Chapter 9: The 118 stand together

Eddie's POV

He looked as they rolled away with his son; 'Oh God please no, not Chris' he thought while watching as they took him away down a hall for x-rays. Delayed secondary drowning and a possible collapsed lung, like the kid didn't have enough to deal with. He couldn't stand still, he couldn't do anything for Christopher either, but he could help search for Buck. He knew that he should probably stay with Chris, that he was the only parent he had left, but there was nothing he could do for him, besides finding Buck for him. He had been told that Christopher had been searching for Buck, and he knew that Chris would want Buck to be there when he woke; 'And he is going to wake' Eddie told himself. Cap had tried to argue with Eddie about coming along for the search, told him he would want to be there when Christopher woke, but Eddie had just looked at him and told him that Buck would want to be there too for Cap to surrender. Now they were planning the search for survivors along with the other search and rescue crews, but Eddie knew that he would search till he found Buck.

He was in a boat along with Cap, Hen, Chimney and two other rescue workers when they came along a firetruck belonging to the 136, on top of which 15 people had gotten themself to safety. He looked at the people amazed; 'Incredible' he thought to himself. The 118 crew jumped out of the boat, leaving room for at least 6 people to get into the boat and brought to safety, two other boats came along to bring the remaining people from the truck to the VA hospital or a refugee camp. He had asked some of the people from the truck how they had gotten up on the truck, they all said that the young man with the red mark over his eye had gotten them up there; A woman even told him with sad eyes that the man had asked her to watch the kid so he could save the people from the water, but she had failed when the water retreaded and something hit the truck, crying when she told him how the boy fell in; Another had then told how the man had jumped in after the boy, but it was too late and the water took them both.

It was hard to watch all of the destruction the tsunami had caused; All the dead bodies floating in the water, asking himself how many of these Chris would have seen before being rescued? Thinking that anytime now they would turn over a body to discover that it was Buck; The thought made him shiver slightly. They had been walking since rescuing all the people from the truck, guiding lost people in the direction of one of the emergency camps, treating wounded and calling it in for the boats to come and collect. They had divided into two groups of two, Cap and Hen on the one and Chimney and him on the other, this way they could cover more ground searching, only stopping when they had to stay with a wounded until a boat arrived. Him and Chimney had barely spoken two words to each other, both focused on looking for Buck, but for different reasons he guessed; Chimney had been the one to call Maddie and tell her what had happened, that couldn't have been an easy call to make.

"You know how many we passed and just marked for someone to pick up later, barely even looking at them once we found that there was no pulse?" Chimney asked, his voice was weak and almost a whisper; Eddie wasn't sure if he expected an answer from him, but he answered anyway;

"You didn't know. None of us did" his own voice was barely anything but a whisper itself, but he knew that Chimney could hear him; "I thought that they were at the movies, didn't even think twice about Buck never returning any of my calls" he said, thinking of all the times he himself could have realised something was of; How he should have realised that it wasn't like Buck to not answer or call him back; How many hours hadn't they been out here, no movie lasted that long.

"I know, but still" Chimney said, not looking at him and clearly thinking of something else.

"Was it bad?" he asked, not sure why or if he even wanted to know the answer. Chimney stopped to look at him with a confused look; "Finding Chris? Telling me?" and after a little pause: "Telling Maddie?". A pained look fell over Chimney's face;

"Yes" was all he answered, clearly stopping the conversation at that, starting to walk forward again in search of survivors, in search of Buck.

They had searched for hours, almost losing hope in recovering Buck, when they turned down an almost empty road; They weren't far from the VA hospital, only a few blocks, when they passed an alleyway and heard a whimpering sound from just where the alley started; He looked over at Chimney, who gave him a nod, and they both ran towards the sound. He couldn't believe what he was seeing;

"Buck?" he whispered, unsure if his eyes were tricking him.

"Cap, we got him" Chimney called over the radio, bringing Eddie back from his thoughts.

"We got Buck. He is unconscious but seems to be breathing on his own" he stated into the radio, after having just checked to see if Buck was alive.

"What's your location?" Cap answered back, clearly as relieved as him and Chimney was feeling at the moment.

"Two, maybe three blocks east of the VA hospital" Chimney answered.

"Stay there, we'll be there in 2 minutes" Cap answered, and just before the radio went silent he added: "With wheels to move him". Eddie looked over at Chimney, who was examining the lacerations to Bucks head, while he himself was checking the cut on his arm that was clearly still bleeding and needed a better, and cleaner, bandage;

"The 118 stand together" Chimney smiled.

"That goes for young firefighter Buckley here as well", Cap said with a soft fatherly voice from just behind them, then he turned to Chimney: "Go call Maddie and tell her we'll be bringing Buck to the VA hospital".

Once they were done stabilizing Buck the best they could, with what little equipment they had available, they moved him to the back of one of the mailtrucks from earlier, clearly Hen and Cap had been next to the VA hospital when they got the call, and then they all Chimney and Cap in the front, Buck, Hen and himself in the back. When they reached the VA hospital Buck was rolled away, just like Chris had earlier, and Eddie fell to his knees crying; He had almost lost two of the most important people in his life, and he hadn't even realised they'd been missing and hurt for several hours, that they were in critical condition after being hit by a tsunami. Maddie, along with Josh, arrived 20 minutes later to find the entire 118 in a small room, only occupied by 2 beds otherwise. In one bed Christopher was sleeping, breathing regularly to the joy and relief of his father, the other bed was empty.

"Where's Buck?" Maddie asked, slightly panicked by the empty bed, her eyes starting to tear up. Josh put a reassuring arm around her, to both comfort and steady her, before looking at them, his eyes asking the same question.

"Operating room" Eddie answered, ashamed and unable to look over at Maddie.

"He's alive but critical" Hen said; Offering Maddie a chair, more of an order then an offer, before continuing: "He's lost a lot of blood do to some lacerations on his head, but more importantly a large cut on his arm; Do to the blood thinners the cut on his arms been bleeding for a while before we found him not far from here, and needed stitches to heal properly. He's also severely dehydrated and his body had gone into shock. There doesn't seem to be any other major injuries, but the doctor said that it seemed he might have overworked and exhausted his body" she finished.

"Thank you for bringing him home" Maddie stated gratefully, before retrieving into her own thoughts and just staring blankly and silently at the covers of the bed that would be occupied by Buck once he was done in surgery.