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It was like a switch flipped in Buck's brain. Where was he? Why was he strapped down in a hospital bed? Why was there a weird wet patch on his shirt? Not even mentioning the question of whose dried blood was on his hands. He had so many questions but no answers. When he thought back on it he could not remember anything. All he did know is there were police officers standing outside his door, and that could not be a good thing. He went to go to call the officers, but his hand started to uncontrollably twitch. What was happening to him? He felt his breath start to pick up and his heart starts to race. What happened, did he kill someone? Why can't he control his body? Why is this happening to him? He began to feel agitated with all of the unanswered questions. Why won't his damn hands do what he is telling them to?
He did not take notice of this factor, but his heart monitor began to race as his pulse picked up. Causing a loud beeping sound within the room. A nurse raced in, a doctor not far behind her.
"Sir! Sir! You have to calm down! We can explain to you what happened but you have to calm down," the nurse pleaded.
Buck began to frantically look around, trying to find the one person who calmed him. Who could hold him together while his whole world fell apart because he could not remember what happened. What led him to be here in this damn bed! But the only thing he can remember is a cloudy haze, withholding no answers, which only pissed him off more. The panic from earlier was replaced with anger.
"I'll calm down once you tell me what the fuck happened! Untie me right now!" He began to violently tug on the straps that were holding him down to the bed. This action caused the police officers from outside his hospital room to step in.
One of them began, "Sir, please restrain from acting violently. Take a death breath and calm down," he then stepped up to Buck's hospital bed standing taller, to seem more intimidating.
The doctor huffed and stood in front of the police officer, "you are just scaring him more. Pull yourself together or get out of my hospital room," the doctor said sternly before introducing himself. "I am your ER doctor as of today sir. You can call me Woosencraft, we are looking for some type of identification for you sir. We were unable to find a wallet on your person when you were brought in. We would like to contact your emergency contact to consent you for some testing." The doctor paused while walking over to the computer in the room. Bringing his ID card to the monitor and he began furiously typing once he was sat down on the stool. "We know today's visit must be quite the scare, but we need to conduct some testing first to be sure of what occurred to bring you in today, sir. But I believe you ingested a drug of some type," the doctor stopped talking looking over to Buck to see if he would respond to his question.
Buck was in sort of a daze, he wasn't stupid. He could remember who he was. But was this doctor telling the truth? His eye began twitching against his will as he yet again pulled on the restraints. "I'll tell you who I am if you take these damn things off of me," Buck hissed out.
The doctor gave him a side eye, "Once you stop acting so aggressive and I believe you are competent in your own actions I can consider it." The doctor left an awkward pause in the conversation when he began to stare at Buck, "It is not entirely up to me sir, the police have to ask you some questions before they can consider it. But please give me an ID sir."
Buck scuffed, it was always something with these damn doctors. He rolled his eyes, "Evan Buckley," he grunted saying nothing more and nothing less.
The doctor began to type quickly into the system on the computer. The doctor then asked the nurse to call Buck's emergency contact, which lo behold was Eddie, his boyfriend. Wouldn't that be a nice call at god knows what time it is? 'Hey we have your boyfriend here and he is possibly drugged. Let us run some tests on him to be sure. Oh, ya! He also probably killed somebody.' He let his gaze drift down to the dried blood still on his hands. Ya, he is sure Eddie wouldn't be pissed at all. To be honest he was not even sure if Eddie was at work or not. The doctor's gaze flickered back over to Buck, "Mr. Buckley." He began as he got up grabbing a light pen to track Buck's eye movements. "Can you tell me what day it is or the date?" The doctor asked as he began moving the pen back and forth, but Buck already knew this game and followed his eyes with it.
The last Buck can remember is he went to a bar after a fight with Eddie over something silly. One of the many trivial fights Buck has had with Eddie, this one was about whether or not they should buy a dishwasher. Buck did not want to waste valuable time washing the dishes. He could be doing something else with his time because with their job you never know how much time you have left. But Buck did not tell Eddie the last part. Eddie thought it was a waste of money and refused to budge with his opinion. Who knew such a stupid fight would end up with Buck in this situation? Buck zoned back into the doctor staring at him, waiting for a response. "Last I was aware it was a Tuesday night, May 30th, if I am correct," Buck responded.
The doctor shook his head, "It is May 31st, around 10 pm." Buck's eyes widened at the revelation, as the nurse came back in from earlier. She nodded her head, "Edmundo Diaz consented to the drug tests for Mr. Buckley, sir. He said he was trying to find someone to cover his shift and he is on his way."
The doctor stood up from out of his rolley chair and nodded at the nurse. "Can you go get a couple of different drug tests, ones for a sample of his blood?" The nurse nodded at the question and once again exited the room. The doctor's gaze returned to Buck, "I am going to bring in the police officers, so they can ask you some questions. I will stay outside the room until the nurse brings by the drug test." Woosencraft did not wait for a response and walked out of the room to retrieve the officers.
A couple seconds later the two police officers from earlier walked into the room. One took out a notepad while the one the doctor told off from earlier walked up to Buck. "We have some questions for you, sir, on the events that occurred on May 30th and May 31st." Buck nodded in response as the police officer continued, "Can you tell me where you were the night of the 30th and the events that led up to the public harassment on the 31st?"
'Harassment?!' Buck thought. Who did he harass? Buck gulped before he nodded and continued, "On the 30th I left my boyfriend, Edmundo Diaz, and I's house. We got in a fight before I left, and I decided to go to a bar, The Varnish. I was drinking a beer when a woman came up to me, I didn't know who she was. But she kept on hitting on me." Buck thought for a second, trying to remember what happened next. "After I told her I was not interested, she could not take the hint. She continued to flirt and force herself on me." Buck really did not want to go into detail about what the girl did to the officers, especially without Eddie here to comfort him. He then cleared his throat as he avoided eye contact with the officers, "I don't really remember what happened after that. It is all sort of a blurry haze." If there is one thing he knows though, is that he inexplicitly feels angry. He just has this rage that he feels itching under his skin when he remembers the blurry haze, he wishes he knew why.
The other police officer was furiously scribbling things down on her notepad when the nurse and doctor from earlier came back into the room. "We are going to have to put a pause on the questioning at the moment." The doctor approached Buck, "Do you have a preferred arm I take the blood from?" The doctor asked Buck, and he then shook his head. The doctor walked over to Buck's left side and warned him that he was going to start drawing his blood. After the drug tests were finished and was sent away to be examined, a knock was heard on the door.
The door then opened to show a nurse and a man who loomed over her short stature. The man, who was Eddie Diaz of course, then quickly walked over to Buck looking angry, "Why is he tied up like an animal!" Eddie looked around at the police officers and the nurse, clearly ticked. Though Buck quietly murmured out a soft, 'Eddie.' He finally started breaking now that his support was here. Tears started to well up in Buck's eyes, and for the first time, he allowed himself to feel terrified instead of angry. He was scared of what was happening, there is so many questions he has that no one seemed to be answering.
Eddie turned around at the noise, his angry composure seamlessly dropping, the fight from the previous day long forgotten. He crouched over Buck, and brought Buck's face into his hands, brushing off the tears on his face. "It's alright cariño," Eddie soothed as he brushed his thumb back and forth, though Eddie's gaze was clearly drawn to the dried blood on Buck's hands.
Buck continued to break down more seeing where Eddie's gaze had fallen. He then began to blubber out in between sobs, "You have to believe me, Eddie. I don't know what happened or how I got here. Please-" Buck took a deep breath in between sobs, "Please believe me, I swear I don't know what happened." Buck sounded like a broken record as he continued repeating the same phrases over and over again to Eddie, begging Eddie to believe him, that he had no idea what he did.
Eddie began to shush Buck moving his gaze away from Buck's hands. "Hey cariño," Eddie started as he ran his thumb across Buck's face again, whipping off his tears. "I'll be here for you through this okay, we will figure out what happened together." He then began again in a quiet whisper, bending down to kiss Buck's forehead, "It's alright quierdo, I believe you, you don't need to convince me otherwise." Eddie stood up again but kept a hand on Buck's shoulder. He then looked over to the nurse and asked, "Can you get a wet cloth so I can wash off his hands?" Buck's hands were still uncontrollably twitching.
The doctor from earlier came back with the results of the drug tests (out of convenience I will not wait the actual amount of time it takes for a hallucinogen drug test, but if you were wondering it at least takes 24 hours to get the results) though first he took the police officers out in the hall. Through the door, Buck heard hushed whispering back and forth between the doctor and the police officers. The worry in Buck's gut grew and it must have shown on Buck's face because Eddie ran his hand through Buck's hair. He ran it through his hair multiple times and leaned down to place a quick kiss on Buck's forehead again, "Whatever the results say, we can get through this together. Don't worry, I will stick by you no matter what," Eddie comforted Buck, as the door swung back open with three people coming back inside. Though this time it was the doctor, the nurse who ran to get a wet cloth to clean off Buck's hands, and a police officer who came through the door. The doctor walked up to Buck and began to take the straps holding him down to the bed off. Buck let out a sigh of relief when he did so, slowly moving around his limbs, and letting blood flow back into his muscles. Though he winced once he felt a sharp pain in his stomach, that for some reason was sore. From seeing Buck wince, Eddie began to lightly play with Buck's hair to distract him.
The doctor's gaze drifted from Eddie to Buck, before he cleared his throat. "The common drug test we took results came back negative. Though with the details from the 9-1-1 call from earlier, I thought I should do a hallucinogenic drug test as well. Hallucinogens are not guaranteed to come up under the common drug test, but the results from the hallucinogen drug test came back positive. The drug that came back positive under this test was Phencyclidine, otherwise known as PCP. Were you aware of this, Mr. Buckley?"
Buck shook his head as much, as his pointer finger began to twitch. Eddie's other hand which was not in Buck's hair, moved down to hold his hand. Eddie squeezed Buck's hand in reassurance. "I swear on my life I did not take anything," Buck suddenly felt really hot and his eyelid began to twitch as it did earlier.
The doctor nodded, "your eye and finger twitching is a short-term withdrawal effect from having such a high dose of PCP in a short amount of time. As well as you agitation you were showing earlier," the doctor muttered the last part because seeing Buck around Eddie, showed a completely new side of his patient.
As the doctor was taking Buckley's temperature because he suddenly looked flush, the nurse handed a rag over to Eddie as she began to wipe off one of Buck's hands. Eddie took his hand out of Buck's hair and off of his hand, to begin to clean off Buck's hand. The thermometer beeps and the doctor nodded, "Your raise in your internal body temperature is also another side effect."
Buck's mind was still stuck on something, what did the doctor mean earlier when he said, 'the details of his 9-1-1 call?' Eddie seemed to be reading his mind and asked for him, while he still cleaned off Buck's hand.
The doctor nodded and responded to Eddie's question, "PCP, when taken in a higher dosage, can cause the individual to see hallucinations. In which, sometimes when these hallucinations scare the individual it can cause them to be violent towards themself or others. The individual is not aware of what they are doing, because they truly believe in the hallucination whether it is visual, auditory, or both." The doctor then paused, going over to the computer and starting to type things down, when he continued speaking. "The 9-1-1 call from earlier showed that Mr. Buckley exhibited symptoms of someone on a high dose of PCP. Which, the caller stated Buck was out on the sidewalk screaming at anyone who passed by him. He was rocking back and forth while digging his nails into his skin, yelling out about someone was coming to get him, his speech was too slurred to understand much of anything else. He was seemingly unbothered when he was harming himself since the drug can sometimes turn off the pain receptors in the body temporarily. Another side effect of Phencyclidine is amnesia, the event of last night may come back to Mr. Buckley eventually, or he may never remember." The doctor then rolled the chair so he could make eye contact with Eddie, "The wet spot on his shirt is likely from Mr. Buckley drooling when he was intoxicated earlier. Depending on when Mr. Buckley consumed the drug will depend on when he will stop exhibiting symptoms of short-term withdrawal. The drug is highly addictive which is why Mr. Buckley's body is already showing symptoms of withdrawal even though he only had one high dose of the drug. It is very well possible Mr. Buckley's body will exhibit long-term withdrawal symptoms as well. I will refer you to a psychiatrist who will help you through this process and help to identify and cope with any symptoms of withdrawal. They will also help you try to process this event, though if you currently seeing a therapist, then they can help you through this process as well." Buck nodded as the doctor began once again, "I would like you to stay till, tomorrow morning to help with any complications or questions that may arise."
Buck nodded when the male police officer came over to him, with the notepad his partner had earlier. Eddie continued talking with the doctor when Buck continued getting questioned by the officer. The officer now seemed more sympathetic because he now sees it is not likely that Buck took the drugs consensually. After the officer was finished questioning Buck he asked for Buck to come into the station if he remembered any information that may be important. Though with a pause the officer apologized for his earlier aggressive behavior.
Buck nodded as he start to zone out, with his now blood-free shaky hand, he grabbed Eddie's. He squeezed Eddie's hand slightly as he felt a warm presence once again on his head. It was a thing Eddie always did to comfort Buck or Christopher. Buck told Eddie once when he was sleep deprived, how much it calms him down when Eddie played with his hair. Ever since then, Eddie has taken to tangling his fingers in Buck's hair, whenever he seemed distressed. Once Eddie saw how much comfort it brought to Buck, he did the same with Christopher, who seemed to love it just as much as Buck.
Buck pushed his head up into Eddie's hand as he felt Eddie sit in the chair next to his bed. Though Buck's eyes began to slowly fall closed as his one hand still continued to slightly twitch in the confinement of Eddie's hand. Eddie squeezed Buck's hand and that is when Buck knew everything was going to be okay.