He blinked at the sun coming through the window the next morning, barely remembering getting to bed or falling asleep. He was lying fully dressed on top of the covers, he had been so exhausted when he got home from the long run and pretending to be okay in front of Hen that he had just passed out on the bed. He still couldn't believe he had run to Hen's house and even less that Hen had accepted his weak excuse of it being late and just let him go so easily, maybe they weren't as okay as Buck thought, maybe she wanted to get rid of him but was too polite to voice it
"You're exhausting"
Eddie's words sounded again in his head. Great now he didn't even get to wake up properly before the rewind mix started. He got up and found his bag, packing what he needed for work and decided today was a good day to run to work, get an early start on drowning his thoughts,
Hen noticed how Buck wasn't driving his car today but was running, much like he had been last night when she had noticed him outside her house when she was about to shut the blinds for and join Karen in calling it a night, she wanted to ask him about it but he hurried into the locker room to change and didn't come out before shift started. She had been noticing for a while now that Buck was avoiding her and Chimney but she couldn't figure out why.
She didn't see him at all at breakfast, and midway through the bell rang and they had to gear up, she figured she would get a chance later when they came back. They barely made it back before the next alarm was going off and they were out again, and when they came back around lunch it was to a fully prepped meal and Buck hurriedly excusing himself to go restock the truck and ambo while everyone was eating, so again she didn't get to talk to him or ask him about last night.
"Hey what's got you thinking Hen?" Chimney asked jokingly besides her on there way to a traffic collision
"Buck" Hen sighted, deciding she might as well share her worries with Chimney who was the only other person she knew of who had forgiven Buck
"Okay what about Buck?" Chimney asked concerned
"The way he's been avoiding us lately, and then last night he came to my house but then quickly excused himself and ran of" Hen explained
"Yeah?" Chimney asked surprised
"Yeah" Hen confirmed
"Odd" Chimney just said
"Yeah and even there last night he didn't come close, he kept his distance but I could still make out how exhausted he looked, like he was gonna drop right there on the sidewalk" Hen said
"Hmm" Chimney said and continued: "Guess we'll have to corner him when we gets back"
"Yeah guess we have to" Hen said hessitantly, afraid it might scare him of but not having a better plan herself