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Buck was exhausted, to put it simply. He hasn’t been sleeping much. Ever since the lawsuit and now making amends with everyone on the team, Buck’s been trying to prove himself worthy to the team. He knows there’s no reason for this, because pretty much everyone has forgiven him. Eddie’s forgiven him. But, Buck still feels like there’s a lot left to prove. He has a lot to make up for.
The team just got back from a pretty rough call. There had been quite an incident where a woman fell over a cliff, her husband tried to help her and ended up falling too. The rope rescue took it out of Buck.
“Hey Buck, you wanna come over tonight?” Eddie asks as they climb out of the firetruck. “Christopher’s been asking about you coming over. I thought we could have pizza and movie night, like old times.”
Buck hesitates, because that sounds really nice right now, and he’s certainly missed Christopher. He’s only seen the kid a couple times since he and Eddie have made up. “I’d love that Eds, but I think I’m just gonna head home tonight. I need to catch up on some sleep. Tomorrow?”
“Yeah, that should work. I have tomorrow off, so come over whenever you want,” Eddie says.
“Cool. I’ll be there,” Buck says, nodding.
“Come on, I heard Bobby talking that he was going to make some lunch,” Eddie says, gently nudging Buck, starting to head towards the lost where most of the team has already headed.
“I’ll be there in a sec. I gotta use the bathroom real fast,” Buck says, giving Eddie a reassuring smile before he starts heading towards the bathroom. He’s almost to the bathroom when he suddenly starts feeling a little nauseous, which causes him to become dizzy. Buck stops, and quickly holds onto the wall to keep himself balanced. Buck does not want to pass out at the station.
Buck takes a little longer in the bathroom than he’d like. He gets a weird look from Eddie when he finally makes his way up to the kitchen. Buck just gives him one of his signature smiles and starts cracking jokes with Chimney. He didn’t need the attention on him so soon after the lawsuit.
Buck barely makes it through the rest of his shift. He earns some weird looks from his co-workers when he suddenly becomes a little quiet, but Buck tries to ignore those weird looks. He tries to focus on finishing his shift so he can go home and try to get some much needed rest.
When he does finally get home, Buck doesn’t feel any better. Buck heads upstairs to his bathroom, hoping to find some Tylenol PM somewhere, hoping that maybe it will help knock him out for the night.
Buck blinks when he flicks the bathroom lights on, groaning when his vision becomes blurry.
Buck opens the medicine cabinet, and he tries to find what he’s looking for, but he can’t see anything. Before he knows it, he’s falling to the floor, and everything goes black.
~
When Buck wakes next, there’s loud talking and commotion around him. Buck groans, and slowly starts blinking his eyes, trying to wake up fully. As his eyes open, all he can see if white, and he instantly knows that he’s in the hospital. As if he hadn’t spent enough time in the hospital during his leg recovery.
“Buck!”
“Too loud. Headache,” Buck groans. He looks up, and he recognizes Eddie’s worried face.
“Sorry,” Eddie says quieter. “Buck, you're an idiot. Do you know that?”
“Yeah, of course I know that. But, wh- what have I done this time?” Buck asks, blinking.
Eddie shakes his head. “I’m going to get a nurse, and then I’m going to yell at you, okay?” He says, before turning and heading out of the hospital room. A moment later, he returns with a nurse.
Buck recognizes her, she’s cared for him in the past during some of his hospital stays.
“Mr. Buckley,” she greets. “I wish I could say it’s nice to see you again, but not in this condition.”
“I know,” Buck grumbles. “It’s not like I’m trying to keep getting stuck in the hospital. The job…”
“From what it sounds like, this time… it wasn’t because of the job?” She asks.
Buck lets out a sigh, before nodding. “I haven’t been sleeping very well, but it’s not like I can really afford to call off. It’s only been a couple months since the lawsuit, and I’m-” He glances over at Eddie, before looking back at the nurse. “I’m still trying to, you know… make up for all of that.”
“Buck, that’s-”
“Mr. Diaz, I can take it from here, thank you,” she quickly cuts him off, and then walks over to Buck. “Okay. Let’s get you checked over, Mr. Buckley. I don’t think anything is seriously wrong. It should be a quick recovery, but I would suggest taking a few days off from work. Doctor’s orders.”
Buck groans, leaning his head back against the pillow. That was the last thing he wanted to hear.
Eddie stays by Buck’s side most of the day, keeping him company.
Buck’s not surprised that Eddie demands that Buck comes home with him, claiming that Buck shouldn’t be alone and he’ll need someone to look after him. Buck is too tired to argue with Eddie.
“Will Christopher be okay with this?” Buck asks as they pull into Eddie’s driveway.
“Man, Christopher has been asking me repeatedly when his Buck is coming over. He’s going to be thrilled that you’ll stay with us for a couple of days. We have movie nights to catch up on,” Eddie says.
Buck sucks in a deep breath, because that was the last thing he expected to hear from Eddie, but it makes Buck happy. It means things are finally going back to how they should be, how they used to be.
“Yeah,” Buck whispers. “That sounds great. Thank you, Eddie.”
“Don’t thank me. Just don’t do anything stupid like that again,” Eddie warns.
Buck chuckles. “You know I can’t make that promise,” he whispers.
“I know,” Eddie says, before stepping closer to Buck. “Luckily, I understand, but that won’t stop me from worrying about you, Buck. If I hadn’t gone to check on you-”
“Wait, you’re the one who found me?” Buck asks, frowning.
“Bobby called me after your shift, told me that you were acting weird earlier, and I agreed, so I wanted to make sure you were okay. When you didn’t answer my five phone calls, I knew something was wrong, and I had to come see for myself. You were passed out on the bathroom floor, Buck. There was pills-”
“It’s not like,” Buck says quickly, his eyes widening. “I would never. I was just so tired…”
“Okay,” Eddie whispers. “I believe you. I promise, I believe you.”
Buck slowly nods. “I’ll do better, I promise,”
“None of that shit, okay? We’re going to focus on your recovery so you can get back to being Buck, okay?” Eddie says, and gently nudges Buck. “Okay?”
Buck huffs out a laugh, and nods. “Okay, I promise,” he says, and he allows Eddie to guide him to the living room. At least this recovery won’t be as miserable as his last, and he’ll have Eddie and Christopher.