Buck's Baby (By Accident)

Agreement

Buck didn't sleep well at all that night. Granted a significant portion of that could be blamed on Aidan as Buck was up and down the hall to his son's room what felt like every second hour. Buck could only assume that the sudden regression in the baby's sleep schedule was due to sleeping in a new place for the first time. He wasn't running a fever and Buck had fed and changed him so there was no godly reason for the boy to be as unsettled as he was. By 3am Buck was close to his wit's end as he once again trudged down the hall to the nursery after having been woken by his son's pitiable cries.

"Aidan, honey, please let Daddy sleep for more than 5 seconds" Buck said desperately as he lifted the baby from his crib.

Aidan clutched at the front of Buck's shirt with his little fists, sniffling as Buck wiped the tears from his red cheeks. Realising that he wasn't going to get the baby to sleep in his crib, Buck bought him back to his room, breathing a sigh of relief as his cries quietened and became the occasional whimper instead. Buck held Aidan firmly against his chest as he looted through his bedside table, trying to locate the compression material Eddie had lent him for co-sleeping.

Eddie. The other reason Buck couldn't sleep.

Buck had spent the rest of the evening in a state somewhere between disbelief and giddy happiness. He'd tried to wind himself down before bed with a book in bed but had instead moved on to.... other activities. He'd gone through a number of tissues before finally falling asleep, only to be woken an hour later by his son.

Buck had no idea where his and Eddie's relationship was set to go from here. Was a kiss a declaration of love? Did it mean that him and Eddie were an item now? It was all very confusing and when Buck thought about it too much his head would begin to hurt. He knew that realistically he'd have to talk to Eddie about it, to lay out some ground rules but he had no idea how to initiate that conversation.

Thankfully for Buck, after having finally gotten Aidan to sleep on his chest and fallen asleep himself, he received a text from Eddie. Buck fumbled blindly for his phone, not wanting to turn over and disturb the baby.

Eddie:

Hey

We need to talk

Can I come over, 11ish?

Buck's stomach clenched uncomfortably. Nothing good ever came of those 4 words, but Eddie was also one of the world's worst texters, so it was entirely plausible that he deemed that a perfectly acceptable way to convey the need for a conversation. Buck checked the time as he put his phone away, noting that it was 7:20am. He set an alarm for 10am, giving himself more time to sleep and enough time to make himself presentable for Eddie's arrival.

It was exactly 11:02am when Eddie knocked on Buck's door. The young firefighter sprung up from where he'd been waiting on the couch and wrenched the door open with a grin.

"Hey Eddie" Buck greeted his friend, stepping back to allow him through the door.

"Hey" Eddie replied as he walked through the door. Buck couldn't quite place his finger on it but something seemed off about Eddie that morning. He didn't meet Buck's eye as he led him to the lounge, gesturing for Eddie to sit. Instead of joining him on the couch, Eddie perched himself on an armchair Buck had ordered. He was fiddling with his fingers as he glanced around the room as if trying to think of something to say.

"Soooo" Buck drew out, breaking the silence. "What did you want to talk about?".

Eddie swallowed. "I think you can probably guess, Buck".

"What happened last night?"

"Yeah, that" Eddie wiped his palms on his jeans, something Buck knew Eddie only did when he was nervous.