Whumptober 2023
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“Buck,”
“C’mon, Eddie, I’m being serious.”
“So am I. I’m not answering that question.”
“Why? Can’t you see them?”
“I can see them.”
“Then how many fingers am I holding up?”
Series
- Part 1 of Whumptober 2023
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“Man, you look rough.”
Buck’s chest burns as he fights to suppress yet another coughing fit. But he masks his features as best he can and grabs his bag from the back of the jeep, swinging it over his shoulder. “Gee, thanks, Chim.” He’s facing down a twenty-four-hour shift on very little sleep and a body that aches as though he’s just finished a marathon.
Series
- Part 2 of Whumptober 2023
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The thing is, he didn’t mean to look. Not really. Eddie is not a snooper by nature. Even when he has to look through Christopher’s room to find missing homework, or the gym shirt his son is convinced is in his locker at school, Eddie always feels guilty. Like he’s violating his son’s privacy.
So he certainly wouldn’t do it to Buck purposefully.
Series
- Part 3 of Whumptober 2023
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His son has been asleep for over an hour but Eddie can’t bring himself to leave the room, afraid if he does that Christopher will disappear and Eddie will find himself standing in front of Buck outside the VA hospital again.
“Why do you have is glasses?”
“M-me and-and Christopher, we were…at the beach.”
It had only been seconds, forty at the most, where he had feared the worst. A dirty and bloodied Buck stumbling over his words as he tried to tell Eddie…
But then over Buck’s shoulder, a woman, a bundle in her arms. A child in an oversized hoodie. But the back of that head, he would know it anywhere. He was certain.
Series
- Part 4 of Whumptober 2023
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His ears are ringing.
Every single inch of his body throbs with the impact of his fall and the battering he suffered from the debris hitting him on the way down.
He had been so close to getting out when the structure had given way, the roof caving in first before the floor gave out and he and the victim plummeted into darkness.
Series
- Part 5 of Whumptober 2023
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Maybe it’s the static in the air, or maybe it’s the memory of what happened the last time a storm passed over the city, but whatever the reason Chim can’t sleep.
Series
- Part 6 of Whumptober 2023
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They’re talking about him again.
Maddie gesticulates wildly at the doctor, her face still tear-stained, and Bobby with that heavy look to his shoulders. Buck watches their mouths closely, trying to pick out any snippets of their conversation but he can hear nothing over the ringing in his ears, the thumping beat of his headache, and the swathes of bandaging covering his head.
Bobby’s face is set, his lips pursed thin in the way they always are when things are bad. His captain is good at schooling his features most of the time, but not when it comes to the well-being of one of his crew. Now and then his eyes flick to Buck before returning to the conversation and it does nothing to help the absolute paranoia at knowing he’s being talked about within earshot but being unable to hear a word.
“HEY!” He yells, slamming his hand down on the overbed table, the notepad and pen resting to one side jumping at the impact. “I am right here!”
Series
- Part 7 of Whumptober 2023
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The scene is a mess when they arrive.
Swathes of supporters dressed in the colours of their teams mill through the streets making it impossible to get the truck through.
“We’ll have to park it here,” Bobby says, slipping off his headset. “Grab whatever gear we might need.” The crew climbs out of the cab, opening the lockers on the truck and pulling out equipment, saws, Halligans, rope, crowbars, covering as many bases as they can.
Series
- Part 8 of Whumptober 2023
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“That’s him?” Athena checks, looking at the man through the one-way mirror of the observation room.
One thing that Athena will never get used to in this job is how so very normal people can seem. How many times has the bad guy been the husband, the neighbor, the friend, the person they sit next to at church and no one ever suspected?
The man sitting in the interrogation room looks as normal as they come save for the blood stains on his clothes and hands. He picks idly at a fingernail while he waits, scraping out the dried blood. He’d been swabbed when they’d first brought him to interrogation but they’re still waiting on the results of the analysis to confirm whose blood it is.
Series
- Part 9 of Whumptober 2023
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Eddie sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stave off the migraine he can feel building behind his eyeballs, it’s their fourth fight this week and it’s only Wednesday. Each one has started and ended in the same way, Eddie demanding answers and Buck being unable, or unwilling, to give them.
He’s trying not to lose his temper this time, he doesn’t want a repeat of Monday’s argument, both of them red faced and Christopher emerging from his room in tears begging them to stop. Buck had whisked him back to bed leaving Eddie to take a walk around the block to cool down before going in to speak to his son when he got back.
“I don’t like it when you two fight,” Chris has still been teary, Buck slipping out of the room to let Eddie speak to him on his own. “It’s all you guys do now.”
“It’s not…” And really, it is. Eddie can’t lie to his kid. “Grown ups fight sometimes, even those that love each other as much as Buck and I love each other.” He stresses, because it’s important that Chris knows that.
Series
- Part 10 of Whumptober 2023
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He’s lost track of the days.
He manages for a while, keeps a count in his head, and then when he’s awarded with a little more freedom, he scores a tally into the grain underneath the wooden dining table.
The day his husband finds it is the day he brings home their daughter.
“I got you something else to occupy yourself with,” His husband says with a snarl as he pushes the shaking girl toward him. “Because, clearly, taking care of me and the house isn’t keeping you busy enough.” The girl, who looks to be around sixteen, is doped to the eyeballs, swaying where she stands.
He stops keeping track then. Every day blurs into the next and he can only monitor the passing of time by how the welts on his back or the raw skin around his ankle under the thick shackle heal.
Series
- Part 11 of Whumptober 2023
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“I pulled them out, but I didn’t save them. I’m afraid that I’m never going to feel normal again.”
Eddie slips away after he finishes recounting what he found out about his unit. Buck watches as his eyes blur over and the muscles in his face go slack. Before he can do anything Christopher is calling for him.
Series
- Part 12 of Whumptober 2023