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After two failed relationships in less than a year, Buck decides it’s time to take a step back and figure himself out. Not just the surface-level stuff—but deep down, the parts of himself he’s been avoiding.
Or, you know, he could just bake. A lot. Like, an alarming amount.
Breads. Loaves. Pies. Cakes. Pasta dishes.
And right now? Cookies. With his niece.
“Okay, take the fork and press it like this, and then like this,” Buck says, guiding Jee’s small hand to show her how to create the iconic crisscross pattern on top of their peanut butter cookies.
“I got it!” she squeals, her enthusiasm bright enough to light up the whole room. Buck grins as he lets go of her hand, watching as she focuses intently, pressing each cookie all on her own.
“Tada!” Jee turns around, beaming at him with a grin that’s a perfect blend of Maddie’s warmth and Chim’s mischief. The sight squeezes his heart in a way that’s both sweet and achingly bittersweet.
He wants that for himself. A family. A little face looking up at him, unmistakably his, with no doubt in anyone’s mind who they belong to.
“Uh-oh,” Jee says suddenly, yanking Buck out of his thoughts. He looks down to see she’s split a whole ball of dough in half instead of pressing it with the fork.
“Sorry, Uncle Buck.”
“Hey, no big deal. This is an easy fix. Watch.” He scoops up the dough and shows her how to roll it back into a ball, his voice calm and steady, the kind of tone that avoids tears before they even start.
Disaster averted, they finish up the cookies, and Buck slides the tray into the oven. “Okay, chef, let’s pick a movie while we wait for these bad boys to bake.”
“I want Moana!'' Jee’s giggles echo through the kitchen as she practically wrestles the remote out of Buck’s hands.
“Alright, alright! You win.” Buck laughs, settling onto the couch as she flips to the movie.
Before he can get comfortable, there’s a knock at the door. He sighs, ruffling Jee’s hair. “Hold down the fort, okay? Uncle Buck’s gotta go see who that is.”
He stands, glancing back once more at Jee’s happy, cookie dough-smeared face, and feels a flicker of hope. Maybe, just maybe, he’s not as far from figuring things out as he thought.
Buck opens the door and stops short, not sure who he was expecting but it definitely wasn’t-
“Natalia?”
“Hi, Buck.” She grins and then Buck looks further down, noticing a very tiny baby in a car seat besides her. “Can we talk?”
“Uh. Y-yeah, come on it.” Buck opens the door wider and lets Natalia and the baby in the door behind him.
“Oh wow! Uh, did Santa Bakery explode in here?” Natalia asks, walking in and sitting the baby car seat on a clear space at Buck’s table.
“Oh, uh, I was making cookies with my niece. I’m waiting for her to fall asleep to clean up.” Buck nods his head towards the living room where Jee is standing in front of the couch, mimicking the motions on the TV.
“Adorable,” Natalia smiles and then sits down with a wince.
“Uh, everything okay?” Buck asks, first responder mode popping out.
“Yeah, just, recovering from pushing an 8 pound baby out yesterday.”
“Ye-yesterday. And you came here?” Buck walks over to the counter and starts cleaning up the ingredients, worried about the implication of what this all means.
“You’re a smart man, Buck. It shouldn’t be that hard to put together.”
He starts counting back, and yeah, the time between their break up and now would be enough for her to have just given birth to a full-term baby.
“The baby’s mine?” Buck almost drops the carton of eggs in his hand.
Natalia nods and rocks the car seat gently.
“You didn’t tell me? Why-why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know. I went into the hospital two days ago, thinking I was passing a kidney stone. 15 hours later, here she is.” Natalia looks over and Buck and he doesn’t know what to think.
“Would you? Would you have told me if you’d known?” Buck asks even though he doesn’t think he wants to know the answer.
“We talked about this Buck, you know I never wanted kids.” Buck stomach drops at the implication of what that means.
The oven beeps and his turns it off, grabbing the cookies out and laying the on the cooling rack.
“But now you have one.” Buck grabs a glass from the cabinet and fills it with water, walking and handing it to Natalia.
“Well,” She takes a sip before speaking again. “That’s why I’m here. I never wanted kids, but you did. And judging by the giggles, you're pretty good at taking care of them.”
Buck staggers backwards, thankful for the counter to catch him before he feel flat on his ass. “What are you saying?”
“I’m giving you the chance to take her, before I put her up for adoption.”
Buck freezes. Natalia, the woman who broke up with him because she could give him what he wanted, is here. In front of him. Offering him everything he’s wanted.
“H-how would this work?” He crosses his arms over his chest. “Would we split custody?”
Natalia reaches into the diaper bag and pulls out a Manila envelope. “These are papers from the hospital. If you sign, all parental rights go to you. I’m not involved, I don’t want to be involved.”
Buck nods. “Okay.”
He doesn’t need to think about it. Of course he’s going to take his daughter. It’s his daughter. A part of him. He made this life and now there’s this living, breathing, part of him living outside of the world.
Buck signs the paperwork, and with a final note from Natalia saying that once it’s sent to the courthouse, he’ll receive the birth certificate, she’s gone, leaving the sleeping baby and the diaper bag full of supplies from the hospital.
He carefully takes the unnamed baby out of the car seat and carries her over to the living room.
“Uncle Buck, you has a baby?” Jee asks, turning around to look at him instead of Maui singing.
“Uh, yeah, I have a baby.”
“I have a baby?” Jee asks, climbing up to sit beside Buck.
“Not yet, sweetheart,” Buck smiles at the memory of what Maddie and Chim had told him earlier that week. “But soon.”
Buck takes his phone out of his pocket and tries to decide whom he should call about this. He doesn’t want to bother Maddie and Chim on their date night. Hen had mentioned something about taking Denny and Mara to the movies, so they were out.
He ends up texting Eddie.
Buck:
Hey
You busy?
Eddie:
Doing laundry
What’s up?
Buck doesn’t really have the words to explain what just happened, so he sends Eddie a picture of the baby instead.
Eddie:
On my way
The baby starts to whimper in his arms, and Buck sighs. She’s probably hungry since he doesn’t smell anything funky coming from her diaper.
“Hey, Jee, can you do Uncle Buck and a big favor?”
“Sure!”
“Can you go grab me the pink bag off the kitchen table?” Jee nods and takes off running toward the kitchen, grabbing the diaper bag and bringing it back to Buck.
“Thank you, sweet girl!” Buck digs through the bag, finding one of those pre-made bottles from the hospital.
He shakes it a few times and takes the lid off, situating the baby so that he can feed her more easily.
“Hers hungry?” Jee asks, looking over Buck’s arms at the baby.
“Yeah.”
“She can have a cookie,” Jee grins. “I can share.”
“Oh, she’s just a bit too little for cookies yet, but thank you for offering.”
Jee nods, and the conversation is over there. She goes back to watching Moana, and Buck focuses on feeding the baby half the bottle, burping her, and then feeding her the other half.
At some point, Jee falls asleep with her feet across his lap, and the baby is asleep on his bare chest (thanks to the baby spitting up on him), so naturally, Buck starts to drift to sleep as well.
***
Eddie stops at Target, picking up a pack-and-play, a box of diapers and wipes, and a can of formula. The baby looked a healthy weight, so he goes for the normal formula, at least to get them started.
He’s not sure how Buck ended up with a baby, but he’s a pretty smart guy. He can do math, and judging by the baby’s caramel skin and the red birthmark in the corner of her left eye (opposite of Buck’s), Eddie figures that the baby is biologically Buck and Natalia’s. Only Eddie can’t figure out why she wouldn’t tell him about the baby, just drop her off and then dip.
But Eddie will be there for them, for whatever they need, since Buck had done the same thing for him and Christopher all those years ago. Buying a few supplies is the least he can do.
When Eddie pulls up to Buck’s apartment building, he can’t carry everything, so he decides to just grab the formula and diapers, and he’ll come back for the pack-and-play later.
“Oh, Eddie! Please tell me you have a key!” He runs into Maddie and Chim at Buck’s front door. “We knocked, but they must be asleep.”
They are in date-night clothes and sans toddler, so Eddie assumes that Jee must be inside as well.
“Yeah, hold on.” Eddie sets down the boxes and digs his keys out of his pocket, opening the door.
“Hey, uh, Eddie,” Chim says, giving him a look as Maddie walks into the loft. “Why do you have a box of diapers?”
“I guess you’re about to find out,” Eddie says, nodding his head into the loft before following Chim in.
Eddie sets his boxes on the kitchen table, taking in the absolute mess on the counter, before following Maddie’s gasp from the living room.
What he finds makes his heart flutter in his chest just a little bit. Jee-Yun is asleep on the couch, her feet laying across Buck’s lap, and the baby is laying on his bare chest, a spit-up-covered shirt laying on the arm of the couch. All three of them are fast asleep, Buck and Jee snoring lightly, and the baby with a pacifier in her mouth.
“Why does my brother have a baby?” Maddie asks, sitting down on the coffee table in front of them. She turns to look at Eddie like he has all the answers.
“You know as much as I do.” Eddie shrugs and watches as the baby starts to stir on Buck’s chest, followed by the pungent smell coming from her diaper.
Eddie reaches over and slowly takes her from Buck, only for him to shoot up immediately after she leaves his arms.
“Wha-what’s happening?” He blinks his eyes slowly and looks between Eddie, Chim, and Maddie.
“I think we could ask you the same thing?” Chim asks, crossing his arms over his chest.
Eddie sits down carefully on the ground, maybe laying the baby down on the rug in front of him. He didn’t think to grab a diaper, but there’s a pink bag by Buck’s feet that has some in it, so he grabs one and some wipes.
“Oh, I have a baby, apparently,” Buck says, scratching at his neck.
“Yeah, apparently,” Maddie says in the big sister tone. “We can see that. But how?”
“I think you know how,” Buck smirks.
“Idiota! She means how did you end up with a baby today?” Eddie says, snapping the baby back into her sleeper and picking her up, placing her on his shoulder.
“Oh, uh. Natalia brought her here.”
“So she’s Natalia’s baby. We can all do math, Buck. We already pieced that together,” Chimney says, moving around to the couch and picking Jee’s head up so he could sit down.
“So, she apparently went to the hospital on Tuesday thinking she had kidney stones, but it was actually a baby.”
“So she didn’t know she was pregnant?” Maddie asks, and Buck shakes his head.
“So are you two going to be doing split custody?” Eddie asks, patting the baby’s back before adjusting her so he could stand up and move to the armchair.
“Uh, no. She never wanted kids. It’s why we broke up.” Buck reaches behind him and stretches, and Eddie has to focus very hard not to stare.
Now is not the time or the place.
“So, she had these papers from the hospital that we both signed giving me full custody, direct adoption or something like that. I signed them and have to take them to the courthouse in the morning, where I can get her birth certificate.”
“Just like that?” Chimney asks.
“What do you mean?”
“So just like that, you decided to take the baby?”
“I mean, yeah, she’s my kid, Chim.”
Maddie nods and smiles at her brother. “Well, I for one am excited for our kids to grow up together.”
Buck smiles at Maddie, and Eddie can’t help but think that he’s missing something.
“So, what’s this princessa’s name?” Eddie asks, looking down at the sleeping baby in his arms.
“Uh, I haven’t gotten that far yet.”
“Well, what’s on the short list?” Chimney asks.
“Uh,” Buck looks around at everyone and shrugs.
“Oh, come on, you’re telling me you don’t have a baby name list?” Maddie asks, crossing her arms over her chest.
Buck sighs and grabs his phone out of his pocket. Eddie turns the baby around so everyone can see her, and Buck starts to go through his list.
“Amelia.” All of them look at her and shake their heads.
“Leyla.” Maddie shrugs but then shakes her head.
“Gweneth?”
“Do you hate your child already, Bucko?” Chim asks.
“Well, I’m open to suggestions.”
“She looks like a Chimnietta to me.”
Buck turns to glare at him, and Eddie laughs. “Alright, Princessa, let me get a good look at you.”
Eddie thinks for a second and smiles. “She looks like an old soul, so she needs a name that goes with that.”
Buck turns to look at Eddie with wide eyes. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Something classic like Harriet or Hadley.” Eddie shrugs.
“Okay, hand me my niece before you convince him to name her Gertrude.
Maddie takes the baby from Eddie’s arms, and he pouts, just slightly.
“I think she looks like a Reece.” Maddie says, cooing over the baby in her arms. “What do you think, Reese Piece? Is that your name?”
The baby doesn’t like that name, so she spits up all over herself.
They do this back and forth for at least an hour, trying to find a perfect name for the baby they keep passing back and forth. At some point, Eddie makes his way out to his car to grab the pack-and-play and his duffle bag.
“Why do you have so much—“ Buck paused and looked at his phone for the date. “You’re going to Texas tomorrow.”
“Just for the day. I’ll be back Saturday,” Eddie reassures him.
“Yeah, but I’m supposed to take you and pick you up,” Buck says, looking around the now-empty living room. Maddie and Chim had just left to get Jee home.
“You still can.”
“What if she starts crying in the car?”
“Then you pull over and handle it.” Eddie walks over and sits on the couch beside Buck. “You’ve got this, Buck. There’s nobody I know that’s more prepared for this than you. You read all of those books when your sister was pregnant, and you’re the only person able to calm kids on calls.”
“Yeah, but those are other people’s kids. I can’t even give mine a name.”
Eddie pulls Buck into a side hug, laying Buck’s head on his shoulder. “Okay, let’s take a look at these names again.”
“I think you’re right. Something classic.” Buck sighs, looking at the baby lying in the newly set-up pack-and-play.
“Clara?” Eddie reads off the list. “Clara middle name Buckley.”
Buck hums. “Josephine?”
“Ha, my Tia would get a kick out of that.”
“Harper?” Eddie suggests, and Buck sits up straight, looking at his daughter.
“Harper Jordyn Buckley. Harper Ava Buckley. Harper Spencer Buckley.”
“Harper Rylie Buckley?”
“Too many Y’s.” Buck shakes his head.
“Harper Elizabeth Buckley.” Eddie suggests, and Buck turns to look at Eddie with a smile.
“Harper Elizabeth Buckley.”
***
Buck is grateful for Eddie. He’s always been grateful for Eddie, but there’s no way he would have gotten through last night without him.
Harper is a relatively easy baby, but she woke up every two hours on the dot needing to be fed, and Buck was such a nervous mess about something going wrong that he barely slept a wink. It was around 4 a.m. when Eddie finally told him he’d stay up with her for the rest of the early morning so that Buck could get some sleep.
“I can’t make you do that, Eddie.”
“You’re not making me do anything,” Eddie says, taking Harper out of the pack-and-play and starting toward the stairs. “I can sleep later on the plane.”
And so, Buck is able to get a few hours of sleep, confident that Eddie is able to take care of a baby—his baby. He’s still not used to that.
Buck’s a dad. Like, an honest-to-God father to a child. His child.
He wakes up a few hours later to the edge of his bed dipping down.
“Alright, daddy, time to wake up.” Eddie is speaking in a soft, high-pitched voice. “We’ve got to go to the courthouse and then drop Eddie off.”
Buck rolls over and peeks an eye open at Eddie. “What time is it?”
Eddie looks at his watch and answers, “9 a.m. Your appointment at the courthouse is at 10, so we better hurry.”
“I never made an appointment.” Buck sits up and rubs his eyes.
“Good thing me and Miss Thing here have had a very productive morning, huh?”
“Eddie, I don’t—you’re doing way too much for me. I—”
“Hey, relax. You’d do the same for me. You have done the same for me, multiple times. Please just accept the help.”
Buck nods, and Eddie smiles, making Buck’s stomach erupt in a flutter.
“Now, get up. Take a quick shower, you smell like stinky milk.”
Buck chuckles and stands up, walking into the bathroom for a quick shower.
An hour and a half later, Harper Elizabeth Buckley is officially a documented U.S. citizen and, more importantly, officially all his.
“Alright, do you need anything before we leave the airport, little lady?” Buck asks after watching Eddie walk into the airport, just hours away from seeing his son again. Buck didn’t cry, he didn’t.
Harper doesn’t answer him, not that he expected her to. But now, he has no idea what he’s supposed to do. He needs to go shopping, but he doesn’t really want to take a newborn to Target, especially not during cold and flu season. He could probably do a pickup order; that would make the most sense.
So, Buck takes time to put together a pickup order, adding basic things like diapers, wipes, bottles, blankets, and a few clothing items. He can ask Maddie later what else he needs.
After he places the order, he starts his car and heads toward Target, calling Bobby on his way.
“Hey, Buck. Everything okay?”
“Uh, yeah, hey Pops. Are you busy? I really need to talk to you about something important.”
“I’m at the shop getting Athena’s oil changed, but I should be home in about an hour.”
“G-great, I’ll see you then.” Buck hangs up the phone before he spills everything right then and there.
Harper wakes up as he’s getting his Target pickup order, so he moves to sit in the backseat with her to give her a bottle and change her diaper as they load his order into the trunk of his car.
“Aww, how old is she?” The shopper, who couldn’t be older than 17, asks.
“Three days.” Buck sighs and buckles her back into her seat once she’s content again.
“Very cute.”
“Uh, thanks, and thank you for loading all of that.” Buck takes a $20 out of his pocket and hands it to her, her face lighting up before she turns to walk back inside.
Buck makes sure Harper is good to go, snapped properly in her seat before moving back to his seat and starting the drive to Bobby’s temporary house. He opens a few of the bags from Target to restock the diaper bag before grabbing Harper’s car seat and walking inside. The closer he gets to Bobby’s front door, the more nervous he gets.
He rings the doorbell, rocking back and forth on his heels while he waits for the door to open.
“Buck,” Bobby says, his grin turning straight to confusion as he takes in Buck’s full appearance. “And little Buck.”
“Hey, Bobby. Can we come in?”
“Yeah, I think you better.” Bobby reaches out a hand and takes the diaper bag from Buck before letting him and Harper in.
Buck walks over to the couch and takes Harper out of her car seat, bundling her up with the blanket that was laying over it, before laying her beside him on the couch to get a break from the car seat.
“Who’s this?” Bobby asks, sitting in the chair across from him.
“Harper Elizabeth Buckley,” Buck says, smiling down at his daughter.
“Buckley?”
“Yeah. She—she’s mine. I’m a dad.”
“I can see that,” Bobby says, standing up from his chair. “May I?”
“Sure, Pops,” Buck smiles. “Or Grandpa, I should say.”
“Seriously?” Bobby looks at Buck with wonder on his face.
“I mean, you’ve done more for me than my actual dad ever did, I think it’s only fitting. But o-only if you want.”
Bobby smiles down at Harper. “Hi, Harper. I’m Papa Bobby.”
Buck smiles and doesn’t cry. Again.
“So, I’m assuming you’re coming to ask for time off?”
“Yeah,” Buck wipes his hands on his jeans nervously.
“LAFD and the California Family Rights Act say you’re eligible for up to 12 weeks of paid paternity leave. Anything after that is unpaid.” Bobby says, gently rubbing Harper’s face with his thumb.
“Okay, let’s start with 6. You know how I am when I’m not at work, I might go a little crazy with 12 weeks off.”
“I don’t know, you have a pretty big distraction to keep you busy now,” Bobby says, looking over at Buck. “So, how did you end up with the sweetest baby in the world?”
Buck goes into explaining the story again for the third time, not leaving anything out. And Bobby just listens and nods.
“Well, I for one am very proud of you for stepping up. There’s not a lot of guys I’ve known that would have done the same thing.” Bobby smiles again and Buck relaxes back against the couch.
The door starts to turn, and Athena walks in, looking at something on her phone. “Bobby, you are not going to believe what this rookie did tod—”
She looks up and pauses. “Oh, hello, Buckaroo. Little Buckaroo.”
Buck sighs and makes himself comfortable to tell the story for the fourth time. At this point, he should have just sent a message in their group chat, and he might still do that so he doesn’t have to explain it again to Hen, Karen, and Ravi.
“So, do you have everything you need for this sweet girl?” Athena asks, grabbing a notebook and a pen.
“I stopped and got a few things at Target, and the hospital sent some things in a diaper bag with her, but that’s it.”
Athena nods and clicks the pen. “Crib?”
“Eddie bought her a pack-and-play. That’s what she slept in last night.”
“Pack-and-plays are good for nap time, but she’ll need a real crib too.” Athena writes it down. “What about a stroller? And an extra car seat? It’s always good to have an extra car seat.”
This goes on for an hour before Athena is satisfied with the list she has come up with. “Okay, it’s not a lot of time, but I think we can get a baby shower together for Sunday.”
“Uh, what?” Buck looks up at her confused. “No, you don’t have to do that.”
“Boy, I should smack you.” Athena huffs. “No one has to do anything, but we want to. So say thank you.”
“Yeah, thank you, Athena.”
Buck takes out his phone and opens their group chat, sending a picture of Harper, with just a brief explanation of the situation so Karen and Hen wouldn’t be totally confused when they got an invite to a baby shower in two days.
Karen:
Oh my gosh!
She’s precious.
Hen:
A baby? A real baby?!
Ravi:
Cute kid.
Eddie:
Look at the princessa.
How’s my girl?
Bobby and Athena give him a look after that message. “Eddie’s girl, huh?”
“Anything you want to say about that?” Bobby asks, handing Buck the bottle he was mixing.
“There’s nothing to tell.”
“There’s nothing to tell yet,” Athena says, sitting beside Buck on the couch, probably to watch Harper eat. “When are you two going to stop dancing around each other?”
Buck sighs and turns to look at her. “My life just got a whole lot more complicated. I can’t start a relationship right now, ‘thena.”
“I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s starting a relationship,” Bobby shrugs. “I think you two have been building something for a long time, and that you both are ready, despite the new addition.”
Buck sits on that for a while and focuses on feeding his daughter.
***
Eddie and Chris walk out to the lot Buck had texted him saying they were parked in. Chris has one of his bags, and Eddie is struggling to carry the other three.
“Okay, I need you to be very quiet and careful when you get in the car,” Eddie says, stopping in front of Buck’s jeep. Chris looks at him, confused, but doesn’t say anything as they walk around the back to load his bags in the trunk.
Eddie opens the front door and slides in, turning around to look in the backseat, missing the baby even though he’d only been gone for a day. “Is it weird that I missed her?”
“I miss her, and I’m just sitting right here instead of in the backseat,” Buck chuckles.
“Uh, is that a baby?” Chris asks, opening his door and climbing into the backseat. “Did you kidnap a baby? I’m too young to be an accomplice to kidnapping.”
Buck laughs again and shakes his head. “Uh, no, that’s my daughter.”
“How long was I gone?” Chris asks, looking between Eddie and Buck.
Buck explains the story, hopefully for the last time, and Chris nods along.
“Cool, I always wanted a sister.” Is all he says before leaning over and peeking in the car seat. “Birthmarks are genetic?”
Eddie looks over at Buck and smiles. “No, not necessarily, but parents and kids can have similar ones. Like the one you have on your shoulder, I have one on the opposite side.”
“Oh, okay.”
Chris spends the whole ride looking in the car seat, cooing at Harper, and Eddie notices tears in Buck’s eyes. “Hey, did you get any sleep last night?”
“You mean with Papa Bobby on the job? Of course I got some sleep. Between him and Athena, I barely lifted a finger all day yesterday.”
“You stayed with Bobby and Athena?”
“Yeah, I—I didn’t want to be alone with her. Just in case.” Buck sighs and turns onto Eddie’s road.
“Does this mean you’re going to come stay with us then, since you don’t want to be alone with the baby?” Chris looks up, and Eddie notices a hopeful look on his face in the rearview mirror.
“Of course they’re coming to stay with us, at least for a couple of days, until Buck is more comfortable,” Eddie says before Buck has a chance to protest.
“But—”
“No buts,” Eddie says, squeezing Buck’s shoulder as he parks the jeep in the driveway.
“Okay, but I need to go back and get a bag,” Buck says, getting out of the jeep and walking to the backseat to grab Harper.
“Do you have enough for Harper until dinnertime?” Eddie asks, walking around the back to grab Christopher’s bags.
“Unless she has, like, ten blowouts between now and then, we should be good.”
“Okay, so we’ll go get dinner later and stop by your house to pack a bag.”
“I don’t want her out in public right now, Eds,” Buck sighs, opening the front door since he has a free hand.
“So we’ll go through a drive-thru somewhere, or call in and I’ll go inside and pick it up.”
Buck nods and walks into the living room, sitting Harper’s car seat on the coffee table and reaching in to take her out. He quickly checks if she has a fresh diaper before situating her in his left arm.
“Okay. I changed my shirt and washed the airport off my hands,” Chris says, sitting beside Buck on the couch. “Let me have the baby.”
Eddie gives Chris a look, and he sighs. “Fine, Buck, may I please hold the baby?”
Buck chuckles but moves to hand Harper over. “Make sure you hold her head.”
Chris nods and sits back against the couch, Harper in his arms. Eddie can’t help but smile and take a picture.
And if he subtly put Buck in the picture as well, and made it his home screen, well, that’s his business.
Buck wakes up in Eddie’s bed in a panic. Logically, he knows that if Eddie is gone and Harper is gone, then they’re probably gone together. But it still doesn’t stop his heart from racing slightly until he finds them together in the kitchen—Harper in a bouncer on the counter and Eddie making waffles.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Eddie says, taking a waffle out of the maker with a fork and adding it to the growing stack. “Coffee’s in the pot.”
“How are you so well-adjusted?” Buck asks, grabbing a mug and filling it to the brim, not even bothering with sugar or cream as he downs it.
“I’m not sure,” Eddie shrugs and turns around, basically chest to chest with Buck now. “Military training, maybe.”
“Well, whatever it is, we’re thankful for it. Seriously, I don’t know what I’d do without you. And I know I’ve already said it, but I don’t think I can say it enough.” Buck walks around and sits at the bar, turning Harper around to face him.
“Well, what if you didn’t have to?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what if you didn’t have to do this without me?” Eddie walks to join him, grabbing his hand in the process.
“I don’t… what do you mean? I need you to be very clear.” Buck wants to believe that Eddie may mean what he thinks he means, but he also doesn’t want to get his hopes up.
“I mean, you heard Christopher. He’s always wanted a sister.” Eddie reaches up and pushes Buck’s hair away from his face, and Buck leans into his touch. “What if we raised her together?”
“Platonically?” Please say no.
“If that’s what you want, sure. But I was thinking, not platonically. So far from platonically.” Eddie steps in between Buck’s legs and grabs his face with both hands, Buck’s heart rate speeding up.
“Kiss me,” Buck whispers. “Please?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” Eddie smirks and leans down, connecting his lips to Buck’s, and Buck immediately sinks into the kiss.
They pull away when Harper starts to cry. “Oh no, Princessa, did you lose your paci?”
Eddie reaches around to fix the pacifier before turning back toward Buck. “As soon as you’re ready to leave her with a sitter, I’m taking you on a date.”
Buck just nods, still shell-shocked from what just happened.
Later, the four of them are loaded into Eddie’s truck, on the way to Hen’s house where Athena had told them to meet for the baby shower.
Buck is overwhelmed, to say the least, at the outpouring of love from his friends and family. They end up with so much stuff for Harper that they have to have Bobby follow them to bring some of it. Buck cries a couple of times, but no one judges or blames him.
He can’t believe this is his life now—him, Eddie, Christopher, and Harper. The perfect little family.
2 months later
“Buck! Go, we will be just fine!” Hen says, practically pushing him out the door.
“Please call me if anything happens,” he says, looking down at Harper one more time and adjusting her hat again.
“I think two foster parents—one a paramedic and one a rocket scientist—are capable of taking care of a baby for three hours. But on the off chance that something happens, yes, we’ll call you. Now, go, enjoy your date!”
Because Buck was finally ready—or he thought he was—to leave Harper with someone, and Eddie had promised him a date.
They were going out to dinner at one of those rooftop restaurants, and Buck was excited but also nervous to let Harper out of his sight.
“Wow, that only took you twenty minutes,” Eddie says, kissing Buck as he gets back into the truck.
“I know, I was just nervous.”
“You think her bodyguard is going to let anything happen to her?” Eddie chuckles. “They’ll be lucky to get to hold her unless Denny’s conned him into playing a video game.”
Christopher had been the biggest help, the best big brother, honestly. He loved bragging about his sister all the time. Wherever Harper went, Chris went. Buck had cried a lot during those first couple of weeks, but his emotions had mellowed out now that Harper had a regular sleeping schedule and he wasn’t sleep-deprived.
As for Eddie and Buck, they’d had a lot of at-home dates. Buck hadn’t wanted to leave Harper just yet, and Eddie had been so understanding.
But tonight, Buck was ready to show his man off to the world.
They make it to the restaurant, and despite Eddie planning it, Buck pulls out all the stops. He opens Eddie’s door for him, pulls out and pushes in his chair, and even orders for both of them.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think someone was trying to get lucky tonight,” Eddie says after a few bites of spaghetti.
“I can get lucky any night I want,” Buck smirks, rubbing his foot slowly up Eddie’s leg. Eddie blushes and takes a sip of water to cover it.
“I’m glad you finally convinced me to get out of the house,” Buck sighs, looking out at the view of the LA night skyline. “This view is fantastic.”
Eddie smiles, leaning back in his chair. “It is, isn’t it?”
There’s a moment of comfortable silence before Buck speaks again. “I’ve been thinking a lot lately… about us, about everything.”
Eddie looks over at him, his brow furrowing slightly. “Everything, huh?”
“Yeah… I mean, we’ve come a long way. You’ve been there for me through it all, even when I wasn’t sure what I was doing. With Harper, with myself, with… well, with us. And I keep thinking, how did I get so lucky?”
Eddie’s eyes soften, and he leans forward, his expression full of warmth. “You’re not the only one who’s lucky, Buck. We’re lucky.”
Buck nods, swallowing hard. He takes a deep breath and reaches into his pocket, pulling out a small velvet box.
“I know we’ve been taking things slow, but… I want to keep going. I want to keep building this life with you. With you and Harper and Chris, and—” he pauses, his voice trembling slightly— “I want to make it official.”
Eddie’s breath catches in his throat, eyes wide as Buck opens the box to reveal a simple but elegant ring.
“Eddie, will you marry me?”
For a moment, there’s silence between them, the city noise fading into the background as Eddie stares at the ring. Then, a smile breaks out across his face.
“Yes,” Eddie whispers, his voice thick with emotion. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Buck feels a wave of relief and joy wash over him as Eddie takes the ring, slipping it on his finger before leaning across the table to kiss him.
“I love you,” Eddie murmurs, pulling back just enough to look into Buck’s eyes.
“I love you too,” Buck replies, grinning ear to ear.
And as they sit together, holding hands and looking out at the skyline, both of them know this is only the beginning of their forever.