NJ

Part 4

Buck didn’t know what he expected to come home to after his most recent therapy session, but it wasn’t this. Therapy had been productive he felt like he finally made some progress with how stuck he felt. He had started making a list in his head of things he wanted to work on and potential new hobbies to look into. He really did have to thank Tommy the next time he saw him. After making that list on the way home he decided he should probably take a nap because of how drained he felt. But that went out the window when he got back to his apartment and saw Connor standing in front of his door.

“Are you good?” Connor asked from behind him. Buck realized he was standing in front of the open fridge. He quickly grabbed a drink and closed the fridge.

“I’m fine, just got a lot on my mind.” Buck sat down at his island with Connor.

“I get that. Kameron getting pregnant still feels like it’s a dream I’ll wake up from any day now. She’s got more energy now than she ever has. With no morning sickness it’s been going great. Only like I said it doesn’t feel real”

Buck wasn’t sure if Connor was actually excited for the baby to come, something in Connor’s tone made him pause. He chose to not ask about it and instead said, “It’s going to feel real soon.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s been a minute since we caught up. You kinda dropped off the face of the earth there for a bit. I know I just asked, but more broadly how are you doing? Knowing you all this time to yourself probably is driving you crazy.”

Before Buck could answer there was a knock at the door. “Yeah, time to myself,” He muttered more to himself than a response to Connor. “Give me a minute.”

“No, no. I wasn’t planning on sticking around long. I just wanted to stop in to see how you were doing and catch you up on what’s going on.” Connor stood up and grabbed his things and walked with him to the door.

“It was nice seeing you Connor, let me know if there’s anything I can help with. Have a good one,” Buck opened the door to Hen standing there ready to knock again. Connor waved and left Buck’s apartment. “Hey Hen, come on in I guess.”

He turned away from the door and heard her follow him in after she closed the door.

“What was that about?” She questioned him as she leaned against his counter.

“He was at my door when I got back, we talked for a bit before you knocked. I don’t really know what he wanted since we didn’t get that far before you showed up,” Buck knew he was getting snippy with Hen and he didn’t mean to. He just felt so tired after therapy, then Connor showed up unannounced. “I’m sorry. It has been a long day, and I haven’t had time to decompress yet. I don’t want to be rude, but can we make this quick?”

Hen just stared at him for a second, “Yeah, okay it can be. I was just stopping by because we haven’t talked much since you left the hospital. How’re you doing?”

“What’s there to say Hen? I died, was in a coma, and now I’m back. And I know that it all was very traumatic for all of you,” Buck paused for a second, but he couldn’t stop the words that slipped out, “Was this a scheduled visit in whatever group chat I’m not a part of? If I’m being honest at this point the visits feel more like a way to keep tabs on me more than actually wanting to talk.”

Buck knew he was pacing and ranting. He forced himself to stop moving and look to where Hen was still standing, eyes wide at what Buck just said. He sighed and paused to let her respond.

“Ah so you caught on. Sorta, I swapped with Josh. I wanted to see you since we hadn’t talked,” Hen told Buck as he sat down on a stool next to her. “I know it was stupid to ask you about how you are. Eddie mentioned you had plans with other people, so we all wanted to see what’s up with that.”

“Yeah, it was a dumb question,” Buck let out a chuckle as he let the silence between them settle, “Yes, I did have plans with some new friends. You don’t need to worry about me wallowing here and blowing you guys off.”

“That’s good. We weren’t worried that that’s what you were doing. Well, most of us. I’m glad you’ve got something new going on. Whenever I’m on medical leave I know I drive my family insane when you guys are on shift,” Hen smiled softly at him. “Anything you want to talk about this new friend group?”

“I met one of them at one of the group therapy sessions I go to sometimes. He gave me an open invitation to join him to get out of the house. And turns out I needed it, so I went to a pickup basketball game with him and some of his coworkers,” He could see that Hen was about to interject a comment about him and basketball.

“Yes I am well aware of my past comments about me and basketball. I still hate it. I just needed to get out of the house and away from you guys. Nothing against you but I need a break from people who know about what happened,” He quickly said before Hen could start.

Hen laughed, “Good to know you haven’t changed at your core Buck. We’ve missed you at work. Bobby’s gotten mopey whenever he as to cook a meal he usually cooks with you. But lately he’s seemed preoccupied with something else going on. Athena seems to know what it is but hasn’t said what it is when we meet up for our nights in.”

“I’ll have to ask him the next time we talk,” Buck added another thing to the mental list he was forming.

“Well, I think I’m going to head out now. Like I said I just wanted to check in on you,” Hen said as she stood up and grabbed her things, “I don’t want to take up too much of your busy time.” Buck rolled his eyes at the comment about his free time; Hen laughed at him as they walked to the door.

“I know we are all a bit overbearing right now, but I do think you should talk to Maddie about her schedule. Set the boundary you need to help yourself find level ground again if what we’re doing isn’t helping,” Hen patted his shoulder as she turned to walk down the hall.

Buck closed the door and leaned his head on the closed door with a sigh. He knew what Hen said was right. He had to talk to Maddie about the schedule for check-ins because it wasn’t helping him relax. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

Tommy: Hope your day is going better than mine and the chaos that was work today. We’ve set up a date for our next trivia night, and I wanted to see if you were available for it. It’s not until next week so if you don’t know yet that’s alright.

Buck smiled as he typed out his response.

Buck: My day has been fine. Tiring but pretty good. What happened at work?

Buck saw Tommy was bubbling him as soon as his text was delivered.

Tommy: Just the usual from Ray. He somehow got an error on a piece of equipment that none of us have seen before. Speaking of work. Have you heard anything about when exactly you’ll go back.

Buck: Nice transition. I have an appointment set up with the doctor so hopefully I’ll know when I’ll be back tomorrow.

Tommy: That’s good to hear. I’m going to crash now so talk to you whenever. And let me know about Trivia night, I know Sarah is hoping you’ll be there so she can beat you in trivia.

Buck: I thought we’d be on the same team but knowing what little I do about here she’ll make even that into a competition. Goodnight.

Also Tim: *throws hands in air* I don’t know why everything is so hard to do! I don’t know why nothing works out or why no one is ever happy.

Everything is his idea if it is well accepted anything else it can’t possibly be his fault nothing works out. Some people are just punchable, every time he opens his mouth he proves he’s one of these people.

Because yes Tim everything you’re saying is proving it is in fact your fault everything is going to shit. Maybe if you actually planned you wouldn’t have a problem getting people to be available. Maybe if you actually had a plan you would know what to do with your characters and you wouldn’t have to constantly rely on them to come up with ideas for what to do. The fact he has the gall and audacity to act oblivious to what’s causing all the problems.

Like I said I know there’s AUs of it but thinking about actually in the show if it happened… which is an AU soooooo yeah. Kinda a redundant thing to say and idea. I’m tired so this is a lot less coherent than I meant it to be.

Wrote some more. I'm not exactly satisfied with how this part ended so I might change that in the future. I'm almost done with what I'm saying is taking place during 6x12 Recovery. I think there's a scene or two left until I move on to the next episode or two. So yeah, here's the next part.

Just having Tommy be the one extremely possessive of Buck and saying without saying “he’s mine”. Like imagine the 8x11 hookup scene but crank up the possessiveness. I’m talking about loud, messy, and hard. Everyone knows what’s happening.