Word Count: 6,266
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with 911, Fox, or anything else related to that particular universe.

Eddie stared at the array of screens, hands curling and uncurling as he listened to ranked officers behind him engage in the age-old debate of breaching or negotiating. Tandy had drilled through a wall to feed a fiber-optic wire inside, wiggling it from side to side to confirm three hostiles spread throughout the bar. Anders had set up the heat sensing cameras so they were able to track the trio's movements. There was always one by the front door, and one near the rear that led to the storeroom. Those two seemed to swap back and forth, poking at cowering victims on the floor. The third seemed to pace aimlessly, always on the move. All three wore masks and, as yet, no one had determined a motive. There'd been no ransom demands, and that only made the situation more dire.

Between Tandy's vision and the colouring from Anders' cameras, estimates had been made about the semi-automatic rifles strapped across each chest. All seemed to be average height and weight, skin covered from any distinguishing marks or features. Nicholls had been calling in favours for surrounding footage to track vehicle movements to determine an origin and hope that somewhere they'd slipped, which would allow facial rec or searching a tattoo or Marks database. Walker had direct eyes on the front of the building, in constant communication with the patrol officers who had taken up defensive positions behind their vehicles.

Eddie knew all of that was happening, knew his team had their assignments and were exemplary in carrying them out. But Eddie only had eyes for one thing, one person. He'd tried texting Buck before they rolled out but wasn't surprised when there hadn't been a response. It had been devastating, a stabbing pain behind his chest, but unsurprising. He'd already texted Carla and Abuela to coordinate caring for Chris because it was going to be either a long shift or a late shift, and no matter what happened he needed to have Buck to himself without Chris.

And despite all the intel they'd gathered from inside, Eddie still hadn't seen Buck to know where he was or if he was okay. Eddie was more than aware that Buck could take care of himself but he wasn't stupid enough to take on three without backup. Buck had to know Eddie would be called, had to know he was nearby, and he'd more than proven that he knew the tactics of the LAPD in a situation like this. Eddie just hoped that meant Buck wasn't going to do something stupid. Every time Eddie tried to reach out through the Mark, he couldn't feel any significant pain. There was a dull sort of thrumming, something that seemed like anxiety, and he occasionally brushed a hand against his shoulder and tried to send some comfort through to Buck.

He needed Buck to remain calm so he wouldn't do something reckless, because the last thing they needed was the hostiles to start firing indiscriminately. They hadn't been able to determine if anyone was injured in the siege so they weren't sure what had been hit during those reports of 'shots fired'. All the footage was too grainy and Tandy's wire was too awkwardly located to provide a variety of angles.

"I just need to know you're okay," he whispered to the screens, willing Buck to appear somewhere, anywhere, in the field of the camera's vision. Willing Buck to give him something that showed he was okay. Raise his hand, his head, his right foot. Anything.

"If you wanted to negotiate, you would not have called in SWAT to make tactical plans to breach and waste the time of my team and those hostages," Athena snapped, drawing Eddie's eyes towards his Commander who was eyeballing one of the police chiefs.

Chief Huntley gazed at her and Eddie eyed the almost-foot of height difference that the Chief had on Athena. She had always been headstrong and brave, arguing for her teams and calling stupid decisions stupid. Still, he was impressed at her forthrightness in the face of a superior officer, both physically and in the chain of command. Maybe it was because she was used to standing next to Bobby that she'd learned how to raise herself higher, square her shoulders, and refuse to tolerate anyone else's shit when they attempted to intimidate her with their size.

"We cannot guarantee civilian safety or casualties," Huntley said, something surly in his brows, clearly too long off the front lines by his paunch, and Athena threw up her hands.

"We can never provide guarantees but does that mean we don't try? You know as well as I do that if they'd wanted to negotiate, they would've called by now and made demands."

She had a point. It was nearly two hours since the first call had come in. Which meant it was two hours of radio silence where Eddie had been desperate for a sign that Buck was okay. Just as Buck had to know SWAT would be onsite, Buck had to know this was tearing Eddie apart.

"We try a non-violent approach first," Huntley insisted and Eddie withdrew from the monitoring van to find his team. Walker, Nicholls, Tandy and Anders each straightened as he approached. Further along the street, he could see Polson with a separate squad of waiting officers.

"Gear up?" Tandy said hopefully, as if they weren't already dressed to the hilt for any eventuality.

Eddie shook his head, rubbing a hand to the back of his shoulder, trying again to send some of his own calm and at the same time desperate for a sign in response. "Huntley wants to open the lines of negotiation first."

Nicholls rolled his eyes and Tandy huffed. Walker continued to stare at him through narrowed eyes, a clear calculation in his gaze. All of them seemed warier around him after he'd sagged into Walker's arms at HQ when Athena had announced the name of the bar, claiming a bad case of dizziness when too much blood had rushed into or out of his head. He knew Walker hadn't bought it, nor had Athena or Nicholls, but they'd been too polite or too focused on the task at hand to call his bluff and start demanding explanations.

He leaned against the truck and stared at the fragment of the bar that he could see past the monitoring van. The swirl of lights from various patrol cars cast a haunting glow across the façade, one that he couldn't look at for long. Except when he turned away, he was confronted by the line of officers behind the vehicles with their guns trained on the entrance. Further down the street, he could hear the clamour of reporters and eager onlookers straining at the roadblocks like this wasn't a traumatising situation for dozens of people. At least two helicopters kept rumbling overhead, no doubt broadcasting live to KTLA and some other station. Ordinarily Eddie could block most of it out and concentrate on devising scenarios, but ordinarily Eddie didn't have someone he loved on the other side of a call.

The worst part of any siege was the waiting.

Every second felt like an hour, and every hour felt like a week. He ached to know how Buck was and he was terrified of what might be going on inside. If it wasn't for his awareness of how much it hurt when you lost someone you loved, of the pain that pierced into your soul when they died and your Mark scarred, he'd almost start begging for someone to check his shoulder and check the Mark was still half-half.

"Should we scout locations?"

Eddie glanced towards Nicholls, already torn between the restless energy to breach and the terror of Buck being injured in the crossfire that was anchoring his feet to the ground. Losing Shannon had been agonising but he hadn't been given an opportunity to save her. She was simply gone before he'd even realised she was in danger. This situation with Buck… He'd never faced anything like this before.

"To breach? Sniper? Counter-attack? Perps escaping through the back?" He rubbed a hand over his face and stifled the sigh because he couldn't get any of his thoughts into coherent lines, couldn't make any firm decisions because every internal scenario he started to run included Buck getting hurt and that wasn't a scenario he wanted to occur. "Standing around is such a waste of our time."

"What's really going on, boss?" Tandy said, a frown drawing his brows together. Eddie arched an eyebrow at the kid because no one else would dare call him that. Tandy shrugged, looking contrite as he withered a little under Nicholls and Walker's glares. "I'm just saying he's not usually like this."

Nicholls elbowed Tandy to be quiet but Eddie knew Walker was paying attention, a small nod that seemed like he was glad Tandy had noticed too, a smirk at the edge of his lips while he observed Eddie squirm under the attention.

"You've got a person in there," Walker declared, and the other three went too still, surprised or disbelieving. Eddie looked at his friend with a denial staining his lips, but he couldn't find the words. Walker nodded, his smirk fading and his eyes gentling. "Hey. I'm sorry, man. You know we'll get them all out safely, alright? That's what we do. Have you had visual confirmation of where your person is?"

Eddie thought it was remarkable how swiftly Simon could redirect the team's attention to the task at hand, settling some of Eddie's anxiety to remind him there was a job to do and people to save. Eddie couldn't be wholly distracted by his worries about Buck because it wasn't just Buck inside the bar. That much had been clear on the monitors.

"No." He swallowed, burying the emotions as best as he could. "He works behind the bar but the camera can't see behind it."

Walker nodded. "But it's likely he's there?"

"Impossible to know. He could just as easily have been serving a customer on the floor." Eddie hesitated, biting his bottom lip between his teeth as he debated how much to share, how much to tell the guys before everything started to unravel. It wasn't the time or the place. He didn't need them losing focus.

The team nodded and a thought he hadn't dared think occurred to Eddie. Did Athena know that Buck was inside? Did she even really know Buck? How close was she to Buck if he was only tangentially connected to the 118? Yet the way she'd looked at him at HQ when Maddie was explaining the call…

"I need to see the Commander," he said, abruptly turning back to the van and climbing the steps.

Athena was examining the screens, arms crossed and chewing on a thumbnail as he approached. Chief Huntley was further along the vehicle, head bowed with a couple of people who were standing beside a phone and a laptop.

"Nothing's changed," she said with a dismissive wave towards the huddle at the back. He leaned against the counter beside her and swept his eyes over the situation inside the bar. Guy Number Three was still pacing and One and Two were still at the doors. At least a dozen heat signatures against the floor depicted a haze of bodies that were hoping and waiting and praying and crying.

"Maybe it has." He felt her eyes turn towards him and steeled himself against her possible reaction. "You, uh… You remember Buck? He gave Tandy some pointers? He, uh- He's inside."

"I know." He shouldn't have been surprised but he still turned to meet her stare. She cocked an eyebrow at him, clearly unimpressed at his poor grasp of the situation. He could imagine her making more notes in her files about being too emotionally compromised to lead the team and giving Walker or Nicholls the opportunity to replace him. "You think Maddie didn't tell me her brother was inside before I brought the call down and patched her through?"

Oh.

Well.

That made sense.

"The more important question is how you know Evan Buckley well enough to know he's inside."

Oh.

Well.

That was more complicated.

"It's…complicated," he said, his gaze wandering back towards the screen. He knew she was continuing to stare at him like a trapped bug and he was squirming almost as much as he had with Walker outside. "He's… We're… You ordered me to do something about my anger and I- I met Buck through that."

She grunted, looking at the screens like she was looking for answers too. Hell, maybe she was looking for Buck just like him. "I thought I told you not to fight, Diaz."

"I'm not!" He held up his hands, knowing he'd had a bout with Buck before but that had been a one-time thing, so far, and she'd clearly misunderstood what he meant. "It's- I don't think he'd want me to share all of it, but we didn't meet through his gym."

"But you know about his gym. You knew what he could do which is why you invited him to train Tandy. Just like you know that he's inside the bar now. So what aren't you telling me, Diaz? What did you neglect to mention when you invited Buck to Headquarters?"

He knew she was quickly assembling pieces of the puzzle and there wasn't a way to weasel out of an explanation with her. Not like Walker, who could accept his vague statements and uneasy deflections because as Team Leader he sometimes had to conceal information. Concealing this from his Commander could get him not just thrown out as leader, but out of SWAT completely. It served no purpose to hide it, although he knew she'd replace him as soon as he opened his mouth.

"We're Marked," he said, circumventing a whole lot of other detailed explanations or attempted excuses by cutting to the chase. At the end of the day, that was what mattered most. She didn't need to know that they were dating, or that they'd slept together, or that Buck was meant to come over after Eddie's shift to camp in the backyard and bury a time capsule with Chris. She didn't need to know how much the other man had become an integral part of his entire world in the span of a few months. His eyes dropped towards the gear strapped across his chest, the weight of the rifle heavier than ever, and he heard Athena's sharp intake of breath.

"You should have told me this before we rolled up, Diaz," she snapped, clearly unimpressed and he couldn't blame her, couldn't even try to protest her irritation.

"I know." His fingers danced over the M4 and he forced the lid shut on his feelings so that he could meet her eyes. "I can do my job, Commander. I did it during the tsunami and I can do it now."

She didn't seem as reassured as he'd hoped but she was often hard to read in the middle of a tense situation where she was being stonewalled from above. She'd talk if they were off-site or it was a barbecue at her house but now? Now she had to keep her game-face on at all times, ready to respond to any circumstance with more poise than Eddie currently felt.

"We follow the orders to the letter," she demanded, sticking him to the floor with her look. "If I have any doubts about your capacity to lead your team, you swap with Walker. If this goes sideways and the after-action report mentions this, it'll be a disaster for all of us. So we make sure this is a good outcome where you get Buck back and we don't have to process all the messy bits of the paperwork trail, alright?"

He had a feeling she was implying he keep the relationship to himself, at least for now, and he couldn't blame her. He suspected if Walker and Nicholls knew how involved he was with Buck, they'd storm the front door without a clear plan of action just to be part of the rescue squad.

"Alright." It wasn't as if he was going to argue with the hope that everyone made it out alive and in one piece. Especially when Buck was still inside. He glanced towards Chief Huntley and Athena caught the look.

"They're still calling, trying to talk them out." Her gaze returned to the monitors. "You should prepare your team, Diaz. I suspect they'll decide on a breach soon enough."

He could hear the dismissal for what it was and nodded sharply, departing the van and locating the guys. Their eyes lifted towards him and he gave a small gesture with his hand, making them all approach him.

"Time to scout."

They moved with practised ease around the containment perimeter, determining the number of visible doors – plus the one Eddie knew fed onto the alley – and windows. Eddie tried not to dwell on Buck's bike in the parking lot, confirming he had to be somewhere inside. Instead, he tried to listen to Walker's suggestion that they fire tear gas through the windows compared with Nicholls' plan which involved flashbangs. Tandy proposed a simultaneous breach from the front and rear doors with two squads.

Eddie listened to the discussions and calculated the dangers for the victims inside. Considering no one had been able to accurately determine how many were inside because too many of the heat signatures blended together, he hated the thought that anyone could be hurt. He desperately tried to keep his thoughts from straying to Buck, who would almost certainly recognise the signs of an impending breach. Would that spur Buck into action? If he were smart, Buck would stay where he was and let Eddie and his team clear the building as they were trained to do.

"I like the simultaneous breach," Eddie declared, drawing pairs of eyes towards him as he mulled over the pros and cons of the various approaches. "If we use flashbangs, I worry the perps will get jumpy and someone might get injured if there are twitchy fingers on triggers."

Nicholls tilted his head in consideration but didn't question the conclusions Eddie had made.

"Firing a few rounds of tear gas or pepper bullets before we breach might provide enough disorientation that they won't notice a team gathering in the alley, and then provide additional cover during a fast entry to effect a successful dual breach. We'll need to ensure teams outside are on standby to help the trapped victims as they will also suffer the effects of the gas."

Tandy, Anders and Walker nodded, and Nicholls' fingers brushed over the M4 on his chest. "Are we on front or rear?"

"Rear," Eddie said without needing to think about it. "I know my way through the building. We don't want to send in a team that blows the op because they're unfamiliar with the fact the rear door provides entry to a storeroom, and that they need to breach a secondary door to gain access to the bar."

Walker hummed, eyes flitting towards the other SWAT team on standby. "We need to organise someone to fire the ferret rounds through the glass when required."

"Ask Polson," Tandy said and everyone looked at him. He shrugged, looking at each of them like they were stupid. "She knows how we work. We know she's a good shot and we can trust her to take it."

The irony that Polson had been inadvertently responsible for bringing Eddie and Buck together at the bar and now Tandy was suggesting Polson fire a round into said bar while Buck was inside was not lost on Eddie. Still, Tandy had a point.

Eddie's eyes flicked towards the monitoring van when he saw Athena emerge and descend the stairs followed by Chief Huntley. From the looks on their faces, he immediately knew it was approaching go time.

"Sergeant."

"Chief."

They shook hands and Eddie did his best to keep his face neutral. The last thing he needed was Huntley knowing the panic he felt for Buck and the concern about their potential plan. Any plan involved risk. It was natural to worry, he kept telling himself. Buck wasn't an idiot.

"Negotiations have stalled," Huntley announced as he released Eddie's hand. He cast his eyes over Walker, Nicholls, Tandy before settling on Eddie. "We would like to discuss a Plan B."

Eddie outlined the plan that the team had devised to Huntley and Athena, watching their exchange of glances to gauge how likely it was they'd get the green light.

"Have you considered flashbangs?" Athena said.

"We were concerned the perps might panic and civilians would be injured," Tandy reported, and Athena's nod indicated her approval that they had worked through a variety of options.

"Have you discussed this with a second team?" Huntley said and Eddie shook his head. "Do it, determine contingencies, and proceed to your agreed positions. We'll keep eyes on the screen and tell you when to move."

"Understood."

Huntley returned to the van and Athena reached for Eddie's arm, squeezing briefly, before she followed the Chief. Eddie cast one look at his team and they all nodded, understanding exactly what to do and the importance of preserving life.

Less than ten minutes later, the two teams were in position. Polson had a clear firing line for the main window. Tandy rigged an explosive charge against the lock on the back door and then returned to their waiting line, his hands cradling his rifle. Their comms were silent of extraneous chatter, waiting for the go signal, waiting for an urging from the van that they needed to breach. Eddie was conscious of the thump of his heartbeat in his ears and the shift of his gear when he breathed, the chill across his shoulders as he searched through his connection to Buck to tell him they were coming soon.

In the span of a few blinks, everything seemed to change.

There were a series of muffled shouts from inside, followed by several loud bangs and a lot of screaming. Eddie heard Athena commanding Alpha to go in his earpiece a split-second before Tandy pressed the trigger and the back door almost blew off the hinges. He took a step forward to enter the back room when there were another couple of bangs. A searing pain ripped through his leg, and he staggered into the doorframe, a sharp cry spilling from his lips. Walker's hand clenched around his arm, hauling him to his feet, pushing him through the door. It was difficult to think through the pain that sparked behind his eyes, a pain that was as familiar as it was terrifying. He stumbled through the storage room at the same time as Nicholls ordered Bravo Team to blast the front door.

There were more screams, louder this time after Eddie threw open the door and swept his eyes through the room. Two shadowy figures loomed forward with guns raised and he and Walker fired simultaneously. One perp spun with the velocity of the bullets and fell to the ground amid a hail of more screaming. There were more shots from behind him, and from Bravo Team across the room, and the second dropped.

"Where's three? Where's three?" Walker shouted, voice tinged with panic. Two cowering civilians pointed towards the other end of the bar. They didn't have a good view but Bravo did and the leader, Marshall, held a thumbs up. Perp down. "Were there only three?" Walker asked the civilians and they nodded, the stain of tears glistening on their faces.

"Alpha, clear," Eddie announced.

"Bravo, clear," Marshall echoed, flicking the safety on his M4. "We need EMTs."

Marshall's team switched to shepherding civilians outside while Alpha secured weaponry. Nicholls moved towards the first while Tandy approached the second, and Eddie had a burning pain and a sinking heart as he followed the point of the civilians in search of the third.

"Simon!" he shouted, kicking the rifle away from the dead perp before sliding to his knees beside Buck. His heart was in his throat, his stomach cooling into knots, as he slid a hand behind Buck's neck and tried to raise Buck's wavering eyes towards him. "You couldn't have waited a few more minutes, you absolute idiot?"

"Knew you were coming," Buck whispered with a dazed sort of smile, his face drained of colour, his eyes drifting out of focus.

"No, no, no. Stay awake, Ev," he said with a shake, grasping at Buck's hand as tears spilled unchecked down his cheeks.

"Buck?" Tandy exclaimed behind him while Walker and Nicholls appeared at his side. One unwound a tourniquet from a pocket on their vest while the other removed gauze to secure around Buck's knee. He moaned as they jostled him, drawing Eddie's attention to the puddle of blood already forming on the floor.

"Are you hit anywhere else?" His hands moved roughly over Buck, panic making him reckless because this was worse than Shannon. This was so much worse than Shannon. His soul might have been cleaved in two when she died amidst the water but he hadn't had her life in his hands like this. "Evan, are you hit anywhere else?"

Buck blinked at him, a frown dipping his brows, the tip of his tongue darting out to dampen pale lips. "He got a lucky shot to my leg." A faint attempt at a wry smile twitched the edge of his mouth. "Bastard."

"Buck…" Eddie shifted closer to his shoulders, fingers dragging over Buck's jaw to keep his airways open. He was vaguely aware of Walker and Nicholls being replaced by medics who started their own assessments, who were telling him to give them room. There was more wincing and Buck's eyes lolled for a heart-stopping moment that made him sob. "Evan? Hey. Hey. Keep your eyes open. Look at me, Ev."

"I'm…" Buck's throat bobbed, and it was clear and startling how much effort it was taking him to stay conscious. Eddie knew the medics needed to get him moving, fast. "I… Eddie, I… I don't… I d-don't feel so good…"

"I know, cariño, I know. We've got you though, okay? You're in the best hands." He watched the attention in Buck's eyes start to fade and thought he was going to throw up. "Get him out of here," he snapped at the medics, helping them roll Buck onto a gurney and watching him disappear out the door. The pool of blood on the floor remained, mocking him because he couldn't follow Buck when everything in his soul strained to chase the medics. It would be hours before he would be able to see Buck in the hospital and he didn't even have Maddie's number to call her and tell her what had happened. He knew how the first responder grapevine worked, that she'd know soon enough, but it felt like something he was meant to inform her.

"Eddie?"

He rubbed a hand over his face, refusing to lean into the comforting hand that Walker settled on his shoulder. He couldn't break around his team worse than he already had. He swallowed, tilted his head to try to collect himself. "Sit rep?"

"Photos of suspects snapped and sent through to HQ for identification. Weapons secured. Four civilians with cuts and grazes and bruises, but nothing as major as…as Buck," Tandy listed and Eddie nodded, returning to a standing position. He surveyed the space that he knew so well which had been badly damaged amidst the gunfight and whatever Buck had done to the third perp and wondered if he'd ever be able to return here again.

His stomach churned as he limped out of the building, spying Athena on the phone by the observation van. He hoped she was setting off the grapevine so Maddie could be there for her brother. Chief Huntley shifted through the sea of cops and medics swarming the vicinity to shake their hands and congratulate them on a job well done but Eddie barely heard it, a sharp stabbing in his leg and a dull throbbing in his shoulder distracting him from most of what the Chief said.

"What was that?" Walker said, grasping his arm and pulling him down the stairs towards Athena when she waved them over, phone still pressed to her ear.

He felt numb, dazed. "What was what?"

"You crumpled as we were breaching." Walker's eyes pierced into him, clearly running the numbers that he'd been trying to add for months. Eddie knew when he got it because his expression cleared and his gaze widened. "You and Buck are Marked?"

"Say it louder, I dare you," he grunted, shaking Walker's hand off him. He could hear Walker's breath of realisation and his heart clenched.

Athena lowered the phone when they were close enough to talk with her. She met his gaze first, gave a small nod of understanding. "I've spoken with Maddie. She's on her way to the hospital now."

He managed a small, grateful nod that she'd confirmed Buck would have her there. He just hoped Buck would hold on long enough for Eddie to get there too. He couldn't lose Buck. Not like this. Not like Shannon. The thought alone was enough to make his knees quiver.

"The only messy paperwork will be explaining why he seized that particular moment to jump one but we don't have to worry about friendly fire. What Buck did is all on camera."

Eddie knew why Buck had chosen that moment. Eddie had struggled to ascertain Buck's feelings through the Mark but Eddie's had probably been amplified. Buck knew they'd been about to breach and would've thought he was being helpful. Three perps against two teams? Buck was evening the odds the only way he knew how. But knowing everything was on camera wasn't a relief either. They'd have to review the footage in a debrief to learn from their mistakes and improve their responses for the next time. That part of the job always sucked. And actually seeing Buck get shot, rather than merely feel it, wasn't exactly high on his priority list.

"I've cleared you to go to the hospital too," Athena continued, staring at Eddie. It took an extra few seconds for his addled brain to process her words, and then he felt like he was blinking blankly at her.

"You- You did?"

"You would be useless to me for the rest of the shift, Diaz," she pointed out. She wasn't wrong, he'd already felt useless most of the call, but it felt like a dereliction of duty to pursue Buck to the hospital. He had hours to still complete but his feet itched to move. Her gaze drifted over the rest of the team. "I'll see you back at HQ after dropping him at the hospital. We'll do a debrief there."

Walker took his arm to lead him to the truck. Tandy drove with Anders up front once Nicholls ascertained the hospital where Buck had been taken. There was an uncomfortable silence in the rumbling truck, broken only by the noises of Eddie gradually shedding gear. There was the click of buckles as he removed the Glock strapped to his thigh and the M4 across his chest, sliding them into a locked container beneath the bench seat. He didn't need to ask to know Walker would sign them back into the armoury at HQ. He peeled apart different pockets on his tac vest to stow the extra mag for his Glock or the smoke cannister in separate locked containers. It was only when he couldn't get the key into the lock that he realised how badly his hands were shaking.

"Hey." Walker's fingers freed the key from his trembling grip and twisted the lock into place before pocketing the key. His fingers wrapped around Eddie's hands, thumbs rubbing over his knuckles as some of the surging adrenaline of shock and denial gave way to fear and grief. "We'll stay until Athena orders us back to HQ or we get another call," Walker said calmly. When Eddie looked towards him, he could see his friend attempting to dig beneath the layers of protection that Eddie had wrapped himself in after Shannon's death and only begun to loosen during the fledgling development of his relationship with Buck.

"You- You have to debrief, Si," he said, so quietly that the sound almost got lost in the back of the truck as he looked towards their hands. "You have to-"

"We have to support our own, Eddie," Walker insisted, squeezing his hands and drawing attention to how not okay he was with the way Walker used his name. "I was right, wasn't I?"

Eddie didn't need to ask what Walker wanted confirmation about. He considered denying it, but what was the point? He knew he'd been exposed by the way his leg had given way on him when they'd breached, the way he'd continued to struggle to move ever since. He thought it was a wonder he wasn't disintegrating into more pieces that had to be taped together again, but there was a chilling sort of numbness which was probably responsible. He met Walker's eyes and suspected the broken look on his face gave away the secrets of his heart and soul.

"I knew there was something different about you," Walker said, almost as if he were talking to himself. "It's still fresh?"

Eddie nodded and tried not to fold inwards. It was fresh enough, and the thought of losing someone else was making him want to scream. He knew Nicholls was paying attention but trying to pretend he wasn't, and knew Tandy and Anders were eavesdropping from the front of the truck. He desperately wanted to move to a new topic of discussion, and at the same time every cell in his body right now was revolving around his worry for Buck. The pain around his knee had dulled but he tugged one of his hands free from Walker anyway to rub at it, finding the spot behind the hinge of the joint that ached the most. He could feel Walker's eyes on him, tracking where he needed to soothe away the pain, and he wasn't ignorant to the reason why it hurt.

"We're here," Tandy called and Eddie wasted little time in untangling himself from Walker's hands and his seatbelt and leaping from the rear of the truck. He could hear the slam of doors behind him but he ignored it in favour of approaching the sliding ER doors. His tactical gear might have been discarded but he was still dressed in his SWAT blacks, with a fearsome group in his wake that were still fully geared up.

He approached the counter and dredged his most charming smile when a triage nurse glanced up at him with her own matching smile. Her gaze skipped over his outfit before darting past his shoulder to where his squad were invariably standing, and he watched as her smile faltered.

"Uh… Hello?"

"Hi." He swallowed, reaching for his ID card and badge and passing it towards her. "A victim from the Everaces Bar was brought here. Gunshot wound to the knee?"

She looked from his identification to his face and then nodded her head, tapping at the keyboard in front of her. With a few clicks, she was then scanning the screen with a pursed look on her face "He was taken into surgery five minutes ago. Do you need me to call the OR and-"

He shook his head rapidly. There was no way he wanted Buck to be held back from surgery. He lifted his ID and tapped it in front of her. "Just make a note for someone to update me, please? I'll be here with his sister when she arrives."

She tapped at the keyboard again and then flashed him a gentler smile. "Note made, Sergeant Diaz. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Call the OR and beg them not to let him die? Buck had been shot in the knee. It wasn't like the head, or his lung, or his heart. He might end up in a cast, it might require some rehab, but Eddie couldn't see that it would be life-threatening. Still, he'd felt that agonising lurch when they'd gone to breach and he hadn't been able to shake how sick he'd felt ever since.

"That- That'll be it for now," he conceded, his voice almost fading to a whisper as he stepped back, stepped away, and felt the numbness return. He spied a corner seat that had a clear view of the door to watch for Maddie. Walker, Nicholls, Tandy and Anders sat around him and Eddie wasn't blind to the stares the five of them were drawing from others gathered in the waiting room. It wasn't even like the waiting room was quiet, either. There was a squealing baby to one side and a desperate mother trying to hush it. There was an elderly man whose chin was nearly on his chest, his hand in an older woman's who talked to him in a low hum. There were a couple of kids with a harried-looking teenager, a babysitter perhaps. And yet Eddie was able to block all of it out, zoning his attention so far inwards that it was like he lived in a silent void.

~TBC~