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Abby was gone.
She had walked through the glass doors and hadn't looked back.
The first woman who had ever seen him as something more than a one night stand, treated him more than just a temporary distraction until something better came along, had left.
And he wanted to believe it was temporary, but her expression when he promised to wait? Well, that left him with a pit in his stomach.
Because he knew what pity looked like.
He had a childhood full of those looks that extended into his adulthood. "Oh, Evans" turning into "Oh, Buck" turning into ... well, no words at all apparently.
But he was going to wait for her anyway. Right now, she was grieving her mother and maybe she hadn't wanted to hurt him by making any promises she couldn't keep, but it wasn't like she would be in Europe forever. She'd be back and Buck would prove to her that he was steady. He may be younger but she could rely on him. Count on him.
He'd show her.
Still, he wished she looked back.
Slowly, he turned around and made his way to the exit, looking yet not seeing anything, and dreading being alone in Abby's apartment, only to halt to a stop when a motion caught his eye. Out of instinct, he put his foot out and what turned out to be a toy firetruck hit his shoe gently.
Puzzled, he bent down and picked it up, eyes darting around.
A small voice called out, "That's mine!"
Buck turned toward it, and was met with a kid coming his way. He had bright eyes, curly hair, and glasses and was walking on crutches that matched his red glasses.
"Is that so?" Buck said, smiling despite his broken heart. He couldn't help it; he loved kids and this one, who couldn't be more than six or seven, was absolutely adorable. "Here you go."
"Thank you," he said, accepting the toy as soon as he got close enough, with a grin that had Buck melting again. He bet this kid's parents had a hard time saying no to that adorable face.
Wait, where was this kid's parent?
"You like firetrucks?" he said nonsensically, trying to look around subtly.
"Yeah! They're super cool," the boy said enthusiastically. "My dad is going to be a firefighter!"
"That is cool," Buck agreed, grinning. "And where would-" Before, he could finish that sentence, he heard a louder, more frantic voice yelling nearby.
"Christopher? Christopher?"
A man was pushing through the crowd and let out a loud sigh of relief when he saw the boy (Christopher, apparently), who just smiled guilelessly at his father.
"Hi dad!" he chirped.
"Chris!" he said, falling to his knees. "I told you to stay in one place. Where did you go?"
"I dropped my firetruck," Chris explained. "And it rolled away. This man"-he pointed to Buck-"found it."
That's when Christopher's dad looked up, realizing there was someone else near his son, and Buck found himself face to face with one of the most beautiful men he had ever seen. Look, he was straight (though he had checked out a nice ass now and then, but that was normal), but the man in front of him was model handsome, looked like he came off the cover of a magazine. Could definitely be on the LAFD calendar. He had swoopy brown hair that fell perfectly over his forehead, soft brown eyes, a sharp jawline that was dusted with facial hair and the henley he was wearing was fitted perfectly around his muscled body. Currently those wide pretty eyes were staring into Buck's soul and Buck never wanted to look away.
"Who are you?" Christopher's dad asked, frowning, suspicion written all over his features.
"Just a guy who ran into a toy firetruck," Buck said sheepishly. "I was about to ask him where his parent was and well, here you are. No-not for bad reasons or any-anything. I'm Evan Buckley, err, Buck. I am a fi-firefighter! Totally safe! Yo-you can call my boss and ask!"
The man's lips twitched, visibly relaxing. "I think I'll hold off. I'm Eddie Diaz, and this little wanderer is Christopher. I swear I usually have a better eye on him than this, but apparently he's faster than he looks."
Christopher giggled, unrepentant and unbothered. And Eddie looked at his son so fondly that Buck felt his breath catch. Even when he was hurt (the only time and way he could get his parents to pay attention to him growing up), he didn't think his dad looked at him that way. Only Maddie ever had, and well, she was long gone.
"All right, kid, did you say 'thank you' to this nice man for saving your truck," Eddie said gently.
"He did," Buck said, at the same a time as Chris reassuring his father of the same thing. "He's very polite. You have a great kid there."
Eddie smiled at Buck and well, Buck's heart skipped a beat for a whole new reason. He'd like to see Eddie keep looking at him like that. "Yeah, he's the best." There was real pride in his voice. "Thank you, for keeping an eye out. But now, we have to make sure our luggage is still where I left it."
"Sure," Buck said. "It was nice, nice meeting you." And this was where they would part again and Buck felt oddly bereft at saying goodbye to this duo, that he knew all of five minutes.
"Nice meeting you too," Eddie said, and look at that, he sounded like he meant it.
It turned out that their goodbyes were a bit premature, when they started heading in the same direction though, which they laughed about. Thankfully, Eddie's bags were still where he left them. And when it turned out that getting an Uber was no small task, Buck found himself offering to take them where they needed to go, which a reluctant Eddie accepted after being met with Christopher's puppy eyes.
"Fair warning, I do know muay thai," Eddie joked.
"I'll bring you safely to your aunt," Buck vowed. "Scout's honor."
Eddie squinted at him. "Were you ever a boy scout?"
"Were you?" Buck shot back, carrying one of the bags without thinking.
"I was actually," Eddie laughed.
"Of course you were," Buck sighed. "And now you're going to be a firefighter? Christopher told me."
"Yeah, I'm starting at the Academy next week," Eddie informed him. "Christopher is excited. We just moved here from Texas." He ruffled his son's hair affectionately.
"Dad said we could go to the beach!" Chris chimed in. "It's super close now!"
"Well, I can give you some recommendations if you want," Buck said. "And do you like the zoo? I've heard the one here is pretty awesome too."
Christopher's eyes widened and he looked hopefully at his dad. "Can we go to the zoo too?"
"We'll see," Eddie said, though he had a feeling that was a 'yes'. "But you have to make sure you stick with me, okay, mijo? No running off again. We won't always be lucky enough to find a Buck."
Lucky enough to find a Buck. Someone thought they were lucky to meet him. Who would've thought? Certainly not Buck.
"Well, Diazes," he said, once their suitcases were in the car. "Point me in the right direction and let's go!"
Eddie gave him his aunt's address and he typed it into his phone, peeling out of the parking lot with relative ease once he got the directions. And during the drive, he got to know his two passengers better. Chris was chattier than Eddie, but with minor nudging, he learned more about Eddie too. Every little detail he found out just left him wanting more.
By the time they were at his aunt's place, Buck realized he hadn't thought of Abby once. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. He thought he would say goodbye, only to get an invite in for dinner and he should say no, couldn't afford an attachment so soon after getting left behind. Yet as Eddie and Christopher looked at him with matching hopeful expressions (they didn't initially seem to have much physical resemblance but right then, he could really see it), he found he couldn't say no.
Besides, he was just making new friends. He wasn't being any less loyal to Abby.
So he followed them outside, ready to introduce himself to Eddie's visibly curious aunt.
And deep inside, felt that somehow, everything had changed.
It took three months for him to accept that Abby wasn't coming back, or least whatever attachment she had to him had faded. It might have been longer, but the feelings he developed for Eddie (turned out he wasn't so straight after all) and how he just wanted to be around what his team called his "Diaz boys" more than he ever wanted to wait around for any calls that wouldn't come helped him move along.
Eight months later, when he walked into what was once his station, and turned into their station, hand in hand with Eddie, he knew that it was right.
His life had changed that day.
For the better.
He couldn't wait to see what the future brought.
Whatever it did, he wouldn't face it alone.
That was one thing he knew for sure.