911 fanfics

How To Explain A Punch

When Chimney punched Buck in the face, his first thought was ow, that stung. His second was I totally screwed up. In the time it took him to raise his hand to his face and realize what happened, Chim was gone, leaving Buck alone with his to-be bruised skin. He stood there in shock, not sure what to do, mind racing but no thought actually coherent enough to identify.

His next thought was he should call someone, so he picked up his phone. He stopped, not sure what his next step was. Normally, he would have called Maddie because she's his sister and was a nurse but she was gone (and also indirectly the topic of the argument). His next options would have been Chimney or Hen, but he was out for obvious reasons and she was his best friend. Bobby would have also been a good option, but how was he supposed to call his captain and say, "Hey, one of your firefighters just sucker punched me in the face and I don't know what to do now,"?

He scrolled through his contact list, pausing on Eddie Diaz. For most situations, he would be Buck's first pick, but he wasn't sure how to explain this to him. Regardless, he had no other good options, so he hit the phone icon. 

Eddie picked up after two rings, answering with, "Hi Buck," into the microphone.

"Hey, Eddie..." he answered with a hint of I-need-to-talk-to-you-but-please-don't-panic in his voice.

"Why do you sound like you just committed murder?"

"Uh, I just have a hypothetical question."

"If it's how to bury a body, I'm hanging up and claiming plausible deniability," Eddie warned.

"Jeez, I didn't kill anyone! I was just wondering, if, hypothetically, someone were to be, say, punched in the face, what one might do in that situation?" Buck asked it like he wasn't even sure what he was asking.

Buck heard an audible sigh on the other side of the line. "Buck, what happened?" he asked.

"Nothing!" Buck lied. "What makes you think something happened? This was a hypothetical question."

"I know you and I know when you're hiding something. Tell me, if I were to come over to your apartment right now, would I find someone had been punched?"

"Uh..." Buck didn't want to lie but didn't want to tell the truth either. 

"I leave you alone for one day... What did you do?"

"Well, I may have gotten into a slight argument and then Chimney may or may not have punched me in the face," Buck rushed.

"Hold on, CHIM punched YOU?"

Buck realized he had already too much, so he caved the rest of the way. "He might have found out I knew Maddie was leaving and he got mad that I kept it from him so he snapped?"

"Buck," Eddie groaned, rubbing his temple. "How bad is it?"

Buck reached up to gently touch the cheek below his left eye, the place that stung the most and winced from the contact. "Well, it's not great," he admitted.

"Do you have an ice pack?" Eddie waited as he heard a freezer being opened and rustling noises.

"No?" Buck asked more than answered.

"You're a firefighter, Buck, how do you not have an ice pack?"

"Uh, I don't know?"

"Okay, do you have ice or a bag of frozen peas or something?"

"Yeah, I have an ice cube tray."

"With ice?"

"No, Eddie, I'm just telling you about my cold hunk of plastic," he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Yes, of course, there's ice in it."

"Hey, I'm not the firefighter who doesn't own an ice pack, so who's to say what's in your freezer? Pour it into a ziplock bag and hold it to the bruise. I'm on my way."

"No, you don't need to—" Buck started.

"You just tried to pretend nothing happened, I'm just coming to make sure your eye's still in your socket."

"Wait, no, what about Christopher?" 

"He's at a friend's for the night. See you soon, Buck." 

"Ugh, fine," Buck sighed.

"Keep the ice on, I'll be there in fifteen," Eddie answered forcefully, hanging up.

Exactly fifteen minutes later, Eddie knocked on Buck's door with one hand and holding a six-pack in the other. He waited impatiently as Buck got up and let him, a bag of ice held up to his eye. Eddie's eyes widened when he saw the growing bruise from around the ice.

"He got you good," he said, inviting himself inside the apartment and setting the beers on the counter.

"Yeah, you could say that," Buck replied, clearly in pain.

"It hurt?"

"Like hell," Buck grimaced.

Eddie stifled a chuckle, responding, "How hard did he get you?"

"Hard," Buck admitted.

"You hit your head or anything else? That much momentum must have sent you flying."

"Nope," Buck popped the P. "Just my cheek. Why? You playing nurse?"

"Hey, you're the one who called me," Eddie shrugged. "You knew what would happen. Can I take a look?"

Buck slowly removed the ice from his face and turned to face the light so Eddie could see the damage. A large blue and purple bruise was forming around and under his left eye. Eddie gently reached out and touched the edge, noting how much Buck tried to stop himself from wincing at the pain.

"Chim's got good aim, he could go join that fight club. Maybe everyone at the station will think that's where you ended up."

"Ha-ha," Buck rolled his eyes. "Very funny."

"Okay, open your eyes wide and follow my finger, I want to make sure there's no damage to the eye itself." Buck relented and followed Eddie's finger around so he was able to see the area around the iris. Buck also tried to ignore the throbbing pain coming from Eddie's other hand holding his eye open.

"Good news is your eye looks fine. Bad news is you'll probably have a killer headache tomorrow and hurt like hell for a few days."

"Well at least I have two eyes, however would I have figured that out without you?" Buck praised.

"I'll drink to that," Eddie joked, pulling out a beer for himself and offering Buck one. He accepted and went out onto the balcony, Eddie joining him. He was glad to have Eddie as his best friend.