Somewhere along the way, neither of them could say exactly when, Eddie and Buck had begun to have regular meetups about once each week. If someone asked Eddie, he wouldn't be able to remember when they exactly started, or why, despite his continuing reservations, he still decided to keep meeting up with Buck, but they had been happening.

Maybe it was because of the bond. Maybe it was because with the amount of run-ins he had had with the man, his presence had grown on him.

Nah, it was probably just the bond.

But for some reason, Eddie found that that didn't bother him.

Sometimes it was just the two of them, sometimes Chris joined them. Eddie was honestly surprised how quickly Buck and Chris took to each other. Almost like they had known each other Chris's whole life rather than a handful of weeks.

Sometimes they just went out to have a meal together, sometimes they went to the zoo or aquarium. It was always Buck or Chris suggesting what they did though, Eddie just went along with it.

Today though, Chris was still at school. For once, their work schedules had lined up, each having ended a shift this morning. Sometime in the past couple days Eddie agreed to get a late lunch with Buck and then pick Chris up from his school when they were let out. The two had apparently come up with some sort of plan to do that afternoon afterwards. Eddie didn't know when they made said plan, for Eddie was always present when the two were together and it wasn't like Chris had a cell phone or anything to text Buck when they were apart.

There was a small thought that they were talking on one of Chris's video game systems, but Eddie didn't think any of the games Chris played allowed for that, and it also put an unsettling thought in his gut whenever he thought about that, so he didn't.

Eddie didn't know why he was letting Buck into their lives so much, letting him hang out with his son every weekend, inviting him back to their house, the only thing Buck had not done yet was spend the night. It wasn't like this would be forever anyway, only until they had figured out how to end this stupid bond.

The two were currently sitting in the back of some pizza place Buck had been razing about the last week, and Eddie thought the pizza was… okay. Not terrible, but not the best. He probably wouldn't think about it again if someone asked where they should place a pizza order. When Eddie heard the chime of the front door opening, he briefly looked up at it above Buck's shoulder, thinking it would be just another customer coming in.

That was when Eddie saw the familiar figure of Shannon. Well, her figure changed a little, that's what happened after what? Five years now was it? She was the last person he had ever wanted to see again.

"So that's when Chimney…" Buck must have felt something come from Eddie through their bond, or he saw that Eddie turned his gaze away from the table, for he turned around to look over his shoulder to see what had caught Eddie's attention. "What is it?" he asked.

"It's nothing," Eddie said quickly and looked down at the table, staring down at one of the bubbles on the crust of the pizza. The last thing he wanted was for Shannon to see him and come over to talk to him. He had done a lot in the last three years to put everything regarding her out of his life… out of Christopher's life. He had moved halfway across the country for God's sake! What was she even doing here anyway?

Buck continued to look towards the entrance of the restaurant. But he couldn't see anything that would explain what he could feel coming from Eddie. All he saw was the one couple that had just walked in. Did Eddie know them or something?

"It's not nothing," Buck said when he turned back around to look at Eddie. Eddie, who now had a much more guarded and stony look on his face.

"Just… don't look at them," Eddie mumbled out.

Wait, what?

Without thinking, Buck quickly turned his head around to look at the couple that had just walked in a little closer. A man and a woman, about their age. Both white with brown hair. They looked pretty ordinary, nothing stood out about them whatsoever.

"I said don't look at them," Eddie said again.

Okay, so Eddie must know them from somewhere.

As much as Buck wanted to turn around again and take another look at them, he stopped himself. Him and Eddie, they finally… finally had a good thing going, and he didn't want to cause anything to upset it when it was so obvious that Eddie wanted to avoid the topic.

That didn't, however, stop one of the two people Eddie was trying to avoid from noticing them.

Xx?xXx?xXx?xX

"Eddie?" they heard a voice ask from a couple feet away from their table as soon as Eddie had finished his current piece of pizza. Eddie knew that voice, it hadn't changed in all their years of separation. Only now, instead of triggering a feeling of anger and or annoyance in him, it was one of fear.

As much as Eddie hated that Shannon just up and left him and Chris without a proper goodbye or even occasional check-in for their son, he didn't want her to come back into their life, or even see her again. The way she had abandoned them had left them both reeling for years. It was only now, after they had moved halfway across the country and Chris was starting to reach the age he could barely remember her, that they had started to get their lives back on track.

And now she was here, standing only four feet away from him. Coming up to him like nothing had happened.

To be honest, it scared Eddie, just a little bit, how easily she could just come and walk up to him the first time she saw him in five years, and start talking like she had only been gone for a week.

Buck was totally caught off guard. This woman, who Eddie had obviously been trying to hide from earlier, had just come up to their table, and now all Buck could feel coming from the other half of the bond was a strange mix of dread, fear, and avoidance. "Eddie?" Buck said tentatively.

Eddie's face quickly jerked up to look back at Buck, so fast Buck thought he might get whiplash, and Eddie zeroed in on Buck's face and voice.

Buck… Buck was still here. His soulmate was here with him, right in front of his ex-wife.

Eddie hadn't told Buck anything about Shannon. There were a lot of things Eddie hadn't told Buck about yet. Like his career in the Army, and the currently strained relationship he had with his parents…

Or how his wife just up and left them five years ago.

And apparently thought she could just back into their lives when she found him sitting in a strip mall pizza restaurant… sitting across from his soulmate.

His soulmate, who Eddie hadn't even told about his past with the woman standing before them. Well, he might have made a comment about her a couple months ago, but nowhere near the entire story between them.

Oh shit, Eddie looked at Buck's face again. The man looked so confused right now, like a fish out of water being thrown into the strange, awkward, and tense conversation between two people, one of whom he could share emotions with.

"So who's this here?" he heard Shannon ask. Seconds later, he felt a little bit of curiosity sparkle forth out of the bond from Buck. Of course Buck wanted to know who she was.

No, Eddie shook his head. He couldn't do this right now.

With the way his heart was beating wildly and his breath was quickly picking up, he couldn't talk to either of them right now. He looked around wildly. He had to get out of here, find an escape route and take it.

He stood up abruptly, causing the chair he was sitting in to clatter behind him.

"Eddie?" he heard them both say as he moved outside, leaving the restaurant.

Xx?xXx?xXx?xX

"Hey Eddie! Wait!" Buck yelled out as he followed Eddie down the road. Where was he going?

Buck had no idea what exactly had set Eddie off. He felt it beginning right when that woman entered the restaurant, and then when she came up to talk to him the feeling ramped up tenfold.

He knew it had to have something to do with that woman, her and Eddie had to have some sort of history. She seemed normal enough, but from the way Eddie reacted to seeing her, Buck had to wonder, just who was she?

Eventually Eddie stopped right next to a bench in the middle of a small courtyard area outside a group of shops. He sat down and hunched over, his elbows on his knees and ran his hands through his hair as he took in some harsh breaths.

Buck stopped and remained standing a couple feet away. He could still feel a crazy amount of fluctuating emotions radiating from Eddie. He didn't even know where to begin with them. So he slowly walked closer to Eddie and then sat down on the opposite end of the bench, and just waited Eddie out.

Eventually Eddie's harsh gasps turned into sobs, and Buck felt Eddie's emotions change from a mess of rage and anguish settle into an all-encompassing depression. He could see tears falling down the side of Eddie's cheeks.

Buck couldn't take it anymore now, he slid over to where he could touch Eddie and put a hand on his shoulder. Eddie didn't do anything to reject Buck's touch, instead he leaned into it, leaned over far enough his entire body was now pressing into Buck.

Then Eddie turned, wrapped his arms around Buck's torso, and pulled him into a hug. Buck felt Eddie bury his head into the space between his neck and shoulder and he just held him back, waiting Eddie out while he cried into his shoulder, and started whispering straight randomness and platitudes in Eddie's ear. It worked, and slowly but surely Eddie calmed down, Buck felt through the bond as his emotions leveled out, at the same time as Eddie's breaths did.

"Sorry," Eddie mumbled as he pulled out of Buck's arms. He wiped his face off with the palm of his hand. "You're probably wondering what that was all about."

"You… you don't have to talk about it now," Buck said. After the cycle of emotions he just saw, and felt, Eddie go through, he knew when it was appropriate to step back.

"No," Eddie said. "I need to tell you now."

Eddie took a deep breath, leant back on the bench, and proceeded to tell Buck the entire story. From when he had first met Shannon at that house party he went to in high school, (to this day Eddie didn't know where his cousin got that much alcohol) to when he and Shannon figured out she was pregnant and their parents basically forced them into marriage, to when Eddie returned, injured, from his third deployment and he and Shannon's relationship grew more strained by the day, to lastly, when Shannon went out to the grocery store, and came back with a new man on her arm, claiming he was her soulmate and that she was leaving them.

Buck didn't know how to take it in, so he just listened. He knew there had to have been something that had happened to Eddie for him to be so against the idea of bonds, and he had suspected something like this might have happened. The 'bad ending to a previous bond' part. Not the 'my son's mother just abandoned him when she met her soulmate' part.

And he thought his family drama was bad. He might not have the strongest bond with his parents, but at least they didn't cut him off.

Eddie looked down at the watch on his wrist. "Shit," he cursed. It was two forty five already. He had to pick Chris up at three. He looked around at where they were. He didn't even recognize what part of the city they were in. Just how far did he walk?

"Do you have to go pick up Chris now?" Buck asked.

"Yeah," Eddie said, turning his head back to Buck.

"Come on, I'll take you to pick him up," Buck said, standing up.

"But-"

"Don't worry about it," Buck shrugged as he pulled Eddie along behind him. "I don't know where you parked, but my truck is right across the street there. It's no problem."

Xx?xXx?xXx?xX

The following weekend, Buck had insisted on taking him and Eddie to the zoo, to show them some new manatee exhibit. Eddie was mildly curious how Buck knew every time the zoo got a new animal or feature, but somehow he never found the need to ask. Maybe if he did it would bring an end to Buck's gift of always knowing when something new here happened? He couldn't say.

But Chris was always excited to visit or see whatever Buck had found. In fact, Chris was always excited with just about anything Buck did or wanted to do. Chris was infatuated with the man. And Eddie couldn't say when it started or why that was the case, but he wasn't against it in any way, so… he was just going to let it go for however long it lasted.

Buck wasn't the worst person his son could pick for a role model. There were a lot of other worse people Chris could have picked.

The manatee exhibit ended up being a bit of a let down however. Not because manatees weren't cool animals, they were one of Eddie's favorites, when they were awake and swimming around and all that.

Today they happened to all be sleeping. And when they were sleeping they apparently just oversized pebbles on the bottom of their pool. Chris was kind of let down by them, so was Eddie.

Now, they had moved to the food area of the zoo for lunch. And Chris, being the seven year old that he was, promptly forgot about how hungry he was once he saw the large playground only twenty yards away from the table Buck found. So Eddie let him go off, as long as he stayed within ear and eyeshot of them.

"So much for these chicken tenders," Eddie said, dropping the plate on the picnic table, picking one up and starting to eat it.

"Have you told Chris yet?" Buck looked over and asked Eddie after a couple minutes of companionable silence.

"Told him what?" Eddie asked as his eyes tracked Chris as the boy moved around the playground.

"About us," Buck said as if it was obvious.

Eddie was silent for a second. He knew this conversation was going to come at some point. He was surprised it hadn't come sooner, actually.

That didn't change the fact that he wanted to avoid talking about this topic for as long as possible. Whether it was to avoid talking about it with Buck or Christopher, he wasn't sure. Probably both.

"I don't know how to tell him," Eddie said finally.

"Don't know how to tell him?" Buck repeated. "What do you mean?"

Eddie let out a long breath, breaking his gaze from watching Chris on the playground to the spec of dried mud that was on the shin of his pants. When had that gotten there? It didn't really matter.

"You weren't there," Eddie started. "You weren't there when Shannon left. How much it messed Chris up. For weeks he kept asking when his mom would come back. And then when the bond between them started going away… it destroyed him, Buck. It wasn't until we moved out here that he finally started to, you know… get back to normal."

Buck took a breath and leant back. He understood where Eddie was coming from, especially with all he learned about him this past week, but…

"Yeah, but…" Buck paused. "You can't hide this from him forever, you know?"

And yeah, Eddie was perfectly aware of that little fact. Eventually Chris would figure things out. He was surprised Chris didn't already question the sudden addition of Buck into their lives. Eddie knew the longer he put it off, the bigger the fallout would be when Chris learned about the bond.

But that didn't stop the pit of dread that formed in his stomach whenever he thought about telling Christopher.

"Give me a week," Eddie said. Buck made a noise, and Eddie turned away from where he sat faced watching Chris to look straight at Buck. "Give me a week, and I'll tell him."