Finding love in the silence

Chapter 3

Buck wanders down the clinical hallway with a smile on his face; after a horrid start, things seemed to be ending well. He makes his way towards the elevator and presses the button. As he waits he messages Bobby that he's all done and needs a lift. Entering the elevator, he travels down to the ground floor and is greeted by a busier reception area, filled with people waiting and talking. Walking towards the main doors he sees Claire standing there talking to another nurse. She smiles at him and makes her way over to him. Looking at his watch, he knows he has time to kill.

"Hey, how is it going? Thought I would have seen you up there?" Buck asks.

"Good, and yeah, I was just about to start my rounds when I had something come up so it delayed me. Although I didn't think you would be done so quickly, something or someone obviously cheered you up with a grin like that." she says smiling.

"The kid is great, and Eddie... well what can I say? But it's best not to get my hopes up and isn't it wrong to like a man I saved?" 'Surely it is a breach of ethics there', he thinks.

"Why's that?"

"Well, the first thing is I don't know if he likes men, second is that he has a child, third; he lost his wife a while ago and fourth; he is a patient and someone I saved." Buck is quick to give his reasons.

"Ah, fair enough, but you were a patient when Alex appeared in your life, remember?" Claire is quick to point out the facts, no matter how unwanted. Buck shivers at that name being said. "Plus, I suppose the kid having CP and the dad being deaf would make it hard to even consider a relationship. I mean as baggage goes that's a lot."

Somehow, Buck hadn't even thought about that part. "That doesn't bother me, just seems they have had a run of bad luck and I can sympathize with that."

"It's like I said to you after I found out Alex left; all bad luck comes to an end and you do deserve some good luck. How is your hand anyway?" She grabs his hand, checking over the bandage.

"It's okay, a bit sore but it'll be fine once I take some painkillers." Buck explains and feels his phone vibrate, grabbing it from his pocket and looking to see Bobby is waiting outside. "Well, I better be off, the captain is outside."

"Okay, I'll let you know about your test results as soon as they come in." Claire waves him off as he heads outside and looks around for Bobby's car.

He finds Bobby parked and waves at him as he walks over. He climbs in the car and buckles himself in.

"All good?"

"Yeah, got to wait for results but for now it's all good." Buck says smiling.

"What has you all smiley?" Bobby quizzes.

"Oh, just spent time with Eddie's son, doing some coloring." As soon as Buck said that he knew he was about to get a lecture.

"Buck, tell me you didn't go looking? You know the rules."

"No, I know after last time, there's a patient-firefighter boundary. I didn't approach them though, Bobby. I was sitting in the waiting room when Chris and his grandmother came up to me and he asked if I could look at his books. I said it was fine and so did the grandmother, but then I got called in by the nurse. I told them that I would pop up to see him because he was upset and you know I can't say no to a kid." Buck defends himself.

"Okay, you're fine this time." Bobby sighs as he lets it go for the moment. "How is the father?"

"He is doing okay. He was asleep while I was there, he'd had a blood transfusion so he'll be out of it till at least tomorrow." Buck has a grin on his face as he explains.