Work Text:
To Succor Them
Buck noticed right after the tsunami everyone slowly was too busy for him and his needs again. The words from his nominal boss and Captain, Bobby, coming back to him about it being his fault that Buck was being held back.
Buck tried to have the Union intervene but only ended up with the same person who had been the one over his complaint with Doctor Wells. Though this time he took the lesson and statement on the doors to the meeting literally about them possibly being recorded and recorded on his own since they already had the statement out. And made the comment to the rep that the meetings might be recorded so both parties should be warned. And got a snide remark that the rep agreed.
And then the rep ripped up the complaints against Bobby as without merit and told him to get out as he was obviously a liar having already put up with his lies for attention with Wells.
the knight's sole responsibility is to succour them as people in need, having eyes only for their sufferings, not for their misdeeds.” ― Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote. Obviously, the rep was not doing his prescribed duty to those he was to represent.
Buck wasn’t clueless about the online media attention from both the bombing and his rescues at the time of the tsunami. And when he went home, he sat down and put together a long montage of the bombing and aftermath. Leading up to his hospitalization for the embolism that the hospital was responsible for. And the busy ER doctor’s note that the embolism was his fault for overdoing it, given over to his Captain with the hospital’s added note that it was due to the screws in his leg and not his overdoing. And the firing of the doctor for giving a medical opinion to someone without permission of the patient and to the detriment of that patient. Leading to the hospital having to pay his medical bills for them not including proper after care for blood clots. And not warning him in person, not expecting the intermediary of his proxy to take care of it, that the hardware in his leg could cause them. Especially since he did not need the proxy at the time of discharge.
The recording he had taken of his Captain stating he had overdone it and that according to Buck’s sister and proxy he was relying too much on heavy medication to get through the day.
Yet again, showing from the hospital he had refused heavy narcotics and went further to show Buck, dumping what he had of the pills and canceling the prescription, with a date and time stamp on it. Showing he was in no way an addict.
Showing his actions during the Tsunami via drones, and right after as he went on to rescue several others on his way to the VA hospital while on those same blood thinners his Captain said he could not work while on.
Then his recording of his Captain still refusing his return to duty even though he had passed his re-qualifications and was now off disability payments for his injury. And was now receiving nothing. Thereby his Captain effectively fired him without cause for being injured on the job by a home-grown terrorist who was actually after his same Captain. And got him instead.
Lastly, he showed the recording of the Union Representative and his statements that the LAFD and Union were backing his Captain in effectively firing him for being blown up by the terrorist.
Ending it with the scene of him on the firetruck after saving yet another victim from the Tsunami and doing a medic’s duty with what was on hand.
Overlaid was a quote from a favored book:
“It is not the responsibility of knights errant to discover whether the afflicted, the enchained and the oppressed whom they encounter on the road are reduced to these circumstances and suffer this distress for their vices, or for their virtues: the knight's sole responsibility is to succour them as people in need, having eyes only for their sufferings, not for their misdeeds.” ― Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote
He let it slowly fade to black from there. And within hours it had over a million hits from around the country, with the LAFD’s phones ringing off the hook with complaints. Harsh demonstrators formed outside the headquarters and the 118 yelling about the treatment of Buck by his Captain and headquarters.
It was a PR nightmare!
One that they began rectifying by publicly firing the Union Representative who refused to hear the complaint. And the complaint against Wells was now added to all those against her from other first responders as the rep was her first cousin. And arrested by the LAPD as an accessory to her crimes of rape after the fact.
The 118 was on stand down and A-Shirt sent home while Nash and Han were commanded to immediately appear before the Brass at headquarters and explain themselves along with a nicely worded call to Buck to also appear to fix everything.
Nash and Han – Nash especially – got booed and harassed by the demonstrators. While Buck got a hero’s welcome. Letting everyone know where they stood in the public’s opinion on the matter at hand. And that this time, Buck wasn’t chasing waterfalls or tilting windmills.
%%%%%
To keep the peace, and as punishment for his actions as Acting Captain, Han was removed from the 118 as compromised by dating Buck’s sister and placed at a regular fire station as a regular paramedic instead of a dual firefighter/paramedic. And would no longer be considered for upper management.
Nash was dropped down to lieutenant permanently and switched to a Firewatch station for now until he finished his actual therapy with a real therapist and not his priest. And A-Shift at the 118 was on stand down until each and every member passed their therapy sessions or transferred to another station far away from the toxicity of the shift.
Each of them should have already been under mandated therapy sessions as ordered by real caring leadership on their shift. And that was why the headquarters took the actions they did.
Buck, having already passed by his therapist to work, was placed as a trainer at the Academy while he was added to his certifications. Which would put him as certified beyond the needs of the 118 and to a heavier rescue outfit by the time he fully healed after his last surgery to get the metal out.
And while Eddie was pissed off at being forced into therapy, in the end the friendship of his son with Buck had the man back in his life. Though not as close as they once were. And the therapy did stop a friend of his dead wife from screwing up his relationship with his son with her trying to pass herself off as Shannon. All to get revenge on him for in her thoughts that he was responsible for Shannon’s death.
Here is an interesting dilemma for you, Gentle Listeners. Where does responsibility lie for what we do in our lives? Is payment in full rendered for our sins at the hour of our death? There is talk that this life is but one of many in a cycle of lives without end. Should this be so? Should immortality be our common bond? What is its purpose? What does it mean? Do we return to the mortal coil, unfettered by our sins? Or burdened by them? Perhaps, we are not forgiven as easily as some would believe. Perhaps to be immortal in this way is an eternal judgement. A true life sentence from which we, as sinners, can never be absolved. - Lacroix
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9/7/2025
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9/16/2025