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It had been almost two months since Buck had come to live with them, and Bobby and Athena were finally going on a date night alone together again.
“So May is going to be watching you two,” Athena told Harry and Buck as she and Bobby were getting ready to go. “She’s in charge tonight until we get back. You need to listen to everything she says.”
Both boys nodded as they listened to Athena. Listen to their older sister until their parents came back in a couple hours, it was simple.
It ended up being anything but simple.
They started off with taking out the Nintendo Switch and setting it up on the TV as they waited for the pizza May ordered to be delivered. They didn’t often play with the videogame system, but when they did, Harry and Buck tended to get a little too into the game.
“I have to finish some homework,” May said as she took her school bag over to the kitchen table to have some space to work on stuff. “Don’t get too crazy over there.”
Harry rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Its only the switch, what’s the worst that could happen.
May popped her head around the fireplace to look at her younger brother. “When you were playing on that with your friends last week one of you threw a controller across the room and it broke a picture frame,” she said. “Mom’s favorite picture frame.”
May shook her head as she walked back to the table and got a start on her homework. Her focus lasted for about ten minutes before her phone chimed, indicating that the food had been dropped off outside.
“Guys, pizza’s here,” May said as she stood up and walked towards the living room and front door.
Buck and Harry both dropped their controllers as they stood up. “Really?” Harry asked as he ran up the steps to the front door. Buck followed him up, May following both of them at a slower pace.
“Don’t open the door until I get up there,” May said, knowing that if she didn't, Harry would. The two boys bounced on their toes as May opened the door and picked up the two boxes of pizza.
“What kind did you get?” Harry asked.
Harry ducked his head. “Oh… yeah.”
“One pepperoni and one cheese,” May said.
“I liked pepperoni,” Buck said.
“Well, go down to the kitchen and grab some plates,” May instructed her brothers. “Then we can eat.”
Harry then started running down the stairs to the kitchen, Buck following right behind him. Although as Buck descended down the stairs, one of his feet slipped, sending him crashing hard down the rest of the stairwell.
“Ow!” Buck screamed out.
“Buck!” Both May and Harry yelled out as they looked at him.
May hurried the rest of the way down and set the pizza boxes on the living room coffee table. She then crouched down next to Buck, still on the floor, and helped him to sit up. “Buck, are you okay?” May asked.
“It hurts!” Buck yelled out, cradling one of his arms to his chest, his voice breaking at the words and tears started rolling down his cheeks.
“We- we should call Mom and Bobby!” Harry said. “Where’s your phone?”
May looked back and forth between the two boys, not knowing what to do or say. How did they end up like this? She was just doing homework while they were playing videogames, and now… now it looked like Buck had a broken arm!
“May, it hurts,” Buck said again, tears now pouring down his face.
“Harry, my phone is on the kitchen table,” May said, quickly. “Go get it.”
Harry ran to grab it, while May put her hands on Buck’s shoulders, hoping it would calm him down some. She had no idea if it was doing anything.
Once Harry brought her phone over, May quickly brought up her mother’s contact number and started calling her. Athena picked up in the first ring.
“May?” Athena’s voice sounded through the phone as May put it on speaker. “Is something wrong? It hasn’t even been half an hour.”
“Mom!” May nearly yelled out. “Buck fell down the stairs and hurt his arm. Like… he really hurt his arm! It looks really bad and he’s in a lot of pain!”
“O- Okay,” Athena said. “Well-”
“I- I think you need to come home, Mom,” May said. Both Harry and Buck let out sounds of agreement at that statement.
“Okay,” Athena said, as they could hear her say something to Bobby. “We’ll be home soon, May. Just hold on.”
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Bobby and Athena were back home in less than twenty minutes. When they walked inside and saw the three kids still sitting at the bottom of the stairs, they paused before Bobby carefully ran down the steps.
“Bobby!” Buck yelled out as Bobby crouched down by his side.
“Hey, Buck,” Bobby said. “You hurt your arm?” Buck nodded his head, some remaining tears still running down the sides of his face. “Well then, can I take a look at it?”
Buck let go of where he had one hand clenched around his hurt arm, letting Bobby get a look at it. Bobby had to school his facial expression as he saw the boy’s arm, not wanting to freak the kids out more than what they were already.
That being said however, from all the many accidents Bobby had walked in on over his years as a firefighter, Bobby had to say that Buck’s arm was most likely broken looking at the odd bump in the middle and the slightly odd angle his forearm had.
“Bobby?” Athena asked, looking at the two of them. “What do you think?”
“I think we’ll need to reschedule date night for a trip to the emergency room,” he said.
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Somehow, luckily, even with going to the ER at eight p.m. on a Friday evening, they were able to be seen by a doctor within thirty minutes of walking into the doors of the hospital. After a quick exam of Buck’s arm, the doctor agreed that it looked like Buck’s arm was most likely broken, but they’d need to confirm it by taking a few X-rays.
Bobby had thought that would mean taking Buck down some hallway to a slightly terrifying X-ray room. But apparently they didn't do that anymore. Now they had mobile X-ray machines they took to each patient room that needed one.
“What are they going to do with that?” Buck asked, whispering into Bobby’s ear as he looked warily at the machine the technician just moved into the room.
“It’s an X-ray,” Bobby explained. “It’s going to take a picture of your bones.”
“Will it make my arm hurt more?” Buck then asked.
“No,” Bobby said.
“Well…” the X-ray technician said as he moved the machine next to the bed. “I’ll have to move your arm around some to get some good angles of the bones, it might hurt.”
Buck jerked his head back to look at Bobby’s face, looking at him utterly betrayed. “Don’t worry,” he said, trying to reassure Buck. “I’ll be next to you the entire time.”
Luckily for both of them, Buck had minimal additional pain as the tech had to rearrange how Buck’s arm laid on the table. Ten minutes later the doctor came back into their room.
She showed them the images of the X-rays that had been taken, confirming that Buck had in fact, broken his ulna bone.
“So I’ll get a cast?” Buck asked. “Like Riley had last month?”
Bobby had no idea who ‘Riley’ was, and could only assume it was someone in Buck’s Kindergarten class. He nodded anyway. “Yeah, like Riley had,” he said.
Buck hummed. “Well… I don’t want a purple one,” he said, and turned his head to the doctor. “Can I have a blue one?”
The doctor smiled at him. “Yes, we can get you a blue one,” she said.
Another half hour and they were walking out of the ER. Buck had a new, blue cast on his arm and the smallest sling Bobby had ever seen to hold it up and provide Buck a bit more protection. Bobby carried Buck out in his arms, about halfway through the cast being wrapped around his arm, the late night hour had caught up with Buck and the boy was crashing fast. He wasn’t asleep yet, but Bobby was pretty sure he would be by the time they got home.
Athena looked at Bobby as he was driving the truck and all of them home. Both Buck and Harry were passed out in the back. May was in between them scrolling on her phone.
“So, talk about an eventful date night,” she said.
Bobby chuckled. “You're right about that.”