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“Buckley, respond!”
Bobby shoved aside the wave of fear brought on by Eddie’s exclamation, forcing himself to remain composed and in Captain Mode. The two of them had been partnered in the main stage area of the old theater that had gone up in flames, looking for a missing stage manager, and while the fire was well on its way to being under control, it was still worrisome that Eddie had lost track of Buck.
It was more worrisome that Buck hadn’t responded yet—
“I’m—I’m good. I fell; kinda busted up a-a bit, but I’m okay. A-a pirate ship broke my—my fall?”
Buck’s words were punctuated by pained grunts and dry sounding coughs, which did nothing to alleviate Bobby’s concerns. Nevermind the pirate ship; Buck didn’t exactly sound like he was of sound mind at the moment.
“What? Pirate ship?” Apparently Eddie shared the sentiment.
“There’s a skull a-and crossbones on th-the flag and e-everything.”
Bobby rubbed the bridge of his nose, attempting to stave off an impending migraine. “Buck, are you injured?” he asked into his radio.
There was a worrying pause, then, “I think my kn-knee is just sprained, but my—my leg doesn’t feel b-broken. My body is—is sore and there’s probably sp-splinters from the ship, but I don’t think I’m—I’m bleeding excessively.”
Bobby sucked on his teeth. Buck’s definition of ‘bleeding excessively’ wasn’t exactly on par with everyone else’s. “Eddie, can you see anything?”
“Negative, Cap. I don’t know where the hell Buck even is, the stage is completely devoid of props. Nothing like a pirate ship or anything.”
“I’m not on the s-stage, I—I said I fell.”
“Where?!”
“I don’t know, I j-just fell!”
“Buckley, Diaz, enough,” Bobby interrupted, not for the first time feeling like he was corralling children. “Buck, are you good to hang tight until we can clear the scene better to get to you?”
“Yeah. My—my head doesn’t even h-hurt. I’ll, uh, let you know if—if I bleed more?”
Bobby looked skyward. “Copy that. Diaz, finish your sweep for the stage manager and then get back out here to help with the fire. The sooner we can clear the building, the sooner we can figure out where Buck is.”
“Hey, Cap. I think we’ve got the stage manager,” Chim said. “He, uh, has an idea about what happened to Buck.”
“I’m listening.”
“The theater used to be a magic hall,” an unfamiliar voice said, seemingly the stage manager. “Marvin the Magnificent was a popular headliner. He retrofitted the stage to include a trap door for his finale performance. We haven’t needed to use the trap door in years, and the dropout area is filled with old set pieces, but it’s still there. It’s possible the locking mechanism broke and your guy fell through.”
Of course it did. Of course it would happen to Buck.
“Can you tell us exactly where the trap door is so our other guy doesn’t fall through, too?”
“Center stage, about fifteen feet from the edge.”
“Copy that, I’ll check it out,” Eddie said.
“Negative, Diaz. We’ll get back in there once this fire is more under control.”
“What if Buck is more injured than he’s telling us?”
“Uh, hello? I c-can still hear you. I—I can wait, Eddie. I’m fine.”
“Your definition of fine is not even close to the normal definition.”
“Rude.”
“Buckley, Diaz,” Bobby said the moment the channel was clear, effectively cutting off their banter. “Buck, honest assessment. Is there anything we need to know that would result in you needing a rescue sooner than fifteen or twenty minutes?”
A pause. “No.”
“That pause wasn’t comforting.”
“I was checking myself! S-Seriously, the fire hasn’t even m-made it down here. It’s not too hot, my—my turnout protected me fr-from most of the splinters, n-nothing’s broken, and—and I can move everything. I’m j-just gonna keep looking at—at all the cool stuff down here while I wait—”
There was a crash across the radio before it was abruptly turned off.
“Buckley? Buckley, report! Buck!”
“I would like the r-record to show that it was not me d-disobeying direct orders this—this time,” Buck said smugly.
Yup, the migraine was there and ready to mess with his head.
“Diaz?”
“...I fell.”
“He’s fine, just—just his pride is injured.”
“I misjudged the edge of the stage on my way out.”
Uh huh, Bobby thought skeptically, but didn’t voice his disbelief. He should have known Eddie wouldn’t willingly leave Buck behind, even if he had assured them of his relative safety in the meantime.
“For what it’s worth, Buck really does appear to be mostly alright, but I’m gonna start treating Buck’s injuries.”
“Ye of little faith.”
“I want one of you to check in with me every five minutes, understood?”
“Copy that.”
Bobby shook his head, refocusing on what the rest of the crews needed to do to finish putting out this fire. Those two were going to be the death of him.