Chapter 12
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Buck and Eddie received their second in home visit from Jee's social worker on a Tuesday afternoon. By chance they were both already off work and Carla bought Christopher home halfway through the visit and was introduced as their in home care for Christopher who also looked after Jee for a few hours most weeks. The social worker had already seen Carla's resume and police checks and was more than happy to have the motherly nurse providing care to one of her charges.
"Missing persons found her mother, they said that they'd inform CPS?" Buck questioned.
"Yes they did, thanks for making sure we knew. We have her address sealed in case of emergency so I'm afraid I cannot give it to you," Julian, the social worker said.
"No, that's okay I understand, I wasn't fishing for you to give us the address, in fact I'm glad that you cannot give it out to anyone who asked. I just wanted to make sure you could contact her if you needed to," Buck said.
"I take it she has chosen not to return at this time which supports the continuation of your temporary custody," Julian said.
"Does it? I don't know if she knows Jee is with me, I mean the police officer that spoke with her didn't tell her but Jee is all over my private insta and Maddie hasn't unfollowed me though she hasn't liked anything that I've posted since she left either," Buck said.
"We're not hiding the fact Buck has custody from his sister. The police officer had the information to give her, it was Maddie who didn't want to know," Eddie said quietly.
"She said that she wasn't ready to deal with it," Buck corrected.
"I understand. Nothing you've told me affects your rights to custody of your niece. Are you and Jee still staying here overnight?" Julian asked Buck.
"Yeah, Jee hasn't been to my loft at all. I've been spending a bit of time there packing up stuff when she's visiting with her grandparents and I know there's no reason she can't be there until she starts crawling but hopefully we'll have a new place by then anyway," Buck replied. "I can't fit safety gates to the bottom of the stairs without structural alterations and I don't want to do that. I've sublet it, I'll finish moving out on the weekend and the new tenants move in next week."
"Have you had any luck finding a house or apartment?" Julian asked.
"I've put an offer in on a house, we're waiting to hear if it's accepted," Buck replied. "I'll let you know when you can come do the inspection once I know when we get the keys. It desperately needs painting but we could do that before we move, so Jee-Yun's not breathing in paint fumes. Eddie's not in a hurry to kick us out and he still has a few months left on his lease."
Eddie walked Julian to the door and quietly asked whether him living with Buck permanently would interfere with him being approved to be a foster parent.
"I cannot approve Mr Buckley choosing to remain permanently in your home because of the lack of a designated bedroom," the social worker replied.
"That's not the plan. As he said, he's waiting to hear the answer to the offer he put in but his realtor is confident it will be accepted but we've both found that we do well living and parenting together as a team. Buck's offered for Chris and I to either go halves on the house or just to move in with him. The house is actually five bedrooms and the disability features would be better for my son than our current rental, and my half of the loan payments would be less than I'm paying in rent now," Eddie explained.
Julian frowned thoughtfully. "Normally we would prefer all adults in the household be trained and registered foster parents. However, in this case Evan Buckley is a biological relative of Jee-Yun Buckley Han and the designated alternate guardian in the event that her parents cannot care for her, which is why we've been able to approve the current custodial situation. That could continue without issue since it's clear she's thriving in this environment. However, we could not consider placing a future foster child into his care while he was living with an adult who was unwilling to complete the training and pass the background investigation required to register as a foster parent, and honestly if you go through all that training, I recommend that you register so you'll be reimbursed the training costs when a child is placed with you.
"I don't know that we want another foster child until the situation with Jee is settled, but how do I sign up for the training?" Eddie asked.
"On line. I'll send you the link," Julian said, smiling.
"The training is online?" Eddie asked in dismay.
"It can be or there's a weekend day session or weekly classes depending on demand," Julian replied.
"Thank you, I'd prefer that," Eddie replied.
Buck spoke with Albert and the Lees about the possibility of taking Jee to visit Chimney. The Lees were in favour of Jee-Yun getting to see her father and apologised that they weren't up to taking her to save Buck from having to see the man who assaulted him.
"It's not that. I know he won't be able to touch me and I don't particularly care what he says to me unless it upset's Jee but I'm worried he'll be so angry with me that he won't be able to put it aside and give Jee the attention she needs," Buck said.
"I also think that Jee should see her father without the prison screens, but I'm hesitant to book a family room visit because don't want him to be able to touch Buck, and I'm worried that if he says the wrong thing I'd want to hit him," Eddie said.
"The family room is supervised by prison guards, I'd be perfectly safe," Buck said.
"I'll come with you," Albert offered. "If you can be the bigger man and take Jee to see Chimney after what he did, I can give up a couple of days to make sure he agrees to see her and save you having to see him."
"Thanks Albert, we're going to travel slowly so it doesn't stress Jee out too much and make a bit of a holiday out of the trip, you're welcome to join us for the whole trip or to meet us in Phoenix on Sunday, or Eddie and I can try to take Jee to visit Saturday and if that doesn't work out, I'll call you to come to take Jee-Yun to visit her father on Sunday or Monday. They're the only days they allow visitors," Buck replied.
"You want to take her in to see him yourself? Even after Howard threatened you?" Albert asked incredulously.'
"Yes, it will be better to see him with supervision than wait until he gets out. Maybe I can convince him that I don't know where Maddie is and I think it will be enlightening, I need to know if it's safe to tell him where Maddie is if I ever do find out. You're welcome to come with us if you want but I don't want to put you out unless I have to," Buck replied, not telling him that his lawyer intended to get a court order for the interactions between Chimney, Buck and Jee to use to make sure Chimney had another psych exam and anger management therapy before regaining custody of Jee if Chimney reacted badly.
Eddie and Buck talked to Hen and Karen about the best places to stop to break up the drive, and the things they'd seen and done on their recent trip to phoenix, checking what was worth seeing that would be accessible for Chris and suitable to take Jee to and how much time they recommended for each activity.
Chris was excited about the road trip, though he hadn't been told the reason for it. They set off in high spirits with frequent stops to make sure Jee didn't become upset about being in the car for too long. Chris loved the Cabozen Dinosaurs and Jee loved the time out of the car being carried around and the play time on the blanket while they ate lunch. Buck took a heap of photographs of all of them and posted the lot on his private insta. Because they were stopping so frequently and Chris was beside her the whole time, Jee managed the car trip relatively well but Buck and Eddie were relieved when they arrived at the motel that night. It wasn't anything flash but it did have a heated pool and the four of them had fun splashing about even if it wasn't really warm enough to swim for long.
They drove the last couple of hours into Phoenix early next morning with Eddie sitting between a wide awake infant and a drowsy preteen who would be grumpy if Jee kept waking him up and rolled up to the Federal Correctional Institution just as visiting hours were about to begin.
Chris looked at the barbed wire enclosed building and the guards on the gates and paled. "What is that building? Do I have to go in there?"
"No Mijo, we're dropping Buck and Jee off and waiting here while Buck takes Jee in to visit her Dad," Eddie reassured him.
"But I don't want Buck and Jee to go in there either. Why is Jee's dad in such a horrible place?" Christopher protested.
"It's a federal prison, Chris and Jee's dad is there for not taking care of Jee properly when he was searching for Maddie. I don't think that he meant to harm Jee-Yun but she got sick and needed to go to hospital because he was in such a rush that he wasn't stopping to feed her her bottles, and because she's a baby even unintentional harm is a crime," Eddie explained, heartsore that he had to explain that the baby loved had been criminally neglected to the point of harm.
"We'll be perfectly safe Chris. The guards aren't there to harm visitors, just to make sure I'm not trying to sneak a knife or a gun or drugs into the prison for everyone's safety," Buck explained. "He attached his work body cam to his shirt but made no attempt to cover it up. He knew that Chimney would recognise it for what it was. Eddie snapped a photo of him wearing it to show it was clearly identifiable.
"Evan Buckley and Jee-Yun Buckley Han to see my brother-in-law Howard Han," Buck stated to the first guard.
The guard nodded and spoke into his radio passing on the information as a second guard ran the metal detector over him and made him turn out his pockets, raising his eyebrow at the bodycam but not protesting it's use.
Buck waited patiently and watched the guard be surprised by the answer and speak again before looking up at him. "Access denied, Howard Han is declining visitors today."
Buck nodded, not at all upset by it. "Will you ask if he will receive a visit from Eddie Diaz and Jee-Yun Buckley Han or if it's Jee that he doesn't want to have visit?" he asked politely. "And if he wants to see Jee but not Eddie if he could give us a list of people he will approve to bring her in to visit. It's a long trip from Los Angeles for a baby and it will be at least a month before we could bring her back."
"I could appoint a guard to accompany her," the guard offered uncomfortably.
"Perhaps if that's the only option, but I'd rather she be with someone she knows and trusts enough to seek comfort from, since the last time she saw her father she needed to he hospitalised due to his neglect," Buck agreed reluctantly.
The guard nodded and spoke into the radio, returning with a shake of his head. "He wants Jee-Yun brought in to see him but he's not willing to see Diaz either if the two of you arrived together."
"Did he say who he would be willing to see?" Buck asked.
"John Lee, Anne Lee, Albert Han, Hen Wilson, Karen Wilson and Bobby Nash," the guard replied.
"Thank you, Albert offered to make the trip if he wouldn't let me or Eddie in. Hopefully he can get here in time to visit tomorrow," Buck replied.
He walked out of the guard station before turning off his camera, pulling out his phone and setting it to record the conversation with Albert.
"Hello Albert Han. It's Buck, this conversation is being recorded," he announced as Albert answered without giving his name.
Albert laughed, so used to the way Buck started all his calls these days that he really didn't think about it. "What's up?"
"Sorry Albert but we're going to need you here. Chim said he wants to see Jee-Yun but he declined to see me or Eddie since he came with me," he said to his friend.
"It's not your fault that my brother is being a stubborn ass," Albert declared. "I'll take my travel costs out of Howie's account since he's the one demanding that I come, and meet you outside the prison at the start of visiting tomorrow. I'll accept a trip to the Phoenix zoo with you and Chris and Jee afterwards as your share of the reimbursement."
Buck laughed. "I'm sure Chris can be persuaded to help us pay our debt," he said.
"See you tomorrow," Albert said disconnecting when he heard Buck's affirmation.
"What's up?" Eddie asked, though he had a good idea what the problem would be.
"He wouldn't let either of us bring Jee in to see him, Albert will be here tomorrow and wants to come to the zoo with us afterwards," Buck told Eddie.
"Is Chimney a bad guy?" Christopher asked in a small voice.
Eddie sighed, he'd hoped he'd have years before his son needed to understand that the line between good guys and bad guys weren't so clear cut. "Chimney is mostly a good guy, who did some very bad things because he was so upset about Maddie leaving him and Jee, and reacted stupidly and let his anger get out of control," he said. "He deserves to be in prison for the things he did, but it's possible that when he gets out of prison and learns better ways to manage his anger he will be a good guy again, or he might not. It's difficult to predict how someone is going to react to going to prison," He tried to explain in an unbiased way. At least he didn't have to explain that sometimes people who didn't deserve it went to prison, he consoled himself.
"If he becomes a bad guy, does that mean Jee will stay with us?" Christopher asked.
"Not necessarily, sometimes people can be bad or dishonest people but still be good and loving parents and CPS will give people like that another chance to look after their children," Buck replied.
"But what if he teaches Jee to be a bad person?" That wouldn't be fair she should learn to be a good person," Christopher asked.
"Not all bad people are bad because they learned bad things from their parents, and not all good people have good parents," Buck said.
"Like you and your parents, I head Dad say they were Hell-beasts and you and Maddie are good people," Christopher said innocently.
"Exactly like Buck's parents, how they managed to bring up two people as good and loving as Buck and Maddie is beyond understanding," Eddie agreed emphatically before Buck could start to make excuses for them.
"Maddie would say they were bad parents but good people but I think that she's wrong, you can't be a good person and neglect a child so much that your nine year old child is the one responsible for bringing up their baby brother. I'm very lucky I had Maddie to make me want to be a good person for her," Buck said.
"Is that why you're bringing up Jee until she comes back or Chimney gets out of prison, because she did it for you?" Christopher asked.
"No I'm looking after Jee because I love Maddie and Jee both and want what's best for them. Maddie's mentally not well enough to look after Jee right now and nobody deserves to lose their child forever just because they're sick and need to go away to get help to get better," Buck replied.
"Just like you looked after me when Dad got shot?" Chris clarified.
"Yeah, pretty much exactly like that," Buck confirmed. It was easy admitting to himself that he loved Chris and Eddie like family, even if he wasn't willing to admit, even to himself, that maybe he felt more for Eddie than for anyone else he'd ever met.
"Mommy didn't stay and look after me when Dad got hurt in the war," Chris said thoughtfully. "She should have if she loved me?"
"Your Mom, needed to go and look after her Mom who was very sick and couldn't wait until your Dad was better. She knew that your Dad's parents would look after you both," Buck said.
"I still think that she should have stayed with us, or taken us with her if she wanted us. Just like Maddie should have stayed and gone to hospital somewhere near home so you and Jee could have visited her and Chimney wouldn't have run off looking for her instead of looking after Jee," Christopher said.
"In hindsight, that would've been better but Maddie was the kind of sick that prevented her from seeing things clearly like that," Buck said. "You have to be careful not to be too judgemental because sometimes nobody can see what would've been the best thing to do in a situation until after the situation is over and done."
What's hindsight?" Chris asked.
"It's when you look back after something has happened and can see how you could have made a different decision back earlier and things would have turned out better when you couldn't see that at the time,"
Buck and Eddie made the most of the extra free hours in Phoenix that day to add in a visit the Aquarium and met up with Albert outside the prison next morning to hand Jee over for him to take her in to visit Chimney. "You only have 30 minutes. That's all we could book a spot in the family room for on such short notice. If Chim complains point out that we had an hour booked yesterday and he refused to see us," Buck said.
"Did you wear the camera you borrowed from your turnouts yesterday?" Albert said.
"I didn't even get past the gate, they radioed our names and Chim declined the visit without seeing us," Buck said. "But yeah, I recorded it."
"Put it on me," Albert said.
"Are you sure, Albert? He's your brother, he's going to see it as a betrayal," Buck asked.
"And he's a grownass adult. Jee-Yun's my baby niece, she needs to be with guardians who care about her well being. I'm not willing to have the footage used against him in criminal court but we rescued a couple of kids this week that CPS had returned to their parents when they shouldn't have. If he behaves badly and seeing his attitude to Jee stops CPS from making a similar mistake then I'm all for it. And if on the other hand, seeing the camera helps Howard to control his temper so Jee isn't upset during the visit then it would be a good thing too even if it doesn't help with the custody agreement when he gets out of prison. Afterall, if he doesn't make an ass of himself, there'll be nothing incriminating to use on the video," Albert said.
Eddie laughed, "And what do you think are the chances of that?" he asked.
"Who knows, he is her dad and he was a great dad before Maddie left, so maybe he wants to see she's okay and has realised how much he neglected her during that stupid road trip, or with her gone too he probably misses her as much as he misses Maddie," Albert said hopefully.
"I hope you're right, but if he starts yelling and you think that he's going to scare Jee, get her out of there," Buck said seriously.
"I won't let him upset her any more than I can help," Albert promised. "Besides, he thinks that he's won by making you give Jee to me to take in to visit, which might be enough to put him in a good mood during the visit and calm him down about you having custody. I doubt that he's considered that I'm as pissed off about it as you are, even if I had planned to come visit this weekend anyway," Albert said.
"He will when he sees you wearing the camera," Eddie warned him.
Albert gave his name to the guards and within a few minutes was escorted through the gate and into the family visiting room. He sat down with Jee-Yun on his knee and Chimney was escorted in.
Hey Albert, hey Jee-Yun," Chimney said.
"Hi," Albert said warily. Jee babbled at him happily and Albert held her out for Chimney to take.
"She's grown," Chimney said frowning as he accepted the baby. "She looks well."
"She's fully recovered from the dehydration and borderline malnutrition," Albert said bluntly, but refraining from mentioning Buck. He didn't want to be the cause of Chimney losing his temper in front of Jee.
"Too much time is passing, I have to get out of here and find Maddie, before Jee grows too much for her to recognise," Chimney said.
"I hardly think there's any danger of that, she's mostly only put back on the weight she needed to, but babies grow Howard. Maddie will be expecting her to have grown. She'd worry if Jee hadn't grown," Albert said.
"But how can I prove to Maddie that Jee-Yun needs her if she's thriving without her?" Chimney said.
Albert froze in shock. "Did you deliberately not take good care of Jee so Maddie would feel like she needed to come back and take over?" he asked, hoping his voice didn't show his fury and horror at the idea.
"What? No of course not!" Chimney said. "I didn't deliberately hurt my daughter, and she was fine. You said so yourself."
"I said that she's fine now after two nights in hospital and being well looked after for the last few weeks, heaven knows whether she'd have been okay by the time you paid her enough attention to notice that she needed food and drink and a change of diaper and time out of her car seat, if you hadn't been pulled over and the police rescued her when they did," Albert corrected. "It took Buck and Eddie two days to get here so they could make sure she wasn't harmed by the trip."
"How could you leave my daughter with that traitor?" Chimney asked betrayed.
"It was CPS's decision, and you and Maddie gave him emergency custody in your living will," Albert reminded him.
"She should be with her grandparents," Chimney said.
"If you mean Margaret and Phillip Buckley or our father, you need your head examined, you know Maddie would never want them to look after Jee-Yun," Albert said incredulously.
"Not them, John and Ann Lee," Chimney snapped.
"They aren't biological relatives and they admitted themselves that they're too old to be up all night with a baby or running around after a toddler," Albert reminded his brother.
"You were on that paperwork that Maddie and I signed. You could have taken her," Chimney insisted.
"I'm couch surfing between apartments, and I have zero experience in looking after her for more than an hour or two or without a written list of instructions and feeding schedule, and I'm not willing to give up my social life to sit at home with a baby every night like Buck and Eddie are happy to," Albert retorted.
"You could have stayed at our apartment and Jee could have been at home," Chimney argued.
"If you wanted Jee-Yun to be at home surrounded by her own and Maddie's things then maybe you should have kept her there and looked after her yourself instead of dragging her with you on the stupid road trip," Albert stated. He wasn't going to agree to moving into Maddie and Chimney's apartment. He knew that his brother would expect him to pay the rent if he was living there and it was beyond his budget.
"I needed to find Maddie! She's on her own and nobody else is even looking for her!" Chimney yelled, startling Jee who started to cry.
Albert watched Chimney ignore her for a moment before getting up and taking her from him and held her in his arms rocking her. "Maddie's fine, missing persons found her," he said.
"You've seen her. Has she come back? Why didn't she come to visit me? Why is Jee still with Buck if Maddie's back?" Chimney demanded rapid-fire, getting agitated when Albert didn't answer his questions even though he hadn't given him time to answer.
"Maddie hasn't come back. Buck told you that missing person's wouldn't say where she was, only that she was safe and well," Albert said, interrupting the continuing stream of questions. He was careful not to raise his voice and upset his niece further.
"She's not alright! She has PPD and she's scared that she's a bad mother. I need to find her. I need to be out there looking for her. You need to help me," Chimney ranted causing Jee to start crying again.
"I'm not even going to think about helping you escape, the quickest way out of here would be to accept a plea bargain, so you don't have to wait for trial," Albert said as he got up and started walking up and down trying to get her to settle. Not helped by Chimney continuing to yell about Buck trying to steal his daughter and prevent him from finding Maddie.
The guards came in and try to escort Chimney from the room, ending up cuffing him when he pushes them away not realising who they were in his temper. Albert willingly accompanies the guards back to the gate and hands Jee over to Buck who is quickly able to settle her down.
"I won't do that again?" Albert said after turning off the camera.
"Won't do what again, wear a camera to record Chim's reactions? We didn't ask you to, you offered," Eddie reminded him.
"I won't take Jee in there and let him yell at her like that again, or I guess he wasn't really yelling at her he was just yelling but I don't think she's old enough to know the difference and she got really upset," Albert said.
"What happened," Buck asked anxiously.
"He didn't hurt her only scared her when he lost his temper and he didn't even care he was upsetting her. Luckily she was sobbing into my shoulder and didn't see her father being led away in handcuffs after shoving a guard. The thing is I think he thought it was me trying to stop him pacing and yelling and if he'd shoved me while I was holding Jee she could've been hurt," Albert said.
"She's not coming back here," Buck agreed furiously, even though his voice was still soft not to wake the baby.
"Not unless it's mandated by CPS," Eddie agreed.
"I don't care what they say, Jee doesn't deserve to be frightened, upset and ignored like that," Buck said stubbornly.
"Can't you argue that it's in Chimney's best interests as well as Jee's, and the best for their future relationship not to let him continue to frighten Jee every time she sees him, and keep her away until he learns to control his temper around her," Albert suggested.
"Does she need a sleep before the Z-O-O?" Albert asked making Eddie chuckle. Chris was still in the car with his headphones on watching a movie and Jee was asleep. He didn't know who Albert thought he was spelling for. Not to mention Jee-Yun was too young to recognise the word zoo and Chris would have no difficulty with the spelling.
"It's about 40 minutes away, she can get enough sleep in the car. Are you going to follow us?" Buck replied.
Eddie watched Buck and Chris relax as they moved out of sight of the prison and resolved to himself that they wouldn't do this again. Perhaps they couldn't avoid Jee having to be exposed to the fact her father was in prison but she was too young to understand much about that and too young to remember the rest. Chris though was old enough to be disturbed by even being close to the outside of the prison and reminding him that Chimney had been locked up for assaulting Buck and endangering Jee would only give him nightmares. On the other hand he wasn't willing for Buck to come here without his support either. They needed a new plan if they had to come back but Eddie couldn't work out what would cause the least damage to their family.
Albert saw it more clearly. "I'm not taking Jee back there. She didn't deserve to be frightened like that, play them the recording if they try to insist," he said flatly. Buck immediately agreed and after thinking it over Eddie believed they could get away with not bringing Jee-Yun to visit without CPS penalising Buck. They'd made the effort and if CPS questioned Buck keeping Chimney's daughter away from him then they had the camera footage to prove Chimney refused to let Eddie or Buck visit and that when they made alternate arrangements, neither Chimney nor Jee benefited in any way from the visit.
"We could probably make an argument for not bringing Jee to visit until Chimney is willing to see her with her current guardian, you can't be expected to be able to drag along someone else every time," Eddie said, smirking at Buck.
Eddie threw all his efforts into distracting everyone with the thought of exploring a new zoo. Buck and Chris got involved in learning about and researching more facts on the animals they hadn't seen before and Jee and Albert loved the petting zoo, Eddie took dozens of photos of all of them, egging them on with new things every time he saw their attention starting to wane and memories or thoughts of the visits to Chimney start to intrude.
They had breakfast with Albert next morning before he began the drive back to Los Angeles and they headed north to explore a little bit of the Grand Canyon before going home. It was important to Buck, especially after he'd seen Christopher's reaction to the prison that he have as many good memories of this trip as possible, and that Jee-Yun wouldn't be distressed by the amount of time they spent in the car.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed, commented positively, followed, bookmarked or favourited or gave Kudos to this story for your support.