Chapter Text
After the ceremony, Buck and Tommy went for a light dinner together to celebrate. Buck thought it was all fine, Tommy’s old CO might have been an ass but they could deal with it. No matter how many times Buck said it wasn’t his fault, Tommy kept apologising.
“I am so sorry he did that in front of everyone like that. I’m sorry if it made you uncomfortable.” Buck chuckled, taking Tommy’s hands in his own and stopping in front of him.
“How many times do I have to tell you, it wasn’t your fault.” Tommy smirked.
“Maybe once more.”
The pair continued walking to Buck’s building. The streets of LA were quiet, cars going past every so often and the gentle sound of life in the background. Buck found it calming.
Once they were in front of his building's main door, Buck turned to Tommy, planting a small kiss on his lips.
“Do you want to come up for a little bit?” Buck bit his lip out of nerves.
“I thought you were busy tonight-”
“Yeah but not until seven thirty and it’s only-” Buck flips his wrist toward himself. “-seven now. We could just have a half an hour to ourselves?” Buck batted his eyelashes at Tommy as if to win him over.
“Okay.”
The pair headed into the building, taking the lift up to Buck’s floor. As the lift doors opened, the pair could hear a small commotion coming from around the corner and down the hall, near to Buck’s front door.
“Clearly he isn’t here. We should see if he’s out at the moment.”
“Fine but I want to deal with him tonight.”
The pair rounded the corner to see a trio of men standing at Buck’s front door. Tommy’s gut told him something was really wrong but before he could say anything, Buck was jumping into the conversation.
“Can I help you with something? It’s just- that’s my front door.” Buck gestured to the door with the keys in his hand. The look shared between the three men made Tommy’s heart jump, they looked like vultures that had found their next meal.
“You firefighter Buckley?” Tommy took in the three men, one was taller than both him and Buck but had less muscle, the other two matched his and Buck’s stature.
“Yeah I am-” Tommy put his hand on Buck’s chest to stop him and leaned in.
“Something doesn’t feel right to me. I say we leave and call someone.” Whispered Tommy, Buck pulled a confused face in response.
“I’m sure this is just a misunderstanding or something-” Buck spoke louder, loud enough for the men to hear him. “Right? This is just a misunderstanding or-”
“Of course! We just came here to congratulate you two on your medals!” Tommy’s hairs stood on end. He really didn’t like the way this guy was looking at Buck like he was a piece of meat. Buck smiled and headed towards his door before Tommy could stop him.
Tommy kept up with Buck, standing in line with him and using himself as a sort of human shield in case they tried anything. The stench of alcohol radiating off the three of them made Tommy’s stomach flip. Buck unlocked his door and as he entered.
All hell broke loose.
Before he was able to register who and what had happened, Tommy was on the floor of Buck’s apartment next to Buck. With watering eyes and a throbbing in his head, Tommy looked to the attackers.
With shit-eating grins on all of their faces, they loomed over the pair. Buck pushed himself onto his elbows.
“What the hell are you doing-?” A swift kick to the stomach had Buck being quiet and curled in on himself. Tommy covered him with his left arm whilst his right arm was out in front of him to stop the oncoming attack.
“What are we doing? We are curing the world of perverts like you.” Tommy realised what was so off putting about the men in front of him.
He had trained in the academy with them, they were all homophobes that Captain Gerard happily took in all those years ago. Steven, the one standing over Buck degrading him, Skylar stood opposite Steven and Stan stood over Tommy. They were at the medal ceremony earlier in the day. They had heard Gerard’s comments about Tommy and Buck.
Tommy always bit his tongue when they would make homophobic comments, it was the only way he could really protect himself in those days. He was glad to be gone from Gerard and once he saw the world as a safe place for queer men like him, he was more openly himself. Just not with these guys he wasn’t. It all clicked into place, they thought that Buck had turned him gay? He knew they were stupid, but he never thought they were that stupid and to attack someone over their sexuality? The alcohol must have been fueling their rage even more.
“What?” Buck spluttered as he tried to regain his breath. The three men got closer. Two closing in on Buck, the other placing his boot square on Tommy’s chest to keep him down. The two men grabbed Buck under his armpits and dragged him into the open space between the kitchen and living room. With another swift kick to either side of Buck’s waist, he was unable to do anything but curl in on himself.
“You make me sick! How dare you try to turn Tommy gay! There is only one way to fix your sickness!” The man crouched down to be face to face with Buck as he wheezed on the floor. “A slow and painful death.”
With no warning, the two men kicked Buck over and over again. Buck tried to fight them, he grabbed at their legs to get them to stop but in retaliation, he got his wrist and hands stomped on repeatedly. Tommy cringed at the sounds. The sounds of ribs cracking and breaking. The sounds of Buck whimpering and crying in pain as he desperately tried to shield as much of himself as he could.
Tommy screamed, begged and pleaded for them to stop. They wouldn’t listen.
“It’s alright Tommy, we’ll have you free of this pervert in no time.” Tommy tried to reason with them but it was no use.
“IT WAS ME!” The sudden outburst from Tommy had to the two men stopping in their tracks, Buck made eye contact with Tommy between the shaky, whimpering breaths he took. “I-” Tommy took a moment to think of what he was going to say.
He looked at Buck, he was curled in on himself, taking in shallow breaths and shaking uncontrollably. From the sounds Tommy had heard, he had cracked if not broken ribs and probable internal bruising and bleeding. The longer he looked, the angrier he got at the trio for doing this to Buck. He looked at Steven, the ring leader. The others are just his little yes men.
“I kissed him. I’m the pervert here, not him. I-” A cough drew his attention back to Buck.
“Tommy- don’t-” Buck knew what he was doing. He was trying to get the attack away from Buck and onto himself.
“I kissed him first. I’m the gay one. He was just-” Before Tommy can finish his sentence. The boot to his chest dug in harder, forcing the air from his lungs.
“You? You, Tommy Kinard. The Tommy Kinard who used to joke with us about how this lot were going to hell. No, I don't believe it.” The trio laughed at him. Tommy tried his best to wriggle free from the boot on his chest but it was no use.
The pair went back to kicking Buck. Tommy’s face burned with tears and anger. He looked around for any kind of leverage he could get over the man standing on him but there was nothing. Everything was too far out of reach, including Buck.
A sudden wheeze from Buck made Tommy’s heart stop. He observed Buck for a moment as the kicks kept hitting him. He was breathing shallowly, having to suck in each breath more and more. One side of his chest wasn’t moving like the other.
“Please stop! Please- he can’t breathe!” It didn’t matter what Tommy said to them, they weren’t going to stop. He clawed at the leg above him to no end but it was no use. The duo were stuck in their endless hell.
“Buck?” For a fleeting moment, everything - everyone - stood still. The sound of keys jingling in the door shot a flare of hope through Tommy’s chest. Buck had left his keys in the door when they went down in the initial attack.
The door swung open to reveal Eddie and Chris waiting for Buck. In the commotion, both Buck and Tommy had forgotten about babysitting Chris for the night.
“Chris, go call for help! Alright let’s talk about this-!” Eddie walked into the apartment. Chris made his way back down the hallway. “Let them go-!”
As Eddie approached, Skylar approached Eddie, throwing a punch as he went. Eddie managed to dodge the punch aimed for his face but wasn't prepared for the kick to the back of the knee. Eddie fell to his knees. Taking advantage of his surprised state, Skylar pushes Eddie to the floor, face down with a boot to his back.
“Hey-”
“What about the kid?” Steven waved his hand.
“Forget about him, he won’t make it far anyway. Tie those two up, they should watch him suffer.” Eddie and Tommy simultaneously struggled under their respective boots. As trained medics, they both knew Buck was in trouble and needed medical attention five minutes ago.
“Please- just-” Eddie’s arm was twisted around his back as he was pulled to his feet. “Just let us treat him! He can’t breathe!” Steven leaned into Eddie’s face.
“No. You watch him suffer, it’s what the pervert deserves.” Leaving Buck on the floor, Steven went to Eddie first as he and Skylar kept him from fighting back before doing the same with Tommy and Stan. Using whatever they could find in the apartment, the trio tied the pair of them up to the stairs that led up to Buck’s bedroom. The pair were tied to the step that was just tall enough to keep them from having their full feet on the ground with their arms stretched above their heads uncomfortably.
Buck laid as still as he could, his entire body ached with each forming bruise but it was his chest that was particularly bad. He knew something was wrong in the left side of his chest but his brain couldn’t get a coherent thought together. It was like his body was on fire and his brain was frozen in a block of ice. He laid there and watched as Eddie and Tommy fought against their restraints with no avail. When did Eddie get here? Why was he here-?
“Where’s- Chris?” The trio laughed at him.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get him.” Eddie roared at them in anger.
“Don’t you fucking dare lay a hand on my kid!” He shot forward to attack the men but was stopped in his tracks by the restraints holding him upright.
The trio laughed as they headed for the door. Buck wanted nothing more than to get up and stand between the men and Chris but his vision was starting to blur as dark spots danced around the edges.
“Hey, kid. Come out, come out wherever you are.” Buck could only watch in horror from the floor. All he wanted was to get up and defend his family, but even the thought of moving was exhausting to him right now.
“Evan, stay with us. You can’t sleep.” Buck groaned in response, he tried to fight off the impending sleep but it was difficult.
“He’s right, Buck. You can’t, we need you to tell us your injuries, okay?” Buck’s eyes flicked to the men as they still tugged as hard as they could at the restraints in the hopes of them breaking.
“Hey-! Get off-” The duo’s attention was drawn to the doorway where Steven entered with Chris in his arms. Chris fought as hard as he could against the man but he had dropped his crutches and had no way to grab at the man.
Eddie pulled more and more against the restraints as Steven bought Chris past the duo and to the couch. Laughing as he dropped Chris onto the couch face down, Steven watched Eddie’s reaction.
“Chris!” Satisfied with the reaction, the three men made their way over to the breakfast bar where they each took a seat to watch Buck’s pain. “Just stay there, okay?” The young boy nodded at his dad, staying put on the couch.
“Chris- you- okay?” Buck looked down the apartment but he couldn’t really focus on the young boy, just blobs of colours.
“I’m fine, Buck. More concerned about you.”
“How sweet. Shame he can’t help you now. You shouldn’t even be allowed near him, God knows what you would try to do to the poor kid.” As Eddie and Tommy kept fighting the stairs, Tommy noticed the fabric of the kitchen towel he was tied up with was starting to rip. He kept pulling at it whilst trying not to let on that it was ripping.
He worked as fast he could to free himself but it still felt like an eternity. Once it was ripped fully, Tommy bundled it up in his hand to keep them from seeing it.
“Hey!” The trio looked up from Buck’s beaten form on the floor. “Come over here and tell me what the hell this is all about. You really are fucking stupid enough to think that gay people can turn other people gay?”
Eddie watched on in confusion, he didn’t understand why he was antagonising the three of them. The trio approached Tommy, spouting their homophobic bullshit and Eddie watched in fear. Did Tommy want to get beaten up like Buck as well?
The moment Steven was close enough for Tommy to do some damage, he pulled his hands down as fast and as hard as he could to hit the man in the top of the head. Steven fell like a sack of potatoes as the other two took a moment too long to be shocked. Without thinking, Eddie kicked Skylar’s knee backwards as hard as he could, hearing a horrifically satisfying crunch as he did. The man screamed in agony as he dropped to the floor. Stan for his part saw when he was outnumbered and made a run for the door.
Tommy gave a good kick to Steven’s head to make sure he was truly out for the count before untying Eddie and helping him down. The duo drop to Buck’s side.
“Buck, talk to us. What hurts and where?” Tommy brushes the loose hair that’s fallen across Buck’s face. His face was relatively untouched by the kicking he took, just some bruising already beginning to form on his chest and up his neck slightly. His eyes were red and swollen from the tears and his lips were shaking from both the pain and the fear. Buck was still curled up on his side, his arms trying to protect his body from anymore pain.
“Left chest- Can’t- breathe-” Eddie lifted Buck’s shirt and took a moment to adjust to the sight in front of him. Buck’s skin was littered with red swollen patches of skin that were forming into bruises. There was very little of Buck’s natural skin on show as his entire chest and back were inflamed. Eddie felt along his ribs to find any indication of why he was struggling to breathe.
“His heart rate is elevated. I think it's a tension pneumothorax from internal bleeding. His ribs don’t feel broken on this side but they are definitely cracked. The skin around his lips is start to go blue.” Tommy nodded.
“What do we do?” Eddie looked around Buck’s apartment, trying to think of anything they could use.
“Chris! Come here and hold Buck’s hand alright? I need to grab a few bits.” Chris did as he was told and sat beside Buck.
Eddie rushed into the kitchen, getting the advanced first aid that he was insistent on Buck owning and digging through the drawers for something.
“What are you thinking? Eddie opened the last drawer and saw metal drinking straws. He grabbed them all and sat back down beside Buck again.
“We need to make our best one way valve to relieve the pressure on his lung and re-inflate it.” Tommy nodded in agreement. “I am going to make the incision whilst you push the straw in between his ribs to drain the blood or air that is in there.”
Chris, on the other side of Buck, pulled his phone from his pocket and made a call.
“Chris! Are you alright? Where’s your dad?” Eddie felt pride for his son.
“Bobby! I’m here with Tommy and Buck. Buck’s in a bad way. We are trying to make a one way valve to inflate his lung again.” On the other end of the line, they heard car horns and swerving.
“Athena and I are on our way, we called for more police and medical backup. We are a minute or so from his apartment building, Chris, we need you to let us in alright?” Chris nodded with a small ‘humph’ sound and headed for the door where he knew the controls to open the front door. “You taught him well Eddie, he called us and told us what he saw in the doorway but he got cut off by someone. Is he alright?”
“Yeah- he’s fine, we are all a little shaken up but Buck is the priority right now.”
Eddie worked on Buck with the help of Tommy, who started feeling more and more lightheaded. He couldn’t tell if it was from the blow to the back of the head earlier or if he just hated seeing Buck like this. Tommy cut the finger off one of the gloves like Eddie told him too and tied it to the end of the straw. He watched with bile in his throat as Eddie pushed the straw into Buck’s chest between his ribs. Buck groaned in pain as he did it but then started taking bigger, deeper breaths as the space for his lung was freed up again.
Eddie stayed glued to Buck’s side as he kept an eye on the valve they had made, Chris rejoined them after unlocking the front door to the building.
Tommy didn’t know how long it had been, everything seemed to happen so fast and slow at the same time. People rushed in, Bobby and Athena along with police officers and medics. Bobby pulled Tommy to his feet as he was unresponsive to the medics asking him to move so they could work on Buck. For the first time since being hit, Tommy realised just how much his head hurt and how everything was spinning around him.
“Woah, okay. Tommy, are you injured anywhere?” Bobby slowly lowered the man to the ground.
“I think I got hit in the back of the head when they first jumped us.” Bobby nodded in agreement as he looked into the man’s eyes, they were glassy and unfocused. Tommy laid there on the floor, Bobby over him speaking to the paramedics as they wheeled something out of the room. Why weren’t they helping Buck? Tommy looked over to where Buck was on the floor just moments ago.
“Evan? Where’s Evan-?” He tried to sit up again but Bobby stopped him.
“They are loading him onto an ambulance now with Eddie, you need to stay down okay? I think you have a bad concussion alright?” Tommy shook his head.
“No I need to be with him-” He shook his head a little too hard and rolled onto his side as he threw up.
Tommy forgot how horrid concussions truly were. He’d had them before and always hated the experience of them. Time seemed to slip away and he couldn’t focus on anything properly. It was like everything was coated in oil, making it impossible for him to get a grip on anyone or anything around him.
“Tommy, stay with me alright, we are almost at the hospital.” Bobby leaned over him, blocking out the painfully bright light that burned his eyes. There were sirens blaring in the background and it took him too long to figure out he was in the back of an ambulance.
When his senses came back to him again, he was in a hospital bed with a sore patch on his chest. He lifted the gown from his chest and looked down. On the centre of his chest was a dark brown bruise boot-shaped imprint. Bobby moved at his side, drawing his attention to him.
“Hey-” He coughed a little. His voice was hoarse. “Where’s Evan-?”
“In a room across the hall. You’ve been in and out for ten hours now. They operated on Buck and it went well. They were able to reset his wrist and stop the internal bleeding that was causing the collapsed lung. He will be monitored for the next few days before they take him off the ventilator-” Tommy’s head shot up from the pillow to look at Bobby.
“Ventilator? You mean he’s not breathing on his own-?” Bobby reached his hand out and gently pushed him back down onto the bed.
“They have him on one to give his lungs a rest and to make sure they get all the internal bleeding. They intend on taking him off of it tomorrow afternoon.” Tommy took a deep breath.
“I know who did this. It was Steven, Skylar and Stan of Gerard's old crew. They have always been homophobes but I never thought they would be capable of something like this. I should have told them to stop, years ago but-” Bobby stood up as the tears began to roll down Tommy’s cheeks.
“Hey, hey, this is not your fault. They are in custody-” Tommy lifted his head to interject. “-including Stan who tried to run, yes. They will be charged with attempted murder and assault. They will be going away for a very long time.”
Tommy rested his head on the pillow again and closed his eyes.
“When can I see Evan?”
“Currently Athena is sitting with him, Eddie and Chris were here earlier but he had to get Chris to bed. Eddie will be back in the morning. You know, if it weren’t for yours and Eddie’s quick thinking, Buck may not have made it to the hospital in time.” Tommy chuckled.
“It was more Eddie than me to be fair. All I did was listen to his instructions and try not to freeze out of fear for Evan.” Bobby smiled.
“I know you haven't made anything public or official yet but you two are a good fit for each other, you know. Not that you two are being at all subtle about it” Tommy laughed.
“Yeah, I think that kiss in the hospital with the soot all around his mouth was a dead giveaway.” Bobby laughed with him. “But thank you, that means a lot coming from you. Evan thinks very highly of you so I am sure he would love to hear that too.”
“Don’t worry, I already let him know today. If you two ever face something like this again, I want you both to know I am here for you and I can help you through any of it.”
“Thank you Bobby.”