The Years of Our Lives (Buddie Kid Fic)

Chapter Four: Sickness Strikes

It was the 3rd month of Emilia and Romeo's lives and so far it was going well for the new dads. Emilia had rolled over once; Eddie was confident it was an accident during tummy time from the size of her head but Buck had proudly told everyone that it was very intentional and that his daughter was a genius. Romeo had followed suit a day later, but his rolls were much more coordinated and had happened more than once. Buck didn't like to talk about it around Emilia, stating that he didn't want her to feel as though she was being left out. Eddie had rolled his eyes at this and reminded Buck that the babies were only 3 months old and could hardly understand such concepts as favouritism or FOMO. All this aside, the twins were tummy time wizards, lifting their heads up, rolling over, and occasionally reaching out to grab things that were placed in front of them. Christopher absolutely adored spending time with his siblings. He would sit with them while they lay on their playmats and hold toys in front of their faces, giggling hysterically when they reached out to grab his hand or made small cooing noises at him. Whenever Eddie watched his eldest interact with the twins, he felt as though his heart would burst from pride.

The only small blip in the last 3 months was the stomach bug that Christopher had picked up from school. Eddie had been appointed head care-giver by Buck, who stated that seeing as he was Christopher's dad (a ridiculous excuse in Eddie's head) that he should be the one cleaning up the pre-teen's vomit. Buck had watched warily from afar as Eddie held his son as he puked violently into the bowl that had been placed in front of him. He'd done his best to seem busy with the babies whenever Christopher had an attack of hurling, taking them into their room for a change of clothes or insisting that now was the opportune time to practice their rolling over. However, now matter how much he'd tried to avoid it, he'd been alone with Christopher when the kid announce that he was about to vomit this very instant and there'd been nothing Buck could do to avoid that. Eddie had been putting the twins down for their nap, telling Buck to man up and deal with their sick child. And dealt with it he did, taking on the full brunt of Christopher's projectile vomit up his arms as he completely missed the bucket Buck was holding in front of him. Buck had done his best to ignore his heart pounding extremely fast in his chest or the way his hands shook as he reassured Christopher that all was okay and that he'd clean it up quickly. It was only once he'd tucked Christopher into bed and cleaned himself up, scrubbing the chunks of puke from his arm hairs, that he'd allowed himself to crumble into a ball of panic, flinching at every noise around him in case it was the sound of imminent hurling. It was about time he accepted it. Buck had emetophobia. And there was no way Eddie was going to find out.

That was, until 3 days later when Buck woke up and realised there was something very wrong. For one thing, Eddie wasn't in bed anymore. And there was light streaming in through the curtains. Buck never slept in enough for it to be this light when he woke up; there were always babies crying or a husband snoring or something to rouse him.

Buck groaned and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands, noticing the pulsing headache he had. There was a bad taste in his mouth, which was as dry as a bone, and his stomach felt as though a ball of lead had settled in it. God no, anything but this.

He pulled back the covers and pushed himself up into a sitting position, trying to ignore the waves of nausea that rolled through his body as he adjusted to being vertical. Yawning widely, Buck stood up and shuffled into the kitchen, where he could hear the noises of his husband fawning over their children.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty!" Eddie teased as he took in Buck's dishevelled appearance. "Did you enjoy your sleep in?"

"Why did I sleep so late" Buck yawned, swallowing hard afterwards as he felt his stomach lurch a little at the smell of the breakfast Eddie had cooked that morning.

"You were impossible to wake up and you sleep in so rarely that I figured I could do the morning routine for once" Eddie replied cheerfully, playing with Romeo's foot as the baby batted some toys with his fists. Eddie had set the twins up on their bouncers, placing them on the island on the kitchen so he could cook and keep an eye on them at the same time. He'd secured the bouncers as best as possible so they couldn't bounce themselves off and onto the floor.