#in my defense i was genuinely just very busy over the mini hiatus

[sibylsleaves]

from the love to the lightning

5k | rated T | read on ao3

But when Buck tried to ask him if everything was okay with him, Eddie just said, “Me? Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?"

And Buck really didn’t have an answer for that so he let it go.

Because Eddie doesn’t hide that stuff from him, anymore. Not since the day Buck broke down his bedroom door and found him sobbing in a heap on the floor.

So when Eddie says everything’s okay, Buck believes him.

or, after the lightning strike, Buck recovers. Eddie doesn’t.

Healing is slow. Buck knows this. He’s done this before. Last time, he was too eager, probably, to get back to work.

This time, he’s learned how to be patient.

The first week, his parents hover around the loft, offering to do anything and everything for him, even though Buck is definitely capable of microwaving his own soup and fetching his own pillows. But he can’t deny it’s nice to have their attention. Their care. Although he can’t help but be afraid that the minute they get on the plane back to Pennsylvania, it will evaporate again.

The rest of the 118 gets back to work, and Buck surprises himself by only feeling a little jealous that they get to be out there while he’s stuck on his (brand new) couch. After their parents depart, Maddie takes a few extra days off from dispatch to make sure Buck’s taken care of, although he suspects it’s more to keep him company than anything.

But actually, Buck’s days are far from lonely. Because most of them—the weekends and the afternoons, anyway—he spends with Chris. Sometimes Chris and Carla. Sometimes Chris and Eddie, when he’s not on shift. And sometimes just the two of them.

It’s strangely like the time they spent together after the tsunami. Chris is older now, of course, almost a full-blown teenager instead of a round-cheeked eight-year-old, but he’s just as attached to Buck now as he was then. Maybe even more so.

When Buck heard about the ICU caper that Chris, Eddie, and Carla managed to pull off during Buck’s time in coma dream purgatory, he almost started crying on the spot. When he asked Chris about it, Chris just said, “I had to talk to you.” Like that was that.

“I’m really glad you came to see me,” Buck told him. “Even if it was against the rules. I heard you, you know. Your voice, telling me I had to come back. I heard it.”

“I knew you would,” Chris said, and Eddie, who was standing by the kitchen door watching them, looked away.

It’s nice, that Chris wants him around so much. Buck really doesn’t have much else to occupy his time while he recuperates, and it’s pretty hard to feel sorry for yourself when you’re hanging out with the coolest kid in L.A. They even go to PT appointments together, because Buck got a referral for Chris’s clinic, since they specialize in neurologic physical therapy.

“Hey, hope you two are hungry!” Eddie greets as Buck and Chris tromp through the door after a particularly rough session. 

“Starving!” Chris exclaims.

Buck looks at the takeout boxes on the dining table. “Is that Tito’s? Did you get—”

“Chili con carne?” Eddie asks, reaching into one of the bags and pulling out a foil-wrapped burrito.

Buck loves him so much in this moment he wants to cry. Instead, he takes the proffered burrito, but he must be staring a little too much because Eddie drops his gaze and starts digging in another bag for chips.

“What’d you two get up to today?” Eddie asks as Buck and Chris both sit down. 

Christopher launches into a blow-by-blow of their day. Eddie laughs and smiles and makes jokes in all the right places, but Buck can’t shake the feeling that something is off. 

It’s a feeling he’s been having ever since he got out of the hospital.

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