"You need to lay off on using us as your test subjects." Chris huffed as he walked beside Doctor Jackson on their way to his latest brain child.
"No worries. The side effects are only temporary. He should be fine by the end of the day. The end of the week tops."
"Which is it? One day or seven days is a big window." The blonde growled.
Nathan didn't answer as they entered the room where a ten-year-old boy sat in a big dressing gown. His legs peeked out as he swung them from his perch on the observing table.
"Buck, you alright?" Chris asked.
"Super." Buck grinned and gave a thumbs up. "Unfortunately I haven't hit puberty so I feel a bit off." The boy looked down to his lap.
Nathan chuckled behind Chris as he checked the latest scans.
"So what was this latest experiment of anyway?" Chris asked.
"Nathan was partnering his research with Josiah to try and discover regression to childlike behaviors." Buck explained. "The injection he gave me we think was too strong."
"You haven't regressed mentally." Chris frowned.
"Yeah, we're still working on that." Nathan said.
"Don't worry, bud. I'm fine." Buck said as he slipped off the observation table and landed less than graceful on the tiled floor.
"Yeah I can see that. How are you getting home?"
Buck scratched his head, "Yeah I really could do without JD making a big deal about me being the kid now."
"So I'm guessing you're inviting yourself over this week."
"Please and thank you." Buck said as he readjusted his dressing gown and gave a toothy grin.
Chris dropped the bag off he carried to work every day. Buck had to walk quickly to keep up with the man's pace.
"Damn, I miss my longer legs." Buck huffed as he plopped down on the couch.
"Well you knew the risk you were taking by letting Nathan run a little experiment on you."
"He said it may affect my lower region, but I wasn't too worried because nothing he could do, besides physically relieving me of them, would harm little Buck."
"You mean baby Buck." Chris snorted.
Buck tossed a pillow at Chris, his pouting face made him look like a put out child.
"Don't make me put you on a time out in your room." Chris said jokingly.
"Jokes on you, I want to take a nap." Buck said as he climbed off the couch and padded his little feet to his room that he stayed in whenever he was at Larabee's place.
Chris woke up the next morning and was surprised to feel something pressed up against him. Twisting in his bed, he looked over his shoulder and found the little sleeping figure of Buck.
"I see you wasted no time in seizing the opportunity to do whatever you want."
Chris sat up in bed and heard a little whimper from the child.
"I know you're just pretending to be asleep. You aren't fooling anybody."
Big blue eyes looked up at Chris, and even though he recognized those eyes, there was no recognition in the others.
"Buck?" Chris asked hesitantly.
"Yes?" His voice was so high pitch it took Chris by surprise after being used to hearing the baritone voice.
"Where are you right now?"
Buck looked around the room as if trying to figure out the answer from the room. He then turned back to the blonde.
"I'm in your room."
"And who am I?"
"You're daddy, silly." Buck grinned as he clamored into a kneeling position and then to his feet. He propped himself up by using Chris's shoulder. Bending over, little Buck felt Chris's forehead. "Are you okay daddy? Did you get sick?"
"I'm fine." Chris said as he pulled the little hand away and pulled Buck into his lap. "How old are you now?"
"I'm ten! Remember I just had my birthday last month. You said I was a big boy now." Buck grinned proudly.
Chris frowned, but had to stop in order to not make the child in front of him worry.
Apparently Buck had regressed overnight. He still remembered things like his birthday, but for some reason either the younger Buck couldn't fill in memories and just added Chris into them, or they were put in there by Josiah in his experiment.
"How about we get dressed and go see Nathan and Josiah?" Chris said as he pulled the covers away to get dressed.
Buck hopped off the bed and waited for Chris to get out too. He was still wearing one of Chris's t-shirts like a dress, the back part of the collar was rubber banded to make the neck hole smaller.
Chris threw on some clothes and wondered what he should have Buck wear.
Going into one of his closets, he looked at the bottom where a box of Adam's old clothes were still sitting. They would all be too small on Buck.
"What are you doing daddy?"
"Nothing." Chris said before getting up and closing the closet door.
Chris walked Buck into the office and found Nathan in his office drinking a cup of coffee while looking at a health article online.
"Jackson, your little experiment has gone too far. I want you to fix it now." The blonde growled at the doctor who just sat in his chair unaffected.
"I'm guessing it started to work then."
"Work? He thinks he's my kid and thinks he is a kid. Ten to be exact."
Buck began to shrink towards the door. He was getting scared at the blonde's anger. It sounded exactly like the man didn't believe Buck was his child and that something was wrong with him. Tears started to form and he began sniffing.
Chris turned and looked at the crying child and had to remember to change his facial appearance because he was glaring.
"You made the boy cry. Well done Larabee."
"Shut up, Jackson!"
Chris knelt down in front of the crying child.
"I'm sorry Buck. Everything is going to be fine. Nathan just loves to push my buttons."
"Do you not want me?" Buck hiccupped.
Chris wanted to smack himself for being insensitive to the vulnerable child. He had to remind himself that this wasn't the same Buck that he knew.
"Course I do buddy. We're just trying to figure somethings out. You haven't done anything wrong."
The last thing he needed was the boy thinking he did something.
"If I may, Josiah may want to talk to Buck and ask him some questions now that the medicine has started working."
Chris watched as the little boy was led away from him and down the hall.
Figuring he should get some work done, he decided to head up to his office.
Vin was waiting for him outside of his office door.
"Need something Tanner?"
"Just wondering where everyone's at. Normally I ain't the first person to arrive."
"I was downstairs talking to Nathan. Josiah is here too."
"Well Buck, Ezra and JD aren't here yet. Ezra isn't that surprising, but Buck and JD haven't come in yet."
"Buck is here. He's helping with a new experiment with Josiah and Nathan. JD probably is trying to find a way over here since his ride left him."
"The dude is going to need to get his license sooner or later. You'd think a tech kid like him would have some kind of wheels that aren't on a bicycle."
"Yeah well I think all our vehicles are appreciative that JD got his license revoked." Chris sighed.
JD had gotten his license revoked after reckless endangerment when he super charged his engine and tried to make it fly. There was a fire, but no one was injured. Instead of letting his tech gift go to waste being locked in juvenile detention, the government put him to work. Buck was in charge of keeping an eye on him since he was the one who volunteered and seemed to have built a relationship. JD looked up to him like an older brother and they goofed off like brothers a lot.
Chris sat down at his desk while Vin still hung out at the door.
"Is today not a work day again or is everyone deciding to ditch because I have a whole pie sitting at home waiting for me to eat it."
"You need to stop eating so much junk food. One day you're actually going to have that fat stick to you and you'll gain some weight." Chris murmured.
"I'm sure Nathan would stop harassing me if that happened and Buck would stop comparing me to a toothpick." Vin grinned.
Chris looked down at the clock on his desk.
Ezra was definitely later than normal. Maybe another undercover job or he was still depressed from the last job.
About thirty minutes later, Vin was back at his desk working on a report, Ezra arrived.
He looked his normal self, clothes perfectly in place and suave personality. The man looked ready to piss off their leader as soon as he walked into their office rooms.
"Later than normal, Ez." Vin stated the obvious.
"I was debating whether or not to come in today. I figured that I should at least show my face." The undercover agent grinned.
"Yeah well I don't think Chris would count your tardiness and you'll probably not get paid today."
Ezra dropped his stuff off at his desk and shrugged off his overcoat.
"Standish, get in here!" Chris ordered from his office.
"It seems I have been summoned." Ezra grinned.
"Want me to go with you so he can't shoot you." Vin offered.
"I'll be fine I'm sure." The undercover agent reassured before going into his boss's office.
"You wanted to see me sir?"
"Do you have an excuse today for showing up late?"
"I doubt I'd ever have a proper excuse that would please you unless I'm laying in the hospital or dying somewhere by myself."
"Can you find where the hell JD is and go get him?"
Ezra rose an inquisitive eyebrow, "Where's Wilmington? Did he forget to pick him up, or did he not show up today?"
"Buck had to come in separately because he is working on a side project with Josiah and Nathan."
Ezra's face went pale momentarily. He had been on the wrong end of those two's experiment and had went from insomniac to sleeping beauty. Everyone in the office thought he went into a coma. The undercover agent had woken up in the hospital having spent a week unconscious. Only the kind words of someone he cared about would wake him, according to the experiment Josiah and Nathan were doing.
The other men weren't really banking on it, but they brought in Maude. Of course that wasn't the correct answer. It was actually words from each of the men and especially Chris who made the man stir from his slumber.
"I believe John Dunne is in need of transportation assistance. I shall go and bring him in immediately." Ezra said before turning around quickly and slipping his coat back on, walking back out the door.
"Did you finally tell Ezra to just pack up and leave, because I think he got everything down except for the packing up part." Vin teased. He knew the blonde would never follow through with his threat of having the other man fired, no matter how annoying he was.
"He's going to go and pick up JD."
"So are you going to tell me why Buck is helping Nate and Josiah? Is it another one of those things where they put us asleep?"
"Not quite."
Chris hadn't really explained to the other man about what it was that Nathan and Josiah did when they weren't doing actual jobs.
The duo would combine science with therapy to tap into parts of the brain. Josiah for counseling with the men and getting better results, and Nathan, for the pleasure of discovering something new with each project.
The recent Standish episode was one of Ezra's therapy sessions required by the department for each man to go to at least once a week. Ezra made an off-handed comment that he really didn't have anyone who probably cared about him for anything other than his abilities of an undercover agent. Josiah then asked him if his reasons for throwing himself into a job where he changed who he was identity wise, was Ezra's way to try and find himself and try to present himself as someone others liked.
The younger man shrugged that it could be interpreted as that.
The next session, Ezra was told to drink something that would make him sleepy and that it would allow Josiah to talk to Ezra's subconscious.
Short conclusion, there was no talking because the mixture Nathan created was too strong a dose for Ezra's size. The man was out in minutes and the end result left Ezra wary of anymore drinks offered by either man.
Chris went down stairs to where Nathan was sitting on the couch against the wall while Josiah sat across from little Buck. Buck had decided he was bored of talking to the men and was more interested in his toes.
Chris closed the door softly behind him but it was like the boy had his antenna up, waiting for him.
Buck crawled up in the chair and looked over the back of it at the newcomer in the room.
"Daddy!"
Chris tensed unconsciously at hearing the voice. It sounded almost like Adam. That baby voice that was so innocent.
"Hey buddy," he heard himself saying, "how's it going so far?"
"Okay." Buck gave a shaky reply, "Can we go home now?"
"Is Josiah finished with his talk with you?"
Buck gave a shrugged.
"Just a few more questions. You can join us Chris."
Chris wasn't sure if he wanted to, but Buck's big pleading eyes and shaky bottom lip had him sitting down next to the ten-year-old.
"Now the whole purpose for this test was to be able for Buck and even you Chris to be able to find closure."
Chris frowned, "What are you talking about? How is Buck going to be able to remember anything when he's mentally a ten-year-old that believes I'm his father."
"It could be Buck's way of interpreting what happened. Buck thinks you're his father, He grew up without one, but in this alternate past, he placed you as the head, someone who he looks up to. I think it's safe to say that Buck's world as a child again, you are still the leader and thinks of you as family. He shared with me a little before the experiment that he was around a lot when your wife and son were still alive. He considered them family and has placed them as so in this alternate past. His interpretation of the events in this form is that he asked you to go to the releasing of a new video game when your family was killed. Is that some variation of the truth?"
Chris looked down at the little figure, tiny hands clasped together tightly with head bowed.
"It is. He wanted to go to a movie that night and we Sarah decided to stay home with Adam to allow us to have a guy's night out. I told Buck that it wasn't his fault. That it wasn't like he was supposed to know something like that was going to happen. I guess he still felt responsible regardless."
Buck sniffled in his chair before slipping out and flinging himself on Chris, "I'm sorry daddy. Please don't send me away."
Chris picked the boy up and held him to his chest. It was weird, knowing this was his friend, but in a smaller form.
"You aren't going to get rid of me that easily." Chris said finally.
Buck sniffled and clutched tighter around Chris's neck.
Chris sat in the room with Josiah glaring at the man while Buck was being escorted to be restored back to his original self.
"Don't you think this experiment was a bit of an overkill just to ask some questions?"
"You know you, Chris. You don't talk. Buck talks a lot but sometimes even he shuts down when coming to the answer. I just wanted you guys to be able to some understanding of where each other is at. It's been three years, but the void between you is still there, it just hasn't been addressed until now."
Chris rolled his eyes and pushed himself out of the chair and walked out of Josiah's office.
Buck opened his eyes and closed them again from the bright light shining over him.
"Can't fake it, I saw your eyes open."
Buck laughed, "I knew you'd be here for some reason when I woke up. I had the strangest dream that Nathan changed me into a kid and was being called a kid all day by JD."
"Is that all you remember?" Chris asked.
"No, I remember being a kid when I was at your place, then I don't remember anything else besides that dream. What, did I do when I was out or was I in a coma the entire time?"
"You were your usual self."
"Charm and loveable."
"Yeah, sure stud." Chris smiled. He helped his friend out of the bed and onto his feet, "Why don't we go and see a movie tonight for old time's sake?"
"You sure?" Buck asked in surprise.
"Yeah. No one can seem to locate JD so you'll need someone to go with you and share that big container of popcorn."
Buck grinned and the two of them walked out of the room and towards the exit.
Meanwhile:
JD sighed, as he watched his phone finally die. How could he have forgotten to charge it! Now he was locked out of his apartment with no phone and missed an entire day of work. It was only until Ezra finally came that he was able to relax a little.
"Dunne, I see you've managed to lock yourself out again this month." Ezra sighed as he fished out his pick lock kit from the side of his belt.
"Chris is furious isn't he?" JD groaned.
"No, I think practically everyone took the day off or left early. I think you inspired a rebellion."
"What?" JD gaped.
A/N: Sorry it took me so long to post this. Writing this during classes was surprisingly harder and took longer than I thought, but I was able to finish it. Here is for those who wanted a young Buck!