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Buck glared across his apartment at the crutches leaning against his counter.
The crutches were innocent of his annoyance, they really were. He just wanted absolutely nothing to do with them.
After a nasty fall during a shift a week prior, he’d been sent to the hospital as a precaution, only to discover that he’s managed to fracture his leg almost exactly where the original breaks were from the ladder truck bombing. He’d been lucky in that he didn’t need surgery, but he’d been ordered to keep off his leg for at least a month.
Audie, his ever loyal German Shepherd, hadn’t been happy to see her human limp into the apartment a week ago with the crutches under his arms, especially since crutches meant no running or tugging. She especially didn’t like it when she realized that her Buck was hurt again, stuck hobbling back and forth from the couch to the kitchen and back again, all the while using the crutches to carefully get around.
With his leg as bad as it was, the various members of the 118 had done what they could to at least attempt to get him to move into one of their own homes for the next little while, which he quickly and immediately shut down. He wanted to heal up in the comfort of his own loft, thanks very much.
So, instead, they’d been helping in other ways, the same way they had been the last time he’d been injured, nearly six months prior. If it involved going to the store for food or other items, they were picking it up for him. When he needed to go to one of his doctor’s appointments (mostly to get reminded yet again to “Rest your leg, Mr. Buckley, if you want it to be strong enough to carry around half of your firehouse”), they were right there waiting to drive him to and fro. When Audie needed to go for a run, well, half of the team was willing, and the other half sent their kids.
The only hold out was the crutches.
Buck detested the crutches. After all of his various injuries over the years, he hated crutches. They were cumbersome, they were bulky, they got in his way and slowed him down. He very much disliked having them around, let alone having to use them to just hobble from the couch (his once again temporary bed as he was banned from stairs) to the kitchen and back again. He’d much rather just lift his leg and hop across the room, crutches be damned.
The problem with that idea was that Audie was smarter than him.
Audie had learned pretty quickly that some people had to use crutches when Christopher was introduced to her. They were an extension of her second favorite person (Buck was of course first, Aislinn who was her minder during Buck’s long shifts ranked just ahead of Chris’ Eddie). If someone had those sticks called crutches, they needed them. So, she made sure that Buck had his, since he had the sticks.
Every time Buck went to start hopping, Audie would give him a very clear and unimpressed look. If he didn’t do what she obviously wanted him to do (i.e. grab the damn crunches Buckley), she’d bark. If he still didn’t, she’d make it a point to practically tattle on him when someone else came around by dragging them to the crutches before tossing her head toward her human, making it clear to whichever human that Buck wasn’t following the rules.
Eddie had almost laughed himself to tears once he realized what Audie was doing. Bobby managed to get a stern glare out at his subordinate before joining him to the same fate. Pretty much everyone else just laughed at the sight of a dog telling on the tall firefighter and getting him in trouble. Repeatedly.
Buck supposedly took the tellings off to heart, after the fifth or so instance of it happening.
After two weeks of laying around the apartment and trying to heal and avoiding moving so that he didn’t need to deal with his crutches in any way, he finally made a point to get himself out. So, he found an Uber that would allow Audie and took it to the station, knowing full well that his shift was working. Surprising them would be worth it.
He sent Audie in first as soon as they pulled up, giving himself a moment to get situated on the crutches from hell before he began hobbling into the building. He heard Eddie shout out that Audie was there before the man in question rounded the corner and caught sight of him making his slow way up to the door.
“Oh, so Audie wasn’t the surprise?” the man snarked.
Buck carefully flicked him off before heading inside. Audie was lapping up the attention from almost the entire crew, practically on her back receiving the world’s foremost amount of bellyrubs. She was in puppy heaven, a normal state of mind for her when she got to visit the station without her harness on.
Buck left her to her fans and made his way over to the stairs, mentally thanking his doctor for finally giving him the green light to use them as long as he was slow and careful. Once he made his climb, he spotted Bobby hard at work in the kitchen with Hen as his sous chef, helping cook up a delicious meal, no doubt.
“Room for two more? Or one and his dog?”
Both firefighters turned and broke out in big grins seeing him. He was immediately ushered over to the island and onto a stool with a cutting board and his favorite knife in front of him, a pile of vegetables needing to be chopped settled to the side. Eddie joined him, stealing the first piece of pepper that Buck chopped, deftly avoiding the smacks from all three cooks.
Audie trotted up and joined them a while later, curling up next to Buck’s stool and being a furry barrier between him and the boisterous crew. She stood by his side when he grabbed his crutches and transferred over to one of the tables when they finally ate. She glared daggers while he handled the dishes just after dinner was cleared when the alarms went off.
At least he was at the sink with his crutches. See? Buck could learn. When he wanted to.
Finally, after five weeks, a minor setback involving a misplaced book bag and a half asleep firefighter, and a lot of guilt-tripping puppy dog eyes, Buck was able to put the crutches back into the closet where they belonged. It only took another three days for Audie to get the memo.
Okay, three and a half. Maybe four and a bribe.