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It took everything in him to not break down while holding Harry back as the nurses and doctors wheeled Athena to the OR. He couldn’t lose the woman who has become basically his mom. It had been a little over a year since he lost his dad, and he just lost Connor and Kameron. Safe to say Buck was finding it really hard to keep it together.
It had been minutes, maybe hours when someone sat beside him and handed him a bottle of water “Drink.” That broke him out of his stupor, and he met Eddie’s eyes with a sad smile, and realized they were in the waiting room. When did they move there? He looked across and saw May and Harry holding each other as they broke down, when did she get there?
“Family of Athena Grant!” The doctor came out to talk to them. May got up and kept hold of Harry as they made their way over to the doctor. May held out her free hand towards Buck, “You coming?” He gave May a look that said ‘you sure?’ she simply nodded as he took her hand and shakily rose to his feet and the three of them followed the doctor out of the room.
Eddie had known that Buck thought of the Grant-Nash family as an extension of his own, it was sweet to see May including Buck during this scary situation. As he watched the trio walk off, he spotted Detective Hooks over at the Nurse’s station, he wanted to see if there were any updates about what was happening with the migrants. “Hooks!” the detective caught his sense of urgency in his voice and walked over. “Diaz, sorry to hear about Sergeant Grant, any updates?” He asked apologetically. “Her kids are talking to the doctors now.” Eddie made note of the crowded waiting room, and jerked his head to the side “You mind if we go talk in private?” Hooks offered a small smile, as he followed Eddie down the hallway “sure, lead the way.”
Eddie stopped at the end of the hallway out of immediate earshot. “What have you done with Esteban, and the rest of the migrants?!” He said through clenched teeth to keep his voice down. “They have been dealt with and are where they need to be.” Hooks had a smug smile on his face. “What did you do?!” He seethed, stepping closer and pointing a finger to Hooks’ chest, before he made contact, a loud shot rang out, and the world went out of focus as Eddie collapsed.
The doctor led the trio to a small room, “I’m just gonna get right to the point”, the doctor said as they rounded the desk, “your mom has a gunshot wound at the base of her throat, near her collar bone. Which unfortunately complicates things. We have removed the bullet, and are working on repairing the damage. She has lost a lot of blood, we’re gonna need to see how things go.” The doctor looked up from reviewing Athena’s chart and had sympathy as they looked at the three of them. Buck took a minute to process what this news meant, he looked over to May and Harry who both had tears in their eyes. He squeezed May’s hand in reassurance, “is she gonna pull through this?” His voice came out hoarse from holding back tears.
“She’s gonna pull through, your mother is a badass, and so tough!” Buck said as he hugged May and Harry as they walked out of the room, wishing he could protect them from this. “Our mother is!” May said with a wet chuckle. He offered her a small smile and a quick squeeze before letting them go. As he was about to guide them back to the waiting room, a loud sound rang through the hospital. He pulled himself, May and Harry down behind the nurses station.
Once he caught his breath, and the ringing in his ears died down he made a move to get up and go help, when there was a firm grip on his wrist keeping him in place, “where the hell are you going?” May’s voice came out panicked, “I need to go and see if anyone needs help!” That was a pretty lame excuse seeing as they were in a hospital. “No! Stay here Buck, I can’t have someone else I love get shot today." May was getting choked up, Buck wrapped his arms around her and tried to reassure her. “I’m going to be careful. Keep an eye on each other.” He said as he got up and quickly walked away. If he was being honest all his brain was supplying was ‘Eddie!Eddie!Eddie!’ he needed to make sure he was okay, cause last time he wasn’t.
Eddie’s ears were ringing, and why was he staring at the ceiling. He tried to sit up, but was stopped by a searing pain in his side, “what the fuck?” He moved his hand down to his side and when he brought it back up it was slick with blood. He was trying to remember what had happened. He was talking with Detective Hooks about the migrants, ‘was there a shooter in the hospital?’ but he and Hooks had been alone. It all came back, Hooks shot him, but why? That was unimportant, right now he needed to get help. He applied as much pressure as he could and worked on getting up off the floor, swaying slightly.
After what felt like grueling hours, he finally made it to the elevator. He was flagging and struggled to push the button leaving a bloody hand print. Not his problem. The elevator doors opened and he staggered inside, noticing the trail of blood in his wake, as his vision went black, and he slumped against the back wall.
Trying to quell the panic rising in his chest, Buck managed to make his way back to the waiting room to find the rest of the 118. “Are you guys okay?” Hen and Chim nodded looking around seeing if anyone was in need of immediate assistance. That’s when he noticed Eddie wasn’t around. ‘Shit’ his panic was returning, he needed to find Eddie. “Hey, Hey!” he called their attention again, “Where’s Eddie?” Chim turned to Buck eyes wide when he noticed his panic, “Last I saw he was talking to Detective Hooks over there.” He turned around and couldn’t see Eddie. “He’s probably seeing if anyone needs help, Buckaroo.” Hen was trying to reassure them. His breath quickened and he picked up the pace to go find him.
“Eddie! Eddie! Where are you?!” He was poking his head into each room he passed, hoping to find him hunkered down somewhere. He rounded the corner and that’s when he saw something shiny, “Eddie!” He ran up to what was a puddle of blood at the end of the hallway, no Eddie in sight. “Shit!” He knew it was Eddie’s blood and was brought back to when Eddie got shot by a sniper in the street. He tried to calm down and control his breathing and remind himself he wasn’t back there, but wasn’t having much luck. He noticed there was a trail of blood leading down the hallway.
He followed the trail of what hopefully was Eddie’s blood, until it stopped at the elevator. “No!” He pulled at his hair trying to ground himself as he whirled around to see where the trail went, that’s when he saw it, a bloody handprint on the elevator buttons. “Come on! Come on!” He repeatedly smashed the buttons to call the elevator.