(A 911 Buddie fanfic) Every Breath You Take (I'll be watching you...)

Chapter 2

If Eddie thought he would get to sleep in on his first Saturday off in weeks, he was greatly mistaken. Chris was awake and calling on both him and Buck before the sun had even fully risen. Of course, he only had himself to blame. He had, after all, agreed they would spend the day shopping for Halloween decorations. He huffed and he puffed and he grumbled away, but the truth was, he secretly enjoyed it. He enjoyed the shared excitement of Chris and Buck, and enjoyed listening as Chris rambled away about all the plans he had, from skeletons in the garden to ghosts in the windows.

As he sipped on his coffee, Eddie rolled his eyes every so often, playing the part of irritated father, but he couldn't hide the smile. He couldn't hide the way warmth spread throughout him when he glanced Buck's way and saw the pure joy that lit up his face. By the time they reached the first of many shops, Eddie had given up pretending, embracing the chaos of it all and loving every minute of it.

Chris was the first into the Halloween store, wide eyes taking everything in before looking back to Eddie and Buck. "I'm gonna see if they have any werewolf costumes."

And he was moving before either of them had a chance to say anything to him on the matter.

"I guess he wants to be a werewolf," Buck chuckled, taking a step toward the closest shelving and looking through the items on sale there.

"I guess so," Eddie agreed, letting go of a snort before joining Buck at the shelving. "Which just leaves us to decide on our costumes." He pulled a mask from the shelf, taking in the fake green skin and cheap bolts, and held it up to Buck with a grin. "What about Frankenstein?"

Buck looked to him, head tilting as he pointed his finger at him, a small smile on his face that lit up his eyes. "Did you know that Frankenstein is actually the doctor, not the monster?"

In truth, Eddie did know, but he wasn't about to say so. He enjoyed it too much, watching the shine in Buck's eyes whenever he started telling Eddie random facts. He enjoyed the random research binges Buck would go on, somehow getting from 'why does the moon look red' to 'what was the number one cause of death in the 17th century' within a matter of minutes.

"I don't know," Eddie answered with a shrug as he put the mask back, "guy sewed a bunch of dead people together just because he could. Seems pretty monstrous to me."

"Fair point," Buck said with a click of his fingers and a smile, returning to costumes on show.

"So, no monster doctor then…" Eddie continued. "Then, what are you gonna wear?"

"I don't know," Buck answered, soft and thoughtful.

"Come to think of it, I've never seen you dress up for Halloween before. Unless you count sexy firefighter."

"Which you totally should."

Eddie let go of a light chortle, but stopped in his search for a costume, his eyes locked on Buck. "Why don't you ever dress up for Halloween?"

"I guess it wasn't really a big thing growing up in the Buckley household." Buck shrugged, seemingly at peace with it, but that only added to the twinge of sadness that Eddie felt.

"Well, in the Diaz family, Halloween is a big deal." Eddie grinned. "Granted, it's more Dia de los Muertos than actual Halloween and it's more about honouring and remembering the dead than candy. But like my Abuela always says, why can't you do both?"

Buck toyed with a headband with a fake, bloody axe on it before placing it on his head and turning to face Eddie, holding his arms out. "What do you think?"

Eddie twisted his nose up and shook his head, taking a step forward and removing the headband as he did so. He cast a quick glance at the shelves and smiled when he found just the thing. He picked up a dark brown tricorn hat and placed it gently on Buck's head, turning him from murder victim to rugged pirate.