When he woke up he had a moment of bliss, where he didn't remember the events of the night before. Sure, he had a bit of a headache and he could hear Eddie snoring on the couch downstairs, but that wasn't abnormal, they had nights where they drank sometimes when Chris was under someone else's care for a while.
Then he remembered.
He remembered coming home and checking through the mail, the only thing out of place being the thick white envelope. He remembered opening it and the subsequent mental breakdown that had followed. Including trying to get Eddie to fight him, and then sobbing into his arms.
Definitely not my finest moment. He cringed thinking about it, but now he needed to deal with the consequences of last night.
First: shower. Which took him about five minutes. He'd need to start shaving down his shower time further, he noted.
Second: evidence. He dug around in his closet until he found the old trunk that was padlocked shut, quickly opening it and glancing through the old files, photos, and other mementos he'd been allowed to keep since none of it was classified. He set the unlocked trunk down on the dining table.
Third: breakfast. As in, hopefully Eddie could be persuaded into forgiving and forgetting last night if Buck woke him up with the smell of every single breakfast food he had the ingredients to make.
Normally he might've considered that he was overdoing it. However, after having called his friend at 2 AM, trying to fight him, informing him of things that would shatter his entire perception of Buck, sobbing onto him, and then having to be put to bed by him, he was actually fairly certain that he was underdoing it.
After about twenty minutes of Buck cooking and plating the eggs, sausage, bacon, toast, fried pizza dough, hash-browns, pancakes, and fruit, Eddie padded into the kitchen rubbing sleep out of his eyes.
"Dios mío, Buck, are you trying to feed every firefighter in LA?" Eddie said as he stood in the kitchen looking around at all the different dishes.
"Nope, just you!" He said with a nervous smile, handing Eddie a plate so he could serve himself from the veritable buffet he'd made.
"Buck," Eddie said imploringly, ducking his head to try and meet Buck's eyes, which he was studiously avoiding. "You know I can't possibly eat all this, right?"
"Just figured you might want options!" Buck replied quickly, trying to keep up the false cheer, "speaking of options, what would you like to drink? I have water, milk, orange juice, grapefruit juice, or coffee."
"Water is fine," Eddie said offhandedly, and Buck quickly busied himself with the task, "Buck stop! What has gotten into you? Is this about last night?"
Buck stopped and turned around, he'd been caught, unsurprisingly considering it didn't take much to put two and two together about what was going through his head. Plus it was Eddie, who could've figured it out even if Buck had actually made it hard for him.
"I'm really sorry, Eddie." He was staring at his feet, rubbing the back of his neck, "it was really shitty of me to call you like that and to try and take it out on you. And then you had to deal with me afterwards too. I'm just really sorry, I shouldn't have called you, or made you deal with any of that."
"Buck look at me." Eddie said, voice leaving no room for arguments, and Buck wasn't in a position to deny him anything anyways right now. "It was messed up to try and start a fight, but I forgive you, ok? I know what it's like, and I know you didn't really mean to do it anyways. You're allowed to mess up or have a bad reaction every once in a while as long as you learn from it and do better in the future."
"But Eddie," Buck protested, not willing to believe forgiveness could come that easily, or to believe he deserved it, "You were supposed to be with Christopher this morning, and instead I made you stay here and deal with me and my mess. I shouldn't have dragged you into it. I should've just dealt with it. I'm sorry."
"Don't start with that BS! I'm starting to wonder if you'll ever get it into your head, Buckley." Eddie said sighing with frustration, moving his hand to grip at where Buck's neck met his shoulder and meeting his eyes with a fierce determination. "you are my best friend, my partner, ok? I am glad you called me. Christopher is important to me, but so are you, and I'm glad I could be here. I want to be here when things happen, and when you need a shoulder to lean on, alright? Not just when you need someone to have your back in the field."
It was silent for a minute after that. Every once in a while Eddie would do this. Put his hand on Buck's neck and eviscerate his mind and insecurities. Leaving Buck, not knowing how to properly react, but still scrabbling to hold onto the figurative lifeline Eddie was offering.
"Thank you." Buck whispered, ducking his head and blushing, unsure of what else to do or say.
"Glad I could get it through your thick skull." Eddie said with a smirk and feigned knocking on Buck's head, "now grab yourself a plate and let's figure this all out."
.....................................................................
'Figure this all out' didn't end up entailing much, seeing as there wasn't much to be done. He was getting deployed, whether he wanted to or not, no point fighting it, so that just left getting everything in order. Which also didn't take much.
He called his landlord, payed his rent two months in advance. The deployment was only supposed to last a month so he figured that would be enough. He paused his subscriptions to the various streaming apps he used, and to the science weekly magazine he got. He called his lawyer and made sure everything was set with his will. He also called in some favors and got his shifts, barring the one he had tomorrow, covered for the next week so it wouldn't be too much of a hassle on Bobby.
It was a bit ridiculous how easy it was, it took less than an hour to have everything in order so he could leave and maybe never return. He wasn't entirely sure what that said about him, but it couldn't be good.
"So what's the plan for everybody?" Eddie asked, "I'm assuming you're going to tell them. I'm not entirely sure how you'd explain dropping off the face of the earth for at least a month otherwise."
And yeah, Eddie was right, he wasn't done putting his life in order. His things were easy. The people though, that would be harder.
"Yeah, I'm going to have to, aren't I?" He replied putting his head in his hands, "this is going to suck."
Eddie hummed in agreement then stood up. "Alright, c'mon."
"Where are we going?" Buck asked, following him into the kitchen to start packing up the food.
"We're going to get Chris." Eddie said like it was obvious.
Buck glanced at the clock to make sure it wasn't that late, "but he doesn't get out for another three hours?"
"It's time he learned the valuable lesson of cutting class anyways." Eddie grinned at him, "especially when it's for something important."
"Eddie, what are you talking about?" Buck asked, he was definitely not following.
"In three days you're leaving, and you're not coming back for a month at least." The if ever was left unsaid, "which means you and Chris should spend time together while you can. So today, you're going to hang out with me and Chris, have the best day possible, then tomorrow we're going into work early, have Maddie and Athena meet us there, and we'll tell everyone else then."
