Chapter Text
“Did everything go alright with the doctor?” Hen asks as she cooks up some dinner at the firehouse. Thankfully they’re the only two in the kitchen right now.
“Yeah….. He just wants to adjust my meds.” Buck says recalling the visit earlier in the day. Though he doesn’t seem too happy about it.
“Something up?” She asks.
“He wants to lower the dose. Apparently my hormone levels are too high. Explains the possible heightened sex cravings.” He explains flatley. “But it also means my cycle may be a regular occurrence again.
Hen sighs. Somewhat understanding his feelings, “Buck, the doctor wouldn’t be doing anything unless it was for a good reason.”
“I suppose.” He mutters before looking and seeing Bobby. Sitting alone and reading from a small notebook.
“Why does he always look in that little book?” Buck asks as he sneaks a bit from Hen’s stir fry. He’s been noticing Bobby as of lately looking in this little black notebook. And when he sneaked a peak earlier. He noticed it contained 148 names and 67 of them had been crossed out.
“Hey watch those fingers. Get your own” She tells him before warning him.
“No thanks. I’m not hungry.” Buck says though he’s distracted by watching Bobby from a distance.
Hen looks at Bobby too before turning to Buck, “You don’t want to ask. I tried. Three months into working for him, Big mistake.”
Hen could only watch the disaster as Buck regardlessly goes up to Bobby and starts asking about what’s in the notebook.
The look on Bobby’s face is one that she hoped to never see. Pure Anger.
“Whoa I didn’t mean to….” He says before he suddenly is thrown up against the wall by Bobby. Which is out of the norm for someone like Bobby
“Don’t you ever look in there again!” He aggressively threatens Buck before pushing off of him.
Buck catches his breath over the shock of how fast Bobby went from 0 to a 100. He looks to Hen as she gives him a look of ‘I warned you’
And right on cue, the alarm goes off for the 118.
The call brings them to a crash scene. A plane crash to be more specific.
Hen, Buck, And Bobby wastes no time as they dash across the sand to a waiting jeep with lifeboats at the ready.
“Who’s the incident commander?” Bobby immediately asks when they arrive.
“As of now, you are.” One of the personnel tells him as they offload one of the emergency lifeboats off the back of the jeep.
“Hen you need to check on the Coast guard chopper. And Buck, you’re checking the dive team.” Bobby orders.
“How many are there?” Buck asks the one question no one wants to ask. The death count.
“At least 20.” The guy tells them as they pass one of the unfortunate casualties on the shore.
Silence and eeriness fills them as they travel out to the sinking wreckage. Until the screams and cries fill their ears.
“How long do we have til the plane goes down. I’m counting at least 30 people in the water. 15 on a wing alone!” Hen asks.
“We have approximately four minutes.” Bobby says. “We need to get these people out now!”
Buck follows Bobby and Hen onto the sinking wreck. He watches Hen waste no time before she activates the emergency raft and beckons people to get on now.
Bobby moves a seat to find a gentleman on the floor. With his seatbelt stuck to his torso.
“We’re going to get you out of here, sir.” Bobby tells him as Hen takes over before they make their way over to the next people who could be saved. Passing those that they can’t.
“Mommy! We need to go!” A boy beckons his mom. Buck tries to move the seat that has the mom trapped but finds that she’s pinned.
“Buck, I need you to take the kid and get him on the boat!” Bobby orders him.
“No, I'm not leaving!” The boy yells. Something that Buck takes no pleasure in.
“Honey. The firemen are here.” She reassures him as best as possible. “And they can’t waste time worrying about you and your pretty face in order to save me. So go with the fireman and I promise to see you real soon. Have I lied to you before?”
The boy reluctantly shakes his head before hugging his mom.
“I’ll see you real soon, Baby.” She tells him before letting Buck take him.
“This is not the last time you’re going to see him because I’m going to get you out of here.” Bobby tells her.
Buck takes the kid to the next available raft and hands him over to the coast guard. The kid yelling for his mom is something he’s not going to forget easily.
“We need to check the back of the plane.” Hen tells him. To which he nods as he follows her. It was soon they noticed a couple screaming from a trapped bathroom.
“Get us out of here!” The woman yells. “I don’t want to drown.”
“We’re going to get you out of here!” Hen swears but no idea comes as to how she and Buck are going to remove the stewardess cart away from the door.
Buck hears the lifeboats and gets an idea.
“Hold the boat.” He calls on the radio.
“Tie it to the cart.” He tells her before dashing to the front of the plane with the other end.
He manages to reach the front and ties it to the boat.
“Now Go! Go! Go!” He orders the coast guard before shouting to everyone inside, “Everyone, stay clear!”
The all duck just in time for the cart to projectile out of the aircraft with such force. Even Buck narrowly dodges. He can’t believe how well that worked.
Hen gets the two passengers out and hurryingly leads them to the last of the boats.
“Come on, Buck. We have to go now! NOW!” She yells as him still standing on the sinking craft.
Buck is reluctant to go as he knows Bobby is still there.
“We’re out of time. All rescue personnel must evacuate.” The coast guard commander orders on the radio.
“Everyone off the plane!” Bobby yells as he still tries to get the mom free.
“That means you too, Cap!” The commander yells.
“I need a minute!” Bobby says desperately.
“In a minute, you’ll die.” The commander says.
“Do you have kids?” The mom asks over the whole thing.
This makes Bobby stop, “Yes.” He answers without hesitation. Though not wanting to mention the circumstances.
“I died giving birth to my son.” She tells him. “I had a seizure. Eclampsia. My heart stopped. I wasn’t ready to go, so I fought and fought to come back because I couldn’t leave my son motherless.”
“You’re not going to die because I am going to get you out. If you go down, I go down.” Bobby promises her. “Just keep fighting.”
All of a sudden, he hears Buck shout, “Bobby!”
“I told you to leave!” He yells at Buck’s swimming form.
“I know. I’m a terrible listener. Now tie the rope to the seat.” He orders. Trying to hand Bobby the rope. “It works!”
Bobby tries to reach him, but the current separates them as the plane submerges.
“Buck!” Bobby shouts as he loses sight of him
Buck struggles blindly through the current and rises to the surface. Just in time to watch the plane fully go down.
“Bobby!” He shouts to no avail for a few seconds before hands grab him and haul him onto the lifeboat.
"You idiot!" Hen yells while simultaneously getting a thermal blanket around him as he tries to catch his breath.
Bobby meanwhile struggles with trying to free the woman. It was a losing battle. But seeing the desperate mom’s face burns within him to keep trying. To the very end.
And the end was near.
Saved for a pair of hands grabbing him and suddenly pulling him and the woman with such force past the surface. To the air.
A miracle. That came in the form of a rescue chopper with a paramedic.
Buck and Hen let out a sigh of relief as they see Bobby and the mom being pulled out of the plane into the air from their boat. A sight they were glad to see.
Bobby looks down at the relieved mom he's holding onto and smiles. Even for a short minute.
It all becomes a blur as Bobby and the rest of 118 finish out their call in silence when the energy wears off. No one was really in the mood to converse with one another. Which was fine by Bobby. It's the last thing he wants right now.
Before they left, he looks out at the ocean solemnly. Thinking about the lives he couldn’t save. Still out there. Like the ones in the apartment building that night. All 148 of them.
Even Buck, who normally would have something to say, was dead silent. And was even avoiding him. Who can blame him? He probably doesn’t want to do anything that could risk setting him off again.
He eventually finds himself at home. Standing in his kitchen. Cooking dinner for himself.
“ Was it a sad day, Dad ?” He hears Robert ask
“Yes.” He answers.
“ Daddy, why aren’t you crying? ” He could hear Brook ask.
“There’s too many people to cry for.” He tells her as he goes to sit down with a bottle and drink at hand. But as he looks up, the table is just as empty as he has grown accustomed to.
"You know? It's ok to ask for help." He hears a new voice. A young woman's voice. Could she be.... No she can never be...
Hen and Buck are standing outside Bobby’s apartment knocking on the door. When he failed to report for his shift, they had to make sure he was alright.
“It’s not like him to do this. Has he gone MIA before” Buck says, trying to call him.
“Some things you just don’t go and broadcast, Buck. You of all people would know this. The only thing I know is that he’s in….recovery.” Hen says as she keeps knocking to no avail.
“Ok. I hear his phone. Something’s up. Stand back.” He says as he gets ready to break the door down.
“Hold up, Buckaroo.” Hen says before brandishing a key from her pocket.
“Bobby and I gave each other keys in case we didn’t make it home one night.” She explains as she unlocks the door.
They walk in the place. It was so quiet. Too quiet. What stood out to Buck was how bare to the bones this place was. Almost like no one lived here. Except for one thing.
The table had four place settings.
They look to the left into the bedroom to find Bobby is still dead asleep.
“Bobby.” Hen walks over and tries to shake him awake. It’s then that they notice the empty bottle of whiskey.
Buck and Hen look at each other in an understanding of what they have to do.
Bobby grunts as he feels cold water being shot on to him. Forcing him to wake up and open his eyes.
He looks up and gasps a little when he sees a woman that looks somewhat like a young Marcy with a birthmark on her face. Staring back at him in concern. He wonders. Is it her? Is she here?
“Eden?” He asks before his vision clears up fully to see it’s actually Buck with Hen beside him looking at him in confusion.
He sighs shamefully in the realization of what just happened.
Later on, he sits on the couch in dead silence as Hen makes a pot of coffee and Buck just stares at him in concern. Which is not making his current predicament any easier. But he can never explain his reasons to Buck.
“How long?” Buck asks about his sobriety.
“546 days.” He finally says. “45 and a half if we’re being picky. Eighteen months.”
“Bobby, that crash was hardcore.” Buck tells him as Hen comes over with a cup of needed coffee.
“We all have our breaking points.” She tells him as she hands him the coffee.
Bobby takes the coffee but sets it to the side.
Buck looks at the place settings and impulsively asks, “Who were you cooking for?”
Bobby chokes up at this, but he barely keeps it together as he says, “I don’t know. I was drunk.”
“You know why redwoods can grow so high. They move and bend with the wind.” Hen tells in an encouraging tone. “If you stay rigid, you’ll break, Bobby.”
Bobby tries to deflect this with a joke . “Are you guys calling me uptight?”
But he doesn’t anticipate Buck to respond in a somber tone. “Maybe ask for help once in a while.”
Bobby's nearly stops at what he just said. He looks at Buck in shock for a second before looking down as he's about to break.
“Help.” He finally lets it out as he breaks down crying. Buck and Hen comfort him with a hug without hesitation. A strength that isn’t weakened, but strengthened by the people who surround you when you fall.