The chair scraped loud and angry.
An equally angry Hen dropped onto it, effectively ceasing the light conversation that had been floating through the air.
Buck glanced at Eddie beside him, who caught his eye just as confused when the silence seemed to stretch, affording no explanation.
It was the last couple of hours of their shift and the team had been relaxing and winding down in the loft as they waited the clock out, snacking on the cut up fruit and veggie platter that was laid out in front of them. Bobby had wanted to try out a new hummus recipe he had found and Buck had joined in by trying out some of his own homemade dip recipes. For once the healthy choice of snacks looked appetizing.
Chim was the first to break.
"Uh, Hen?"
Hen shot him an exasperated look. "What, Chim?"
"Don't what me. You gonna tell us what happened on that phone call that seemed to go on for two hours?"
"Nothing happened."
"Yeah, and I suppose it's normal to glare angrily at nothing in particular for no reason."
Hen turned that glare on Chim. Chim stared right back, unintimidated.
"Fine," Hen huffed out. "It's about my Will."
"Y-your Will?" Buck asked, surprised. He felt Eddie's arm land on his shoulder, using it for support as he leaned in with interest.
"The very one. The Last Will and Testament of Henrietta Wilson."
"O-okay, what about it?"
"My family got some opinions."
"What's going on, Hen?" Bobby probed gently.
Hen leaned forward toward the platter, getting some sliced carrots and cucumber onto her plate, along with some of Bobby's quickly dwindling hummus.
"We invited the extended family over this weekend — my mom, Karen's parents, her brothers, their partners and children. A party to officially welcome Mara into the family and introduce her to everyone. It's been a while since we've all seen each other and it felt like the right occasion, with Mara's adoption finally getting approved."
"Hey, that's sounds nice," Buck remarked. But Eddie was chuckling ruefully behind him, shaking his head. He squeezed Buck's shoulder.
"Big family gatherings like that always mean one thing, Buck. Drama."
Hen bit into a carrot, nodding. "Well, this one had some for sure. There's a lot of paperwork to update now to include Mara and we had a stack of it lying on the kitchen table. I guess Karen's mom saw it and got curious because the topic of my Will came up during dinner.
"I hadn't added any backup guardians for Denny and Mara after Karen and I guess she was concerned that it might be cause for the courts to not award full custody to her during the probate process? She said I needed to have more family members named to help strengthen the argument."
"Seems sensible," Bobby said, voice neutral. "You've got two kids now and it could be hard on Karen to do it all herself. It's always good to be prepared for the worst case scenario."
Hen rolled her eyes. "That's not the problem, Cap. Karen and I had already discussed including my mom and one of her brothers in the Will. We were going to talk to them privately and get their consent during the weekend. Karen's mom just jumped the gun."
"Oh."
"And wasn't too happy to find out that she wasn't going to be one of the named alternatives."
"Oh."
Eddie nudged him from behind, lips brushing his earlobe as he leaned closer to whisper. "Told you. Drama." Buck bit down on his smile, nudging him back.
"Some words were had. She said that Karen was insulting her by not including her but including my mom."
"That's crazy," Chim piped up. "You don't have any siblings. Of course, you had to include your mom."
Hen scoffed. "Those were Karen's words exactly. Didn't seem to make much difference. She even tried to curry favour from the other brother, the one not named in my Will, saying that we were hurting his feelings too. Didn't go down too well. The evening just devolved from there."
"I'm sorry, Hen," Bobby said, laying a commiserating hand on her arm. "She should have respected your decision."
"So, who was the call from?" Chim asked curiously.
Hen pursed her lips. "My mom. She said she understands her feelings, grandma to grandma. And that I should just add her name anyway since there are no limits to the number of alternatives. It's my Will! And Karen's decision to not name her mom! I'm not going to do that just to placate some hurt ego."
Bobby and Chim were offering some sympathetic words but Buck didn't hear much of it. Eddie's lips were by his ear again.
"I'm so lucky I have you, Buck."
Buck's heart skipped several beats. He felt his cheeks heat as he turned to look at Eddie, only to blush harder when he was met by the fondest eyes he'd ever seen from Eddie. And they were directed at him.
His mouth parted, wanting to say something back, wanting to reassure Eddie that of course he has him, he'd always had him, ever since that day when that promise was made. It might as well have been a blood pact.
"You can have my back any day."
"And you can have mine."
Only, words eluded him. His mind was distracted. Eddie's smile had melted into something impossibly softer; his fingers tracing idle circles on Buck's sleeve. Buck suddenly wished their uniforms were sleeveless. Who cared about that protective layer anyway?
"Eddie?"
Buck jolted as the sound of the name broke their trance, turning around to see Chim, Bobby and Hen looking in their direction expectantly.
"Hmm, what?" Eddie asked Hen.
"I asked how you dealt with your parents? I know you've said that you don't want Chris growing up in Texas with them."
"Oh, uhh," Eddie cleared his throat awkwardly. "It hasn't really come up."
Next to him, Buck suddenly found Bobby's hummus so very interesting. He reached to add some more to his plate, trying not focus on the sudden loss of Eddie's arm from his shoulder.
Across from them, their teammates frowned. "Never?" Hen said skeptically. "Even after Shannon?"
Eddie snorted derisively at that. "I think my mom just assumes she's the named guardian in my Will, that I couldn't possibly think of naming someone else."
Chim whistled lowly. "I don't envy you when that breaks. How'd your sisters take it?"
"My sisters?"
"Oh sorry man, I just assumed you'd named them in your Will. It could be your aunt too."
Buck chanced a peek at Eddie beside him. Eddie's cheeks were a light shade of pink. He only hoped that his didn't match, else there was no escaping more scrutiny.
"No. No, you're right, it is my sisters," Eddie coughed out. "I mean, they didn't really say much."
"Nothing?" Chim looked at him confused. "I mean you must've had a conversation when you asked for their consent right? You didn't just add their names without asking."
In different circumstances, Buck would so be teasing Eddie right now. As it stands, he'd decided it wasn't worth the risk and gotten up from the table to grab at drink from the fridge, away from Hen's observant gaze. Out of instinct, he grabbed a cold OJ for Eddie too.
"No! Yes, I mean I did ask, it'd be crazy if I didn't ask, right?" Eddie laughed awkwardly, wincing at himself. "I just mean that they understood and accepted it without me having to explain much."
"Lucky," Hen puffed out as the confusion cleared from their faces. The bottle of juice barely touched the table before Eddie grabbed it to gulp it down.
"What about you, Chim?" Buck said, redirecting the conversation. "Kinda insulted I haven't been asked y'know," he grinned cheekily. A hand landed on his thigh underneath the table, squeezing lightly.
"Oh, don't you start," Hen groused.
Chim pointed at him. "First of all, Maddie is my primary and the Lees are back up, with Albert as my last resort. You need to take it up with your sister."
Buck rolled his eyes. "Wow, I can really feel the brotherly love."
He'd been in Maddie's Will since her first marriage. He knew that it had carried on to the second. After Chim, it was Buck's name on that list, then the Lees. They'd deliberately laid it out this way to pointedly exclude their parents and Chim's parents as much as they could.
Just then, the alarm rang and everyone jumped to action. Buck was on his feet on reflex, aiming for the poles, when he felt a hand hook around his wrist, fingers interlacing briefly before the touch fell away.
Buck didn't look at Eddie as they grabbed their gear and jumped onto the rig. Eddie wasn't looking back when they finally settled side by side, the fire engine well on it's way to the location of the emergency.
"Alright, last call of the shift, let's make it a good one!"
His stomach didn't stop feeling light and fluttery throughout the call.
~~~~~
"Who is your backup?"
It was later. Much later. Almost twelve hours later when Buck found himself asking that question into the darkness of the night. They were on Eddie's couch, beers in hand, lights off and the TV playing with the volume dimmed.
"Hmm?"
"Your Will," Buck said steadily, noting out of the corner of eye how those words had stilled Eddie's movements, the beer bottle just inches away from his mouth. "Who'd you name as your backup?"
Since that day in the hospital, they hadn't spoken one word on the topic. Since that day in the hospital, a day hadn't gone by without Buck unwittingly remembering that he was in Eddie's Will.
Buck didn't take his eyes of the moving pictures on the screen as a charged silence stretched out between them.
A few moments passed before Eddie moved to set the bottle down on the table in front of them. The glass clinked dully on the wood.
Eddie stayed leaning forward.
"No one."
Buck's breath hitched. "What?" he croaked, finally twisting to face the man.
"No one," Eddie repeated, firmer. "I couldn't —" Buck watched transfixed as he closed his eyes, his hand's grip of the table edge tightening. "I couldn't give them any reason to take him away from you. Any reason at all."
His throat constricted, choking him as he said, "That's not — that's not practical."
"I don't care."
"Eddie."
"They'll make it so difficult for you, Buck. They'll fight you using anything they can find. Everything they have. I can't give them even an inch."
"But what happens if I'm the one — I'm a firefighter too, Eddie —"
Eddie cut him off. His eyes were blazing as they finally came into view. "Then your Will will go into effect. Trusting you means trusting your judgement too."
Buck was speechless, staring at Eddie like he'd never seen him before. He knew Eddie trusted him, Eddie had said it to him multiples times. It still didn't make it any less gratifying to hear it spelled out in this way so explicitly. Legally.
When Buck didn't say anything, Eddie shifted, knees pressing into his thigh, his hand reaching out to take Buck's hands into his grasp.
Eddie spoke softly, his words hushed in the silence bracketing them but still steady, like that day in the hospital. "I made you the executor in my Will and even named you a beneficiary aside from Chris. My Letter of Intent is clear, Buck, I want it to be you. No one else."
"Two years," Buck whispered, breath catching, "It just took you two years of knowing me to do all that."
Eddie smiled. His thumb was sweeping back and forth over his knuckles. "I started thinking about it after the Tsunami, when Chris told me you tried to make it fun, even amidst all that. He said he knew it was going to be okay, even after he got lost, because his Buck was out there, looking for him."
Buck looked down at their hands. He watched as his fingers moved to couple up with Eddie's, locking them together.
"You never explained, that day, why you took so long to tell me."
"Didn't I?"
"No, Eddie, you didn't."
"Do I really need to?"
Eddie had already placed them really close when he'd shifted, closer than they'd ever been. Their whispering would be barely audible if they weren't inches from each other. Buck just crossed the remaining distance, bringing their foreheads into contact.
"You didn't tell them," he murmured.
Eddie nudged him with his nose, breath ghosting over Buck's lips when he answered. "This is ours. Why would I tell them?"
When they kissed, Buck got the feeling that Eddie needed to change his Will again.
Just a minor one. Matching the change that Buck was about to make to his own Will, editing his legal relationship with Eddie from Friend to Life Partner.
He didn't think Eddie would mind if he changed it straight to Husband either.
I know it's not WIP Wednesday but tagging: @keeperofdragons @soupfic @911varietyposts @shelfthe-reader @buckbuckleybegins @circledwithaheart
