Work Text:
Mirror, Mirror 2
Buck listened to the excuses his old father-figure gave for holding him back from returning to work. Which were nothing more than the man’s extending his own failings onto a person that was not his blood kin at the words of another who hated his guts and had since the beginning.
Buck’s now ex-boss’s new wife and police sgt., watched on and said not a word at the lies her husband told which by her silent presence showed she agreed with him. But then she really had never approved of Buck in the beginning so why should she stick up for what was right now v going against a man she loved anyway.
Buck calmly wiped his mouth from the dinner he had been eating, and he manipulated the napkin, his fingers flicked a curse on both of them. One he had put to good use on his dear mother back in the day that ended up with him in boarding school not long after his sister left for college and their mother in an institution for the rest of her life. All reports said she was still hallucinating her dead son and parents enacting revenge on her for her misdeeds and words against them. Misdeeds she had continually confessed to in front of the responding police when she had flipped out in church and started to scream out, she was sorry for killing her son.
This of course got her husband into interrogation as she was drugged up and taken into a lock down ward for psychiatric care. Phillip confessed about once have an older son that had been sick which was why Buck was created only for his wife to ignore the doctors after the surgery and bring in their daughter to visit Daniel when she had the beginnings of a cold which ended up killing their son, and that his wife blamed on Buck.
This same curse, called the Mirror Curse as it Mirrored the actions of the one cursed back to them as a form of Instant Karma. Bad for Bad and Good for Good. All in a feedback loop. This was now cast on both his ex-father and mother figures of Nash and Grant with the only way to get it removed was to confess their sins about what they were doing to him.
He placed the napkin on the table next to plate and scootched the chair back and stood up. Never saying a word as he felt it would be useless, but bowing his head in acknowledgement, he turned and left out the front door knowing Bobby had wanted a childish confrontation to prove his point that Buck wasn’t ready.
Heading to an all-night diner and coffee shop, he got a booth and coffee, laying his tablet down to begin his mass of e-mails ordering new copies of his final exam forms from all of his doctors, therapists, and the various divisions with the department itself sent to him via e-mail or carrier.
Then another e-mail to his old partner in the Navy who now worked and lived nearby to have HIS new partner use HIS connections with the DA to get a subpoena for ALL of the paperwork regarding him, his history in the department, the bombing, his rehab, and his coming back to work. All with names attached of official names on the signatures. Background checks on those in HR and anyone in the Union who signed anything to do with him to see if they had anything to do with things related to crimes he testified about as there were a few that some might want payback on. Otherwise, this was all to prove he was being discriminated against so get the same information on those injured from his station and shift from when he joined the station to recently.
As this was going on, and he was enjoying his premium coffee, a text arrived from his sister warning she would take action if he didn’t obey his captain. After all, it was for his own good.
How Dumbledore of her, so he cast the same curse on her, which was easier as she was blood kin who had betrayed her own blood to act out against him. She and her boyfriend both, so, he added him to it as well and slid it over the bond she had with the abuser.
An angry abuser who was a proven rage driver, one who was rage driving according to traffic cams and witnesses when he tried to take out a steel truck with his little fiberglass car that had both him and Buck’s sister in it. A fiberglass car that was now pieces small enough to fit in a matchbox with no survivors and only a tiny dent on the steel truck, who had barely felt it hit.
Grant arrived on the scene and tried to direct traffic only to be hit by a distracted driver. She was hospitalized with back injuries similar to her new husband’s and now would be benched to a desk if she wasn’t medically retired.
Nash had turned off his phone while he was in the hospital waiting on word on her with her children who were ignoring him and instead were sitting with their birth father. The rest of the 118 were sitting vigil with the Lee’s over the death of Han and his girlfriend while ignoring the fact that Maddie had a brother who was also a member of the team and wasn’t invited.
Nash’s phone, being off, meant he never received the order to immediate report to the Chief’s office to explain himself, so, since it had been so close to his suspension for lying, he was fired for cause with the notice being sent to him in both an e-mail and to his turned off phone.
Buck was given back pay for the hours he should have been working at a station, then told to report to the 217 as a heavy rescue. At the 118, with the captain gone and the death of Han, the entire shift was put on mandatory therapy with pay and ordered to only return when they had been cleared by their therapists.
Eddie’s son, Chris, had stayed with Eddie with the Lee’s to mourn Han and Maddie and Buck was now at the 217, so they were never in the Tsunami except for Buck working it from the air.
Grant ended up medically retired and on permanent pain medication. Nash felt so guilty over everything he OD’d leaving her alone again. She lasted only long enough to see her youngest son graduating high school then she followed both her loves.
Such was the Curse of the Mirror when they refuse to admit they were ever wrong.
Fin
10/11/2026