Sideways

Chapter 42 Welcome To New York

New York, Friday, July 21, 2023

The thump of the landing gear hitting the asphalt on the runway of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City startles Eddie Diaz from his peaceful slumber.

He turns his head to the right and finds Buck looking out the window from his seat, the fingers of his left hand still tightly intertwined with those on Eddie's right. Sensing his husband is awake, Buck turns to look at Eddie with an astonished grin on his face.

Neither of them had ever been to New York before. In fact, Eddie hasn't been to many places in his 30+ years on this planet. Apart from California, neither Texas nor Afghanistan offered much of a positive experience, and after what he has been through the last few years, California is losing its shine, too.

On the other hand, Buck was well-traveled after his jaunts around the United States and Peru, as well as whatever other secret locations the Navy Seals had whisked him off to. Eddie knew Buck would tell him about those places; all he needed to do was ask. But why would he ruin it? Buck always gets excited and animated when he gets to share something new with Eddie, and he can't help but find that endearing.

Now, knowing how tightly ingrained New York is in Wes and Cole's backgrounds, Eddie was shocked to hear Buck had never spent time there with them. Buck seemed to know most of the friends and family from New York that both men had mentioned but, oddly, had never been there.

From what Eddie knows and has figured out; Cole had a similar upbringing to Eddie. The Mexican side of his family was from Texas, but his father, the rarely mentioned Nicholas Cross Sr., was someone neither he nor Buck knew much about, only that he was from New York and a "bad guy." During Cole's high school years, he was constantly at odds with his mother and stepfather, so he moved to New York with his maternal grandmother, Alma. Now, there was someone Eddie was looking forward to meeting, as he had heard so much about the women from both men.

Wes, on the other hand, was very proud to have been born and bred in New York City, "Brooklyn actually," as Wes often corrected. He was adamant about adding Brooklyn as a clarification, and it convinced Eddie that there was some unknown slight to imply he was from another part of the state or city. Eddie was starting to feel like it was important for him to emphasize it for some reason, almost like Eddie emphasized he was born in El Paso when he said he was from Texas. Eddie knew why he emphasized where he was born, and it helped curb the bullshit of people assuming he snuck into the country because he was Mexican. You would be surprised how much ingrained racism was built into people, and no matter how much better Eddie knew, it was still an automatic defensive reaction. He was going to have to ask Wes about it at some point. While not the same in the slightest, there was something to why Wes defended it.

Buck and the SEALs had prepared Eddie for this trip, and they knew it would be an amazing adventure for them all. They needed downtime. The last few weeks have been full of too much stress and drama.

For a moment, it seemed like the hits wouldn't stop coming. Firstly, all of the members of the 118 were injured when the bridge collapsed underneath them. That was its own struggle, but then they found out about Connor and how he had betrayed and manipulated Buck. This led to the culmination of the hearing with the LAFD and the revelation that Mackey was working for Genesis and that the bridge collapsing was an orchestrated attack on the 118. Knowing that there was already an attempt on their lives changed things for all of them, and they reacted in kind.

The first action was to roll out a protective detail to protect their loved ones. Nate, Dani, and Bosko volunteered to head close to the campground and watch over Christopher and Denny while Lena recuperated from her injuries. Eddie wanted to argue, but after Cole told him more about Nate and his background, he changed his mind, knowing the boys would be safe under his watchful eye.