Chapter Text
Buck picked himself off the ground, and immediately knew he’d hit his head hard. His vision was fine, but he could already feel the goose egg from where his head had hit the inside of his helmet and bounced back, and his left wrist was in a lot of pain. He flexed his fingers, barely, but that satisfied him he could keep going. They nearly had the house fire out, and he didn’t want Hen or Chimney worrying about him instead of helping the victims.
Finally, the fire was out a smoking wreck of what was previously a two-family unit. Buck was put on hose duty, and he managed it barely, squeezing excess water out of the hose with his left arm while turning the wheel with his right. It wasn’t the neatest, but it’d do for being hour 23 of a 24-hour shift.
“118, let’s go,” Bobby called out, calling everyone to the truck. Buck got in last, sitting against the left side so he could let the cool metal soothe his wrist.
"What's everyone doing for their day off?" Barnett said as they neared the firehouse. It was almost change-over time, and Buck couldn't wait to get back to the house, change, and get himself to the ER to see what was up with his wrist. It was hopefully nothing, but with his history he couldn't trust it.
"Picking up Chris from Abuela's, then we're heading to the beach. I promised I'd bring him before school started so it has to be this weekend. Wanna come, Buck?" Eddie asked, nudging Buck's knee with his own.
"Nah, I've got a hot date lined up with me, my couch, and a few episodes of The Sopranos. I'll try and stay up till I crash at like 8 and sleep like a baby." He responded, giving a smile that he hoped was an actual smile and not the painful grimace he thought it was.
"You deserve a good day, all of you, it was a hard shift," Bobby spoke from the driver's seat, neatly bringing them into the station. They all got out, and Buck felt slightly woozy getting the few steps down from the engine. He shook his head before going straight to the lockers. It didn't take long for him to get dressed, and he thanked whatever deity looked down on him that he'd brought a regular tee with him to change into after his shift, instead of a button-up. He picked up his bag and went to leave before Eddie caught up with him.
"Hey man, you sure you don't want to come to the beach with us? Chris was saying he hasn't seen you in a week or so." Eddie held open the door as they went through it towards the parking lot.
"Nah, thanks though. I miss my favourite Diaz. But I need to have a day to myself. I'll call over Monday night and we can do pizza for his first day back at school?" Buck missed Christopher, but a day at the beach and around the water was just too much for him to have right now.
They waved goodbye, and Buck hauled himself into his Jeep, muttering as he pulled the door shut and it pulled on his wrist. Bruising was coming up, and he was pretty sure there might be a break in it, not just a bad sprain like he'd thought. Turning the ignition and putting the car into drive, as he twisted the steering wheel he felt agony in it, so he quickly put his Jeep back in park.
Buck grabbed his cell and lifted it to call someone on his team, but they were all looking forward to their day off. USC Medical wasn't too far away, and once he got on the expressway it was a clear journey, or at least as clear as LA traffic would give him. He steeled himself, put the car into drive, and set off.
The ten-minute drive was harder than he wanted to admit, but he finally made it and pulled in to park in the lot. He'd never arrived there without going in an ambulance, but worked out where he needed to head from the signs. There was a woman in her thirties at the reception desk as he walked in, and he attempted to smile, but she just looked bored.
"Welcome to USC Medical ER, our current wait time is approximately three hours. Do you still need assistance?" She asked, staring at the screen in front of her.
"Yeah, please. I hurt my wrist, I think it's either badly sprained or broken." Buck tried to get more out, but she slid a clipboard across to him.
"Fill this out, then give it back to me. We'll try triage you within 30 minutes of you returning that to me."
He grabbed a seat and filled it in. It was pretty simple, but the weirdness of having to fill out something like it compared to being brought in in the ambulance didn't phase him. After returning it, he pulled out his phone for a round of Candy Crush, but he was called in for triage sooner than he expected.
"Evan Buckley, is that right?" The nurse asked, staring at his paperwork as he entered the cubicle.
"All present and correct, yeah," Buck replied, sitting down on the seat she indicated.
"Can you tell me what brought you in today Evan?" She asked, pulling out a penlight and checking his eyes. Buck went through the story, the fire, falling when the wood he stood on gave way, driving himself to the hospital.
"And LAFD didn't bring you in? Do you know which station it was? They're supposed to bring in all victims of any issues like that, but some of them don't bother if you can walk, which is pointless."
"No, no, I'm a firefighter. I didn't think it was serious till my shift ended, and none of them could come, they'd stuff to do. I just wanted to get checked and make sure it's ok." Buck tried doing his 'this always calms civilians down' smile, and it sort of worked on the nurse.
"Oh, ok. I'm going to send you to radiology to have a look at that wrist. I think it's probably broken, but we won't know for sure until we have a look at it. Did you hurt anywhere else?" She asked.
"I fell and hit my head, but I think my helmet kept me there, so we're fine. I broke my leg a couple of years ago, had rods in it for a few months and it caused blood clots. Other than that I should be fine."
The nurse made a phone call, and Buck was treated to an orderly wheeling him to the x-ray suite. He offered to walk, but she glared at him the same way Athena did when he did something stupid, so he shut up quickly. They moved him through quickly, and the images of his wrist were taken in less than ten minutes. The orderly had waited, and brought him back to the ER and deposited Buck into a waiting cubicle.
Word had gotten around that he was LAFD because things moved quickly from there. The orthopedist arrived and confirmed that there was a break in two of his wrist bones, and they needed more views of it.
"Do you have any family or anyone you want to call? There's a possibility you'll need surgery for your wrist, it'd be a good idea to have someone here." Buck thought for a moment, but he didn't want to be a burden on anyone. Maddie was in work, everyone else was enjoying their rest days with their family or were busy.
"No, I'm fine. What's the plan from now?" Buck responded, pulling his sleeve back above his wrist, where the bruising was even worse.
"I'm going to get you some painkillers to make you feel a bit better. You're already down for a head CT because of your fall, so I'm going to get them to scan your wrist as well. This way we should be able to be sure if we can give you a cast, or if you'll need surgery. Worst case scenario is external supports on it, but I'm hopeful we could avoid that. I think we might need a rod in it for a few weeks to help with healing, but with your history I'd rather avoid that." The orthopedist was in his forties, and serious. Buck appreciated it rather than someone who'd just sugarcoat everything, so he nodded back at him.
Time passed slowly waiting for the scan, and Buck felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out, and it was a video from Eddie of Chris. He hit play and watched the few seconds.
"Yo, Chris, what did you want to say to Buck?" Eddie called his son, whose face lit up at the mention of Buck.
"WE MISS YOU BUCK! Come to the beach with us soon!" Chris yelled, waving his hands.
"Come here, mijo, let me put more sunscreen on your back. Look what you're missing, Buck, we'll call and see you later. Chris wants to see you." Eddie ended the video there, and Buck's chest tightened slightly at the words. He'd need to be home by about six for them, and it was noon now. It'd be fine.
A different orderly arrived, and Buck took his place in the wheelchair to the CT suite. It didn't take long, but he hated being shoved into this tube and left in it while weird noises clicked around him taking his images. It didn't take too long, and he was being pulled out of the tube and brought back down to the ER, where the orthopedist was waiting in his cube, along with a different doctor. The other one was younger, in dark blue scrubs compared to the orthopedist's neatly pressed suit and tie.
"Mr Buckley, this is Doctor Evans, she's a neurologist. We've taken a look at your CT, and nothing is wrong fortunately with your head, but she wanted to make sure she checked you out." Buck nodded at the doctor and followed along with her checks. She nodded at the end.
"Thank you, Mr Buckley. You're looking good, no concussion. Want me to get the plaster of Paris?" The last sentence was directed at the orthopedist, who nodded.
"Good news, a cast is going to be fine for you. You'll be completely off active duty for six weeks, and then you'll have another month or so of light-duty, EMT work and so on. Nothing that would involve you rappelling down buildings or anything like that. I'll cast you up, give you a prescription for painkillers, and you can head off."
It didn't take long, and Buck picked lime green for the outside of his cast. At least Christopher would get a kick out of the colour, and he may as well have a fun one for a while. It was weird and uncomfortable, but finally the cast was on and dry, heavy on his arm.
"You'll need someone to give you a ride home, do you want me to call anyone?" Dr Phillips asked, packing away the plaster and water that he'd used to cast Buck up.
"Nah, it's fine. I'm going to get a Lyft home, I'll get a friend to pick up my car for me later on too. Thanks for everything, doc, I appreciate it." Buck awkwardly waved goodbye as he left the cube, and walked out to the front desk.
He thumbed out his phone and opened the Lyft app, checking to see how long it'd take and how much it'd cost for him to get home. He turned, and accidentally hit into a cop he hadn't seen.
"Oh god, I'm sorry, I was staring at my phone. Sorry!" He blurted, before looking up and staring at Athena Carter-Nash, who fixed him with her patented glare.
"Buckaroo, what are you doing here? Were you visiting someone?" She asked, looking him up and down, her eyes widening as she spotted the sling around his neck containing the green cast going from elbow to mid-hand.
"I broke my wrist on a call. I didn't want to bug anyone, so I just said I'd come up and get it sorted after work. I thought it was only bruised, so I didn't want to bother Hen and Chim at the call. I'm gonna get a Lyft and head home so I can call Bobby and get him to take me off the schedule and be the man behind for the next few weeks." Athena, to her credit, let Buck blurt everything out, her eyes narrowing at his explanation before sympathy filled them.
"Buck, come on. I'm driving you to my place. I know for a fact Bobby isn't going to sleep till nine tonight, so he'll feed you and probably load you with leftovers so you don't have to worry about cooking." Buck let her take his arm and lead him out to her cruiser, helping him into the back seat. She took her own seat before getting on the radio.
"This is 727-L-30, I'm taking lunch a bit early, family stuff. I'll be back in 30."
They weren't far from Bobby and Athena's, and the lull of the car almost got Buck to sleep before they arrived, but he woke with the braking of the car. Athena helped him out, making sure his sling was supporting him properly after moving. She opened the door, helping him down the stairs as Bobby came into the living room.
"'Thena, you on lunch? I just finished prepping dinner, I didn't think you'd be..." his voice trailed off as he took in Buck, looking pitiful and sheepish with his arm in his sling.
"I found one of your misfit toys leaving the ER when I was leaving after getting a statement. Seems he thought he bruised his wrist on a call, and didn't want to bother anyone to check it out, so he made his way to the ER himself after shift. He was going to get a Lyft home, so I've brought him here for us to feed him up before he heads home." Athena raised one eyebrow, daring Bobby to say anything. Behind her, Buck waved awkwardly.
"Come on in, son. I'll have food in 30 minutes, have you eaten since last night?" Buck shook his head to Bobby's question and immediately received a muffin.
"Eat this, you need something now. Did you tell Eddie or anyone what happened?" Bobby immediately felt his concern for Buck grow. This was so incredibly like him, to not use the supports they were all trying to make sure he knew about.
"Nah, I mean, everyone was busy. Hen had to bring Nia to the paediatrician, Chim was having a breakfast date with Maddie before she went to work, and Eddie was bringing Christopher to the beach. I didn't want to disturb them from their day off, I thought it was a sprain." Buck took a bite of the muffin after speaking before realising he was ravenous and eating the rest in a few quick swallows.
"I'm heading back out, Buck, I'll get someone to pick up your car and drive it back to your place later. Where's the lot ticket?" Buck pulled the ticket out from his pocket and handed it to Athena, giving a sheepish smile as he did.
"Thanks, 'Thena," he mumbled around his last mouthful of baked good, leaving her to grin at his face. She kissed Bobby quickly before leaving, waving as she went.
The two men ate, before Bobby settled Buck on the couch with a blanket over him and a bottle of water, watching as he took a pain pill. It didn't take too long before Buck fell asleep, snoring softly to Judge Judy yelling at hapless individuals. Bobby took a photo of him with his mouth agape, before sending it in their group message with the caption "Buck didn't realise he broke his wrist on a call, if anyone's looking for him, he's home."