Chapter Text
Buck grumpily opens his eyes as the warm body next to him shifts away. “Five more minutes.” He mumbles. But Eddie is already out of bed. He straightens the blankets and tucks them around Buck. “Yeah, you are getting five more minutes, I need to get ready for work.”
Buck rolls his eyes and sighs. “I hate being sick.”
Eddie grins. “I think everyone does, Buck.”
Eddie walks towards the dresser and throws on a shirt. Buck sighs. “It’s a shame that chest has to be trapped by fabric. I say; free them muscles.”
Eddie chuckles and trows a shirt towards Buck. “You should get dressed to, don’t want you to catch a cold.”
Buck slowly sits up with a grown. “Ha, ha. Be nice or I will cough in your face, so we can share this lovely bug.” His hand reaches for his ribs as he tries to get up.
Eddie frowns. “That rib still bothering you?”
Buck sighs. “Yeah, even if I wasn’t sick, I couldn’t have gone to work anyways.”
Eddie walks up to Buck who is still seated on the edge of the bed. He studies his partners face and inspects the fractured rib as he mentally makes a note of all his symptoms.
Buck sharply inhales and swallows away a whimper of pain when Eddie touches the left side of his chest. “Eddie, it has only been a week; its fine.”
“I just wanted to-“ Eddie starts. But buck interrupts him. “Yeah, yeah, they did an x-ray remember. Twice even because you insisted.” Eddie opens his mouth, but Buck is faster. “If there was something wrong, we would have noticed it earlier. I have the same bug you had last week. I'm going to be fine.''
Eddie bites his lip, still not reassured. And Buck takes his hand. “Eddie, its fine, really.” Buck gets up and shuffles to the shower. Everything taking a bit too much effort, and everything going a little too slow for his liking.
But when he steps out of the shower, he is no longer sweaty and gross and feels a lot better than he did before. He raises his hands to dry his hair, and a sharp pain flashes through his body. He gasps and buckles over, his vision blurs and he has to take a minute to catch his breath. “Get it together Buckley.” He mumbles to himself. He slowly straightens his body and takes a couple of deep breaths before he puts on his sweatpants.
He throws on a robe, not even attempting to lift a shirt over his head, or bowing down to put on socks, he would put on a zip up hoodie later, and his feet could handle the cold. But first some water, his throat itches and he feels just as dehydrated as the plants in Chris’s room. The ones he insisted he would take care of totally on his own.
He didn’t. Obviously. He accidentally drowned the cactus and the others were withering away from the thirst. Buck had tried to save them, he really did, but Eddie caught him misting the spider plant in the corner of the room and had sighed disapprovingly. “How will Chris ever learn if you do it for him.” He had said.
And in return Buck had gone out on a rant about: “plants not being able to pick out their own plant parents.” That had deserved an eye roll. “Christopher is eleven, Buck. He can water some plants. We can remind him if he needs help with remembering. But we shouldn’t take over.” That was a compromise Buck was willing to make.
Buck shuffled into the living room reminding himself to ask Chris to water his plants later today. But first; breakfast.
Eddie stood behind the stove as he flipped an egg. “Do you want some?” He asked Buck. Buck's stomach gurgles dangerously, and he shakes his head. “No, I’m just grabbing some toast.” He walks over to the sink and throws back two large glasses of water, but they do little to clench the thirst.
Eddie walks over to Chris and puts the eggs on his plate. “Listen Chris, Buck is still sick, so you gotta help him out a bit, okay?” Christopher nods. “I know dad. You’ve told me twice already.” He bites into his eggs and looks at Buck.
“Movie marathon?” He asks with a bright smile, and Buck smiles back. “Sounds great, homework first though, Saturday doesn’t mean getting to skip homework.” Buck tries to look stern but fails so miserably at that attempt, that Chis starts to giggle.
The moment Chris moves to his room to start his homework Eddie turns around facing Buck. “Are you sure you are up for it? I can still call Carla.” Buck shakes his head. “Nah, we are fine, we're going to hang on the couch, maybe play a couple of games. Just chill and rest a bit.”
Eddie presses a hand against Bucks forehead, that’s already clammy again. “Okay,” he mutters “alright then.”
He walks to the bedroom and Buck moves over to the couch. He throws his legs on-top of the coffee table and leans back a little bit.
A couple of moments later Eddie is back, he puts his work bag in front of the door and rummages trough the kitchen drawers. He walks back to Buck holding up a shirt and socks and puts a thermometer on the coffee table.
“Feet.” He commands. And Buck obeys, knowing that putting up a fight is useless anyways. Besides his feet are a little cold and socks couldn’t hurt. After Eddie puts on his socks he shrugs off his robe and Eddie helps him into his shirt. “Thanks.” Buck says a little breathless from all the effort.
Eddie just sighs and shoves the thermometer in Bucks ear. It beeps and Eddie studies it. “99°F, little warm but nothing too crazy.” Eddie puts away the thermometer. “If you get worse, call me. And take it easy today.”
Buck waves Eddie away as he starts up Netflix. “You are going to be late babe. We will be fine, I’ll check in with you later, see you tomorrow.”
Eddie kisses Buck shortly. “See you tomorrow. Love you.”
“Bye, Chris!” He yells, and a yell from across the house sounds back.
Buck looks at Eddie, who moves towards the door: “Love you, be safe!”
“Always am.” Eddie replies as he closes the front door and heads for his truck. But his stomach is in knots and tied up with worry.
He is not entirely sure why, but he hesitates to step into his truck and is this close to calling Bobby and staying home too.
But Buck was fine, and Buck was right. Eddie worried too much. Besides the team was already one man down, they couldn’t miss him too.
So, he stepped into his truck and turned over the key, the engine humming softly.
The knots in his stomach didn’t disappear. So, he made a deal with himself. If Bucks ribs weren’t a little bit better when he got off shift 24 hours later, he would just drag him to the ER
That eases his stress a little bit. And as he drives away, he inhales and exhales deeply.
Everything was going to be fine.