Chapter Text
Eddie was still concerned about how quiet Christopher had been about this whole situation, but Carla had repeatedly assured him that he was just taking his time to process a life-changing reveal. Eddie understood that, and he worried even more about how Christopher would handle something happening to Buck on this mission.
Eddie wasn’t sure how much of this Christopher actually understood beyond Buck coming back from the dead. As far as he knew, no one had let Christopher know about Buck’s history as a spy, and the most he’d been able to tell Christopher was that they had to stay at the safehouse because there was someone dangerous after them.
“But then why isn’t Buck here? He should stay here safe, too.”
Eddie couldn’t agree more, but explaining why was more of a chore than it had any right to be. Ultimately, Eddie settled on telling him that Buck and Yasmin were doing everything they could to make sure they were all safe. This seemed to placate Christopher, like he expected that Buck would do anything he could to protect others, and he didn’t make a further fuss about it. Eddie was grateful, because he wasn’t sure what else he would have been able to share anyway.
Buck and Yasmin hadn’t made any mention of where they were going or what their mission entailed beyond the obvious objective of killing Helsom. Eddie still couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that Buck was willing to go out and actually hunt someone down with the intention of killing them. It didn’t change his feelings about Buck at all; rather, it was just hard to reconcile that the Buck he knew was willing and capable of it.
And yet at the same time, remembering the ambulance hostage situation...Eddie could see it.
If Eddie framed it in that context, knowing that Buck was willing to do anything to protect the people he cared about...that, he could see. Buck being a spy who was willing to make those targeted kills made sense if he thought he was protecting someone with his actions.
Eddie just wished he knew a little bit more about what Buck and Yasmin were up to at that moment. Maybe it would settle the nervous energy under his skin that was making him itch with restlessness. And maybe it would distract him from the mildly horrifying artificial intelligence documentary Christopher and Carla were watching.
Thankfully, a distraction in the form of Mina answering her phone did the job. Mina attempted to be discreet in answering as she slipped from the room and into the kitchen, but the moment Eddie overheard the words ’What kind of problem?’, he rose to his feet in curiosity.
Deciding it was pointless to try to sneak up on a spy, Eddie walked normally to the kitchen and waited in the doorway. Mina sent him an unimpressed glare before returning her attention to the phone.
“I thought that was the intention going in?”
Mina grimaced as she listened to whatever was being shared on the other end. Eddie tried to strain his hearing to listen, but he couldn’t make out anything being said, and he knew better than to ask Mina to put the call on speaker.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Mina said finally, waiting to hear parting words before hanging up. “No, you’re not coming with,” Mina said immediately, already moving to the dining room where Yasmin and Buck had set up camp.
Eddie followed on her heels, watching as she studied the blueprints still laid out with a practiced eye. “I didn’t even ask.”
“You were going to.” And yeah, Eddie couldn’t even argue that. “And the answer’s no. You’re not an agent, you’re not trained for this—”
“I was in the Army—”
“You were a medic, not an Army Ranger.” Damn, she’d really done her homework.
“Buck’s my best friend, I have to—”
“All the more reason why you shouldn’t go. You’ll be distracted, and you’ll distract Buck.”
“If it was your partner, wouldn’t you fight to help them?” Eddie said, voice dripping with desperation.
Mina froze just the slightest bit, but before she could say anything—
“Dad?”
“Hey, mijo,” Eddie said, turning his attention to Christopher. “Everything okay?”
“Are you okay? I heard yelling.”
Eddie fought back a grimace. He hadn’t realized he’d been talking so loudly. “Yeah, buddy, I’m okay. I’m just—” He sent a look at Mina, but she was silent and focused on the blueprint, content to let Eddie handle it. “I’m worried about Buck. He’s in trouble.”
Christopher bit his lip. “So...so are you going after him?”
Eddie gave Mina another look, but she was still avoiding his gaze. “I’m arguing my case,” he settled on.
“Is Buck in danger?”
This time Mina grimaced and gave Eddie a small nod, which had his insides tying themselves in painful knots. “Yeah, he is.”
Christopher gnawed on his lip even more, like he was unsure of what to say, and Eddie was struck with a horrible realization. Barely a month had passed since Christopher had exploded at Eddie with his fears of losing his father, and here Eddie was, trying to throw himself into danger to make that fear a reality. After taking so many steps to keep himself safe and ease his son’s thoughts, how could he throw that all away now by walking into one of the most dangerous situations he could think of?
Buck was in trouble, but if Eddie tried to go save him, and things went wrong...Christopher would lose both of them.
Whatever was wrong on Buck’s end, he clearly needed help if Mina had been called in. And in an already dangerous situation with criminal masterminds and a lethal target on Buck’s back, chances were high that things would get worse. Eddie wanted to help, he didn’t want to lose Buck again, he couldn’t...but he couldn’t let Christopher lose two more parents. But he didn’t even want Christopher to lose one if he could help it...
How the hell was Eddie supposed to choose between Buck’s life and his son’s wellbeing?
Interrogation resistance training had been one of Buck's least favorite training sessions with the Agency, and yet he recognized it to be one of the most important. It had taught him strategies and techniques for handling various types of physical and psychological torture methods, on both a specific and broad scale, to prepare him for things he never would have thought of before they were put into practice against him.
Like right now.
Buck could honestly say he'd never dreamed that someone would take sandpaper to his skin to manually abrade his tattoos off, and yet...
At some point during his beating, Buck's shirt had been torn off his body. He honestly couldn't recall when it happened, given how deep into his mind he'd let himself go to escape. But the previous methods had been old hat, and his body knew how to handle that pain.
Then the sandpaper came out, and his mind snapped him back into the here and now with painful clarity. One of the grunts had started with the tattoo on his ribs, but with how he had to press on Buck's torso and broken ribs to do it, he determined the location to be too dangerous—they didn’t want to risk accidentally killing Buck, after all—and moved to the tattoo on Buck's right pec. The other grunt had focused on Buck's left bicep, and between the two of them, they were rubbing down the epidermis layers of Buck's skin, intent on reaching and destroying the dermis layer to remove the tattoo.
Buck couldn't exactly see how much progress they'd made with how much blood was being smeared around the wound area, but fuck did it hurt...
The heightened level of awareness that he was stuck in was the only reason he heard the door open again, but he couldn't bring himself to open his clenched eyes until Helsom's voice sounded quietly, and the sandpaper withdrew from his skin. Buck cracked his eyes open and watched Helsom steadily, not willing to break when he'd only just reentered the room. Helsom hadn't even done anything to him yet.
"Get something to clean those wounds, I don't need him dying from an infection," Helsom said idly, surveying the work his grunts had done with some level of satisfaction. "And get some antibiotic ointment, but let's not waste the pain-relieving ones, okay?"
The grunts disappeared, leaving Buck alone with Helsom. Buck had only just noticed that Ali was absent, for which he was grateful. After how much she'd 'worried' and 'doted' on him after his leg was crushed, he didn't think he could handle the cognitive dissonance of her disinterest in his pain now.
Helsom eyed him like he was an object being appraised for auction. "I hadn't realized you had so many tattoos to remove," he said, sounding thrilled by the prospect of Buck's further pain, rather than remorseful.
"Wait until you see the scars on my leg," Buck quipped through a raw and scratchy throat. It was free information, considering Helsom was already aware of his crush injury through Ali, so Buck didn't mind being careless with it.
Helsom smirked but luckily made no move to inspect the scarring himself. Instead, he stepped closer to Buck and ran a finger through the bloodied abrasion on his bicep. Buck fought back a wince at the sting and tried not to flinch when Helsom drew a bloody line on his cheek.
“You know, when Ali told me about your leg injury, I honestly never thought you’d walk again. I thought I’d lost my chance at repaying you. But then you impressed me,” Helsom said, smudging the blood around Buck’s cheek with his thumb as he spoke. “I think I actually felt a level of pride when I saw you walk up your loft stairs for the first time without assistance.”
Buck’s blood ran cold. Surely Helsom wasn’t implying what he thought...
“What?” Helsom asked, a level of faux innocence to his tone. “Surely you didn’t think I’d stop keeping tabs on you after Ali left?”
Helsom dug into his pocket for his phone, continuing to speak with his focus directed at the screen as he fiddled with it. “Ali made sure to set up some passive surveillance before she left, to keep an eye on you at the places you frequent the most. Your loft, of course, especially during your recovery. But then, once it became clear you were on your way to becoming a firefighter again, we had to make sure we had eyes on the station as well. Make sure you were truly keeping that as your number one job, rather than falling back into clandestine habits.”
Finding what he was looking for, Helsom hummed with a pleased note and turned the phone screen so Buck could see it. “This view is my favorite, there’s always someone to watch.”
Buck’s stomach clenched. On the screen was a color feed of the 118 loft, where Ravi and Hen were currently playing some sort of intense card game while two firefighters Buck didn’t recognize egged them on. In the background, Buck could see Bobby in the kitchen, hard at work on the crew’s next meal. Buck eyed the corner of the screen; the tiny word ‘LIVE’ stared back at him.
“We set one up in the bunk rooms as well, the two most active locations other than the trucks themselves,” Helsom said idly, swiping and switching the feed. The camera was in darklight mode, and the bunk room was largely empty except for an A-shift regular, Riley, who Buck didn’t often work with. Riley appeared to be asleep, but he was tossing and turning with his face scrunched up with distress.
“Hmm, he doesn’t look like he’s having a restful sleep, does he?” Helsom said in a mockery of concern. “You had your fair share of nightmares, too, but they always seemed to be worse when you were home. Sleeping alone with no one to comfort you.”
Helsom tsk’ed suddenly, showing Buck a live feed of his empty apartment, of his pristinely made bed and the cardboard boxes of his belongings surrounding it. “That bed hasn’t been used in weeks. Such a shame, I know how you like to curl up under the comforter after a long shift at work.”
Buck trembled as Helsom continued to make idle commentary on his life, on the 118, on his sleeping habits. All this time, he thought he’d been free from his life at the Agency, he thought Helsom had been dead, when in reality, Helsom had been keeping close and intimate tabs on him for years. Buck felt violated in a way he couldn’t quite comprehend, both for himself and his friends and colleagues. He remembered the dozens of video files on Helsom’s server and felt sickened at the idea of how much of that footage was of him, when he’d had no reason to think that anyone would want to watch him.
“There was a point where I was sure you’d left your Agency and fully committed yourself to the LAFD, and yet I couldn’t help keeping tabs on you,” Helsom continued, pocketing his phone and reaching for another pocket. He removed what looked like an overly thick pen, but his grip didn’t allow for Buck to get a good look at it yet. “After you came so close to ending me, ending my operations...well, I just couldn’t let it go. And I knew your Agency would come after me again if they knew I survived...it was only a matter of time before they reached out to you again.
“And I was right.” Helsom fiddled with the pen, twisting something into place and then flipping a switch. A low hum flooded Buck’s ears. “After a few days, my men alerted me that you hadn’t been seen at home or at work for several days, and you hadn’t been admitted to any hospital, and oh—” Helsom chucked then, making eye contact with Buck again with a smirk. “Your coworkers were constantly ducking away to hide their tears,” he said, and Buck’s throat tightened at the blasé description of how deeply he’d hurt his family.
“It didn’t take long to discover you’d been declared dead, but in a car accident?” Helsom tsk’ed again. “I couldn’t quite believe that. At least not without looking more deeply into it. I sent men to your funeral to investigate, and it may have taken time combing through the footage, but eventually we found you. And I thought, oh, now this is an opportunity...
“I would have been content to leave you be, Evan,” Helsom said, eyeing the tip of the pen. Buck followed his gaze and gulped involuntarily. The tip was glowing red hot; it was a cauterizing pen. “I would have griped about letting you go scot free for what you’d done to me, but I was content not to waste resources. But then you presented me with an opportunity on a silver platter. You made yourself a ghost, and I figured...I figured I could make you my ghost.”
Buck’s heart pounded in his chest as Helsom casually tore at the surety and stability he’d had in his life. All this time, they thought they’d be getting ahead of things if Buck could come back and go after Helsom before he could go after Buck, when in reality, Helsom had had Buck in his sights for years. And the worst part of it was that it was Buck’s fault that Helsom had been pushed into action.
If Buck hadn’t given in to the urge to attend his own funeral, Helsom never would have found his opportunity to get at Buck. It was highly possible that Buck could have succeeded in faking his death, or at least bought himself more time to act against Helsom if he hadn’t been so weak. Attending his own funeral hadn’t helped all the people he’d hurt, and it had only been to make himself feel better. Instead, he’d made everything worse. Instead, he’d put Eddie in unnecessary danger, and he’d potentially put Christopher and Maddie in danger.
Buck was startled out of his thoughts by a piercing scream, and it took him a moment to realize the sound was coming from his own mouth. All other thoughts were drowned out by a searing pain in his collarbone as Helsom took the cauterizing pen to his skin in slow, deliberate strokes. Buck clamped his mouth shut stubbornly, unwilling to let Helsom get more out of him as he continued to etch into Buck’s skin painfully slowly.
“Not bad,” Helsom said, finally removing the pen tip from his skin. The scent of charred flesh, no matter how tragically familiar from being a firefighter, made Buck feel nauseated as it hit his nose. Buck panted harshly through clenched teeth as he forced himself to look down. A letter H barely larger than Buck’s thumbnail stared back at him in an angry red and black char. “Like I said, I’ll be the only one to know you still exist. You belong to me now. Might as well show it, hmm?”
Helsom lifted the cauterizing pen slowly, intentionally keeping it in Buck’s sight as long as he could before letting it hover over Buck’s neck. “I wouldn’t mind trying a scar removal with this, but I think we can find something better,” he said idly, and Buck thrashed when Helsom tapped the pen tip to Buck’s tracheotomy scar twice.
“I do fancy the use of this pen, though,” Helsom said, moving the pen back into Buck’s line of sight as if he were showing off a prized toy. “Perhaps we can use it to write the name of every person you care about, as a reminder of the consequences for disobeying me.”
Buck seethed at the reminder, willing himself not to spit something he’d regret. He was in a tenuous position where Helsom admittedly had all the power, and he couldn’t do anything that would put any other lives at risk.
“Maddie should go right at the top, wouldn’t you say?” Helsom said, tapping Buck’s bare wrist with thankfully just his knuckle. “And then Eddie and his son? I doubt you’d care to put your parents on the list but I’m sure Bobby and Athena would fit perfectly...”
Helsom dragged his knuckle down the length of Buck’s forearm, listing the rest of the 118, their kids, Taylor, members of dispatch...and Buck felt frozen at the reminder of just how intimately Helsom was aware of his life.
“And for each time you disobey me, I will drag one of them in here and shoot them in front of you,” Helsom threatened, voice dropping dangerously low, and Buck knew that he meant every word. “And I’ll cross off their name—” Helsom made a sudden sharp line on his cheek with the cauterizing pen, and Buck hissed at the shock of pain, “—and move on to the next if you disobey me again.”
Helsom fisted Buck’s hair suddenly, yanking his head backwards, and Buck worried that Helsom would go back on his previous words and start carving away at his tracheotomy scar—
But instead the pen was brought back into his line of sight, so close to his face that Buck could feel the heat radiating off of it as Helsom let it hover. Helsom rested the edge of his hand on Buck’s cheek and let the pen tip hover over Buck’s brow, and Buck knew what Helsom’s intention was. Buck thrashed in Helsom’s hold but the combination of the rope restraints and Helsom’s grip on his hair made the motion futile. Helsom didn’t even move the pen tip away from him as he struggled, letting it hover dangerously close to his skin.
“I wouldn’t struggle if I were you,” Helsom said, waiting for Buck to still. “You wouldn’t want me to accidentally burn your eye, would you? That’d throw off your aim terribly.”
“You wouldn’t want to damage your property,” Buck spat bitterly, and Helsom smirked at him, dipping the pen tip lower over Buck’s birthmark.
“I’m glad you’re starting to see your place with me,” he said, dipping the tip lower—
The door to the room opened with a bang and Helsom flinched in surprise, touching the pen tip briefly to Buck’s skin with the movement but quickly turning to face the intruder. Buck breathed through the pain, eyes watering at the burn so close them, and he could barely make out a figure at the door, arms raised forward—
“Get the hell away from him.”
Buck blinked the tears away, not daring to believe his ears at the voice that filtered to him, but then his clearing vision only confirmed what he was hearing.
Eddie stood in front of them, arms raised with a gun held aloft and steady, pointed directly at Helsom’s chest. The look on Eddie’s face was murderous. “Get away from him. Now.”
If looks could kill, Eddie was sure he would have dropped dead the moment Yasmin laid eyes on him. As it was, he could only resist the urge to cower as Yasmin glared at him and then thankfully turned the glare on Mina.
Mina promptly raised her hands in surrender. ”You try telling his kid that his dad can’t go save his other dad,” she said, and Eddie was sure his face was glowing red, if the sudden rush of heat was any indication.
While Eddie had been afraid that Christopher would worry about his safety, it had turned out that Christopher was far more preoccupied with the idea that Eddie wouldn’t be able to go and help Buck.
”Buck’s in trouble, so you have to help him. He’s always helped us, so we have to be there for him when he needs us.”
”Mijo...I need you to know that this is going to be incredibly dangerous. If something goes wrong...Buck and I could both be hurt, or worse. I don’t want you to lose both of us—”
”I don’t want to lose either of you. But if Buck—if Buck dies, and you chose not to help him...wouldn’t that feel worse? I know you’re trying to protect me, but you don’t have to hurt yourself to do it. I love having you safe, Dad, but I want you to be happy. That’s what makes me happy. I never wanted you to stop being a firefighter with Buck.”
”You...you’re an incredible kid, you know that, Christopher?”
”Yeah, I do. Now go rescue Buck!”
Christopher had practically shoved him out the door after that, leaving Mina to sputter and reluctantly accept his help. Carla and Agent Cordero agreed to stay with Christopher, and Mina gave Eddie a quick rundown of ground rules for his help. The rules largely broke down to listen to whatever order Mina and/or Yasmin gave him, which he was willing to go along with for Buck’s sake. This was their show, and he was willing to do whatever he needed to do in order to be there for Buck.
At the moment, that included not being strangled to death by Yasmin on the roof of an unused warehouse. It took a second, but Yasmin breathed through her nose and then gave a short nod.
“SITREP?” Mina asked, getting down to business.
“I lost contact with Evan about forty-five minutes ago,” Yasmin said, refocusing her attention on the sniper scope she had set up. “I knew he wouldn’t be able to respond back to me the moment he stepped inside, but I lost complete contact with him after he was captured.”
“What?!” Eddie burst out, unable to contain himself. “Why didn’t you lead with that? They captured Buck?”
“Getting captured was part of the plan,” Mina said quickly, placing a restraining hand on Eddie’s forearm when it was Yasmin who looked like she was about to pounce in vexation.
“That’s a shitty plan,” Eddie muttered, and this time Yasmin let out a snort.
“I agree with you,” she said, “but we had to do it. The problem is I was expecting to still have an eye on Evan the whole time he was in their custody, but his comms cut out and none of the vantage points on the network I have set up have eyes on him.” She handed a computer tablet to Mina who tilted the screen so Eddie could see. None of the camera angles showed Buck, and it sat heavily in Eddie’s gut not knowing what state Buck was in. With how much Helsom had to hate Buck...
“So you need eyes inside,” Mina said, handing the tablet back to Yasmin.
Yasmin nodded. “The sellers showed up about ten minutes ago and they haven’t left, so Helsom is more than likely dealing with that directly, meaning Evan’s alone right now. Or rather...he’s not with Helsom,” she amended, grimacing slightly when she looked at Eddie. Eddie could only imagine how he looked as worst case scenarios went flying through his mind.
“This is not a takedown operation, with the exception of Helsom,” Yasmin continued. “Your primary objective is locating Evan and assisting him if necessary. If you come across Helsom and have the opportunity to take him out without igniting a metaphorical powder keg, then do it. But if he’s tied up in his dealings right now, leave him. Evan still has his mission if he’s capable of carrying it out.”
“And if he’s not?” Eddie dared to ask, unable to get the thought out of his mind of how hurt Buck might be.
“Then get him out, and we’ll reassess later,” Yasmin said. She turned her attention to Mina. “I need a no-nonsense answer from you. Are you comfortable taking him inside with you?”
Mina didn’t even glance Eddie’s way when she nodded. “He’s a capable fighter, his military background helps, and he knows if he doesn’t listen to me, he’ll be jeopardizing Buck’s safety,” she delivered calmly. “He knows what he’s walking into.”
“Do you?” Yasmin questioned, turning her gaze on Eddie.
Eddie tried not to gulp as she stared him down. “I do. I know this is dangerous, but if there’s something I can do to help, I’m going to do it.”
Yasmin watched him for a few more moments, then nodded. “If he dies, you’re dealing with Evan,” she muttered, and Mina snorted.
“I won’t let him die,” Mina assured her. Knowing how hard Mina had fought to protect him, Eddie did actually feel better with the declaration.
“Are you armed?” Yasmin asked Eddie. When he shook his head, Yasmin turned an exasperated look on Mina.
Mina raised her hands with a defiant look on her face. “I’m not giving him my babies!”
Yasmin rolled her eyes and reached for her belt, unclipping a holster with an attached glock and replacement clip and handing it to Eddie. “There’re enough extra notches on the belt, it should fit you. You do know how to use that thing, right?”
Eddie attached the belt around his waist, then removed the glock from the holster, checked the slide and then popped the existing clip out to check its contents before sliding it back into place with a click. “Yeah, I’m good,” he nodded, sliding the gun back into the holster.
Yasmin nodded. “Then go get our guy.”
Despite Eddie’s military experience, he couldn’t pretend to know much about espionage and infiltration. That being said, he knew enough to follow Mina’s lead as she led him into the compound and through the hallways without being spotted by anything other than Yasmin’s eagle eye network. It wasn’t long before they came across a large gathering of people, and although they had a good vantage point from above, Eddie couldn’t see Buck amongst the people present.
A man dressed to the nines in expensive clothing with a heavily scarred face finished signing some paperwork and then shook hands with someone as they exchanged words. He may never have seen the man before, but Eddie didn’t need a description to know that this man was Helsom.
Helsom quickly left the room while his men hung around to finish up whatever deal had just been made, and Mina nudged Eddie to get him moving. While his primary objective was to get Buck, Eddie had to wonder if Mina was seeing an opportunity to get Helsom alone—
A scream echoed from distantly down the hall, and the guttural tone to the sound was hauntingly familiar. It reminded Eddie of his hand being crushed in Buck’s while he screamed himself hoarse as they had tried to lift the fire truck off of him...
Buck was being tortured. Right now, Helsom or someone was torturing him, and he had to help—
Mina yanked on his shoulder, hard, and Eddie hadn’t even been aware that his feet were carrying him toward Buck. But now that he’d been stopped, he could only feel angry that she wasn’t letting him go.
“Mina—”
“Give me two seconds to spit a half-baked plan at you, then you can go,” Mina hissed, digging her fingertips into Eddie’s shoulder. Eddie rocked back on his heels, literally biting his tongue to keep himself from saying anything further as he waited anxiously.
“We don’t know who’s in the room with Buck, or how many there are. What I do know from Yasmin’s blueprints is that there’s a vent shaft that’ll drop me into the rear of the room. If you can give me three minutes to get up there, you can barge into the room as noisy as you can manage, and I can time that with opening the vent and hopefully dropping in out of sight while you distract whomever is there. No matter how many or how few people are in there, you have to keep their attention off of me, okay?”
Eddie nodded.
“And do not shoot Helsom if he’s there,” Mina said, squeezing his shoulder again. “You can threaten him, line him up, whatever, but do not shoot him. The last thing we need is to get cornered in here with a bunch of goons whose boss has just been turned into a martyr, got it? It’s Buck’s mission, not yours.”
Eddie nodded again. “Three minutes,” he repeated, checking his watch. Mina nodded, and she quickly disappeared down the hall. Eddie spent the time getting closer to the room he’d heard the scream come from, and thankfully (or maybe not) he hadn’t heard any screams since. He didn’t know if that was because Buck wasn’t being hurt, or if he was too hurt to make a sound. Either way, it felt like the longest three minutes of Eddie’s life.
While making sure the hallway remained clear, Eddie kept an ear to the door, hoping to catch some sort of sign that Buck was okay. Instead, he heard the low murmur of talking but couldn’t make out who was speaking or what was being said. At least the conversation sounded casual enough that Buck hopefully wasn’t still being hurt, but he wouldn’t know for sure until he got inside—
Three minutes.
Hoping Mina was ready because he was not going to let another second go by without helping Buck, Eddie flung the door open with a bang and immediately raised his gun in front of him.
With a quick sweep of the room, it was easy to see it was only occupied by two people: Helsom and Buck. Helsom had flinched upon his entrance and turned toward him, revealing more of Buck, and Eddie had to swallow down the red hot fury that bubbled inside of him at what he saw. Forced into a raised kneel, arms strung up to the ceiling, Buck’s torso was bare and littered with welts and red splotches that were sure to darken into black and purple bruising when given time. His chest and arm were an ugly red, right over where Eddie knew his tattoos were, and they were both dripping with blood from what looked like targeted abrasions. From this distance, he couldn’t make out what it was, but there was something bright red and black just below Buck’s collarbone, and there was an angry red line against his cheek. Buck’s eyes were pinched in pain, and he didn’t look entirely aware of what was going on.
“Get the hell away from him,” Eddie ordered, voice wavering in unrestrained rage. Despite what Mina had warned him, it was taking a remarkable amount of effort to keep from ignoring her and shooting Helsom dead.
Buck blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision. Helsom’s mouth twisted into a slow smirk as he laid eyes upon Eddie, and Eddie tried not to squirm under the man’s focus, leaning into the rage he felt at the state Buck was in. “Get away from him. Now,” he repeated.
“Are you going to make me, Edmundo?” Helsom asked, infuriatingly calm as he leaned away from Buck and faced Eddie fully. “Or are you going to provide me with further incentive for Evan?”
Eddie wasn’t sure what that meant, but Helsom took a step closer to him and Eddie raised the gun with renewed steadiness. Behind Buck, Eddie could see Mina drop down from the ceiling, and he knew it was increasingly important that he keep Helsom distracted. He just wasn’t quite sure he knew how to do that without shooting the man...
Perhaps Yasmin was right, and he hadn’t been as prepared for this as he thought, because in his moment of indecision, Helsom threw something at Eddie. Eddie flinched, raising an arm to block the object and hissed at the searing pain that brushed his arm—
And then Helsom was in his face, knocking the gun from his grip. Buck shouted something that Eddie was too preoccupied to make out, focused as he was with Helsom grappling with him. Eddie was a good fighter, he had the shiny pickup truck to prove it, but clearly he wasn’t as experienced in the type of cutthroat brawl Helsom was. Although he managed to get a few good strikes in, Helsom had him pinned to the ground in moments, knee digging into the juncture of Eddie’s arm and shoulder, right where the bullet scar was. His other arm was twisted in Helsom’s grasp, and he let his weight settle over Eddie to further pin him to the floor. Buck yelled out again, voice painfully hoarse, and Helsom only smirked at the sound as he leaned his weight uncomfortably into Eddie. Eddie struggled enough to make it convincing, but at the same time, he knew this was a perfect opportunity to keep Helsom occupied as Mina worked to free Buck.
“I shouldn’t be surprised to see you, especially after my men failed to capture you,” Helsom said, uncaring about the amount of struggling Eddie was putting up for him. “Although I must thank you for doing the work for me, bringing yourself here for me to use against Evan. It’ll make convincing him to join me all the easier when he sees you bleeding on the floor.”
Join him? Helsom was trying to get Buck to join him? Obviously it wasn’t going well, if Buck’s current situation was any indication, but it still made Eddie feel sick at what else Helsom had planned in order to ‘convince’ Buck.
“Or maybe I’ll keep you around. He’ll need someone to tend to his wounds, after all,” Helsom said, dragging a bloodstained finger against the corner of Eddie’s mouth. Eddie was hit with the sickening knowledge that it was Buck’s blood being smeared on his face. “You’ll act as a good incentive to make sure he comes home at the end of the day. We can even bring your kid along, make sure he isn’t made an orphan—”
Before Eddie could so much as blink through the red haze in his vision, Helsom was hauled off of him by a meaty arm wrapped around his throat. Eddie bucked and rolled away from Helsom while he could, searching for the discarded gun—
There was a grunt followed by a shout, and Eddie turned to find Buck flipped on his back, groaning at whatever move Helsom had pulled on him. Mina was there in a moment, engaging with Helsom, and Eddie ignored the search for the gun in favor of making sure Buck was okay.
“Buck?” he said, falling to his knees at Buck’s side. He cradled Buck’s face as gently as he could, careful of the burn marks he could see there as he angled Buck to look at him.
“Eddie? You okay?” Buck said, voice horribly scratched after the torment he’d been put through.
Eddie could only laugh wetly. “You idiot, you’re the one who was just tortured.”
Buck smirked at that, but his gaze caught something behind Eddie and his eyes widened in alarm suddenly. He gave Eddie a hard shove to his chest and Eddie was forced to slide backward—
Only for Helsom to descend on Buck again, forcing him back to the ground when Buck tried to get up and grappling to keep him in place. They were so intertwined with one another that Eddie couldn’t figure out where Helsom started and Buck ended, and he decided he’d be of more help if he could arm himself again. His eyes swept the room, wincing when he saw Mina on the floor—thankfully conscious, though guarding her middle—but continuing his search—
There!
Eddie spotted the gun near the wall—it must have been kicked away in the struggle—and dashed toward it, uncomfortably aware of the pained grunts coming from Buck as he fought—
Just as Eddie’s hand touched the gun grip, a gargled scream erupted from behind him, and Eddie snatched the gun, turning with it already raised, ready to do whatever he needed to do to help Buck—and then he promptly lowered the gun again as he took in the scene before him.
Helsom was straddling Buck, but all movement seemed to have stilled. Helsom’s arm was raised halfway between Buck and his own neck, where—Eddie gasped—the object Helsom had thrown at Eddie earlier was embedded in Helsom’s neck, with Buck’s hand still wrapped around it to hold it in place.
Blood dripped from Helsom’s mouth as he stared down at Buck with a shocked expression, until Buck rolled and tipped Helsom to the side. He yanked the object out of Helsom’s neck and straddled him, pinning Helsom’s hands to the ground so he couldn’t stem the bleeding.
“Not this time,” Buck growled, maintaining eye contact with Helsom the whole time as the man struggled weakly. In what felt like hours but couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, his struggles ceased, and his eyes stared up at the ceiling in a clouded haze.
Leland Helsom was dead.
”NO!”
Eddie wasn’t sure when it happened, but during the fighting, another woman had entered the room. He could only see the back of her now, but her distraught scream made it obvious that she cared about Helsom.
Buck looked up at the scream and blanched, an odd sort of pain flashing across his face at the sight of her.
Before anyone could say anything, the woman raised a gun of her own, aim intent on Buck—
Eddie didn’t even think. He raised the gun in his hand and pulled the trigger. The bullet found its home in the woman’s torso, and the gun fell from her slack grip, unfired, before she fell to her knees and slumped to the floor.
Buck’s gaze flitted between her prone body and Eddie, looking shocked and some surprising level of regretful. Eddie decided to table that for the moment and moved to the woman, intent on kicking the gun away in case she wasn’t as down as he thought—
“Ali?!” Eddie burst incredulously, getting a good look at her for the first time. What the hell was Ali Martin doing here?
“Eddie, we have to go,” Mina said suddenly, clutching her middle as she made a valiant attempt to stand upright.
“She was gonna shoot Buck,” Eddie said, reflexively defending himself.
“I know, but we still need to leave. Buck?” she asked over her shoulder.
“I’m good,” he said, taking a moment to check Helsom’s pulse. He nodded to himself with a grim smile of satisfaction, then wavered with a wince as he pushed himself to his feet. “I’m good, let’s go.”
A lie if he’d ever heard it, but Eddie decided to table the lecture until they were safe. Seeing that Buck struggled to walk far more than Mina did, Eddie stepped up next to him and slung Buck’s uninjured arm over his shoulder. Buck hissed at the movement anyway.
“Ribs,” Buck admitted reluctantly when Eddie gave him a critical look. Eddie almost left it at that, but then Buck blinked heavily, looking suddenly disoriented, and then his weight collapsed into Eddie’s arms as his eyes rolled up into his head.
“BUCK!”
Buck awoke slowly to the unfortunately familiar sound of machines beeping around him and the blessedly familiar feeling of a calloused hand gripping his own. His body felt like tenderized meat—and to be fair, he’d basically been treated like it—and weighed down by fifty lead blankets. He scrunched his nose in discomfort, feeling a nasal cannula in his nostrils and the stretch of a bandage across his cheek. He tried to open his eyes and hissed at the light, but the noise was enough to make the hand holding his own twitch.
“Buck?” Eddie asked, voice achingly hopeful.
Buck forced his eyes open and threw a shaky smile in Eddie’s direction when he finally laid eyes on the man. Eddie looked to be in much better shape than Buck was, with only a small bandage on the arm holding on to Buck.
“Hey,” Buck croaked, immediately coughing when the word agitated his abused throat. A styrofoam cup appeared on his other side, provided to him by Yasmin with a relieved smile. Buck took the cup gratefully, sipping at the ice chips as much as he dared. He handed the cup back and tried to sit up but immediately groaned at the heightened pain in his torso.
“Easy, Buck,” Eddie muttered, rubbing soothing circles into Buck’s hand as he eased him back on the bed.
“What happened?” Buck asked, surveying the room quickly. Eddie and Yasmin were obviously there, and Mina was standing a step away from Yasmin. The room itself, while clearly a medical facility, didn’t have the standard knick knacks and informational posters that regular hospitals had. They’d brought him to an Agency medical center.
“Before or after you passed out?” Yasmin said, an exasperation to her tone.
Buck grinned sheepishly. “After. I remember the before, unfortunately.”
“Do you?” Yasmin snapped, not unkindly. “Because if you’d remembered breaking your ribs, maybe you wouldn’t have put yourself in a position to grapple and ended up puncturing your liver.”
Buck opened his mouth to answer, then promptly closed it. And then he opened it again because what the hell, everyone already expected this answer from him anyway, and he could probably blame the painkillers. “I probably still would’ve.”
Mina snorted, and Eddie hung his head with a resigned huff.
Yasmin’s lips quirked into a small smirk. “Probably.”
"Okay, so, punctured liver...is that why I passed out?" Buck asked, hoping there weren't more injuries he wasn’t aware of yet.
“Internal bleeding, but yes,” Eddie said, gripping Buck’s hand tighter. “You were in surgery for a few hours. They’re most concerned about the broken ribs and liver for your recovery, but you’ve also got the abrasions and burns that they’re monitoring for infection.”
Buck grimaced at the reminder of how his tattoos had been manually abraded away, and he was upset to find them covered with bandages so he couldn’t look at the state of them. He hoped they hadn’t reached deep enough into the dermis layer to completely destroy them, but they’d be degraded no matter what.
He looked at his chest, eyeing the burn mark there, also covered by a bandage. This, he knew, would look like the H Helsom had carved into him no matter the level of healing he managed, and it left him with a burning ache in his chest. At least he knew for sure this time that Helsom was dead, but to have such a permanent and obvious reminder of the mental scars the man had caused him left him feeling sick.
“That one will definitely scar,” Yasmin muttered apologetically, following his gaze. “They treated it as well as they could, but the damage was too deep for it not to leave a scar. The other burns should fade into almost nothing, though.”
His neck scar, the scratch on his cheek, and the spot by his birthmark. At least that was something. Maybe he could get a coverup tattoo to hide the H...
“What about yours?” Buck asked, gesturing to the bandage on Eddie’s arm.
“They aren’t sure yet,” Eddie shrugged. “I’m fine, though.”
Buck nodded, satisfied that Eddie was telling the truth, and turned his attention to Mina and Yasmin. “What about you two, are you okay?”
Yasmin nodded, giving a side glare to Mina. ”I’m fine, I stayed away from the action. Mina has some bruised ribs, but nothing’s broken.”
“Lucky me,” Mina said, at which Yasmin’s glare grew more severe. Mina was either genuinely unaware of the look being sent her way, or she was doing an admirable job of ignoring it.
“Helsom? Ali?” Buck asked tentatively. He knew—he knew—that Helsom was dead; he’d felt the life leave him this time, but...but he had to be sure—
“Dead,” Yasmin confirmed. “Both of them. The Agency already recovered their bodies for autopsy.”
Buck let out a breath, tension he hadn’t known he’d been holding on to rushing out of him, and Eddie squeezed his hand. Buck felt immeasurably settled by the gesture. “And what about Eddie? Christopher? Everyone? Is it...I mean, are they safe?”
Yasmin’s professional face settled into a kind smile. “Yeah, everyone’s safe. Ali was the only one in the operation with any sort of familial ties to Helsom, and while we aren’t convinced that Helsom’s empire is down for the count this time, there’s no reason for anyone to go after you specifically. In fact, anyone taking over the empire at this point would owe you for their new position. The target is officially off your back. You’re free to go home.”
Buck nodded, eyes welling with tears at the surge of relief building inside of him.
“Hey,” Eddie said softly, moving to sit on the edge of Buck’s bed. “It’s over. You can come home.”
“I’m sorry,” Buck whispered, voice cracking as Eddie looked at him with an overwhelming level of care. He didn’t deserve for Eddie to look at him like that, not after what Buck had put him through. “I’m so sorry, for all of this, I never—I—”
“It’s okay,” Eddie soothed, leaning forward to cup Buck’s face gently with his hands, careful to avoid the wounds there. “We’ve both made some pretty questionable choices for the people we love. The important thing is that we love them enough to try for them. We love them enough to make it right.”
Buck blinked, sure he’d misheard him, or that he was somehow hallucinating this whole conversation, but Eddie’s hands twitched on his face, and he was struck with the surety that this was real.
Eddie loved him.
That’s what he was supposed to take away from that, right?
Fuck, he hoped so...
“I love you, too,” Buck whispered, hoping, praying, that he’d read this right—
Eddie’s lips pressed against his own, and any worry Buck had fled from his mind. Eddie kissed him like he was desperate for the feeling of Buck against him, and Buck kissed back with the reminder in the back of his mind that he’d almost lost this. The thought that he could have lost Eddie forever and not known that he could have had this, the thought that they had the chance now together, erased everything else that could possibly exist.
Eddie was here, and he loved him, and Buck loved him back with everything he had. Buck was struck with relief that he could give Eddie everything he had without the guilt of holding anything back. He had nothing left to hold back. Eddie knew everything now; he knew everything Buck was and still loved him.
Buck didn’t think he’d ever get sick of using that word in relation to Eddie. Love.
He loved Eddie.
Eddie loved him.
It was perfect.
...At least, it was until a persistent thwap sound caught their attention, and Eddie reluctantly pulled back as they both turned to investigate the noise—
Buck let out a startled gasp, looking over toward the source of the sound and finding Mina frantically slapping Yasmin’s arm with a look of poorly-contained glee.
Buck had honestly forgotten they were even in the room.
“Please, don’t stop on our account,” Mina said, grinning at the pair unrepentantly.
“Should I be worried?” Yasmin said, raising a brow at Mina.
“Aww, baby, you know I only have eyes for you,” Mina said, her smile softening as she leaned over to peck Yasmin’s lips. Yasmin grinned back at her and reached out to grab her hand, pulling her closer to give a deeper, lingering kiss in return.
Wait.
What?!
“What?!” Buck blurted.
“I should probably introduce you two properly,” Yasmin said, not taking her eyes off of Mina as she pulled away. “Evan, meet my wife, Mina Ansari. Mina, meet my little Bambi, Evan.”
Buck didn’t even have it within him to be outraged at the Bambi comment. His mind was too shattered. “You’re married!? Why didn’t you tell me you were married?”
“You didn’t tell me you were married,” she replied blithely, at which Mina snorted and Eddie’s face burned bright red.
“But—but—we aren’t!” Buck sputtered, looking to Eddie for help and receiving nothing but mutual gaping.
“Maybe not legally, but emotionally?” Mina said, waggling her eyebrows in Eddie’s direction. “We’ll leave you two alone.”
Mina dragged Yasmin out of the room before either of the men could pull themselves out of the state of shock they were in.
“I can’t believe she’s married,” Buck said finally.
“I knew Mina was married, just not...I didn’t realize the both of them...” Eddie trailed off with a helpless shrug. “I don’t know, they seemed so professional on the mission.”
“That’s Yasmin for ya, consummate professional.” Buck nodded, like that explained everything. It basically did. He looked down at his bandaged torso and sighed regretfully. “It’s not fair. They left us alone and we can’t even take full advantage of it,” he said with a pout. He knew he sounded a little whiny, but he figured that could be blamed on the painkillers, too.
Eddie huffed and leaned over, hovering bare inches from Buck’s face. “I can do most of the work,” he muttered, dipping down to capture Buck’s lips in another kiss. This one didn’t feel as desperate and frenzied as the last, perhaps because they subconsciously knew that this was the future for both of them. Rather than having lost it, they could grow and explore together for years to come.
That didn’t stop Buck from trying to lean up to kiss him deeper. Eddie promptly pushed him back onto the bed without breaking the kiss, and fuck that was hot—
A loud whoop of excitement interrupted them, and they broke apart with a startled gasp again, this time to find Christopher excitedly bounding into the room as Carla watched on with a smirk. “Does this mean you finally figured it out?” Christopher asked.
“What do you mean, ‘finally’?” Eddie asked, affronted.
“C’mon, Dad. You two have loved each other for, like, years. Everyone could see it,” Christopher said matter-of-factly. Carla was doing a terrible job of hiding her chuckles.
“Everyone, huh?” Buck asked wryly. “And you couldn’t tell us?”
Christopher shook his head. “No, you had to figure it out for yourselves.” His expression dropped suddenly, ducking his head as he muttered something Buck couldn’t hear.
“What was that, mijo?” Eddie prodded gently.
“I’m sorry I said I hate you,” Christopher said louder, and something in Buck’s chest that he hadn’t even known had frozen promptly melted. “I was just...I was sad you were gone, but I’m glad you’re back, I am!” he insisted, eyes suddenly filling with tears.
“Oh, Superman, I know,” Buck said, opening an arm to beckon him closer. “I’m so sorry I left. I just wanted to keep you safe. It was always because I cared so much about you, okay? I don’t ever want you to doubt that.”
Christopher walked closer and cuddled into Buck’s side to hug him as tightly as he dared to without hurting Buck. “I know,” he muttered into Buck’s neck. Buck didn’t know what he could have possibly done to deserve this kid in his life.
“It’s good to see you awake, Buckaroo,” Carla said after a moment when they had all settled into a comfortable silence. Buck shot her a grateful smile and nodded.
“When do you think they’ll let me out of here?” he asked.
“They want to keep you at least long enough to make sure there are no complications from the surgery and to make sure an infection doesn’t set in for the other wounds,” Eddie explained. “After that, well...I think there are a lot of people who need to see you. I just don’t think they’ll be allowed here,” Eddie added with a grimace.
“They had to blindfold us to bring us to see you. It was so cool!” Christopher said gleefully. Buck snorted, not surprised in the least about the secrecy measures the Agency had implemented. He was just grateful they could be there with him at all. He was sure Yasmin had arranged it.
“Good luck explaining your absence to everyone,” Eddie said, luckily without the bite Buck knew it could have had after the betrayal he’d experienced.
“You took away my amnesia explanation,” Buck whined, and Christopher giggled at how much he exaggerated the tone.
“I’m sure Yasmin will help you come up with something,” Eddie said, smirking at him. “You’ll need her help to convince Athena.”
Buck groaned, and Christopher laughed louder.
Eddie grimaced, then. “You, uh, you won’t be able to go back to your loft, though. Your stuff is still there, since there’s technically another couple weeks left on the lease, but the loft's already been sold, so...”
“That’s okay,” Buck said hurriedly, not wanting Eddie to feel bad about it when it was his fault they’d had to pack up his apartment for him. “I, uh, I wouldn’t have felt safe there anymore anyway,” he muttered, unable to look at Eddie when he sent Buck a concerned frown. Buck didn’t think he was ready to talk about just how much Helsom had invaded his life and violated his privacy.
Instead of pushing for the details he knew Eddie wanted, Eddie surprised him. “Move in with me,” he said, startling Buck into looking back up at him.
“What?”
“Move in,” Eddie repeated. “You need somewhere to stay, and...and I don’t think I can bear to have you away from me for a while after this,” he admitted sheepishly. Buck was struck speechless at the earnestness of his words, and by how much Buck wanted that, to officially be a part of the Diaz household.
“Yeah, Buck! Move in with us!” Christopher agreed immediately. And how could Buck possibly say no to his two favorite people?
“Okay,” Buck said, grinning and on the verge of tears as Christopher whooped happily. As he looked between Christopher and Eddie, he reveled in the feeling of their grounding presence around him, of Christopher snuggled into his side and Eddie holding him tightly so he wouldn’t float away. Once again, he marveled at how he could be lucky enough to have the Diazes in his life.
His life as a spy was finally behind him—he’d made sure of that. And now, he could look forward to the rest of his life ahead with his favorite people, with his family by his side. Buck may not think he deserved it, and he may never comprehend just how he’d been able to maneuver his life to this moment, but he knew he wouldn’t let anything get in the way of this happiness. Eddie and Christopher deserved everything from him, and finally, he’d be able to give them everything he had.
That part of his life was over.
And the part he’d always been waiting for was just beginning.
