a fic for @crash-that-helicopter-week <3 ; rating: t, words: 11k
read on ao3
“Yeah, just a sec,” Buck said, not looking away from Lucy, taking in her red-rimmed eyes and the bags under them, the way her hair was escaping from her ponytail. “What’s going on Luce?”
Lucy scoffed. “Oh sure, play dumb, that’s cute.”
“I’m not — I don’t know what you think I know, but —”
“Buck.” Chimney was using his captain voice.
“One second,” Buck snapped. “Lucy, come on, tell me.”
Lucy made a wounded noise. “You really don’t know?”
“Know what?” Buck asked desperately, his blood freezing in his veins like ice even as he hoped he was wrong.
“You didn’t tell him?” Lucy rounded on Chimney. “You’ve been sending people to our station and you didn’t tell him?”
“Cap, Buck, did you two get lost?” Eddie appeared Chim. “Oh. Lucy.”
“Don’t 'oh Lucy’ me, jackass.”
“Lucy,” Buck pleaded. “Tell me.”
Lucy stepped closer, hands out like she was going to steady him. “Buck, Tommy’s been in a coma for almost two weeks.”
note: this is 118/firefam critical - do not leave me comments about how much you hate a character, i will delete them!! i love the characters I’m just frustrated with how they’ve been written lately.
listening your writing playlist while you have a shower sometimes leads to fully formed scenes that don’t have anywhere to go
“Lucy?” Buck stopped, surprised to see her at the hospital in her street clothes. “Are — is everyone okay?”
“Buck, where are— oh, Donato,” Chimney appeared around the corner. “Buck, we’re ready to head out, let’s go.”
“Yeah, just a sec,” Buck said, not looking away from Lucy, taking in her red-rimmed eyes and the bags under them, the way her hair was escaping from her ponytail. “What’s going on Luce?”
Lucy scoffed. “Oh sure, play dumb, that’s cute.”
“I’m not — I don’t know what you think I know, but —”
“Buck.” Chimney was using his captain voice.
“One second,” Buck snapped. “Lucy, come on, tell me.”
Lucy made a wounded noise. “You really don’t know?”
“Know what?” Buck asked desperately, his blood freezing in his veins like ice even as he hoped he was wrong.
“You didn’t tell him?” Lucy rounded on Chimney. “You’ve been sending people to our station and you didn’t tell him?”
“Cap, Buck, did you two get lost?” Eddie appeared Chim. “Oh. Lucy.”
“Don’t 'oh Lucy’ me, jackass.”
“Lucy,” Buck pleaded. “Tell me.”
Lucy stepped closer, hands out like she was going to steady him. “Buck, Tommy’s been in a coma for almost two weeks.”
Buck’s vision whited out and his knees buckled. He could feel Lucy propping him up against the wall. He breathed through it, trying to get himself to focus. He blinked until he could see spots of colour again, and kept going until they resolved into Lucy’s face and the hallway behind her.
“Is he—” Buck cut himself off.
“It’s just a waiting game at this point,” Lucy told him gently. “Do you want to see him?”
“Yeah, yes. Please.”
“Let’s go.”
“Firefighter Buckley, you’re still on duty.”
“Captain Han, I’m clearly not fit for duty right now,” Buck snapped back. “Say I left sick, write me up for abandoning shift, whatever makes you look better. I'm done.”
“Buck, this isn’t about you. Get back to the engine.” Eddie crossed his arms, backing Chimney up.
“You’re right, it's not about me, Eddie, it’s about Tommy,” Buck said, barely resisting the urge to shout. “And he deserves a hell of a lot better than you two, or me. But at least I can try to be there now.”
“This is why we didn’t tell you,” Eddie said. “Knew you'd make a scene.”
Buck gritted his teeth so hard he thought they’d break.
“Come on,” Lucy said, towing him down the hall behind her. “Let them sort it out.”
“Let’s go,” Chim said shortly, swinging himself into the Captain’s chair.
“Where’s Buck?” Ravi asked, peering out the window. “Did he hop in the ambo?”
“No.” Chim’s answer was short, direct. “He’s done this shift.”
Ravi and Harry exchanged bewildered looks. Ravi slipped his phone out of his pocket and quickly typed a couple of messages out of view of the front seat.
Lucy’s phone buzzed and she pulled it out to check it, typing out a quick message.
“What?” Buck tore his eyes away from Tommy, turning to look at her. “Is everything—”
“Just Ravi checking in,” Lucy said, tucking her phone away. “I saw him on my way in.”
“Oh. Okay.” Buck didn’t exactly relax, but his shoulders ticked down ever so slightly. “I didn’t— were you with him? Are you okay?”
“We were in different helos,” Lucy said.
“Do you um,” Buck licked his lips. “Do you know who took the call?”
Lucy hesitated, and Buck closed his eyes, hand clutching Tommy’s on top of the hospital bedsheet. “Josh was on the line with us.”
“And Josh would have told Maddie who would have told Chim,” Buck said dully. “And Chim was sending you coverage to help out. I’m guessing Eddie was one of them?”
“Melton said he was there,” Lucy admitted. “I think anyone else from the 118 was from B or C shift.”
“Yeah, Rav would have told me if he knew,” Buck agreed. “Guess Chimney can keep a secret when he wants to. I had lunch with Maddie three days ago.”
“I should have called,” Lucy apologized. “I thought they’d tell you. And then when you didn’t show, I figured…”
“They should have told me,” Buck said. “No wonder you were pissed.”
“Sorry,” Lucy winced.
“I think it was pretty well deserved,” Buck shrugged. “You don’t need to apologize.”
“I, uh, can get you added to the visitor list,” Lucy offered. “If you want.”
“You’re his emergency contact?”
“And uh, next of kin,” Lucy said awkwardly. “We did some paperwork a couple months ago.”
Buck absorbed the information, nodded once. “Yeah, thanks Luce, I’d like that.”
“I, uh, was going to get a coffee before I came in,” Lucy said. “You want anything?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
“Okay. Back in a few.” Lucy ducked out of the room.
Buck squeezed Tommy’s hand tightly. “Sorry I’m late Tommy, but I’m here now.”
The visuals were accompanied by sharp pain, and he raised his hand to his cheek and saw it come away bloody.
“Fuck,” Tommy said, a little more clearly. “Uh, cheek lacerations.” He felt around a little more, tried to look around without moving his neck too much. “No impalements, but that cyclic got a little too close for comfort. Uh, possible head or neck trauma. Fingers and toes all seem to be moving.”
“We have a crew on the way to you,” another voice said. Tommy vaguely recognized it as someone from Dispatch.
“Wh-which crew?” Tommy asked.
There was an audible eye roll over the comms. “Does it matter?”
“Yes,” Tommy said, then coughed. That didn’t seem good. “It can’t be the 118. It can’t be Evan Buckley. He can’t see me like this.”
There was a pause. Tommy felt like he’d been muted. “It’s the 147,” the man from Dispatch said. “You’re not in the 118 zone, I won’t reroute them if backup is needed.”
“Thanks,” Tommy let himself slump back against the seat. “He doesn’t deserve to see anyone else he knows like this.”
“Like what?” Tommy was having an easier time pining down the weirdness in Lucy’s voice now. She sounded worried, sad, scared, all together.
“Dying,” Tommy said, making sure to release his walkie before he could cough again over the radio. It was feeling really bad. He probably had two, maybe three cracked ribs? Probably broken, really. He wasn’t wheezing enough for a punctured lung.
“You’re not dying,” Lucy said fiercely. “Get your shit together Kinard, you haven’t even finished training me on lead pilot yet.”
“Sorry, you might have to get Melton to finish it up.”
Tommy could hear sirens now. Good. The helicopter wasn’t on fire yet, they could probably recover him before it went up. Not that anyone would care.
tagged by @beanarie - you asked for this, okay?? just remember that. continuing the tommy coma thoughts.
no pressure tagging all the lovelies and if your name isn't here it doesn't matter becaues i'm tagging you too @wee-fuckin-woo @leashybebes @setmeatopthepyre @trombonechurchill @apollabarnes @geddyqueer @rcmclachlan @corporatebanana @sad-girl-hours23 @mugsywrites @chimneyz @frogsinflannel @cecilyv @liminalmemories21
i'm playing around with some of the ways people seem to canonically see buck - we're drinking the haterade against the WRITERS not necessarily the characters, okay?? they've set them up with certain scenes and thoughts and we're just playing with that.
“He was —” Maddie cut herself off.
“He was what, Maddie?” Buck stared down at her. “Go ahead, say what you want to say.”
“I mean, he was just an experiment, wasn’t he?” Maddie said. “You never even said you loved him — Josh asked you and you couldn’t say it, even though it was just me and Josh.”
“He wasn’t an experiment,” Buck snapped. “And even — even if I couldn’t say it, I did.”
“He left you Buck, multiple times.”
“So-so what? Like you and Chim were smooth sailing? How many false starts did you have, how many times did you break up?”
“That’s different,” Maddie sighed.
“How?” Buck demanded.
“Because we knew we loved each other, that was never our problem.”
“Yeah, well, that’s not ours either! Maybe I haven’t had a lot of great role models in the loving Evan Buckley department, but I never doubted it with Tommy.”
“So how long is this going to go on for, Buck? You’re just going to insinuate yourself into their crew?”
“I don’t know how long it’s going to be, Eddie,” Buck snapped. “As long as it needs to.”
“You can’t just call in sick indefinitely.”
“Which is why I put in for family leave. Don’t worry, they’ll have someone covering me next shift. I’m not leaving the team in the lurch.” Unlike you, Buck thought but didn’t add.
“Family leave? Tommy’s not your family,” Eddie sneered. “We’re your family.”
“Some family. Is that why you all hid this from me? I know you’ve been covering shifts at Harbour, but you didn’t say anything to me.”
“I can’t believe you’re wasting your family leave on him.”
“You know, you two used to be friends,” Buck reminded him.
Eddie scoffed. “Yeah, and then he broke up with you.”
“Don’t,” Buck pointed at him. “Don’t make it about that. We both know it started before that.”
“One day you’re going to need that family leave and it’ll all be gone because of him.”
“Who else am I gonna need it for?” Buck asked, somewhat rhetorically. Eddie didn’t say anything, just kept looking at him. “Oh, for you? Right, and I’m the one who makes it all about me.”
“You know, Chimney can just say no to your leave,” Eddie said, following him as he stalked out to the parking lot.
“No, he can’t, because it already got approved by the chief.” Buck snapped, throwing his bag in the back of the Jeep and climbing into the driver’s seat, shutting the door in Eddie’s face.
“So you just went over your captain’s head?” Buck could hear Eddie’s voice through the window. He cranked the radio up and backed up, noting that Eddie had to jump back. “That’s not how it works!”
“Buck!” Josh looked up, surprised. “Maddie’s off today.”
“I know.” Buck crossed his arms over his chest. “I was looking for you.”
“Why?” Josh asked hesitantly, for the first time intimidated by the firefighter in front of him. He tried to remind himself that this was Maddie’s little brother, the guy who sucked at poker and hated Sudoku and being babied when he was hurt.
Buck seemed to notice the change in Josh, and his stance relaxed. “You were on the call with Tommy?”
“Um, yeah,” Josh said.
“Can I hear it? Please?” Buck pulled out the sad eyes that Maddie had used on him more than once, and Josh sighed. He knew he was no match for those Buckley eyes.
“Yeah, but not here,” Josh said, pushing away from his desk. “Come on.”
Buck followed him to a back office where Josh at him down at a computer and handed him a pair of headphones.
“Are you sure you want to listen to this?” Josh asked as he typed in his username and password.
Buck nodded. “Yeah, I need to.”
“Okay,” Josh said. “Just press play when you’re ready to go. I’ll wait in the hallway.”
“Thanks,” Buck said, attention already focused on the computer.
tagged by @leashybebes and @sad-girl-hours23 thank you!
no pressure tagging @geddyqueer @capthawkeyepierce @beanarie @rcmclachlan @adiprose @thecarrott @trombonechurchill @corporatebanana @wee-fuckin-woo @pluralityofaxes @a-mel0n and YOU! :) <3
Chimney stormed into his office when they got back to the station, slamming the door closed behind him. It didn’t bring him the satisfaction that he wanted, but it at least blocked out of the sounds of the rest of the crew. He paced the length of the office until he felt a little calmer.
Well, shit. Buck knew now. Honestly, he’d been right that he shouldn’t work the rest of the shift, but that should have been Chimney’s call to make, not Buck’s. Do whatever makes you look good. He scoffed.
He sat down in his chair, letting his head fall into his hands. What a clusterfuck. They’d been trying to keep Buck on an even keel, and now he’d left in the middle of a shift, and he could already only imagine the flare up that would happen between Buck and Eddie next shift.
He groaned, massaging his temples with his fingertips. He'd never wanted to deal with this captain bullshit, and every day it felt like there was more and more getting added to his plate. The only saving grace of today was that Hen was off because of something at Mara’s school, so he could swing by there after shift and get day drunk with her, or Karen, or both. The Lees had the kids for the day and Maddie was going to pick them up on her way home.
ahh so this is the fic that happened when I listened to my sad music playlist lmao - tommy coma
the basic premise is, what if tommy got hurt on the job and no one told buck?
it’s firefam critical, but hopefully kind of consistent with the writing on the show? ( y i k e s )
So Buck runs into Lucy at the hospital and find out about Tommy; he leaves mid-shift. He later finds out that Chimney knew, and had been sending people from the 118 to help cover shifts, including Eddie. Josh took the call, and Maddie knew about it.
Basically, because of what we know Buck has told people — not a lot — they think they don’t need to tell him about it because he and Tommy weren’t that serious.
Lucy is fucking pissed he hasn’t shown up in the two weeks Tommy’s been in the hospital because she knew that all those other people knew about it and assumed Buck just… didn’t care.
Buck takes his vast accumulated sick and vacation time, stays with Tommy until he wakes up, and ends up basically moving Tommy into his place for his recovery.
Eventually bucktommy getting back together, firefam actually talks, some things are fixed, maybe some aren’t? it’s a lot of vibes lmao
