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It all happened so fast.
The explosion from the chemical fire triggered the emergency lockdown system, sealing the lab-and the team-inside. Buck had just dropped Roz off outside and rushed back in, unaware one of them wasn’t going to be making it out alive.
Memories returned to him in jagged flashes.
He was in a chemical lab that specialized in viruses. Debris was everywhere, Tables and equipment, once standing, now lay in pieces. He was pinned under part of a workbench. As he struggled to assess the damage, one thing became clear: there was no way out.
They were trapped.
Bobby came to first. A quick self-check-no cracks in the mask, oxygen intact. He could breathe. He was okay. Mostly.
“Everyone okay?” he called out into the eerie stillness.
No response.
“Ravi?… Hen… Chim?!…Buck!!”
A groan. Then a cough. Ravi.
“I’m good….I think.” He staggered upright, eyes scanning the wreckage. “Did the-ugh, explosion do all this?”
At least the fire was out.
“Chim? Hen? Buck? Do you copy?”
Shuffling. Chimney emerged, mask in hand, face pale and streaked with soot and sweat. Bobby’s stomach twisted when Chim raised the mask to reveal a spiderweb crack through the faceplate.
Inhaling whatever was in that room… Chim had been exposed.
Bobby pushed the dread aside and called out again. “Hen? Buck?”
A burst of static broke the silence, then cut out. A broken radio. Another unknown.
He found Hen next-unconscious, barely breathing.
“Hen! Ravi, help!”
Chim had quarantined himself in a separate room, his voice weakening by the minute.
Bobby and Ravi worked quickly, draining fluid from Hen’s lungs under Chim’s remote instruction. It was messy, desperate-but it worked. Hen gasped in a ragged breath. She was alive.
Bobby had one more person that wasn’t accounted for. “Buck! Buck, can you hear me?”
There was a faint reply from near the lab’s entrance. “B-Bobby!”
Bobby ran. Buck was pinned-right arm and leg trapped beneath the rubble.
Bobby cleared the debris, helping him up. Buck winced but waved it off.
Then he saw Chim.
“You’re bleeding,” Buck whispered.
Chim’s nose was dripping with blood. The virus was spreading. Maddie’s voice came through the line-barely holding it together.
There was only one vial of antidote. It had been stolen. Hope dwindled. Panic took hold.
Buck started to sweat. It's not his nerves-Bobby noticed it, too.
Something was wrong.
Athena burst in with the antidote putting the vial through the decontamination hatch in the door., Bobby grinned in triumph, grabbing the vial and injecting Chim. Relief rippled through them-until military officers stormed in, dragging her away despite her triumphant grin.
One by one, the exposed team members were escorted out. Chim. Hen. Ravi. But Buck didn’t move.
“Buck?” Bobby asked.
Buck locked eyes with him. Then bolted.
“No-BUCK!”
He sealed himself in the contaminated room.
“I’m sorry, Bobby,” his voice cracked. “God, I’m so sorry.”
Buck removed his helmet. Blood trickled from his nose.
“No…”
He held up the cracked mask, from first glance you wouldn’t have been able to tell it was even broken. The small crack was on the edge of the faceplate. “It broke during the explosion. I didn’t notice-until Chim collapsed.”
Bobby pounded on the glass. “NO! You can’t-Evan!”
“I love you, Cap.”
Bobby froze, eyes growing slightly damp. “I….I love you too, kid.”
He brought a shaky hand up to his radio, “Athena, you gotta get down here.”
Athena arrived quickly after she got the call. Buck smiled faintly. Eyes having trouble focusing.
“Thena….”
She pressed her hand to the glass beside Bobby’s. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
He put his hand on the glass meeting theirs, attempting to smile in a reassuring way- it didn’t really work but he had to try. He couldn’t just leave them with nothing…
“There was only one vial….” Buck’s breathing grew shallow. “Not enough for both of us.”
He looked at them with glassy eyes. “Promise me something?”
They nodded.
“Take care of Maddie. Make sure to tell Chim it’s not his fault. Tell Hen she was a great big sister. And make sure Ravi doesn’t quit. He’s strong. And please, please make sure Eddie doesn’t do anything stupid.”
Tears streamed down Athena’s cheeks.
“I need to call him.” Buck retrieved his phone from his turn-out coat pocket and pressed on Eddie’s contact with shaky fingers.
Eddie answered with a smile. “Hey, aren’t you on shift?”
Buck’s whisper barely reached the speaker.
“Just….wanted to hear your voice.”
“Buck? What’s wrong?”
“I wanted to say….goodbye.”
Eddie’s panic set in instantly. A video call followed. Buck’s face appeared, pale and slick with sweat.
“You look….like shit,” Buck tried to joke. Eddie let out a choked laugh at that.
“I should be telling you that.” Buck laughed, then coughed violently.
Athena explained what had happened. Eddie’s world shattered.
“No. There’s still an antidote, right?”
The silence was answer enough.
““No………..NO! There has to be a way-”
“Eddie!” The yell had shut his best friend up. “There’s nothing we can do. There was only one vial. Not enough for it to be given to both me and Chim.”
Eddie was shaking his head furiously. “No, you can’t Buck. You can’t!” Eddie’s face had become red and tears were freely falling down his face.
Chris appeared. “Dad? Are you okay?”
Eddie quickly put the phone down and looked at Chris.
“What’s wrong?” Chris’ voice was barely above a whisper.
Eddie tried to stay calm and tell his son what happened but he just let out another sob. Chris moved as fast as he could to his dad and wrapped his arms around him.
“Chris?” Chris’ eyes darted to the phone.
“Buck? What’s going on?”
“You know, I love you right, kid?”
Chris lifted the phone and took in Buck’s face. The more he looked the more nauseous he started to feel.
“There you are………... I wish I could be here when you and your dad got back.”
“Dad didn’t tell you? We are coming home in a few weeks.” Chris knew something was wrong. He wasn’t a little kid. They didn’t need to sugarcoat anything anymore.
His dad was sobbing into his hands and Buck was bleeding. Something was clearly wrong.
“No. I uh- guess we were too focused on………..something else. Give the phone back to your dad bud. I love you, Chris.”
Chris’ hands were shaking while gripping the phone. “I love you too, Buck.” He gave the phone to his father and stormed off to his room to cry.
Eddie watched Chris storm out of the living room then turned to look back at Buck. Buck was having trouble holding his phone to his face so it was slightly slanted allowing Eddie to see Bobby and Athena in the background.
They were clinging to each other as they bawled. Eddie could tell by the way their shoulders shook through their suits.
Eddie sobbed. “I never wanted to leave, you know.” That got the other man’s attention.
“I know,” Buck replied. “You had to-for Chris. I wouldn’t have stopped you.”
Buck’s words were starting to sound gurgled and slurred. He looked sicker than he did mere minutes before and everything began to sink in.
Buck was dying. And there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.
“E-Eddie?”
“Yeah, Buck?”
“I-I love you……….. I wanted to tell you when you guys……….. got home but….. looks like that isn’t gonna happen.” The phone slipped from Buck’s hand at that point and landed on the floor next to him facing the ceiling.
Eddie could hear the jagged breaths that were being released. Buck didn’t have much time left.
“I love you too, Evan.” He sobbed out, causing Buck to turn his head towards the screen. “I wanted to take you out on a date and tell you properly. Chris was helping me figure out the perfect date earlier today.”
Buck laughed solemnly, picking the phone back up. “We wasted so much time. I’m sorry we don’t have any left. I just know I wanted to stay. For you. Chris. Bobby. Maddie. ‘Thena. Hen. Chim. Jee. All of you. But I wanted to stay mostly for you and Chris. You two…………. you’ll always be my family.”
Eddie let out a sob and smiled. “You’ll always be ours, mi vida. I love you so much…………….. you can go now, Ev. I-I love you so much……Tell Shannon I say hi okay?”
Buck let out a short chuckle that turned into a hacking cough. Once he leaned back again Eddie knew this was it. Buck was going to take his last breath any moment and Eddie was going to hear it.
“I’ll-I’ll ask her to tell me embarrassing stories about you. About Chris. Don’t- don’t spend too much time missing me, okay?” Eddie chuckled.
“I miss you every day, Buck. I’ll miss you for the rest of my life. You’re the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me and Chris. We love you so much. Always.”
Buck smiled softly. The darkness was calling him and he was too weak now to refuse it. He didn’t want to leave. He wanted to stay but he couldn’t.
He’ll never get to hold his nephew. He’ll never get to see Chris graduate or Bobby retire. He’ll never get to kiss Eddie like he wanted. He had no more time left.
“I love you,” was the last thing to be said before a long gurgling sigh that ended in a soft squeak was released.
Then silence. The phone slipped from Buck’s hand.
Bobby and Athena’s loud sobs confirmed what he already knew.
Buck was gone.
Eddie watched people in hazmat suits get the door open and Bobby quickly grabbed Buck’s phone. Eddie could see the tear streaks even behind the mask Bobby still wore.
“Eddie, I’m- I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect him.” Eddie shook his head at his captain.
“He wouldn’t want you to blame yourself, Bobby. I don’t blame you.”
Bobby watched as they zipped Buck’s body up in a black body bag and carried him out. “I blame myself. I knew something was wrong. He was acting weird. I should have done something.”
“Cap, I don’t blame you. No one does. You couldn’t have known. I’m gonna book mine and Chris’ flight home. We’ll be back in a couple of days. I got to go, Bobby.”
Bobby waved bye to Eddie as the call ended. He dreaded walking out of the lab because then it would be real. Buck was really gone and never coming back.
Athena grabbed his hand tightly and started pulling him outside. The closer he got to fresh air the louder he could hear sobs.
When they made their way into a tent to get sprayed down Bobby could see Hen clutching Karen like a lifeline. Karen was whispering in her wife’s ear giving her small reassurances that just made her sob louder.
Chimney was in a tent on the phone with Maddie. They had continued their call since he got taken from the lab. They both began sobbing when it was confirmed that it was Buck who had died. Ravi was in a corner of the tent, disbelief written all over his face.
They lost him.
The man who had put everyone else before himself had done just that again and it had cost him his life. The 118 is never going to be the same after this.
The one that had put smiles on their faces practically every day was gone.
Their light was gone and he was never coming back.