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Evan Buckley didn’t talk much about his past.
That had become the rule he lived by. Whenever he moved on from a place, it was in the past and that was where it stayed. Sure, he might mention that he’d been to Virginia Beach, or visited Florida, or stayed in Peru for a bit, but he avoided all details. Those were best unsaid.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to dwell on the past or anything. Every time he left somewhere, he took something from that place and it changed him. Sometimes for the better, and sometimes not.
He also made a point to not really keep in touch with the people he met on his travels. Too many times had he become friends with someone, only for him to move on and them never answering a phone call or postcard again. It just wasn’t worth the effort anymore.
Which was why he hadn’t expected to see Colt Bailey at the scene of a fifteen car pileup, carefully climbing out of his old truck, being helped by Chim and Eddie. He hadn’t seen Colt since leaving Montana in the dead of night. Seeing him now was a shock.
By some stroke of luck, the man never made eye contact with him while he was finishing up. Instead, Buck could hear him thanking Chim and Eddie, before he was taken away to the hospital with minor injuries. As the ambulance pulled away, there was a part of him that wondered if that was it, that Colt appeared and disappeared, and the universe didn’t have to scream at him.
There was a reason Evan Buckley didn’t gamble, either.
The next day came slowly, after a long night of minor emergencies. Buck was just settling down on the couch in the loft when he just happened to hear that voice, the one he thought he left behind, calling out to Eddie and Chim that he had breakfast for the entire crew as thanks. He overheard Chim invite the man upstairs, and Buck was left silently swearing. Hen gave him a look, a “why are you sitting there having a freak out over some guy?”
He did not want to answer that.
He knew the exact moment Colt recognized him. “Holy shit, Evan, is that you?”
Fuck everything.
He sounded the exact same. The same excitement in his voice, but with the slightest edge that Buck could never really describe. It was inviting, but also a very strong warning to stay away.
“Wait, you know our Buck?” Chim said, entirely too loud, drawing attention to the conversation. Buck wished he could become one with the couch. He really didn’t want to be a part of this conversation, no matter which way it went.
“Yeah, he worked on my father’s ranch in Montana for, what, sixteen months? Great hand, good worker, and then vanished in the night in the dead of winter.” The last part of the sentence felt like it was dripping with anger, or at least contempt. But it was completely true.
Everyone was giving him a look. There was no way he’d be able to slip out of this one without saying something. “Hey Colt, long time no see.” He held his hand out for a shake that wouldn’t be returned, instead bracing him for the incoming tight hug that went a touch too long.
Once the awkward hug was broken, the rest of the team headed over to the table to start chowing down on all the baked goods he’d brought from them (still sealed in their original packaging, they all noticed). Colt hung back and gave Buck a look, one that was basically unreadable.
“So. Los Angeles. Long way from Montana.” Flat, no inflection.
Buck nodded. “Needed a change. I like it here.”
The man cast a look at him. “How long until you walk away and ghost them like you did us at the ranch?”
There was a pregnant pause, interrupted only by the sounds of the 118 happily eating their way through the pastries.
“I’m not. I don’t plan that far ahead, even if I did have a plan. And I never plan to just leave somewhere.”
Colt rolled his eyes and pushed past him. “Yeah, sure, I believe that.” He quickly took one of the two open seats at the table, jumping right into a conversation with Chimney, who was acting like he had just won the lottery.
“So, any interesting stories about Buck? He doesn't really talk about his past all that often,” Chim said, trying to sound neutral and diplomatic. He missed, badly. Buck knew what Chim really wanted: stories that would embarrass him, because then he'd have ammunition to tease Buck on a good day, it seemed like.
Colt pretended to think for a moment. “Hmm. How about the time Evan decided to save me from a little winter storm?”
Buck could hear the sarcasm in his voice, something no one else picked up on. Instead everyone turned to him and gave him a “what the hell, Buck!” look.
It was like something inside him snapped. “A little winter storm? You were in the field, with no back up plan, two miles away from shelter, and a freak blizzard rolled in. Yeah, I dragged you back to the house. And when you didn’t even bother to thank me for it, I left for the doctor, who diagnosed me with mild hypothermia and frostbite wouldn’t let me leave for a week.” He leveled a glare at the man, ignoring the looks from his team surrounding him. “So yeah, I saved your life. The least you could do is finally thank me for it.”
He glanced around the table, before pushing out and storming off. “Let me know when he leaves. And don’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth.”
Ten minutes later, Bobby found Buck on his bunk, blanket pulled over his head to block out the world.
“He’s gone, and he will not be welcomed back,” Bobby said, standing near Buck’s bunk, but not touching him. He knew how Buck got in these moods. Let him process before pushing.
After a moment, Buck tugged the blanket from his head and looked at his captain. “Sorry for blowing up.” He catches Bobby’s eye and gives him the smallest of nods, their signal that Bobby could approach and join him on the bunk.
Bobby settled down on the edge of the bed. “No, you were fine. Clearly, there’s a story and we weren’t getting the whole thing.”
“No, no you weren’t. Colt… His dad ran the ranch I worked at. And it wasn’t sixteen months, it was barely five. I left after that snowstorm, when no one from the ranch even bothered to check if I was okay while I was at the doctor’s place. As for Colt, he just… Well, he’s not a very nice person a lot of the time. I’d already been planning to leave beforehand, but delayed because of the rumors of bad weather, which Colt ignored. Honestly, the only real reason I saved him was because his dad was a good boss.”
“Except when he didn’t visit you when you were laid up,” Bobby added.
“Well, yeah.” Buck paused. “He’s right though. When I got back to the ranch, I just cleaned out my bunk, left my boss a forwarding address to my PO BOX I’d set up in New Mexico, and then headed west to Oregon.”
The captain gave him a look. “Oregon? Why Oregon?”
Buck shrugged. “The ocean. I keep getting drawn to it.”
“One of these days, kid, you’re gonna have to tell us all about your travels. Pennsylvania to Montana to Oregon? Sounds like a good story for a late night.” Buck snorted.
“Cap, you have no idea.”