"I'm pregnant!"

"Maddie!" Chimney groaned as he watched his girlfriend just blurt out what was meant to stay between them. She hadn't even lasted forty eight hours before one look at her brothers face and the secret was out. Buck had literally walked through the door about five minutes before, grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat down after Maddie had invited him over for dinner.

"Oh my god," The younger Buckley was already up and hugging his sister before she could even pretend to be sorry. Instead, she looked over his shoulder as she wrapped her arms around him and tried to give Chimney her best innocent look.

"You can't tell anyone yet… we have no idea how far along and I want to leave it until twelve weeks." The smile on her face didn't falter when she pulled back to look at Buck's face, "I bought you something though." She fumbled around for a second in her bag, before she pulled out two carefully wrapped gifts and handed them over to him.

"Ah, so you planned this." Chimney couldn't help but laugh, moving over to wrap an arm around her waist as he took a sip of his beer. "I should have known you wouldn't be able to resist, even if it was your idea." His lips pressed against her hair, the two of them watching as the youngest of the three unwrapped his gifts in a hurry.

Buck laughed when he held the t-shirt up against himself, "Best Uncle ever, you got that right." He winked, and then smiled when he saw the mug that shared the same sentiment, the same words. He had watched as Chimney and Maddie became closer and stronger and despite that, he no longer felt as though he was left behind. The news that they were going to be bringing a new person into the world already had him plotting – when this was out and in the open, he was going to make sure they had the best celebratory party ever. There was too much bad in the world, and some of that bad had almost taken Maddie from him forever, so for her to be standing there and telling him he was going to be an Uncle, he couldn't imagine anything better.

"Congratulations, seriously.. you are both going to be great parents." He set the gifts to the side and wrapped his arms around the two of them. He could imagine they were nervous – he and Maddie had shared an upbringing with two people who had never wanted to be parents but they had seen it as a duty, something that had to be done because it was just what two, married people did. Neither he or Maddie had been shown how to nurture but somehow they had grown up to open and loving, despite their parents and he was sure, because of Maddie.

He didn't know much about the childhood of his fellow 118 family member but he knew enough that Chimney would share the same sentiment as Maddie. "Honestly, I'm so happy for you both. I always thought it would happen but this.. it's amazing." There were tears in his sisters eyes already as she reached out her hand to hold onto his, a small smile gracing her lips.

"And you are going to be the best Uncle to this little one. I cannot wait to tell the two of you off for causing trouble. Now, sit down, we have cold pizza now and cake for after." Her brother rolled his eyes as he moved over to their dining table, grabbing his beer on the way.

Chimney smirked, "So, you want to tell me what happened to waiting?" He asked the woman, "Considering it was your idea – which I agreed with – but I've had to sit with Hen for the last two days and not say a word and you couldn't even last five minutes."

"I know but I saw his face and I just couldn't keep it in. Plus, he's my brother and I know you and Hen are close but she would forgive you for a few weeks of secret. I promise it won't be for long… I just want to keep it in a small circle because if something happened… you two are the people I would lean on."

With a sigh, he placed his hand on the small of her back and pulled her towards him, "I'm not mad, I promise. I can wait, I'm just teasing. And besides, Buck would pout for months if he found out he didn't know from the start." He raised his voice so their guest could hear him clearly, causing a scoff from the two siblings. "You're just lucky I love you, Madeline Buckley."

The doctor had confirmed Maddie was around eight weeks along as she had estimated when she was working everything out. In reality, that meant four weeks of trying to keep quiet as they awaited their first scan.

Those four weeks would have gone a lot quicker had the younger Buckley not known.

In the first week, Buck had made two references to "dad bods" whilst slapping Chimney's stomach, waggled his eyebrows and smirked when they were seeing to a pregnant woman and then cooed when he saw Chimney holding a baby following a woman giving birth. And that wasn't mentioning the three time's he had moaned about being tired, only for Buck to mutter for him to get used to it as he walked past.

It was torture.

And he had three more weeks of it.

"Honestly, will you have a word with him?" A week in and he was already whining to his girlfriend about her brother, "This is your fault, just, seriously, he's making it hard. If he carries on I'm going to blurt it out and that's not what either of us want, is it?"

The woman rolled her eyes, "Oh, it's not that bad. He's just winding you up and it's working! The more you react to it, the more he's going to do it." She had her brother on the phone just an hour before, in stitches because of how red faced Chimney had gone when Buck had wound him up about his future dad bod. She had told him off already but it didn't mean she couldn't have her own fun with the father of her unborn child.

"Maddie!" The man whined, "You told him. I have to work with him. Fix it."

Whatever Maddie said worked, for at least the week that followed – excluding the winks and nudges here and there – he could look the other way on those. He was excited, the closer they got to seeing the baby for the first time. He knew it wouldn't look exactly like a baby at that point but it was theirs and it was something physical he could share with his best friends, his fire family.

For now, it was just his secret with Maddie.

…. and Buck.