Single Dads

3. Long Shifts

Eddie, Carla, and Christopher met curtesy of Buck and we're planning out a schedule in which both Kane and Christopher could have a meeting period before leaving them alone with Carla during a shift.

The first meeting was scheduled for a week away. The next day was a 72 hour shift for the team.

Chris was with his Abuela and Kane with Carla.

The first night was relatively quiet in town the team actually got a few hours of rest.

Mid day 2 bearing on 50 or so hours in Buck received a call.

"Hello?" He said Carla.

"Buck he won't calm down." She sounded worried. "He's been up all night crying and screaming, he won't let me touch him, he's shaking so bad, I can't even get him to breath anymore."

Bucks worried eyes drew the concern of the team.

"Buck hello?" She said distressed.

"Is he, did he-did he talk or anything?"

"He's just nonstop crying and yelling, like somebody's hurting him. He's hardly breathing, I don't want to pick him up and try to take him in the car."

"I'll be there." Buck said and hung up looking at his team surrounding him.

"Suit up!" Bobby yelled before Buck could open his mouth.

The team met in the truck. "Tell is what's going on Buckley!" Bobby yelled and started driving sirens on to Bucks apartment.

"Kane is having some sort of panic attack or flash back and Carla can't pull him out of it. He's been screaming and crying all night and now he's hardly breathing." He said emotionally.

"3 minutes out!" Chimney yelled.

As soon as they arrived Buck sprinted into the building the team following with the medical kits.

Carla opened the door and Buck sprinted to his sons room seeing him collapsed in his bed crying and screaming but his throat so hoarse he was hardly making any noise.

"Kane it's Daddy, buddy what's going on?" He asked gently and picked up the boy despite the pushing away he weakly gave trying to get out of the grasp.

"Kane I'm going to lay you down on the floor sweets okay."

"Buck we gotta check his vitals." Hen said seriously and he nodded removing the boys shirt.

"My friends at work who save people are going to check you out okay."

Hen and Chim did their job working as quickly as possible.

"He's dehydrated, and his heart Rate is super high."

Buck nodded. "Kane do you hear me?" Buck asked quietly holding the boy again. "I know it's super hard to tell me what's wrong, so if you understand what's happening can you squeeze my hand? Just like when we make lemonade and we have to squeeze the lemons, you remember that right, squeeze my hand so I know you're listening." The child squeezed Bucks hand after another minute of trying to connect with him. Buck smiled. "Great job buddy. Now remember at the doctors office we worked on those weird breathing games?" He said enthusiastically trying not to cry.

The team watched Buck heartbrokenly as he tried to calm his son.

He put his hand on Kane's chest and Kane's other small hand onto his.

"Do you feel my heart beat? Squeeze my hand again if you do." He squeezed. "Perfect, now when I take a really big breath you do too, and then we want our hearts and breathing to move at the same time okay? Squeeze my hand if you understand." He squeezed again. "Awesome buddy."

Buck inhaled super big and exaggerated and the boy tried to mimic but ended up coughing. The tried again and this time his little chest expanded and collapsed shakily with his fathers. After a very long 20 minutes the boy was completely calm and fell into his Dads chest out of exhaustion.

"Oh I know you're tired bud." Buck said picking him up and holding him tightly and secured in his chest.

He looked up at his team members who just witnessed a part of his almost daily life.

"Come on," Bobby said and Buck stood holding the boy. "He'll stay with you for the day."

Carla thanked everybody and apologized to Buck as they loaded him into the ambulance with his son and drove back to the station.

"He still asleep?" Chimney questioned.

"Carla said he was up all night crying, he's exhausted." Buck didn't put him down when they walked up the station steps and Bobby started cooking lunch.

Buck sat on the couch holding his son tightly, he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths of his own sighing at the end. He opened his eyes to see Eddie sitting across from him.

"You want to lay him down?" Buck shook his head.

"Believe me he'd wake up, it doesn't matter how tired he is he'll wake up if I leave him. Doctors said he's not getting better. He'd hardly speaking now, and after what he just did with his voice screaming and crying for hours he probably can't."

"Maybe take him to get his vocal cords looked at." Eddie suggested to which Hen seconded and sat down next to Eddie.

"I would but he won't let anybody touch him, or go to have himself poked and prodded."

"Maybe when he wakes we can have him at least open to mouth to see if his throat is swollen it may have been a reason he was struggling to breath." Hen said.

Buck nodded slowly running his hands through the kids short hair looking down at him sadly. "I wish I could take all his bad memories away. His separation anxiety is growing more intense."

"You didn't come home for 2 days." Hen said. "Maybe he wasn't prepared for that, and thought you were leaving him."

Buck frowned. "I could never leave him." The man grew almost defensive. "We're each other's reason for being alive."

"I know that Buck, I didn't mean you would leave him." Hen corrected.

The alarm began to blare making Hen and Eddie stand and the boy to stir in Bucks arm.

"Buckley stay here, take the food out of the oven when it beep." Bobby said before swinging down the fire pole.

"Daddy?" A hoarse cough exited his sons throat.

"I'm right here." He said hugging the boy and the alarm soon came to a stop. "No talking alright I'm going to get you some water."

He stood up boy in his arms and went to the kitchen grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge hoping it would sooth his sons throat.

He placed the boy at a chair at the table which the boy immediately whined about so Buck picked him back up and sat in the chair the boy in his lap and opened the water handing it to him.

"Careful," Buck said as the boy tilted the bottle to his lips the bottle looking huge compared to the kids small hands. "Good job Kane, why don't you try to get some more sleep?"

The boy just shook his head and drank some more water until the entire bottle was finished letting Buck know multiple trips to the bathroom would be important in the coming minutes but the kid was thirsty.

"You don't have to talk, but does your throat feel any better?" The boy nodded silently.

Buck smiled, "that's good bud that's good." The oven then beeped. "Hungry? I'm going to take some food out of the oven okay?"

Buck put the boy in the chair and took Bobby's food out of the oven to allow it to cool.

"We'll let it cool off for a few minutes, you want some toys?" The boy nodded.

Buck picked Kane back up and carried him to his car where they always kept a few of his toys that he used at the park or beach along with his emergency first aid kit and diaper bag with a change of clothes just incase.

The kid picked out his big legos and a few race cars and seemed to be satisfied.