Archive of Our Own ^beta

As Buck had expected, Chris was in no way up for school the next day. He woke up late, dragging his feet as he made his way into the kitchen and yawning as he sat down in the same chair he'd used the night before. Buck had started making them some eggs and bacon for breakfast, and he smiled at Christopher where he had slumped down in the chair.

"Morning, buddy. Did you sleep well?"

Chris frowned at him slightly. Buck knew full well he wouldn't have slept well, and clearly Christopher had figured that out too. "Good morning," he yawned, clearly deciding not to mention it. "Why is your name Buck? I've never heard of anyone being called that before."

Buck grinned at the way he had clearly lost his filter with how tired he felt. It felt like an insight into the real Christopher, not the overly polite, quiet kid he'd met the night before.

"Well, my surname is Buckley, so that's where Buck comes from. And I decided I preferred being called that to my first name, so that's what people call me." he answered, trying to give enough detail to satisfy the kid's curiosity without having to broach any more difficult topics so early in the day with a kid he'd only just met.

"Huh." Chris nodded. "I guess that makes sense."

With that, Chris went silent again and Buck turned back to his cooking. Soon he'd finished and he loaded up a plate with eggs, bacon and toast, carrying over to the table where Christopher was sleepily observing his movements.

Chris offered a mumble of thanks before eagerly tucking in to the food, Buck laughing to himself as he went to plate up his own breakfast. It was no wonder Chris was hungry, Buck thought as he poured out a glass of juice for each of them and brought everything to the table. Chris had picked at his pasta last night, seeming to enjoy it but just not feeling up to eating much. Sleep had done him good, though, and he easily ate through the full plate of food Buck had provided him before shyly asking for another piece of toast, which Buck was happy to make for him.

After breakfast Christopher shuffled back to his room to get dressed, clearly in a routine. Buck had already dressed before making the breakfast, so he finished the marking he had left on the kitchen table the previous evening, listening to Chris moving around between his room and the bathroom. It's impressive how quickly he can get used to some kids being around. He's had placements before where they just didn't click, where the kid was just too angry or closed off to connect with Buck, or their personalities just didn't align. This kind of ease, though, he hasn't had that often. Maybe one or two other kids have fit in this well before, and never an emergency placement like Christopher was, kids who were taken abruptly from their families and usually hold the sharpest resentment towards the people they perceive as having allowed that to happen. Christopher loves his dad, that was obvious in the way he spoke about him last night, voice thick with worry as he asked if his dad would be okay. But despite that he hasn't shown any anger towards Buck or towards Caleb, hasn't seemed resentful of any of the social workers or of anyone else who's been involved in the process. He really is a special kid, Buck can already tell.

Chris reappeared in the kitchen doorway just as Buck finished marking his last quiz, circling the large B with a flourish and moving it to the pile with the rest. He turned to Christopher to let him know he knows he's there. Chris was properly dressed in a yellow striped shirt and brown pants, and he looked much more comfortable on his crutches than he did when he arrived.

"Looking good, buddy!" Buck smiled, which Chris seemed to appreciate. "So, obviously you're not going in to school today, but I'm hoping to get you back in tomorrow so you don't miss too many lessons. But for today, I thought we could spend some time at the park for the morning, maybe go out for lunch, and then come back here for the afternoon and just relax, make sure you're ready for school tomorrow. How does that sound?"

"I like the park," Chris said, "Can we get burgers for lunch?"

"Sure. I know a really nice burger place, unless you have an absolute favourite you'd rather go to?"

Christopher shook his head. "No, I don't mind," he said. "Are we going now?"

Buck quickly thought over his list of chores for the day. "Let's load the dishes from breakfast into the dishwasher first, and then we can get our shoes on and go. The park is within walking distance but the burger place isn't really, so I think we'll drive there. Plus, that way it'll be easier to get back once we're tired from the park."

Chris agreed and moved further into the kitchen as Buck stood up, both of them starting to pick up the few plates and pans that accumulated during breakfast, quickly fitting them into the dishwasher. Once the counters were clear again Buck sent Chris to get his shoes, grabbing his keys and toeing on trainers by the front door. He had a booster seat in the trunk of his Jeep that he could quickly fit into the back seat for Christopher, so he headed out to grab it, leaving the front door open for Chris behind him.

Soon enough they were in the car, making the short drive to the local park. It wasn't massive, a big square of grass with a play area in one corner and a couple of trees with paths and benches winding between them. But Chris was happy enough to explore the various looping paths before they inevitably ended up at the play equipment, Buck watching from one of the surrounding benches while Christopher made his way up a short climbing wall to reach the slide. They stayed in the park for a couple of hours before Christopher approached Buck to announce he was ready for lunch, Buck only able to smile at the way he'd come out of his shell in less than a day. Buck made sure Christopher got strapped into the back of the Jeep and stowed his crutches safely in the trunk before they set off for Buck's favourite burger place, about half an hour's drive from the park.

Buck had been coming to this burger place for long enough that the employees recognised him when he and Chris walked in. He was pleased to see that Maya, one of the waitresses he had talked to the most, was on shift when they arrived. She took them to an empty table by the window, handing them each a menu.

"Good to see you again, Buck." she said, before turning to Christopher. "And who is this young gentleman?"

Chris smiled politely at Maya. "Hello, I'm Christopher. I'm staying with Buck while Dad is in the hospital."

"Nice to meet you, Christopher. I'm Buck's friend Maya." she responds, before switching back to business. "I'll be back in a few minutes to take your drink orders, and if you're ready you can order your food then too."

With that, Maya left them to look over the menus and decide what to order. Chris decided on a chocolate milkshake but was struggling to decide between two burgers, while Buck had a usual food order but liked to mix up which drink he ordered with it. In the end he settled on a Coke, and Christopher had picked a burger by the time Maya came for their drink orders, so they ordered everything together. Ordinarily, Buck wouldn't be so cavalier about letting the kids have chocolate-milkshake-levels of sugar on a random weekday, but it wasn't exactly just any old Wednesday for Chris- despite his chipper attitude all day, Buck was still expecting a resurgence of the emotional kid he'd met yesterday evening. He guessed Christopher would most likely be fine until he started to get tired, so he'd deliberately structured the day with the outdoor, in public stuff first followed by a relaxed afternoon for them to unwind, and most likely for Chris to get another chance to air out his feelings.

Lunch kept up the cheerful mood, though. The burgers were delicious and Christopher was delighted with his milkshake, commenting off-hand that his dad didn't often let him have them in a way that made Buck equal parts pleased and worried by his nonchalance at the thought of his dad. They split some lemon tart for dessert, before saying goodbye to Maya and heading back to the Jeep. Chris was noticeably tired on the drive back to Buck's house, but given he'd eaten the majority of an adult-size burger Buck suspected it was more of a temporary food coma than a sign he might need a nap.

Once they were home and had taken off their shoes, Buck turned to Chris. "Hey, so since we're just going to have a chill afternoon, is there anything in particular you want to do? TV, video games- I saw some Legos in your bag that you could bring into the living room if you'd like. Whatever you feel like."

Chris thought over the options before deciding. "Legos. Can we build them together?"

"Sure we can. You go grab them from your room, yeah?"

Chris hurried off to get the Legos from his room- Buck's spare room, really, but Buck always tried to let the kids have a sense of ownership over it, however short their stay with him. Soon he was back, with one box claiming to be a Star Wars TIE Fighter kit, and on top of that balanced a ziplock bag full of loose pieces.

"I got this new set as a gift last week because I got all As on my report card, even though I had to miss a bunch of days to go to the hospital. But it looks kind of tricky so I wanted to ask Dad for help with it, but he had to work a lot so he was pretty tired when he was home. But we can do it now, if you want." Chris said, rushing over his words as he said more than Buck had heard him say at once the whole day.

"Sure we can! Do you like Star Wars, then?" Buck asked, taking the box from Chris as he sat down and opening it, tipping out the contents onto the floor.

They spent a while putting together pieces in relative silence, instruction booklet spread open between them surrounded by pieces. Chris had rambled on happily about his favourite Star Wars movies and characters for a while before slowly trailing off, content to just click pieces together and slowly watch the ship take form. They were almost finished when Buck realised that Christopher seemed to have frozen, staring at the component in his hand with a frown.

“Hey, Chris, everything alright?” Buck asked, concerned. With any luck, it would just be tiredness, but he suspected this could be the start of the emotional outburst he had been expecting all day. Christopher just frowned harder, and Buck realised he was fighting back tears. Definitely the second option, then. “Come on, let’s get up onto the sofa. We’ll finish the model in a minute.”

Carefully, he helped Chris up onto the couch, the kid staying silent throughout, his brows drawing closer and closer together until his whole face was crumpled with the effort of keeping his emotions in.

“Chris, buddy, can you tell me what’s wrong? I promise it isn’t bad and you won’t be in trouble, whatever it is, but you’ve gotta tell me so I know how to help.” Buck said, keeping his voice level and gentle.

“I-” Chris tried, stopping to furiously wipe a hand over his eyes. “I was supposed- supposed to build it with-” he stumbled through the sentence, tears welling up and being swiped away faster and faster. “I was supposed to build it with Dad!” he finally burst out, promptly beginning to sob outright. Just like he had the night before, Buck pulled Chris in to his side, letting him rest his head on his chest and cry it out, soothing him with a hand on his head, gently running through his hair.

After a while, when Chris was starting to quiet, Buck spoke. “I know it’s really hard that your dad isn’t here. I know you know he isn’t well, and he needs to spend time at the hospital to get better before he can look after you, but there’s a difference between knowing that and missing him anyway, isn’t there?” Chris nodded into Buck’s chest, keeping his face hidden there. Buck decided to keep going. “And we’ve only just met, and nobody can replace your dad. He’s your dad, that makes him special. But he really can’t be with you, so you’re here with me. I’m not going to try and replace your dad, or make you forget about him or stop talking about him, okay? You can talk about him as much as you’d like, the good and the bad. I’d love to hear about him. But you have to try not to feel guilty about doing things without him, too, yeah? Because it’s pretty likely you’ll be back together in a couple of weeks or so, and I bet he’ll want to hear about all the things you did while he was gone, and how much fun you had while he got better.”

Chris pulled his head up a little and mumbled, “But won’t he feel sad that he didn’t get to have fun with me? That I had such a good time without him? What if he feels bad and has to go away again?”

Buck looked down at him, catching his eyes. “You’re not wrong, okay. He probably will be a bit sad to hear about the things he missed. He’ll probably feel guilty already that you had to go stay with me while he got better. He’ll be feeling a lot of things, I would guess. But imagine how much worse he would feel if the first time he saw you again he asked how you had been, and you said you didn’t do anything fun the whole time he was gone? If you said you just sat by yourself and didn’t play or read or build Legos. He doesn’t want you to be sad, Chris, that’s for sure. He’s your dad, and he loves you, so he wants above anything for you to be happy. Even when he can’t be there.”

Chris nodded. “I think I understand. I would be sad if Dad didn’t watch TV or see his friends when I go to sleepovers and stay at Abuela’s without him. Because then I would wish I had been with him instead of somewhere else and I would feel bad.”

“Yeah, that’s right. Just like that.” Buck agreed, giving Chris a squeeze before letting go of him. “So, do you want to finish the TIE Fighter now? And then when you see your dad again, you can show it to him, and he’ll be happy to know you were happy.”

They finished the model fairly quickly after that, Chris slowly working back up to the level of chatter he’d maintained when they first started building. Once they were done, Chris asked if they could watch something on TV before dinner, which Buck agreed to. It was nearing half past five, so they watched a few episodes of one of Chris’ favourite cartoons before they moved to the kitchen to start cooking dinner. Buck asked Christopher if he wanted to help, suggesting he could get out the dishes and set the table, and let him try using the potato masher when he seemed interested in what Buck was doing with it. He gave up fairly quickly, but enjoyed seeing the potato come up through the holes in the masher.

They ate dinner together, with Christopher telling Buck a story about a disastrous school bake sale, to which his dad had promised to bring several dozen cakes but forgot about until the night before, and had proceeded to try and bake the cupcakes without any eggs so that he wouldn’t have to go to the store. After dinner, Buck made Chris fetch all his homework to check he was ready for the next day. He didn’t have much, but Buck read through his paragraph on the Ancient Egyptians for history and quickly checked through his maths problems, not noticing any glaring errors. He declared the homework complete, giving Christopher a high five and letting him pick out a snack from the cupboard as a treat.

Soon enough it was eight o’clock and Buck sent Christopher to bed, before running over his own work for the next day, making sure he had lesson plans for each of his classes ready. He had explained to Chris that he was a teacher, so Christopher would have to wait at school for half an hour at the end of the day before Buck could get there to pick him up. This was Buck's usual arrangement, and he'd had kids at Chris' school before so he'd called the office that morning to let them know the situation. Caleb had already made them aware of Christopher's situation, so the whole thing had been relatively smooth.

Satisfied with his plans for the next day, Buck put together a packed lunch for Chris, leaving out the sandwich so he could ask Chris what filling he wanted the next day. Once he had finished and tidied up the dishes from dinner, he got ready for bed and settled in to read for half an hour before going to sleep, satisfied with the way the day had gone. Chris was proving to be one of the best kids he'd had the privilege of looking after yet.