Work Text:
The problem with having a bad shift is that sometimes, you just can’t shake it off.
The last shift had been an absolute nightmare. Multiple emergencies with multiple casualties. They’d barely returned to the 118 and restocked before getting called out again. A four-alarm fire and a major pileup would be haunting them all for the next while. Buck and Eddie had spent more time tagging people instead of rescuing people.
He didn’t even know how he got back to the loft. He was so out of it by the end of the shift, almost three hours late, that it was as if he blinked and was home to his empty apartment. The silence echoed off the walls, making the open space feel larger and more lonely than normal.
Buck didn’t bother with trying to choke down some food. He just grabbed a fresh bottle of water and crashed on his bed fully clothed, dragging the extra pillow over his head to block out the light of midday. Normally he’d just shut his blackout curtains - something that he insisted on installing when he moved in - but he didn’t even have the energy to do that.
His sleep was anything but peaceful.
He could barely let his eyes fall shut before seeing one of the many bodies that he’d found. One after another after another. It was a revolving door of eyes shut, tagging someone, eyes open.
For hours this went on, the day dragging into the evening. But he still didn’t get any good sleep. Just more flashes, more gasping awake, more frantically looking around to see if Eddie was still by his side, before his mind caught up with the fact that Eddie was likely at home or with Abuela.
His phone periodiaticly buzzed on his nightstand. The noise helped bring him out of his tortured sleep. He just didn't have the energy or the will to pick it up and be blinded by the light, let alone whatever was being sent to him.
Finally, he fell into a deep sleep, exhausted from the constant wake up and crash that he had suffered for most of the day. The sun had finally set, casting darkness throughout the loft.
He slept for three solid hours. Until a particularly vicious nightmare tore through his subconscious, kicking him back to the land of the living. Only, he wasn’t entirely awake.
Full dark had set in. The dark shapes in his bedroom made him think of the confined spaces he had needed to crawl through only hours before. The sound of LA traffic seemed to reverberate against the walls, almost quiet, but instead making everything feel more lost. The lights from outside were faint, casting thin shadows barely silohaused against his furniture.
Just as Buck started to slip into panic, his phone dinged with a text, briefly shining light throughout the room, chasing away the nightmares. He grabbed at it, seeing that it was the latest text from Eddie, just checking in on him.
He quickly texted back that he was ok, just getting something to eat before going back to bed. Another text confirmed plans the next day with the zoo and one very excited preteen.
Buck laid back on the bed. The nightmares were chased away. For now, anyway.