A sister does not need to knock. She has a key. Buck knows she has a key, so she doesn't need to knock.
She does wish she had knocked this time, because the kitchen is currently occupied by one Tommy Kinard. Possessions: one plate, which is currently strategically placed and luckily made it to that position before Maddie could see the one package even her former nurse self does not want to have an image of.
"What are you doing here?" she asks, immediately regretting the stupidest words ever spoken.
"Borrowing a cup of sugar," Tommy says. "You?"
"Just dropping by to check on my baby brother," she says defensively. Who the fuck is this heartbreaker to ask?
"He's good," Tommy says in that cheerful tone with a hint of condescension that drives her up the wall and makes her question what the hell Buck likes about him.
"Is he gonna stay good or is he going to spend another three months inundating us with baked goods because you ran away again? Do you even know what he's been through?"
"I do," Tommy says. "Yeah, I do."
"Then you know the last thing he needs is another loss."
"Oh," Tommy says. "Would you notice?"
She wants to smack his smug face. "And where the hell were you, if you care so much?"
"I know what I did wrong. I have to wonder if anyone else does. Because he'll never say a word against you or the 118. And yet, have you noticed how hard he works to earn his place in everyone's life? Has anyone ever told him they love who he is? Since he lost one of the most important people in his life, has anyone told him they won't stop loving him if he can't bring dinner, pick up dry cleaning, watch the kids, drop off homemade cookies?"
Tommy walks sideways behind the counter, presses himself flush to it, and puts the plate down. "Yeah? Who was doing the support work for him? Who was bringing him food, who was making sure he was getting through, who was checking in with him?"
"We all were. The second he told Chim--"
"Not that. Before that, before the oxy, before the--" His voice catches. He takes a deep breath. "Before the kidnapping. Who was asking Evan if he was all right and who was prepared to hear that he wasn't? Who made sure he could tell them that he wasn't okay?"
"That is my brother," Maddie says icily. "He can tell me anything."
"Oh," Tommy says, eyes wide with fake innocence. "Why didn't he?"
