Firehouse Oasis 118

18. Athena

It was after 9 pm when they finally heard the cardboard being pushed back from the window. Which was a good sign, considering it meant that they were right on time, which increased the chances that they hadn't run into any issues.

Athena went with the others, minus Denny and Chris who were instructed to hide, to check and make sure that it was in fact their friends. God forbid some other person was climbing through their window. To be fair, between the four of them, they could probably handle anything that climbed through the window other than a full SWAT team. Although, with Bobby, maybe they could handle even that.

It did end up being Buck and Eddie though, so no need to test that particular theory. Eddie climbed in first, the bag being passed through to him, which Eddie handed off to Chim. Then Buck was clambering through, not nearly as graceful as Eddie had been, though that appeared to be because he was only using one arm. As soon as he made it through, Eddie reached out to steady the other boy, and Buck didn't shake him off.

Athena's eyebrows shot up, and she saw expressions of equal shock on her other friends' faces. She looked to Bobby who met her gaze and shrugged.

She turned back to the two boys, who were now working together to reseal the cardboard over the window. They were standing closer together than she'd ever seen them stand, and they stayed that way even once the cardboard was resealed and they'd turned to face the rest of them.

"So we hit a snag." Eddie informed them, and immediately everyone's hackles were up.

"Were you followed?" Athena demanded immediately, already running through different plans and scenarios.

"It wasn't a human 'snag' exactly." Eddie grimaced, and now everyone was just confused as well as on guard.

"I got a scratch." Buck supplied, not nearly as helpful as Athena was sure he thought he was being.

There were several intakes of breath as he rolled up his sleeve to show them his forearm that was covered in bandages, some of which had been bled through. Eddie just groaned and massaged his temples.

"Ok no, stop calling it a scratch," he told Buck, because apparently this was something that had happened more than once now, then turned to the rest of the group, "He got mauled by a bear, that was the snag."

Athena felt her eyebrows shoot up higher than they maybe ever had, she heard several gasps and exclamations from the others. Then Hen was cutting through them and grabbing Buck by his non-injured arm and dragging him up the stairs to the lounge, barking at Chim to get their med-bag.

Chim ran off to grab it from where they'd stored it in one of the fire engine's compartments while the rest of them followed Hen and Buck up the stairs. Listening to Buck protest the whole way.

"I'm fine Hen, really!" He tried to reassure her, though Athena noted that he made no move to pull away, "Mauled is an exaggeration. It didn't get me that bad."

"Just because the whole 2-4 inches of the claw didn't get you doesn't mean you're ok." Eddie shot back, and Athena thought it sounded like this wasn't the first time they'd had this debate.

Hen pushed Buck down onto the sofa gently just as Chim came bounding up the stairs and slapped Eddie on the back on his way, "I see you've been subjected to some Buck facts."

Buck flipped Chim off from where he was sat on the couch as Hen, already pulling off the dressings, called out, "Boys, you can come out now."

"They aren't asleep?" Eddie asked, looking around at the rest of them, "It's nearly 11."

"They refused." Bobby explained with a shrug, "Well, Christopher refused, no matter what we offered, to go to bed until he knew you were back safe, which then turned to Denny refusing once he realized that that was an option."