol moving in, but I can admit the situations are different. We can try it, but can we talk about it some more tomorrow? Figure out all of the details?”

“Yeah, Eds. We can talk more tomorrow,” Buck agreed with a relieved sigh, followed by a yawn. He was long overdue for a nap.

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

“So, Chimney told everyone, including Hen, his actual best woman, that he didn’t want a bachelor party and now your parents and sister are harassing you to throw him one anyway?” Tommy asked, adorably confused and incredibly hot as he adeptly changed their daughter’s diaper.

“Watching you be a dad is so fucking hot,” Buck sighed, jsut leaning back in his bed.

“Evan,” Tommy scolded. The effect was weakened by the way his eyes twinkled the same way they do when he laughs.

“Spoilsport,” Buck pouted, switching to a wide smile as Tommy passed him Audra for a cuddle. “Hey, Eddie! Did you have fun with Dad while Daddy worked out?”

“No blowouts and she didn’t fight tummy time, so I’d say that’s a win.”

“Oh that is definitely a win!” Buck cooed, letting Audra grab one of his fingers.

“Stop changing the subject, Evan.”

Buck exhaled and settled in. “So I told you that Zac and Addie aren’t allowed at the wedding?”

“Yeah, and on one hand I get that they’re most likely to cause commotion because of their age, but I still think it’s not fair to exclude only your kids. You’re the bride’s brother, if anyone’s kids should be there yours should,” Tommy grumbled, sitting on the other side of the bed and reaching over to tickle Audra’s foot. “Jee isn’t that much older than Zac.”

“I agree, it just means I won’t be inviting any of them to my wedding when I get married. But now Maddie wants me to throw Chim a party so he gets the ‘full experience’ and my parents are backing her because they want to stay in her good graces. My arguments that Chim doesn’t want a party and I don’t have time to plan one with a toddler and a newborn aren’t good enough for any of them. They also want me to pick him up and drive him the morning of the ceremony. Said it’s how I can ‘participate’ in the wedding.”

“Is not going an option?” Tommy asked, his expression completely serious. “Because how they’re treating you isn’t ok. How they’re treating the kids isn’t ok. Constantly bombarding you is stressing you out and they don’t appreciate the effort you put in or care how you feel. I feel like it would be safer for you mentally and emotionally to just not go.”

“I wish I could just say that I’m not going, but no would understand. Eddie would tell me to suck it up, that it’s not about me, Hen would judge and guilt, just imaging how Maddie would react and how Chim would treat me at work makes me shudder,” Buck explained. “Bobby won’t move Chimney or approve my transfer because everyone thinks I’m too immature to exist without them managing me and that Chimney is the glue holding everything together. For now it’s best if I just go to keep the peace. Go along to get along.”

“I don’t like it but I’ll support you.” Tommy leaned over and kissed Buck’s temple, just next to his birthmark. “So what’s your actual plan for the wedding?”

“Kendra agreed to babysit, so if you’re up for it, I was hoping you would be my plus one. I need someone to dance with.” Buck flashed Tommy a flirtatious smile. “Free food, you know half the guests already, and there’ll be cake.”

“Oh, well if there’s gonna be cake,” the older man teased.

“I wonder if Addie will have your sweet tooth.”

“I hope so. I can’t be the only person in this family who indulges in cake, Evan,” Tommy said seriously before breaking into a wide smile and wild laughter.

“So, you’ve been living here for about a month now,” Buck observed, changing the subject once they’d both calmed down from their laughter. “I think things have been going okay. What do you think?”

“I think it’s going well, too,” Tommy agreed. “But I’m torn. I love being with you and Addie. I’m so incredibly grateful that I didn’t miss this time with her. But I put a lot of time and effort into my house and making it mine. I have my Muay Thai set up and my car lift. It’s hard to think about letting it go, even though I know I’ll have to at some point if we work Out because there isn’t enough room for us and Addie and Zac.

“And to be completely honest, I’m absolutely terrified of us moving in together. What if we get complacent and stop putting in the work? What if you realize that you can do so much better than me? And then there’s the Eddie of it all. I respect the friendship you gay built your co-parenting relationship on and I respect why you guys want him here with Isaac. But I don’t think I could live with him long term. Daniel is great and has made me feel incredibly welcome. I love the Full House vibe you’ve got going on. But my mental health took a lot of work and I’m concerned that living with Eddie and his own obvious, current mental health issues will cause me to backslide.”

“We have an appointment with Dr. Green tomorrow. Maybe we can talk to him, come up with a few different solutions?” Buck suggested.

“I think that’s a good idea,” his boyfriend agreed. They cuddled for a minute in silence, just watching their daughter.

“I’m not very happy with Eddie either,” Buck quietly confessed, tracing Audra’s face before looking Tommy in the eye. “I don’t regret that he’s Zac’s father anymore than I regret you being Addie’s father. But I’m starting to wonder if Eddie wasn’t lying to me about his reasons for wanting another child.

“I don’t know if he ever told you, or if Shannon might have at some point, but right before they got a divorce they had a pregnancy scare. Eddie took it as a sign to renew their vows and be a nuclear family again, kinda like how he proposed when Shannon was pregnant with Christopher. But her period was only late and she realized that she needed to focus on her mental health and learning how to be a good mom, not fixing her marriage. She asked Eddie for a divorce then was in the next day. She was seriously injured but insisted on the divorce.”

“I can’t even imagine the kind of whiplash that would cause,” Tommy commented.

“We got the call to her accident, too.”

“Well fuck.”

“Yep. It was only about eight, maybe nine, months later that Eddie saw me going through donor profiles and offered to be my sperm donor.”

“That’s about when Shannon would have been due if she had been pregnant,” the older man absently observed, fixing a sock Audra was trying to kick off.

“Fuck. I didn’t even think of that,” Buck exhaled. “We talked about why he offered in our first therapy appointment. He promised me it wasn’t about not getting to have another baby with Shannon but now I’m wondering if he was lying to me and himself about that.”

“I can’t tell you that, baby. I don’t live in Eddie’s ahead. But I can promise you that I’ll be here through the fallout,” Tommy swore, wrapping his tiny family in his arms.

“I just need to get through this wedding and then I can worry about whatever the hell is wrong with Eddie,” Buck decided.

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Daddy,” Isaac called from the doorway, effectively ending their conversation. “Hungy.”

“Then I better go check on dinner.”

One week later it was the day of Maddie and Chimney’s long awaited wedding and Buck was wishing he had listened to Tommy and just not come.

“What do you mean you didn’t pick Howard up?!” his mother screeched as he stood in Maddie’s dressing room at the venue. “You had one job, Evan!”

“I’ve told you before that only Maddie, Daniel, and now Tommy can call me that, first of all. They never say it in disappointment and they see me for all of me. Second, I told you I wouldn’t be Chimney’s chauffeur today. I have two-and-a-half-year-old and a five-week-old. I don’t have the time. Plus, Tommy got called for an emergency despite having another week of paternity leave, so I had even less time. I don’t get how you all expected me to get them settled with the babysitter, get myself ready, and go in the opposite direction just to pick Chimney up and bring him here,” Buck ranted.

“I’m with Buck,” Daniel piped up from his spot leaning on the wall. “It was shitty how you guys tried to guilt him into throwing Chimney a party he told multiple people he didn’t want and then drive him to the wedding so he could ‘contribute and participate.’ And that’s after you specifically only excluded his kids.”

“We get it, you think Daniel is this big surgeon who’s too busy and I’m too much of a fuck up to do a speech or anything like that,” Buck grumbled. “But you could at least acknowledge my kids exist and that they should come first to me, even if you can’t accept they’re more important than all of you.”

Things devolved from there with everyone fighting, realizing that Chimney was missing, and then trying to find him. The only positive of the whole day/night was when Tommy showed up at the hospital wedding they ended up organizing, absolutely covered in soot and profusely apologetic for being late.

If that had been the end of the drama, Buck would have been able to handle all of it. But about two weeks after the wedding the main One-Eighteen team and Tommy received invitations to a medal ceremony in their honor for the cruise ship rescue. Tommy was sceptical, which Buck attributed to a natural inclination to always be prepared for the worst. Buck, on the other hand, was excited. The department might as well be admitting that they were wrong in telling them not to try and find the ship and just trust in the Coast Guard.

Buck’s enthusiasm diminished when an official itinerary and guest list was sent out. He recognized one of the names on the list but he couldn’t figure out why until he heard Tommy gasp. Captain Vincent Gerrard. Tommy’s first captain. Figuring that they should prepare to run into the man, Buck decided to bring it up in their next therapy appointment.

“So, gentlemen, how’s living together and using Tommy’s house as an AirBnB going?” Dr. Green asked after they all settled in.

“So far so good. Taking it month by month is helping my worries and I can end the AirBnB contract whenever. But I think if we did move in together permanently then I might look at leasing the house,” Tommy explained. “AirBnB is good for the short term, but I wouldn’t want to deal with it long term.”

“I think that’s a solid plan until you’re prepared to sell the house. And it’s completely ok if you’re never ready to let it go completely.”

“We both like to have multiple plans in place,” Buck stated. “It helps our anxiety. But speaking of plans and anxiety, I was hoping we could deviate from what we were supposed to talk about today. We have a work event coming up that I think we really need to talk about.”

“Evan…”

“What kind of work event? I was under the impression that you were still on full parental leave, Buck, and you were on part time, Tommy.”

“We are. But there’s a medal ceremony for a rescue that we did together just before Audra was born,” Buck explained when Tommy stayed quiet. “The biggest issue is that Tommy’s former captain is also coming. He’s a racist, misogynistic, homophobe. I’m worried about Tommy seeing him again.”

“Tommy, are you worried about potentially facing your former captain again?” Dr. Green asked, scribbling away.

“I haven’t seen him in over a decade and I was deeply in the closet back then. So deep in that I couldn’t even say in my own mind that I’m gay. I was a horrible person, trying to fit in and hide, so I lied to everyone, including myself and my former fiancée,” Tommy admitted. This was the first time that Buck had heard about a fiancèe. “I was engaged to Abby for about two years, most of that time after Gerrard wasn’t the captain anymore.”

“Why did you finally end the relationship? Or did Abby end it?”

“Evan’s current captain, my last captain before I transferred to Harbor, suggested that I look into flying for the LAFD. He somehow knew I missed flying and brought up the transfer. I don’t know if it was the idea of a fresh start or remembering how free flying in the army made me feel, but I was finally able to accept that I’m gay and I needed to end things with Abby. I wish I’d done it sooner, or differently, because her mother was suffering from dementia and Abby was her main caretaker, but I just couldn’t do it any longer.”

“Your ex wouldn’t happen to be Abby Clark, would she?” Buck nervously asked, playing with a fidget ring on his thumb.

“How did you know?” Tommy gulped at the potential implications.

“My probie year I worked a call with Abby as the dispatcher. Thi was maybe seven months into my probie year, probably eight months after your transfer. I can’t remember all of the details of the call, but I complimented her and how she handled it. A couple weeks later I had my first loss on the job that I was directly responsible for and I ended up on the news. I still don’t know if Abby was telling the truth about why, but she got my phone number from the official call report. She claimed that she just wanted to check on me, but she also wasn’t a fan of how I wanted to stick to phone calls because I was having issues with using sex to deal with my issues and the fact that I was touch starved,” Buck explained.

“You think she was just looking for sex?” Tommy incredulously asked his boyfriend.

“I don’t know. I do know after her mom died she went on a months long trip to Europe and Northern Africa. I told her I would wait for her, was living in her apartment, and she ghosted me. I saw her a couple of years later and she basically admitted to not coming back because she didn’t want to go back to being the shell she was while caring for her mom. And that she didn’t just simply break up with me because she wanted to keep me as a backup plan in carSe her eat, pray, love trip didn’t go the way she wanted.”

“Fuck. That’s not the Abby I knew and I hate to think that me breaking up with her might have caused her to treat you that way.”

“She mentioned you, but what she told me was that you broke up with her because of her mom.”

“I stayed as long as I did because of Patricia. She was an amazing woman and extremely maternal. I wanted to keep helping Abby with her but she was so upset by the breakup that I thought a clean break was for the best,” Tommy explained. “I wasn’t ready to say that I was gay aloud so I told her that I’d recently realized some things about myself that I needed to deal with and I couldn’t do that. And be in a relationship with her. To be completely honest, looking back, sometimes I think Abby just knew I was gay even before I did.”

“When Abby and I dated, her whole life revolved around her mother. I don’t think she was able to think about any event in her life not being about her mom,” Buck tried to assuage his boyfriend’s guilt. “Even I was just a boytoy and an escape from her responsibilities. I wanted serious and genuinely wanted to try and make our relationship work, but that wasn’t what Abby wanted. It took me a long time to accept that and before you say anything about doing the same thing and leading Abby on, you didn’t. You just explained that you couldn’t even admit to yourself that you’re gay. Did you genuinely try to make things work before then?”

“I did. I loved her, just not the way you should love a romantic or sexual partner. I’m firmly a Kinsey six, but if any woman was going to be the exception, it would have been Abby.”

“And that makes all the difference,” Dr. Green added, reminding the couple that he was also there. “Did you begin dating Abby while Gerrard was your captain?”

“Yeah. I went on a lot of ‘dates’ back then. Some were real and some were fake. It felt like we were all constantly under a microscope. Until Chimney, Evan’s brother-in-law, started working there, we were all pretty big, white guys, so being seen as gay was the main danger, and it was a danger. I’m not proud of the things I said and did to try and fit in and prevent scrutiny. When I met Chim I assumed he was the delivery guy and asked who forgot to pay him.” Tommy was incredibly embarrassed to admit that based on his blush and how he ducked his head down to avoid making eye contact with Buck and Dr. Green.

“Why did you feel guilty about that interaction in particular?” Dr. Green asked, his pen flying across the page of his notebook like Buck had never seen it before.

“Chimney is Korean and there’s a certain stereotype of Asian men in delivery jobs, especially for restaurants that specialize in Asian cuisine,” Tommy explained.

“Was Chimney in his civies? And did you guys order takeout that night?” Buck asked.

“Yes to both,” the older man answered. “Gerrard harassed anyone who cooked because the kitchen was a woman’s space in his opinion, and a lot of guys couldn’t always bring enough food for how many calories we all needed to consume. As a result we ordered a lot of takeout.”

“So you made a guess based on previous situations,” Dr. Green summarized. “Did you apologize for your assumptions?”

“Eventually, but it took Chimney saving my life. Before that I wanted nothing to do with him. Partially because of peer pressure and partially because i was friendly with the previous probie and he left the LAFD after Gerrard left him for dead on a call. Which, Gerrard did the same to me and no one suspected that I was gay at that point. I was unconscious in a fire and it was about to flashover due to a gas leak. Chimney carried me out.”

“You were obviously in an unsafe environment, both emotionally and physically, so you did the best you could to protect yourself.

“Are you afraid of sipping into the same behavior or mindset if you see your old captain again?”

Buck watched Tommy take a moment to mull over the question before giving a decisive nod and answering, “yes.”

“Then let’s come up with a plan for how to deal with seeing him again.”

The better part of a month later, Buck was incredibly grateful for Tommy’s willingness to not only attend therapy with him but to also put in the work, constantly and consistently. Tight now Buck really wished Eddie had done the same over the years. Maybe then he wouldn’t be staring down Ana Flores in his living room, wrapped tightly in Eddie’s arms. Chris was nowhere to be seen, Marisol was yelling, Isaac and Audra were crying, Tommy was trying to figure out what was going on, and Buck was trying to calm everyone down before one of their neighbors called the cops on them.

“Tommy, please call Shannon. I don’t know if Chris is calm enough to call her himself, but he probably needs his mom right now. Just tell her that Eddie’s ex is here, she’ll understand. and can you please take the kids somewhere else for a bit” Buck pleaded, doing his best to gain some control of the situation. “This is going to get messy.”

“I’ll take them to Hen and Karen’s,” Tommy whispered before hefting up Isaac and taking Buck’s keys, expertly juggling the toddler and Audra’s carrier after three months. “Come on, Zac, let’s go pick up some ice cream and go see Auntie Hen and Auntie Karen.”

As soon as the three of them were gone, Buck turned to Marisol. “Where’s Christopher?” he asked during a break in her yelling.

“I think he’s in his room. I don’t know, I wasn’t paying attention because I was more concerned with this cheating scumbag!” she huffed.

“I get that you’re upset, you have every right to be, but if you’re serious about dating someone with kids, ‘I think’ is not a good enough answer when someone asks where that kid is,” Buck snapped. “Now, I think it’s time for you to go. You’ve made your point and if you really need to yell at Eddie some more, you two can arrange a time to meet later.”

“Excuse me?”

“This is my home and I’m telling you to leave,” Buck repeated, barely glancing at Eddie and Ana to make sure neither of them tried to sneak out. “Again, I know you’re hurt and angry and you have every right to your emotions. But not in my home. Right now I need to protect Chris more than you three of you have. So leave before I call the police. You too, Ana. You’ve been warned before to stay away from here and my family. Don’t make me get a restraining order against you.”

It took thirty more minutes of all of them arguing, Buck doing his best to keep his voice down, before the two women finally listened to him. It was only when Shannon and Daniel showed up that Ana and Marisol finally decided to leave. Shannon was quick to bundle Chris up for an impromptu, extended stay with her. Daniel made sure everyone had left safely before disappearing upstairs to give Buck and Eddie some privacy. If Buck knew his older brother then he was probably gossiping with Ella. But Buck wasn’t supposed to acknowledge the ‘will they, won’t they’ thing going on with his brother and his former midwife.

“When I first found out about Chris, back during the earthquake when you first started, you said something that I didn’t think much of at the time,” Buck began. Eddie had been slouching on the couch but straightened up and opened his mouth to respond until Buck glared at him, letting all of his anger leak through for a second. “I told you I love kids and you said that you ‘love this one.’ Like I said, at the time I didn’t think much of it at the time. But lately I’ve been thinking about it and talking to Dr. Snart. There’s just one conclusion I can come to and that‘s that you never wanted children. I’m not saying you don’t love Christopher and Isaac,” Buck hurried to clarify. Through all of this, it was one sentiment that everyone kept trying to hammer home for Eddie. “But let me ask you something?”

Eddie took some deep breaths before nodding his ascent.

“If Shannon had never gotten pregnant, would you have wanted children? Or would you have just had kids ’cause it was what was expected of you?”

Eddie was silent, refusing to look at Buck. But if parenting a toddler had taught Buck anything, it was patience, so he could wait Eddie out.

“I don’t know,” the older man finally whispered. “I can’t imagine not having Chris and Zac, can’t imagine not being their dad.”

“But did you know you wanted children or was it just that you were expected to get married and have kids one day?” Buck pressed.

“I don’t know!” Eddie snapped. “Shannon did get pregnant with Chris and we were so young, no one thinks about wanting kids when they’re twenty! And now what’s done is done and there’s no point thinking about what ifs!”

“I knew I wanted kids when I had that abortion when I was twenty. I wasn’t in any way ready for them though and I had no support so it wouldn’t have been fair to me or any potential baby for me to go through with the pregnancy. But I knew that I wanted kids one day,” Buck countered.

“What’s the point of all of this, Buck?”

“You can love your children and not be there everyday. Shannon didn’t run because she didn’t. Love Chris. Taking years to rebuild their relationship and trust didn’t mean she loved him or wanted him less than you did. It just meant that she wasn’t mentally well enough to handle being responsible for him like she was when you were deployed,” Buck gently pointed out. What he was about to say would deeply upset Eddie, but it needed to be said and all Buck could do was try and soften the blow. “I think that’s what you need to do now. With Zac and Chris.”

“What?” Eddie croaked. He’d told Buck after the family meeting when Audra was born that he didn’t want to change their custody agreement.

“I want to change our custody agreement. This time I’m. Insisting on it. I also think you need to move out, at least temporarily, so you can focus on yourself. The house down the street is up for lease and the owner is willing to go month-to-month as long as you stay for a minimum of three months. It’s a two bedroom house, one level, with a half finished attic that the owner will pay for materials if you do the work since it doesn’t need electrical or plumbing work,” Buck slowly explained, finally sitting on the couch, facing Eddie on the other end. “If you don’t agree to this and start seeing a therapist other than Frank, then Daniel and I will kick you out and I’ll sue for custody.”

“I don’t need therapy, not like after I was shot. I’m not having panic attacks, I’m not trying to quit my job. I’m fine,” Eddie argued.

“Yes, you really do. Because I’m done, Eddie. Bringing Ana Flores back into our home was my last straw. That woman called CPS on me. She doesn’t respect my boundaries, was ableist toward Chris, and was uncomfortable with our parenting arrangement beyond me being trans. But you still cheated on a girlfriend you tried to move in three months ago. On top of that you haven’t changed how sporadic you’ve been with Isaac.”

The two men were quiet, just glaring at each other. Buck was not going to be moved on this topic, not when he needed to protect his son. But Eddie wasn’t going to be moved either, not when he was also convinced that he had Isaac’s best interests at heart. It was a stalemate. Two parents both just trying to do what they thought was best for the child they shared.

“I don’t want to be an absent father like my dad was for me,” Eddie muttered, the first to break. He roughly ran his hands through his hair and finally made eye contact with Buck. “I don’t want Isaac to hate me in thirty years because I wasn’t there.”

“No one is saying that this would make you an absent parent except for you, Eds. That’s why I’m suggesting you lease the house down the street. You’ll be close enough to be involved in Zac’s life while still taking a step back. You can come over for dinner whenever, have him over for dinner, take him for the occasional overnight. But I really think you need at least a couple of months where you aren’t as physically responsible for Isaac.”

“Why? Why do you think I need to ‘take a step back?’”

“Who are you, Eddie? Not what are you, but who are you outside of being a father? What do you want in a partner? Not a temp parent for the boys, but a partner for your whole life,” Buck pressed. “I think you’ve been trying to figure that out, but you can’t balance that and constantly being in dad mode, especially when it causes you to revert to what you know, which is being a single parent and the sole or final decision maker. That thing I was so afraid of when you offered to be my donor.”

Buck watched Eddie lowly deflate, losing his defensive positioning and sinking into the back of the couch. Buck wasn’t proud of how it looked like the older man was about to cry from how harsh he had been, but he had no choice. Bringing Ana Flores back into their lives was Buck’s final straw.

“You’re not gonna let this go, are you?” Eddie eventually sighed.

“No. Because if you don’t do this willingly, I’ll take you to court. And I can promise you that whatever lawyer I find will bring up you inviting the woman who almost cost us our son only hours after Isaac’s birth into his homes. I highly doubt any family court judge would look at you favorably for that. I mean, what the fuck were you even thinking?!” Buck demanded.

“I was thinking that I thought Shannon was it! That she was the love of my life and we would find our way back to each other!” Eddie shouted as he jumped up off the couch to pace. Buck had been waiting for Eddie to hit rock bottom and snap for months. It looked like that moment had finally come. “She just said she needed to learn to be a mom again before learning to be a wife! Then she didn’t date and I thought, ‘ok, once she’s comfortable with Chris again, Shannon and I will try again.’ We were supposed to have another baby and instead she asked me for a divorce. I thought we were going to finally get back together and instead Shannon admitted that she’s been casually dating and now she’s met someone she’s serious about and sees a future with. It was supposed to be us since we were teens!

“Sal is Shannon’s first serious relationship since me. So if he’s her actual endgame, then shouldn’t Ana have been mine? She was my first serious relationship after Shannon. I’m a nester, my relationships should be settled!”

Buck just let Eddie keep ranting and pacing until he ran out of steam. Knowing that Eddie had always expected to rekindle his relationship with Shannon explained so much. It explained why Eddie had been so cold to Sal, why he had been so scattered with Isaac, and why Eddie had brought Ana back into their lives. But it didn’t make Buck feel any more sympathy for him, not when it was negatively affecting Isaac.

When Eddie finally slowed to a stop Buck took his chance to speak again. “I’m sorry, Eddie, that your relationship with Shannon didn’t end the way you wanted it to. But Ana isn’t the answer. Especially when you were already dating Marisol. If you were having second thoughts, you should have just broken up with her, not strung her along.”

“My family was so happy when I started dating Marisol. Chris loves her. And then a couple weeks ago I saw Ana again and I just spiraled. I didn’t know what to do with that, the thought I should have just tried more with Ana or that I should have been a better husband to Shannon. And I just put so much time and effort into making it work with Marisol,” Eddie explained, barely making any sense to Buck.

“You need help, Eds. All of this is so far beyond what I can deal with and help you with. And getting that help means that you need to focus on yourself, maybe even find some kind of therapy retreat. And you need to trust me to be Isaac’s dad without you because you can’t put in the work you need to on yourself and still take care of his needs,” Buck explained slowly and calmly, moving over to sit down next to where Eddie had finally all but collapsed on the ground. “You

re one of my best friends, but I can’t help you learn how to grieve your future or learn what a healthy, fulfilling relationship looks like for you. You have to do all of that.”

“I love him, Buck,” Eddie whimpered, causing Buck to wrap an arm around the other man’s shoulders and pull him into a side hug. “I-I can’t tell you if I offered to be your donor because Shannon wasn’t actually pregnant and I was reacting to that. My head is so turned around and it’s been like that for so long I don’t know what i was thinking. But I do love him and I want to be his papi.”

“I have never doubted that. But you need to prioritize yourself to be a good papi, right now. And you may always need to focus on yourself more than Zac. You’ve been through so much trauma in your life, no one will blame you if you’ve hit your limit on being constantly ‘on’ and responsible for others,’. Buck comforted. “And maybe in a few months we can slowly build back up to equal physical custody, but for now you need to take a deep breath and a couple steps back.”

Eddie nodded, sobbing harder than Buck had ever seen him cry before. Through all of it, Buck just held him, the loveseat on one side of them, the coffee table on the other. Eventually, both men cried, mourning what they thought their family would look like when they decided to have a baby together. But they would work with the cards they were dealt and try to move forward in the way that best worked for their family.

 

EPILOGUE

“Daddy. Papi and Chris dinner?” Isaac asked, pulling on Buck’s pants to get his attention.

“Yeah, little guy. Papi and Chris are coming to dinner,” uck answered, looking down to give Isaac a wide smile. “Auntie Shan, Uncle Sal, and Uncle Danny are gonna be there, too.”

“Yay!” Isaac cheered. His curls. Were wild and Buck dreaded the idea that he would need to cut it soon. “Making ‘tatoes?”

“Not tonight, Zac. We’re having pulled pork and mac and cheese.”

“Sissy mac ‘n’ cheese?” Ever since Buck and Tommy had started to slowly introduce solids to Audra, Isaac wanted to know if his little sister would be eating what they were eating too.

“Not yet, kiddo. Sissy’s still too little for mac and cheese so she’s having some mashed banana,” he slowly explained to the three-year-old. His birthday over a month before had gone way better than Buck had expected. No one had fought or made a scene. Sure, Chris ignored Eddie, not yet willing to talk to him outside of therapy. And Maddie and Chim were still salty about how Buck didn’t stay for their whole hospital wedding of drop everything to help them with Jee while Chimney recovered. But everyone behaved so Buck counted it as a win.

“Hey, where is everyone?” Buck heard Eddie call from the front hall, not even bothering to knock after Buck finally convinced him he was always welcome to come by.

“Zac and I are in the kitchen!” Buck called back.

“Papi!” the toddler cheered, running off to meet Eddie.

“Hey, Mijo!” Eddie greeted, bending down to catch Isaac before he could even leave the kitchen. “Did you have a good day?”

“Tommy sissy go park!”

“Oh? You went to the park? Sounds like fun! Did Daddy go too?”

“No.”

“I went grocery shopping for dinner instead. We were all supposed to go shopping together, but somebody was full of energy so Tommy offered to take the kids to the park across from my normal store,” Buck explained.

Everyone had been nervous about how Isaac would adjust to Eddie moving out. Whether it was the toddler’s age, the fact that Eddie was down the street and over for visits multiple times a week, or the fact that Eddie had already been less involved before the incident, Isaac had adjusted just fine. The nest hurdle had been a long series of talks, stretched over several weeks sometime in late summer about slowly integrating Tommy into Isaac’s care routine and leaving the two of them alone now that Tommy was planning to stay long term. If some of those talks had been with Dr. Snart and Eddie’s new therapist Dr. Rory and involved a lot of screaming, crying, and accusing each other, then that was between the four of them. But now their family was healing and moving forward with their new normal.

“Are you still good to take him home with you?” Buck asked, giving the salad the adults were having with dinner a final toss.

“I’ve been looking forward to it for days. What are you and Tommy planning since you’ll only have Audra?”

“Theoretically we’re gonna watch a movie, but realistically we’ll probably fall asleep on the couch before it’s even halfway over. Addie’s teething and she’s not handling it well at night.”

“Is she as much of a hellion as Zac was?” Eddie chuckled, putting said child down when he started squirming.

“So far she’s a bit better, but she’s only just started.

“Hey, Zac asked if we could all match for Halloween this year. Well, actually he wanted to match with Addie, then with her and Chris, then Tommy joked about feeling left out so Isaac asked if we could all match,” Buck babbled as he started carrying everything to the dining table. “I know you’re taking him trick-or-treating by yourself, but I wanted to check that you were ok with doing the family photo.”

“Buck. I’m fine with doing a giant family photo. I can’t believe Bobby is being so accommodating with letting us both clock out for a few hours, though.”

“The department is doing Gerrard-damage control,” Tommy explained as he joined them in the dining room. He had Audra propped on his hip, turned away from her high chair so she wouldn’t demand to be put in it. They were trying to only put her in the seat when she was being fed so she would associate it with food. Unfortunately that meant that now she demanded food as soon as she was strapped in and the tray was put in. “Especially because Evan has shown a willingness to sue if he’s mistreated, which is what Gerrard did.”

“You guys need a guard dog or something,” Sal said as he and Shannon came into the dining room, Chris trailing slowly behind them. “Anyone could walk in and you wouldn’t even notice.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure all of the kids’ toys out front will scare off anyone we don’t want doing that,” Buck deadpanned. Dating Tommy had definitely made him more sarcastic.

“What’s with the nine plates? I thought it was just us and Daniel,” Shannon said as she walked y to steal Audra from Tommy.”

“Ella is joining us, too. Daniel. Just texted me to make sure I was ok with it and had enough food.”

“Oh, so they made that official finally?”

“Apparently. At least I’ll have plenty to gossip about at the next wine night. Paige has been begging for an update,” Buck told her.

“Um. Speaking of Paige, I wanted to talk to you about something with Kendra in private real quick,” Eddie hurried to request.

“Come help me grab the rest of the food?” Buck offered. Once they were alone, he turned to the man who was quickly becoming his best friend again. “So, what’s up?”

“I’ve been talking to Dr. Rory and he doesn’t think I’m quite ready to try dating again, even casually. But Kendra and I talked after group last week and we both agreed we felt something there. She’s willing to wait for me to get the ok from my therapist, I’m just not sure if I should ask her out then,” Eddie shyly confessed.

“Ok, have you two talked about it? Laid out all your cards about how serious or casual the relationship would be when you are finally ready?”

“Yeah. And we’ve agreed to prioritize our friendship and Isaac and Joshua’s friendship.”

“Then I say go for it. You’ve done a lot of work on yourself. Once Dr. Rory does give you the ok, just go slow and keep it casual for a bit,” Buck advised as he finished mashing a half of a banana for Audra, grabbing that and the mac and cheese from the oven.

“Hey! We’re hungry and you two promised to tell us all about how a safe haven drop off got rid of that disgusting dinosaur,” Ella said as she came in to grab the plate of buns from Eddie.

“We’re coming, we’re coming.”

THE END

 

---