We're Not Friends || Buddie

Rollercoaster

Buck feels like he blacked out the entire ambulance ride. He doesn't remember moving even. He just stands there as they rush Eddie back into the hospital. Any words after 'his heart stopped' just became background noise. He can't understand anything anyone has said to him since. Like everything has this filter over it.

There is a doctor, or maybe a nurse, trying to pull him aside into the emergency room. She forces him to sit on a bed, but he just keeps staring at the doors they took Eddie through. All he knows is they got his heart to start again. He saw it on the monitor, but he never opened his eyes again. He doesn't know what's going on. Even if someone had told him, he wouldn't have heard it.

The doctor... or whoever she is, Buck still hasn't really figured it out, moves to in front of him. She's talking. She only repeats one word over and over again, so Buck is eventually able to read her lips. 'Sir... sir...'

He just gives her a confused look. Why is he in the emergency room? He's fine... is it because he's covered in blood... not his blood. Eddie's blood.

She keeps repeating herself. After enough times, and a bit of miming, Buck is able to get the idea of what she wants. He takes off his jacket, pulls off the suspenders. The lady pulls on her scrubs and Buck can see her mouth 'your shirt' so he takes that off too. As he moves his arm, there is a sudden pain. When he looks, he sees a three-inch-long wound. How had he not felt it before? He has a quick flashback to the ambulance. It flashes in and out. Eddie, all the blood, the monitors with nothing on them for much too long. Then Hen looking at him, yelling something. He couldn't hear it, but now with it repaying in his head, he can begin to see what she had been saying. 'Your arm.' She must have said something to the doctor on the way in.

The bullet must have gone through Eddie's arm, then grazed his. Hit by the same bullet...

The lady comes back in the room and starts inspecting his arm, cleaning the wound. He hadn't even realized she walked away. He's not sure how long she was gone. She inspects it one more time before injecting him with something. He can only assume it's something to numb it because the next thing she starts to do is stitch him up.

"Thanks..." He manages to spit out his first word since the ambulance. He really doesn't know how long it's been. She's walked in and out a few times to get supplies. He could have been sitting there for an hour, just staring at the doors, thinking about the ambulance.

"Just doing my job." She smiles. Buck is just happy to be able to hear again. "You should be alright, but if you feel like something is wrong with it, come back to the ER, okay?"

All Buck can manage is a nod. Apparently he's on a one word per hour limit.

"I'm going to go grab some papers, maybe find one of your friends to take you home."

Buck just nods again, although there is no way in hell he's going home, not without Eddie. The lady leaves him sitting there alone again. He looks down at his hands. They're still covered in blood. The same with his pants. Given it's mostly dry now, it's still blood. Eddie's blood.

"Evan! Oh my God!" He looks up and sees Maddie rushing towards him. "Chim said you got hit in the arm, but it wasn't bad."

Buck turns to show her his arm. She gets a good look, then Buck turns back so he can look at her.

"Are... are you okay?" She's not asking about his arm anymore. He tears up as he shakes his head. She sits next to him on the bed. "I'm sorry... I brought you some clothes. Chim said you'd need clothes."

"Good, you have someone with you." The nurse... doctor? She returns.

"I'm his sister."

"I have some paperwork, then you're free to take him home... I uhh... I think someone should keep an eye on him."