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mychoombatheroomba · 20 days ago

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Someone to Carry You

Disavowed (Krauser x GN! Reader/Krauser x Leon) - Chapter 6

1998

Krauser visits you in the hospital and reckons with a world that will never be the same again.

(Cross-posted from Ao3)

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Chapter Index

TW for hospitals, PTSD and vague suicidal ideation

February 12th, 1998

18:43

Washington DC

He’d seen something he shouldn’t have seen. That much was very plain to Krauser in the weeks following his return from Dorne Base. He’d seen what he shouldn’t have – what he and the government both wished he hadn’t.

The next week was full of questions and red tape. Above all, there was an order that he would speak not a word of what happened. Not him or any of his men. They’d pulled him from the mission he was supposed to run and kept him and the others grounded. It wasn’t the first time in his career he’d been told to keep quiet about something.

It wasn’t the first comrade’s funeral he’d had to attend, either.

Captain Simon Reynolds. Buried with honor. Krauser had stood there, in the same dress uniform he’d worn the last time he’d seen his friend alive. He’d watched as Simon’s wife held back tears during the three-volley salute. As his family tried to look strong. There were dozens of empty caskets lowered into the ground that day. Dozens of soldiers who would not go home to their families, their bodies kept for study and security. “Unrecoverable” was the official story. So Krauser had received dozens upon dozens of dog tags that should have gone home to mothers, fathers, siblings and children.

All but one, belonging to someone who wasn’t present at the funeral.

Someone who, from what he’d heard, had woken up the day after your Captain was laid to rest.

They wouldn’t let him see you - or let anyone see you, for that matter. Not based off what he was told. There were questions to answer first - questions that burned at the forefront of Krauser’s mind, too.

He’d seen his share of bodies, but nothing like what he’d seen that day. Nothing like the twisted parody of a man lying in the ruins of the base, claws and teeth sprouting from dead flesh. That image flashed through his mind often. Almost as much as the image of his friend lying in the snow, dead and gone.

That one always came with the memory of you, asking to be left behind. Asking Krauser to let you die.

It was hard to reconcile that memory with his first impression of you. That didn’t get any easier when, after a week, they finally cleared his request to visit.

A request he wasn’t even sure why he was making, if he was honest with himself.

He had visited plenty of soldiers in the hospital before. If any of his men were ever injured in the line of duty, the Major made damn sure that he was there for them. To let them know that their sacrifice was recognized and appreciated. Only, you weren’t one of his men. He’d only met you twice, and yet, here he was, standing outside the door to your hospital room.

The questions in his head were part of what led him there, he knew. He wanted to know what they were refusing to tell him, what had happened that could kill so many. What could possibly turn a human being into whatever it was he saw? He wanted to know who had set the charges that set the base on fire. He wanted to know who had executed the soldiers there and burned their bodies. He wanted to know why his friend had been torn apart by bullets, and why an empty gun had been at your side when he found you.

All of those burning curiosities . . . and when he opened the hospital room door, the sight before was a bucket of water dumped over them.

The last time he’d seen you, you quite literally had been on the verge of death. Now, weeks later, you didn’t look much better.

Bruises and bandages, and dark violet circles under your closed eyes. You slept so still in that moment after he opened the door, Jack wondered if perhaps he’d been lied to - that you’d died after all. Only the droning of machines told him otherwise.

You were a soldier. Getting hurt was always a risk, he knew that, and you had to have known too. Seeing you now, though, knowing only shrouded inferences of what you’d been through . . . it was enough to give him pause. Enough to shift his concern towards you, because you’d been so vibrant. So removed from the violence of this life.

And now that violence had marked you, irreversibly and irrevocably.

You hadn’t been at fault for whatever happened. If you had been, Krauser had no doubt that you would be locked away somewhere, away from everything and everyone. You weren’t the crux of his anger. You had lost someone, just as much as he had. More so, maybe. Reynolds had been a guiding ally for Krauser. He didn’t know who the Captain had been for you, really. He just knew the way Reynolds had looked at you that night, his eyes so full of pride.

You meant something to Simon Reynolds. You meant something to his friend. That was what made Jack step fully into the room, towards the chair by the window.

He only barely moved to sit before a sharp intake of breath stopped him dead in his tracks.

You’d tried to sit up, but it looked like pain stopped you. Your face contorted into an expression of agony, your eyes snapping wide open. One hand grasped at your belly, at the stitches and bandages hidden beneath your hospital gown. The other clutched at the space around you for something. Anything. A weapon. As if there’d be anything to defend yourself with amidst the shitty bed sheets and shittier pillows the hospital provided.

As if Krauser was a threat at all.

Still, he knew damn well that it wasn’t him you were afraid of. So, he held up his hands in surrender. “Easy, Sergeant.” He wasn’t used to making his voice sound soothing. That was an aspect of his nature that didn’t come easy. Still, he tried.

The dawning shock in your eyes made it hard to tell if it worked.

Your voice at the bar all those weeks ago had been confident. Magnetically so. Now, Jack almost didn't recognize the broken sound of it. “Major Krauser,” you spoke after a moment, like you didn’t really believe what you were seeing.

“Didn't mean to wake you,” the Major went on, a genuine apology in his tone.

Your chest rose and fell in shallow breaths, no doubt all your wounds would allow. Panic turned into a wary curiosity. And once that took hold, Krauser saw something else behind your eyes. Something that seemed to do everything in its power to keep your words from fleeing you. Still, you managed to shake your head, however small the motion was. “You didn’t.”

Maybe you’d been a better liar before all of this. Right now, though, Krauser didn’t believe you for a second. Something to do with the way you averted your eyes - the way you kept glancing at him, like a wary and wounded animal.

Like you didn’t want to meet his gaze.

The Sergeant he’d met at that military ball, the one he’d wondered about for longer than he should have, was nowhere to be found now. But maybe you were in there, somewhere.

He was no good at comfort. Some soldiers were, but he certainly wasn’t one of them. Still, he owed it to the Captain to try. “Mind if I sit?” Krauser asked, gesturing to the chair he’d been headed towards.

You spared a half-glance at it, and even less of a nod for confirmation.

It was enough.

So, Krauser lowered himself into the old chair, the compression of the cushion the only noise to accompany the sound of the hospital machines. At least until the Major settled in enough to take you in. Then, after a moment: “What’s the prognosis?” His hand lifted, gesturing to the wound he knew lay hidden on your belly. The one he’d watched his medic reseal, after the mess of badly-cauterized flesh had ripped open.

It was a wound you didn’t look at when he called attention to it. Hell, you didn’t even look at him as you answered. “I’ll heal.”

“Fully?”

A single nod was your response. No words, because Jack knew damn well that as much as the flesh may heal, the rest would never be the same. Still, you were alive. You’d fought, just like he told you to and now here you were.

“Good. Wasn’t sure you were going to make it.” He’d seen lesser wounds kill more experienced men. Cold and steel and whatever else you’d faced, though, hadn’t been enough to kill you. He wasn’t sure how you’d survived it all, in truth.

You wouldn’t have, if not for him.

“You were there.” He wondered how much of the experience was still out of reach for you. If you remembered him carrying you vividly, the image made sharp from pain, or if you’d been so far gone it was little more than a dream to you. He supposed the latter was more likely. So, he nodded in an effort to bring clarity.

However much the memory pitted out his stomach.

“I was. They sent me and my team in when the base stopped checking in.”

“And you found me.”

You and so much that Krauser couldn’t outrun, these last few days. He’d had the fortune to seldom struggle with sleep, even after all he’d seen. Still, he’d been more restless than usual as of late.

He could only imagine what it was you saw when you closed your eyes. Perhaps that was why you didn’t sound happy that you had been found at all.

Leave me. You’d made that request of him, the words embedding in his memory. You’d wanted to die, and he hadn’t let you.

“Damn glad I did,” Jack nodded, watching you carefully, and speaking more carefully still.

“And why are you here now?” The question was borne out of fear, Krauser could hear it. Fear and guilt shrink-wrapped together.

The reason for that fear, he knew, was also the answer to your question. “Because Simon was my friend. And I want to know what happened to him.”

Horror. Pure and utter horror poisoned your expression.

That only made the pit in Krauser’s stomach deepen. He could retreat. He could insist that you didn’t need to tell him, to spare you reliving that memory. He could, but he wouldn’t. Instead, he waited for your answer, even as it tore at you.

“I can’t say. They told me not to talk about it.”

Krauser had expected as much. He’d known that the order to keep quiet would have extended to you too. “Tell me what you can, then.”

For days now, he’d waited. Wondered. Imagined every possible ending for his friend’s story - for the ending of an entire base full of good men and women. As you shook your head, then, he knew that you’d been reliving that end. Every second. Every moment since you woke up. He could hear it in your voice as, finally, your lips parted to deliver your answer.

“He saved me,” you said simply. “And . . . and I couldn’t save him.” Your lip trembled, your head shaking against the pillow that supported it. Your fingers picked at your nail beds. He saw blood beading there as you spoke again. “None of them. I couldn’t-”

Krauser watched you clench your jaw so tight he thought you might break your teeth, your eyes shining under the harsh hospital lights. You refused to let the tears fall, though, cutting them and your own words off. You were still fighting. Now, it just wasn’t against your injuries or the cold or death as it tried to claim you. You were fighting yourself, he could see it.

You’d failed to save someone who meant something to him. He should condemn you for that. Instead, Jack shook his head.

“You did what you could.” He said it as if he’d been there. As if he’d seen you give your all to save your Captain, because he knew that you had. In your voice and in your wounds, he knew it.

Even if it hadn’t been enough.

Just as his words weren’t enough, now.

All the poor comfort in the world wouldn’t change what you’d been through. What you’d survived. It made the next words you croaked out less than surprising. “You should have left me there.”

Less than surprising, but no less enraging.

“That’s not what he would have wanted, and you damn well know it.”

A flicker of pain crossed your face, but you didn’t protest. So, Krauser went on, bracing his scarred forearms on his knees.

“You mattered to him. I may not have seen much of him these last few years, but I could see that plain as day. So you don’t get to give up.” Because too many men and women lay dead for anything else. Too many families had buried empty caskets. You were the only survivor of something Krauser had never seen before. You were the only one who knew what it was that was out there, now. He wouldn’t let you waste away, or crumble inwards on yourself because he could feel the shifting of the world. He knew that whatever had twisted those corpses into monsters in Dorne Base wouldn’t just go away. He and his country needed to be ready. “You’re the only one who knows what we’re up against. The only one left who saw what happened-”

“I know-”

“You’re the best chance we have of bringing whoever did this down-”

“I know.”

“Then you have a duty to all of them, to everyone in that base to live.”

“I know!” you cried, baring your teeth in a grimace of pain.

It was as he already knew - comfort was not something he was good at. Each word was a battering ram to you, he could see it. You lay on the bed with your eyes squeezed shut, like you were trying to block out him and the rest of the world.

“I know.” Your words were weaker this time, broken by sobs. That sound brought about some regret in him, however small.

So he gave you a moment. Just a brief moment as your fists trembled against the hospital bed. Your nostrils flared as you took in shuddering breaths. They no doubt tugged at broken bones and sutured flesh, enough that tiny sounds of pain escaped you as you grieved. As you mourned in the only way you could, in that moment.

Which pain was worse for you, he wondered?

He’d caused it. At least in part. He’d pulled you from the snow, he’d kept you from death. He’d pushed you to look the aftermath in the face.

And he would keep pushing you.

“So you live,” Jack went on, still firm but as soft as he could manage. “For him. For the rest of them. You honor your Captain by holding on to your life and living it.”

It was another few moments, but slowly your breathing steadied. Your hands relaxed, your arms sinking into the bed at your sides. Your eyes remained closed, but you nodded.

Good.

“So what do you want to do with that life, Sergeant?” Krauser asked.

Maybe you’d say you wanted him to leave. Maybe you’d say you wanted a stiff bourbon, or to live the rest of your days in peace. Maybe you’d say you wanted it all to end. Krauser prepared himself for any of those answers.

You gave him another one altogether.

“I want to kill them.”

The Major looked at you with a pale brow raised, watching as you took a deep breath despite the pain it had to have caused. Or, maybe, because of it. He watched as you opened your eyes, red from crying, and stared up at the hospital ceiling like it had taken everything from you. But then, he doubted it was the ceiling that you were picturing in your mind’s eye.

“I want to find the people who did this, and I want to end them.”

There you were. Not the carefree soul who’d flirted with him at the bar, not the broken body he’d found in the snow.

A soldier. A fighter, just like he’d thought you would be.

“Then heal,” Krauser commanded, rising to his feet and moving forward. “Get your strength back.” He stopped at your bedside, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a little piece of metal, a name and serial number stamped into its face. It was twin to another tag - one that had remained with a body that Simon Reynolds’ family would never get to see. If they couldn’t have the tags because of a lie, as far as Krauser was concerned, there was only one person who deserved to hold the Captain’s memory. One person who would carry it and the debt that came with it. So, he placed the dog tag on the table by your bed, seeing a fresh wave of emotion wash over you as you read the name on it. “And when you’re ready, we’ll hunt these bastards down together.”

You looked up at him, those reddened eyes searching his. “Why would you help me? You barely know me.”

A fair question. One he answered with words he’d heard once, when he was younger. When he’d been bleeding and could barely stand, and one man had taken it upon himself to lift him up. “When you can’t run, you crawl. And when you can’t do that, you find someone to carry you.”

When your eyes widened, Jack knew you’d heard those words before. He didn’t have to ask who from.

“Good to know he was still spouting the same old lines after all these years,” Krauser mused with a bitter smile.

You said nothing in return, but you didn’t need to. The spark was lit. You would survive this, Jack was sure of it.

For the sake of his old friend, that was enough.

Whatever you became because of it . . . that was up to you.

“I’ll come back with bourbon next time,” Jack said. “Made you a promise, didn’t I?”

And he was a man of his word.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter (Coming Soon!)

Chapter Index

A/N:

Congratulations to you all for starting you anti-hero arcs! Or your downfall arcs, depending on how you look at it, I suppose. Next chapter (which hopefully won't take four months to write) will be back to Operation Javier! Because if Capcom won't give us the remake version of events then I continue to have free reign to do with it whatever I want 😁

And also they can pry my Firefly references from my cold, dead hands

#jack krauser #jack krauser x reader #metaltango #jack krauser x leon kennedy #angst #resident evil #gender neutral reader #operation javier #between the bones #disavowed

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fortune-fool02 · 2 years ago

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Sunshine with Clouds

Jack Krauser x female reader

Requested by: @alewesker

Grumpy x sunshine with Krauser please ✨

Warning: Fluff

I love this request so much! Please reblog and comment as it really helps and is much appreciated. Thank you.

Please enjoy!

The sound of rain patting the window softly was mixed with the sound of the T.V playing something in the background that [Name] had stopped listening to a few minutes ago, her attention on the rain outside. A smile on her lips as she noticed the thick, dark clouds rolling in the distance, growing closer with each passing minute.

An idea came to mind and she turned around to face Krauser, a bright smile on her lips, "Let's go dance in the rain!" She said, the idea of dancing in the rain with Krauser one that had bothered her for a bit now but the weather had kept her dream from being a reality.

"No." He replied without even glancing up from his book. His posture was relaxed now that he was off duty for a bit, the feeling of being back home a comforting presence for him. [Name] pouted lightly at his refusal.

"Why not? Give me one solid good reason we can't go dancing in the rain, Jack." Not a second passed before Krauser gave her the reason,

"Hypothermia." He stated it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, which in his eyes, it was. Having spent many nights himself out in the field, drenched and soaked from heavy rain and still pushing through. It wasn't himself he was bothered about, it was [Name]. A soft sigh of defeat left her lips for a second before it was replaced by a sweet smile.

[Name] moved across the room and sat on the couch beside Krauser, their legs touching as she leaned to him a little, a smile on her face and just looked at him.

".... I'm not looking at you, [Name]." Krauser knew exactly what she was trying to do and he was not going to fall for her antics. Try as he might, his resolve would crumble if he looked at her, and [Name] knew that.

"You're going to, Jack." She smiled, leaning even closer to him until her head was resting on his shoulder, fluttering her eyelashes at him in an innocent manner. He took a deep breath, keeping his eyes fixed on the page but not even registering the words on them anymore. Her presence leaning against him, her lips lifted in that sweet smile that would make him bend over backwards for.

"No, I'm not." He tried to steel himself, refusing to give in. [Name] smiled more, nuzzling up against him and resting her hand on his large arm,

"Because if you do, you'll crack like an egg." With an irritated sigh, Krauser closed the book in his lap and turned to her, much to her delight. "See? You like looking at me." She leaned up to him, pressing a sweet kiss on his lips before standing up. "Come on, let's go!" She grabbed his hands, setting his book aside first, and dragged him outside into the back garden, not bothering about coats or anything that could fend off the nipping cold.

The back garden was quite spacious, giving them both plenty of space to move around without worry of bumping into something. A feature [Name] was planning to take full advantage of. Krauser sighed lightly at being dragged outside, already knowing to grab towels the second they both go back inside.

"You're going to end up catching a cold, [Name]." He told her, feeling like he was speaking to a child almost.

"Then I'll be okay knowing I'll have you to take care of me." Again, that damn smile that he could never say no to. He was a former Major of the U.S Special Forces, he has faced off against all sorts of horrors and brutality. But this? Her smile? That was the thing that crumbled him. With a light shake of his head, he followed her to the centre of the garden, the rain already soaking the pair of them.

And yet, [Name] continued to smile without a care in the world. A smile that held such brightness and warmth to it that Krauser could compare it to the sun, and the sun wouldn't be able to even hold a candle to her light. He supposed he could humour her for a few minutes, let her have her fun before pulling her back inside.

[Name] took her hands into Krauser's, one hand on his shoulder while she guided his other hand onto her waist, as if they were ballroom dancing. "You slip, I'm not catching you." He commented as he followed [Name]'s pattern and began to slow dance in a steady rhythm, holding her hand securely despite his words.

"You're holding me securely, love." She chuckled as Krauser slowly twirled her in the rain then held her close again. Her body fit so well into his hands, her body moulded to fit his hands and his hands alone. Something he silently cherished. Krauser pretended not to hear her by giving a low hum as he guided her through the dance. His eyes never once moving away from hers.

The world around them was nothing to him. Not the grass beneath their feet or the rain pouring from the sky. All that mattered to him at this moment in time was her. Her eyes. Her smile. That look of devotion that sparkled in her beautiful eyes. He knew deep in his heart that he would never grow tired of those eyes. There was nothing in this world he could compare her to that could even scratch the surface of how much she meant to him.

[Name] moved her foot, the lack of friction causing her to slip out from Krauser's hold. Before she could even hit the ground, his arm wrapped around her waist, holding her against him while his other hand held her arm. [Name] smiled a little, "I thought you weren't gonna catch me?" She teased lightly, looking up at him.

"I lied." The faintest crack of a smile tugged his lips before he pulled her in close, pressing his lips against hers.

#major jack krauser #major krauser #jack krauser x reader #krauser #jack krauser #resident evil krauser #krauser x reader #resident evil #resident evil 4 #resident evil 4 remake #resident evil x reader #operation javier #re operation javier

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