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1. People think he's stupid.
And for a given value of stupid, he is.
He's just better with people, yes, especially women, than medicine or cards or planning ahead. He knows when to push, when not to, when to nudge someone else into doing it and when to let people do their own thinking.
So when Buck sees Mary in the street one day, staring after Chris like she's never seen him before, he just knows it because she's finally figured out that she doesn't love him and Chris doesn't love her and that she's actually quite happy with that. He can tell by the bemused little smile she gets on her face and the quiet laugh that turns into a sigh of relief. It can be hard to know your own mind when you have an entire town pressing down on you with their expectations.
Buck invites himself in for tea and after Mary gets over the shock of Buck understanding what she's just figured out herself, they both have a chuckle over it and decide not to tell Chris.
Let Chris figure it out for himself.
2. Inez is never going to sleep with him.
He doesn't always want to admit it, even if it is just to himself. But he knows.
She gets mad when he pesters her, but the mad never lasts for long. She shrugs it off and gets on with the business of living like Buck and his shenanigans don't exist. There's no real passion there for him.
Every once in a while, when Inez doesn't know he's looking, Buck'll see her get this far away look in her eyes and a sadness will come over her features. At those times he promises himself all over again that he will at least earn her friendship.
Then maybe someday she'll tell him who she's thinking of when she looks like that.
3. Ezra's mother loves him.
It doesn't make a lick of sense to Buck, but he knows she does. She just has the meanest, most back-handed way of showing it.
All the little lessons, keeping him on his toes, telling him to trust no one, she wants her boy sharp and will stoop to just about anything to keep him that way. Since she can't be there to protect him from what life throws his way, she makes damn sure he keeps an eye out for himself.
So every time Ezra overcomes that training and lets himself trust them, even a little, Buck counts it as a victory. Both for their little family and for Ezra.
No man should go through life alone.
4. Who Vin's father is.
At first he didn't want to believe what he was seeing. But Buck couldn't deny it. He'd seen those eyes, in that face, before. Only colder, harsher than any he'd ever seen. The sharp-featured, blue-eyed outlaw and his gang that Buck and the rest of the Ranger posse had been chasing had led them all into a trap.
The sonofabitch had shouted such things during the shootout. Corruption, profiteering, extortion, murder. All done by members of the ranks. And the outlaw should know, he had been a Ranger once.
Buck had burned with rage at the man's temerity. How dare he say those things! he had thought. Buck had almost ran out from behind cover in his haste to silence the poison that the outlaw was spewing forth. But his captain had pulled him back at the last second, scolding Buck for his hotheadedness.
Buck had only had to take one look into the captain's eyes to know that every word was true. It had been the biggest disillusionment of his life and the last time he wore the badge.
After two years riding together, he still can't figure out what to tell Vin, or even if he should.
5. JD is never going to give up that damn silly hat.
It's become a mark of pride for the kid now. If only for the sheer joy of defying Buck's wishes, JD will not give up his hat. The kid digs in his heels and fights tooth and nail for the right to wear what he wants.
Buck's secretly glad to see it. To him, it shows the kid is thinking for himself and has the will to back up his convictions. It's a start.
It's a small start, granted. But JD will need every ounce of grit he can muster if he's going to keep on being a lawman after the rest of them are gone.
Buck wishes he and the others could always be there to watch the town and JD's back but he's learned the hard way that life doesn't turn out how you plan.