Work Text:
Athena holds Bobby’s hand the whole way to the hospital. He’s white-knuckling the steering wheel with his other hand, and he doesn’t speak, and she doesn’t blame him. She also can’t blame him for the way he jumps out of the truck as fast as possible and rushes inside. She knows he loves his team like his children(she does too, she gets it, she gets it).
Athena doesn’t blame Bobby for rushing straight inside and missing what Athena sees by the fire trucks parked in the ambulance bay.
She sees it, though, and she circles around the laddertruck.
Sure enough, the bit of a shirt and legs of a person she’d spotted belong to Buck, and Athena stifles a gasp at that look on his face. Buck, knees drawn to his chest and arms locked tight around them, is splattered red. He’s covered in Eddie’s blood, Athena realizes - it’s all over his shirt, his neck, his hands, his eyebrows and his lips, dried and cracked. “Buck,” Athena breathes out, rushing over to him. “Are you hurt?” she asks.
It’s like he doesn’t even hear her. He’s staring straight ahead, eyes glazed over, a few tear tracks blending in with the splotches of blood on his cheeks.
“Buck, baby,” Athena repeats, and touches his face. His eyes focus on her and he blinks like he hadn’t known she was there.
“‘Thena?” he mumbles, and Athena’s heart breaks at the sound of his voice.
“I’m here, baby. Are you hurt?” She asks again, and breathes a sigh of relief when he shakes his head. Not hurt, but covered in Eddie’s blood. “I’ll be right back,” Athena says, but she doesn’t get very far. A hand curls around her wrist when she tries to stand, and Buck lets out a sound like a whimper. “Hey, hey, it’s okay, Buck. I’m just going to go get the first aid kit from the truck, okay?”
Buck grips her wrist for a moment before nodding and letting go.
Athena circles the ladder truck and finds the kit easily, and counts her lucky stars when she also manages to find an LAFD longsleeve in what she thinks is Buck’s size and a bottle of water. She takes a moment to try to calm herself. Seeing Buck like this, not knowing if Eddie’s okay… it eats at Athena like finding May cold on her floor, and she just needs a minute.
She steels herself and returns to Buck. He hasn’t moved, but his eyes follow her this time when she sits down next to him. Athena isn’t quite sure what to say, though Buck doesn’t really seem to be in the mood for conversation. She also doesn’t know where to start.
“Can you sit forward for me, Buck?” Athena asks, as gentle as she can, and smiles at him when he nods and sits cross-legged, torso moving away from the back of the ladder truck. He doesn’t say anything as Athena unbuttons his red-soaked button down, and he lets her manuveure him like a doll to peel the sleeves off his arms. Her stomach roils a little at the way the blood has dried the fabric to his skin, but Buck doesn’t even seem to notice. His undershirt is stained too, but not nearly as badly, so she leaves it for the time being.
Athena rifles through the first aid kit, and Buck frowns at her when she pulls out the antiseptic wipes. “Not hurt,” he says, like he’s reminding her.
“I know, baby. I’m just going to clean you up a little bit. Is that okay?”
Buck nods again.
Athena scoots closer to him, and starts with his forehead. The blood is dried, so it takes a minute for it to start coming away on the wipe. Athena works her way down his face, starting up by his hairline with long, smooth swipes. Buck closes his eyes when Athena starts on his nose, and she’s careful as she works along his browbone and his eyelids.
“You’re doing so good, baby.” She tells him, and Buck makes a soft noise in response.
The work is faster under his eyes, and Athena realizes with a stab of emotion that it’s because Buck’s tears had kept the blood from drying completely.
When she catches whoever did this, she is going to skin him. Athena thinks this with the same hatred as she’d for that bitchy teenager who’d nearly killed her daughter, and for that lowlife who’d crushed Buck’s leg(and, if she’s being very honest with herself, the same hatred she’d felt for Buck’s parents when she’d found out about Daniel. Defective parts, Buck had said, and Athena regularly has the desire to fly to Pennsylvania and start swinging when she thinks about it).
But she doesn’t say it out loud, focuses instead on finishing the cleaning of Buck’s neck. The blood smudges up near his ears, and instead of scrubbing harder, she leaves it.
She has to tackle the part she’d left alone. His lips are flecked red, and Athena doesn’t want him to know that there’s blood there, but she can’t leave it.
Athena fishes out some gauze and wets it with the water.
Buck’s eyes are still closed.
Gentle as she can, Athena wipes at Buck’s mouth. Buck tenses only slightly, and he lets her. Once his lips are clean, she sits back.
She gets herself another antiseptic wipe. As she’s picking up Buck’s left hand and working on his palm, his eyes open.
He looks at her, and she gives him a look she hopes is comforting.
“Eddie got shot,” he croaks, and Athena’s heart cracks in her chest, but she doesn’t stop wiping.
“I know, baby,” she says, and his eyes well but no tears slip down his cheeks.
“He got shot right in front of me,” Buck whispers a minute later, after Athena’s turned his hand over to work on the back. “I couldn’t protect him.”
“You saved him, Buck. You got him to the hospital.”
She’s moved on to his right hand when Buck says “It should have been me,” and Athena refuses to let her hands stutter despite her heart doing just that. The desire to buy herself a plane ticket to Pennsylvania burns hot and ugly in her gut again, because Buck means it. Because he still doesn’t realize that he has value, that he has people who love him just like Eddie does.
“No, baby, it shouldn’t have been either of you. It wasn’t your fault.” Buck’s as clean as he’s going to get without a shower, and Athena sits back on her heels. “We’re going to find the guy that did this, okay?” When Buck nods, Athena smiles. “Arms up, honey.” She says, and tugs off his undershirt.
Buck helps with getting the clean shirt on, but Athena does most of it.
Clean, in a fresh shirt, Buck still looks so broken that Athena’s heart squeezes in her chest.
“Buck,” Athena whispers.
“I love him,” Buck says, and Athena nods. Because yeah, she’s known that for a while now. Bobby doesn’t see it, she doesn’t think, but Athena does. She’d wondered since the tsunami, but after the well, she’d known. Honestly, she’s a little surprised that Buck knows.
“I know, baby,” she hums, and he looks at her.
“I love him,” he repeats. “What if I never get to tell him?”
It’s like a dam breaks in Buck.
The unshed tears come now, and Athena’s got her arms around him, pulling him against her, before the first sob can rack his body. He clutches at her, and Athena rocks him back and forth the best she can, one hand petting at his hair. “It’s gonna be alright, Buck. Eddie’s gonna be alright.”
He cries until he has no more tears, until Athena’s stiff from the way she’s sitting, half-kneeling so she’s tall enough to cradle Buck.
When Buck pulls back from her, he wipes at his red, puffy eyes with his sleeve. “Sorry,” he mumbles.
“It’s okay, baby." She hands him the waterbottle, and he takes a long drink. He looks... marginally better. Not good, but better, and for now that is enough. "Do you want to go find Bobby?” Athena asks, and he nods.
She stands first. When she reaches out her hand to pull Buck up, he hesitates. “What if-” his voice is so croaky that he has to pause to clear his throat. “What if we go in there and they tell us that Eddie-” he can’t say it, but Athena shakes her head anyways.
“Eddie is going to be just fine, Buck. I’ll be with you the whole time, okay?”
Buck nods, and takes her hand to stand. Together, they head inside.