Chapter Text
By the time Buck is regaining consciousness, he realizes that he's in a hell of a situation.
The last thing he remembers was telling Eddie that he was right behind him as the call for evacuation came from the warehouse fire they’d been called to. He remembers watching Eddie secure his harness to the ladder and start his descent down it. He remembers taking a step towards the edge of the roof, only to feel the concrete beneath his feet begin to crumble and envelope him into a cloud of smoke and flames.
He remembers thinking This is it. as he starts free-falling down one, two, three stories, feeling the oxygen tank on his back slamming into a solid surface, most likely the bottom level of the massive building before everything goes black.
It’s the soft bing of the tracking device located on him that is the first thing he notices. His head tries to focus on the here and now as he slowly comes to terms that he just fell 30 feet and boy, does he fucking feel it. He tries to take a deep breath, and it comes out in a ragged cough as he has inhaled more smoke than oxygen. At some time in the descent, his mask has been knocked off of him. He tries to turn his head to look for the missing equipment only to be met with pain so fire-hot, he can’t help the scream that escapes his lips.
Well, that’s not good , he thinks wildly to himself and tries to calm himself and preserve what lung capacity he still has. He tries to focus on testing his motor function, first with his fingers. Okay, those are at least working and he can bend his left arm. His right, however, is trapped beneath a massive slab of concrete, which is also pinning down his right leg. He tries to at least wiggle the toes, and feels nothing.
Shit.
He wiggles the toes of his left foot and wants to sigh in relief that he can at least feel them moving against his boot. But the pain in his neck and the pressure of the concrete against the right side of his body that has him pinned, not to mention the pain of the oxygen tank still strapped to his back, makes him whimper. This situation is far more severe and devastating than the truck bombing incident that occurred several years ago. It surpasses even the intense sensation of lightning coursing through his veins, an experience he had just a few months prior.
Buck is acutely aware of the fact that he is inescapably trapped and that time is rapidly running out for him.
He knows he’s most likely going to die in this inferno raging around him.
The radio's static on his shoulder pulls him from his temporary panic. He can hear Bobby’s frantic but at the same time, calm voice coming through the speaker, calling his name repeatedly.
Another ragged cough escapes his lips as he reaches with his left hand to press the button on the side of his radio and he managed to choke out a reply.
“T-this is B-Buckley,” he manages to ground out. “I…I’m trapped.”
There’s a pause before Bobby replies, and Buck knows his team is surrounding their captain. He knows they’re trying to determine his location in this warehouse, and how they’re going to bring him home.
He just doesn’t think it’s going to happen this time.
“Buck, we’ve got your location,” Bobby says, his voice calm and soothing as it reverberates through his ear. “We’re going to get you out, kid. Just hang tight.”
“Too late,” Buck replies, and he coughs again. The smoke is getting more dense, and the heat is starting to get warmer. “M-mask was pulled off…when I fell.”
His breathing is getting heavier, and his lungs are on fire with each gasp he takes.
“Bobby,” he chokes out, and can’t bring himself to say anything else. How does one say goodbye to the man that’s become a father figure to you? How does one put another man through the loss of losing yet another child?
And he knows his team is there, listening through their own radios. How does he tell the team that’s come to be his family that he loves them and he’s sorry? Sorry for once again putting them through this hell that seems to come second nature with their job?
“It’s okay, kid,” Bobby replies and Buck notices time there’s a heaviness in his tone that wasn’t there before. “The team’s on their way to you.”
He can hear in the distance the clanging and shouts of his team, their found family that’s become closer than their flesh and blood over the years. He hears Chimney’s voice telling him to hang on, Hen’s soothing tone through the radio they are bringing him home. Eddie pleas to stay strong for him and Christopher.
Christopher.
The tears that had been threatening to fall when he last called for his captain now freely run down his cheeks, making tracks in the dust and grim as they disappear further down his face. He’s never going to see him grow up, or even see him win the science fair they have been working on for the last month. He’s not going to be there to help Eddie tackle the stubborn teenage years that he’s about to enter, or comfort Eddie when he and Christopher have the constant fights that come with growing up.
He’s not going to be able to tell the kid that’s come to be like a son that he loves him one last time.
And he knows he needs to tell Eddie to pass the message along to him. He needs to tell Chimney to tell Maddie that he’s so proud of her and him. That he loves his niece more than anything in the world. He needs to tell Chimney that he’s so proud of his sister. And he needs to tell Hen that she’s just as much of his sister as Maddie is. And he needs to tell Eddie.
Oh god, he needs to tell Eddie -
But just as he begins to contemplate the idea, his heartbeat gradually slows down, and his physical state grows lethargic, capitulating once more to the all-encompassing shadows that envelop him.