No Rest for the Wicked | | E. Buckley

17

Buck bobs his knee up and down as he sits nervously in a chair. He lays lazily back into his seat with his arms crossed over his chest. Across from him Matt and Kelly are sitting with coffee cups in their hands. Matt waits patiently for someone to cut through the silence. Kelly avoids eye contact tapping his thumbs against the mug.

"It's good to see you, Evan."

He shrugs tiredly at Matt. "It's Buck now."

Matt nods looking down at his coffee. "I know. Um, it's been four years, what have you been up to?"

Buck gestures around the firehouse. "Came to L.A. Well, went to Hawaii than here."

He doesn't like the idea of them being there, especially Kelly. He wants nothing more than to reach for the ring, but that would raise questions he doesn't want to answer. That or reach over the table and bitch slap him. Both thoughts sound good to him.

Matt looks over to Kelly seeing him look anywhere but Buck. He shakes his head with a roll of his eyes. "I know you guys had shit happen in the past but I wasn't expecting this four years later."

"I have no idea what you mean," Buck plays dumb.

Kelly licks his bottom lip. "He knows, Evan."

"Don't call me that," he hisses. Even though it has been four years, Evan's face still burns when he thinks of Kelly's betrayal. He could forgive a lot of things but not that. He can't accept him calling him by his birth name.

"We didn't come here to fight, Ev-Buck." Matt's correction changes his line of sight. He glances over at him seeing the sincerity on his face. The sympathy there. Why he doesn't know.

"Then why are you here? Jay makes one call then suddenly you're here? Like you said it's been four years."

"You dropped us, Buck! You got a new number, you went off the radar. Jay didn't even know where you went. You didn't tell anybody you were leaving. We had to find out through Boden!" Matt exclaims.

There have been a few times over the time Buck has known Matthew Casey. On rare occasions, you'd see him blow up like he just did. On those occasions, it normally involved a call they were on.

He doesn't like seeing this side of Matt. Buck knows they aren't in the wrong, the blame is on him. At least it partially is.

Buck looks over to Kelly. "What about you? Anything to say?" He chokes out, tears brimming the corner of his eyes.

Kelly doesn't say anything. Matt groans, frustrated with the man. "Look, I came here to make you were alright. I'll leave you two to talk. You both are my brothers but I swear to god if you don't talk I will get Herrmann on the phone to talk some sense into the both of you."

"Matt—"

"It's been four years, Buckley. Either make up or get closure but I didn't come here with him to see you glare daggers into his soul or Sev looking like someone just kicked a puppy. Talk."

Never in his years has he also seen Casey be so blunt and intervene on other people's issues. He was always one to say to let the person come to you. Never has he pushed two people suffering through personal problems together.

Matt exits the kitchen walking down towards the others. From a distance he watches him go up to his sister. Offering a hand he assumes he introduces himself to her.

He scowls looking back over to Kelly. Jelly gulps nervously periodically looking up to meet Buck's gaze. "Why are you here, Kelly?"

Kelly visibly tenses in his chair. He lets out a shaky breath. "You disappeared."