Chapter Text
At the age of three, Evan was left at the front door of a hospital with only a blanket, a backpack and a letter which only entailed his name and date of birth. No parents to be found, no reason as to why he was left there.
He was placed into the foster care system soon after that, and went through a series of foster home after foster home, never finding a family of his own. By the age of 10 he’d already gone through 15 homes, to the point that he was over the whole thing. He knew how the system worked and what the parents that came looking to adopt were looking for and he wasn’t it. They wanted babies, fresh from the freaking womb probably. Not a kid that was already well on his way to being a teenager.
So whenever there was a visit for potential foster parents Evan made himself scarce. He’d either literally disappear until the parents were gone, or he’d hole up somewhere with a book and keep his distance. There was no point in getting his hopes up when he knew what the out come would be.
Honestly he preferred the group home over some of the foster placements, because they were always unpredictable. He never knew what to expect with them, and it was always something new with each home. He understood now why there was rarely anything positive said about the foster system, because while there might have been some really good foster families out there, Evan hadn’t met a single one of them, and he’d had 15 homes already. Unfortunately he still had way too much time left in the system until he aged out and could get the hell out of there.
He’d found out, from ample amounts of research and from contacting a shit ton of hospitals, what happened to him. He was left in front of a fucking hospital in the middle of November, with only a note that had his name and date of birth written on it. There was no other information for him so he was still clueless about his actual life. He didn’t even have a last name to go off of.
Smith was what they’d named him. Evan Smith. A very common last name.
He spent the majority of his free time reading and soaking up whatever bit of information he could. He joined sports once he reached middle school, but depending on what homes he was placed in, it never lasted long. It made making friends a little difficult, but he was lucky in that aspect, he was the kind of person who drew people in, able to make friends wherever he went. He just wished that that same luck was transferred to his home life.
…
“Evan, I’d like you to meet your new foster parents.” His social worker told him one day. He’d just gotten home from school and had barely taken off his backpack when she popped up.
Mrs. Price, his social worker, wasn’t a bad person per say. He’d even go as far as saying she was nice. But he drew the line at her knowing what the hell she was doing. He asked himself everyday how she’d even gotten this job.
Maybe he was expecting more than he should, and maybe social workers didn’t have as much control as he thought they did in placements, but she was going on 0 -15. Honestly, he would expect for her at this point to put a little more effort into choosing these foster families.
He sighed as the words left her mouth and turned warily to the man and woman.
“Hi, I’m Evan. It’s nice to meet you.” He said politely, offering his hand for the couple to shake.
“Oh, you’re so polite.” The woman smiled. “I’m Nancy, and this is my husband Drew.”
Evan looked closely at the couple in front of him. They looked really put together. Like maybe they came from money. Nicely styled hair, firmly pressed dress and suit. If he was being honest, it was a little unnerving. He’d never been with a rich family before. It had him wondering why they were trying to foster a 15 year old.
Even with the many homes he’d been in there was always something different about each of them. Kind of like how no finger print was the same, well no foster home was the same either. No matter how horrible they all were, there was always something different about each home to differentiate them.
“Evan grab your things honey, quickly. We don’t want to keep the Parker’s waiting.” Mrs. Price gave him a little push, shaking him from his thoughts.
Evan trudged into “his” room. He wouldn’t really call it his room, he shared it with three younger kids. ‘Well not anymore,’ He thought as he stepped into the room and began packing his bags.
“You’re leaving?” The oldest kid, Brian asked him. He was of a mixed descent, his mother white and his father black. He was brought to the home when he was 5, after his parents died in a car accident. A picture of his parents sat beside his bed.
The other two kids looked up at him and waited for his answer as well.
“Yeah, but don’t worry I’ll be back.” He told them confidently. He had no doubt about that.
“Don’t you want to be in an actual home?” Ben, the youngest of them asked.
A green eyed Caucasian kid. His parents had died unexpectedly as well, plane crash. He was brought here a year ago and was now 8 and somehow still believed in the system. The other two boys, Jake and Brian weren’t that much older at 10 and 11 but they had already been to a few homes that weren’t the best. They were more jaded to the whole thing, like him.
Evan could see the worry in Jake’s eyes, he was the one with the heavier heart, the most expressive of the two pre-teens. A blue eyed brunette, who’s story was probably closer to his own in the simple fact that his parents abandoned him as well.
He was dropped off at a neighbors home- a little old Hispanic woman- by his mother at the age of 3, and was raised by his neighbor until she passed away a few years later. He was brought to the group home when he was 6.
They were all like little brothers to him, Evan had basically raised them from the time they were placed in the home. He was only a few years older than them, but he’d felt the need to show them the love and care that he never got.
“I consider this my home.” Evan said to the boy. “Don’t worry Buddy, I’ll be back before you know it.” He ruffled the kid’s hair, before saying his goodbyes to Brian and Jake who both shot him worried looks.
…
Evan ended up staying with the Parker’s for a whole month. It wasn’t his longest placement, but it was one of his worst ones. What the Parker’s failed to mention was that they had a son, a year younger than him, and the kid was a fucking tyrant.
They clashed almost immediately, and like any other foster home where the parents had to choose between their biological kid and their foster kid, it wasn’t a big surprise as to who got blamed for everything. And the Parker’s strongly believed in corporal punishments.
The only reason he was even taken out of the home was because of his home visit. The second one to be exact. Mrs. Price finally got her shit together and took him out before any irreparable damage could be done.
Still he left that home with another trauma to carry with him, and another bad home to add to the growing pile.
When he entered the group home he let out a sigh of relief and headed straight to his room. His bed was just as he left it, surprisingly no new kids having come through in the month he was gone. Though one thing did change, all of Ben’s things were gone.
“You missed him by a week.” Jake said, head popping into the room before his body followed. He hopped onto the bed next to Evan and Evan bumped shoulders with him.
“Yeah, he was sad that he was leaving without getting a chance to say bye to you.” Brian added. The two were like two peas in a pod. Where one went the other one followed.
“Damn.” Evan said despondently.
“Well here’s to hoping that his luck is better than ours.” Brian said, joining the two.
He hated that two really great kids had such poor luck. That they all had such poor luck really.
…
By the time Evan turned 16 he was already applying for whatever jobs would hire him. The most he was able to do before then was the random lawn mowing or household chores. In the span of his last two years in foster care he’d already gone through six different jobs. He worked at a grocery store, a bowling alley, a youth club, a movie theatre, a counselor at a camp, and a lifeguard.
He really took to the last one. From the training, to the actual tests, Evan excelled at it all. He loved the water. Loved the feeling he got when all his hard work was put to the test. He didn’t crack under the pressure, in fact it was the total opposite. He “took charge and handled it like a pro” said his instructors.
He loved it so much that when career day arrived at his high school, he already knew what he wanted to be. He walked over to the recruiters in the middle booth and signed up to become a navy seal.
…
It hurt just as much as he thought it would, leaving the group home. Not the whole system part of it, no he was relieved that he never had to deal with that again. That part sucked. What he was going to miss were the kids. He always got way too close with them and was almost always crushed when one of them got placed.
This time though he was the one doing the leaving. He was 18 now, legally he wasn’t in the system anymore. Brian and Jake were still in the home, now 13 and 14 they still had a few years left.
“I’m gonna miss you two.” Evan said sadly, giving each kid a hug. They were brothers in everything but blood.
“We’re gonna miss you too.” Jake said.
“Are you sure this is what you wanna do?”
“Yeah, I mean we’re talking about the marines here.” Brian added giving Evan a long look.
Evan chuckled. “Yes, I’m sure.” He said, his bag slung over his shoulder. “We have each other’s email addresses. We’ll talk, I won’t forget about you.” He said to the both of them.
The boys nodded their heads.
Evan clasped the back of their necks. “I won’t be here to look out for you two, so you guys gotta look out for each other.”
“We got it. You don’t gotta worry about us.” Brian promised him.
Evan smirked, yeah like that would be possible. They said their goodbyes and then Evan was out.
……
Training was fucking brutal. Yes, he passed his qualifications and he was even top of his class, but it was probably the most difficult and stressful thing he could ever be put through. He was pushed to his limits and then he was pushed beyond that, but still he didn’t quit. He knew it would be hard work, but it still surprised him how strenuous it all was.
He entered phase 1 of Bud’s soon after and recanted his earlier statements. This was the worst part, the most arduous, hell they lost half of their class half way through it and another portion when they entered the fourth week. Hellweek. 120 straight hours of pure hell. Where they were tested on physical endurance, mental toughness, pain and cold tolerance, teamwork, attitude, and your ability to perform under exceedingly high physical and mental stress and sleep deprivation. Evan almost quit then and there.
It was a lot, almost too much and there were times where they had to carry men who had been so exhausted that they’d fallen asleep in the fucking water. But he never gave up.
He graduated at the top of his class, then went on to jump school, free fall school, survival school, winter training, seal qualification, and more.
He made it all the way to Seal Team 3, where he worked alongside a teammate who soon became his best-friend. They did two deployments in Afghanistan together, where he got the nickname Buck, which stuck.
The two of them complemented each other well. While they were both risk takers, they knew when to take it down a notch. Clay was a couple of years older than him, which meant he had a couple more years of experience than him, but they were both young, they still had plenty to learn from their leaders.
Unfortunately after making it all the way to green team together Clay was picked up by Bravo team and he was snagged by Charlie team.
…
It wasn’t until a few years later that things changed for Buck. Bravo had been looking for another member for their team, another person who was proficient in sharp shooting, and Buck wanted out of Charlie.
It was random luck that Buck had ran into Clay again after not seeing each other in so long, in fact the last time they’d actually seen each other was green team. From the different teams and spin up’s they hadn’t had time to do much but call each other. They bumped into one another a few times and were able to schedule a few things in, but they were rarely off at the same times. And unlike Clay, Buck still hadn’t seemed to garner any points with Charlie.
In fact he’d go as far as to say that Beau Fuller, Charlie 1 and Buck’s leader, still hated him.
He had a problem with how Buck operated, the way Buck questioned him on ops. A problem that he remembered Clay telling him he had as well, the only difference being that Hayes seemed to have come to see that it was just Clay’s way of learning.
How the hell was he supposed to learn if he didn’t ask questions? The animosity had been going on for a full year before Buck decided maybe he should just stop with the questions and the speaking as well. He was only making more problems for himself, and the amount of cases of beer he had been purchasing for the team was going to have him going broke.
So much for being able to make friends wherever he went.
Buck could see that he was becoming a shadow of his former self. Closing himself off from basically everything and everyone, except for Clay and his foster brothers. He talked to them almost weekly, checking how they were doing and if they were okay now that they were both out of the system.
He even spoke to Clay about it, when they both had the time, how after years on the team nothing had changed.
He didn’t feel like he was growing on Charlie. It felt as if they expected him to stay Charlie 7 for as long as he stayed in the teams, no matter how good he was.
He spoke with the higher ups. Nothing specific about how he was being treated or anything like that, just asked about any other teams that were looking for members, since his contract was almost up. He’d been on Charlie for about 2 years now, and was really only holding out until his contract was up in a couple of years. Hoping against hope that there would be an opening in another team. Unfortunately there weren’t any.
It was when he’d hit his 3rd year on Charlie that Clay had contacted him. It was another one of those rare times where their off days coincided with each other.
They met at the Bulkhead Bar, both grabbing a beer and taking a seat at the bar.
“How would you feel about joining Bravo?” Were the first words Clay said to him.