( he thinks to tell buck that he can handle it, but decides against being difficult, so he lets him take the wheel as he helps christopher into the car.

thirty minutes later, and they're getting coffee outside the grocery store after a quick round of shopping. they're seated across from each other at one of the tables outside of starbucks and eddie finally relaxes some. )

Sorry about that. ( the apology comes quick because he owes him that. he knows buck sensed that something was wrong the minute he'd practically bailed on him in the kitchen earlier, right after he'd mentioned wanting to talk about this whole thing. )

I just... I guess I really hadn't thought about it properly when I invited you over this morning. ( because his kid can't find out about this. it would just confuse him. especially after what he'd put christopher through recently, what with him breaking things off with ana out of the blue like that. )