Chapter 7
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The chief of police collated his reports and prepared to go in and charge Howard Han.
"Howard Han. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you." The chief began.
"You already said all that, why are you asking again," Chimney interrupted rudely.
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. If you choose to answer questions now without an attorney present you have the right to stop answering questions at any time and ask for an attorney. Do you understand these rights I have just read to you?"
"Yes I understand them. I'm not stupid I already told you that I understood. Are you telling me that I need an attorney?
"That is entirely your decision. Howard Han, you are being charged with child neglect and child endangerment, reckless driving, multiple traffic violations including but not limited to 16 citations for speeding in the state of California and a further 7 in the state of Arizona and the felony assault and battery causing serious bodily harm of Firefighter Evan Buckley. We are also investigating your involvement in the disappearance of Maddie Buckley. Understanding your rights, do you wish to speak to me without an attorney present?"
"Assault and battery? I only punched him once, the whiney little shit," Chimney sneered.
"So you're admitting to punching Firefighter Evan Buckley in the face?" the chief asked.
"I didn't punch him as a firefighter, we were off duty, I punched him because he wouldn't tell me where Maddie had gone," Chimney said as if that made it perfectly excusable.
"You broke his zygomatic bone causing double vision and requiring surgery to repair, and gave him a serious concussion," the chief informed him.
"No I didn't," Chimney scoffed. "He probably did it himself to stop me going after Maddie."
The chief looked at him incredulously, and decided that the psych evaluation was looking more and more likely. He would have to be careful though to get a doctor that would be suspicious enough to pick up on deliberate manipulation, without him leading them in that direction. As a first responder Howard Han would've had plenty of exposure to people during a psychotic break to model his behaviour on. Still he didn't have enough evidence of a psychotic break to have to stop the questioning or to make it inadmissible, so he pushed on trying to get as many answers as he could while Han seemed to feel like he was exempt from the law.
"Did you go to his apartment intending to hit him?"
"No of course not. I didn't know until I got there that he knew where Maddie was," Chimney replied.
"Why did you punch Evan Buckley?" the chief asked.
"He wouldn't tell me where my girlfriend had gone?" Chimney said.
"Why should he tell you? What gave you the right to know?" the chief asked.
"She's my girlfriend and she's mentally unwell, I needed to find her," Chimney replied.
"She was you're girlfriend, did you have legal guardianship over Maddie Buckley? Had she been declared incompetent to make decisions for herself? Did you even have her medical proxy?" the chief asked seriously.
"No, but she was suffering from PPD and I was worried about her," Chimney said.
"You didn't think that her brother was also worried about her, or was doing what she asked him to do in not telling you she had been in contact?" the chief asked.
"I needed to find her, he had no right to keep information like that from me when he could see how worried I was," Chimney insisted.
"What did you do after you hit Evan Buckley?" the chief asked.
"I left to go look for Maddie," Chimney replied.
"You didn't check on Mr Buckley?" the chief pressed.
"No of course not, I only hit him once and he's bigger than me." Chimney said.
"Did Evan Buckley hit you back or threaten you?" the chief asked.
"No of course not. Buck would never hurt a fly, He doesn't even like to hit people when he's sparring," Chimney said.
"So you knew in advance that Evan Buckley wouldn't hit you, no matter what you did?" the chief asked pretending to grin amiably as if amused.
"Yeah, he's a total pacifist, wimp," Chimney sneered.
"Moving on, your daughter Jee-Yun Buckley Han was treated for moderate dehydration and short term malnutrition, why didn't you feed her during your journey in search of her mother?"
"I didn't have time, I needed to find Maddie, I would have fed her when we stopped for the night,"
"She is a baby you are aware she needed to be fed more frequently than an adult?" the chief said.
"I know how to care for my daughter, I'm not stupid," Chimney snapped
"Her stomach and small intestine were completely empty she hadn't eaten in more than twelve hours. We have footage of you buying yourself a drink at a gas station. Why didn't you buy Jee-Yun some milk or water at the same time?" the chief asked.
"Who said I didn't?" Chimney asked belligerently.
"You finished the bottle and threw it away before you reached the car, there was nothing in your hands," the chief said bluntly.
"I was getting desperate, none of the places I'd stopped had seen Maddie and I was nearly at the limit of how far she could've gone before buying gas," Chimney said. "I wanted to get to the next exit before the coffee shops and diners started to close."
"Have you ever treated a child for severe dehydration as a paramedic?" the chief asked.
"Yeah, but Jee wasn't like that," Chimney said dismissively.
"You realise that as a baby it's important that she eats and drinks regularly because she would dehydrate more easily than you and as a paramedic you must be aware of the symptoms and side medical effects of severe dehydration," the chief said. That's one of the things that made him most angry. This hadn't been done out of ignorance. Han had known the dangers and neglected her anyway.
"Did you forget she was in the car with you?" the chief asked.
"No, how could I with the fuss she was making wanting her mother," Chimney replied.
"Wanting her mother or simply needing someone who would care enough to look after her the way she needed? She was hungry and thirsty and her bottom would have been hurting," the chief asked bluntly.
"I was looking after her, finding her mother and reuniting them was in Jee's best interests too. Maddie needed to see that Jee needed her," Chimney explained.
"Were you deliberately neglecting Jee-Yun so her mother would think that she could care for her better than you could?" the chief asked suspiciously.
"No, but Maddie is such a good mother," Chimney replied.
"But Maddie was not in the car with you," the Chief commented.
"No, we need to find her, then everything will be alright," Chimney said impatiently.
"Maddie wasn't there, it doesn't matter how good a mother she is when she's not there, it's your responsibility to look after your daughter and make sure she has enough to eat and drink," the Chief reminded him.
"Jee needs her Mom," Chimney repeated.
"Well you're being charged and arraignment is set for this afternoon. Your daughter will be ready to be released from hospital later this afternoon. Jee's mother Maddie has named Evan Buckley and Albert Han as Jee-Yun's emergency guardians with residential custody to go to Evan Buckley. Is there a reason that you stated that you want your daughter to go to John and Anne Lee instead?" the chief asked.
"Buck and Albert are too immature to look after a baby," Chimney stated. "The Lee's will care for her properly."
"You're stating that you want to ignore your girlfriend and Jee-Yun's mother's wishes for the care of her child?" the chief asked.
"Yes, this is all Buck's fault. He shouldn't be rewarded by getting Jee," Chimney said angrily.
"So you do not have any hard evidence that Evan Buckley shouldn't be given temporary custody other than the fact you don't want him to have Jee-Yun," the chief asked, unimpressed. "You'd prefer your daughter to go into emergency foster care with strangers than go to her uncles?"
"Yeah what does it matter, I'll be released today after arraignment and I can pick her up myself," Chimney replied.
"That may not happen, you're not a resident of Arizona and you've already announced your intention of continuing your search for Maddie Buckley. The courts are likely to consider you a flight risk, so we need a contingency plan for Jee-Yun Buckley Han's care or she will end up in emergency foster care which will probably mean a group home for at least a couple of days if not longer, I know it's generally believed children this young get placed quickly but that tends to be true only when both parents have permanently surrendered their parental rights and there is a potential for adoption," the chief warned him. He knew that without a coherent and reasonable explanation why he'd changed his mind the pre-existing custody arrangements would probably be followed whether Han wanted them to be or not, and wanted to be sure there wasn't a reason Evan Buckley shouldn't have custody of his niece.
As Lou and the chief of police had warned him, Howard Han was remanded into custody, not released under his own reconnaissance as he had expected and after seeing his reaction the judge denied him bail. His ranting against Buck was not taken as good reason to negate the existing emergency custody arrangements Han and Maddie Buckley had made and signed, especially after John and Anne Lee had been contacted and admitted that they were in their eighties and just weren't capable of looking after an infant full time for potentially months before her mother was found and well enough to take over care or her father was released from prison. They did request that their details be given to whoever did take custody of Jee so they could stay in touch.
Lou Ransome was happy to hand over Evan Buckley's contact details and the details of his foster carer registration. CPS did a quick check on the legitimacy of the registration and contacted Evan Buckley who agreed to collect Jee-Yun Buckley Han from the Flagstaff Medical Centre as soon as he could get there.
Buck still wasn't allowed to drive but he had no shortage of volunteers offer to take him, in the end Athena and May were the ones to drive since the 118 was so short staffed that neither Bobby, Hen nor Eddie could be granted the time off.
Buck was disappointed that Athena couldn't take the patrol car and use the lights and sirens to get him to Jee more quickly but he didn't want her to risk her job for him, and he had to admit he didn't think that his head could've coped with the noise of the siren. He was also totally blown away with gratitude that May was willing to use her days off to help him out like this, even if he suspected that the desire to support her mother played a large part in her offering to come with them.
Buck hadn't known May particularly well until now, though he still would have called her family. She'd been that awkward age when Bobby and Athena started hosting events for the 118, too old to want to be lumped in with the kids but not old enough to want to sit with the adults. Over the years he'd tried to be friendly and to offer her what support he could when he'd learned she was being bullied at school and he supported her against her mother's reaction when she'd chosen to defer college and work at dispatch. Maddie knew her better, though they hadn't worked together for long with all the leave Maddie had taken.
Regardless of the lack of lights and sirens, with two drivers willing to drive straight through as long as Buck was managing being in a moving vehicle, they were able to stop in Williams to collect Jee's car seat and belongings, take one whiff of the car seat and decide they needed to leave this one in evidence and purchase a new car seat, go shopping for it and still arrive at the hospital in Flagstaff by 8:30 next morning. The hospital staff gave them a strict diet and fluid schedule to follow for the next couple of days and made them promise they would stop and give Jee time out of her car seat on the ground on a blanket or held in their arms not in a stroller for at least 30 minutes every two hours.
Jee fussed a little getting put in her car seat but with Buck on one side and May in the other to keep her company and distract her she settled in for the first two hours quickly enough. May was good with her, and Buck noticed how she hung back and let him take the lead with entertaining Jee at the start of the journey and stepped up to take over as he started to become nauseas and his vision started to blurr while he was trying to read in the moving vehicle with his lingering concussion.
Even though he knew that looking at the screen would make his already nauseatingly painful headache worse, one of the first things Buck did once they were underway was get out his tablet to facetime everybody. He tried Maddie first but she didn't pick up the call, even after he text her to let her know he was calling because he had Jee. Then he group called the Firefam to show them sitting with Jee, so they could all say hello to the little girl. Once he'd finished reassuring them all that Jee was okay he texted a message who he was and that he was about to make a face time request to John and Anne Lee so they could talk to Jee-Yun. The Lee's picked up straight away and eagerly greeted the baby.
Buck was discouraged to see that Jee didn't recognise any of them. He'd hoped that when Maddie and Chim had cut him out of Jee's life they had at least allowed Chimney's adopted family to remain in her life and give Maddie some support. Buck spoke to them and happily set up regular visitation, explaining that he was currently staying with his friend Eddie as he wasn't allowed to drive or walk up and down stairs carrying a baby on his own at the moment, and would be looking for a more baby friendly home as soon as possible but promising that he would keep them up to date with Jee's location.
They offered to visit him until he was able to drive to bring Jee to visit them and offered to babysit for up to eight hours at a time once or twice per week, admitting that they found it too tiring to have Jee for more than that while Maddie's 12 hour shift lined up with Howie's 24 hour shift. Buck was grateful of the offer but unsure how much actual help it would be. He was beginning to understand exactly how much help he was going to need to be able to return to working his normal shift. Perhaps Carla would know of someone trustworthy he could hire.
He mentioned this to Athena who suggested that as a new guardian of an infant he would be entitled to some paid parental leave before returning to work and also offered to take care of Jee if she was off duty while they were on shift and suggested that he also investigate the possibility of putting Jee into a day care center part time to allow her to socialise with children her own age. May also offered to babysit when she had days off.
"I don't know how Maddie thought she could do this without help," Buck said.
"I don't know either, Baby. She wasn't thinking clearly and Chimney shouldn't have allowed it to get this far," Athena said gently.
"Remember she wasn't trying to work and she did have Chimney with her unless he was on shift," May reminded him.
"How did she get a second lot of family leave?" Athena asked suddenly alert to how unusual it was.
"I don't know, do you think that she disclosed her PPD?" Buck asked.
"She would have to have had it formally diagnosed and be receiving treatment if that's the reason she was granted additional leave," Athena said. "And that could allow missing persons to put more resources into finding her. Suddenly stopping medication like that can make things worse."
"We didn't find the medication in her apartment, so she must've taken it with her," Buck said smiling.
"Or Chimney took it intending to give it to her when he found her," Athena warned him.
"Is there any way to find that out?" May asked.
"I'll ask Lou to request an itemised list of Chimney's belongings and the contents of his car, explaining our concern, when we stop, which needs to be soon so get out your phone and find us directions to a decent park close to the next exit please May, Buck doesn't need to be looking at screens with that headache, and he needs somewhere quiet to rest while Jee has some freedom," Athena said.
In spite of their need to get home, Athena insisted on Jee having a full half hour of time lying on the blanket on her stomach, a diaper change and then a bottle before they strapped a sleepy baby back into her car seat for the next leg of the journey.
Buck blew up the firefam chat with photo's of Jee exploring the feel of the grass beneath her hands and smiling at them.
Jee slept all of the next two hours and was still sleeping as they stopped. "It almost seems a pity to wake her," Buck said.
"The doctor insisted that we wake her for regular feeding. She needs a diaper change and a bottle of water, and some cuddle time. See if you can get her out without waking her and she can lie on her stomach on top of you for a while, to give her poor little bottom a rest " Athena said. "Ideally we'd be taking two or three days to get home."
Thirty minutes later Buck was sound asleep with a sleeping Jee-Yun on his stomach. She'd been changed, taken some water and dropped back to sleep. Athena and May decided that they could wait for the two of them to wake up before moving on and Athena went to buy them all some lunch.
Buck was very apologetic when he woke up.
"You needed the sleep, Baby. I know you really shouldn't be spending this much time in the car yet and you're deliberately keeping yourself alert to watch Jee in spite of the fact it's making you nauseas. You're doing an amazing job of looking after Jee," Athena reassured him.
"But.."
"This has all been a terrible shock for you and you're still healing and the extra cuddles are good for Jee as well as for you, she's slept this whole time too," Athena said smiling.
"We're not in that much hurry to get home that we can't take a little extra time when you and Jee need it," May said supportively.
By stopping so frequently the journey was a long one but they were able to accomplish it without aggravating Jee-Yun's condition and while Buck was dizzy and nauseas most of the day he managed to avoid actually vomiting which would have been extremely painful on his still healing cheekbone.
Bobby was waiting for them at Eddies with dinner ready to go when they arrived. Hen, Karen and Denny, Harry, Ravi and the Lee's were all there wanting to see the baby in person and reassure themselves that she was okay and that Buck was coping with the travel.
Eddie could see that Buck was overwhelmed with the bustle and noise and sent him into his room to rest. He was glad that he'd gone before Hen started questioning Athena.
"What happens now with Chimney? Will he be transported back to LA for trial?"
"I don't know, they're still working out whether he'll be tried in Arizona first and then brought back for trial here or whether he will attend his trial here via zoom while he waits for trial or serves his sentence there, I would guess it will depend on who is ready to proceed first," Athena replied.
"We can take Jee, let you concentrate on getting Buck well," Karen offered.
"No you can't, Buck was granted emergency custody of Jee-Yun to be able to bring her home. He has appointments and a home study booked in the next few days and they will expect Jee to be with him," Athena said.
"Why? We're registered foster parents and Chimney is still upset with Buck. He doesn't want Jee to see him," Hen protested.
"Maddie and Chimney have a living will giving emergency custody to Buck in the event that neither of them are able to look after Jee. Buck is also a registered foster parent though he doesn't have as much experience as the two of you. The judge decided to follow Maddie's wishes since Chimney is clearly not capable of acting in his daughter's best interests at this time," Athena said bluntly.
"That's not fair," Hen protested.
"Chimney is currently on remand waiting trial for child neglect and endangerment and under a 72 hour psychiatric evaluation because his ranting about Buck and Maddie and refusal to accept his reality concerned everyone who heard him. One of the reasons he was not granted bail was that he has admitted that if he was released and given custody of Jee he would continue to keep her in a car seat while he looked for Maddie, in spite of multiple offers from people to look after her for him until he came back to LA. He wasn't rational enough about searching for Maddie for the judge or anyone else to be confident that he wouldn't continue to neglect Jee in favour of covering more ground to find Maddie. As such the arrangements Maddie and Chimney made and registered in court when Jee-Yun was born, will be followed," Athena said sternly.
"Buck's clearly still injured, he isn't capable of looking after a baby," Hen said.
"He is with my help. He willingly spent 14 hours in a car driving to get her in spite of the fact he threw up just travelling home from the hospital three days ago and I know he still gets nauseas if he moves too quickly. Jee is his family, Hen. You're not taking her away from him, out of some misplaced loyalty to Chimney Han," Eddie said firmly.
Everyone had just left and Buck was still pretty much passed out in Eddie's bed when Jee began crying.
Remembering what Buck and Athena had told him he checked her diaper, reapplying the medicated cream to the horrendous looking rash and then checked the schedule Buck had stuck up on the fridge to see what she was due to drink. He fixed her a bottle of water and added the electrolytes as directed then sat in the lounge to feed her. Chris came over and watched them for a moment.
"Is she staying with us?" he asked.
"She's staying with Buck, so yes while his balance still isn't quite right, he can't have Jee in his apartment because it wouldn't be safe for him to be carrying her up and down the stairs or trying to hurry downstairs to her in the night. You were okay with her coming here?" Eddie said.
"Yeah, Buck was really pleased to get her. He made it sound great but everyone tonight made it seem like a whole lot of work. Will Buck still have time to help me with my homework and play lego with me?" Christopher asked.
"Buck will always have time for you, Mijo. Yes, babies can be time consuming at times and it will be a couple of days before she's allowed to sleep through the night after what has happened, so we may be pretty sleep deprived from getting up with her, but most of the time it will only be ten minutes or so of work that won't wait, like diaper changes and bottles. The rest of the time she will slot into whatever else we're all doing. It will be a bit of adjustment for Jee as well as she's used to having her Mommy looking after her all the time and hasn't spent time with too many other people or children," Eddie said.
"Buck went to bed without saying goodnight," Christopher commented.
"He wasn't feeling very well and I don't think that he intended to go to bed for the night, once I finish feeding Jee, you can go wake him up and I'll warm him up a bowl of soup or make him a smoothie, he didn't eat much earlier," Eddie replied.
"Should we let him sleep if Jee's gonna be up again in a few hours?" Christopher asked.
"Perhaps but he'll be disappointed that he didn't get to say goodnight to you, he didn't get to talk to you earlier because everyone felt the need to check up on how he was coping emotionally and you were busy with Harry and Denny," Eddie said, reminding his son that it wasn't only Buck who hadn't made the time to talk to Christopher.
Chris went to wake up Buck while Eddie awkwardly warmed up the pozole for Buck one handed while cradling the little girl with the other. They'd have to invest in some sort of baby wearing pack if they made them for babies this age.
Buck came out and ate, leaving Jee with Eddie while he paid attention to everything Chris had to say about the last few days, and tucking him in bed, reading a story.
"Thanks for that. I missed spending time with Chris," Buck said coming back out and collecting his niece.
"He missed his Buck just as much," Eddie reassured him.
"Is he going to be jealous of the time we have to spend looking after Jee?" Buck asked worriedly.
"I think if you make him part of it, he will be fine, Jee's of the age that she'd be just as happy with you reading Chris's book or even his homework to her as she is with the toddler books half the time. So long as it doesn't interfere with his pancakes in the morning," Eddie said.
"I've cleared out the guest room for her but you might sleep better with her in the room with us for the first couple of nights.
"You don't have to do that, I don't want to interrupt your sleep when you've got to work tomorrow. I could sleep in the guest room with her," Buck said.
"Buck, there's a reason I've been letting you sleep on the couch instead of cleaning out that room. The mattress is terrible. Even Carla refused to sleep on it more than once," Eddie said laughing. "Do you think we should change her before we put her back down, it's been an hour, then she could sleep a little longer?"
"No she needs to be fed again in an hour too. Let's sit and watch something," Buck said making himself comfortable on the couch.
Eddie sat down beside him, smiling at the baby, and turned the TV on with the sound on low, even though he knew Buck wouldn't want to look at it for more than a few minutes. By the time the alarm rang to feed Jee, the two men were asleep leaning into each other. Eddie made the bottle while Buck changed the diaper and treated the sores on Jee's bottom before dressing her a little more warmly for the night. They stumbled into Eddie's bedroom together, too sleepy to feel awkward and fell asleep almost immediately.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed, commented positively, followed, bookmarked or favourited or gave Kudos to this story for your support.