Trials of Blood – 12 – Bythia – Complete

Chapter 12

If anyone accused Buck of pouting he’d fight them over it, but it was probably exactly what he was doing. The past four days he had spent sharing a hospital room with Chimney, and now Chimney was released while Buck still had to stay here. The guy who had suffered from so critical stab wounds that he’d needed surgery twice to fix it and save his life was let go home before him, because with his feet Buck still couldn’t even go to the bathroom by himself. Something that Chimney had been allowed to do for the last two days, mocking Buck for still being stuck in bed.

So Buck spent the better part of this morning alone in the room he had previously shared with Chimney with nothing to do. He had a couple of books on his nightstand and Chimney had left him with instructions about what movies he should watch, but nothing could hold Buck’s attention for long this day. He had an appointment with a physical therapist booked for the afternoon, and he couldn’t wait to get some exercise in, even though he needed help to do it for the moment.

Just when Buck expected that tasteless lunch to be delivered to his room, there was a knock on his door. But instead of one of the nurses bringing him lunch, Michael came into the room with a wide grin and carrying a bag with the logo of deli on it.

“I thought I’d safe you from hospital lunch when Athena mentioned you’re allowed mostly normal food again,” Michael said.

“You are a life saver!” Buck exclaimed and eagerly caught the wrapped burrito that Michael tossed at him.

“I’ve got two hours before my next appointment and I’m caught up with all preparations for it.” Michael grabbed a chair and pulled it beside Buck’s bed before sitting down. “So I have some time to provide some company.”

“Thank you,” Buck said around the first bite of his burrito. “It’s so boring with Chimney gone.”

Michael laughed. “I think I remember you told him yesterday you couldn’t wait to have the room for yourself.”

“I changed my mind,” Buck said with a shrug, not ashamed to admit that.

Michael shook his head, still laughing and opened a container with a salad. “So, any prospects of a new roommate?”

Buck made a face. “No. I won’t get a new roommate because of security concerns. From what I’ve been told Tori is hounding every single news outlet who published my name, but that hasn’t stopped their interest in me yet. They don’t know which hospital I’m in so far. But any roommate or their visitors might change that in a heartbeat. The hospital doesn’t want to be overrun by reporters.”

Michael sighed with a frown. “It’s been reported that two people were arrested for the murders you were accused off, but they didn’t publish any names. So far, the news suspect that you have been arrested.”

Buck huffed. He and Chimney had agreed that they’d stay away from any news reports, and that had clearly been the right choice. Buck didn’t know how to deal with the attention he was getting on that front. For the moment he didn’t have to deal with it, so he was content to leave that all to Tori and deal with it at a later point.

“There is one good thing about the mess with the news,” Buck said. “Once Tori is done with them, I should get enough in compensations from them that I’ll have no problem paying off the time Tori spent on getting me out of this mess. And the hospital bill. Because I’m not sure my insurance through the LAFD will pay for all of this, especially with the single room.”

Michael inclined his head. “It’s always good to look at the positive sites of any situation. Any news about when you can get out of here?”

“No yet.” Buck shrugged. “My feet remain a mess. They don’t want to let me go until I can at least stand up for a little while to get by myself from the bed to a wheelchair or then later out of the wheelchair. The highlight of my day–after your visit now–will be PT in three hours to make sure I won’t lose too much muscle mass from lying around the whole day.”

“I once broke my leg in college,” Michael said. “Not taking PT seriously during the recovery and while I was still walking with aids was the biggest mistake I made in that time.”

Buck raised his brows. “I’ll remember that. How’d you break your leg?”

Michael laughed and told a story about a couple of college kids spending all their free time doing stupid things. One of them had apparently been to use a couple of self made sledges to rush down a set of especially long stairs. Michael had been the first one to get seriously hurt by that, but somehow his group of friends had only stopped doing it once someone from the university had started looking into the cause for a series of broken bones among their group.

“Do not ever tell this story to May or Harry before they aren’t both done with college!” Michael demanded at the end to Buck’s laughter. Then he changed the topic abruptly, “I’m working on a solution on the stairs at the house. You probably won’t be able to take stairs without immense risk even after they release you.”

“I can just stay up in the guestroom,” Buck said.

Michael huffed. “Nonsense. You’ll be stuck at home, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get to use the comfort of the kitchen and patio. Sitting out there will be much more comfortable that staying cooped up in your room the whole day. We’ll find a solution.”

“Maybe we’ll find an apartment for me soon,” Buck said.

Michael raised his brows. “Do you honestly believe Athena will let you out of her sight before you are medically cleared to do practically everything by yourself again? If you didn’t want to be stuck with us, you shouldn’t have let her find you sleeping in your car.”

Buck decided the best course of action was to take a big bite of his burrito so he was too busy to talk. He’d had two arguments with Michael over the past couple of days where Buck had tried to apologize for dragging Michael into his mess and nearly getting him killed. Michael didn’t want to hear anything about it, and Buck didn’t need the embarrassment of losing that argument for a third time. One day he’d find a way to repay the Grants for the support they were offering him despite the fact they barely knew him.

There was another knock on the door and Michael chuckled. “You’re popular today. Looks like everyone wants to distract you from being all alone in here now.”

Buck huffed and rolled his eyes. But then the door opened and for a moment Buck just stared at Malcom. They had been in constant contact through emails and phone calls and texts, but Buck hadn’t seen his friend face to face since the day after his had legally been declared an adult when he had left Baltimore with the intention to never return to that town.

“Malcom!” Buck shouted and might have tried to jump out of his bed to greet his friend if Michael hadn’t grabbed his arm told him back, which was accompanied with a stern look. Buck ducked his head with a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his neck, then he turned back to Malcolm. “What are you doing here?”

Malcolm raised his brows and sat down on the edge of Buck’s bed. “Where else would I be? First I’m called by an FBI agent from LA asking about your 18th birthday and what we did that day. Then Jones shows up in the neighborhood, telling everyone with his fucking smug smile that he always knew we were all lost causes and now that you were found guilty of being a serial killer. Then the news start saying the same shit about you, but when I tried to call that FBI agent again, I’m told to sit tight and mind my own business. Only to be called hours later by a sergeant from the LAPD, informing me that you’re in the hospital but your injuries aren’t life threatening.”

Buck frowned. “Athena called you?”

Michael huffed. “That’s what you’re focused on?”

“He’s always had screwed up priorities,”, Malcom said and held out a hand in greeting to Michael. “I’m Malcom Sullivan. Buck’s honorary big brother.”

“The only big brother I want,” Buck murmured. That had always been true since his second week in the group home. But now that he knew about his biological siblings, claiming Malcom has his only brother seemed even more important.

Michael shook the offered hand. “Michael Grant. I believe it was my wife who called you to tell you about Buck. We haven’t known him long, but he’s talked about you enough that we knew the news’ claims about Buck would probably worry you.”

“They did,” Malcom said quietly. “I’m glad Buck has so much support here. I wasn’t sure about that at first. You didn’t tell me any of this was going on, Buck!”

Buck shrugged. “Didn’t want you to worry. And what could you’ve done?”

“I would’ve found a way to offer some kind of support,” Malcom said. “Even from the other side of the country. I came as soon as I could once I learned you were in the hospital. I’ve arranged for a week off.”

“Really?” Buck asked, with a mixture of excitement and desperation. “I can’t even show you around town!”

Malcom sent him a look. “I’m not here to see the hellscape you somehow chose as your home. How is LA better than Baltimore? You’ve got earthquakes here, Buck! And very frequent big forest fires. You better make sure none of that nonsense happens while I’m here.”

Buck laughed. “Sure. Because I can influence when there will be an earthquake.”

“You learn to live with them,” Michael said, grinning.

Malcom shook his head. “Not interested, thank you. I’m here to distract you from being stuck in bed for days on end. I’m pretty sure you’re already fed up with it. And, of course, I’m here to hear all the details right from the source. I heard they made an arrest about the people who abandoned you, though that’s not even been in the news back home.”

“Did you check news from Harrisburg?” Buck asked. “Because that’s apparently where I was born. I haven’t heard anything about what’s going on with that investigation yet. I haven’t even heard about what’s going on with the investigation here and I’ve been right in the middle of that for the past couple of weeks.”

“Tell me what’s been going on,” Malcom said. “And why the news keep insisting you’re a serial killer.”

Buck sighed deeply. But with Malcom here, he had at least someone who would join him in complaining about his biological relations and who’d get all the dark little jokes they had created between them when they had been younger. There had been a time when they had speculated a lot about Buck’s family so they could curse about them as much as they had cursed about Malcom’s family, whose reasons for abandoning Malcom to the system they had known all along.

***

When Athena arrived at the bar, Hen already sat at their usual table with a bottle of wine and two glasses in front of her. Athena had come with an Uber exactly for that reason. She usually didn’t get drunk when she was out with Hen like this, but after the past weekend she thought they both deserved to get wasted for one evening.

“How is Chimney doing?” Athena asked.

Hen shrugged and filled their glasses. “Waffling between anger and desperation. Karen has taken it on to convince him to go the therapy to deal with the kidnapping and torture. Though, he still insists he doesn’t remember much of it.”

Athena frowned. “You don’t believe him about that?”

“Chimney is really good in telling himself lies,” Hen said slowly. “I think he has convinced himself he doesn’t want to remember, and I can understand that. But that doesn’t mean he truly doesn’t remember. And even if it’s true, he still has to deal with knowledge that the woman he dated for several months only ever dated him with the goal to kill him in the end. And to blame Buck for it.”

“Does he resent Buck for what happened?” Athena asked.

“Not consciously.” Hen shrugged. “But it’s gonna be hard sometimes to keep Maddie and Daniel’s reasons separated from the fact that Buck isn’t at fault for anything that happened, right? It’s probably a good thing they shared the hospital room until Karen and I could take Chimney home with us yesterday. Gave them some basis to work through this together.”

Athena nodded.

“How is Buck? I didn’t have a chance to visit today. And I have a shift tomorrow.” Hen pointed at the bottle with her glass. “So, I have this one glass and the rest is yours.”

Athena huffed and shook her head. “That wasn’t the deal.”

“You knew I had a shift tomorrow!” Hen reminded. “You’re the one who said you’d need something to deal with the investigation. So, Buck?”

“A friend from Baltimore is visiting and keeping him distracted in between appointments,” Athena said. “And I think that’s a good thing. Buck seems to be the kind of person who starts to do stupid things out of boredom.”

Hen chuckled. “Yeah, I agree. Karen is going to visit him tomorrow morning before going to work to provide some distraction, too. I just hope this case will be wrapped up soon so we can all move one.”

Athena shook her head and looked at her friend worriedly. “Hen, this case will follow us for years. Even with Buck and Chimney’s abduction, we might not go to trial for a year. There is so much evidence to work through. There are questions about jurisdiction between federal and state law. There is a question if there will be one big trial for all murders together, and if they will lump what happened to Chimney and Buck in there with that or if that will be a separate trial. Then the defense lawyers have to work through all the evidence. And then there is a question of which strategy they’ll chose for the defense.”

Hen frowned. “That sounds awful.”

Athena nodded. “It is. And I’m very relieved they finally decided they don’t want me as part of this investigation. Day after tomorrow I’ll start back on my usual patrol schedule.”

“If you hadn’t been working this case, you wouldn’t have recognized the connection with Chimney’s Tatiana,” Hen said quietly. “And you might have been in Michaels place when Buck went to Chimney. Then we wouldn’t have ever gotten Buck or Chimney back and we might have lost you, too.”

Athena rubbed a hand over her face and drank of the wine in her glass in one go. “I see your point. But if I’m ever dragged into such a case again, it will still be too soon.”

“You really think we’ll have to deal for years with this?” Hen asked.

“We will. We’ll also always have to deal with the damn news,” Athena muttered darkly. “True Crime fans are obsessed with serial killers. And a pair of siblings spending years killing and planning to frame their brother who didn’t even know about them is pretty unique.”

Hen made a face and eyed the wine bottle. “Great. Now I wish I could have more of the wine.” She shook her head with a sigh. “Okay, maybe lets talk about something else than that. How are things with May?”

Athena scowled and filled her glass with more wine. “The school his turning out to be a huge disappointment. They keep dragging their feet and I think in the end they aren’t going to do anything about this girl. I wish I could take May out of that school immediately, but I don’t think we’ll manage that before the end of the term. We’ve put her in counseling, though, and I hope that will help her deal with it a little better.”

“And you and Michael?” Hen asked.

Athena glared at her friend. “I don’t remember agreeing to this kind of interrogation!”

Hen grinned and shrugged.

Athena huffed. “Michael and I are fine. He is going to start looking for an apartment for himself.”

“So, you’re ready to admit that the two of you are going to head into new chapters in your life?”

“The situation with May has put some things into perspective,” Athena admitted and flexed her jaw. “Our drama shouldn’t make our children try to deal with things by themselves they aren’t old enough to deal with alone.”

May hadn’t said as much, but Athena was convinced that her daughter would’ve sought out either herself or Michael if they had been so wrapped up in their own bullshit. It was a lesson Athena wouldn’t forget any time soon and she’d had a long conversation with Michael during one of their counseling session about how to prioritize their children in the midst of their marriage falling apart.

“If you need a distraction for May and Harry at any point, call us,” Hen said. “Putting Denny and Harry together will make both of them forget everything else anyway. And we’ll find something for May to do easily.”

Athena smiled. “Thank you. I’m sure we’ll come back to that at one point. I’m not looking forward to Michael moving out. Explaining that to the children. Should we let them help Michael with getting everything he needs for his own place? Or should we keep it all way from them?”

“Maybe that’s a decision they should be involved in,” Hen suggested softly. “Ask them what they want. Make sure they understand that Michael moving out doesn’t mean he won’t be part of their lives anymore. I think that might be their biggest worry.”

Something behind Athena caught Hen’s attention and she made a face. Athena turned around and found the TV mounted to the wall showing a news broadcast. Thankfully, the volume was turned so low that they couldn’t hear anything, but they were showing a picture of the last murdered victim here in LA, so it was clear what they were talking about.

“At least they’ve stopped using Buck’s name,” Athena said.

“Yeah, but they haven’t apologized for publishing the name yet,” Hen said darkly. She leaned over the table and added quietly, “Tori convinced the PR team of the LAFD to finally do something about it, though. In two days, they’ll hold a press conference and make it clear that Buck wasn’t arrested and is a victim of the people who were arrested for the killings.”

Athena raised her brows. “I know Eppes has been trying to get a statement out about that, but he’s been blocked by some people higher up the chain of command.”

Hen nodded. “Tori mentioned that the FBI and the DA’s office are probably worried the press will ruin the case in some way. They’ll be careful not to mention any names but Buck’s. But they’ll make sure they stand with Buck and that Buck is a victim of this whole thing. They’ll also make sure that all employees and former employees of the LAFD know spreading lies when talking to the press will have consequences.”

Athena frowned. “It wasn’t anyone from the LAFD who brought the press into this. We know that Maddie and Daniel provided several news stations with a pretty detailed information packet. It probably wasn’t intended as a distraction, even though it came just in time that it could’ve been a major distraction from looking for Buck and Chimney. It was just part of their plan to make sure Buck was framed for everything.”

The plan had apparently been that with the massive press coverage and the intention to kill Buck in what should’ve looked like a car accident, that the investigation would be closed quickly because the killer was presumably identified and no threat anymore. Athena was convinced that could’ve even worked if Turner had still been in charge of the investigation.

“True,” Hen said. “But because Chimney talked about what was going on at the 118 with her, they had names of angry firefighters to provide the press who felt slighted enough by Bobby to talk to the press.”

Athena leaned back in her chair with a surprised huff. “So, Henderson talked to the press?”

Hen nodded. “Told them a lot of details about Buck. Sure, a lot of information they already had, but he confirmed half of it, which in the end probably is the reason they run the story as fast as they did. Right now, Brett is dealing with disciplinary actions by the LAFD, and everyone knows it will end with him being fired and losing all benefits. The biggest question really is who else will be caught up in it. With the mood on the shift, I fear Bobby, Tanica, Chimney and I might be the only ones getting out of this without at least a black mark in our files.”

Athena sighed and smiled sadly. There really wasn’t anything she could say to that.

***

The day before Malcom would fly back to Baltimore, Buck was finally released from the hospital. Athena and Malcom picked Buck up together, Malcom pushing the wheelchair while Athena carried the bag with Buck’s things. Buck’s feet were still tender, but the cuts were all closed and he was able to take a couple of steps at a time before it became to painful. The doctors had promised him if he remained careful about his healing process he would be able to start walking more soon.

The drive to the Grants’ house was easy going, with Athena and Malcom swapping stories about Buck he knew they were only telling each other to keep him distracted and laughing in embarrassment. They had probably already heard all these stories from each other, Malcom had been invited to dinner with the Grants twice over the past week, after all.

As Athena had promised from the very beginning, there was a ramp covering the step to the front door now. Inside, Harry was the first one to greet him with much laughter and big hug. Then he ran to the stairs down to the living room and sat down in a chair that Buck didn’t remember to be there before.

“Look what we got you!” Harry shouted in excitement.

He pushed a button on the armrest of the chair and it started to move. Buck only noticed in that moment that it was mounted to the wall on some kind of rails, and Harry kept laughing the whole time the chair needed to drive down on those rails.

“Isn’t that the kind of thing old people use when they can’t take stairs anymore?” Buck asked with a frown.

Athena laughed and patted his shoulders. “It’s the kind of thing everyone uses, who can’t safely take stairs. Like you, for the next little while.”

“Harry, what did we say about using the chair?” Michael’s voice came from somewhere in the living room.

Harry groaned. “That it’s for Buck and everyone else has to walk the stairs. But I had to show Buck how it worked!”

“Then show him how it works to get up the stairs, too, so he can use it get down here,” Michael said, sounding utterly unimpressed by Harry’s reasoning.

“There is a second wheelchair down stairs,” Athena said.

“Don’t these things cost a fortune?” Buck whispered.

“Michael’s got a client who is remodeling her whole house now that her father has passed away,” Athena said. “She was just going to throw it away before Michael snatched it up. Once you don’t need the chair anymore, we’ll donate the whole thing to a place that provides used chairs like this and the maintenance of them for people who usually can’t afford one. They’re the ones who installed this for us, too, so it’s perfectly safe.”

Buck inhaled deeply and just nodded. Athena and Michael had told him several times that he needed to stop thanking them for every little thing they did. So he was saving it all for whatever he would come up with eventually to thank them. He didn’t have any idea about that yet, but eventually he would think of something.

Harry watched with an eerie intensity while Buck shifted from the wheelchair into the chair to bring him down the stairs. Then Harry walked slowly down the stairs always keeping up with Buck while talking about the people who had been here to install the chair, complaining that he hadn’t been allowed to help.

Buck only noticed that the living room was full of people after he had managed to get himself into the wheelchair waiting for him downstairs. Hen and Tanika where there, both with their whole family, Chimney sat at the table waving at him with a wry grin. Beside him stood Bobby and Captain Mehta–who had told Buck at his last visit at the hospital a couple of days ago to call him Jeshan–, and Buck spotted even a couple more people from the 133 out on the patio. Buck hadn’t even started working with their shift yet, but most of them had still been by to visit him at least once. Tori was there, too, standing beside Karen and nodding at Buck with an easy smile in greeting.

“A party, really?” Buck asked, with a wide grin.

“I didn’t get one!” Chimney complained loudly.

“It’s a party for both of you,” Hen said in a tone that told Buck this was an argument she’d had at least three times with Chimney.

Buck laughed, and then thankfully the party just started without all the attention remaining on him or Chimney. Bobby and Michael squabbled over the barbeque, much to the amusement of pretty much everyone, but other than that it was just a lighthearted get together, with Malcom and Buck as arguably the newest members of this group being included in everything without any kind of fuss.

A couple of times throughout this afternoon gathering, Buck had to excuse himself for a little while, pulling back to a corner to be by himself for a little while to deal with how overwhelmed he felt. He had made friends during his travels, people he was still in contact with now despite moving on from the place where they had met them. And he had, of course, a couple of very good friends in Baltimore, Malcom without a doubt the most important one of those.

This felt different, though. Buck couldn’t quite put it in words yet. And maybe part of it was that he didn’t fully trust what he was seeing now to stay true for long. This moment felt like something he had been longing for, looking for all his life. There was a little voice of doubt whispering in the back of his head, questioning him if he could really trust any of it. But he silenced that voice with reminding himself that all of these people had come here to celebrate his release from the hospital despite everything that had happened over the past couple of weeks, despite everything that had been said about him.

Buck would hold on to this moment and find a way to keep what he had found here. Because this whole gathering felt a lot like he had always imagined family to feel like, and he didn’t want to let that go again.

I mentioned in the author note of the project file that this was a story to fulfill my whole “Bad Things Happen” Bingo Card in one go. And I succeeded! Here is the list of all the prompts:

Slammed into a wall – Chapter 01

Hiding an Injury – Chapter 04

Stitches – Chapter 04

Nightmares – Chapter 05

Backhand Slap – Chapter 06

Grabbed by the Throat – Chapter 08

You can scram all you want – Chapter 09

Hair matted with blood – Chapter 10

Bleeding through the bandages – Chapter 11

My plan is to edit the story throughout December and then post at the end of December so I can call the Bingo before the time runs out.