Work Text:
The whole team was gathered for a family dinner at Maddie and Chimney's place, they were sitting around a bonfire and sharing scar stories, so far Eddie was winning by 3 points against everyone else with some good, not too war-y, war stories
Buck hadn't even got to his good scars yet or else he'd be winning by a ton
"Alright, Buck how about that one, I haven't heard the story about that one yet" Maddie was pointing to an old surgery scar on his shoulder peeking out from under his tank top, it was too faded and bleached out for anyone to read it but it was an old training top from his time with the S.E.A.L.S The scar wasn't known to anyone on his team.
Only Buck, his parents, and a bar of drunks back in Peru knew about the scar's origin
He got it when he was 16-17, he couldn't remember, it was right after Maddie had left with Doug "Well uh-" Buck gave a forced chuckle, one that not a single person realized was fake, and took a sip of his beer and thought back on how he got it
Buck hated that the day is like this, he was actually excited at the start, his mom was going to take him along to shop for a new coffee maker since theirs broke recently
But of course, the second they got into the car they started fighting. Maybe it really was Buck's fault, if he hadn't brought up his wish to travel, his wish to leave boring old Hershey like Maddie did, then they might not be fighting
They'd actually probably still be fighting but over other things like how he always gets himself into trouble and ends up hurt, basic stuff like that
Unfortunately the current conversation was about how he had hopes and dreams bigger than little old Hershey could hope to make
Buck could even pretend Margaret Buckley was concerned that her baby was leaving the nest, at least for a second he could pretend
"I want to go where culture is like-" There was this need in him to find something, something to fix the broken part of himself and that something will never be found so close to the people that broke it
"how the hell did I raise such a-" there it was, always interrupting, she never truly listened to Buck, it didn't matter though he could barely hear her over the pounding in his head
"-Greece" "-snob" She was the one to talk, really she couldn't decide what was worse, linen that cost under $100 or or cars that didn't cost the same as a mansion. She was little-miss-country-club.
"or at least New York or Japan where people find their purposes" He just want to mean something for once in his life
"You can't even afford to go to those places" "Mom!"
Buck remembers how much those words hurt, he tried, he did every baby sitting and dog walking job and mowed everyone's yards, but for her to know that she would have to listen to him in the first place
"You can't even pass your driver's test" She was so infuriating "because you wouldn't let me practice!"
"The way that you work- or the way that you don't work, your not even worth state tuition, Evan" Her voice was so painful, it felt like sharp little paper cuts everywhere tearing at his heart and nerves
"My name is Buck" It wasn't Evan, it isn't Evan, he isn't Evan anymore "Well actually it's not, and that's ridiculous because-"
Buck knew how much she hated, how stupid she thought it was and it almost made Buck like it more when he wasn't to busy crying over it
"Call me Buck like Maddie said you would"
Maddie promised, she left him with her keys, an 'I love you' and a promise that their parents would call him Buck She promised that she got them to agree to it (she also promised she would never leave him)
"Jus- You should just go to city College. You know, with your current dreams and inability to behave. Just go to city college than jail then back to city college and then maybe you'll learn to stop making messes for everyone else to clean up"
He couldn't do it, he couldn't listen to the nails scraping against his chalkboard like nerves any second longer
She wouldn't stop her annoying screeching or leave him alone
He unbuckled in a second and got his hand pushing the door handle out, he shoved his shoulder against the door and fell, fell out of the moving car, fell out of the noisy hell, fell out of expectations
Who knows maybe he'll be hurt enough that Maddie will come back for a little
It always made his parents remember his existence for a few moments when he hurt himself so maybe Maddie would come back for him.
Maybe Maddie will remember what she forgot to take with when she left, he little brother.
Maddie didn't ever come back, at the time he kinda blamed her for it but he gets it now, it still sucks though
"It was stupid really, I uh, was trying to fix a fence at the ranch I was working at and I happened to slip in some mud and cracked the bone in my shoulder. You see I uh landed on a pile of wood. The bone splintered and so they had to do some surgery. It was all good though, full motion and no nerve damage or anything" Buck sheepishly chuckled while everyone had a good laugh about clumsy young Buck
Nobody needed to know what actually happened anyway, it was no big deal, it was years ago and Buck is better
He's not so… so screwed up you could say, or at least he tries to be better and has switched his coping mechanisms.
Also could you imagine Eddie allowing someone capable of such instability around Chris? No way that would happen
Maybe he wasn't safe to be around Chris? No that's crazy, he's better, right?
"You know the saying, when in Peru snap a bone, huh?" Buck cracked a stupid joke and now he's Buck again
Now he's back home, back with his new family, back to telling scar stories that Buck will totally win at, thank you very much