A/N: Okay, so, I'm a bit between a rock and a hard place with this right now. I'm WAY off of how I planned to break this up, so now I have these pieces I didn't mean to be together and don't really know how to make them work as a whole, so it's kinda choppy in places. Sorry about that. And again, I'm a fucking liar lol. I think there's still gonna be one more chapter and THEN the epilogue. I'm not 100% sure, but seeing as this somehow ended up longer than intended, and so did the previous part, I feel like it's a safe bet that the next part will be longer than intended too.

The rest of the flight was uneventful… or at least, she assumed it was, because she had dozed off at some point after dinner and Buck didn't wake her until they were preparing to land. After going through customs and collecting their bags, they were finally in the car and on the way home. Buck seemed markedly more excited about it than she was. Frankly, she was dreading walking into that apartment. She knew they wouldn't need to stay there long, just until they picked a place and signed the lease, but the idea still bothered her. It didn't feel like home anymore. Her apartment wasn't supposed to have a dining room anymore, and it wasn't supposed to be empty. And every time she walked through that dining room or Buck left for work, the place would feel foreign to her.

By the time they were half way home, she could tell Buck had become acutely aware of her silence. He had stopped drumming his fingers on the steering wheel and nodding along to the radio, and instead was sending worried glances her way every 10 minutes or so. She was looking out the window and pretending not to notice, unsure of how to explain her reservations. After all, she had chosen to come home of her own volition, knowing full well that this would be part of it until they moved. It had just seemed more manageable when they were still in Ireland; the closer they got to actually physically facing it, the more her stomach twisted in a knot.

Buck pulled into the parking lot and turned the car off, but neither of them moved. She just stared up at the building with trepidation, starting to doubt if she could actually do this.

"You know what I've noticed about you?" Buck asked.

"No, what?"

"When you're upset about something, you either freak out and talk really fast, or you go really quiet. And you've been really quiet the whole drive here."

"Yeah," she sighed, her eyes still on the building.

He followed her gaze. "Do you not want to stay here?"

"No."

For a minute he was quiet, thinking, and then he unbuckled his seat belt and turned to her. "Okay, here's what we're going to do: you're going to get on your phone and start looking for somewhere to stay – hotel, Airbnb, whatever you want – and I'm going to go upstairs and grab some clean clothes, and then we'll go. Sound good?"

She nodded, not trusting her voice. He was always so understanding.

"Okay, I'll be back as soon as I can," he said, leaning over to kiss her cheek before getting out of the car.

She decided on Airbnb, wanting something homier than another hotel room, and by the time Buck came back, she was just hanging up with a very accommodating host who was willing to come let them in right away. The place was definitely on the small side, but it was nice enough and not too far from where they were looking, so she booked it for the week.

Buck closed the trunk and climbed back in the driver's seat. "So, where are we going?"

She gave him the address and they were off.

"I packed some clothes for you too, by the way."

"Normal clothes, or things you want to see me in?"

"Mm… a little bit of both," he laughed.

Realizing there would probably be no food in the house, they had stopped to pick up a few snacks and drinks on the way. Thankfully it wasn't too far, because they were both exhausted. In fact, within 20 minutes of their host waving goodbye, they were both in bed and fast asleep.

It was pretty late when Buck got home from work, but he was hoping Abby would still be up. She seemed to be settling back in fine, which he had to admit was a relief: deep down he had been a little worried she would wish she had stayed in Ireland. He had been a little worried about leaving her alone all evening and most of the night during his first shift back, but it turned out his concerns were unfounded. When he got home the fridge was stocked, there was a snack waiting for him, and she was sound asleep in bed. Thankfully he was done a few hours earlier tonight, because she had spent the afternoon looking at apartments and he wanted to hear about them if she was awake.

He found her in the kitchen, wearing her favourite of his t-shirts and putting the dishes away. He had never pictured himself being much of a domestic type of guy; he hadn't really understood what the allure was… until now, that is. He always thought he would feel trapped if he had someone there all the time – that he would miss having alone time – but that couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, he looked forward to coming home from work. Maybe it was silly, but it made him feel sort of special to have someone waiting for him.

She must have heard his footsteps, because she looked over her shoulder as soon as he entered the room.

"Hey, are you hungry? I made chili, I can heat some up for you."

Seriously the perfect woman. "That would be great, I'm starving."

"So how was your night?" she asked, moving to the stove.

"Pretty standard, nothing too exciting."

"I guess that's good, in a way."

"Yeah. I'm more interested in your day. Tell me about the apartments."

"I think I have it narrowed down to two. The first one was an obvious no. I knew before we even went inside the building. It looked nothing like the pictures and I didn't get the safest vibe from the area. The second one was slightly better, but still pretty disappointing. I don't know what happened in there, but there's a fair number of questionable stains on the carpets and walls. I don't mind painting, but I'm not going to redo the floors."

"Yikes."

"Yeah, I was definitely starting to get a little worried that they were all going to be like that, but the other two were nice. I like the third one; the only thing is that the appliances are fairly old. And not just the ones in the apartment; the downstairs laundry is a little outdated too. But that's not really a huge deal. The fourth one is my favourite. It has a bigger bathroom and a nicer kitchen and laundry, but it's more money. The third one is near the bottom of the budget and the fourth one is near the top, so the question is how much those differences are worth to us."

It certainly was a good question. He wasn't about to tell her this, but he had been hoping they could stay closer to the bottom of the price range because he wanted to start stashing some money away for a ring. It was too soon now, he knew that, but he figured if he started saving now, he would be in good shape to afford something nice when it was time. That being said, this was ideally going to be a long-term living arrangement, so he didn't want to compromise too much on quality. He did have a lot of stuff in storage that he could sell if he needed some extra money for a down payment on a ring; Abby's furniture was much nicer than his, so when he moved in to her place, he put his things from his old place in a storage locker.

"If you like the fourth one best, then I think we should go with that one."

"Are you sure?" she asked, setting the bowl of chili in front of him. "I know a newer kitchen and bigger bathroom are probably not that high on your priority list."

He laughed. "No, I can't say they are, but I want to have something I know we'll be happy with in the long run. I mean, we use the kitchen and the bathroom every day, it's going to get annoying pretty fast if we're not happy with them.

"That's true. Okay, well if you're sure, then I'll call first thing tomorrow and maybe we can go by and sign the lease before you go to work? Or do you want to see the inside first?"

"I trust your judgment, we can just sign." Truthfully, he really couldn't care less where they lived, as long as she was there with him.

Her face lit up. "Okay then! We're really doing this!"

He couldn't help but smile. "We sure are."