Chapter Text
It all started with a margarita.
Alright, no, obviously that wasn’t quite true.
It started years before that, way back when they first embarked on their journey from being the Grant household to becoming the Grant-Nash household. May had lived around first responders her entire life so it hadn’t come as much of a surprise that Bobby was close with his crew and would spend time with them outside of work, including by inviting them over for barbecues and gatherings.
The people themselves weren’t even all that unfamiliar: Hen and her mom had been friends for years, and Chimney was Hen’s best friend so neither of them were uncommon visitors.
Ultimately, while there were more gatherings once Bobby moved in, there weren’t actually all that many new faces to get used to.
One of those new faces was Buck, who May had only vaguely heard about in various conversations. Those had given her enough information to glean that he was part of Bobby’s inner circle at the station alongside Hen and Chim and a new firefighter named Eddie.
The first time she met Buck, May remembered thinking that he was probably the most stereotypical California firefighter in existence. His height, his muscles, his perfectly coiffed blond hair, pale skin and sparkling blue eyes all painted a certain picture about what his personality would be like and May had been sure that they would only ever exchange polite greetings at these group gatherings before she would try and find her escape in case he tried talking to her about protein shakes or his latest gym regime.
Two realisations occurred in quick succession which completely derailed that first impression.
The first came when Harry tried to steal a brownie pan which had been set aside to cool while everyone ate their fill of the barbecue. It was the first time Christopher had come over to their house and Harry insisted that Chris ‘needed to properly experience Bobby’s brownies’ which couldn’t possibly happen if the adults got to have the dish first.
May thought that he probably just wanted to impress Chris and Denny but, well, who was she to stop him. She was fairly certain he would be caught before he managed to abscond with the fudgy bounty anyway.
As she expected, Harry returned to the spare room (the designated ‘kids zone’ at these gatherings, since it had its own television that their games consoles could be connected to) and said that Buck had come inside right as he was trying to sneak out of the kitchen.
What she hadn’t expected was for Mr Perfect Firefighter to follow him into the room, laughing about Harry’s lack of subtlety and carrying the brownie pan.
“Not even any spoons?” Buck gasped, surveying the room with one hand over his heart. “What sort of a plan do you call this, huh?”
“Last week you said desserts shouldn’t need spoons, Buck,” Christopher said, giggling at Buck’s dramatics.
“Ah, you got me there, bud,” Buck agreed, beaming across at the three boys looking expectantly at the dish in his hands. “I suppose hands are a perfectly good utensil for brownies.” He spun the dish with a flourish and plunked it down in front of the boys.
May laughed at the way all three of them dove right in to pull out a large handful of the gooey chocolate treat that they then tried to eat carefully without losing too many crumbs to the floor.
Buck was smiling fondly at the trio when she glanced over at him. When he caught her eye, he shrugged ruefully. “Eddie did tell me that I would regret telling Christopher that…”
May laughed again, this time more from disbelief. “I think you’ll regret giving them those brownies at all.”
Despite their best efforts not to waste any of the precious brownie, plenty of dark crumbs were falling onto the floor. Harry had already decided he needed a top-up and was reaching back into the tin for more.
At least Buck had shown some foresight by placing the tin on the hardwood floor rather than the rug they’d been sitting on. If Athena didn’t kill them for Grand Theft Brownie, she definitely would have if they’d gotten crumbs all over the rug.
“Nah,” Buck said affably with that same fond smile. “I’m sure you guys will appreciate it a lot more. Although let’s make sure we leave some for May, yeah?” He swooped in and picked up the tray again, holding it a few inches above the ground to let Chris and Denny get their seconds.
She took a slightly more civilised approach when he held it out for her, pulling out a rough square of brownie from one of the corners that the boys hadn’t gotten to, cupping her other hand underneath it in an attempt to stop more crumbs from ending up on the floor.
“Alright, I’m going to collect my tax and then I suggest you all work on getting rid of the remaining evidence,” Buck announced, eyeing the half-destroyed brownie. His hands were huge, so when he ripped off his own handful he got close to a quarter of the pan.
Harry tried to strike up an indignant protest about the taxes being unfair but Buck waved it off with another laugh that was thick and muffled from the giant glob of brownie he’d shoved in his mouth.
“Gotta make sure you all don’t end up too high on sugar,” he quipped, winking at May on his way out the door. “Don’t forget to let May have some more as well!”
The exchange proved that Buck was apparently more of a kind-hearted goof (who seemed to have a decent fondness for chocolate) than the stereotypical self-absorbed, fitness-obsessed gym-bro that his appearance might suggest.
Somewhat ironically, she did overhear him talking about protein shakes later on during that same gathering. However, it only served to solidify the shift in her perception of him because it was during a conversation about names and he somehow knew that the inventor of protein shakes had changed his name because a psychic had told him he’d have more luck if his name had more ‘r’s.
Both she and her mom had been surprised by the random example – May even googled it and it was actually true – and Hen had laughed and told them that Buck loved ‘a good research spiral’ and would often bring up obscure little facts that he’d come across during one of his deep dives into a topic. Sometimes it was because he wanted to liven up a conversation and sometimes it was simply because he was so enthusiastic about his new knowledge that he wanted to share it.
“Golden retriever that he is,” Hen had added affectionately, grinning at Buck who had now pivoted to arguing about the impact of the full moon on their job, a subject which made Bobby groan and playfully grumble something like “Not again, kid.”
Hen was not the type of person who would tolerate some hypermasculine white dude’s antics so the fact that she was so openly fond of Buck only corroborated May’s changing idea of what he was like.
Which was good, because her second realisation was that she was going to be seeing Buck a lot more often than initially anticipated.
That particular realisation formed more slowly because there wasn’t really one single event which triggered it, rather a series of smaller moments.
Like the time they had plans to go Christmas shopping with Bobby, and they ended up meeting him at a cafe near his apartment where he’d been having breakfast with Buck.
Or the time that Buck had ended up on a concussion watch on a night that Bobby was having dinner with them and Bobby proceeded to spend the entire evening periodically texting Buck to check in on him. The one time that Buck didn’t respond to his text within five minutes, Bobby tried calling him, also with no response.
By the time Buck called him back a few minutes later, Bobby already had his keys in hand and one shoe on. He didn’t end up leaving, but he did disappear into the backyard (sans keys, but still with only one shoe on) to talk with him. May couldn’t hear what was said, but the worry lines around his eyes when he returned inside spoke volumes despite the reflexive smile he gave when they asked how Buck was.
And then there were the anecdotes that Bobby sometimes shared about Buck.
Bobby telling them stories about his crew and his shifts wasn’t unusual, so at first May assumed it was more of the same.
However, it didn’t take long for her to notice that there were small, subtle differences. Some were easier to pick up on, like the fact that Bobby was mentoring Buck in the kitchen and not just in the field, which seemed to be something that was unique to their relationship because he never mentioned sharing recipes with Hen or Chimney or Eddie.
But there was also definitely something else that niggled at the back of her head even though she couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was.
Then she happened to overhear her dad telling one of his friends about Harry’s latest escapade, his voice tinged in fond exasperation, and all of a sudden it came to her that Bobby would use that exact same tone when he was talking about one of Buck’s escapades.
And once that piece of the puzzle slotted into place, more followed: Bobby would always farewell Buck with either a ‘drive safe’ or a directive to sleep or eat, just like her mom did with her ever since she got her licence and a loosened curfew; Buck would needle Bobby in the exact same way she and Harry would needle their dad; the enthusiasm Buck exhibited about Bobby’s proposal mirrored May and Harry’s reaction when their mom told them the news.
It had been obvious that Bobby shared a close connection with Buck, but that was the moment where she finally understood that it was a different sort of connection to the one that her Mom had with Hen or the one that Bobby had with the rest of his crew, even that inner circle he was especially close with.
Their connection was more similar to the one she and Harry had with their soon-to-be stepfather.
The whole ladder truck incident only served to further cement that view. That entire period in time was a bit of a blur, between the stupefying horror that their house was almost bombed, the terror of the 118’s engine actually getting bombed, Buck’s catastrophic injury, and Mom and Bobby deciding it was the perfect time to elope.
But the aftermath was calmer and slower, allowing them to properly experience the changes in their lives.
Like Bobby moving into their house, which meant that May and Harry got a front-row view of how much Bobby fussed over Buck after the injury.
They also got to enjoy the spoils of the many and varied comfort dishes that Bobby created to try and encourage Buck to eat more and get his mind off of what was turning out to be an arduous and difficult recovery, so they certainly weren’t complaining about it.
And they found Buck to be good company anyway, even though May could tell that he was often struggling and in pain. He ended up at their house for lunch or dinner relatively often, especially once he started his physiotherapy sessions since Bobby was accompanying him to as many appointments as his schedule allowed and then bringing him over afterwards.
Mom would do a bit of her own understated fussing, usually by plying Buck with tea and striking up a conversation about anything other than his recovery; Harry would pull Buck into playing some videogames with him; and May would use him as a sounding board for her assignments. He had an excellent knack for knowing exactly what kind of encouragement she needed even if he didn’t have the specific knowledge to help.
May had always loved being the oldest and she never would have thought that she would enjoy gaining an older sibling. But having Buck around was comfortable and May was quite content with the idea that this was now their new normal.
Except then Buck got better, they organised a giant surprise party, Buck threw up a whole lot of blood on Bobby, that then led to Buck and Bobby having some sort of massive argument (“Oh, we are staying well out of that,” Athena had said firmly when May tried to ask for more details), they supposedly reconciled and everything supposedly returned to normal…
Except Buck stopped coming around as often.
At first, May thought maybe things were still frosty or difficult between Bobby and Buck – it seemed feasible given her limited knowledge of the argument and reconciliation.
That theory was shot down when she came home from a sleepover a little earlier than the estimate she’d given her mom and Bobby, and she ran into Buck putting on his shoes in the front entryway.
He was holding a large tupperware container that was filled with slices of what appeared to be a flat chocolate cake.
“It’s a flourless cake, not a failed cake,” Buck explained when he noticed May staring at it, puzzled.
“Right,” May said slowly, still confused about what circumstances had led to Buck being in their house on a Saturday morning with a tupperware full of flourless chocolate cake.
“Chris has a new friend who is gluten-intolerant and he wanted to make sure that his contribution to their class party was something they could also eat,” Buck expanded.
He was wobbling on one foot, the other in the air as he attempted to get his shoe on properly with the hand not holding the container. May took it from his hand with a judgmental roll of her eyes at his refusal to take the extra two seconds to put the thing down.
“I can manage a decent chocolate cake now, but flourless is beyond my skill set so I asked Bobby to help me out.”
“Wish I’d been here to try it,” May commented, wondering why Bobby hadn’t mentioned it to her when she was sharing her plans before leaving last night. Perhaps it had been a last minute request early this morning? She could see Buck thinking he had a handle on things and then panicking when the recipe turned out to be more complicated or because something went wrong.
“Don’t worry, Bobby made one as well,” Buck assured her, accepting the container back once he had both his shoes on. “I got, like, triple the ingredients when I went shopping yesterday to make sure you guys would also have one even if something went wrong.”
Alright, so not a last minute request then.
“You sure you don’t want to stay and dig into it, since you have to give yours away?” May asked, watching as Buck fished his keys out of his jacket pocket.
He shook his head with a cheerful grin. “Nah, I don’t want to take up anymore of your family Saturday. Enjoy the cake!”
Bobby must not have heard her and Buck talking, because when she entered the kitchen he told her that there was cake for her if she wanted any.
“Yeah, I know. Buck told me. You didn’t tell me he would be over.” She inspected the cake sitting on the kitchen table. It did look delicious, but she wasn’t quite sure if she could handle any more decadence after the sheer amount of junk food they had gotten through during the sleepover.
Bobby looked up from his dishes, disconcerted. “Well, we probably would have just done it at his loft if it was going to clash with yours or Harry’s plans for the day…”
May stared at him for a second, wondering if either her or her brother had made Bobby think that they didn’t enjoy Buck’s company or that they had an issue with his involvement in their family unit. Or had they made Buck think that way? Was that why he’d said that he didn’t want to ‘interrupt their family Saturday’?
“Buck didn’t want to stay for longer?” May asked casually, pulling out a napkin and inspecting which piece she wanted. She was going to wait until later to eat it, but she had enough experience with Harry that she knew better than to think it would still be there when she did want it.
“It’s a Saturday; I’m sure he’s got plans,” Bobby said with a shrug.
That answer didn’t really illuminate anything but May left it for the moment, filing the incident away to mull over later.
She didn’t come to any specific conclusions, instead vowing to start paying more attention to what was going on with Buck and Bobby. She soon realised that they were actually still spending a similar amount of time together. Their breakfasts were still happening, Bobby was still teaching Buck to cook, and apparently Buck was still coming to the Grant-Nash home for the occasional dinner.
The only thing was, it was always on the evenings or the days that May and Harry were scheduled to spend with their dad.
It was that last discovery which finally prompted May to say something to her mom.
“Does Buck think that Harry and I don’t like having him around? Or is Bobby worried about including him in our family? Cause, like, just because they aren’t blood-related doesn’t mean we aren’t going to accept him as our stepbrother.”
She was trying not to sound too indignant, because this was a serious conversation and May was almost 18 so she could totally be mature in her approach to it. But, honestly, it was hard not to feel insulted that Bobby might think that she couldn’t or wouldn’t understand and accept his chosen kid into their family.
Athena raised an eyebrow, putting her spoon down without taking a bite of her porridge.
“What makes you say that?” she asked, eyes slightly narrowed like when she was trying to put the clues together to work out who had left the empty packet of cookies inside the pantry instead of throwing it out.
(It was always Harry, except he stopped doing it after their dad moved out, apparently enjoying the mischief of making Michael look like the culprit enough that it overcame his laziness about throwing it away.)
“Buck only ever seems to come over when we aren’t here. Or Bobby will go meet him some place – last week, he said he was meeting Buck for lunch on a day Harry and I were both home and I said we had so many leftovers that they could both eat here instead. Bobby said that ‘it’s a bit of a far drive for Buck’ to come.” May crossed her arms, huffing to convey her vexed disbelief at the excuse. “It’s twenty minutes! That’s, like, nothing in LA. I drive further than that to get frappes with Cindy!”
Athena coughed lightly, looking amused.
“I just – everything seemed fine when Buck was coming over while he was recovering from the accident,” May explained, sobering to show her mom she was being serious. “I thought we were all getting along and having fun and then all of a sudden it was like one or both of them thought that Bobby’s kid shouldn’t be included in our family anymore. Did we do something to make them think that?”
“That’s a very astute observation, May,” Athena said, pressing her lips together to stop them from twitching, obviously trying to suppress laughter.
May waited for more, not letting herself give into the temptation to get riled up because she knew it wasn’t in her mom’s nature to be dismissive or condescending about something related to family so there had to be a different reason behind her amusement.
“It definitely doesn’t have anything to do with any of us,” Athena said. She still looked like she wanted to laugh but there was no hint of that in her voice. “It’s because Bobby and Buck –”
She paused, apparently reconsidering her approach. May watched her search for the right words, utterly confused about why it was so complicated.
“It was different, while Buck was recovering,” Athena said thoughtfully. She placed her elbows on the table, leaning in like she was about to confide a secret to May. “There was a ready-made excuse for Bobby to lean into: one of his firefighters that he is quite close with was heavily injured, in an incident that he viewed as being his fault –” she held up her hand to stop May from protesting, adding “believe me, I know, I tried to get that across to him many a time” as an exasperated aside.
“After all that blew over – well, continuing along the same way would mean that Bobby would have to confront the fact that he sees Buck as more of a son than a mentee and I don’t think he’s ready to do that.”
May nodded, thinking through the implications of what her mom was telling her. She knew about Bobby’s history with his first family, so she could understand why he would find it difficult to open his heart to more children.
Except the thing was – he already had opened his heart to more children. He had embraced being hers and Harry’s stepfather, and anyone with eyes and half a brain could see that he took great pride and joy in being Buck’s father figure.
It didn’t make any sense why he wouldn’t admit to it when he was already acting like a father anyway – wouldn’t the hardest part be the act of taking on that responsibility?
When she voiced that thought to her mom – in slightly kinder terms – Athena finally let herself laugh.
“No one said that those boys are logical, baby.”
“But Buck obviously knows that Bobby treats him like his kid – can’t we tell Bobby that it’s probably hurting his feelings that he’s keeping us all separated?” May asked thoughtfully. She was still searching for a way to make things end up with their whole family able to do things together again.
Athena hummed, all traces of her amusement disappearing for the first time since May had broached the topic. “I don’t know about ‘obviously.’ I think there probably is a part of Buck that does know why Bobby treats him differently to the rest of the crew. But knowing that boy – it’s probably not a part that Buck often lets himself believe.”
May stared, confounded at the distinction that Athena had drawn.
“Maddie and Buck have never talked about their family much,” Athena expounded carefully, giving May that warning look which she knew meant that this wasn’t something she should speak about freely. “But I think the fact that their parents never showed up when Maddie was almost murdered or when Buck was injured so badly speaks volumes about the kind of relationship they must have with them – and the kind of trauma they must be carrying about it.”
“I, uh, I kinda thought their parents weren’t around anymore,” May said, stunned at this new information.
“So did I, originally,” Athena said, face tight with disapproval. “And then I overheard Buck call his parents when we took a rest break on our drive back to LA after everything with Maddie’s ex. I believe they said that ‘it was a little too far to come given the situation was all over anyway.’
“Wow,” May said flatly, eyes wide from shock and sympathy. She knew very well that if she had ever been in that position, or even a position that wasn’t quite as dangerous and dramatic, then her three parents wouldn’t fathom doing anything else other than dropping everything and rushing to be there for her.
It made her heart hurt a little that Buck, and Maddie for that matter, didn’t have that kind of security.
Well.
Except Buck did, because Bobby absolutely would do that for him and she was almost certain that her mom would too.
But she supposed she could understand why an emotionally distanced relationship with such wholly unsupportive parents might be stopping Buck from fully trusting and leaning into that. Coupled with Bobby’s traumatic loss of his own children, the whole situation really was a lot more complicated than she’d originally thought.
“There’s nothing we can do to help, is there?” May grouched, slouching in her chair in defeat. It would have been easier if she had been right and it had been something she or Harry had done, because at least then she could have argued against it with logic but this was something far more complex and she would probably do more harm than good if she tried to get embroiled in it now.
“I think your acceptance of Buck’s place in our family is exactly what you can be doing to help, baby,” Athena said fondly, reaching over to smooth back May’s hair. She dropped her hand to squeeze May’s, adding, “Keep showing them that, and I’m sure those boys will work it out themselves. Eventually.”
So May let things continue as they were for the most part. She kept suggesting that Bobby meet Buck at the house if she found out they were doing something together, and she would also nudge Bobby to extend an invitation to Buck if they were having a family movie night or an outing somewhere.
Sometimes it worked – and watching Buck try and completely fail at ice skating was by far the highlight of that terrible Christmas season where her dad discovered his cancer – but more often than not Bobby would come up with some kind of excuse about why Buck couldn’t join them.
May was pretty sure they were all bullshit and that Buck wouldn’t have ‘more interesting plans than a Disney movie night’ on a Monday evening (a stance she was totally vindicated on when she checked instagram the next morning and saw his comment under Chim’s post saying that he’d spent the night reorganising his pantry which was definitely more boring than arguing about the superior version of The Lion King with her and Harry).
But she had said she would let them work it out on their own so that’s what she was going to do.
She’d thought maybe they were there when Bobby got shot and Buck started dropping by multiple times a week, claiming that he wanted to keep Bobby updated about what was going on at the station.
He barely bothered to sell the excuse; even Harry realised it was because Buck wanted to see how Bobby was with his own eyes.
But just like what happened with Buck’s injury, the visits tapered off as Bobby got better and they returned to the status quo once more.
And then Maddie left Los Angeles, and May had been sure that Buck would seek out the support of his other family which was right here .
But all that really changed was that Bobby started complaining a lot more about how terrible Buck’s girlfriend was and how ‘the kid was selling himself short by settling for a relationship with a woman who didn’t understand him.’
May figured Bobby was probably being overprotective, and she had also wondered whether the ship had well and truly sailed on ever getting Buck properly integrated into their family if he was already building his own family unit.
Then Eddie joined her at dispatch and she asked him about Taylor Kelly a few weeks into their new routine of a quick morning conversation. He gave her a very detailed rant about how Buck absolutely deserved better than the supposedly-awful Taylor Kelly.
Which became multiple detailed rants, once Eddie decided that May made a good confidante.
“Just because he has a heart big enough for two people doesn’t mean he should settle for someone who’s completely heartless,” he complained one day, vaguely gesturing towards a picture of a cartoon heart sitting on his desk that she assumed Christopher had drawn for him.
Privately, May thought there had to be something else sitting behind Eddie’s vehement dislike of Taylor but she knew that Eddie was going through a lot so she kept her mouth shut about it.
Then there was the dispatch fire, which led to another near-death experience for Bobby, and clearly her mom had reached the end of her tether with the pair of them at that point because she strode out as soon as Bobby had been taken for his MRI to drag Buck in from the main waiting area to sit and wait with them in Bobby’s room instead.
Buck looked just as stressed and anxious as May felt. As soon as he sat down on the sofa, she moved to sit on its arm, pressing against him to feel his warmth. The smell of smoke was still clinging to his turnout pants, which should have reminded her of the terror of being trapped in that small room and buried under rubble. But it was strangely comforting, reminding her instead of Bobby’s protectiveness and Bobby’s love for her.
Bobby wasn’t surprised when he returned to see Buck waiting with them. He tried to give Buck the same mollifying platitude he’d given May about how ‘it wasn’t all that serious and I’ll be fine’. Buck took it with about as much grace as May had.
He didn’t even make a comment teasing Bobby that he would never accept such an answer if it was Buck who had been in that same situation… so May made it for him.
She considered it a pretty decent win when it made a small smile crack through Buck’s stressed countenance. Bobby’s shocked and mildly offended face was both a bonus and also worked to soothe her worries a little because if he could react like that then he couldn’t be that badly hurt.
That time, it felt like they did manage to inch a little closer to that family unit May had been trying to help forge for all these years. Buck helped them get Bobby home from the hospital when he was discharged the next day – this time with plenty of mock-outrage about “the hypocrisy, Bobby,” whenever their stubborn bonus dad complained that he shouldn’t have been kept overnight – and, when he broke up with his girlfriend a few weeks later, he started coming over for dinner more often again and Bobby didn’t seem to be trying to organise things around her schedule anymore.
It still wasn’t quite what May had envisioned but at least it was movement in the right direction.
And then there was a lightning storm.
A lightning storm that killed Buck.
Literally, although thankfully not permanently.
May had never seen Bobby so wrecked. She was sure he must have been, when her mom had been injured or when Harry had been kidnapped. But on those occasions she had only seen him once they already knew things were turning out alright and he was able to convey calm assuredness for them, always offering himself as a rock that they could all lean on.
She thought that the closest she had come to seeing him broken into so many pieces was probably after the two of them had been pulled out of the rubble at metro dispatch and he hadn’t been sure yet whether she was free of any grievous injury.
Whether he had succeeded in protecting her.
In her opinion, that comparison spoke volumes.
As stressful and terrifying as the entire ordeal had been, at least it had finally provided the impetus for Bobby to admit that he did in fact bring his own child into their family when he married her mom.
She wasn’t sure if he also admitted it to Buck. She was sure that there had been several serious strides forward in how freely they acted on their relationship; Bobby even brought her along to the loft a few times after Buck was discharged. On one particularly memorable afternoon, Buck and May ganged up against Bobby in true sibling-style to take him down during a competitive game of Monopoly.
And there was one more thing she was sure of following that incident: she was done waiting for them to get their act together.
The whole ordeal had been a valuable reminder that you never quite know how long you get with family and May was done with the pretence that Buck didn’t belong in the Grant-Nash household.
She had taken charge while Bobby was sitting vigil over Buck’s hospital bed and she was more than willing to do that again.
So, when Buck returned to work and it started to look like they were once again going to fall back into the status quo, slight improvements aside, that was exactly what she did.
Which was what led to…
“Margaritas.”
“Uh – hi, May,” Buck said, sounding baffled at the curt way she greeted him when he picked up her phone call.
“I’ve heard you make an excellent margarita,” May expounded matter-of-factly, as though that should provide Buck with enough context.
“I have been told that before,” Buck agreed, still baffled. His voice faded, like he was talking away from the phone’s speaker. “Hang on, Chris, let me finish with May before we go into the next store. Let’s sit down here a second, alright?”
“Where are you guys?” May asked curiously, momentarily distracted from her margarita mission.
“Uh, at the mall. Chris needs a gift for a friend’s birthday he’s got this Saturday.”
“Does that mean you’re busy this Saturday?” May checked, leaning back in her desk chair, eyes slightly narrowed as she considered what that meant for her plans.
“I told Eddie that I would do pick-up, but I’ll be free before about nine –” she could hear Christopher’s voice in the background, presumably protesting the time since Buck sounded amused when he came back to her with the correction that he meant ten.
“That’s perfect,” May said, pleased.
“Okay – and what does this have to do with my cocktail skills?” Buck questioned, confused again.
“It’s my 21st, we’re having a gathering –”
“Wait, I thought that was next week,” Buck interrupted, alarmed.
“That’s the big party with everyone, this is a smaller thing we’re kinda just throwing together,” May said impatiently. “And I’ve decided that I want a margarita to be one of my first drinks as a fully legal 21-year-old.”
“You worked at dispatch for two years and no one ever bought you a drink?” Buck asked dubiously, his grin audible.
“Not according to my parents they didn’t,” May said primly, making Buck laugh.
“Alright, sure,” he said easily. “I’ll bring ingredients to make margaritas then. Any preference on what kind?”
“Can you make them pink?”
“Yep, easily done.”
“Thanks, Buck. I will see you Saturday – come at 3.” May hung up the phone, grinning and feeling very satisfied with herself.
Her plan hit a slight snag when Buck asked what time Eddie thought he could make it on Saturday, apparently assuming that by ‘smaller gathering’ she meant the extended 118 family, and Eddie messaged her in a slight panic asking if he had misremembered the date of her party. Thankfully, he thought it was sweet and hilarious that she was orchestrating his inclusion into her family celebration and promised to play along and get Hen and Chim onside as well, with the proviso that she send him a photo of Buck when he realised that it was purposefully only him from their group.
(Hen called Athena separately when she found out, begging her to get a photo of Bobby when he realised what his stepdaughter had organised.
“That girl is just as headstrong as you are,” Hen said, snickering.
Athena hadn’t quite been able to decide whether she should feel more proud or simply amused hearing about May’s manipulation, but that comment definitely tipped the scales towards pride.)
There were… not nearly as many cars parked around Bobby and Athena’s house as Buck had expected, especially considering he was running late after going to three different stores to try and find the perfect flavoured pink himalayan salt to use for May’s requested pink margaritas.
He wasn’t surprised that he didn’t see Eddie’s truck, since he hadn’t really given Buck an answer when he’d asked what time he was getting here and Buck assumed that Eddie stayed behind to chat a bit with some of the other parents dropping off children for Christopher’s friend’s party.
It wasn’t too unusual for Chimney and Maddie to be running late either, since they had started to struggle with timely exits now that Jee-Yun was old enough to express vociferous opinions about what she would and would not wear (unfortunately, she seemed to have a particular vendetta against socks. However, she also hated the feeling of shoes against her bare feet. No one had succeeded in convincing her of the inherent contradiction between those two stances.)
Hen and Karen, on the other hand, generally always ran on time, so their dark SUV should have been parked near the plain white sedan which he presumed belonged to Michael and David since he knew they were meant to fly in today and the car was plastered with a decal bearing the name of a rental company that operated out of the airport.
Perhaps May had asked him to come over a little earlier so that he could set up his margarita-mixing station without distractions? Or maybe she didn’t want him to be locked into making cocktails all night and set up the timing so she could try it before the party started properly?
It was very kind of her if that was the case, but Buck had already assumed that he was going to be making plenty of margaritas tonight for all the invitees and was prepared accordingly. Although having some dedicated time to get things set up properly would still make his life easier later on, so he wasn’t about to complain even if he felt bad about interrupting what he knew was a long awaited reunion for the Grant-Nashes.
“How drunk are you planning to get my daughter, Buckaroo?” Athena stood in the doorway, incredulous, taking in the bag that Buck had placed on the ground so that he could knock.
“I am all about responsible drinking, Athena. I did a course and everything,” Buck claimed, shooting her a charming smile. He winced internally at the loud clanking noise the bottles of tequila and triple sec made as he lifted his bag again.
Athena hummed dubiously and, honestly, considering she had met him when he was still near the height of his not-very-responsible days, her disbelief was probably pretty fair.
“And I figured someone else would want to try a margarita after May raved about how amazing they are,” Buck added, following Athena down the stairs once she closed the door, shaking his head at her silent offer to take one of his bags.
“Oh, definitely not me,” Athena declared firmly, drawing the attention of the small group gathered around the dining table. “I do not do tequila. Ever.” `
“That feels like there’s a story behind it,” Buck said, intrigued, setting his bags down on the table.
Bobby looked surprised; it had to be a good story if he didn’t even know the origins of Athena’s aversion to tequila.
(He was busy greeting Harry and Michael and David, so he didn’t notice Athena smirking as she took a quick snap of Bobby watching Buck and Harry exchange high-fives, his mouth slightly open and his brows furrowed in a way that made it look like he was trying to work through an extremely complicated calculation.
Bobby did notice, and his expression shifted into confusion, and then resigned exasperation as he quickly realised the most likely reason that his wife was taking the photo.)
“I have to admit, I’m also not a huge fan of anything with tequila,” Michael said, clapping Buck on the back after giving him a hug. “And yes, there is a story behind it but I will wait until Harry turns 21 for that one.”
Harry groaned in protest, clearly gearing up to cajole Michael into giving up the story now. May interrupted before he could get any steam.
“That just means there’s more for me.”
“I do know that Maddie and Chim enjoy a good margarita,” Buck said, trying to fish for more information about when other people were due to get there.
“Well then you’ll have to leave the leftovers so they can have one next week,” Athena said airily, handing him a single margarita glass.
“Uh –”
“Unless you want one as well?” Athena asked with a small mischievous smile, gesturing towards the glass cabinet that held the rest of the glasses.
(Buck was so busy trying to reboot his short-circuiting brain that he didn’t notice May sending her mom an exasperated glare for giving the surprise away too early. She hadn’t even had time to get her phone out!
She was going to have to think of something good to make it up to Eddie for not getting that photo…)
“Uh, no – no, I need to drive later.” Buck accepted the glass Athena was holding out, wondering where his wires had gotten crossed. Did May only want him to make the cocktail and then go? That was fine, although now he felt guilty for the amount of supplies he had brought since he knew that Athena generally tried to avoid keeping spirits in the house for Bobby’s sake. Maybe he could hint for May to take them home? It could form part of his birthday gift for her…
“Dad and David aren’t staying here so you could sleep in the spare room,” Harry announced. He jumped onto the chair and sat on his knees, watching curiously as Buck started to take out the various bits and pieces he needed to make a perfect margarita worthy of May’s “first” drink.
“We decided we wanted a break from this one.” Michael laughed as he ruffled Harry’s hair, answering Buck’s unasked question.
“More like Mama wants him all to herself after such a long time,” Athena cooed, wrapping him up in a hug from behind. Harry leaned into the hug momentarily but also grumbled something inaudible which made Athena laugh and smack a kiss on the top of his head before withdrawing.
“Only because she’s forgotten how annoying he is,” May snarked, grinning when Harry threw a strawberry at her. She leaned over the corner of the table to nudge Buck on the arm. “Little brothers, am I right?”
“Well, as a little brother I feel like I can’t really talk to that point,” Buck said, laughing. “You’d probably have to ask Maddie.” Although their age difference and the way their parents had all but absolved themselves from the emotional responsibilities of parenting meant that their sibling relationship was very different so Maddie’s answer probably wouldn’t quite align with May’s.
The unimpressed look May gave him made him feel like their height difference had completely disappeared. The arched eyebrow was such an absolute carbon copy of the way Athena expressed her disapproval that Buck had to resist the instinctive urge to beg for mercy. He couldn’t even stop his brain from churning through excuses even though he wasn’t sure what it was she had an objection to.
“What, just because you’re a little brother means that you can’t talk about being a big brother?” May asked, head tilted as though she was prepared to rebut any challenge Buck might offer to dispute her statement.
“Yeah, you can definitely tell May that I’m an awesome little brother to have,” Harry added, making a face at her.
May broke her stern facade to make a face back at him, giving Buck a moment of reprieve, which was good because his brain needed to reboot again.
Bobby glanced over at Buck as he set down a platter of mini-tartlets next to the other canapes on the table. He seemed to recognise that Buck needed a few extra seconds and offered his support to gently steer the conversation to something easier.
“This looks like an incredibly complicated drink.” Bobby put his hand on his hips, surveying all of the supplies now laid out in front of Buck.
“It looks more complicated than some of my surgeries,” David joked. He picked up two of the strainers from the cocktail shaker set that Buck had set out, inspecting it like it was one of his surgical instruments.
May made the Athena-inspired vexed face again. Thankfully, this time it was directed at Bobby and not him. That made it easier to deal with.
“What, am I not allowed to ask my big brother to make me a drink on my birthday?”
(Buck might think that Bobby was dealing with it a lot better than him, but in reality his own brain also needed to reboot from the panic that May’s pointed challenge had created.)
“It does seem like an awful lot of work for one cocktail,” Athena agreed. Her tone was sincere even though she was smirking into her wine glass for some reason. “Are you sure you don’t want to make yourself one, Buckaroo? You’re more than welcome to that spare room.”
“Bobby said he’d make blueberry pancakes for breakfast,” Harry added enthusiastically. “And I’m working on getting him to make his mac and cheese for dinner!”
“That does sound amazing, but I need to pick Christopher up from his party tonight so I definitely can’t,” Buck said apologetically. He was genuinely regretful, because the idea of waking up to Bobby’s pancakes and then maybe helping him bake mac and cheese while Athena and Harry hovered near them as they caught up and unpacked Harry’s things was a pretty amazing fantasy that he would have enjoyed indulging in.
“Christopher?” Bobby said sharply, twisting to face him, startled and concerned. “Is everything alright with Eddie?”
“Of course,” Buck replied, mystified as to what had made Bobby jump to that conclusion. “Eddie dropped him off; I offered to do the pick-up."
"Eddie didn't feel comfortable driving at night...?" Bobby probed, mouth pressed together in worry.
There had been a brief period, right after his breakdown, where Eddie had avoided driving at night since he was anxious about potentially getting triggered by something so Buck supposed he could understand where Bobby's worry was coming from.
"No, nothing like that. It just didn't seem like there was much point in him going when I was planning to crash at Eddie's anyway."
Bobby didn't look any less concerned, so Buck expanded his explanation.
"I promised Chris that we could plan out our next zoo visit tomorrow. They’re offering koala photos at the moment plus there’s some new baby gibbons so we need to make some sacrifices and adjust our usual schedule.”
Bobby opened his mouth, probably to ask for more detail because he now looked puzzled.
However, Harry jumped in first, his eyes wide with wonder. “As in you can take a photo with a koala?”
“You can take one holding a koala if you want.” Buck pulled out his phone, handing it over to Harry once he found the screenshot that he’d sent to Eddie which explained the experience and showed a sample photo. He angled it so that Bobby could also see the phone, wondering if maybe Bobby hadn’t been aware that the LA zoo had Australian native animals and that was why he was confused?
“That’s so cool,” Harry said fervently. He whipped around to face his parents. “Can I do it?”
“Sounds like it could be fun,” Michael said, gesturing for Harry to hand over the phone so he could take a better look. “Would you guys be up for some company, Buck?”
“Uh, yeah, of course.”
“It can be a boys trip!” Harry exclaimed, grinning excitedly. “You guys and me and Dad and David and Bobby.”
“Oh I see how it is,” May grouched, looking far too pleased for there to be any heat behind it.
“We’ll go and get pampered instead; that is far more aligned to my idea of a good time,” Athena said to her.
“Sounds like we have a plan, then,” Michael said, handing Buck his phone.
Buck nodded, bamboozled at how quickly that had happened. He was looking forward to getting home – to Eddie’s – so he could share this entire bizarre experience and blurt out his thoughts. Hopefully Eddie would do what he did best: help put it into perspective and make it all a little bit less overwhelming.
(“You let them off too easily,” May complained to her mom later on when she followed her into the kitchen where Athena was topping up her wine glass. The rest of the party was now outside, where Michael and Bobby had fired up the barbecue and Harry had challenged David and Buck to a game of Jenga. “We were so close to forcing them to admit that Buck is a Grant-Nash.”
“I know you want to do a speedrun, baby, but you can’t push them too fast,” Athena counselled. “Believe me, this is an excellent start. We’ll get them there.”
She paused, surveying May for a moment. Feeling slightly self-conscious, May took another sip of her half-finished margarita – Buck really did know how to mix an excellent version of the cocktail and she had no regrets about having it as her first ‘official’ drink even leaving aside the additional purpose that it had served.
“I’m proud of you, May,” she said finally, putting her arm around her and squeezing. “You’ve grown into the exact kind of person I hoped.”)