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On the second day of Whumpmas, my whumper gave to me...
Two human shields...
And a Buck tied to a pear tree.
"Hey, do you mind if we stop by the store on the way home? I've been putting it off for a couple days but—"
"Yeah, it's no problem," Buck smiled easily. "I'd rather go shopping with you guys anyways, you always forget to get spices."
"Abuela brings the spices she wants to use when she cooks anyways," Eddie grumbled good-naturedly even as Christopher giggled in the backseat.
"Yeah, and then you leave me to cook with salt and pepper."
"It's still really good!" Christopher said cheerfully.
"I have cinnamon!" Eddie said defensively.
"You're adorable," Buck said, and Eddie was very glad that Buck's eyes were on the road and not in a position to see how red Eddie's face had gotten.
Late in the afternoon on a Sunday, the store wasn't very active when they got there. Eddie grabbed a cart and the three of them started going down the aisles picking up items along the way that they needed and items that Buck and Christopher needled Eddie into adding to the cart (or attempting to sneak into the cart when Eddie wasn't looking).
So far, the only item that had actually been successfully snuck into the cart was a bag of Lucky Charms marshmallows.
By the time they reached the spices aisle, there was a commotion at the front of the store that stole their attention. From the distance, they couldn't make out just what was going on, but Buck and Eddie exchanged wordless glances and Buck shifted to the same side of the cart that Christopher was on (who hadn't noticed anything amiss yet) while Eddie shuffled towards the end of the aisle to get eyes on what was going on.
As Buck distractedly fielded a question about why some of the salt was pink, Eddie crept closer to the end of the aisle.
"C'mon, you don't wanna die for a minimum wage job."
"Just open the register and fill the bag, we'll be on our way."
You've gotta be kidding me. After hearing the two apparent robbers, Eddie wasn't keen on being spotted so he hung at the end of the aisle without risking looking around the corner.
"Hey, put down the gun—"
"Don't fucking move!"
Someone who seemed to be trying to de-escalate the situation said something else that Eddie couldn't make out, and then—
The unmistakable sound of a gunshot went off followed by a pained yell and a significant amount of cursing from multiple sources.
"What the fuck, Al?! No one was supposed to get hurt—" That was a third voice, how many robbers were there?
"Don't fucking say my name!"
"If the police weren't already on their way, they're gonna be now that you shot someone, you moron—"
"We'll be outta here in a minute if they just fill the fucking bags—"
Eddie chanced a look around the corner to scope out the scene. From what he could see, there were indeed three robbers in the vicinity of the register, one of which was behind the counter with a terrified-looking college-age worker. The other two were preoccupied with two customers, one of which was on the ground with a bullet wound to the shoulder—Eddie unconsciously lifted a hand to rub at his own scarred shoulder.
Eddie itched to go and help the injured customer, but Buck and Christopher were down the aisle and he wasn't in a hurry to involve himself or them in this armed robbery situation. From what he could tell, the shoulder wound wasn't bleeding excessively, so perhaps they could wait out the robbers and he'd be able to provide medical attention in a minute or two.
A siren whirred outside.
This situation was either going to be over very quickly, or it just got a lot longer.
Eddie couldn't help but feel frustrated with whomever had called 9-1-1; he was glad someone had called, don't get him wrong, but he couldn't help but think they neglected to pass on all of the relevant details. Eddie didn't think the police would've announced themselves so fast if they knew there were three gunman inside.
Eddie stepped back slowly, intent to return to Buck and Christopher. Whatever happened next, he wanted to be near them both. Buck had Christopher at the other end of the aisle, as far away from the commotion as they could manage. Buck locked eyes with him as he approached, face grim as he kept a hand on Christopher's shoulder. Christopher looked tense but otherwise unpanicked, and Eddie was thankful for however Buck had explained the situation to him. As oblivious as he'd been earlier, he definitely would've heard the gunshot.
"Dad—"
"Everything's gonna be fine, mijo," Eddie said quietly, trying to keep his son's voice down in the process. "We just need to stay outta the way—"
"Don't move."
The trio froze, and Eddie looked up to find a fourth gunman behind Buck and Christopher. Buck's grip on Christopher's shoulder tightened but he didn't move, instead keeping his eyes on Eddie.
"You three are gonna come with me. No trouble, you hear?"
Buck's jaw twitched, and Eddie knew he was holding himself back from making a quip about just being told not to move. He wasn't going to risk sarcasm when Christopher was right there.
"Okay, we're coming," Eddie said, nodding at Buck. Buck turned Christopher to follow the gunman, who'd looked away to check down the perpendicular aisle—
Christopher's crutch caught on the shopping cart, creating a loud clanging noise that startled all four of them. The gunman flinched and whirled around, raising the gun directly at Christopher's head.
"Don't try anything, I swear to fuck—"
"It was an accident, he's just a kid!"
"Leave him alone!"
Buck had spun Christopher behind him as everyone spoke at once, covering him with the bulk of his body even as Eddie darted forward with both hands extended. The gunman's eyes were wild as he held the gun aloft, now aimed at Buck's back until Eddie was able to slide himself between Buck and the gunman. The man twitched and Eddie took a long, slow breath, keeping both hands up in an obviously peaceful gesture.
"Please, he didn't mean to do anything, it was an accident," Eddie said with forced calmness. "Look at him. He's scared, he's 10, he's not planning anything." Eddie didn't need to look behind him to know that Buck was keeping Christopher safely out of the man's view, but the gunman seemed to get the point and nodded. He still didn't lower the gun however.
"Pick up the kid, and the three of you get moving. Now."
Eddie nodded even as he heard Buck pick up Christopher, and he let them go first to keep himself between his boys and the gunman. Eddie watched the gunman pick up one of Christopher crutches, and he whacked the back of Eddie's legs when he decided Eddie wasn't moving fast enough.
"I'm going! I'm going!"
Buck spared a glance backwards to check on him but Eddie was glad to see him keep moving; he'd rather Christopher be as far away from this man as possible. They were clearly losing their handle on this situation, and Eddie was worried about what they'd do now that they were cornered. One of them had already shot someone...Eddie really didn't want to add to that total.
"Where d'you think you're going?"
Sonofa—
One of the gunmen from the front of the store had come to investigate the commotion, and was now standing in front of Buck and Christopher with his own gun raised. Eddie noted with dread that it was the same man who had been standing over the gunshot victim. Buck angled his body so Christopher was held between him and Eddie, speaking to the man over his shoulder.
"Your buddy told us to move, so we're just listening to him," Buck said shortly; his nerves were obviously wearing thin. "We don't want any trouble."
The new man looked past Buck and Eddie to lock eyes with his fellow robber. "What're you doing, taking hostages now?"
"You heard the police outside, we need insurance."
"We need to get out of here, not acquire more baggage."
"We can stick 'em in a corner with the other customers, keep 'em all together."
The gunman in front of Buck rolled his eyes. "Yeah, fine. Alright, let's go." The man grabbed Buck's arm, the one least supporting Christopher and yanked, pulling him in front. Buck shifted his hold on Christopher as the gunman stuck the gun in his back, keeping Christopher entirely in the front. Eddie itched to pull the man away but the gun aimed behind him was a good enough incentive not to try anything.
The group was led to a corner filled with overflow stock boxes and told to sit in silence. Buck sat with Christopher on his lap, arms wrapped securely around him, and Eddie sat on their side, grateful to be within touch-distance of them. Their original hostage taker stayed with them while his friend disappeared to the front of the store again.
"You okay?" Eddie asked quietly, running a hand over Christopher's hair.
Christopher nodded but stayed silent, which was more of an indicator about how shaken up he was. Eddie made eye contact with Buck, asking silently, You good? Buck nodded, jaw still tight.
A few minutes passed, and then the two customers from the front of the store were being led back to them, the uninjured one supporting the gunshot victim along the way. Eddie was gratified to see the man walking under some of his own power, but he was worryingly pale. The man who had shot him was leading the two of them, and then ordered them to sit in the corner with the three of them.
The injured man fell into a sitting position ungracefully, and Eddie couldn't hold back any longer from helping the man. The gunman, unsurprisingly, didn't like the movement.
"Don't fucking move—"
"He's bleeding, and I'm a medic," Eddie said sharply, holding still. "Unless you want your aggravated robbery to turn into murder, let me treat him. We're not going anywhere."
The gunman held his gaze for a moment longer, then scoffed. "Yeah, fine, whatever. Just stay there and stay fucking quiet."
Eddie nodded, and with a nod of acceptance from the injured man, Eddie got to work bandaging the wound with the limited resources they had—mostly paper towels and saran wrap from the corner they were in. The man definitely needed a doctor, but he wasn't in any immediate danger so long as this situation didn't stretch out for hours on end.
Time passed with little distractions. The gunman paid them hardly any heed as they remained quiet, and the voices at the front of the store had died down to unintelligible murmurs. Eventually, Eddie couldn't hear anything from the front of the store, and it made him antsy; he didn't like not knowing what was going on up there.
The gunman didn't seem to like the silence either. With a couple furtive glances at his hostages, he shuffled down the aisle looking back and forth along the way, and then he disappeared around the corner.
"Dad?" Christopher whispered.
"Yeah, mijo?"
"They said a lot of bad words."
Buck stifled a snort in Christopher's hair, and Eddie felt the insane desire to chuckle uncontrollably himself. Leave it to Christopher to defuse the tension.
"You know you're not supposed to say them, right?" the injured man grinned, sharing a look with Eddie.
Christopher nodded. "Right."
"Am I the only one wondering what we're still doing here?" the fifth person said, eyes on the empty aisle the gunman had disappeared down. "There's an emergency exit in the other corner, we could make a run for it—"
"You're welcome to bolt if you want to," Buck muttered, looking annoyed. "But there are four guys with guns out there and we have no idea where they are."
"Well they aren't here—"
"LAPD, scene is clear!"
Buck and Eddie both breathed a sigh of relief, but the other customer just looked annoyed himself now. "You don't know she's not working for them, it could be a ploy—"
"We recognize the voice," Eddie said quickly before Buck could say something (that would've been far less polite if the look on his face meant anything). "Athena, back here! One gunshot victim, stable," he reported loudly.
Athena appeared around the corner a moment later with another police officer and two paramedics. She swept the scene and the tense set of her shoulders dropped upon laying eyes on the three of them. "When you said there was a gunshot victim, I was half expecting it to be Buck," Athena said wryly as the paramedics rushed to take over the injured customer's treatment.
"Hey!" Buck said indignantly even as Christopher giggled.
As it turned out, the gunmen had been tipped off that this store was a front for a money laundering operation and thought they'd get a big score beyond what was in the registers. It was mostly why the cashier had been so terrified; they had no idea what the gunmen were talking about...because they'd hit the wrong store. It all went downhill from there for the gunmen.
The police had managed to quietly breach the building while the cashier was out of the line of fire, and with three of the gunmen detained, it was easy to force the last to surrender when he came to investigate his too-quiet friends. A bystander outside had noticed what was going on before entering the store and had called 9-1-1, which explained why they hadn't had the full story when calling it in. All things considered, it could've been worse.
"How did you manage to turn a trip to the grocery into yet another danger-defying stunt?" Athena asked as Eddie took over hold of Christopher.
"Buck wanted spices."
"You only have salt and pepper!" Buck shouted back from where he was retrieving Christopher's crutches.
"And cinnamon," Christopher added helpfully. "Buck said we could try the pink salt!"
Eddie had no idea what pink salt was, but he wasn't the one who would be cooking with it so he decided not to argue. And when the trio of them finally managed to check out and the cashier scanned a bag of Lucky Charms marshmallows after the pink salt...Eddie figured they deserved it.