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Buck was glad to be out of the prison, though he did hate that he had to leave Hen, Bobby and Ravi behind. While he was glad that the guard escorts were with them to make sure the prisoner wouldn’t be able to do anything, he felt a bit uncomfortable around them, though he wasn’t sure why.
He understood his feeling more when the guard next to him pulled the gun on him. Buck was starting to think the guy next to him wasn’t a guard.
Buck and Eddie were standing, side by side, on the side of an isolated road, watching the two fake guards in front of them. Buck silently took Eddie’s hand, just needing some assurance, even if it was false. Buck was scared. He was terrified. They were on the side of an isolated road, a man dying in the back of the ambulance, with two men and Buck didn’t know what they may be willing to do.
Buck was scared he and Eddie would be killed, leaving Christopher behind. Alone.
“Buck?” Eddie quietly asked.
“We can take them, right? There’s only two of them. Two of us and two of-”
“Cute kid,” the blonde ‘guard’ said, pulling out Chris’ picture from Eddie’s wallet. “I’m guessing he lives with you at 4995 South Bedford Street?”
Buck started to move ahead to yell at the man but Eddie tightened his hold of Buck’s hand and pulled him back, making him hold his tongue.
“Oh,” the blonde man hummed, watching them. He then quickly looked through Buck’s wallet and pulled out the picture of him, Chris and Eddie from the zoo trip they had taken a couple of months earlier. “How cute. I didn’t know couples could work together. How does that work?”
Buck and Eddie just watched the man back while the bald man beside him smirked at them.
“Come on, I want to know. I’m curious,” the blonde man pushed.
“We went to our captain saying there was a change in our relationship. We signed some documents and were observed to see if we can safely work together and they found that we can,” Buck offered mechanically.
“Huh, a lot simpler but more complicated than I thought,” the blonde man shrugged. “Now, for what we can do for each other.”
The ambulance was silent as the bald man drove. Buck both hated and liked that he was now in the back. He hated it because now he had no idea where they were going or what was around them. He also hated it because he was now face to face with a gun that was pointed, not only at him but at Eddie too. Not to mention the underlying threat that the prisoners knew where they lived and about Chris.
He liked it because it meant he was with Eddie and could help his partner.
A small part of him wished he kept going with his SEAL training so that he would be able to take the prisoners out.
The ambulance was silent, aside from the sounds of the road and the whirring of the Yankauer suction tube that was working to save the patient’s life. Buck chanced a look at the prisoner once again and tried not to fidget when he saw that the guy was still staring at him.
Something knocked against his foot and he tried his best not to flinch and looked down to see it was Eddie’s foot. He relaxed as he let the contact with Eddie calm him down, even just a little bit.
“I knew it,” the gruff voice in front of them said. Buck flinched as he looked up. Once he made eye contact with the prisoner, he grinned and continued. “I thought I knew you from somewhere.”
Buck blinked, confused.
“What?” He breathed out.
“What’s New Family?” The prisoner grinned. “My ex loved that show, she got me into it.”
“I think you have the wrong person,” Buck tried, trying to look back at what Eddie was doing.
“Nah, you’re Oliver Stark. Them finding out who you were was such big news we heard about it in prison. You know, that parasocial relationship people get, or whatever that kid called it,” the prisoner shrugged then he turned slightly to yell at the front. “Hey Dom, we got ourselves a bonafide celebrity with us!”
The driver, Dom, yelled back. “Well lucky us.”
Buck swallowed, panicked, and glanced over to Eddie.
“Oh, did he not know?” the prisoner laughed.
“I knew,” Eddie gritted out, trying his best to ignore the prisoner.
“What’s got you so pissy?” the prisoner laughed. Eddie only glared at the man.
“Eds,” Buck said quietly, trying to keep his partner calm.
“Aw, now that’s cute,” the prisoner grinned.
“Buck, I need the bougie; the long blue tube in the cabinet,” Eddie interrupted, all of his attention seemingly back on the patient. Buck felt a little awkward as he reached to grab what Eddie wanted while doing his best to keep an eye on the gun.
“Almost there, Mitch,” Dom called back. Buck just managed to see the ‘Emergency Room Entrance’ sign as the ambulance drove past.
“Wait, you guys are serious? We’re really going to a hospital?” Buck questioned, feeling a little off-kilter.
“Thought that was what you wanted. You’re so worried about the health of your friend here, now you can walk him through the front doors,” Mitch deadpanned, giving him an unimpressed look. I mean, it’s not like Buck knew their plan. He just thought they were going to drive around to wherever Mitch and Dom were going to ditch them as they tried their best to keep the guard alive.
“Doesn’t look like we have any company,” Dom said as he opened the back doors.
“All right,” Mitch started, watching over the both of them, “superstar stays with me. Dom, you and the pretty boy take our friend inside. Hand him off, then you know what to do.”
“Hey man, listen, I don’t know what you want but this hospital is full of sick people,” Buck started, bristling at the name, the separation from Eddie and the idea that a criminal was going into a hospital
“Shut up, or I’ll shoot you,” Mitch said lowly, his passive, blank gaze staring right at Buck. “Or better yet, I’ll shoot him and then I find his kid and shoot him too.”
Buck swallowed.
“Buck,” Eddie muttered softly. He managed to force eye contact and squeezed Buck’s hand. “Be careful.”
“You too,” Buck said back then carefully manoeuvred himself out of Eddie’s way. He watched helplessly as Eddie climbed out and the door shut, cutting them off from each other.
“So, tell me about yourself,” Mitch said into the quiet van.
“What?” Buck muttered back, his leg bouncing uncontrollably.
“What made you go into acting?” Mitch pushed on.
“My parents made me,” Buck forced out.
“You didn’t want to? Didn’t have dreams of being a star?” Mitch grinned.
“I wasn’t even 1 when I did my first gig. I didn’t really have a choice.”
“Wow, why don’t you still do it? I remember you were big. Could have gone bigger. Would be richer than you are now. Why aren’t you some big, untouchable star?”
“Because I didn’t want to be one. I never did. I hated it.”
“Come on, it couldn’t have been that bad,” Mitch grinned, clearly enjoying himself.
“I tried to kill myself. I swallowed a bunch of my brother’s leftover Oxy from his cancer treatments and went to sleep. When my parents still tried to force me back to acting, I grabbed a scalpel and tried to cut my face apart. It was that bad.”
Mitch stared at him in silence. A silent shock that often came from someone being far more honest than the person was expecting and now didn’t know what to do with what they had been told. Before Mitch could say anything else, there was a flurry of flashing lights and sirens as police cruisers appeared out of nowhere and drew their guns, aimed at the ambulance. Mitch quickly opened the door and brandished his gun.
“Stay back! I have a hostage!” he yelled out before slamming the door shut and falling against the wall. “How did they find us so fast?”
“How am I supposed to know?”
“Shut up.”
“Why did you even bring us here? I thought maybe it was to drop the guard off but we’re still here. Why?”
“My son,” Mitch sniffed, “he’s here, in the ICU. Congenital heart failure. He’s been waiting almost a year for a new heart.”
“So your plan is to force them to give him a heart now?”
“No, I’m here to give him mine.”
“So, cancer huh?” Mitch asked after they had been sat in silence for a while.
“What?” Buck asked back, confused.
“You said your older brother had cancer. What was that like?” Mitch asked. Buck shrugged.
“I don’t know. He went into remission when I was one and a half. Parents were really cautious about him. Anytime he got sick they panicked, he had regular checks with oncology to make sure everything was really gone. Me and my sister were, kind of, pushed off to the side. I was pushed off to do project after project, market, perform, dance, and take part in interviews. I think I was more in my agent’s custody than I was in my parents' because they would say they had to stay home with my brother to make sure he was ok while I was shipped off to Vancouver, Seattle. Once, I went to Romania for three months to film a movie. He had a recurrence when I was, like, nine. It was bad too, don’t know how it got that bad between all the checkups he had but it wasn’t good. I had multiple rounds of donations.”
“Donations?”
“Yeah, my parents had me for spare parts. I’m a saviour baby. They didn’t want me. My brother is almost eight years older than me. My sister is nine years older than me.”
“Shit man,” Mitch whistled. Buck just shrugged. “What’s it like? Being born to save someone else?”
“It’s a lot. But also, I didn’t know anything else. I knew it wasn’t normal. That everything I went through was far from normal, but I didn’t know anything else. While it wasn’t normal for everyone else, it was normal for me. Don’t get me wrong; I love my brother. I’m so happy he’s still alive and healthy. But why did I have to go through all of that to keep him alive?
“I can’t say a lot about what your son might be going through, I know the perspective of the donor, not the recipient, but my brother told me he felt guilty. His little brother, his baby brother, had to be hurt and give up parts of himself to save him. The little brother was the protector, not the other way around, and he hated it. He felt guilty that he had to take from me to stay healthy. That he had to hurt me to stay with me. I think that’s why he lashed out at me a lot growing up. It didn’t help that our parents would compare us a lot, which led to us comparing ourselves. He hated that he was kept inside while I was meeting his favourite celebrities, acting in movies, being famous, and I hated that he was allowed to be a kid and be himself while I had to keep becoming other people.”
“Do you think he’ll hate me?” Mitch asked, carefully.
“I don’t know, but you’re trying to save his life. That has to mean something,” Buck offered placidly.
“Sure, but I’m not doing right by him. Saving him doesn’t redeem me.”
“What was your plan anyway?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“I have a son; you saw his picture. He might not be mine biologically, but I’d do anything for him. I jumped into a tsunami for him. I want to help you save your son.”
“Ok. The plan was for Dom and I to start the riot, make sure to start a fire to get the fire department to come, and swap clothes with two guards. We then hitch a ride, take control then come here. Which it all went perfectly.”
“What was supposed to happen after?”
“Dom was supposed to go in, make sure Nolan was there then he’d force them to do a transplant,” Mitch explained. Buck stared at the man.
“There is no way that would have worked.”
“Maybe not but that’s all I could come up with. What do you suggest?”
“I have a friend. The reporter, Taylor Kelly. I could tell her about this. You surrender, go back to prison, Taylor does a story on your son, get people behind your cause, put pressure on the governor, and force him to make a decision. Save a kid or let a kid die.”
“No, I can’t let that happen to him. Have everyone knowing who his dad is.”
“What else can we do?”
“Ok, you promise you’ll do everything you can for me son?”
“I’ll fight for him like he’s mine.”
“Ok, ok. Open the door, tell them we’re coming out,” Mitch ordered. Buck nodded and carefully went to open the door. He took a deep breath and slowly pushed the door open.
“We’re coming out! He’s surrendering!” Buck yelled out. There was a barrage of yelling from the police as he carefully took a couple of steps, his arms up. He heard Mitch step out of the ambulance, but before he could start walking towards the police he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“I need you to promise me something. He can never know it was me,” Mitch said. Before Buck could react or stop him, the loud pop of a gunshot came from behind him, and he felt Mitch fall.
Shit.