Chapter 7: Telling Maddie

Chimney's POV

He dreaded this call that he was about to make. However horrible it had been to watch as the hood on the young boy on the ground slipped, realizing that the child was actually Chris, he knew that this call would be a hundred times worse. However much it pained him to admit, watchin Chris and hearing the woman tell that he was searching for Buck when she found him in the water, he had actually been more afraid of having to tell Maddie, then he was about telling Eddie. With telling Eddie they at least had Chris to show, knew where he was and that he was somehow safe, even if he was fighting for his life at the moment. He got a lump in his throat thinking of Chris' condition and how frightened and almost broken Eddie had looked upon seeing Chris' shaky body from all the coughing, barely able to breath and exhausted. With Maddie they couldn't even tell her where Buck was, or the extent of his condition, which made him dread the conversation even more, but there was no way around it; He had promised the others that he'd be the one to inform Maddie, so he pulled out his phone, found her number and pressed the call button. Before he had time to think twice about it, or even what he was supposed to say, he heard Maddie answer from the other end of the line;

"Hey Chimney, what's up?" She sounded like she had been crying, and it made what Chimney had to tell her now that much harder.

"Hey Maddie. You've got a second? It's important", he figured it might be easier breaking straight to the point, any time used stalling in telling her, meant time not spent searching for Buck.

"Yeah, of course. What's going on? You sound so serious?" And then a feeling hit her, Chimney could almost hear her breathing becoming laboured and quickening up with her next question, which was more of a word than an actual question; "Who?"

"Buck and Christopher" Chimney answered; Maddie's breathing was definitely of now, sobbing and hiccuping. She didn't answer him and Chimney could have kicked himself for taking this conversation over the phone instead of going to the call center himself. He heard someone talking to Maddie on the other end, the phone dropped but the line remained open;

"Maddie? Maddie what's happening? Who's on the phone? Maddie please answer me. Maddie?" the frantic voice on the other end was calling, not knowing what was going on; Chimney just waited silently, holding his breath and hoping that whoever it was could help Maddie in a way he wasn't able to, by being there. "SUE, I NEED SOME HELP OVER HERE" the voice yelled and then returned to Maddie: "It's going to be okay, we got you now. Everything is going to be okay now". It felt like hours before Sue came and took over Maddie, taking her away somewhere; Chimney hoped she would be okay. Then someone picked up the phone, the person sounding rather confused and angry, but of course he had all the rights to be given Maddie's state;

"Who is this? What did you say to her?" the man on the other end demanded. Now that Chimney could hear him better he sounded a little like Maddie's friend from work, Josh.

"Josh?" Chimney asked, still a little unsure but hopeful.

"Yes" Josh answered, a little annoyed, but Chimney could hear surprise and calmness in his voice as well when he continued: "Now who am I speaking to? And how do you know my name?"

"Josh, it's Chimney. Is Maddie okay?" he asked, trying to at least make sure of that.

"Chimney?" Josh asked, surprise and relief in his voice; "Maddie is… okay, I hope. She had what appears to be a panic attack. What were you two talking about? I mean do you know what set it off?" Now it was Josh's turn to be unsure.

"Afraid so", Chimney confessed; "Had to tell her that her little Brother… that Buck…" he had to sink the lump forming in his throat before continuing: "I had to tell Maddie that Buck was in the tsunami and is, at the moment, unaccounted for. We found Christopher, who Buck was watching for Eddie today. Unfortunately Chris' condition was, and still remains, critical and we weren't able to get much information before he passed out, so the only thing we know for sure is that it appears they were somewhere near the center of the tsunami when it hit, and got separated at some point. The woman who found Chris told us he was looking for Buck" Chimney finished, unable to speak any further, overwhelmed by fear, grief and guilt, thinking of all the bodys in the water they had passed, never thinking that somewhere in the middle of all this Buck and Chris could have been.

"I see" Josh answered professionally, and Chimney could understand why Maddie looked up to this guy; To be honest he had been a little jaloux of Josh and Maddie's friendship when he and Maddie had first started dating, but the jalousi ended after finding out about Josh being gay, since then he had just been happy that Maddie had someone as close as Josh to share everything with. Chimney's thoughts were interrupted when Josh continued: "I'll see that Sue gets the information on Buck, and we will take care of Maddie. Go bring her brother home so this nightmarish day can come to an end", then the call was cut off. It took only seconds before Chimney got back to his own professional mind setting, returning to the crew and the rest of the searchers to go look for Buck.