"Hey."
Hen looked up from where she was looking at her phone while sitting at the dining table, relaxing after a team family Thanksgiving dinner. Eddie was standing in front of her, holding out a glass of wine. With a smile, she gratefully took the glass as he placed her phone back down on the table. Eddie sat back down next to her, beer in hand. Chimney was sitting on her other side while Athena, Michael and Karen sat across from them, with Bobby at the head of the table between Eddie and Athena.
It has been a week since Buck had been shot at the firehouse while protecting Denny from the same fate. He was still in the hospital, still in a coma. The team had spent the last week sitting at his bedside, when Maddie wasn't there. Once she had learned the truth of the last three weeks and what her brother went through, she had tried banning them from his room. When learning that Bobby and Eddie were his emergency contacts, and that Eddie was actually his power of attorney (that had been a surprise to Eddie too), so instead Maddie had made a schedule for when she would be sitting with her brother where she didn't want any of them around. They made sure to listen to her, and today she was sitting with her brother.
Once Athena, Maddie and Karen, and even Michael, had heard what had been going on at the station they had been beyond angry with their family. Athena had had an inkling after her talk with Bobby and May that first night after it had happened, but learning more and more, she couldn't believe she hadn't stepped in to stop things from escalating like they had. Maddie had moved herself back into her own apartment and told Chimney she needed a break from him, while though Karen was sticking by Hen's side, she was also not exactly speaking to Hen. Michael on the other hand couldn't believe what had been going on at all from both sides.
"How's Denny doing?" Chimney asked, looking between Hen and Karen.
They had kept any serious conversation away from dinner as May and the three boys had been sitting with them but now that dinner was done, the boys had all ran off to Harry's room while May had been picked up by some friends to head to the mall. It was for the best, none of the boys seemed to fully understand why their parents were suddenly home all the time. Because of the investigation into the A-shift since the shooting, the whole shift had been suspended until further notice. They had all each had two separate interviews with the brass for the investigation as they determined who was at fault and for what.
They all knew they would be lucky to keep their jobs, whether they stayed at the 118 or were transferred to another station.
"As good as he can be," Karen sighed as she sat back in her chair, wine glass in hand. "He had his first session with Dr. Lin a few days ago."
"Has he started talking?" Bobby asked, stirring his cup of coffee.
Hen shook her head, "Not yet. We ask him questions but he just shrugs or ignores us completely."
"It's going to take some time," Athena said sadly. "What he witnessed was horrible."
"Dr. Lin says he just needs time to process." Karen nodded in agreement.
"We're all adults and we're still processing what happened." Eddie mumbled, looking down at his hands on the table. "I can't imagine being eight years old having to go through this."
Athena nodded, "Explaining it to Harry was hard. We didn't want to but knew we had to explain it so he wouldn't say something to trigger Denny just in case."
"Thank you," Hen smiled at Athena, it never reached her eyes.
"How has Christopher taken the news?" Chimney asked, leaning forward slightly in order to look down the table at Eddie.
"He uh–" Eddie swallowed the lump in his throat. "He doesn—"
He was cut off by a shout from Harry's room and all the adults turned in their seats to look into the living room. Christopher was making his way towards them with Harry right behind him, trying to talk to him. Eddie was instantly on his feet and at his son's side, kneeling down in front of him when he saw that Christopher had tears running down his cheeks.
"Mijo, what's wrong?"
"I want to–" Christopher hiccupped, "to go home."
"Hey, okay. Just tell me what's wrong, first. What happened?" Eddie reached out for Christopher but the boy flinched away from him.
"I want to go home."
"Harry," Michael asked as the rest of the adults joined them in the middle of the living room. "What happened?"
Harry looked at Christopher before holding up a piece of paper towards his father. "We were coloring."
Michael took the paper and looked down at it, Athena and Bobby moving to either side of him to get a look at it. Athena gasped when she saw that it was a drawing from the shooting, with a clear puddle of blood surrounding a body laying at the bottom of the page. They could easily see the body was Buck with the pink smudge above of the left eye.
"Harry?"
"That's Denny's drawing." Harry was frowning. "I asked him why he was drawing that but he didn't answer me. Then Christopher got upset." Harry looked at Eddie, "I didn't know he didn't know what happened to Buck."
Eddie closed his eyes and bowed his head with a hollow sigh.
"You lied to me."
Eddie opened his eyes and looked back up at Christopher. The boy was watching him, tears still streaming down his face, his chest puffing up with slightly too quick breaths.
"Chris–"
"You told me everyone was fine." Christopher hiccupped again. "You lied to me."
"I was trying to protect you."
Christopher shook his head, his eyes wide and looking so much like Buck in that moment that Eddie wanted to cry himself. He couldn't believe how many mannerisms his son had picked up from the other man in the year they've known him and right now it was clear Christopher was channeling one of those mannerisms. Eddie watched out of the corner of his eye as Denny stepped through the living room and right to where Hen and Karen were standing, now holding the picture their son had drawn, tears in their own eyes.
"We're so sorry, Eddie." Karen started to say.
Eddie shook his head as he continued looking at his son. "You didn't know. This is my fault. Chris is right, I lied to him. I should have told him what had happened." He reached out a hand towards the boy and this time Christopher allowed him to take hold of his shoulder. "I am so sorry, Christopher. I really was trying to protect you until we knew for sure he was going to be okay."
"Is he?"
Eddie nodded, "He's fighting."
"I want to see him."
"Mijo–"
"Please."
"He's not going to be awake," Eddie sighed, reaching out his other hand to pull Christopher closer to him. "Mijo, Buck's body needs time to heal so the doctor's put him to sleep in order for it to do that. We don't know when he'll wake up."
There was a ding behind him but Eddie ignored it as he concentrated on his son.
"As soon as he's awake, I promise, as long as he's up for it I will make sure you see him."
"Um, Eddie–" Bobby stepped up next to him, causing Eddie to look up at him. "He's awake."
Murmurs rushed through the living room as Bobby held up his phone.
"Maddie just texted. He woke an hour ago," Bobby stated, turning his attention to Hen and Karen as they hugged Denny to them, "His first question was asking if Denny was okay."
Eddie opened and closed his mouth a few times as he turned his attention back to Christopher, the boy was watching him. A hand landed on Eddie's shoulder from Bobby. Eddie took a deep breath before nodding and standing up.
He turned to look at Bobby, "Will Maddie be mad if we broke her rule just this once?"
Bobby smiled and shook his phone. "She's already said we can all come see him. He asked if everyone else was okay too. I guess she told him we've all been sitting with him daily and he wants to see us."
"That's good right?" Chimney asked.
"Let's hope so." Athena stated, wrapping her arms around Harry.
It took almost a half hour before they were all out of the doors and getting into their cars, heading for the hospital. Athena had texted May to let her know that Buck was awake - and getting a text back that Maddie had already contacted her and that she was on her way to the hospital herself now. Everyone was happy Buck was awake, happy to be going to see him, but also nervous. They didn't know what was going to happen from this point on.