Something I Need: A Buddie Story

Confession pt.2

It had been 3 days since Eddie had confessed his feelings to Buck. They hadn't spoken or even seen each other since, and frankly, it's been eating up at the both of them.

Buck wakes up from his slumber to a call from an unknown number. He picks up the phone and immediately sits up when he realises that it was Christopher's school nurse. He hangs up the phone after a brief conversation and he gets dressed to go get the twelve-year-old from school.

When Buck arrives at the school's office, he finds Christopher sitting next to the school nurse, who was holding a bucket Buck could only assume was for puke. The nurse glances up at Buck and walks over to shake his hand.

"Hi, you must be Christopher's guardian. Christopher was complaining of a headache early this morning, and even with rest and taking paracetamol he doesn't seem to have gotten better," the nurse began to explain, "after he woke up, he spiked a fever, at which point I decided that it would be best that he went home for the rest of the day. I tried to contact his father first, of course, but Christopher here explained to me that his father was at work and might have his phone turned off. Mr Diaz has you listed as Chris' emergency contact, so I took it upon myself to call you. Thank you for arriving so promptly".

Buck absorbed all that was just explained to him by the nurse and nodded. He checked a sullen Christopher out of the school and began the drive back to the house.

"You feeling okay, bud? Want to get something to eat before I take you home?" Buck asked, glancing to his right, where Christopher was sitting, playing with his phone. Chris shook his head no.

"I haven't seen you in 4 days". Christopher stated matter-of-factly. "You were supposed to come with Dad to pick me up from school. And then yesterday we were supposed to play video games together and you never showed up. Dad said you were busy. You've never flaked out on me. And you flaked on me twice". He glared at Buck, who could feel it even with his eyes still on the road.

Buck sighed exasperatedly. "Buddy, there are some things that have been happening that I need to sort out first before I can make time for you again. I know it was wrong of me to not tell you yesterday that I couldn't make it and I'm so sorry. I should have just been honest with you".

After some thought, Christopher answered, "Okay. Just don't do it again".

Buck chuckled at his tone and saluted at him, causing Christopher to burst out laughing. 'That sound never gets old, does it?' He mused to himself.

After a hectic lunch where Christopher found himself puking back up his soup, Buck drove Christopher back home where Carla was waiting for them. He left the house, but not before promising to hang out with Christopher again later that week.

He ended up driving to the station, where he decided that it was finally time to discuss everything that had been going on.

****Meanwhile at Station 118****

"So you're telling me that YOU, Edmundo Diaz, have not talked to Buck in over 4 days?" Hen asked, packing up her bags after finishing a long shift. "I'm surprised you could even go a few hours without talking to each other, especially after what happened".

"Yeah, you guys are thick as thieves, when he was in a coma we had to pry you away from his bedside". Chimney chimed in. (A/N hehe see what I did there).

Eddie groaned and wanted to be anywhere but here getting questioned about his life choices. "Look, I'm guessing that Buck needs some space to figure out everything, okay? You know, as much as I miss him, I'm not going to force him to talk to me, especially about something like this. If he wants to talk about it, we'll talk about it. But until then, I've already said my piece", Eddie shoved his extra shirt into his duffel bag before turning towards the other two, "also, I know you guys mean well, but I would really appreciate it if you would stop interrogating me about my personal life. My friendship with Buck is on the line here and- what the hell are you two doing?" Eddie stopped his rambling as Hen and Chimney began signalling for him to stop.

"He's right behind me, isn't he?" Eddie sighed and turned around. Stood in the doorway of the locker room was none other than Evan Buckley. Chimney and Hen look at each other smirking and slowly walk away back to their cars.

Eddie turned his back to Buck as the taller man approached him, busying himself with packing his duffel bag.

"What are you doing here?". Eddie finally said, breaking the awkward silence. Buck looked up from where he was standing, facing Eddie's back.

"I uh picked up your kid from school today".

"Oh". Eddie finally turned around to face Buck. "Thanks, man. I really appreciate it". Eddie continues packing for a moment, before realising that it was only 1 in the afternoon.

"Wait. School doesn't let out for another 2 hours, why did he leave school early?" Eddie continues to bombard Buck with questions about his (read: their) son, but was stopped by the man in front of him.

"Yeah, he wasn't feeling well, and the school nurse called me. I guess you were on a call when she tried to reach you," Buck began to explain, "But yeah, uh I took Chris out for lunch, it did not sit well and we had to make a pitstop on the way home to puke, and now he's at home. I went ahead and called Carla to come earlier. He told me that he was upset with me. Because I flaked out on him. Honestly in the chaos of everything that's been happening, I didn't even stop to think about how this could affect Chris. And I realised that I needed to discuss this with you so we can see where we go from here".

Eddie ushers for him to continue while taking a seat on one of the benches. Buck finds himself seated across from him. Buck sighed deeply before continuing.

"When you told me you had feelings for me, I honestly didn't think that it could be true. I mean, we've been friends for years, why all of a sudden now you want more, yknow? But then I realised that in my mind, I already viewed you and Christopher as my family." He paused, looking for some sort of answer in Eddie's eyes. "And you telling me that you had feelings for me only strengthened that idea, if anything. But I needed the past few days to understand what that would mean for us. If we were to be anything more than just friends, what would happen to us? I started to question what might happen to my guardianship of Christopher if something were to happen to us if we were to break up. Then I thought to myself that I didn't have to keep wondering about the what-ifs and just fucking do it. So".

"What exactly do you want to do?" Eddie asked with bated breath.

"I want to be more than friends. Maybe we don't label it just yet. But right now we can be at the stage where we're more than just friends but less than boyfriends. If.. you want that". Buck responded, smiling sheepishly at a blushing Diaz.

"Y-yeah, I want that too". Eddie smiled back at him.

They spent the evening with Christopher at Eddie's home, playing video games and watching bad soap operas. Well, it was mostly Christopher watching, splayed across his dad and his Buck. The two men however spent the evening stealing glances at the other, feeling a sense of relief they hadn't been able to feel in days.

A/N: AAAAA a bit of a longer chapter for you gremlins. I know y'all are gripping onto the edge of your seats waiting for them to kiss but it'll be so much sweeter if we wait. (As much as I love fast-paced fanfiction where they kiss in the first chapter, I feel like this is more realistic, and it's a rare treat in the realm of fanfiction teehee).