There are demons in the firehouse
The day following his visit with Peter was bitter sweet. Going from discussing his biggest traumas to acting like everything was normal was a switch Buck was struggling to press. Believe him, he had pressed it many times before. His childhood had been traumatic and he had spent years travelling and creating this new life for himself to escape that trauma, but it had never been to such an extent before. Now he looked back, his childhood was joyous in comparison. The irony. As he sat in his bed, trying to get the courage to get up and get ready for the day, he realised today, it was getting harder to flick that switch and he wasn’t quite sure if he could be bothered to care. Eventually, he managed to pull himself up from the dark hole he managed to crawl himself into and begin to get ready for the day, but no matter how hard he tried there was still that looming shadow following him.
Arriving at the firehouse was worse when he arrived in the evening for the start of their shift. This was the place he was meant to be happy and carefree. That had been the personality he had built for himself when he came to New York. If he looked around as he crossed the station floor to the locker room, he would have seen the smiles heading his way turn to frowns as he didn’t meet them. He would have seen the concerned faces of his team as he kept his head down, shoulders up and rushed to get ready. Not a single glance up at anyone else. They had never seen Buck so subdued at the start of a shift. Even on the hard calls, Buck usually tried to be there for everyone else. No interaction at all was something they had never heard or experienced. Eddie arrived not long after Buck and joined the huddle of concerned firefighters that had gathered by one of the trucks trying to figure out what to do. They were prepared for all emergencies. They weren’t prepared for this.
Buck knew they were worried, but the demons around him didn’t care, he had bigger priorities. Peter was using his hacking skills to look into the official investigation files, which left Buck with the manhunt. He settled at the kitchen table and brought his laptop out to begin his research. He had done basic research already to find his other siblings, but Peter had given him some additional information on the others to help more. Together they were going to go from half to whole. The others were buzzing around him cooking breakfast and getting ready for the shift, throwing worried glances his way, but Buck could only focus on the screen in front of him. He had five siblings left to find; Cameron, Connor, Ron, Imogen and Skyla.
Skyla was the easiest. She lived close to Ian, and although she wasn’t there right now according to him, her family was prone to travelling around and returning within a couple of weeks/months. Ian was keeping an eye out, which left the other four up to him to look into.
Peter had remembered that Imogen and Ron attended the same school in England, Hogwarts Academy. He knew it was a private boarding school but couldn’t remember the name before, thank fuck for Peter. Cameron lived in the same state as Elijah and Gabriel and TK had mentioned they were on the hunt too so left them to research where he lived for now. Connor was an enigma, he had run away from home long before the compound and had been living on the streets with no access to technology. He was going to be harder to find. He’d start in England instead and work his way back to the states.
Ron was the youngest brother, and the second youngest child of a family of close knit redheads living just outside of London. Sadly, Ron was also the long forgotten one outside school. Ron was never well treated by his parents, but was adored by his older siblings. They had taken care of each other. Ron was the perfect mix of all of his siblings. He had the deadly warning look that made others back down like Bill. The strong athleticism and temper of Charlie, he just knew how to control it a little more. He had the brains and the observational skills like Percy. The chaotic, mischievous energy of the twins and the kind gentle nature when required as his youngest sister Ginny. He was the most sought after student of Hogwarts Academy to boot, even at just 15, but his boyfriend Draco had all his attention. Ron was the most dangerous of Buck's half-siblings. He was the most powerful, the most calculated and even tempered, but made the biggest explosions when pushed over the edge. He had sparkling emerald green eyes, with one that had been dipped carefully in liquid gold, and a smirk that acted as a warning that he knew all your secrets and had far too much power behind him to even chance being messed with. Ron was vastly left alone by the soldiers outside their training sessions because of that reason. He terrified them all in the best way.
Imogen on the other hand was the polar opposite and was the human definition of a fairy. She was small and slender and had big beautiful grey eyes that seemed to stare right into your very soul. She had ringlets of soft blonde hair that seemed all over the place and yet perfectly placed at the same time and pale skin that seemed to glow. Her voice was soft and held an enchanting quality that made you feel like you were floating on air with every word. She had lived a lonely life until arriving at the compound, not like the people she was surrounded by were any better than just being alone. It was just her and her parents for a long time. No real friends or other family. Just her. She had attended the same school as Ron, but where Ron had thrived with his charm, abundance of siblings and ability to instil a slight bit of fear in everyone he met, Imgoen had managed to stay in her own world in the shadows unbothered by the people around her. Buck was often amazed in her knack to not give two shits about anyone else's opinions. He didn’t know how she did it. He guessed fairies were too magical to care about the rest of the common folk.
He had tried finding both of them on social media with TK, but neither of them had known their last names, and neither did Peter, so that was a losing battle. The next best thing he could think of was their school website, hoping one of them or even one of Ron’s siblings happened to be on the school site in some way. At least that might give him a last name to go off. Hogwarts Academy went all the way from ages 0-18 offering students the chance to attend the finest education. All of Ron’s siblings were in attendance in this timeline with some sharing the same year group due to their mother's ability to not wait long before being pregnant with the next. Buck knew at least one must have a mention somewhere. Ron was his safest bet, Imogen was too flighty and carefree for her to be dependable to be active on social media like Ron was.
He could feel the burning eyes of his teammates as they watched him huddled in the corner of the kitchen going through page and page of information on Hogwarts on his laptop. Eddie finally bit the bullet to walk over to Buck as he was looking through the news section of the school site hoping to see a redhead or two, with a mention of a last name listed underneath. But he didn’t find many redheads. Sadly for him, someone beat Eddie to it.
“Yo Buck what are you doing man?” Chimney asked as he approached Buck first. It seemed his team had thought to take it in turns to try and see what was going on with their youngest team mate. The silence unnerving them. Of Course the ever confident Chimney had volunteered first taking over Eddie’ initial attempt, stating he “knew just how to get him to buck up.”
“Buck? Man what are you doing? Finally looking for a friend for your lonely brain cell?” Chimney asked, laughing to himself. Buck usually laughed at his jokes, but today, nothing? What the fuck?
“ Buck? Buck?” Chimney asked as Buck continued to scroll and type, his eyes barely moving an inch from the screen. Buck knew he was there, had heard every word, he just couldn’t bring himself to care to respond. Especially not for Chimney.
“Great so good talk, man,” Chimney mumbled as he scuttled away 10 minutes later when he barely got a response. Buck 1-0 118. Round two to commence.Bobby and Hen followed shortly after, individually trying to get Buck to look up from the screen. Hen tried to coax him out of the trance he was in with her own rabbit hole facts she had found the other day on constellations. Buck had come in to work rambling excitedly about all the tragic stories he had found that the stars were based on a few days earlier and Hen was fascinated and had immediately googled her own facts. But nothing. The corner of Buck’s mouth did crook up into what slightly resembled a smile, but that was it. Bobby had tried to coax him away with his famous brownies. Buck’s favourites. But all Buck did was snatch up the treat and start eating without his eyes ever moving from the screen.
“Ev, you ok?” Eddie asked with hesitancy as he took a seat across from Buck. He was their final chance. They had saved the big guns to the end. Buck could never resist Eddie.
“Mhm yeah fine,” Buck said distractedly as he continued to scroll. He knew he should look up and try to pay attention, act normal, but the demons were too busy repeating how much he was failing his siblings already for him to be able to think of much else.”Only half? You've only found half. What a joke, what a failure!” They whispered.
“You sure? You don’t seem like yourself today,” Eddie said with concern as he scooted closer to Buck’s side of the table making Buck’s heart start to beat fast like it always did around Eddie. Buck could see out of the corner of his eye Eddie turn and looked at the rest of his teammates who were making a range of gestures back. Ah. Eddie has been voted team advocate to solve their Buck dilemma after the rest had failed.
“Yeah, sorry. Just researching,” Buck mumbled back as he continued to scroll. That was something. The others hadn’t gotten so much as a grunt out of him. Maybe now they would leave him to research.
“Researching? That’s great. You research. Perfect. Yep I will leave you alone,” Eddie rushed out as he smiled at Buck and walked away from the table in a rush towards the rest of the team. Buck could hear the word “rabbit” mentioned as Eddie stood with the rest of the team who seemed to take a collective sigh. Buck was in a rabbit hole of research. That was totally normal. They had heard about the rabbit holes taking full control before. They had just never seen and experienced it in person, they usually happened at home. They let Buck be as they began to take on their chores for today, Eddie offering to do Buck’s as Buck usually did extra during a shift anyway to help others out. They didn’t mind helping him for once.
Buck didn’t hear much after that, zoning back out to continue reading his articles. After an hour of mindless clicking and typing, he found one article for a Cross Country championship a couple of years ago. The winner was a redhead athletic boy smiling at the camera. A couple of other redheads surrounded him smiling along with him, including a pair of redheaded twins with cheeky wide smiles. Ron had twin brothers only a year older than him. Underneath read the title “Charlie Weasley Wins the Cross Country Championship”. Weasley. Ron Weasley. That was something Buck could work with. Twenty minutes of internet stalking later found Ron’s instagram account and saw a message finally sent to the English side of Buck’s siblings and a satisfied sigh left Buck’s lips. He only hoped Imogen was with him. He had tried to find her in the school's news articles to find her last name too so he could try and see if she did happen to have an account, but she was nowhere to be found. But he was one step closer to her by being several steps closer to Ron, and that was comforting enough to Buck for now and for the demons to take a small break. Just in time for the bell to go.
The bell seemed to knock Buck out of his trance for a while. The team noticed his usual behaviours come back slowly. Holding the door to let the others on to the rig first before he dived in after. Bundling into his usual seat throwing a wide grin towards the others as he placed his headset on ready to listen to the call details. Shuffling closer to Eddie. The two of them sat as close to each other as possible during every ride in the rig. Sometimes you could barely tell where one started and the other began. Chimney had made the joke many times that Buck should just sit on Eddie’s lap and get it over with. Yes, this was normal behaviour for Buck.
The fire was a simple one, an empty warehouse not far from Buck’s favourite bar had gone up in flames after everyone had left for the day. A passerby had phoned it in on their evening walk. What unsettled Buck more than anything, was this was one of the fires he had been accused of starting. Start it before going to work, and then be the big hero when on shift, that had been his ‘motive’. Just like the last time, he and Eddie had run in to check no one was inside. The building had been locked when they arrived so it was just a preliminary check for possible signs of life and suspicious activity before they could get the hoses in. Within 20 minutes the team had found the source of the fire - a shorted fuse box - and had cut the power to the building, and the team had swarmed the building with extinguishers to finish putting out the flames. It didn’t take long after the power was off, less violent than it was at a first glance. Exactly the same as last time. Even standing in the same building put Buck on edge when he was already struggling today.
As Buck began to pack up the gear into the truck, his eye caught a familiar face on the other side of the scene. For a minute, his heart began to beat fast as he thought it could be Donnie again. If he could turn up at one scene, what would stop him from turning up at another. It wasn’t Donnie though, no the man stood talking to Bobby seemed worse somehow. Ahriman Sattari was the head investigator and was the main reason Buck had ended up in jail the first time. He was a man of Persian descent with neatly shaved hair and beard that gave him a permanent 5 o'clock shadow and crystal blue eyes. Eyes that made you feel like they were staring through you, not at you. He had a single stud in his left ear which told those around him he wasn’t against a good time, even if all anyone ever saw him in was a suit and tie. He had a witty charm to him which meant any bullshit he came out with, you would instantly believe because he said it with such confidence and conviction.
He had been the one pushing Buck to confess during his official intake interview, and had spun the tale of his deceit. He was well liked within the NYFD. Had a stellar track record. He found it so easy to make others believe Buck was the main and only real suspect. Buck couldn’t blame him.Whoever had set him up, and Buck was more sure after speaking to Peter someone had, Ahriman was only following the well laid clues. Buck couldn’t blame him, but he also couldn’t like him either.
“All done here Cap,” Buck said as he approached the pair, refusing to acknowledge Ahriman much more than a simple head nod in his direction.
“Ah Buck, you have met head investigator Sattari before haven't you? Him and his team think this fire could be linked to similar ones they have had in the area,” Bobby asked as he smiled over at Buck.
“I don’t think we have, I would recognise those eyes. Incredible. I’m Ahriman. Nice to meet you, Buck.” Ahriman replied as he reached over to offer Buck his hand.
“Hi,” he mumbled back as he begrudgingly shook his hand. “And fuck you,” Buck thought. “All packed up and ready to go when you are, Cap.”
“Yep on our way. Nice to see you again, Sattari,” Bobby replied as he joined Buck as he walked towards the truck. Buck glanced behind them as he walked alongside Bobby, an unsettled feeling in his stomach. He wanted to avoid the investigators like the plague, not shake their hands and say good evening, this couldn’t be good.
When he finally arrived back at the station, Buck ignored the calls from his team mates to play a couple games of foosball with them, or join them in the gym. He knew they were trying to pull him out of his shell. To help. But as much as he wanted to rebuild their relationship in his mind, the reminder of his time in handcuffs had made it too hard to distinguish the difference in this team, to the ones that had left him behind. He would focus on gathering information on his final sibling instead.
Cameron was always the quieter of his siblings. He rarely shared his thoughts and feelings unless you asked and even then he thought he was bothering you by the sheer audacity of answering your question. He barely spoke more than a whisper but Buck knew one day that little mouse was going to turn his squeak into a roar. Cameron was too smart to keep quiet forever. Cameron was also the most innocent looking of his siblings. You wouldn’t think he could ever do anything wrong when you looked at Cameron. He had jet black shaggy curls that constantly fell into his big puppy dog eyes and the sweetest smile you would ever see. He had somehow gotten away with keeping his hair longer in the compound. He had a little circle of purple in his crystal blue eyes that drew you in. His skinny smaller frame instantly made you want to protect him and he had this deep-seated need to see the good in anyone he met. Cameron was the purest soul he had ever met, but he had also been at the compound the longest out of their siblings and had the scars and misery behind his eyes to prove it. He had been feeling the pain of his siblings for such a long time, Buck didn’t know how Cameron often found the energy to share such hopeful thoughts in comparison.
Cameron, he knew, lived in the same state as Elijah and Gabriel but on the opposite end of California. Peter had remembered that Cameron has been the longest resident of the compound and had lived somewhere close to Sacramento before that. Neither knew his last name. Last names hadn’t felt so important when you were locked in a concrete cell for days on end. Buck had been up all night trying to find Cameron, but all he had found was an old instagram account which hadn’t been updated in the last six months. He had found a last name though in an old comment on one of Cameron’s photos just before he had had to leave for the station. Devlin, Cameron Devlin. That was a bloody start.
He started with the lead on Cameron, that seemed the most straight forward. He tried putting his name into facebook and Instagram first, if he found an account, he could get a message through to him. But nothing. He hadn’t made a new account, or at least if he had, Buck couldn’t find it. He tried google next. As he typed Cameron’s name into google and watched that obnoxious wheel spin around in the corner of the search bar, the bell rang again. Fucking brilliant. Buck jumped up and raised over to his turn out gear before diving in the truck. The open laptop sat on one of the black dining sets bundled in the back of the kitchen area abandoned as its owner ran to save someone else. As the truck pulled away from the station, the page finally loaded to the same repetitive page heading going right down the first page of search history. Stating one thing.
Cameron Devlin missing, dated February 2019.