The Family We Choose

Chapter 38

"She told me she hated me." Eddie says into the phone and Buck can only shake his head. Although he has been on the phone with Eddie all morning, he recently moved to speakerphone so he could text the other Diaz.

"Every kid says that to their parents at one point," Buck says, like it is a normal thing which makes Eddie take a mental note to talk to him about later. Because Emelia wasn't like and Buck knew first hand what Emelia hating someone could look like. This was just her being a typical teenager.

When Buck doesn't get a timely answer, he continues with a smug grin Eddie can only imagine. "Weren't you the one who said she isn't capable of hating anyone."

"Maybe I was too hard on her." Eddie responds. Coping Buck's actions and pulling up Emelia's messages. He knew he had to make it right.

"What even happened man? Emelia's not the kid to earn herself a two week grounding." He had been on the phone with Eddie all night and was about three blocks away from their place when Emelia finally came home. And although he said he would call the other man back, Eddie simply told him everyone was home safe and never actually called back.

"Her phone died while she was with May." he pinches the bridge of his nose. "They fell asleep but they were unsupervised and she was 3 hours past curfew."

"Seriously? That doesn't seem like an Emelia thing to do." Eddie would have swooned if he didn't have a million other emotions running through his brain right now. Buck knew his kid, just as well as him and in moments like these it almost felt like they were co-parenting them together. Not that he would ever say that out loud.

Right now they were playing good cop-bad cop and Eddie didn't like his position.

"She said it was an accident but no one was home and I was so worried when she didn't come home that once I saw her I was just so angry."

"You were worried, I'm sure she'll understand that eventually."

"I've never felt like this Buck." More specifically, he's never felt so panicked. Even with the tsunami, they were only missing for 20 minutes as far as Eddie was concerned but last night he had no clue where she was for three hours. "I was just so sure something happened and blew up at her."

"Weren't you the one who told me we all make mistakes and all that matters is that we never stop trying." Buck was having fun with him now, enjoying how he could throw his own words back in his face to make him feel better.

"Buck." Eddie groaned.

"I'm sure once you both cool off and apologize," his voice raises a little, making sure the part about apologizing really stuck with him. "This will blow over."

"That's easy to say coming from the guy who is not getting the silent treatment."

"Hey, I've had my fair share." Buck chuckles, Eddie follows suit. "Come on man, she's forgiven both of us for less."

There was a brief pause, Eddie thinking about what to say and how to fix this because he should have believed her and trusted her. Deep down he knew it was a mistake. How he was going to say all that was unbeknownst to him.

"You're right." he says before sending a quick apology to Emelia. "Hey, where do you get those cookies she likes so much? Maybe a peace offering will help with her stubbornness."

"It's..." Buck starts before Chim's contact information pops up on his screen. "Shoot Chim is calling me. I'll call you back in a second."

Eddie mumbles a response, watching closely as the three dots appear and disappear over and over again. He waits patiently, either for Emelia to answer or for Buck to call back.