Work Text
II'm only posting this so I don't loose this, and google docs being a bitch so i cant transfer it there.
Before Maddie left for her PPD, she left Jee-Yun in the care of Buck (who may be dating Eddie, I haven't fully decided yet.), so when Chimney goes to Buck, not only is he worried for Maddie he's also worried for Jee-Yun like a father should be. (He's aware that Buck has Jee-Yunn, but he momentarily forgot in his worry/anger of not knowing where Maddie is)The same argument from the episode happens, and after Chim punches Buck, Eddie/Chris/Carla (still to be determined) witnesses it and essentially shoves Chim out the door to prevent further injuries on either party.Naturally, since Buck was assaulted, they would have to take him to the hospital or report it to the police, and once it's discovered that Maddie and Chimney have a daughter, and since Maddie's currently pulling a Houdini and Chim's current got assault charges against him, CPS gets called in.They asses the situation, and ultimately decide that since Jee-Yun was already in the care of Buck before Maddie disappears, that she would stay there and that Chimney and later on Maddie would have to show up to court to prove their good parents to Jee-Yunn and get her back (which is a known fact in cannon)
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Waking up after a 24 hour shift should be something Buck should be used to after doing it for nearly four years, but he still felt just as cotton-headed and bleary eyed as he did after his first.By now he knew what woke him up enough to allow him to do basic household chores, so after rolling out of bed and shrugging on the nearest hoodie that didn't smell too bad, he shuffles into his kitchen.He grabs a purple octopus shaped mug
(Christopher insisted that they get matching mug's the first time they went to an aquarium together, and it's now become his favourite mug)
and places it under the lip of his coffee machine. Despite his teasing's to Eddie about his 'ancient' coffee machine
("-It was my Abuelo's, I couldn't let it rust away!"), Buck didn't have a Hildy himself. Even though he researched the shit out the company and it's devices, he still couldn't make the leap and actually get a Hildy coffee machine. Eddie wasn't the only one who was creeped out by the Hildy controlled House knowing the stuff it did.As he waited for the mug to be filled, he peered inside his fridge to see if he had anything decent enough to eat until he went shopping later that day.His bacon was looking a tad funky, so he wasn't going to risk that, and he doubted that the eggs were viable either, so they we're off the menu. That left some unopened yogurt and a box of mixed berries. They were only bought yesterday, so they should be fine? If he ended up getting food poisoning, then he would let Eddie rib him for doing that to himself.Ater throwing them into the only clean bowl he had left and sprinkled a pinch of brown sugar on top (Holy shit did he need to clean his kitchen), he scoured his cabinets to see what he needed to buy. He soon found out that he needed to essentially buy half a store's worth of food. Bobby would not be impressed if he saw the state of Buck's pantry.Armed with a
blue marker, he started scribbling down a messy shopping list onto the whiteboard that was added to the side of his fridge. Chris had insisted that he get one after he saw various pins on Pinterest depicting the same thing, and Buck had to admit that it was pretty useful.Just as he finished writing down milk, Buck was soon brought of of his musing by a hurried series of knocks on his door. Quickly capping the pen in his hand and placing his now empty bowl in the sink, Buck speed walked to his door, opening it to reveal Maddie and Jee-Yun.Jee-Yun was her usual happy go lucky self, giggling up a storm at the sight of her Uncle Buck. Maddie however, looked a little worse for wear. Her outfit, of which she usually took pride in, looked distressed like it hadn't been washed or ironed in a while. Her hair was slightly messy and some of her makeup was askew. And the diaper bag that should've been slung
up on her shoulder was being clutched in her hand with an ironclad grip. To sum it all up, Maddie Buckley looked like a hot mess."Mad's, Hey! How are you?" Buck quickly snapped out of his shock and pulled his sister and niece inside. As Jee-Yun ran off to his front room to watch cartoons, he pulled Maddie into a loose hug. Apparently she really needed one, because she reciprocated by nearly squeezing the air from his lungs, rubbing her face into Buck's neck, almost as if she was commuting it to memory.The two siblings stayed like that for a few minutes until Maddie almost abruptly stepped back, a smile slapped on her face as she brushed some loose hair back behind her ears. "I'm doing good." She cleared her throat with a slight grimace, "Um, quick question, I have some errands to do today and there quite time consuming and I didn't want to just Jee-Yun to her own devices until Howie came home, so could you look after her for a few hours?"Her voice was slightly pleading, which Buck waves off as her asking him to babysit without right saying it. (If he had looked closer, he would've noticed that Maddie's eyes were near tearful, and they were darting across his body, taking in as much detail as she could.)Buck waves a hand at her with a warm grin. "A day with my favourite niece? Of course! I'll be honoured to look after her for a few hours! Take as long as you need!"Maddie seemed to crumble slightly at his words. "Really? You wouldn't mind?"Buck's grinned tweaked a little. He grabbed her hands with his own and rubbed at her knuckles soothingly. "Mad's, I will look after Jee-Yun with my life. And if you need some time alone, then I'll be perfectly fine to look after her while you do some TLC on yourself," He linked their pinkies together and lifted their joined hands in front of her eyes, "You can trust me."Maddie's face seemed to gain a weak glow. "Thanks Evan."Buck glanced at the TV behind him, blanching slightly when he saw that instead of Cartoons, Jee-Yun was instead watching what looked to be trashy Reality TV. "Jee! That is not something you should be watching!" He quickly snagged the remote and smashed a few buttons until it reached a kids channel, letting out a quick
'whew' as he set the remote back down.He turned back to Maddie who had just slid her phone back into her pocket. "Well, I better get going. Don't wanna get stuck in traffic!"She glided across the room and gave Buck a quick squeeze before planting a long kiss on Jee-Yun's head alongside a whispered murmur, before she whisked herself away with a cheery goodbye.
Maddie reminisced abut the two most important people in her life in despair. As much as she loved Jee-Yun, she knew that she couldn't be the mother that little girl deserved. Not after what she did to her. There was no way she could ever make up for nearly letting her drown in the bathtub just because she was exhausted.
Her stuff was already in her car. She'd left a video on her laptop at home for Howie to explain why she was leaving, and why she's left Jee-Yun with Evan while she was gone.
Despite his sometimes childish attitude, Evan was by far the best possible parent for Jee-Yun. Not that she was saying that Howie was a bad father, he in no way wasn't, but Evan just had that extra commitment to making sure that may child under his care was getting the best that he could give them.
She would probably be bombarded by Evan when she'd eventually return. Asking why she left so abruptly and why she didn't ask him for help.
But she knew she had to do this, not only to better herself,
but to also give Jee-Yun the best chance at life that Maddie could give her.
As Jee-Yun babbled away to the TV in front of her, Buck decided to look inside the diaper bag Maddie had left to calculate how long she could be gone for. While he did raise an eyebrow at the sight of nearly half of the toddler's wardrobe packed meticulously inside, he simply shrugged it of as Mad's giving Jee a variety of options to choose from.Once he put all of the item's back inside the bag
(he elected to ignore the fact that it was one of Jee-Yun's larger diaper bags), he snapped a photo of the shopping list and jogged back upstairs to change out of his pajamas and slipped on some blue jeans, a yellow shirt and reddish brown jacket. Satisfied with his look, he jumped back down the stars and made his way to the coat closet near his front door. Once he picked out a smaller bag that could easily hold some baby supplies for a small outing, he filled it with a small handful of the stuff Maddie had given him,a spare change of clothes, plus his wallet and phone before zipping it shut and sliding it onto his back.Silently swiping Jee's favourite teddy
(a well worn Tigger the Tiger that had a green ribbon around its
neck) off from the floor, he blew a loud and obnoxious raspberry into Jee's neck as he picked her up with one arm, her squeals of laughter muting the sudden cut off of her cartoons.
"Well Miss. Jee, you wanna do some shopping with me?" He voice was high and full of falsetto joy, and it seemed to do the trick of keeping Jee's attention on him as she giggled even louder, Tigger tucked safely under her left arm as her right curled around his neck.After performing some acrobatics to get his shoes on, Jee-Yun clapping loudly in his ear as she was twirled up and down, he snagged his key's and made his way down to the elevator, crooning an aimless tune in the toddler's ear as she bounced against his hip.Once they made it the lobby, Jee-Yun decided this was the perfect time to start suggesting what music they should listen to in the Jeep. "BABBA! BABBA!" She yelled, uncaring if she was nearly bursting her uncles eardrum.Buck shushed her lowly as he speed walked to the car, raising a hand in a mute
'sorry' at his neighbours. He did give a particularly exaggerated sneer at one of his more snootier and nosey neighbours, an older woman with thick chunky highlights in her brown hair called Barbara. She had a vendetta against anyone and anything that didn't fit into her world view, and Buck was at the top of her list after he refused her pushy flirting and insistence on becoming her newest young lover."You wanna listen to BABBA?" While Jee was still in Maddie's womb, the only way to get her to stop punching and kicking her mother in the stomach was to blast ABBA directly into the skin, and having listened it for near four months, the two new parents hadn't realised that they had put on Jee's dancing playlist instead of the labour one, and soon Maddie's and eventually Jee-Yun's screams were in sync with the introduction to Dancing Queen, ironically Jee's favourite song. Buck chuckled at her loud 'Yes Uncle Buck!'.Quickly unlocking his Jeep, he opened the back door and placed Jee into her car seat, huffing under his breath as she yanked on some of his loose curls. He quickly clicked her in, wiggling the tail of her Tigger to get her to let go of his hair before closing the door shut and making his way to the driver's side. He slid the bag off his shoulder and opened the door, throwing the bag onto the passengers side as he sat sat down. He shoved the keys into the ignition and put on his seatbelt with speed, throwing small words of affirmation over his shoulder as Jee demanded BABBA louder and louder. He grabbed his phone and unlocked it with a hurried press of his finger, scrolling till he found Spotify. Just as Jee's face was slowly growing red, ABBA's
Dancing Queen started blasting through the speakers.As Jee's screams of anger quickly turned into excited screeches of joy, Buck slumped in his seat with a low sigh. After taking a minute to wait for his heart to slow down (A rowdy Jee-Yun was not good for his blood pressure. She'd definitely gotten her bullheadedness from her Mother), Buck turned the Jeep on and pulled out of the car park, and drove to the store, singing along with Jee as he went.As Buck parked into the first available family parking, he scanned the parking lot absentmindedly, rubbing his eyes when he noticed a familiar truck just sliding into a disabled spot. He grabbed his phone and quickly snagged a photo of the truck, before sending it through messages with a cheeky 'This you? :P' with it. He jumped out the car with Jee's bag on his back and had only just placed Jee on the floor before he heard a yell."Bucky!" Christopher yelled, a grin wide on his face as he made his way to the two, crutches moving erratically as he tried to move fast. Eddie slowly jogged up behind him, a smirk on his face as he slid his phone into a back pocket, placing a hand on Chris's shoulder to stabilise him. Jee clapped loudly as she noticed her unofficial second Uncle and Cousin approach. Buck smirked back at Eddie when the two Diaz's where infront of him, jutting his hip out and placing his free hand on it sassily. "Nice to see you here guys, I thought you were going to spend the day with Abuela?"Eddie shook his head and started walking towards the shopping carts, Jee and Chris chattering away in front of them. "She got a small cold, and didn't want to pass it onto Chris." Buck nodded along with a small frown but quickly let it fall as he nudged Eddie in the hip.
"So, how come your at the store near my place? Don't you live in the other direction?" Eddie flushed and started ahead with pink ears, mumbling something under his breath to low for Buck to hear."Sorry, what was that?" Buck teased, poking Eddie's ears with a smile. Eddie swallowed before repeating hims louder, ears flushing darker, "I wanted to see you..."Buck's smile froze on his face, and he could feel his own face warming up. "oh." he said dumbly, blinking rapidly as he stared forward. He spares a glance at Eddie, who happened to be staring at him with wide eyes. They share a quiet laugh, hands brushing against each other as they both went to grab the same cart. Buck tucked his head inwards as his smile grew, cheeks growing warmer as Eddie rubbed the back of his neck bashfully.Eddie grabbed the handles of the cart, picking up Jee with an exaggerated groan
("Oh my back!") as he placed her in the carts seat. Buck placed Chris's crutches into the cart once the boy stated that he wanted to use the cart instead to keep him upright. Buck then tucked himself into Eddie's side, placing his hand next to his on the railing. As the four made their way into Buck pulled out his phone to look at his list, smiling when he felt Eddie lace their fingers around the bar.As Buck made his way through his list, his resolve was slowly weakening the more he was exposed to Jee's, Chris's, and even Eddie's puppy dog eyes when they wanted to get items that weren't on the list. Eventually, it broke and he relented, the three letting out a small controlled cheer as they were able to place their items into the cart. Eddie silently offered to pay for the extra items, but Buck brushed it off citing that he loved providing for his family. (He missed Eddie's mouth become agape and staring at him with complete adoration. "One day," Eddie promised
himself in his head, "One day I'll ask him.")As they made their way to the check out, Buck heard a female voice exclaim loudly, groaning in unison with Eddie as they realised who it was."Edmundo! There you are!" Ana Flores's smile was akin to an ugly smear in her face, and her voice was shrill like a Harpy's. Buck would rather listen to Barbara try and persuade him then listen to Ana, and he had a feeling that Eddie was thinking the same. "Ms. Flores" Eddie greeted the woman curtly, voice having lost the warmth it had when he was talking to Buck.
Ana's smile didn't falter as she wrapped herself around Eddie's body, rubbing her face into his armpit despite his full body shiver. She turned her gaze to Christopher, who was standing just a few inches away from the two men, and her smile became icy. "Christopher!
you should be-" she started, already point her finger at his face only to be cut off by Buck."Chris is perfectly fine Ms. Flores. And don't you remember the restraining order?" while his voice was equally as cold as Eddie's, he had a smug grin on his face as Ana's flushed in anger and embarrassment, detangling herself reluctantly from Eddie and stepping away from Christ until they were a few metres apart. Despite having broken up back in 2020, Ana still came to the Diaz residence and continuously inserted herself into their lives.On various occasions, they had to deliver Boxes filled with some of her personal items, microphones, and hidden cameras to her office at Christopher's school. It had lead to a very interesting question when a nosy teacher had looked inside one of the boxes Chris brought in and screeched about the sex toys and small pile of lace that was supposed to be a lingerie. That alone was enough basis to start a police report against Anan, but when the three of them had come after a long day to find Anan in the middle of pasting crude cut-outs of herself onto all the photo's inside the house, including those containing Shannon, they had called the police and filed for a restraining order, which was granted within 24 hours considering the amount of evidence they had.Ana gripped her purse strap to her chest with an iron grip, her head snapping in both directions before she stomped of, muttering under her breath. The three male's stood in silence for a few moments until Jee-Yun started whining at Buck, point at her fallen Tigger on the linoleum floor. The blond smiled at her and bent down and swiped the toy off the floor (He missed Eddie's startled gasp behind him, which in hindsight was pretty loud), handing it back to a now happier Jee.The four leave the store unceremoniously, Buck and Eddie agreeing to meet up at back at Buck's place once the Diaz's groceries were dropped off. Christopher ended up riding with Buck and Jee, citing that he "Hadn't seen Buck in forever Dad", so of course he had to start telling him about everything that had happened (As if Eddie hadn't refrained from telling Buck either vocally or via text whenever he could).As the two kids crooned to ABBA in the background, Buck was left alone with his thoughts. The way that Maddie had acted that morning before heading off to do whatever she was doing now worried him. He hadn't seen her that skittish since 2019, the year where she came barreling into his life again. He wanted to call her, or maybe shoot of a text to ask how she was, or to just reassure her that he was on her side no matter what, but he didn't want to cause a state of worry, for either Maddie or Jee-Yun.Despite her age, Jee was very attuned to the emotions of the people around her. If Maddie was teasing Chimney, then Jee would be teasing. And when Chimney was feeling lightly scorned form said teasing, then Jee got scorned. And on the rare times where Eddie was looking after Jee with Buck, if he was feeling Sassy, the Jee was Sassy as well. So Buck knew, that if he contacted Maddie and it wasn't received well, then Jee would feed of his emotions, whatever they might be, and would be unconsolable for God knows how long. Athena might know, but he wasn't willing to test that theory.The next 15 minutes were spent with Chris and Jee being unaware of the storm brewing in Buck's mind as he robotically drove them to his apartment.Once Chris and Jee were settled in the living room with free reign to his Disney+, Buck took his time bringing up his groceries from his Jeep. He must've been exuding a bad mood because his neighbors seemed hesitant to interact with him. Even Barbara just stuck to slyly ogling him from her spot by the mailboxes, but remained silent. Small mercies in his opinion.Just as he grabbed the last bag and locked the Jeep, Eddie's truck pulled up in the visitor's parking next to his. The Texan brought out a bag of takeout from Buck's favourite Chinese place, and was carrying a six pack in his other arm with a bottle of pop in the crook of his arm. He also had a small duffle slung over his back, probably carrying his and Chris' pajamas along with some spare clothes, and the soft blanket Abuela had given him on his birthday that he'd left behind at the most recent movie night.Buck felt some of his tension wean off his shoulders, a small smile on his face. As Eddie approached, he shoved his keys into his pocket and grabbed the pop from his arm, tucking it into the bag in his hand. "You alright Querido?" he questioned, easily falling into stride with Buck, his footfalls in near synchronisation with his.Buck rolled his shoulders as he held the lobby door open with his foot, "I've been thinking-""Oof, does it hurt?" Eddie jokes, and the grimace Bucks sends him must've been strong because the grin slides off his face. They stay quiet until they reach the elevator, and as soon as the door closes Buck continues."When Maddie dropped off Jee this morning, she looked... frazzled" Eddie pursed his lips as he tried to sort out his grip on the takeout, "Maybe she just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?""Normally, she would've had her jumbo flask with her, but she didn't. She'd essentially packed all of Jee's stuff into the largest diaper bag she owns, and the way she acted..." the blond trailed off as the grip on the plastic bag tightened, his hand going white from the pressure. He could see Eddie look at him in worry and concern in the corner of his eye. "What about it Buck?" he gently prodded.Buck stayed silent for a few more moments before speaking up, "...It was like when she'd just left Doug."Eddie starred off in the distance in shock, steeling himself as he hesitantly asked, "You don't think Chim-"Buck interrupted quickly, "No. He's the loudest screamer when it comes to horror movies, there's no way he'd ever be capable of doing what Doug did." Eddie nodded slowly, swallowing before murmuring, "Maybe she's just tired."Buck found himself nodding just as the elevator doors opened again, already stepping out and moving towards his door. "Yeah, she's probably just sleeping it off."
As Chimney settled down on the couch in the loft, he whipped out his phone.
He smiled fondly and sent Maddie a quick thumbs up as a reply to her text saying that Jee was at Buck's, before absently scrolling through his apps until he reached his emails.
He deleted the junk mail and filed some away to sort through later when he noticed one from the Kid's Hospital that he and Maddie took Jee-Yun to whenever she needed a check up.
Anxiety rising, he opened the email and scoured over the text, brows furrowing as he read its contents.
"What the... slight bruising... no concerning symptoms..." at the end of the page was the bill, and his heart felt like it was pounding out from his chest.
Why the hell did Jee need to go to the hospital? And why hadn't Maddie called him?
The next two hours consisted of eating Chinese for lunch and Finding Nemo and Finding Dory before Jee needed to be put down for her afternoon nap. Eddie had managed to convince Chris to do some educational games on his Ipad while he and Buck did some cleaning. While the pretten originally protested, bemoaning that he'd "already done all off my homework Dad!", he agreed to do 45 minutes with cartoons in the background, and then he was aloud to watch a movie of his choice.The two firefighters put away the groceries and the leftovers, throwing any dishes used and empty containers in the dishwasher before deciding to tackle Buck's laundry. They quickly shoved the wet clothes in the dryer for a quick spin, so that it was mostly dry before it was hung out, and the dirty ones into the washer before taking the clean ones upto Buck's room to fold and put away. They'd joked around the privacy of the blonds room, Eddie mainly about the cooky designs of some of his underwear ("-I mean come on, who else wears neon yellow with dancing- are those Jalapeños?"). Buck was armed with his own blackmail, firing back at Eddie without hesitation.Eddie gasps loudly at latest quip, "I am not dramatic!" he throws Buck's briefs at his head, his face a textbook example of scandalised. "Oh yeah? You're more invested about the drama in those telenovellas then your Abuela!" He cackles as Eddie flushes red with a loud pout on his lips."No!""Really? Then who does that Markus guy end up with? Sierra or Tiffany?"Eddie's answer is almost a reflex, "First off, it's Marko, and he ends up with Sierra, even though he should be with Tiffany because-" he abruptly cuts himself off with a choked noise, Buck cackling even louder. He fumes silently before shoving the small pile of clothes on his lap onto the floor, a playful grin on his face."Oh it's on Buckley." He hisses lowly before pouncing on him, straddling his thighs and attacking his sides with frantic finger movements. The force is strong enough to knock both of them further onto the bed, and Buck's surprised yelp is quickly drowned out by his uncontrolled chrotles and snorts.He tries to get Eddie's ribs, but his hands are too shaky to do anything useful so he just lets them curl weakly in to Eddie's shirt. His own shirt had ridden up slightly on his stomach, ad he prays that Eddie doesn't notice it, but of course he does because suddenly his nails are scraping along the fine coarse hairs just under his belly button and above the waistband of his jeans. He lets out a choked moan as his legs abruptly bend. The sudden movement sends Eddie sliding down his thighs, the latino's ass landing on his crotch, their pelvis' pressing together. Buck's hands fly up and land on Eddie's hips, just stopping him from fully crashing forwards. The joyful atmosphere has evaporated, making its way open to a different kind of tension.Buck's still panting from the laughing fit, eye's blown wide and grip on Eddie's hips still tight. Eddie's cheeks are bright red, his hands having shifted from his stomach to just above his pecs and on his collarbones, nearly framing his pale neck with tanned fingers. Eddie's torso is pressed lightly against Buck's, so their faces are only just a few inches apart.Eddie's eyes dart down to Buck's lips, his tongue darting out to wet his own slowly. It's a simple act that doesn't require much thought to do, yet it manages to take all the air out of Buck's lungs. His hands shift from Eddie's hips to his waist, squeezing the flesh there tightly. Eddie's hands feel like hot brands as one of them slides up and rests lightly on his neck, his adam's apple bobbing heavily as Eddie presses down before it slides to the side of neck, thumb resting on the gap between his jawline and earlobe.He feels something in his groin stirring as Eddie slowly leans down, gaze dark and heavy. Just as their noses bump together in a sensual dance, Jee's fussed cries echo from the guest room, where it's soon joined by Chris' cries for Eddie.The two snap out from their musings before springing to action, fumbling with their appearances before splitting off, Buck heading to Jee and Eddie to Chris.Once Jee's Diaper was changed and she was in a new outfit, Buk emerges from the guest room and back to the Diaz's with the toddler babbling lowly in his ear.Chris is still sitting in the same spot on the couch, completely focused on the Transformers movie playing. Eddie's just coming back from the kitchen balancing a plate of cut up apples and some water. Buck plops Jee down in the opposite corner from Chris, plugging in some headphones into the Ipad before tapping on one of the various games he'd downloaded for her, content to just let her be amused by the pretty colours and animals until he's decided on what to do next.Buck and Eddie stand awkwardly in the entrance of the front room, gaze's flying around each other, determined not to meet the others.They both fumble some words, letting out soft giggles before Buck motions for Eddie to go first."About what happened in your room-" Buck, not completely ready to by rejected by his best friend, waves him off with a smile. "It's fine, we we're just caught in the moment. It happens!"An unrecognizable emotion flashes across Eddie's face before it settles on relief (If he wasn't caught up in his own worries, he would've been able to clock the emotion as dejection). Eddie nods before scratching at his jaw."Should we just stay inside for the day, or she we try and get them outside for more then an hour?" He questions, moving onto a different topic.Buck hums, "We could take them to the zoo? I don't think Jee's been before and last I checked Chris hasn't gone to one in nearly a month."Eddie quickly agrees and they move towards the kitchen to start preparing some snacks and another diaper bag for Jee.The set off as soon as Chris' movie finishes, deciding to just stick with Buck's Jeep instead of taking both vehicles.After paying their fees, the volunteer at the reception joking they should have annual passes with how frequent they visit the zoo, Chris starts dragging a bouncy Jee to the Penguins, with a more subdued Buck and Eddie following behind. As Buck holds Jee on his hip so that she can see the Penguins more clearly, Chris mentions for Eddie to bend down.Once he's face to face with his Dad, Chris says "Do you see those penguins Dad?" he points at two adult penguins with two baby penguins."Yeah?""They're the two Gay penguins I told you about, The ones' with two kids?"Eddie remembers that conversation faintly. It originally stemmed from Chris excitedly showing him an instagram post about the birds, and how they were getting a new egg to look after. He glances back at the penguins and takes note on how one of the baby birds is younger than the other.Eddie stays silent as whispers the next part. "I know that you want to be like the penguins with Buck, Dad."Eddie stares at his son with bleary eyes. Chris simply pats his shoulder firmly, and he feels his throat close up when Chris tells him "I'm proud of you Dad."He stays crouched after Chris moves towards Buck and Jee, wiping his eyes in an effort to keep the tears at bay. A handler approaches him, helping him stand on his feet with a steady grip. "You OK sir?"Eddie nods numbly as he chuckles wetly under his breath. He glances at the array of rainbow pins on his lanyard before answering. "Yeah, I just got the best kid." He shakes the handlers hands after assuring him again that he was fine before joining his family.They end up staying the Zoo for a couple of hours, coming back to Buck's apartment with Chris's new penguin plush family, Jee's Meerkat, Buck's Koala, and Eddie's snake. Jee's mouthing on the tail as she watches Chris set up the plushes in the guest room, while Buck and Eddie sit in the kitchen drinking beer, the energy from the day slowly draining from them.Buck looks at Eddie, who looks like he's about to blurt something out only for a frantic set of knocks come from Buck's front door.The blond sends Eddie a confused look, who shrugs. The knocking soon turns to light banging as Buck near's the door. Not wanting to alert his neighbours or scare Jee and Chris, Buck sprints to the door, yanking it pen only to slump slightly when he sees' who it is."Oh, hey Chimney." (He misses the frantic and crazed look in the his eye's)
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So I just remembered that I was making an Evan Buckley Playlist on Spotify when I came up with the idea of this fic, and I figured why not share it with the fic that was born from some of it's songs?
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5XyFBLXcK5Bowi9EeMC2RP?si=0cfe5c89e08342cd
If the link doesn't work, look for Evan 'Buck' Buckley - In the back of my mind, You died.
by
Juno
Love you guys, and I hope you enjoy the next chapter whenever it's uploaded! I don't actually have an update schedule, I just sort of post chapters when I think they're ready, and that can lead to large gaps in between uploads. I think my most popular fic had like a three month gap between some uploads if I remember correctly?The point is, It's gonna take a while for the second official chapter, so please be patient with me (ㅅ´ ˘ `)♡
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...Buck and Eddie sit in the kitchen drinking beer, the energy from the day slowly draining from them.
Buck looks at Eddie, who looks like he's about to blurt something out only for a frantic set of knocks come from Buck's front door.
The blond sends Eddie a confused look, who shrugs. The knocking soon turns to light banging as Buck near's the door. Not wanting to alert his neighbours or scare Jee and Chris, Buck sprints to the door, yanking it pen only to slump slightly when he sees' who it is.
"Oh, hey Chimney." (He misses the frantic and crazed look in the his eye's)
Chimney gives Buck a harried look over as he shifts on his feet. "Hey Buck. Uhh, is Jee here with you?" his voice is shaky and he looks half ready to barge into the apartment any second.Buck steps back and holds the door open wider, "Yeah, she's in the guest room with Christopher-" he cuts himself off when Chimney half-jog's half-run's to sia droom, face almost frantic with panic.Eddie shoots Buck a look as he peers around the corner. The blond shrugs as he closes the door, following Eddie to the guest room.They can see Chris looking up from his Ipad with a weird look on his face, a mix between curious and concern. Then there's Chimney, who's pressing his face into Jee's back. Her shirt's been shoved up slightly, not that the toddler is aware of it as she's currently conked out at the foot of the small plush army on the bed.Buck kneels next to Chim and places a hand on his shoulder. The smaller man jerks harshly, bringing Jee-Yun closer to him unconsciously, relaxing his hold slightly when he see's that it's just Buck."Chim? What's wrong?" Buck asks softly, not wanting to set his friend of into a frenzy. Chimney sucks back a breath before lifting his head from Jee's body to reveal her back.The blond only just holds in a gasp, and he can faintly hear Eddie curse in spanish under his breath lowly but that doesn't matter because he can focus on is the marks.He didn't notice them when he was changing Jee's diaper, mainly focusing on making her giggle, but God did he wish he did now. They were about the size of his hands, and the bruises looked like the little girl had gone through a car accident. Bright yellow with thick purple and brown smattering's.Buck's hand wavered on top of Jee's back, finger's just barely on top of her skin before he yanked it back, not wanting to upset them. Chim let's out a wet choked sob as he drops his head onto Buck's shoulder, hands laying limp on the bod in front of Jee-Yun's snoozing body. He nearly lets out a wail but stops himself just in time, a crude snort coming out instead.Buck can faintly hear Eddie heard Chris out of the room, citing that they should start prepping things for dinner. Chris, fully aware of his father's horrible luck in the kitchen, silently follows, seemingly aware that now wasn't the time to joke around.Buck pulls Chim into a one sided hug, staying quite despite the tears, the only sound being Chim's poorly muted sobs.An hour later, Chimney is passed out, kneeling on the corner of the bed holding Jee-Yun's little hand in his.Christopher, after giving Chim a silent hug, wasn't filled with jokes or random facts at dinner. He rattled of about how much he enjoyed hanging out with Buck and Jee at the Zoo before going to bed himself. Since the two Han's were in the guest room, Chris went up to Buck's room after the blond insisted.Buck and Eddie moved to the front room, sitting in silence and disbelief."Did you-""No."Eddie rubs at his eyes as he speaks again. "Could Maddie, be capable of this?"Buck instantly shoots Eddie a harsh glare. "What are you insinuating Diaz?"Eddie raises his hands in the air as a sign of peace. "I'm not saying shit. Don't twist my words Buck."The blonde slumps and rubs his face with his hand. "I'm sorry. It's just, I never imagined that-""No one would imagine a scenario like this," Eddie places a comforting hand on the nape of Buck's shoulder "What we should do now is support Chimney and Maddie and Jee-Yun through this in anyway we can."Buck hums but stays slumped. His eyes close and he tries to imagine how this day could've ended but it only just brought on a headache.Eddie rose from the couch to get them both some water. Buck opens his eyes slowly as he takes his phone out of his pocket.He quickly scrolled through his contacts until he found Maddie's and called her, putting the call on speaker so that he could hear her clearly.He faintly heard Eddie coming back from the kitchen but it soon droned out when the ringing crooned on for what seemed like a lifetime.Just as Eddie sat back down and handed Buck a glass, Maddie's voicemail barely managed to get the first few words out before Buck ended the call with a heavy sigh. The Texan patted Buck's shoulder as he took a sip of his own water, and was about to speak before they heard the guest bedroom door open.They watched the door with baited breath, staying silent when Chimney excited the room with loud hesitancy.
Eddie spoke up first. "How is she?"Chimney sighs into his hand as he nears his coworkers. "Still asleep. I don't think she even notices them anymore."Buck frowns and silently offers his un-drunken glass of water, which Chimney took and swiftly drunk half of it before putting the cup down the coffee table."Isn't that technically a good thing?" Buck offers warily.Chimney and Eddie both shrug but Chimney answers, "While it's good for the patient to no longer feel any pain, it's worrying for us because that could mean things could be worse then they seem."Eddie and Buck both shared a look at Chimney purposefully distancing Jee-Yun's injuries from the toddler. Chimney seemed to realize his words when he slumped low in his chair and starts to sob under his breath.Eddie places a heavy hand on Chim's wavering shoulder as a sign of solidarity, while Buck stays in his seat."What am I doing? Jee-Yun's
my daughter. I should be able to protect her but I can't even make sure her mother is OK." Chimney weeps, lowering his hands to look at his friends with bloodshot eyes and a snotty nose."Is this how you felt? When Maddie was with Doug?" he asks Buck,
not even bothering to clean up his face.Eddie whistled lowly under his breath as he sunk back into his seat, eyes flickering between the impromptu brother-in-law's.Buck stammered out random noises as he tried to come up with an answer. While he could give a general feeling to what he felt during the times where he had no idea what was going on with Maddie, he had the general idea of where she was (which was in Boston). Whereas this time around he had no idea if she was even in a neighboring state.At Buck's silence, Chim coughed into his hand before drinking some more water."Why don't we all go to sleep and talk about this more in the morning," Eddie stated, shifting in his seat so that he could stand up."Everything's still fresh, so let's just spend sometime apart so that we don't say anything we could later regret." He waited until both men nodded before heading upstairs to check on Chris."I can sleep on the couch..." Chim offered. Buck shook his head and gestured back to the hallway where Jee was."Go sleep with Jee. You both need each other right now even if she doesn't now it."Chim gave him a weird look. "You sure?"Buck nodded. "Yeah, besides this couch suck's and it would ruin your back." He bit his inner cheek as he smiled. "I also don't want to hear your whining tomorrow when you make that obvious."Chimney shook his fist at him loosely, in a clear mockery of elderly's yelling at kids to get of his lawn."You're a good guy Buck. Stupid sometimes, but still a good man." Chimney patted his shoulder before heading off back to Jee.Buck walked to the closet next to his bathroom to grab extra linens and the blowup mattress. Since Chimeny and Jee were in his guest room, and Chris and Eddie were in his bedroom, he figured that instead of bothering either party he'd just sleep downstairs anyways.Once he found the pump from the back of the closet at the front door and got the mattress ready to start blow up, Buck pulled out his phone and tapped on to his messages app.He looked at his most recent's with Maddie, to see if there was any hints about where his sister could be, or what she might have been feeling.Aide from the occasional photo or video that the siblings would share from their respective social's, the talks were mainly centered around schedules and how shifts were once Jee-Yun was born.Sighing, Buck typed out a quick
"Where are you?" and a "Will you come back?" before turning his phone off and refocused on setting up his temporary bed for the night.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
HiI know it's been months, I stopped replying to comments, the few I get, and haven't actually been on ao3 the entire time. Things got rough again and let me just say - burn out sucks.I have been reading your comments, though, and see the genuine interest for this fic. I still can't believe that you're still here, thank you so much <3I definitely haven't given up on writing. In fact, I tried a few times but I really had no energy. But I'm back now, there's stuff coming gradually, I have always pumped stuff out when I've got more stuff on my plate, so once I get into my College Mojo again I might be able to do something. I just thought you deserved at least an explanation.
EDIT
Ok, so, I'm not sure how to say this exactly? So I'm just gonna spit it out.
Recently, my Mum was diagnosed with Breast Cancer.According to her, this sorta thing was a long time coming because my Nanny, her Mum, had Bowel Cancer so it might be a thing in the family, idk, but also because for the last 20 or so years she's been essentially Mayor of Stress Ville, and hasn't been taking proper care of herself until I wanna say roughly when COVID happened.I'm very much a
Mumma's Girl, and I've actually known about the diagnosis for I wanna say like a week now, but it was only at work yesterday, Sunday, when I was doing a shift way longer than what I usually do and a colleague of mine pulled me aside did the other ball finally seem to drop. I've already messaged me y College tutor's about how I'm not gonna be 100%, and I also wanted you guys to know too.