He's not sure how long he slept for the one thing he knows is the screaming coming from down the hall is Chris. But before he can get up and move he can hear Abuela talking and his screams stop. He felt bad he didn't get to him, but in the same way he was glad Abuela had.
It wasn't Chris's fault that Shannon had left for good now, but it was still sore, yes he didn't love her but they were close at one point. He looks to the side draw next to the door and sees a glass of water and some food, his stomach rumbles.
He walks towards the door and sees the sandwich and takes a bite and drinks some water, he opens the door and walks towards Chris's room and sees the light on and Abuela humming a song and he smiles.
"I remember that song, my mother used to sing it to me." He says quietly.
"Where you think she learnt it from." She chuckles softly as she tucks Chris back under the covers.
They both quietly leave the room and head to the kitchen. He slowly moves around and starts the kettle and gets 2 cups.
"Sorry I fell asleep." He says.
"It's fine, after what I heard that vile woman say I knew you needed time to relax, especially after the long day at work and you're still recovering." She says taking a seat.
"Yeah, guess you heard what she's done with regards to Chris?" He asks.
"I did, I mean when I mentioned it I was joking, but this is good, you can do things and not have to wait for her to give a yes or no to it." Abuela states.
"It's true, but it now means I have to explain to Chris his mother won't be around anymore." Eddie says with a sigh.
It was already hard enough when Chris was here but now it would be even harder, he really needed to find someone to help around, ease the pressure off Abuela and himself.
"What are you thinking about?We can sort it and make it work." Abuela says.
"Just how we need to find someone to help out and yes I know before you say anything you were right, but just not my parents." Eddie chuckles.
"We can cope for now, but when you start back doing full time shifts we will need someone, I can look on the internet tomorrow." Abuela says, and Eddie starts laughing to which Abuela hits him.
"I can ask when I'm at work, I mean we have people who come in from the health department so they may be able to help." Eddie explains.
She hums at him and they drink quietly for a while but Eddie hears his phone go off and again. He figures it's most likely Shannon giving him more shit. He can see Abuela looking at him like she wants to know who was massaging him.
He goes to his room and grabs his phone and sees messages but not from Shannon but from Buck. So Eddie opens it and is greeted by a photo of Buck in his full firefighter gear. It looked dirty and Buck had black marks on his head too. Eddie smiled. Was Buck doing it because of what Abuela had said or just showing he was at work still, he then looked at the message.
'Hey, just got back from a big fire, as you can see haha I know I could have just said so but wanted to give you a proper picture to use as my profile pic ;), hope you are having a good night, tell your Abuela the team want more treats, but I did explain I have save you again to get them. Sorry for the long message.'
Eddie smiles and does save the picture and set it as Buck's contact picture, he decided it was only fair to reply, he quickly went to his wardrobe and grabbed a box and pulled the jacket out and smiled, he stood up and took his vest off and placed the jacket on and stood in front of the mirror and took it, before he could think he hit send, and then added a message.
'Looks like it was a messy night, I have had a rough night, ex was well I won't go into it, I'm currently looking through my old gear as I got a fancy dress party coming up. Well I best be heading to bed soon as I got an early start at work and only till 2pm. Hope your night goes well.'
Eddie felt bad he had lied about the party and even worse for the picture he sent but he needed something distracting him, he started to think maybe he should delete it before Buck had time to read it, he didn't want to come across to forward especially with his body sort of on show.
But it was too late the blue ticks appeared and Eddie could feel his cheeks go red, he quickly took the jacket off and pulled his vest on and walked to the kitchen, his eyes on his phone waiting for the three dots to stop and the reply to come through.
"Well something or someone has your attention." Abuela chuckles.
"Yeh, Louise asking how today went." Eddie replies as he looks at the screen, whatever Buck was writing it was either long or deleting what he was writing to figure the best way to reply.
"Ah, how is she? Will she be working with you soon?" Abuela asks, making him look up.
"She's fine, not sure I will ask, but don't think she will want to be in a post office for a while." Eddie replies, he should really message her.
There was still no message from Buck so Eddie quickly sends a message to Louise and then locks his phone and puts it down. They go back to drinking. This is why he loved Abuela. She knew how much he hated talking so was happy to just sit with him and not push for any conversation sometimes.
"How are you with it all then?" She asks.
"To be honest not sure, I mean till I submit the documents with my lawyer I guess it's not official, so she could still come back, use it as one big mind game." Eddie states.
"I wouldn't put it past her, best thing is when you finish tomorrow go to a lawyer and get it submitted, I'm sure you have one or two who use the post office." She suggests.
"Yeah, well it's getting late, best head bed as work calls." Eddie chuckles, "what will you and Chris do tomorrow?" Eddie asks, realizing Chris is not back in school for a few days and Abuela was taking Eddie to work.
"It's sorted, we will drop you at work then head to my house as I have some bit's to sort, so your cousin will be there to look after Chris and then we will see where the day goes, told you I have it sorted now go bed, we all know how grumpy you are if you don't get enough sleep." She chuckles.
"Always sorted. Night." Eddie says and slowly makes his way to the bedroom.
As the door shuts his phone starts to ring and the picture of Buck appears, Eddie was nervous at first, texting was one thing especially since Buck had not replied to the photo even though the typing logo had been going for ages and just disappeared. Maybe he wanted to tell Eddie speaking, if it meant no awkward conversions at work he will gladly do it now.
"Hey Buck, I wasn't expecting a call." Eddie says as he answers the call.
"Well, I couldn't think what to reply with so thought it would be a better call, plus I'm kinda bored as I wait for the next call." Buck explains, Eddie notices the lack of mention of said photo to which he was glad.
"Don't you have work friends to talk to?" Eddie questions.
"Yeah, but they all want to rest and I just want someone to chat too, hope you don't mind?" Buck asks
Eddie thinks for a second, it was weird he didn't really know Buck just from the few brief meetings but he seemed harmless enough and he could do with the distraction.
"No it's all good, I was heading to bed but I can spare half an hour." Eddie says as he climbs on to the bed.
"Oh, I can leave you to it, sorry to bother you." Buck replies, and there was something that tugged at his heart, do people make him feel like he bothers them, well not on his watch.
"Buck, I just said it's fine, you're no bother, so go for it." Eddie replies and he hears a gasp.
"Cool, thanks, so what happened with the ex?" Buck asks.
"Long story short, my ex, she handed me divorce papers and sole custody of our kid to me, so all good fun." Eddie finds himself blurting out. "Sorry, I didn't put that on you. Moving on, tell me, are you a sports fan?" Eddie tried to change the subject.
"Definitely messy, but sorry to hear that, her loss though and I'm sure you will do right by your kid. I like baseball and soccer. Yes, I know what you're going to say, but I watched it in Mexico and got hooked." Buck responds.
"He is a joy, I just hope I can give him what he wants, he has CP so it can be hard, and now being a single dad I need to look for care aid as my Abuela can't be looking after him. Soccer eh, who's your team?" Eddie asks.
He wasn't going to admit it to anyone, but he was scared he was going to let Chris down especially with regards to getting him the support he needed but Eddie would do his best no matter the cost. Also he was going to test Buck's soccer info as Eddie loved soccer he started watching it whilst in the army got hooked and continued to watch especially as he could watch the men in the shorts another thing he wouldn't openly admit to.
"Ah, what do you need? Maybe I can ask around, someone may know something that can help, and get Arsenal, a good team fast paced." Buck explains and Eddie just bursts out laughing he couldn't help it.
"What's so funny?" Buck asks, sounding annoyed.
"Nothing, you say they're fast paced, yeah they are losing the ball and being rubbish, I mean when was the last time they won a worthy trophy?" Eddie quizzes.
"I mean it's been a while, but you can't diss my team, so come on who do you support?" Buck replies.
"Simple, Chelsea, great club mentality, make good choices and oh yeah we win trophies." Eddie chuckles.
Buck starts to laugh and Eddie starts also, soon they shift to other topics and Eddie can't believe how easy it was to chat to Buck, it just flowed soon though the bell is ringing and Buck makes his goodbyes and wishes Eddie night. Eddie tells him to be safe and heads to bed.
As his head hits the pillow his phone vibrates and he sees a message from Buck, as he opens it he is greeted to a picture of Buck in his big fireman jacket his red straps on show and he is topless Eddie sits up to look at it better and the message just reads.
'¿Quieres jugar trampas de sed? Aquí está el mío. Confía en mí, Eddie, ganaré este juego. Oh, sí, me encanta el español, así que estás bastante jodido;). Noche x (You want to play thirst traps? Here 's mine. Trust me Eddie I will win this game. Oh yeah I love Spanish so you're pretty much screwed ;). Night x)'
Eddie's jaw drops, the fact Buck had sent a picture like that and then the comment. He sat there looking at the picture enjoying it way more than he should and wishing he could touch it, work was going to be horrible tomorrow especially if Buck turns up.
He quickly sends a reply and then he needed to sleep.
'Vaya, que empiecen los juegos. Noche ;)' 'Wow, let the games begin. Night ;)' Eddie hits send and closes his eyes, the picture of Buck still firmly in his memory.