It's Not Home, But It'll Do Chapter 16
Buck moves into his new place and recruits a few helping hands.
Links to previous chapters:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15
Read the next chapter here on ao3 or below:
“Hey Elena, what are you doing – woah crap!”
Buck’s feet slid out from underneath him, his arms and legs flailing as he struggled to regain his balance on the damp floor of the fire house. Elena, meanwhile, watched on in amusement, her eyes sparkling with mirth as she leaned against the mop, the source of Buck’s predicament.
“You okay there Bambi?” Elena chuckled as Buck was finally able to grab onto the nearby kitchen counter and halt his momentum.
“Yeah, I’m o– wait, Bambi?”
Elena gave him a look that once again reminded him of one of Tommy’s patented bitchy stares (and boy, did he now want to see the two of them in an out of work setting – their similar sarcastic wit would either result in chaos or hilarity). “Are you seriously telling me,” Elena said, “that with a name like Buck and those baby deer legs of yours, no one has ever thought to give you the nickname Bambi?” Buck shook his head. “Oh, that is shameful. Anyway, what’s up?”
“I’ve managed to find a new place to live – mind giving me a hand moving on Saturday?”
“You’re moving?” Elena asked, dipping the mop back in to the bucket and resuming her cleaning of the floor. “Trouble in paradise?” she asked softly, and a quick glance up from her chore revealed to Buck a face filled with concern.
“No, nothing like that,” Buck reassured her, moving carefully over the wet floor to the dishwasher and starting to unload it. “We’ve uh, we’ve actually sorted things out. We’re not back together or anything,” he added hurriedly at Elena’s raised eyebrows, “but we finally had a good talk and hashed out some of our issues, and there’s hope for us in the future. But we need our own space before we can get there, so I’ve found a new place.”
“Sure, I can come give you a hand Bambi,” Elena said, her grin widening at Buck’s pout at the nickname. “It will just be me I’m afraid – Joe coaches Little League, and they have a game on that day.”
“That’s so cool,” Buck gushed. “That’s fine – you’ll be plenty of help.”
“Oh, I know I will. Doesn’t mean we can’t recruit more though.” Elena peered around Buck’s tall form to look towards the gym on the other side of the station. “Yo, Whiskey!”
Jack sat up from the bench press he had been lying on, and he and Daniels, who had been spotting him, looked over the weight rack to meet Elena’s gaze.
“Saturday, you two are helping me move Buck into his new place.”
“Yes boss,” Daniels joked, whipping off a snappy salute.
“Yeah, that’s no problem, but I can only do half a day – I’m picking up the kids in the afternoon,” Jack added.
“What’s only for half a day?” Elliot asked, emerging from the locker room.
“Buckley is moving house, and we need muscle,” Daniels said as he walked over. He grinned. “That’s why we haven’t asked you.”
“Asshole,” Elliot fired back, but he was grinning in response. “I’ll show you muscle.”
“Oh yeah?” Daniels moved to the counter and propped his elbow on it, his arm raised in the traditional stance for an arm wrestle.  “Prove it probie.”Â
“Oh, you’re on,” Elliot responded eagerly, moving to the other side of the counter.
Elena rolled her eyes. “Boys.”
*****
“You know,” Tommy huffed from the other end of the couch that he and Buck were carrying into the lounge room. “You just had to pick one of the hottest days of the year to move.”
“Well, it was either pick the stinking hot day today, or the stinking hot day tomorrow,” Buck retorted as they placed it down on the floor. “I could have always pushed it back to the stinking hot day next week if that’s what you would have preferred?”
“Hmm,” Tommy pretended to ponder, unable to hide his smile. “I’m afraid I’m all booked up next week, so I suppose today would have to do.”
Buck and Tommy grinned at each other before being bumped aside.
“You know, you would move in a lot quicker if you two actually, you know, helped to move things?” Elliot griped as he nudged past carrying a stack of dining chairs.
“We just moved this couch!” Buck protested, pointing at said couch at his and Tommy’s feet.
“And there’s still more out there,” Elliot replied, a note of authoritarianism creeping into his tone.
“Oh God, it’s another Buck,” Chim commented, following Elliot into the house with his own set of chairs. “Is he a demon with a clipboard too?”
“Dunno, we don’t trust him to have that much responsibility,” Munroe piped up from her position in the kitchen where she was bouncing Robbie in her arms, Maddie standing next to her.
“Hey, I’m responsible,” Elliot whined. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Speaking of being here, how is it that Ravi and I are the only members of team 118 helping you move?” Chimney asked. “What exactly were Hen and Eddie’s excuses that they were able to escape this torture? For future reference.”
“Hen had to take Denny for a check-up. Follow up x-rays or something to see how his leg has healed up,” Buck said, grasping the end of the couch and making a show of moving it back and forth a few inches in an attempt to find the perfect spot in order to avoid Chim’s eyes.
“And what was Eddie’s excuse?” Chim asked as he accepted a bottle of water from his wife, gulping down the cool liquid gratefully. “I would have thought out of all of us, he would have been here to help his best friend move.”
Buck’s eyes flickered up to catch Tommy’s eye, the only one who knew of Buck and Eddie’s last interaction. Buck noted the set of his jaw, Tommy still clearly unhappy with Eddie, but regardless of how he felt, Tommy didn’t say anything, allowing Buck to reveal as much – or as little – as he wanted.
He chose the latter.
“I think he was busy,” Buck mumbled. “Oh hey, just lay that against the wall over there, I’ll sort it out later,” Buck said to Ravi and Daniels as they carried in his mattress, relieved to have the diversion. “I’d rather unload the truck as quickly as possible so we can get out of this heat and then organise everything after I’ve returned the truck.”
“Watch your step,” Munroe teased, as Daniels stumbled while walking backwards with the mattress. “Just helping,” she added sweetly when he threw a dirty look her way.
“What would be helpful is if you actually helped to move some stuff,” Daniels fired her way.
“Hey, I helped,” Elena protested. She shifted Robbie’s weight to one arm so she could free up the other and point at the admittedly impressive pile of boxes not far from her feet. “I carried all of them in, didn’t I? And besides,” she added, using her now free hand to tickle the squishy stomach of the child in her arms. “I’m keeping the baby occupied. Do you realise the hell we’d be in right now if he was cranky? I’m keeping everyone sane by keeping him happy. You’re happy aren’t you little guy? Yes, you are, you handsome little man.”
“Do my eyes deceive me? Our Munroe going goo goo over a baby? Are we going to have some mini-Munroe’s in our future?” Jack asked as he strolled in carrying several boxes stacked on top of each other.
“Hell no,” she replied immediately. “I can appreciate a baby’s cuteness without wanting one myself thank you very much. Joe and I love being DINK’s.”
“You’re what?” Buck asked, his head whipping around to look at his coworker.
“DINK’s. Double Income, No Kids.”
“Ohhhh. I thought you said…”
Elena flashed a wicked grin. “I know what you thought. Gutter, gutter, gutter Buckley.”
“What did you think she said, Uncle Buck?” Jee asked innocently from where she was sitting on the floor playing at Maddie’s feet.
“Uhhh…”
“Aww, Uncle Buck? That’s hilarious.” Daniels said.
Buck frowned. “Why? It’s my name.”
Daniels exchanged incredulous looks with Jack. “Because of the movie.”
“You know, the movie,” Jack added when he noticed Buck’s blank look. “Uncle Buck? With John Candy?”
“Never heard of it.”
Jack and Daniel’s jaws dropped in shock and Chim came up between them, clapping his hands on their shoulders. “Oh, I understand completely. Our Buckaroo is highly uncultured,” Chim sighed in exasperation.
“He’s your family – how have you not rectified this?” Daniels asked.
“The man is surprisingly stubborn.”
“The man is standing right here!” Buck objected.
Tommy laid a comforting hand on Buck’s shoulder.
“I blame you,” Chim accused Tommy, pointing a finger at the man. “All those months you were together, and you couldn’t expand his cinematic horizons? I expected better from you Tommy.”
“We didn’t get around to it. We had other things on our minds.” Tommy looked slyly over at Buck and Buck couldn’t help but grin back, a light flush to his cheeks.
“Oh no, no – don’t want to hear about it, nope!”
“You brought it up,” Buck added gleefully, enjoying his brother-in-law’s discomfort.
“Boys,” Maddie admonished. “There are children in the room.”
“Sorry,” chorused Buck, Chim and Tommy.
Just as she had a few days prior, once again Elena rolled her eyes with a muttered, “boys,” echoing Maddie’s sentiment, although unlike at the fire house, this time she had support as Maddie nodded in reply.
*****
By the late afternoon, the majority of the heavy lifting had been completed, so Buck had insisted that everyone could head home with his sincerest thanks. Daniels had volunteered to return the truck for Buck since the depot was on the way to where he lived, and Ravi had offered to follow behind so that he could give him a ride from the depot to Daniel’s house (the pair of them had very quickly established a rapport during the moving process and Buck had been happy to see the people of his new life meshing so well with those of his old one). Tommy had offered to stay behind and help get as much sorted as they could so that Buck could at least access the things he needed for day to day living.Â
“Interesting place you have here,” Tommy said from the back door as he peered out into the garden. He turned to face Buck who was in the kitchen, putting things away in cupboards that were missing their doors. Tommy pointed a thumb back towards the garden. “You do realise there is a toilet sitting in the middle of the lawn, right?”
“Uh, yeah, I had noticed that,” Buck replied with a small laugh. “The contractors have kind of been using the back yard as a dumping ground for the things they’re having to rip out until they can take it all away. Hopefully it won’t be out there for much longer, but it doesn’t bother me too much. I won’t be spending much time out there for the time being.”
Tommy took another glance out into the backyard, before taking a longer look around the inside of the house; the kitchen in its half state of repair, the open doorway leading to one of the bedrooms that was missing its carpet, the lounge room with a boarded-up window. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”
Buck looked around at his new place. “I know it doesn't look like much, but Melissa – my new landlord – is getting things fixed up as quick as she can. And it’s liveable. It will be a proper home in no time. No need to worry about me.”
Tommy smiled and joined Buck in the kitchen. “Old habits die hard I guess.” Opening the cooler that Maddie had left behind so that Buck had something to fill his refrigerator, Tommy reached in and pulled out a bottle.
“Champagne?” Tommy asked, turning the bottle in his hands. Looking carefully at the label, his eyes widened in recognition. “Is this –?”
Buck turned to find Tommy holding a very familiar bottle of champagne. “Uh, yeah, it is. I’ve been holding onto it. Waiting for a special occasion.”
“The birth of your nephew didn’t warrant cracking it open?”
“It did, but it wasn’t the occasion I was waiting for.”
Tommy’s eyes softened. “Evan –”
“I wanted to apologise,” Buck interrupted before Tommy could venture into territory that both had agreed they weren’t ready for yet.
“Apologise?” Tommy asked, accepting the change of subject and watching Buck from the corner of his eye as he placed the champagne in the fridge and grabbed two beers out of the cooler instead.
“For what I said that morning after we slept together,” Buck said, accepting the beer that Tommy offered. “I know we talked a little bit about it before, but I never actually apologised for it. So, this is me, apologising. I didn’t mean it. Or at least, I didn’t mean for you to think that I was talking about you. I wish I could say in that moment that I didn’t want to hurt you, but I did. I was angry, and it hurt to think that you didn’t trust me in our relationship, so I lashed out. But I regretted it the instant I said it, because I really, really didn’t mean it.” Buck paused and waited for Tommy to meet his eyes.  “You could never be just a one-night stand for me Tommy, you have to know that. And I’m sorry for not telling you this earlier. I wanted to, I really did – I was going to call you and apologise. But I always found some excuse to put it off and before I knew it weeks had gone by, and I figured you wouldn’t want to hear from me anyway. So, I know it’s a few months late, but I’m sorry.”
Tommy nodded and placed his beer on the countertop. “Well, speaking of long overdue apologies, I’m sorry too.”
Buck frowned in confusion. “What for?”
“For running out on you that morning. And the night that we broke up. In case you hadn’t noticed by now, I tend to do that when things get tough.”
“Yeah, I’d noticed,” Buck said with a teasing lilt to his voice. “You’re a bit like Maddie in that regard.”
Tommy raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Really?”
“Oh yeah,” Buck said. “Remind me to tell you all about her and Chim’s relationship woes in the early days – they weren’t always as settled as they are now.”
“Well, regardless, you deserved better. The night we broke up – yes, you freaked me out a little. One minute you’re telling me we share an ex – a significant ex for both of us – and the next you’re asking me to move in. I freaked out, but I should have stayed so that we could talk things out. Instead, I made the biggest mistake of my life, and I have regretted it ever since.”
Buck vaguely remembered Tommy saying something similar before, but it had been in the midst of them arguing, so it hadn’t really registered at the time. This time, it did.  “You – you have?”
“Yeah. I told you back in the bar that I thought of calling you, that I used to drive by your place and try to gather the courage to go and talk to you. What I didn’t tell you was how often I did it. It was honestly getting to the point where I could have been charged with stalking,” he joked.
“I wish you had stopped by,” Buck admitted.
“Me too,” Tommy said softly.
Silence hung heavy in the air for a few moments as they watched each other, a twinge of regret in the air. Breaking eye contact to ease the tension in the room, Buck took a long swig of his beer, then placed the bottle on the counter decisively. “Well, no more wishing and “what if’s”. What’s done is done and we have a chance to move forward – eventually.” Looking around the room, his eyes fell upon the mattress leaning up against the wall. “Speaking of moving, mind giving me a hand moving that mattress into the bedroom, so I have something to sleep on?”
“Your bed isn’t set up,” Tommy pointed out.
“Yeah, the carpet is getting laid next week, and I really don’t want to have to set up the bed only to have to break it back down when they come in. I’ll just sleep on the mattress on the floor.” Buck couldn’t help but send a sly look Tommy’s way. “Besides, it’s not like I haven’t done it before. As you know.”
Buck felt a shiver of satisfaction down his spine at the faintest of flushes that spotted Tommy’s cheeks. Tommy wasn’t one to be easily flustered, so Buck always counted it as a win whenever he managed to get a reaction out of Tommy.
Tommy cleared his throat. “Right. So, mattress?”
Buck grinned. “Mattress.” He followed Tommy over to where the mattress lay, and together the two of them continued to get Buck settled into his new home.
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