Chapter 9

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Buck was relieved to finally be cleared to drive again even though the surgeon refused to sign off on anything more strenuous than light duties for another two weeks to give the bones more time to heal before risking a hit to the face, but he had the next few weeks off to help settle Jee into a routine so he wasn't back at the 118 at all yet. Still at least he could get himself around now instead of relying on his friends since they all seemed determined that he couldn't trust an uber while he was injured. He'd wanted to protest that he'd been a lot more vulnerable when he was on crutches after the ladder truck bomb but they'd let him catch Ubers on his own all the time then but he had to admit that he was glad not to have to depend on Ubers when he had Jee, or to try to drive on his own since the little girl still got upset when she was alone in the back seat. She did okay with Chris sitting in the back with her but he couldn't always be there and Buck wasn't looking forward to the first time he had to drive with her on his own.

Jee was now fully recovered from her ordeal as well and allowed to sleep for as long as she wanted overnight providing she was fed every time she woke at night and at least every three hours during the day. She was still getting up once per night but Buck and Eddie could handle that and they both had hopes that she'd soon sleep through. Chimney had been boasting during shift about a month before Maddie left that his daughter was sleeping through the night.

Buck transitioned from sick leave to FMLA leave and the two weeks before his first short shift back with the 118 raced by. It was difficult for him to be away from the 118 for so long and he was glad that he'd accepted the part time hours rather than having the next three months off. Even with looking after Jee and living with Eddie and Chris, he would have gone stir crazy without any work time.

His first shift coincided with the second half of the A shift's 24 hour shift. Eddie was glad to have him back even for part of the shift and he could tell Buck was relieved to be back at work but it was difficult for both of them to be away from Jee-Yun for so long. Jee was spending the early morning with Carla before being dropped off with the Lee's after Chris was dropped at school and then Athena was picking her up from the Lees when she finished her shift at 2pm and would take her back to Eddie's to nap in her own bed until Chris arrived home from school.

Buck knew that Jee liked Carla and the Lees and Athena and had been happy to spend time with each of them over the last couple of weeks but she'd never had to go from one to the other for so long without time with him, and she'd also be alone in the back seat for the first time since they'd picked her up from the hospital in Flagstaff, travelling from Durand to the Lee's and home from the Lee's. Was this how new parents felt when they left their children for the first time. It was nerve wracking.

It also made Buck think about what was going to happen when Maddie or Chimney came back. Jee was their daughter not his and he would have to give her back. He was going to miss her terribly when that happened. Would they even let him remain a big part of Jee's life? He knew Chimney wouldn't want to, but what about Maddie? Would she side with Chim when he decided that it was better for the three of them to break ties with him? Would she be strong enough to object even if she wanted to? Or would her PPD cause a lack of confidence in her parenting skills and she'd defer to Chim as the expert?

Suddenly he was glad about all the conditions that CPS had put on both of them before they could have custody not only for Jee's sake but for his own that the transition back to her parents would slow enough to give him some time to cope with the loss.

Carla sent him regular photo's during the morning and an update after she dropped Jee off with John and Anne but the Lees weren't phone people and he didn't expect to hear from them unless something was wrong.

Bobby could see Buck struggling and pulled him in to try a new recipe to keep him distracted so his head would be in the right frame of mind when the bell went.

Thankfully while they had a lot of calls, none of them were particularly serious or dangerous and Bobby took them off line at two to give them time to eat an actual meal and so they'd be in the station for Athena's and Jee's surprise visit to Buck. He dragged Buck up to help with the lunch while Eddie helped restock the truck.

"Buk buk" Jee said as soon as she saw Buck when Athena carried her up to the loft.

Bucks heart leapt into his throat as he heard Jee calling him and he spun around with tears in his eyes and all but sprinted across the room to snatch her up out of Athena's arms and spin her around in a delighted hug.

"Jee, my precious, have you come to visit your Uncle Buck? Have you had a good day?" Buck asked her before shooting an anxious glance at Athena. "Is she okay? Did something happen at the Lees'? They didn't call me."

"She's perfectly fine, Baby. She's had a good day playing with John and Anne, eaten most of the lunch you'd packed her and some fruit they gave her too, and Anne said she slept well this morning. She grizzled a bit being in her car seat on the way over but nothing like she did on the way back from Flagstaff. I was more concerned about how you were coping without her than Jee not seeing you," Athena reassured him.

"I have missed her more than I could have imagined. I don't know how parents do it," Buck admitted.

"Exactly the way you did this morning. You made sure she had everything she needed, you left her with people you both trusted and who you know she enjoys spending time with and you hoped and prayed for the best, that you'd come home to her at the end of the day," Eddie pointed out.

"I'm not her parent," Buck protested.

"You're her uncle and her guardian, you love her and you know that you're responsible for her wellbeing. You may not be her biological parent and it may only be until Maddie comes back, gets treatment and is well enough to look after Jee or Chimney is released and meets all the requirements CPS and the courts put on his regaining custody but at the moment you're the closest thing to a parent that Jee has. It's okay to feel like this about her, it's in Jee's best interests that you love her like you do," Eddie said.

"Eddie's right, you shouldn't try and limit what you're feeling or how you parent Jee out of some misplaced loyalty to Maddie. The best thing you can do for Jee and for Maddie is to show that little girl all of the love that's in that enormous heart of yours," Athena said gently, resolving to be there for the two of them if the time came when Jee was returned to her biological parents."

Chimney had ranted throughout his seventy two hour psychiatric evaluation, furious to have not been released to continue his search and to have had his sanity and judgement questioned, he believed they were just using this as a delaying tactic preventing him from continuing to search for Maddie. In fact, he took so long to calm down and speak to anyone rationally that it was extended by another forty-eight hours. It was very telling that he had calmed down and started to speak rationally within hours of being told that his psychiatric evaluation had been extended due to his inability to speak without yelling and threats, and would continue to be extended or converted to an involuntary treatment order if he wasn't able to become and remain rational.

It had taken him several hours to realise that protesting that there was nothing wrong with him and that Maddie was in danger while he wasted time here wasn't going to change anyone's mind. Then he set out to prove himself sane so he would be released.

In the end it produced mixed results. The psychiatrist diagnosed Howard Han with PPD, and anger management disorder and narcissistic personality disorder but also clearly stated that he was mentally competent to have been aware of his actions and of the consequences of neglecting his daughter the way that he had. He was fit to stand trial for the child endangerment and neglect and the battery causing serious bodily harm and dangerous driving charges.

Chimney expected as a respected first responder, and currently single parent, he would be released on his own recognisance though part of him wondered how much bail would be set at if he wasn't and was already planning who he could convince to pay it for him. It never occurred to him that even if he was bailed out of prison he would not be allowed to leave the state and if he did so a new warrant would be issued for his arrest, his friends would lose their bail money and the whole process would start over again and he wouldn't be any closer to finding Maddie. To say that he was shocked at the end of the five days in the psychiatric ward to be transported to an actual prison and put through intake before being led to a cell where he was told he'd be living until his arraignment was an understatement.

He was even more shocked to be denied bail at the arraignment, since he wasn't a resident of Arizona and had repeatedly announced his intention to continue the search for his girlfriend he was considered a flight risk. The first thing he did once he managed to control his temper was ask to be transported back to Los Angeles where he at least knew people who could help him petition for bail.

The question now became which state would take him to trial first and which facility would house him until his trial. In the end after some squabbling because both DA's thought their case should have precedence it was decided that because the Los Angeles Criminal courts had better systems in place due to the pandemic for trials to be conducted via secure video link that Howard Han would remain in Arizona at the Federal Correctional Institution Phoenix and both trials would be put on the docket for the court which had jurisdiction as soon as all the evidence was ready and unless they ended up scheduled for the same time they could both proceed without delay.
Chimney was annoyed that his request to return to Los Angeles had been ignored but he was too focused on being prevented from finding Maddie to care much about his surroundings, and the implication of actually being arrested for more than just hitting Buck hadn't really sunk in yet either. Other than being unable to leave, FCI Phoenix (The Federal Correctional Institution) wasn't that bad, sure the food was bland, especially after Bobby's cooking but he'd eaten similar under other Captains and he was used to having his routine dictated to him by his shifts and callouts so that didn't worry him overly much most of the time.
He didn't interact much with the other inmates but he didn't feel threatened by any of them. Chim may have been a small man size wise at only 5'6", but he was extremely fit and strong for his age, he needed to be for his job and he took pride in keeping up with the younger firefighters. The only two who regularly lifted more than him on A-shift were Buck and Eddie. Between his visible strength and his anger management issues most of the other inmates thought that messing with him wouldn't be worth the trouble.

Officer Diane Stafford travelled to Phoenix to interview Howard Han personally, after a nationwide search of mental facilities that treated PPD, hospital's, police arrest warrants and morgues and more recently the nationwide BOLO on her car, failed to find Maddie Buckley. She was starting to be concerned that she hadn't left Los Angeles by her own will at all. Could Howard Han's initial insistence that the video call could have been forced by outside influences a double bluff.

Chimney tried hard to explain to missing person's why he hadn't filed a missing person's report on Maddie, he said that he was worried that it would upset her more to have a stranger approach her than to be left alone.

"We do have some experience with emotionally fragile subjects that have walked away from their lives due to mental health issues," Officer Stafford replied, unimpressed with the excuse. "You were worried enough about Maddie to risk the health and well-being of your daughter by chasing after her yourself and yet you didn't do the one thing most people do the minute their loved one goes missing, try to report it. In fact, you're still trying to cover up how serious her PPD is when it could be compromising her judgement and safety, and would escalate the search response."

"No I'm not. I've told everybody how important it is that I'm allowed to find Maddie," Chimney said affronted at having his commitment to finding Maddie questioned like that.

"You have been remanded for trial, in both Arizona and California. I would expect that it will be at least 8-10 weeks before both trials have been held, and there's no guarantee you will not receive a further sentence of incarceration when they do. So, in the meantime the only people looking for Maddie Buckley are the department of missing persons. It's in Maddie's best interests that you stop making excuses and co-operate with me fully do your girlfriend can be found and helped to get the care she needs," Diane said sternly.

Chimney sighed. "Maddie has PPD she was diagnosed by a psychologist and her doctor prescribed her an antidepressant but it didn't seem to be working. I was going to encourage her to go back to the doctor and get a stronger dose but she left before I could. She thinks that it was her fault that Jee-Yun slipped in the bath and that Jee-Yun wasn't safe with her but she's wrong. Maddie is an excellent mother, or she will be once the PPD is sorted out."

Why didn't she see a psychiatrist if she was so unwell?" Diane asked.

"Her doctor believed it was unnecessary. He could manage the situation," Chimney replied.

"Which Doctor?" Diane asked.

Chimney hesitated but after Diane made it clear that he would be charged with obstructing her missing persons case if he continued to withhold information he gave her the details.

"Where were you headed in your search for her?" Diane asked.

Boston or Pennsylvania, that's where she's from. She trained as a nurse in Boston and would know who to go to get help," Chimney replied.

"It's difficult to know for sure with HIPPA laws but Maddie Buckley has not been registered as a patient in any government funded programs, nor has her insurance been used for any private inpatient treatment or psychiatrist assessment," Diane said gently.

"What else are you doing to find her?" Chimney asked.

"We attempted to use the GPS in her phone to locate her but she has either disconnected the GPS function, has removed the battery or let it run out of charge. We have a BOLO out on her vehicle which we have just extended nationwide since the time frame now allows for her to have reached any state other than Alaska. We put an immediate alert on her passport do know that she has not left the country by legal means. I have had the highway patrol monitor all traffic leaving California via the I-80 and the I-40 in the days after she left Jee-Yun Buckley Han at the 118, her car has not used either. Nor has she boarded a plane. Did you have a reason you've not shared with me to believe she was heading east?"

"No, she said she missed the snow, and real winters. I know she missed her friends at the hospital," Chimney replied vaguely.

"Do you have any names or contact details for these friends? Or have any other ideas where she might go? A high school or college friend she keeps in touch with? Or a friend from her nursing days that moved away from the East Coast?"

"No, as far as I know she doesn't keep in contact with anyone from Hershey, or that's what she told her parents last time they wanted her to visit, but I'm not sure how true that is. She didn't want to visit her parents at the time," Chimney replied.

"We will do our best to find her and believe it or not our best is actually very good, less than 2 percent of people reported missing will not be found and most within a few weeks," Diane reassured him, taking note of the fact he didn't seem comforted by that the way most people were. She supposed that as a first responder he may realise that those who were mistakenly reported missing, returned on their own or were found dead made up a large percentage of those she had counted as found but most people were pleasantly surprised and comforted by the fact over 98% of missing persons were located fairly quickly.

Of all the things about the Federal Correctional Institution, Chim found not being able to go after Maddie and the restrictions on phone and internet use the hardest to deal with, how was he supposed to convince Maddie that she was a good mother if he couldn't communicate with her. He continued to email her and to use the email to text program installed on the computer to text her every time he had access. He also called as often as he could even though she never answered and her message box was still not accepting new messages. Unfortunately, since she wasn't able to call him he didn't know if he was reaching her. He had explained in his emails and texts that his phone wasn't working and the only way to contact him was via email but he hadn't heard from her yet.

He also sporadically called Hen and the Lees asking if they'd heard from Maddie and for updates on Jee. All of them continually encouraged him to call Buck telling him that Buck had promised to put Jee on the line as soon as he called if he didn't want to talk to Buck personally, but he never called him. Chimney had been warned he would only receive 300 minutes of calls for the month but he wasn't careful about budgeting his minutes and ran out several days before the end of the month and got into a row with the warden when they wouldn't make an exception for him because he was worried about his girlfriend who was allegedly missing.

After a week, Chimney called Albert demanding that he bring his daughter to visit him.

"I don't have custody of Jee-Yun. I wouldn't be allowed to bring her to Arizona, and it's too far for her to travel," Albert said without even pretending to call Buck and ask him permission to take Jee for the weekend. He knew that trying to travel all that way and back in a single day would be considered abusive, even staying only one night in Phoenix and travelling back the next day would be difficult for the little girl. Even if he'd wanted to give up all of his next days off, he had no intention of harming his niece like that.

"Jee is my daughter and I have the right to see her!" Chimney stated.

"Jee-Yun is a baby and she doesn't deserve to spend 12 hours suffering trapped in a car seat on her still healing bottom, just to spend an hour visiting her father in prison when he's in there for mistreating her, and I'm not taking personal leave to spend a week just so I can bring her to visit for an hour without harming her. I think the only person you have any hope of guilting into bringing Jee to visit would be Buck and hopefully Eddie would talk him out of it. But he won't need to will he? Since you're too stubborn to call him even to speak to your daughter. You know Buck's staying with Eddie and he'd probably put Jee on the phone to talk to you too?" Albert said bluntly, hanging up on his brother.

Chimney ignored Albert's advice and tried to convince Karen and Hen to bring Jee to visit him, playing on how much it had hurt them to be separated from Nia when she had gone back to her birth mother. If it had just been Hen, Chimney might have been able to persuade her but between the scathing lecture she got from Karen for even thinking about subjecting that poor baby to another marathon car trip before she'd recovered from the last one, and from Eddie about even considering asking Buck to hand over his niece for the entire weekend when even travelling in the car was still traumatising for her, and it could threaten his ability to keep custody, Hen had to admit that it was a bad idea, and she was relieved that she'd realised that before she asked Buck about taking Jee for their next days off. Jee was settling down with Buck and Eddie and starting to thrive, taking her away from them for more than an hour or two wouldn't be in Jee's best interests no matter how much Chim had the right to see his daughter.

Chimney thought it odd that while most of his contacts talked about Jee spending time with them, they never had her when he telephoned, he suspected that Buck was making sure that none of them had Jee-Yun in the hours he knew Chimney would have access to the telephone, not considering that it was everyone else's decision to either not answer while they had the little girl or to let their partner take care of the child elsewhere while they talked to Chimney rather than letting him talk to her behind Buck's back.

The one person who might have given in and let him speak to Jee was Hen, who still believed the best of Chim when it came to parenting his daughter and that Chimney had been overwrought and acutely mentally ill to neglect Jee-Yun the way he did. Unfortunately for Chim though, Hen was busy with her studies and rarely had the little girl on her own and Karen wouldn't let her go behind Buck's back and let Chimney talk to Jee without his permission.

"How would you have felt if I was going behind your back to facetime with Nia and her mother?" she asked pointedly.

"That was different, we were fostering Nia with the intention to adopt. Buck only has Jee-Yun temporarily and it's in Jee's best interests to remain in contact with Chim to make the handover of care less traumatic for her," Hen argued.

"But Chimney isn't even trying to talk to his daughter when her legal guardians are present, why is that? There might be a very good reason that Buck wants to be there to calm his niece down if talking to her father goes badly. If you let Jee speak to Chimney without Buck's permission I'm going to tell him, and I will support him all the way if he then only lets me babysit her while you're on shift," Karen said bluntly.

Permission that if she'd only asked, Buck would probably have granted, though he would have preferred to be there to monitor the conversations and be on hand to deal with any emotional response Jee had to talking to her father. However, Hen hadn't wanted to damage her recovering relationship with Buck and Eddie by bringing it up, or going behind Buck's back like that, after Karen pointed out what a betrayal it would be.

Chimney continued to complain to everyone about not getting to see Jee-Yun but he quickly learned that most of their friends would shut him down quickly and tell him what an amazing job Buck and Eddie were doing looking after Jee if he complained about him being given custody. Even the Lee's who told him pointedly that they were more than happy with the way Buck and Eddie were looking after their unofficial granddaughter, and that even if she'd been blood kin and had no one else to take her, they would have struggled to meet her needs the way Buck and Eddie did. Buck was letting them visit Jee anytime they wanted and to look after her for a few hours a week on their own terms to make sure they weren't overburdened with caring for an active baby. Anne went as far as to scold him that if he hadn't wanted to have his daughter raised by other people he should have done a better job of looking after her himself. "I actually cried the first time I saw her poor little bottom, but it's clearing up nicely with proper care," she said bluntly.

It hit him for the first time that he'd actually caused Jee harm and that it wasn't just an excuse for stopping him from looking for Maddie and he felt awful that he hadn't even noticed that he wasn't caring for her properly. Maddie would have done a much better job. Unfortunately, Chimney didn't even notice when thoughts of Maddie overwhelmed the guilt he'd started to feel over his neglecting Jee, or that even though he was expressing his worry about her leaving and being missing all this time, the emotions he was feeling towards her were betrayal and anger.

Hen had welcomed Buck back to work, relieved to see that he'd fully recovered from his injury and there were no permanent consequences of the punch, but she'd been standoffish with him. Eddie glared at her when he noticed and Bobby shot her some questioning looks while the two men worked to keep Buck distracted in the hope he wouldn't notice. Hen had been totally on Buck's side while he'd been on leave because of the injury Chim had caused but now that he was cleared for full duties and back on the truck it felt wrong to her have him there back on full duty and enjoying looking after Jee-Yun while Chimney was still in prison awaiting punishment for an injury that Buck had already recovered from.

Though she'd been persuaded not to take Jee to visit, Hen still intended to spend the next day thar she had off while Denny was at school to visit him herself. Unfortunately, the Federal Correctional Institution only allowed visitors on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays and it had been several weeks before she had a Monday free to go. Intellectually she understood that the location of the prison had nothing to do with Buck and everything to do with the location Chimney had been in when he was arrested, though she felt it very unfair that he hadn't been transported back to Los Angeles where he had more support, if he couldn't be granted bail.

Hen was ignoring the fact that Chim was being kept in Phoenix to await trial for the crimes he'd committed in Arizona, the charges of child neglect and endangerment taking precedence over the battery of an adult, since their personal relationship and the fact Buck was off duty and in his own home meant Chimney wasn't being prosecuted specifically for attacking a first responder.

Karen tried to stop her from going, when she heard her plans. "You're going to give up a whole day of studying to drive five or six hours to phoenix, visit Chimney for an hour or two and drive five or six hours home. You'll be exhausted and you start your 48 hour shift Tuesday, not to mention that Denny will barely see you for three days straight."

"Chimney's stuck in Arizona where he doesn't know anyone and will have no visitors. I don't know why they're not transporting him back to LA but he deserves to have someone support him even if he did do something stupid," Hen said.

"Chimney is waiting trial in Arizona for the crimes he committed in Arizona, before being brought back to LA to face battery charges," Karen said bluntly. "This was not one moment of stupidity, but several over more than a day, he criminally neglected and endangered his daughter's life and the lives of countless other road users multiple times and over more than eight hours in his mad dash across the country while technically fleeing arrest for the battery charges here in LA. Thank goodness he was caught before he killed someone, or before his neglect of Jee caused irreparable harm."

Hen scoffed, "Chimney could never deliberately harm a child!"

"Then why did Jee-Yun need to spend 24 hours in hospital and nearly a week after that on a strict feeding and fluids schedule? You know what that means, we covered it in one of the parenting classes about taking in and fostering abused and neglected children," Karen asked bluntly. "If she was already that dehydrated and at risk after only one day on the road, how much worse would it have been if it had taken another couple of days for the police to catch up with Chimney and arrest him? He was pulled over for dangerous driving with Jee in the car, that had nothing to do with him assaulting Buck or mistreating Jee."

"I'm not saying that he didn't do the wrong thing but he's still my best friend, his girlfriend has gone missing in terrible circumstances and everyone else has taken Buck's side," Hen tried to explain.

"Then, if you really feel the need to visit him, let's make a weekend trip of it, We'll take off Friday after school, and come back Sunday night. There's a great zoo in Phoenix and I think Denny would like the Heard Museum, we could even head make a round trip take the I-10 out stopping at the Cabozen Dinosaurs and then go North from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon or the Desert Caballeros Western Museum and come back along the I-40."

"You'd do that for Chimney?" Hen asked, surprised.

"No you idiot, I'd do that for you and Denny," Karen replied. "I'll keep Denny occupied while you slip off and visit Chimney for an hour or so. But this will primarily be a family trip, you are not spending all day with, or worrying about Chimney Han. Denny deserves your time and attention."

Hen smiled. "We could take Denny out of school for the day and spend a night at the grand canyon, come home Monday night," she suggested.

"I'll call the school and get his make up work so he can get it done before we leave or in the car," Karen agreed.

Denny was excited about the mini holiday, and they had a great time. Hen was eager to see Chimney and make sure he was okay. Karen was pleased that her family were happy and spending time together. She was a little worried about how her wife would be emotionally after seeing her best friend in jail though it wouldn't be her first experience with visiting a prisoner. Still, she'd cross that road when they came to it and hopefully seeing Denny's excitement at seeing the new zoo after the visit would help.

A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed, commented positively, followed, bookmarked or favourited or gave Kudos to this story for your support.