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Bobby’s not quite sure what he'd been thinking in the moment. He’d needed to look away, tear his eyes from the sight of Buck just hanging there - limp, lifeless, dead - before it took him out at the knees.
He had looked to the side where Eddie was, to find him pulling himself off the ground to climb back onto the truck, little care for his own wellbeing, just dependent on the fact that he would be there to have his partner’s back if needed.
In the moment, Bobby wasn't sure what Eddie had been planning on doing, climbing back up the truck to get into position. Buck was too heavy, too much of a deadweight to be pulled up. Eddie should stay on the ground. He got knocked off the truck, as a result of lightning hitting the ladder no less. He's more than likely injured in some way. Bobby wanted to call after him, tell him to go wait by the ambulance.
He only realized what had actually happened when Eddie screamed.
+
Honestly, Bobby thinks that, in the end, it's for the best that Eddie hadn't seen it. Hadn’t seen Buck get hit. Hadn't seen Buck collapse forward off the ladder. Hadn't seen Buck go limp. Hadn't seen Buck hanging there.
He isn't sure how that would affect Eddie in the long run. To have seen Buck get hit. To have seen Buck fall. To have seen Buck die .
He's not sure how it will affect him .
+
He can't stop thinking about it.
It keeps replaying in his mind as Eddie speeds towards the nearest hospital.
The flash of light. The groan of metal. The roar of rain. The cry of someone unwilling to lose their other half.
They stand in the hospital lobby in silence, shock and awe, dripping on the linoleum floor.
Bobby has to hold on tight to Eddie, to keep him from running after Buck, hold him until he has exhausted himself fighting against Bobby’s grip, hold him until his raging desperation turns to overwhelmed sobs.
A nurse cautiously approaches with a stack of towels and blankets. Hen accepts the pile, splitting it up with Chim before they both are herding Bobby and Eddie in the direction of the bathrooms.
Once inside the empty men’s room they strip off their outermost layers and drop them into a sopping wet pile. Eddie just kind of stands in place, chest heaving, looking at a spot low on the wall. Bobby pats himself down with a towel quickly before moving over to him.
“Eddie, hey,” he speaks up but there's really no indication he heard. “Eddie,” he raises his voice and grips his shoulder. Hen and Chim close in, immediately shifting around Eddie, checking his pulse, his breathing, his pupils.
“I think he got knocked off the truck in the blast,'' Bobby reports. “He hit the ground, but he got back up pretty fast.”
Chimney gently starts helping Eddie out of his turnout jacket to pat him down for broken bones while Hen hums in acknowledgement. “I don't know, Bobby, he doesn't seem like he's in shock or anything. He might just be processing everything. I don’t think there’s anything we can actually do. Maybe we could give him something to help him calm down if he doesn't come out of this soon.”
“Hey, Eddie. Can you hear me?” Bobby speaks up. “Do you know where you are?” Eddie comes to life. Eddie's next breath sounds stuttered, hitching in his chest. He’s shuddering with painful breaths, body wracked with quiet sobs. Then Eddie is tipping backwards, knees giving out underneath him.
Bobby’s hands remain gripping Eddie’s shoulders and Chim braces Eddie against himself while Hen reaches in to press her hand against his forehead.
“Did he die? Is he gone?” Eddie gasps out the questions and Bobby feels as though the air in his own lungs had been sucked out.
Did Eddie not know? He must know, deep down he must. But he had been racing down the ladder to get back to Buck when Hen called out that Buck didn't have a pulse. He hadn't heard. No one had confirmed it for him.
“We got him back, Eddie,” Bobby reassures, and pushes his fingers through the younger man’s still wet hair. “We got him back. The doctors have him now. They are doing everything that they can.” Eddie tips forward, out of Chim’s grip to slump against Bobby’s chest with a quiet croak of Buck’s name. He embraces Eddie, he wraps his arms tight around Eddie, he reassures Eddie he's still here and he will stay here.
Bobby remembers back to just after Eddie had been rushed to the hospital after another bullet tore through his flesh and tried to take him away. He had done this for Buck. He had taken one look at Buck, standing frozen in the waiting room, staring blankly into the distance, absolutely covered in blood and dripping onto the linoleum flooring, and led him towards the nearest bathroom. He had carefully wiped him down, using damp paper towels that felt too rough and made Buck grunt in displeasure until he gave up and wiped the blood off Buck’s face with just his wet hands.
Athena had been there with them, rubbing sensation back into Buck’s arms, talking the whole way, hoping any of the random things she said would catch his attention, and then helping Bobby strip Buck of his blood stained button down and undershirt to pull on a sweatshirt she had found in the back of the car.
Buck had been stiff as a statue, quiet rage roiling within, slamming against its cage looking to explode outwards.
Eddie was tossing himself around in their arms, pushing away, trying to get back to Buck as fast as possible.
Once Eddie has settled and gone quiet, Hen and Chim slip from the bathroom, to try to talk to a doctor, to call Maddie if no one had already, to figure out something in this mess.
Bobby stays in place with Eddie for just a bit longer. Until he sniffles, until he swallows hard and smacks his lips. “Come on, Kid,” he decides and flinches when he remembers that he’d called Buck that name the moment he’d gotten his hands on him. Too grown, too big, too mature, but still so warm, so bright, so young. Still just a kid. Still his kid.
Bobby supports Eddie as they walk out of the bathroom and head towards the waiting room. He helps Eddie into the chair next to Hen and he slumps backwards, pliant and loose limbed, eyes already slipping shut.
“I'm going to go get you a drink before you pass out, Eddie,” Bobby looks over to Hen to confirm that he’s okay to step out, and once he gets it he moves down the hall towards the cafeteria.
When Bobby reaches the vending machine he feels everything slow down. He braces himself against the cool glass. Athena. He needs to call Athena.
“Sweetheart, is everything alright? That storm sounds like it's getting even worse,” his shoulders drop and his lungs fill with cold air. He’s just breathing, just listening, just soaking in her voice on the other end of the phone. “Bobby?” She sounds more concerned now, that hard, worried edge creeping into her voice.
“Athena, Buck’s down. It’s bad.”
+
When he returns to the waiting room with water bottles and granola bars, Hen and Eddie are almost exactly where he left them. Eddie is now curled against Hen, tucked under her chin, Hen’s arms wrapped around him, his own arms wrapped around his stomach.
His eyes are closed and his breaths are coming in evenly so he had most likely passed out while Bobby was gone.
Hen has tear tracks drying on her cheeks and she’s staring up at the tv mounted on the wall, eyes large and filled with horror. There's a good chance it’s playing the news. If it's about the storm, about another emergency, about an injured firefighter, Bobby doesn't want to see it.
“Hen,” he speaks up and her attention is immediately ripped from the screen. She looks like she'd been caught doing something she shouldn't be doing.
Like Harry when Bobby walked out into the backyard and caught him trying to climb over the fence to the neighbor's yard to get a ball that had bounced over. Like May when she had opened the front door to sneak out of the house right when Bobby was on the other side returning from a shift. Like Buck when he stole chunks of vegetables off the cutting board while Bobby made soup for lunch just a few days ago.
He offers her the water and food which she quickly accepts with the arm not wrapped around Eddie. “Where's Chim?” he whispers. She tips her head to the left and Bobby follows it to find Chimney pacing closer to the waiting room entrance, where Maddie will easily be able to see him when she finally arrives.
Bobby sinks down into the chair on Eddie’s other side while Hen slowly retracts her arm from around him. He wants to let him rest, but he really might be dehydrated, so he grips his shoulder and gently shakes him awake.
Eddie blinks his eyes open slowly, looking over to Bobby blearily. “Drink,” Bobby holds out the opened bottle, but Eddie continues to stare, not fully processing in his exhausted state. Bobby lifts the bottle and presses it to Eddie’s lips and he finally starts taking big sips.
He shifts to look at Hen on Eddie's other side while the younger man tears open a granola bar. “Any word?”
Her eyes cut over to the nurse’s station, then to Eddie nibbling the dry food, and then back to Bobby. “No, not yet. But no news is good news.” Her fingers clench around her water bottle and the plastic creaks. He reaches to drape his arm around Eddie’s shoulders and grip Hen’s nearest shoulder. She offers a small smile of gratitude.
“How's Eddie?” he asks. He absolutely trusts Hen to be able to do her job, but he just has to check. Buck isn't here to watch Eddie’s back, so Bobby will fill in for him for the meantime. “Nothing’s changed? He still doesn't need to be admitted?”
“I can hear you,'' Eddie has only eaten about half the granola bar so far, but he's still staring at the ground with that hollow look in his eyes.
“We can call someone over here real quick,” Bobby also trusts Eddie to speak up if he is actually in need of medical attention, or at least speak up once things have settled down. - According to May, Buck would be the person to wait until after the chaos to pull back his jacket and reveal a bullet wound. Bobby’s not sure where she got that from but he agrees. He means his comment more as a tease, gently poking the tired man, lightening the mood ever so slightly. Hen’s lips quirk up at the corners and Eddie lets out a choked sob.
“I’ve gotta call Carla. How am I supposed to tell Christopher?” There are no new tears, yet , but his face scrunches up like it’s preparing for them. Bobby quickly pulls Eddie back into another hug.
“Carla called your phone while you were out,” Hen says quietly, reaching to pull said phone out of her pocket to pass back to Eddie. Her gaze flicks over to the doors Buck had disappeared behind and then over to Chimney. “I told her what happened. Chris was asleep, but she’s gonna stay with him and you can talk to her in the morning to figure out what to do.”
“You're the best, Hen,” Eddie mumbles, breaths setting down to match Bobby’s.
There’s a shrill whirr of a police siren coming from outside the building.
On the other side of the room, Chimney’s call of Maddie catches their attention and the man rushes towards the glass doors and out of sight.
+
5 days later
When he stops by after a shift to check in, Bobby finds Eddie curled up next to Buck. He’s on the side with fewer lines and monitors attached, head pillowed on Buck’s chest, an arm and a leg draped over the still body. Buck is already so big that he only just fits in the hospital bed, and Bobby knows, logically, that Eddie can’t possibly be comfortable squished in between him and the edge of the bed, but in truth, there is nothing more comfortable than being near the people you love.
Christopher is asleep in the loveseat along the far wall, book dropped onto his stomach, open halfway. He had probably closed his eyes before Eddie got in next to Buck, otherwise he surely would have insisted on joining his dads.
Bobby sets down the muffins and juices he brought them on the table in the room before settling into the hard chair next to the bed.
The plastic creaks a little under him, but it’s enough that the snores coming from the bed stutter to a stop, muscles tensing reflexively, and a blue eye pops open, squinting against the light coming in from the hallway.
“Bobby,” he offers a small smile, still just a little out of it based on the haziness in his expression and the rasp in his voice.
“Hey, Kid,” Bobby leans forward to grip Buck’s extended hand. “How are you?”