Work Text:
Eddie comes back into consciousness slowly. His mouth is dry and there’s a strong ache in his right shoulder. There’s a window to his left with a fairly impressive view of the dark streets outside. The sheet he’s lying on is scratchy and there’s a steady beeping coming from somewhere in the room that’s starting to get on his nerves, so he’s probably in a hospital. He remembers enough of what happened to not bother trying to move his right arm, but when he tries to lift his left hand up to itch his face it is heavier than it should be.
It’s at this point that Eddie notices Buck.
He’s asleep, head resting heavily on Eddie’s thigh. The bags under his eyes make it pretty obvious that this was some of the only sleep he has been getting. Despite the pain in his shoulder and the sadness at Buck’s sorry state, Eddie smiles. He stares. He watches.
He really should have pressed the call button by now. As far as he remembers, this is the first time he’s woken up since passing out in the firetruck. He should be getting a nurse in here, his doctor. He should wake Buck up, let him fuss over Eddie’s injury and the ache starting to build in his head. He should wake him up so that he can go get Christopher, Carla, anyone else in their little family who wanted to come in and see that he was okay.
But Buck looks so calm.
So what if Eddie wants this? So what if he wants to prolong this moment of calm, which will likely be the last for a while?
So what if he wants to sit here, holding Evan Buckley’s hand as he sleeps?
So he does. He slowly pulls Buck’s hand up to his face and drops a soft kiss to the knuckles. Moving their joined hands down to rest on his chest, Eddie takes a final moment to gaze at Buck’s sleeping face, smiling gently as he twitches and grumbles and pushes his face a little further into Eddie’s leg.
Eddie lays his head back against his pillow and closes his eyes.
(The next time he wakes up, he’s going to have a bunch of stuff to work out. Ana is near the top of that list. But for now, he is content to lie here on this hospital bed, with scratchy sheets and a dry mouth, and hold his best friend’s hand.)