That morning, Buck’s just sitting at his small dining room table drinking coffee, before deciding to go into town to fix the hole.
As when he reaches the closest home improvement store, he’s stopped by an adorable kid in crutches, who smiles at him. “Hi.”
Buck, who’s never met a kid he hasn’t liked, smiles back, “Hey.”, before looking around the general area. “Are your parents around?”
The kid shakes his head, “My dad’s an aisle over, but I wanna help. What’re you looking for?”
Buck knows he shouldn’t be talking to a kid without his parents at least nearby, but seeing how all the other store reps are either occupied or nowhere to be seen, he decides to humor him.
“Actually, now that you’re asking, I’m looking for some paint.”
Chris tells him enthusiastically, “This a-aisle shows all the colors they ha-have available.”
Buck feigns surprise, “Oh really? That’s so cool.”
Then the kid asks, “What’re you painting?”
Buck hesitates before answering, “I uh, I’m painting my kitchen floor.”
At this, the kid laughs, “You’re painting the floor?”
Buck swears his heart swells at the sound. He hopes whoever’s lucky enough to call this kid their son knows what a blessing to have a kid that laughs like that really is.
“Why do you think that’s funny?”
The kid speaks slowly, “Be-because nobody paints th-the floor. Why not pu-put a rug on it?”
Buck’s smile gets bigger as he explains calmly, “Well, actually, I’m new to LA, and I’m looking to make my new house more bright and happy. What color would you recommend?”
Buck holds up a few color swatches for the kid to look at, and immediately, the kid says,
“Blue.”
Buck lifts an eyebrow at that, “Blue?”
The kid nods enthusiastically, “Yeah. Like Superman."
Buck decides he wholeheartedly agrees, “Okay. I think you just helped me in a big way. Thanks, Superman.”
The kid replies, “There’s-there’s some right in this aisle. I can show you where. I’m Christopher.”
Buck follows Christopher, keeping an eye out for whoever this adorable kid’s father might be, “And I’m Buck.”
As Chris goes to find the desired paint color, Eddie looks over to see the tail end of this exchange, and immediately Eddie walks over, demanding more than asking, “You’re still here?”,
Buck’s a little startled by this, but just replies, “Yeah...”
Eddie scrambles to cover, “Let me, let me take care of this for you.” and goes to pick up the color swatch himself.
Once in hand, Eddie quickly apologies, “Sorry, it’s just young guys like you usually don’t last very long. Mostly just biding their time until they get discovered. Usually don’t even last a week before they leave, tail between their legs.”
Hands in his pockets, Buck says nonchalantly, “I like it just fine.”
Chris points out enthusiastically, “There it is!”
Eddie tries to deny, “No, that’s not--”, right as Buck says, “Thank you so much.”
That throws Eddie, so he has to ask, “You painting something?”
Chris answers for Buck, “Yeah, he’s pa-painting his floor.”
That only clears part of it up, “Okay...”
Buck’s quick to say, “Thanks for the help. Thank you, Christopher.” and walks away.
Immediately, Eddie’s on alert, knowing he’s gonna have to have a serious talk with Christopher about talking to strangers. Just because he works with this guy, doesn’t mean he’s okay with leaving his kid alone with him.
Later, in between calls, Buck’s relaxing in the loft, when he sees a cop walk in, and immediately, he goes to make himself scarce, which unfortunately doesn’t go unnoticed by the other team members.
“You okay, Buck?” Chimney, as he likes to be called, asks.
Quickly, Buck blows it off, “Yeah, I’m great.”, as he listens to the conversation downstairs.
“You wouldn’t by chance know the owner of the car parked haphazardly outside, would you?”
“No, don’t think so.”
“What about your newest recruit?”
“Buck!” comes the call from Bobby downstairs, and Buck jumps, upsetting the plates still on the table. “Got someone who wants to talk to you.”
Shaking, Buck carefully makes his way downstairs, relieved. “Yeah, coming. Sorry to make you wait.”
When Buck finally makes it home, he sees a woman trying to peek in his house’s windows.
“Hello? Are you looking for me?”
The woman startles, turning to look at Buck, “Oh! You scared me. Sorry. Didn’t mean to snoop.”
Buck’s not too sure what to think at that, as she goes on, “I honestly wish I had a good excuse, but I really don’t. I was just curious. You’re the only neighbor I’ve had here in forever.”
At that, Buck’s immediately suspicious. “The realtor told me I wouldn’t have any neighbors at all.”
The woman laughs, “You’re in luck then. By LA’s standards, I’m not close at all.”, then comes down the porch stairs to hold out a hand, “I’m Shannon, by the way.”
Buck doesn’t take it, just says, “Buck.”, and moves to go inside.
Shannon tries again, “Look, I’m out here for the same reason you are. You just want to be left alone. I get if you need to...”
Buck agrees, “Yeah, I really like how I can just think without being interrupted.”
Shannon agrees enthusiastically, “Thank you! It’s nice, isn’t it, to get away from all the talking and noise? It can be nauseating, so it’s just really...nice to meet someone who appreciates that like me.”
Buck starts backing his way up the stairs, so Shannon takes that as his cue, “Well, it’s really nice to meet you.”
Buck says politely, “You too.”
But Shannon’s quick to say, “I’m just down the road if you ever wanna talk. I’m a tough girl, if you’re ever in a fight. Sorry, again, for bothering you.”
Buck stays polite as he says, “It’s okay. Walk safe.”, then finally turns away to go into his house.
Jeremy, meanwhile, is back at the bus station, interrogating the guy at the ticket counter,
“How many stops are there from here to Philadelphia?”
The guy replies, “A few, I suppose. I wouldn’t know all of them.”
“How about an estimate? Down to Philadelphia. What happens in Philadelphia?”
The guy behind the counter asks, “Where do you want to go?”
Jeremy as no patience for this, just asks, “Where exactly can you go from Philadelphia?”
The ticket guy replies, “Anywhere. Philly’s our east coast hub. There’s routes from every city in the country.”
Back at his desk, Jeremy attempts to map out all the possible routes you can take from Philadelphia, but once he sees all the lines fill in, he crumples up the bus map and tosses it, frustrated.
“Shit. My job just got a whole lot harder.”
But then, he sees the grainy picture of Buck in his hoodie at the bus station, and an idea starts to form.
YOU ARE READING
Sanctuary
RomanceEvan "Buck" Buckley moves to LA, determined to make a new life for himself. He takes a job as a firefighter and keeps a low profile, but he is soon won over by the warmth and caring of the close-knit fire family, especially that of widower Eddie Dia...
