Buck Whumps

by BobWhite

Multiple stories centered around Buck getting hurt. Each story may have new characters as it will add to the storyline! Doing my best to update as best I can. New job has me pretty busy!

8. Attack At The Bank

Full Summary:

A trip to the bank has unintended consequences for Buck. Stopping into the bank on his way home from work to get some cash out of the ATM, he unintentionally walks in on a robbery. Once the money is snatched by the robbers, Buck is taken with them as they got out of the area. Will Buck survive his ordeal?

Attack At The Bank:

Eddie and Buck were laughing at something as they entered the locker room, ready for the day to be over. Eddie was going to drop Chris off at school and then get some cleaning done at the house. Buck's rent had gone up and he had to find a new place to live by the end of the month. The two friends basically spent every day they didn't work together so it was a logical solution when Eddie offered him to move into the spare bedroom in the house he owned. Buck would have to store the furniture that he wasn't using, but he'd agreed that it was the most logical solution and he could find a place more to his liking without anything happening in the meantime. The move was set for the coming weekend as both had the time off for the move. Bobby seemed to think it was a good idea as well, so that Chris had more than his father to look to for support and Chris loved his Bucky.

As the two men got ready to head out, Buck told Eddie that he had to stop at the bank and that he would be at the Diaz house as soon as he was done. He'd promised to get pizza for Chris because who didn't love pizza. It'd been a long week what with no one allowed to really leave the station with all the accident happening. Hen had volunteered at a COVID ward, so Eddie was delegated to the ambulance with Chimney. So the fire truck had been down a firefighter. But they shook the week off and headed out to their respective vehicles and then in separate directions. Buck looked back towards the firehouse once and watched Eddie's truck disappear down the opposite route. He turned his head back towards his own road and headed for the bank.

As he pulled into the parking lot, he noticed that a couple vehicles were in the lot, but not a whole lot. He surmised that the bank may have just opened up and that he may be able to get in and out without any problems. He'd needed to get the address changed on his statements so that the mail came to the correct address as he had to be out of his apartment by the end of the coming weekend. He also needed to stop by the Post Office and let them know that his address was going to be changing. He'd already put it on his papers for work and Bobby had made sure the change had stuck. He turned his jeep off and got out. He turned towards the bank but before he was able to even enter, he saw something that looked suspicious in his mind, though he couldn't really figure it quite out. He pushed it out of his mind and headed into the bank. He needed to get his errands done before picking up the pizza and heading to the Diaz household. R

When he walked into the bank, a couple people looked up at him. Nothing seemed to be off, so he got into line and waited to be called to the counter. The person at the counter seemed to be taking longer than it normally would have needed. Buck paid little attention as he pulled his phone out and sent Eddie a message to let him know that he'd be at the house around 2:30pm with the promised pizza. Right as he was about to put his phone away, a shot rang through the air. Pain encased his shoulder and he hit the ground, his phone slipped from his hand. The gun going off alerted everyone else in the bank and everyone hit the ground.

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Buck woke slowly. The last thing he remembered was being in the bank and then the bullet hitting him in the shoulder. When he opened his eyes, what he saw made him gasp. He was no longer in the bank. It looked like he was in a warehouse and his arms were above his head. He was also naked from the waist up. Whoever had him had removed his shirt for some reason. He tried to look around to see who was in the building with him, but the pain stopped him from doing such a thing. He kept his breathing under control before looking straight ahead. A gasp tore from his mouth as he saw a young woman hanging in the same position as he was; only they had removed her shirt and pants. All she was wearing was her underwear. He could only imagine what their captors had planned for the two of them. But he was pretty sure that the young woman would be assaulted in front of him.

When he heard a door open, he closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep. The young woman, who had started to come around a few minutes earlier, seemed to sense that keeping her eyes shut as well was a good idea. Their captors didn't give them much of a chance at staying 'asleep'. The second they sensed that their captives were awake, they began beating on them. Buck grunted as a baseball bat made contact with his ribs. And a scream escaped the young woman's throat as she was hit multiple times as well. It was only a matter of time before their captors gave up and Buck didn't know when that would be or how long they would be kept captive. What he did know, was that Eddie would miss him if he didn't show up with the pizza. Eddie would send someone to check up on him and he knew that Maddie would be trying to get ahold of him. What he didn't know was that the search was already ongoing because the bank employees had told the cops that two people had been taken captive; a young woman and a young man.

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Sgt. Athena Grant was one of the officers that first responded to the Bank Robbery. When she learned that two people had been taken captive, she immediately wanted to see the surveillance video so that she could get a search party organized. When she saw the surveillance video, she was shocked to find Buck's face cringed in pain as he was shot in the shoulder and then as his knees hit the ground. After the robbery was over, Buck and a young woman were grabbed up and the robbers got out of the neighborhood as fast as possible. The escape vehicle had already been found, burned to a crisp nearly twenty minutes away in a gang-riddled neighborhood. She knew what her first phone call was going to be. She needed to get the team together so that they could help look for their missing family member.

The manager at the bank was nice enough to tell Sgt. Grant that the young woman that had been taken was one of his teller's so that she could notify the proper family. She had sent an officer over to talk with the family of the Teller so that they wouldn't find out on the news that their loved one was one of the captives. She pulled out her phone and called Bobby. That hadn't been the easiest of conversations. Buck had had a spate of bad luck as of recently and had been through a lot in the last couple years. This wasn't something he needed to be dealing with at all, but here they were again; worried about Buck.

Bobby said he would get the team together and then Athena had said she needed to contact Maddie and let her know what was going on. That was going to be another hard conversation. Maddie was at work and was just about to get off her break when her phone had wrung. When Athena told Maddie what was going on, she immediately told Josh what was going on and was allowed to leave to help with the search. Since it was May's day off, Josh knew better than to call her in. She'd be helping with the search as well and knew that Buck was like a brother to her. The whole 118 and their extended families were all very close. He knew better than to call in the family that would be looking for Buck. So he told Maddie to keep him apprised of the situation and that he would let her know if any calls came through the Call Center.

Carla was called and Harry was dropped off at the Diaz household so that she could watch both Harry and Christopher. May would stop by when it was time to pick of Harry and then head back to the Grant-Nash household. For now, May left Harry with Carla and Christopher and headed out to join Eddie. She was leaving her vehicle at the Diaz household and riding with Eddie so that he wasn't alone. She knew that he needed to find Buck and would stop at nothing to do it.

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Buck woke slowly. He looked around and noticed that the young woman was missing. But judging by the grunts coming from another part of the warehouse, told him exactly what their captors were doing to her. She wasn't screaming. In fact he couldn't hear any sound coming from her. He guessed they had gagged her so that she wouldn't make too much noise and thus ending their torture. He had to figure out a way to escape, with the woman and make sure those looking for them would be able to find their captors as well. Buck knew who was looking for him. Most of them were the firefighters he worked with on a daily basis. Others were the cops who were probably working the bank robbery and realized that two people had been taken captive. And one of those officers would be Sgt. Athena Grant. She'd become like a mother to him as he saw Bobby as his father. And she was very protective of her loved ones, including those in her extended family at the firehouse, thanks to her marriage to Capt. Bobby Nash.

Buck wasn't sure how long he'd been hanging in the warehouse, but he knew that it was far past midnight at least. Judging by how dark it was outside every time they left warehouse and opened the outside door. He knew it was dark and he also knew that they were trying to establish an alibi for themselves so that if they were questioned by the police, their alibis would hold up. As he contemplated how he would escape with the woman, a man exited the other room and saw that he was awake. The man smiled and grabbed the closest weapon to him; a crow bar. Buck knew he was in for some more pain, but kept from crying out. He knew it would just anger his captors even more.

What Buck did realize though, was that their captors were not gangs. These men seemed to know how to evade the law. Yes, gangs did as well, but most knew when to hide and when to come out into daylight. When his captor was done with his beating, Buck slumped unconscious again. He knew that there was the possibility that he had internal bleeding going on, what with the constant beatings with very hard and very dull objects. There was also the fact that his shoulder was still bleeding profusely. It was a good thing he was no longer on blood thinners, because losing this much blood would definitely have killed him by now. And dying at this moment would not be a good idea.

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Sgt. Athena Grant had called her friend in the Detectives unit and learned that a ransom had been made. She looked over at Bobby and they both knew that if they were making ransom demands, then there was a possibility that Buck and the Teller that had been taken were still alive, for now at least. Athena asked Mike how much the ransom was worth and she was told. It's the exact amount that they had taken from the bank during the robbery. There was a pickup spot already chosen and the men were going to be sending someone to extract the ransom. They hadn't said anything about not following anyone or if they were going to be watched, but most officers figured that they would be. They needed to get the ransom together as soon as possible and maybe save two people.

Bobby relayed the information to the search teams and May looked over at Eddie when they got the information. His jaw was set and he looked angry. Who wouldn't be? Buck was Eddie's best friend and his son loved him as well. Eddie didn't know what he would do if he lost Buck from his life. He'd slowly started to realize that he was in love with Buck, he just didn't know if Buck felt the same way about him. He was going to ask that weekend, but at the moment, that was all up in the air. There was no telling how he really felt towards Eddie. But he was hoping he felt the same way so that Buck would never move out of his house. Eddie had talked it over with Maddie and let her know what he'd been thinking and Maddie had told him that she would love him no matter what.

The search teams all met up at the firehouse because they wanted to be ready when it was time to go get Buck and the Teller. Going after the Bank Robbers and kidnappers wasn't going to be an easy feat. They knew it was going to be hard to convince anyone to put themselves in harms' way, despite how everyone felt. Detective Mike let them know that everything was going as planned and that they were following the cash at the moment. When the man met up with those wanting the ransom money, they would know if the captives were at the same place. Bobby let the Captain on Duty know the plan and that the captives would need medical attention. They said that they would be ready when the time came. Now, they just needed a location as to where the kidnappers were hiding out at.

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Buck woke to the sound of people talking. When he opened his eyes, the young woman was again hanging in front of him. He doesn't know how long he has been unconscious, only that it is getting harder and harder to keep himself awake. She was looking at him with guarded eyes, but she could tell that he was in trouble of not waking up again. She tried to talk to him, to get him to stay awake, but before either of them could do anything, their captors were back and they looked rushed. She watched as they yanked the young man down from in front of her. He was moved into the room where she had been assaulted over and over. That room held a bed, but it also held something they hadn't used on her. And she was afraid that they would use it on him.

Buck was tied to the bed frame. They had removed the mattress as he would not need it. His form of torture called for the frame to be bare of anything that might hinder his pain. He was unconscious, but his captors knew that he would be awake sooner rather than later. They gagged him so that nobody could hear him save for those in the next room. They hooked the battery up to the bed and then turned it on. The pain woke him immediately. As the electricity coursed through his body, his screams were muffled by the gag. They kept the battery turned on. It had at least four hours of battery life left. They would use it as much as possible.

They wouldn't get the chance to inflict as much pain as possible. They were not aware that the man they had sent to collect the ransom had been followed to their exact location. He'd been allowed to enter the facility but police and rescue crews were assembling outside and getting ready to infiltrate with the help of SWAT.

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Sgt. Grant along with Bobby and the rest of the 118 who were off duty but helping in the search had gathered outside the warehouse where it was believed that the Bank Robbers and Kidnappers were holding up. The man that had picked up the ransom had been allowed within the warehouse but he had been followed. No sirens were going because they did not need these men to know that they were found. The battery had been turned off and Buck had been hung back up so that he would not be able to get away. He'd been awake for his torture, but had lapsed unconscious once again when he was removed from the bed frame and drug out to the main warehouse. The woman had been left hanging while they tortured him with the electricity. She'd been raped and beaten. He'd been beaten and electrocuted. But judging by the multitude of scars that littered his body, he'd seen his fair share of hardships throughout his life. She just didn't know that this would yet again be another trip to the hospital. She'd been when she was a young girl because her father could be very abusive, but that had been ten years prior. This man's scars looked newer, like maybe they'd been inflicted on him in the last couple years. She couldn't know that all the scars had been inflicted within the last year alone.

As the teams got ready to surge the warehouse, they had no idea what they were walking in to. They just knew that two people, one of which was a firefighter, had been taken captive after a Bank Robbery the morning before. Detective Mike was with the SWAT team when they entered the warehouse. As they rounded a corner to make themselves known, they saw the captors sitting around a table counting and sorting the money they had managed to grab and collect. The police made themselves known and shootout ensued. Detective Mike did not see the two captives, but they had to be in the warehouse somewhere.

In the shootout, three of the five men were killed and the other two were wounded. SWAT asked where the captives were and one of the men nodded with his head towards what looked like a walk-in fridge. They looked at each other and knew what that might actually mean. It could have very well been another form of torture for them. Or they could have been put in there so that they wouldn't know if rescue was coming for them or not. As the captors were taken outside, SWAT made entry into the walk-in fridge and all but stopped. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. Both captive were strung up like pieces of meat and both had blood on them, more so with the man than with the woman, but they could tell that both had endured something that none of them could ever understand.

They lowered first the woman and then the man to the ground. Since there were no keys to be found, they had to call in the rescue teams for some bolt cutters so that they could be freed. Since Bobby and the team were not on the clock, they were not allowed within the warehouse to see if Buck was okay. Athena hadn't told them that Buck had been shot while he was still in the Bank so they didn't know if he was injured or not. They figured being kept captive, they would probably be beaten, but none of the family wanted to see Buck injured any more than the rest of the firehouse did.

When the medics got to the two captives, they understood some things. First, the members of the 118 that weren't on the clock were definitely not going to like seeing Buck in the condition that he was. Second, they couldn't understand how men could be so horrible to those around them. The captors knew that their captives needed to be alive when found or they could be charged with attempted murder if they weren't. Though, once they'd been kidnapped, it was inevitable that any surviving captors would be charged with attempted murder.

The young woman was loaded onto a gurney first and then Buck was moved to a gurney. They needed to keep both alive. They were heading for LA General. They looked at Detective Mike and told him to let the others know that they would be heading for LA General. Nobody would be able to ride with the medics as they needed as much space as possible to treat before getting to the hospital. Mike left the warehouse as a blanket was pulled over Buck's body so his loved ones wouldn't see how injured he was. A bandage had been placed on his shoulder, front and back, so the bleeding would stop. He wasn't conscious as they rolled his gurney out of the warehouse and to a waiting ambulance.

Sgt. Grant was closest and got her first look at Buck as he was loaded into the ambulance. The young woman was loaded into a separate ambulance and both raced towards the hospital. Mike told her where they were headed and the family headed for the hospital.

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Buck woke slowly. He didn't remember being rescued, but he knew he had to have been since he could hear the beeping of a heart monitor next to him. He knew he had to be in the hospital, he just wasn't sure how long he'd been unconscious. There were people talking all around him, so he knew that his family was in the room. He wanted to stay asleep, but knew that his body was forcing him to wake up. He kept his eyes closed, didn't want to alert anyone in the room that he was awake just yet. He wanted to hear what they were talking about. There was a voice in the room that he didn't recognize and for a brief instant thought maybe it was the woman that he'd been taken captive with. But despite everything that had happened to the two of them, he'd understand if she didn't want to speak to him ever again.

He listened to the conversation going on around him. He listened to the steady beeping of the heart machine. He listened to the hospital staff outside the door as they moved about and did their job. When he heard the scuffle of chairs being moved and then the door opening and closing, he knew that people had gotten up and left the room. He just wasn't sure who was still in the room, not until Maddie spoke up.

"You can open your eyes now. It's just me in the room. I want to see those baby blue eyes of yours."

And with that, he did open his eyes, and moved his head to look at his sister. She had tears in her eyes, but she was smiling. He did his best to smile back at her. She stood up and sat on the bed, grabbing his hand in the process. She stroked his hand a couple times before looking him in the eyes.

"So, you're probably wondering how long you have been out."

"A little, yeah. I don't remember anything about the rescue."

"It would stand to reason that you wouldn't. Elijah said you were out of it for most of the time. The few times you were awake, they were beating on you."

"Who's Elijah?"

"The woman you were with. She was a Bank Teller at the Bank that was robbed. She wouldn't tell us everything that happened to her but we got the feeling that something bad had happened to her. She said she tried to keep you awake but understood why you didn't want to wake up."

"I barely remember any of it. Mostly because I think I was internally bleeding the entire time. The only thing I really do remember is being electrocuted. That was not fun."

"Yeah, she told us she'd been on that bed as well."

"She just wasn't being electrocuted."

"And I get what you mean."

"So, Maddie, how long was I out?"

"Well, you were only unconscious for about a week; A lot less than your other hospitalizations. But the doctors were worried about your heart this time. Now that you have told me about being electrocuted, I can understand why."

"Sorry for not sticking with the plan of staying out of the hospital."

"This is not your fault, Evan. Nobody saw this coming. But you will need to start seeing Frank again."

"I never stopped seeing Frank. I just don't go as often as I should. I was trying to dial my appointments back a little, but I guess that's not gonna happen anytime soon."

"You'll get through this Evan. You just need to let us help you. You need to see Frank and maybe open up to us a little more on how you are feeling. I worry about you Evan. I know I keep saying I don't want to see you back in the hospital, but I mean it. We need to stop this trend of hospitalizations."

"I know, Maddie. It's not my fault that bad things keep happening to me."

"I know. We just gotta find a way to keep you out of the hospital for more than a couple months at a time. Don't let there be a next time, please."

"I can't promise you anything Maddie, you know that. I will try to stay out of the hospital though. I will do my best."

"That is all I am asking of you."

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A week later saw Buck discharged and heading to Eddie's house. The team was nice enough to move Buck's apartment for him without him even helping. Most of the furniture had been either placed at Eddie's or moved into Athena's garage. The garage wasn't really used for their cars anyways, so it was easy to store at Athena's place. There was no need to pay for storage at the moment. Buck could always sell what he didn't want anymore. And storing it at a cops house also kept it safer than it would be at a storage unit.

As Buck settled into the guest room at Eddie's, he knew he was lucky to be alive after all that had happened in the last year and a half. Chris hobbled into the room a couple minutes later with a water bottle in his hand. He put it on the nightstand and then sat on the bed next to Buck. His head was down but Buck could tell he wanted to talk.

"What's going on in that brain of yours, Christopher?"

"Are you sure you're really okay? You've been in the hospital a lot lately."

"I'm fine, buddy, I promise. But I do think I will rest just a little before dinner. You want to tell your dad for me?"

"I will. Dad said to tell you we are having Abuelita's lasagna. She made it so we didn't have to cook. It's warming up in the oven. I'll let him know that you want to rest for now, and he can come get you when dinner is done.
"Sounds like a plan, buddy."

Christopher moved out of the room and closed the door behind him as he went. He went to tell his dad what Buck had said. When he got to the kitchen, Eddie was making some crescent rolls. Christopher sat at the table and told his dad what Buck had told him. Eddie nodded and told Chris that he could watch TV for a little while and then they'd have a picnic in Buck's room so that he didn't have to move around all the much. Chris nodded his head before heading to the living room.

With Chris engrossed in his show, Eddie popped the rolls into the oven and set the timer before going to check on Buck himself. He still needed to have that important conversation with him and he needed to see for himself that his friend really was doing okay. Standing in the doorway, he watched as Buck slept fitfully. Every now and then a twitch would run through his body and it made Eddie ache that he couldn't help his friend.

Eddie closed the door behind him and went back into the kitchen. The important conversation would have to wait until Buck was feeling better and wasn't sleeping as much. Frank had agreed to come to the house the next day so that Buck didn't have to leave. It was Eddie and Maddie's idea that Frank make a visit to the Diaz household as the media had gotten ahold of the story and was trying to find out where the two survivors lived so that they could interview them. Neither wanted anything to do with the media, so Frank coming to the Diaz household was easier for Buck to avoid the media.

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Buck and Eddie were finally having that important conversation, one that would define the rest of their lives from that point on. Eddie laid it all out on the line and told Buck how he felt about him. Though hesitant, Buck told Eddie that he did feel the same way, but hadn't been able to get his feelings out in the open with everything that had been going on. Chris was outside as they talked. Eddie knew that what was decided with this conversation would alter not just Buck's life but his and Christopher's as well. He had to be careful how he proceeded.

They both agreed to take things slow. Both agreed that Buck would continue to see Frank, but that they would work on their relationship as well. But as they talked, Eddie was hesitant to do the one thing he wanted to do since seeing Buck in the hospital. Before he could even think, Buck grabbed the back of Eddie's head and pulled him into a kiss. Eddie was taken by surprise, but went with it, knowing that if this was what Buck wanted, then this is what Buck would get.

When Eddie pulled back, his questioning eyes looked into Buck and he knew that everything was going to change from that moment on. They were like two birds set free. They knew what they felt and they knew what they wanted. And they had finally come together. There would be no more hesitation, not now anyways. Eddie looked outside, towards his son and wondered how to tell him that Buck wasn't just a friend anymore. But as he looked, he realized that Christopher may have actually seen the kiss. His smile told him that he may have seen what his father and Buck had been trying to deny since they first met. Now they just needed to get Buck well enough to go back to work. A feat that was hard at the moment.

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Buck sat in Eddie's truck as they drove to the firehouse together. It had been nearly two months since Buck was tortured and this was his first day back to work. He hadn't even been able to go to work part time. The doctors had wanted to make sure his heart was fine before releasing him to full duty. It was understandable. He'd been electrocuted multiple times in a two hour period, with the last being the longest. So his doctors had been cautious to say the least and he'd finally been released to full duty three days prior.

As they pulled into the parking lot of the firehouse, Buck looked at the house and realized that he was happy to be home and he hoped that he didn't have to deal with any more hospital visits any time soon.

AN-I finally made Buck and Eddie a couple. I think I will keep them as a couple in the next chapters. A few chapters after this, go back to the tsunami and after that a couple tags to other episodes.