Chapter Text
Buck was seriously having a weird day. A bad day? He didn’t even know at this point.
He slept past his alarm, so he only had half an hour to shower, get dressed and scarf down a quick breakfast.
His hair was another matter entirely. He had run out of hair gel. His hair was already longer than he liked it and hadn’t been able to get an appointment. They were booked solid for the next month. He didn’t have time to shop either.
With the length it is now, will just be a curly mop on top of his head. He never liked his curly hair. It always made him look like a teenager or younger. People never took him seriously when they saw it.
He couldn’t do anything about it now.
He quickly made a coffee, tried to pour into his to go cup, and managed to tip the cup, spilling the contents everywhere. Including himself.
With a sigh and a silent :why me?: he quickly changed and ran out the door. He would have to get a coffee at the station.
He made it to the station on time.
Traffic was light this morning.
Small victory.
Hopping out of the car, he made his way inside. He felt his phone buzzing and glanced down to see a text from Eddie. He was already here, but checking to see why he wasn’t here yet. He had told Eddie he would be there early to help him out with a morning workout before shift.
That’s when he walked head first into the garage door. It had only been lifted high enough for people to duck in and out. They did that sometimes on hot days, to keep the heat out. But open enough to let the breeze in.
He cried out in surprise and dropped his phone. His hands went up immediately to rub his stinging forehead.
He must have yelled loud enough for some of his crew to investigate.
Eddie was the first to reach him. Chimney close behind.
“Buck? You OK? Why are you holding your face like that?”
His eyes stinging a little now, explained, “I wasn’t paying attention, you had just texted me, and I didn’t realize the door was lowered. Door versus forehead. Door won. Am I bleeding?”
Eddie was examining him, his eyes moving upward, landing on his hair. His eyebrows shot up, eyes wide.
“Eddie? What? I am bleeding?! Say something.”
“Your hair! It’s so curly!”
“You now complete the golden retriever persona that Hen has been talking about.” Chimney piped in.
Just then Hen walked by, stared for a good 10 seconds, and just walked off laughing.
His head was no longer stinging, but Chim’s comment stung a little bit more this time.
He knew is was all in good fun, but he didn’t feel like laughing today. Sometimes their comments did hurt, but since he was the youngest in the team, he wasn’t sure he had any say in the matter. Maybe he deserved it for all the impulsive things he has done. Maybe that’s what they meant when he is like a dog. Always getting into things and making a mess.
Eddie was still staring at his head with a weird look on his face.
Suddenly feeling more self conscious than he did before, he tried for a quick escape to the lockers. But he realized he didn’t have his phone and backed away from where he was, looking around. Finally spotting it, only a few feet from where he stood.
He picked it up and saw a large crack down the middle of the screen. Groaning loudly, he checked to see if still worked. The middle was fuzzy, but it seemed he could still text and make calls.
“Evan Buckley! Why aren’t you changed yet?” Bobby yelled from his office door.
Feeling like a deer caught in headlights, he mumbled a quick, “sorry, sir.” And dashed to the lockers.
Bobby glanced at Chimney and Eddie for answers, who just shrugged and shook their heads.
He quickly changed and made his way to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee. The pot was empty.
Cursing the gods, he set to work quickly to get the pot up and running. It only takes a few minutes to brew, but in their line of work, calls are always interrupting something.
He was able to pour the coffee in his cup, successfully this time, adding some milk and sugar.
He took one sip and the bell went off. He let out an audible groan, again, and took another quick sip, burning his tongue.
Running down the stairs and to the firetruck, he was trying to ignore the tiny headache that was starting to form between his eyes.
The crew was out the door and arrived at the scene of a several car accident. Fender benders mostly, but one car was squished enough to have the driver pinned.
Bobby directed Hen and Eddie to attend to the trapped victim. Chim was already looking after a woman with an obviously broken arm. Buck was directed to attend to the woman sitting on the barrier looking at bit dazed.
As he approached her, she was looking the other direction. He sat down next to her.
“Hi, miss? My name is Buck. I am going to look after you. Can you tell me if anything hurts? What car were you in?”
She turned to him and smiled. She started to say her name, when she glanced up into his eyes, gasped and physically shoved him away. He had to catch himself from tumbling off the barrier. Had he fallen, it would have been only a few feet into a rocky embankment, but would have hurt none the less. He scooted a few feet away and sat down again.
“Ma’am, I am only trying to help you. There is no need to do that.”
“Your eye. What’s wrong with your eye?”
“My eye? Oh, that’s just a birthmark.”
“No, your actual eye is red, it’s pink eye or something. I know, my kids had it. Or something worse. And how old are you? I bet you have no idea what you are doing.”
“What, no…”
“I’m done talking to you. Get me someone else, with experience, or I’ll refuse treatment. So gross.”
She spit in his direction and it landed at his feet.
He was shocked, but quickly apologized and made his way to Bobby. Not understanding her anger. He hasn’t encountered too many people who question his birthmark, and if they ask, he will explain and they seem satisfied with with answer and move about the day.
His headache was getting a little worse.
“Bobby, the woman over there is refusing to let me treat her. She wants someone else.”
“What did you do or say to upset her?”
“Nothing! She took one look at me and saw my eye and my hair and assumed I was inexperienced. Is there something else I can do? Clean up or traffic?”
Bobby sighed and rubbed his forehead, looking around.
“There isn’t much, but you can start moving the bigger pieces off the road.”
Bobby waved him off and went over to the woman who he had just tried to treat. She was all smiles and giggles as Bobby was assessing her.
He shook his head in disbelief and started moving the debris off the road.
Traffic was fairly light, so he didn’t have to take too many breaks to let them pass.
One man decided to stop right in front of him and take his phone out to start recording the accident scene.
Unbelievable!
He tapped on the guys window, which was partially down.
“Sir, you have to keep moving. Please don’t record. There are injuries…”
He got as far as that, when the guy scowled at him, dropped his phone on the seat, flipped him off, picked up his soda as if to throw it at him before deciding not to and peeled out of there on squealing tires. The tires kicked up dirt and rocks, so he had to turn away and shield his face as he felt some hit his legs.
A motorcyclist drove past next and slowed down just enough that he could see him shaking his head. Hopefully it was directed toward the driver and not him.
The team looked in his direction, wide eyed.
He just flashed the thumbs up and a bright smile. That seemed to satisfy them as they went back to their tasks.
He wasn’t in a good mood anymore.
He helped move a car out of the road and then seeing that things were wrapping up, he jumped into the truck and sat in the quiet space, reflecting on what just happened in a span of a couple minutes.
A few minutes later the rest of his team hopped in the truck.
“Buck…what happened out there?” Bobby asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You’re going to have to include what happened in the incident report, you know that.”
“There isn’t much to say. She took one look at me and made an assumption. She thought I was inexperienced.”
“You said she mentioned your eye. You told her it was a birth mark. She wasn’t happy with that answer?”
“She said it looked like I have pink eye. I’m not sick. I wouldn’t have come in if I had it.”
Eddie motioned for him to look at him. He shined his flashlight into his eye and moved it around.
Great, blind and a headache. Just great.
“You have a little redness, but also forming a nice shiner from hitting your face on the garage door. I’m sure that’s the cause of the redness.”
Bobby looked at him with disbelief.
“I am having a clumsy day apparently. I wasn’t paying attention and looking at my phone. I didn’t see the garage door was down.”
He turned away to look out the window to end the conversation.
He heard a couple sighs from his fellow passengers, but they didn’t press any further.