Sanctuary

Blown Away

On instinct, Buck’s entire body tenses, from the voice he knows so well, one that never fails to make him want to run away and never show his face again.

Slowly, he turns around, praying to whoever’s listening he’s wrong, because he has to, he has to, hehasto.

He’s not. That immediately becomes apparent, the second Buck lays eyes on him.

“Jeremy.”

“You look good. Really good.” Jeremy goes on, as he moves closer.

Buck knows the key here is to not let this escalate, no matter what, because he has a kid sleeping in the other room that comes first, he wouldn’t dare think otherwise.

Buck plays it cool, “Thanks.”

Here, Jeremy laughs maniacally as he keeps coming closer, lit up by the fireworks outside. “I found you. I fucking found you! God, I’ve missed you so much, Evan.”

Somehow, deep down inside him, he manages to force a calm he doesn’t feel as he asks, “What’re you doing here?”

Jeremy looks down at that, before going for feigned aloofness, “Just want to talk, you know?” but that quickly deteriorates as he still moves closer, practically begging, “I just want to talk. We used to talk about everything. Don’t you remember? It didn’t even matter what we talked about. We’d just talk for hours.”

Now that he’s barely a foot away from Buck, he tries to reach out a hand, “I miss you so much, sweetheart.”

Buck immediately backs away, still calm as he says, “Okay. Talk.” Then he leads Jeremy to the front door, “Outside.”, praying he can get him away from Chris before this escalates.

Buck refuses to relax, if only a little, until he’s sure Jeremy’s out of the house, and leads him down the street, towards the beach.

Once he’s sure they’re a fair distance away, Buck asks,

“So what is it you want to talk about?”

Jeremy wastes no time telling him, reaching out a hand, “Let’s go home.”

Buck doesn’t take this hand either, keeping himself out of reach as he states, “I am home.”, knowing this is where it’s going to turn ugly.

Sure enough, as Jeremy drops his hand, he almost sneers, “What, here? With him?”

That makes Buck panic slightly, but quickly forces it down as he lets Jeremy continue, fireworks booming above them.

“I saw you. Earlier today. But we both know he doesn’t know you like I do. He doesn’t love you like I do. And never will.”

Buck forces himself to agree, “No, he doesn’t.”

But Jeremy’s too smart, even half wasted, to not see what Buck is actually saying, and accuses,

“You want me to leave?”

Buck has no problem whatsoever replying, “Yes. Leave.”

But the time for civility is over, as out of nowhere, Jeremy pulls a gun out, snapping, “You’re done telling me what to do.”

But instead of pointing it at Buck, he rests it on the side of his own head, clearly agitated as he turns around.

Buck goes again, more confident this time. “You hurt me.”

Jeremy whispers, and even then Buck still barely hears it, “I know.”

Buck keeps going, “You wouldn’t stop hurting me.”