Chapter Text
When it happens, Buck’s not even on shift, unlike the rest of the team. It’s not often that they’re on shift at different times but it occurs every now and then unfortunately. He’s cruising through the grocery store when he hears the shout, and his instinct kicks in in a matter of seconds. Abandoning his shopping trolley and groceries, he runs for the door, feet pounding down the aisles of the shop before he bursts out into the afternoon sunlight.
“What’s going on?” Buck demands, catching the woman who was shouting by her arm. He instinctively runs his eyes over her, checking for injuries, but she seems unharmed besides her obvious distress.
“My daughter and her boyfriend,” the woman cries, gesturing at the house over the road. Buck’s eyes flit over the untouched building.
“I’m going to need more than that, ma’am,” he presses gently.
“I was talking to her over the phone,” she sobs, “I was on my way here to have lunch with them. But then- then she just- there was a shout and she cut off- and- and-”
“Okay, okay,” Buck soothes, easing the woman down until she’s sitting on the pavement. He glances at the small crowd that’s gathering and is relieved to see someone already on the phone to 911. “Is there any chance the boyfriend could be abusive?”
“No!” the woman cries, staring at Buck in horror. “Although… their- their roommate!”
“The roommate?”
“I never liked him,” the woman shakes her head, “He was- he- oh god!”
The woman crumples in sobs, and Buck hears a shrill scream from inside the house. Before he can stop himself, he’s moving away, running towards the house. In the back of his mind, he knows it’s stupid, but there are still minutes before any units turn up. Anything can happen in minutes.
When he reaches the door, he can hear the shouts coming from inside clearly and his heart leaps in his throat.
“Jamie! Jamie, put the gun down!”
“Jamie, I swear to god get your hands off of me or I’ll-”
Buck tries the door handle and rolls his eyes when it twists open without a fight. Silently, he pushes the door open, stepping inside on a hunter’s feet.
“Jamie- Jamie, please,” the sound of the girl’s desperate sobs echo down the hallway as Buck creeps along it, “I don’t know what I did! Jamie!”
He stops, right outside the room the voices are coming from, suddenly realising the situation he’s gotten himself into; no equipment, no team, no planning. He grabs the glass vase sitting on the shelf beside him, just in case.
“Come on, man, just- just let her go, alright? I don’t thi-”
“No! I heard the two of you! I heard what you were saying!”
“Jamie, we weren’t- we weren’t even talking about you! I was calling my mum, you fucking psycho!”
There’s a yell and Buck dives around the corner, into the room. The next few things happen in a matter of seconds, so fast that Buck barely has the time to process it properly. First, his eyes meet the barrel of a gun, pointed to kill. Next, a police officer tackles the man from behind. Then, a fierce grip on his shoulders. Athena Grant’s furious gaze. A sea of police officers swarming into the house. Athena pushing him down the hallway and out of the front door.
“Get your ass outside,” she growls.
“LAPD, put your hands in the air,” Buck hears from the room as he backs out of the house. There are hands on him immediately and it takes Buck at least a minute to realise it’s Eddie and Chimney, their grips firm on his arms as if they think he’s some wild animal that’s going to make a run for it. He twists out of their hands, adrenalin still pumping through his veins, hands trembling with it. When he meets Eddie’s honey brown gaze, he’s not surprised to find irritation burning there, in the sharp lines of his clenched jaw and rigid posture.
“Are you trying to get yourself shot?” Athena’s shout startles the three of them and Buck swings around to see her storming out of the house, following the victims and their roommate, in handcuffs. All eyes follow her as she strides up to Buck, her whole posture screaming fury and Buck feels his own fists clench.
“I’m not an idiot, Athena, I knew what I was doing,” he growls.
“Oh, you did, did you? ‘Cause from where I was standing it looked a lot like you were jumping in there with nothing but a glass vase and were about to make the whole situation at least ten times worse,” she replies through gritted teeth. Buck lets out a bark of disbelieving laughter and feels Eddie’s hand clamp around his arm again. The adrenaline is coursing through him, churning his blood with it.
“Who do you think you are?” Buck demands, “I have training, I’m not some dumb kid. I was thinking on my feet because I didn’t want that poor girl to be shot through the fucking head!”
“Yet, you going in there with a glass vase raised could easily have put it there,” Athena replies, deadly quiet, not at all cowed by Buck’s anger. “You may not be ‘some dumb kid’ but you sure are acting like it. Get your act together, Buckley, reckless, impulsive behaviour isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
The words hit a nerve and Buck steps forward further, only to find Eddie's strong grip is holding him back. Later he’ll be grateful that the other man had been there to pull him down off the ledge of his own anger, but right now he wants nothing more than to rip his hands off him.
“Why do you give a shit?” Buck demands. “The three of them are perfectly fine, now, what’s the problem?”
“The problem? The problem is me walking in on you with a gun raised to your face, seconds away from lying dead on those floorboards,” Athena hisses. “You need to stop throwing your life around like you don’t give a damn what happens.”
Buck splutters, his anger momentarily cut off, replaced with blurry confusion. His brain is only now recognizing that if things had gone differently then there’s a high chance he’d still be in that house, bleeding out on the floor. It takes the air out of his chest like a sharp blow to the stomach and he falls back a little, winded, Eddie’s hands practically holding him up.
“But- what-” he struggles for the words.
“You’re going to be the death of me, Buck, I swear,” Athena sighs, and Buck can see that the anger is melting away to reveal fear, an unfamiliar emotion on the woman’s face.
“I don’t understand,” Buck says weakly, hating the way his strength has sapped out of him so quickly, leaving him bereft, empty. “Why do you care?”
Buck’s so focused on Athena that he barely registers the way Eddie’s hands still on his arm or the disbelieving noise Chimney makes. Athena’s staring at him in… in sympathy.
“Because I care about you, Buck,” she tells him, her tone confused and Buck’s not sure why. “Because I love you like I love my own children, and I worry when you’re reckless and when you’re stupidly brave and I don’t want to see you get hurt. Why’s that so hard to understand?”
The ground feels unsteady beneath his feet as he sways, shakily, glad of the support Eddie’s providing. Why is it so hard for him to understand? People rarely seem to care about him and actually mean it. Or worse; often when they do mean it they still end up leaving him anyway. But the woman standing before him isn’t his mother, it’s Athena Grant and Buck knows without a doubt that she has no reason to lie to him about caring - she’s not the kind of person who would.
Buck crumbles a little at her admission and then Athena’s moving forward and Buck crumbles that little bit more as she moves in to hug him. Her embrace is warm and safe and everything Buck remembers a mother’s arms to feel like.
“This is uh… new,” Buck mumbles into her shoulder. She rubs his arm soothingly and then pulls away, all too soon, a fond expression curving her mouth upwards.
“Don’t get too used to it, Buckaroo,” she teases, before glancing back at Eddie and Chimney. “Make sure he doesn’t do anything else dumb, you two. And look after him.”
Buck can tell that Athena’s eyes are only on Eddie when she says that last sentence and his heart stutters weirdly in his chest at the words. She turns around, heading back to her car.
“Hey, wait!” Buck calls after her, catching her attention, and Athena spins back around, eyebrows raised expectantly. Buck rubs the back of his neck nervously. “I uh- I just wanted to say thank you,” he blurts out. “And… and I’m sorry, I guess.”
“Just don’t do it again,” Athena scolds, fondness bleeding into her tone. Then she turns back, an exasperated smile creeping onto her face, and climbs into her car.
The words feel like a safe haven as they wash over him and Buck wonders just how stupid he’d have to be to pull a similar stunt, just so he could hear her say them again.
“Don’t even think about it,” Eddie mutters roughly, releasing his grip on Buck’s arm with a light shove. Buck gapes at him.
“I didn’t say a word,” he splutters.
“I know that look,” Eddie tells him, his face all sharp lines and tense muscles, before it softens slightly. “She really cares about you, Buck, you don’t need to do anything ridiculously stupid to prove it.”
Embarrassingly, Buck’s cheeks flush with heat and he ducks his head. “That’s not why I did it.”
“I know that,” Eddie replies, rolling his eyes, “I mean anything stupider.”
“That sounds like a challenge.”
“Don’t you dare,” Eddie growls. Buck laughs light heartedly, feeling a fuzzy warmth spread across his chest. It’s true; he hadn’t done it to gain proof that Athena cares, but now that he’s got that proof he feels like the storm of uncertainty raging in his chest has quietened, just a little.