Work Text:
Man Behind
After Buck’s second week of being only man behind after the lawsuit, and being stuck with all of the chores on shift, he called the number he had been given for Chief Alonzo to be allowed to work in other stations and other shifts with the captains who would be willing to work with him and be willing to actually have him WORK as he was intended. He also made sure to go to the ER that was mandated to be reporters of abuse and would follow through with it forcefully if needed to be looked at for the bruises in his tissues and bones that he was being given by those at his own station as a whole. As they were all following the lies of Captain Nash. He wanted everything documented and sent priority to the chief, with a note from the area detective that wasn’t part of Athena’s clique of detectives and therefore would also follow through on the investigation this would cause. His personal note sent via the detective would be to pull all the station’s camera footage and see just wtf is going on under his nose and just wtf isn’t being told to him, with copies of that same footage going to the detective along with a copy to the department’s Internal Investigative Division.
While this was going on, his debriefing from IAD had him reminding them that the shift he was supposedly working as a firefighter and rescue person but was man behind instead, did not have someone fully qualified to work besides the man who had just gotten out of his probie status and had been refused his extra certifications time by the Acting Lieutenant who became the Acting Captain. So really the shift had no one qualified to do that which they were all being paid extra for and could be sued for as no one was qualified as being certified. All because they kept insisting the qualified person who had just passed his re-certifications with additional certifications was man behind doing the chores of the entire station. All the while further keeping him working by abusing their authority via their ranks and / or physically (see attached ER paperwork).
All because a man who had been suspended for lying to the department lied to them about just who was being sued and made it seem as though it was everyone on the shift and not just HIM. That the no contact that went out before the depositions were for HIM and his wife and NOT FOR THE SHIFT. They did that all on their own and were still doing it in retribution for the lies spoken by the man who had originally been suspended for lying in the first place.
Buck was off again, at first to the delight of his coworkers until they were each called in to see the chiefs (plural) to explain themselves and just WHY he was off, and just how he was injured on the job when he never left the station but it was never reported by anyone except by laughter at what he had gotten him into this time. Added to that was piece by piece documentation they were each forced to sign that they had read each piece of paper and understood it after it was gone over by the legal person, explaining just who and what the lawsuit was over. The same papers and documents that were mandated having to be read to each person on each shift at roll call the next day with signatures from all who were there that they, too, understood the meaning and the truth behind the lies that had been spread.
Bobby was flat out and publicly fired for his lies and for allowing the abuse to happen to a member of his shift. He fell directly into the bottle with Athena divorcing him when he refused to come out of it, he ended up homeless and disappeared into the street people there.
The others were all suspended and finally forced to attend therapy with trauma specialists before being allowed back to work at other stations as they were seen as toxic together. That included the breaking up of the entirety of the 118 B and C shifts as well as should have happened after Gerrard was forced to leave. Though the 118 kids forced their parents / guardians to allow them to have contact with their friend Buck, especially Chris, who spent Saturdays Buck had off with him in a co-parent separation situation.
Buck goes to the 133 A shift under Mehta and moves closer to that station and shift. New security systems that recorded everything put in that caught his sister trying to break in like she had always done before to get him to stop being a problem and fix everything he was doing about the lawsuit he had going against her and Chim for their actions in trying to get him fired and / or get him killed by trying to force him into a job their own background would let them know he would die from.
Maddie lost what was left of her trust fund and the money she had gotten from Doug’s estate after his death, she ended up moving back to Hershey to be supported by her parents, while Chim had to have his father in Korea pay the fines from the lawsuit against him, and in return move back home to Korea to be a good son finally.
Fini
2/17/2026
Edit
2/25/2026