Archive of Our Own ^beta

It wasn’t personal. 

Not to him. Not when there was so much money on the line. He seemed like a good kid honestly. All the nurses seemed to like him. Like really like him in the way when one of those special patients lit up a whole floor and added a breath of fresh air to an understaffed and underpaid crew four hours away from shift change needed to boost up morale. The kind of patient who everyone wished would pull through and sheltered around when they stumbled to help get back up. 

Nurses. They could be real mean bitches in pastel colored scrubs but sentimentality was almost a requirement of the job by now. 

But not for him. He didn’t get paid enough. 

So sure, the kid seemed nice enough. Sicker than a dog if what he’d heard about him being in the ICU had been true. 

But that was what made it the ample opportunity to move. 

“It’s open.” The call came after he rapped his knuckles against the door. He lifted a brow and dropped his hand to the door handle, feeling it give beneath the barest of pressure. 

So maybe it would be easier than he thought. 

He pulled up his mask from around his neck to cover his nose and stepped inside. 

The apartment was nice. Spacious. With lots of natural light that filled the space and added a warmth to the already dizzying scent of flowers. Several full vases sat cluttered on the dining room table and island counter top in an array of colors and blooms. Mismatched cards offering well wishes in cartoon font were scattered throughout the display as well and various baked goods were covered in Saran wrap. 

He did a quick scan of the open floor plan and only saw the kid facing the sink, his back to him.  

He locked the door behind him and got closer. 

The sound of the water from the sink filled the kitchen as the kid cleaned what looked like a mug with shaking hands, his shoulders slumped and round beneath a light grey hoodie that was almost a size too big for him. His long legs were wrapped up in black sweats that cinched around his ankles and big oversized socks covered his feet making him the picture of comfy and cozy. Despite being bundled up, the temperature in the apartment was a little warmer than what he would’ve expected, making a slight sheen of sweat slick down his spine. 

“I’m just about to start some soup then I’m going back to bed, I promise.” The kid said, still not looking at him as he turned off the water and flung droplets into the sink. “Seriously Maddie, you don’t—”

The kid turned and he knew the moment when he saw him. Whatever exhausted smile had been on the kid’s face slipped off as he froze. Tired blue eyes widened just a fraction, caught in the headlights of his own realizations brewing in his head. He was pale with a peach fuzz on his cheeks that was slightly longer in different places as if he hadn’t quite been able to shave completely the last time. Dotted on his brow though, was the striking red birthmark. He’d only seen it once, catching a glimpse of the stark contrast of pink against pale skin before he’d been whisked away, but the mark was unforgettable. 

It was him. 

Again, it was nothing personal. 

If it had been he would’ve been inclined to agree with Maddie, whoever the hell that was. The kid looked exhausted. Weak. Vulnerable. Pale skin where there should’ve been a healthy pink hue and bruising on the back of one hand where an IV had been. He didn’t know the extent of his illness or injuries but he’d been sent home from the hospital so he wasn’t actively dying but still. He should’ve been in bed. 

Too bad for him that wasn’t happening any time soon. 

Those eyes jumped from him to the door to him again. “W-wha—”

He didn’t give the kid a chance to say anything else. They may have been alone but someone would be coming and he didn’t have much time. He had the element of surprise. He wasn’t going to lose it. 

He raced around the counter. The kid reared back, falling into the countertop in an over correction of his balance before he fell forward towards the table. The wood shifted with a screech against the floor and it was an ugly, loud sound that broke through the silence like a crack. The kid’s legs buckled beneath him as he stumbled but he grabbed onto the table and pushed himself up. With a gasp, the kid used the leverage he had on the edge and shoved the table towards him with a grunt that was drowned out by the shattering of glass. Water soaked through his pants as the table met his hips and his legs locked as the table shifted sideways. Flowers scattered around him and he swept his arm as he grabbed the lip of the table and flipped it off its feet.

The kid panicked then, crying out as he flinched back as his last barrier was ripped away from him like a toy. Those tired blue eyes burned with adrenaline and a wildness he knew well enough to brace for an attack. The kid may have been sick and tired but he was big and terrified. It wouldn’t have been the first time he had someone try to tackle him. He would’ve known what to do to get the upper hand again. He just had to wait. 

But then the kid dove for the stairs, running away from him, and he blew out a curse as he lunged after him. 

He snatched at the hood of his sweater and yanked the kid clean off his feet midstep. Long legs twisted and crashed as he dragged him down the stairs and to the floor. Wild, clawed hands flung back at him before curling into fists. 

He had to give it to the kid, he wasn’t going down without a fight. He could almost see the potential if the kid had been at his full strength. Every wild flail of the kid’s arm landed with a punishing fist against his chest and arms. The kid tried to drop his weight and a knuckle grazed his head but he simply followed him down to the floor. 

Easy enough. 

He took the blows as he dragged the kid further, twisting an arm around his neck and pulling him to him before he pinned him. 

“N-no! N—” Anything else was lost when he slapped the sweet smelling cloth over the kid’s face and held it there. 

His pocket was going to reek of chloroform. 

The kid seized up and the wild fists turned into wild kicks as he flailed around trying to break free. The kid planted his feet into the floor and tried to twist himself out of the hold. He held onto him tighter, keeping the kid still as he inhaled more and more of the sweet smell. 

The kid jerked as the drug started to take over. 

“That’s it, kid. Just breathe in. It’ll be easier if you just go to sleep,” he said, easily dodging an uncoordinated arm swinging towards his head. The kid jolted again and then he felt his weight fall into him inch by inch as his legs gave out. “That’s it. Just go to sleep. Big breaths for me.” 

A sound choked out of the kid and he felt it hiccup into his palm but he kept the rag in place until it took full effect. One hand smacked at his arm before fingers missed his wrist and fell limp at the kid’s side. The other hand clawed and scratched and pulled and he tightened his hold around him, keeping him pinned until he felt the fight drain away. 

“Big deep breaths for me. That’s it.”

The kid went limp in his arms and he kept the rag pressed against his mouth and nose for good measure for a few moments longer. 

One one thousand. Two one thousand. Three.

A dead weight released into his lap as the kid succumbed to the the drugs.  

He placed the kid on the floor and tucked the rag back into his pocket. He had more in the truck if the kid gave him any problems but for the time being he was out. 

He stopped to take a good look at him. It wouldn’t do him any good to have the kid bleeding out before they got to where they needed to be. A torn stitch could cause more problems than he wanted to deal with. He lifted up his hoodie and examined his naked torso for any signs of tears or open wounds but after his quick scan, it was clear the kid wasn’t bleeding out which was good enough for him. A little bruising that was already yellowing with time and healing and the black outlines of residue from the electrodes of a heart monitor littered across his torso was all there was. 

He flicked the sweatshirt back down. 

The kid looked quite small like that, curled up on the floor, his eyes closed like he was asleep. Poor kid. He really should’ve just stayed in bed. 

Oh well. He sighed as he pulled out the zip ties from his pocket. 

Again, it wasn’t personal. 

He just had a job to do. 

The hallway to Buck’s loft was quiet in the late afternoon. People were slowly slinking their way back to their own units with a heaviness to their shoulders from the work day. Eddie felt the same even though he’d had the morning to get Christopher to school and spent the rest of his day sleeping off his shift. Normally, spending so much time in bed would’ve made him itch with a restlessness he couldn’t shake but ever since Buck had been discharged from the hospital, their sleep schedules had all shifted. 

No one felt comfortable enough to leave Buck alone yet. Not with the side effects from the ECMO and overall trauma from the initial lighting strike still wrecking havoc on his day to day. The fatigue alone meant he couldn’t go far without completely wiping out the reserves of his energy. Even the bathroom was still a struggle some nights and Eddie had done his fair share of late night guiding as Buck struggled to get out of bed. Not to mention his ribs and all the breathing exercises that made him dizzy which in turn made him cranky. Maddie had sent a text to the group chat that he’d gotten another slight fever that the doctors continue to assure them was just a stress response as his body recovered from the hard reset it had taken and…

Eddie forced himself to release the breath he’d been holding. 

So, no. They weren’t comfortable leaving Buck alone just yet. At least not for long periods of time. Bobby had managed to work the schedule as much as he could that at least one of them would be around and Maddie was working herself ragged trying to serve her duties as a mother while also working shifts in dispatch and managing Buck’s care. The antibiotics were wearing Buck out even more and he spent more time sleeping than awake. The doctors said it was normal and kept mentioning cardiac stress test harnesses once Buck was more balanced. They were all taking it day by day and even with all of that, Buck was taking it all fairly well. They weren’t having to fight him as much or beg him to not rush through his recovery. 

Soon though. He knew the fussing was starting to drive Buck crazy but it wouldn’t be long now. He just needed to sit back and enjoy it while it lasted and they all needed a minute to remember that Buck lived. He’d survived. It was a long road to recovery but he was alive.  

Eddie switched the carryout bags to one hand and pulled out his key as he came to Buck’s door. The sweet scent of garlic and soy sauce filled his nose and Eddie’s stomach audibly growled. 

He knew that Thai food wasn’t exactly on the list of approved foods for Buck but Thai was his favorite! Besides, the doctor had said Buck could move onto easily digestible foods and a little fried rice seemed like just the thing to perk Buck back up to his normal self. 

Eddie didn’t bother knocking. Buck should’ve been camped out on the newest couch Margaret had gotten him or in bed. Eddie hoped it was the couch. They’d learned the hard way when it took both him and Phillip to help Buck up the stairs that he still needed help with some of the more basic tasks. Buck, for the most part, could manage on his own but he still got winded about halfway up and Hen and Maddie had both insisted on the new rule that Buck had to wait until one of them was there to catch him if need be. 

But judging by Maddie’s update in the group chat, Eddie’s hopes weren’t super high. 

Yes, there would be a time when Bobby couldn’t swing having A shift being down two team members so someone could sleep on the couch during the night in case Buck needed anything. Yes, there would be a time when they would have to go back to work and move on. Yes, there would be a time when Buck would be well enough to be on his own.

But that time wasn’t there yet and everyone was determined to make sure Buck didn’t feel alone. 

Eddie didn’t quite understand what he was looking at first when he stepped inside Buck’s loft. 

There was a puddle of water by his feet mix with petals and shards glass that sluiced through the grout of the tile floor. Silence met him like a wall of heat against too cold skin. A burner was on by the stove, the coils red and hot. Next to it was a frozen container of soup melting onto the countertop and dripping onto the floor. 

Ice cut down Eddie’s spine as his brain processed why the space felt too big. The table was flipped over and on its side. A chair had splintered somewhere on the floor and there was a heaviness that came from an empty room that was threatening to suffocate him. 

“Buck?” 

Was there blood? Eddie couldn’t tell if there was blood. His vision was shifting between grey and stunning clarity and he couldn’t see any blood. 

Buck didn’t answer him.

“Buck!” 

Had he fallen down the stairs? Fallen down the stairs and landed on the table somehow? Eddie stumbled further into the loft before breaking out into a run. The sound of the take out containers crashing to the floor was like sandpaper against his frayed nerves. 

“Buck!” 

He wasn’t in the living room or hidden behind the counter. Eddie had half expected to find Buck’s crumpled up body broken on the floor. But there was nothing! He ran up the stairs and spotted the unmade bed sitting empty and cold to the touch. 

Lead sank in Eddie’s stomach as he spun around, taking his high vantage point to scan the loft. There wasn’t any blood but the loft was like a carcass with all the organs stripped. Buck’s pulse was missing and Eddie couldn’t find him. 

Buck was gone. 

“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” 

The afternoon sun was burning through the rolling clouds in the sky, baking the back of Bobby’s neck above the collar of his turnout coat. The humidity still hadn’t truly lifted in the shift of weather, leaving them stuck in an uncomfortable in between most days. The days grew hotter while the evenings stayed cold and the punishing afternoons were a combination of both before the sun gave in for the night. Standing on the wide asphalt surrounded by the still hot metal of cars was only making it worse. 

“Let’s hustle it up.” Bobby called out when more than a few firefighters around him started dragging their feet as the adrenaline started to wear off. It wasn’t the worst pile up they’d been called to but that didn’t make it any easier. It was a nightmare having to coordinate rescue vehicles through the back up traffic while triaging injuries and tempers that demanded police reports and patience as the panic turned into frantic urgency to do everything they needed to avoid a financial pitfall. 

Pile ups were a mess and the team had been at it for close to three hours now. There’d been a complication when two teenagers had been trapped inside a minivan crashed into a semi by a muscle truck that shouldn’t have even been on the road to begin with. They’d been unharmed but understandably terrified and the angle of the van meant it took longer to eventually get them out. 

They were almost done though. Then, they could head back to the station for a well deserved shower, dinner, and rest. 

Bobby almost missed it. 

He didn’t make a habit of having his phone out while they were on a call. But Bobby had been in his job long enough to know that he needed to have multiple lines of communication at his disposal. He kept his phone in his breast pocket to feel it vibrate against his chest whenever it rang while they were on scene. 

He almost missed it. 

Bobby frowned as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and stared at the unknown number glaring up at him. It wasn’t unusual for him not to recognize a number when it came through. Dispatch usually kept in contact on the radio but it wasn’t unheard of for one of them to call on his phone if something required a more delicate approach. Sometimes, even the hospital called when they had time to give him an update on the patients they dropped off. 

Bobby checked the scene again to make sure nothing needed his immediate attention before he answered. 

“This is Captain Nash.”

Something clicked as an inhale sounded over the line. Bobby barely heard it over the sounds of traffic around him. He cupped a hand over his opposite ear and pressed the phone closer. 

“Hello?”

The voice over the line was inhuman. Mechanic. Altered. Stripped bare of any of its humanity and left with nothing but a voice module that crawled out through the receiver and rubbed at Bobby’s skin like ice. 

“We have something that belongs to you, Captain Nash.”

Bobby’s heart thumped against his chest when he held his breath too long. 

“Who is this?”

“We’ll be in touch soon. Keep your phone on you. The next time we call, you will answer or your kid will pay the price.”

Panic flared to life in Bobby’s lungs like poison attacking every nodule and vein in his body. Kid? What kid? Harry? He was in Florida with Michael. May? But she would’ve gone back to school. Athena had just talked to her. If—

“We know it’s pointless to tell you not to go to the police since you live with one. But don’t cause any more trouble than you already have.” 

All the air in Bobby’s chest fell out from his lips. “Wa—Wait!”

The phone beeped as the call ended and Bobby was frozen in that horrible spot in the in between of too hot and too cold as the sun beat down on him. 

“Cap?” Hen asked, her voice startling through like a sparrow indicating land. Bobby flinched and her eyes widened. “You okay? Who was that?”

Bobby’s phone buzzed in his palm like a match falling into a puddle of gasoline. The vibration shocked through his hands and up his arms, rattling on each of his bones until it zapped into his system. 

He looked down at the caller ID. 

Eddie Diaz calling… 

Dread burnt like battery acid on the back on his tongue. 

No. 

No, it couldn’t be. 

“Bobby.” Hen said his name with an insistence that was both a little desperate and a lot concerned.

Bobby looked up at her. “Someone call my wife.”

He liked Ralph. Really, he did. They had worked together plenty of times. He was a nice enough guy. 

But that was what made him the weakest link. 

“Hey man,” Ralph said, shaking his hand, quick and easy. 

He had a feeling that was how Ralph spent most of his life, coasting and looking for the quickest and easiest way through life. 

It was probably how he got himself involved in everything too. 

“Hey,” he said, leading him to the back. 

It was a temporary set up but it was the best he could do. 

Ralph let out a sigh as he followed. “So, it’s really happening? We’re really doing this?” 

He paused to analyze Ralph’s tone, dissecting every inflection to see if he was going to become a problem sooner rather than later. 

There was uncertainty there, sure, but nothing quite as alarming as hesitation or remorse.

“Little too late to be backpedaling now, bud,” he said.

Ralph shoved his hands in his pockets before he bunched his shoulders up to his ears in a half hearted shrug. 

“I’m not backpedaling. Figured it was only a matter of time before she threw us under the bus. This way at least gives me a little more time to form a plan if things go south.” 

He stopped to give Ralph another appraising look. Maybe he was a little smarter than he gave him credit for. 

“Same.” He admitted and Ralph gave him a knowing smirk that he immediately wanted to punch right off his stupid face. 

But they needed to focus. The ball was moving and there was no stopping it now until the end. 

“You won’t get in my way if I don’t get in yours?” Ralph asked, holding out his hand again to strike a deal. 

He didn’t bother telling him that he had no problems shoving Ralph into oncoming traffic if he got in the way of his contingency plan. If he knew what was good for him, he would’ve already known that. At the end of the day it was every man for himself and he didn’t have time for loyalty. 

He shook his hand again, quick and to the point, because he didn’t have time or the energy to come up with anything else.

“Good,” Ralph said before he followed his gaze to the shed and visibly lost some of his bravado. “This it?”

He tried not to rankle at the unfiltered doubt he heard in his tone. “It was the best I could do in such short notice.”

Nightfall was coloring the sky a somber purple but he pulled up his mask anyway. Ralph fumbled with his own mask, a clumsy thick ski mask with a Vale logo stamped on his forehead, and he had to force himself not to roll his eyes. 

“Is he going to try and bolt?” 

“Not unless he got loose somehow.” He made quick work of rolling the code into the padlock. 

Ralph audibly gulped before he braced himself on his backfoot. 

He pulled the padlock free and swapped it out for a flashlight in his pocket. Despite being almost positive that he’d used enough duct tape to secure a horse, he still tightened his core in case the kid made a run for it when he opened the door. 

He needn’t have bothered. 

The squeak of the shed door opening almost blocked out the startled sniff as the kid flinched into the corner. His flashlight caught the scramble of long legs being pulled tight into his chest as the light reflected off the sheen of duct tape around his ankles. He tracked up the beam of light to see that the tape around his arms pinning them to his chest was still coiled tightly around him. Behind his back would’ve been two tied wrists with his fingers facing out to keep him from fidgeting too much. 

Blue eyes glistened before wincing into tight slits when the light pooled up to his face for Ralph to see the birthmark. 

“Well shit,” Ralph said, his eyes tracking in the curled up figure of an exhausted, tied up kid who didn’t ask to be put in the middle of this. “Guess we’re doing this.” 

Ralph took a step forward and the kid scrambled back into an even tighter ball, the noise he made getting trapped behind the layers of tape wrapped around his mouth. 

He stopped Ralph with a jerk of his arm. “We’re not doing anything yet. This is for proof of life and then we wait until we get the all clear.”

“Shouldn’t we… rough him up or something?” 

He couldn’t tell if Ralph was either drunk off the idea or annoyed at being given another task to do but he didn’t care. 

“Look at him,” he said, holding the flashlight up to the kid’s face so Ralph could see the pale complexion and dark circles under his eyes. A faint tremble had set in on his shoulders and he had a sneaking suspicion that if he put his fingers to his clammy forehead, he’d find the beginnings of a fever creeping in beneath his skin. “He looks rough enough for now. Nash gives us any problems then we’ll revisit that later.”

The kid’s eyes widened at the sound of Bobby Nash’s name but he wasn’t in the business of being cruel. The kid had been smart enough to try and run away from him rather than fight him earlier. Kid could put two and two together as to why he was there without him spelling it out for him. 

“Just take the picture.” 

Ralph balked then. “Why me?”

“Because I grabbed him and you need to do something to pull your fucking weight.” He snapped, his patience fraying the longer they were as exposed as they were. “Now pull out your phone and take the damn picture.”

“Jesus!” Ralph cursed, pulling out his phone before he held it out. “Smile for the camera, kid.”

The kid tried to curl away but Ralph was quicker and the flash blinded all of them for a moment. 

He closed the door and snapped on the padlock before the kid could get his bearings. It wouldn’t matter anyways. They’d be moving him soon.  

“Come on,” he said, yanking down his mask and heading for the house. 

Ralph followed after him without another glance back at the shed. 

It was so dark. Darker than he’d ever experienced since waking up in that hospital bed with Maddie’s fingers combing through his hair and a weight on his chest from his friends trying to save his life. Ever since then there’d been a light for him to latch onto whenever he needed. The clinical glow of the hospital hallway. The soft light of his kitchen while whoever manned their station in the Babysit Buck Rotation slept on the couch. The calming rays of sunlight through the windows of his loft that were clear and warm instead of filtered and cool in his dream. 

But there wasn’t any light anymore. 

Just darkness as plastic and metal withheld any sort of comfort from him. 

He was cold. And he knew that was ridiculous but he was. So cold that even the slight draft that seeped in beneath the seams of his prison was like ice on his skin and made the bone deep ache through his body infinitely more unbearable. 

Tears burned at the back of his eyes as he curled on his side and tried to get comfortable. It was almost impossible, the duct tape was so tight and the floor so rough but he couldn’t fight it. Not anymore. The lightning had zapped him of his strength and left him weak and maybe a little fragile like the glass in the sand crunching beneath their boots. 

It was so dark and Buck was cold. 

Athena’s spine stiffened with how tightly she was drawing back her shoulders. 

“Play it again.”

The hinge of her jaw pulsed and she forced herself to unclench as the video was rewound. 

To anyone else it was a bare, empty hallway with a perfect view to the fire exit mirrored by another view of the elevators. 

It was her third time watching the feed; her third time trying to find the point on the screen that she was meant to truly look at. It shouldn’t have been hard. The hallway was empty after the post morning rush. Trash day had been the previous Tuesday and packages hadn’t been delivered outside of doors yet. There was only one thing she truly could focus on and it was giving her nothing. 

The doors to the elevator opened and out stepped a man, a baseball hat covering his face and his head angled down so they couldn’t even get a reflection off a miniscule of glass or metal. He walked out of frame and Athena tried to track his route in her mind. Down the hall and then a left past the trash shoot. Two units down and then the door on the left again. No identifying features. No unit numbers on display. It was meant to provide a level of security so that only the people who were meant to know, knew where to go. 

The feed stayed empty for seven minutes. Seven minutes was all it took before Buck found himself in a world of trouble again. 

Sometimes, Athena couldn’t help but wonder when the universe was planning on giving that boy a break. 

Seven minutes was when there was activity on the feed again. The same man from before stepped into view, his hat pulled low over his face and fabric over his mouth like mask obscured anything they could possibly use to identify him beyond the slivers of white skin. 

Caucasian male, somewhere around 6’3” wasn’t exactly much to go on. It was something and nothing all at once. 

It was what he was carrying though, that was making the tension thrumming underneath her skin volt up in intensity until her bones creaked. Buck was unconscious, cradled in the man’s arms with his head nestled on his shoulder like he was asleep. A blanket was swaddled around him, possibly hiding if his hands had been bound or not, and completing the picture of someone carrying a loved one who maybe wasn’t feeling very well. Buck’s neighbors were no stranger to see him injured and even a few had stopped by with food and well wishes when they heard about the lightning strike. If any of them had seen anything, the only alarm that would’ve rang in their heads would’ve been concern and so far none of them had seen anything or heard anything out of the ordinary. 

Buck had just vanished; taken out of his home like it was nothing. 

She watched as the man carried Buck down the hallway and towards the fire exit. The cameras in the back lot had been damaged during the last patch of loud angry thunderstorms that had rolled in but the techs were trying anyway to see if there was anything they could find. Athena watched as the man and Buck disappeared from view and the door closed soundlessly behind them. 

That was it. 

Less than fifteen minutes and Buck was gone without a trace and her husband was haunted by an incoming ransom demand given by someone using a voice modulator. 

Fifteen minutes. 

Fifteen minutes from the moment that man stepped out of the elevators to the point that he disappeared from view, taking Buck with him. Four minutes to get to Buck’s door, seven for a struggle and to subdue him, four to exit. 

That was all it took. 

Now, Buck had been missing close to somewhere around six hours and the clock was only ticking upward. Whoever had taken him had a head start. 

Everyone was practically crawling the walls. LAPD couldn’t determine if it was a personal matter or something to do with LAFD so they had cordoned off a portion of the loft at the fire station, taking the 118 offline until they knew more on if the others were targets as well or if it was strictly Buck the man had been after. Eddie was giving his statement with his arms wrapped tightly around his chest. Hen was holding a mug of tea that had long since gone cold and rubbing out a headache from her temples. Chimney was further away with his phone pressed to his ear and trying to fill Maddie in on what they knew which was almost nothing. LAFD union reps were going through dozens of files with LAPD and Bobby…

Athena let out a breath as she took in her husband. 

Bobby was sitting at the head of the table, his fingers steepled together as if in prayer, and staring down at his cellphone. 

Bobby Nash brewed his storms in silence and she could see the beginnings of a hurricane surrounding him. 

“Bobby,” she said, cupping her hand over his shoulder. The tight rigidness beneath her palm didn’t ease. “This isn’t your fault.”

“Don’t cause any more trouble than you already have,” Bobby said, his voice a dark even timber. “That’s what they said to me, Athena.”

“We don’t know anything yet,” Athena insisted. “Don’t go borrowing trouble before we find out all the facts.”

Bobby said nothing to that and simply dragged his knuckles across his lips while he stared at his phone. A wire coiled from the charging port snaked all the way across the table to a single laptop waiting to be of use. Rationally, she knew it wouldn’t, but she couldn’t help but feel like it was a trip wire waiting to go off any moment. 

“Sergeant Grant!” 

Athena turned at the sound of her name and breathed out a sigh when Detective Ransone came up the stairs, his gun and badge on full display. 

“Lou,” she said, appreciating his attempt at helping her distinguish between professional and personal. Buck missing wasn’t quite Harry but it was the closest thing she could think of and there was no way to change that. “Thanks for coming.” 

“Of course,” Lou said. The others perked up at the small commotion and tracked the detective as he crossed the loft to them, ducking his tall body to avoid hitting one of the wooden beams. “I wasn’t about to let Marks blunder his way through this one. They caught me up at the station. Captain Nash.”

Bobby tipped his head in greeting but didn’t otherwise move from his post. 

“Have they found anything?” Hen abandoned her tea to hurry over to the table, the others following suit. 

Ransone shook his head. “Nothing definitive yet. We’re still going through CCTV and security footage from Buckley’s residence and neighboring buildings.” 

“Maddie’s on her way. She’s dropping Jee-Yun off with the Lees.” 

“Tell her we’ll have a car meet her there. We’ll want to check your residence for any sort of ransom demands as well.” 

Chimney’s brow furrowed as he looked back between Ransone and Bobby. “But…”

Athena already knew where Chimney was headed and didn’t need another surge to set off her husband. “It’s just a precaution as his next of kin.”

“Has anyone notified his parents?” Ransone asked. 

Chimney nodded. “They haven’t heard anything either but they only just got back to Pennsylvania. They were going to look for flights. Maddie figured it would be better if they stayed there in case…”

In case they received a ransom demand as well. 

Athena met Lou’s eyes and shook her head. 

There’d already been a point of contact. 

Bobby. 

Ransone sat down at the table and looked to Bobby. 

“Captain Nash, do you have any idea who this could be?” Bobby didn't say anything right away so Ransone pressed on. “Enemies? Anyone disgruntled with the LAFD? Maybe someone from a call gone bad?” 

Bobby shook his head as he bunched his shoulders up like he was trying to work out a knot in his shoulders. “We have calls go bad. It happens. But nothing recently that comes to mind.” 

None that would’ve stood out. But they’d all been cycling through in a kind of survival mode since that lightning struck Buck and hadn’t quite come out of it since. Bobby most of all. 

She’d caught him on more than one occasion rubbing his back from the ache settling in on his spine after sleeping on Buck’s couch. 

“These,” a new voice said as a hurried LAFD union rep stepped forward with a stack of files, “are incident reports involving Captain Nash and or the 118 in the last three years.”

It was a rather… large stack but Athena also knew the accommodations outweighed the cons when it came to the 118. Not to mention Bobby was always very thorough when it came to his reports. It’s what made the prosecutors down at city hall always tag Athena to see if Bobby had been working on scene whenever there was an incident they were taking to court. 

It was a long shot but it was the best they had until they knew more information. Until then, finding Buck would be like finding a needle in a haystack. 

“Detective,” the rep said, “Captain Nash and the rest of the A shift have been relieved but we will need to get the station back online as soon as possible. If there’s anything else you might need please don’t hesitate to reach out to our office.” 

Ransome nodded once as he stood. “We need to assess the threat level to the others but I don’t see any reason why the station can’t be operational in about two hours?” 

The rep gave him a short jerk of her chin before she spun on her heel and disappeared down the stairs with her phone to her ear. 

It was Eddie that broke the silence, his impatience making his tone dark and brooding. “Now what?”

“Now,” Athena said, “you all need to think back to the last few days. Has anything out of the usual happened? Anyone hanging around the station when they weren’t supposed to be?”

The others looked at each other as they shook their heads. 

“What about at Buck’s place?” She pressed. “Anyone spending too much time in the lobby who may have followed you?” 

The kidnapper had walked right up to Buck’s door when he was alone. Buck had hardly spent a minute by himself since he’d left the hospital. He knew where to find him and when no one else would be around. He had to have been watching. 

Again the others shook their heads. 

Athena looked to Lou then and she could see the same conclusion on his face that she had come to as well. Until they knew more, they wouldn’t have any idea on where to begin. 

His cellphone rang five minutes after midnight. 

Bobby’s eyes burned from a dry exhaustion he felt ring all the way to the back of his skull. His back and hips ached something fierce from sitting in the same spot for hours without moving. His throat scratched from dehydration and his stomach growled with hunger but Bobby hadn’t moved. 

The phone rang and he was there to answer. 

Bobby barely spared a glance to see if the techs were ready before he answered the phone and put it on speaker. 

“This is Captain Nash,” he said in greeting, his voice sounding like sandpaper had scrubbed at his vocal cords. 

A sucked in breath through the voice alter sounded inhuman and cold as it clicked and popped over the speaker. 

“Good evening, Captain Nash. Glad to see you are willing to be cooperative.”

Bobby gnashed his back molars together as he glared down at the phone as if that would somehow translate over the phone. “You didn’t exactly give me much of a choice.”

“True.” The voice conceded. “Don’t worry about the kid. A mild fever I think but that’s pretty standard after being in the hospital.”

Hen sucked in a breath through her nose and Bobby’s eyes snapped up to his team practically digging their claws into the dining room table to keep from demanding answers. 

The voice didn’t say anything at first and Bobby could only stare down at the numbers ticking by on his phone as the line remained nearly silent until—

“Am I on speaker phone?” The voice asked coolly. If they were bothered, they didn’t show it. 

Bobby warred with himself on trying to cover the only lead they had to Buck’s whereabouts in hours or being honest to avoid causing Buck any trouble. 

“You are,” Bobby said, settling on the truth. “You have my team and a few LAPD listening in as we speak.”

If the breath sounded practically robotic then the melodic hum whirling through the voice modulator was downright bone chilling. Sweat slicked down the slope of his spine into the small of his back and Bobby fought to keep his voice steady. 

“You said you knew about my wife—” Bobby started before the voice cut him off. 

“Relax, Captain Nash,” the voice said, his name dragging out through unknown teeth. “I’m not interested in hurting your kid but I will if I have to.”

A piece of paper slid across the table with Detective Ransone’s scrawled handwriting. 

Proof of life.

“How do I know you even have him?” Bobby demanded. 

“I’ll send you a little incentive when we’re done. This works better for you anyway. Saves you from having to explain to everyone what you’re doing.” The voice said and the dark humor in their tone somehow managed to leak through the mechanical barrier. “But you’ve now cut this conversation short so I’ll get to the point. I want five million dollars in cash. No trackers. No dye packets.”

Panic seized Bobby by the throat and threatened to strangle him with it. 

“I don’t have that kind of money,” he said even as Athena’s hand grabbed onto his. 

“You’ll figure something out.” The voice said, unbothered again by Bobby’s outburst. “You have twenty four hours. I will call you again with a drop location and instructions.” 

The world kept spinning in the opposite direction and Bobby couldn’t manage to figure out how to outstep this person holding him by a single thread and threatening to snap it. Athena was trying to calm him down but it wasn’t working because this was Buck. They’d only just managed to reel him in from the edge of no return and now he was in this situation because of Bobby. 

“Listen to me,” Bobby said, flattening his hands on the table to keep from snatching his phone and ripping it free from all the wires. “I don’t know what it is that I did but take it out on me, okay? Take me instead. Buck was injured in the line of duty. He’s still recovering. Please he—”

“As I said, Captain Nash,” the voice said, cold and unfeeling and so far away, Bobby felt like screaming. “I don’t intend on hurting the kid. But I will if you make me.”

“You can have—”

“Twenty four hours, Captain Nash. I’ll be in touch.”

Then the line went dead. 

No one moved. No one breathed. All the air was trapped inside Bobby’s lungs and threatening to bruise them from the inside out. 

The phone buzzed again with a notification and Bobby almost didn’t want to open the message waiting for him. 

Athena’s hand covered his before he could press it. 

“Bobby,”  she said, her voice a soothing balm in the ringing silence that was threatening to drag him under. “You don’t have to.”

Yes, he did. This was his fault. He didn’t know how and he didn’t know why but Buck’s kidnappers had made that abundantly clear. This was on Bobby. 

He didn’t deserve a reprieve until Buck came home. 

Bobby pulled the phone from beneath her hand and opened the message. 

The picture staring up at him almost made him throw up. 

Darkness was bleached out from the camera flash but even then Buck’s skin was pale in the picture. Bobby couldn’t tell if the flush in his cheeks was from the possible fever or the miles and miles of ductape circling over his mouth. He was curled up on the floor with his ankles, arms, and most likely hands bound tightly but his body was twisting away like he was trying to hide from the camera. Red rimmed eyes were shadowed by dark circles and bright with obvious confusion and fear. 

Fear was not something Bobby was used to seeing on Evan Buckley’s face. There’d been a time he wished he was because Buck always went into situations without abandon for his own safety or Bobby’s sanity. But now he never wanted to see it cloud his eyes ever again. 

There was no follow up message; no message to reiterate what had already been said. 

It was enough. 

Bobby closed his eyes and prayed. 

Something scrapped across the table before Bobby heard Eddie breathe out a curse. 

“So now what do we do?” Hen demanded. 

“We get the money, ignore all those phony threats, and let LAPD deal with the rest of it,” Chimney said, flinging his hand out in front of him. “The department has to have some kind of cash around for situations like this! There’s insurance policies for hostage situations! We could–”

“No,” Athena said, pumping the brakes before his team could get started. “We are going to find Buck before it even comes to that. But we need to wait—”

“Find him?” Eddie practically snarled. Chimney snatched up the phone and stared down hard at the picture. Hen refused to look. “We don’t even know where to start looking for him. We’ve been waiting for hours doing nothing!”

Chimney made a disgusted pop of his gum as he stood up. 

“I need to call Maddie,” he said before walking away, anger radiating off him in waves. 

The kid looked a little worse for wear when they opened the door again. He still startled but had been on his side as if he’d been drifting somewhere between consciousness and sleep. 

“Jesus,” Ralph said when he waved the flashlight over him. “What’d they say happened to him again? He looks like death warmed over.”

“I don’t know. It’s not like I read his chart.” 

The kid’s brows tangled into a knot as he stared up at them from behind his knees. 

“But he’s not actively dying, right?” Ralph confirmed like that would’ve made a difference. Maybe in his weird warped sense of morality it did. 

He didn’t care. 

They didn’t have much time. 

“Guess you’ll find out.” Ralph balked at that and he tried not to roll his eyes as he stepped into the shed. The kid freaked out immediately, scurrying back further into the corner as much as he could while messy breaths fell from his nose. 

He followed him, stepping over and around his legs as they tried to kick out, before pulling out the rag from behind his back. He’d been trying not to completely scare the kid but as he writhed away from him, he knew it was a lost cause. 

The kid keened something high in the back his throat as he tried to squirm away, tossing his head from side to side, but even he had to know it was pointless. 

The darkness of the shed shielded him from being able to see that realization and the tiny sliver inside him wished it hadn’t. 

He pressed the rag over the kid’s nose and cupped the back of his head, holding him still even as the kid tried to fight the fumes. The kid lurched once then twice and then a third time with barely a scrape of his fingertips on the wall behind him. 

From there he could feel the fever burning beneath the kid’s skin. It was mild, not raging in a way that would make the kid more of a liability than leverage, but still there. 

He hummed as the kid went limp beneath him and then kept the rag in place a little longer in case he was playing chicken. 

Ralph watched the whole thing with wide eyes from the entrance. 

“You made that look so easy!” He breathed, fear and awe twinning together in his voice. 

Because it was. For him at least. 

He didn’t say that though. 

“Help me get him up,” he said instead and Ralph hurried inside to take one of his arms. 

They hoisted the kid up between them, his dead weight dragging them down at the middle, and carried him out of the shed into the early morning light. The sky was still a deep purple but they were on the better side of morning now. Dew dampened their boots and turned the kid’s socks from the off grey white to a dirty muddy color on the toes. 

The trunk was already open and waiting for them from when he had Ralph drive the car to the back and they huffed out exerted breaths as they folded the kid up into the small space.

“He’s all fucking leg!” Ralph groaned as he leaned in to try and shove the kid in further. 

The kid rolled into a heap in the back. He barely fit in the space at all. It wouldn’t be comfortable in the slightest but at least he would be unconscious for some of it. 

Kid would just have to hope Ralph avoided the pot holes. 

“Wait here,” he said and walked back over to the shed. 

It was almost impossible to see in the dark but he’d tossed it when he’d dragged the kid in there himself early. 

He grabbed the bunched up blanket forgotten in the corner and shook it out of any soil or dirt before turning back to the car. 

Ralph gave him a weird look as he leaned in and covered the kid with the blanket, tucking it around him before leaning up and closing the lid to the trunk.  

“You getting soft?” Ralph asked, eyeing him critically. 

“I thought you said you didn’t want him to die in your trunk?” 

Ralph paled at that. 

Fair was fair though and he sized Ralph up with a slow raking of his eyes. “You sure you’re able to handle this part on your own?” 

The plan didn’t hinge on Ralph being able to transport the kid but it would be more convenient if he could trust him to take care of the kid on his own for a few hours. 

Ralph sneered up at him and rolled his eyes.  

“Yeah yeah! But if I think anything’s gone south, I’m taking the—”

“Yes. So you’ve said. It won’t.” He stepped back and waved his hand in the direction of the driver’s seat. “Drive safe. I’ll call when the coast is clear.” 

Ralph grumbled something under his breath that he didn’t bother trying to hear as he got into the car. The engine rumbled to life as plumes of exhaust filled the air. A flick of fingers constituted a wave before Ralph drove off and he was left to wait. 

Athena met Lou at the station after running home for some food and a shower. She’d tried to convince Bobby to stay home, look out for the others who they all had to chase out of the station to try and get some sleep, but he refused. 

“We have a name.” Lou greeted them before his eyes cut to Bobby. “Maria West.” 

Bobby’s brows knitted together as he frowned. “I know that name. That’s the nurse we caught stealing social security checks from her home visits, right? We ran into her on a call for a fall victim.”

Lou nodded before he turned to Athena. “She’d convinced her patients into thinking they were supposed to pay her directly while the rest went into a Medicare fund.”

“Let me guess? She kept the change?”

Athena loved what she did and she loved the city she did it in. But that didn’t change the fact that there were some awful people in it. Case in point: the reason they were in the police station while she was dressed in civvies with her badge clipped at her hip. 

“The detectives working the case think she managed to steal millions from unsuspecting seniors in the greater Los Angeles area.”

Athena could see the cracks Maria West exploited. “The system meant to protect them is already held together by shoe strings and tape. Not enough caseworkers to go around to notice anything.” 

“Until your husband here caught her in the act,” Lou said. “She was released on bail and had her license suspended until her trial.” 

Bobby had a far away look in his eyes and said nothing. 

“But what’s this got to do with Buck?” Athena asked, still not seeing how the two connected. 

“She was at the hospital,” Bobby said, a sheen of pale stealing away the color in his face. 

“What? When?” Athena didn’t remember Bobby mentioning running into a soon to be convicted felon to her! 

Bobby looked up at her. 

“After the lightning strike.” He looked like he was about to be sick. “I didn’t… Buck had just come out of his coma. I was walking down the hall to his room to relieve Maddie and she was just there.” 

“She came to confront you?” 

“No!” Bobby shook his head. “No, it wasn’t like that. She had a box of her things. She’d said something about the hospital terminating her contract. I wasn’t really paying attention. I was just trying to…”

Get to Buck. 

Athena knew those words like the breath in her own lungs. 

She didn’t bother with platitudes or reassurances. She’d gone hoarse with how many she had given in the last thirteen? Fourteen? Hours? She’d lost count. 

It didn’t matter anyways. Bobby wasn’t hearing them anymore. 

“One of the nurses called security and they escorted her away,” Bobby said, letting out a long breath that seemed to take a little bit of his soul with him. “I didn’t think anything of it. I haven’t thought of it since honestly.” 

“We ran the original phone call you received and traced it back to a number registered to Maria West,” Lou said. “Neither of the phone calls were long enough to get to an exact location but—”

“—It’s enough to get a warrant.” 

Lou nodded and Athena tried not to let her own hope get ahead of herself. 

“We’re heading to search her home now,” Lou said and Athena shared one quick glance at Bobby to make sure he was ready. 

The grey color clawing up his throat had disappeared and had been replaced by the same stubborn bolt on his jaw twitching as he stood up straight. 

It wasn’t much. But it was a start. 

Maddie counted out Buck’s prescription again with a swift slide of her finger. 

Six pills. Two rounds of medication he would be behind so far. Not to mention the hospital grade Tylenol to help with the pain. Muscle fatigue. Body aches. Headaches. Nausea. They were all things that Buck cycled through in his kaleidoscope of side effects from the lightning strike and the ECMO. In a handful of hours it would be nine pills and three rounds. 

Maddie didn’t have five million dollars. She didn’t even have a million dollars. But she had money. She had money she could consolidate and give and maybe then they would give her brother back and—

Chimney’s hands on her shoulders were warm and kind. 

She still flinched anyway. 

There was already too much guilt churning in her stomach for her to feel more of it spilling in but thankfully Chim stayed, following her into her retreat and reminding her that he was there for her always. 

“I should’ve stayed.” Her voice was almost too thick in her throat to speak. 

“Maddie…” Chimney breathed but she shook her head. 

“No,” she said. “I should’ve stayed. He wouldn’t have been alone. He could barely walk from the living room to the kitchen. He couldn’t have been able to defend himself. If I’d been there I could’ve protected him. That’s my job. That’s my—”

Chimney squeezed her shoulders again, tucking his face into her hair. “Maddie. Stop.”

The burn behind her eyes was too hard to fight. She let her tears fall to try and quell that ache that was growing like a fist size knot in her chest. 

It didn’t work though. 

It didn’t make anything better. 

Maddie sniffed and brushed them away as she put out Buck’s next dose of medicine. 

“I need to call the bank,” she said, standing up and moving away from the shelter of Chim’s embrace.  “They won’t let me take out an amount that big without warning.” 

She didn’t have five million dollars. But she had something. They could have it all if it meant getting her brother back. 

“Maddie…” 

She didn’t look at him. If she saw the hurt in his face from her rejection she’d break. So she didn’t look at him. 

Instead, Maddie looked for a pen and paper to write down notes. The bank was going to be difficult and she wasn’t above strong arming them into emptying her account of every last penny if she had to. 

“They won’t let Bobby pay the ransom,” Chimney said. 

“I don’t care.” 

She wasn’t Bobby. No one had told her to do anything. 

Maddie would like to see them try. 

There wasn’t much left from what she’d inherited from Doug’s estate but that could buy her some time maybe. Doug never gave much of an interest in her brother but she could use it to buy his freedom. Her parents were willing to drain their accounts too but Maddie still had a headache from the last phone call with her mother. She could—

“Maddie,” Chimney said and he was there again, pressing into her back and holding her gently by the elbows. Maddie stiffened but Chimney just gave her a simple nudge to get her to turn in his arms. Maddie refused to look at him. “They’re going to find him.” 

The pressure was back and Maddie sucked in a shuddering breath. “How do you know?”

“Because it’s Cap and Athena,” Chimney said simply. Like that was all they needed. 

Maybe if Buck was there, he would’ve said the same thing. His blind, unwavering faith in the people around him terrified Maddie when she first came running to LA. She’d seen too many times the people who let her brother down. 

Bobby and Buck had their moments, shaky, earth shattering moments, but Bobby was still there. He’d prayed over Evan, gambled with his religion, and danced with throwing it all away when he’d been in his coma. He’d shown up again, helping Buck move from the bed to the bathroom, taking small simple steps by his side and whispering so that only he could hear that he wouldn’t let him fall when Evan wobbled. 

Maddie shook her head. “I have to do something, Howie. He’s… I can’t…”

She couldn’t lose him. She wouldn’t lose him. 

Maddie wasn’t some unaware, scared loved one. She knew the statistics. She knew the odds of the kidnapping victim surviving no matter what the kidnappers promised. 

She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if something happened to Buck and she had done nothing but sit and wait. 

Chimney set his mouth in a grim line. Then he nodded. 

“Okay,” he said, reaching around her for his cellphone. 

“What are you doing?” She asked as Chimney started to dial. 

“Calling my union rep. The department has insurance policies for this kind of thing. It won’t be much but it’s something.”

Maddie blinked at him. “I thought they said it didn’t qualify because Buck was off duty.”

“And they did,” Chimney said, pressing the phone to his ear. “But I’m going to tell them that there’s a few certain reporters that are going to love a scoop about how LAFD is refusing to help a firefighter who was wounded in action because of a technicality.”

The knot in Maddie’s chest swelled as warmth seeped into her veins. 

She loved that man. She loved him more than she could possibly say. 

Maria looked the same as the last time Bobby had seen her, if not a little stretched thin in places that couldn’t hide the stress she’d been under. 

He couldn’t quite find it in himself to feel sorry for her. 

Shadows darkened the skin under her eyes and her thick chestnut hair was tossed up in a messy knot on the top of her head. Wiry strands of gray hair stuck out from the bun on her head and her nails had been bitten down and chipped. She glared daggers at the LAPD officers moving in and out of her house at Athena and Lou’s directions before casting a vicious look in Bobby’s direction. Her arms were crossed over her chest, holding the terry cloth robe wrapped tightly around herself closed. Her lips were pressed in a bloodless mean slant that pulled down her face and made her look significantly older than what she was. 

The house was nicer than he expected though. Warm and surrounded by matching houses filled with unassuming neighbors watching from their porches. It was a two story craftsman with a long paneled porch and rows of dying flowers tucked in too dry soil. Maria had been smart in not flaunting the money she stole by buying a flashy car or adding too many updates to her home. The solar panels on her roof were shiny and new but not so noticeable that would make anyone think something was amiss. 

No one looking at her would’ve known that at one point she had been a millionaire from stolen checks. Bobby certainly wouldn’t have when he met her the first time. 

It had been something their victim had said. She had been on elderly woman who had fallen in the bathroom. Thin, papery skin had split and needed stitches and she had asked Bobby about someone dropping off the check to her nurse so she didn’t incur a late fee again. 

It had taken even less time for Bobby to put two and two together.

Bobby’s heart sank the moment an officer gave Lou a short shake of his head. 

“I told you,” Maria said, pushing up from the police car where she’d been sequestered off the moment the warrant had been served. “He’s not here. I don’t even know who he is.”

Athena held up her phone and pointed a picture of Buck directly at Maria. “Take another look and explain to us why a ransom demand was called in using a number registered to your phone.”

“How the hell am I supposed to know?” Maria demanded. “I haven’t called anyone in two days. Nobody answers my calls anymore, no thanks to you guys.”

She shot a glare over at Bobby. Athena moved to step between them. 

“Try that again.” Athena warned her.

“I don’t have to! Check my phone,” Maria said, opening her phone before turning it so Athena and Lou could see. 

Lou snapped his fingers and a gloved officer took the phone from her. 

“Hey!” Maria cried out, trying to snatch it back. 

“We’ll be checking your phone records but this would go over a lot easier for you if you told us where Mr. Buckley is,” Lou said. 

Maria threw out her hands. “I don’t even know who that is! I’ve been home all night. Alone!”

Athena arches a brow. “Convenient.”

“It’s the truth. Don’t believe me?” Maria held out her leg and lifted her pajama pants to show off a thick black ankle monitor wrapped around her left leg. The green light blinked like an antagonizing little reminder of how out of control they were. “Check for yourself.”

Athena didn’t even flinch. “Oh, we will. And we’re going to search every inch of your home. So I suggest you start cooperating with us because if I find so many as a single hair to indicate that you’re involved with this, you’re going find yourself in a world of trouble.”

Maria’s eyes widened. “I don’t—”

What little was left of Bobby’s patience snapped. 

Bobby started for the house. 

“Bobby! Bobby!” Athena pushed in front of Bobby, stopping his march with a hand to his chest. “Bobby, you have to stop!”

“He—”

“He’s not in there, baby,” Athena said softly, quiet so only he could hear. “He’s not in there.”

Bobby wanted to scream. 

Were they sure? Had they checked everywhere? There was so much going on, it was easy to miss sometimes. It happened in fires all the time. That was why they did additional sweeps if they could. Maybe they’d missed him. Maybe he was hiding. Buck still got confused sometimes. Maybe he didn’t know what was going on!

“Let me look. I can find him. I—”

“Bobby!” Athena pressed into his chest and Bobby sucked in a breath from between his teeth like he’d been sucker punched. “He’s not in there.”

“Then where the hell is he?” Bobby spat out. Not at Athena. Never at her. But at the frustration and worry that was threatening to suffocate him because they were running out of time and facing another dead end. 

“I don’t know,” Athena answered honestly. “But we’re going to find him.”

“How?” Bobby demanded. 

“By going one step at a time.”

“He doesn’t have time for that Athena!” Bobby was due with the ransom in a handful of hours. 

Athena’s eyes went hard. “And he doesn’t have time for you to go off half cocked and trampling over a crime scene that may contain a clue where he could be.”

Bobby gritted his teeth to bite back something cruel that wanted to slide up his throat and take over. Athena must have seen the restraint because she pushed on. 

“You promised me that you would trust me. So trust me.”

Forget before. That felt like a sucker punch. One that stole whatever wind had been in him and left him breathless. 

“I do.” Bobby insisted. “I do trust you. But this is happening because of me and I—”

“Aren’t helping by getting caught up in your guilt.” Her eyes flashed over to something beyond Bobby and Bobby could only catch a flicker of her fond annoyance before it slipped back under her professional mask. “Besides, you have something else that needs your attention.”

Bobby turned to see what she was looking at and understood all at once. 

Hen’s wheels squealed to a stop as she threw her car in park. Eddie didn’t even wait for her to cut the engine before he was jumping out of the cab. 

Bobby let out the breath and went to intercept them before they tackled the officer trying to stop them. 

“What are you doing here?” Bobby asked and Hen shrugged at him, unapologetic. 

“We heard the call out on the scanner.”

Bobby did his best to try and remain stern that they were monitoring the police scanner after they’d been ordered to go home and try and get some rest. It didn’t work. He was too busy feeling the relief at having them close to hold firm. 

Eddie wasn’t looking at him. He was too busy trying to scan the crowd. 

“Where is he? He inside? Why aren’t they sending anyone in? Is he hurt?” 

Bobby held up a hand to stem off the volley of concerns from tumbling out of Eddie’s mouth. 

“He’s not here.” 

Hen’s shoulders dropped as Eddie froze, both of them devastatingly disappointed. Eddie’s eyes blazed with the familiar impatience that had just taken over Bobby’s senses only a few minutes ago. 

“The police searched the house. There’s no sign of him.” 

“So we’re back to square one,” Hen said. 

“No.” Athena stepped up beside Bobby and did a better job at appearing unimpressed by their arrival. “LAPD is going to comb through this house for any sign that Buck may have been here. Detective Ransone just checked in with Maria’s parole officer. According to her ankle monitor, she’s been home all night. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have accomplices or that Buck wasn’t here at some point.”

“And so we’re just supposed to wait?” Eddie snapped, his tone on the wrong side of sharp. Bobby sucked in a breath and straightened his spine before Eddie got ahead of himself but as always, his wife was ten steps ahead of him. 

“Yes,” Athena said as her brow arched high on her forehead. “Because I am going to go interview someone who may be able to help us and the last thing Buck needs is for me to be distracted by you all showing up to possible crime scenes.”

Hen, for her part, seemed slightly chasten but Eddie’s eyes were still blazing as he clenched his fist at his side. 

It was so much like that night in the hospital after the lightning strike, it made Bobby wobble at his knees. 

“Eddie,” Bobby said, pulling Eddie aside. 

“I’ll be in the car,” Athena said before she squeezed Hen’s arm and walked away. 

Eddie didn’t say anything as he followed Bobby but Bobby could practically feel the tension thrumming off Eddie with every step they took. 

“You have to calm down,” Bobby said. It wasn’t something he had to say to Eddie very often. Eddie was the one that was always in control, always level headed in a crisis. 

But Bobby could still hear his cries as he tried to pull up Buck’s dead weight with his own bare hands; the way he demanded answers when he found Chimney on top of Buck and pounded compressions into his chest until his heart started again. 

Eddie’s jaw twitched, refusing to look at him. 

“This is my fault,” Eddie said. Bobby shook his head but Eddie pressed on. “I was late. I was running behind and I left him alone for too long. If I had been there—”

“—Then one of you would be missing while the other could be in the hospital or worse.” Eddie pursed his lips together as Bobby set a hand on his shoulder and waited until he looked at him. “The only person to blame for Buck missing is me and I’m trying to figure out what it is I did that caused it.” 

“Bobby…” Bobby cut him off. 

“They took Buck because of me and I don’t even want to think of what they would’ve done if you had been there too. So, please don’t make me imagine it. Let me fix this.”

Eddie’s eyes flashed. “You don’t have to do it alone.”

“I’m not alone,” Bobby said, looking up to make sure Athena hadn’t left him. She sat in the car, watching them, but still there. “I’m dividing and conquering.”

Eddie’s brow furrowed and Bobby squeezed his shoulder again, hoping he would understand what Bobby wasn’t saying. 

Eddie’s expression lit up before he schooled it back into something neutral and collected. He nodded once before dropping his voice so only Bobby could hear. 

“What do you need?”

Buck was sore. The bone deep aching kind of sore that he still couldn’t seem to shake after waking up in a freezing ICU room with Maddie squeezing his hand and the nurses asking him too many questions. 

Fatigue the doctors had said. It would go away with rest and time. 

But it was there, flaring to life and pulsing in his blood beneath his skin as the car rocked under him. 

The car lurched again over a speed bump or something and Buck curled up his legs to his chest as tight as he could. The position didn’t help and his arm had gone numb since he’d rolled onto his side. It was better than crushing his hands with his own body weight but not by much. 

Everything ached. It had been ever since he’d woken up in the too small space of the trunk. They’d been driving for hours. 

His stomach cramped with every pothole or dent the car raced over. 

Please. Please don’t. Please. 

The urgency was growing with every bump and jolt angling with the pressure behind Buck’s eyes as he tried to fight it. 

He’d fought it before. When the need was so bad but he‘d wanted to wait for someone other than a nurse to help him. Someone he knew. Someone he trusted. He’d felt oddly vulnerable in the hospital that time and they kept encouraging him to get up and move but not without someone to help. 

So, he’d waited. 

He’d waited another time too. When his mom had seen the sheen in his eyes because everything was so hard and cold and he was so tired and for once, she didn’t turn away. She’d held him, stroking his hair the way she’d seen Maddie do it. It’d been awkward and stiff but she didn’t pull away so Buck hadn’t either. She didn’t say anything about the tears and Buck had been grateful for that too. 

His face had burned when he’d admitted it to Maddie and she had managed to get him there in time but it had been close. 

The car lurched again and Buck’s gut spasmed. 

No! No! Please don’t! Please—

It was too late. It had been hours and it burned but the relief nearly made Buck sob along with the humiliation. 

He wanted to go home. 

Lachlan Meyers lived in the quiet suburbs on the furthest edge of Los Angeles county without completely leaving the city limits. Yards stretched and gave space to grass and trees with tire swings and private little ponds. The house was a refurbished barn house with a long, wrap around porch and walls painted a soft blue. The white shutters and trellis peered out through a massive green garden as they drove up the long gravel drive. Weeds and roots were just on the brink of being overgrown but the tender care and attention to the flower beds was keeping them mostly at bay. Around the house they could see just the outer edges of a vegetable garden and a detached garage that had seen better days. 

The old porch swing swayed in the breeze and the quiet of the area was almost peacefully serene. 

Any other instance, Bobby could’ve imagine Athena tipping her head back and breathing in the clean air and he would’ve felt a longing ache in his chest for that moment to stretch on for as long as possible. 

But she didn’t and he couldn’t and her eyes, hidden by her sunglasses, were scanning the house like a hawk. 

The screen door opened as they pulled to a stop and Athena turned over the engine. A man stepped out onto the porch with a wave and a friendly smile. He was tall with sandy blond hair that was sticking up in tufts on his head like he’d been running his fingers through it. His jeans and shirt were worn and dirty with dust caking his skin that he brushed off with a few smacks of his hands. 

“Lachlan Meyers?” Athena asked as they climbed out of the car. Bobby stayed behind and let Athena take the lead. 

“Yes ma’am,” Lachlan said, holding his hand out to shake before he did the same for Bobby as well. 

“Sorry to interrupt you at your home,” Athena said. “The hospital said you were on vacation.”

“Use them or lose them,” Lachlan said with a shrug. “Figured I’d take a few PTO days to fix this place up. Sort through some boxes.”

“It’s beautiful.” 

Lachlan smiled at the compliment. “Thank you. It was my mother’s. Just trying to get this place back into shape.”

Athena dipped her head. “I’m so sorry. Was it recently?”

Lachlan waved away her condolences. “No. Thank you, I mean. I appreciate it. She passed about three years ago. There was just more than I anticipated needed done around here and… Well, it’s easier sometimes to stay busy at work than to be surrounded by her things.”

“I understand,” Athena said with a nod. 

Bobby stared at Lachlan and tried to place his face but came up blank in his memory. The whole car ride he’d been going over that day in the hallway with Maria but it'd been a blur of exhaustion and impatience to get to Buck that he couldn’t even remember what shirt he’d been wearing. 

“You said you needed help with something?” Lachlan asked, his eyes bouncing from Bobby to Athena. 

Athena held up a picture of Buck. “We’re looking for someone. Evan Buckley.”

Lachlan’s brows knitted together as he stared at the picture. “Is that the kid from the hospital? The one everyone was talking about?” 

Athena nodded. 

“I’m sorry,” Lachlan said with a shake of his head. “I haven’t seen him. But I started my time off last week so if he came into the hospital again, I would’ve missed him.”

Athena held up her hand. “That’s alright. I was hoping you could tell me about an incident you had. One involving a nurse and Captain Nash. Maria West?”

Lachlan looked to Bobby as his brows rose. “She bothering you again?” 

Bobby bit down on his cheek to keep quiet. He figured he should’ve felt guilty for not remembering him, but all he could really recall from that day was trying to get back to Buck’s room before he woke up alone. 

“So you do remember?” Athena pressed. 

“Sure,” Lachlan said, pressing his hands to his back as he stretched. “You don’t get quite a lot of complaints on that floor. Usually just disruptive family members.” 

“Can you tell me about it?” 

“Uh…” Lachlan scratched at the growing stubble on his jaw. “From what I understood, one of the administrators was escorting her out with her personal effects. She ran into Captain Nash when he was visiting his son and caused a scene.”

Bobby perked up at that even as a pit formed in his stomach at the same time. It was the same pit that formed whenever Buck looked at him like he hung all the stars and the moon in the sky. It was the same pit that threatened to choke him when Athena had implied Bobby was trying to throw himself in front of Buck and the collision of the universe slapping him back down when he’d been recovering from the blood clot. The same one that had made him push Buck and the others away when Buck was just a rookie and so desperately trying to find somewhere he belonged. 

It was a pit the size a black hole, consuming and deep, where all of Bobby’s doubts and guilt lived telling him he didn’t deserve it. He didn’t deserve to have someone adore him the way Buck did. He wasn’t a role model. He was a monster and Buck would’ve been better off far, far away from him. 

But then May had said something similar too and Bobby hadn’t denied it. 

The pit had been there but it hadn’t sucked Bobby down. His feet were still on the ground. 

“Uh… actually he’s not my son,” Bobby said, feeling an odd sense of responsibility to two people in Pennsylvania he’d never really heard about until only a few years ago. The Buckley’s had a lot of ground to cover and a lot of hurt Bobby didn’t think he was big enough to forgive even if Buck could. But it didn’t change the worry and fear he saw on their expressions as they paced the same hospital walls he had when Buck had been in his coma. “But he is one of mine. He’s a firefighter.”

Lachlan’s eyes widened. “Oh! I’m sorry. I just assumed—”

Bobby waved the apology away.

“He’s family.” Athena added and the pit in Bobby’s stomach felt a little more manageable with her easy acceptance. “So anything you can tell us would be greatly appreciated.” 

“Sure!” Lachlan nodded. “I uh… I got called by one of the nurses and came to de-escalate the situation. I took over, walked Miss West out, and gave her a ban warning which is usually our step before we get authorities involved for trespassing. We try not to trespass hospital property if we can help it. It makes things kind of messy if a family member ends up in hospital care or there’s an emer—” 

Athena cut him off. “Did she say anything?”

Lachlan squeezed the back of his neck as he shrugged. “I mean… not really? After we got her away from Captain Nash, she went pretty quietly.” 

“Did you see her talk to anyone? Get a ride?” Athena pressed. 

Lachlan shook his head. “No. I’m sorry. She got in her car and drove off.” 

Athena pressed her lips togher and Bobby knew his wife well enough to know she was getting frustrated. 

He understood the feeling. 

Lachlan must have seen it on both their faces. “I really am sorry.”

“No,” Athena said. “You’ve been more than helpful. Would you happen to remember the make and model?”

“It was silver,” Lachlan said, tipping his head again. “Maybe a Toyota Camry? Or a Honda Civic. It was definitely a later model.” 

Athena shot Bobby a glance and he knew without words what she was saying. 

He hadn’t seen a car at Maria’s place either. 

“Thank you,” Athena said before pulling out her card and handing it to Lachlan. “Please call me right away if you think of anything else.”

Lachlan took the card and ran his thumb over the imprint of Athena’s cellphone number. 

“Absolutely,” he said with a short jerk of his chin. “I really do hope you can find him.”

The pang in Bobby’s chest was almost too much for him to hide. 

Athena started to walk back to her car before she stopped and turned. 

“One more thing?” 

Lachlan’s brows lifted. “Name it!”

“Did Maria have any friends at the hospital? Anybody she was particularly close to? Or somebody who was maybe a little more upset that she’d been fired?” 

Lachlan didn’t say anything for a moment but Bobby could practically see the wheels turning in his memory. 

“There was a guy,” Lachlan said, eyes darting back and forth as if he was trying to shift through his memories for a name. “He was an orderly. Maria wasn’t in the hospital much but I’d see her talking with him whenever she was.”

“Do you have a name?” Athena asked and Lachlan shook his head. 

“He’s part time,” Lachlan said. “I don’t interact with them very much. But I could point him out if I saw him. Tall? He’s got kind of reddish brown hair. Kind of built.”

“How tall?” Athena pressed and Lachlan held up a hand to his own head. 

“About my size? Maybe a little shorter.”

Athena shot Bobby a look that had him scrambling to get in the car as she thanked Lachlan again. 

It wasn’t much. But it was something.  

The kid flinched when the trunk opened up. 

It was easy enough to wait for the police to clear out. Almost even easier to be invited inside. He’d snatched her when her back was turned, covering her mouth and nose with the cloth to keep her from screaming. He’d let the drugs take over and then carried her over to the couch where he’d zip tied her hands and feet. He wasn’t as familiar with a syringe as a nurse but he’d made sure there weren’t any bubbles before he pricked her so it had to be good enough. It was quick work to leave behind evidence to cover their tracks: a gun stashed in the kitchen that he had her hold to get her prints on and the piece of paper with the kid’s address written on hospital paper. 

The cops had already searched her place and had left defeated empty handed. He was just giving them what they wanted. 

Then he’d waited until nightfall before giving Ralph the signal. 

He hadn’t been trying to startle him but the kid still flinched and there was nothing really he could do about that. 

He smelled it the same time Ralph did. 

“Jesus Christ! Did he piss himself?” 

The kid’s cheeks splotched with red as he blinked up at them, twisting his body away as if to shield the evidence. 

“I don’t know?” He drawled. “When was the last time you gave him a bathroom break?”

“Bathroom break! What the—”

He turned on Ralph with a snarl he couldn’t see beneath his mask. “Keep your fucking voice down and help me get him inside.” 

Ralph took his frustration out on the blanket. He snapped it free from the kid who instantly started to shiver at the cool night air. 

“He looks worse. You sure he’s not going to die on us?” Ralph demanded and he resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the hint of hysteria. 

The kid barely fought them as they pulled him out of the trunk but he had a feeling it was due to a curse of body consuming lethargy rather than a broken spirit. The paleness to the kid’s complexion had taken on a rather grayish twinge. Wide blue eyes took in the house as they moved across the layout but even that seemed to exhaust the kid. He was listless in his bonds and barely able to keep his head up and he knew it was only making Ralph panic even more. 

Navigating the stairs down to the cellar was more difficult than nearly anything else that had been done since the moment he’d carried the kid’s unconscious body from his loft downtown. He ended up tossing the kid over his shoulder before sending Ralph down first with a light to guide the way. The old, tucked away mattress in the corner was easy to kick down before he and Ralph dumped the kid on it. The kid immediately tried to scurry away into the corner but even he could tell the kid’s strength was holding on by sheer will alone. 

“I know,” he said, grabbing onto the kid’s leg and making him freeze, “that these are probably not exactly comfortable now.”

He plucked at the ruined sweatpants and the kid stiffened with a sharp breath. 

“But it’s only going to be a little while longer,” he said before he yanked the kid’s legs under his arm. The kid yelped as he slid down onto his back but he ignored him and made quick work of wrapping more duct tape around his ankles, pinning his legs even tighter together. 

He checked the rest of the kid’s bindings to make sure he hadn’t managed to work himself free during the few hours he’d spent in the trunk before he finally let the kid go. The kid writhed and wiggled off his back before he pulled his legs up into his chest and sought refuge in the corner again. 

He looked like a cornered animal, terrified, confused, desperate, but again there was nothing he could do about that. 

Ralph eyed him suspiciously. 

He held his gaze and waited for Ralph to back down. 

He did. Just like he knew he would. 

“Phone,” he said, holding his hand out. 

Ralph muttered a curse before he handed him the phone. “What now?” 

He tossed the duct tape somewhere in cellar to be found later and reached into his pocket for his next prop. 

“Now we’re going to remind Captain Nash what’s at stake here.”

Hen didn’t know what to say. Nothing seemed even remotely capable of giving an inch of comfort in that moment. 

Another picture. One that had been delivered at the six hour countdown when most banks were closed for the day and the sun had started to set on the horizon. One that could’ve chilled anyone to the bone just by looking at it and Hen had seen Buck hanging from his harness not breathing not too long ago. 

They’d moved Buck. The surroundings in the background of the picture had been different from the one before. Stone and concrete was pressed into his back where he was curled up in the corner and a stained old mattress was sitting under him. 

He looked pale; exhausted. 

Terrified. 

The barrel of the gun pointed at his head would live in her nightmares for days to come. 

Maddie moved first. 

She and Bobby had been caught in some kind of stalemate of shock and disbelief at the kitchen table, cold mugs of coffee sat forgotten as they stared down at the picture on the screen. Her small, slender hand reached across the table and curled around Bobby’s fist and squeezed until he unclenched enough for her to slip her hand in his. 

“I’m so sorry,” Bobby said. “Maddie… I…”

“I know,” Maddie said when Bobby’s words trailed off. “He’s going to be okay.”

Hen wished she knew where Maddie had her faith stored so she could tap into it herself. 

The phone was too far away for Hen to read the words but she didn’t have to. They were seared into her brain from the first moment they processed across her consciousness. 

His life is in your hands. 

Athena had left shortly after in search of the illusive orderly that may be able to help them find Buck, anger radiating across her shoulders, and the promise to be back before midnight rolled around. Bobby had tried to go with her but their whispered argument had been too low for Hen to hear and none of her business. 

So, there they sat in Maddie and Chimney’s new home with a squad car out front and the silence threatening to swallow them whole. 

Hen looked at her watch and read the time. 8:36pm. 

The soft knock at the door made Maddie jump and Bobby stood, turning to see one of the officers sticking her head through the front door. 

Eddie barreled in around her before she could speak and threw a half hearted apology over his shoulder. 

“It’s okay,” Maddie said when the officer started to object. “He’s good.”

“We’ll be outside if you need us,” she said before closing the front door again. 

Eddie lifted his brows as he looked at them. “What did I miss?”

Hen didn’t miss the way Maddie slid her hand over Bobby’s phone and locked it. 

“Nothing,” Bobby said before holding his hand out to the duffle in Eddie’s hand. “Everything go okay?”

Eddie grimaced as he passed over the bag. “I got what I could before they flagged your account.”

“How much?” Bobby asked. 

“Wait a minute.” Hen stood up. Bobby and Eddie both looked at her, twin expressions of remorse on their faces. “I thought LAPD said they weren’t going to let you do the ransom drop.”

“I’m not going to leave anything up to chance,” Bobby said, opening the bag enough just for Hen to see stacks of bills inside. “My wife should know that.”

“Uh huh. And when exactly are you planning on telling your wife that?” 

“It’s not enough,” Eddie said.

Bobby shook his head. “It’s something. If I meet them and show them that I’m serious I can buy us some time—”

“—Or get yourself killed in the process.” 

“Hen!” Eddie snapped 

Hen held up her hands. “I’m just saying! We can’t go in there with no plan! Worst case scenario, Bobby ends up shot or kidnapped himself.”

“It’s Buck, Hen,” Bobby said, zipping the bag up with a rough tug of the zipper. 

Hen felt the fight in her deflate. “I know.” 

She did. They all did. Bobby would’ve done the same thing for any one of them. They all knew that. But Buck and Bobby had an extra layer of vulnerability that could be pressed and bruised and used against one another. Sometimes, even by each other. 

The kidnappers had known exactly what they were doing when they’d taken Buck. 

But the problem was Bobby knew that too. 

“I know,” she said again, holding out her hands. “But that’s why we need a plan other than sending you into the cross fires.” 

“Bobby…” 

Maddie’s voice was soft. Almost too soft for them to hear her at first. But they’d been in silence for so long that every sound seemed like it carried an echo. 

They turned to her and saw her holding out his phone like a live explosive in her hand. 

It vibrated as it rang. 

CALLER: UNKNOWN

Bobby answered it before the last ring. 

“Hello?” 

“This Nash?” 

Bobby frowned at the voice modulator. “It is. I’m working on getting the money. I don’t know if I—”

“Plans’ changed.” The voice cut Bobby off and Hen watched Bobby stiffen. “One hour. Palisades Park. Bring the money and come alone.”

“But I don’t have the five million yet!” Bobby curled his fist and propped himself up against the table. “I can give you—”

“Kid isn’t doing too hot, Nash, and I’m not interested in dealing with a corpse. I’m going to strike a deal with you,” the voice said and Hen felt her gut churn with unease. “You bring me all the money you have and I’ll give you the kid. No cops. No tricks. Then you’re going to pay the rest in interest.”

Something didn’t make sense. Bobby’s eyes jerked back and forth as he tried to piece it together. “Why would I if you’re giving up your leverage?” 

“Because I’m not. You don’t pay me and I’ll spend every minute making your kid look over his shoulder for the rest of his life. I’ll make sure he knows it too. I got to him before, I can get to him again and the next time I’ll keep him and send back pieces of him until I get what you owe me. He’ll never feel safe again. Understand?” 

Bobby gritted his teeth. “Yes.”

“Good. One—”

“Wait!” Bobby squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Let me bring one of my people.”

“No fu—”

“Please,” Bobby said and a chill ran down Hen’s spine at the strangle in his voice. She’d never heard Bobby sound like that. “Buck was struck by lightning a few weeks ago and suffered a cardiac event. If what you are saying is true and he’s not doing well, I need someone who can give him better medical attention than I can give him.” 

The voice said nothing for a moment. Then a horrible whining sound filled the room and it took Hen too long to realize it was a low whistle. 

“No shit. That was him, huh?” 

Hen frowned. What did that mean? 

“Fine. One person. They stay in the car until I tell you otherwise.” 

Bobby breathed out a tight breath he’d been holding. “Thank you.” 

“But if I see one cop, I’m taking off with the kid and you’ll be lucky to get back a finger. Understand me?”

Bobby went pale. “Yes.”

“One hour.” 

Then the line went dead. 

It was Maddie again who broke the silence. 

“That wasn’t him,” she said, her eyes drifting into somewhere far away. Her head was tipped to the side as if she was still listening to the memories of the echoes. 

“What do you mean?” Bobby asked. 

Maddie pressed her lips together in a bloodless line and shook her head. “That wasn’t the same person who called the first time.”

It shouldn’t surprise Hen that Maddie managed to hear a copy of the first ransom call but it still made her heart ache for her a little. 

“How do you know?” Eddie asked and Maddie shook her head again. 

“I’m used to listening to people,” Maddie said. “The one from before sounded confident. Almost unbothered. This one sounded almost frantic. Like he’s in a hurry.”

“Which is all the more reason why you shouldn’t go alone,” Hen said, turning her attention back onto Bobby. 

“He’s not going alone,” Eddie said, rolling his shoulders back. “I’m going with him.”

“No,” Bobby said and it wasn’t hard to miss the flash of betrayal in Eddie’s eyes. “You’re staying here.” 

“Bobby—” 

“Eddie,” Bobby said, cutting him off. “I’m not doubting your skills but if Buck needs medical attention then I need a paramedic and we can’t risk bringing someone else with us.”

“I’ll get my kit,” Hen said with a short nod.

“You’re not going anywhere.” 

They turned as Chimney swept through the backdoor with a bag of his own. He held it up with a flourish before letting it drop with a thump onto the table. 

“Think that should be enough?” Chimney asked with his own self satisfied smack of his gum. 

It was so quintessentially Chimney that Hen couldn’t help but smile. 

“Where’d you get all that?” Bobby asked and Chimney popped his gum twice before he answered. 

“Never mind that,” he said, crossing his arms. “Just make sure to give me an amazing letter of recommendation when they fire me. Let’s go.”

Eddie still didn’t look happy at being left behind and Bobby squeezed his shoulder. “Keep your phones on you.”

“This is stupid,” Eddie said. “And exactly something Buck would do.”

Bobby squeezed his shoulder again before he grabbed both bags and turned to Chimney. “How do we get out of here?”

Chimney hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “Out back but they’ve got a patrol car around the block.”

“I got it,” Maddie said, standing up and grabbing the still full pot of coffee from it’s cradle. She stopped and kissed Chimney on the cheek. “Be safe.” 

“Always,” Chimney said before he and Bobby disappeared and Maddie left out the front door to distract the officers with coffee. 

Eddie and Hen were left standing in the center, staring at each other. 

“You think it’s going to work?” She asked 

Eddie sucked in a breath. “You want to stand around and find out?”

Maddie didn’t stop them as they got in Eddie’s truck and followed after Bobby and Chimney.

Buck couldn’t figure out what day it was. 

Admittedly, the days had blurred together ever since he’d left the hospital. The confusion regarding time had nearly sent him into a tail spin of a panic attack the first time he couldn’t remember where he was. Memory lapses, the doctors had said. It would fade with time, they had said too. Maddie and the others had started announcing the days in greetings whenever Buck woke up which had only worked so long as they also remembered what day it was. There’d been one very confusing incident where an exhausted Eddie had doubted the existence of time when he realized it wasn’t Thursday and Christopher just hadn’t bothered to correct him all morning. 

They’d laughed then. 

Buck wasn’t laughing though. 

He didn’t think he could even if he wanted to. Everything hurt with an ache that was turning vicious with each passing second his limbs were being forced to stay the way they were. The duct tape on his skin was starting to chafe without any give and his joints were screaming at him for a break. He felt swollen and stiff and he couldn’t figure out what day it was. 

He thought maybe when he’d been taken it had been Wednesday. But he’d been in the dark since then. He didn’t know how long he’d been in the trunk. Hunger was a tight cramp in his stomach and other than his accident before he hadn’t had any other urges to go so he knew dehydration was kicking in but he wasn’t in the danger zone yet. 

But the drugs were blurring things. The sweet smelling fumes from the rags were still cloying at the back of his head and the disorienting twists and turns he had no control over were making his head spin. 

He couldn’t figure out what day it was. 

Or what they wanted with Bobby. 

It was like he was a prop, something to be moved around and used, and Buck didn’t know if that scared him more or not. Apart from the pictures, they’d left him alone. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or not either; if that meant they saw him as anything other than something to be discarded once they were done. 

They trained them at the fire academy in what to do in hostage situations. Make a connection. Remain calm. Humanize yourself. 

But Buck hadn’t been able to do any of that. 

And to be honest, he didn’t think he had the strength to do it even if he could. Sleep had been stealing snatches of time from him too. 

They’d left him shaking after they’d pointed the gun at his head for the picture and at some point Buck had woken up curled on his side on the musty mattress. Whatever he was in was pitch black and it had been years since he’d been scared of the dark but he couldn’t see anything. 

Were they watching him? There was an excess of space surrounding him that he wasn’t filling and the awareness of that was crawling over his skin like spiders. Every sound, every creak made him flinch as if he’d been struck, and he didn’t know what day it was! 

Buck’s body had forced himself into fitful pockets of sleep then. Sometimes, he woke up for only seconds in the dark and thought he was still sleeping. 

Which was why, when he was shaken awake, he didn’t understand why he woke back into his nightmare. 

The ski mask man was over him, too close and too heavy, and Buck yelped as he tried to break free. The darkness was still there but there was a light, shining too bright in his eyes and they burned as he tried to blink his vision clear. 

“Sssssh!” The man hissed as one strong hand fell down over Buck’s face and covered the duct tape over his mouth. Buck tried to struggle free but he’d managed to flip Buck onto his back and was pressing him down painfully into the mattress. “ Be quiet!”

Buck’s heart was threatening to hammer out of his chest, slamming and pounding against his ribcage as the pressure on top of him became too much. He didn’t know what was happening! He didn’t know what was going on! He couldn’t breathe! He couldn’t—

“Relax!” The man demanded, squeezing Buck’s face hard enough to make Buck grunt in pain. Buck thrashed beneath him and tried to shake him off. His heart was going to burst through his chest. He couldn’t breathe! He couldn’t see! 

The smack was enough to send Buck rolling off the mattress onto the floor. Pain rang like a thunderclap over his face and into his eye until tears sprang free and rolled down his cheek into the dirt. 

“We don’t have time for me to drag you out of here kicking and screaming and I’m not going to lug your ass up myself while you’re drugged up. You and I are going for a little joy ride.”

Buck didn’t know what that meant. All he knew was that the knot in his throat was going to choke him if he didn’t get away. The man grabbed his legs and yanked hard and vicious and Buck cried out as the cement dragged up under his hoodie across his skin. 

“Stop figh—”

The sound of metal hitting the skull was an unmistakable solid thud that made Buck want to dry heave. 

Every inch of his body was screaming at him in pain, his nerves writhing in agony at the exhaustion of it all, and he could barely do more than flinch as he waited for more pain to come. 

It didn’t. 

Buck tried to take in a breath that didn’t feel like it was racing through his system and rushing out of him again. His heart was still beating for freedom. He couldn’t move. But he turned, just enough, to see the other man standing over him. The ski mask man was at his feet crumpled and unmoving and Buck had no idea if he was dead. 

He wanted to go home. 

He wanted to go home!

The man in the mask radiated annoyance. It was as thick as humidity and from the ground he seemed like he towered over seven feet tall above him, like a giant who could squash him at any second. 

“How exactly did he think that was going to go?” The man asked, more to himself than at Buck. 

His eyes cut up to Buck and Buck’s spine prickled with ice the same way it had when he’d turned around in his loft and found him standing there. 

“It won’t be much longer now,” the man said as if it was a promise. He bent down and dragged the other man away before he came over and scooped Buck up like he weighed nothing at all. 

It would’ve been easy to mistake the unfeeling way he dumped Buck on the mattress as gentle. 

Buck scrambled back into the corner for some space, his heart still racing as he pulled his legs up to his chest and tried to make himself as small as possible. It was all he could do. 

The man didn’t look at him like he was human. He didn’t look at him like he mattered. He just looked at him. 

Unbothered. Detached. 

Without another word, he picked up the other man and carried him back up the stairs and left Buck in the dark again. 

The salty scent of the ocean and sand was almost enough to lull Bobby into a false sense of security. He didn’t get to the beach much but there was something so peaceful about the ocean that he found himself more often than not drifting to a park bench and spending hours listening to the waves the first few years he found himself in Los Angeles. 

Buck had said he found something comforting about the ocean too once. Even after the tsunami and the way that day had almost threatened to take away everything. 

Could Buck hear the ocean wherever he was?

Bobby glanced over in the direction of his truck and spotted Chimney waiting impatiently in the passenger seat. 

The park was nearly empty with only a few people jogging along the paths through the palm trees or riding their bikes out onto the street where traffic was just a blur of cars going in one direction. The street lamps cast more shadows than gave any actual glows and the sky had taken on a soft navy blue as the last of the sun flamed along the horizon. 

Static snapped beneath Bobby’s skin as he stared down at his phone. 

They were late. 

He had a bag of money at his feet and a target on his back and they were late. 

Athena was going to rip him alive when she found out. 

The text from Chimney came in with a whoosh that made his heart give a false start of a swoop. 

Anything?

Bobby looked up at him again and shook his head. 

Another text message. 

What do we do?

Bobby wished he knew. Did he call? Clarify to make sure he got the drop right? A kidnapping exchange wasn’t exactly an every day occurrence for him. The people at LAPD would’ve known what to do but by the time he told them it would’ve been too late. There hadn’t been time. 

And Bobby refused to risk Buck. 

He had to try. 

Just as Bobby was about to try sending a message on the thread with the pictures that were going to haunt his nightmares, a call came in. 

Bobby’s hand nearly slipped as he answered. 

“I’m here,” he said in greeting. 

“I know.” The voice said and Maddie was right. It was different. The voice modulator was still there, warping the vowels and cadence of the person’s voice but still. It was different. Two words and dread was pooling in Bobby’s gut as he stood, looking around. 

The voice sounded almost annoyed. 

“Bring the bag. Start walking to your left. If your guy gets out of the truck, we’re leaving.” 

Bobby swallowed past the dryness in his throat as he turned to Chimney and held up his hand. Chimney shook his head but Bobby didn’t have time to argue. 

Stay, he mouthed before turning to his left and started walking. 

“Okay,” Bobby said, keeping his voice calm even though everything in him wanted to scream. “I’m walking. Where am I going?”

“Follow the path down to the beach. There’s a lifeguard stand. Put the bag inside and then wait.”

Bobby worked his jaw as he walked closer to the beach entrance. There wasn’t much visibility once he got down the stairs and one quick glance told him that he was out of Chimney’s eye line. 

“I want to speak to Buck,” Bobby said even though he didn’t stop walking. He scanned his surroundings for any sign of the kidnapper but what had been an almost sleepy night had turned into a whirlwind. Everything was moving too fast in an over stimulating heightened moment of time where Bobby felt like he was living outside his body. “I want to know he’s okay.”

“He’ll be fine.” 

“That’s not what your partner said,” Bobby said, hedging his bets. 

The voice said nothing for a moment and Bobby’s heart squeezed painfully in his chest. 

“Careful Captain Nash.” The voice warned. “You’re close to getting the kid back and so far I haven’t hurt him. Don’t ruin that now because of someone else’s mistake.” 

It wasn’t a denial but it was still a threat. 

The stairs creaked beneath Bobby’s weight as he descended down the steps to the beach where sand gave way beneath his boots. The beach was deserted as the cool coastal breeze swept against his skin. 

“I see the booth,” Bobby said, walking towards it and feeling like each step was like walking through a minefield. 

“Good.” Was all the voice said. Nothing more. No taunting. No encouragement. No threats. 

Bobby didn’t know why that was so much worse. 

He walked to the booth and found it empty as well, scanning the walls for some kind of sign or camera but finding nothing. Bobby put the bag down under the shelf, out of sight, and stepped back outside. 

“It’s there,” Bobby said. “Now what?”

“Now you have five minutes to find a silver Honda Civic.” The or else was left unsaid. Bobby’s blood ran cold as he started running. “Pleasure doing business with you, Captain Nash.”

Then the line went dead. 

Bobby didn’t bother trying to keep them on the line. Sand flew up behind him as his toes sank beneath him, threatening to send him sprawling but Bobby didn’t stop. Sharp splintering pain raced up his hand as he grabbed onto the wooden handrail and flew back up the stairs, his calves burning at the steep speed. Everything was moving too fast again. There were too many people, too many lights, too many sounds and Bobby had to find one car along a street filled with cars. 

He needed more eyes. 

Bobby ran back to the truck.

“Chim!” Bobby shouted when he spotted his truck again. Chimney’s eyes widened before he threw himself out of the passenger door. “Honda Civic! Silver!”

“You serious?” Chimney demanded, already racing across the street. Bobby threw himself into the back of his truck for a crowbar before chasing after him. “That’s like the most common car in LA. Do we have a year?” 

“Probably older!”

Chimney blew out a curse. Still he found the first one parallel parked and banged his fist on the window. “Buck!”

Bobby found another one and ran at full speed to the back seat door. The woman in the driver seat screamed as he tried to open it. Bobby threw up a hand to apologize and spied another one across the street. 

“Bobby!” Chimney cried out just as a horn blared as a Subaru swerved to avoid hitting him. Bobby cupped his hands to look inside. 

“Buck?” Nothing! The back seat was empty. Bobby went for the trunk. “Buck!”

A car alarm blared to life behind them and Chimney bit out a curse before he was running down the street for another. The countdown was like a noose tightening with each passing car they found empty. They were running out of time and creating a scene. Sirens were wailing in the distance and Bobby was acutely aware that carjacking was going to be harder to explain to police officers who were not his wife but they were running out of time. They were—

“Bobby!”

Chimney was franticly waving his arms and Bobby took off running, stopping long enough to check before he crossed the street. 

“Keys are in the front seat,” Chimney said before he thumped a fist on the trunk. “Buck?”

“Here!” Bobby said, shoving his crow bar under the lip of the trunk. It gave way with crunch and Chimney threw himself under the space to push the lid up. The scent of sweat filled their noses almost instantly and movement caught their eyes as the automatic light came on. “Buck!”

Tied up legs flinched at the sound. 

“Buck! Hold on, bud!” Chimney bent into the trunk and ripped off the blanket covering the head. 

Disappointment tasted a lot like horror. Acid burned at the back of his throat and Bobby almost dry heaved on the spot. Brown eyes where blue eyes should’ve been. Thin reddish brown hair instead of dirty blond curls. A goose egg with blood instead of a birthmark. 

The man tied up in the trunk glaring up at them was not Buck. 

Bobby didn’t know who the hell he was at all. 

“Ralph Bradley. Thirty seven year old male. Worked as an orderly at the hospital where Maria West was contracted with and where Buck stayed during his recovery after being struck by lightning.” Athena held up the evidence bag between her fingers. “He also has a cellphone with the ransom pictures that were sent to your phone.”

“Did he tell you where Buck is?” Hen pressed. 

She should’ve been surprised when the rest of her husband’s crew rolled up just as she was talking the officers out of putting handcuffs on Bobby and Chimney but she wasn’t. 

“He’s being taken to county for his head injury but he’s refusing to talk until we offer him immunity.” Athena rolled her eyes at that. Fat chance there. Ralph Bradley was screwed seven ways to Sunday. Bobby’s number was listed in his phone matching the times when he had received the ransom demands, there were the proof of life pictures of Buck saved in the memory drive, the blanket in the trunk from Buck’s loft, and she would wager a bet that the prints they found on Maria’s Honda Civic would be his as well. 

“And the money?” Bobby asked, looking as defeated as she’d ever seen him. 

Athena took a breath before she answered. “Gone.”

She didn’t need to spell it out for them. They all knew what that meant. 

What little leverage they had, what ground they had gained to find Buck, was gone. 

There was no sense in rubbing their noses in it. 

Bobby shook his head. “Athena, I—”

“Bobby, you are my husband. If you thought for one second that I didn’t know what you were up to then you are a fool. I just wished you would have called me instead of running off without any back up.”

“Hey!” Chimney squawked. 

Athena pointed a sharp finger at him. “I’ll deal with you later!” 

Chimney swallowed his gum and shrunk back, conveniently hiding behind Hen. 

It was her own fault really. Athena knew that her husband and the band of misfits that would follow him to the depths and back would’ve gotten up to something. She’d said as much to Lou when they’d been trying to strong arm the hospital administrators for a staff catalogue. She just hadn’t expected them to expedite the process by moving up the timeline on her. 

“So now what?” Eddie asked. 

Athena threw up her hands. “Bradley has to be attended to by medical and then Detective Ransone and the others are going to try and get him to talk. He’s the only one to have seen Buck last.” 

“But he knows where Buck is!” Hen pressed, her own frustration making her voice tight. 

“He did!” Athena argued. “Until his partner double crossed him. Something it sounds like he tried to do first but was beaten to the punch.”

“So we’re nowhere,” Chimney said. 

Athena didn’t dignify that with an answer. 

Buck was so cold. Why was he cold? Why was it dark? 

Where was everybody?

“Bobby!” 

Bobby’s head snapped up at the sound of his name. Palisades Park was still swarming with police tape and officers trying to make sense of the mess he’d created but so far everyone had let him stew alone on one of the park benches with his own thoughts and prayers of penance to keep him company. 

Frankly, Bobby didn’t think there was enough penance in the world that would earn him the forgiveness for prolonging Buck’s suffering.

But all of that was pushed out of his mind at Hen’s call. She snatched whatever had been in a tech’s hand and ran to meet Bobby halfway. It took him two painfully shallow heartbeats lodged in his throat to realize it was his phone. 

It was a mad scramble to get the phone out of the evidence bag and Bobby only had a chance to glimpse at the caller before he answered on the last ring. 

CALLER: UNKNOWN 

“Hello?” Bobby breathed, his exhale layered with prayers and begging and anything else he needed to do. “Hello? This is Captain Nash.”

“That was a bit of a mess, wasn’t it?” The voice asked even though Bobby knew it wasn’t expecting an answer. 

“I gave you the money. Where is Buck?” Bobby demanded instead. 

“You did. Even when Ralph offered you a discount when he panicked,” the voice said. “I’m not easily impressed, Captain Nash. But I guess you’re used to working with people who panic.” 

Athena and Ransone joined them then. It didn’t make sense but it made the street all the more louder and alive than Bobby could handle. He pressed a finger to his ear and looked around, trying to find anything that would give him a clue. 

“I’m not playing any more games with you!” 

“I’m not playing games either,” the voice said, almost bored. “But I wasn’t about to change my plans because Ralph got spooked. I needed time to get away.”

Bobby forced himself to breathe. “You said—”

“I said the money for the kid at midnight. What time is it?” 

It took Bobby a second too long to realize he was waiting for him to answer then. Bobby bit down on his cheek hard enough to taste blood and looked at his watch. 

“11:59.”

“Deal’s a deal.” 

The line went dead and Bobby’s heart plummeted to the bottom of his stomach. 

“Hello? Hello!”

He yanked his phone away from his ear and stared down in dread at his phone screen. They’d ended the call. They’d—

A message came in just as the time changed to midnight. 

Bobby’s eyes blurred as his mind raced to process what he was reading. 

Lou peered over Bobby’s shoulder just as Athena’s hand wrapped tight around his wrist and pulled the phone down for her to see. “Is that…”

“An address!” 

It was chaos after that. Sirens blared to life again as Athena and Ransone took charge, calling out orders and directing dispatch for back up through the radio. 

Driving across town with a police escort meant they made it to Maria West’s home in half the time. 

“Bobby, isn’t this the place the police searched earlier?” Chimney asked, doubt creeping into his voice as they rolled to a stop. 

Bobby didn’t bother answering him. He couldn’t. Not when he had to focus on staying one step ahead of everyone else and one step behind them as well. 

Eddie moved to follow the police as they entered and Bobby grabbed his shoulder, holding him back just as Athena was telling him too. 

He was stuck outside his body again and Bobby had to claw his way back underneath his skin. 

He knew what could happen. He knew what could go down. The kidnapper had the money. They had what they wanted. They didn’t need Buck anymore. 

Bobby had been doing the job long enough to know what could possibly come next. They all did. And Bobby didn’t think they’d be able to cope going through that with Buck a second time. Not again. Not when the first time nearly broke them. 

Hen, Chim, and Eddie gathered around him as they stared up at Maria West’s house and Bobby felt like he was facing an implosion caught on the brink of acceleration. He had to shield them from the worst of it but he didn’t know how or when the thought of the worst was enough to send him to his knees. They didn’t say anything for a moment and it was hauntingly similar to that time they had been left, dripping wet and out of breath, in a hospital loading bay as a thunderstorm rumbled outside. 

Neighbors were gathering out in their yards again. More police vehicles were wailing down the street. The beams of flashlights cut through the dark house illuminating silhouettes in the windows that could’ve been anyone. The house looked like a skeleton, hollowed out and empty, as the police crawled through every inch of it. 

A chill crept up Bobby’s spine and curled around the base of his throat. 

Please… Please… Please… 

“We need a medic!” 

They moved in unison, all scrambling into the house where police were covering almost every inch of the inside. 

“Weapon secure!” 

“Nobody touch anything!” 

“Upstairs is clear!”

The cacophony of the LAPD washed over them as they stepped inside. It was like being hit with a wall of sound after being caught in a vacuum of silence. It was disorienting in the worst way possible, sending them into a dizzying spin as they tried to get their bearings in a whirlpool of chaos. 

Maria groaned from where she was sitting up on the couch, her eyes rolling around in her head and her words slurring as she tried to push the officer holding her up away. 

“Hen!” Bobby said, moving around so Hen could get to her. 

Hen caught Maria just as she tried to get up only to collapse back down again.

“Bobby!” Athena called and Bobby’s heart volleyed up into his throat and stayed there until he could hardly breathe. “Here!” 

Bobby’s ears started to ring as he spotted his wife standing in front of a door. The bullet proof vest added bulk to her frame and shielded her from the world the way he wished he could with his turnout coat but he couldn’t. Not then. Not with Buck. 

And Bobby didn’t know if he could stomach going through the door and facing the worst case scenario. 

He went anyway. 

“Stay here.” He told Eddie and Chim, his voice like cotton even to his own ears. 

If they argued, he didn’t hear them. He didn’t let them. 

He had to see so they wouldn’t have to if it came down to it. 

The cellar was small and cold with too low ceilings and not enough space for the amount of people that were trying to fit in it. The stairs groaned beneath his weight and Athena held up her flashlight over their heads as she called out, “Let him through!”

Bobby tried not to push his way through as the officers leaned left and right but his legs were moving and his desperation only grew the more and more he had to slow down. He needed to see. He needed to se—

The breath caught in Bobby’s chest, hitching somewhere in his throat with a click as he rocked to a stop. 

The mattress was thin and old with stains on the fabric and tears across the seams. It offered little shelter or comfort from the cold ground and seemed impossibly smaller than it had in the picture. But Bobby wasn’t looking at the mattress. Not for long. Not when it was moving and sliding and threatening to slip out beneath their feet. 

Because there, pressed into the corner, was Buck staring up at them like he didn’t know where he was or who they were. 

With one heart dropping moment, Bobby realized, he didn’t. 

The lights made everyone shadows in the darkness and Bobby couldn’t even identify Athena in the mass of bodies let alone anyone else. Wide, terrified blue eyes jumped from one moving shape to the next as his nostrils flared with each frantic exhale. He was going to hyperventilating and the thin, whine of a noise that slipped out of Buck cut right up beneath Bobby’s ribs and pierced through his heart until he nearly doubled over. 

“You’re ok—” A hand reached out and Buck flinched back into the corner so hard it was like he was trying to let the bricks swallow him up. 

Bobby moved. 

“Buck!” Buck jolted like the sound of his own name electrocuted him and Bobby felt the aftershocks racing up his legs into his own bleeding heart. “Buck!”

He did push people then. The officer that was trying to coax Buck away from the corner, the one that tried to stop him from moving forward. Bobby pushed everyone who got in his way and didn’t feel an ounce of remorse in his body for it. 

He dropped to his knees with a teeth rattling crash and the mattress skidded out from under Buck as he threw himself towards the only lifeline he had in a sea of darkness. 

All the breath knocked out of Bobby as he took Buck into his arms. 

“I got you,” he said, wrapping his arms around Buck tight. “I got you, kid. You’re okay! You’re safe! It’s okay! It’s okay!” 

It took Bobby way too long to realize that what he was feeling was Buck shaking because he was there and he was alive and they’d found him. Thank God they’d found him! But Buck was still trapped in whatever Hell he’d been in. 

Distantly, he heard Athena, Chimney, and Eddie behind them and Bobby curled one arm around Buck to hold out a hand. 

“Someone give me a knife!” He shouted before he pressed his cheek into Buck’s hair, rubbing at the nape of his neck where the wrong feeling of skin met duct tape. It was the only thing he could think to soothe him as people fumbled with their pockets. “You’re okay. Let me get it.” 

“Here!” Eddie was there, handing Bobby a knife before he was squeezing himself behind Buck. The mattress shifted even more into Bobby’s knees and Eddie nearly lost his own footing as he slipped. 

“Careful!” Chimney called out but Eddie didn’t even flinch. 

“Give me some light back here!” Eddie demanded before he began cutting at the tape around Buck’s wrists. “We’re here, Buck. It’s okay. Let us see.”

A light shined above them and Bobby didn’t know how he managed to not to throw up as he sawed at the duct tape wrapped around Buck’s torso pinning his arms to his chest. Chimney freed Buck’s ankles first and Buck curled his legs back up almost immediately. A muffled wounded sound fell from Buck as his arms fell free before weak hands clawed up at his cheeks and it took Bobby and Eddie both to coax him back into Eddie’s chest so Bobby could get the knife under a seam without cutting him. 

Once the duct tape was free, Bobby tossed it away and Buck let out a gasp that was too wet not to be a sob. 

Blue, exhausted eyes stared up at him. 

“B-Bobby…” Buck rasped before Bobby was pulling him back into his chest. “Wha-what’s-s-s hap-pen-ing?”

Bobby didn’t even know how to begin to explain. Buck was shaking and freezing but there was a clammy heat of a fever radiating off his skin and he kept burrowing himself into Bobby’s chest like he wanted to hide. 

Last time he had Buck in his arms, Buck had been limp; lifeless. Now he was trembling all over like he couldn’t stop and Bobby couldn’t do anything but say, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m here, kid. I got you. It’s okay. I’m sorry.”

Maddie couldn’t wait for the day when she didn’t have to rush through hospital wards frantically looking for someone she recognized or a room number hurriedly texted to her. 

That night wasn’t that day and nothing was going to stop Maddie from finding Buck’s room. 

It was a different hospital than the one they had taken Buck to after the lightning strike for obvious reasons but the layout was overall the same. A police presence was at each end of the entrances and Maddie only just barely managed to thank Athena from stopping the officers from blocking her way before she hurried down the hallway. Hen and Chimney were standing outside, Hen wringing her hands together while Chimney paced in small circles with hands on his hips. His track stopped the moment he spotted her and she fell into his arms as he caught her in a tight hug. 

“He’s okay!” Chimney whispered into her hair before she could even ask and her chest swelled with love stronger than she could ever imagine putting into words. “Doctors have him on some fluids for dehydration right now but he’s okay.”

Maddie nodded as she processed that information like a mantra in her head and looked around for the others. “Bobby? Eddie?”

“Bobby’s with the detectives giving his statement. Eddie’s inside. Buck’s…” Hen trailed off and Maddie drew back her shoulders as she braced herself for whatever else they were dealing with. Buck was alive. That was what mattered. She could deal with whatever else came her way. 

Hen glanced at Chimney and the breath he blew out sounded every bit as exhausted as he looked. “He’s still pretty freaked out.”

Maddie nodded once and cupped Chimney’s cheek, smiling as he pressed a kiss to her palm before she went inside the room. She knocked once before peering around the curtain and tried not to burst into tears when she saw him. 

Eddie was already halfway out of his chair, his body broad and wide and ready to shield Buck from whoever came in through the door. Buck was on the bed. His clothes were dirty from the soles of his socks to the once soft grey hoodie still wrapped around his shoulders. There was dirt and dust grimed up all over the material as if he’d been dragged around. Soft red marks bruised around his wrists and his mouth where his lips were puckered under the assault from his teeth worrying the bottom one. Grey lines disappeared under his hoodie and onto his chest for the heart monitor beeping in the corner in a blessedly steady rhythm. The thin clear line of an IV was taped over the back of his hand where she knew it had to be driving him crazy and he was pale. So painfully pale that it almost took her breath away because it was like being transported back to those early days when Buck was just barely out of his coma and couldn’t keep his eyes open for more than a few minutes at a time. 

“He-Hey!” He stuttered, his teeth chattering and it was only then that she noticed the trembling. She hadn’t been able to tell with the way he kept his legs curled up tight to his chest and turned away. But he was trembling and his nose was pink on the edge and the room wasn’t exactly warm but it wasn’t the coldest hospital room they’d been in either.

Something must have shown on her face because Eddie, who had stood down from his interceptive stance, rubbed a hand over his face with a sigh. 

“They’re getting him some warming blankets but he can’t have them until after he’s processed.” 

“Okay so what’s the hold up?” Maddie was not above being the crazy woman at the nursing station if it meant getting Buck a blanket. 

“He has to change out of his clothes,” Eddie said and there was something Maddie wasn’t getting. Eddie either from the looks of it. 

She turned to her brother and Buck picked a thread on his knee, not looking at them. His fingers practically vibrated against his knee before he tucked his hands between his legs and pulled himself impossibly tighter under their gaze. 

“I…” Buck said, his voice barely a whisper as color filled his cheeks. “I don’t know… if I can do it… I can’t…”

Realization flooded Maddie’s veins. “You need help. Let me get—”

“No!” 

It was so sudden that it startled them both. Buck’s eyes were wide and wild as they jumped between Eddie and Maddie before finally landing on Maddie with an almost pleading gaze. 

“Please I-I-I don’t want any—” Buck let out a panicked, frustrated breath as he shook his head. The heart monitor whined as Buck’s heart started to race. “I can’t… I don’t want people touching me anym-more. I-I can’t—”

“Okay,” Maddie said, rushing over to the bed and sweeping her hand through his curls. Buck pinched his mouth as he turned into her, hiding his face in her arm. “Okay, I’m here. I can help. Would that be better?”

She’d done it before. Even before the lightning strike, she’d done it before. 

Buck’s breath hitched as he curled further into her, practically folding his upper half into her chest. The heart monitor slowed to a steadier pace but Buck glared at it all the same. 

“I’m here, Evan,” Maddie said, bending down to kiss his curls. “Talk to me.”

“It’s embarrassing.” Buck confessed, almost too quiet to hear. “And I don’t want anyone else t-touching m-me. But I-I-I–”

Buck clamped his jaw shut as he let out another frustrated breath. 

Maddie shook her head and started to tell him that it wasn’t any different from all the times before when suddenly, she smelled it. The stale, pungent smell beneath the sweat and dirt that any ER nurse knew along with the scents of antiseptic and blood. 

Anger swept through her like a tidal wave and Maddie caught Eddie’s gaze over Buck’s head. He nodded once and shrugged as if to say he wouldn’t let us help. 

She swallowed her anger down and swept her fingers through Buck’s curls again. 

“All the more reason to get you changed. Come on,” Maddie said with a small scratch of her nails at the nape of Buck’s neck. Buck sighed as some of the tension released from his shoulders. “We’ll help you.” 

It took a little more coaxing to get Buck to uncurl but Maddie knew she just had to be patient. 

“Here,” Eddie murmured, his voice low and soothing as he slid up beside Maddie. 

“Put your arms around us,” Maddie said and she and Eddie guided Buck’s hands over their shoulders. 

“Lean on us,” Eddie said. 

“Good,” Maddie said, even as Buck’s knees threatened to buckle as he stood. “That’s good.”

She quickly bent down to pull off his sweats and briefs and Buck’s legs shook as he leaned more on Eddie. The stain on his sweats was more obvious now that he wasn’t curled up and Maddie wrinkled her nose as she balled the ruined pants up and put them on the bedside table. 

“Sorry.” Buck croaked and Maddie didn’t know which one of them was first to shush him but she and Eddie both squashed whatever lingering embarrassment may have been left. 

“Lean back,” Maddie said as Eddie’s grip shifted down to Buck’s waist. Frantic hands grabbed onto her shoulders as Buck dropped too fast and Maddie curled her fingers around his wrist. “You’re okay. We’ve got you.”

“Not going to let you fall.” Eddie promised as he eased Buck back onto the edge of the bed. 

Buck blinked up at them owlishly when they pulled the hoodie up over his head and Maddie made quick work of slipping the grown over his bare chest before she and Eddie got Buck back in bed and under the thin sterile sheet that would get taken with the evidence. 

“There you go,” Maddie said, sweeping her fingers through Buck’s curls. “That wasn’t so bad, right?”

Buck never stopped shivering the entire experience. 

“I’m going to go see about those warming blankets,” Eddie said before disappearing through the door and leaving her and Buck alone.

“Cold,” Buck whispered to her, slow blinks lasting longer and longer with each moment. 

“I know,” Maddie said, hating how useless she felt. Buck had been constantly freezing in the ICU and there hadn’t been anything she could do. She had a feeling though, that the shivering due to more than just the temperature of the room. She didn’t say it though. Buck looked exhausted and she didn’t even know the half of what he’d been through in the last twenty-four hours or so. But she’d get Buck a blanket if that was what he needed. “I’ll get you some new sweats after you’ve been processed. How’s that sound?”

“Shower?” Buck asked even as he curled up further beneath the sheet. 

Maddie wrinkled her nose again and nodded. “That too.” 

Buck let out a breath as he closed his eyes, leaning into Maddie’s petting. She almost would’ve sworn that he’d fallen asleep but as always her baby brother was full of surprises. 

Buck blinked up at her as Maddie trailed a finger across his hairline. 

“Maddie?” He asked, sounding so much like when he’d been so young that it made her heart squeeze. 

“Yeah?” 

“Is Bobby okay?” 

And Maddie wish she knew how to answer. 

No one noticed him. And if they did, they were quick to look the other way. It was the perks of the job. No one noticed him unless he wanted to be noticed. Plus, there was too much death and trauma around for anyone to want to get involved or be overly curious which suited him just fine. 

He was watching. 

Waiting. 

One of the nurses had brought him a coffee and the warmth in his hand through the thin paper cup was a nice grounding point that kept him rooted to the floor and out of his own head. 

There were too many variables. Too many moving parts. Too many things that could go wrong. 

But he was going to do it anyway. 

Because he could. 

It was a good business opportunity if he could get it right. 

He took a sip of his coffee and watched Nash exit the elevator doors. The fire captain nodded in greeting to everyone who met his gaze like it was some inherent compulsion in his DNA.

He made sure to keep his eyes in the other direction when he passed. 

Nash went into an empty room before circling back out into the hallway and beelined for the nurses’ station. 

“Excuse me,” he said, pointing to the room. “I’m looking for Evan Buckley. Room—”

“403?” The nurse— Denise— finished. “The one that woke up looking like he’d been abandoned at the pound?”

Nash chuckled. “Yes, unfortunately, that one’s mine.”

He hid his smirk behind his coffee. Bingo. 

“He’ll be back,” Denise said. “They took him back a while ago for some PT and imaging.” 

“PT?” Nash echoed. “Isn’t that a little soon. He only just got out of the ICU. What if—”

“Relax papa bear,” Denise said with that same calm frankness that always seemed to settle the people around her. “He’ll be fine. Maybe a little tired but nothing he can’t handle.” 

As if summoned on cue, two orderlies wheeled a gurney through a pair of swinging doors that led back towards radiology. Curled up in the center was a kid with bright blue eyes, a birthmark, and a smile that lit up his whole face when he spotted Nash. 

“Hey,” Nash said, meeting the gurney and walking with them into the room. “How’d it go?” 

He didn’t hear the kid’s response. He didn’t have to. He drank the last of his coffee while he turned on his heel and started to plan. 

Buck slept for a long time after everything had settled down. 

Well, as settled down as things could be. A kind nurse had come in and processed all of the scratches and bruises that had been left on Buck that hadn’t been there before. Vials of blood had been taken from his arm that left Buck piquish and grey and anything under his fingernails had been collected and folded into small evidence envelopes. His clothes had been shoved and sealed into plastic bags and all his abrasion had been swapped and recorded. Only after everything had been photographed, documented, and collected did they let Buck take a shower which, from what Bobby understood, involved Maddie, Eddie, Chim, and more than a few frustrated tears. The doctors had done a more thorough examination afterwards. 

Buck was dehydrated and there were notes about how his body would respond after being pushed to the limit. The doctors had murmured concerns about Buck’s lungs and had warned them that it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that Buck’s immune system wasn’t strong enough yet to tolerate such extreme, deprecating conditions, hence the fever. They were running him on a round of antibiotics with warm saline, oxygen, and an endless amount of heated blankets that Buck had curled under and almost refused to come out of since. The shaking was a combination of the cold and exhaustion and Buck was going to be sore for a few days but it wasn’t a neurological complication from what they could tell. The fact that Buck was so cold was just another one of the parting gifts left by the lightning strikes that the doctors had said would go away with time. 

Time. 

There was a bruise on Buck’s cheek. 

In comparison it was almost nothing. A faint shadow on his pale skin. It wasn’t even one of the worst ones Bobby had ever seen Buck get. 

But hadn’t been there the last time he saw him so he felt it like a sucker punch right to the gut anyway. 

Buck slept for so long while Bobby stewed in his own self loathing thoughts that he almost missed when he woke up. One moment he was asleep, curled up on his side facing Bobby, and then the next his eyes were open, blue and clear and staring at Bobby like he had all the answers. 

He didn’t deserve the faith. 

“Hey,” Bobby said, leaning forward so Buck could hear the hush of his voice. “You’re in the hospital. Maddie went to get some coffee and find you some soup to help warm you up.” 

It was easy practice to fall back into again. After the coma, Buck would often wake up confused and the longer it took him to get his bearings, the harder he started to panic until they had discovered a system. Telling Buck where they were and where Maddie was had been a quick way to settle his nerves enough until he calmed down. 

Buck’s eyes jerked back and forth across Bobby’s face.

“Real?” He asked and Bobby didn’t quite know what he meant by that. 

“Yeah Buck,” Bobby said, taking a guess. “It was real.” 

He cupped the back of Buck’s head, sweeping his thumb across his temple until Buck calmed down. 

“But you’re safe now. We got you back.” Bobby didn’t know how many contritions he owed for that but he’d pay it tenfold. Starting with the person who needed to hear it first. “I’m so sorry, kid.” 

Buck frowned. “Bobby—”

“No, Buck,” Bobby cut him off. “You were in this mess because of me. Because of something I did. And I’m so sorry for that.”

Buck didn’t look happy at that but he didn’t say anything more either. He looked exhausted. Like sleep was only a few seconds from taking him under again. 

But then Buck looked at him again and Bobby held his gaze. 

“They really thought I was your kid?” Buck asked, an awkward kind of twitch pulling at the corner of his mouth. It was so small and yet so loud and wrong that Bobby couldn’t not correct it. 

“You are my kid,” Bobby said. 

Buck sucked in a breath, startled by the conviction in Bobby’s voice. Another thing he had to atone for then. There shouldn’t have been a doubt in Buck’s mind by that point what he meant to Bobby. Not one. 

Something quiet passed over Buck’s expression. He tried to hide it beneath a shiver as he burrowed further under the pile of blankets. 

“Cold?” Bobby asked and Buck groaned. 

“Always.” Buck bit out, bunching his shoulders up his ears. Bobby was pretty sure he could see the shape of Buck’s long legs curling up to his chest beneath the blankets. “When can I go home? Or put on real pants again?” 

The day Buck had gotten the all clear to wear his sweatpants in the ICU had been the day the world knew peace. 

“Your place still isn’t cleared by LAPD yet so we’ll have to see where you’ll be more comfortable,” Bobby said, trying to soften the blow a bit. “You’re welcome to stay with Athena and me but I know Chimney is already back at their place setting up the guest bedroom for you.” 

Buck groaned as he rolled onto his back. “I just want my own bed.”

“I know,” Bobby said, untangling the wires before Buck yanked something out. “It won’t be much longer. Athena just needs to make sure you’re safe first.”

Buck let out a small breath as he turned to look at Bobby again. 

“Am I?” He asked and it was quiet and vulnerable again. 

It was the most they would get out of Buck about his experience, Bobby knew, and he didn’t take that lightly. Not when Buck was trusting him with it. 

“Soon, kid. You’re going to be soon.” 

He thought about gunning it when he caught the squad car following him. All it would take would be his foot pressing the pedal to the floorboard and he could make it to the border. 

It didn’t guarantee him immediate freedom but it’d buy him time. He had enough he could bribe a few people to look the other way. 

But all it would take was one lapsed moment of concentration. One slightly wrong turn and he would crash the car and be dead. Or worse, not dead but paralyzed from the waist down and in handcuffs. 

Still, it was a bitter pill to swallow when the lights flashed on. 

It wasn’t a completely lost cause. He’d stashed some of the money away. He’d be out in eight years max. 

It wasn’t his car with the kid’s DNA all over it. 

It wasn’t his phone with the proof of life photos and the ransom demands. 

It wasn’t his basement the kid has been kept in. 

They wouldn’t have even been able to prove that it’d been him who had made the calls. He could’ve said that Ralph had intended to kill the kid if he hadn’t stopped Ralph when he did. 

He’d left a perfect story for the cops to have. Maria wanted revenge. Ralph wanted the money. Ralph kept the kid until Maria gave him the all clear after the police left. Maria had the motive. Ralph had the finger prints. There’d been nothing left to physically tie him to the crime except his cut of the cash. 

It would’ve been Ralph and Maria’s word against his and all the evidence pointed right back to them.

It was their own fault for not thinking ahead. 

He’d be out while they stumbled their way through excuse after excuse. The greedy nurse and orderly and the security guard they paid to look the other way. 

He cut the engine and tossed the keys out the window, holding up his hands as more and more lights surrounded him. His car door was yanked open and he complied with the orders to get out of the car as Athena Grant strode forward, her gun aimed right at him. 

“Sergeant Grant,” he said because it was the polite thing to do. “Good to see you again.”

She snatched his wrist and twisted his arm behind his back. The metal clamp of handcuffs cinched around his skin as she tightened them with a snap. 

“Lachlan Meyers, you are under arrest for kidnapping.” 

He could be patient. He’d be out in five? Eight years? He hadn’t managed to stash away the full amount but it’d be enough. 

It wasn’t personal. Not to him. After all, the kid seemed like he was a good kid. People liked him. Maybe he could be useful to Lachlan again one day. 

It wasn’t personal. It was just the price of doing good business.