Chapter 3: You Healed My Heart and My Life
As predicted (and counted on), Christopher and both of Mari's boys are fighting sleep almost as soon as the dessert dishes are cleared, even though they all seem to think that now is the perfect time to pull out Abuela's Monopoly Junior board game. Christopher is trying his best to stifle a yawn but Eddie catches on immediately (mostly because Christopher hasn't quite figured out that it's possible to yawn quietly just yet).
"Hey guys, I don't think we have time to play any more games tonight. It's getting late and you all have school tomorrow," Drew, Mari's husband, intervenes before they can start setting up the game. A quick look between him, Mari and Eddie confirms they all know the game will devolve into an argument with tears and hurt feelings this close to bedtime.
"It's not even dark yet!" Protests Luke, Mari and Drew's oldest.
"I'm not tired," adds Christopher, which is a blatant lie because Christopher doesn't even try to hide his next yawn.
"Sorry guys, us old folks need to get home and get to bed and we're your rides so you're coming with us," declares Mari, moving toward the door.
Eddie knows she's just saying that to get the kids moving, but it couldn't be more accurate. It's been a ridiculously long day with not enough sleep and too many people, no matter how much he loves them all. Eddie's ready for a low key night in his own home to recharge after this past weekend. It doesn't help that these last few hours have been an emotional rollercoaster for him and his conversation with Sophia and Mari has been simmering in the back of his mind all night. He needs some down time to think through everything.
Luckily Christopher doesn't put up a fight, but he does get in a dig at Eddie about being old. It doesn't take Eddie long to say goodbye to his family or get Christopher settled into the truck. Mari and Drew are right behind them. While Drew is getting their boys settled, Eddie pulls Mari aside.
"Thanks again for your help with Christopher today. I owe you big time."
"Are you kidding me? Christopher kept my boys so occupied I think I actually got more time to myself last night," Mari laughs.
"I still owe you one. Let me take the boys one night so you and Drew can have a night to yourselves or something."
"Deal," Mari quickly agrees.
"You can have them for the whole weekend if you want!" Drew calls from the other side of the car, clearly on board with this idea.
"Hell, you can invite Buck too," Mari suggests, waggling an eyebrow at him. Eddie can feel his cheeks getting warm at her implications. "The boys do keep asking when he's coming to dinner again."
"He would definitely keep the kids busy, that's for sure."
"Dad, let's go!" Christopher calls impatiently from the car.
"Just saying goodbye to your Tía Mari," Eddie calls back.
"You're taking longer than Bobby to say goodbye!" Christopher grumbles. Eddie and Mari share an understanding look, both having been at the mercy of tired and impatient kids multiple times before.
"You okay after everything that happened these past few days?" Mari asks, giving him one more hug.
"I will be," he promises her. "Just need a little time."
Eddie calls out a quick goodbye to Drew before he double checks that Christopher is correctly buckled in before finally heading home for the night.
"Okay mijo, go grab your backpack. Let's make sure you have everything packed for school tomorrow," Eddie says as he unlocks their front door. Thankfully Christopher doesn't argue and goes right to his bedroom to get his backpack, even if he does roll his eyes a bit. Eddie would take it personally except for the fact that he knows Christopher's math homework is still sitting on the kitchen table. While Christopher is getting his backpack, Eddie makes sure the house is locked up for the night then heads to the kitchen to pack Chris's lunch.
"I've got everything," announces Chris with an annoyed sigh that says he still can't believe his dad is making him check his backpack before school every night.
"Everything?" Eddie gives his son a pointed look.
"Yes." Christopher gives him an even more annoyed look than before.
"So I'm not going to get a panicked phone call asking me to bring your math homework to school tomorrow morning?" Eddie darts his eyes toward the table and Christopher follows his line of sight.
"Not anymore," Christopher mumbles, grabbing the worksheet and adding it to his backpack. Eddie bites back the "I told you so" that's on the tip of his tongue. It never went well when he heard it from his own parents and it won't do Christopher any good to hear it either. His job is to give Christopher the skills to become independent, not belittle him when he needs time to practice them.
"Apple juice or fruit punch?" Eddie holds up two juice boxes for Chris to choose from.
"Apple please." Eddie adds the apple juice to the lunch box. "Can I have Oreos too?"
"Do you even have to ask?" Eddie pretends to be offended then ruffles Christopher's hair. That's enough to get a tired but genuine smile out of him. Eddie finishes packing Chris's lunchbox (Oreos included) and puts it back in the fridge while Christopher puts his backpack in its spot by the door.
"Can we watch a movie tonight?" asks Christopher hopefully.
Eddie is positive Christopher knows it's almost bedtime and asking for a movie is just a delay tactic. Eddie is also positive that, movie or not, Christopher's gonna be fast asleep before bedtime anyway.
"Only if you brush your teeth and change into pajamas first," Eddie bargains. He's at least gotta make Christopher think he needs to work for this a little bit. "And we read two chapters of your book tomorrow night to make up for it."
Christopher readily accepts the deal and hustles off to his room to get ready for bed and Eddie figures he might as well do the same. One glance at the overflowing laundry basket in his closet reminds him that he never actually did the laundry he needed to do this weekend. A nearly empty dresser drawer confirms that he really should have gotten around to it sooner. He changes into an old concert t-shirt and grabs the only pair of pants left in the drawer. He doesn't remember buying them so he's not even sure they're his. After pulling them on and realizing they're slightly too long and loose, he's pretty sure they're actually Buck's. Too bad he can't remember why Buck's clothing is in his dresser.
He can still hear Christopher moving around in his room getting ready for bed so he makes himself comfortable on the couch and pulls out his phone while he waits. He's got a text from Carly letting him know that she and Ash made it home safely (he replies with a thumbs up), a few more texts from Hen and Bobby that he ignores (he swears he'll look at them tomorrow) and a selfie from Mari making a sad face. In the background of the photo, he can see that both of Mari's boys are fast asleep in the backseat of the car. He quickly replies wishing her and Drew good luck getting the boys into the house without waking them up. Mari almost immediately replies with a thumbs down and he winces in sympathy. He's just grateful that Chris didn't crash on the ride home.
He switches his phone to Do Not Disturb for the night and starts browsing DisneyPlus for movie options. He's looking for something familiar and short just in case Chris does manage to stay awake through the whole movie.
Almost immediately his phone lights up with a call from Buck, one of the few people who isn't blocked by Do Not Disturb.
He doesn't hesitate to answer. "Hey. How's babysitting?"
"Jee Yun's as adorable as ever." Eddie can hear the smile in Buck's voice when he talks about his niece. He is absolutely the doting uncle. "You gotta see this picture I took of her tonight."
Eddie's phone beeps with a new text a few seconds later and he has to admit that Buck is right. Jee Yun is especially adorable in the picture, sleeping with one tiny little fist balled up right under her chin. "Who'd have thought that Chimney would ever have such a cute kid, right?" Eddie chuckles.
"It's the Buckley genes," jokes Buck.
"Must be," agrees Eddie. He cringes and hopes Buck doesn't read anything into that comment.
"Is that Buck?" whispers Christopher when he comes back into the living room all set to watch the movie. Eddie nods and gestures for him to come get comfortable on the couch too.
"We got interrupted earlier today so I never got to ask how you were dealing with the whole breakup thing. Wanna grab a beer tomorrow, play a few rounds of darts or something?"
And yeah, that actually sounds like a damn good offer. Too bad he's gotta say no. "Raincheck? I'm taking Chris and Cody to the zoo tomorrow after school. You should come with us, though. We can go to the park and hit up some food trucks or something afterward for dinner." Eddie probably should have checked with Christopher first before inviting Buck along, but the way Chris is grinning and nodding, he figures he'll be forgiven for not asking first.
"Don't you think it'd be weird if some random guy was tagging along?"
Eddie barely holds back a laugh. Is that really how Buck sees himself? As just some random guy? Oh hell no.
"It's Cody. His moms like you and you've met them half a dozen times. By now you've probably met all of Christopher's friends and their parents anyway. You could never be just some random guy. Now, do I have to put Christopher on the phone to convince you?"
"Okay, I'm in. But you should definitely put Chris on so I can say goodnight to him."
Eddie laughs and hands his phone to Chris, who excitedly starts telling Buck all about his sleepover with his cousins last night and everything he wants to see at the zoo tomorrow. He loves seeing Chris this excited. There's no way he can risk losing this.
"Okay. Goodnight Buck." Christopher ends the call and hands the phone back.
"That was quick."
"Yeah. Jee Yun was crying. She's loud!"
"So were you," teases Eddie, lightly poking Chris's shoulder.
"Not that loud," Chris mutters. Eddie chuckles and hands Chris the remote to finally choose a movie.
While the opening credits roll, Chris wraps his blanket around his shoulders and tucks himself in next to Eddie. He knows it won't be long before Chris decides he's too old or too cool to hang out with his dad, let alone curl up with him on the couch like this so he'll enjoy every opportunity he gets until then.
They're not very far into the movie when Chris speaks again, his voice sounding heavier with sleep than it was before. "Dad?"
"What's up, mijo?"
"Is your friend Jordan coming to the zoo with us tomorrow too?"
That's the last question Eddie expects from Chris. He'd only mentioned Jordan a few times in passing when Chris asked who he was hanging out with and he'd deliberately not mentioned anything about dating. That was a bigger conversation he still wasn't quite sure how to have with Chris. "No. I don't think Jordan and I are gonna hang out anymore."
"Why not?"
"Friendship is complicated. Sometimes adults are only friends for a little bit before they drift apart again."
"Is that gonna happen with Buck?" Eddie definitely catches the worry in Chris's voice when he asks that.
"Never," Eddie hurries to reassure him. "We're keeping Buck forever."
"Good." Chris confidently nods his head once. "You're happier when Buck's around."
That's two unexpected comments from Chris tonight and Eddie's not sure how to respond. He takes a few seconds to make sure he can keep his voice neutral when he asks, "I am, huh?"
Chris rolls his eyes and sighs like he thought they were done with this conversation and shouldn't Eddie already know this because they're his feelings? But Chris takes pity on his dad and answers the question anyway. "You smile more." Chris goes back to watching the movie like he didn't just say something that Eddie's going to be dwelling on for the foreseeable future.
It doesn't take long for Chris to start nodding off. Soon he's stretched out across the whole couch with his head in Eddie's lap. He's snoring softly before the movie is even half over. Eddie should move him to his own bed but moments like this are getting fewer and further between now that Chris is getting older. He wants to enjoy this moment for a little bit longer. He stops the movie and puts on Brooklyn Nine Nine instead though. This is exactly what he needs to recharge after the past few days.
In the middle of one of the Halloween heist episodes, his phone beeps with an incoming text. It's a photo from Buck. In it, he's laid out on Chim and Maddie's couch with one arm up in the air to take the photo and the other curled protectively around Jee Yun, who is fast asleep on his chest. He looks completely smitten with his niece. Eddie's phone beeps again with another text.
I think I'm stuck. Don't send help.
Eddie chuckles and taps out his own message. Couldn't even if you wanted me to. He sends a photo back of Christopher sleeping half in his lap.
Buck replies with a smiling emoji immediately followed up by another text. Are those my sweatpants?
Shit!
He forgot he was probably wearing Buck's sweats. It's definitely weird and ignoring the question just makes it weirder. At least the truth is on his side this time. I don't know, are they? They were the only clean sweats I had. Ran out of time to do laundry this weekend.
His phone beeps with another response. He glances at Christopher and switches his phone to silent so the constant text alerts don't wake him up.
I think I lent them to you last time we went hiking.
After we got caught in that thunderstorm.
Oh yeah. Buck lent him some dry clothes to wear while their hiking stuff was in the dryer but he'd needed to pick Christopher up from school before everything was dry. You're right. I'll wash them and get them back to you.
No hurry. Buck's reply is immediate. Eddie can practically see him shrugging as he sends it. There's a pause before Buck's next message comes in. How you doing?
Eddie knows he's asking about the breakup. He just doesn't know what to say exactly. After a few minutes and more than a few half-completed and deleted texts, he finally settles on an answer. Glad it happened before we got serious.
Buck follows up with three more messages.
Still sucks though.
What happened?
Only if you want to get into it.
It's really fucking tempting to take the out that Buck is offering him. But as much as he prefers not to talk, he's getting better at not keeping everything bottled up. He definitely did more drinking than talking with Ash and Carly last night and he'd had other things on his mind at dinner tonight with Mari and Sophia. And this is Buck. The one person he actually wants to talk to. Talking doesn't seem quite so difficult when it's Buck.
Can I call you after I get Chris to bed? Or would that wake up Jee Yun?
Buck immediately responds with a thumbs up.
Eddie gingerly slides out from under Christopher and scoops him up. He stirs but doesn't fully wake up as Eddie settles him into bed and he thanks his lucky stars for that.
"I love you, mijo," he whispers, kissing Chris's forehead and setting his glasses on the nightstand. He quietly slips out of the room and closes the door behind him a few minutes later when he's sure that Christopher is fast asleep again.
He grabs a glass of water from the kitchen and gets settled back on the couch. Buck answers on the first ring and Eddie wouldn't be surprised if his phone was still in his hand.
"Still nap trapped by Jee Yun?"
"Yep." Buck doesn't sound the least bit put out over that though.
"You sure you're good to talk? We're not gonna wake her up?"
"Nah. Maddie says she can sleep through anything if she's sleeping on top of someone."
"Sounds rough," jokes Eddie.
"Oh, real rough," Buck agrees, clearly loving every second of it. Jee Yun doesn't know it yet but she won the lottery when she got Buck for an uncle. "You doing okay?" Buck asks again, all jokes aside.
"Mostly. Turns out tequila is pretty helpful."
"Is it though?" Buck laughs, his skepticism coming through loud and clear.
"It was last night," Eddie confirms.
"Ash's idea?"
"Team effort between her and Carly this time."
"Figures," Buck and Eddie both laugh at that, all too familiar with the kind of trouble those two can cause. "So what were you and Jordan fighting about?" Buck asks, bringing their conversation back to where it was when they got interrupted earlier today.
"A lot of things, actually." Eddie takes a sip of his water to buy time to figure out how to say what he wants to say next without accidentally outing himself again. There are still some things about the fight he's not ready to share with Buck yet, especially Jordan's idiotic 'pick a side' comment. He ends up saying, "apparently Jordan hates kids and never wants them."
"Jordan knows about Christopher though, right?" There isn't a trace of judgement in Buck's voice, just concern.
"Yeah. Told Jordan about him before the first date. Jordan said we could 'probably figure something out about that' when I brought that up yesterday." Eddie practically spits Jordan's words out and needs to take a few deep breaths to calm down again.
The sound that Buck makes in response definitely confirms Eddie's earlier prediction that Buck would be indignant on Christopher's behalf. "Kids are not a problem to be figured out. Screw Jordan. You and Christopher deserve much better."
"Thanks, man." Eddie doesn't need the validation that he made the right choice but it's still nice to hear it anyway.
"Did Chris ever meet Jordan?"
"Hell no. As far as Chris knows I just had a new friend I was hanging out with. He did ask if Jordan was coming to the zoo with us tomorrow and didn't seem super disappointed when I said we weren't gonna hang out anymore." That's not exactly how the conversation went but Buck doesn't need to know the exact details. That would open the door to things that Eddie isn't ready to talk about just yet. And definitely not over the phone at the end of a long day.
Buck is apparently satisfied that Eddie really is okay after the breakup, if the way he easily switches to talking about their trip to the zoo instead is any indication. Eddie's good with that. He's talked about his feelings enough for one day, anyway. They barely get their plans finalized before Buck is yawning and clearly struggling to stay awake.
"Go to sleep, Buck," Eddie orders softly. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Nah, I'm good."
"Liar." Eddie knows Buck has to be exhausted. They spent the whole day responding to emergencies and Eddie knows the rest of the 118 had a middle-of-the-night call that kept them busy until right before he got to work today. Couple that with babysitting tonight and there's no way Buck will be awake much longer. "Now go to sleep."
"Fine," mumbles Buck. Eddie ends the call and he's sure that Buck will be asleep in no time. He's willing to bet that Chimney will be passing around a photo of Buck and Jee Yun sleeping on the couch during their next shift showing off his adorable daughter and teasing Buck at the same time.
Eddie figures he'll watch a few more episodes of Brooklyn Nine Nine before he heads to bed himself. The last thing he expects is a knock on his front door. The only person who ever comes over this late is Buck, and he never bothers knocking. He sets his glass on the coffee table and goes to see who it is. He swings the door open to find Hen standing on his front step holding up a six-pack of beer with a grin on her face.
"What the hell are you doing here? It's almost ten o'clock."
"This is what you get when you ignore my texts. I warned you I was coming over if you didn't respond."
"At least you brought beer?" he says weakly, too surprised to do anything but step aside to let Hen in.
Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed chapter 3. One more chapter in this story left to go after this.
The high temperature today was still below zero and your reviews keep me warm so send some thoughts my way if you feel so inclined. They will be much appreciated.