Chapter 10
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Chimney walked into the visiting cubicles eagerly and Hen was relieved to see that he didn't have any visible wounds and wasn't moving like he was hurting in any way. He looked relatively good, better than she'd expected.
"Hi Chimney. How are you?" Hen asked. "I brought you some things, the warden said he'd deliver them at the end of visiting hours. It's not much, some photos of Jee-Yun, toiletries, magazines and some gum."
"You didn't bring Jee. I suppose Buck refused to let her come," Chimney said angrily.
"No, he didn't. To be honest I didn't ask him. Her doctors have limited how much time she's allowed to spend in a pram or car seat each day until the wounds on her bottom have fully healed, and she cannot travel this far," Hen replied. "She is doing better though, Athena picked her up from the Lees and brought her into the station to see Buck during his first day back at work, she's getting used to being around more people, but it's easy to see Buck and Eddie and Chris are her favourites."
"Athena should have left her with her grandparents, there was no reason to bring her in to see Buck after he's abandoned her," Chimney growled.
"Buck hasn't abandoned Jee-Yun, he traded 10 weeks full time FMLA for 18 weeks of part time FMLA because we are so short and they were having trouble getting floaters for you and Buck and he thought it would be better for Jee to have him around most of the time for longer instead of all the time and have to make a sudden transition to 24 or 48 hour shifts. I think that he was very sensible," Hen replied. "The Lees offered to watch Jee for him some of the time instead of visiting her while Buck is off work."
"Who else is he leaving my daughter with?" Chimney demanded.
"Athena and Bobby, Carla and Chris after school sometimes, Karen and I had her for an hour last week while Buck had medical appointments. Nobody that you wouldn't trust with Jee," Hen said.
"What about Albert? Why doesn't he look after Jee? He's her uncle," Chimney asked frowning. He wanted to say that he didn't trust Buck with Jee but he knew it would be a lie, Buck would take very good care of Jee-Yun. He just didn't want Buck to have her.
"I know he's been spending time with Jee at Buck's and at the Lees, but he prefers not to have her on his own, he says he wants to be the fun uncle. You should see Buck pout when Albert teases him about having to be the unfun responsible uncle," Hen replied laughing.
Chimney snarled. "Stop talking about Buck."
"I'm sorry. I thought you'd want to hear the stories about how well he's looking after Jee," Hen said awkwardly.
"Why didn't you and Karen take Jee? You're foster parents, the courts couldn't have objected," Chimney demanded.
"The Arizona courts appointed custody to Buck because you and Maddie had signed the agreement that he was to have residential custody in the event that neither you nor Maddie could look after her," Hen said carefully.
"I said she wasn't to go to him," Chimney growled.
"Yes, but you said it right before they decided you needed a psychiatric evaluation so the legal paperwork you signed when she was born took legal precedence," Hen reminded him gently.
"They need to find Maddie and give Jee to her," Chimney insisted.
"Have you heard anything from Maddie?" Hen asked.
"No I can't receive calls here, and they confiscated my phone, I've been calling when I can but her mailbox is still full. I've been emailing too but she hasn't emailed back, I guess she isn't checking her email either," Chimney said. "If I ask the warden to give you my phone, can you go through the messages and make sure none of them are from Maddie?"
"Yes of course I can, I'll do that on my way out and you can call me afterwards to find out," Hen said supportively.
"You can't come back and visit tomorrow?" Chimney asked. "I thought you were staying here."
"Karen and Denny and I have plans for tomorrow morning before we leave," Hen said. "They gave up their weekend so I could come visit you."
Chimney frowned at her. Hen attempted to tell him all the other news from the Firefam but she could tell he wasn't really interested, and she had to be careful to make sure she didn't mention Buck which was difficult since so much of what was going on involved or was centred around Buck and Eddie and Jee-Yun.
She left the prison unsettled and feeling guilty that she'd been glad when the hour she was allowed to visit was up. Chimney was so angry with Buck, and for what? For being injured enough to need to call 9-1-1 and involve the police, for pressing charges against him? Or simply for looking after Jee when Chimney had wanted her to go to the Lees or herself and Karen? She didn't think that her visit had done Chimney any good at all. It certainly hadn't reassured her that her best friend was doing okay.
"What's up? Was Chimney okay?" Karen asked after Denny was asleep that night. Hen had been a little off since they'd picked her up from the prison and she was worried about her.
"Physically he seemed fine," Hen replied. "He asked after Jee and asked me to pick up his phone from the warden so I could monitor it for messages from Maddie if she calls. He still hasn't heard from her, and none of the messages on his phone were from her either. I dread having to tell him that there wasn't a message from her."
"Is his mailbox full, she might have tried to leave a message," Karen suggested.
"No I tried to call it to make sure that wasn't the problem, but listen to this," Hen said pulling out her own phone and dialling Chimney's putting it on speaker.
"Hey, it's Chimney. Sorry I can't talk right now. Unless it's Buck, in which case, stop calling me."
"But Buck is the primary guardian of his daughter. I would have thought he'd be eager to hear how she was?" Karen said frowning.
"He hasn't had access to his phone since before Buck took custody of Jee, this message is from back when he had Jee himself, but I honestly don't know whether he would've changed it if he could," Hen said. "When I was with him he asked about Jee but he didn't want me to talk about Buck at all, not even to reassure him that Buck was doing a good job of looking after Jee. He's still really angry at him."
"What on earth for? For pressing charges? For looking after Jee-Yun? For getting in the way of Chimney's fist?" Karen asked sarcastically.
"No he's blaming Buck for being arrested and remanded in custody so he couldn't keep looking for Maddie, but I think most of the anger is because he's still suspicious that Buck knows or suspects where Maddie has gone," Hen replied.
"Are you worried about what he'll do when he gets out of prison?" Karen asked. "Perhaps Buck should take a restraining order out against him."
"No I think he'll go after Maddie again unless she's shown up by then. But even a restraining order preventing Chimney from coming within 500 ft of Buck can't prevent Chimney from seeing his daughter unless his parental rights have been severed," Hen reminded her.
"Have they?" Karen asked. "Buck must have some form of official custody to get FMLA leave and to be able to take Jee to the doctor for the follow up she needs."
"I don't know, why would they be?" Hen said frowning.
"He is in prison for neglecting and endangering Jee-Yun," Karen reminded her.
"But that was just because he was so worried about searching for Maddie that he…" Hen began.
"That he forgot she was in the back seat? Didn't react when Jee-Yun cried? Forgot that she was a baby and needed her diaper changed? Forgot to feed his daughter and give her anything to drink?" Karen asked pointedly.
"He was distraught! It was an accident, he didn't do it on purpose," Hen protested weakly.
"I think we should talk to Buck about it. See if he needs the name of a good family lawyer to get things settled," Karen said.
"Buck doesn't want to sever Chim and Maddie's parental rights. He's just looking after Jee until one of them come back," Hen protested.
"I'm not sure it would be that simple, with CPS pressing charges against Chimney, they probably have some conditions that need to be met before he can resume custody and I wouldn't be surprised if Maddie has to pass a psychiatric evaluation too after surrendering Jee at the 118 the way she did," Karen warned her.
"Maddie didn't surrender Jee. She isn't a safe haven baby," Hen said. "She left her with Ravi for half an hour or so until Chim could pick her up."
"I know that. Jee was too old to be a safe haven baby so Maddie would be charged with child abandonment if she hadn't specifically asked for Ravi to look after her until Chimney arrived. She has still walked away from her child with absolutely no contact for more than three weeks now, in spite of all the messages on her phone and CPS attempting to contact her, and Chimney is using the fact that he was desperate to find her because she had PPD as part of his defence so CPS will be aware of that. They're going to want her to prove that she's capable of looking after an infant before they take Jee away from the stable home Buck and Eddie are providing her now, and the longer Maddie's gone without contacting Jee, the more hoops she will have to jump through to get her daughter back," Karen replied.
Hen reluctantly nodded.
"Buck's going to want to contact a family lawyer to protect Jee's best interests, I'm going to give him Roger's name and number," Karen said.
"I was going to give it to Chim," Hen protested.
"Chimney already has a lawyer. It would be better for him to use the same firm for all the different parts of this situation so they have the whole picture, and he doesn't have to pay for a new lawyer to get up to speed on all the circumstances," Karen said reasonably.
Karen smiled at Buck and asked to come in and talk when she dropped of Chris and Jee after a play date with her and Hen.
Buck was surprised to see Karen on her own instead of Hen but he nodded. "Did you have any problems with either of them?" he asked.
"Of course not, Chris was a little angel as always and this little darling is a poppet. She's been fed and took a short nap, I think she was asleep about 45 minutes and she's been up nearly an hour since then," Karen replied.
"She adores Chris, so having him here with her made all the difference. It's sweet to see them together."
"Is there something we can do for you. We could have Denny for a sleepover if you wanted to plan a date night with Hen," Buck offered.
"That's very generous and I might take you up on that soon. I wanted to give you a bit of a heads up. We took Denny to Arizona last weekend so Hen could visit Chimney, made a bit of a family holiday of it and I know he was talking to Chris about the zoo there and the Cabozen Dinosaurs, so sorry about that," Karen said.
Buck laughed. "It's no problem, I think that we're going to have to plan a similar trip for term break, Chimney has the right to see Jee when we have time to get her there without harming her."
"It would be better to send her in to visit with Eddie. I didn't see him but from what Hen said he's still angry with you," Karen warned him.
"I don't know that Eddie is the answer either, he's not talking to either of us," Buck replied.
"You know he doesn't have his phone and cannot receive calls," Karen said.
"Yeah, but he can make calls, Hen and Bobby and Albert have all told him that Jee and I are staying with Eddie. So I expected him to call Eddie to ask about Jee or ask to talk to Jee, since he's refusing to talk to me but he hasn't. From what I'm being told, he asks everyone else about her and then gets angry when they tell him I'm doing a good job of looking after her," Buck explained.
"Buck, I think you need to talk to a family lawyer. To make sure Jee is fully protected when Maddie comes back and Chimney gets out, and to make sure you still have visitation to help ease the transition. I know it's going to be tough on you to give her up, even to your sister and the longer you have custody the harder it will be for both of you and Eddie and Chris too," Karen said.
"CPS have currently given them both supervised visitation and put conditions on both of them getting custody back. Athena offered to supervise the visits for me," Buck replied.
"That's good but I've dealt with CPS before, when we had Nia and some of the children before her, a change in social worker can change their reaction to a situation without warning. You need to have someone dedicated to speaking in yours, Jee's and Chris's best interests. When Nia went back to Evangeline it was really difficult for all of us but especially for Denny because he hadn't considered the possibility that she wouldn't always live with us. Roger, our family lawyer, helped make sure that there was provisions in place so that Denny could still see his sister. This is his card. He's good and his rates are reasonable. Give him a call soon and he can give you some advice, then he'll know about the situation if you need him later," Karen encouraged him.
Eddie agreed with Karen so they made an appointment with the family lawyer. Roger Fitzgibbons gave them a friendly smile and thanked them for coming in before the situation reached crisis point. "I work with quite a few foster parents and potential adoptive parents, and it's often too late to be collecting the evidence by the time CPS call for a hearing to assess the birth parent's ability to resume custody," he said.
"I'm not sure that exactly describes our situation, I'm Jee's uncle and I'm not trying to keep her from Maddie and Chimney when they're ready to have her back provided that Maddie is well enough to look after her and Chimney doesn't plan on taking her on another marathon road trip," Buck replied.
"Karen Wilson suggested that we contact you to act in the best interests of Jee-Yun and Christopher. Chris is my son and he and Jee-Yun have become very close, he refers to her as his sister. We just want to ensure that whoever has custody is able to provide for Jee's needs and that she isn't traumatised by the transition of care, but also that Chris is still able to spend time with her," Eddie added.
"I understood that you are also a registered foster parent, Buck, so while this is a kin guardian situation, the foster parent regulations may also apply to you," Roger said. "I understand your hesitation to keep Jee away from your sister and brother-in-law, but from what I understand you do have concerns about Jee-Yun's wellbeing if she was returned to them without conditions at this point in time. So, our aim is to work together to make sure Miss Jee-Yun is protected in the best possible way, and that she doesn't lose her big brother in all of this either," Roger said gently.
Buck and Eddie nodded.
"Can I ask, Eddie, what is your role in all this? Do you currently have any formalised custody of Jee-Yun?" Roger asked.
"No, I don't. When Buck first got custody of Jee he was injured, he had slight double vision and some balance issues which made carrying a baby up and down the stairs a bad idea and his loft really isn't suitable for an infant on the verge of starting to crawl since the stairs can't be fenced off. He was staying with me already because of the injury so CPS approved my house as well as the loft as suitable for Jee-Yun until Buck can rent or purchase a new place of his own. They did interview me and approve me being around Jee and helping out with her care, but Buck has full custody," Eddie explained.
"And what exactly is your relationship with Eddie, Buck," Roger asked.
"Eddie is the best friend I ever had. The man I trust more than anyone else to always have my back in dangerous situations and everywhere else in my life," Buck replied.
"I've never had a friend like Buck, I trust that he would do everything in his power always to make sure I come home at the end of every shift we work together and he loves my son almost as much as I do. So many people look at Chris and see limitations, Buck sees a bright kid with endless possibilities and challenges to solve to enable Chris to do the things he wants," Eddie said.
"Do you both see your relationship as permanent in respect to coparenting each other's children the way you are now?" Roger asked.
"We're not planning on living together long term, though Chris and I wouldn't be against the idea in theory, we do get along very well and parenting is definitely easier with an in-house partner. Buck is Christopher's guardian if I'm ever killed or incapacitated and has been acting as his co-parent for years. Even when I was dating I never saw that as being something that would change if I remarried," Eddie said. "The same goes for Jee and any other children Buck has, I would help him however he asked me to regardless of where we were living or who else was in my life."
Buck looked at Eddie in surprise for a moment before forcing his mind back to the reason for the appointment. "What evidence should we be collecting?" he asked.
"I would recommend you keep a diary of all interactions between yourself or Jee-Yun and her biological parents," Roger said.
"There hasn't been any," Buck replied.
"Have you made attempts to contact either of them?" Roger asked concerned.
"I tried to call Maddie but she hasn't answered and her voice mailbox has been full for weeks now. I kept trying to call and text because I didn't know if she isn't listening to the messages at all or if Chimney is spamming her phone with calls because he was so desperate to speak with her or to make sure I couldn't leave her a message and tell her about him punching me. I've also sent a few emails, and reported her missing to missing persons. They said that they'll let me know when they found her but they won't be able to tell me where she is unless she gives them permission but I haven't heard anything from them yet," Buck replied.
"Okay I want you to make a record of all that, with dates, times and proof wherever possible. You can get a copy of your phone records from your provider for the exact dates and times. Also keep a copy of the emails you sent and the names of the people you spoke to at Missing Persons," Roger said. "What about the father, Chimney?"
"I was trying to call him until I found out that he couldn't accept incoming calls while in prison, and I've emailed him with pictures of Jee and messages since then. I also sent a letter and some photos to him with his best friend Hen when she went to visit him, she said she passed it on but he didn't open it in front of her," Buck answered.
"You haven't tried to visit him, or to take Jee-Yun to visit her father?" Roger asked nonjudgmentally.
"We haven't been allowed to travel that far with Jee. Her doctor has limited how much time she's allowed to spend in her car seat until her diaper rash heals up and she stops becoming emotionally distressed by being in the car," Buck explained.
"All right, you need to keep a record of Jee-Yun's doctors' visits, the reasons for them and the recommendations the doctor has made. Even better if you jot them down during the appointment and get the Doctor to sign them, most paediatricians will willingly do so if there's issues with a custody dispute or shared custody where the parents aren't able to communicate well with each other," Roger said.
"I would also encourage you to take Jee-Yun to visit her father as soon as she is allowed to travel that far. How far are we talking about?" Roger asked.
"He's in the Phoenix Federal Correctional Institution, on remand waiting trial for criminal child neglect and endangerment," Buck replied.
"Of Jee-Yun or another child?" Roger asked.
"Jee-Yun, he took her on a road trip looking for Maddie and was too desperate searching to remember that she needed to be fed and changed and time out of her car seat," Buck said.
"She was dangerously dehydrated and needed to spend more than 36 hours in hospital by the time the police pulled them over, and he was also charged with multiple dangerous driving offences with her in the car," Eddie added.
"I will get an official list of the charges and apply for a transcript of the trial," Roger said. "I'm also going to show you how to set up your phone to record any call you make or receive. It won't take long and then you can go through the calls afterwards and delete any of them that aren't relevant to this situation."
"Do we have to tell the person we're talking to that the calls are being recorded?" Eddie asked.
"Yes to make the actual transcript admissible in court you would. Of course that only applies to calls you make and those you actually answer, as everyone knows that voicemail is a recorded message, though you'd be surprised how many people don't seem to realise the person they called might keep the message and use it against them," Roger replied. "You don't have to use any specific reason or wording as long as you say this call is being recorded. I would also suggest you get a doorbell camera with sound recording and put a sign on or near the door that all visitors will be recorded."
"I don't know about all this, I don't want to take Jee away from her parents," Buck said anxiously.
"Buck, you may have the best of intentions but that doesn't mean everybody else involved will. It's better to collect all the evidence you might need and hope you don't have to use it, than to find out too late that you've trusted the wrong people and not have the evidence you need to protect your niece," Roger said bluntly.
Buck was quiet on the drive home from the family lawyer's office.
"Is everything alright? Eddie asked. "It all hit home how serious this all is."
"Yeah," Buck said.
"What's wrong Buck. Talk to me," Eddie encouraged.
"Did you really mean it?" Buck asked quietly.
"Pretty sure I didn't say anything today that I didn't mean but what exactly are you talking about?" Eddie said casually.
"When you said you wouldn't be against the idea of living with me permanently," Buck said. "Did you mean it? Did you mean permanently, or did you only mean while I had Jee? Because you know I never planned on trying to keep her from Maddie and Chim when they're ready to have her back."
"I like having you around, love having Jee in our home too but no her going back to Maddie or to Chim wouldn't be a deal breaker, and I definitely wouldn't want you to be on your own after that happens, but moving in with Chris and I permanently would be a big commitment. It would make it hard for you to find a new girlfriend," Eddie said.
"I pretty much gave up on the idea of a girlfriend or boyfriend when I decided to become a foster parent. I've never had any luck keeping a relationship and I can't take on a grieving or traumatised child and parade a stream of girlfriends or dates in front of them," Buck said.
"No of course not, you'd date like any other single parent should, keeping them away from meeting the children until you started to get serious about each other," Eddie pointed out.
"You mean like you didn't do with Ana," Buck teased to lighten the tension.
Eddie chuckled, "Yeah, and look how that turned out, my son ran away from home by Uber. Gracias a Dios he got to you safely. But seriously Buck, the children won't be a turn off to the right person but you're never going to find any partner willing to not only accept Jee or a foster child in your life but the fact that you live and coparent with your best friend."
"I wouldn't need to date if I had a family like that to come home to," Buck said softly.
"You say that now, but you enjoy sex too much to be planning on giving it up long term," Eddie retorted.
"I don't need to date to get sex," Buck said laughing. "And I never was actually addicted, you know. I was using sex as a means of obtaining physical affection. I don't need to do that so much anymore."
"How about we stop talking about this now and both think seriously whether it's something we could want long term. Chris understands that you staying with us is temporary but if we moved into a new place together he'd have expectations of it being permanent. So, if we're going to do this we both have to be sure that we're all in," Eddie said.
"Jee isn't going to be mine permanently, and he's already attached," Buck said anxiously. "Will it make it worse if I move in permanently while she's still with me?"
"He's super attached already, in spite of us all reminding him she will be going back to Maddie when she's well enough. I don't know if moving in together permanently would make it worse," Eddie said groaning. "I heard him refer to Maddie as Tia Maddie the other day but surely even if Jee does go back to Maddie she's still your niece."
"I wish that I believed that would make a difference but she had no trouble cutting me out of their lives before she left and if she comes back to Chim he's going to be holding a grudge about having him arrested for assault and battery. He's not going to want me in their lives," Buck said sighing.
You think she will listen if he encourages her to break ties with you?" Eddie asked.
Buck sighed. "I think that once Maddie's over her PPD and ready to fully commit to being a Mom, she isn't going to want any reminders of this time and she won't like how close Jee and I are, especially if she's away long enough for Jee to forget that Maddie's her Mom, she won't even need Chim to encourage her to cut me out," he said cynically.
"Even if that isn't the best thing for Jee?" Eddie asked.
"Maddie isn't a lot like Margaret Buckley but it's obvious she did learn her coping strategies from her. To pretend everything is fine even as it's all falling apart around you, to run and start over, to wipe out the past and pretend it never existed. Maddie tried to do it with Doug, and she's doing it now. She's cut me out of her life for years once already. My only hope is that she will remember how much it hurt her to be forced to forget Daniel, but she also knows that I didn't remember him at all so if she cut me and you and Chris out of Jee's life now while she's young, eventually she won't remember us either, unless she decides to tell her about us one day," Buck said.
"Buck as worried as that makes me, it also makes me more sure about moving in with you. I don't want you living alone when Jee goes back to Maddie, even if she doesn't cut you out of her life, and you get to see her regularly," Eddie said. "We can keep reminding Christopher that Jee belongs with Maddie and will go back there, just like Denny and Nia, but he's getting a real kick out of being a big brother, and I don't want to deprive him of that experience while it's available. I don't want to teach him to avoid letting people into his heart for fear of getting hurt."
"So we sleep on it," Buck said.
"Yeah, we sleep on it, think it over and see how we feel in the morning. If we're still not sure then we can wait and make a decision when Pepa finds you a place to live," Eddie said.
"I think Pepa might already be on board with the idea, all the houses she's shown me so far are single level, four bedroom houses with disability access or some disability features, in a reasonable travel distance of Durand," Buck said dryly.
"Is that why you've been hesitating to choose one?" Eddie asked.
"Not only that, none of them have felt right yet. I don't want a place that feels like the loft, cold and impersonal, I want somewhere that's going to feel like a real home," Buck replied.
The loft was pretty much fully decorated wasn't it?" Eddie asked.
"Yeah, I even bought most of the staging furniture, it looked put together and I didn't know where else to start," Buck agreed.
"Maybe you need a bit of a fixer upper. Not something that needs major structural work because you don't have time for that at the moment unless you rent a place temporarily as well, but a house you can choose the paint colours and make it feel like your own. You did a great job making my bedroom look welcoming and homey. I'm sure you could have done that with the loft if you were motivated to redecorate," Eddie suggested.
"I need something I can move into straight away though," Buck objected.
"As long as it's weatherproof and the electric wiring and plumbing is up to code, you can move into a house that isn't perfect then decorate one room at a time, CPS isn't going to care about the paint colours as long as the house has all the requirements and is clean enough. I wouldn't mind sharing with you for another few weeks while we do your room and mine and Chris would love to be able to choose his own colours and stuff. He hasn't said anything but I know he's starting to think his current room is a little too childish," Eddie said encouragingly.
"He's getting to the age that he needs a bigger bed but it wouldn't leave enough space for his desk and everything and room for him to get about on his crutches," Buck said.
"Yeah I thought about swapping rooms with him, but I don't think he'd be happy with that now that you put all that effort into decorating my room for me," Eddie agreed.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed, commented positively, followed, bookmarked or favourited or gave Kudos to this story for your support.