#*handcuffs

Oh oh ohhh, this is fun! But we do have to be realistic. Handcuffs can leave some bite, but for his wrists to bleed he’s got to be connected to something that can withstand his strength and be pulling on those like his life depends on it. Just some tightness and pressure won’t be enough. Not to mention that even if we do make him bleed, the wounds will only be so big, so they likely won’t bleed a life threatening amount in a short time, but you can make him bleed for a long time.

Not sure why he’s kidnapped, but I get a couple visuals. One is a shipping container. Buck’s got handcuffs that have been bolted into the wall of it, and he’s tried for hours to pull it out, but it’s no use. He chides himself for having pulled to the point of bleeding because there’s literally nothing he can do to stop it now. The cuffs are bolted too high for him to lay down and too low for him to stand. He’s forced to sit slumped against the wall. And when the doors to the crate finally open, he peers up into the light, blinking slowly and far too out of it from a combination of blood loss and dehydration.

The second scenario is the chain of the handcuffs hooked around something on the ceiling. Maybe he’s in a basement? Maybe this bad guy was bold and left him in a room upstairs in their house? His arms hang, and the blood runs down his wrists and arms from his weight alone. His arms are stretched above him and his weight falls entirely on his bare toes. He’s hanging limp when he’s found, unconscious at that point.

And when he’s finally being cared for in the hospital? He’s alone. Something inside him is telling him to call his friends, but he doesn’t feel like he can. This lawsuit has changed everything in ways that Buck wasn’t expecting. And part of him knows that at least Maddie would be there for him, but she’s connected to Chim and Chim is connected to the team, and he’s pushed them so far away that he doesn’t think he deserves to call them and ask for help.

(NOTE: I’m taking this route, because I think the way it was portrayed in canon makes it seem like they weren’t legally allowed to contact each other, but because things never went to court, it was more of a “no contact” order which was definitely more of a highly recommended not to contact people type of suggestion.)

But the team would be there for him. They’re mad about how things went down but they love him. They’d drop everything if Buck called and said he needed help, said he needed someone. Which is why when one of Athena’s colleagues (who’s also one of the officers on Buck’s case) remembers that she knows Buck, they contact her. Even when Buck says there’s no one to call, this officer knows there’s never no one.