#daniel buckley

[destronomics]

B is for Buckleys, who try and try and try

a little ditty by @wildehacked w/ illos cribbed from edward gorey

[wise-writer-girl]

thinking about how buck was born to be the replacement of a dead son, and now he was forced to be the replacement of a dead son

[iinryer]

been thinking a lot about how much an absence weighs…

[angels-all-sin]

“I know, I know. But he’s always buried in those books or shuffling around the house like he’s lost in some dream.” “And?” “I wasn’t like that.” ‑ The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

[dbtucson-blog]

Night on Tumamoc Hill overlooking Tucson, Arizona

[try-set-me-on-fire]

other people’s ghosts

[robinminustherichard]

Tommy, still with the 118 is going through a building collapse when he suddenly feels a pull on his turnouts and looks down to see a little boy, completely fine and untouched by the disaster around them.

Tommy tries to get the kid to come with him out of the building but he keeps slipping away before Tommy can grab him, all the way down a darkened hallway. They finally turn a corner and there's a mam trapped under a set of shelves, unconscious, and the little boy is crouched down and staring silently at the man.

Just as Tommy is about to radio in and ask for help extracting two people, the little boy looks directly at him and nods seriously. Flames start to ignite around them, and Tommy really needs to get all three of them out of here, but the boy opens his mouth and in a voice that seems to echo in his head says, "Save my brother, okay?" and the little boy runs past Tommy and out of the door to where Tommy can hear Howie and Hen approaching.

Tommy gets him out, and when the man shows up at the 118 to thank him, Tommy can't help but blurt out: "Really, it was your brother that saved you. It would have been hard for me to find you without him. I tried to ask Hen and Howie, but they said they didn't see him. He got out okay, right?"

Evan, he introduced himself, looks at him in confusion and tells him he doesn't have a brother. Tommy gapes, and they move past it too quickly because Captain Nash comes down the stairs at that moment and introduces himself.

A few years later, Tommy, still tangentially connected to Evan, Buck now to the 118, gets a call.

"I owe you an apology," Evan says, and Tommy asks what for. "Turns out, I did have a brother. I'm gonna send you a picture."

Tommy gets a picture of the little boy he saw that day, and Evan is telling him about a family secret and how it feels like his whole life is crashing down and--

"I'm really glad you had a brother." Tommy tells him, cutting him off mid-sentence.

"I--what?" Evan says, and Tommy breathes slowly. Thinks about the sly looks and flushed cheeks Evan gets when they see eachother. Thinks about how Evan was so loved, thinks about second chances and first chances.

"Well, he brought me to you right? Saved your life."

Evan hums, in that way Tommy has heard on trivia nights and at backyard barbecues.

"Yeah. Y-you're right. You really saw him?"

"Yeah. That's, uh. That's the kid I saw that day."

"You remember it that well? It was years ago."

"Of course I remember the day I met you, Evan."

"Oh."

It's quiet for a moment, but Tommy just keeps looking at the picture he recieved.

"Tommy? You uh, you w-want to go get something to eat? Right now? With me?"

It feels just like a tug on the turnouts.

[bugbugly]

the aunt gertie drop is so huge to me actually. so there are extended buckley family members. ones familiar enough to drop in conversation. did they keep coming around after daniel died? did margaret make them promise not to talk about him? did any of them advocate for buck? for pincushion evan? did they erase daniel from their own lives or did they only pretend to forget him when margaret was around? are there refrigerators in pennsylvania with daniel’s drawings still hanging on them when he’s been gone for five years? for ten? gertrude, at what point did you decide it wasn’t worth it to fight for either of your nephews? did you ever fight at all?