Hen
Hen found her wife and son in the kitchen the next morning. Karen was leaning back against the counter with a cup of coffee in hand. Denny sat silently at the table with a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon in front of him. He held his fork and just used it to move the food around on the plate, staring at it like it held all of the world's answers for him. Karen saw Hen and turned to the coffee maker behind her, quickly pouring a cup of coffee for her wife. Hen stepped up behind Denny and gently placed a kiss on the top of his head before making her way to Karen, taking the second cup of coffee with a sad smile. She then took up position next to her wife, leaning against the counter with her to watch their son.
"He hasn't said a word since we woke up two hours ago." Karen spoke softly so her voice wouldn't travel. "I called him in sick for the day."
"Good idea." Hen replied just as softly. "Did he wake up naturally or by another nightmare?"
Karen sighed. "He woke me up when he tucked his face into my side crying. I didn't want him waking you too, so I brought him downstairs."
Hen also sighed as she looked back at their son. "I think maybe I'll ask Eddie about the number for the therapist he takes Christopher to." She looked back at her wife. "Just in case."
Karen nodded. "I think that's a good idea."
"I want to stop by the hospital and check on Buck," Hen took a sip of her coffee, "I know we were told he more than likely won't wake from the coma for a while, but I just need to see him for myself again."
Karen placed her hand on Hen's back and rubbed up and down. "Do you want us to come with you?"
"Should we let him see him?" Hen nodded towards their son.
Karen looked over at Denny just moving the food around on his plate, head bowed low. "I think," Karen straightened her stance. "I think maybe we give it a few days, get the number for the therapist from Eddie, get Denny in to see him and see what he thinks."
"Yeah," Hen sighed and placed her half empty cup of coffee in the sink. "Okay, I'll be home later, call if either of you need anything."
"And you," Karen kissed her wife. "I'm worried about you, too."
Hen gave a sad smile, kissed Karen once more, then stepped up to the table and once again kissed the top of Denny's head. The boy looked up at her before turning back to his untouched food. With a sigh, Hen gave a wave to her wife and headed out of the house. It was going to be a long and stressful time for everyone until they had Buck back, healed and one hundred percent again.
Hen reached the hospital an hour and a half later - L.A. traffic was horrible when you actually wanted to get anywhere fast. She signed in and stuck her visitor's pass to her shirt sleeve before heading her way through the doors into the ICU. She made her way towards the cubicle that held the person she viewed as a little brother. The curtain was drawn across half the glass door and when she peaked in just before sliding the door open to enter herself, she noticed Bobby already sitting at Buck's bedside.
"Hey," Hen whispered, though she doesn't know why when it wasn't like her voice could wake up the man in the bed.
Bobby looked up and gave his own version of a sad smile before turning his gaze back to the bed, his hands clasped around Buck's. Hen closed the door behind her and carefully slid into the second chair next to Bobby. She looked over the man in the bed, her eyes roaming over all the wires attached to him, the tube down his throat.
"The nurse this morning said him surviving through the night sets a precedent that he's fighting."
"That's good news then," Hen breathed a sigh of relief.
They fell into only a slightly awkward silence, both just watching the artificial rise and fall of Buck's chest as the machine breathed for him. Bobby continued his hold on the younger man's hand, and Han placed her hand over Buck's knee just in front of her. The blanket they had him covered with rested at his waist; his chest was bare except for the stark white bandage covering the exit wound on his lower right abdomen. Hen could see a second bandage peeking out from under his right shoulder from where the entry wound laid.
Buck's skin was pulled tight and pale white, almost as white as the sheets on the bed. The splotches of his birthmark above his left eye and brow, usually a bright pink, was now a pale pink, almost blending in with his skin tone. His eyes were clearly moved under his eyelids, shifting rapidly. Hen settled more into her chair, a frown permanent on her face as she continued to watch Buck.
"There's going to be an investigation."
Hen looked over at Bobby, her frown deepening. "Do they really need to? Mrs. Mackey was arrested, she told the police everything already."
"Not for the shooting," Bobby shook his head. "The chief is looking into the house. Harris and Anderson have filed complaints."
"Complaints? About what?"
"The treatment Buck has received since his return."
Hen gasped, "We're the ones being investigated?"
Bobby nodded, his eyes never leaving the younger man's face. "They want to know why a member of the LAFD has been shunned and treated wrongly. There's also…" Bobby sighed and leaned back into his chair, finally releasing his hold of Buck's hand, dropping his own hands into his lap. "Transfer papers were found in Buck's locker, they were the only thing found in his locker."
"He's been keeping all his personal items in his jeep after the slime incident."
"That's something the chief is looking into, why it happened and I didn't know, and who did it." Bobby coughed. "But he also wants to know why Buck would fight so hard to get back to work at the 118 and just three weeks later fill out paperwork to transfer out." He ran a hand over his face before turning to Hen. "He wasn't just asking for a transfer out of our house, Hen. He was asking to transfer out of state."
"We can't let that happen, we have to fix this, Cap."
"I don't know if we can." Bobby looked back at Buck.
"Buck's the most forgiving person out there. He'll forgive us, even if we don't deserve it." Hen replied. "We'll just have to prove to him that we're deserving of his forgiveness."
"If he wakes up."
"When, Cap. When he wakes up."
"Right," Bobby nodded and cleared his throat, turning his attention back to Hen once more. "The chief will be calling everyone for questioning. We need to be honest and take whatever consequences there are."
Hen only stayed for another hour before saying goodbye to Bobby, and to Buck even if the younger man didn't know she was even there. As she was leaving the hospital she pulled her phone out of her pocket and texted Eddie, wanting to get the number for that therapist as soon as possible. Once that was done, she made her way to her car. It was early afternoon and now that the station was being investigated, Hen had nothing to do but return home to be with her wife and son.
May
Her mind wasn't gathering any information her teachers were talking about. May was too preoccupied worrying about Buck. The man she looked to like an older brother, someone she went to for answers when she didn't feel like talking with any of her parents. She hadn't known him for long, just over a year because of her step-father, but they had gotten close. Especially while he was laid up at home after the ladder truck had crushed his leg. A few times a week May would visit him, taking him food or things to help keep him entertained - books, games, puzzles, etc.
They had started talking about everything and anything. May talked to him about her family, he talked to her about his childhood - and he noted the absence of his parents from all of his stories but never questioned him about it. They talked about what they always wanted to do once they were older - May had felt sad when Buck had said he never knew until he had become a firefighter and now that was possibly being taken from him. It was because of that she made sure to continue visiting, texting, calling. She didn't want him to feel alone. Especially after he had filed the lawsuit against Bobby and the rest of the fire department.
When she had first heard what he had done, May had been confused and saddened. She couldn't understand why the older man would do something so drastic, why he would turn on those he called his family. It hadn't been until she had gone against the suggestion that they don't speak to Buck, had shown up at his apartment looking for answers and to check on him, that she learned why. Her step-father was keeping Buck from returning to work because of the blood thinners the guy was stuck taking.
Finding out that Bobby was the reason behind, and the cause of things escalating, had made May see red. She knew that Bobby thought of Buck as his kid - it was why she and Harry considered him their brother; called him their brother. May had wanted to go back to Bobby and yell at him, ask him why he would be so mean as to keep Buck from doing the one thing he felt he was any good at. The only reason she didn't was because Buck asked her not too - and she had promised.
She had broken that promise last night after learning that her big brother was in the hospital after being shot by someone.
May looked up at the clock on the wall just as the bell rang to indicate it was now her lunch hour. Ignoring her friends, May grabbed her bookbag and jacket and ran from the room, heading for the front doors of the school as she ordered herself an Uber. She didn't want to be at school anymore, she wasn't able to concentrate anyway. She was able to make it out of the school and down the street where the Uber could pick her up before anyone was able to catch on that she had just left school in the middle of the way with no warning.
She knew she was going to get into trouble but she didn't care. Once she was in the Uber she texted her mom to let her know. The school would contact her by the end of the hour anyway when she didn't show up for her next class. She shot off the text saying she left school and was heading to the hospital - needed to see Buck for herself. She knew that her mom would be upset with her but that was something she would deal with later.
Once at the hospital she quickly headed for the ICU after a message back from her mother told her where to go - and then promptly told her they would be talking at dinner that night. May was okay with that. She signed in and took her visitors pass, sticking it to her pant leg as she made her way into the ICU and down the room to Buck's cubicle. The door was slightly ajar and as she stepped inside, she froze. Eddie was already sitting with Buck, his eyes closed as he looked to be sleeping.
May took a single step that squeaked against the linoleum flooring, causing Eddie to jerk awake. May grimaced. "Sorry."
"No, you're fine." Eddie cleared his throat and sat up straighter in the chair. "Are Bobby and your mom with you?"
"No it's just me."
Eddie nodded as he looked down at his watch, then frowned and glanced back at her.
May shrugged, "I skipped school. Don't worry, my mom already knows."
May sat down in the second chair and finally looked at the man in the bed. It was worse than she was hoping it would be, but not as bad as she thought it would be. He was pale and getting help breathing by a tube down his throat. She had never seen someone in a coma before - even if it was medically induced to help them heal. Really the only person she had seen in hospital growing up - besides herself - had been her grandfather when she had passed away, May had been around seven at the time, just before Harry had been born. Even the few times her mother had ended up in hospital being a cop, May only ever saw her after she would return home to rest and recover.
"Have they said anything about when he might wake up?" She asked, keeping her gaze on the figure in the bed.
"They plan on keeping him in the coma at least a week." Eddie too was watching Buck. "What have your parents told you?"
May shrugged. "That he was shot protecting Denny. They didn't go into details, they think I'm too young still to be included but seeing as I've been one of the only few who have been a friend to him these last few months, I think I should be allowed to know."
She didn't mean to make the dig at the other firefighter - especially not here in the hospital room - but she couldn't help herself. She saw Eddie grimace from the corner of her eye and she wanted to apologize but clamped her mouth shut. She knew it was something he needed to hear, maybe make him see that even though he hadn't been the one to pull the trigger, he hadn't helped the situation either. None of them had.
Eddie must have come to a conclusion as he spoke again, "The woman who shot him was the wife of the lawyer he used to sue the department. She blamed Buck for her husband's suicide."
"The lawyer's dead?"
"Yeah," Eddie nodded. "He owed a lot of money to people and was using lawsuits to pay them. He was going to get a lot of money from Buck's settlement."
"But he turned it down."
"Exactly."
May felt tears well up in her eyes and she quickly shut them, pressing her palms into her eyes to try and stop them from falling. They sat in silence for a moment while she composed herself, then both returned to watching the rise and fall of Buck's chest, the one thing telling them he was still alive, still with them physically.
"I need to go and collect Christopher from school," Eddie stood about an hour later and stretched his arms over his head before dropping them back to his sides and glancing down at her. "Do you want a ride home?"
May shook her head, "I'm going to stay a while longer. I'm sure my mom or Bobby will show up eventually to take me home."
"Okay," Eddie nodded and made his way towards the door after giving a quick squeeze to Buck's hand.
"Hey, Eddie?"
He stopped at the open door, hand on the glass and turned to look back at her.
"You know he's in love with you, right?"
