A Stranger's Jacket: Part 27
Evan "Buck" Buckley x plus size! reader
Word Count: 2k
Warnings: medical talk, angst, brighter times are ahead
Author's Notes: Work has been absolute shit. I had a meltdown tonight about hating my job and some other things, but it resulted in me pumping out this beautiful chapter, so YOLO
Masterlist | Taglist
Jeff had tried his best to keep you calm, following protocol to a T. Another medic had crawled into the back seat to help slide a cervical collar around the base of your neck as Jeff held onto the sides of your neck with both hands.
The next task was to keep you alert and monitor your vitals. His primary goal would be to keep your vitals stable, which meant that he needed to keep your anxiety levels low.
The first sign of distress was the inability to focus. You started strong as you talked about your day, but then your thoughts started to slow down, caught up in a haze. The voice in your head had responses to his questions, but you physically could not answer.
Despite the car literally opening up, you felt like the car was shrinking around you, as if the steel and glass were pressing closer with each forced breath into your lungs. The air was heavy, and the pressure of the C-collar only added to the feeling of suffocatiion, restriction.
Then the world faded. You felt as if you had just gotten off of a spinning ride, as your eyes fluttered, feeling as if you were tipping forward before falling back. You briefly hear the panicked yell that you were becoming unresponsive.
“That’s it, hey, keep those eyes open. Stay with us. They’ve almost got it.”
You take a breath through the oxygen mask. Your index finger is in a pulse oximeter. You feel like your wrist is going to explode.
“Buck.” Tears stream down your face as you shakily point your finger at the purse tipped over onto the floor.
You don’t care if he’s with the team anymore. They would understand.
They were your family.
And his recent reaffirming words fill your head.
“You’re more important than a job. Then any of this. I don’t care if I never wear the uniform again — I care about you.”
“Evan Buckley. He’s with Captain Nash. Please.”
The pulseoximeter gives a shrill alert as your pulse rises beyond the standard threshold.
“Okay.” Jeff lays his hand on the back of your seat as he brings his radio up to his mouth. “Dispatch, patient is requesting family notification. Says-”
“Captain Nash and her fiance have been alerted.” You hear Maddie’s voice, and although her voice remains calm and professional, you can hear the edge in her voice. “She’s… my future sister-in-law.”
“Copy.” Jeff pulls back. “I’m going to reach for your phone if that’s okay.”
“Yes.”
You watch as the tall man bends down to reach for your phone, which lays face up. If you weren’t in so much pain, you would have laughed at how cramped he looked beside you.
The display lights up, displaying the photo you took on the porch of the home you were about to build your forever in this afternoon.
Jeff slides up on the emergency contact prompt on the lock screen, easily finding his contact picture. Once he clicks it, he puts it on speaker and holds it up to your face.
Two rings and the phone is picked up.
“Baby, are you okay? What happened?”’
“Babe.” You cry in relief as you close your eyes. You take deep breaths, the whoosh of automated oxygen and the joy of hearing his voice drowning out the commotion around you. “I got hit. They ran a red light.”
You jolt a little as a particular piece of metal bends, scaring you. You howl out, pushing out pained cries as you tried to breathe.
“OW! Buck, I-I want you here.”
“I know Baby. I know.” Buck chokes up, clearing his throat a few times. “I’m on the way- with Bobby, Hen, and Chim. You’re not going to be alone, okay?”
“Okay.”
“But for now, can you do something for me?”
“Ye-yeah.”
A breeze of air gusts into the car. They have gotten the door open.
“Be my strong, beautiful, badass girl. Hold on for me, then you can let go and thenll hold you up.”
“Promise?”
“Pinky promise.”
When the pressure of the dashboard was released, you screamed out, white hot pain panging your wrist.
“You’re doing great, baby.” Buck took in a shuttered breath as it caught in his throat. “I’m almost there. Just hang on.”
The medic beside you, Ashley, gently prodded your fingers. “Wiggle them for me.”
You were able to give a stronger bend of your four fingers. Even though they were shaking, it was an improvement from when they first arrived.
“We’re going to use this vacuum splint and start some pain meds, okay?”
“Buck, tell her about the rage room.” Hen’s voice carries through the phone.
You know that she’s doing her best to comfort the both of you. It was killing Buck that he wasn’t here for you when you were hurting. While he was distracting you from some of the pain, the task of recalling the team bonding experience would help distract him, too.
You bit down on your tongue as they manuevered your arm into the vacuum splint. Tears streamed down your face as you listened to Buck.
“There, the worst part is over. We’ve got you.” Jeff rubbed his hands together. “Now to get you out of this car, yeah?”
***
You were shocked when Bobby’s truck pulled up to the scene. The vehicle was barely in park before Buck jumped out, bolting towards you.
“Oh god.” His knuckles wrapped around the stretcher. Surprisingly, the other paramedic stepped back, letting Buck help Ashley get you into the ambulance without any protest. “Sweetheart, I’m here.You’re okay.”
“I didn’t have time to swerve.”
“You shouldn’t have had to.”
Buck stands at the head of the stretcher, helping align the wheels to the floor of the ambulance before the hydraulics fold the wheels up and you are pushed in. He lets Ashley crawl in before sitting beside you. He leans forward, brushing his hand over your hair gently. You stare at him with teary eyes.
“Even when you’re crying, you’re still my pretty girl. D’you know that?”
A mix between a laugh and sob leaves your mouth, and he forces his own smile before placing his lips on your forehead.
“You scared me.” He whispered against your forehead before pulling back. His thumb swipes repeatedly under the corner of your eye. “God, I’m going to find whoever did this to you-”
“Buck.” Your voice cracks as you interrupt him. You want to reach up and grab his hand, but you’re strapped down to the back board with strict orders to not move. “I’m okay.”
“But you don’t deserve this. I almost lost you. I don’t know what I would have done if-”
“Hey, but you didn’t.” Your wet eyelashes stick together as you try to flutter them softly. “I’m here. Safe. With you.”
“I should have taken you to work.”
“Why, so both of us could have gotten hurt?”
“No, I think it would have changed the course of fate, wouldn’t have put you in danger.”
“Oh Buck.” You bite back a laugh. You would have tilted your head if you could, so instead you squint your eyes, joy dancing in your eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you too, sweetheart.”
***
You’re nuzzled into Buck’s shoulder as he holds you, his nose buried in your hair. Ever since you got moved up to the surgical floor, Buck had been tangled around you. He’d let you use him as your pillow, and hadn’t complained when he had very little space on the bed, either.
Buck snores softly behind you, rhythmatic with the beeping of your heart monitoring. Your good fingers are laced with his, resting on your lower stomach.
A rerun of Family Feud plays in the background. Between the exhaustion of the crash and the morphine drip, it is extremely difficult for you to pay attention to the television. Your eyes are heavy, yet you can’t sleep. You feel restless.
There’s a soft knock on the door. A nurse comes in with none other than Eddie Diaz.
“Hey.” Nurse Hannah leads him into your room. “I made an exception for another visitor. Hope that’s okay with you?”
“Yes, I guess I’ll take the straggler.” You flash Eddie a loopy smile. His head tilts, brown eyes soft. His hands are shoved in the pockets of his jeans.
“I’ll leave you guys be. Do you need anything?”
You shake your head no, waving your hand with a hushed thank you before she excuses herself.
“He’s out, isn’t he?” Eddie walks closer, pulling the chair closer to the bed as he sits down. “
“Yeah. It’s been a good day.” You turn to place a kiss on his jaw. “We met with the inspector, went on date day, and he was going to take me to work-”
“Then he got invited to team bonding.”
“And a drunk driver hit me.” You lay your head down, pressing your forehead to his as you look at Eddie. “Emotional day.”
A beat passes.
“I didn’t want to call him and ruin it. He was with his family. But then it hurt so bad, and I just wanted Buck. I knew the B shift wasn’t on and I still prayed that you guys would respond.”
You close your eyes, take a deep breath in. You tighten your grip on Buck’s fingers.
“How are you?”
“They think that my nerves are okay, just pinched in the accident. I have surgery in the morning. My distal radius is fractured and the scapholunate ligament has some damage, but they won’t know the extent of the ligament until they go in.”
Eddie doesn’t take much time to process the news. Not that he needs it. He knows his stuff, it was more of a mouthful for you, if anything.
“Listen, I’m sorry about the past month.”
“Yeah, me too.” You bite your lip, tears welling in your eyes. “I lost my family. And he did, too, Eddie. You’re his family. And he isn’t perfect-”
“No, but he told them personal things about us.” Eddie brings his fist up to his mouth, swallowing hard. You watch his Adam's apple bob up and down, tears welling in his eyes as he avoids looking at you. “I couldn’t talk to my best friend. Christopher-”
“I know.” Tears spill over your waterline. The beeping on the monitor increases as anxiety peaks. “He lost the one thing that made him feel valuable, Eddie. All of his life, he’s fought to be seen, to feel worthy
“And he’s still being punished. We all know who he is. He’s emotional, runs with his heart in his hands and his head takes awhile to catch up. So please, just take it easy on him, Eddie. Be mad, but don’t take it out on him.”
There’s some movement beneath you. Buck shifts in his sleep, wrapping his torso tighter around you. You laugh, letting go of his hand to wipe your tears away.
“But enough about me and him. How have you been, Diaz?”
And you two fall into comfortable conversation. When your stomach rumbled, you looked at him with pleading eyes and a pouty lip. You had an hour before you couldn’t eat anymore.
So he took your order, a burger and shake, and then you told him to get something for him and Buck and you’d pay him back. He denied that, joked that you were going to have enough medical bills on your plate, and this was the least he could do.
When Buck woke up, the air was thick with tension. But as you sipped on shakes, small talk turned into conversations about what the other had missed, and with a full stomach and your heart at ease, you felt yourself drifting off.
Sure, it’d take some time to fall back into a normal rhythm again.
With these two? It would take some time to heal, but it would happen. It always did.
Buck had beef with Eddie for one shift before deciding Eddie was to be his person.
This would blow over too.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
🔥 taglist: @nickie-amore, @mimisweetz, @queen-o-castle, @dipdeedoda, @rintheemolion, @iluvvcaats, @maryyy-8 , @strabarrybat, @unholycheesesnack, @formula1-motogpfan, @booklover2503, @strawb3rrywh0r3, @itsthebookqueenthings, @mmkkzz, @teenwolfbitches28, @mynameis-alexa, @sophham, @bellsbomb, @lafrone, @diasnohibng, @dream-alittlebiggerdarling, @amarecerasus, @jgoodwin-242, @bimbologymajor, @mrsyixingunicorn10, @bunnyweasley23, @rheathesimp, @may-machin, @yukina23, @ryswritingrecord,