Chapter Text
Evan 'Buck' Buckley roughly rubs his eyes and blinks rapidly to try and get some moisture back. He sighs heavily and can feel a headache making its way from staring at a computer screen for too long. His SEAL captain, Robert 'Bobby' Nash, had him on desk duty. It's been that way for the past month after their unit had been targeted by a young man they had saved a couple of years ago. The young man had held a grudge against Buck's captain and his unit when they weren't able to save the young man's father.
The unit had come across an abandoned Humvee and right when that got a few hundred yards away, an I.E.D. had gone off, resulting in the Humvee vaulting into the air and landing back on the ground with Buck's leg crushed underneath it. It didn't take long for Buck to pass out from the excruciating pain. When Buck woke up, he found himself in a military hospital stateside with one less leg and under the care of his sister, Maddie Buckley, who was newly divorced and working as a nurse at the same hospital.
When Buck was visited by the unit, he learned that to rescue Buck from under the Humvee, they had to remove the bottom half of his leg, from his kneecap down. He had stayed in that hospital for two months, getting used to not having a very functioning leg. They then introduced him to a prosthetic so that he could graduate from a wheelchair.
Once he was able to walk without even the use of a walking cane, he was discharged from the hospital. The army had offered to honorably discharge him from service, but in reality, he was lonely and was longing to see his family/unit again and get back to work. They let him fly back to Afghanistan if Bobby put him on desk duty for at least a month and a half. Here he was now. He only had two weeks left before he could get back out there, where the real action was.
Buck moves away from the computer desk he is sitting at and stretches his arms and back, feeling all his joints pop in pleasure. A phantom itch starts to crawl up his right leg, even though the bottom half is not there anymore. There is an itch and achiness on the bottom of the kneecap, where it sits in the prosthetic cottoned socket. Buck rubs it a little to elevate some of the tension and itchiness.
Now feeling a little better, Buck stands up and for some reason, blood rushes up to his head, resulting in that incoming headache pounding against his forehead full force. Buck grunts from the sudden pain, clutching his head in his hands, and squeezing his eyes shut, hoping it might elevate some of the pain.
All of a sudden, a hand runs up the small of his back to his right shoulder. Buck immediately identifies the person from the touch. His captain, Bobby. Buck raises his head a little and peeks at the man from behind his fingers. “Hey, you okay, Son?” The man's soft voice asks. The man has been a father figure ever since he joined when he was 22 (he's 28 now) and the captain had taken Buck under his wing. Buck considered his captain more of his father than his actual father. After the accident with his leg, Bobby permitted Buck to call him Dad or Pops.
“Head hurts,” Buck tells the man.
Bobby nods his head, moves his hand from Buck's shoulder to the other side so that his arm is wrapped around the young man, and starts guiding him out of the small corner of their base that held multiple computers. He then leads Buck through the small building to another room that resembled a small break room that was filled with a round table that could sit six max, a counter with a coffeepot, and a toaster. In the middle of the counter held a small double sink that had a window to look out. There was a small gas stove on the other side of the counter that was fueled by propane the military provided. To the left of the stove sat a medium-sized refrigerator.
They enter the room and Bobby guides Buck into a chair. Buck groans, his leg and head giving him pain. He crosses his arms on the table and rests his head on top of them.
“How about I make you a cup of coffee,” Bobby suggests.
Buck nods his head without lifting his head. “Thank, Pops.” He mumbles. He hears Bobby chuckle softly before he hears him starting a fresh pot of coffee. He listens to the make work until he hears two sets of footsteps enter the room behind him. A set of hands roughly slap his shoulders, jolting Buck's body, and making him groan in pain again.
“Down in the dumps again, Buck?” The voice of one of their medics, Chimney 'Howie” Han, teases.
“Chim. Leave him alone.” Bobby reprimands. “He's got a headache.”
Chim raises his hands in surrender and takes the seat across from Buck's. “Sorry, Cap.”
Feminine hands run through Buck's golden blonde hair and Buck hums in pleasure. He raises his head a little and sees their other medic, Henrietta 'Hen' Wilson, standing over him with a concerned smile on her face. She was switching over to her doctor mode. She takes Buck's face into her hands before taking out a mini light from the back pocket of her army pants and shines it right into Buck's eyes. Buck's vision immediately becomes watery at the brightness of the light.
“Just checking to make sure you aren't getting sick,” Hen informs Buck.
Buck smiles and chuckles. He loved it when Hen's mothering side came out. The woman was a good mother, from what Buck had seen when she and her family had come to visit him in the hospital. He had met her wife, Karen, Hen's mother, Tony, and their two kids Denny and Mara.
It made him miss Bobby's wife, Athena, who was like a mother to him. She had visited him every day while he was in the hospital. She had also brought her kids with her, a teenager named May, and a preteen named Harry. Buck had instantly clicked and bonded with all three of them. In return, they had welcomed him into their family. They make sure to include him every time they FaceTimed Bobby.
“I think you've been staring at that computer screen for too long.” Hen states.
“That's why I'm making him a cup of coffee,” Bobby informs her. “Giving him a break.” The man slides a cup of steaming coffee, tan, and blonde from the sugary vanilla creamer he had added.
“Thanks, Pops,” Buck says before taking a glorious sip. He sighs as he feels the hot liquid travel from his mouth down to his stomach, coating it and letting the warmth seep throughout his whole body.
“Better?” Bobby asks.
Buck nods his head. “Yes.” He then rubs his forehead. Some of his headache had left, leaving just a dull pain. “Only a couple of weeks left and then I'll be dome with staring at a computer screen.”
“Just don't strain yourself and set yourself back,” Bobby says sternly.
Buck readily nods his head in agreement. He had almost done that once right before he was discharged from the hospital. Thankfully, Maddie had caught him just in time or else he would have suffered from an embolism and set his recovery back another month.
A beeping from Buck's hip suddenly sounds, interrupting the calm atmosphere of the room. Buck quickly grabs the pager that is connected to the computer he is currently using and sees a notification blinking on the screen in green letters.
Alert! Alert! Alert! is all it says.
Buck sighs. “Back to work.” He stands up from his chair, chugs his now-cooled coffee, hands the empty coffee cup to Hen, and slightly limps out of the room and back to the computer room.
When he sits back down at his computer, the same alert screen that had popped up on the pager is now flashing on the computer screen. Buck quickly slips into his chair, grabs the computer mouse, and starts clicking the screen to get out of the alert. The alert goes away and a land map that Buck has never seen appears with a one-inch circle beacon blinking right in the middle of a patch of yellow-green surrounded by bright green.
Buck's heart rate starts to pick up. Something for their team to do. Maybe this was the opportunity to get permission for Buck to head back out into the field. It may still be early, but Buck was itching to get out of the little square and out into the fresh air and wide open space.
“Bobby!” He shouts. “Get in here! I need you!”
Buck hears several pairs of footsteps rapidly heading his way. When they finally reach him and he looks over his shoulder, he sees that Hen and Chimney have followed Bobby.
“What is it, Son?” Bobby quickly asks, concern written all over his face.
Buck points at the computer screen, right on the beacon, and grins. “Look!”
Bobby moves to stand right next to Buck and looks.
Buck continues to grin. “We've got new data!”
Bobby matches Buck's grin and rubs his hands together in excitement. He looks away from the computer and at Hen and Chimney who are standing behind Bobby and Buck. “You guys, you know what that means?”
Excitement brightens up both of the medics' faces. “We finally get to get out of this boring hole.” Hen states.
Bobby claps his hands once. “That's right.” And then, everyone's moods dims when they all glance at Buck. Buck shifts on his feet nervously. He looks at Bobby with a hopeful expression on his face. “Well, what do you think, Pops?”
Bobby bites his lip in contemplation, his mind and heart at war. He almost lost his boy once. He doesn't want to go through that again. Also, Buck reminded Bobby almost too much of his dead son, Robert Jr. if he had lived to adulthood. But then, Bobby listens to his gut and decides to trust the young man in knowing his limits. He glances down at Buck's fake leg before looking right into the young man's eyes. “Are you sure?”
Buck's face hardens into seriousness. His posture seems to straighten as well, making him look like the SEAL soldier he was. Bobby can immediately see the young man he saw when he knew he was ready to join Bobby's unit.
“I'm ready,” Buck states.
Bobby grips Buck's shoulder. “Then, it looks like I better make a few calls.” He turns to the rest of his unit. “and get us the hell out of this place.” He then holds out his fist. “Remember, ...”
Buck, then Hen, and lastly, Chimney, all hold out their fists, connecting in the middle and all four of them recite, “... The only easy day was yesterday.”
Everyone pulls each other into a group hug that lasts for a full minute before they break apart. “Start packing,” Bobby states before walking out of the room.
Buck, Hen, and Chimney look at each other before gathering each other into a group man hug, smiling so widely, their cheeks hurt. As Buck stood there, hugging his team, and his family, he had a feeling that something big and exciting was about to happen. And it was going to be awesome.