Archive of Our Own

“Buck!” Buck looked up at the sound of his name, his hands dripping from where he’d dunked them into the icy full cooler. Bobby hooked a thumb over his shoulder out towards the crowd. “You and Eddie are up next.”

“Sounds good!” Buck said before he handed the two water bottles in his hands off to the couple that had wandered over to them when they spied the sign about free water. There weren’t a lot of things for free in LA, not even at a street festival, but the LAFD’s policy was that the price of a few cases of water was better than stretching their crews thin dealing with dehydration cases. “Here you go! Have fun. Anything good out there?”

“This,” Hen said, spearing her spork into her bourbon chicken piled high on a full bed of rice. “But that line is going to eat up your whole break.”

“Yeah and the food truck lines aren’t much better so I’d divide and conquer.” Chimney added, shoving his hands into the case of water and flinging his hands clean onto his pants. 

Buck’s stomach rumbled in interest despite her warning. Hen heard his curious noise and made a face before she scooped the smallest piece of chicken and rice. Buck cheered as she held out the spork and took a bite. The flavor burst across his tongue and Buck moaned as the sweet tangy sauce made his mouth water. 

Hen pulled out the spork away and pointed it at him. “Don’t be weird, Buck.”

“But it’s so good!” Buck shot up and looked around until he spotted Eddie. “Eddie! We’ve got to get the chicken. It’s worth it.”

“Just get something to eat and get back here,” Bobby said, still handing out water. “We’ve got another four hours before another house relieves us and I’m not dealing with any hanger arguments on the truck ride back to the station.”

“That wouldn’t be a thing if the department took my suggestion of a snack compartment seriously!” Chimney pointed out. 

Bobby rolled his eyes skyward before he fixed Buck and Eddie with a look. “Just go.”

“We’ll be quick,” Eddie said, already ushering Buck away from where he was trying to steal some more of Hen’s food. “Do you want anything, Cap?”

“I’m fine,” Bobby said, waving them off. 

Buck bounced once before he spun on his heel and drifted into the flow of foot traffic with Eddie beside him. 

He loved festivals. Always had. Even when he was a kid, he would ride his bike to the center of town so he could spend his allowance on the rides and games and all the fried food he could get his hands on. The trek back home always felt so much heavier from his legs aching and his fingers clutching a too warm bag of kettle corn for Maddie. He’d even stopped in a few towns and worked a couple of festivals for some extra cash when he’d been young and stupid and traveling around to see a bright new world he’d never been allowed to explore. 

Being on duty didn’t change that love either. They didn’t get assigned festival duty often. Usually personnel could volunteer for some extra hours if they’d like. But the outreach coordinator for the department had started becoming more and more creative as of late to make the LAFD seem more accessible to the community. A lot of the higher ups grumbled about the politics of it all but Buck didn’t mind. It was nice to go out and do something a little different. 

Plus, given the sheer size of the festival— stretching all the way down the length of four city blocks with people packed in like sardines between the rows and rows of booths— a house would’ve been assigned to it anyway. 

“I don’t want to influence your decision,” Buck said to Eddie as they merged into the natural flow of the crowd, his eyes narrowing in on the sign for bourbon chicken ahead of them. “But that chicken may be the new love of my life.” 

A hand latched onto his and pulled Buck to the side. Eddie’s fingers were warm but damp from the water but Buck didn’t mind. Not when the thrill of Eddie holding his hand in public shot through him like his heart had grown wings. 

“Thought that was supposed to be me,” Eddie said. 

Buck beamed down at their hands, a warmth spreading up into his cheeks. 

Everything about them was still so new and Buck would’ve happily spent the rest of his life holding Eddie’s hand. He just didn’t know how much he could take. He never wanted to rush Eddie and Buck refused to screw up one of the most important relationships in his life by being too clingy. So he let Eddie set the pace. 

Eddie’s head went on a swivel but his lips were quirked up into a quiet, mischievous smile that was all for show. Buck had a feeling Eddie wouldn’t mind if the others caught them and to be honest, Buck wouldn’t either. But it was kind of nice having something just between the two of them that they didn’t have to share yet. Eddie pulled Buck’s arm and wrapped it around his own waist. He tipped his chin up and that was all Buck needed to get with the picture. 

He hoped there never came a time where he got tired of kissing Eddie. 

“Hi baby,” Eddie said against his lips, stealing another kiss because he could. His voice was a low rumble of a sound that sent a shiver down Buck’s spine. 

“Hi,” Buck said, nuzzling his nose against Eddie’s. 

They weren’t even halfway through a shift but it had felt like eons since he’d gotten to hold Eddie in his arms. He wrapped his other arm around Eddie’s waist and held him tight, chasing after his lips for another indulgent kiss he’d been missing since they’d left Eddie’s place to drive into their shift in separate vehicles. 

Buck could’ve gotten lost in the taste of Eddie’s kiss and he was pretty sure he did because one moment Eddie was hypnotizing him with the way his thumb was pressing little circles into his hip and the next, the mildly annoyed booth owner was clearing her throat until they broke apart. 

“Are you boys interested in any soap?” She asked, arching a brow at the display they were very obviously blocking. 

“Oh! Uh…” Heat bloomed up into Buck’s cheeks. 

“Sorry,” Eddie said, pushing Buck a little away while still holding his hand. “I’m trying to distract this one from wasting our lunch break by waiting in line for some fair chicken.”

Buck sputtered. “You— Bourbon chicken is a festival staple! It was delicious!”

The woman nodded as she looked to Eddie. 

“I have to agree with your boyfriend,” she said and Buck got a little dizzy with how good it was to hear someone else call him that. “The chicken is pretty legendary.”

“Ha!” Buck cried. Eddie looked unimpressed as his eyebrow arched above his sunglasses. Buck deflated a little. “What do you want?” 

Eddie, the traitor, shrugged. “I don’t care. A hot dog maybe?” 

“A hot dog?” Buck said, not bothering to hide his disgust. “We can literally get that anywhere. We could—”

The explosion rocked a shockwave of panic into Buck’s lungs. 

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Instincts flared into Buck’s veins and he grabbed onto Eddie, pushing him down as the horrible ricochet sent them catapulting into disorienting chaos. Someone screamed as lights flashed and smoke filled the air and Eddie’s fingernails dug into Buck’s arm until it hurt as he shoved Buck underneath him. 

Boom! Boom!

The concrete felt like it was rumbling beneath them. Their radios whirled to life at their hips 

“Dispatch, 118! This is Captain Nash! We have multiple explosions—”

Buck didn’t know who screamed as another explosion popped closer to them, making Eddie practically pancake him onto the ground. Buck’s ears rang in a throbbing wave with his pulse as his senses rattled around in his skull. People were screaming! Running! Trying to get away but ending up lost in the consuming smoke that took the beautiful clear day and dashed it away into something grey and terrifying. The sound of skin skidding across the pavement turned Buck’s stomach. 

Glass shattered around them as one of the tables of soap fell sideways with a sharp crack. 

“Oh my God!” The woman yelled, her panic making her scramble on the ground even as the tent dividing her booth with the one beside it started to cave. 

“Eddie!” Buck called out and Eddie looked up just as the metal piping groaned beneath the weight of the roof. 

Something crashed into the wall as hands pounded at the plastic from people running and screaming. The tent was going to collapse! And there were people too caught up in the chaos to go around! All it would take would be one push and they’d be trampled. 

“Up!” Eddie said, reaching over to grab her arm. “Up! Up!” 

The woman cried out as Eddie all but dragged her to her feet with Buck’s hand fisted in his uniform so he didn’t get swept away with the stampede of people. 

Smoke was filling the air until it was hard to breathe, hard to see, and there was no stopping rapidly building panic that spread into everyone’s senses. 

Buck twisted his hand in Eddie’s shirt and pulled as yanked them all out. The booth groaned before it collapsed in a clatter of glass and metal but it didn’t matter. Buck was swinging Eddie and the woman around to press against the side of the building before they were overrun. 

“118! 118! I need a headcount!” Bobby’s voice cried out from the radio. 

Names of their team flew through the radio with a background of chaos in every one. Hen and Chimney were with Bobby trying to break into the hysteria. Jensen and John were stuck standing on top of the truck to avoid being trampled. Their LAPD presence was overwhelmed and Buck and Eddie were pinned down. 

“That way! Go!” Eddie waved the woman down the alleyway they’d slipped into and watched as she ran away from the chaos. 

Buck’s instincts were still firing on all cylinders and everything in him was screaming at him to go help. 

“Buckley and Diaz reporting!” Buck grunted as Eddie yanked him back just in time before a wave of people nearly took him with them. “We’re pinned down on the Charlie side of the three hundred block on the street but we can’t see where.” 

The vendors had been divided in numbered blocks to help first responders and organizers navigate the fair but none of that did them any good if they couldn’t see! The smoke was a thick as the densest fog and sat heavy on their lungs. People were disoriented, screaming and crying as they tried to run for their lives, while hacking as they inhaled more and more smoke. 

“Stay low! Stay—” Eddie wheezed out a thick cough before he lifted. His radio bleeped as he clicked it on his belt, his hand digging into Buck’s arm. “We’ve got a lot of smoke. No idea how many casualties, Cap.”

“Copy!” Bobby responded, his voice tight but even. “Try and get people to safety but be careful! We still don’t know what we’re dealing with. LAPD, what’s the status—”

“You see any fire?” Buck asked, trying to find a heat source somewhere. The sidewalk had been littered with generators and all kinds of accelerants. If something had caught fire, they would be looking at a much bigger problem. 

Eddie lifted his t-shirt collar over his face and shifted around Buck peering around him. 

“No! I can’t see— omph!”  

One minute Eddie’s fingers were digging bruises into Buck’s arm and the next he was crashing to the ground as an older man ran into him at full speed. The man crashed on top of Eddie and bounced off the sidewalk into the street as Eddie gasped in pain. 

“Eddie!” 

Buck’s heart lodged in his throat as he dove out from their cover. Buck dodged three other people, thankful for his football experience for the first time in years, as he tried to fight the stream to get to Eddie. 

Eddie cried out as someone else tripped over him and he was helpless to do anything but throw his arms over his head as he tried not to get trampled. The older man that had taken him down was met with the same treatment but somehow managed to stumble back up to his feet before he was running again.

“Eddie!” Buck didn’t know what part of Eddie he managed to grab but once he did, he refused to let go. 

Eddie latched onto Buck and Buck half rolled, half dragged them to press against the building. Buck’s hip screamed as a foot caught on him and a girl who couldn’t be more than seventeen skidded to the ground. 

“Buck!” Eddie cried, reaching out to try and get her from around Buck’s chest where he was shielding Eddie. Buck stretched and yanked the girl up before she got caught. She screeched as she tried to yank away but Eddie was already pushing up and swinging her around to the alleyway.

“That way! Go that way!” 

A few wild gazes latched onto them and their LAFD t-shirts and Eddie jumped at their first break in the haze of panic. 

“This way! The smoke isn’t too bad! C’mon!” 

A herd reaction formed as people broke from the stream and went down the alleyway. Their first grasp of control felt like a breath of fresh air even as the smoke thickened. 

  “Help!” 

         “There are people back there!” 

       “Mom? Mom!”

There were people still lost, possibly trapped, and Buck’s eyes met Eddie’s as they both realized what they had to do. 

Eddie’s fingers snatched onto the leather strap of Buck’s radio.

“Be careful,” he said, his voice thickening with an emotion Buck would’ve missed a few weeks earlier when he was still so certain that Eddie could never love someone like him. 

“You too.” They didn’t know what they were in the middle of. 

Eddie always said that war zones were his thing but that didn’t mean Buck had to like it and he liked it even less having to leave him alone. But there were people hurt and needing help and they had a job to do. 

Eddie’s knuckles dug into his sternum as he pushed him away. They didn’t kiss. Not while they were working when it could be a kiss goodbye. That had been something they had decided their very first shift. No goodbyes. But the ache from Eddie’s knuckles said enough and Buck took off running. 

Wading through the chaos was like being swept up in a tsunami again. Buck was caught going up current and even though the massive rush of people was starting to thin out, there were still people breaking through the smoke. His eyes burned as he scanned the ground for anyone while he tried not to get caught either. Tables had been overturned and booths had been destroyed. People were hobbling with tears and sweat streaked down their faces and the sharp scent of blood on hot pavement had Buck’s stomach rolling. Blood and… Sulfer? Fireworks?

No, that wasn’t right. There hadn’t been any cracking or popping and even duds didn’t smoke that much. It was like a wall that enveloped the whole area, making it impossible to see. 

Smoke bombs? 

A woman yelped as someone stepped on her ankle and Buck grabbed her before she could face plant on the crowd. 

“LAFD! Please remain calm!” Buck called out to the crowd. “Keep going straight!”

Another woman appeared, coughing and wheezing as they helped someone with a very obviously broken leg. Blood oozed down from their knee and Buck grabbed his radio. 

“We’ve got walking wounded headed your way, Eddie!”

“Copy!”

“Here! Here!” Buck waved them over, directing them to the buildings. “Use the buildings to help you.”

“What’s going on?” They asked but Buck shook his head. 

“I don’t know but keep going to safety.”

He would’ve carried them if he could but he needed to see what they were dealing with in terms of injuries on the ground. He hurried back into the flow and spun around trying to find where he’d left off. 

“LAFD!” Buck shouted, his chest tightening as the intensity of the sulfur filled his lungs. “Make a noise! Call out!”

Buck felt the soft breeze caress the back of his neck and spotted the lump off to the side of the road out of the corner of his eye. The outstretched hand called to him like a beacon and his stomach sank. 

They weren’t moving. 

“Hey!” Buck ran over to them and skidded to his knees beside the person. He latched onto the wrist and pressed down, searching for a pulse. His heart nearly leapt out of his chest when he felt a steady beat beneath his fingertips. 

A distinct, deep masculine rumble of a groan fell from the man and Buck settled a hand on his back when he started to stir. 

“Sir, don’t move. You’ve been in an accident.” Accident was an understatement. He’d nearly been trampled to death! Buck tried to search for any blood but it was hard when the man was face down. He could roll him but Buck couldn’t rule out spinal injury. There wasn’t much he could do until the others arrived. “I’m a firefighter. You’re going to be okay. Can you tell me your name?”

The man grumbled something Buck couldn’t catch. His ears were still ringing with the pounding of his heart beat. Careful not to put any of his weight on him, Buck leaned down and tried to hear him better. 

“Say that agai—”

Buck felt the agonizing burn before he registered the spray of the oily mist hitting his face. Scorching pinpricks of pain burrowed deep into his pores and spread like poison until all his nerves were on fire! His eyes burned, blurring out the world into a film of agonizing shards piercing into the back of his skull. 

Buck fell back with an aborted scream that ripped past Buck’s lips with knives that cut up his throat. He’d inhaled before he realized and the fire was spreading, filling his lungs until he couldn’t breathe! His eyes watered but the tears clawed down his face, spreading the pepper spray across his cheeks. 

Buck’s lungs screamed and then so was Buck, writhing on the ground as his fight or flight froze. 

He couldn’t breathe! He couldn’t see! His sinuses felt like a grenade had been set off and were pulsing in his face. His body was caught in a battle between trying to flood the pepper spray out of his system and shutting down as the pain overtook him.

“Buck!” 

Eddie. Eddie was near! Eddie would’ve heard him! Eddie—

“Get him up!” 

Unfamiliar hands grabbed at him and Buck was helpless to help. Thick mucus fell in a string of spit as he heaved, trying to eject the part of the spray that had gotten into his mouth. Another set of hands grabbed his legs and Buck gritted his teeth as he palmed his eyes, only just stopping himself from rubbing. 

“You got him?” 

“Yeah!” 

“Lift!” 

Buck’s limbs felt too heavy to be as weightless as they were.

Pepper spray! Sulfur! All his thoughts were as disjointed as Buck felt but he couldn’t see! He couldn’t see and everything hurt because someone had attacked—

Eddie! He needed to warn Eddie and the others. 

Pepper spray! Sulfur! 

The people helping him wouldn’t know to warn the others! Survival would be the only thing consuming their brains and if there was another attack they would drop Buck and he’d be blind to where he was. 

His radio bleeped next to his chin and Buck flinched. 

“Buck! Buck, come in! Where are you?” Eddie. Eddie’s voice was a warble in Buck’s ear as reality distorted. 

Buck could only see grey but he felt fire! Fire on his skin. Fire in his eyes. His lungs. 

He scrambled for his radio with numb fingers as he inhaled but even that was too much. His chest seized up the way fire swelled at the first hint of oxygen and Buck was in agony. 

“His radio!” 

Yes! His radio! Someone would be able to help them figure out what to do on his radio. He couldn’t speak, wheezing and choking on his own spit that burned like acid at the back of his throat, but he tried nodding his head. His neck didn’t feel connected to the rest of his body but someone was grabbing his radio for him and pulled. His belt dug into his hips and Buck whined as the added sensation of pressure almost sent him careening into oblivion. 

“It’s clipped to him!” 

“Well cut it off!” 

They were panicking. Buck could hear it over the ringing in his ears. They didn’t need to do anything but press the button. 

“Firefighter Buckley!” That was Bobby. “Firefighter Buckley report!”

“Fuck!” Someone bit out and Buck’s legs dropped to the ground. Arms latched around his chest and Buck choked down the bile as the world twisted and refused to stop. 

Another set of hands latched onto his belt, yanking until it almost hurt. 

Something… wasn’t right. Buck blinked past the cloudy haze of pain but he couldn’t see. Just blurry shapes as someone got closer and closer until Buck thought they were going to swallow him whole. Something wasn’t right. Something was wrong!

Sulfur and smoke! Pepper spray! Hands! Too many hands!

Buck lashed out and his palm connected with the inflexible line of a chin. 

“Ow! Fuck! Hold him would you!” 

“N-No!” Buck scrambled to break free as the arms tightened around him to a punishing unyielding strength. He kicked out, wriggling in their grip but he couldn’t see the world was tipping in a way that was going to make him hurl. “Get off! Get—”

“Buck!” 

A hand swept up from his chest and clamped down tight over his mouth before Buck could realize what was happening. 

“I thought we were trying to get the other guy! He was smaller, wasn’t he?” The person behind him said and the fire in Buck’s veins turned to piercing ice in a matter of seconds. “Do we dump this one?”

Eddie. They were talking about Eddie. 

All it took was one second and his radio was clipped free. 

   “What are you guys waiting on?” 

   “Hurry the fuck up!”

“Come on!” The person in front of him said, grabbing Buck’s legs by the knees and lifting Buck up. “Let’s get out of here.”

A trap! It’d been a trap! 

“Buck!” Eddie’s voice was so close but so far away and Buck let himself be carried away, swallowing Eddie’s name so he didn’t lure him into an ambush. 

“Took you long enough!” A new voice snapped. The hand over his mouth disappeared but the inhale of air felt like knives in his chest. 

Buck didn’t fight as he was tossed into what he thought was a van. The blurry light that burned through Buck’s vision was replaced with darkness as the door slammed shut. He grunted as he was shoved onto his stomach, lifting his hands up in surrender as a knee found his back and the unmistakable barrel of a gun was pressed against his head. “Behave.” 

The rumbling of the van’s engine made the whole world rattle and Buck’s stomach lurched as they started to drive away. 

The dense smoke was starting to clear, pluming up into the sky and leaving behind a wreckage on the ground. Everywhere you looked was chaos. Booths were overturned. Hand goods and merchandise were trampled. There were skid marks left by sneakers and blood. Sandals and sweaters were abandoned on the ground. Purses were left puddled where they’d been dropped. It was like a shipwreck graveyard. The skeleton of how peaceful the day had been laid in ruins in the street and Eddie’s heart would not stop racing. 

“Buck!” He’d heard Buck screaming. He was sure of it! The sound had pierced through Eddie’s chest harsher than a bullet and sent him running. But he’d gotten lost and somehow he’d ended up at the stupid bourbon chicken stand that was still simmering. “Buck!”

“Eddie!” Eddie jerked around at the sound of his name. Both relief and disappointment filled his chest as Bobby came running through the smoke. 

“Bobby! Bobby, I can't find Buck!” It wasn’t in Eddie’s nature to panic. It wasn’t his automatic response to a crisis. But it was cloying at the back of his neck the longer and longer they went without a response from Buck. 

“Are you hurt? What happened?” Bobby asked, grabbing onto Eddie’s shoulder as he started up at Eddie’s face. 

Eddie reached up to where his chin was throbbing and the barest of touches made his whole jaw ache all the way to his teeth. 

“Wha— No! I’m fine. Let go.” Eddie tried to shake out of Bobby’s hold but Bobby held him tight, keeping Eddie rooted to that spot. The panic curdled into bile in the back of his throat. “Buck— I can’t find Buck!” 

“Eddie! Eddie!” Eddie snapped to attention at the sharp sound of his name on Bobby’s lips. Eddie forced himself to take a breath as he met Bobby’s gaze and held it. Concern was brimming in Bobby’s eyes and Eddie understood. Bobby cared about all of them but it was different with Buck. It had been for a long time. 

Bobby just didn’t get that it was different for Eddie too! 

“I know!” Bobby said, his voice hoarse. “I heard on the radio. We’ll find him. He could’ve gotten swept up into the crowd.”

Eddie opened his mouth to argue but Bobby squeezed onto his shoulder and forced his attention on him again. 

“ But I need you to tell me if you’re hurt anywhere else! What happened?” 

Eddie fought back the swell of frustration that threatened to overtake him. 

“I’m fine!” He gritted between his teeth. “I got knocked over by a sixty-eight year old linebacker running away from the explosions. Buck went to go help but then he was screaming and now I can’t find him.”

Bobby opened his mouth to say something else before their radios whirled to life. 

“ Cap!” Hen’s voice warbled through the connection. “ We’ve got multiple wounded. Three casualties so far. Triage is getting overwhelmed and I’m running out of ambulances!”

Bobby blew out a breath as he took his radio. “Copy. Dispatch when can—“

      “Dispatch when can—”

Electricity jolted down Eddie’s spine. 

“Sorry 118. We didn’t quite get that. Please repeat.”

      “Sorry 118. We didn’t quite get that. Please repeat.”

Bobby worked his jaw as his head swiveled, hearing it too. 

“Stand by dispatch.”

     “Stand by dispatch.”

An echo. 

Eddie pulled away from Bobby as his stomach twisted into one massive knot that made each of his steps heavier. 

“Buck!” He still couldn’t see much. The heavy smoke was still lingering like syrup and it was a scent he knew well. Flash and smoke bombs all had the same chemical smell that clung to your hair and skin. But knowing something didn’t make the flashes of possibilities any easier to stomach. His mind was providing him with too many examples to stomach. Buck, black and blue, unconscious. Buck clutching a broken leg in too much pain to speak. Buck, trampled to de—

No.

No, he wouldn’t! He wouldn’t think of that. Not after everything they’ve been through. Not when they were only just together after so many years. He wouldn’t! 

“Buck!” Bobby called, stepping up beside Eddie. He grabbed his radio and practically yanked it to his mouth. “Firefighter Buckley respond!” 

    “Firefighter Buckley respond!”

They followed the echo like a siren’s call to the opening of an alleyway, the backs of businesses lining the walls as the pavement turned to pocked cobblestones. Rows of trash cans sat untouched and ready for pick up and a sign ahead prohibited any turn around. An arrow pointed to an exit that would’ve spilled out on the other side of the block.

“Buck?” Eddie gasped, searching all over for any sign of him. Anything at all that would’ve given him a clue to where Buck was because he was hurt and Eddie needed to… He needed… He needed him! 

“Here!” Bobby said and Eddie spun on his heel to find Bobby marching across the alleyway.

Eddie’s stomach sank as he spotted Buck’s radio, abandoned and alone. 

Bobby stopped short of the radio, his whole body going rigid in an instant, and Eddie couldn’t see his face but the hair on the back of his neck stood up straight all the same. 

“Cap—” Bobby’s arm flung out like an iron beam and stopped Eddie in his tracks. 

Bobby took a step back. 

“Back up, Eddie,” Bobby said, his arm inches in front of Eddie’s chest. He grabbed his own radio, not stopping as he ushered Eddie back. “Dispatch, we have what appears to be an undetonated explosive device in the alleyway between—”

Eddie stopped listening, finally seeing the small round cylinder a few inches away from Buck’s radio. 

Buck’s eyes were still burning but the intensity had stretched into a dull sizzle. Every blink felt like sandpaper against his eyeballs but if he held his eyes open too long then it was like a match being lit all over again. The itchiness was like static stretched across his skin and all Buck wanted to do was rub until he got even an whisper of relief. 

But Buck didn’t move. He didn’t dare when the barrel of the gun on his skull was a heavy reminder of where he was and more importantly, where he wasn’t. 

Eddie and the others would have noticed he was missing by then. Or maybe the smoke was still too thick to see through and his team was lost in the haze. But judging by the speed the van was going, it wouldn’t matter. Buck would be long gone by the time they realized. 

“Hands behind your back! Now!” Buck barely got a chance to lift his hands from where they were outstretched in front of him before someone was grabbing his hands and crossing them behind his back. Two thick bands wrapped around his wrists before they tightened. The plastic of the zipties dug into his skin until his fingers tingled with the loss of sensation. 

A clumsy pat down followed and Buck yelped when a hand skimmed too close to an area he wasn’t interested in anyone touching. 

“Sorry,” someone mumbled as quick hands pulled out his wallet and phone before they grabbed his utility knife too. 

A pair of hands grabbed his hips and yanked him flat onto his stomach again. 

“Don’t fucking apologize to him!” 

    “He thought I was feeling him up!”

   “It doesn’t matter what he thought!”

           “Shut the fuck up! Both of you!”

Buck grunted as the heavy weight on him turned punishing. An arm pressed onto the back of his neck, pinning him even more. “Don’t even think about fighting us.”

Buck bit down on his tongue and swallowed the impulse to snap back that he wasn’t trying to! There were too many hands and too many voices and he wasn’t fighting back!

A rough hand carded back Buck’s hair before fisting it between harsh fingers. Buck gasped as even the pain burned, flaring to life as his eyes blinked back frantic tears. 

He still couldn’t see anything! And Buck didn’t know what was more unnerving: the figures he couldn’t make out as they blurred into one nightmare, the fact that the nightmare seemed prepared, or that the nightmare was barreling through the streets of LA in what had to be eighty miles per hour with a gun to his head. 

Something was held in front of Buck’s face and his eyelashes were sticking together like glue as he tried to understand what he was supposed to be looking at. 

“Open.” 

Buck’s jaw tightened as everything in him screamed to fight. He didn’t know what was going on or why it was happening but he was in pain and freaked out and fighting against all his impulses begging him to be defiant. 

But Buck also remembered his training. During an active threat, he was supposed to run, hide, or fight; do whatever he could to stay alive. But if they were taken hostage, they were supposed to be docile and compliant. Stay alert and agreeable. 

And as long as they had Buck then they had no reason to turn back around and hurt anyone else. As long as they had Buck then they had no use for Eddie. 

Buck licked his lips and opened his mouth.

The fabric shoved into his mouth was dry and starched, filling his cheeks and tickling the back of his throat as rough fingers jabbed it past his lips. He wasn’t even able to close his mouth all the way before the sound of duct tape ripping free of the roll clapped in his ears. Adhesive was slapped onto his cheek as someone stretched the tape over his mouth. They tightly wrapped the roll around and around his head, matting down his hair and gagging him into silence. 

“There,” someone said as the hand holding Buck’s hair let him fall back onto the floor. “Not such a big tough firefighter now, are you?”

Buck let out a slow breath through his nose and didn’t react. 

The hand that tipped Buck’s head to one side wasn’t unkind but it was firm as it pinned Buck in place. Buck jolted as something soft and rubbery was pushed into his ear. The rubber expanded, blocking his earway and muting his hear before Buck realized what was happening. He didn’t have time to shake the plug out before he was being turned in another direction and a second plug was shoved into his other ear. The world around him was muffled and Buck was left with nothing but the sound of his own blood rushing in his ears. The gun lifted from his head long enough for someone to grab his chin, again not unkind but not gentle either, and Buck barely had a chance to try to blink past the swimming of his vision before a black bag was yanked over his head and he was left in an even darker nothingness. 

The fabric felt like sandpaper against his raw skin. Every fiber felt like it was embedded with slivers of glass and Buck was unable to pull away. It only took a few seconds before it started to get uncomfortably warm beneath the hood and the salty sweat that slipped down his hairline ignited the sting of the pepper spray still seeping into his pores. 

The weight on his back disappeared and so did the gun but Buck didn’t move. Not yet at least. He could hear them talking even though it was just the base vibrations of their voices. Words or inflections were warped and lost and Buck grimaced as he tried to turn his head enough to see if he could manipulate the ear plug out. If he could just hear something, anything that could give him some kind of clue then maybe he could figure out a plan! An escape! Anything that would prolong his higher chance of survival while he had it. 

He didn’t know what was happening but he felt pretty confident they weren’t planning on killing him right away. Otherwise why go through the trouble of taking him in the first place? The smoke had been a distraction to cause chaos. The downed man had been a trap to ambush a firefighter or first responder. They’d been watching enough to know that Buck and Eddie had been on their own and had been hoping to lure Eddie out because he’d been the smaller of the two of them? 

Just the thought of Eddie in his position had Buck’s blood sparking. Tension rippled down his shoulders to the tips of his fingers as his frustration at being compliant swelled in his chest and tugged on his hands. The zip ties were thick like police grade and the two bands were cutting off his circulation. He needed to do something. 

Buck was willing to guess that they weren’t going to kill him yet but it was anyone’s guess how long that would last. 

The van slowing to a stop was almost as jarring as the speed they’d going and Buck strained to hear anything, see anything, that could help. Everything rocked and sent the world spinning as Buck tried to keep up but everything was moving and the static beneath his skin turned into panic. Something banged and the hollowness of it clattered all the way to Buck’s bones before hands were on him again and dragging him out. 

Buck writhed before his heart plummeted when one moment there was the study floor of the van and then nothing. He flinched hard expecting to be dropped. Instead he was hoisted up and his head throbbed at the whirling tilt. His boots landed onto what felt like gravel beneath his feet and he couldn’t see or hear but he could feel the kiss of fresh air on his skin. 

Buck tried to yell! He tried to drop his weight into his knees! He fought and kicked and screamed as he was dragged away! He didn’t care! If he could get—

The punch that landed in his stomach stole all the air that had been in his lungs and left him in a free fall of suffocation. 

Everything seemed to fall into a muted pause that flared to life the pain and panic that was threatening to take over his control. Buck choked as his natural instinct to bend over was halted by the arms holding him upright. The cloth in his mouth threatened to push into the back of his throat and he jolted like he’d been shocked. He wasn’t even trying to fight back anymore. He was simply trying not to suffocate and that was enough to threaten his resolve. A wounded noise built up in his chest before it fell out into a keen that sounded like a scream in the silence of his own thoughts. 

Someone else was shouting but Buck couldn’t hear the words. He could only feel them at his back as the person holding him practically picked him up off his feet. Someone grabbed his legs and Buck was airborne again. 

He was blinded, gagged, and wrapped up in the deafening silence as they took him somewhere else. Arms wrapped around him and Buck’s stomach flipped as the sensation of falling slowly overtook him. He wasn’t though and the next thing he knew he was being curled up onto his side in a too cramped space. Arms wrapped tightly around him in a horrifying embrace as someone pulled him back against their chest and Buck feebly tried to shove them off. 

The weight and outline of the gun pressed against his chest stole what fight he had left and something slammed shut. An engine rumbled to life and Buck realized with growing horror that he was in the trunk. They’d switched cars and Buck was in the trunk! 

The person before him said something to him but Buck couldn’t hear the words. But he knew the tone and what it meant. 

Behave. 

“Anything?” Hen demanded and Eddie turned in the direction she was looking. 

Bobby wasn’t hard to miss in his turnout coat. The reflective lines of coat were hard to miss as it shined beneath the lights in triage. Chaos surrounded him as hundreds of people were huddled together while LAPD tried to collect their statements. 

Bobby’s mouth was in a hard line as he shook his head and Eddie’s stomach sank. 

Hen’s fingers were firm as she gripped his chin and turned his face forward again. 

“Eddie! I swear to God! Stay still before I zip tie you to a gurney!” Hen snapped and Eddie knew she was worried. They all were. Hen and Chimney were stretched thin trying to treat everyone but until the bomb squad released the scene nobody could get in or out. 

But that didn’t mean Eddie wasn’t biting back his own snarl with a grit of his teeth. 

“They’ll find him,” Hen said softer, her fingers palpitating his scalp for any splits or bumps. “My job right now is to make sure you’re not drinking through a straw for the next six months when they do.”

Eddie grimaced into the ice pack that was serving as his only source of relief while he waited for the Tylenol to kick in. Hen had offered him something stronger but Eddie had shot that down. Anything stronger would’ve pulled him from duty and Buck was still missing! 

“Captain Nash,” Jessie called, his bomb squad padding practically dwarfing him as he came over. His grim eyes scanned the overwhelmed triage before he met Bobby’s gaze.

Eddie pushed up despite Hen’s protests so he could hear. “Eddie!”

“Hen, I’m fine!” Eddie would apologize later but he didn’t quite feel so bad when she followed him with the same look of worry he was desperately trying to hold onto before it spiraled into a full blown meltdown. 

Jessie’s eyebrows lifted at their commotion but he gave Eddie and Hen each a nod as they got closer. 

“Smoke bombs,” Jessie said, sounding tired for someone who only just showed up an hour ago. 

Eddie forced himself to breathe. It wasn’t Jessie’s fault and flying off the handle wasn’t his usual MO. Or maybe it was where Buck was concerned. Buck had somehow become Eddie’s center without him realizing it and without him, he felt like he was one wrong push from tilting off axis. The longer they went without knowing where Buck was, the louder his scream rattled between Eddie’s ears in his memory. 

But the fact that Jessie was able to give them any information so quickly was a miracle. 

“Meant to disorient,” Jessie added. “They make a loud noise, flash, and let out a thick smoke. They’re harmless.” 

“Your definition of harmless is seventy-five wounded and counting from the stampede that was caused by them?” Hen demanded.

“I meant that they don’t contain shrapnel and given the circumstances, we thought we were looking at another Boston Marathon.” Jessie for his part didn’t even flush, delivering the gravity of the news with his usual dryness that somehow managed to make the situations they worked with him in a lot less nerve wrecking. 

Bobby held up a hand. “What about my guy?” 

Jessie’s mouth twisted down into a sorrowful frown as he shook his head. Eddie could’ve screamed. “I’m sorry, Bobby. I didn’t see much but the radio. It’s in LAPD’s hands. I’ve got to get the device over to the feds.” 

“You were able to salvage it without detonating?” Bobby asked. 

“Didn’t need to.” Jessie shrugged. “The fuse was a dud.”

Hope bubbled up in Eddie’s chest next to his anxiety. If they were able to take apart the device then they’d be able to hopefully track down where the pieces came from and who bought them. 

But none of that helped them find Buck. Buck, who could be hurt somewhere. Buck, who was waiting for help to come that had been forced into a park by the bomb squad taking command of the scene. Buck, who needed him!

Eddie turned on his heel but it was Bobby who stopped him that time. 

“Eddie—”

“He said it was safe!” Eddie pointed to Jessie. “He could be hurt down there! We couldn’t scavenge the scene for survivors! Buck—”

“—Isn’t down there, Eddie!”

Eddie shook his head as he tried to get around Bobby without physically pushing him over. “You don’t—”

“He isn’t down there, Eddie.”  Bobby’s words hit Eddie like a ton of bricks right into his bruised ribs. 

It shouldn’t surprise him that Bobby called them all back to a safe distance away only to go searching for Buck himself. But he couldn’t have looked everywhere! He could’ve missed something! Buck could be— Buck was—

“Then where is he?” Eddie demanded, each word ripping a piece of his heart with it. A knot lodged itself up into his throat and made his whole jaw ache as he swallowed. 

It was all his fault! He’d let Buck go off on his own! 

Some of Eddie’s own agony was brimming in Bobby’s eyes even as his mouth tightened into a thin line. Bobby shook his head. 

“I don’t know.”

They drove for what felt like hours.

Buck breathed heavily through his nose as he pushed the cloth to his teeth with his tongue and tried to calm down. But every bump, every shift of the person behind him, every second spent awkwardly bent and held was sending his heart racing. Whoever was behind him had to feel it. Buck’s heart was hammering so hard against his ribs it was like it wanted to break free and the person behind him was pressed so close, it was suffocating. 

They hadn’t done anything though. 

That was the confusing part. Buck couldn’t quite say they hadn’t heard him. Every time he blinked, his eyelashes felt like they were woven with knives, and his stomach still ached from that sucker punch to the gut that knocked the wind out of him. But there was a detachment to his captors that was prickling something at the base of Buck’s spine. The attack, the swiftness of the way they incapacitated him by tying him up and cutting off all his senses, the fact that they’d calculatedly tried to get Eddie alone but didn’t panic when they got Buck instead? It felt almost clinical. Like a choreographed attack where Buck was nothing more than a variable in a list of tasks that needed to be accomplished in a strict order of efficiency. 

He didn’t know if he was supposed to take comfort from their indifference or not. But if it wasn’t personal then what was going on? And how did Buck or rather a firefighter fit into the equation?

The car shifted into a long turn that had Buck sliding head first and his lungs seized up when he was reminded of just how small the trunk was. Buck would’ve already been cramped on his own but there was another person with him, squeezing him tightly from behind to keep him from sliding too far, and Buck thought it was supposed to be an act of thoughtfulness but none of that mattered when he could still feel the weight of the gun pressed against him. They hadn’t hurt Buck yet but that didn’t mean they weren’t planning on it or killing him! And if Buck—

His lungs seized, demanding he breathe, and Buck’s body followed suit. One by one his muscles locked, wanting to break free from the position he’d been in, and Buck squirmed for one ounce of relief. The arm around him tightened and Buck’s exhale hiccuped out of him at the pressure. The voice murmured something that he couldn’t hear over the rubber plugs still buried in his ears so it didn’t matter what they said! Buck had no idea if it was a threat, a taunt, a reassurance! Nothing! Nothing because he couldn’t see and he couldn’t hear and he couldn’t—

The hand on his chest pushed him down as the person behind him rolled on top of him and Buck’s legs kicked out. He twisted and tangled to free his ankles as the stretch pulled at his hips and lower back. The extra weight on his arms was making his shoulders scream and his already numb hands throb in time with his heartbeat. But it didn’t matter. He was pinned down again and what little freedom he had was taken away with an unfeeling weight keeping him still. 

Pressure burnt at the back of his eyes and Buck bit down on the cloth in his mouth hard enough to make his jaw ache. 

He wouldn’t cry! He wouldn’t let them see how much he was rattled. Not yet at least! 

The terrain shifted beneath them. The smooth cruise of what Buck could only assume was pavement and maybe highway tumbled into something closer to rocks or gravel. 

The car volleyed and shifted over holes and uneven making both of them bounce so much in the back that Buck didn’t even fight when the person holding him slid back behind him. The arm around his waist tightened before the hard metal of the gun clipped his forehead as that arm curled around his head. 

It took Buck a few seconds to realize that it had been a shift meant to protect his head from banging into the roof as the ground shook beneath them. 

Buck felt every lurch of the shocks as they sped up. He tried to brace but his head and neck ached all the way into his shoulders the longer they were tossed around. 

When he’d been swept up in the tsunami, the only way Buck could describe what it was like was by comparing it to being thrown into a washing machine. Water had filled his lungs and Buck had no way of knowing which way was up or down as his body was beaten into debris that was caught up with him. 

This was similar. Buck’s stomach revolted every time his body was weightless only to crash down hard onto the floor again. There was no position to give him a minute of relief from being flung around. 

A small, petty part of himself was at least a little vindicated that he wasn’t the only one. Buck didn’t need his hearing to know the barked noises from the person behind him were sharp curses. 

After what felt like an eternity, they stopped, and Buck’s body throbbed. The stillness after the rough, constant movement was dizzying but Buck didn’t get a chance to catch his breath. The car rocked once and then twice before the kiss of cool fresh air met his skin. Buck shivered as goosebumps raced up his arms and then hands were on him again.

He was being moved again. Irritation licked up Buck’s spine and the claustrophobic frustration surged up into his chest as he was dragged out of the truck. Buck bit down on the cloth shoved between his teeth and kicked out. His boot met nothing but open air but that didn’t stop him. Growls and shouts rumbled down at him as Buck squirmed, using the leverage of the lip of the trunk to kick up and out blindly. The person who had been behind him was scrambling to push Buck away but for once they were at the disadvantage. Buck didn’t know how many people there were. Maybe three or four from what he could gather when he’d first been taken. But they were a person down with their friend trapped in the trunk and Buck wasn’t going to waste an opportunity to get away if he could. He had to get away or make enough of a scene that maybe someone would hear him and call for help!

Buck kicked and his boot met a meaty chest before a harsh hand wrapped around his shin and yanked him hard enough for Buck to fall out of the trunk. He cried out as his t-shirt caught on something and ripped, exposing his back to the metal and plastic of the trunk lip. His skin flashed hot with the sting and his shoulders throbbed when his hands got caught in the tangle of his body. 

Too many hands to keep track of were on him in an instant and Buck wriggled and squirmed and flailed even as they dragged him the rest of the way out of the trunk. A thick arm wrapped around his waist and picked him off his feet. Buck half expected to be thrown into another trunk. 

But instead, he was spun around before being dumped onto his feet. Two sets of bruising hands clamped down onto his biceps and squeezed hard enough to grind bones. Buck let out a noise of pain that was riddled with all his frustrations as they started forcing him to walk. He dug in his heels but they kept going, dragging him by his toes even as he scrambled to get his feet from under him. 

There was dirt beneath Buck. He couldn’t know for sure but the earth gave way under his boots every time he fought to try and pull free. 

More muffled noises fell onto him and that same level of detachment hit Buck like a ton of bricks. Each one was sharp and laced with aggressive rumblings but they were like stray bullets and Buck was caught in the crossfires. They weren’t at him but they still had a chance of catching him by mistake. 

The hands latched around his arms squeezed his biceps before he was lifted up and hoisted onto something hard and sturdy. Cement? No, there was too much bounce. Hardwood possibly! 

Buck yelped as his toe caught on something and he nearly face planted to the ground. Without his hands and any idea of where he was, the possibility of breaking his nose or hitting his head was a real concern, and he flinched hard as he braced for impact. But hands caught him and lifted him up as more murmured voices volleyed harsh sentiments to one another. The sharp scent of fire and smoke filled his nose but the heat wasn’t unbearable and the smoke wasn’t acidic and unbearable. 

A fireplace?

Buck’s only sense left was his smell but it was useless in being able to actually help him!

Again Buck put all his weight in his heels and locked his legs.

A fist grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled hard, rocking him onto his toes. Buck’s center of gravity shifted with a horrible twist before he was scrambling on instinct to keep up as the fist at his front dragged him down a set of stairs. Buck’s stomach flipped as he missed a step and then another before he crashed down to the bottom. Cold sweat slicked down his spine as his body throbbed on impact. One of his ankles threatened to give out and that was all the person in front of him would tolerate before they were shoving him down. 

Buck cried out as his shoulder slammed into cold concrete. His whole body thrummed as the pain that had dulled was lit up again. Buck’s lungs seized with panic in his chest as he rolled. Buck yelped as someone grabbed his leg and dragged him across the floor. Grit and dirt dug into his arms and his back and Buck croaked out a pained noise when hands grabbed onto his hips and forced him onto his knees. A hand fisted the back of his shirt collar and kept him upright even as he wavered. 

There was some more talking with too many voices bleeding together for Buck to keep track of just one sound. Every consonant and vowel was lost, melting into a warped sound that was building up like pressure in his temples. 

Then, it was just one voice. One booming voice that sounded like a thunderstorm that was too close. Buck’s pulse quickened as his heart hammered in his chest. His shoulders bunched back against his spine. The anger was like stray bullets ricocheting into Buck’s skin and he couldn’t hold back his flinch even if he tried. His baser instincts screamed at him to run and the impulse seized his muscles but the hand on his shoulder yanked him back into place in the center of a pressure cooker. 

Without warning, the hood was ripped off his head and Buck’s eyes screamed. Bright, white lights burned his retinas and stole his vision away as hot involuntary tears gathered in his eyes. The rawness that had dulled into a gritty itch, ignited and ripped out whatever air that had been left in Buck’s lungs. Everything burned and Buck flinched to curl away. He never thought he wanted the hood back but the darkness hadn’t hurt so much. 

The hand on his shirt twisted and pulled him back up before the unmistakable barrel of a gun was pressed against the crown of his head. The metal was ice cold against his too hot skin but it was a chill that frosted down his spine and seeped into his veins. 

Focus. Focus Buck. He’d worked through pain. He’d lived through it. He had to do it again. He had to because there was no other choice. 

Buck forced himself to breathe and blinked even though every blink felt like scraping sandpaper against his eyes. But it’d been a few hours at least since he’d been sprayed and some of the oil would’ve been flushed out. He just needed to blink! Blink and breathe! That was all he had to do.

Buck centered himself in the pain and inhaled through his nose even as his eyes streamed an endless flow of tears that scratched into his cheeks. 

He needed to assess his situation! Who knew when they would throw the hood back on and Buck needed to search for clues while he had the chance. 

Buck bit down on his gag and squinted. Shapes blurred together like ruined watercolor and he blinked hard and fast to try and see past the blinding light. Buck’s vision swam in and out of focus and his eyes felt gummy and gross. But soon glimpses sharpened and Buck’s confusion only grew. 

Was that a camera? 

The brightness of the light was from a makeshift studio lamp on a hardware tripod. Buck’s eyes watered as the burning sting swelled into a wildfire when he stared at the brightness too long and he squeezed his eyes shut to ride through the pain. 

The voice above bellowed and Buck grunted out a hurt noise when the hand on his collar shook him with an emphasizing ferocity. 

The gun at his scalp never wavered. 

Panic seized his lungs as fear punched in between his ribs to pummel his heart. 

What the fuck was going on? Why was there a camera? Buck’s own imagination had multiple answers to those questions and each one made the queasy dread get worse and worse until bile was burning at the back of his throat. Maybe he’d been wrong about them not wanting to kill him yet. Maybe he’d been wrong about things being impersonal. Buck didn’t know. And the calm, collected voice in his head that sounded a lot like Bobby was telling him not to freak out. But that voice was getting further and further away when Buck was taking in the implication of his position. Buck, bound and gagged, on his knees with his LAFD shirt splayed on his chest and back. The group of men surrounding him, wearing various kinds of masks to conceal their identities. There were only six or seven that he could see watching him with cold eyes through the slits in their masks but it was like staring up into an army from his knees. The gun to his head. The black hood still clenched in the fist of the man talking, being swung around like a passionate flag. The camera. 

Buck looked like he was being presented for his execution. 

Cold fear flashed beneath his too hot skin and left him trembling as he tried to keep it together. He refused to look down at the floor even as the knuckles digging into his neck tried to force him to bow his head in subservience. He bunched up his shoulders to his ears and held them there, locking his core to keep from being manhandled anymore than he already had been. The gun was an unwavering weight against his skull and even though he could hear what they were saying, each word was volleyed down on Buck like cement raining down on him. 

Fingers carded through his hair before twisting into a fist and holding Buck up in display while someone behind the camera aimed it at his face. 

Then it was all over. 

Whatever tension that had held everyone by the throat, dissolved and Buck could only watch as shoulders dropped. The gun disappeared as the hands holding him let him go and Buck dropped like all his strings had been cut. The indifference returned but Buck couldn’t take comfort in it like he had before because he understood differently now. Buck was used to being ignored. He’d been ignored his whole life and he’d leaned into it like he leaned into the pain. 

But Buck wasn’t being ignored. He wasn’t even being considered at all. He was inconsequential. 

Whatever was going on had nothing to do with him. He was just another part of whatever his captors had planned. And Buck couldn’t do anything but wait to be of use again. 

He was twitching as he tried to muscle back the way he was shaking. Tiny huffs fell from his nose as his lungs worked himself up into near hyperventilation and he waited. Buck’s heartbeat thundered in his ears as he waited and waited and waited.  

The group went up the stairs one by one, taking the camera and light with them. One pointed at Buck and Buck’s stomach rolled with anxiety when another stalked over to him. 

He squirmed back, curling his legs up to his chest to try and protect his soft parts for another blow, and bit down on his frustration swelling up in his chest when his vision swam out of focus. 

Large hands unclenched and the fabric of the hood fell between his fingers. Buck sucked in a breath, holding it as the fabric was pulled over his head, and he only exhaled when he was left in the dark all over again. 

“Bobby!” 

Athena’s voice rang out like a nightingale in comparison to the traumatized humming that practically rippled off everyone still being treated. The sun was almost gone and their flood lights were giving some of the only light they had to work with. The chief had relieved Bobby of his incident command and another house had swept in as their relief crew but none of them made a move for the truck. 

They wouldn’t until they knew what happened to Buck much to the annoyance of the federal agents that had swarmed the area. But until every victim was attended to, they had no say on when LAFD could be dismissed. Eddie and Chimney were finally making their way through the minor injuries, assessing for shock more than anything, while Hen went around and called every hospital with the hopes that maybe a Good Samaritan had picked an injured Buck up and given him a ride. 

Eddie swallowed past the knot in his throat as he stood up from where he’d been cleaning a scraped up leg and watched as Athena crossed the distance of the park with a tablet clutched in her hand. 

“Anything?” Bobby asked, reaching out for his wife so easily for comfort that Eddie felt a flash of envy light up like flash powder in his heart. One minute it was there and then next it was gone. 

Athena’s hand squeezed around Bobby’s arm. “Are you alright?” 

She pointedly didn’t answer Bobby’s question. 

Bobby let out a shuddering exhale that sounded like it rattled over every one of his ribs but he nodded. 

“Your team doesn’t have to stay, baby,” Athena said, her voice low but Eddie still heard her. “I can keep you updated as much as I can while you all rest back at the station.”

Eddie sucked in a breath and held it, waiting to hear Bobby’s response. His heartbeat quickened as he prepared for a fight and—

“It’s Buck,” Bobby said and that was it. “We’re not going anywhere.” 

Athena didn’t say anything for a moment and it felt like an eternity because if there was anyone Bobby would listen to, it would be his wife. 

“Okay,” Athena said and Eddie breathed out. “There’s some footage but it’s—”

“Show me.” 

Eddie stood up on wobbly knees and stepped over an empty cot to stand beside them. Athena’s brows lifted as she took him in but Eddie didn’t bother acknowledging it. He had to see. He needed to know! Otherwise he was going to rip his hair out with worry and Buck was going to come back to find his boyfriend with bald patches. 

“He’s okay,” Bobby said with a hint of a warning pointed at him and Eddie didn’t bristle at the way it felt like he was getting permission to go out somewhere. But he did grind his teeth to keep that part to himself. “Let’s see.”

Athena pursed her lips and waved both of them over so that the tall ambulance shielded their backs from anyone sneaking up behind them. It wasn’t lost on either of them that it pulled them out of earshot of anyone else who may have been eavesdropping. Their victim count had dwindled but there were still shell shock expressions of disbelief wandering around and the feds were being suspiciously tight lipped about everything. 

“This was sent in a little under ten minutes ago. I need you both to give me your word you will not go off half cocked and do something stupid after I show you this.” Athena waited for both of them to give her one tight lipped nod in agreement before she sighed and held up the tablet. She pressed play and the world seemed to stop as they stared down at the screen. 

“This,” the masked man bellowed as he waved some black fabric in his fist above Buck. “Is a symptom of the feminist agenda that has taken root in our politics and spread to our public servants. Mayor Baskin used the LAFD as a launching pad for her career in ruining our democracy. The brave men meant to protect and serve our community are weak and pathetic thanks to her corruption and what did they get in thanks for supporting her? A boot print on their necks.”

Eddie’s fingertips went numb. 

A curse or a prayer or maybe both fell from Bobby’s lips. He stared wide eyed at the screen but his gaze was focused on the whole picture, taking in the nonsensical rhetoric being sprouted while Eddie couldn’t take his eyes off Buck. 

Buck was bound and gagged on his knees with a gun to his head. Sweat had matted down his curls to his forehead but it was his eyes! The red, inflamed skin around his eyes was almost raw and made the blues of his irises bright with pain.

“What is this?” Eddie demanded.

“A point being made,” Athena said, her mouth a hard line as she stared at the tablet. 

“Mayor Baskin has refused to make herself available to those of us who demand justice. So we’ve taken matters into our own hands. She has twelve hours to resign and turn herself over to face our trial or we will continue to systematically dismantle the corruption within our community’s first responders.” 

Bobby let out a low dangerous noise as he physically ripped himself away from the screen. 

“What does Buck have to do with this?” 

“From what I can gather from the investigators,” Athena said, sparing Eddie and he suspected herself from the rest of the video. “They think Buck was in the wrong place at the right time. They’re scanning security footage to find anybody who looks suspicious or like they were trying to single out a first responder.” 

“They’re calling out the mayor,” Bobby said, his voice low enough to keep between them but still sharp with a simmering anger. “You’re telling me the feds don’t have some kind of watch list for guys like this.”

“I’m telling you,” Athena said, her own voice edged but kind all the same. “That they are looking. But for now? Buck is alive and that’s the important thing to focus on right now.”

Eddie wanted to throw up. He wanted to throw up or scream or both. It had been four hours since Buck had gone missing. Almost five and he was losing his fucking mind. 

“Guys?” 

Eddie’s head shot up at the sound of Chimney’s voice. Chim and Hen hurried over to them with twin expressions of worry. Eddie almost bent over with the plunge his stomach took. 

No more, he thought. He couldn’t take anymore bad news.

“Chief is benching us,” Chimney said, smacking his gum with such a set in his jaw that no one would need to ask him how he felt about that. “Says we have to be made available to be questioned.”

“What’s going on?” Hen asked, her eyes flicking between the three of them. 

Athena shot Bobby a look before she waved them over to look at her tablet. 

Eddie walked away before he threw up on their shoes. 

Buck startled back when the hood was ripped off his head. His eyes immediately watered as the lights assaulted his still miserable eyes. The light from the single lightbulb overhead wasn’t nearly as bright as the flood light but it still managed to sear Buck’s vision with spots as he tried to see. 

A dark shape swam above him and Buck jolted back with a yelp as fear took ahold of his lungs. Buck fell against the wall behind him and nearly tipped over but he scrambled up with a grunt and kicked out. The shape of hands sharpened in his vision as a low voice murmured something Buck couldn’t hear. His heart pounded as the hands lifted palms up in surrender and held still; giving him space. 

Buck shook his head as he blinked furiously and the blob of a person blurred and then shifted into solid shapes and mousy brown hair with a long, sharp nose. Broad shoulders and strong forearms. 

A man. Who wasn’t wearing his mask but for all intents and purposes, wasn’t manhandling Buck into submission either. 

Buck stared at him and tried to read his lips as he spoke but he was talking too low and too fast for him to follow. The man reached forward and Buck stiffened, practically plastering himself to the wall but the man didn’t stop. He moved slowly and intentionally like Buck was a spooked animal. Buck shied away when his hand came up beside his head but the man followed until he could pinched the rubber in Buck’s ears and pull out the plug. 

Sound exploded in Buck’s skull in a eruption of life. There was a water tank humming. There was talking above as footsteps made the floorboards creak. Something was ticking. The man’s breath whistling from a nostril. 

Buck’s skin itched at the sudden overstimulation and he almost ripped away before the man could take the other ear plug. His ears popped as the other plug was removed and Buck shivered as a phantom chill raced up his spine into his skull. But the man didn’t pull away. 

His hand slid down to the back of Buck’s neck and firm fingers squeezed to keep Buck from trying to squirm free. 

“Don’t fight me. I don’t want to nick you.” That was the only warning Buck got before the man pulled out a knife. 

Buck reared back but the fingers in his neck dug into his skin and kept him cornered as the man slid the knife down the length of his jaw. 

“Easy! Easy!” The man shushed. 

Buck kicked out but the man ignored him, instead focusing on slipping the blade down the side of his face between his skin and the duct tape. Buck jerked when he felt something give but the man didn’t pay him any attention. 

“You can scream,” the man said as he put away his knife and started to rip the rest of Buck’s gag free. “But you’re just going to piss the others off and you don’t want to be around some of them when they’re in a bad mood.”

Buck balled his hands into fists as the adhesive pulled at his skin. His whole face itched with a rawness that sizzled with an unbearable tingle. But the moment the tape was free from his lips, Buck was shoving the cloth out of his mouth with his tongue without waiting to be told. A string of spit fell from his lips onto his chin as the wadded up cloth dropped into his lap. The first breath of clean air burned on his inhale. Buck felt it as his ribs expanded, the burning spreading into his blood vessels and veins until the breath seized in his chest and he coughed, low but harsh. 

“Yeah,” the man said with a sympathetic pat on Buck’s back. “The gag’s a bitch. Here.”

He reached behind him and held up a water bottle before making a show of opening it, letting Buck hear the crack of the seal breaking. Something must have shown on Buck’s face because the man snorted. His lips curved up into a smirk. 

“What? We’re not monsters. You want the drink or not?”

Every instinct in Buck told him to tell the man to go fuck himself. Not monsters? They’d caused a stampede and kidnapped Buck off the street! Innocent people could’ve been hurt or killed! Eddie had been hurt! 

But his throat was like sawdust and the rational part of his brain reminded him that it had been a few hours since he’d had food or water with no idea when he would get either next. 

“Please,” he said, the politeness like vinegar on his tongue even as it croaked out of him. 

The man’s smirk deepened into his cheek before he held the water bottle up to Buck’s lips and let him take his fill. The cool water was heavy on his tongue and Buck forced himself not to drink the whole thing before he made himself sick. 

“No more?” The man asked when Buck pulled away. 

“C-Can you…” Buck had to force himself to swallow past the knot in his throat from finally being able to speak. His jaw ached from being propped open for so long but his eyes were still unbearable. “Can you pour some on my eyes?”

The man seemed to think about it for a minute before he nodded. “Sure, why not? Lean your head back.”

It was the most vulnerable Buck since he’d been taken but he needed to flush some of the spray from his eyes if he wanted to be able to see properly. The water fell slowly but suddenly against his eyes and he forced himself to blink through the rush of cold while the man switched from one eye to the next. Water droplets fell down the long expanse of his throat and seeped into his t-shirt. It stung at first before a soothing coolness tampered some of the burn. The man poured the rest of the water onto Buck’s eyes before he crushed the plastic between his fists and tossed the empty bottle away. 

“Better?”

A little. Buck’s eyes still felt raw but the inclination to claw his eyes out his head was calming down a little. 

“Y-Yeah,” Buck said and then added a quick, “Thank you.”

He was supposed to humanize himself, right? That’s what all the handbooks said. Remind his kidnappers he was a person and not just some object they’d dragged around. 

“No problem,” the man said before he grabbed the wadded up fabric and a roll of duct tape. 

Buck’s stomach flipped as the man reached up to him and he couldn’t help the way he scrambled further back into the wall to get away. 

The man frowned. “Don’t start misbehaving now.”

His hand latched onto the back of Buck’s neck as he towered over him and Buck dug his knuckles into the floor as he squirmed. 

“Wait! Wait! I-I— Can I use the bathroom?” 

Buck didn’t know what made him say it. Panic, survival instincts, or maybe just the small part of his brain that knew he might be able to buy himself a little more time. 

The man gave him a flat look with a sneer twisting his mouth. “Seriously?” 

Buck scrambled to get his brain back online. Think! Think Buck! 

Buck swallowed as he nodded. 

“Please,” he said, not even having to fake the wobble in his voice. “I’ll be quick. I promise. I just… You guys took me on my break. I’ve had to go for hours now.” 

The man’s arched. “And you didn’t just piss your pants?”

Buck’s hackles rose as he met the man’s gaze. “Would you?” 

Humiliation had been a side effect of the terror that had taken hold of his heart and he wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of giving it to them freely. 

The man considered him for a moment before he tipped his head. “Fair enough.” 

But he didn’t move and Buck could still see the flicker of indecision on the man’s face. 

“Please…” Buck pushed, his throat catching on the desperation of not wanting to be cut off again. He couldn’t see a bathroom close by which meant he’d have to go upstairs. And if he was upstairs… Buck swallowed and blinked up at the man. He knew what he looked like. He knew the power his blue eyes could wield if he was feeling particularly pathetic enough. “I’ll behave. I promise. I won’t make a sound. I just really, really need to pee.”

“Not a peep and you keep your eyes on the floor,” the man said before he grabbed onto Buck’s bicep and yanked him up. 

Buck pressed his lips together to hold back the yelp that threatened to bubble out of him as he tried to get his feet under him. His legs were wooden and ached from being curled up and cramped but he forced himself to put one foot in front of the other. He wasn’t willing to risk the man changing his mind just because Buck was going too slow. 

Buck held his breath as they climbed up the stairs, the man’s bruising fingers digging into his arm, as he pushed open the door. Everything got infinitely louder and Buck didn’t know whether it was because he’d gotten used to the quiet or if it was because it really was that loud but he didn’t care. Not when his step faltered at the echoing from the TV. 

“…Authorities are still at a loss as to how this happened and why. Until we know more, I’m Taylor Kelly reporting to you live…”

Buck’s breath stuttered in his chest as the first familiar voice he’d heard in hours. Taylor was as beautiful as ever with her red curled to perfection but her mouth was puckered in barely concealed unease. She was at the festival, the background showing the abandoned stalls like a graveyard on the street with LAPD mixing with the black and reflective neon coats of the LAFD. 

Buck jumped at the sharp bark of the laugh that followed. 

“The bitch is lying! Look at her,” a guy said from the couch, pointing at Taylor with his beer. “Typical fake news cover up. They know exactly who we are.”

“What a load of bullshit!” Another man added. 

Buck felt the pair of eyes glaring at them before he saw him. Another man, tall and intimidating with a mean snarl on his face, jumped up and marched across the living room. 

“The fuck is this?” The man demanded. 

Buck shrank back and dropped his eyes to the floor, trying to make himself smaller even though he hated it. But he needed to appear non threatening if he had any chance of surviving. 

“Relax,” the man holding Buck said, dragging Buck further into the room. “He had to take a piss.”

“So you brought him up here?” The meaner man demanded. 

“You want to clean up the floor after this guy pees his pants?” He shot back over his shoulder. 

Buck risked a glance up and tried to track the layout to memory. There was a kitchen tucked around a stairwell that led to possible bedrooms. The wood paneling reminded Buck of a cabin with handcrafted furniture filling the room. It looked like a home more than anything and Buck’s stomach twisted at the thought. 

Buck was swung around a corner before the man slapped on the light to a small bathroom. 

Buck’s heart sank when he saw the toilet facing the sink. No window. The room was small enough for Buck to be able to touch both walls at the same time so he wouldn’t be able to hide or barricade himself in either. 

The man turned Buck around and the tightness of the zipties disappeared with a pop of a knife cutting through the plastic. The circulation rushing back into Buck’s hands was enough to have him hissing as he pulled his arms in front of him.

“There.” Buck stepped inside and moved to close the door. The man tsked and pushed it back open with a shake of his head. “Not happening. Door stays open.”

Heat rushed up into Buck’s face but the man just rolled his eyes and turned his back to Buck. It wasn’t much but his shoulders gave at least the illusion of privacy.

“Make it quick.”

Buck bit down on his lip and made quick work of peeing before he moved to the sink. Buck washed his hands before splashing some more water onto his face. He dug his fingers into his eyes and finally gave into the urge to rub at the irritation that had taken root in his skull. The relief was only short lived before the burning sting returned tenfold and Buck hissed as he dropped his elbows onto the sink and practically shoved his face under the water. 

“Hurry it up,” the man said as Buck tried to flush his eyes. 

Buck bit down on his cheek. He needed to figure out what to do. There were too many of them and he didn’t have a single clue to what was going on. But he had to do something. He knew he couldn’t go back down the basement. He had one shot and he didn’t know where to aim but he knew his time frame was dwindling. They’d untied him. They’d let him wash the pepper spray from his eyes. The man’s back was to him. This was his only shot. 

“I said wrap it u—” 

Buck shot out before the man could finish. He shoved the man between his shoulder blades without stopping, knocking him to the floor with a loud crash, and Buck ran. The man barked out a shout of pain but Buck didn’t look back. He couldn’t! He needed to get out! Get out! Get help! 

Curses rang out as Buck ran in the living room. Men sprung up from their seats as footsteps thundered from above. There were too many of them but Buck had the element of surprise! A hand shot out to grab him and Buck swung his arm out, swatting it away as he vaulted past the staircase. He had no idea where the door was but logic dictated it would be either through the living room or there was a back door in the kitchen. Buck may not know where he was but he knew how to find an exit in a house. Lost in the smoke of a fire, look for the communal areas and follow a wall. 

Someone bellowed as massive arms wrapped around his waist but Buck used his own momentum to swing them around and slam them into a wall. More arms reached for him, snatching at his shirt and tearing it more, but Buck clawed and kicked and pushed without stopping. 

There!

A screened door where a cool breeze from outside sat in a lone hallway down the length of the Charlie side wall. 

“Stop him!” 

Buck grabbed the TV as he passed and pushed it with all his might before he grabbed the small table in the foyer and dragged it behind him. 

Something loud and heavy crashed to the ground. “Motherfucker!”

But Buck didn’t stop! He could taste freedom! He could feel the cool breeze and he just needed to get outside and find help! Get outside and get away! He just needed—

Buck all but fell through the screen door as he stumbled out onto the porch and saw nothing. 

Absolutely nothing. 

The sun had gone down leaving nothing but the dense darkness of night that shrouded heavy over the trees. Miles and miles of endless dense forest greeted him as he broke free from his prison. 

You couldn’t see the stars in the city but Buck could see them then. They were twinkling like tiny beacons of hope that teased down at him.

There was nothing around them. Not a house. Not a building. Not a street light. Buck couldn’t even hear a car engine.

Just… nothing. 

Buck’s heart sank. Then what felt like a bulldozer crashed into his back and sent him sprawling. 

Buck yelped as they fell down the two steps of the stairs and pain lit up like a flare on his side burning into his chest as his ribs protested at the sudden weight on top of him. 

“Son of a fucking bitch! Get him inside!” 

Buck screamed as another body fell on him and he fought like a feral animal as they dragged him back inside.

Bobby didn’t have to do it but he thanked Taylor anyway. 

“Of course,” Taylor said, with a stiff nod as she wrung her hands together. “It’s Buck.”

Her eyes flicked to Eddie as she said that and Eddie didn’t know if he was just too exhausted to react or starting to go numb from the worry that was spreading like venom in his veins the longer they waited. The chief was going to send them away soon and they were going to be useless at the firehouse. 

But he wasn’t surprised Taylor knew. Their break up may have been fraught with jagged edges and cracks but at the end Buck and Taylor had still cared about each other.  

“Besides,” Taylor said, turning her attention back to Bobby with a glimmer of her smile. “What my producers don’t know yet won’t hurt them. But it’s like I told the feds, once the information is out, I can’t control the narrative anymore. I just hope I bought you guys some time.”

She shot Eddie one last glance before she turned on her heel and walked back to her news van. 

Bobby heaved out a sigh that Eddie felt all the way down into his bones before he turned to him and gave Eddie an assessing scan. He’d been doing that more and more frequently as time went on. 

“You okay?” He asked. 

Eddie shrugged. “Warzones are my thing.”

The weight of Bobby’s hand on his shoulder was almost enough to have Eddie folding in on himself. 

“Eddie,” Bobby said, holding his gaze and not letting go. “Are you okay?”

Eddie bit down on his cheek until he tasted copper on his tongue. 

How was he supposed to answer that? How was he supposed to tell Bobby that he was so far from okay? That he was holding on by a thread because Buck had been right there in his arms, safe and sound, and Eddie had let him go?

Eddie sniffed and shook his head. The honesty made his heart pound in his chest. Eddie a few years ago would’ve given Bobby a chin held high and a confident, “Of course.” But look what that had gotten him?

“We’ll find him, Eddie,” Bobby said and Eddie couldn’t help but wonder if he knew too. If his and Buck’s secret hadn’t been as much of a secret as they thought it had been. 

If anything happened to Buck, Eddie would spend the rest of his life regretting never shouting his love from the rooftops for everyone to see. 

“Bobby!” 

They both jerked at the sound of Bobby’s name. Athena wasn’t running but she was moving with a purpose in her stride that didn’t stop even as she passed them. Bobby and Eddie fell into step behind her.

“It sounds like they’ve had a group on their radar for a while and they underestimated them,” she said without even missing a breath. 

“The feds?” Bobby asked and Athena hummed. 

Chimney and Hen spotted them and hurried next to them, following along as Athena led them to her cruiser and their ambulance. Sirens had been wailing nonstop since the incident but the cars speeding from the scene had their lights off. 

Athena reached her cruiser and yanked open the door before she turned to fix a stern look on her husband. 

“They think they have a location for one of the suspects. Owns a cabin in the woods. Could possibly need medical assistance when they get there.” Every word Athena said held the unspoken meaning that felt heavy to hold. But Eddie’s spine lit up and it took everything in him not to start running.

“They think that’s where Buck’s being held?” Hen asked and Athena shook her head, one boot already lifted into her car. 

“I don’t know. I’m just back up. But I do know that if I think for a moment that you all will go full Buck on me I will shoot out the tires on your rig and leave you stranded on the freeway.” 

She gave Bobby one arched brow before she got into her cruiser and started the engine. 

“Cap!” Chimney gasped, already bouncing on his heels in the direction of the rig. 

Bobby grabbed his radio. “IC this is Captain Nash. 118 will be providing assistance to 727 L 30.”

The reply whirled in as they started running for the engine. “Copy that 118.”

Buck hesitated. He’d gotten out and then he’d hesitated when he should’ve just kept running. 

But there had been nothing and no one around and even as he’d screamed himself hoarse as they dragged him back inside, there had been no one to hear him. 

Pain rippled down Buck’s body on a ripple that started from his head all the way down to his toes. He groaned as he tried to curl into the pain on instinct but the bindings holding his wrist to his ankles pulled taut and stopped him.

The position had been his punishment for trying to run but the being dragged down the stairs and kicked in the stomach until he heaved had been for humiliating them in front of their friends. His entire time in his kidnapping, Buck had been nothing more than a tool to be used and the indifference had started to eat him away. But Buck had made it personal by trying to escape and now he was paying the price. 

He’d seen their faces. Buck knew what that meant. 

Buck let out a slow breath through his nose as he swallowed back the panic. 

He couldn’t panic. Not yet. And he wouldn’t give up either. He’d hesitated the first time but he wouldn’t again. 

Misogynistic bullshit aside, they’d been right when they said Taylor had been lying. She’d been holding something back otherwise she wouldn’t have gone on air. Buck had seen her hold off her producers with just a lift of one perfectly manicured finger until she was able to sink her teeth into the heart of a story. She knew something and wasn’t saying it on air for a reason which meant that the others might know something too. 

It was feeble at best but it was all Buck got and he latched onto the hope with all he had.

The claustrophobic humid air of the hood was ripped away with a sharp twist of the fabric. Buck jolted and felt his back seize as he yanked on the ties holding his wrists to his ankles. Pain laced through his muscles as the deep ache in his joints cried out and Buck writhed for some relief. His eyes were still too sensitive to the light and the open air was like a sheet of sandpaper being rubbed across his retinas. 

A big massive hand pressed down over his taped mouth, smothering Buck’s grunt of pain, and Buck had to blink a few times to make his vision stop swimming. 

The bigger man with the snarl on his face from before was pressing a finger to his lips.

Buck reared back with a flinch but the man squeezed harder and shook his head as he shushed him. 

“Easy.” The man breathed out before he pointed to a small window on the other side of the basement. “Can you fit?”

Could he— What?

He was speaking so low that Buck almost didn’t hear him over the roaring of his ears. His heart slammed against his rib cage and threatened to break free as he stared up at the man.

He chewed on his lip, staring down at Buck before he dragged his finger in the dust on the floor.

F-B-I

He barely even gave Buck a chance to read the letters before he dashed them away with a swipe of his palm. 

“Can you fit? Yes or no.” He asked and Buck had to stare at the window again. 

It was small. Almost too small but Buck had crawled through smaller. If he could get his shoulders through the frame then he would be fine. 

He breathed through his nose as he nodded and the man gave him one in return. 

“You won’t have much time. They want to send another video soon because the news isn’t playing ball and airing the footage,” the man said as he pulled out a knife and cut Buck’s hands away from his ankles. 

Buck groaned before he could help himself and the man slammed his hand over Buck’s mouth again. 

“You have to be quiet!” He hissed and Buck shrugged the man’s hand off as he finally rolled onto his side. His hands were freed next before the man slipped his knife between Buck’s fingers and curled Buck’s hand into a fist. “Take this with you. The calvary is coming but I have no idea how long it’ll be. Run as far away from here as you can. Don’t try looking for the road, you’re too far away. Hide out in the woods and if you get caught again do not look at me. If they find out I’m undercover then you and I are both dead. Do you understand me?”

Buck nodded as he sat up, squeezing his eyes shut as the dizzying head rush washed down his scalp and into his sinuses. 

“I’m going to buy you some time,” the man said before he stood up. “Go now.”

And then he was gone, climbing up the stairs without a second glance in Buck’s direction. 

Buck didn’t waste any time. He cut through the tape around his ankles and tossed the duct tape away before he clawed at his face where the duct tape had been wound around his head in an unbearably tight gag. Sweat made his nails dig into his skin but Buck scratched at his face until he could find some give. 

A voice bellowed from above and Buck jumped. He froze, waiting for the men to come barreling down the steps to attack him. Had it been a trick? The man had said they were going to do another video? Had they’d trapped Buck in another escape attempt to justify beating him on camera?

No one came.

But the voice carried on like a speech and Buck ripped his gag free from his face and hair. He spat out the wad of fabric again and curled his fingers around the knife until his knuckles were white. Buck scrambled to his feet before he crossed the basement to the window and climbed up onto the dryer. 

The metal groaned beneath his weight but a cheer followed from upstairs. Buck’s breath was slipping between his lips with stuttered sips as he tried to push the window open but it barely moved, catching on something that made the window pop in its frame. 

Fuck fuck fuck!

Another cheer and Buck pushed hard enough to break one of the rusted hinges. It wasn’t enough. He needed to break the window off completely or else he was going to get stuck. The dryer wobbled beneath him with another groan and Buck bit out a curse as he tried to wiggle the other hinge loose. Paint and rust caked the old screws and Buck forced himself to stop and wait. 

He needed to wait. 

He had to rip the window open and if the glass broke it was going to be loud. He needed to—

One last cheer, louder than all the others, rained down at him from above and Buck twisted the window free as the glass cracked. His arm cut against a jagged metal edge that he was sure was going to earn him another tetanus shot but he didn’t care. Buck bit down on his lip and hoisted himself through the window. 

It was difficult with no leverage to push him from below but somehow he managed, pain burning through him as he squeezed one shoulder and then the next before he clawed himself onto dirt and gravel. 

Cool, night air greeted his sweat soaked skin and Buck scrambled to get his knees under him. 

A window bled light from the house into the small side yard of the cabin and Buck crawled beneath it as fast he could without making a sound. Rocks dug into his skin as he cleared the windows and found a blind spot. 

Buck knew the agent told him to not bother trying to find a road but there’d been one leading into the cabin and if he followed that path then he might be able to find a car he could hot wire. By the time the others heard the engine then Buck would already be racing down the drive.  

With the pocket knife in his hand and the exhaustion threatening to take Buck out at the knees, Buck wasn’t going to let himself be dragged back into that cabin if he could help it. 

The front porch was lit with two windows Buck wasn’t going to be able to avoid but there, sitting a little further down the drive, was an old pick up truck. It wouldn’t be the fastest but the shocks would’ve been in good shape as long as Buck didn’t drive it through a ditch and if he did then he’d just bail and wait in the woods like the agent told him to.

Buck weighed his options. The woods would shelter him for as long as the men didn’t realize he was missing. But how long would that last? There were more of them than there were of him and they’d be able to cover more ground than he would on his own. 

But if Buck made a run for it then he’d be exposed and all it would take is someone looking out the window. The front door was still open, letting in the cool air so the front room didn’t get too stuffy, and he would lose his element of surprise when he turned over the engine.

And it wasn’t just him he was risking. Buck wasn’t familiar with undercover operation policies but he was pretty sure they weren’t supposed to interject unless absolutely necessary. How long would it be if he got caught again before they were able to figure out that the agent had helped him?

No offense but Buck wasn’t interested in waiting for the calvary. 

As it turned out, Buck didn’t have to. 

An alarm wailed from inside the house that shot through Buck’s chest and electrocuted his heart. 

“ Incoming boys!” Someone shouted from inside and the front of the house was flooded with light. 

Buck grimaced as he clapped a hand over his eyes. 

“We’ve got multiple.”

“Someone go get the kid from downstairs!”

“Remember what we talked about—”

Buck needed to go! He needed to run! He could hear the tires popping on the gravel as an engine sped up down the drive. The cops wouldn’t bother with subtlety if they knew their approach had been blown and Buck’s time was running out. 

He needed to go! He needed to run! He couldn’t stay there and he—

“Fuck! The kid’s gone!”

Buck ran.

“Oh my God!” Chimney gasped and Eddie nearly broke his neck as he craned around in his seat to see. 

It was a miracle he waited for the truck to stop when he saw what Chimney did. 

The feds had swerved into a barricade around the only exit road leading to the cabin with LAPD blaring their lights as they drove off road to provide more cover. Agents and officers had their guns out and aimed at a house where men were shouting and pointing their own weapons and in the center was Buck running for his life. 

“Eddie!” Bobby snapped but Eddie didn’t care. 

He was already out of the truck and sprinting down the rows of officers. 

“Put your hands up!”

“Hands up right fucking now!”

A cacophony of shouting rattled in Eddie’s brain as he fought upstream. Tension was ratcheting up into an unbearable pressure and Buck was in the middle! Buck was there and Eddie knew it was only a matter of time before someone started shooting and Buck was right there!

“Diaz! Don’t—”

“Buck!” Eddie yelled like the name was being ripped from the center of his soul. 

Buck startled at the sound of his name, his wide blue eyes finding Eddie in the crowd, and Eddie saw the moment Buck’s body gave out. His knees dipped and Eddie broke through the barricade of federal agents and slid up to him before he caught Buck. 

“Eddie!” Buck croaked before Eddie was dragging them to the ground and covering Buck’s body with his own. 

A shot cracked through the air.

Eddie waited for the pain, waited for the moment Buck would jerk from being hit because Eddie had been too late. But it never came. 

Two more shots rang out before the agents broke the line and they were stepping over Eddie and Buck to surround the house. All except one who was aiming a gun at Buck and a snarl on his lips. 

“Drop the fucking knife! Now!” Eddie didn’t know what the hell he was talking about before he realized Buck had a pocket knife in a death grip in his hand. “I said drop it!”

Buck was trembling beneath him, tiny hurt noises falling from his lips as he hyperventilated through the adrenaline induced survival instincts holding his body captive. 

Anger swelled in Eddie’s chest as he bared his teeth. “He’s the fucking hostage!”

“I won’t ask you—”

Bobby and then Hen and Chimney threw themselves between them and the agent, all shouting over one another to be heard.

Someone was going to get shot because a trigger happy idiot hadn’t been able to tell the difference between someone running for his life and a knife wielding madman. 

Eddie ducked his head down to Buck’s ear and almost sobbed when the familiar scent of his shampoo filled his nose. 

“Buck! Buck… baby,” Eddie said, burying his face into his hair. “Drop the knife.”

Buck gasped as he unclenched his fist and Eddie tossed the knife away. 

“It’s gone!” Eddie snapped, pointing at it. “It’s gone! Put your fucking gun down!”

Buck squirmed beneath him and Eddie lifted himself enough for Buck to twist until he was clutching onto Eddie with desperate fingers that were going to leave bruises on his skin. 

The agent bit out a curse as he went for his handcuffs and Eddie squeezed his arms around Buck, snarling like an animal even as Bobby pushed even further in front of them. 

“Put handcuffs on my guy and you and I are going to have a problem!” Bobby practically growled, sounding as dangerous as Eddie had ever heard him. 

“Everyone calm down!” Athena came jogging up to them, her hands out as she stepped between her husband and the agent that was threatening to arrest Bobby for obstruction. “He’s the hostage! Your undercover agent got him out! Hen! Chimney! They need medical attention at the house.”

For a second nobody moved. Buck was shaking so much in Eddie’s arms that it was a miracle he didn’t rattle apart and Eddie would have to be dragged away before he let him go. Bobby and the agent were both squared up and ready to fight and Hen and Chimney were caught between wanting to help Buck and doing their job. 

“Agent Stanford!” Athena snapped and the fed swiveled his glare onto her. Athena didn’t even flinch. “They need you at the house. Stand down.”

His eyes cut to Bobby before he stomped away and the weight on Eddie’s chest went with him. 

Bobby’s shoulders dropped as he swallowed and gave his wife a grateful look. 

“Hen,” Bobby said and Hen’s mouth dipped into a sour frown before she disappeared to get her medical bag.

“Why do I even bother having a conversation with you people?” Athena drawled but there wasn’t any heat in her voice as she followed after Hen. 

Bobby and Chimney watched them leave but Eddie dropped his attention down to Buck. 

“Buck?” Eddie said and Buck shuddered against him. “Buck? Are you hurt?”

Eddie tried to pull away so he could get a better look but the sound that fell from Buck cut right through Eddie’s ribs and nearly split him in two.  

The hot press of tears against Eddie’s throat told him all he needed to know before he curled himself around his boyfriend and just tried to shield him as he broke apart in his arms. 

Chimney popped his gum between his molars as Eddie passed the back of the open ambulance again checking one more time if Buck was okay. 

“I hate to break this to you, Buckaroo,” Chimney said when they were alone. “But your boyfriend blew your cover about three minutes after you went missing. Head back.”

Buck huffed out a laugh as he tipped his head back and let Chimney flush his eyes again. 

“He gets clingy when he gets protective,” Buck said, grimacing as some of the solution reached a particularly irritated part of his eye. 

“You okay?” Buck would know the feeling of Eddie’s touch blindfolded. His strong, warm fingers swept into Buck’s palm and squeezed his hand like he was trying to give Buck all his strength. 

“He’ll be fine, Helicopter Diaz. Please take your landing.” Chimney quipped before he moved to Buck’s other eye.  

Eddie didn’t let Buck’s hand go and Buck didn’t let him either. 

He understood why Eddie was hovering. Buck had freaked him out when he had his little adrenaline crash fueled breakdown. 

“Alright,” Chimney said when he was done, wiping Buck’s cheeks with some gauze. “They’ll probably flush your eyes at the hospital but you should heal up nicely after a couple of days.” 

Buck groaned at the mention of the hospital but Chimney pointed a finger at him. 

“Nope! No pouting about this. Not after you got trampled and then kidnapped and then beaten up and then nearly shot. I will not be responsible for explaining any of that to Maddie. She’s meeting us there.” 

Chimney didn’t even give Buck a chance to reply before he walked over to check in with Bobby, giving Eddie and Buck a moment to themselves for the first time in hours. 

Eddie’s cheek was caved in where he was biting the skin raw with his teeth and Buck finally took his boyfriend in. 

Eddie’s jaw was nearly purple with the bruise spreading on his face but the exhaustion was practically rippling off him. Not that anyone would’ve noticed. Eddie’s eyes were hyper alert and bright with his head on a constant swivel for a threat. And if Buck knew his boyfriend like he liked to think he did, he also knew that guilt had probably been eating a hole in his gut for hours now. 

Buck tugged on Eddie’s arm and spread his legs to make room for him to slip close. 

“Baby,” Buck said, his voice still hoarse and probably doing absolutely nothing to help assuage Eddie’s worry. “I’m okay.”

Eddie clamped down hard on his cheek and Buck hooked his ankles around his calves as he curled his hands around Eddie’s waist to keep him close. 

The bolt of his jaw twitched as Eddie reached out to cup Buck’s face and tilt his chin up. 

“I never should’ve let you go on your own,” Eddie said, his voice thick with emotion he was muscling back through sheer force of will. 

“They’d been waiting for one of us to break off,” Buck said, sighing low as Eddie’s fingers carded through his hair. “They were hoping it would’ve been you.”

Eddie twitched against him and Buck petted the tension from his side. “I wish it—”

“No,” Buck said, squeezing that thought out of Eddie before he could finish. “If I’m not allowed to do that then neither are you.” 

Eddie exhaled and curled his arms around him as Buck pressed his face into his sternum, soaking up all the comfort Eddie gave him. 

“Sorry I blew our secret,” Eddie murmured into the crown of Buck’s head, pressing a kiss into his scalp with his apology. 

“We had to tell them at some point.” Buck shrugged. “Might as well have come out with a bang.”

Eddie leaned back and threw the most disgusted look Buck had ever seen twisted on his face. Buck laughed and tangled his fingers in Eddie’s shirt. 

“You’re lucky you’re cute.” Eddie grumbled as he let himself be pulled back into Buck’s embrace. 

And Buck couldn’t agree more. 

“Need anything before we roll?” Bobby asked from the doors when Buck was moved to the gurney for transport and Buck decided maybe he had enough luck to test just one more thing. 

“You wouldn’t happen to know how to make bourbon chicken would you, Cap?” 

Eddie groaned as he shook his head. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous is that you wanted a hot dog.” Buck countered before he gave Bobby his most innocent smile. “Please Cap?”

Bobby rolled his eyes skyward. 

“I’ll see what I can do,” he said before he closed the ambulance doors. 

“Yes!” Buck cheered, before he rolled onto his side to stare at Eddie because Eddie was right. 

Lucky was exactly how he felt when Eddie’s fingers were tangled in his.