Chapter Text
Eddie wakes up from a bed. From a hospital bed, to be exact. Hen is sitting in a chair next to him. “Oh you’re awake, great”, she says when she sees Eddie blink his eyes slowly, adjusting to the light. “You weren’t out too long. Maybe ten minutes? Buck is still in surgery. Oh, and Chris is on his way here now”, she recites. “I’ll let the others know you are back.”
There’s just too much going on. Buck is dying. Chris is coming home. Is he? Or is he just visiting? Buck is dying. Does Eddie need to say goodbyes to Chris and Buck soon? Somehow Eddie ended up in a hospital bed. And Buck is dying.
What the hell was going on?
Athena comes to take Hen’s place. “Someone will come and let us know when Buck gets out of the surgery”, she says, “but until then you’ll rest.”
Eddie nodded. There was no objecting to Athena Grant. “At least tell me what happened to Buck. And Maddie”, Eddie said anyway. He may not be able to object, but he sure as hell can negotiate.
Athena sighs. “Alright. Just keep breathing.” Then she tells the whole thing.
There was a serial killer Athena had been investigating for the past week. Eddie had heard about him briefly, but there hadn’t really been any clues or anything. But yesterday one of his victims had called Maddie. Well,had called 911, and Maddie was the one who picked up. The victim was able to give valuable information about her attacker to her. Athena had connected the dots, as she always does.
That the attacker of the 911 call was in fact the serial killer who had killed three women already. Four, after Maddie was forced to listen to that caller being dismembered and killed.
That woman was good. Eddie knew she could sometimes be a bit intense and make hasty decisions, but even so, she was good at what she did. Sometimes Eddie caught himself thinking that that’s where Buck gets it, until he remembers that Athena and Bobby aren’t Buck's actual parents. And Eddie was pretty sure Buck had been intense and hasty before he was unofficially adopted by the Nash-Grant Family.
Anyway, that 911 call had lead to a police pursuit of the serial killer, who had escaped. And gone after Maddie. Maddie had gone through so much already, Eddie wished she could just catch a break. After Dough and the post-partum depression, she truly deserved to have a safe and happy time.
But Maddie had been taken. Athena couldn’t tell why the killer had not killed Maddie at the spot, but thank God for that. Buck had of course heard about Maddie being kidnapped by a serial killer, and because its Buck he had gone for her alone. Bobby had called Buck, asking him to meet Bobby at his house. Buck had seen the news and realised the reason Bobby had sounded so worried and well… Next thing Bobby received a voicemail from Buck driving away from the city.
Athena didn’t know how Buck had found Maddie and the killer, Buck could tell that if, when he woke up. But Athena was able to track Buck’s phone and find him and Maddie from an emtpy warehouse near Temecula. Maddie had been tied up to a pole, unconscious and somewhat bruised, but relatively alright.
Buck on the other hand… He had lied on the dirty floor like a ragdoll, face down in a puddle of his own blood. His body was covered with large bruises. He had three gunshot wounds, shot within a close range with a pistol. One in his left shoulder, two in his lower abdomen. The bullets had nicked his spleen and kidney, but thankfully any shots weren’t lethal.
And his back had been one open wound. A warzone, Athena described. At least ten slashes of a whip had exposed raw flesh, and the wounds had bled worse than the gunshot wounds. If he was going to live, he would have some major scars for the rest of his life.
He had barely breathed. No wonder, as he had seven broken ribs, too.
The killer had fled, and he was still out there.
Eddie kept listening to Athena while pure terror took over him. The monster who had done that to Buck - to his Buck - was still out there. And the condition in which Buck was… that was bad. Much worse than Eddie had imagined.
Buck made it out of the surgery, straight to the ICU. He was in a coma. But he had made it out alive.
Eddie had not eaten anything in hours. He sat next to Buck, still as a statue, as if the slightest movement would break him. Bobby had brought him a sandwich, but Eddie couldn’t get even the first bite down. Bobby had told Eddie to go to sleep and Eddie had barked “Over my dead boby” back at him.
His mind kept replaying moments from his life.
Buck hanging from the ladder after the lightning
Buck with despair in his eyes after the tsunami, Chris’s glasses hanging on his neck.
Eddie under the ground, with the medal of St. Christopher, thinking that he had to get out there for Chris -- and for Buck
Eddie signing his updated will, the one with Buck in it.
Because Evan
Eddie in a church, nearly confessing something to a priest. Something he still has not confessed to himself.
Buck and Chris playing video games on Eddie’s couch while he was cooking them.
At the zoo.
Buck under the ladder truck.
Buck.
“Dad!”
Chris
Christopher ran to Eddie, smiling tía Pepa next to him. Eddie gave Chris a deep hug. He had grown so much. He had lost so much time with him. Oh God