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It was a small house fire; not a bad fire at all. They had made it through all the motions with ease. They put the fire out and made sure the house was stable enough to send people in. Then Buck and Eddie went in. They worked well together and moved quickly.
The downside of moving quickly was Buck’s ability to hurt himself and not realise it. There were pieces of broken metal and glass jutting out and Buck had managed to slice his side where his turnout coat was open.
“Buckley, Diaz, come in. This is Captain Nash, the structure is unstable, you two need to get out of there now!” Bobby’s frantic call came over the radio and startled both Buck and Eddie.
They started running out when the structure came crumbling down around them, trapping them inside. Buck doubled over in pain, bringing his hands up to his stomach. Now that they’d stopped moving, he was feeling the pain in his side and he didn’t like how much it hurt.
“Eddie, Eddie, I’m bleeding a lot,” Buck croaked out, holding out his hands for Eddie to see the blood dripping off. He whimpered as he tried to move again, only for the pain to flare up again.
Eddie turned his flashlight on, pointing it at Buck to look at and examine the wound. He tried to control his face when he saw just how bad it was bleeding. It wasn’t good, and it was even worse given that they had no way out.
“Cap, this is Diaz, do you copy?” Eddie tried to radio Bobby with no luck, there was no way to radio for help. They were stuck in the building until they figured out how to get out or the rest of their team figured out a way to get in. “You’ll be okay, Buck, I promise. We’ll get out of here.”
Buck had never heard Eddie sound so unsure before, he wanted to tell Eddie it was okay and that no matter what happened, there was nothing Eddie could’ve done. He felt so weak, he knew it was only a matter of time before he passed out from the blood loss.
Eddie frantically looked around as he held his hands over Buck’s wound, trying to stop the bleeding. He needed to find a way out and he needed to find it quickly. Buck probably didn’t have much time left, so every second they were trapped in the building without proper medical care was one less second Buck had to live.
“Eddie, I just want you to know-” Buck tried to speak, but he had to stop himself, unable to keep his eyes open much longer. He felt so weak. He was motionless as his body succumbed to unconsciousness.
“No, no, no,” Eddie kept one hand on Buck’s wound, even though he knew it wasn’t doing much, and moved his other hand to cup Buck’s cheek. “Buck, baby, wake up, c’mon. We’ve gotta go home and see Christopher, it’s pasta night tonight. What am I supposed to tell him if you don’t come home?”
Eddie was crying, he didn’t know when he started crying, but he allowed himself to do so for only a moment before getting up and moving towards the wall, hitting it as hard as he could. He had to get them out.
He had an axe and his fists, that’s it. Buck was passed out on the ground, losing more blood than Eddie would like to admit, and he was terrified that Buck wasn’t going to make it. Eddie knew he was going to have to work to get them out, but he’d do anything if it meant that Buck would survive.
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It wasn’t the beeping that woke Buck up, it was the voice that he heard. Christopher’s voice, asking him to wake up. Buck had never heard Christopher speak so delicately before, the young boy was always boisterous and full of happiness and love. Now, he sounded scared, like he was afraid he wasn’t going to get to see Buck again.
Buck made a genuine effort to open his eyes, but he was so fucking tired and in pain, he wanted to tell Christopher that he was okay though, so when Buck felt a small, shaky hand slip into his, he gave a weak squeeze, letting Christopher know that he was there, letting him know that he was going to be okay.
He had to be; for Christopher. For Eddie. For himself.