"This is fantastic! You have to give me the recipe sometime, Athena!" Buck gushed over dinner.
"We'll see about that, Buckaroo. That right there is my grandmother's recipe. I can't just give it out to everyone, you know," she teased him.
"Of course not! But that doesn't mean you can't give it to me," he said with a wink.
As their bantering continued, he started to notice that something seemed wrong. He was feeling hot and almost out of breath. It didn't make sense though. He wasn't working out or anything, he was just eating dinner at Athena and Bobby's.
He was distracted by trying to figure out what was wrong, and didn't respond to Athena.
"Buck, are you okay kid?" Bobby asked him.
He shook his head to try and refocus, but regretted it pretty quick when it made him feel a bit dizzy.
"I-I'm okay," he managed.
Athena umm-hmmed at him before getting up from her spot to stand by him.
"Look at me," she said as she went to feel his forehead.
"He's burning up, Bobby. He wasn't like this a minute ago," she told him.
Bobby hurried over to take a look at him too.
"I th-think something's wrong with me," he managed to wheeze out.
"I think you're right, kiddo. Athena, I think we should take him to the ER to get him checked out, make sure it's nothing serious," Bobby said.
She nodded in agreement. She went to grab the car keys from the counter, "I'll go start the car!"
Bobby helped him stand up, and he had to put most of his weight on him to manage to get outside to the car. He ended up almost falling into the backseat, and barely managed to strap in before falling asleep.
When he woke up, he was being moved onto a stretcher.
"What?" he mumbled.
"Buck, can you hear me honey?" Athena asked him.
"'Thena?"
"Yes, Buckaroo. Stay with us, okay. Try and stay awake."
"Okay," he agreed.
He couldn't focus properly. Doctors and nurses were buzzing around him. Throwing needles into his arms, checking his vitals, trying to ask him questions that he couldn't understand. Bobby kept stepping in and answering what he could.
Eventually, his thoughts managed to clear up and he didn't feel like his stomach was going to cramp itself into a pile of chopped up mush.
"It was an allergic reaction," the doctor explained later.
He shook his head in disbelief. "But I'm not allergic to anything, how could it have been an allergic reaction?"
The doctor had a few printouts of information to give him about food allergies and how to avoid reactions in the future.
"It's entirely possible that it just developed, it happens sometimes as you grow older. That, or you just managed to be lucky in the past."
Athena was holding a cup of coffee between her hands and was watching the doctor.
"Any idea what he's allergic to?" she asked.
The doctor looked at his computer, where he had his test results pulled up.
"It appears to be coconut, though sometimes coconut allergies can be cross-linked to other allergens like hazelnuts. You'll want to be careful if you try and reintegrate those back into your diet," the doctor warned.
Athena shook her head. "But I didn't even put coconut in the dish!"
"Well, sometimes coconut can be a sneaky ingredient. You have to really pay attention to food labels to find it, and even then it's not one of the most common allergens, so it's not always listed on nutrition labels. Even if you couldn't taste it, it was likely in there. An ingredient you used likely had some coconut oil in it. This pamphlet will have more information on keywords to look for in nutrition labels that you'll want to avoid."
It ended up being an adjustment. He had to start carrying an epipen around with him in case he accidentally ate coconut again. He deep cleaned his cabinets, and got plenty of practice going through nutritional labels looking for every form of coconut. He had to get rid of his mixes for pina coladas. He had to get rid of the last few Almond Joys he had leftover from Halloween.
It sucked.
Then, they had to do the same thing at the Fire Station. With how severe his reaction had been, they didn't want to take the chance of anything getting cross-contaminated with the family dinners.
Unfortunately, things didn't go smoothly just because they cleaned out the cabinets. He learned the hard way that his shampoo had coconut in it, and ended up with a painful rash on his head and shoulders. Though luckily Benadryl managed to be enough for that one.
The next problem actually popped up when he went out with Christopher and Eddie to the movie theaters. They grabbed one of the little kid trays for Christopher, and then him and Eddie shared a bucket of popcorn.
Just like any other time they had gone to the movies, they started tearing into the popcorn as soon as the previews turned on. But, this time, something was wrong. He felt it again. The tightening in his chest and his gut. The heat beginning to overwhelm him. His throat felt like it was closing in on him. He clutched Eddie's thigh like it was a lifeline.
"Buck? Are you okay?" Eddie asked him.
His lack of answer was enough to spur Eddie into action. He quickly began going into medic mode, and soon realized that he was having another allergic reaction. In seconds, he was being jabbed in the leg by his best friend and was hurried out of the theater.
Eddie quickly got to work asking an employee to call for an ambulance before distracting Christopher with candy.
"How are you doing, Buck?" Eddie asked.
"Peachy," he said with a wince.
Eddie gave a quiet chuckle.
"Hang in there, man. They'll be here soon. Did you eat anything besides the popcorn?" Eddie asked.
He shook his head. He hadn't wanted to get any candy this go around, and he had already checked the ingredients to make sure the pop was fine.
One of the workers walked up to them then.
"Sorry, I couldn't help but listen in, but you had an allergic reaction right? Can I ask what it is you're allergic to?" he asked them.
"Coconuts apparently. But all I ate was the popcorn, so I guess there's something new now," he groaned.
The worker just shook his head, "That makes sense, actually. We use coconut oil in our butter. It's pretty normal with theater popcorn, you'll want to ask about it in the future if you want to get popcorn again."
Him and Eddie just exchanged a look. Really? The popcorn? The. Popcorn. How does this even happen?
Before either of them could get put together enough to find a manager to yell at about not warning anyone about the coconut oil, the ambulance arrived.
Eddie waved them over before giving them all the necessary background information.
"Hey, I'll see you soon kid. Take care of your dad for me," he told Christopher before he was taken out of the lobby.
"Bye Buck!" they waved to him.
He pouted the whole ride to the hospital.