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The team was in good spirits after an easy call out. A man had fallen over a cliff, luckily only a short distance, and broken his ankle. What they hadn’t known until they got there was that the reason he’d fallen was because he’d been taking a selfie with a squirrel on a tree next to him – and it had attacked him. Once they’d hauled him up the cliff and patched him up, he’d shown them the photos on his phone.
The first was a nice picture of his face, the squirrel in the tree nearby. The second showed the squirrel on his shoulder, biting his ear as he screamed and stepped backwards towards the ledge.
Chimney’s rant on the dangers of animals as he bandaged the man’s ear had to be stopped with a pointed look from Bobby.
The conversation had continued on the ride back to the station, Buck taking great pleasure in baiting Chimney over the radio with facts about squirrels. Everyone was grinning as they arrived back at the station, crowding around to get their gear off and have lunch.
Buck had just put his helmet and gloves on the shelf in the cubby near the ladder truck when he heard a voice asking for him. By his full name, which was unusual. It was a woman, her voice sounding closer as she called for him – shouted for him, really. An angry shout, not a happy one.
Great, another one, he thought with a sigh, and started shrugging out of his turnout coat quickly. Maybe this time only my shirt will get wet.
“Evan Buckley you are such a dick! You led me on for weeks, saying what a wonderful connection we had, and then you just ghost me? Me?!”
Buck was reaching up to hang his coat on the hook in the cubby and saw her from the corner of his eye as she came around the end of the ladder truck. He caught a glimpse of the tray of coffee keep cups she was carrying and had time to think Oh, maybe it’s not- when she was throwing the whole thing at him, cups and all. Fuck!
Moving his already raised arm instinctively to cover his face, Buck felt the impact of the cups followed by the splattering of the hot coffee splash all over his arm and exposed torso. It stung, and man this fucking sucks, four cups, really? Buck had time to think before all hell broke loose.
Eddie went flying past him and bodily grabbed the woman, shoving her back and away from Buck while shouting for Bobby. Stepping back, wanting to get away from her, Buck’s foot landed on one of the ceramic cups and his feet went out from under him. He crashed backwards with a surprised gasp, his fall broken by someone behind him and they tumbled to the ground in a messy heap.
There was a strange smell in the air, pungent and unpleasant, and Buck coughed as he breathed it in. That set off a coughing fit and he curled on his side as his lungs spasmed.
Then the stinging on his arm and chest got worse.
There was shouting all around him now but Buck wasn’t listening as the burning feeling increased and it suddenly felt like his arm and chest were on fire rather than being scalded by hot coffee. A thousand fiery needles were stabbing him and - fuck that hurts what the fuck was that it wasn’t coffee oh shit –
“Buck!” Chimney was calling from right next to him and Buck blinked as he looked up – oh that’s who I landed on sorry Chim – but he couldn’t answer because he couldn’t breathe and god why can’t I breathe? Buck blinked again, there were so many tears in his eyes, he wasn’t crying but fluid was dripping from his eyes and he could hardly see, could hardly breathe and fuck it’s burning I’m burning alive what the fuck did she throw on me?
And the burning still didn’t stop. It kept increasing until Buck was sure his skin must be melting right off his body. All he could feel was pain, agony flaring all down his arm, all across the side of his chest. He couldn’t speak, could barely hear the noises he was making let alone the sounds around him. Get it off, oh god it burns, get it off, get it off me, please! Buck didn’t know if he was only thinking that, or saying it out loud as he frantically tried to wipe whatever was burning him away.
Buck could feel himself slipping away, his mind trying to protect him from the torment he was feeling.
He knew he should fight it. Knew he should try to stay conscious. But it hurt so much.
Buck let it all go, fleeing in his mind with a soft sigh of relief.
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Eddie didn’t know why the woman had thrown hot coffee all over Buck and he didn’t care. No-one deserved that. He shoved past a shocked looking Buck and grabbed the woman, body blocking her in case she had something else planned, and shouted for Bobby.
A scuffle behind him caught his attention as he held the woman, and Eddie turned his head to see Buck on the ground, Chimney behind him half holding him up. Buck started coughing and that was when Eddie started to realise that something was very wrong. Red splodges were appearing all down Buck’s arm where he’d been splashed and he was curled in on himself, chest spasming as he coughed repeatedly. It was a dry cough, but Buck was also gasping, like he couldn’t breathe.
Coffee wouldn’t cause that.
“Get her away from him!” Eddie snarled towards Molloy and Castillo, shoving the woman roughly towards them. “Call the police!”
Then he was spinning and dropping to his knees next to Buck, who was still coughing and gasping, but now pained groans were slipping from his lips as well. He was writhing on the ground and swiping at his arm, at his chest with his hand, mumbling “Get it off, it burns, get it off!”
Eddie helped Chim turn Buck so they could get a better look at where he’d been scalded. Both saw the holes in his shirt at the same time, and their horrified eyes met each other.
“Get his shirt off, now!” Chim ordered, than shouted “We got chemical burns Cap, we need to get him into the showers right now!”
Chimney sounded scared and his tone raised all the hairs on Eddie’s arms at once. Someone, Hen, Eddie realised, handed him a pair of scissors and he quickly cut Buck’s shirt from the waist to the neck then sliced both sleeves open as well.
Before he’d finished, Buck had gone limp. “Shit! Is he-”
“He’s breathing,” Chim reported from his place near Buck’s head, “Come on, get him up!”
Bobby appeared near Eddie and together they pulled Buck to his feet, pulling his arms over their shoulders. They started for the showers, Chim racing ahead and Hen following, the rest of the shift watching the commotion.
“Come on Buck, stay with us kid,” Bobby was repeating as they carried Buck. His head was lolling, chin on his chest, and he wasn’t responding at all.
The shower was already running when they got to it, Chim inside adjusting the taps. He stood as far to the side as he could get then, and helped them lower a semi-conscious Buck to the ground under the water. Eddie stayed behind Buck, cradling his body against his own chest, and lent him back so the water could wash across his arm and chest.
Eddie had barely settled onto the ground when Buck screamed suddenly, the cry ripping out of his mouth stunningly loudly. His back arched away from Eddie’s chest and his head dug into Eddie’s shoulder hard as the sound of raw anguish erupted from him. Then Buck was twisting, throwing himself out of the water’s spray, landing awkwardly on the wet cubicle floor, a hoarse cough bursting from his lips at the impact.
“Buck no!”
“Stop Buck!”
“Grab him!”
Shouts jumbled and chaos erupted as Eddie and Chimney, both drenched themselves, tried to grab an equally wet Buck and pull him back under the water. Their hands slipped over Buck’s wet skin and he shoved himself further away in panic, eyes tightly closed.
“Don’t! It hurts!” Buck yelped, flailing and kicking out to shove himself further away. Bobby and Hen were on the other side, hands reaching out to stop Buck from his frenzied attempt to get away from the water.
Buck didn’t stop thrashing, and Eddie reeled backwards as a boot connected with his chest solidly. He lurched forward and latched onto Buck’s ankle, Chimney managing to grab the other at the same time, and together they slid Buck on his back towards the shower again. He struggled against them the whole way, crying, and begging them to let him go. Even in his confused and panicked state, Buck was a big, strong guy, and they battled to get him back under the water.
They got him sitting between Eddie’s legs again, leaning back against his chest, but this time, Chimney sat on Buck’s legs while Eddie held on to him around his waist. Bobby was holding his uninjured arm and shoulder firmly, and the three of them held a still struggling Buck under the water.
He twisted and writhed under the cool stream, begging them to stop in between coughs and agonised gasps of pain, the sounds of which were tearing at Eddie’s heart. They’d only known each other for a few months, but he’d already started feeling more for Buck than he should be for a work partner.
“Please,” Buck begged, “please stop.”
“We need to wash it off Buck,” Chimney was telling him, holding Buck’s injured arm by the hand to keep it under the water. “I know it hurts, but you need to stay under the water.”
“Did it get in his eyes or his mouth?” Hen asked from behind them, and Chim lent forward to take the penlight she was holding out and check. Buck pushed back against Eddie weakly as he tried to get away from the bright light, and moaned, then coughed again.
“It doesn’t look like it,” Chimney reported, then asked Eddie to turn Buck so his back could be checked. “I can see chemical burns all down his arm, on his side and across his chest, but nowhere else.”
“Check his other hand, he was trying to wipe it off,” Eddie said, and sure enough there were burns there when Chim turned it over. He moved it under the water as well.
“What the fuck did she throw on him?” Bobby asked, and Chimney shook his head as he took Buck’s vitals.
“No clue. Something with vapours that he breathed in. His breathing is laboured, pulse is tachycardic. Hen-”
“Here,” Hen replied, already passing an oxygen mask over Eddie’s shoulder. Eddie took it at Chim’s glance and passed the strap over Buck’s head, positioning the mask over his nose and mouth carefully.
Buck wasn’t fighting them as strongly, slumping with exhaustion now, though he was still writhing slowly against Eddie and constantly trying to pull his arms from Chimney’s grasp. Bobby moved to the side, and Eddie saw Hen injecting Buck with something.
“Morphine,” she told them tersely, eyes tight with worry. “The gurney’s right here once you’ve finished decontaminating him.”
Nodding, Chimney didn’t take his eyes off Buck. The three of them stayed under the water there, only easing their firm holds when Buck slumped further, the morphine taking effect.
Time passed a blur after that. They got Buck out of the shower once Chimney had deemed his injuries had been flushed enough. Wrapped him in towels and blankets and onto the gurney, then into the ambulance. More towels were thrust at Eddie, Chimney and Bobby from their worried work mates, and they towelled themselves distractedly while Hen took over Buck’s care.
Eddie travelled to the hospital with Hen and Chim, leaving Bobby to take care of Buck’s assailant. He could tell from the way that Bobby’s eyes followed Buck’s now silent body that he wanted to go with them, but the responsibilities of being Captain prevented him. Eddie didn’t envy him at all.
As soon as they arrived at the hospital Buck was whisked away for treatment. Eddie and Chim collapsed onto chairs next to each other, exhausted themselves from both fighting Buck and shivering from their own immersion in the cool water. Hen took one look at them and vanished, returning with warmed blankets that she wrapped around them. She vanished again, then reappeared with cups of coffee.
The look of them in her hands sent chills through Eddie, and he paused before taking his. Beside him, he saw Chimney staring at the cups as well.
“It’s just coffee,” Hen told them both gently, and so he took it with a murmur of gratitude.
Eddie wasn’t sure he would take an offered cup of coffee from someone he didn’t trust ever again.
Time passed, and Bobby joined them, then Maddie, then Athena.
“It was hydrochloric acid,” Athena informed them. “The woman confessed when she was arrested. Apparently she’d told everyone she knew that she was getting married to Buck, or rather, to the person imitating Buck, and was humiliated when she thought she’d been ghosted by him.”
“But that was months ago,” Maddie said angrily. “What made her act now?”
“Who knows. She’ll be interrogated and very probably sent for a psych evaluation. She was horrified when we explained what had really happened and she learned that Buck was not the one who catfished her. That won’t help her at all but at least Buck will be safe from any further attacks from her.”
“How many women did that guy catfish?” Eddie asked.
“That investigation is still ongoing,” Athena told them, “LAPD have been trying to get in contact with all the women involved to let them know it wasn’t Buck, but obviously they haven’t found them all yet.”
“Maybe the LAPD should run a media campaign and let the whole damn city know what happened. Then Buck wouldn’t be at risk of any further attacks. A cup of water is one thing, but cups of acid is something else entirely. He could have been blinded, or worse-” Eddie said angrily, shifting in his seat as he spoke, an uncomfortable itch on his ribs annoying him. He scratched at it irritably, scowling at the thought of random women attacking Buck for something he hadn’t even done.
“Eddie.” Hen’s voice startled him, and he looked over at her questioningly. “That’s the third time you’ve done that. What’s the matter?”
“It’s just an itch Hen, I’m fine,” he replied dismissively, and she shook her head.
“No you’re not. You keep twitching and grumbling. Did you get burnt too? Show me,” she ordered, coming to stand in front of him and holding a hand out imperiously.
“I wasn’t even near Buck when he got splashed,” Eddie protested, but Hen just grabbed the palms he was holding up in denial and pulled until he let her drag him to his feet.
The blanket he’d been huddled under dropped to the chair behind him as Hen lifted his arm out to the side. Eddie heard several audible intakes of breath from the others, then looked down at his side.
Ragged holes dotted his shirt, his skin red and sore looking beneath them.
“Oh.”
“Shit Eddie, why didn’t you tell us you got burnt too!” Chimney said, leaping to his feet and moving to inspect Eddie’s side.
“I didn’t! I wasn’t anywhere near Buck!” he protested, feeling like a rag doll as Hen and Chim moved him sideways, pulling his shirt off without so much as a by your leave.
“No, but that’s the side you carried him into the showers on,” Bobby pointed out, and “Secondary exposure,” Hen muttered to Chim before they were both pulling Eddie over to the nurses’ station and requesting treatment.
“It’s nothing, it’s just itchy,” he tried to tell them, not wanting to be taken away and miss hearing any updates on Buck’s condition. He was overruled, by both his team and the nursing staff.
Eddie tried not to snarl at the doctors and nurses as they checked him over. They were just doing their jobs. It was confirmed that some of the acid on Buck’s skin had rubbed off onto him as he and Bobby had carried Buck into the showers, but it wasn’t anywhere near the same level of exposure that Buck had had. Eddie had been drenched the whole time they were in the showers as well, unknowingly washing the acid off.
He was allowed to return to the waiting room relatively quickly, the mild burns on his skin covered with a dressing. His shirt had been taken away and not returned, so he had another warming blanket draped around his shoulders again. Maddie and Bobby were missing.
“Told you I’m fine,” he couldn’t help but snark a little at Chim and Hen. He ignored the way they huffed at him in unison and allowed them to inspect his side with a sigh.
“Buck’s out of treatment and allowed visitors, Maddie and Bobby are with him now,” Hen informed him.
“Most of the patches were second degree burns,” Chimney updated him, “though one on his arm is third degree.” He joined his thumb and forefinger together to show Eddie the size of it.
“He didn’t get any in his eyes, mouth or nose. None on his face at all,” Hen continued. “His breathing problems were from the vapour he inhaled but will resolve with oxygen support relatively quickly.”
“You can come and see him now,” Bobby called them from the hallway, beckoning them to follow.
Eddie breathed out a long sigh when he saw Buck there, lying on the hospital bed. He was shirtless as well, but had substantially more dressings down his arm and across his torso than Eddie did. Eyes still red rimmed, Buck had a nasal cannula under his nose, the oxygen support Hen had mentioned. He looked tired, but not like he was in pain.
“Hey Buck, how’re you doing?” Hen asked soothingly, like she was talking to a child, or an injured puppy.
“They gave me the good stuff Hen!” Buck said with a dopey grin before his eyes fixed on Eddie and he frowned. “Did you get hurt too?”
“A bit rubbed off onto me, but I’m fine,” Eddie told him, lifting the blanket to show Buck the much smaller dressing he had.
Buck’s frown didn’t ease though, and he squinted at Eddie, “What’s that on your chest? Did I do that? God, I’m sorry Eddie-”
Wrapping the blanket around himself again to hide the boot shaped bruise on his chest, Eddie shook his head. “It’s just a bruise Buck, and you didn’t do it deliberately. I’ll be fine. None of this was your fault.”
Something flickered in Buck’s eyes at the words, but Eddie didn’t know him well enough yet to decipher it.
“What was it you were telling Chim about squirrels when we got back to the station?” he asked, hoping to distract Buck from what looked like the start of a bout of self-recrimination.
“That there are over two hundred and seventy-eight species?” Buck asked with a happy grin, “or that some of them grow to be over three feet long?”
Chimney sighed theatrically. “I’m gonna need more coffee if you’re going to lecture me about dangerous wildlife Buck.”
Buck’s eyes lit up at that, and he smirked. “I’ll take one to go, but hold the acid. That stuff’s terrible for my complexion.”
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