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Buck woke up with a killer headache.
Seriously? Where did this come from? He feels like he has a hangover but- he doesn’t remember drinking anything last night. He specifically remembers: he and Eddie returned home from work, ate dinner, watched a movie, cuddled on the couch, and went to bed. Nothing different from the usual.
Buck groans before deciding he should just ask Eddie. He’s about to turn over in bed when he notices something- Weird. Buck usually sleeps on the right side because, Eddie prefers to be the closest to the door. For some reason he is sleeping on the left? Why?
Ignoring the weirdness of the situation Buck turns over to ask his husband if things seem weird for him, too.
WHAT
THE
FUCK.
The person laying on the other side of the bed is most definitely NOT Buck’s husband. Buck would recognize Eddie anywhere so, he is certain that the person isn’t Eddie. Holy shit. Did Buck just mess up the most important thing in his life and cheat on Eddie?! NO! there no way! Buck would NEVER. Fuck. He’s definitely about to cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Why the fuck does it matter if he cries or not? He cheated on his husband- His life is over. Eddie is going to hate him. Chris is going to hate him. Bobby is going to be so disappointed. Everyone is going to be so angry with him.
But honestly? Buck doesn’t think that all of them combined could hate him more than he hates himself, right now.
Buck lays is head down on the pillow and stares up at the celling.
What the fuck is he going to do?
Buck turns back over, and away from the stranger. Oh, thank god, the bathroom door is open. He quickly but quietly gets out of the strangers oddly familiar bed and gets into the bathroom, locking the door behind him. Here’s what is going to happen. Buck is going to call Eddie and beg for forgiveness. Not that he deserves to be forgiven, because he most certainly does not.
Fuck.
He has to go back into the room to get his phone. Buck splashes some water on his face before freezing. He pauses staring at his hands.
He’s not wearing his wedding ring.
He always wears his wedding ring. In fact, Buck has never even taken it off. Every time they’re at work or the gym or for whatever reason Buck can’t wear his ring, Eddie takes if off of him. Buck does the same for his husband. And then, later they both put the rings back on each other.
Oh.
He’ll never be able to do that again, will he?
Wait.
Why doesn’t he have a tan line where the ring should be? There was a tan line there yesterday.
What the fuck is going on? He looks into the mirror- what the fuck. He’s missing tattoos??!! His hair looks like it might have some hair gel in it and he looks younger.
Seriously?!
There is no fucking way.
Did he- Did Buck time travel?
Holy fuck. That’s why this place seems so familiar. He’s in his room in the house he lived in before moving in with Abby. What’s the date? What’s the year? Buck really needs to get his phone now.
He quietly, opens the bathroom door and goes through the pile of clothes on the ground before, finding a pair of jeans that look his size and checking the pockets. Yes! A phone! It’s old- or maybe it’s new? Buck grabs some of his clothes then, rushes into the bathroom and locks the door again. He unlocks the phone with his finger print and puts on clothes while looking at the time and date. It’s 9:57am on August 22th, 20- 2017?!
Fuck.
He did time travel.
No.
Nope.
This has to be a joke. There is no way Buck actually time traveled. That’s insane and impossible. He checks his phone contacts: there’s no Maddie, no Chimney, no Hen, no Bobby, no Athena, no- there’s no Eddie. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. This is crazy. This can’t be happening.
Breathe. In and out. In and out.
Okay, think. If he did time travel (which he is not saying he did) why now? Why today? Today isn’t special. It’s not someone he knows, birthday. It’s not a holiday. It’s not a day where a crazy disaster happens (at least not that he knows of). It’s not- oh fuck.
It’s the day he signs up for the academy.
Buck quickly opens a new tab and fills out an online application for the LAFD. It takes roughly twenty minutes. It takes 3 to 7 work days to get an email that says whether or not you get an interview. The process is long and Buck won’t know if he’s good enough for the academy- well if others think he’s good enough for the academy, until he gets that email.
Buck sighs then finally, leaves the bathroom. Thankfully, the woman left so, he’s the only person in the room. He walks over to his old dresser and grabs out clean clothes. Buck walks back into the bathroom and takes a shower (if he ended up crying that’s his business).
By the time Buck is out of the shower and dressed, it’s nearly noon. He finally leaves his room and heads down into the kitchen. There are four guys already in the kitchen talking about a party.
“-For Real?” Jesse asks.
“Yes.” Connor nods, “I’m busy tonight.”
“But like- on a scale from one to ten, how busy?” Mark says.
“Eleven.” Connor responds.
“Is it with that girl you met last week?” Johnny asks.
Jesse smirks, “Oh? Is it?”
Connor shakes his head, “I’m not talking about this with you guys.”
“Are you for real?” Jesse asks again.
“Very.” Connor turns to leave the room, stopping when he sees Buck. “Hey, Evan.” Buck tries not to cringe. Eddie and Maddie are the only people Buck is okay with calling him Evan.
“Hey.” Buck nods as he speaks. Walking into the room and standing around the kitchen island with the others.
“Evan! Dude, tell Con he needs to go with us tonight.” Johnny says.
“Hate to say it but, I’m pretty sure he said he was busy.” Buck responds.
“Thank you.” Connor sighs, clearly relieved.
“Whatever.” Johnny mumbles, then speaks up, “Who’s down to go get some pizza?”
“You’re a genius, man.” Jesse agrees.
“I’m in.” Mark also agrees. Then looks at the two who haven’t answered yet, “What about you two?” He asks as he stops in the doorway.
“Nah, I don’t feel like pizza right now.” Buck says.
“Me neither.” Connor agrees.
Mark shrugs and follows Johnny out of the room. Jesse takes a few steps then says, “See you two, later.”
“See ya.” Connor says.
“Later, man.” Buck responds as Jesse leaves to room. Buck turns to Connor and asks, “What do you want for lunch?”
Connor looks shocked for a moment then says, “You’re not going to ask me about why I don’t want to go to that party tonight?”
“As long as you’re not going to ask me why I’m not going.” Buck retorts.
“You’re not going?” Connor looks somehow even more shocked.
“Yeah, dude.” Buck nods.
“Wh- um. To answer your question, I would probably kill for some mac n cheese, right now.” Connor says.
Buck laughs, “Cool. I’ll make some.”
Buck looks in the cabinets for a moment before he hears Connor ask, “You can cook?”
“Decently.” Buck shrugs. Buck continues to look around before as he says, “Do you know if we have any elbow noodles?”
“Nah, dude. I don’t think anyone has gone grocery shopping in a while.” Connor says.
“Fuck.” Buck says in response.
“We could totally go shopping right now. If you’re not busy?” Connor suggests.
“Um, let me check.” Buck grabs out his phone and checks his calendar. Thank god he puts his work hours in there. Or else he would be so lost. He doesn’t have work until 7 tonight. “I have nothing to do for the next couple of hours.”
“Nice. Me neither.” Connor smiles.
“Cool. Is it fine if we take my car?” Buck asks.
“Definitely.” Connor agrees. Buck makes sure his shoes are tied as he walks towards the door, following Connor out of the house. Buck unlocks his jeep and climbs into the driver’s seat, as his roommate gets into the Passenger seat. Buck turns on the radio and a few minutes go by before Connor breaks the silence, “So, Evan-”
“Buck.” He interrupts, “I’m going to go by Buck now.”
“Why ‘Buck’?” his roommate asks.
“My last name is Buckley.” Buck explains.
Connor nods, “Okay. So Buck, why aren’t you going to that party tonight?” The he quickly follows with, “I’m not going because, I have a date with my girlfriend.” And somehow, Buck misses Eddie more.
“Um.” Buck pauses as he watches the cars pass while stopped at a red light. “I don’t like who I currently am so, I’m changing.” Buck admits.
“Oh. That explains the name change.” Connor jokes.
Buck smiles. The rest of the drive is quiet, except for the music. Buck parks at the store and gets out of the car. Connor walks next to him as they walk into the store.
They shop for almost twenty minutes talking about random things, when Connor asks, “Hey, Buck?” Buck nods in response. His roommate continues, “Do you want to meet my girlfriend?” Now, does Buck think socialization would be good for him right now? Yes. Does he want to third wheel? No. Definitely not when he misses his husband this much.
“Sorry dude. I just decided I was going to go to the gym after this.” Buck says casually.
“How about just quickly. Before you go?” his roommate asks.
Buck can deal with third wheeling for a little bit. “Of course, dude.”
“Oh, thank god. You have no idea how relieved I am.” Buck looks at him questioningly so, Connor explains, “She has been asking to meet my friends and honestly? Most of our roommates will probably make a move on her.”
Buck nods, “Sound about right.”
Connor grabs out his to text who Buck assumes is his girlfriend. “Cool.” He nods. “She’ll meet at the house in about 45 minutes.”
“Can’t wait.” Buck says as he starts walking towards the check out. Right. There are no self-checkouts, is it bad that Buck misses the post-Covid world? Not the actual virus clearly. Just mainly that everyone had learned how important personal space is. The people in line are standing so close. After he pays, he walks out to the door of the store and just happens to bump into someone while leaving.
“Oh, I am so sorry.” Buck starts apologizing immediately. He looks up and freezes for a brief moment before quickly looking back at the ground and continue to help the person pick up their groceries. Said person happens to be Karen Wilson, as in Hen’s wife. Buck is not supposed to know her. Play dumb. Play dumb. Play dumb. Play dumb. Play dumb. “I am so sorry, k- can I help you carry these?”
“It’s fine.” She responds quickly. “You don’t have too.”
“I insist.” She looks at him warily so, he continues, “The bags broke and I feel bad.” He explains.
“Okay.” she agrees.
Buck smiles at her and turns to Connor, unlocks the jeep, and says “can you bring the stuff to my jeep?”
“Sure, dude.” He smiles and takes the two bags Buck was holding.
Buck turns back to Karen and grabs as many items as he can hold, then looks around for her car before pausing and asking, “Um, which car is yours?”
“Follow me.” She half smiles.
Buck follows her and sees that he’s holding cans of chicken noodle soup. So, he asks, “Someone sick?” She looks at him, shocked. So, he quickly explains, “Sorry! That was a weird thing to just randomly ask a stranger. I just saw the cans of chicken noodle soup so I asked. Sorry. I’ve been told I should think more before I speak.”
“It’s fine.” She speaks. Before saying, “My kid. He’s sick. It’s not anything too scary, just the flu.”
“Oh.” Buck says, “I used to hate the canned stuff as a kid and it’s still not my favorite.” Buck smiles as he gets an idea. “Hey. I could totally give you the recipe if you want?”
She shrugs, “you know what? I got nothing better to do today.” She finally stops at her car and unlocks it, before she opens the trunk. Buck copies her as she places items in the trunk.
“Do you have a paper and pen?” Buck says as he places the last few items in the trunk, “So, I can write down the recipe.” She nods at starts looking through the passenger side of the car. He interrupts her searching and says, “Or I can just text it to you?”
She looks up at him questioningly and says, “I have a wife.”
“I have a husband.” Buck retorts without thinking. His eyes widen as he realizes what he said. “Um- I mean- I- it’s just that- well, he’s not technically my husband, yet.”
Karen laughs. “Has anyone told you that you’re a lot like a golden retriever?” She smiles genuinely.
“Yes.” Buck smiles. “I get that a lot actually.”
“Of course you do.” She smiles and grabs out her phone, unlocks it, opens her contact list, and passes the phone to Buck. “Here”
“My name’s Buck, by the way.” He says as he types in his number.
“I’m Karen.” She responds.
“Nice to meet you, Karen.” Buck says while handing the phone back.
“You too, Buck.” Karen gestures to his Jeep where Connor is waiting, “You should get back to your future husband.”
“No!” Buck speaks quickly, “He’s not- Connor and I are just friends.”
“Oh?” Buck nods to Karens unspoken question. “What is your future husbands name then?” She sounds genuinely curious.
Buck gets that stupid smile that he always gets when he talks about his husband, “Eddie.”
Karen laughs. Buck looks at her confused. She explains, “It’s just- you got this love sick puppy look when you said his name.”
Buck nods, “I’ve been told I do that.”
“You must love him a lot.” She says.
“I do.” Buck confirms.
Karens phone rings and she says, “Well I have to go. Have a good day!”
“You too!” Buck says as he starts walking away. On his way to the Jeep Buck types the recipe and sends it to Karen. He opens the door to the Jeep and sits down. Connor is giving him a look.
“What?” Buck asks.
“I thought you said you wanted to be different.” He shrugs.
“You think-” Buck laughs, “You think I would get with Karen? Dude. There are so many things wrong with that statement. Starting with: she has a wife.” ‘and I have a husband’ Is what Buck wanted to add but, he didn’t. he couldn’t because he doesn’t have a husband anymore. Fuck. Buck turns away from Connor. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Buck tries to calm down.
“Sorry, dude.” Conner apologizes.
Buck takes a breath before speaking casually, “It’s fine, man.” Damn. Buck could be an actor.
“Alright.” Connor says, “Lets go make some mac n cheese.”
“Oh, you’re planning to help now?” Buck asks.
“Of course not.” Connor smirks, “I’m going to be the emotional support.” Buck laughs.
The drive back is filled with them singing the lyrics of whatever plays on the radio. Or what would be ‘whatever’ if Buck didn’t keep changing the station. They get to the house in about 20 minutes. Buck starts making the food right away and Connor rushes up to his room to grab a speaker. They’re listening to some old basic 2017 playlist- wait. A playlist of new songs?
Anyways, they’re listening to a playlist when a knock is heard from the door.
Connor smiles, “That must be her.” He gets up from his chair and leaves the kitchen to open the front door. Buck pauses to get is thoughts together. He doesn’t know her. Just like he didn’t know Karen. He barely knows her anyway. He can do this. Connor walks into the room with a smile on his face and a girl following behind him. “Buck, this is my girlfriend, Kameron.” Then turns to his girlfriend, “Kam, this is Buck, one of my friends.”
Kameron looks at Buck, “Nice to meet you.”
Buck smiles at her, “Nice to meet you, too.” The timer on Buck’s phone goes off in that moment (thank god), He rushes back over to the oven and gets out the mac n cheese. “Do you want any macaroni and cheese?” Buck asks her.
“I would love some.” She smiles, “Thanks.”
“I’m really sorry but, I have to get going to the gym. So, I guess I’ll see you two later.” Buck rushes the words out.
“Oh, are you sure?” Kameron asks.
“Dude, she just got here.” Connor complains.
“I know, dude. I know.” Buck says, “But I told you earlier that I got to get to the gym today.”
Connor sighs, “Whatever. See ya later.”
“You two enjoy the Macaroni!” Buck yells as he leaves. He walks out of the house and over to his car to make sure his gym bag is still in there. It is. Buck gets in the car and starts driving to the gym. It takes about half an hour to get there because of traffic. Buck starts on his workout, but honestly, he thinks it’s weird to work out without Eddie.
He’s been there for not even ten minutes and already got hit on 3 times. If this keeps happening, he’s going to have to leave.
In the end; Buck works out for less than an hour before he decides he is going to leave. He grabs his gym bag from the locker he put it in and walks over to the showers.
He decides he going to check twitter (his go to app. Since TikTok is gone.) for a few minutes before he showers. He opens the app and looks at his notifications: Likes, messages, new followers. He goes through the messages first. Nothing interesting; just a few people trying to get with him. He checks his new followers next just skims through there’s no names he recognizes-
WHAT
HOLD UP-
GO BACK-
was that? No. no fucking way. He has to be seeing shit. Why does his phone have a notification that says: ‘Eddie@EdDiaz is now following you’ HELLO??!!!! WHAT??!!
Did- Did Eddie time travel, too?
He has to have. Why else would he have followed Buck on twitter? Eddie hates social media, but he knows Buck loves it. Holy Fuck. Buck immediately follows him back and sees that Eddie’s account was made today and has zero posts. And- Buck is the only person he is following. Buck types a message to send ‘did you time travel too-’ delete. ‘omg I love you so much’ delete. ‘eds, baby, please tell me you know w-’ delete.
Pause. Breathe.
Buck is going to come up with something that won’t scare off his future husband if Eddie has no idea who Buck is.
‘Look who finally got over his fear of social media’
Send.
Buck stares at his phone for almost 15 minutes before Eddie responds. ‘I didn’t. You’re just more important.’
EvBuckley- ‘call me.’
EdDiaz- ‘I can’t. some idiot changed his number so I have no idea what it is.’
EvBuckley- ‘***-***-****
Bucks phone doesn’t even ring for half a second before he answers.
“Eds?” Buck asks.
“Yeah, Baby?” Eddie says gently.
Buck nearly sobs with relief, “You time traveled, too.” He points out.
“I did.” Eddie laughs. “It’s fucking crazy but, yeah. I fucking time traveled, too.” Buck smiles and wipes at his eyes.
Taking a deep breath; Buck asks, “How did you know I did?”
“I didn’t. I just figured since TikTok doesn’t exist your favorite app would be Twitter. So, I made an account. I also figured that you have so many followers that you wouldn’t notice one more if you didn’t already know me.” Eddie explains.
“I’ll always notice you.” Buck says sincerely.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“I’ve missed you so much.” Eddie says.
“I’ve missed Chris a lot.” Buck admits, then jokes, “I guess I missed you a little, too.”
Eddie laughs. It’s the best sound Buck has heard all day. “Dios mios. Baby, Chris is 6 right now.” Buck didn’t even think about that. Holy shit. Chris is just a baby. “He’s so small.”
“I- I didn’t even think about that.” Buck admits. “Fuck, we can make it so he doesn’t have to go through all the horrible stuff he did the first time.”
“I know and I’m so relieved. He might not hate me this time around.” Eddie confesses.
“He didn’t hate you the first time.” Buck argues.
“Well, our relationship became very strained after the Kim thing.” Eddie says. “Which was completely fair I fucked up bad.”
“That’s fair.” Buck laughs, “I still can’t believe you thought you were straight.” Buck laughs again.
“Hey!” Eddie sounds fake offended. “I could have been.”
“That’s my worst nightmare.” Buck says, “Don’t even speak those words into existence.”
Eddie laughs, “Sorry, mi amour.”
“I guess I can forgive you.” Buck pauses, “If you tell me how long I have to wait to see you.”
“I’m planning on asking Chris how he feels about moving once he gets back from my parent’s place.” Eddie confesses.
Buck smiles, “Really?”
“Yeah, Baby.” Eddie confirms.
Buck smiles brighter and exclaims, “I’m so excited!”
“Don’t get too excited. If he says he’s okay with it, we still got to pack and that will take at least a week-”
“A week isn’t too long.” Buck interrupts, “I thought I wasn’t going to see you until the 7.1, I was freaking out. And what’s worse, I thought that the next time I saw you, you wouldn’t know me.” Buck confesses.
“I was worried a lot about that. I kept trying to not think about it.” Eddie says, “I’ve been going from distraction to distraction all day.”
Buck laughs quietly, “yeah, me too.”
Eddie sighs, “I swear, I had the worst morning ever.” Eddie started, “I woke up alone in El Paso, and couldn’t find my wedding ring- well the right one and I looked for almost twenty minutes before Chris called for me and I froze when I saw him. He looks so little. I ended up driving him to my parents’ house then going to work.” Eddie pauses before saying, “It took me a while to realize this was not some fever dream and I was in fact, back in time.”
Buck laughs, “I think my morning was worse.”
“Oh, really?” Eddie teases.
“Yes. I wish I woke up alone.” Eddie doesn’t respond for a moment and Buck rushes his next words, “I woke and I was in bed with someone who wasn’t you and I freaked out. I thought I had gotten blackout drunk and cheated and I had to stop myself from crying like three separate times. But I didn’t! I swear I didn’t cheat. I ended up hiding in the bathroom until she left.”
“Wow.” Eddie says. “Um, yeah, your morning was worse.”
“You believe me, right?” Buck asks, “That I didn’t-”
“Buck.” Eddie interrupts, “You wouldn’t.”
“It’s okay if you’re mad-” Buck starts.
“Buck.” Eddie interrupts again, “Would you be mad at me if your roles were reversed?”
Buck makes a face of offence, “Of course not.”
“Right. So, why would I be mad at you?” Eddie asks rhetorically.
Buck takes a deep breath and nods, “Okay.”
“Good.” Eddie sighs with relief. “I-” Eddie gets interrupted by someone talking loudly on his end of the phone call. “Yeah, of course.” Buck heard Eddie say to the person, “No, I know that.”, “Are you serious?”, “Dude, come on.”, “Fine.”, “I mean I don’t give a fuck.”, “Nope. You heard right.”.
“Eds? What is going on?” Buck asks.
“Looks like I just got fired so, I’ll be there in less than a week.” Eddie says casually.
“What?!” Buck exclaims, “Not that I’m not happy with this new information, because I am, but why are you getting fired?”
“Because the manager is an idiot.” Eddie says louder than necessary. Buck hears a door slam and then Eddie says, “Apparently, they didn’t like that I was on my phone.”
“I don’t think that enough reason to fire someone.” Buck says, “Legally, I mean.”
“I guess it was technically my third strike.” Eddie almost mumbles. “But I mean It’s not even my real job.”
“You’re not even a firefighter right now.” Buck points out. “And you and I both still have to go through the academy, again.”
“Maybe we should go together.” Eddie suggests. Buck can hear the smile on his face.
“Of course, we should.” Buck agrees immediately, “I only sighed up earlier today.”
“I will fill out an online application right now.” Eddie says.
“Should I hang up?” Buck asks.
“Only if you want to.” Eddie says knowing that Buck in fact, does not want to.
“As much as I would love to keep talking,” Buck says, “unfortunately, I do need to shower and I will call you right back.”
“Whatever you need, Baby.” Eddie agrees.
“I need you.”
“I need you, too.”
“I’m going to go before it becomes impossible to hang up.” Buck jokes.
“Okay, Baby.” Eddie says, “I love you.”
“I love you, too” Buck says before waiting a few silent moments and hanging up.
Holy Shit.
Eddie remembers, too.
Buck is not completely alone and out of anyone who could remember he got one of the few people he doesn’t want to live without. The happiness buck feels right now is insane. Buck Quickly sends Eddie a link to the site with the application, knowing Eddie, he’d probably somehow fill out the wrong one.