lighting in a bottle

Chapter Five

Buck stumbles up the stairs, his hair a mess. Yawning constantly.

Eddie knew he shouldn't have left him by himself. He looks terrible. Eddie starts walking towards Buck but before he gets a chance to talk to him, Bobby sweeps him away,

"Buck. Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Uh- sure." He sounds terrible. Eddie's worry only rises.

—

Has Bobby's office always spin? Around and around and-

"So." Bobby pauses, How have you been? You know, adjusting to work after the accident."

Oh? This is what they were going to talk about? Ugh.

"I'm fine." Buck hears his own voice, he's almost slurring.

"Have you been sleeping lately?" Bobby questioned. He looks worried. Why does he look so worried?

"Yup." Buck nods sluggishly.

"You've been texting me a lot since you got out of your coma." Bobby states. Buck's face runs hot. Has he been bothering him all this time?

He straightens up in the chair. "Listen, Bobby if I've been bothering you, I really am sorry-"

"Buck, that's not at all what I was implying. I appreciate it, in fact it brings me some comfort too. I want to hear from you after everything."

"Okay, great, so-"

"But that doesn't mean I'm not concerned."

"There's nothing to be concerned about." Buck pauses, "Fine, okay, I definitely struggled a bit after the lighting. But I'm good now. I'm getting bet-" he yawns through his last sentence, that's not gonna help his case.

"Buck, I'm sending you home."

"What?!" He snaps "Bobby, don't do this again, they cleared me for work!"

"Hey, hey, hey. Only for the day. Get some sleep. Lots of it, tomorrow's your day off so-" he gets cut off by the alarm.

"Saved by the bell." Buck grunts up out of his chair and heads towards the engine.

He was never big on following orders.

—

They walk out of the engine, it's a small kitchen fire.

After it's out, the victims are being checked. That gives Eddie time to talk to Buck.

"Hey! Buck." Eddie starts walking towards him, when Buck facing him he quickly looks away.

"Yeah, hey." He says monotonously.

What the hell is wrong with him?

—

Buck ends up being forced to go home. The weather's better now, the rain has stopped and the clouds cleared up.

The windows are still fully covered and he wants to keep it that way.

He pulls out some of those fig jam biscuits Chris likes, they grew on him.

Buck goes to the fridge to get milk but right before he's about to pour it he gets stopped by a knock on the door.

He opens it to see Eddie.

Shit.

"Uh- hey." He tilts his door to be a bit more closed, he doesn't want Eddie to see the mess he made during the storm, because that would definitely not raise any red flags.

"Hey. Can I come in?"

"Um. The place is a mess."

He laughs suspiciously, "Buck, you've seen my place when it looked like a hurricane hit it. Just let me in."