Archive of Our Own ^beta

“You’ve reached Buck. Leave a message and I’ll get back to you.”

Maddie sighed as she waited for the tone to finish before she spoke. “Hey Buck! I’m sure you’re on your way to my place but my car won’t start. Do you think you can pick me up? I’m still at work. Call me back. Bye!”

Maddie hung up the phone and dropped it into her lap as she tried to turn over her engine once more. The engine clicked, clicked, clicked before Maddie gave up and dropped her forehead against the steering wheel. 

Great. 

Maddie’s stomach growled in sarcastic agreement, twisting and turning until she was almost nauseous with hunger. Buck would’ve been driving to her place with dinner filling the cab of the Jeep and Maddie was stuck in the parking lot with a dead battery and not even her packed lunch to save her. 

Just another highlight to what had been an exhausting day. 

Maddie loved her new city. Los Angeles had never been a place she would’ve imagined she would call home. Home for the longest time had been an empty shell of a house where she could still hear Daniel’s laughter and saw her parents smiling if she closed her eyes. Then she had thought she’d been able to find home with Doug and all his love and validations even through the heavy hits of his knuckles against her skin. But then she’d found the Christmas card in the wreckage of bobbles and lights, tinsel and glasses shards. The one with Buck smiling up at her, happy and whole, and that had shattered her free from the delusion that she could ever have a home with Doug. 

So she ran and now that Doug wasn’t a lurking shadow creeping over her shoulder anymore, Maddie had been finally ready to put down roots. She had Buck, she had Chimney, friends and family that loved her. 

LA was her home now. 

But sometimes she wished Los Angeles would take a minute to chill out. 

The call center was nonstop on a good day but there’d been something about her shift that seemed wild and out of control. She was pretty sure she saw Josh twitching by how much coffee he guzzled down just to keep up.  

Apparently, it hadn’t been much better out in the world because both Buck and Chimney had texted throughout the day. Maddie could hear the exhaustion through Chimney’s text and Buck hadn’t been much better. But when she’d offered to rain check her plans with her brother, Buck had responded with some vague request for sibling take out and wine night. 

At least, now that Buck had stopped being a great big chicken and finally asked Eddie out, their sibling wine nights involved a lot less whining. 

I’m not whining! I’m pining. Pining. It’s different!

But the dead battery in her car was going to prove to be her downfall. 

Maddie groaned as she pulled up her phone. Chimney would be dead asleep before he had to return to the station for half a shift he was covering for someone which meant her only option was to call Buck again or an Uber. 

She pressed Buck’s contact and held the phone up to her ear. 

“You’ve reached Buck. Leave a message and I’ll get back to you.”

“Maddie?” 

Sasha West was a dispatcher that started in the class after Maddie. Her athletic build made her doe eyes and delicate face seem more like an Instagram influencer better than any kind of filter on the internet. (Maddie would know. She spent many hours on her bed not doing laundry playing with them.) She was a beast at being able to read a map and finding the nearest crossroads and at least three separate alternatives in case the response needed to divert. 

Sasha’s hair was twisted up into a clip she always snapped onto the back of her scalp at the beginning of her shift and despite the shift from hell, still looked like a model which was just out of this world unfair. 

“Everything okay?” Sasha asked, pushing a strand of hair out of her face as she hurried over. 

“Oh! My car won’t start.” Maddie waved her hand to the front. “I’m trying to get a hold of my brother so he can give me a jump. Actually, you wouldn’t happen to have any jumper cables would you?”

Sasha shook her head. “Sorry. My boyfriend has them.”

Which had been Maddie’s problem when Chimney borrowed hers to go rescue Hen and Karen from the same situation last week. 

Maddie groaned again and pulled up Buck’s number. 

Sasha’s brows knitted together, eying Maddie’s car the way she scanned the city maps. Like there was some problem she could solve if she just looked at it the right way. Her lips puckered as she tipped her head to the side before she perked up with a smile. 

“Let me drive you.”  

“I couldn’t ask you to do that,” Maddie said even though the prospect of finally going home washed over her in a wave of temptation. 

Sasha shook her head. “It’s no biggie.”

“Yeah, but you had just as much of a day as me. I don’t want you to have to—”

But Sasha shook her head again and waved Maddie over. “It’s no trouble. Honestly. You’re on my way anyway.”

Which was how Maddie found herself in the passenger seat of Sasha’s… rather intimidating Dodge Charger. She wasn’t as short as Maddie but she was still fairly petite. It was a miracle she could see over the steering wheel. The engine roared all the way through Maddie’s seat and into her teeth until she felt like she was vibrating. The leather of the interior smelled new and was cool and smooth like butter on her skin even after sitting in the LA sun all day. 

Maddie waited until they were at a stop in traffic for the rumble of the engine not to be so loud before she checked her phone again. 

Nothing. 

“You’ve reached Buck. Leave a message and I’ll get back to you.”

“Hey, I’m on my way home. A coworker is giving me a ride. Don’t eat all the wontons!” 

Maddie sighed as she hung up the phone. Buck must still be stuck in traffic. 

Maddie caught Sasha’s gaze out of the corner of her eye and smiled back with a shrug. “My brother.” 

“Ah!” Sasha said with a tip of her head. “I remember you had a brother. Evan, right? He’s a firefighter?”

“Buck,” Maddie gently corrected with a nod. “He’s with the 118.”

Sasha whistled as she switched lanes that didn’t seem to help at all with the slow crawl of the traffic. 

“That house has seen some wild calls. Older or younger?” Maddie blinked at the question and Sasha grinned at her as she pointed to herself. “Sorry. Only child. Is he a younger or older brother?”

“Oh! He’s younger.”

Sasha nodded. “I always wondered what it would be like to have a baby brother.”

Sasha waited for a moment and then two before Maddie realized she was leaving space for Maddie to fill it; to answer a question that hadn’t been stated but hung between them as an olive branch. It turned the awkward small talk into something more, something a little more connected that took away the stiltedness. 

Maddie smiled. “Well, about thirty percent of the time, he drives me absolutely crazy. But the other seventy percent, he’s just… my baby brother. It’s hard to explain. He’s twenty-eight years old and about a foot taller than me but he’ll always be my baby brother. Things weren’t always great at home but we always had each other.”

Sasha smiled at her. “That sounds nice. It’s like… having a built-in friend. My cousins were like that but I was the youngest so I always ended up chasing after them to include me.”

“You come from a big family?” Maddie asked. 

She and Sasha were friendly but most shifts saw them on either sides of the call center. Her rounds for a break usually coincided with Josh’s which she suspected had more to do with Josh pulling a few strings to gossip than the actual structure of their rotation. 

“Huge,” Sasha said. “My mom was the middle child of nine.”

Maddie’s eyes widened. She’d used to wonder what it would’ve been like to have aunts and uncles like her friends at school; what it would’ve been like on holidays if they had family to go to and surround themselves rather than pulling tight and silently mourning another holiday without Daniel. 

Buck never noticed but the mourning was all he knew. 

Maddie shook away the thought. It made her stomach twist a little with how easy it was to lock away the memories of Daniel when she could still also remember the way the earth pulled out from under her every time she forgot he was gone. 

Sometimes she wished she could tell Buck about him. About how they used to have the same laugh. But that was a secret she promised to keep buried. 

“Thanksgivings must have been impressive,” Maddie said and let herself be distracted by the slow moving traffic as Sasha regaled her of her grandparents’ farm in Utah with long picnic tables draped in flannel tablecloths and covered in endless amounts of food. 

The mention of food made Maddie’s stomach rumble but thankfully the traffic was picking up again as they drove. 

She checked her phone again but saw nothing. No new notifications. No new messages. No new phone calls. 

You better not have fallen asleep and forgotten me!

She typed, mostly teasing. But also slightly hangry. 

Buck didn’t respond. 

“The calls today were crazy,” Sasha said, nudging Maddie out of the puddle of worry filling beneath her feet. “Or was that just me?” 

Maddie shook her head. “Definitely wasn’t you. Ten of my nuisance calls turned into actual emergencies. Ten!”

“At least we aren’t dealing with calls from that crime ring again.”

Maddie rolled her eyes skyward at the mention of it. 

A group of bank robbers the LAPD dubbed the Fake Caller Five, had been driving emergency service across LA crazy. A burner phone registered under a fake name would call with an emergency somewhere in the city that would send police and fire racing, only to rob a bank somewhere on the opposite side of the city, miles away. They used the city traffic to buy them some time and would be off before even the first patrol car would be able to get within even a mile. At first they’d thought someone on the crew had a police scanner. Frequencies were changed, radios were made silent, but nothing seemed to help. Eventually, police would divide and conquer when dispatch tracked the location of the burner phone but then they would find the phone sitting in the middle of nowhere thirty miles away from where they said the emergency was and where the bank that was being robbed was. Someone had suggested not dispatching teams to the supposed emergency in the first place but the risk of there being an actual emergency was too high. 

They all breathed a sigh of relief when LAPD found one of the robbers through his bragging in a chat room on some video game. What was one turned into two and then three and things at the dispatch started to go back to normal. 

Well, as normal as it could get in LA. 

They spent the rest of the trip to Maddie’s place talking about everything and nothing. Meaningless small talk that filled the space between two people who weren’t used to silences with each other. Eventually, busy streets turned into quiet neighborhoods and Maddie felt her stomach growl in anticipation for food. 

“This is me up here.” Maddie let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Buck’s Jeep parked alongside the curb by her gate. 

“I’m on shift tomorrow,” Sasha said as she pulled into park. “I can drive you in tomorrow too.”

“Oh, no! That’s okay!” Maddie waved her hand. “I’ll make Buck do it. But thank you for this. I owe you one!”

“Actually!” Sasha pressed. “Would you mind if I use your bathroom real fast? I don’t want to get back in that traffic and I’m about to burst.”

“Sure!”

Sasha breathed out her thanks as she pulled up into the space in front of Buck’s Jeep and parallel parked like a champ. Maddie let out an impressed whistle. She could remember the heart clenching headache that had been teaching Buck how to parallel park the summer she’d managed to convince Doug to go back to Hershey for a few weeks to search for a place before his residency. Every lurching pump of the breaks had been a killer on her ribs but getting to spend those few hours with Buck had been some of the best memories she had. 

Buck still ended up sliding into his parallel spots more times than not but she’d gone back to Boston knowing he could do it if he was in a pinch. 

Sasha followed Maddie up the stone walk to her quiet apartment building. The layout was similar to her old place but she didn’t walk past her walkway seeing flashes of Chimney bleeding out on the brick so that was a plus. She waved her key fob and held the gate open for Sasha before leading her through the small courtyard to her front corner unit. She’d lucked out finding a unit that close to the street. A soft light from her kitchen shined through the curtained off windows and Maddie smiled as she shook her head. 

“I’m going to apologize now if we walk in there and my brother is too busy inhaling chow mein to properly say hello.”

Sasha laughed, the sound tight in her throat, and Maddie wished more than anything that she’d caught that slight hitch in the facade; that she’d been able to clock the way the politeness was strained into something else more dangerous.

Maybe then she could’ve changed the series of events that followed. 

“Buck?” Maddie called out as she dropped her keys onto the side table in the small walkway into her apartment. 

Her walkway led past the kitchen, a small tucked in space with an island countertop that was perfect for two, and went straight into the wide open living room. Her apartment wasn’t anything to brag about and she still missed the high vaulted ceilings of her old place. But it was warm with hardwood floors and sand toned walls that seemed to soak in the sunbeams throughout the day. 

It was open and welcoming and all her own. 

Maddie heard Buck before she truly processed what she saw. Her brain screeched to a halt, blocking out her vision into muted foggy lens that sharpened into clarity before she was ready to deal with it. Ice wash over her whole body, rocking her onto her toes and back on her heels. 

Buck shouted again, the sound of her name just a muffled grunt behind the unforgiving press of duct tape over his mouth, and Maddie’s heart slammed into her ribcage.

Buck lunged forward but the hand on the back of his shirt stopped him until only his knees slid out from under him against the floor. He tugged at the bindings around his wrists, writhing beneath the hand that followed him until he was pinned, and cried out at her in an unintelligible babble of panic.

Maddie sucked in a breath and held it when she felt the gun press into the small of her back. 

“Don’t scream,” Sasha said behind her.

Buck grunted out another noise as he tried to shove his knees under him but the man holding him just wrestled him like Buck was nothing more than a wild dog in need of a firm grip. 

He was decked out in head to toe black with his hair cropped close to his square head with military precision. His expression was settled flat in an almost cruel indifference with a deep set mouth and a long white scar across his cheek. 

The bolt of his jaw twitched when he saw her and every one of Maddie’s instincts screamed danger. 

“Jesus! You guys took long enough!” Another voice made Maddie jump and Sasha’s hand latched onto her arm with a vice like grip. 

Another man, tall and wide but more animated than his friend, was sitting at her small round dining room table. He was helping himself to the kung pao shrimp when he saw her. 

“Traffic,” Sasha said simply. 

Maddie’s world slowed into a calm, terrifying clarity all at once. Her car, Buck’s unanswered calls, Sasha following her in. 

The world rocked beneath her feet as it all settled into place like piece of an unfinished puzzle in front of her. 

Buck yelped out a noise from his nose as the man holding him yanked him up onto his knees again and suddenly the ice melted away with a sun flare heat in her chest.

“Let him go!” 

The man at her dining room table whistled as he grinned up at Sasha. “You were right, babe. Little brother was better than the boyfriend.”

Maddie glared as Sasha moved around to her side and hooked a hand around her elbow to keep her from running. Sasha for her part looked contrite as she steered Maddie further inside. She refused to meet Maddie’s gaze and instead kept her eyes to the floor as she pushed Maddie down into a chair.

“Let’s just take a minute to talk,” the man said when Maddie cut her glare over to him. “Behave and Logan won’t have to hurt Evan here.”

Logan said nothing as he pulled himself up onto the couch before he pressed a meaty hand against the side of Buck’s head, pinning him to his knee like a child. A thumb swept across his temple in a mocking caress but there was still a wildness in Buck’s gaze as his eyes bounced from one person to the next. A sharp knot on his forehead was turning purple as blood pooled under the skin and the shade of pale his face had taken only highlighted the streak of red curling down his jaw. 

Panic gripped Maddie’s throat at the blood. 

“I want to check on him,” Maddie said, her voice only wavering once as the pressure built behind her eyes. 

But once was enough. The man at the table smirked and he twisted the gun sitting innocently next to the bag of wontons so that the hollowed barrel was pointed at her. 

Maddie’s stomach dropped to her feet again, threatening to swallow her whole. 

Maddie could feel Sasha’s presence behind her like a burn.  

“Behave and maybe I will.” the man countered. 

The smarmy smear of the man’s voice had Maddie gritting her teeth. 

“What do you want?” 

“Just a favor.” 

Maddie shook her head. A favor? What favor? She didn’t—

“We need you to go to work tomorrow,” the man said, slurping up a low mein noodle he hooked with his finger. 

Maddie stopped. Work? What could they possibly want that was at her job? Names and addresses? Those were simple enough to search for if you dug around. Police codes? There wasn’t anything of value that couldn’t be found somewhere else. 

Maddie looked over at Buck again and curled her fists in her lap when the silent man started to stroke his forehead, pushing back all his curls with a firm press of his palm. It was a soothing gesture but every inch of the move threatening. 

Buck’s chest heaved as the room filled with his messy breathing. He shook his head, trying to tug free of his restraints, but Logan simply cupped under his chin and forced his head back.

“Hey!” 

A hand slammed down on her table, rattling containers and the small glass salt and pepper shakers she’d splurged on. Maddie jumped and her heart lodged itself right into her throat until she could hardly breathe. 

“Eyes on me when I’m talking to you!”

“Julian,” Sasha breathed out. Maddie heard her jaw snap shut when Julian pointed a sharp finger up at her. 

“We’re only doing this because of you. Logan and I could’ve been long gone by now.” 

Maddie had come a long way since Doug but the sounds of a man, harsh and so sharp that his words could cut through bone, still made a cold sweat pebble on the small of her back. 

She forced herself to breathe; forced herself to remain calm even though being so close yet so far away from Buck made her want to scream. 

“I wanted to take care of this when the cops got Damion! I told you he wasn’t loyal but you said—”

The name struck a chime in Maddie’s memory. 

Damion…

Damion…

Damion… Rogers. The first of the bank robbers that LAPD had been able to apprehend. 

Maddie looked up at Sasha. “What have you done, Sasha?” 

Sasha stared at her, her lip trembling but the gun aimed steady in her hand. “I’m sorry, Maddie.”

The apology felt like a baseball bat to the gut, punching all the air from Maddie’s lungs until she almost couldn’t breathe. Three little words and suddenly Maddie’s world fell away into something dark and uncertain and Buck had been dragged into it!

Maddie curled her hands into fists to hide the way they were shaking and looked back to Julian. 

“Let my brother go,” she said. Maddie couldn’t help herself and looked over again to make sure he was still there. He was. Struggling and shaking his head as much as he could. “I-I’ll do whatever you want. Just let him go.”

“And lose what leverage we have to make sure you cooperate?” Julian feigned shock before he shook his head. “No thanks. Sash has told us all about you, Maddie.”

Sasha refused to meet Maddie’s eyes then.

“You’re a capable woman,” Julian added and Maddie bit her tongue to keep from spitting out the sarcastic quip that on her tongue. “Not only that but you’re good at your job. People trust you.”

“So then you know I keep my word. Let Buck go and I’ll do whatever you want.”

Julian’s eyes narrowed. “You’re also smart and I’d be willing to bet you’d find a way to get help the moment you knew your brother wasn’t in harms way.”

Maddie pressed her lips tight and didn’t answer. 

“No, I think we’ll keep Buck with us to make sure you behave.”

“What do you want?” Maddie bit out.

Julian smirked. “We want you to go to work.”

Confusion tasted sour on the back of Maddie’s tongue. To work? What could she do from the dispatch center that was worth all of this? But then again what had Sasha done that mixed her up with a group of bank robbers? 

Maddie shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

Julian tipped his chin up to Sasha. “Tell her.”

Sasha sighed and all the air in her lungs looked like it flooded out of her, leaving behind nothing but a trembling, thrumming body of tension and stress. 

“You need to go in and delete the call log,” she said, her eyes pleading and Maddie would feel inclined to help her normally if it weren’t for the fact that she could taste the scent of Buck’s sweat and blood on the back of her tongue. 

Maddie shook her head. “I don’t have that access. I’m not a supervisor. Josh or Sue—”

“Yes, you do! They granted you access during the tsunami!” Sasha insisted. 

“Yeah, but I don’t think I still have—”

“You do. I checked.”

“Okay? So, if I do? What does deleting the log do if…” Realization doused Maddie with a bucket of ice on her too hot skin. Sasha shifted, refusing to hold her gaze again. “Sasha.”

If Julian cared that Maddie knew Sasha’s involvement with them, he didn’t say. Instead he merely lifted his brow, almost impressed as he watched Sasha fold under Maddie’s disappointment and carried on eating his dinner. 

Sasha shook her head. “I had to do it, Maddie. I had to buy them time to get away.” 

“You jumped on the calls. Watched the progress of the responding units and then warned them when the cops were close. You were the lookout… and left a digital footprint.”

“People jump on calls all the time. It wasn’t supposed—” Sasha stopped herself with an explosive sigh. Her tiny face scrunched together in a plethora of emotions, Maddie wasn’t interested in trying to follow. Sasha sucked in a breath, something hardening in her expression as she pulled herself together. She shook her head again. “You need to go in tomorrow and delete them.”

“All the calls are logged onto the server, Sasha! You know that.”

“Yeah but it takes them a few hours to find them. That’ll give us some time to get away.” 

Sasha shot a shaky smile to Julian and to Maddie’s surprise, he returned it. Something warm and quiet between them that didn’t feel right sitting in that room where the tension was so thick Maddie was choking on it. Her stomach churned when Julian reached out and took her hand, bringing her knuckles to his lips in a kiss. 

She would’ve almost called it tender if it weren’t for the fact that Buck was tied up on her living room floor and she was staring down the barrel of two guns aimed her way. 

Maddie snuck a glance over at Buck but he was trying to shake off Logan’s hand that was keeping his head arched back. “And what about me? About Buck? What about us?”

“You do this and we’ll leave you alone. Okay? You don’t ever have to see us again. Don’t–Don’t try to signal for help and they won’t hurt your brother.” Sasha said, practically pleading with her to understand.

“And if I don’t?” Maddie was almost afraid to ask but she had to. Too many variables were still being left unsaid. Her mind was whirling with the possibilities, flicking through scenarios like she was going through her screen during a call. 

She hated asking but she needed to know. 

Julian feigned nonchalant but there was a steely line in his gaze that cut through Maddie like a knife. 

“Then we kill you and take your brother with us to use as a hostage.”

And there would be no one to stop them. 

Maddie looked at Buck again and he’d stopped struggling when Logan’s hand had slipped a little further down his jaw so three of his fingers pressed against his throat. All it would take would be one squeeze, one set of clawed fingers, and he could crush Buck’s windpipe. Or a swift turn of his head and he could snap Buck’s neck. A bullet to the brain. All things that Maddie wasn’t fast enough to stop. Not unless she cooperated. 

From that angle, Maddie could only watch as Buck’s nostrils flared and she found her own steel. 

“I want to check him.”

“He’s fine.” Julian waved off but Maddie shook her head. 

“He’s bleeding.” Maddie insisted. “I’m going to cooperate a lot easier if I know that he’s alright. Let me check him.”

Julian opened his mouth like he wanted to say something but stopped when Sasha’s hand brushed the side of his throat. He looked up at her, something silent being passed between them, before he looked back at Maddie. 

“Make it quick,” he said with a sharp jerk of his chin. 

Maddie didn’t even wait for him to finish his sentence before she was throwing herself out of her chair and across the room. She folded to her knees, grabbing her brother, and ripping away from the man with a croaked cry of his name on her lips. 

“Buck!” Maddie gasped as she pulled him into her lap.

She plucked at the seam of the duct tape but Logan’s hand snatched her wrist and yanked it away from Buck’s face. 

“Gag stays,” he said, unfeeling, and Maddie wanted to scream. 

She wanted to scream and fight and kick and scream some more. 

But she didn’t. 

Instead, she ripped her wrist free and cupped Buck’s face in her hands. 

Buck sagged into her hold, seeking a moment of comfort like he always used to when he was little. But the wildness was still in his gaze and the flow of muttered protests were washing over her like icy rain on her raw skin. 

“I’m so sorry,” she choked out and Buck’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion. She didn’t know if it was the apology, the situation, or the head wound that was confusing him but he just shook his head at her. “I’m so sorry, Evan.”

Maddie switched into nurse mode with an ease she didn’t think would ever go away and she cupped Buck’s face to check his head wound. Buck’s eyes were bloodshot but his pupils were even which was good. She probed the swollen knot with the tip of her finger and Buck flinched hard as a bleated whimper of a sound fell out of him that threatened to shatter her heart. 

“Did you just daze him or did he go unconscious?” She asked. 

“What’s it matter? He’s fine!” Julian’s impatience was like a steady stream of heat that made the room unbearably hot.

But Maddie didn’t care. She’d snuff his fire out first before she let him hurt Buck. 

He used to be able to fit perfectly in her lap like this but now Buck was sagging in her hold like she was the only think keeping him upright. 

“It matters because I think he might have a concussion and I don’t want him choking on his own vomit because you won’t let me take the duct tape off!” Maddie bit out before she could think better of it. 

“Alright.” Julian snapped his fingers and Logan yanked Buck away from Maddie’s arms. “I’ve had enough.”

Maddie tried to hold onto Buck’s shoulders but then a rough hand was grabbing onto her bicep and squeeze before she was dragged up onto her feet. Julian all but tossed Maddie to Sasha and pointed to her bedroom. 

“Keep her in there until you have to leave for the morning.” Maddie opened her mouth to protest but Julian cut her off before she could even exhale. “You can check your brother after you wipe Sasha’s trail tomorrow. Until then? Nighty night.”

Maddie shot another glance at Buck as she was dragged to her room and Buck shouted her name again as he fought off Logan’s hold. Then Sasha shoved her inside and closed the door behind them. 

No. No! 

Buck struggled against the hold pinning him in place as he watched them drag Maddie away. He called after her, kicking and screaming, but the sound of his cries had been swallowed first by the rag shoved into his mouth and then the tape keeping it there. 

Buck didn’t understand what was happening. Each heavy blink of his eyes was weighted with only confusion and agitation and a spinning pulsing sharpness that was making everything blurry. 

Julian sighed, dropping the act the moment the door was closed, before he shared a look with Logan. The two said nothing and Logan almost seemed… tired. The bone deep kind of tired where you were only upright through sheer will alone. 

Buck almost felt sorry for him. But then his head throbbed in time with his heart beat from his temple and the room spun for a second as the pain rippled through him. 

He hadn’t seen them coming until it was too late. 

He should’ve fought harder. He’d been too dazed and confused as they dragged him inside and tied him up. 

Then they just waited. And waited. And waited.  

Buck should’ve fought harder. Maddie wouldn’t be in her room alone with that woman and Buck—

Buck tried to call out her name again, a muffled grunt of a sound from his too dry mouth. 

Julian’s gaze cut to him and he shook his head. 

“Shut him up,” he said, before turning back to the table to pick at the food. 

Something sweet cut through the scents of spice and adrenaline and Buck could only blink as Logan brought up a rag to cover over his nose. Buck grunt as he tried to kick, writhing and twisting to break free, but the hand on the back of his throat held him still. 

No…

No! 

No, he couldn’t! Not when Maddie—

The room twisted one way and then the other way as Buck inhaled. The fumes turned his blood into syrup, making even his fingers too heavy, and Buck tried to shake free. 

Maddie…

Then Buck blinked and he was somewhere else. 

No. He was still at Maddie’s. She was still near. He could sense her through his fingertips that were tingling; numb. 

“You got him?”

“Yeah.”

And then Buck was airborne. Airborne but facing down to the floor as a shoulder made of steel pressed into his stomach. His wrists, suddenly free, dangled like strings and he grunted as he tried to move them. Except they moved further and further away and Buck was too weak to stretch his arm out for Maddie to catch him. 

He could only hiccup out a thin whine in replacement of her name. Someone shushed him, petting the back of his thigh in what he could only guess was meant to be calming.

Buck’s skin erupted with ants instead. 

“We’re going to have to knock him out again in the car.” A voice. It rumbled through Buck and made his stomach churn. 

Maddie! He needed to get to Maddie. 

Buck whined again, louder and more desperate as the outside air whistled through his fingers. 

“Evening,” the other voice said in feign pleasantries. “Wine night. This one’s going to be nursing a headache tomorrow.”

A laugh, light and airy and not at all belonging to the two men he was with. “Well, you take good care of him.”

“Will do, ma’am.”

Help. That was help! He needed to call out. 

But Buck blinked and suddenly he wasn’t upside down anymore. He was curled up on his side and staring up at the two men and the night sky. One sneered down at him before scanning above and nodding. 

“Do it.” 

It was all the other one needed before the rag was back in his hand, wetter and sweeter, as it was held against Buck’s face. 

He thrashed. He tried to kick out. But Buck blinked and everything went black. 

The silence between Maddie and Sasha was heavy. She’d let Maddie shower and change in her bathroom without a gun pointed at her and even had a plate of the Chinese food Maddie wasn’t touching with a ten foot pole waiting for her. But unlike in the car, neither of them seeming willing to find the energy to engage anymore. 

Maddie didn’t even really know Sasha that well so appealing to her better judgment was out. Any pleas about asking to see Buck were drowned out by Sasha turning on the TV and filling her room with the sound of late night reruns from the 90s. At some point, Sasha had told her to get some sleep but Maddie couldn’t. Not when she hadn’t so much as heard a sound from her living room for hours. Her walls were thick but not that thick. Either Buck was being compliant or they were alone in her apartment. 

Could she fight Sasha off? Get control of her gun? Break free and run for help? Probably. But Julian and Logan still had Buck and Maddie wasn’t going to risk her brother. 

It wasn’t until around four in the morning, when Maddie hadn’t heard a sound in hours except for the laugh track on the TV and Sasha had curled up in the armchair that Maddie had shoved into the corner to read, when she finally broke. 

“Let me help you, Sasha,” Maddie said, her voice hoarse from barely speaking. “Talk to me. Maybe we can get help together. How did you get caught up in all of this?”

Sasha scowled at Maddie before she shook her head. “I didn’t get caught up in anything. I love him.”

“Forcing you to run? Forcing you to do this? That’s not love.” Maddie pressed. “Okay? He’s using you—”

Sasha shot up to her feet and slammed the TV off with a fling of the remote. “He’s not forcing me to do anything, Maddie. I wanted to help. Now go to sleep or I’ll tell Julian you tried to get me to turn on him. He has your brother, remember? You think Buck would appreciate the repercussions of you going back on your word?”

Maddie clenched her jaw to keep from saying anything else. 

Sasha turned off the lights and sulked back to the corner of the room while Maddie rolled onto her side and tried to think of what to do. Everything started with Buck and ended with him too. Pressure built up at her spine, pushing between her shoulder blades until she almost bent but she refused. 

Doug had pressed down on her until she almost broke and Maddie had vowed never again that day she’d bled out in the forest with the taste of his blood in the crisp, cold air. Everything had smelled like ice and pines and copper. 

And it was the day she knew she wasn’t weak. That all those voices in her head that had started when she was younger and had gotten louder when she met Doug, were wrong. That Maddie wasn’t weak, fragile, or broken. She was strong and deserved joy without payment. 

Julian and Sasha wanted her to break but she wouldn’t. That’s why they had used Buck. Buck had been someone Maddie had been shielding all her life. 

And she would keep doing it even now. 

She just didn’t know how yet. 

When Maddie and Sasha left the bedroom, her living room was predictably empty. She had figured as much but the sight still made her stomach give. 

“Where’s Buck?” Maddie demanded but Sasha just grabbed her elbow and dragged her to the door. 

“He’s fine. Let’s just get this over with.” 

Sasha grabbed Maddie’s purse and handed it to her. She kept the gun hidden in her own, correctly assuming that Maddie wouldn’t put up much of a fight when she didn’t know where Buck was. 

The morning sun felt like bruise on Maddie’s exhausted, stressed body. 

“I don’t suppose we couldn’t stop for coffee on the way, could we?” Maddie quipped as she got into the passenger seat. 

Sasha’s lips quirked up. “I think that can be arranged.”

The whole thing made Maddie want to laugh or scream. She didn’t know which. But the fact that she was in a drive through with someone who was holding her hostage and ordering an extra hot americano was nothing short of surreal. Sasha even ordered Maddie some kind of sugary sponge cake and a breakfast sandwich for both of them like this was something they did every day. 

Sitting in the car, with Los Angeles shifting awake, Maddie felt like she was stuck in a fishbowl. The glass windows of Sasha’s Chargers felt like they were an inch thick and everything was warped. 

Traffic slowed them to a crawl and they ate in silence with only the radio playing like a slow murmur outside the fishbowl.  

“He won’t hurt him, Maddie,” Sasha eventually said, her voice quiet in all the ways that sounded meek and unreliable. “Julian isn’t like that. He…”

She trailed off with a sigh and a shake of her head. 

Maddie curled her hands into her fists and dug her nails into her palms to keep from saying anything. 

Sasha fussed with her hair and clipped it back out of her face before a strand fell loose over her eyes. 

She looked at Maddie, fleeting as it was, and tried to smile reassuringly. 

“He loves me. He’s doing this to protect me. If you just do as he says then he’ll leave Buck alone.”

Maddie bit her cheek until she tasted blood and shook her head. 

“He does—”

“He’s using you, Sasha. Okay? I would know.” Maddie bit out. 

Sasha said nothing for a moment. She flexed her hands around the steering wheel, cracking the leather and her knuckles before she merged and picked up speed. 

“I was there that day you went missing,” Sasha said. “Your ex-husband?”

A tear slipped from Maddie’s eye before she could stop it. She brushed it away before her make up got ruined and something happened because she walked into work crying. 

“Yeah,” Maddie said. 

She had put Doug behind her months ago but it was like he had been lurking right in her peripheral. 

Again, Sasha went quiet for a second. 

“Julian isn’t like that,” she said and Maddie could tell it was meant to be reassuring. 

But it wasn’t. The bites of cake and coffee soured in Maddie’s stomach. She pressed her fingers against her lips and stared out the window for the rest of the drive in silence. 

Once they pulled into the lot by dispatch and Sasha parked her car, she turned in her seat and looked at Maddie. 

“Okay,” Sasha said with a forced cheer Maddie saw right through. “Our shift is eight hours. You have until the end to delete all the logs. Then you and I will leave together and meet Julian. Don’t signal for help. Don’t try—”

“I get it, Sasha.” Maddie snapped. “Do it and you won’t hurt my brother.” 

Sasha’s smile crashed into a scowl. “It’s not like I’m asking you to rob a bank, Maddie. You’re just delete a few logs.”

“I want to talk to Buck.” It had been hours since she’d seen her brother and she had an eight hour shift waiting for her the moment they walked inside. She wanted— needed to know he was alright. Adrenaline was fluttering in her chest making her heart hammer against her pulse points until she felt like her skin was vibrating. 

She needed to talk to Buck. 

“Please Sasha,” Maddie pleaded. “Please. I want to talk to my brother.”

But Sasha shook her head. “Sorry, Buck not up for talking right now. Come on.”

The cloth in his mouth might as well have been sandpaper. Buck grimaced as he tried to push it forward with his tongue but the tape wrapped around his head was unforgiving to any relief. 

“Stop squirming,” the voice— Logan Buck’s mind supplied now that the fumes of the drugs in his system were fading away— snapped. 

Buck shot him a glare where he was cleaning what looked like one of his many, many handguns. But Logan ignored him as he had been for the hours since Buck woke up, stripped from his clothes sans his briefs, and tied to a pipe in a nearly windless room. The only glimpse of light was from a small strip window that was too high to reach and too small to climb through. 

The reminder of his bare skin on the gritty, dusty floor made something twist in Buck’s stomach and he pulled his knees to his chest with a deliberate drag of his bound ankles. He curled his toes in and went back to working on the bindings around his wrists. 

Fuck. 

He had to get free! He had to get to Maddie. She was alone with those people and Buck was being useless as he sat around, trying to get free! 

The only consolation that Buck had was that Maddie was at the dispatch center and as long as they needed her, they wouldn’t kill her. They wouldn’t hurt her while so many people were around. She was as safe as she could be while being forced into destroying evidence against her will. But it was a fleeting relief. Buck had seen first hand what these guys were capable of doing. They’d responded to one of the bank robberies after the fact. The victims were banged up and bruised, traumatized by what they experienced, and Buck knew from his own aching head how quickly they struck. 

Buck hadn’t seen them coming. One minute he’d been sticking his key in Maddie’s door and the next a hand had slapped over his mouth and pain stole his vision as the hard butt of a gun crashed down onto his temple. 

His head was pounding in time with his pulse, throbbing behind his eyes until the pressure had nowhere else to go but back down the crown of his skull and into his neck. Buck grunted as another wave rippled through him, stiffening into his muscles one by one until he was locked in nothing but a rocking tidal wave of pain. 

He needed to get out. He needed to get to Maddie.

Buck twisted his wrists but the angle was awkward. His arms were hugging two rusty, mismatched  pipes coming up from the floor and running through the ceiling. It was uncomfortable but not unbearable and the metal wasn’t hot which meant it wasn’t the hot water line at least. But that meant his hands were too far away for him to easily reach his mouth to try and rip off that gag. Every movement knocked his elbow into the wall. Every twist hurt. But he didn’t stop. 

He had to get out! 

Maddie successfully managed to delete six logs in between answering calls before someone noticed. 

“Hey Maddie?” Terry asked, his tablet in hand as he came up to her station. “You’ve been deleting call logs all day.”

Maddie could feel the burn of Sasha’s gaze at the back of her head. 

Here goes nothing. 

“Oh my God! I have?” Maddie gasped, her eyes widening before she leaned forward in her seat. “God, Terry! I’m so sorry. I’ve been trying to do some observing of supervisor notes in between calls lately but it’s been crazy today.”

Terry, sweet as ever, frowned as lines of confusion folded in between his brow. “Why are you looking at supervisor notes? It’s not exactly light reading.”

He tried for a joke and in any other circumstance, Maddie would’ve laughed. Terry was quiet but meticulous at his job. Thankfully, Maddie had had a few hours to come up with some excuses. 

“I…” She stopped before lower her voice and beckoning Terry closer. He leaned in, clutching his tablet to his chest. “I’m hoping to apply for a supervisor position and wanted to get a little bit of an edge. Sue and Josh are amazing but they’re a little bit like ducks.”

“Ducks?”

“You know,” Maddie said. “Calm on the top but kicking like crazy under the surface. I wanted to see some of the boring parts.”

Dawning realization settled on Terry’s expression and the confused twist of his lips ticked into a soft smile. 

Maddie matched his smile. 

“I must have deleted it as I went. I’m so sorry!” 

Terry shook his head. “It’s fine. I can recover them. I figured it was a mistake.”

“Maddie?” 

Maddie usually loved hearing the sound of her best friend’s voice. But Josh coming up to her station while she was already fending off the attention of Terry was too much. 

Normal. She had to act normal.

Maddie turned and looked up as Josh walked over to her. “What’s up?”

His smile was confused with a glint of curiosity she recognized as a promise that he was going to bug her to spill the details to him later. 

“Someone’s here for you,” Josh said, hooking a thumb over his shoulder to the breakroom.

Eddie Diaz stood in the middle of the small communal kitchen with an awkward set in his shoulders like he was trying not to be in the way. 

She bit down on her lip until she tasted copper and locked every muscle in her body to keep from looking back at Sasha. 

Eddie’s eyes widened when he spotted her. 

“Maddie! Hey!” 

“Hey Eddie,” Maddie said, forcing everything in her chest to keep her voice from shaking. She may not know Eddie as well as Buck did but her brother’s boyfriend was observant. Too observant. “What are you doing here?”

He shifted his weight on his feet, rubbing his hands on the back of his thighs until he decided to just hold them there. 

“I uh… I’m sorry to drop by while you’re working but I…” Eddie stopped to suck in his cheek between his teeth before he let it go with a shaky breath.

The glass door to the break room let out a soft whoosh as Sasha walked in and headed for the coffee pot. She shot Eddie a polite smile that Eddie returned with a dip of his head. But the smile didn’t stay for long and Eddie’s hands tangled together in front of him as he wrung his palm over his coiled fist. 

“I’m starting to lose my mind here,” Eddie said, his eyes shining with so much worry that it was practically rippling off him in waves. “Have you heard from Buck today?”

From over Eddie’s shoulder, Sasha was stiff as she poured herself a cup of coffee. Her hand was curled tight around her phone and Maddie knew the threat without it having to be spelled out for her. 

“Buck?” Maddie shook her head. “Not today. No.”

It wasn’t exactly a lie but it tasted bitter on her tongue anyway. 

Eddie pressed his thumb up to his eyebrow and rubbed away the tension. Eddie was usually unflappable. She’d heard his voice on the radio enough times to know he didn’t panic in a crisis. He kept things together and was the calm balm to Buck’s usually frenetic energy. But the Eddie in front of Maddie was one desperate, walking embodiment of self-soothing motions.

He squeezed his eyes shut and winced. 

“We were supposed to go for breakfast today and then we were going to—”Eddie cut himself off with a blush and shook his head. He forced himself to take a breath and the almost vibrating worry quietened a little as he settled himself. “I tried calling him but he hasn’t been answering. I went by his loft but he isn’t there. It isn’t like him to not call me back and Chimney’s been blowing up my phone because you weren’t answering either.”

“I left my phone at home this morning.” Maddie was quick to add. “Had a busy morning.”

Maddie didn’t think Eddie noticed that Sasha was taking her sweet time deciding between a creamer for her coffee but he would notice this. 

Maddie had a shot, a chance to try and help Buck, but it was a risk. 

“We had dinner last night,” Maddie said, catching Eddie’s eyes and trying with everything she had to convey what she wasn’t saying. Eddie didn’t know her that well and she didn’t know him. Maybe when everything was said and done, they could change that. But until then she could only hope that Eddie would be able to read her gaze and understand. “But then his boyfriend came to pick him up.”

The hurt that flashed across Eddie’s expression felt like a sucker punch. But then the hurt was replaced with confusion and something Maddie didn’t have time to read into because Sasha was openly staring at them now. Buck and Eddie had finally gotten their shit together after nearly forty feet of mud and earth crashed down on top of Eddie and trapped him in that well. It had taken Red’s close call to a lonely passing that scared Buck into finally doing something about his feelings for Eddie. They were still new but they’d been on the precipice of their relationship for a lot longer than that. 

She just hoped they knew that already. 

Eddie’s eyes narrowed as he cocked his head. 

“Boyfriend?” 

“Yeah,” she said as she nodded slowly. “He picked Buck up last night for a surprise weekend away.”

Eddie swallowed and Sasha was still watching. 

“I think they said they were going to meet up with some friends.” Maddie added. 

Eddie held her gaze and Maddie saw the moment something clicked for Eddie. She could only hope it was enough. 

“I wouldn’t worry,” Maddie said with a smile and nodded. 

Eddie didn’t say anything for a moment, searching Maddie’s expression for something she didn’t think she could give him. Not with Sasha so close and Maddie dangling over the edge of what would be too much before she cracked.

“Okay,” Eddie finally said, stepping away and nodding back. “Sorry to bother you.”

“It’s fine. See you around, Eddie.”

Eddie shot her one last glance before he stepped out to the floor. He glanced around, shoulders tight, before he disappeared into the elevators.

“What was that?” Sasha demanded, crossing the space between them and brandishing her phone like the threat that it was. 

Maddie sagged as she leaned against the countertop and resisted the urge to rub at her growing headache. 

“My brother’s best friend,” Maddie said with a shake of her head and silently thanking whoever that Buck and Eddie were still being pretty quiet about their relationship. Maddie hadn’t even told Josh yet. “He’s been obsessed with Buck for like two years now.”

“Is he going to be a problem?” Sasha pressed and Maddie felt what little patience she had left snap. 

She glared up at Sasha. “Why? You going to take him hostage too?”

Maddie wouldn’t let her. She’d already let Sasha’s boyfriend and his friends hurt Buck. Maddie wouldn’t let Sasha drag Eddie into this too. 

Sasha sniffed as she picked up her coffee and brushed past her. “You have four hours left.”

The door to the room squealed as Julian threw it open and with it came a wave of fresh air that washed over Buck’s skin. Every inch of him felt raw and gritty, covered in dust and dirt. The adhesive of the tape was turning thick and gummy with the blood from his head tacky on his cheek. 

Buck would do just about anything to shower. 

Logan looked up as Julian strode into the room but he didn’t stop. 

“Sash says the chick’s getting mouthy,” Julian said and that was about all Logan needed to hear because suddenly, he was up and crossing the room to Buck faster than he could blink. 

Buck startled back as the two rushed him but the pipes kept him tethered in place. Hands snatched his ankles and yanked, hard until Buck was stretched out and exposed. 

The boot to his stomach came barrelling down next. 

All the air slammed out of Buck like a sonic boom. Sound, light, existence all popped into silence as Buck choked. The cloth in his mouth tickled the back of his throat and Buck gagged at the intrusion but he didn’t get a chance to have his stomach roll before another foot was slamming into him again and again. 

Pain rained down on Buck like sleet, cutting and endless, as boots kicked his stomach, his back, his legs. Buck couldn’t even cover his head and the pipe he’d been so desperate to get free from became his life raft as he tried to pull away. Blood roared in his ears and pooled beneath his skin as hot bruises pocked all over his ice cold skin. Every hit, every kick, every thundering impact that rattled all the way to his bones. His skin was being shredded raw by the pressure and Buck couldn’t breathe!

“His face,” Julian said and Logan flipped Buck onto his back like it was nothing.

He dropped into a crouch and grabbed Buck by the hair that ripped a thin cry from Buck’s throat he didn’t know he’d been hold onto until it was being sucker punched away. 

Logan punched Buck again and again, ignoring Buck’s cries, and sitting on his legs when he tried to kick free. 

And just as quickly as it started, it ended. 

The rain of fists and kicks stopped and Logan let Buck sag to the floor with a wheeze. Blood was filling his mouth, mixing sawdust with copper, and sliding down his throat from where one of his nostrils was closing up with the clotted snot of a nosebleed. His body was in a state of absolute chaos. Adrenaline burned in his veins while shock froze his nerves. Heat and ice battled for control as Buck reeled from the sudden assault. Every punch echoed in his skin and every kick was rocking in another wave of agony that threatened to make Buck heave. The cut on his head had reopened and fresh blood trickled down Buck’s temple like a mocking caress. It’d been messy and poignant but brutal in its calculation. 

Static filled Buck’s thoughts. Static, pain, and the unforgivable weight of dread. 

He tried to curl up again, make himself small so that he could get away, but it didn’t work. His arms screamed at him and the tension in his shoulders was seeping into his joints from being kicked around while pinned in place. 

A hand snatched Buck’s hair with a fist and Buck could only bleat out a sound that hitched in his throat as he was pulled up again. His scalp screamed at the abuse but Buck’s head was pounding. The words Julian said next sounded like it could’ve been underwater.

“Hold on.” 

The hand twisted in his hair yanked and Buck cried out as involuntary tears spilled from his eyes. The pressure was too much and the scalding tears slid across his cheeks like glass on his already raw skin. 

“There,” Julian said and the hand in his hair disappeared only to latch onto his jaw with a bruising grip. “Open your eyes, kid.” 

Buck didn’t want to. He wanted to tell Julian and Logan to go to hell. He wanted to scream and beg and plead with them to stop; to let Maddie go. But he couldn’t do much more than grunt. 

Fingertips dug into his jaw hard enough to bruise and Buck opened his eyes just to get it to stop. 

The sound of a camera click on Julian’s phone was like a bolt through Buck’s chest that pierced through his hair and threatened to knock him over. 

They’d taken a picture. They’d held him up like a prize and taken a picture. 

Buck didn’t need ten guesses to know why and the thought of Maddie seeing him like this made Buck want to throw up. Again he wanted to scream. He wanted to flail until either his wrists were raw or he broke free. He wanted to scream and yell until someone found him to let him out. 

He was supposed to be swapping kisses with Eddie while they enjoyed the house to themselves. He wasn’t supposed to be like this. He wasn’t supposed to be wilting in pain; used as a pawn against his sister. 

Maddie was all alone with that woman and Buck…

Buck was just bait. 

And they would keep using him to make sure Maddie did what they wanted. 

Powerless had been a feeling Buck knew well but nothing could describe what he felt then: the unforgiving grip of insignificance.

Maddie was going to be sick. The yogurt she’d managed to down for her lunch break was threatening to come back up as she sat there and stared at the text. 

Behave.

One word and it felt like a volley of assaults as Maddie stared at the picture that one word had been attached to. 

Buck’s eyes looked so incredibly blue even with the blood and the angry bruises still red from someone’s fist. Blood was weeping from his nose and the gash on his head, staining the duct tape still wrapped around his mouth. 

Her stomach rolled. She wanted to look away but she couldn’t. 

Sasha did it for her and swiped back her phone with ease, turning the screen off. 

“You said he wouldn’t hurt him.” Maddie bit out. 

Sasha dug around the bag for her ideal chip. “Stop trying to get me to turn on Julian or Buck will just have to keep learning the lesson for you.” 

Maddie curled her hands into tight fists. Her knuckles ached and her palms burned by the bite of her nails but none of that compared to the way Maddie wanted to scream. She wanted to launch herself across the table and shout at Sasha until she was hoarse. Before, Maddie had wanted to shake Sasha; make her see sense. But now she understood what was really happening. 

To Sasha, it was all a game. Buck was just a pawn. She wasn’t some naive lovesick person too caught up in something that had spiraled out of her control. 

But Sasha had been the one who targeted Maddie. Sasha had been the one who said to take Buck.

No. Sasha was just as much of an active participant as Julian and Logan. The remorse she was hoping to find? It wasn’t there. It didn’t exist. 

Buck and Maddie didn’t matter to Sasha just like all those people who had gotten hurt before them didn’t matter. 

“How many more logs do you have left?” Sasha asked, holding out the bag of chips like she was asking about the weather. 

But it was all a game. Her lips twitched at the corner like she was fighting a smile. 

Maddie swallowed. “Two.”

It had gotten harder as the day went on with calls coming in left and right. But she’d gotten it done and Terry didn’t come investigating again. 

“Good!” Sasha licked her thumb. “Break time is up. Better get back on the floor before Julian sends another reminder.”

Maddie had been wrong. Julian wasn’t using Sasha. They were made for each other. 

Maddie’s throat tightened. She pushed back the chair in the breakroom with a hard squeak and stood on shaky legs that threatened to give out under her. 

Buck’s red rimmed eyes haunted her every step as she sat back down at her station. 

The gravity of her situation hadn’t escaped her. Not since that moment when that gun pressed into the small of her back. But somehow, the whole thing had felt separate. Like Maddie was sitting outside of a bubble and watching. What was it she thought of before? A fishbowl? 

Except now the fishbowl was filling with water and Maddie was getting tired of swimming. But she couldn’t stop. If she did, then she and Buck would both drown. 

Sasha had already proven what she was willing to do and Maddie wouldn’t risk Buck or her coworkers— easy hostages , her mind supplied— to her impatience. 

The line clicked almost as soon as Maddie put her headset onto her ear. 

“Station 118 to dispatch.” 

Maddie covered her mouth as Chimney’s voice came over the line. 

Chimney. 

Chimney and his voice that sounded like it was permanently caught in laughter. Like one inhalation would lead to that fluttering sound of giggles he always let free. What she wouldn’t give to be able to collapse into his arms right about then? To feel the warm heat of his chest as he held her tight and let her cry. 

But Maddie couldn’t cry. Sue or Josh would see and Maddie couldn’t afford anymore mistakes. 

She fought back the pressure behind her eyes and cleared her throat. 

“Go ahead 118.”

“We need RA back up at the corner of Wilshire and Briar for our initial victim. We’ve got a cardiac arrest from the nearby crowd that’s taking priority.”

Maddie sniffed as she dispatched another ambulance. “Copy that 118. Sending an additional unit to your location.”

“It’s good to hear your voice, dispatch.”

He said it so sweetly, the relief palpable even through the radio. It was borderline unprofessional but Maddie didn’t care. It was exactly what she needed. 

Sasha smirked at her as she walked by and Maddie tracked her movements across the floor. 

Two more logs. She had to get rid of two more. 

“Stay safe out there, 118.”

Buck’s legs were starting to go stiff. Hours had passed; minutes ticking by slowly as the blood started to turn tacky on Buck’s skin again. The sharp pain that had consumed every inch of his body before had seeped into his bones so Buck was left with a deep rooted ache he could feel in his teeth. His stomach, which had been empty for too long, had settled into a deep hollowness that weighed Buck down and listing against the pipes. 

He and Eddie were supposed to have breakfast that day. Eddie was going to come over and they were going to lounge and be lazy, trading kisses that tasted like coffee and maple syrup. Eddie was going to wear those grey sweats that made Buck’s spine melt. Indulgent snuggles and wandering hands had been all Buck had planned. 

Eddie.

Was Eddie worried? They were still so new but it had felt like they’d been dating for years. The getting to know you period had been bulldozed over by Buck’s immediate insertion into Eddie’s life and the awkward testing of each other’s limits had been done and over with within the first month of being friends. The pining had settled in and it had been like the same ache Buck was feeling then. Longing, doubts, and all those murky feelings in between had kept them apart until suddenly it was mud and rain that Buck tried to claw through with his fingers. 

God, Eddie was supposed to be in Buck’s bed for an afternoon nap in those delicious grey sweatpants. Buck was supposed to be next to him, nosing his way into the slope of Eddie’s throat and inhale the sent of him as he pressed up against the fluttering spot of his pulse. 

Instead, all Buck had was a hollowness and the unfeeling rusted metal of the pipe.

Logan and Julian had gone back to ignoring him. To be honest, Buck was doing his best to ignore them too. He didn’t care what they were doing or why they were doing it. He just wanted to know that Maddie was safe and that someone was making sure Eddie didn’t worry too much. 

But the hours crept by slowly and Buck left in the corner to count the minutes as they went. 

Maddie couldn’t decide if she was relieved to see the end of her shift or dreading it. Bone deep exhaustion was making her limbs too heavy to hold and Maddie hadn’t been able to kick the headache tightening at the base of her skull. She’d managed to delete the rest of the logs without notice and Sasha hadn’t outwardly threatened to hurt Buck since she’d shown Maddie the photo of Buck, stripped and beaten, as a warning to behave. The relief of being taken to Buck after being separated for so many hours was making her dizzy. But leaving the dispatch center meant being alone with Sasha again. She’d been on edge all day but a slim cushion of comfort had settled around her being around everyone else. 

Either way, she was grabbing her purse under the watchful eye of Sasha who was waiting for her at the door of the break room. 

Without a word, they walked through the doors and across the floor before heading towards the elevator and each step made Maddie’s stomach get heavier and heavier until she was sure she was going to sink to the ground and not get back up. 

“Maddie!”

Sasha bit out a curse but stopped. 

Sue was hurrying after them with her smile, kind and soft, as always but worry clear in the corner of her eyes. 

“Can I speak with you for a moment?” She shot a barely there glance towards Sasha before her gaze latched onto Maddie and tried to pull her in.

Maddie didn’t know if Sasha caught it or if Maddie knew because Sue had pretty much taken her under her wing the moment Maddie had put on her maroon polo. But she couldn’t risk it. She couldn’t risk Buck. 

“I actually need to r—”

“It’ll just be a moment!” Sue smiled, clutching her tablet to her chest.

Maddie looked at Sasha from the corner of her eye, feeling caught in the middle of a silent tug of war game. 

But Sasha relinquished her hold first and nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll wait for you.”

Her words were cheery and pleasant but they cut into Maddie like barbed wire and tethered her to Sasha like a leash. 

Maddie swallowed as her throat closed up and walked over to Sue. 

Sue’s smile dipped the closer Maddie got before she was forcing herself to smile again and holding out the tablet for Maddie to see. 

“I had a question about one of the notes on your call earlier today,” she said before turning away from Sasha and dropping her voice, low but urgent. “Are you okay, Maddie?”

Maddie’s heart plunged into her chest before taking a hard bounce back up into her throat. She couldn’t see Sasha— Sue was blocking Maddie’s view of her— but she knew she was there, hovering in the peripheral and waiting with her phone in hand. 

Maddie’s blood froze into ice before her body flushed too hot to function. It was everything she’d been hoping for all day; a lifeline to pull her out of the treacherous waters she’d been treading for hours. Sue was reaching out and offering to save her. 

But Buck was still with Julian and Sasha had the strings of his fate tied around her fingers. 

Maddie couldn’t speak. Her throat was caught in a noose and she nodded her head as she tried to smile. 

“Terry told me about the logs,” Sue pressed and her mouth dipped into a frown finally. “I’ve heard Chimney on the radio but not Buck.”

Panic was making it difficult to breathe and Maddie was clenching her jaw hard enough to make her molars grind together. 

“He’s off today,” Maddie forced out. “He’s actually waiting for me.”

Understanding lit up Sue’s eyes and Maddie couldn’t stand there anymore. If she did, she would let Sue step in; she would let Sue whisk her away and alert security. 

“I should be going now,” Maddie said, stepping around Sue and spotting Sasha just as she said, waiting for Maddie with her phone held like a threat again. Her eyes were narrowed and Maddie felt the silent accusation like a shock. “Sorry about the mix up. That’s what I get for that second cup of coffee. See you in a few days, Sue!”

Sue didn’t try stopping her again and Maddie’s whole knuckle ached at her for how hard she pressed the elevator button. Sasha waited until the door closed before she looked down at her phone and typed out a message.

“What was that about?” She asked, her voice unassuming but each one jabbed under Maddie’s ribs. 

“I mistyped a code 73 as a code 71.” 

Sasha hummed. “And that wasn’t you trying to signal for help? I’d hate to have to tell Julian Buck needs another lesson when we’re almost done.” 

“Given that I was trying to answer calls and clean up your mess,” Maddie snapped. “Yeah. I’m pretty sure it was just a mistake.”

Sasha arched a brow up at her but Maddie kept her gaze forward and shook her head. 

“I did what you asked. Now take me to my brother.”

The door opened with a soft chime and Maddie smiled at the security guard manning the desk before she walked out of the building without waiting to see if Sasha followed her. 

Buck jumped at the flurry of activity all of the sudden. 

“Sash says they’re on their way,” Julian said, pocketing his phone and standing up from the table. He grabbed a black duffle sitting behind him and dug around until he found a pair of handguns and a roll of tape that he handed to Logan. “Get the kid ready.”

Ready? Ready for what?

Buck’s heart pounded once against his ribs— the most likely cracked ones— in warning.

“We’ll meet you in Ensenada,” Julian said before a sharp finger was pointed in Buck’s direction. Buck flinched. “You make sure you dump him no further than Chula Vista. Push the car into the ocean. Leave him in a parking garage to bake for all I care. Just make sure to get rid of him before you cross the border.”

No. No, they weren’t—

Julian had told Maddie they would leave them alone if she did what they asked and given that Buck hadn’t been made an example of since his earlier beating, he would assume she had. Otherwise they would’ve been frantic, hurrying to catch up more ground, right? But they weren’t supposed to split them up. If they had Buck then what would they do with Maddie? 

Horror made Buck go cold all over. 

Logan nodded, a short clipped jerk of his chin, before he and Julian embraced in a bone shattering hug. 

“Take care of yourself,” Julian said, clapping Logan on the back. 

Then they both turned to Buck and moved.

The warehouse on the waterfront that Sasha drove them to was every bit as cliché as it was terrifying. Rusted shipping containers lined the dirt and gravel roads with a maze of shelled out buildings either abandoned and covered in graffiti or held together by wire and sheer will alone. 

Sasha’s charger looked out of place in the industrial ghost town. Maddie’s heart was too busy slamming against her chest to care. 

There wasn’t a soul in sight. Not one person who could help. 

They were alone. 

Julian peered his head out of a door before he pushed up the  garage door and waved Sasha through. 

The open space caught the growling echo of her engine and made Maddie’s bone rattle. She held herself tight around her stomach.

“Where’s Buck?” 

Maddie frowned. There wasn’t much in the shell of the warehouse and practically nowhere to hide but she scanned and scanned again, searching for some sign of Buck. 

She couldn’t see him. 

It wasn’t like he was hard to miss but Maddie couldn’t find even a hint of Buck being there at all for her to latch onto. 

Sasha didn’t answer her. 

Sasha put her car into park and the door next to Maddie flew open. 

“Get out.” Julian demanded. 

Maddie didn’t move. “Where is my brother?”

Panic turned into bile that burned at the back of her throat but Maddie used it. She leaned into it and drew back her lips to show her teeth. Something caged and fierce was stirring in her chest, animal like in that way she’d only felt in small bursts whenever her mother said something cutting about Buck. 

“Get out,” Julian said, grabbing onto Maddie’s arm with a bruising grip. “Before I drag you out.”

Maddie ripped her arm away and undid her seatbelt before she got out of the car. Julian didn’t move and instead stared over her shoulder at Sasha. 

“Everything good?”

“I did what you said.” Maddie bit out, sick of being talked about like she wasn’t even there. “Now tell me where Buck is.”

She wasn’t asking anymore. That burning fueled hot steam into her veins and collected in her chest. She wanted to scream again; tear the place apart until she found Buck. 

“Let’s get out of here,” Sasha said and Julian nodded before he grabbed Maddie’s wrist. 

Maddie’s purse was upended in the car, spilling out her wallet and belongings all over the front seat. Sasha wiped down the steering wheel while Julian duct taped Maddie’s wrists together in front of her. 

“You said you would leave us alone if I did what you asked!” 

“And we will. But first you need to play hostage until we get to the border.” Julian pushed Maddie over to Sasha. “Car’s out back. I need to help Logan then we’re out of here.”

Sasha smiled and let out a dreamy sigh. “Finally.”

The two kissed and Maddie made one desperate final search for any sign of Buck. Bonnie and Clyde broke apart and then Sasha was dragging Maddie out a side door. 

She didn’t see Buck anywhere. 

The knots in Maddie’s stomach turned impossibly heavy. This hadn’t been a part of the original plan. They were supposed to leave Buck and Maddie behind. They were supposed to run off into the sunset and leave Buck and Maddie alone. 

She should’ve known. She should’ve known!

“Sasha,” Maddie begged her name but she didn’t care. Something wasn’t right. That animal instinct buried deep inside her was screeching and howling for her to do something. Anything! Because if she went with Sasha and Julian, somehow, Maddie knew that she would never see Buck again. “Sasha please! Please just let me see Buck.”

Sasha rolled her eyes. Maddie dug her heels into the ground as they headed towards an boring beige car with the trunk already popped open. 

“Sasha!” Maddie tried again. The sunset on the horizon felt like an hourglass and the saltwater in the air was like the salt burning on her skin. “Sasha, where is Buck? Where’s my brother?”

The trunk of the car was empty and massive and Maddie knew immediately what was about to happen. She dug her heels into the dirt again, skidding and fighting as Sasha all but dragged her to the car. 

“He’s going on a trip of his own,” Sasha said. Maddie tried to jerk her elbow into Sasha’s chest but Sasha just moved with Maddie’s fight with a curse. “Jesus! Would you quit it?”

A pointed toe kicked at Maddie’s leg and Maddie let out a yelp as she buckled forward, landing hard on her stomach and halfway into the trunk. All the air punched out of Maddie’s lips in a rush of spit and a retch. Her arms had reached out to catch herself, saving her from landing on her face, but she couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t see. All the light in the world crashed away into a flickering catch of darkness and sharp lights of pain. 

“Get in the trunk, Maddie. Before I make you.”

She couldn’t. She couldn’t get in the trunk. The trunk was a death sentence and even though Sasha sounded ridiculous parroting Julian’s threats, Maddie knew just how real they were. She couldn’t! She wouldn’t! She—

Maddie’s spotted the gleam of the metal just as her vision came back in a filmy haze. 

Sasha let out an impatient sigh. Maddie heard her shoe on the gravel scoff. 

“Get in the—”

Maddie grabbed the crowbar before she could think and turned with a wild swing. 

Sasha barely made a squeak of surprise before her body hit the ground and she didn’t get back up. 

Adrenaline skittered in Maddie’s blood, up her arms and into her throat as the panic choked out a whimper. Maddie’s hand trembled as she stared down at Sasha, half in horror and half ready to fight. Was she dead? 

No. Maddie watched as her chest rose and fell once then twice before Maddie was satisfied. 

She didn’t have time. The skittering in her blood hummed down into her legs, making her jerk as she tried to run. Julian would be out any minute. She needed to run. She needed to get away! She needed—

She needed to find Buck. 

Maddie lifted her wrists to her mouth and dug her teeth into the tape. Adhesive and plastic coated her tongue and flooded her cheeks with spit. The wooziness of the intense urgency made the crowbar too heavy in Maddie’s hands but she didn’t let go. She held on tight and pressed herself to the wall as she flexed and bit and twisted until her hands were finally free. 

Maddie curled her fingers tight around the crowbar until her knuckles ached and lifted it up. She held it high and ready, bracing for attack, and used the momentum of her fear to rock her onto her toes as she started around the building for the front garage door that was still open.  

Voices echoed throughout the warehouse but all Maddie could hear was the grunts of pains drawn out into thin whines that fluttered through the air like a bird trapped inside. 

Buck. 

She peered around the corner and felt her breath hitch high in her throat as she finally caught sight of him. Buck was naked except for a pair of briefs and the duct tape wrapped around him. His ankles and knees were bound together with his wrists tied tightly behind his back. Bruises littered his bare skin and dust kicked up beneath his feet as Buck struggled to break free. Logan cursed as Buck dropped his weight, letting out another grunt of pain as he tried to squirm free, but Logan simply dipped with him and hoisted him up again. 

“Stop fighting before I give you another dose and knock you out for good.” Logan growled, twisting his arm under Buck’s and dragging him further out of a room. 

Somewhere close by, tires crunched and popped over the gravel and Maddie dropped down behind some barrels before she could be seen. 

Two on one. 

Maddie’s heart hammered against her chest. 

Two on one and if she failed, Julian and Logan could kill them. 

But Maddie couldn’t go back. She wouldn’t go back. 

Logan dragged Buck across the distance to the garage door as Julian drove a second unassuming car up to the warehouse. 

Molten hot, fire swelled up in Maddie’s chest as Buck let out another whimpered choke of pain and the tight rubber band that had been squeezing around her, cutting off her oxygen and choking her with fear, snapped. 

Logan stepped across the threshold and Maddie let out a shout as she swung her crowbar. 

Logan dropped like a stone and Buck yelped out as he plummeted to the ground in a twist of limbs. Logan groaned, dazed, but not unconscious and he tried to grab onto Buck. 

Maddie screamed as she hit him again and he went still with a spray of blood from his mouth. 

“Buck!” Maddie cried as she reached down for Buck and yanked him back. Buck scrambled to kick himself away, twisting and writhing in her grip as he started to hyperventilate, but stuck in a sluggish heaviness in his fight that wasn’t right. A concussion? Drugs? Both?

“Son of a bitch!” Julian snarled as he threw himself out of the car. 

Maddie’s heart leapt up into her throat as he pulled a gun, reaching to grab her, and then Buck’s found feet kicked out, connecting with Julian’s knees. Julian jerked with a hiss of pain and Maddie swung her crowbar again with another wild surge of determination. Desperate determination because despite all the noise, all the roaring panic and heart thundering adrenaline, Maddie knew that she was fighting for their lives. 

The gun went flying out of Julian’s hand and Maddie swung again with all her might. Her crowbar clipped Julian’s face and cut across the skin. But Julian bellowed out a shout as he went with the swing and snatched the crowbar. He tugged and Maddie held on, tripping over Buck’s body, but refusing to let go. 

Suddenly, she was in a game of tug of war and Julian had power and brute strength but Maddie had fear and spite and a blood curdling rage. 

He’d hurt Buck. He’d hurt her baby brother. The helplessness she’d been entangled with all day was burning away with her anger and that beast in her chest let loose in a flurry of kicks and screams. Julian tried to jerk Maddie’s grip free and Maddie held on so tight she was cutting her nails into her palm. 

Julian spit out as he spun them, slamming Maddie once and then twice against the hood of the car that was running hot beneath her. 

Maddie swung her leg up and punched her foot right into his crotch. Julian’s red face went pale and then green and Maddie kicked him again for good measure. A choke fell from his lips and Maddie kicked him in the stomach that time, pushing him back as his grip loosened in surprise, and used the car as leverage. 

He sputtered as he fell to his knees and Maddie swung the crowbar at his temple. 

Julian, like the others, dropped to the ground and didn’t get back up. 

Maddie heaved, pushing air out of her lungs before sucking it back in between her teeth, and trembled all over as she waited for Julian to move. 

He didn’t. 

It was over. 

It was—

“Drop it!”

Maddie’s stomach plummeted into the ground beneath her feet and threatened to swallow her up as well. 

Sasha stood with her hair matted, bloody, and a bruise brewing across her face that tracked where the crowbar had slammed against her jaw. 

Buck was up on his knees with her clawed fist twisted in his hair and her gun hard against his temple. 

“S-Sasha—”

“I said,” Buck grunted as Sasha dug the barrel of her gun into an angry bruise. “Drop it.”

Maddie tossed the crowbar down to the side and lifted her hands up in surrender. “Sasha please—”

“You never did say how handsome your baby brother was, Maddie.” Sasha cooed as she tipped Buck’s head back with a tug on his hair, exposing the long vulnerable length of his throat. 

The panic snapped under Maddie’s skin like fireworks, crackling like hot oil in a skillet about to catch flame. 

“Sasha! Let him go!”

But Sasha was smiling down at Buck. A twisted smile that uglied her face and smeared the blood, leaving Maddie to stare at a gorish parody of a person she thought she knew. 

Buck’s chest was heaving at the strain of being arched back and the sparks flew down into Maddie’s fingertips, begging her to grab him. 

“Maybe I’ll just take him with me.” 

The sparks snapped in Maddie’s chest. “No!” 

She didn’t realize she’d stepped forward. Her body was moving on instinct to protect; to protect Buck. But Sasha snapped her eyes up and yanked Buck back further with her, pressing her gun almost against his eye as he tried to shy away from the barrel. 

“What about Julian?” Maddie threw her hand out where he’d yet to rise from the ground. “You love him, right? You’re just going to leave him behind?”

Sasha considered it for a moment before she shrugged. “He’d do the same thing.”

Maddie’s grasp of control was fraying, splintering apart in front of her with Buck arched back so far that his knees were nearly off the ground. 

“T-Take me instead.” Maddie’s breath was falling from her lips with no power behind it. Shallow gasps until she couldn’t breathe. “That was your original plan, right? Take me and leave Buck somewhere?”

“It was,” Sasha drawled like she was spelling out every syllable. Her brow arched eye onto her forehead. “And then you hit me with a crowbar. I’d rather take my chances with the handsome one.”

Then Sasha aimed the gun at Maddie with a deadly chill and a steady hand. 

“Sorry not sorry.” 

“You’re about to be if you don’t drop the gun!” 

The roaring in Maddie’s ears was so loud she almost didn’t recognize the voice as it cut through the tension like an avenging angel. Maddie had heard that voice a thousand times, sharp and firm even against the most impossible odds. 

Sasha jerked in surprise and Maddie caught a glimpse of Athena standing in her uniform with her own weapon aimed at Sasha. Police officers surrounded them with patrol cars with their sirens squealing, barreling down the dirt road and blocking off all the exits. 

Sasha’s eyes widened and her elbow moved barely an inch to bring the gun back to Buck but Athena tutted her tongue. 

“Don’t even think about it!” 

They were surrounded and Sasha’s flippant superiority quickly dwindled into frantic distress. She looked down at Julian, who still hadn’t moved, and then around at the cops that were lining themselves up behind their car doors and taking aim directly at her. 

Buck too, Maddie’s own franticness reminder her. He was close enough to grab. She just needed—

Sasha took her finger off the trigger and held the gun up in surrounder. 

Athena grabbed her wrist, handing the gun off before twisting Sasha’s arm behind her back. 

Maddie grabbed Buck and yanked him away. The weight of him was too much, the weight of the gravity of the situation was too much, and Maddie dropped hard onto her ass as she took Buck with her. 

“How did you find us?” Sasha cried out over the hard clicking of Athena’s handcuffs. 

“You’re either stupid or have the worst luck.” Athena sniped, pushing Sasha off to another officer before pointing down at Buck and Maddie. “But you managed to pick the two people with boyfriends who will call 911 when they don’t respond to a text.”

Athena supervised Sasha, Julian, and Logan being led away but Maddie didn’t wait. 

“Buck?” Maddie asked, taking Buck’s head in her hands so she could see. Buck’s eyes rolled before he blinked slowly at her and exhaled. His pupils were blown and Maddie winced as she saw the chemical burn on Buck’s nose. “I’m here. I’m here. Let me get it.”

She picked at the tape plastered to Buck’s cheek and Athena bent down behind him with a quiet word to work on his wrists. Buck seized up at the touch behind him but Maddie shushed him as she held onto him. 

“Let us get you free, Buckaroo,” Athena said, shooting Maddie a quick assessing glance over his shoulder. 

Buck retched as Maddie ripped the tape free from his mouth and Maddie reached up to pull the bloody rag from his lips. She tossed it away and opened her arms just as Athena freed Buck’s hands and took on the crumpled weight of Buck collapsing against her. 

“We’re okay, Buck.” She whispered into his hair, wrinkling her nose at the scent of sweat and blood in his curls. Sweat and blood but so very much alive that she didn’t care. Buck croaked out a noise and buried his face into her throat as tired, stiff arms curled around her. 

Maddie held him back just as tightly and wept. 

Eddie had been the first to sound the alarm, calling Chim after his visit at the dispatch center, and then Athena, who missed them just as Sasha and Maddie had left. But it had been Sue and Terry that put the clues together and one forgotten connection to a warehouse on the waterfront had allowed help to arrive just in time. 

And it had been just in time. Too close, Maddie’s mind kept reeling. Sasha and Julian had planned on taking Maddie as their hostage while Logan misdirected the cops with Buck knocked out in the trunk. No one would’ve even known he was there unless they were looking for him. 

They were bruised and exhausted but they were alive. 

They were alive. 

And so hungry.

“Can’t you just pull it out?” Buck groaned not for the first time as he threw a disgusted glance down at the IV sticking out of his hand. 

“And make a break for it with you in a hospital gown?” Maddie quipped.  “You’d just slow me down.”

Buck scoffed as he fell back into bed. Despite his complaints, he wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. The saline was flushing his system of any lingering drugs clouding up his head and to help combat the dehydration. Then it would be a round of pain meds to help with the four cracked ribs and concussion he was sporting on top of the bruises. 

“You’d never leave me.” Buck grumbled, sounding like he was nine again and pouting when Maddie would drag him out of the house for school. 

But the day and the still fragile bruising of that conversation she and Buck had had in his loft, the one where Buck had been open and honest with her about his feelings of being left behind, was still there. She thought of his tears he’d tried to sniff back at the table. She thought of the way her own throat closed up when she watched him mourn and then tremble with fear. 

Maddie had made a promise to him that night and she reached up to latch her pinky onto his to make it again. 

“Never.”

Buck smiled something quiet and small before he curled his pinky around hers. 

The scent chinese food wafted through the air just as a set of boots and rustling plastic erupted in the otherwise quiet hospital room. Chimney and Eddie all but fought their way through the doorway, spilling inside with their arms laden with take out containers and worry on their faces. 

Eddie’s eyes widened at the sight of Buck before he was shoving his food in Chimney’s arms and crossing the distance in a matter of strides. 

“I’m okay,” Buck said as Eddie sat on his bed and took his face in his hands. 

“Pretty sure the two black eyes is the opposite of okay,” Chimney quipped because Eddie was too busy kissing Buck like he’d starved for him. 

Maddie shot Chimney a fond look, remembering when they’d been in their own honeymoon stage, before she got up and gave them a moment. 

Chimney dumped the food onto the table and opened his arms for Maddie to fall into. 

She curled up into his chest and buried her face in his throat as he hugged her tight. 

“You okay?” He asked, pressing a kiss into her hair and letting out a nervous laugh like he couldn’t quite believe she was there. 

Maddie let him hold her and nodded. 

She was okay. 

They both were okay. 

She and Buck were banged up and bruised but they were alive and loved by boyfriends who knew that after a long, traumatizing day, all they needed was some take out food.