Reading Time: 141 Minutes

Title: This New Life
Author: DarkJediQueen
Fandom: 9-1-1
Genre: Drama, Established Relationship, First Time, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Relationship(s): Evan Buckley/Taylor Kelly, Evan Buckley/Eddie Diaz/Taylor Kelly
Content Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Violence-Graphic, Disturbing Nightmares, Discussion of Domestic Violence, Explicit Sex, Character Bashing
Word Count: 66,285
Summary: With Eddie shoving him away in favor of Ana to care for him, Buck starts to worry about Maddie. He becomes a pest to her, and the ripples of seeing her echo out in front of both of them.
Artist: Twigen

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Chapter 7

Buck looked at where Hen was talking with the newest fill-in they had for Chim. It was the second day of Chim not being there, and so far, nothing had been said about it. Buck looked up at where Makepeace was. He debated going and asking him. As an engineer, he knew more than the rest of them, especially since he would be the one taking over for Bobby if Bobby was out since there was no Chim around. Given if Hen did it, they would have to replace both paramedics, Hen had already been told that she wouldn’t be interim captain until Chim was back. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world, as Hen looked relieved.

There was no reason they knew right then that Bobby wouldn’t be around, but it was nice to have that chain of command figured out if something did happen.

“What’s wrong?”

Buck looked at the new paramedic. Her name was Chloe, and she was a badass. Buck really liked her, and he felt like he was turning his back on Chim with it, but she had gotten along with all of them pretty well.

“Sorry, just got lost in my head. Nothing wrong.”

“You were looking at me pretty strongly.”

“Oh, no. I was looking at a random spot and thinking. I promise. I do it a lot. Ask Hen.” Buck waved his hand toward Hen.

“No, he really does.” Hen stepped closer to them. “It was weird at first, but you can figure out when he’s looking like he is trying to figure you out or there are no lights on and no one’s home. You’ll learn it. Chloe is going to be with us for at least another two weeks.”

“Great. I’m glad you like it here.”

“It’s the dream assignment, right? The one house you want to get into and the one you never want to leave.”

Buck nodded, but he didn’t really get it. He guessed it was around the whole 118 is family, but it was mostly just the A-Shift with that. Buck hadn’t worked anywhere else and had been there through the tough transition of Bobby becoming that family wholesale. There were bumps in the road as well, but nothing he couldn’t handle.

“Buck’s just missing his partner, which I feel as well cause if he were here, I would have him as my partner, and Buck here would have a new one.”

“You have a guy on the heavy rescue that can do paramedic duty?”

“He’s been taking classes here and there to get his needed hours, but he was a medic in the Army,” Buck said.

“Oh, so it’s carried over a little bit, and he can fill in a little.”

“Yup.”

“Buckley!” Makepeace yelled.

“Gotta go,” Buck said. He gave Chloe a smile before heading up to where Makepeace was.

The man was smiling and waved toward the couches.

Eddie, Carla, and Chris were sitting there.

“We have guests for lunch; you get to entertain them. I’m going down as the part I need to replace on the engine came in. It’ll take about an hour or so. Bobby’s getting lunch quickly so we can eat peacefully while offline.”

Buck gave Makepeace a mock salute, and he turned to smile at Eddie and Chris. Carla huffed a little.

“That’s the kind of smile I like seeing on your face. I’m going over to help Bobby cook. He pulled me in since you were being taken away to entertain these two.”

“So, who is replacing me?” Eddie asked.

“His name is Steve, and he’s good,” Buck said. He pointed at the side of the loft area where a guy was sitting and reading. “He’s newly out of the academy. His spot ended up not being needed at the 217, so Tommy asked Bobby to take him in to replace you. It’s strange having a probie who won’t be with us long term. They are working on finding him a place to go after that.”

“And Ravi?”

“He decided he didn’t want to do the kind of stuff I do. He didn’t hate it, but he said it wasn’t for him. So we moved things around again.”

“Who is Tommy?”

“Oh, that’s right, you were here long after him. He moved from here to 217, and I was actually the one that replaced him. He comes over sometimes to talk to Bobby about a few things. The 217 was closer to the new house he bought, and he moved for that reason only. Still, he really liked it here and was here for the problem captains this shift had. So how did you talk Carla into this?”

“It was easy,” Chris said.

“Really? Carla, easy? Oh, wait, the Diaz men probably just smiled at her, right?” Buck reached out and ruffled Chris’ hair, making him laugh.

“Can I go play?” Chris asked as he pointed at the pinball machine.

“Sure.”

“Yo, Steve!”

Steve looked up from his book.

“You get to be on kid duty. This is Chris; Chris, that’s Steve. Steve, that’s Eddie’s son.”

Even from that distance, Buck could see the way Steve’s face went a little white at taking care of a kid.

“Okay,” Steve said.

“Are you sure he’s up to the task of being your partner?” Eddie asked.

“Oh, yeah. He’s not you, but he does listen to me and tries to keep me in check; usually, it’s his utter fear at something that makes me think about it.”

Eddie laughed at that, and he adjusted his arm in the sling. He rubbed at his shoulder next.

“Pain?”

“Therapy. It’s simple stuff to ensure the muscles don’t tighten; we aren’t into the deep stuff yet. That’ll be soon, based on my last scans. I’m not looking forward to that.”

“I’ll make your favorite foods to make up for it.”

“See, that’s what I told Carla you would say. The only issue is that you can’t make my favorite thing.”

“Oh, the Tamales? I can. I can make them nearly exactly like your Abuela cause she taught me. When I was over the other day working on fixing her bathroom after the pipe burst, I was waiting for the paint to dry to put a second coat on, and we started to make them. She wrote details out for the next steps as I missed them because of work, but I think I can do it. I plan to attempt them my next four days off.”

“She gave you the recipe and everything?”

“Yes.”

“She never even gave that to Mom. Mom’s tamales are a very different recipe that no one really likes. We eat part of them and then throw them away when she’s not looking at parties.”

“Well, I’ll make you good ones. Don’t worry. I promise.”

Eddie laughed a little, and he tugged Buck down onto the couch and curled into his side of him. Buck could feel how tired he was but probably came because Chris wanted it. Buck wrapped his arm around Eddie and started to rub up and down his arm a little. He didn’t do it too hard, so he didn’t hurt Eddie.

Hen grinned at him and took a picture before she walked away. Buck shook his head. He wasn’t that upset by the picture. He didn’t know what to do with Eddie sleeping on him as the man was asleep in seconds. He would have to wake him up to eat, which was normal, but this was public. Still, Taylor had never said anything about how they were together. Hell, she would do stuff to not make Eddie have to get up. Eddie was doing pretty good with his arm, but he was still tired more often than not. Sleep was only because of pills and wasn’t the most restful.

“Soups on,” Bobby yelled a little while later.

“Wakey, wakey,” Buck said into Eddie’s ear.

—

Taylor smiled as she watched Buck shut the door to Eddie’s bedroom.

“We need to talk,” Taylor said.

Buck stopped walking and looked at her with a shocked look on his face. “Um, what did I do wrong?”

“Nothing. Nothing wrong at all. I forget how that sounds when people say it. No, I just wanted to talk about a few things with all of us before we talk to Eddie.”

“About?”

“Us.”

“Us?” Buck was lost. He looked at Eddie’s bedroom door and frowned at Taylor. He looked like he was about to be told he wasn’t enough for someone else again.

Taylor quirked a finger at him, and she backed into the living room. Buck followed, but he looked like he was going to the chopping block and then to the living room of a place he considered home more than his own loft. It hadn’t taken long for Taylor to notice it. It was why she had been staying here with him. To make sure he knew that she accepted him for who he was. Taylor was pretty sure he had always been told that he was never enough. Before Eddie, no one had ever wanted him exactly like he was.

Buck sat down on the couch when Taylor pointed for him to do it, and then she slid into his lap. She cupped his face and pressed a kiss to his forehead. It helped him calm down a little bit.

“You and I have our issues, but we are working through them. We are learning each other but seeing you with Eddie, I’ve seen something that I don’t think even you have seen.”

“What?”

“As much as you love Eddie, he loves you.”

“He’s my best friend.”

“Coy doesn’t become you. If you told him that you broke up with me and you wanted to be with him. He would snatch you up in a moment. I know I was you moving on from him. I know that, and I’m woman enough to admit that I really didn’t care. You still love with more than most of the people I’ve tried to date. Half you is more than I have ever gotten from anyone else. However, there is something else as well.”

“What?”

“I don’t know if it’s just how we are together right now, but I don’t think he’d mind if we invited him to bed like I did with Dae.”

“He’s…” Buck blew out a breath. He dropped his head back to the couch and looked up at Taylor. “Are you sure?”

“Well, we won’t know unless we ask, but the issue is that, unlike Dae, I know that you would never let go of him. So, we are at an impasse. Do you want a one-off with him, or do you want a life with him? Do you want a life with us?”

Buck looked like he was being given everything. He looked like he was afraid it would be taken away from him.

“I can’t. I can’t lose him. That would destroy me, Taylor. I would rather have this that we have right now than to ever lose him. I can’t go on without him and Chris.”

“Okay. Then we woo him. We don’t do anything other than what we are doing right now, but we make sure that he knows we are open to something. We sound him out without being overt until it hits a point where lying to him anymore would be horrible.”

“Chris isn’t sure he wants his father to date anyone, not even me. He said something like that. He’s scared of losing anyone else. He’s scared of what that would mean.”

“Any kind would be afraid when it’s a situation like this. I lost both of my parents at the same moment. My father’s took a while, but I knew.”

“You’ve never talked about them.”

“No, it hurts a lot, but I know all about you and your brother. The lies from your parents. So, we can get into the nitty-gritty of it all, but my mother was found dead. It looked like it might be a suicide, but there was enough that it might not be. My father was arrested and convicted. I can’t tell you who did it. I don’t know if she took her own life or if he killed her. I can’t…I don’t know. Neither is something that I can accept, and I’ve looked. I’ve tried to find the truth of it all. I can’t tell you, Buck. I have no clue, and it tears me up inside.”

Buck wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in close to him. Despite it all, she lost it. She started to cry and let go for the first time in a long time. She trusted that Buck would hold her tight and not judge her for crying. This was why she was falling for him. He was exactly what she needed, and she knew it.

—

Eddie knew something had changed between Buck and Taylor one night. He had woken up to find them asleep on the couch. Taylor was asleep on top of Buck on the couch with the air mattress sitting on the floor with the bedding still folded on top of it. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but whatever it was, there was a darkness gone from Taylor’s eyes, and she looked like she had the world opened up to her.

Still, there was something else there as well. He just wasn’t sure what it was.

“Dad,” Chris called out.

Eddie turned to head into the living room, where Chris was putting together a Lego house Taylor had bought him. Eddie wasn’t even sure what it was from, but he had seen it before.

“Hey, mijo, what do you need?” Eddie asked.

“Are you going to date again?”

“Yes,” Eddie said.

Chris’ face looked like Eddie had betrayed him. He looked like he had that night Eddie had told him about Ana, and Chris had ended up running away to Buck’s only; Buck was at work, and Chris knew that. Carla was coming back soon as she was just on a run to get Eddie’s refill on a few things from the pharmacy and a few extras for Chris as well. Neither of them had wanted to go with her, and it wasn’t like Carla had much to do with Eddie. Eddie was able to do some things. Buck kept the house pretty spotless and clean. Taylor helped as well. But Eddie liked having her around to make sure he could go and do what he needed since he wasn’t allowed to drive yet. He trusted himself but didn’t trust other drivers, and the doctor didn’t either.

One hard jerk with his arm and things would be fucked up enough to possibly need surgery again. He wasn’t risking that. It could also fuck up him being able to go back to his job. He wasn’t going to do anything that might mess that up. He wasn’t stupid enough to do anything. He didn’t live for firefighting like Buck did, but he knew that he didn’t want anyone at Buck’s back doing the job. He just wanted to be there for him, if nothing else.

“Do you not want me to date again?”

“I don’t want to meet anyone you date unless you know that you are not going to leave them. I don’t want to get attached to anyone again.”

Eddie nodded his head. He understood that. He knew that it had always been the issue with dating anyone. He hated that Ana had been such a dud on that front, but he wasn’t going to be upset at putting himself out there again.

“People move in and out of our lives, Chris. It’s just the way it is. I don’t want you to be upset, but I am not going to just stop dating like that. I’ll make sure that I’m in a better spot with someone before I introduce you.”

“And Buck or Taylor have to watch me if you go on a date.”

“Okay, I can agree to that.” Eddie was shocked by the or part of that. Not Buck and Taylor but Buck or Taylor.

Eddie knew that Taylor had been a little bit of an aberration, and he figured that if it came down to it, Chris wasn’t going to miss her as much because Buck was more important in that relationship. He wasn’t sure why it was different, but it was to Chris. Or he didn’t care if Taylor was with them or not. It was hard to tell, but Eddie would figure it out with time.

“Why can’t we just stay the four of us?” Chris asked.

“I…you’ll understand when you are older.”

Chris huffed. It had been used with him a few times over the last while, but it wasn’t like it wasn’t true. Eddie knew it kind of sucked for Chris, but there were things that only age would make him understand.

“Can I put my headphones on?”

“Sure. Music only, though.”

Chris reached over for his tablet, picked up his headphones, and slipped them into his ears. Giving Eddie a little glare as he did.

Eddie wasn’t ready for the teenage years, but at least he had Buck and Taylor there by his side for it.

The thought stopped Eddie cold. He knew he had been thinking of Buck and Taylor as a unit, more than two separate people, but he hadn’t been thinking too much about Taylor being there for it all. He wasn’t that shocked by it, though. She had stepped up to help with everything here and had been what Buck needed to get through it all. Things had been moving fast between them, but Eddie also knew they had a basis for a few things from their previous sexual relationship.

Eddie didn’t know what was coming down the pipe, but he wanted a good foundation, and for that, he needed to make sure that whoever came into his life knew that Buck and maybe Taylor were non-negotiable.

After Ana, Eddie had done a lot of soul-searching and knew he needed to keep the people close that he wanted in his life. Before he added someone else, he needed to make sure he was happy with how things were in his life.

Eddie went into the kitchen to get a drink and have a few minutes without Chris looking at him to make sure he was settled. Chris’ questions had made him feel uneasy, and he needed to figure that out before he started to talk to his therapist about it. He was much like Buck; he was happy about having a screen between him and the therapist, but for wildly different reasons.

Eddie’s phone chiming had him looking for it, and he found it buried in the couch. He didn’t carry it around on him right now. As much as he hated it in his pocket, he could reach it with his good arm, so he just left it in random places.

He checked it and found it was a few pictures from Hen. He opened it up to get them and saved them right off. It was a picture of Buck sitting in a hole in the ground that looked like it was being dug for something. He was in his turnouts and covered in kittens. They were crawling all over him while the basket was being lowered down into the hole. Eddie could see the rope Buck had used to get down into the hole with.

A text came through as he was looking at the pictures.

Hen: Buck and the kittens made it out whole, but I am not sure his heart is whole.

Eddie: How did they get down there?

Hen: Curious kittens. The family was distraught. The daughter had let them out to play and didn’t realize her father hadn’t covered the hole they were digging for something. Bobby got the whole story. We just got to watch Buck saving them all and getting the praise from the daughter.

Another picture came through next. It was Buck sitting on the ground with the kittens playing all around and a little girl in his lap.

Eddie knew right then he was fucked. He knew who he wanted, and the biggest thing was that Taylor being part of it wasn’t the drawback it seemed like it should be. She already fits in their life.

The biggest issue was Chris. Eddie didn’t want to hurt him, and even a relationship between him and Buck wasn’t guaranteed. There was no telling what the future would give and how they would change. There was also nothing that said Buck would want him or Buck and Taylor would want him. Eddie had no clue what to do about that.

—

Buck knew something was up with Eddie when he got home, and Eddie wouldn’t meet his eyes. Carla had Chris at a physical therapy appointment to get an assessment and see if another surgery might be needed before going through the doctor. It wasn’t the strangest thing Eddie had done, but Eddie was also not sticking around when Buck got close to him.

If Buck thought he had done something to make Eddie think he was into him, he would know it. This had to be something else. Buck watched him hightail it out of the living room again and shook his head. He followed along behind Eddie to trap him in his bedroom.

“Why are you doing this?” Buck asked.

“I just…” Eddie waved his hand and dropped down to sit on his bed. “I figured something out about myself, and I am not sure what to do about it.”

“Okay, and it involves me?”

“Yes. You and Taylor.”

“I see. Do you want us? Wanna take us to bed?”

Eddie snorted, and he rubbed at his eyes. “You know me too well.”

“Well, Taylor and I wouldn’t say no to it, but it’s a little more than that, right?”

“How are you like this?”

“What?”

“You don’t get pop culture references, which I understand more now after meeting your parents and finding that all out. Yet, you figured out something that I just really figured out yesterday, and you have been home for like an hour.”

“Home. I’ve been home. I think that says more than you think it does, Eds.”

“I need something stronger than water for this. Let’s go and settle in the kitchen. It seems to be our place.”

Buck nodded, and he spun on his heel to head out. He grabbed some of the juice from the fridge and poured two glasses. It was something with mango and papaya, and Chris and Taylor were on a kick about. He looked at the fridge and knew that Buck and Taylor had just moved in for all intents and purposes.

“Shit,” Eddie said.

“What?” Buck asked. He sat down at the island where he liked to sit and smiled at Eddie. He patted the spot across from him. Eddie sat down, and he frowned while looking at his hands.

“I’m not sure what you are so worried about. If you don’t like it, Taylor and I’ll go back to my place. I think she likes being with me, so I’m pretty sure she won’t go home for long.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s perfectly fine. I just didn’t realize that you had moved in, really. It’s good. I’m not upset at all. I like it a lot, I think. Things are just strange. I went from dreading being here with Ana to not even noticing that you and Taylor are living here.”

“I kind of snuck up on us as well. It’s nothing big, though. It doesn’t have to be any more than what it is.”

“And if I want it to be?”

“What do you mean?” Buck wasn’t going to get his hopes up.

“I don’t know what I mean. Things are just…in limbo, and I’m not sure if I’m reading more into things than are there, and I feel like I need to push on things. I need to be proactive if I want to be happy, but it also scares me. Not being happy. That doesn’t scare me. What scares me is that I want to mess things up on the chance that I might be happier. I can’t live in this stupid limbo that just doesn’t give me anything.” Eddie rubbed his hand over his face. “I think this should wait until Taylor is here as well.”

“It’s okay. Taylor and I have talked about things, but we decided that it wasn’t something we should broach at the moment with you with everything else going on.”

“We both have our lives in our heads right now. You’ve not said what’s going on with Chim.”

“Bobby’s tight-lipped, and the last time someone asked Hen how Chim is doing, she changed the subject. So I am not sure. I just don’t want to make it worse. I am not that happy about the job at the moment, but there is so much that has changed. Hen’s not her bubbly self anymore. You are hurt. The replacements for the two of you are doing good, and I think they will stay until you are back or they get an offer of a job somewhere else in the LAFD. Steve’s learning when I am joking and when I am not. He’s also learning how to cook. He’s worse than you on burning things. Gets distracted when the wind blows.”

“I’m not that bad off.”

“Not anymore; I think it was stress more than anything with you. Your kids love your food, and it’s not like you only fed him boxed shit. There was no way your body was as good as it was if that kind of thing was going in you every single day.”

“Chris wouldn’t be as mobile as he is as well; his body needs the good things to be the best it can be. I have always tried to make balanced meals.”

“You don’t have to sell it to me.”

“No, I doubt I do, but I just…my parents was too much into everything. I had to justify everything I did, and still, years later, it’s a thing.”

“I bet. It’s hard to deal with everything they do to us. So how are you doing right now?”

Scared. I don’t…no, I can’t lose you in my life, Evan. I would rather we stay as friends than to jump into something that would destroy us as friends. I can’t take you out of Chris’ life ever.”

“I wouldn’t want to leave his life either, but Eddie, nothing you do outside of keeping him from me would make me leave his life. I promise you that. I’ll always want to be around him and love him. I don’t think you would ever do that, either. I don’t think you could hurt him by keeping him from anyone he wanted to see. Abuela or Carla could make sure I’m in his life without you having to see me. Or we could be adults about a breakup if it happened. I would never leave him.”

“I am afraid,” Eddie said.

“And you have every right to be. I would never want to hurt you either just so you know. It’ll be what it is, and we can only react to what we are doing, not what might be. The world is full of what might have beens.”

The front door shut, and there was the sound of Carla and Chris talking.

“Chris will be the issue, I think. He’s not in that much of a mood to have me dating anyone. I’m pretty sure that includes you and Taylor.”

“Well, we can go slow as molasses in Alaska.”

“I don’t think that works like you think it does.”

Buck shrugged, reached out, and laid his hand over Eddie’s. “It works enough.”

“It does.” Eddie smiled, and it reached his eyes which made Buck happy.

“Let’s just take things slowly and talk about them. Don’t get worked up over things. Just do it as we would.”

Eddie nodded, and Buck felt like this would be one of those things that made or broke his life. He couldn’t wait for Taylor to come home and talk with them. It was like things were just maybe getting into place. There would be a lot of good things coming if they just listened to each other and didn’t fuck things up with assumptions. Buck had made too many assumptions in his life.

—

Taylor laid her purse on the stand in the living room she had been leaving it on when she was coming home. She looked around, but no one was in the living room or dining room. No, there was no one in sight at all, but there was a lot of noise from the kitchen. She wondered what kind of meal Buck had chosen to cook for them.

The smell of spices and what she thought was lime had her confused until she came into the kitchen to see Eddie and Chris at the blender making margaritas. Given that Eddie was still not allowed to drink too much and Chris was too young, she hoped they were virgins.

None of the boys realized she was there, so she just stayed in the doorway and watched them. Eddie and Chris were having fun adding in ice until they were just right for whatever they wanted as far as thickness. Buck was at the stove stirring something while glancing at the timer on the side of the microwave. The timer on the stove was also counting down something.

It looked like tacos, but she could be wrong. Everything on the island looked like stuff for tacos. She saw a huge bowl, and standing on her tiptoes, she realized it was lettuce, a lot more than they used for tacos. One of the timers went off, and Buck reached down and opened the oven door while stepping to his side. Inside were shells for taco salad. There was one that was smaller, and then the other three were pretty big.

Taco salads were not a meal they had before. She had eaten it out before but never made it at home, not in the shells like that. She was looking forward to that.

Taylor had never had a close family after the death of her mother. Everything had gone to shit, and she had just existed. Until COVID, she hadn’t wanted a family. She hadn’t thought she needed one. Then there was Buck. Buck who made her want a lot of things she had never wanted before. And now Eddie, who made her want even more.

Chapter 8

Buck wiped his hands on his pants before he fumbled with the keys to get into Eddie’s place. He snagged his bag from where he dropped it when trying to get his keys out. He waved back at Hen before she drove off. He hadn’t told anyone he had been injured, and he knew it would bite him in the ass when he got inside. He didn’t know if Taylor or Eddie would be more pissed at him.

As soon as he closed the door, he looked down the hall and saw Eddie standing there with his hands crossed over his chest with a frown on his face.

“Hen tattled?”

“Actually, it was Steve. He’s a devious man. It seems he stole your phone and got my number when you left it unlocked at one point just for this reason. Get into the bedroom and get that shirt off.”

“Eddie, I’m fine.”

“Do it, or I’ll cut it off you.”

“You are blowing this out of proportion. It was catch the guy or let him die. I had to catch him.”

“I know you did.” Eddie’s face softened. He waved Buck toward the bedroom.

“You know, taking over a shift for someone else on C-Shift was supposed to be an easy shift. Not the worst in the world. I’ve been benched for a while. I’m going to just sleep now. I need so much sleep.”

“I’m looking.”

Buck waved his hand as he knew that he wouldn’t get away without getting looked at by Eddie. The man looked like a wounded puppy. Buck headed down the hall and found Taylor sitting on Eddie’s bed with everything laid out to take care of Buck’s arm so he could get some sleep after being up all night after pulling two shifts in a row.

“Strip,” Taylor said.

“I’m working on it. So how does Steve know?”

“Well, you told Hen that you weren’t going to let her drive you home if she told, but she had already let Bobby know, and Bobby was at the farmers market he likes and saw Steve there. Steve was more than willing to tattle on you,” Eddie said.

“Well, I am not sure what else to say about that other than you should have told us,” Taylor said.

“No, I was going to tell you in person. It’s a dislocated shoulder. Where you could see me.”

“You couldn’t even text to say you would be late?” Taylor asked.

“I did.” Buck looked at both of them before wiggling his phone out of his pocket. He showed the message in the group chat between the three of them.

“Oh,” Taylor said. She reached over for her phone on the bedside table and tapped around on it. “He did. I just guess we thought it was all part of his ramble last night before the whole thing.”

“I thought it was. Sorry,” Eddie said.

“It’s okay. Worrying is fine as long as you don’t treat me like a kid who can’t do things on his own. I know you worry, but I can’t take that,” Buck said.

Eddie looked ashamed, while Taylor looked a little confused.

“I am sorry about that,” Eddie said as he stepped up and wrapped Buck in a hug, careful of his arm that was at his side. “Where is your sling?”

“None of them fit right for me that they had on hand. COVID issues. I said you would wrap it to my chest once I got home, and I figured you could head out with Taylor to find one big enough for me.”

“Yeah, I know a place to go. Carla knows the best places for that kind of thing. She left a list of places years ago, and it’s in my drawer with Chris’ medical stuff. She took one look at me and you working together and figured that we would need places to get stuff for big assed men, as she said.”

Buck laughed at that.

“I’m missing something.”

“I’ll explain when we go and get his sling; he’ll probably like it better anyway. Let Taylor do what she wants, and I’ll get the wrap to make sure you can sleep a little bit. Chris is still asleep as he had a bad pain night and was up and down. He might crawl into bed with you, but he’ll notice that you are hurt.”

“He’s good at that.” Buck was careful as he got dressed for sleep, not caring about getting naked in front of either of them. He had been naked in front of Eddie more than once.

Taylor has a salve in her hand that Buck knew the smell of from using it on Chris when his muscles were aching from just moving around the world. The smell was soft and gentle, reminding Buck of being safe.

He was already drifting before Taylor was done doing what she was doing. He wasn’t sure he would last to have Eddie get him all ready to sleep. He needed the wrap to make sure he didn’t hurt himself, but being awake all night and just getting home meant his body knew he was safe.

Eddie came out of the bathroom to see Buck barely staying up. He was just about asleep as he sat on the bed. Eddie shook his head at that, and he smiled. Buck was leaning toward Taylor like he wanted to cuddle, and if Eddie wasn’t still a little sore from a second surgery to help his healing along, he would say he would get what Buck needed, but he didn’t want to drive. Taylor also needed Eddie along for size help and getting exactly what Buck needed, as Eddie knew what Buck hated when it came to that.

“Help me keep him up while I do this,” Eddie said.

Taylor nodded. She looked a little shell-shocked still about Buck being upset at them. Eddie knew that Buck was working on telling people when he didn’t like what they did with Doctor Copeland. It had been the main thrust of why he had been upset at them, making him think that he couldn’t make his own choices or take care of himself.

“He’s good, though, right?” Taylor asked?

“Yes. He’s good. It looked good, and we saw him grimace, but he was able to move his arm. He’ll heal up nicely and tell us what he did when he’s ready.”

“It’s Maddie, right?”

“Yes. I’ll explain when we are in the truck.” Eddie didn’t want to have Buck feel like he needed to defend himself, so he just wanted to wait.

Fifteen minutes later, they were in the truck with Taylor looking at the house with a strange look on her face.

“What?”

“Oh, just…I always thought he was needy and maybe too needy. Yet, that’s not what it is, is it?”

“No, he’s afraid of people leaving him. He and Chris aren’t too different in that regard. It’s why I think taking this slow is the best idea. Ease into everything for both Buck and Chris’ sake.”

“So, Maddie?”

“When he was healing up from the ladder truck on his leg, he was treated like a child by her. She kept trying to get him to do the least amount to get better and to get him to quit being a firefighter. It was a lot once Buck had opened up to me after the lawsuit about her harping on him.”

“Ah. That does give a little context to that. I’m glad that he was able to tell us no. I wish he had told us, but he’s right. It’s a simple injury. He can manage it on his own.” Taylor had a look of confusion on her face, but she was also working through it.

“I still would have rather been the one to take him home than Hen. It’s stupid, but we can make sure he understands that we just want to support him when he’s hurting, not force our opinion on what is going on with him.” Eddie sighed and looked out into traffic. He was silent before he continued. “It’s a work in progress. I react wrong to things that touch on my parents, trying to tell me how I will pull Chris down with me and fail him. Because that’s all they think I’ll do, fail at everything. They can’t see me being a good father to Chris just because I’m away from them and not doing what they say. They are rather insular. Even my mother doesn’t think there is enough family up here because it’s not her.’

“Families fuck us all up in some ways. Others are more, and I think Buck’s is more than us. I have my issues, but the more I find out about his parents, the more I never want to meet them.”

“It’s nothing special. I wanted to yeet them from the firehouse when they were there. I don’t think I have ever met two people I hate more in the world, and that’s saying something, given I was in the war overseas. If the Purge was ever a thing, they would be the first people I killed. I don’t even hate my parents that much.”

“I wouldn’t say that in therapy,” Taylor said.

“I have. We are working on that. My therapist asked me at the end of a session who I would kill in a Purge like thing. Then the next session, we talked about it. Honestly, it’s not a lot, and while I’m sure their death would hurt Buck’s feelings, it would be less than the pain they could still inflict on him.”

“Not Maddie?”

“She’s…complicated, and she’s so focused on making them happy. She was the favored child until she went against what they wanted, which they didn’t like Doug, for good reason, of course. But still, it wasn’t until then that they ever really ignored Maddie as they did Buck. They came out here because Maddie wanted them around for the birth, and then they were gone because dealing with Buck over Daniel was too much. He was in the bombing and then the embolism, and they never came to see him. They never called him. Maddie had to call them to give them information. They never checked in with her. They honestly don’t care about Buck at all.”

“Sounds like. That is why he’s so into the fire family that he has at 118, despite some of it being toxic as well.”

“Yes. I honestly think that his relationship with me and you are the only things that I don’t see as toxic in some fashion. He’s easy to love if you see past the way he tries to protect himself.”

Taylor nodded. She checked the map on her phone attached to the dash to pull into the right parking lot. She looked at the building for a reason. “I’ve never paid attention to this place.”

“We like it for what we can get from there. I have another two places I can try to find a sling if these guys don’t have it.”

“I never thought how much of the stuff it’s made for bigger guys like Buck. I heard Bobby talking to him once about his pants.”

“His legs, custom turnouts. It’s kind of horrible, really, how long his legs are. I just hope that he doesn’t dress in shorts at work when I get back there.”

“Well, it could be worse, and he could be in short shorts and no shirt. All of that skin and ink on display.”

“That’s a naughty image to put into my head before we go into a store.”

Taylor just grinned at him. Eddie rolled his eyes and let himself out of the truck. He checked his phone to make sure Buck hadn’t texted him. He hoped the man would sleep the entire time they were out. Chris didn’t have a set bedtime or wake-up time during the summer. He hoped Chris crawled into bed with Buck; it would mean they both slept a little longer. He didn’t want to deal with both of them being cranky. Hen had texted him a list of the stuff Buck had from the hospital pharmacy and the rest they had at home.

“Carla said something to me,” Taylor said as she opened the door and waved Eddie into the store.

“Yes?”

“About a bigger place since we are all intent on living together. It’s not a bad idea. We can get Buck out of his place and have him apply for the loan on his credit and everything, and we can split things three ways, with you doing the least because Chirs needs more attention on the money front, and we would all probably be paying less than what we are.”

“And your place?”

“Kind of month to month. My landlord wants to do some repairs and stuff to make it worth more. Upgrade a lot of things. So he’s okay with me breaking the lease early if I find a place. I’ve been looking a little but not like strongly.”

“You have this all planned out.”

“I do. I don’t like dallying when I don’t have to. Of course, there is broaching it with Buck. He’d already be all for living with you two if you had a bedroom. Like selling his place and going. And you know it.” Taylor looked around, and her eyes widened. “This place is like…whoa.”

“Yes, it is. I like it because it’s a place that caters to first responders. These are the things needed to ensure that we can do our job while still injured if need be. Buck can come back to light duty pretty quickly and stick around and be the one behind. He doesn’t mind it as long as he knows he’s going back to being a full firefighter.”

“He needs to be of use, even if that’s just holding someone when they are upset.”

Eddie headed toward the section they needed, letting Taylor look around a little as she went. He didn’t try and make her keep up; it’s not like she couldn’t find him. He found one that was a match for the one he still used on occasion, but a size up on the allowance as Eddie knew that Buck’s arms were not going to fit in that thing.

“How are things, really?” Taylor asked.

“Good. The house is no issue with me. I mean, if something happens, you’ll be the one to leave.”

“Oh, I know. I knew coming in that I would never be able to break up the two of you, and I wouldn’t try either. I wouldn’t be like Ana. You two got a bond I could never even think I could get inside of. It’s not different than the stuff soldiers go through in war; in this case, you and Buck have survived gunfire. It traumatized you both to the degree I can’t even think I could ever understand.”

Taylor picked up a sling that was the same as what Eddie had but in fire engine red. She grinned and tucked it over her arm.

“What other color?” Eddie asked as he showed that there were a lot of them.

“Pink or purple?”

“Both? We really can’t have enough of these. We can keep one at work for the days he just tweaks it or he’s stubborn and doesn’t bring it with him. Purple for work and then red and pink for home.”

“No red for work?” Taylor asked.

“Red’s gonna be his favorite color, so he’s not going to want to take it to work and leave it there.”

Taylor laughed, and she nodded her head. She pulled down a purple and a pink, checking the sizes. There was one, thankfully, in each size that would work for Buck.

“Need anything else?”

“No, I’m down to not needing the sling other than maybe at night after a hard day in therapy, so I can last with the one I have. The other did get frayed, and I threw it out.”

“If you are sure.”

“Yes, the hospital has ones in my size more, so if I am hurt like this again, I’ll be fine.”

“There is really nothing about him that’s standard, is there? Not even the size of his heart.”

Eddie nodded. He tugged Taylor over with him to the area for kids to see about new grips and things for Chris’ crutches. It wasn’t time for a new size yet, but the stops needed a change out, and he could do that easily if there were ones here. He saw a pair that was green and would make Chris super happy. He picked them up and then saw a new pack of stickers that were stars. He grabbed those as well.

“Anything else?” Taylor asked.

“Nope. I think I got anything Chris might need. A new set of crutches is soon, but not until he’s got a little more height.”

“That’s good. So let’s check out and pick up something for lunch. Not like something ready-made but something special to make.”

“I’ll get stuff for burritos. I have shells from Abuelas. We can have some of those that Buck likes, and he can just be a kid and eat it with a fork.”

Taylor laughed at the answer. She nodded her head in agreement. Thankfully she was pretty easy on food. Eddie made a note that their frozen waffles were running low, having been a staple of their breakfasts with Chris out of school. Or a snack. He had come in on the afternoon when Taylor worked a weekend to find the two of them munching on the waffles.

The shopping was easy, with everything settled in and normal for them. Any two of the trio were able to go to the store and get everything needed. Buck and Eddie were usually more mercenary in what they were doing. They were willing to split up and tackle different sides of the store and then check out. Eddie liked to wander with Taylor, getting to know her a lot better and going past the affection and want he had for her.

“So, what kind of meal is your comfort food?” Taylor asked.

“Honestly? Huevos con chorizo. The way my Abuelo used to make them. Abuela does pretty well, but as a kid, I loved summers up here in LA with them, and he would just talk with me as he made them. Abuela makes them just as good, but it was the whole being with him in the kitchen, just us, that I liked best of all.”

“You know about the waffles, but I love macaroni and cheese for dinner. Buck’s that he makes with the whole bread crumbs on top and the cheese that just strings as you take a bite.”

“I love that. I haven’t gotten the kinds of cheese he does in that. He grates them himself to make it better. I just want to shove my face in the food.”

“I really liked that seafood thing you did a few weeks ago.”

“Getting Chris to try seafood has been an adventure. Buck does better than I do as he slips it into things I never would have thought about, like the lobster mac and cheese. I like it and wished that he made it more.”

“It’s too bad he can’t be happy just cooking for us, huh?” Taylor leaned on Eddie’s shoulder a little.

The rest of the trip was just talking about food and other things. It seemed like stupid to those on the outside, but to Eddie, it showed how much they just got each other and could talk about things without having to have them have a deep meaning. The deeper meaning was just in them being together.

Eddie opened the door and headed back to the truck to help get things inside. Taylor had most of the bags, but Eddie got the last few. It had been easy to remember the stuff needed so that maybe they could delay the next round of shopping by at least a few days.

“Go check on them,” Taylor said.

“You sure?”

“I’ve got this,” Taylor said with one of the smiles on her face that said she was totally okay with putting things up.

Eddie nodded and headed to the bedroom to find that while Chris wasn’t asleep, he was lying in bed with his glasses on, reading a book while Buck was pressed to him.

“What happened to Bucky?” Chris asked.

“He didn’t tell you?”

“No, he was tired and just kind of shuffled closer to me when I laid down on the bed.”

“He rescued someone and hurt himself. It’s okay. He’ll be okay. He’ll be better sooner than I will be. You okay hanging in here?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll make you something small to eat for breakfast as it’s gonna be closer to lunch than normal by the time it’s done. We have also decided on lunch, those burritos that Buck really likes.”

Chris nodded his head, and his eyes turned back to his book. Eddie laughed. Chris was probably aching some, and lazing around in bed with Buck probably seemed the best. When Buck was awake, Eddie would have Chris go through his stretches and check on Buck’s shoulder himself. It was already looking better, with Buck just getting a little sleep.

“Bucky did say something about going to the zoo,” Chris said.

“Of course, he did, but not today. Tomorrow. Today you need to not overdo it yourself. He needs to rest as well.’

“I know. He will be off for a few days, right?”

“He will.” Eddie thought about narrowing Buck down on what he wanted to do about a house. They could hire someone to move Buck’s stuff into storage, and Taylor’s as well and just get that out of the way. Buck’s place was full of many things, but Eddie knew that most of them were not things Buck cared about. He just kept things there to make the place look lived in. Where he slept was not always his home, and Eddie understood that.

Eddie had thought that LA would be his home, but honestly, from about two weeks after meeting Buck, his home had become the place where the three of them were, and now it included Taylor as well.

“How are they?”

“Chris is awake and reading in bed, and Buck’s pressed close to him, still on his back, so I’m glad he didn’t turn onto his good side as last time he fell over and slammed his arm into the bed, screaming, and it woke up Chris.”

“So that kind of injury is normal?”

“It’s one of the more normal ones for firefighters like Buck and me. It’s nothing big, really. He’ll get better and do a little therapy, but we pretty much know that therapy by heart, so it’ll be short-lived, and then he’ll be back on shift full time, and I’ll follow after when I’m ready.”

“You were upset after your last visit.”

“I was. There was a new physical therapist there, and I was upset about her not taking the hint to not hit on me. She was pretty much of the fact that I didn’t have a ring on my finger meant that I was free game as far as her advances. I talked to my guy, and he said that the woman probably wouldn’t last long as she had hit on more than one patient over the week, and I wasn’t the only one to complain. I had to go a little higher as a few others hadn’t, and I refused to let her just stay there with people who were vulnerable in one way or another. She didn’t hit on her patients, which is her only saving grace.”

“I hate people who are like that. I’ve met more than one guy like it. It’s something that just is human nature for some people, no matter their gender.”

Eddie heard the shower turn on, and he smiled. Buck was awake. Chris was probably in the bathroom with him talking his ear off. Also, to be someone who listened if Buck did something stupid while showering.

“I am not sure if I should go help him or not,” Taylor said.

Eddie shrugged his shoulders. That was up to her.

“I think I will. I’ll send Chris in to help you. Buck’s not gonna settle unless he’s clean, and he can’t get all of himself like he is. Not with what is here.”

Taylor passed Eddie and kissed his cheek as she did. She waited to see what else he would do, which was to wrap her in a hug. Eddie’s affection was sweet, and it was a contrast to Buck’s, but it felt just as good. Yet, at times it felt like they were wooing a skittish colt. They had all decided they were going to just do things that felt right and didn’t care about what others thought about them.

Which was going to last as long as it took for someone to say something to their face about how their relationship was wrong. They would have to deal with it, and Taylor knew Buck was doing a lot of research into it. She had seen the paperwork. It was something that soothed Buck a great deal, so she never made him feel like doing it was wrong. She understood the want of truth even if the truth was just facts about random things.

Chris was sitting on the toilet lid when Taylor entered the bathroom. He looked up at her and smiled. “You going to be on Buck watch?”

“Yes. I think your dad’s starting something for you to eat for breakfast. If you want waffles, you’ll have to get him now.”

“Okay. Be good for Taylor, Buck!” Chris said as he grabbed his crutches and started out the door. Taylor slipped to the side, and as soon as Chris was halfway down the hall, she shut and locked the door.

“I am not sure you being the one to watch me is going to go well,” Buck said.

“Well, I’m not here to just watch. I thought I could get your back and hair; I know that’s the two things you’ll have the most trouble with.”

“And anything else?”

“Well, if something comes up, I guess I can deal with it.”

Buck snorted. Taylor started to get her clothes off. She laid her underwear down and found a second pair in the drawers to the side; all of them had a few pairs extra in there just for various things. Taylor mainly had her period underwear in there, but since they were hanging around home, she didn’t need her sexy stuff.

Buck was facing the opening when Taylor slipped inside.

“Are you sure about this?” Buck asked.

Taylor nodded her head. She stepped up to Buck and pulled him down into a kiss. His water-slick hands started to rub up and down her body, making her smile into the kiss. He wasn’t doing much with his injured arm, just touching and not even that hard. Some movement was good, and like this, it would be hard to keep him from touching.

“Let’s get the clean parts done first, and then we can have fun. On your knees.”

“Why don’t you get clean first, and then I’ll get on my knees.”

Taylor quirked an eyebrow, but Buck just raised one back. She huffed and started to wash off. She knew part of what he wanted, so she put on a show, and before she had even got to washing her tits, he was mostly hard and hadn’t even touched himself.

“Happy?” Taylor asked when she was done.

“Yeah.” Buck got on his knees, spread his knees to give himself a little balance, then wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her in.

Taylor realized what he was aiming for as soon as he backed her into the little bench seat in the shower. The water only hit them a little, but Taylor could settle and spread her legs. Buck had to feel pretty good if he was going down on her.

Unlike most of her former lovers, there were days she felt like Buck would be happy with just getting her off like this and then jerking off on her to make it go faster to get to the cuddling part. That had been back when they had been having a stupid amount of sex. She had realized then what he wanted out of sex more than anything else, and she knew he knew it as well.

“You are going to kill me,” Taylor said before she buried her mouth in her arm to stop herself from making too many noises as Buck moved from just tongue to fingers inside of her. He would get her off pretty quickly, and she was okay with that. The water would last but not that long. She still had to wash his hair and back. She would do that before getting him off as his penance for jumping her like this.

Buck always made her feel like she was just on the edge of falling into something deeper when he was focused like this. He took so much pleasure in giving pleasure that it was hard not to always want it.

Taylor came, and it felt like her whole body tried to just lock itself in place. As she came down, she gripped his hair to keep Buck where he was. The kitten licks across her clit that kept her shaking just a little bit were enough she finally let go of him. “You are a menace, Evan Buckley.”

“I know.”

Taylor pushed him where she wanted him to get the rest of this on the way as she thought about what she would do for him. She had to pay him back a little, but she wasn’t sure how.

Laying the rag back on the bar where it would be collected the next time laundry was done, the idea hit her as she spied Eddie’s shampoo on the shelf.

“Now what?” Buck asked with a smirk on his lips.

Taylor pushed him back into the wall, giving him a smirk before she poured a little conditioner in her hand and wrapped it around Buck’s cock.

“Now you are at my mercy.” Taylor got Buck’s ear down to where she didn’t have to talk too loudly. “Or better yet, don’t you want to be at Eddie’s? His hand wrapped around your cock like this.”

Buck moaned, and it was a little louder than it probably should be. She hoped that if Eddie was listening, he would make sure Chris stayed in the kitchen to eat.

“Oh, you like that? Or would you want him on his knees in front of you? His lips wrapped around your cock, just bobbing up and down, his eyes locked on yours as he has the time of his life.”

Buck turned them to where Taylor was pressed to the wall, and he braced his arm on the wall but kept his injured one tucked close to his chest.

“You like that more? What about me spread out on the bed and Eddie fucking me? You watched as he just fucks me hard and fast, and then when he’s done, you can crawl up on me and do the same or eat me out, eat him out of me.”

Buck was moaning near constant now, a little broken sound that meant he was close.

“Or better yet, you fucking me and him fucking you at the same time. Like when Dae was with us, only it’s Eddie.”

Buck came, his release spreading on Taylor’s body a little before dripping down. She could feel it and knew he was looking with the way his head was tipped now.

“Soon,” Taylor promised.

Chapter 9

Eddie looked at Taylor and gave her a smile before looking back at Chris in the back seat. There was a smile on Chris’ face. There was a lot wrong with the world still, but they had their little bubble, even if Eddie wasn’t sure what their little bubble would look like once the world saw it.

“Ready?” Taylor asked.

“Not really, but it is what it is.”

“I’ll protect you, Dad. No one is going to get mad at me. You and Buck can’t even be mad at me,” Chris said.

Taylor laughed a little, so Eddie looked at her and then flipped her off, which made Taylor laugh even more. She was decked out in a pair of jeans that made Eddie want to slowly slip them off her body and then just take his time wrecking her. Buck wasn’t expecting them, but a few of the other spouses, partners, boyfriends, and girlfriends would be there for lunch. Buck had mentioned it and hadn’t said anything about what he wanted. Eddie figured Buck hadn’t wanted to just ask Taylor and upset Eddie, while Taylor just figured Buck didn’t want to ask either of them and get upset if they said no.

“He’s right. You two can’t even decide who gets to be the bad cop.” Taylor opened the door, and the shirt she was wearing was visible to Eddie again. While the jeans were nearly painted on, the shirt wasn’t. It was one of Eddie’s, and the name of Diaz was on the back. It was from the soccer league he had played in a little before he had joined the LAFD while he was waiting to be slotted into the academy. The shirt wasn’t anything special, but Taylor wearing it as a subtle claim from Eddie on her made Eddie feel good. Taylor was good at making sure Eddie knew just how much she wanted to get to know him and that she wasn’t just accepting him in her life to make Buck happy.

No. Taylor wanted him as well. She wanted both of them, and it was working pretty well between them at the moment. Things were going slow between Eddie and Buck, as well as Eddie and Taylor. It was working well, and Chris was getting used to all of them living together. The whole relationship thing had been a non-issue, as Chris hadn’t been afraid of losing anyone. The three of them needed to get used to each other before they added anyone else to the mix; Chris was old enough to understand that, which was good as Eddie hadn’t been sure he would be.

“Dad, let’s go. I’m hungry.”

Eddie rolled his eyes and opened the door to get out. He checked his arm for stiffness and wasn’t sure if what he felt was just phantom pain he thought should be there or actual pain. So he kept rolling his arm until the pain was gone like he had been doing when he didn’t use it for a little while. He had been cleared to drive, and even after another two weeks of him not doing it, he had finally started to drive again.

“Look who it is,” Makepeace said when Eddie came in the doors with Chris just beside him and Taylor hanging out behind. “Oh, you brought the whole family.”

Eddie looked at Makepeace, and the man winked before he dropped down to one knee and waited for Chris to get to him for a hug.

“You are getting soft,” Chris said.

“Watch your mouth!” Makepeace laughed as he said it, though.

“You are! You used to be like Bucky, but you don’t have as much muscle as you used to.”

“No, I don’t need it with my job now. I still work out, but my old man body is getting the better of me. So I just don’t even try and keep up with it.” Makepeace still wrapped his arms around Chris and lifted him up. “Your father and your Buck are good enough replacements for the kind of thing I do.”

Chris laid his head on Makepeace’s shoulder, smiling.

“Buckley! Visitors!” Makepeace yelled before he started toward the stairs.

Taylor got into a line right behind him while Eddie stood and looked around the main room. Everything looked exactly the same, but it felt like it should be different. Or it was Eddie who was different.

“Eddie,” Bobby said.

“Hey, Bobby.”

Bobby held his arms open for a hug. The hug was careful, but it felt like one of the normal dad hugs he got from Bobby. Eddie knew that Bobby was hesitant about saying things like that because of his favorites, but Eddie also knew Buck was very much Bobby’s favorite.

“Buck told me a little about a few things, like he and Taylor are living with you?”

“It just sort of happened. None of us were all that shocked about how well we all do together; even Taylor feels like she belongs.”

“Okay, I just wanted to make sure that things were good on that front. You are here for the meal?”

“Yes.”

Bobby gave Eddie a weird look because of the way Eddie’s voice cracked over that single word, but he said nothing about it. “Let’s go and eat.”

Eddie nodded and waited for Bobby to lead the way. The loft was stuffed full of people with extra tables and chairs all around. Makepeace, Taylor, Buck, and Chris were at a table with three chairs empty around it. Eddie knew a chair was for him, but he wasn’t sure who the other two chairs were for. Makepeace’s wife usually worked the same shift as him; his kid was in an out-of-state college.

“Eddie,” Athena said, and she cupped the sides of Eddie’s face before drawing him into a hug. “You look good. You look better than you did before you were shot, which is not something I thought I would ever say.”

“Thanks. Therapy has been doing wonders for me.”

“Therapy?” Bobby asked.

“Buck talked me into it to help me with the trauma. We had a lot of good talks trying to help each other with the whole thing, and then when we hit a place where it wasn’t helpful, I pushed out into a therapist.” Eddie stepped back from Athena and Bobby and turned to head to the table with the others.

“So, tell me about this,” Makepeace said as he looked at where Buck and Taylor were.

“About what?”

“Taylor wearing Eddie’s shirt, and you looking at Eddie like you want to jump up and go and save him.”

“There are times I really hate you,” Buck said.

“No, you don’t. So this happened. Is it serious?”

“Yes,” Taylor said.

“Good. I’m glad. I know some people had issues with you, but you apologized and stepped up when you realized what you did wasn’t good. There is no reason to hold a grudge as that just makes someone no better than they accuse you of being.”

“Who is sitting with us?” Eddie asked.

“No clue. I just claimed the table since no one else had. I thought it was going to be Buck, me, and other refugees with no significant other joining them. I think I like this better. Still, it’s good to have you here. We thought you weren’t going to step back inside for a while.”

“Mostly, it was me just not wanting to be out in the world. We had our little bubble, and I loved it. It was hard to want to break out of it. I wasn’t happy about going anywhere for a while.”

“What about back to the scene?”

“Buck and I went there with our therapists the other day. Buck explained it all to us, how it happened and where we were from the best of his memory. It was a hard day. Came back to the house afterward and just lay in bed next to each other and existed. It’s where we still were when Taylor got home.”

“I ordered dinner because none of us were in the mood to cook anything more than dumping soup in a pan, and Chris needed a little more than that.”

“There is nothing wrong with canned soup,” Makepeace said.

“Yeah, but Chris is going through a growth spurt and eating like a teenage boy.” Eddie grabbed a roll that was on the table. “What is Cap making?”

“He’s made pot roast. It’s been in the oven for hours, and the place has smelled mouthwatering.”

“What’s the event?” Taylor asked.

Buck looked away from Eddie; his eyes were a little distant before they broke off.

“Buck?” Taylor asked.

Buck huffed, and Makepeace laughed.

“Buck’s getting an award for the whole saving the guy he dislocated his shoulder to save. And the 118 is getting a commendation for the good work done by all of us. So Bobby’s doing a big family meal to celebrate with us.”

“When is the award ceremony?” Eddie asked.

“Next week, some big thing with a bunch of people from across a few stations. Mayor being a suck ass to the city, so they remember he’s running again.”

Buck laughed at that, and he finally looked at all of them.

Eddie knew that despite everything Buck loved about the job, he would rather just know he was doing a good job rather than be at some big awards ceremony.

“I’m sure he was going to tell you as soon as he got home, as Bobby didn’t tell us what this big meal was about,” Makepeace said.

“I was. Bobby dropped that on us earlier. It wasn’t like I was keeping it from everyone.”

“I don’t think you were anyway. It’s your choice to choose who to celebrate with you. We don’t have a claim just because we are who we are.”

“Is this the fun table?” Karen asked as she sat down. She looked at Makepeace and then Buck before she frowned a little. “Or maybe not.”

“No, it will be just talking about some deep things,” Eddie said. He ripped a roll apart and tossed a piece at Buck to get his attention on him. “So, I saw we got a new weight bench. How did that happen?”

“I broke the other.”

“You broke it?” Karen asked. She sounded like she was close to laughing. “How?”

“It wasn’t on purpose, no matter what Makepeace says. I was just lifting weights, and when I set the bar down a little harder than normal, as I had pushed a little too far, Steve hasn’t learned when to cut me off. The bar fell off, Steve caught the weights like me, and the bench went down in a heap of broken metal.”

“I told Bobby it was nearing the end of its life,” Eddie said.

“He thought we just needed to keep a closer eye on it. Steve’s freaked out now and wiggles everything before even trying to use it. Even with it being brand new. It’s quite funny.” Buck smiled, and the smile at least reached his eyes when he looked at Eddie. He tossed the piece of roll back at him.

It was good. It was something for them.

Eddie grabbed the bottle of water on the table and took a drink. He rolled his arms a little, and the tightness and pain were gone. He was glad of it.

“So Eddie, sick of Buck living with you yet?” Hen asked as she leaned over his chair.

“No, are you kidding? I don’t have to cook. I can get things done that I need and don’t feel bad about leaving Chris alone all day in the house. Or Buck will clean while I get to spend time with Chris. It’s pretty good. I’m looking for a bigger place, and then Buck can just move in with me.”

“Really? You wanna live with him all the time?”

“Yes. It’s nice. Actually, it’s better than nice. I love it. Buck’s better than living with my sisters. That was kind of shitty for a while. My parents were horrible. Things were just not good. So yeah, living with Buck is the easiest thing in the world.”

“Chim had issues.”

“Well, Chim also had general issues with Buck at that time. I mean, he made fun of Buck being unwilling to let go of the first relationship he had that was serious. He has issues with Buck sleeping around with men and women even though those people were also sleeping around.”

Hen pushed up off Eddie, but it wasn’t hard.

“I guess coming in from outside, it does look like that. I never really thought about how new at things Buck was back then due to how he had lived his life. It wasn’t too mean when looking at it while it was happening.”

“Chim called Abby Buck’s invisible girlfriend the first day I was there and made it seem like Buck was dating someone who wasn’t into him instead of, you know, having been with her, and she started to ghost him. I mean, my wife up and left me, no word, and it hurt like hell.”

“Tell us how you really feel,” Hen said. She looked like she was thinking about everything Eddie was saying, though.

“Oh, you really don’t want to know how I feel about it all. I mean, Bobby gives him jobs to do, and you guys make fun of him because he doesn’t do them like you would. Everyone is different. You would think that people would be more accepting. It took a while to get used to Bobby, right?”

“It did. I guess we just got used to things.”

Eddie looked over at Buck, and Buck was frowning a bit, but it wasn’t bad. Just the look of someone who was seeing something a little different than before. It was a look Eddie was used to when Buck was thinking about things.

“Dad, Captain Nash is going to show me how to stick things on sticks!” Chris yelled from across the room.

Eddie looked over to see Bobby laughing. There was a group of kids all around the area near the island, all looking on with serious looks on their faces. Learning how to stick food on skewers and then cook was a huge deal.

“Well, good, then you can cook dinner tomorrow!”

“Oh, these kabobs are going home with them today. Dinner tonight. You get to do the sides,” Bobby said.

Eddie was okay with that. Buck wouldn’t be there, but Eddie could figure out to do it another time. Grilled meat and veggies were something that Buck wouldn’t turn down.

“So, how do you like Buck living with Eddie?” Makepeace asked Taylor.

“I kind of have been living there as well. I’ve not spent a night at my place in a while. The air mattress Eddie got for us is pretty good. Better than my mattress was, anyway. I think I need to get a new mattress before we decide whose bed goes into the house.”

It was like that statement broke everyone at the table’s brains. Makepeace looked at Eddie like he was nuts. Hen came to sit in an empty spot and just looked at Taylor.

“You are moving in too? After so little time?”

“Well, honestly, it’s nice living with people, and we’ve already talked about everyone having their own bedrooms, so it would be like roommates more than anything else. I’ve not lived like that since college, but given COVID, it’s nice to have people around more than not. It’s a good thing. Buck and Chris are all for it, and I think Eddie likes having me around when Buck’s at work. Of course, that will change when Eddie’s back at work, but I’ll be around to help with a few things, and Carla and I get along.”

“It’s so strange,” Hen said.

“What kind of people like me?”

“No, Eddie’s okay with you moving in as well.”

“Why wouldn’t I be? For a long time, my Abuela had a lot of people living with her, but then the kids got older and started families of their own, so they moved out, and she moved into a smaller house. I would rather live with someone than to be all alone. It’s what I miss most about Shannon, just having someone to talk to who is an adult.”

“I sometimes forget that there are people like that,” Makepeace said.

“Yeah, I couldn’t wait to be out of the house and live alone, and I like my days at home with Karen working. It’s kind of nice.”

“And I go to my bedroom when I want some time alone. Or it’s nice when Buck just goes to my room, and I get the living room. We live together well.” Eddie leaned back as the oven timer went off.

“And it’s dinner time!” Bobby said.

Eddie looked at Buck, who looked like he didn’t want to say anything about what they were to each other, and neither did Eddie. Looking at Taylor, Eddie could see how upset she was at everyone questioning everything.

—

Buck grabbed his bag from the back of the Jeep and looked at the house. Eddie and Taylor were waiting for him at a house four blocks over. He wanted to shower and change before going over. Then they were going to pick up Chris from a sleepover before going to lunch out somewhere.

“Who are you?”

Buck dropped his keys as he looked at Helena and Ramon Diaz standing on the porch.

“Um, Buck. You met me at Eddie’s ceremony years ago and a few other times.”

“Oh, yes, the man who was there when Eddie was shot,” Ramon said. His tone was a little dismissive, but there was something in his eyes.

“Yes.”

“Where is our son?” Helena demanded.

“He’s out house hunting. I’m getting ready to meet him. I don’t think that he’ll like you just showing up.”

“Mama tells us he’s thinking of moving and having strangers living with him. I didn’t know he needed that kind of money help. We can help him.” Ramon wrapped a hand around Helena’s shoulder like he was trying to control her a little bit.

“Help him what?”

“Come back home to El Paso and make sure he has the help he needs.” Helena’s tone wasn’t one that Buck liked.

The difference between Ramon and Helena was strong at that point. Ramon looked almost disappointed in his wife.

“Ah, I see. Yes, I think you need to leave, and I’ll make sure he goes to Abuela’s for lunch if you want to go there.”

“You will take us to him.”

“No, I won’t. I’m not going to take you anywhere.” Buck pulled out his keys and then his cell phone. He dialed Eddie’s number. He knew that Eddie would want to know as soon as possible what was going on.

“You will, or we will force you.”

“How? I just need to call the cops.” Buck pressed the button to transfer the call to speakerphone. He laid it on the stand in the living room and dropped his bag near the doorway.

“You would do that?”

“You are trying to tell me that you are going to force me to tell you where your son is.”

“Buck?” Eddie called out over the phone.

“Hey, Eds, your parents are here.”

“Why?”

“They think you need help raising Chris and will try to have you move back to El Paso to make sure they can help you raise him right. So they think I will lead them to you as you are house hunting, and they don’t like it.”

“I’ll make sure that the agent gives you a tour later. This place works for both of us. I’ll come back there, and you and Taylor can go out on your own.”

Buck looked at Eddie’s parents again and found that there was something more going on than he thought. Helena seemed all about having Eddie go back to El Paso, but Ramon seemed to be trying to figure out how to say something. Which Buck assumed meant it was something that Helena wouldn’t like.

“No, Eds, it’s you and me. Ride or die. It’s fine. We can sit here and talk to them.”

“Agreed,” Taylor said loud enough that the phone picked her up as well.

“Who is that?” Helena said.

“That’s Taylor Kelly.”

“We will be there in a few. Taylor will call to let Chris know we will be late to pick him up and to eat lunch there with the rest of the kids. We will make it up to him later.”

“Okay, I’ll order pizza. You guys want the normal?”

“Yes,” Eddie said.

Buck hung up and looked at Ramon and Helena. “What do you guys want on your pizza.”

“We don’t need to eat as we already ate. You need to feed Eddie better than a pizza.” Helena sniffed after she said it. She was looking around the room like she was trying to figure out something else to gripe about.

“Oh, wow. Really. Okay. Yeah, you need to just chill on that. We don’t need anyone to tell us anything about eating. We are adults, and Eddie and I have to make sure we can actually do our jobs, so while we have take-out, we eat a lot at home as well.” Buck sat down in one of the chairs and looked at the pair of Diazes, who looked like they didn’t like being where they were.

“You know nothing,” Helena said.

“No, you know nothing about us and our lives. So how about you don’t offer opinions where I don’t want them.”

“I don’t like how you speak to me.”

“Helena, he has a point. We ate pizza a lot when I was home because I liked it.”

“I knew what that pizza was. You know that Eddie doesn’t care about what is in it.”

“As long as it has the stuff he likes, Eddie really doesn’t care, but I do. We like the place we get pizza from a lot. Of course, the pepperoni is greasy and kind of perfect. Which is what kind I’m getting for us unless you both want cheese or something else.”

“We will be fine with pepperoni,” Ramon said. He ushered Helena to sit down on the couch.

Buck snagged the phone and slipped it into his pocket. He didn’t think that Eddie’s parents were going to do something nearly as stupid as trying to get into his phone, but he didn’t put it past them at all. He didn’t want to have too many chances for them to fuck things up.

“So you are the man my son now calls his best friend,” Ramon said.

“Yes, sir. Evan Buckley, but I go by Buck. My parents made me hate my first name, and it wasn’t until I had been given the name of Buck at the LAFD academy that I realized I hated it. So I took on the name of Buck, and I love it.”

“How did your parents make you hate your name?”

Helena huffed, but Ramon laid his hand on her knee, and she settled down.

“Well, I only ever heard it when they were upset at me. I was mostly invisible until I learned that hurting myself got attention from them. Then as I hit my teenage years, I noticed that it was the only time they interacted with me, and it wasn’t good, so I tried to just disappear.”

“I see. You have a sister, don’t you? The woman who had a violent ex-husband and who is now getting treatment for PPD?”

Buck was shocked a little bit that Eddie and Ramon were talking that much. “Yes.”

“And what kind of attention did she get?”

“A lot of it. She wasn’t invisible like I was. I don’t hate her for it. I’ve figured out what was going and while my parents tried a little with therapy to fix our relationship, I realized part of the way into it that I just don’t want it. I don’t want them in my life, so I told them that. They weren’t hurt, and things just stopped. It was like they were trying for Maddie and Jee-Yun’s benefit but realized they didn’t want me in their life either. So, I just settled in without them.”

“See Helena, I told you that you need to stop this. I am nearing retirement, and that means we can see the kids more, but Eddie will not like that if you are constantly telling him everything he did wrong.”

Helena looked away from Ramon. There really was something going on there.

Buck felt like he was missing a lot of things here. He knew that Ramon was winding down at work, training someone else to take care of the rigs he took care of and to make sure that everything was good by the time he left the company he worked for. The date of the retirement party was already written on the calendar for next year. Eddie already wasn’t looking forward to it.

“I had a scare at work a few weeks ago as I was distracted after talking to Eddie, and I realized that giving into my wife on what she wanted when it came to Chris could have made Eddie drop all contact with us. He talked about you a little when he was talking to me. Another instance where your parents proved that they were shitty parents. It reminded me that when Eddie was shot, Mama told us but also told us to stay here for a while. We did come up for a few days after he was home, but he had that woman Ana taking care of him. I asked where you were and got an answer from Ana that sounded like she was glad you weren’t taking care of him.”

“Ana’s long gone, and she won’t be back. She wasn’t a good fit for them and didn’t help Eddie so much as dictate to him what he would be doing on her terms. She was very upset that she wouldn’t be allowed to sleep in Eddie’s bed even though he had been shot and didn’t need to have someone in bed with him that would upset him. It was not a good time.”

“No, that’s also when your sister was ignoring you. Eddie called to talk to me about things, it was just a few days after my scare, and he wanted advice on how to help you. It made me happy he called me to get advice. He hadn’t done that in a long time. So I wanted to make sure that he got all of the advice he wanted. He texts me a little bit, but mostly he’s focused on the family he’s building here with you and Taylor.”

“That woman,” Helena said, but she stopped speaking when Ramon squeezed her knee again.

“There is nothing wrong with her, just like there was nothing with Shannon at the beginning. I’ve wondered if how I let you treat her and then started to treat her myself made her leave like she did.”

“She wasn’t good enough for him.”

“None of the people our children have dated have been good enough.”

Buck felt like he was not needed for this, so he focused on his phone and ordering the pizza to get it here as soon as possible. He debated how much to order, but cold pizza for breakfast sounded good, so he made sure to have enough for him and Eddie to have some if they wanted it. It also felt like a fuck you to Helena.

“Buck,” Ramon said.

Buck looked up at him and looked where Ramon was looking. It was a picture of the three of them all in a pile on the air mattress. Chris had taken it after one of the afternoons of watching something while Chris was at school. Carla had picked him up that day, and they had been taking a nap and hadn’t heard them come home.

“Yes, sir?”

“Please, Ramon. I know that you don’t know me well but…I’ve seen the look on my son’s face when he’s in love.”

“It’s hard to miss, Ramon. Why are you asking about it?”

“I feared for a long time that he was in love with you.”

Helena jerked a little, and Ramon wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him.

“I am not sure what answer you want there.”

“The truth,” Ramon said.

“Yes, I’m in love with him,” Eddie said.

Buck knew this wouldn’t go well, but at least he had no reason to fear what else might come at the hands of Ramon and Helena. They were the same kind of idiots Buck’s parents were.

“And Taylor?”

“Dad,” Eddie said.

“You make your choices, and I’ll support them from here out.”

Taylor entered the living room, looked at the empty chair, and then sat down in Buck’s lap.

“Taylor Kelly, this is Eddie’s parents, Ramon and Helena Diaz. Ramon, Helena, this is Eddie, and I’s girlfriend, Taylor.”

“You are not joking?” Helena asked. She looked like she was about to cross herself.

“No, we are not.” Eddie came in and sat down in the other chair. He looked at the picture of the three of them. “Chris took that picture. He found us here like this after school one day. He borrowed Carla’s phone and took the picture. I like it because it shows that none of us are ever seen as just the weakest. We take care of each other based on who needs it more at the moment, which that day was Buck.”

“You have thought this through?” Ramon asked.

“We have. All three of us. Buck and I have even discussed it with our therapists.”

“You are seeing a therapist?” Helena asked.

“Yes, I was shot in the middle of the street while doing my job by a sniper. I remember seeing Buck covered in blood and worried about him even though I was bleeding out. I gotta handle that, and it’s meshing all with Afghanistan in my head. I have to be the best father for Chris, and that means handling what I need so he sees that if he needs therapy again for any reason, he will accept it so he becomes the best human he can be. I’ll never feel ashamed for getting therapy.”

“No, you shouldn’t.” Ramon’s tone was one of acceptance more than anything else. “I have debated going into it myself for a lot of reasons. I don’t want to be the man I am, and I think I need to just accept that I need a little help reframing my thoughts. Adriana’s eldest is questioning, and I was so pissed off at first. Then I realized that the anger was out of fear and that I didn’t understand it. One of the guys I work with was forced into therapy, or his wife would divorce him after their son came out as pansexual, and it was therapy or divorce. Accept their son as he was or divorce.”

“It’s always good until it smacks you in the face.” Eddie’s tone matched his father’s.

“Yes. I kept my words to myself, but I think Adriana realized I wasn’t comfortable. She hasn’t talked to me as much. I don’t want to be that kind of man. I don’t want to make my children feel like they have to keep things from me or have my grandchildren hate me.”

“Ramon,” Helena said.

“No, you have been too invested in their lives, Helena, and seeing this right here tells me that. If we hadn’t come here because we worried that being shot and missing work was making Eddie’s life hard, we would never have been told. He’s moving in with Buck and Taylor. He didn’t even move in with Shannon fully until after they were married.”

“But…”

“No buts. I’m sorry to bother you all.”

“Dad, stay and eat a slice of pizza. Get to know Buck and Taylor.”

Buck swallowed because, out of all of their parents, Eddie’s parents were the only ones he could see a relationship with. Taylor’s mother was dead, father was in jail for a crime he might not have done. Buck’s parents were shitty and didn’t care about him. There was nothing there to salvage. But this with Helena and Ramon could be. If they were able to let go of their issues.

“Are you sure?” Ramon asked.

“Yes, Dad. Please stay, and we can talk. We’ll get Chris soon, and then we can spend the day. Maybe go out to eat for dinner together.”

“Okay.”

Chapter 10

Eddie tossed Buck’s phone on his chest, and only after a few seconds did he feel it vibrating. He hadn’t turned it off silent from work.

“Maddie!” Buck answered.

“You sound like you are in a good mood,” Maddie said.

“I am. I’m really good. How are you?”

“Well, I have a day and night pass. Chim and the Lees have Jee visiting some extended family Chim hasn’t seen in years as part of his therapy. So I’m at odds about what to do. Can I come to visit?”

“Of course!” Buck sat up on the couch and looked around. There were a few boxes still piled on the side of the room. He wasn’t worried about them, but it helped him remember if the bedroom was set up for guests. Carla had her own room, then Chris did, and then there was the suite that was Buck, Eddie, and Taylor’s room. As soon as Eddie saw the room, he wanted the house. Each bedroom was massive and had more than enough room for a bed big enough for all three of them. They had only bought one so far, and it was in Eddie’s room. Buck’s bed from the loft was in his room. Eddie’s bed was in Taylor’s room.

Then there was a little living room that connected all three rooms. There was just a single full bathroom in the bedrooms attached to Eddie’s room, but there was another full bathroom in the outer suite room, so it wasn’t too small. Buck and Taylor’s bedrooms had nice-sized half baths. The area had been set up since the owner before had family over a great deal. So the family shared that suite.

Chris had what had been the main bedroom before, with Carla getting the second biggest. Then the guest room. The house was massive, but they had gotten a damned good deal on it for the owners wanting to sell as soon as possible.

“The guest room is ready, and it has its own bathroom. I can get clothes if you need them.”

“No, I have clothes, Buck.” Maddie was laughing. She sounded happy and someone who was doing good.

“Okay, then come over whenever. We are waiting on you.” Buck got up and found Eddie in the kitchen with a towel over his shoulder as he worked on lunch. “If you hurry, there is soup and grilled cheese in your future.”

“It’s not cold enough for that.”

“It’s always time for soup and grilled cheese,” Buck said.

Eddie turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow, but Buck just waved at him to keep on cooking. Eddie stuck his tongue out at him and then turned back to keep on cooking.

“You used to hate it in the summer.”

“I was five,” Buck said. He popped out of the kitchen again and headed toward the front room. “How long is it going to take you to get here? You still have the address, right?”

“Yes. I have the address and can be there in half an hour. I’ll see you soon.”

“Bye, love you.”

Maddie hung up, so Buck headed back into the kitchen. He waited to see what Eddie was working on before he checked the tea in the fridge. There was more than enough for them to drink with lunch.

“Maddie joining us for lunch?”

“Yes. I didn’t even think to check if Chris would be all right with that.”

“He will be, and you know it. It’ll make you happy. That’s all that matters.”

“Yeah. I’ll text Taylor to make sure, just in case Maddie does stay the night. She’s got an overnight pass, and Jee’s out of town with the Lees and Chim to visit some extended family since I guess he’s not done it in a long time.”

“His family or the Lees’?” Eddie asked.

“Maddie didn’t offer that.”

“So, are you happy about her coming? Did you want me to take Chris somewhere while she’s here?”

“No, no. I want…I need the buffer, Eddie. She’s doing a lot better, but I have no clue how good she’s really doing. I don’t want to backslide into anything.”

“Well, if she’s here on time, she’ll get here just before the soup’s ready. I’m going to put the grilled cheese in the oven. What kind of cheese and bread for her?”

“White and American.”

“Well, I know what she is.”

“Ha, ha,” Buck said. He stepped up to Eddie and waited for him to grab the bread before he got close enough to where he could touch it. It was still so strange to touch Eddie. He loved it. “I want that same cheese you use on yours.”

“Okay. I’ll do that. I love oven-grilled cheese. It’s better than getting out the huge griddle and then cleaning it.”

Buck nodded. He had loved them like that as well. It was something Bobby did, and it was kind of wonderful when doing a lot of them for soup days.

Eddie stirred the soup again before putting the lid on it and turning the fire down just a little bit. He caught Buck’s wrist and used it to hold him in place as Eddie moved over to box Buck into the counter.

“Whatever you want, Buck. If she stays the night, she stays the night, but I want you to be happy. I don’t want you putting yourself into a position where you are upset just to make her happy.”

Buck nodded. He swallowed. The look on Eddie’s face said it all. He knew what he needed to do when it came to Maddie, yet he didn’t want to do it. It would hurt them both in many ways, but it was needed. Maddie might take it on, and she might not.

“This is the food place,” Chris said.

Buck laughed.

“We aren’t doing anything,” Eddie said. He pushed off the counter before turning around to look at Chris. “Hungry?”

“Yes. When is lunch?”

“About thirty minutes. Why don’t you and Buck find new books to order off your massive wishlist?”

“Fine,” Chris said. He made it sound like it was the worst thing in the world. He turned around to head into the living room.

“It’ll keep you from pacing the floor as well. Go. You’ll be fine, and I’m right here if you need me. I promise I’ll be on your side unless you are an asshole.”

“I know.” Buck kissed Eddie’s cheek before following Chris out of the room.

Time always moved faster when Buck was dealing with Chris and looking for books. Buck had just closed out the account after ordering another ten books for Chris when the knock came at the door.

“Who is that?” Chris asked.

“That’s Maddie. Stay here, please; maybe go ahead and play your Switch?”

“Is it bad?”

“No, she’s just coming for a visit. She’s staying the night as well.”

“Okay. That’ll be fun, won’t it?” Chris asked.

“Yes.” Buck pressed a kiss to Chris’ forehead and then finally got up. He rubbed his hands on his jeans and debated what to do when he opened the door.

Buck didn’t have a chance to decide because Maddie was right there, falling into his arms. He held on tight to Maddie and was super glad she had chosen to come over to see him today.

“Did you get bigger?”

“Something like that. You look wonderful.” Buck cupped Maddie’s cheeks. “You look so happy.”

“I am. I’ve been…I broke down a month ago when talking to my therapist. It’s why I went back to full-time there. There were a lot more issues from when I was younger than I thought, and I just…it’s a whole big thing that we can talk about later today. So soup and grilled cheese, in the middle of summer.”

“Hi, Maddie!” Chris yelled from the living room.

Buck shook his head as Maddie’s face lit up. She walked around him to head to the living room. Chris was playing a Mario game, but Buck couldn’t tell which one it was off the top of his head. It kind of looked like something from when Buck was younger, but he couldn’t be sure. He didn’t play games too much growing up.

Maddie didn’t spend long with Chris before she headed into the dining room area. A high chair in the corner attracted her attention. She walked over and touched it. “She’s getting big, and I hate missing every single minute of it, but after our childhood and how Mom treated you, especially after Daniel died, I have to get better for her.”

“You will get better for her.”

“The thyroid issue is under control, and no one quite understands how it was missed at all since it’s something that is checked a great deal. It’s like you and the blood thinners after your leg. It was a horrible collection of errors that led to the worst possible outcome when it came to living. I have coping mechanisms that will help me with anything that comes our way. I’ve not heard from our parents. I know you don’t care if you ever do it again. I never understood that. Then in therapy, I listened to this woman talking about how her parents only ever loved her brother because he was a man. I was sitting there thinking she needed just to cut out her parents and shouldn’t care about them.”

“And it hit you?”

“Yes. It did. It clicked for the first time how you can just not worry about them. You had no contact until I forced that contact, and I don’t think I ever really apologized about that. I’m sorry, Buck.”

“You haven’t called me Evan once.”

“I know I made a huge thing about the Evan vs. Buck thing, but I also understand that a little more now. You’ll always be Evan, but I can respect you and call you the name you want to be called. It’s not really a matter of what I want. In that case, it’s what you want. I know I stomp on your boundaries a lot because they are ones I don’t want between us, but I’m the one that was looking at them like a punishment instead of you making a choice for yourself.”

“Sounds like therapy went really well.”

“It did. It went really well. I’ve learned a great deal about myself, for good and bad. I have better coping methods and have learned a few things about what I want out of my life beyond being a wonderful mother to Jee-Yun.”

“That’s good. Let’s see if Eddie needs any help. His luck is all food is done at the same time and then having to focus on one thing and burning something else.”

“I heard that,” Eddie said.

“Well, it’s not like I whispered it.” Buck went to the stove to see Eddie was handling the soup and that the grilled cheese needed to come out.

Eddie stepped out of the way but stayed stirring the soup. Buck set the food in the area, cleared the back burners on the stove, and turned off the oven. Eddie waved toward the knob for the burner, so he turned that off as well. Eddie kept on stirring for a few more seconds.

“Call Chris?”

“Sure. I’ll wash my hands and get the bowls down.”

“I’ll get Chris, and he can show me where we can wash our hands.” Maddie turned and left the kitchen, collecting Chris on her way and letting Chris tell her where the bathroom was for them to use.

“She seems good,” Eddie said.

“She does. She looks happier than I’ve ever seen her. That sadness is there that’s been there since we were kids, but it’s less.”

“Daniel.”

“Yes, I think so. I’m glad she’s finally getting help on that front. I can’t talk about him, and she’s told me about him, but it’s nothing that I can help her process. I thought at first that talking about it would help, but she needed more. I hate that I couldn’t help her.”

“You did, Buck. You did help her. You are the reason she’s getting the help she is getting. You are the reason she didn’t run like you said she does. She didn’t just up and leave her kid. You know what Chim would have done in that case. How crazy he would have gone. Who knows what he would have ended up actually doing. He might have packed up everything and just went after her.”

Buck nodded. He listened to Maddie and Chris chatting in the hallway bathroom. It was a half bath that was pretty much just good to be used as a place to wash hands for Buck and Eddie. It wasn’t made for guys like them.

“It’s good.”

“Yeah, it is,” Buck said. He pressed his forehead to Eddie’s and held on for a few seconds.

—

“You are keeping something from me,” Maddie said.

“I keep a lot of things from you,” Buck answered.

Eddie tried not to snort into his beer, but he only marginally succeeded on that. He wasn’t sure what the look Buck gave him was.

“Okay, that’s the truth, but I mean something I think you should tell me. You said the adult bedrooms were down a hall, and there was a wave toward a door, but then you didn’t let me go down there. Are there bedrooms or just a single bedroom?”

Eddie wondered if the grand tour was going to end like that. The tour had happened after lunch and before they had settled in to watch a movie with Chris when he wanted to kind of relax a little bit. He hadn’t been too upset by Buck and Maddie wanting adult time now. Eddie was there because Buck had looked at him with pleading eyes.

“There are three beds back there.”

“Three? I wasn’t expecting that. Why three?”

“So we can all have a bed? Taylor and I are really strong, but while we have all moved in together doesn’t mean she and I want to share a bed every single night.”

“Wait, Taylor lives here too? I just…” Maddie looked at Eddie, her eyes darting to his shoulder. “I assumed this was some freakout from Eddie getting shot. I think that I missed more than a few things you have skipped on this.”

“Oh yes, there is,” Eddie said. He tipped his beer bottle up and took another drink.

Buck was still just rolling his bottle between his hands. He turned and glared at Eddie. Eddie shrugged at him. Buck sighed before he turned back to look at Maddie.

“So you and Eddie are not together?”

“All three of us are.”

That seemed to break Maddie’s brain. She just stared at Buck, her lips parting and closing like she was trying to figure out what to say.

This was the biggest hump for them to make it through. Chim would never keep this from Maddie, so they decided not to tell the rest of the 118 at that party in the end. Makepeace wasn’t that kind of gossip, so it was pretty simple to keep it under wraps. After Maddie, they would have to tell everyone. Taylor’s work all knew she was dating two men. According to her, no one seemed to care too much about it, so it wasn’t like they were all that worried.

The 118 was going to be another issue.

“I’m trying to wrap my head around this. How did this happen?”

“Well, it’s not like an accident or that it was some big freak thing. I was staying here to help Eddie after Ana left. Then there was Taylor, who was staying a lot as well to be with me. It was a godsend, really, for the days I worked. We all just kind of grew together and figured that if we wanted it, we should try for it. I’ve wanted Eddie for a long time. I didn’t want to just lose him, and then there was Taylor, who thought she wanted him as well.”

“She took a big risk,” Eddie said.

“A big risk?” Maddie questioned.

“Well, it’s not like Buck, and I were going to fully end things once we were together. If anyone was going to lose and lose it all, it would be her. She knew she was risking the most for the biggest reward.”

Maddie nodded.

“So you all have bedrooms, and sometimes you share?”

“Well, we are still taking things very, very slowly. I mean, Taylor and I are moving along pretty well; Eddie and I are faster than pretty much anything else cause there is that huge foundation that was easy to twist from friends to more. Eddie and Taylor are going slow, but the three of us together? We are going the slowest. Feeling things out and seeing how it works.”

“And what does Chris think?”

“After having a meltdown about me dating again after Ana left, Chris took it well. I think that all of us living together made things much easier.”

“I was shocked when I pulled up. This place is great. I know Buck said a good deal was gotten on it, and it was just this side of his price range, but I wasn’t sure how with everything. Now I see why.”

“We have a contract when it comes to that. I was convinced to pay the least amount just because of Chris; I’m still paying less than I had been for the house and utilities. We have a joint account linked to all of us to drop the money in every paycheck type thing. All house bills come out of it, even the food. We each have a card linked to that account to buy groceries or other household needs as needed. Taylor is the best with money, and she makes sure that we have a good nest egg in there and adds in a little more each month. Just for big expenses. The house was recently updated even beyond the whole suite we live in.”

“Suite?” Maddie questioned, interrupting Eddie.

“Yeah, it was the guest suite; it’s set up more like a hotel suite than a normal guest area. It’s why it works well for us. We have a place where we can sleep how we want.”

Buck took over talking about the bedroom and that she wasn’t getting a tour. It was their space, and Eddie liked that. They had already agreed that no one would get a tour of the rooms beyond to peek into the main sitting area.

Eddie took Buck’s beer bottle from his hand when he finished it. He headed to the kitchen to get them something else to drink and just left Buck to talk with Maddie on his own for a few minutes.

There wasn’t much to do for dinner since Taylor was bringing it home with her, and the pasta salad was already in the fridge since Buck had made it that morning. Chris had fun with Maddie during lunch and then went to his room to play.

While in the kitchen, Eddie started to get the spice rub together for the burgers. He knew that Buck’s obsession with using fresh ground beef for the burgers was going to be something Chris attached himself to, and the grill was already cleaned and prepped. There were a few things he could work on to keep himself busy and out of the hair of Buck and Maddie. Once Taylor was home, things would be different, and all three of them could hang out, Maddie seeing how they were with each other so that she wouldn’t freak out about them being together. Right now, it was time for her and Buck to get to know each other.

Neither of the Buckley siblings was the same anymore. Buck had seen his world shaped by the whole Eddie getting shot thing. He had done something so stupid that Eddie had thought he was trying to kill himself.

Eddie inhaled and exhaled. Despite everything, he was still finding that he hadn’t let it go. He hadn’t gotten that fear out of his head about someone coming to the hospital and telling him that Buck was dead. It was that moment that set Eddie on the path he was on. Buck and Taylor had been so new that Eddie breaking up with Ana would have turned into Eddie asking Buck out, and then Taylor wouldn’t be here.

There was something about Taylor, though, that gave them balance. He wasn’t sure what the balance was because it wasn’t her feminine wiles, as Makepeace had put it one day. It was something about her that smoothed the rough edges that were the way Eddie and Buck interacted. It was her bridging the gap between friends that they were and into something more.

“Dad?” Chris asked.

Eddie looked to the side to see Chris standing there with no crutches. Just like the old house, Eddie had made sure this one was set up so that Chris could move around his world without them if he wanted.

“Hey, what did you need?”

“I wanted to ask about Taylor.”

“Okay. Why don’t we go to your room to talk about this? Just in case Buck or Maddie come to get a drink. I’m going to drop them off to them, just to be safe.”

“Okay. I’ll meet you in my room.”

Eddie didn’t linger long. A kiss on Buck’s forehead when he dropped the drink as Buck talked about the last rescue he went on with Makepeace.

Chris was sitting on his bed, a stuffed shark in his lap.

“So you wanna talk about Taylor. Did something happen?”

“No. No. You are Dad. Buck’s Bucky. Will Taylor make me call her mom?”

“No, sweetie. She never will. She’s not that kind of woman, but she’s also not interested in something you don’t want. If all you ever call her is Taylor, she’ll be fine with that. I promise.” Eddie sat down beside Chris and rubbed his hand over Chris’ head.

“Are you sure?”

“Do you want me to talk to her about it?”

“Don’t tell her, I asked.”

“No, never, mijo. Buck’s never going to ask to be called anything other than Buck, and you know that. He likes it when you call him Bucky. To him, it’s a name that no one else calls him.”

“I remember how he glared at Hen when she called him that once.”

“It’s the way things are. I’ll talk to her about it and make sure that nothing ever happens that you don’t want. I will always fight for you.”

“I know you will. Abuela and Grandma are weird.”

“It’s strange for them right now as they adjust to a way of looking at the world that had vastly changed from how it was when they were younger. It’s a brave new world that they are living in, even without me dating two people at the same time, one of which is a man.”

“Love is love.”

Eddie kissed Chris’ forehead, and he nodded. It was the truth, but there were a lot of people who didn’t think that it was when it came to love that it wasn’t exactly what they thought it could be.

“Carla told me that there was a time when Abuelo and Grandma wouldn’t have been able to marry. Or you and Mom.”

“It would have been frowned upon, and there are still places here in the US where it is. It affected people like Bobby and Athena more than it affected others. There were people who passed and those who didn’t. Think about some of your cousins and how they look more like you than they do Abuelo or Abuelita.”

Chris nodded his head.

“It’s something to talk about, and I do want to talk about it, but I think you need to settle down a little. Your leg is bouncing.”

“I love Taylor and don’t want her to leave just because I don’t want to call her Mom.”

“She won’t. No one should ever have to call someone something they don’t want to unless the name hurts. It’s like Buck. Maddie has issues calling him Buck because she knows him as Evan, but there are times that Evan hurts Buck. So they are working on that.”

“You call him Evan.”

“I do sometimes. When he’s being a pill. I never push it, though, Chris. I use it when I need him to pay attention to me. Maddie has an issue being attached to their parents and when his name was used against him. It reminds him when Maddie calls him Evan in a certain tone, and it’s not the same when it’s Buck.”

“Does family always hurt?” Chris asked.

“Oh, mijo. No.” Eddie pulled Chris into a hug, and he held on. “Family doesn’t always hurt. It’s just that family can sometimes hurt more than anything else in the world. I loved your mother, but she had demons that were something even her family couldn’t fix. It’s the way it is for people sometimes.”

“We can’t pick our blood family, but we can pick the family we choose, and we choose Buck and Taylor.”

“Yes.” Eddie held Chris for a few more minutes before he got up. He needed to at least pick out the potatoes they would make with the burgers. Buck wanted them baked on the grill, but Eddie thought cutup ones with random other veggies might be best for them. He wasn’t sure they had enough potatoes for all of them.

“I’m good, Dad. You can go back to cooking.”

Eddie laughed. He checked on Buck and Maddie, who looked like they were just on the other side of a massive fight. He was glad Chris hadn’t heard that. There were moments when Chris tried to protect people a little too much. He defended his friends with a zealousness that Eddie was happy about, but he was still a little too small to do much of anything other than words. Maddie and Buck didn’t need anyone stepping between them. No, they were going to work on things in the best way for themselves. It would only get better if they wanted it to.

—

Taylor grabbed her backpack before snagging the bag from the meat market. She hadn’t even blinked at the price. Buck liked this meal so rarely that she had never eaten it with him before. Eddie and Chris had. She was looking forward to the special burgers and potatoes; even if Eddie had texted her, he had changed what he was doing with the potatoes with the addition of Maddie to the group. It hadn’t been the worst thing in the world, Maddie stopping by. In fact, it might be a really good thing.

Despite everything, they still paid the rent to Eddie’s place. Or Buck was. After dinner, hopefully, Buck was willing to show Maddie the place. Not a lot needed to be done to the place, and Taylor agreed that it was the kind of place Maddie would be happy with Jee in.

The door opened, and Buck was reaching out for the food bag. Taylor handed it over, then slipped off her backpack when Buck held out his other hand. He was sweet, and Taylor repaid him with a kiss on his cheek.

Chris and Maddie were in the living room watching some movie on the TV. Taylor raised an eyebrow. Buck just gave her a smile.

Buck headed to the kitchen, where Eddie was shaking a bottle of spices over the massive thing of tinfoil he was standing in front of. Taylor headed over to where he was and looked over his shoulder. There were a lot of potatoes in there, along with some peppers, onion, and even brussel sprouts.

“You are lucky that I like those things.”

“I know you like Buck’s, and that’s all that matters. I found them in the fridge, and they were starting to turn, so I thought they would be great to use. So how was work?”

“Good. I hated parts of it, but we went through another of the seminars from HR about sexual harassment. I am unsure what happened to make it happen, but no one is happy. Normally, I would be all over the gossip, but I think this was a little deeper on the issues. Like lawsuit.”

“Well, that sucks. You think that things will be better after this?”

“No clue. Some men will never learn that no means no and that they can’t just touch when they want.”

“Some people deserve their hands to be taken off for touching things that aren’t theirs.”

“If you listen to Bobby, sleeping around with consenting adults is not something a man should do to show women that we work with that we respect them. I still haven’t figured that one out. It’s the only part of that first year here that I still haven’t understood that.”

“Buck, you respected the women you slept with and were open with them; it’s just something Bobby was trying to push on you to have you think you were worthless for wanting to sleep around.”

Taylor kind of wanted to know more about that one, but she wasn’t going to touch it at the moment. If a man told her he respected her by not sleeping with her when she wanted to be slept with, she would probably crack him across the cheek. Sex was sex, and she loved it. A man wasn’t respecting her if he was making the decision for her if she was allowed to have sex or not. She could see Bobby saying something like it as well.

Eddie and Buck said a few more things too low for Taylor to hear, but that was okay. Eddie knew more about how to handle Buck when he was upset like this. It had to do with Maddie more than Buck. Taylor was learning about it, and she was happy to learn all she could from him when it came to handling Buck.

“Maddie’s going to move into Eddie’s. She wanted to go for a drive, so we went over there. She really likes it, and Eddie called the landlord, and we are just under the wire on getting someone in there without having to do too much when it comes to first and last.”

“That’s good. I am glad she was able to go and see it. How quick can she move in?”

“As soon as possible. A lot of her stuff from her place went into storage since Chim’s place was fully furnished, and it was easy to just move her stuff into storage instead of picking and choosing. So she should have enough stuff to get them going. I am not sure about Chim’s reaction to it, but I honestly don’t care.”

Taylor nodded. She knew that Chim’s inability to handle how things went with Maddie made Buck unwilling to be nice to him. Buck laid nearly everything that went wrong and what almost went horribly wrong with Maddie at his feet. While Chim was getting help, he wasn’t getting all of the help Buck thought he needed. He was treating the surface stuff and not all of his serious issues.

Buck and Eddie talked about what Hen talked about when it came to Chim’s therapy. It wasn’t exactly known how much Hen should be saying where Buck could hear, but Buck wasn’t going to run when Chim came up. Hen was allowed her friend as long as she didn’t push Chim’s wants over Buck’s boundaries.

“So, is dinner going to be a minefield?”

“No,” Eddie said. He looked at Buck. “It’s going to be great. Chris and Maddie are having fun, and I think her time with him is good. It reminds her that there is more out there and that even this time away from Jee will not tarnish Jee’s memory of her. Chris put her in tears already once over that.”

“I’m sorry I missed that.”

“Buck was bawling. I was crying. We were all a lot snotty at the end. So I’ll get the burgers going. Buck, stir the pasta salad, and then go and rescue your sister from our son.”

Taylor waited for it, but Buck didn’t react to the ‘our son’ part. He went about what he was going for a few more seconds before he stopped, but by then, Eddie was out the door.

Buck looked at Taylor, and all she could do was smile.

Chapter 11

The restaurant was full of various people on dates. Taylor only cared because a few of them were looking at them. Taylor just smiled at them to make sure they knew they were being caught looking at them. Eddie and Buck were discussing something about a new rule at work, and Taylor was having fun listening to them discuss it in vague terms.

“Oh,” Taylor said as she caught the eye of a pair who were on the far side of the room and headed toward them. She tapped Eddie’s shoulder since he was the one closest to her.

Eddie looked up at her, and when she nodded toward the pair, he looked that way as well. There was no mistaking that they were there on a date. Especially since Taylor had arrived late and had kissed both of them on the lips when she arrived. Eddie had even pulled out her chair for her.

“Bobby, Athena,” Eddie said.

Buck’s head shot up from where he had been looking at his phone and the email they had both gotten that day. Buck looked like a deer in the headlights.

“Eddie, Buck, and Miss Kelly,” Athena said. She raised her eyebrow like she was expecting them to start spilling the beans.

“Did you have a good dinner?”

Taylor picked up her wine to cover the snort she wanted to let out at Eddie’s question.

“It was wonderful. You haven’t gotten yours yet.”

“No, we just ordered. Appetizer first.” Buck closed the email and laid his phone down to look fully at Bobby and Athena. There was no rush to cover up what they were doing. There was no rush to make sure they understood. Buck was standing his ground on what they were doing, which was nice.

Athena raised her eyebrow, but she had a smile on her face. She laid a hand on Buck’s shoulder. “Well, we expect all three of you for the next dinner.”

“Of course,” Eddie said.

Bobby was just staring at Eddie and then would dart his eyes to Taylor. He looked like he was trying to figure out what to say and was at a loss for words. Without Buck stumbling over, trying to prove he knew what he was doing, Bobby had nothing to latch onto.

“Let’s go home, Bobby,” Athena said before she slipped her hand through his arm. Once she was sure he heard her, she tugged on his arm.

The table was silent until Bobby and Athena were out of the restaurant.

“You didn’t tell us that Bobby and Athena like to go here,” Eddie said.

“I didn’t know! Makepeace took his wife here, and they loved it. He is the one that told me all about it! I didn’t know he told Bobby as well.” Buck picked up his wine and drained it before he reached for the bottle to refill it. He at least didn’t drink any of that.

The waitress brought their appetizer while Taylor was still trying to figure out what to say. She wasn’t sure how Bobby was going to take it. His old-fashioned way and his religion were the biggest stumbling block on something like this.

“It’ll be fine,” Buck said.

“Are you sure?” Eddie asked.

“He cannot do anything. He’s still on thin ice from things, and doing something about this would smack of bigotry, and then he would be in really hot water. We are not the only triad in the LAFD. Now in that triad, all three are in the same house, but it’s nothing big. He cannot let his personal beliefs impact this in any fashion. The 118 has already had a lot of issues with it.”

“I think that it’s going to take a while before the 118 gets away with any kind of bigotry or just flat-out assholery against any members of the LAFD,” Eddie said.

Taylor hummed in agreement. She had learned a lot about what had happened before Bobby took over and how much the station had been through. She hadn’t said much about what it made her think of Chim and his treating someone he didn’t like as lesser than him after what he had gone through. That was why she hoped that Chim got the help he needed to put it all to rest. He needed help to process everything and figure out why he hated Buck despite Buck having never done anything to him personally.

“He’ll probably pull Eddie and me into his office in the morning to talk about this, which is fine with me. I would rather that than him talking to us in front of everyone.”

“Do you want me to go in with you?” Taylor asked. She picked up one of the puffs that Buck had wanted to try when it came to food. The tasting platter of food items from the appetizer menu was the perfect way for them to figure out what they liked.

“I have no clue,” Buck said. He picked up a puff as well and popped it into his mouth.

“Think about it. I can be late. It’s not like I’m doing traffic anymore and need to be in the sky for the morning commute. I have time in the field to do a couple of puff pieces that will go into filler space over the next week, but nothing too big tomorrow. Carla and Chris are going out to lunch with me tomorrow as well. There is a great new little place near work that I want to try, and Chris wants to try as well.”

“That kid will try anything, and I’m happy about that. What is this place?”

“Oh, street tacos. He said he hates trying those places with you first since you hate all of them.”

“I don’t hate them all. I just like the stuff we make at home better. He likes trying them. There was a place in El Paso that had this recipe that we could never figure out what was on the filling as far as spices go. He keeps on trying to find a place that has shredded pork like it. So be prepared to be talked into all forms of pork.”

“Oh, we already looked at the menu and made the choices of what we are ordering. Thankfully it’s one of the places where you make up a trio of tacos on your own. You don’t have to get three of the same. He gets to try all three versions of pork on his own. Which I’m glad I know that since I thought it was strange he wanted just pork, but I didn’t question it.”

The conversation moved away from food and back to the 118, with Taylor listening as Buck and Eddie discussed what would happen when the bulk of the people they worked with found out.

When dinner was wrapping up, and there were leftovers to take home for snacks at some point since there wasn’t enough left for a second meal for any of them, Buck picked up his phone and raised his eyes.

“What?” Eddie asked.

“Hen and Chim have texted me. Chim’s back at work tomorrow, and Hen’s asking about my date with you and Taylor. I would assume that everyone knows.” Buck tapped a few other things, and he scowled before swiping something away and locking his phone again.

Taylor cuddled into him a little and held on as he sighed.

“He is not happy about it?”

“He’s demanding to know why I haven’t told Maddie about dating two people at the same time. So that tells me that he didn’t even talk to Maddie first before accusing me of that. I’ll handle that tomorrow. He’s not going to be able to keep his mouth shut about it. That’s tomorrow’s problem. Let’s get home and tuck Chris in after he wakes up when we get home because that kid always knows. Then we can go to bed ourselves.”

Taylor nodded in agreement to Eddie’s words, and she stood up first. The check had already been paid. The bottle of wine they shared had not been anywhere near enough to make any of them feel like they were even slightly buzzed.

Tomorrow seemed like it would be a cluster fuck for the two of them. It was Eddie’s first shift back as well, and it was part of why they had gone out to eat. It was a celebration. The 118 celebrations had been days before after Eddie had passed recertification. The last two months had been full of so much stuff that it seemed like time had sped up.

Taylor was just happy things were getting back to normal so they could figure everything out with them.

—

Eddie parked the truck and looked at Buck, who didn’t seem nearly as nervous as Eddie thought he would be. He thought that his leg would be shaking at this point in time. Yet, he was calm and collected.

“Ready?” Eddie asked.

“Yes. I am. I am ready to get everything out in the open. It’s not like we were really hiding it. We were embarking on something and didn’t want the world in it. I will not let him make me feel ashamed for it.”

“Good. Good. Then let’s go. Thanks for taking my stuff in the other day, so I didn’t have to worry about that on top of everything else.” Eddie shut off the truck finally, and he slung his bag over his shoulder before heading out. He turned back when he thought Buck hadn’t gotten out, but instead, Buck was already around the truck. They must have shut the doors at the same time.

Buck had already filed the paperwork needed with HR about his and Eddie’s relationship. It was something that made it all easier in the end. Bobby would end up with the paperwork at some point today. They had planned on telling everyone before the shift started, and Bobby got it, but it seemed Chim had already said something because a few people were looking at them.

Hen was right there, front and center. She smiled at them.

“Congratulations on finally getting together. Athena texted me, and I texted Chim before I thought second about it. It’s now spread everywhere. I’m sorry. Athena said she would come by and apologize when she got a chance today.”

“It’s fine,” Buck said. He opened his arms for a hug from her.

Eddie knew that Buck would forgive, and Eddie wasn’t even angry with Hen or Athena over it all.

“I still can’t believe you would not tell your sister,” Chim said.

“Well, you can believe what you want,” Eddie said. He didn’t hide the attitude in it. Hen was there so she could help them keep a civil tone as needed.

Chim’s head spun to look at Eddie. “I was not expecting that from you.”

“You just made a wild-assed assumption about something. That Buck would keep this from his sister and lie to her about it.”

“I never said he would lie.”

“Ah, so you spoke out of a place of ignorance. Okay. Have you talked to Maddie at all about this?”

“No, I was going to tell her today. She had Jee last night, and I didn’t want to interrupt her time with her. I knew she had moved into your place, but I also knew you had moved into a bigger place.”

Eddie rolled his eyes at that. At least Hen hadn’t talked out of turn about Buck and Taylor moving in with him. Or whatever she had been told about all of it.

“Why are you angry?” Chim asked.

‘I’m angry at you for being like this. It’s like your time away didn’t teach you a damned thing. You came in here and assumed Buck hadn’t told his sister. He did as soon as she came for a visit. He didn’t want her to just sit and think about it when she couldn’t see how we were together. She’s been over for dinner twice since we all moved in together.”

“I’m not the one that lies to my sister,” Buck said.

“Okay, why don’t we move this from the front before we get a whole group of bystanders taking pictures. Eddie and Buck, congratulations on it. We’ve already had the welcome back party, but lunch is being catered in from the place you really like, Eddie, and dinner is Chim’s favorite place.” Bobby ushered them all inside; most of the on-shift team scattered to the wind while Buck and Eddie headed to get changed. The rest of A-Shift was still trickling in since it was another twenty minutes before they had to be there.

Makepeace stayed at the door to the locker room and stood there, eyeing anyone who got too close. Eddie laughed about it and was pretty happy that someone was taking it seriously.

“Who knew you would come with such drama, Buck,” Makepeace said when Buck and Eddie were dressed for the shift.

“Where is Chim?” Buck asked.

“Up in the loft with Hen and Bobby. They were doing one of those staring contests the last I heard. Want a backup?”

“Nope, got all I need right here,” Buck clasped Eddie on the shoulder and headed up the stairs to see what kind of shit was going to be heaped on him.

“I don’t care! He doesn’t respect anyone, and I have seniority, Bobby. I want him gone.”

“Well, based on time in service, you do, but he’s our biggest asset regarding rescues. We would have to be downgraded if I got rid of him and could not replace Eddie with someone just like them.”

“Why would Eddie go?”

Eddie rolled his eyes.

“Because since the moment he got into the ambulance with me to take a grenade out of a guy’s leg, it’s been him and I. Where he goes, I go. If Bobby got rid of him, I would just be following along behind him. But honestly, you are the one with an issue, not Buck. Why should he get punished for an issue you have when he’s done nothing wrong.”

“Maddie’s refusing to get back together with me until I get more help. I don’t need more help. Buck and his whole everyone needs therapy approach has turned Maddie against me, and it’s his fault.”

“No, I didn’t. You did that when you put what Maddie needed below her happiness. Honestly, if Maddie’s happiness was your actual goal, you would have helped her more than just telling her she’s a great mom without making sure she had what was needed. You are the one that missed that in everything going on; she wasn’t actually checked for anything wrong beyond PPD.”

“You isolated both yourself and Maddie in the time when it was needed for more. She wanted it, but you never questioned it. You didn’t realize that both of you were making choices that were making everything worse because you were so entrenched in what Maddie thought she needed that you never questioned.” Eddie stepped up to stand a little in front of Buck when Chim glared at Buck for what he said.

“You’ve told her to keep secrets from me.”

“What does anything to do with my life have to do with yours? I’m allowed to tell Maddie she’s not allowed to talk about my life with you. That’s not keeping a secret; that’s doing what is asked. It’s not like any of it directly affects you.”

“Maddie ‘s life does have a bearing on me.”

“When it comes to Jee, yes, but not what Maddie and my life do together. By that process, why doesn’t Maddie know everything that is going on in Albert’s life? I mean, if you and Maddie having a kid together means that my life affects yours, and Albert’s affects Maddie’s. It’s twisted logic, to be sure, but hey, it is what it is.”

“Maddie’s happiness is all that matters!” Chim yelled.

“Chim, calm down,” Hen said.

“No, I’m tired of him making this all about him. He needs to grow up. He’s throwing a fit and is now trying to turn Eddie against me!”

“Chim, I am always going to side with Buck on this kind of thing. He’s not in the wrong. His life is his life, and Maddie knows as much as he wants to tell her, and anything else is just stuff she doesn’t need to know. Going by the logic you were spouting, even if Buck was in the hospital, she wouldn’t have the right to know.”

“Of course, she has the right to know.”

“Then what about Maddie’s treatment for PPD? How come she didn’t tell Buck about that? If Maddie gets to know all of his medical stuff, she has to tell Buck all of hers.”

Chim looked like he was about to say something but then thought better of it and stopped. He looked around and saw the way that most of the people were looking at him. Chim swallowed, spun on his heel, and left. Eddie looked at Buck, who was just shaking his head.

“You okay?” Hen asked.

“I’m fine. He can think what he wants, but I just don’t know what I will do about it. Maddie will have to make her own choice about it, and then I’ll follow her lead. I will do what she wants. She has a bigger connection to him than I ever will.”

Eddie wasn’t sure it was the best option, but it wasn’t the worst either. It might even end up being the best because Eddie wasn’t sure that things would ever go back to normal for them all. There was too much between them all. There were moments when Eddie thought about talking Buck into leaving just because being apart from the 118 might be the best for them all in the end.

Of course, Buck would be hard to convince to go anywhere, but in the end, if it meant that Buck could be happy, Eddie wasn’t sure Buck would say no if Eddie laid it all out.

“How are you feeling?” Hen asked, looking at Eddie.

“Oh, I’m happy to be back. It’s good to be back. I was worried about my shoulder, but we got it back where it needed to be. My therapist is happy as well.”

“Well, you are back at work and fit,” Hen said.

“No, sorry. My mental therapist, not my physical therapist. The whole deal around a lot of this shit broke open a few things I thought I had shoved down and weren’t an issue. I was lucky that it didn’t hurt anyone in my life.”

“I thought you hated therapy?” Bobby asked.

“I did but mainly because of who I was talking to. Frank was good enough, but he wasn’t who I needed. I needed to embrace something else. Buck found me someone who works well with me. It’s kind of nice.”

“You’ve changed, and I don’t think it’s all the therapy,” Hen said.

Eddie shrugged. He didn’t feel like he had changed that much, but he could very well have. He hadn’t been around those at the 118 all that much over the last while, so there might have been a lot of small changes to him, but he seemed bigger when not around someone all of the time.

“So, let’s get this show on the road!” Buck called out before he headed over to where the assignments were for the shift. “You are with me!”

Eddie looked at Bobby.

“I figured that you would like a little comfort, so I gave you all of the tasks that need more than one person. I thought it might also save you from being bombarded by many well-wishers. We know Buck can run them off like the best of them.”

—

Buck groaned and rolled to his side, drawing the blankets up with him. He was going to kill Hen and Karen. The small dinner party Hen had put on for Eddie coming back to work had been fun, but he had drunk too much. Eddie had driven so that Taylor and Buck could drink. Eddie still hadn’t picked up drinking too much yet. A beer here and there was fine, but not the strong stuff.

The bed was empty, so Taylor had slipped off somewhere else. Buck wasn’t upset by that. He didn’t know what Taylor was doing, but given that school was starting soon, there was no way that Chris was out of bed yet, given the time. Buck rolled to his back before rolling in the other direction to double-check the time. He was right that it was too early for Chris. He wasn’t sure what the boy would do when school started, but he knew Eddie would be working on pulling Chris back in on his sleep time.

Buck dropped the phone down to the bed and sighed. It was warm in the bed, and he loved it. He really didn’t want to get up. He had drunk enough water while drinking that he didn’t have a hangover or anything like it. He just knew he had drunk too much the night before. There wasn’t anything to do about it. Wrapping his arm around the pillow in the bed, Buck closed his eyes. He was going to sleep a little longer.

A few minutes later, there was the soft click of the door opening and then shutting, then the louder sound of the lock being thrown. Buck wasn’t sure who had slipped into his room, but since there was no speaking, he figured that whoever it was wanted it to be a surprise as long as possible. So Buck just stayed like he was with his back to the door and his eyes closed.

The bed dipped, and there was a brief bit of cold as his partner slipped into bed with him. It took only the first touch of a hand on skin for Buck to know it was Eddie.

“Morning,” Buck croaked a few seconds later. He laughed and swallowed to get a little more moisture in his mouth.

“Good morning. Taylor is in the kitchen, getting ready to head to work. She said I should join you in bed, and both of us nap a little longer.” Eddie pressed to Bucks’ back and slung his arm over Buck’s stomach.

“I hate when she works the weekend, but I get it. We work weekends as well. How are you feeling?”

“I feel fine. I didn’t drink, unlike two other people I know. I made Taylor oatmeal. She was happy with it.”

“Good.” Buck closed his eyes again, and he was slowly drifting off to sleep when he realized that while Eddie talked about getting a nap in, he didn’t think it was part of the plan anymore.

Eddie was rubbing his fingers across Buck’s belly. It was slow and felt good, but Buck knew there was something else there.

“Do you want to sleep?”

“Eh,” Buck said. He wasn’t sure what he wanted, but this felt damned good so far. He groaned and tipped his face into the pillow when Eddie’s trailing fingers turned into light scratches with his nails. “More.”

“Okay.” Eddie pressed a kiss to Buck’s shoulder, and then he scraped his teeth over the spot as well, sending a shudder through Buck’s body. It felt too damned good.

Buck wasn’t sure what was on Eddie’s plan, but he was up for anything Eddie wanted.

“How are you feeling?” Eddie asked.

“Fine. Just tired from last night, not hungover.”

“Good.” Eddie’s hand drifted a little lower. “I’ve thought about this a lot, you know.”

“Which part?”

“Jerking you off. All of it, really, but mostly this right here.” Eddie’s fingers teased under Buck’s boxers.

It felt good. Eddie’s hand was sure on Buck’s skin. There was no hesitation about what he was doing at all. It felt like something kind of perfect. He loved it and wanted to keep on feeling it. Buck moaned when Eddie’s hand finally closed around his cock.

“Lube?” Eddie asked, his hand just staying wrapped around Buck’s cock.

“Bathroom.”

“Why is it in there?”

“New tube and used up the last with Taylor a few days ago.”

“Oh, I see. Do you use it often with her?” Eddie asked.

“Not too much. She’s very wet and loves going down no me even when she’s not up for full-on sex. I usually finger her to orgasm after that.”

“Hmm, I guess I assumed it was always a lot of normal sex.”

Buck laughed, and he rocked back into Eddie a little bit. He felt how hard Eddie was. He wanted to see. to feel it. While the idea of Eddie holding him like he was and jerking off sounded good. Buck wanted something a little more for their first time.

“How about you go and get the lube, and I’ll just get naked?”

“I’m wearing more than you. How about you go and get the lube, and I’ll get naked?”

Buck wiggled a little. Rubbing his ass all over Eddie’s hard cock.

Eddie laughed, shoving Buck away as he finally let go of his cock. He smacked Buck on the ass as Buck rolled away to go to the bathroom to get the lube. The tube was right where Buck had dropped it after unpacking the bathroom stuff he had bought the last time. He got the safety seal off and then the little extra seal under the lid. It was fully ready by the time Buck shucked his underwear off and went back to the bedroom.

“You know the selling point was that the bathrooms weren’t connected and that at least the bedrooms had a good half-bath,” Eddie said.

“It was a good selling point. Chris was in love with it as well. It was like it was made for us. Whoever the original person who added this part did it smartly, the architect or whoever it was.”

Buck tossed the lube at Eddie before he crawled into the bed and propped himself above Eddie.

“I think I’m the one that should be on top,” Eddie said.

Buck didn’t answer verbally; he just raised an eyebrow at Eddie.

“Well, I was the one that started it. You were going to just sleep after Taylor left. So, me on top.”

Buck grinned and gave Eddie the same look he had given him what felt like a decade ago when asking Eddie if he wanted to go for the title.

Eddie moved like lightning, the movement shocking Buck a little, but he laughed when it ended with him on his back looking up at Eddie.

“Well, look at you. Using your hard-trained military instincts for something bad.”

“This is bad? Does it make it downright evil if I said I wanted to fuck you?”

“Well, it depends on your religion, I think. Which I think yours does qualify for that.”

“You are horrible, and you will make my dick shrivel inside. Now just stay like you are while I find the fucking lube.”

“Under my left thigh. I can feel it.” Buck wiggled said leg a little.

Eddie found the lube and dropped to his side on the bed before draping himself over Buck’s side as he dug the lube out.

It was the honest worst thing in the world to think about the lube breaking open under him. He didn’t want to have a lube-covered bed. It would take forever for that to go away. He snagged the pillow under his head and moved it up a little bit to where he didn’t have to worry about craning his neck to look at Eddie.

“So what are we going to do?”

Eddie slicked up one hand before tossing the bottle down behind him. He reached out and stroked Buck’s cock a few times before leaning in against and kissing Buck.

“Whatever we feel like,” Eddie said before he ducked down into a kiss again.

Buck reached out and cupped Eddie’s hand to help him learn how Buck liked it.

There was something so good about it. The callous Eddie had on his hand from their job, some a match for Buck and some not. Even a few other differences just made it all the better.

Buck tried to roll onto his side, but Eddie kept him on his back on the bed, going so far as to get on top of him again, holding him down that way. It was the kind of food that Buck loved. Eddie pushing him around a little was hot. Buck didn’t mind being the one to do that kind of thing, but in the end, he sometimes just wanted to feel like he was being cared for and not the one doing all of the caring. It was why this was such a good balance for them. They could all have down days where they were not needed for much of anything.

“Both,” Buck said.

“Yeah? Is my hand big enough for that?” Eddie asked.

“Together.” Buck hadn’t felt like this in a long time. He wanted to feel Eddie’s cock pressed beside his, but he didn’t want Eddie over him; he wanted to jerk them off together.

Eddie allowed Buck to turn a little so they could kiss and get their dicks in hand before they started to go at it again. Buck knew that this kind of thing was seen as lesser by some, but he felt so connected to Eddie at the moment.

As orgasm got closer and closer, Eddie broke the kiss and buried his face into Buck’s neck before sucking a bruise there. It was nice to know that he could wear a bruise from either of them, and no one but them would know who had given it.

Buck came first, his body tightening up and orgasm rushing through him. Eddie was just a few strokes behind, aided by the release Buck made sure was used to slick their way again. He let Eddie take over the brunt of the moment for it as well cause he was so limp from orgasm, but his hand stayed where it was.

“How long are we going to lay like this?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. Until Chris yells? We can get up and shower then.” Eddie cuddled close despite the mess all over them. Buck’s bed needed to be changed anyway, and he didn’t care about the mess, but it did feel good to just lay there with each other.

“At least we don’t have to cross the hall where Chris could see with this setup.” Buck had not been looking forward to that when they were looking for a house.

“No walks of shame?”

“Not for anyone but you two to see.”

“I saw Taylor sneaking out of your room like she was ashamed of being in there, but then I realized she was trying not to wake you up.” “I have no clue what to do about that. I needed to sleep, but last night while drinking, I realized something, Eddie. It started when you were gone, but the feeling was there for longer.”

“You don’t want to be at the 118 anymore?”

I love Bobby, but I…the 118 is Chimney’s home, and I can’t mess that up, but I don’t want to be around him anymore. He’s going to retire at some point, but that could be after Bobby. I want to find a place where no one calls me stupid names when I’m given a job with a clipboard. I don’t want to think about how much abuse I will get if I tell my sister no.”

Buck sighed, and he turned into Eddie’s body a little more.

“Let’s get up and get clean, and then we can head out and see what kind of options we have. We know a lot of people.”

Buck agreed with the fact that they knew a lot of people, but he wasn’t sure what kind of reception they would get when looking for somewhere else to go.

The world was up in the air at the moment, and it felt like Buck was standing on a ledge, and the only thing keeping him from going over was the fact that Eddie and Taylor were right there with him. They were holding him up. They would make sure he wasn’t going to go anywhere.

Chapter 12

Eddie sat down in front of Bobby as Bobby was working on the paperwork from the shift. Eddie has his and Buck’s in his hands, dropping them onto the pile. The last callout had been pretty much just the two of them, so the paperwork had taken longer than Eddie liked.

“Give me a moment. Did you lock the door?”

“I did. I didn’t want anyone coming in without warning.”

“I know what this is about. It’s been five shifts since Chim returned, and Buck’s tried. I’ve seen him trying his hardest. I see it, and I’m working on it. The biggest issue is that once the union is involved, things will get hard for both Buck and Chim. I have no clue how to solve this to make them both happy and keep them here.”

“Buck and I have talked, and I lost rock, paper, scissors to talk to you. Look, we love you as our captain, Bobby. We are happy with that part, but Buck made a point a few days back. Chim could outlast you here. Going to the normal paramedic shift that we used for the second ambulance and less a firefighter. This house is great for many people, but I think that Buck needs a place where he can grow without people constantly reminding him of his mistakes. The mistakes that do not define him but a few don’t let go.”

“Yes, I’ve seen a few of those conversations. I’ve tried to stop them. Just like I tried to talk to them about it. So you and Buck want to move out of the house?”

“Yes, but we would never do it without your blessing since things are good right now. If that were to change, well, that would be a change, wouldn’t it? Everything is good right now, Bobby, but maybe that’s the best time to go out. On a high note.”

“I’ll put out a feeler without names attached. See what kind of draw comes in on it all. I’ll make sure that Buck knows I’m not upset. This is a family, but sometimes, a family moves away. Sometimes they need it to grow themselves. You and Buck were both isolated from everything going on with the shooting. It’s your right, and I’m not upset about that, but I understand it. You went and became a family with Taylor and Chris; that is pretty hard to break through.”

“Yeah, we did do that, didn’t we?” Eddie let himself relax in the chair. He wasn’t sure how it would be taken, but he knew that Bobby wanted what was best, and it was good he was seeing exactly what Eddie saw as well.”

“I’ll let you know what’s going on as soon as I know anything. Get out of here and enjoy life with your kid before school starts again. That’s soon, right? I know Durand starts a little later but has a later going date due to other things.”

“He starts in two weeks. Taylor and Buck took him clothes shopping to get a few things, and I was stuck doing housework for Abuela. I wasn’t upset about it, but it shows how much this really has become a family. How about dinner at my house tonight? You and Athena and one or both kids. We haven’t invited many over; I think we see the house as a place to be isolated and happy.”

“I was like that after Brooke was born. We made our place our little bit of heaven, and I didn’t like having many people over. It took time to get over that. I’ll talk to Athena about dinner.”

Eddie nodded, and he stood up. He reached out his hand to shake Bobby’s, and he hoped that Bobby’ understood what it meant.

Buck was hanging around the ambulance when Eddie slipped from Bobby’s office. Buck’s shoulders were hunched, and he looked so much like a kid who knew he was in trouble but hoped he wasn’t.

“Let’s get out there and pick up Chris for breakfast. He’s probably already gotten Taylor wanting to pull her hair out, asking when we are coming to get him.”

Buck laughed, and he nodded. His eyes darted to Bobby’s office, but Eddie shook his head. That part would be better in the truck.

“She’s the one that said it would be fun to take him to work with her today since Carla has that appointment she needed to take.”

“She did bring that on herself.”

Eddie got into the truck first with a smile on his face when he saw that Buck had already loaded everything up into the truck while Eddie had been talking to Boby.

“So?” Buck asked as soon as Eddie started the truck.

“You can’t wait, can you?” Eddie asked, but he was smiling. He waited until they were in traffic for him to say what Buck needed to hear. “Bobby’s going to put out a few feelers. It’s not going to be hard for the people to figure out who it is.”

Buck slumped down. “How mad is he?”

“He’s not mad, but he feels like he’s stuck in a rock and a hard place, and he thinks that the union being involved in everything between you and Chim would not go well for either one of you. I am not sure about that because I know a few of his comments over this have been documented by others for posterity and shit. I have no clue what kind of thing should happen with this. He’s a good firefighter. He’s just not good at separating his work life and home life.”

“None of us are, but he is the worst. I can easily try and push that whole thing out; I’ve just never been allowed on the things I didn’t want to bring in. Like Maddie showing up when I was working to force me to talk to her before I was ready.”

“Yeah, that was not a good look on her part. If Bobby had been more unbiased, he would have stuck your ass behind, but I get why you were brought out with us. I hate what they did to you over that, Buck. I hate how much the death of a sibling you’ll never know will affect you for the rest of your life.”

“Yeah, one of the idiots who isn’t with us anymore tried to tell me to never have kids just on the chance that they have cancer. I wanted to punch him. I mean, certain diseases are genetic that people are screened for now to save a child from suffering a life during their short life, but cancer is not one of them, even if it could be figured out well enough to cause those kinds of issues.”

“A friend of mine in school went with donor sperm because she and her husband had recessive genes for something. They never said what, but I never questioned it. I would never question it when it comes to having a healthy baby, not an abled baby but a healthy one, but cancer is everywhere, and having a history of any kind of cancer is in everyone’s family. It’s not this big monolith. It’s probably trite as hell, but I would never want to not have kids because of cancer. What was that song you played for me that one time?”

“Ronan.”

“I need to listen to that again, but not while driving. Just don’t let me forget.”

“I won’t.” Buck reached over and threaded his hand with Eddie’s as they slowed down at a light. “How upset was he?”

“He’s not Buck. He understands. Look, he wants what is best for you, and while he feels like he’s the only one who can watch over you, he also knows he cannot hold you back. You’ll leave and make sure that he has no say, which will hurt worse than you getting hurt on the job under someone else. He’s going to find someone he thinks will ensure we don’t do something stupid. He will make sure we are as safe as he can make us.”

Eddie knew that Buck worried, but it might be the best thing for the 118 to split up some as well, get a little new blood in there that would make it easy to figure out how to stop the place from becoming toxic. There were a lot of issues that could be gotten rid of with a little new blood and people who didn’t allow shit to keep on going.

“Do you think anyone will want us?” Buck asked.

“I think that a lot of places will want us. You just are worried about the way people are going to react. It’s normal to feel like that, so don’t worry too much.”

“All it feels like I do is worry.”

“That’s the kind of thing that makes you a good man,” Eddie said.

The way to Taylor’s office took Eddie a few minutes to figure out the best way to get to her. It was going to be a trip no matter what. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, at least what LA considered a lot. Buck wasn’t too upset at the moment, calming down as they got away from the station.

—

Buck picked up Chris and headed to his room. The boy was utterly exhausted after an afternoon of having a lot of fun and then helping to make dinner with Taylor. Taylor was already in bed since she needed to be up early for some kind of piece she was working on. Eddie was still in the living room, and there was very little to do but just sleep, but still, Buck’s brain wasn’t slowing down any at all.

Chris was easy to get into bed and under the covers. He wasn’t fussed with being put to bed when he would fall asleep in the living room while watching something. It was something Buck liked to do as well. It felt good to have someone who loved and trusted him like that.

Once Chris was fully settled, Buck left him in the room. Buck was heading to the living room when there was a knock at the door. He frowned as no one had messaged about coming over, from what he knew. Eddie would have said if it was someone from his family.

Buck checked the camera that Eddie had pushed to be installed. Which was strange given Eddie’s hatred of Hildy. Buck knew the man, but he wasn’t sure where the hell he knew him from. The guy turned back, and the logo on the shoulder of his jacket had him opening the door just as Eddie stepped into the hallway.

“Who is it?” Eddie asked.

“A guy we kind of work with,” Buck said.

“Kind of?” the man asked.

“Well, I have no clue where I know you other than you work for the LAFD.”

“Tommy Kinard from the 217. I didn’t even think until I knocked that I should have maybe had Bobby call you before I came over.”

“Oh, you talked to Bobby today?” Buck asked. He swallowed and thought about it. He was happy that Bobby would help him and Eddie find a new workplace. He needed time and distance from most of the people at the 118 to get his head on right. He was glad Eddie was going with him, but he also knew that it might make it hard for them to settle in together somewhere.

“I did. Earlier today, actually, and then a few things needed to happen. May I come in?”

“Sure.” Eddie tugged on Buck’s shoulder to move him out of the way. “Our kid and girlfriend are asleep, so please try and keep it down.”

“Of course. I don’t plan on getting anything too loud anyway. We can go wherever you want to talk. I hope I don’t take up too much of your time either.”

Buck waved for them to head to the kitchen. The island in the kitchen had stools tucked around it to make a good place for them to sit and talk.

“Tea? Or coffee. I am not sure how you are with caffeine this late at night.”

“Just water is good for me. I don’t want to take up too much of your time. Now, I was transferred to the 217 to take over and be trained to take over there when the captain finally retired. We thought we were a few years out from that, but an injury after my captain was hit during a callout means he will be medically retired from field duty. He plans to head to work at the main hub, but it means that I’ll be taking over sooner. We are going to do a month of joint leading, with me taking anything that is in the field while he watches to make sure that I’m not fucking up.”

“Okay,” Eddie said. He set down two water bottles and then slid a juice bottle over to Buck.

“With me being taken off and another of my teammates moving from firefighter to paramedic, I have two holes, and I think you two would fill wonderfully.”

“You want both of us?” Buck asked.

“Yes. Look, I know what it’s like at the 118. Bobby did really well at fixing a lot of the issues. I was one that pushed all the time for the former captain to get the hell out of there. I wanted to be open to having everyone who could do the job working there. Your sexuality and relationship status won’t be an issue as long as you know there is no sex on shift. Which I know you would never do anyway.”

“No, you are right that we keep that kind of thing out of a job. We are pretty touchy, though.”

“You’ve been that way for years, even before you started a relationship. I know that many were never sure if you were in a relationship even just months after you joined the 118, Eddie. Bobby’s willing to have you both cover a shift at my station to see if you like the people on the same shift. You can call and talk to him or just wait to talk to him in the morning. I want you both if you are going anywhere. I also know that things might not be the best fit at my place. Talk it over and make the best decision for you. I think my place is where Bobby would like to stick you, but I also know he has a few other places.”

“And the Chief is good with playing musical firefighters for the next short while?”

“Yes, for now. It’s better than losing the two of you.”

Buck wasn’t sure what he thought about it. He had heard Chim and Hen talking about Kinard, and he seemed like a good man. He was someone who Buck thought he could follow based on what he knew about him. He had been dinged a few times for standing up to the former 118 captain, who got fired for being a racist bag of dicks. It had been the start of the way Chim acted, though. He felt like he was allowed to do what he wanted. It was set in stone by the point Buck joined the 118 because he was treated with kid gloves.

“We will let you know tomorrow,” Eddie said.

“Okay. That’s fine. Look, this isn’t pressure. If you don’t want to go to me. I know another two stations that you can easily fit in at. Your relationship might be a stumbling block at some of them, though. It’s just the facts of it.”

“Why do you think that your place will accept us?” Buck asked.

“Because they keep that to themselves even if someone there doesn’t like it. People are allowed to have their opinions on the morality of something, but they cannot push that on anyone there because everyone is accepted. It’s something I started from the moment I got there. The Chief likes to comment that we are the most accepting station in the LAFD. I try my hardest to do that. I think it’s why they are still pushing for me to be the shift captain. It’s a lot of pressure to make sure that I don’t do something to fuck up, but even if I fall, I’ll accept that.”

Buck wasn’t sure he fully trusted that. Bobby was supposed to be accepting as well, but then he got stuck in his head on what was allowed when it came to sex and what wasn’t.

“How are you feeling?” Kinard asked.

Buck looked at the man to see if he was asking Eddie that.

“It was a little strange the first time I put the uniform on again, but I worked through the PTSD from being shot in the Army and then again here. I’ve done what I can to make sure I don’t have a response if I have to go to the rescue in that same area, but even if I do, Buck’s got my back, and he’ll help me with what’s needed.”

“Good. Good. You two could be the kind of people I think I could build an inclusive team around. A pair of bisexuals in a poly relationship. The only way it could be better was if one of you was also on the ace spectrum because while I have someone I think might be ace, they haven’t come out to me, and I won’t force them.”

“I’ve wondered about it before; how many, even now, in the LAFD hide parts of themselves because they are afraid that it will make one of their teammates hesitate in a rescue and it might kill them. I never want anyone to feel that kind of fear. If I even think someone would feel like that, I will report them.”

“Hmm, it’s something I would want to be reported. I will never want anyone to feel like they will be injured due to who they love.”

Buck picked up his bottle of juice and started to roll the bottle between his hands. “I’m afraid that Chimney would hesitate to help me in a rescue if he thinks I’m wrong, and that’s my biggest issue with it. He’ll do anything to make Maddie happy, even if what she’s doing isn’t healthy. Between me, Chim, me, and Eddie, we have proof that not everyone can actually work with people they are involved with in some fashion.”

“Well, some people have different levels of maturity. Some can work with people, and some can’t. Some people just don’t want to learn. I liked Chim personally, but he was most of the reason I left the 118. I could have stayed there and been happy, but then things changed when Chim stopped being reined in. I tried, but it was keep on reporting things or moving on and hoping that new blood would improve it. I guess that part of it might not have improved at all.”

Buck nodded. He listened to Eddie and Kinard talk for a little while as he focused on his mind. This was bigger than he thought. There was hope in his chest about what he could have now. A place where he was accepted for his relationship but also for who he was. A clean slate, as it were. It was going to be something that Buck would have to think about. The idea of going there and trialing it out sounded like a good idea, though. He would love that.

Eddie came back into the kitchen and leaned on the counter across from Buck, staring at him. Buck knew Eddie wanted him to talk first, but he was still figuring it out. There were not a lot of places where Buck could go now. Before, when he felt like he was done with a place, he moved on, moved states and jobs. He felt like he was done with the 118. He loved most of the people he worked with but needed something else.

For the first time, Buck felt like maybe he was making the best choice for himself at the right time. He wasn’t reacting out of emotion but just a slow build-up of figuring out that the 118 wasn’t his place anymore. It had been his home and family for a while, but now he saw that maybe having family in his workplace wasn’t the best. He could settle in with Eddie in a new place and make some friends, people he trusted to have his back, but he didn’t feel the need to have them in his life more than just friends.

“I say yes to trying it out,” Buck said after a few more minutes of thinking it over.

“Okay, then I’ll text Bobby, and we can see what we need to do for the shift tomorrow. We can be happy anywhere as long as we don’t work for an asshole, and I think that given everything, we can write a ticket where we want.”

“I hate using that kind of thing. I want to get into a place because of what I can do.”

“This would be that, Buck. Look, we are good at what we do. We have good results, and we are good firefighters. No one is going to turn us down coming to them. You don’t think about it too much because you just want to help people, but Buck, while we are replaceable as firefighters on a single shift, we are not replaceable by the job we can do wholly. We can move anywhere, and everyone will want us. I promise. Let’s see how it does with Kinard’s group, and we can move on if need be.”

Buck nodded his head. He was sure that Eddie’s words would sink into him one day. Buck had a little more he needed to figure out when it came to him and the issues he had from his childhood. It was just more to add to the laundry list of things he needed to talk to his therapist about.

—

The bedroom was quiet when Taylor slipped inside it. She had been gone a lot longer than she thought on the trip upstate to cover a developing case that the FBI was working on. Both Eddie and Buck had kept her up to date on their move from the 118 to the 217. Which had been so strange at the beginning since Taylor thought that Buck would never leave there.

Taylor had been getting texts from Buck, even just days after the move sounded happier.

Buck’s bedroom had been empty, and so Taylor had headed to find where they were. Only Eddie’s bedroom was empty as well. Chris was asleep in his room, so that wasn’t where they were. She frowned but dropped her bag down before going to the bathroom to get changed into something else. There was a pile of clothes on the counter, so she found a pair of pants and a shirt to wear over her sports bra. She got her dirty stuff into the hamper to be washed before heading back out to the bedroom. She made sure her bag was out of the way before she headed out to find where her lovers were.

The kitchen was empty, which was a shock as it was where she usually found them when someone couldn’t sleep. She frowned before looking at the backdoor. The deadbolt was latched on it, so they weren’t out there.

Taylor headed to the living room. She had dismissed it because there was no light or sound from there when she got home. The room was dark indeed, but enough light came through the curtains that she could see Buck and Eddie on the air mattress. They were tangled around each other and looked like they had been having a rough night before heading out here.

She looked around to see that there was a pillow that flopped off the bed on Buck’s side. She walked around to grab it and put it back up before she got herself between them. Eddie woke up, his eyes looking around and a smile on his face when he saw it was Taylor. He scooted back to allow Taylor to fully lay down. He cuddled into her back as soon as she was settled. Buck didn’t seem to notice at all.

“What’s up?” Taylor asked.

“Just a bad night. A few nightmares from the shooting. I think he handled it in therapy today a little more than he has in the past. He wanted to do a blanket fort, but we didn’t get that set up well, so we just sacked out here to watch movies until we passed out.”

“Sounds like a lot of fun, at least for as much as it can be fun given what went on. He’s okay now?”

“Yeah, has been sacked out for at least two hours. The nightmares started before we moved out here. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with him, so I just let him pick what we wanted.”

Taylor threw her arm over Buck’s chest and curled into him as much as she could. She wasn’t sure what kind of comfort this was, but she would give him what she thought he needed until he asked for something else. Eddie laid his hand over Taylor’s, threading their fingers together over Buck’s chest. It allowed them to feel closer to each other. This was the kind of night where nothing was going to happen. She knew it. They both did as well. Sex was good, but there were many nights where it was just them holding each other, whoever needed the most love in the middle. Though today it wasn’t Taylor, she would have laid on Buck’s other side if she had known that before getting into bed. They would pamper Buck when they could and make sure he knew he was loved.

“He also blocked his parents’ numbers today after therapy, and he talked to his lawyer about drafting a letter to send to them to tell them that he wanted no more contact with them. That if something came up he needed to know, they were to contact the lawyer.”

“Damn. I wonder if they will even care.”

“I have no clue, but in either direction, we will be right here. Just be gentle with him in the morning,” Eddie said.

“Oh, I will be. How is doing really?”

“Shocked and just listless, but most of that was just too much, I think, and I think it’s why the nightmares happened. His brain wasn’t as calm as it normally was before bed. He was spinning the stuff in his head. He’ll get over it. Chris knew something was up with dinner but didn’t push too much. I suspect he will also want to cuddle Buck in the morning.”

“I bet so. It’s good. We can make the food, and Chris can cuddle him to make sure he’s not alone.” Taylor pressed a kiss to Buck’s chest and then closed her eyes. “We can make sure he knows he is loved by us and we are all that matter in the world.”

“Agreed.”

Taylor felt Eddie start to drift off. The hand holding hers was getting slack, and he seemed to be just slowly drifting off. It wasn’t until Taylor was just about fully asleep that she realized that Buck was awake. He wasn’t moving, so it was harder to figure that out, but she could feel the way he was. She said nothing because he would have said something if he wanted her to know; he would have said something. Instead, she curled her head to press her forehead to his arm. It felt good to show him support like that without pushing it too much.

Morning came way too early for Taylor’s liking, but she wasn’t too upset to find that Chris had slipped out with them in the night. The bed was way too small for all four of them, but with all of them on their sides, there was barely enough room. She wasn’t sure what would happen when Chris realized she was awake. He had wiggled between Taylor and Buck. Buck was wrapped around Chris, and despite the tears being at least an hour old, Taylor could see the tracks on his face from them.

Taylor could never understand how Buck’s parents just checked out like they had. A little time to get over it was one thing, but this, doing what they did. It was profound, and it was abusive in her eyes. When Buck talked about them, Taylor was pretty sure that Buck’s mother was profoundly depressed, but it was still a reason but not anywhere close to an excuse to treat Buck and Maddie like she did. Taylor hated Buck’s father more for not making his wife seek help or commit her to getting the help she needed.

“Shush,” Chris said before he giggled.

“Want to sleep long, do you?” Taylor asked.

“No, I don’t want, but I want Dad and Bucky to get more sleep in. I checked on them when I heard them moving out here last night. Buck was crying, but I didn’t think I should intrude as Buck would stop crying just to try and make me feel better.”

“Wow, I don’t think I would have known that kind of thing at your age.”

“Buck doesn’t like being sad in front of me, but I will make him see that I can comfort him, and being sad is okay. He made sure I knew I could be angry and miss Mom. He made sure that no one invalidated how I felt about it, even when Abuelo and Grandma tried to tell me that I wasn’t allowed to grieve her. He helped Dad a lot as well.”

“He’s good at that, isn’t he? Means we have to protect him, don’t we?”

Chris nodded. He closed his eyes and sighed before moving a little closer to Buck.

Taylor was sure that Buck was awake, and she knew Eddie was. She had felt Eddie moving while she and Chris had talked.

“Oatmeal for breakfast?” Shannon asked.

“I like that. Can we make it special with the stuff Buck likes?”

“I was thinking that. We have some strawberries in the fridge. I can work on cutting them up while you measure out the oats. We can have breakfast ready by the time Buck and your Dad get out of the shower.”

Chris got up slowly, moving to where he didn’t wake up Buck. Yet, as soon as Chris faltered and nearly fell with the way the bed gave as he tried to get up, Buck’s hand was there holding him up.

Taylor kept her smile to herself since Chris huffed like it was the worst thing. Though Chris falling would have woken up Buck no matter what, and at least a stray elbow didn’t take out a part of Buck that would hurt.

“Sleep,” Chris said as he carefully got the rest of the way off the air mattress.

“We need to get a better bed for this,” Eddie said as soon as Chris was down the hall to use the bathroom.

“Agreed. How are you feeling, Buck?” Taylor asked.

“I’m good. I’m lighter than I have been in a long time. It feels like I lost eighty pounds of stress just making choices that make me happy. I know you’ll support me through all of them, so I’m not too worried about it at all. Eddie already supports me. So, I don’t worry about that at all. I think, for the first time, I can say that I’m truly happy about everything in my life right now.”

Epilogue

There was something simple about being at the beach. Taylor stretched out a little, not caring about the stretch marks on her belly or the still-healing scar from where she had her appendix out. The sun was high in the sky, and the beach was full of families. A few people had moved their families away from them as soon as they realized that Eddie, Buck, and Taylor were all in a relationship together. A couple had moved closer, and their daughter was down trying to coax Ann into helping her build a sandcastle. Buck was on Ann watching duty while Eddi and Chris were out there surfing.

Taylor was just there to enjoy the sun on her face and get a little bit of a tan. Still, she wasn’t allowed to lift up Ann, and it sucked. So the guys would make sure to settle Ann in Taylor’s lap as often as possible when they were home. Carla was a godsend when it came to making sure Taylor had help with everything. Given that Chris was getting older, he didn’t need Carla anymore since he could move around his world, but Eddie’s mind had no other option for caring for Chris. If Eddie had his way, Ann wouldn’t ever be watched by anyone else.

“Mama,” Ann said as she lifted up a shovel of sand and dumped it on Taylor.

“You little bug,” Taylor said as she sat up to brush the sand off her belly as Ann ran away screaming in laughter. Ever since learning to walk, she had barely paused. Eddie blamed Buck for that. Taylor hadn’t taken sides in that fight. They all knew who the father was, but the family joke was that Ann took after either one of them when she did something that made them more work.

Their little family was just that, little, but it was the whole world to Taylor. She had not been sure she wanted children ever before she got close to Buck, then Eddie and Chris. Her past with her mother and father made her a little unwilling to procreate just in case her mother did kill herself. Yet, seeing how Chris was. Seeing how Buck’s parents were with him, she knew that she loved them both enough that having a biological kid didn’t scare her like it used to. No, she had jumped willingly in on having a kid. The father had only been confirmed to make insurance and the law happy on assigning the correct father.

“I’m getting tired just watching them,” a woman said as she stepped closer. It was the woman from the blanket closest to them who had moved over when she realized they were a triad.

“Oh, that’s just a normal day for them. They are pretty tiring all the time.”

“Aurora Jones.”

“Taylor Kelly.”

“I know who you are. My wife loves to watch your newsreels on various things, but I hadn’t paid you much attention until you did the piece on postpartum depression while you were seven months pregnant. I’m more into print news than visual, but I also watched the segment and read the article you put out on it. Then the full coverage of what you reported about it when it was released on the website. We took the next tier of digital subscription just to be able to watch it. My brother’s wife nearly killed herself because of it years ago. He’s been hovering around me after I gave birth to our second kid. My wife carried the first; he was just as bad with her. He talked everyone he knows into watching that if they ever want to have a kid.”

“It’s personal to me as well.” Taylor looked out at where Buck was, and she smiled at him with Ann. “So, you moved closer because you knew I wouldn’t judge your relationship.”

“That and my daughter really wanted to play with your daughter.”

“Ann is her name. She’s a spitfire, just like me.”

“I can tell that. She’s got your hair, and that’s all kinds of adorable.”

“Thanks. She will break hearts, and I pity anyone who gets set into her sights. Her fathers are both oblivious idiots at the best of times when it comes to people flirting with them.”

“You have to like that.”

“They would never cheat with anyone. Even if it was just two of us. I am not sure that they would ever cheat even if they were together and found someone else they wanted without both of them moving forward.”

“It’s nice to have that kind of trust. I think that sometimes that kind of thing is lost in this day and age. Too much pressure and too much that is suppressed. People make stupid mistakes because of pressure to be something they are not, which bleeds over into relationships.”

Taylor smiled and patted the blanket beside her. She looked down where Ann was right at the water’s edge with Bcuk close enough that he could grab her. She was having the time of her life splashing him with after, along with Aurora’s daughter.

This was her family, and it didn’t matter what they looked like because they loved each other.

—

Eddie grabbed the mannequin and threw it over his shoulder before he headed to the staging area for the triage. He dropped it down and sighed before looking to his side to see Buck doing the same. The simulation was going strong, and Eddie wasn’t sure who the hell was going to come out on top, but the training was good for them both.

The alarm went off just as Eddie reached the next marked still-alive victim. He looked at Tommy, who looked up from the clipboard. They were supposed to be off for another few hours so that they could run through this. It was time for training to make sure they were all where they needed to be.

“Five alarm, all offline stations are coming online unless there is a full reason. We will pick this up next time. Buckley, and Diaz, you were both well above the time needed, so I’m counting you two as done. I’ll sign off when we are back. Let’s get going!”

Eddie dropped the mannequin and rushed over to get the training gear off and into the gear rated for actual fires.

“Blaze has been going for two hours in an old structure. Unknown accelerants in the form of chemicals that may or may not explode as we are fighting them. It’s been a storage facility. It just got upgraded again. Be careful in there and do not do any heroics, Buckley.”

“You got it, Cap,” Buck said.

Eddie shook his head. He looked out the window at the area they were heading to. The smoke and the glow from the flames could be seen already. It was going to be a massive headache of a fire, and who knew how long they would be working it.

Even though they were nearly two years after moving from the 118 to the 217, they had never worked a call with the 118. Eddie could feel it in his bones that this would be changed. He knew that they were going to end up there with them.

The engine pulled in, and Eddie saw the flash of the name Nash on a turnout and then the 118 on the side of the engine he was beside. It didn’t seem like his unit was the lead. So hopefully, they could get in and get out without any drama. It would be the best, but at the end of the day, all of them were good at what they did, and it might mean just existing in the same space as them.

On the personal front, Buck was still closer friends with Hen and Bobby. Makepeace was at their place to eat with his wife at least once a week. Chim and Maddie were close enough to be friends, but that love and trust had soured in the wake of Maddie coming out of therapy and Chim not doing the work to change himself.

The drama around that had been more than enough that Eddie had been happy to not work where Chim had unlimited access to Buck. Chim blamed Buck, and in all honestly, it was Buck’s fault because Buck had fallen in love with two people who were willing to see how they did in a triad relationship. It showed Maddie that when it mattered, changes were made to make things better, and Chim wasn’t willing to change. He didn’t have to change, but Maddie didn’t have to accept the way he was. It was easy to see why Maddie had just decided that enough was enough. She was willing to be Chim’s friend, but she was not willing to be his wife.

“Buckley, Diaz, you are with me. Do not take orders from anyone but a captain from another unit. You are not under anyone else’s control.”

Eddie looked to see that Chim was standing close to them with the rest of the 118 fanned out behind him as they worked on getting their hoses hooked up to the hydrant another unit had just unhooked from.

No words were needed as that was for everyone but Buck and Eddie. The whole crew with them knew better than to give orders to anyone else without clearing them through Kinard and then him telling them. It was something that Kinard made sure that everyone knew. It was how he ran his shift, and no one questioned it.

Honestly, it was great. The hierarchy of the LAFD was a little strange when it came to those in charge when the captain wasn’t on a scene for one reason or another.

Eddie looked at Buck, who nodded, and they set out to do what they needed to do.

Hours later, Eddie joined up with Hen in fighting the fire. The place had gone through as much as they could to figure out what was happening inside there. There was nothing too strong that would blow the place sky-high. Small bombs were going off when some things combusted, but it was nothing too bad.

All was pretty good, and Eddie was exhausted when Hen bumped into him as her hose got caught on something.

“How are you?” Hen asked.

“Good. Any injuries on your side?”

“No. Everything is good. Yours?”

“Our probie twisted his ankle, so he’s on light duty over there keeping track of something for Cap.”

“Tommy’s still doing good for you?”

Despite hanging out with her, they didn’t talk about work. It was one subject Buck said no to discussing. Eddie understood why and agreed with him on it because it made things easier. There was a wealth of other things to discuss.

“He looks good on the job. Confidant in ways that I never thought possible.”

Eddie looked at where Hen was looking. Buck was working with the probie and helping him realize what parts of the fire were best to use the water on.

“He is growing in ways I never thought of. He’s happy, and that’s all I want for him.”

Hen smiled, and they turned their focus back to the fire.

Moving to the 217 had been the best for them. A good move that proved itself over and over again, it was the best course of action.

—

Buck grabbed the stuffed bear and tucked it into his chest as Jee talked to him about her day. It was the kind of story that Buck remembered other kids doing. Kids he rescued from claw machines and the like.

Jee-Yun was getting so big.

“Pa,” Ann said as she tugged on Buck’s sleeve.

Buck looked at her. She held up her hands, so Buck picked her up and put her into his lap. She curled into him and started to fall asleep. It was nap time, but it was later than normal, with many kids in the house. Jee was fast on her way to a nap as well.

“You look like some ad for a parent’s magazine.”

Buck looked at Eddie for a few seconds. Eddie was smiling.

“Well, depending on who you ask, I’m either the poster parent for it or a warning to parents about what not to do.”

“How are you a warning on what not to do?”

“I haven’t quite figured that out, but a group of the moms at the daycare don’t like me for some reason. Before it was discovered that I was Maddie’s brother, the women thought Maddie had some hot younger man she was stringing along for sex and childcare. I am not sure I want to know what they think I am other than that.”

Eddie laughed a little. He stepped over to pick up Ann from Buck’s lap.

Jee was starting to wind down on talking, her eyes fluttering as she started to nod off. Buck reached out, and she came to him willingly. She flopped on him and started to fall asleep like she had been fighting over the last half an hour with her storytelling.

Buck followed Eddie back to Ann’s bedroom. He pulled out the trundle bed with his foot and saw they had changed the sheets after the last time. He got Jee all covered up while Eddie finished up with Ann. An hour would be good, given how tired they were and how much time Buck wanted to himself.

The rest of the kids from the neighborhood were gone, back home for their own naps or, in the case of the kids a little older than Jee, just home to play. Ann was a social butterfly on the street, and Jee had made a lot of friends with the kids there as well. Jee also had a lot of friends near her house. Buck still wasn’t sure how in the hell Ann had as many friends as she did. It was easy to understand the older kids that came with the younger ones who liked playing with Jee since she was older.

“Come on,” Eddie said as he reached out to help Buck up.

Buck took the help even though he didn’t need it. Eddie kept a hold of his hand all the way out to the living where he pushed him down to sit again. Taylor would be home in the next ten minutes, which was good. Eddie dropped down to sit between Buck’s legs as he picked up the controller to start to play the game again, the sound on low. It wasn’t a game that Eddie needed too much sound to play, thankfully. Buck reached out and carded his fingers through Eddie’s hair before resting his hand there.

“I still don’t understand how she’s such a social butterfly. I was not when I was her age.”

“I was. At least where we lived when I was that age. Then not long after that, we moved to a new place, and the kids were all a little different toward me. Taylor was probably pretty social as well.”

“Well, I guess I can understand it if it’s two of the three.” Buck leaned over and kissed Eddie’s head.

The front door opened and shut, and the sound of keys in the dish followed. Then the high heels hit the floor.

Taylor appeared seconds later, her suit jacket coming off and her hair being shaken out as soon as she was done with her jacket. She looked beautiful, her smile a little less bright than normal, but given she had been covering a bomb threat at a school, Buck could understand that.

“We can home-school, right?” Taylor asked.

Buck laughed despite it probably not being good to laugh.

“Durand has a good practice in place, and while the kids probably practice active shooter drills more than I would like, it’s a good practice, and Ann will be fine there. Chris still loves it, and everything will be just fine.” Eddie paused the game long enough to turn his head to take a kiss from Taylor before she settled down on the couch tucked into Buck.

“I know. I just…that’s all I could think about when I was covering the threat. The school was checked by three sets of dogs, and even the FBI came in on this one just to make sure, given the high profile we are under with the string of these across the city. No one wants to be the one to have fucked it up, and this is the real threat. I would hate to be that person.”

“It’ll get figured out.” Buck pressed a kiss to Taylor’s forehead before she tucked her head onto Buck’s shoulder.

This life hadn’t been on his radar ever, but in the end, it was the perfect life for him, and he loved it. It would be his way of life for the rest of his life, and he was quite content with that. Buck smiled as Taylor started to talk again.

The End

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