Been a while since I participated in this, and it's been a while since I shared anything from the Buddie Zombie AU (which I started a year ago? Maybe longer? And abandoned for a long time lol). I'm trying to get back i to writing it and WIP Wed is a good way to get feedback without the pressure of posting WIPs, so here goes it!!
No one stops him from going to the isolation rooms. Walking is a bit of a struggle, but he pushes through. When he walks through the doors, he finds Athena there, crouched in front of Bobby, speaking quietly. They hear him enter, Athena immediately turning to him. Bobby is slower to react.
Buck breathes out quietly, devastation and relief mixing with bitter denial. His heart in his throat, he takes a hesitant step forward. "Sorry I- do you want me to go?"
Athena stands up, shakes her head. She leaves Bobby with a lingering kiss pressed to his head. "I'll be back soon."
Bobby looks up at her adorningly, sadness evident in his eyes. "Okay."
She walks away, steps heavy. She grabs Buck's hand, places the cloth he hadn't noticed in his hand. "Finish up for me?"
He nods shakily.
She leaves, closing the door behind her with a quiet click.
Buck stands frozen, two steps from the doorway. He can't get himself to move. Until Bobby calls his name, and he finds himself walking forward automatically.
Bobby's eyes are on him as he kneels beside him but Buck can't look at him, so he busies himself with opening the med kit, and finishing what athena had started. They don't talk, but Bobby doesn't take his eyes off him, Buck can tell, but he ignores it, focuses on cleaning the bite wound that's still sluggishly bleeding. His hands are shaking as he places guaze on it, and as he wraps it. They're still shaking when he finishes off, when he sits back on his heels, staring at the white bandages like they have the answers he's looking for.
"Buck," Bobby mutters.
Buck doesn't answer.
"Kid, will you look at me?"
Buck drags his eyes up, meeting Bobby's. There's a deep sorrow in Bobby's eyes, and Buck crumbles.
The older man sits up, draws him into his arms, and Buck finds himself unable to stop the tears from falling, sobs tearing through his throat.
Bobby's saying something, but Buck is beyond listening, drowning in his grief, and the deafening sound of his own heartbeat.
"I'm sorry, Buck," Bobby mutters into his ear, "I'm so, so sorry."
"What happened, Bobby?" he asks desperately, hands still clenched in the back of the man's shirt. "How did this happen?"
Bobby strokes the back of his head gently, waiting for him to calm down before he speaks. "Reynolds froze, I had to get him out of the way before they got to him."
Buck pulls away. "So they got to you instead," he says slowly, anger starting to simmer in his gut.
Bobby purses his lips. "Buck-"
Buck stands up, holding onto the wall for support.
"Buck-"
He shakes his head. "You said you'd be careful," he reminds him bitterly, "you said you'd be safe."
He doesn't allow him the chance to say anything else, he just stumbles out.
.
"Still mad at him?"
Buck's head shoots up from where he had it resting on his folded arms. Athena's leaning on the door, eyebrows raised. "Aren't you?"
"I am," she answers readily, "but that doesn't mean I'm leaving his side."
He looks down, ashamed, and hears her quiet footfalls coming closer. She sits down beside him.
"Buckaroo, he needs us."
"I know," he says hoarsely, "I'm gonna go back, just- not now."
"Why's that?"
"Because I'm gonna cry all over him. Again."
Athena laughs softly, and even that sounds sad. "I think he'd prefer that to the silent treatment."
Buck nods. She puts her arm around him, huls him closer. He bites his lip to keep from crying again.
.
Buck stays with Bobby for ten hours, stays with him through the headaches and the fever and the delirium. He stays until Bobby calls him Robert, and in the next moment of clarity, apologies for doing so. It's a gut punch, for multiple reasons, and
Athena tells him to take a breather, and he all but flees.
He's just stepped out of the door when he bumps into someone, "sorry- Jameson? You okay, man?"
"Hmmm," the other man hums distractedly.
Buck guides him away gently, hand on his back. "Let me take you back to your room, huh? Your mom must be worried by now."
Jameson just shrugs, allows Buck to lead him. They don't talk much, mostly because Jameson is in his head most of the time. They don't know much about the man's story, but from what Buck has gathered from conversations with the young man's mother, the woman he loved died right in front of him, and it was bad. He wasn't the same after.
"There's a cure," Jameson mutters, wringing his fingers tightly, twitching nervously.
Buck stops dead in his tracks. "What?"
"I think there's-" the young man stutters, words halting and unfamiliar on his tongue, "there's a cure."
Buck puts his hands on both the man's shoulders. "Where?"
Jameson looks away, gaze taking on a hazy quality.
Buck shakes him. "Jameson- where?"
.
"Buck-"
"I know it's crazy," he interrupts Athena, throwing shirts and weapons and anything he might need on the road in his duffel, "but I have to do this."
"Buck-"
"You're not gonna stop me, Athena-"
"Buck!"
He shuts up, finally stops moving enough to look a her. The look on her face is hard to read, but at least she's not mad at him.
"I don't think taking the word of someone who's-not all there, is the wisest thing in the world, but-" she steps closer.
"I have to try," he says softly.
"I know. Lord knows I wanna pack my things and come right along with you," she looks away, jaw working, then looks back at him, "I have to stay here with him."
"I know."
Her eyes search his face, for what he doesn't know, but she must find it because she holds his face with both her hands, tears in her eyes, and firmly says, "you come back, do you hear me, Buckaroo?"
"I'll find it. If it's out there, I'll find it."
She shakes her head. "You're not hearing me," she says firmly, "you better come back to us, with or without the cure."
He nods.
"Okay."
"Okay." He wraps his arms around her, and she holds him back just as tightly.
"Be safe, Buck."