Buck whistles as she strolls into the station to find Bobby, Chim, and Hen already congregated in front of the locker rooms so she couldn't get around, though luckily for her she wasn't as late as usual and had come in already changed for work, "Morning, guys. What're you staring at?"
They turn in almost unison.
"Good, you're here," Bobby said, "I want you to meet our newest recruit and probie. He's finished the academy just last week, top of his class. A former army medic, done two tours in Afghanistan and has a Silver Star. Likes to be called, 'eight pack'. I'll introduce you, come on."
"Now that is a beautiful man," Chim said as he followed Bobby's gaze into the locker room where a man was just putting on his uniform shirt.
"Where's the lie? And I like girls," Hen replied, causing Buck to look over their shoulders at what they were all seeing. A moment later, an even wider grin spread over her face.
"No fucking way! G.I. what the hell are you doing here?"
"Songbird? How the hell have you been?" the man called back, coming out of the glass-walled room and sweeping Buck into a tight hug. A moment later, he pushed Buck away and started checking him over."Man, am I glad you're alright! You are alright, aren't you?" The man held her by her arms and looked her over with a critical eye causing Buck to laugh and playfully swat away his hands.
"Yeah, I'm alright. I actually go by Buck now."
"So, you know each other?" Bobby asked. While he had known that Buck had trained for the SEALs, he had thought Buck was a ringer. "You're not a ringer?"
"Yeah, we met in Afghanistan when we were stationed at the same camp for half a year and I had to patch her up the first day into her team arriving," Eddie answered. "Been best friends ever since."
"I would have been fine. It was just a scratch," Buck replied, falling back into the easy bickering they had had when they had both been in active service. "And no, I never said that I rang. I only told you that I had a problem with flicking the switch."
"You had two GSW wounds that needed twenty-six stitches each!" Eddie gave back, rolling his eyes at the familiar words from his friend.
"As I said, scratch."
Buck stuck out her tongue at Eddie and laughed when he playfully grabbed at her again, ignoring the gaping the others did at her words.
Eddie just rolled his eyes at his friend before holding out his hand to the two members of the team he had not yet met. "Eddie Diaz."
"Hen Wilson," Hen introduced herself as they shook hands. "And this is Howie Han. He goes by Chimney."
"Pleasure, I look forward to working with you all," Eddie replied.
"Well I'm glad you two already get along because I brought you here to be Buck's partner with the heavy rescue," Bobby said and Buck grinned at that. Eddie did, too. He was glad for that since he knew that Buck would have his back.
"This is gonna be awesome. Just wait until I tell Smooth Dog and the team who my new partner is."
Eddie groaned but went right back to smiling. They both stood there smiling at each other, basking in the feeling of having their best friend close again.
"How's the missus and the son, Christopher?"
"Chris is fine. He's with my Abuela right now. I have no idea how Shannon is, however. She left shortly after I got discharged."
Before they could talk more, the alarm blares and they gear up and mount the truck in a matter of seconds. Eddie sits down in front of her on the truck and they share a smile.
🔥🔥
"What's the situation?" Bobby asked the man who came to meet them as they arrived at the scene.
"The air nozzle is embedded in his ass cheek," the man explained as quickly as he could. "I shut it off, but I was afraid to move him."
Buck listened as Bobby told them what to do, all the while speaking kindly with the victim, Hector, trying to keep him as calm as possible. The best thing to do in these situations was to keep calm and not panic, panic usually resulted in the worsening of their injuries.
"Buck, I need you to get a 14-gauge angiocath," Bobby ordered as everything else seemed to have failed. "We need to start decompressing the pleural cavity."
"All right, I'll get on it," Buck nodded and went to work.
Buck started pulling out the tools she needed as she heard Eddie ask, "Want me to help?"
"Hang in there, Hector," Buck murmured to the man before nodding at Eddie. "Have you ever done anything like this?"
"I've treated guys with a collapsed lung in combat," Eddie nodded slowly.
"Then you do it," Buck held out the tools towards Eddie. "I have the training and the knowledge but this is a time when I can't screw up, so please."
"I've got you," Eddie smiled kindly at her. Buck pulled Hector's shirt out of the way so Eddie could cut a hole in the undershirt. As Eddie pushed the needle into Hector's chest, Buck watched intently so that she would know what to do next time.
The moment air started flowing out of Hector's chest, Buck could see the slight relief on Eddie's face. A few seconds later Hector started to breathe again and Buck felt herself relax and she smiled down at Hector.
"You're doing great sir," Buck told him.
"A..o..el?" Hector gasped out as he looked slightly dazed and out of it.
"Can you repeat that?"
"Are you an Angel?" Hector's voice was still breathless as he looked up at Buck in awe.
"And Buck's pretty face strikes again," Hen snorted as Chim chuckled while they wheeled Hector away.
🔥🔥
Buck freezes when she and Atlas enter their apartment and Maddie is sitting on her couch. Atlas squeezes her hand in distress and she pulls herself together. "It's alright Atlas, I know who this is. You can head on to your room."
Atlas squeezes her hand again and darts towards his room not looking towards Maddie or getting any closer than necessary.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well, I was in town and I wanted to see my little sister," Maddie told her. "I... uh, I didn't know you had a kid."
🔥🔥
Over the course of the next few days, the crew found themselves basically going from call to call, with Buck and Eddie falling back into a familiar partnership. Eating off the same plate, working out together, and having each other's back no matter what.
"Yup," Jim, the captain of the bomb squad, said as he looked at the X-Ray. "There she is."
"He's got a live round embedded in his thigh," Bobby sounded impressed and shocked.
"He's lucky it was a launch grenade," Buck hummed thoughtfully, then she continued as she saw the curious look Bobby sent her. "It has two components: gunpowder which makes it travel and an explosive charge that makes it go boom."
"Okay, so why didn't this one go boom?" Bobby asked slowly.
"It's fitted with a proximity fuse," Buck explained to him, not seeing the interested look on Jim's face."It's a smart sensor that tells the cap it has traveled a safe distance from the shooter to explode."
Eddie nodded in agreement, "From his hand to his leg probably wasn't far enough."
"Well, we can't bring him inside a hospital full of people, not with that stuck inside him," Bobby pointed out.
"We called the military for help," Jim said slowly. "They're sending someone up from Pendleton, should be here within the hour."
"He doesn't have an hour," Buck pointed out.
"I can do it," Eddie says calmly making her swivel towards him. "If he doesn't go to surgery soon he'll die and I've done this before."
She narrows her eyes at him. "I'm in," Buck spoke up confidently.
"You're sure about this?" Bobby asks.
"Yes," Eddie says.
"Always." She says.
Bobby looks at the bomb squad guy who nods. "Alright, grab a vest and get it done. Charlie doesn't have a lot of time."
"You ready?" Eddie turned to her.
"Let's do this," Buck nodded decisively.
Buck pulled the gauze off the wound and frowned slightly. "He's losing a lot of blood."
"Keep pressure on it," Eddie instructed as he moved closer with the claw thing to pull the grenade out. "Not too much pressure."
The next few minutes were nerve-wracking for Buck, blood seeping over her hands as Eddie did his best to get the grenade out without twisting it but finding out that he had to turn it to get it out.
After everything was said and done, Buck and Eddie were standing off to the side taking off their borrowed gear when Eddie spoke up. "You're badass under pressure, you know that?"
"So are you Eddie, so are you," Buck laughed brightly, feeling the adrenaline slowly leaving her body.
"I'm proud of you both," Bobby says as he comes over, placing a hand on each of their shoulders just in time for the ambulance to explode.
They all blink in shock. "... You guys hungry?" Eddie asks with a devil-may-care type of smile and she can't help but snigger at the expression Bobby sends him.
"Yes! I've been craving chicken nuggets all day." Buck groaned as she felt her stomach growl.
"There's a Mcdonald's around the corner; I'm buying," Eddie pointed over his shoulder.
"Can we go, Cap?" Buck turned big blue pleading eyes at Bobby. "Please, please, please..."
"Fine, go, you've both earned it," Bobby waved them away. "Your shift is almost over anyway."
Buck cheered before grabbing Eddie by the arm and swiftly dragging him toward the McDonalds, both of them laughing like children.
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I had this chapter partially written I just never came back to it. Someone asked for it to be updated so I decided to work on it instead of sleeping because I know it would have never gotten done otherwise. Your Welcome😘