Word Count: 5,780
Warnings/Spoilers: This chapter contains references to nightmares and PTSD-induced hallucinations.
Eddie was released a few days later, deliberately when Buck was available so he could drive Eddie home, and days rapidly bled into a week as Eddie re-oriented himself at home, and caring for Christopher, and attempting to cook with one hand because his arm was so heavily strapped before he turned to Buck with an exasperated expression and started ordering him around the kitchen.
And Buck was better at cooking after months of lessons but he grew so irritated by Eddie's demands in a kitchen he knew almost as well as his own that when he'd returned to working the next shift that Bobby mentioned their crew was due to rotate on, he'd announced all leftovers and meals would be gratefully accepted. They were both inundated very quickly by Tupperware containers of Hen and Bobby and Athena's cooking, though anything by Chim they tended to treat with a great degree of suspicion.
Work was… It wasn't something Buck thought he'd want to go back to but it gave back some routine to his days, some structure to his life that he'd been lacking, and it gave him and Eddie some breathing room so they weren't in each other's faces all the time.
Late one night or early one morning almost a week after Eddie was discharged, he woke Buck with stuttered half-breaths that Buck instinctively recognised from the many awful nights he'd endured since last year. He'd folded his arms around Eddie, whispering nonsense in his ear – about some of the most ridiculous calls before Eddie had joined the 118, about a song he heard a week ago that Spotify hadn't found but was stuck in his head, about the places he wanted to go for various holidays with Eddie and Christopher – until Eddie started to relax into his grip and mumbled an apology against Buck's arm, followed by a soft kiss.
"You want to talk about it?" Buck said, fully aware of just how hypocritical the offer was after he'd shut Eddie out so many times after his own nightmares, but Eddie surprised him by talking.
"It was this weird mixture of being in a Humvee that I was driving when I saw Beatrice being hurt. I was shot at by insurgents?" Eddie said in a quiet, trembling voice that was laced with exhaustion and anxiety. "Clearly my brain is combining what happened with events in Afghanistan but…" His voice trailed away and he gave a small shake of his head, and with the way Buck's chest was pressed against Eddie's back, he could feel the shuddery breath that stuck in his lungs.
"You can talk to me about what happened over there too, you know," Buck murmured, groping around until his hand found Eddie's. He folded their fingers together and rubbed his thumb in figure-eights around Eddie's knuckles, slow and steady and as soothing as he knew how.
Eddie was silent a long time, so long that Buck thought Eddie might've fallen asleep again. He was teetering a little himself when Eddie's shaky words stirred him back to alertness.
"Shannon never wanted to hear about it."
"I'm not Shannon," Buck said like it was obvious. Maybe it wasn't.
"I know." Eddie lifted their joined hands to his lips and peppered the back of Buck's hand with small kisses. "I know."
Eddie didn't share anything further that night but it caused a subtle shift in their developing relationship where Buck no longer thought Eddie was so coiled protectively around his memories of war and fear, whispering his way through stories of rockets and explosions and gunfire that made Buck ache for him.
In the daylight hours, Buck focused on the things he could do, like ferrying Eddie to his rehab appointments when he wasn't on shift – a weird role-reversal after Eddie had done the same for his leg a year ago – or to therapy appointments with Frank – while resolutely refusing to walk inside the building himself because he thought he'd break out in hives. When he was on shift, Carla pitched in to help Eddie as much as she helped Christopher. Hen and Karen and Bobby and Athena visited frequently, as did Maddie and Chim. May had surprised all of them by hugging both of them tightly, tears in her eyes and pleading with them not to get into dangerous situations anymore.
And all those interactions didn't even factor in the constant presence of Diaz family members, bringing food and conversation and keeping Eddie grounded in the present.
He felt most awkward around Eddie's parents, because he didn't know them but they were part of his parents' generation and his father had hardly been accepting when Buck was a teenager. Buck couldn't seem to pierce the distance that Ramon had around him, but there was an ease of interaction between Eddie and his father that was at least comforting to see. Adriana and Sophia were sweethearts, keeping Christopher occupied by helping him with homework or building Lego constructions when he wasn't at school.
In all interactions with others, Buck felt like he watched Eddie as closely as a hawk, as if waiting for Eddie's expression to slip and give away how much he was struggling with what happened in LA, or Afghanistan. He wasn't closed off and he wasn't a shell, but he didn't always laugh the same way that he had before. Buck wasn't even sure if anyone had noticed and he didn't want to mention it to anyone at the station or his sister in case it was just his anxiety making something into a bigger deal than it really was.
Weeks slipped into a month and Eddie's parents and sisters returned to El Paso. If Buck had had a routine before Eddie got shot, which was probably go to work, go home, eat, sleep, and occasionally hang out with someone, then it transformed into basically being at Eddie's or the 118 after he got shot.
It wasn't that Eddie was a complete invalid, nor would Buck treat him like one because Eddie would almost certainly lose it, but it was apparent after only a few days that caring for Christopher with only one arm was near on impossible. Christopher's inability to button shirts wasn't helped by Eddie's inability to help him with buttons. If Chris had a nightmare, Eddie couldn't hug and soothe him without the bulky cast getting in the way. Once Eddie's immediate family returned to Texas, it became even more obvious how much Buck needed to be around to help support Eddie with looking after Chris.
It wasn't like Eddie had even asked him to be there, probably because Eddie was too proud or too stubborn, so Buck just…took it upon himself to be there and jumping in to help in whatever way it was required. He increasingly stayed so late that he dragged his shuffling feet into Eddie's bed, cuddling under Eddie's good arm and kissing him until sleep finally caught up with him. It was the exception, rather than the rule, when he returned to his own apartment but even that still meant he was back at Eddie's first thing in the morning to make breakfast for Christopher.
"I feel like I live here," he said to Eddie one night when they were snuggled together on Eddie's couch, Eddie nestled between his legs as they watched something mindless on TV after Buck had tucked Christopher into bed.
"I was starting to think you did," Eddie teased, glancing at him with a quirked eyebrow and sly grin.
"I still have an apartment," Buck pointed out and Eddie's eyebrow arched higher.
"Why?"
"Because I-" Even as he started speaking, he realised he didn't actually have an answer. He paused, pressing his lips together as his gaze narrowed on Eddie's contrite expression. "Okay, fine. I don't actually know."
A small puff of laughter escaped Eddie's mouth as he turned his attention back to the television, his fingertips dancing across Buck's forearm and leaving goosebumps in their wake. It did nothing to ensure Buck could keep track of what was going on in the show.
"You could, you know, not have an apartment," Eddie said very quietly, almost half an hour later and long after the conversation had drifted from the forefront of Buck's mind.
And then Eddie's words shocked the conversation back into his awareness, front and centre and blinking with technicolour lights.
"I didn't realise you were into the whole 'homeless' vibe," Buck said, pulse fluttering in his wrist when Eddie's fingers brushed against the swirl of tattooed letters on the outside of his arm. "Should I stop showering for a week? Grow a beard?"
"Hmm… The beard might be hot but I think you'd have to sleep outside if you stopped showering," Eddie said, shifting in Buck's arms a little until he was able to see Buck's face. "And sleeping outside would make my bed feel awfully lonely."
Buck rolled his eyes and lightly poked at Eddie's thigh, knowing anywhere near his hip and waist was still far too tender with healing scar tissue. "You're the one who said I shouldn't have an apartment."
"And you're the one being coy and obtuse when you know very well what I'm suggesting."
And Buck…kind of had known what Eddie was suggesting but he'd still been afraid of misunderstanding and jumping to a conclusion, and he still used humour and deflections when he was afraid rather than seek clarification, and no one had ever said anything like this to him before, and-
"Move in with me," Eddie said, ensuring that his meaning was unmistakable. His brown eyes were certain and steady and clear and officially made Buck's heart stop and skip and zigzag all around his chest as a grin spread across his face. "Move in with us, Evan."
So Buck gave his landlord the month's notice that he was terminating his lease and gradually began moving across the random belongings he still had at his apartment that hadn't ended up at Eddie's in the previous month of looking after Christopher and helping Eddie.
He blamed Maddie for letting the news slip to Chim, who had an absolutely devilish grin on his face as he stuck out his wiggling fingers to Hen one morning as Buck strode into the firehouse to start his shift.
"What did you bet on this time?" he whined, making a few of the crew from the previous shift laugh at him on the way out.
"I thought Eddie would be back on duty before you moved in," Hen said, sighing and rolling her eyes and smacking a pair of ten-dollar bills into Chim's hand.
"And I knew as soon as you started being there after every shift that it would happen long before Eddie returned," Chim crowed, shoving the notes into his pocket.
Buck couldn't decide if he wanted to pout or frown or pull out his phone to text Eddie that their friends were still placing bets on relationship milestones. He sensed Eddie would probably just end up encouraging it and joining the betting pool.
When he woke with a start, it took him a bleary moment to remember where he was. Once those fragments melted back into conscious awareness, he then frowned and wondered why he'd woken so suddenly and sharply at all.
He rubbed a hand across his bleary eyes and peered at the glowing numbers of the clock on Eddie's bedside table. 3:18.
And then he nearly shrieked because he realised there was a rather small, nine-year-old sized shadow at the side of the bed. Wisps of light from the curtains twisted into the golden curls atop his head but the rest of him was bathed in darkness, like some sort of demon summoned from the night.
"Christopher?" he whispered, shifting in the bed. "What's up, angel?"
"Something's wrong with Dad," Chris explained, his voice small and scared and making Buck's heart ricochet into his chest.
"What- I-" He glanced behind him and realised why he'd felt so weird when he woke up. Eddie's side of the bed was empty. He groped the sheets like he'd somehow unearth Eddie from them. "What do you mean?"
"I could hear him in the kitchen," Chris said as Buck sat up, scooting to the edge of the bed and running a hand over the trembling shoulders of the kid. "He was mumbling a lot of Spanish and he- You know he never does that."
Buck closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling to steady his nerves. His hand pressed against Chris' neck, offering a gentle squeeze of his fingers against the skin at the nape. "Do you want to go back to bed or crawl into ours while I talk to him?"
"Are you sure, Buck? What if you need me?"
Buck wasn't sure he wanted to expose Chris to more trauma, especially if his father was having a serious episode like he suspected. It was almost like Buck had been waiting for it, waiting for him to slip into that other plane of existence as he had in January. So Buck wasn't sure if Chris would be needed but out of the two of them, Buck at least had the crisis training and the knowledge of what was happening. He had to trust that.
"If I need you, I'll come get you, okay?" He lifted Christopher onto the bed, pressed a kiss to his hair. "You stay here and I'll see your Dad."
"Okay…" Christopher sounded unconvinced but he curled into the blankets anyway, a fabric lump that disappeared in the shadows of the room.
Steeling his nerves, Buck left the room and padded down the corridor until he caught scraps of quiet conversation that kept being aborted, sentences hanging around a heavy pause and then another fragmented series of disconnected words. It almost sounded like Eddie was having a vigorous whispered argument with someone over the phone, pausing to listen before launching into a passionate defence. There were certainly bits in Spanish but he caught enough interspersed English to know that nothing Eddie was saying made any actual sense, which meant he wasn't talking to a family member over the phone.
"Eddie?"
He moved past the family room to look at Eddie over the kitchen counter. He was a hunched shape by the sink, gripping the edge and staring out the window. He couldn't tell if Eddie was sleepwalking or awake, or maybe he was lost in some sort of memory, but he definitely wasn't talking to someone physically present. No matter what was truly going on, he knew he'd been waiting for some sort of fracture like this. There had been too many nightmares, too many flinches at loud noises in TV shows, too many whispered conversations about convoys and battlegrounds. Buck knew as well as anyone that once those bits of memories started to be unlocked, it opened the door to others. He was just grateful he was here. He couldn't imagine how Eddie would feel when he realised this had happened and Christopher was the only one home with him.
He ran his fingers along the wall until he found the light switch and he recoiled at the dazzling brightness, but once he no longer saw stars he could see Eddie looking at him. Except Eddie was… There was something missing behind his open eyes, something he was seeing which wasn't really Buck across the room. His stomach twisted. It was a lot like the call in January but worse. Eddie had at least been cognizant of his surroundings that time but this time he was clearly somewhere far, far away.
"Hey, Eddie," he said gently, keeping his distance because he knew just enough about sleepwalkers to know they could get violent if frightened. He darted his gaze around to make sure there wasn't anything sharp in Eddie's vicinity, anything he could hurt himself or someone else with. There were some cups and plates he could knock over but Buck could deal with those sorts of potential injuries. "Do you want to come back to bed? Christopher's waiting for us."
"Christopher?" Eddie's eyebrows drew together. "No, el esta en casa con Shannon. ¿Por qué está él aquí? He shouldn't be here. He's-"
It was at least enough of a frantic response that Buck could piece together where Eddie thought he was in time although Buck didn't entirely know where Eddie thought he was. The Spanish was too fast to comprehend but Eddie thought Christopher was at home with Shannon. He inhaled, held it, and exhaled. Okay.
"Christopher is safe, Eddie," he said slowly, staying across the room just in case Eddie took a run at him. "You are too, actually. You're home in Los Angeles. You're here with me, with Buck. And Chris is safe."
He could tell Eddie was confused with the way his brows lowered across his eyes and he honestly wasn't sure if this sort of conversation was the right one to have. He might have the crisis training to deal with toppling buildings and bug-eating competitions but he had less experience with sleepwalking or breaks with reality.
"No entiendo dónde estoy," Eddie mumbled, hands curling and uncurling at his sides as he shook his head back and forth. "I can't find the Major. I need to warn him. Necesito averiguar-"
The Major? Okay, so maybe Eddie thought he was back in a warzone, and he was in danger. He could work with that and he had an idea of what he could do, although he didn't really want to do it when it was half-past three in the morning. "Will you stay here, Eddie?"
But Eddie had returned to talking to himself, gaze on the kitchen tile as he mumbled fragments of English and Spanish. Buck took the opportunity to scurry down the corridor and into Eddie's room.
"Buck? Do you need me?" He'd hoped Christopher might've fallen asleep but he probably should have known there was no way the kid would sleep when he was scared about his father.
"No, sweetheart. It's okay."
"You sure?"
Christopher's small voice just about broke Buck's heart but he leaned onto the bed anyway, feeling around until he touched Christopher's ear or shoulder or something and kissed his head.
"Stay here, okay?"
He swiped his phone from the bedside table and hit the 4 on his speed-dial. It took several rings, enough that he had returned to the family room where he could hear Eddie's muttering and Buck almost thought he'd have to give up his plan to-
"Buck?" Sleep-slurred words had never sounded so good to his ears. "What's wrong?"
"It's Eddie," he said, rubbing his feet against the rug under Eddie's coffee table so that he had something to ground him when he felt the anxiety within his chest starting to unravel too and they couldn't both lose it. "I- He- I think he's lost in a memory from Afghanistan."
There was a long silence and then some shuffling footsteps and the click of a door. "Evan, what is this?"
He pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled slowly. "Cap, he got shot. He got shot and he's fought in a war. He won a Silver Star. And I think it- He's been talking about it, a little, and maybe he's been talking about it in therapy too so this is… I think something emerged when he was asleep and now I can't get him out of it."
Bobby hummed thoughtfully, more shuffling footsteps as Buck imagined him moving through his house. "Is it a nightmare or is he sleepwalking?"
"I…think a bit of both? He got out of bed without waking me. I woke up because of Chris." Buck bit his bottom lip, creeping closer to the kitchen where he could get his eyes on Eddie. Eddie, who was right where Buck had left him, was still mumbling to himself in the middle of his kitchen.
"So why are you calling me?"
"I thought-" He hesitated, watching the slow way Eddie shook his head and his forehead creased. "He could hear me, sort of, when I brought up Chris. It confused him but also panicked him because he thought Chris was with Shannon. And then he said something about needing to warn his Major? I don't know what about but I- I thought if you could speak to him, say you were his Captain, use your Captain's voice…"
"Okay. That makes…some sort of sense, I guess. What's the goal here? That he wakes up?"
"I don't know," Buck said helplessly, running a hand through his hair and swallowing around the knot in his throat. "I don't know, Bobby. My nightmares haven't been like this."
"Your night-?" Bobby cut himself off with a growl and Buck winced, realising his mistake a moment too late and wishing he could thump his head into the wall repeatedly until he turned time backwards by about ten seconds. "Okay, you'd better believe we're going to talk about that next shift, kid."
Buck scrunched his eyes shut because what a thrilling thing to look forward to. "Can we focus on Eddie right now? Please?"
Bobby grunted. "Fine. Put me on speaker."
Buck inched towards the kitchen counter again, removing the phone from his ear and tapping at the icon. "You're on," he murmured, setting the phone on the counter.
"Diaz!" Bobby barked and Buck wasn't sure if he or Eddie jumped higher at the sudden intrusion of noise and the commanding voice. Buck wasn't even sure he'd ever heard Bobby speak like that on a call. "What are you doing out of bed?"
"I- I- Um- The- I remembered-"
"I don't care what you think you remembered. It can wait until morning."
Buck watched Eddie's face flash with confusion again. "B-But Sir-?"
"Don't but me, Diaz. Get your ass back to bed."
Eddie's mouth opened, clearly warring with himself and whatever he thought he needed to say, before some of the tension in his shoulders deflated and he nodded. "Y-Yes, Sir…"
Buck picked up the phone and followed Eddie as he navigated the corridor. It was incredibly strange to trail after him because Eddie clearly knew how to move through his house even when he was lost in some memory of a warzone years and years ago.
"Dad?"
Eddie's shoulders stiffened, his steps faltering as he reached a hand for the doorframe. "Mijo, what- what are you- I-"
"Diaz, you're in your house. You're not in Afghanistan. Buck, is there a light on?"
There was as soon as Bobby suggested it and then it was Christopher's turn to shrink from the illumination, even as he kept his wide eyes fixed on Eddie. Eddie still looked utterly confused but there was at least some semblance of awareness behind his eyes now. He looked at Buck, brow furrowed.
"Buck?"
"Sounds promising." Under any other circumstances, Buck might've laughed at Bobby being sarcastic.
"Cap?"
"I believe my job here is done," Bobby announced and then there was a click and the phone in Buck's hand was no longer connected to their boss. Buck tried not to think about whether calling Bobby was just going to cause more problems for Eddie long term but…he hadn't known what else to do.
For a long moment, Eddie just looked back and forth between Buck and Chris.
"The- I don't- What's going on?" Eddie said as Chris unfurled from the blankets, holding out his arms to his father. Eddie lowered himself to the bed and leaned in automatically, wrapping his arm around Christopher's body while the kid folded his arms around Eddie's neck.
"You were having a bad dream, Dad," Christopher explained, his little hand patting Eddie's good shoulder and snuggling into his chest. "It's okay now, kid." Chris peered back at Buck. "I told you I could help," he said accusingly, which almost made Buck smile.
Eddie met his gaze over Christopher's shoulder, the shuttering of some emotions and the unbridled terror of others exposed within his eyes. He knew Eddie liked to be in control of himself, and that Eddie liked to conceal how he was doing even more than Buck usually did. It made sense why Eddie was probably internally tearing himself up.
Buck flicked on the bedside lamp and turned off the main room light, the harsh burn lessening the ache behind his eyes. He left his phone on the bedside table and climbed onto the bed, circling Eddie's body with his arms and squashing a giggling Christopher between them.
"I'm so sorry," Eddie whispered as Buck kissed his temple and ran fingers through his hair. "I don't know what happened, Buck. I-"
"We'll talk about it in the morning," he promised, giving a small tilt of his head towards where Christopher was intently staring at Eddie. "Just know you're safe, okay? We've got you."
Eddie nodded, clinging to Chris. When Chris started sagging against both of them which was going to end up becoming uncomfortable during any further attempt at sleep, Buck shifted until Chris was better settled between them and their joined hands were lying against his slowly rising and falling tummy.
"Ev…" Eddie's voice broke as he met Buck's eyes across the slackened face of the kid, lost and scared and nervous and afraid.
"I know, okay?" He circled his thumb around Eddie's knuckles. He had no idea what Eddie would've said but it might've been an apology, or a plea, or a terrified promise, or a fear. None of it really mattered. Nothing mattered as long as Eddie felt safe and secure and loved. "I know. Just… Focus on your breathing and that we're here with you. No one is hurt. Everyone is safe. Alright?"
Eddie gave a jerky sort of nod and held tighter to Buck's hand.
When the sun started to spread golden fingers across the carpet hours later, Buck was pretty sure he hadn't stopped staring at Eddie for the remaining hours of the night. He was pretty sure Eddie hadn't stopped staring at him, either.
"Has it ever happened before?" Buck asked once Carla had collected Christopher to take him to school, allowing Buck to situate himself on the couch and encourage Eddie to lie against him.
"The…sleepwalking-type memory thing?" Eddie said, fingers picking at the cotton of Buck's t-shirt when he nodded. "Yeah. It… It was tough when I first got home. I didn't sleep much for the first six months because I kept thinking there was going to be an attack, that either we were going to get shelled or someone would break in and hurt Shannon and Chris."
Buck ran his fingers through Eddie's hair, letting the words wash over them and trying to provide comfort the only way he knew how.
"Sometimes I- I wonder if that's what broke my relationship with Shannon more than anything else. I kept re-enlisting to avoid coming home to her and Chris because I hated myself so much that I hadn't been there when he was born. After he was diagnosed with CP, I blamed myself for that too because I kept thinking maybe if I'd been home, he wouldn't have gotten stuck." Eddie sighed, giving a small shake of his head to dispel the memories perhaps. "And then… Then I finally got discharged after- after what happened with the team and- It was sort of like she had two children she had to care for, y'know? I couldn't sleep through the night and I couldn't function during the day and so I was home but I still… I wasn't home." Eddie paused and Buck could feel the shuddering heartbeat against his chest. "Does that make sense?"
"Yeah." He ran his thumb over the ridge behind Eddie's ear and over the hinge of his jaw, knowing how it had helped relax him in the past. Sure enough, Eddie released a trembling breath and there was a small increase of his weight against Buck. "It seemed different to my nightmares though? I feel like I'm fully lost in them when I'm asleep and terrified and disoriented when I wake up, but I- I don't think I've ever sleep-walked."
"It's… I'm not aware of anything really that's happening, though," Eddie explained and Buck's eyebrow rose.
"So you don't remember talking to me or Bobby?"
"No." Eddie's voice was quiet and miserable, riddled with guilt and shame.
"So if I said you started taking your clothes off and shaking your ass and singing some lewd-sounding Spanish song, then-"
Eddie managed a small chuckle, shoving lightly at Buck's chest. "You're an ass."
"You like my ass."
"I do, but that's totally not the point right now," Eddie retorted and Buck laughed, twirling bits of Eddie's hair through his fingers.
"Well, we do have a day where Chris is at school…"
"I'm still healing," Eddie groaned, prodding his chest more insistently.
"It's been almost two months. I could do all the work. You just have to lay there."
"I- You-" Eddie's spluttering just made Buck dissolve into more laughter and if nothing else, that seemed to eke out the last bit of tension that lingered in the ladder of Eddie's spine and weigh upon his shoulders. "You're the worst, Buckley."
He dropped a kiss to the top of Eddie's head and grinned. "Yeah, okay. Some other time when we're not so tired."
Eddie hummed, tracing fingertips over the grooves of Buck's ribs which really wasn't doing much for his concentration. "I know you'll want me to talk to Frank after this."
"Would that really be such a bad thing?"
"I…don't like anyone knowing my shit," Eddie admitted and it was hardly a surprise to Buck.
"Not many people do like others knowing about them, but this isn't about you wanting to keep secrets anymore. This is about you finally healing, or about Christopher knowing his Dad is okay." Maybe that was a cruel card to play, but it needed to be said. "You took him to see someone when he was having nightmares after the tsunami. You don't have to deny yourself the same opportunities."
"How are you so wise about this when you refused to see anyone?"
He shrugged, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Monkey see, monkey do. Or in this case…"
"Monkey is a hypocritical ass?"
"See? I knew you liked my ass. That's twice now you've brought it up."
Eddie snorted, poking Buck in the chest again before lapsing into silence. He was still awake, though. His slowly wandering fingers made it clear he hadn't drifted off and it was really pushing the limits of Buck's self-control when he hadn't done anything more with Eddie than chaste kisses for far too long. He knew that the injuries meant some of the lines in Eddie's abdomen had softened when he wasn't able to work out daily and Buck wanted to explore those just as much as he'd done previously.
"I didn't mean to scare you," Eddie said eventually, offering Buck at least some sort of distraction from the touches.
"When?"
"Last night. Or when I got shot. Or the fight club. Or jumping in the pool to save that woman. Or- Well, any time I guess that you've gotten worried about me."
"We're firefighters. We risk our lives all the time."
"I know, but…" Eddie adjusted his head until he could peer up at Buck. "We weren't always like this when I scared you."
"True," Buck conceded, cupping Eddie's jaw. "I do like this better though." He kissed Eddie's forehead, watching the small glow of happiness that resided deep in Eddie's eyes when they could share these sorts of gentle moments.
"And here I thought you liked getting me into bed better."
Buck hummed, low in his throat, and scratched his fingers against Eddie's scalp. "That's very diminishing of how much I simply like being with you."
"I didn't know you were a tree."
He blinked. "A tree?"
"All that sap. Seriously. You're a tree." Eddie was grinning, eyes crinkled at the corners and dimples on full display, and Buck couldn't think up a witty response and that was almost worse than being called a fucking tree.
"I will tickle you," he threatened, placing a hand against Eddie's stomach and making Eddie twitch away from him with a laugh.
"You'd have to catch me first."
"Catch you?" Buck rolled his eyes and cinched his legs tighter around Eddie's. "You won't even get off the couch, Diaz."
"Tragic," Eddie said with a melodramatic toss of his head that made Buck smile. He wasn't ignoring that Eddie needed to talk to Frank about everything that was clearly still affecting him, or that under all the jokes there was still an undercurrent that Eddie wasn't okay. Last night had proven that and neither of them were stupid enough to dismiss it.
"I'm sorry. Did I misunderstand and you actually want to get off the couch?"
"I tend to find a bigger expanse of space is useful if I have to lay there while someone does all the- oof."
Okay, so Buck hadn't really meant to topple Eddie off the couch and onto the floor but it at least terminated the end of the sentence that almost certainly sent heat and crackles of lightning through his veins that he knew he couldn't act on because Eddie's arm was still in a cast and until that was gone, he hadn't gotten enough of an okay to do anything.
"What was that for?" Eddie pouted as he got to his feet and rubbed a hand against his knee.
"You gotta stop talking about that until you're cleared for it or I'll die over here," he complained and Eddie flashed him a grin.
"I'll make sure I ask at my next check-up, just for you, babe."
Buck smacked Eddie with the nearest pillow and then used it to cover up his flushed face, if only to drown out Eddie's laughter.
Eddie was officially cleared for some 'light physical activity' two weeks later when the cast was finally cut away. Buck moved heaven and earth to reorganise his shifts so he could get the following Saturday off and Eddie organised with his Abuela to take care of Christopher for the weekend.
And then it was just the two of them. Alone. All weekend. With a perfectly wonderful bed. And a shower.
Buck didn't even think he could find it in him to care or complain when he saw Hen pocket a handful of notes that Chim and Bobby passed her. He was almost prepared to go over and give her a few notes of his own.
~TBC~
