Chapter Text
For the first time, Buck is so fucking glad that Eddie’s in El Paso.
He’s safe. He doesn’t have to see the horror movie that Buck has a front row seat to.
He’s already thrown up once today after getting off the phone with Karen and telling her that not only did her wife’s lung collapse, but she’s also trapped in a room with a deadly virus with the rest of the 118. Even though he’s the one who’s free, who’s not in danger, he still feels trapped. Helpless to do anything but watch and listen to his family die.
Buck grips his radio tightly, holding it close to his heart. This is his only lifeline right now.
“Hey, guys. I’m back,” he tells them, eyes glued to the view from the security cameras. No one’s moved, really. Chim is still separated from the team, Hen’s lying down, Bobby’s watching over everyone like a hawk, and Ravi is doing anything he can to help.
“Everything alright?” Bobby asks.
No, Buck wants to say. You’re all trapped and my brother-in-law is dying and Athena might not find the cure in time and I just violently threw up so they’re making me sit down in this stupid chair and drink stupid water.
“Mhm. I just spoke to Karen, they’re going to send a police car to her work and bring her over here so that she can talk to Hen,” Buck tells him. He squints his eyes at the screen, but the footage is grainy, so he can’t tell if Hen reacts or not.
It’s another half hour before his phone buzzes, showing Athena’s caller ID. “We found Dr. Blake,” she says. "She holed herself up, with the antidote, at her “private lab” - which is really some rundown warehouse that she rented out. We’re trying to negotiate with her, but nothing’s working. I was thinking, maybe you could get through to her? You can talk about the 118, your team. Are you up for that?”
“Yes,” Buck agrees immediately. Athena says that a cop will drive him over and she hangs up.
He looks over to where Karen is sitting with his radio, talking to her wife. She’s saying her goodbye, just in case. Buck wonders if he should say goodbye to them, too.
No, he shouldn’t. Whatever he says won’t be enough, it won’t be right. There’s no reason to burden them of this, to make them worry about him when they must already be thinking about their families, and must be so scared.
He texts Maddie, tells her to pass on a message from him to Bobby, simply saying that he loves everyone. He tells her he may not respond for a little while, but he’s okay, and he’ll be back.
Buck’s heart is beating so fast that he thinks it might fall out of his chest. His legs feel tingly but somehow, they carry him over to Athena. She gives him the basics: don’t make any promises, keep her calm, keep yourself calm, and do your best.
“Dr. Blake, I have someone who would like to talk to you,” she says.
“If they’re just going to tell me how I’m only giving myself more charges, then I don’t want to hear it,” the scientist says sassily.
Athena opens her mouth, but Buck beats her to it. “I’m not going to,” he says. He takes the phone. “Hi, Moira. My name is Evan, but I go by Buck. I’m a firefighter. My team was called out to the fire at the lab. They’re trapped in there; I only got out because I was getting one of your coworkers out of there.”
There’s a beat of silence.
“Why weren’t you all leaving, then? If you found her,” Moira asks.
“Well, we were told that you were inside. We were looking for you. It’s not in our job description to leave anyone behind,” Buck says, staring at the door to the warehouse. She’s inside there. She has the cure. She’s so close.
Another beat of silence.
“She’s not my coworker anymore. I was fired for the work I did to further our goals,” Moira says, practically hissing.
“Oh,” Buck replies, pretending as if he didn’t know that. “That sounds unfair . . . You know, I once got fired pretty unfairly from my job, too. I got this bad injury, it put me out of work for months. I was set to come back to work . . . But I had a pulmonary embolism. After that, I got medically cleared, but my captain didn’t want me to come back. He didn’t think I was ready. I remember - he invited me over to dinner at his house and told me there-” his gaze briefly flickers over to Athena. She gives him an encouraging nod. “-I was so upset, I stormed out of there . . . I’m not nearly as smart as you, but I think I know how you’re feeling: frustrated, betrayed, used, walked over . . . The list goes on and on, right?”
“Right,” Moira says, rather quick to get the word out. “But you’re still a firefighter. It’s not like I can get my job back.”
“Would you really want it back? I probably wouldn’t have fought so hard for my job if it weren’t for my team. They’re my family. One of them - actually, the guy who is sick with the virus - he’s my brother-in-law and the father of my niece. I need them. I don’t have anyone else. But you don’t need that lab - you already proved that by successfully making a cure by yourself. Depending on what you decide today . . . You could save my brother-in-law’s life. His name is Howie. He’s a trained paramedic and he’s super bad at keeping secrets - well, except for the one time that he kept the fact that I had a secret brother from me. But that’s a whole other story. I could tell you more, if you want . . . Doesn’t change that it’s ultimately up to you. You have the power to save his life,” Buck says, hoping he sounds more persuasive than he feels like he is.
“I know what happens the second I give this up,” Moira snaps. “I’lll never see it or do my research again. They’ll take it for themselves. They’ll have other scientists use my work and study my cure. They’ll probably mess it up! I did what needed to be done because humanity is running out of time, and no one cares! They’ll let my work rot because they’re too scared to take risks, too scared to do what they’ve studied their whole lives.”
“They might take your cure, but they can’t take it all from you. They can’t take your knowledge. Besides, it’ll be your name attributed to the cure. You sped the process up - no one’s going to take credit for it because no one’s going to want to face the consequences that you got for not waiting for authorization. No one is brave like you and everyone’s going to know that. If you don’t give the cure, an innocent man dies, and it'll make people turn against scientists. They’ll see you as selfish, but I know that’s not you, because scientists are selfless , they dedicate themselves to the world and to bettering the lives of people. Shouldn’t the world know that you saved a whole team of firefighters? Don’t you deserve that? I mean, the U.S military is ready to give up on my team. They’re prepared to let them all die. Once that hits the news, and it will hit the news, it’s going to be a shitstorm for them. You don’t want to get caught in that, you don’t want to sink to the level of those cowards and your ex-boss, who wasn’t even going to tell us that you made a cure,” Buck says, putting all he has into this speech. He can’t even keep count of how many times he said something to manipulate her but if it works, he doesn’t care. The emotion behind it is real, because the military men back there are cowards and Moira is the only one who can save his family.
Moira takes her sweet time in answering, keeping Buck on the edge of his seat — the edge of his mind, really. “I’ll make a trade for the cure,” she says. In any other circumstance, Buck would be jumping for joy. But, he hears how she words her reply. She wants something.
“What do you want to trade the cure for?” Buck asks, making eye contact with Athena. The look on her face is a clear reminder that he’s not allowed to promise her anything.
“You. I need leverage, otherwise the police are going to storm in here,” Moira says, as if nothing about this is out of the ordinary.
The phone is snatched out of his hand before he can even blink. “Athena, they’re going to die!” Buck yells. It’s crossing a line and he knows that, but he’s desperate . Tears well up in his eyes as he imagines Chimney coughing up blood, Hen nearly dying from a collapsed lung, and Bobby and Ravi only able to watch.
“There has to be another way we can do this,” Athena says into the phone, huffing.
“Sure. I can destroy the cure. Or you can wait until the 118 dies to make a decision. It’s up to you,” Moira replies sarcastically.
“Athena, your husband is in there,” Buck says, pleading with her. “I’ll walk in there even if you say no.” He paces, ready to do it.
Athena stares at him, as if debating whether or not to call his bluff. “Alright,” she gives in, not having any other choice.
Minutes later, after coordinating with the rest of the police there and Moira, Buck’s walking towards the warehouse. He knows that he should be afraid, but he’s not. A twisted part of him is excited, hopeful, because he knows that no matter what happens to him, his family is going to make it out of this.
He opens the door slowly and steps in, just like Moira told him to. It takes him a second to find her but when he does, he sees her standing off to the side, pointing a gun at him. “You’re going to pick up the case that’s by your feet. You’re going to turn around and set it down again, and then you’re going to slide it out the door, stand up, and close the door,” Moira instructs him.
“Let him confirm that the cure is in there first,” Athena says over the phone, which is in Moira’s pocket.
“Fine. Do it,” the redhead snaps, not looking happy. Buck kneels down and opens the case, finding what looks like to be vials with a liquid inside them. “It’s there.”
He closes the case again, grabs it, turns it around, and sets it down. Looking out the open door, he takes a breath and slides it over the threshold. Then, he stands and shuts the door.
“Back up,” Moira says, and he does.
She walks forward and looks away briefly to lock the door. Buck can’t help it — he sees an opportunity and he takes it, lunging forward and knocking her hand to the side. He manages to grab the gun and, just as he turns around to face her, he’s hit with a strong shock in his chest. For a second, he thinks he’s being struck by lightning again.
It’s only when he stares up at the ceiling that he realizes he’s fallen onto the floor. Moira’s blurry face looms over him and he spots a needle in her hand. Buck starts to panic, squirming as he thinks it must be some virus.
“You didn’t need to make this difficult,” Moira hisses, injecting him with the needle.
Buck’s eyes droop shut and he passes out.
“—kay, there’s no police on the other side,” Buck hears a muffled voice say. It sounds like Athena. He tries to open his eyes, only to find that he can’t. He cannot physically open his eyelids . . . Did she put duct tape on him?
“Oh good, you’re awake,” Moira says, sounding bored.
“What the fuck did you inject me with?” Buck asks, imagining that any second now he’ll start feeling horrible symptoms.
“Relax, it’s not lethal,” Moira says, which doesn’t make him feel any better.
Knowing that he’s not going to get anywhere with her, Buck instead tries to map out his situation. She obviously doesn’t want him to see his surroundings for a reason — is she hiding something? He’s sitting on the ground, leaning against what feels like a pole or some type of column. His arms are drawn behind his back, wrists tied together with rope.
“Alright, let’s get this show on the road,” Moira says, and he hears some shuffling. “I’m sorry about this. It’s just collateral damage.”
He hears her footsteps. She’s walking away. Buck waits, trying not to let her words freak him out. A door slams shut.
He tugs at the rope experimentally. It’s . . . Not tied tightly? He can loosen it if he wants to.
This must be a trap . . .
Or she’s shit at tying knots.
He has to free himself, right?
Buck pulls and wriggles as much as he can, loosening the rope until he’s able to untie the knot and slip his hands out. When he stands, he smells it: smoke.
Fuck. “Athena?” He calls out, banking on the slim possibility that Moira left her phone here with the call still going.
No response.
Buck claws at the duct tape. It’s multiple layers and wrapped around his entire head, not just over his eyes. He manages to scratch at the first layer and he walks forward, not even sure which direction to go to. He has no idea what’s safe.
Buck only makes it a few steps and then—that’s when the explosion happens. Again.