black butterflies

divided

the sound of an obnoxious alarm woke buck from his slumber. one of the best he has had this month, which is odd considering he was hungover a little from yesterday. ah yesterday, that thought made buck smile to himself thinking about his time with eddie. taking his time to get up and go get dressed, he looks around and sees the beds all messed up and not made. he knew they must have gotten a call and are out. the thing that confused buck was that it was almost 1 in the afternoon, and these beds look like they were rushed out of as if it was an early morning call. 

he makes his way upstairs to the kitchen to grab breakfast. when he goes to the couch he turns on the tv and is met with his friends, dare he say his family, on the tv screen at a call. his long arms reach for the remote as fast as they can to turn up the volume to hear what was happening. 

"firefighters and emts have been here since almost 5 in the morning trying to rescue people from these four fallen structures." a reporter states.

"these buildings seem to becoming very unstable and could collapse in all at any minute is what we are hearing from sources," she continues to say. 

just as those words leave her mouth, one of the buildings crashes to the ground and buck sees the camera pan to his crew that was just about to go in. only, they were missing a person standing with them, and buck noticed it right away. 

"WHERES EDDIE!! GET HIM OUT OF THERE! GO SAVE HIM!" he says screaming at the tv as his eyes begin to gloss over and his breakfast is now the least of his worries. 

 "here we see a crew from station 118 who was just about to enter the building that has just crumbled to the ground, they seem to be yelling the name of someone into the building, is it a possible member of the crew?" the reporter states with almost no worry in her voice not knowing who these people are. 

he turns the tv up even more and hears the team screaming eddies name and buck falls to the ground and breaks out in tears. he can't stop assuming the worst about the situation, hes angry at himself for not being there. if he was there he would be the one in the building or at least he would be with him. at this rate buck has no attempt of stopping the tears from falling. the worried man is sitting with his knees to his chest and gripping the remote so hard his knuckles have gone white. 

"diaz get out of there right now please buddy," he mutters to himself as his voice cracks. 

the news channel cuts to a birds eye view of the scene and the only thing on bucks mind is that his friend is crushed under one of those buildings. 

"how am i supposed to tell his kid, i've never even met him and now my first time meeting him i'm gonna have to tell him that his father is,,,dead" he chokes on the last word not wanting it to be true and having no strength to get it out. 

the camera cuts back to the 118 starting to back away from the scene with their heads looking down. he knows what that means and he didn't want it to be true. 

"IF YOU GUYS DON'T GO IN THERE THEN I FUCKING WILL," buck screams at the tv and throws his coffee mug at the wall. 

"he's not dead, he can't be there's no way, this is eddie diaz. he has a son who needs him." that's his final thought before he focuses his full attention back to the screen in front of him. 

eddies pov: 

I was walking into the final building after clearing everyone out of the others. the team was right behind me, but i was more focused on helping these people. as i went to go check a pulse on a woman laying in front of my feet, the walls began to cave in. I knew this couldn't mean anything good, so i threw myself in a hole in the floor and ran so the debris that fell wouldn't crush me. my walkie has lost connection with the team at this point because of how far down i am, so radioing them would just be a waste of time.

 there's quite echos of my name that i can hear from what i want to guess is outside, but i have no idea where i am anymore. an hour or two later after clearing debris from my way i see a crack of light above my head. it looks like red and blue flashing lights so i know i'm getting close to something. as i go to pull myself up to start scaling the wall, i see a gash on my leg letting blood escape my body. that must be why i'm so dizzy i think to myself. 

eventually i'm able to pull my body up from the wall and i drag myself through a small sliver in between bricks. crawling towards some fountain in the middle of everything i guess hen spots me and comes running towards me with all of her force. 

"EDDIE HOLY SHIT, CAP GET OVER HERE NOW!" she screams out with almost a sigh of relief but tears still fall from her face. 

the crew comes over and helps me up making sure i get cleaned up and am okay. nothing deadly, this time at least. 

"when did it become night time?" i ask earning a slight chuckle from the team but i was serious "no really how long was i down there, you guys didn't think I was dead did you" i say with a small grin at the end. 

"dude you were down there for almost 9 hours," chim says

the second those words enter my brain i feel guilty for leaving them that long, but now wasn't the time. I just hope bucks okay back at the station. 

third person pov: 

"we are now almost a full day into this rescue and additional crews from other states have been brought in for help," the reporter says 

buck is now pacing back and forth between the kitchen and the tv, but making sure it's loud enough for the whole street to hear. 

"it looks like there is a person- oh its the missing firefighter! he appears to be crawling out of a part of the building!" the woman says with slight happiness knowing he is safe 

this catches the attention of buck and he sprints over to the tv and has his eyes glued to the screen. the second he sees eddies face he takes a sharp breath and the tears are pouring out even harder than before. 

"eddie i knew you would be okay," he croaks out over his tears and weak voice. 

even with eddie being safe now, buck refuses to take his eyes off the tv until he sees it for himself. he doesn't get up or move an inch for hours, until he hears the trucks pull in. the team gets out and comes upstairs to see a huddled up buck with tears all down his face, and old tear stains from earlier that day. a broken coffee mug scattered across the floor next to him with coffee on the wall, and the mess of the kitchen chairs from his pacing and throwing them on the floor. 

"evan buckley what the hell did you do to the station?" bobby says in a light tone not too angry. 

they all turn to see him not even moving still glued to the new channel, then it hits them all at once. 

"buck you do know he's okay n-" hen starts

"evan i'm right here in one piece," eddie cuts in walking upstairs.

"DIAZ!" buck cries hearing his voice and jumps up to run to him embracing him in a warm, but soft hug not knowing where he was injured. 

"hey buck, see i'm alright," he says rubbing the back of the man laying his head on his chest. 

they stand there for a few minutes in silence and the team walk away giving them space. the muffled sounds of bucks cries into eddies chest echo the kitchen. once he finally stops crying he looks up at eddie with a soft smile, but this small smile from buck was enough to make eddie go crazy and smile harder at buck. 

"eddie i thought i was gonna have to meet your son for the first time and have to tell him you were de- dead," he cries out on the last part

"but look you don't have to buck, how about you come over for dinner tomorrow and meet christopher so now you don't have to worry about this," he says with a soft smile holding his hand on bucks upper shoulder. 

"yeah yeah I'd like that a lot," buck sniffles and nods 

with that the two boys sit on the couch and just watch tv in silence not knowing what else to say from the traumatic day they had both had.