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Ana accepted the clipboard she was handed for pickup duty and skimmed down it for any notes and changes. One name caught her eye and she quickly flipped through the forms to get more details. Unfortunately, the form was woefully lacking in details. All it said was that a new name had been added to Christopher Diaz's pickup list: one Evan Buckley. There were no other details about Buckley or his relation to Christopher to be gleaned.
With a sigh, Ana resigned herself to figuring it out on her own. Normally, she wouldn't care much for the details, but this was different. This was Christopher.
Ana had been struck the first time she saw Christopher's father come pick him up after school. He'd been so handsome, and the way his muscles bulged when he scooped Christopher up and hugged him made her actually feel faint. It had been relatively easy — if not 100% ethical — to look into Christopher's records and find the copy of his father's driver's license kept on file with his own pickup permission slip.
Edmundo.
It was Ana's grandfather's name as well, and she decided then and there that it must be fate. Ana already knew that Christopher's parents were divorced; the very first week, when Ana had asked for a meeting, she'd made a comment about Shannon's husband and gotten a curt "Ex-husband," in return. That meant Edmundo was single.
It didn't take long for Ana to learn more details from Christopher. He told anyone who would listen that his dad was a firefighter, and his station number — 118 — was dropped repeatedly. Finding out anything else about his schedule took more doing, but eventually Ana worked out the pattern to pickups and drop offs, and could ensure that she was outside watching when Edmundo would be there for Chris. She'd managed to say "hello" several times — at first under the guise of double checking that he was on Christopher's approved list — so Ana knew that her interest wouldn't come completely out of the blue.
She hadn't actually gotten up the nerve to ask him out yet — especially when Shannon Diaz and Christopher's nurse, Mrs. Price, were the ones to come to parent teacher night instead of Edmundo — but she was working on it.
Part of Ana thought that she should wait until closer to the end of the school year to ask, in case Edmundo was worried about a potential conflict of interest. Not that Ana would ever treat Christopher differently once she started dating his father! And he would be well out of her grade-level by the time she became his stepmother. She had also considered that Edmundo was waiting himself, for that very reason. Surely their attraction was mutual — she'd seen how reserved he was with other parents in the pickup lines, and she wasn't imagining that he was friendlier with her — and he might also be yearning for the school year to end so that they could be together without any wagging tongues.
"Bucky!" Ana heard a familiar voice scream and she realized she had been lost in thought. Fortunately no one had needed her attention for a pickup! Quickly refocusing, Ana picked Christopher out of the crowd just as he threw himself at a man in military fatigues. The man tossed him up in the air in a very dangerous maneuver, and Ana made a mental note to talk to Edmundo about that later. Christopher was delicate, and couldn't be thrown around the way that other children sometimes were.
Ana skirted around a group of chatting mothers and made her way towards Christopher. Given the nickname, it was entirely possible that this strange man was the Evan Buckley on her list, but that wouldn't stop Ana from double checking and getting him to put his ID on file properly. Edmundo would want her to ensure that no strangers came close to Christopher, and with a last name like Buckley, he was certainly not a member of Edmundo's family.
Once she got closer, Ana realized that Shannon Diaz was there as well, leaning against an old jeep and watching Christopher hug the man with a smile on her face. It was a much older vehicle than Ana would have felt comfortable transporting a child in, but she didn't feel it was her place to say that to Shannon. Perhaps she'd find a good time to bring it up to Edmundo in the future.
"Hello there," Ana said politely. The man didn't even glance at her, apparently whispering something to Christopher. Ana did not appreciate being ignored, so she spoke a little louder. "I assume you are Mr. Buckley?"
"Lieutenant Commander Buckley, actually," Shannon said, pushing away from the Jeep. "I know Carla submitted his paperwork when she dropped Chris off this morning."
"Yes, I have a note to that effect," Ana said firmly. "However, the policy for a first time pickup is to bring the person inside and make a copy of their photo ID for our files."
"Well we're on a tight schedule today. Buck will come through and register his ID next time, before he picks Chris up solo."
"I'm afraid that I cannot release Christopher into Mr. Buckley's custody without his ID," Ana said stiffly.
"You're not," Shannon replied with a bit more hostility than was warranted. This was for her own child's safety, after all! "You're releasing Chris into my custody. Buck just happens to be here too. Or are you going to deny me access to my own son?"
"Of course not," said another voice, and Ana turned to find her principal standing behind her. "We'll handle getting Lieutenant Commander Buckley's ID next time. May I say welcome home, Sir, and thank you for your service?"
"Thanks," Buckley said, finally looking away from Christopher and reaching out to shake her hand. His eyes looked red, and Ana wondered if he had actually been crying, or if he had allergies of some kind. She couldn't imagine a strong man like Edmundo crying in public like that! "It's nice to finally meet you in person, Dr. Marion."
"You as well, and please, call me Iris." Ana fought not to roll her eyes. As a principal, Dr. Marion really should know better than to flirt with Buckley, and with Shannon right here with him!
"Then call me Buck, please," Buckley said. Then he hefted Christopher a bit higher in his arms. "We do have one more person to surprise today, though, so we really do need to run."
Christopher gasped. "Are we going to the station?"
"We are!" Buckley said excitedly. "You think you can help me surprise everyone?"
"Yes!" Christopher squealed.
Before Ana could say anything else, Buckley had turned back to the Jeep and tucked Christopher into a carseat. Shannon said a quick goodby to principal Marion and then Buckley was driving them off.
Looking around, Ana found that there were only a few stragglers waiting for pickup, and she resolved to check them off quickly so that she could get packed up and head home early for the weekend.
o
On Monday, Ana had barely entered the school when she heard a familiar, excited voice. Rounding the corner, she found Edmundo and Christopher standing at the front desk, talking to Jaswinder. Buckley was there as well, and it appeared that he had been checking in properly, as Ana watched Jaswinder pull his ID out of the copier and hand it back to him.
"Hello Miss Flores," Jaswinder said, catching sight of Ana and giving her a polite smile.
Edmundo and Buckley both turned to look at her. "Hello again," Buckley said politely.
"Miss Flores," Edmundo nodded. Ana couldn't wait until they were able to get together outside of the rigid confines of the school, so he could express himself more openly, instead of acting so formally.
"Good morning, Edmundo," she said warmly. "I hope you had a good weekend."
"Oh he did," Buckley said smugly, even though Ana had not been talking to him.
Edmundo flushed — obviously embarrassed at the other man's rudeness — but agreed. "Yeah, we did."
"I'm glad," Ana said. "Perhaps we could talk—" the first bell rang, cutting her off.
Edmundo crouched down in front of Christopher, and Ana's heart swelled again at what a good father he was. "Alright, time to go, bud."
"I wanna stay home with you," Christopher whined, bringing Ana up short. He was usually much better behaved than that.
"I know, bud, but school's important," Edmundo said. "And we'll be right here to pick you up this afternoon, alright?"
Christopher pouted, but finally nodded. "Alright."
"Besides, you're missing all the boring stuff like doing laundry and cleaning out my pack," Buckley said, ruffling Christopher's hair and messing it all up. Ana's fingers itched to straighten it out properly. "I've gotta get all that done before you get home so we can have some fun, right Superman?"
"Alright," Christopher agreed again. He hugged Edmundo, and then Buckley, and then looked expectantly at Ana. She would have much rather stayed to talk to Edmundo for a little while longer, but she couldn't find a tactful way to extricate herself from Christopher's gaze. At least this way she could do a little innocuous digging, she consoled herself.
Once they were down the hall a ways, where she was fairly certain that Edmundo and Buckley couldn't hear her, Ana said, "So, Mister Buckley. Is that your mommy's new boyfriend?"
Christopher gave her a strange look and then said loudly. "No! Buck is Daddy's husband!"
Ana locked her knees to keep from stumbling or worse. Surely Christopher had misunderstood something. Her Edmundo couldn't possibly be what he was implying. Not a man like him. "What?"
"He's a SEAL — but not the kind in the zoo — and we can't talk about where he is and what he's doing, but he calls when he can and now he's home for six whole months!" Christopher chattered excitedly. "Hoo-ah!"
"Hoo-ah!" Came a matching shout from down the hall, making him laugh. Ana turned back and realized it had been Buckley. Buckley who was now draped around Edmundo from behind, his hands gripping his waist possessively as they watched her and Christopher.
Buckley met Ana's gaze and she saw none of the geniality he'd displayed before. He murmured something in Edmundo's ear, and Edmundo smiled, then turned and pecked a kiss on the corner of Buckley's mouth. And still, his cold blue gaze never left Ana, almost as if to say 'I know what you're thinking, and he's mine.'
Ana frowned and held her ground, doing her best to convey her own message. 'We'll just see about that.'