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On principle, Bobby really tries not to hate people. He’s very aware of the kinds of circumstances that can push a person to their breaking point, and if the universe has deemed him worthy of a second chance, he tries to give other people the same mercy when he can.
Apparently he met his match.
Even before he met the couple, he fostered a strong dislike for Phillip and Margaret Buckley. Even before he heard stories of what they’d done and found out about their firstborn son, he’d noticed more than enough signs of a less-than-pleasant parenting style just from Buck’s mannerisms and behavior around the station.
Meeting the pair for the first time, though…it was somehow worse than he’d ever imagined.
He’d never seen someone come so close to reacting appropriately and yet, so far. Before Margaret had even entered the ICU waiting room, she’d been crying. A very understandable reaction for a mother, except she wasn’t crying because her son was in a coma, no. She was crying because she was being forced to visit him in the hospital when she’d wanted to stay home.
Even if he could find it within himself to sympathize with her for the trauma of losing her son, especially when cancer was such a horrible thing for any child to go through, but he knew better than anyone what that kind of grief was like. The thought of letting another child suffer just because one child’s life was unfortunately cut short was too far. The way he saw it, one lost relationship was more than enough. The Buckley parents proceeding to neglect their children as a result of their grief was something Bobby could’ve never been able to do in their shoes.
Phillip was no better. He stood back, almost disapprovingly, acting as if the whole situation was nothing more than an inconvenience to him. He seemed more concerned about his wife’s discomfort due to being in a hospital than his own son’s health.
And yet, the both jumped at any chance to make decisions, asking every nurse that passed through the waiting room if there was any paperwork they needed to sign or treatments that required approval.
Fortunately, for a while at least, they kept flagging down nurses who weren’t even involved with Buck’s care, and therefore had no answers for either of them, but eventually they had to get lucky.
Bobby knew the gist of Buck’s medical details. He had to, considering LAFD policy, but he wasn’t surprised the the younger man hadn’t relayed the same information to his parents. He had been named as Buck’s emergency contact after Maddie left for Boston and he hadn’t changed it back. He had initially said it was to give his sister less to worry about while she was adjusting to taking care of Jee, but Bobby didn’t need a reason. He was honored to do it nonetheless.
And he knew Eddie was Buck’s power of attorney. That hadn’t been broadcasted to the rest of the family, but Bobby had a feeling it was obvious enough that it didn’t need to be said.
Still, he couldn’t help the uneasy feeling in his gut every time the older couple tried to insert their authority when his son’s life was hanging in the balance.
It would’ve been bad enough even if they weren’t actively fighting with Maddie every time she insisted that no, just because Buck’s team members happened to be strangers to them, didn’t mean that they had any less of a right to be present there in the waiting room. Especially considering their logic seemed to be that there was no way that their son would have so many people in his life who would be at the hospital, sitting vigil in the middle of the night, simply because they loved him enough to want to be there. Whether the Buckleys interpreted that as some sort of jab at the very obvious fact that the two of them wouldn’t be there if Maddie hadn’t made them come, or they genuinely believed that no one could care about their son that much, Bobby hated it.
There, he said it.
He hated their attitudes and he hated how they treated their children and he hated the hold they had on Buck and——
Fine, he hated them.
If anyone deserved his hatred, it was them. Anyone who could look at a kid like Buck and not devote themselves to caring for him and doing anything in their power to keep him safe was not someone he had any interest in forgiving.
He found himself chatting with one of Buck’s nurses—a kind woman he’d met during his last stint in the hospital to treat his gunshot wound. She knew about the 118, their experience with hospital stays, and more importantly, knew Bobby was having a particularly difficult time with Buck being in the hospital after finally coming to terms with seeing the younger man as more of a son than just a coworker. Olivia was sweet, gentler than most nurses that had grown weary and detached from so many years on the job. The downside to that, of course, was that she was always a bit hesitant to stand her ground and defend her knowledge in the face of panicked patients and their families whose anxiety and grief had turned to anger.
She just happened to be in unlucky company that night.
Phillip Buckley had an unfortunate habit of jumping to conclusions, it seemed.
“Excuse me, sir, I have your son’s bloodwork results,” a nurse he only vaguely recognized said with a smile, appearing in the waiting room with a clipboard in hand. Out of instinct, Bobby stood and approached her.
After all, Olivia had been calling him that since she was entrusted with Buck’s care, referring to him as Bobby’s or Athena’s son as she kept the family updated throughout his surgery and subsequent care. He assumed it had started as a joke, but the more she continued to say it, the more genuine it felt.
He supposed it only made sense that some of the other nurses had taken note and overheard, assuming that since Olivia knew the patients and had been trusted with more person information, that it must’ve been accurate.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for everyone who had heard them.
A rough yank to his shoulder sent Bobby stumbling, whipping his head around to look behind him. There stood Phillip Buckley, of course, red in the face and scowling at Bobby.
“She didn’t call for you,” the man sneered, eyes flicking to Bobby’s abandoned waiting room seat beside Athena. “I’m pretty sure my name’s the one on his birth certificate, asshole.”
He tried, okay?
He really tried to just convince himself that it was the stress of an overwhelming night that was getting to him and Phillip surely just needed to blow off some steam, but it was too late.
“I’m pretty sure mine’s the one authorized to receive his medical records,” Bobby returned as calmly as he could manage despite the searing rage bubbling up inside him. He stepped around the man hoping to get out of arm’s reach. “Buck has made it very clear who he wants involved in his medical proceedings—“
Phillip just scoffed, shaking his head.
“This is a fuckin’ joke,” he huffed. “He’s my son, I’ve got more than enough paperwork that says so. I don’t care what this hospital thinks he wants, he’s not making any decisions without his mother and I.”
Christ, he was so easy to despise.
“Sir?” The nurse spoke up again, thank god, catching the attention of both men. “I actually was speaking to Mr. Nash. All of our patients’ wishes are respected in regards to confidentiality with their care. There’s nothing stopping family members from sharing details amongst yourselves, but for myself and the rest of our staff, we’re only authorized to release information to those on Mr. Buckley’s approved list of contacts.”
The words might as well have been a bomb dropped on the waiting room, a thick haze of discomfort settling like a fog.
“Where’s your legal department?” Phillip seethed, not letting an ounce of verbal outburst seep through. Just the sheer composure of his tone was so telling.
He was fighting with all he had for something so unimportant compared to everything else he could choose to care about.
Bobby couldn’t do that. He couldn’t react like that, he just couldn’t. Honestly, he’d be willing to bet that no one in their family could.
“In fact—“ Phillip paused, turning and waving over a security guard. “This man is intervening with my family’s treatment and refuses to leave.” He jabbed an accusatory finger at Bobby, gesturing to himself and his wife with sympathy as if they were just trying to take care of their son. “He has no relation to us, nor my son, and yet continues to insert himself in our family’s personal matters.”
The guard looked skeptically at Bobby.
“Is this correct, sir?”
Just as he opened his mouth to explain, Athena appeared at his side.
“Sergeant Athena Grant, LAPD,” she explained, introducing herself to the guard with a handshake. “You see, my husband here is listed as their son’s emergency point of contact. They’re simply unhappy with the hospital’s policy that only those listed as viable contacts in a patient’s records can be involved in the decisions of the patient’s care.”
Just like that, Phillip’s composure vanished.
“These people are trying to keep me from my son,” he fired back. “They’ve been doing it for years.”
Jesus, it was an impossible battle.
“If—if I may,” another voice spoke up behind them. Bobby whipped his head around to find Olivia standing there, sweetly unassuming as ever to the untrained eye. “I’ve treated our patient Mr. Buckley here, quite a few times over the years. On multiple occasions, Mr. and Mrs. Buckley were contacted and offered information regarding their son’s previous care, but our efforts were rejected. After his last stay, Mr. Buckley was encouraged to change his emergency contacts to someone who would be more receptive to our outreach for the sake of his safety.”
Bobby had to bite his tongue to resist snickering with laughter, but the rest of their group didn’t exactly bother with the gesture. Eddie, in particular, snorted a muffled laugh, hiding his smirk behind his hand. Even his wife, ever professional, had a grin like a cat who just got the cream, nodding towards the guard as if to say, “see? I told you.”
The guard sighed, nodding as he folded his arms across his chest.
“Thank you, miss,” he said to Olivia, who smiled before disappearing back into Buck’s room. “As for you—sir, ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to leave if you are unwilling to respect our patient’s wishes and respect the decisions made by our staff.”
Bobby wished he had a picture of the looks on Phillip and Margaret’s faces. He had a feeling Buck would like to see it once he woke up.
“You can’t—“ Phillip protested at first before his wife’s hand was placed on his arm.
“Phillip, honey,” she spoke softly, sadness on her face in that fake-sympathetic way. It was she same sadness she always held, the kind harboring grief of decades past. There was no change in her demeanor in the time since the tragic circumstances that had befallen her son. “I want to leave.”
It was more than any of them expected her to say, that much was obvious just from looking at the way the others reacted, but Maddie…Maddie looked so torn. Tied between relief at finally getting her parents away from her actual family, but also devastation that yet again, they had been so quick to give up on Buck when it counted.
“Margaret—“ Phillip tried, but the woman just shook her head.
“No more hospitals.” Her face didn’t give anything away, not that there seemed to be any stifled emotions behind her words. She was just…done. “Evan will call us when he wants us.”
Which won’t happen, Bobby mentally corrected, relief settling. He knew how badly Buck craved that his parents would find it in themselves to care enough to give him the love every child deserved from their parents, but when it came down to the parents he was born to or the parents he chose, Bobby knew the Buckleys wouldn’t be getting a phone call.
“Well, Mr. Nash, if you’d like to go over that bloodwork…?” Olivia spoke up again with a faint smile. “I’d love to walk you through our plans for your son’s treatment.”
With Athena hanging off his arm, a grounding weight keeping him stable, it finally felt like they could all get through this together.
“Yeah,” he smiled down at his wife. “Let’s go see our boy.”