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Eddie stared at his son, not comprehending what he was seeing. This could not be true. How the hell had it happened? He had only taken his eyes off Chris for a moment because his mother had called to berate him yet again for moving to LA. He blinked, and then he pinched himself, hoping that it would change what he was seeing, but it didn't change a thing. Chris was still in the claw machine they had been standing in front of, and Eddie was on the outside, looking in. He saw his son cuddling a, frankly ugly, dinosaur with a base color of off-white, ivory, he heard his sister say in his head, and everything else was glaringly colorful and not matching at all. Chris was grinning wildly, clearly happy with himself. His crutches stood outside, leaning against the machine, and Eddie sighed, pinching his nose. If his mother ever found out about this, she would use it again to berate him and to show that he wasn't fit to be a father to his own son, if she didn't try to use it to take Chris from him.
"Can you hear me?" he asked loudly, knocking on the glass gently. Chris nodded and cuddled his toy closer as if he knew that Eddie would take it from him. Eddie hadn't wanted to waste money on something this ugly, since money was tight and these games were rigged anyway, so that Chris would not have been able to get the toy.
"I can, Daddy," Chris replied, his voice nearly inaudible over the bustle of their surroundings.
"Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself?"
"I'm fine," Chris replied.
"How did you get in there?" Eddie asked next, since it was clear as day as to why the boy was in there.
"I climbed, Daddy," Chris said, grinning brightly, and Eddie ran a hand over his face. He had no idea what he should do now. They were also gathering a crowd, which made the young father even more uncomfortable with the situation.
"Need a hand?" a voice asked from beside Eddie, and he looked over to the man who had asked. He had to swallow down the instant attraction. The man was hot like burning.
"Yes?" Eddie replied, making it more of a question than a statement. "What the hell am I supposed to do?"
"Normally, you would need to go to the manager and ask for the key," the man replied. "But I've been to this mall half a dozen times already for just such an occasion like this, since the company that runs this machine does not hand them out, not even to the manager, so he has to call 9-1-1. I'll go and tell him what happened and get his okay to get your kid out. We know each other by now. Make sure to keep your son calm."
With that, the man was gone, and Eddie could only stare after him, not really understanding what had just happened. The next ten minutes were the longest of Eddie's life as he tried to stamp down his panic for being separated from his child with no way to get in, while Chris seemed more than happy where he was.
"Hello," another man said, appearing at Eddie's side, smiling wryly. "I'm the manager. Your kid okay?"
"I'm sorry Chris climbed in there. Do you really need to call 9-1-1?" Eddie asked, worried once more that his mother would find out.
"Don't worry about it, mate. It's not the first time, and it won't be the last. And we don't," the man said. "Mr. Buckley is just getting his toolbox, and then he can take care of the situation. He's a probationary firefighter and has responded to most of the calls of this nature since he first started, and even one or two times when he was off-duty, as he is now. He could have done it with the tools he has on hand at all times, but it would have taken longer, and he didn't want to chance that the calm your son is feeling would evaporate, and he would panic."
Eddie nodded his understanding. He was glad that the other man was thinking of Chris so much. Just as he thought that, the man in question returned at a trot and had a toolbox with him, which he quickly used to unscrew one of the glass panes. He smiled at Chris, and Eddie had to remind himself that the man was doing this out of the goodness of his heart and most likely would not appreciate Eddie lusting after him and the way the man's muscles moved under his ivory shirt.
"Hey, little man," he said. "I'm Buck. Who are you?"
"I'm Christopher," Chris answered, smiling back brightly.
"Ready to get out of there?" Buck asked, and Chris nodded, before he turned sad, looking down at the pushie in his arms.
"Do I have to leave Mr. Dino behind?" he asked, his lip wobbling a bit, and of course, he had already named the plushie.
Buck smiled even wider and shook his head before he reached for Chris after checking in with Eddie.
"Nope. It's my payment since the claw machine company is being mean and doesn't give Mr. Burley a key so that he could get others like you out himself," Buck said, swinging Chris out of the machine and putting him down close to his crutches, making sure that Chris was steady on his feet. Once he was sure that Chris was safe, he put the pane back in and rescrewed it so that the machine was complete once more.
"Now, no climbing into those machines anymore, little man. Can you promise me that?" Buck asked as he crouched down in front of Chris. "You could get hurt doing this, and there's no guarantee that whoever comes and gets you out is as nice as me. Also, normally, it would take quite some time longer for someone to come than it did today. This was only this quick since I was already here."
Chris looked to the floor in shame.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I won't do it again. I promise."
"Good boy," Buck replied and ruffled his hair. "You worried your dad a lot. I think he needs a hug from you so that he knows that you are alright."
Eddie flushed at the words. Neither he nor Chris had thought about that, both too transfixed with watching Buck put the machine back together. He crouched down as well and caught his son in his arms as he moved over, pulling the boy close.
"I'm sorry for worrying you, Daddy," Chris said, clinging on. "But I really wanted Mr. Dino."
Eddie, Buck, and Mr. Burley laughed at the words, the crowd having dispersed by now.
"That is usually the reason why I get called to situations like this," Buck said, winking at Eddie and Chris. Then he stood and went over to Mr. Burley.
"Thanks for letting me do this, once more, Stan," he said, shaking the older man's hand.
"I'm just glad that I didn't have to call 9-1-1 for the third time this month," Stan replied, sighing. "I really wish they would just give me the damn key. Then we would not have that problem."
"I hear you. But so far, things never ended too badly, besides some scrapes from climbing in on two of the bigger kids," Buck answered. He shook the man's hand again and then, after nodding to Eddie and Chris, Mr. Burley left.
"Can I invite you for some coffee?" Eddie asked, just as Buck was about to say his goodbyes as well. "As a thank you for getting Chris out of there?"
"You really don't need to," Buck answered, suddenly abashed. "It was my pleasure, and it's really not the first time this happened. I'm not doing this to get any thanks or anything."
"I know you don't, but I really want to thank you, and I'd really like to invite you to some coffee. We're new to LA, and we really could do with some friends if you want to become one."
Eddie saw how the younger man blushed at his words, and a small hope began to grow inside him that maybe his attraction was not unrequited, but even if it was, he could really use a friend, and he had seen how the man had interacted with Chris, not batting an eye at his crutches. This made him very attractive to Eddie, not just in a sexual way.
"Alright," Buck said. "I haven't been to LA long, and I don't have a lot of friends, either. Did you have a place in mind?"
Eddie nodded and led the way. Over the next few weeks and months, the two of them became fast friends, with Buck helping out when it came to looking after Chris, and he also introduced Eddie to Carla, whom he had met through Abby Clark, a dispatcher, whom they quickly folded into their friend circle. They both helped her care for her mother, especially when Patricia took a turn for the worse, and stood by her through the aftermath of her death. Once she had gone to find herself, Eddie finally found the courage to ask Buck on a date, which Abby had told him to do, so that, when Eddie started at the 118, they both had to fill out some paperwork with Bobby.
When Eddie, Abby, and Carla learned what Dr. Welles had done, they got through to Buck that it was assault and not something he could have wanted in the state of mind he had been in at the time, and they convinced him to go to the police. One small chance meeting over an ugly ivory dinosaur changed a lot.