#*nonnie

Don’t ask me why this scenario came to me, but it did, so I must share!

Picture this: There’s a stand in captain at the 118 while Bobby is out and recovering from the gunshot wound. And the stand in? He’s quite the fucking tool. He knows what he’s doing but he’s the wrong shade of bossy and a bit arrogant. It doesn’t help that Buck responds super well to communication, whether it’s about something he did wrong or something he did right. This captain? Even if he does a fantastic job and does everything right, he won’t acknowledge it. The entire team could be clapping him on his back and the captain won’t even glance Buck’s way. And that doesn’t bother him. What bothers him is that if he even breathes the wrong way, he’s got the captain giving him a ear full of how he needs to be better.

The captain can’t stand Buck (and to make it a little more believable, he doesn’t like a few other 118 guys for no apparent reason). Maybe it’s literally just something about Buck and the other couple people being millennials.

But things finally come to a head when they’ve had their busiest day all summer and they need to go back to the station to restock, and hydrate. Buck says as much when the acting captain tells them to pack up so they can get moving to a fire a few blocks down where extra assistance is needed. Buck takes one look around at his team mates and they’re all sharing the same look. They will if there’s no one else to respond— it’s their job— but if another station can afford to, they should take this moment to go back to the station. They don’t even need a break, they just need walk instead of run. So he says something.

The captain doesn’t like this suggestion one bit. Not because it’s unreasonable but because it came from Buck. It leads to all of them getting pushed beyond their limits when the fire they respond to takes a turn for the worst. Everyone makes it out okay, but by the time they make it back to the station, Buck’s legs are numb and he feels like he’s going to pass out.

He does when his feet hit the ground as he exits the fire truck and instead of stepping forward, his legs crumble below him. Someone is on him in an instant and they can feel his racing heart rate and how fucking hot his skin is. The captain nearly blows a fuse over Buck being dramatic until he sees another firefighter take a tumble because they’re right on the brink of being as far gone as Buck.

The chief definitely hears about this when they receive several reports throughout the next week from various members of the 118. That captain is gone before Buck ever has to see his face again.

Sunny’s Sunday Fic Recs

TW // DISCUSSION OF & RECOMMENDED FICS FEATURING SEXUAL ASSAULT BELOW THE CUT

Buck experiencing fever dreams is such an underrated concept! I’m not big on the basic sick fics that are like “Oh, you’re under the weather? Here’s some soup.”

No, no. I need borderline pain in my poor sick!Buck. A headache that means those around him have to whisper. Chills that wrack his overheating body.

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.

NONNIE! I am genuinely wounded by this prompt. So rude of you to put such an idea into my head without a SIKE! and a link to an already existing story. 😭 Now this idea will live rent free in my head.