#i won't leave you

[zumazozuma]

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[b3dh3d]

To all the starwars fans....

Suffer lmao

[drabbles-mc]

Won't Leave You Behind

Summary: When an op goes wrong and Steve gets left behind, the rest of his troop is left to call on the only team that is capable of getting him out in one piece. (military/no powers AU)

Warnings: 18+, angst (with a happy/hopeful ending), language, war/violence, hospitals, blood/injury

For the Alternate June-iverse Event Prompt: search & recsue

For @whumpril Day 26: short on time / explosion / "I won't leave you"

Word Count: 5.7k

A/N: Not me going into this fic telling myself that I wasn't going to get carried away and then getting extremely carried away. 😂 But I really did have so much fun creating this universe. It also gave me a change to include some of my other MCU faves so that was fun! I feel like I should preface this with the fact that I took every creative freedom known to man with the military aspects of this. It's fanfic we're just here to have a good time haha. Hope you enjoy! Also, shout-out to @buckybarnesevents for hosting this event! xo

MCU Taglist: @garbinge @artemiseamoon (If you want to be added to any of my taglists, please let me know!)

The medics area was controlled chaos. It’d gone from relatively quiet to anything but that when Sam’s team came back from their last mission out. Well, when what was left of Sam’s team had come back. No one had gotten any clear-cut answers yet as to what had happened, but the doctors who were running around tending to everyone’s wounds could take a pretty good guess.

Sam was lying on the table, trying his best to be a good patient as the doctor pulled a piece of shrapnel out of his side. A few centimeters in a different direction, and Sam knew that he wouldn’t have made it back to base. He would’ve been left behind just like—

“Everyone make it back?” Clint asked as he strode up to where Sam was laying, effectively cutting his train of thought short.

Sam’s grip on the bed beneath him tightened as he tried not to move and flinch from the pain of having his wounds tended to. Gritting his teeth, he shook his head as he forced out, “N-not everyone.”

Clint’s brows knit as he looked out over the medical bay. He tried to do a quick headcount, but with all of the moving bodies he knew it wasn’t going to happen. “Who?”

He shut his eyes tightly, partially from the pain, partially from just not wanting to say it. “Rogers.”

Clint’s lips immediately dropped to a frown as Sam’s answer hit him. Clearing his throat, he asked, “Was he alive when you left?”

“Wasn’t gonna be for long.”

He hated how callous it sounded, but he knew that he couldn’t compromise the safety of the rest of his men any more than he already had because there was a slight chance that Steve was going to rally and be able to make it back with them. They’d hardly been able to get themselves out of the hot-zone—there was no chance he was risking going back into it. Not even for Steve.

There were going to be a thousand and one questions that Sam was going to have to answer. Those questions were going to be coming from people that were higher up in the chain of command than either Sam or Clint were. That’s how it always went with ops—if it went wrong, upper command got to come in and give the third degree and ream everyone out, but if it went right, upper command got to reap all the credit for it. It was a flawed system but it was the only one that they all had. None of them were doing this for the credit, anyway.

Sam finally pried his eyes open and looked over at Clint. The pain was still there but there was something else in his expression too as he said, “I didn’t wanna leave him there, Barton, but…”

Clint shook his head. “I know.”

“If I was good enough, or any of my guys, to go back and try to get him out, we would’ve. But you see this,” he gestured with one arm at the rest of the medical bay, “It would’ve been a suicide mission.”

“Think someone else would be able to get him out?” Clint asked.

Sam looked at him, curiosity almost outweighing the pain he was in. Almost. It was like he could almost actually see the cartoon lightbulb appear above Clint’s head. “Maybe. Why?”

“Barnes and his team might be able to get him back.”

Sam’s confusion only intensified. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t pinpoint why. “Barnes?”

Clint nodded. “Sergeant Barnes and his team are almost exclusively search and rescue now. Best extraction team we’ve got. They’re dedicated almost solely to getting back soldiers that have been taken or left behind.”

“Success rate?”

“They’re still around, aren’t they?”

Sam couldn’t argue with that logic. He gave Clint a nod, and before he could even give him any kind of direction or next step, Clint was off and searching for the people who would, hopefully, be the solution to their problem.

The doctor who had been tending to him stepped away only a few moments after Clint had left. Sam tried to take advantage of the few seconds where no one was talking to him, prodding at him or stitching him up. He knew that it was the last few seconds of peace that he was going to get for a while now.

A few minutes later, Sam heard a few different sets of footsteps getting closer. Propping himself up on his elbows, he looked to see who it was. His eyes widened slightly at the small team of soldiers heading in his direction. He had to assume that the man leading the pack was the Sergeant that Clint had told him about. He certainly carried himself like someone of importance.

Sam looked him over as he approached, unable to miss the metal arm and hand that was at his side. There was a story there, he knew that for sure. And even though Sam didn’t know what the story was, there was something about it that had him thinking that this man was cut out to survive just about anything.

He strode right up next to the bed that Sam was laying on, the rest of the team except for the woman right next to him falling back. Whoever they were, Sam could tell that they ran like a well-oiled machine. They all did—it was the nature of the job, but sometimes they came across people who just had an extra level to them that not everyone else did. Sam had the feeling that even though Barnes had a small team, each member of it had that extra level.

“Sergeant Barnes?” Sam said it like a question as he held his hand out for him to shake.

He nodded, reaching with his right hand and giving Sam’s a firm shake. “Wilson?”

“Yea.”

Bucky clasped his hands in front of him as he spoke. “Heard a man got left behind.”

Sam felt himself get defensive at the phrasing. There was no malice in Bucky’s tone, or even in his expression, but the wounds were still fresh enough for it to feel like a dig. Sam tried not to act on his emotions as he answered. “Yea, Rogers. It,” he shook his head, “it was a fucking mess out there. It all went sideways so fast. It was either risk everyone, or—”

“I get it,” Bucky cut him off with a nod. “Triage.”

Sam nodded, feeling a little less tense. “Triage.”

Bucky nodded towards the exit of the medic area, “Barton said you thought there was a chance someone could get him out?”

Sam took a deep breath, slowly situating himself so that he was sitting fully upright. “I mean, maybe. It was messy getting out. Explosions, I thought the whole damn thing was going to come down.” He paused, looking at Bucky, then at the rest of his team. “I don’t want to send you guys into something you won’t come out of, but I also can’t sit here and tell you that I don’t want to get my last man back.”

Bucky nodded. “I’ll talk to your captain. Get the coordinates.” He shook Sam’s hand again. “We’ll bring him home.”

There was something about the way that Bucky moved and spoke that had Sam believing him when he wouldn’t have had the same faith in most other people. “Thank you.”

When Bucky walked away, Sam assumed that the rest of his team was going to be short to follow. And most of them were, except for the woman who was still standing by his bedside. She had yet to say anything to him, but Sam knew that she had been studying him the entire time.

Not knowing what else to do, he extended his hand out to her. “Wilson.”

She nodded as she shook his hand, the action brief as she introduced herself. “Romanoff.”

That was a name he recognized. He couldn’t hide it on his face, either. He never knew what circumstances would arise that would ever put the two of them in each other’s paths, but he certainly never thought it would be something like this. He’d heard enough about her, the damage she was capable of inflicting. She was one of the army’s most lethal assets, so Sam couldn’t help but to wonder how she ended up on a team that was dedicated to search and rescue. From the things he’d heard, she should’ve been scorching earth somewhere.

“Didn’t think you did extraction,” he finally said.

She shrugged. “Times change. Got too difficult to sleep—figured I would try to balance the scales a little bit.”

He nodded to where Bucky was standing talking to the commanding officers. “That why he pulled this team together?”

She shook her head. “No. Couple years back, Barnes was the one who got left behind. Cost him his arm, almost cost him his life.” She took a deep breath as she watched Bucky looking through the files he was being handed. “No one came for him—he got himself out. No one in their right mind thought that he was going to try and come back after what he’d been through, but he did. This team was his idea, and he was convincing enough that nobody was telling him no.”

“That how he got you to say yes?” he asked. “Or did you go to him?”

A tiny smirk curled her lips. “Depends who you ask.” She paused, looking back to Sam after looking at Bucky. “I went to him.” She gripped the edges of the tac-vest strapped across her chest. “We get a forty-eight hour window to go in and do what we get sent in to do before we’re declared missing or killed in action. Hasn’t come to that yet, though. We keep it simple—recovery only, no extra frills.”

Sam had a million more questions that he wanted to ask her, but he didn’t get the chance as Bucky called over, “Romanoff. Let’s go.”

Looking back over at Bucky, she nodded to let him know that she’d heard him before turning her attention back to Sam. “We’ll get him back.”

Sam nodded. “I believe you.”

Bucky was behind the wheel as they made their way towards the coordinates that they had been given. Natasha rode shotgun while the rest of their team rode in the back of the covered truck. They went over the run-down of the plan, the alternatives for if and when things inevitably hit the fan. The specifics changed with each mission, but the general layout was always the same. Their designated roles had worked well so far. If it’s not broke, no need to try and fix it.

“You’re quieter than usual,” Natasha spoke up as she watched Bucky staring intently at the land surrounding the road they were on.

He shook his head, not looking over at her as he said, “Just focused.”

She frowned, not believing him but not looking to cause an argument when they were approaching such a precarious point. She conceded with a simple, “Okay,” and decided that if she was going to press him about it, she’d do it later.

Sam and his team hadn’t been lying about the carnage. Sam’s team might’ve been the ones that had to retreat, but it looked like whoever they had run up against had lost their fair share of men in the mess of it all anyway. There were buildings on their last legs, and Bucky had the pervasive feeling that they were going to have to go into one of them to find who they were looking for. It wouldn’t be the worst setting they found themselves in, but the inherent lack of structural stability put a whole other layer of danger on top of whoever they might find themselves up against.

The deeper they went into the zone, the more Bucky couldn’t help but to think that Sam’s team was lucky that everyone else had made it out alive. The injuries it all caused were going to be quite the thing to contend with, but judging by the debris, it was a miracle that only one man got left behind. More than that, it was something else entirely that he might still be alive.

Once they reached the site, Bucky found himself following the footprints left behind until he came across the blood. The longer that he followed that trail, with each hallway and stairwell he came across, the more unlikely it became that when he found Steve that he was going to be alive. He didn’t give up hope, though—he knew better than that. Plus, no matter what the outcome was, Bucky knew that he wasn’t going back to the base empty-handed. Everyone deserved answers, closure, no matter how the situation ended up playing out.

Natasha and Bucky were paired up as usual, always the ones to go deepest into the mess, only calling for the next pair in the stagger if things got too volatile for just the two of them to handle alone. They moved quickly but cautiously, trying to make their footfalls as silent as possible as they traversed the rocks and rubble left behind by everything that had happened earlier.

They both froze when they heard the sound of footsteps, other voices not terribly close by, but still too close for comfort. They were a few hallways away. Bucky and Natasha stood and waited, hoping that they would pass, recede far enough to the point where they wouldn’t be a tangible threat to them anymore, just a looming one. After a few more moments, they both came to the conclusion at the same time that while whoever it was, wasn’t getting closer, they also weren’t retreating either.

“Go,” Natasha whispered with a nod. “I’ll backtrack and post up in case they get too close.”

“We don’t split up,” he argued quietly.

She shook her head. “I won’t be far. Besides, judging by the blood,” she nodded towards the red streaks on the ground, “we aren’t far from him.”

“If things go wrong—”

“You’ll hear it,” she finished the sentence for him, although it wasn’t what he was actually going to say. “Go. We’re all short on time, but Rogers especially.”

Bucky knew that she was right, that there was no time to argue. He was just going to have to trust that if things really did start going south, she would handle it or he would be able to get back to her in time to help her handle it. They’d always figured it out so far.

He followed the trail to the end of the hallway until he came to a closed door. He lowered his gun for a moment, holding it with just one hand as he used the other to reach for the doorknob. It wasn’t locked, but when he tried to push the door open, he was met with resistance. Something was behind it—Steve was attempting to block anyone from getting it. It would’ve been a smart move if Bucky had been someone who wasn’t there to rescue him.

The impulse to barge clean through the door was there. It would’ve been easy to do, but it also would’ve stripped away any anonymity that their team still had. So, instead, he slowly tried to force the door open. There was resistance, but he was able to get it part of the way open. He almost had it opened enough to get in when he heard someone moving on the other side, and then felt someone pushing back against him.

He froze for a moment, trying to think of what the next best move would be. He pushed against the door again, listening intently to try and catch any other sounds coming from the other side. When he gave another small push, he heard someone let out a grunt of pain. It was reassuring in a strange way, because it meant that it was most likely the injured man he was looking for, not someone else who was looking to harm everyone present.

“Rogers?” Bucky spoke quietly as he pressed his shoulder into the door again. He paused and waited for a response he assumed wasn’t going to come. “Wilson sent me.” Another small push. Another lack of response from the person on the other side of the door. “My name is Sergeant Barnes. I’m here to get you home.”

It was silent for a few more seconds, and it crossed Bucky’s mind that he might just have to push his way in and hope for the best. It wouldn’t be the first time that someone fought back against being rescued out of fear. He couldn’t blame them, these people who were left to their own devices and taught that when in doubt, assume everyone is a threat, were just doing what they had been trained to do. He was asking them to go against all those months of training, against the rewiring of their instincts. It wasn’t easy—he knew that firsthand.

“I’m gonna push the door open,” he said honestly, “so you should probably move.”

Much to Bucky’s surprise, he could hear shuffling behind the door. He wasn’t naïve enough to think that that meant he wasn’t going to be met with any kind of resistance when he entered, but it was a win for now. Taking a deep breath, he gave another push, enough to make the doorway wide enough for him to slip through with ease.

Once he was inside, he brought his other hand back to his gun. He didn’t raise it, didn’t want to put that energy out there, but he also needed to be ready for the worst-case scenario. Looking around, he didn’t immediately see the man he’d been sent to rescue. Bucky assumed that he was crouched behind something, ducking and waiting to be on the defensive. That’s what Bucky would’ve done if the roles were reversed.

“Rogers?” he said, voice still quiet. He took a couple slow, calculated steps deeper into the room. “We don’t have a lot of time. You know that better than anyone, right?” Another step. “So, let’s get you out of here.”

Bucky could hear Steve’s breathing now, labored and shallow. He stepped around an overturned cabinet and came face-to-face with the whole reason anyone came back at all. Steve was sitting on the ground, back against the wall, gun pointed directly at Bucky’s head.

Bucky held his hands up in surrender for a moment before slowly moving to holster his gun, telling Steve exactly what he was doing as he was doing it. Neither of them took their eyes off the other. Bucky had skimmed over Steve’s file. What he’d read didn’t sync up with the man shuddering in front of him, and that’s how he knew how dire the situation really was. While Steve’s eyes didn’t waver from Bucky’s face, Bucky couldn’t help but to notice the fact that there was blood coming from Steve’s side, and from his thigh. At first glance, he couldn’t tell if it was shrapnel or if they were bullet wounds—there was too much blood. That was for the medics to figure out anyway.

“We’re just here to help, Rogers.”

Steve’s hands were shaking around his gun, from nerves or blood loss was anyone’s guess. “Sam sent you?” he asked, finally speaking even though his voice came out strained.

Bucky nodded, relief showing in every facet of his body and facial expression. “He did.”

The trembling in Steve’s hands intensified for a moment and then he finally lowered his gun. His muscles went slack, and suddenly he looked even smaller than he had before, which was an impressive feat for a man who wasn’t small at all.

Neither of them said anything as Bucky crouched down to help get Steve back on his feet. Bucky draped Steve’s arm over his shoulders, slipping his own arm across Steve’s back to brace him. The metal of his hand was harsh against the bruised and scraped skin of Steve’s back, but they both knew that the little bit of extra strength and power was going to be what allowed Bucky to keep Steve upright, what would give them the ability to get out fast enough so that they didn’t lose their window.

Steve was gripping onto the fabric that covered Bucky’s shoulder, balling it in his fist like it was an anchor. Every limped step forward towards the door felt like a herculean effort. It crossed his mind that he had done all this work to get so far away from it all, trying to get out of harm’s way, and now he was going to have to double-back and go through it all over again. He didn’t know if he was going to have the strength for that. He didn’t know if he was going to make it, if the blood loss was finally going to get to him.

“You with me?” Bucky asked, almost like he could hear Steve’s thoughts.

“Sarge, I don’t know if—”

“Bucky,” he cut Steve’s thought short.

“What?”

Bucky grunted as he pulled the door open a little wider to allow them both to slip through without causing Steve to slam any of his injuries against the doorframe in the process. “Call me Bucky. Everyone on my team calls me Bucky, and you’re on my team now.”

Steve nodded, trying as best he could to help them both get through the door and down the hall in the most coordinated fashion that they could manage. “Bucky, I don’t know if I’m going to make it back.”

“You will,” he said with all the certainty in the world.

“But—”

“I’ve never lost a member of my team, Rogers. Everyone always makes it home.” The one way or another was implied, but Bucky never left anyone behind. That was the whole point of it, after all.

Steve tried to take a deep breath, tried not to think about how unsteady it was, the way that it stuttered in his throat on the way down. He knew better than to waste energy on arguing with the man who was carrying him, especially when he didn’t have any energy to spare, and also when it seemed like Bucky wasn’t the type of man to lose an argument.

They were just about to reach the end of the hallway when the muffled quiet of the building was broken by the sounds of gunfire. Both Bucky and Steve hesitated at the same time. They looked at each other, each trying to figure out what the best plan of action was going to be.

“Could use a hand out here, Bucky!” Natasha’s voice rose above all the rest of it.

“Fuck,” Bucky cursed under his breath. He looked at Steve, determination in his eyes and the set of his jaw as he said, “We’re gonna keep going.”

“You can’t risk that,” Steve argued, not that it mattered much because Bucky was still continuing to get them both down the hallway. “It’s not,” he sucked in a breath, “it’s not worth it. You need to get your team out of here.”

“You’re my team too.”

Steve admired the attempt Bucky was making to try and give him something extra to cling onto, but in Steve’s mind it wasn’t the time for that. “Your real team.”

Bucky shook his head as he reached with his free hand to unholster his gun. “We don’t leave anyone behind.”

The gunfire got louder the closer they got to it. Steve hadn’t ever felt so useless. He reached for his weapon as well, knowing full-well that if push came to shove it wasn’t going to do him much good. Still, he couldn’t go into a firefight empty-handed.

Natasha spared a split-second glance over her shoulder when she heard the footsteps behind her, just long enough to confirm that it was someone who was on her side. “Good,” she said, eyes already back facing front as she quickly reloaded her gun, “you found him.”

“Yea,” Bucky waited until he saw a flash of someone trying to dart from one room to the other, pulling the trigger and being rewarded with the sight of them collapsing to the floor. “He tried to tell me to leave him.”

She shook her head, still leading their little trio and firing as she went. “We don’t do that.”

They were almost to the stairwell, almost to a few precious moments of safety, when there was a gunshot that was followed by the sound of Steve letting out a grunt of pain. He slumped even heavier against Bucky, nearly causing them both to go down. Bucky managed to brace himself, knowing that he needed to figure out what just happened but he wasn’t going to be doing triage in the middle of a gunfight.

“Nat,” he said.

That was all she needed. “Got it,” she responded with a nod as she maneuvered so that she was standing behind them, covering their backs while Bucky got them to the door that put them in the stairwell. It felt like it took longer to cover the last few feet of the hall than everything else leading up to that moment combined.

The door clanged shut behind the three of them and it was only then that Bucky let out the breath he’d been holding. He slowly lowered Steve to the ground so he could try and get a better look at his injuries.

“Where?” Bucky asked as he looked Steve over.

Steve winced through the pain as he brought his hand to his thigh, the same one that was already injured. Sure enough, Bucky could see the fresh blood that was coming out of it. His mind was going at a mile a minute as he tried to figure out what to do, trying to come up with something that he could tie it off with.

“Here.” Natasha tossed him the rope she carried in the pack that was strapped to her. Every member of the team carried some version of an escape tool along with their weapons. It was just good logistics. “Cut a piece of that and tie his leg off.”

Bucky was grabbing his knife to do it before she even finished the direction. Steve watched him, shaking his head. All the effort they were putting in and he still had the feeling that he wasn’t going to make it anyway.

“You two should go,” he said, gritting his teeth as he felt Bucky starting to tie the rope off around his leg. “Get yourselves back while you can.”

“That’s not how it works,” Bucky said as he tightened the rope just a little more, causing Steve to squirm.

“Bucky—”

Bucky pried his eyes away from Steve’s bleeding leg to look into his eyes. The resoluteness in them was enough to silence him before Bucky even said anything. “If one of us makes it back,” he put his hand on Steve’s shoulder, “we both do. If one of us stays behind,” his grip tightened just slightly, “we both do. I told you—I don’t leave anyone behind. I won’t leave without you.”

Steve wanted to argue it. The words were on the tip of his tongue, but there was something about the tone of Bucky’s voice and the look in his eyes that kept him silent. Steve could tell that everything that Bucky was saying to him, he really meant it. It wasn’t just lip-service.

“We’re in this together until we both make it home. ‘Til the end of the line, alright?”

Steve swallowed hard, trying to muster up what little strength he still had. “Alright,” he let Bucky get him back to his feet, “’Til the end of the line.”

Getting down the stairs and out of the building wasn’t easy. The only saving grace was that by the time they hit the ground floor of the building they were in, the next two members of Bucky’s team were there and ready to tag in, help cover them with enough fire to make sure that they all got out alive. It freed Natasha up to help Bucky all but carry Steve out of the building and to their truck. Both of them could feel the way that Steve was supporting himself less and less as the seconds passed, but neither of them commented on it. There was nothing helpful to say about it, so they said nothing at all.

One of Bucky’s men was already behind the wheel, keys in the ignition and engine on in preparation for a quick take-off. That was always the way they operated. Bucky drove them all in, and someone else always drove them all out. A well-oiled machine.

The back tires of their truck kicked up all manner of dust and rocks as they sped off. They could hear the pinging of bullets off the enforced sides of their covered truck as they got away. It only lasted for a short time, the people who were shooting at weren’t that determined to get them. The entire team was considering themselves lucky for that.

Once the bullets stopped, it was silent except for the thrum of the truck’s engine and the tires gripping up the dirt on the road beneath them. No one said anything, which wasn’t unusual. There wasn’t always much to say after a mission. And in this case, like many of them, the mission wasn’t over. There was a lot hanging in the balance on the ride between where they were now and the base that they needed to get to.

They had Steve lying across the seats on one side of the truck, trying to keep him as level and steady as possible. Bucky was watching the wounds in his leg carefully. The rope did a decent enough job of slowing the blood for not being a real tourniquet.

Bucky could see the way that the color was continuing to drain from Steve’s face. He gently shook his shoulder, trying to keep him from slipping into total unconsciousness. “Rogers, come on, stay with me.”

He coughed, eyes still closed. “Steve.”

“What?”

“My name is Steve. My friends call me Steve.”

“Alright, Steve,” Bucky corrected himself, nodding even though Steve’s eyes weren’t open, “stay with me.”

All the begging and bargaining in the world wasn’t going to change how things were going to play out, so Bucky didn’t bother. Instead, he did what he could. He tried to keep Steve awake, tried to ask him questions that he could give one-word answers to in order to keep him talking. He was partially successful, Steve faded in and out a couple times but he kept coming back.

When the truck rolled to a stop back on base, it’d hardly been put in park before medics were ripping the back door of it open. They fired off questions as they carried him inside, questions that Bucky answered with the most precision he could offer.

Within seconds, they’d whisked Steve off to take care of him. Out of sight, certainly not out of mind. Bucky could’ve waited, paced just on the side of the medical bay where he was allowed. Instead, he wove his way back through until he found Sam again still lying on his bed but in much better condition than when Bucky had seen him hours beforehand.

Sam heard Bucky’s footsteps before he saw him, and for a moment he didn’t want to turn and face him, afraid of what the news was going to be. He knew that he couldn’t avoid it forever, though. So he slowly turned, unable to say anything, unable to breathe, counting on Bucky to say something first.

“We got him back,” Bucky said with a nod.

Sam’s body went lax with relief against the mattress. He got himself sitting upright, reaching out and clutching Bucky’s hand in his own, pulling him into a brief embrace. “Thank you.”

Bucky nodded as he took a step back. “It’s what we all do.”

Sam noticed the way that Bucky was looking around, looking towards the door. “You should stay,” he said, “should be here when he wakes up.”

Bucky hesitated for a moment. So often it was one thing and then right off onto the next. There was always more to do, more people to save. But he could spare a few hours, he supposed, before heading off again. If he had to leave, then he would, but for the moment he didn’t see any reason why he couldn’t try to linger and wait.

“Okay.”

Sam gave a nod. “Okay.”

It wasn’t nearly as long as Bucky thought it was going to be. Before he knew it, Steve was stirring in the bed beside the chair that Bucky found himself sitting in. He was nose-deep in a personnel file, Steve’s to be exact.

Steve blinked slowly a few times, eyes adjusting to the light, brain adjusting to consciousness. “Bucky?”

He lifted his eyes from the folder in his hands, letting it drop to his lap as he looked over at Steve. “Told you we’d make it back.”

Steve chuckled, nodding as he slowly shifted himself so that he was sitting somewhat upright. “You did say that, yea.” He cleared his throat, wincing slightly as he did. “Thank you, for saving me.”

Bucky never really knew how to handle the thank-you’s. It wasn’t what he did it for, but he knew that they always came. “Every man in, every man out.”

“Every time?” Steve asked.

He nodded. “Every time.”

Steve let his head rest back against the wall, letting his eyes shut for a moment. “Your team is lucky.”

Bucky let out a small chuckle. Lucky wasn’t exactly the word he’d use to describe his team, not with some of the asks that he put on them, not with the circumstances he dropped in their laps on a regular basis. “Don’t know if they’d say the same thing.”

“They would,” Steve replied, a certainty in his voice that Bucky hadn’t had the opportunity to head when he was knocking on death’s door.

“I told you, Steve, you’re part of that team now too.”

Steve nodded, still not opening his eyes, still not turning to look directly at Bucky. “Guess that means I’m also lucky.”

[unsungbabe]

Cherish | I Won’t Leave You from their Unreleased Album, The Moment (2003)

[jedi-lothwolf]

Whumpril Day 26: Explosion/Short On Time/"I Won't Leave You!"

Fandom: Star Wars The Bad Batch

Warning: Major Character Death

Summary: Wrecker makes a mistake with one of his explosions and it might just cost a life.

    Boom. Wrecker blew up the tank he'd set the charges on. He watched the fire in all its glory. Then he looked past the tank. Hunter laid on the ground not too far from it. Then he realized what had happened. Wrecker had not made sure that no one was close to the tank; he didn't think about it.

    The demolitionist ran over to his brother. Blood spilled from the man's skin. Hunter looked over at Wrecker. He had known what happened. He wasn't mad, it was a mistake. He also knew he didn't have much time. The injuries would kill him if not treated quickly. There was one more truth he had to face. The droids were still advancing.

    "Hold on Hunter." Wrecker gently took off Hunter's helmet and laid it beside him. "Medic!"

    Hunter couldn't hear him. "Go."

    "What?"

    The confusion in Wrecker's body language explained that he hadn't heard him. "You have to go" Hunter strained.

    "I won't leave you!"

    The ringing in Hunter's ears started to disappear and he began to understand what Wrecker was saying. "You don't" he hissed at the small movements from talking, "have the time."

    Wrecker looked at Hunter. He couldn't move him. The injuries need to be taken care of there, they were far too advanced. "If I leave you here you're going to die. I can't let that happen."

    "Please. Go."

    Wrecker grabbed him comm. "Hunter's down. He needs immediate medical attention. The clankers are advancing too fast and I can't move him."

    "Where are you?" Asked Echo.

    Wrecker gave the soldier his location. Then he put his arm down and held Hunter's hand. He looked around and realized he really didn't have the time. The droids were far too close. He had to go. Tears gathered in his eyes.

    "Go." Hunter manipulated his face to form a small smile.

    "I'm sorry." Wrecker stood and ran. He had to. He commed the others to inform them of what had happened.

    The Republic would regain control over most of the field. Crosshair found Hunter and looked to see if he was still alive. He kneeled down and checked for a pulse. Nothing.

    The clone grabbed his brother's cold body and held him close for just a moment. If only they had time.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I'm back in the Tigers cage again.

(You too can join in on throwing a Rat Of A Man into a Tiger cage by reading Tiger Tiger)

[caguaydreams]

boops might be gone but the experience will stay with me forever

[laurellala-comics]

Examples below:

[knightofleo]

Angela Orosco Silent Hill 2

[lecoindecachou]

From this Hollywood Reporter interview.

[rocketbirdie]

you were here with me.

[its-my-whump]

Whumpril2023 – Day 26

Explosion - Short on Time - “I won't leave you!”

TWs: blood, fear of loss, ambulance

Sammys eyes were glazy, only partly open. They wouldn't focus. His grip was weak, but maybe he wasn't even participating in them holding hands. It was just Davids big paw desperately holding on to his numb fingers. His little brother skin was cold and clammy. Strands of his dark short hair sticking to his in cold sweat covered forehead. Uncontrollable little shivers running through his body.

He never was as big and muscular as his brother, but in this moment he seemed to be breaking into two by the forces that were shaking his weak appearance. An oxygen mask covering half his face, blood and fluids through the IV preventing his body from failing completely. But they couldn't bluff the fact that Sammy was probably about to fight his final battle.

There used to be a spark in his eyes, a light so bright he couldn't have hidden it even in the dark. The sign of him being the joy of life, a little energy spiking pain in the ass. But this spark was fading by every the minute the ambulance was searching it's way to the much too pasty traffic on a Thursday afternoon.

David didn't register even one of the honking horns or the chaos on the streets of the outside world, his attention was focused on all the machinery, that was reassuring him, that Sammy was still alive. But the cacophony of alarming sounds and blinking displays was getting louder it seemed, more hectic. It had the same pace and urgency like his own frantic heartbeat. His little brother was taking shallow and strained gasps accompanied by a disgusting gurgling sound. They were only so faint, but seemed to predominate every other noise in Davids ears.

His own eyes were wet. Single big tear drops escaping since this all so frightening ringing of an exploding gun in his head had stopped, but David didn't care. Them still holding hands was everything that was important just now. His desperate plea and try to keep Sammy from slipping into the abyss, that was pushed open so careless. If the line between life and death was ripped the big brother at least needed to make sure their connection wasn't. “I won't leave you, Sammy. Don't you dare do the same to me.” The following “Please” was only aspirated, while more tears flowing down the big guys face.

[canisalbus]

hii i'm so fascinated with the anthro dog worldbuilding and had a question about it !!! if domesticated canines exist in the world, do undomesticated canines (wolves, foxes, coyotes, maned wolves, etc) also exist? if so, what role do they play in society? ^_^

Domestic dogs are the only anthropomorphic species, they exist in place of humans.

Wild canines exist, but they're just regular wolves, foxes, coyotes and so on. Anthro dogs view them the same way humans view apes and other primates. They recognize that wolves are superficially similar to them in some uncanny ways, but have no gualms about hunting them. To a dog living in the pre-Darwin era, a wolf isn't a distant relative, it's a wild beast that will eat their livestock.

Actual pet dogs are entirely absent.

Other domesticated animals exist as normal. Anthro dogs keep cats as pets, raise chickens and ride horses.

[aimfor-theheart]

hey i'm back, have you talked about ex gf pit!fighter vi...just curious...you know...for a friend...

jazz i can't tell you the psychic damage i took from this ask. looking at it with mine own two eyes. i thought about it all night. i haven't talked about her yet but I WILL NOW !

ex gf pitfighter!vi who never really moves on from you. and she doesn't expect you to move on from her, either. worse than that, she doesn't let you move on from her. she checks up on you still, hangs around you like a stray dog, always on your heels somehow.

ex gf pitfighter!vi who "accidentally" manages to scare off anyone who may be interested in you at the bars or at the fights. she swears it's not her fault that people are too pussy to approach you (never mind that she's been mean-mugging them for the better part of the night). and if you do try to point out that she's been guarding you all night, she just shrugs and claims that if they were worth it, they'd grow a pair and approach anyways.

ex gf pitfighter!vi who still takes care of everything for you. who is still, unfortunately, the one you call when you need help with anything around your little flat or need someone to come pick you up from a night out of drinking. she always dutifully walks you home, let's you drunkenly chatter to her, and keeps her hands tucked respectfully in her pockets to try and crush the urges she has to reach out and snag you around the waist—or throw you over her shoulder, like she used to when you were dating and you got a little too drunk. regardless, you call for vi whenever you're in trouble, because you know she'll always be there for you.

ex gf pitfighter!vi who has a horrible possessive streak with you. one of her opponents tries to goad her about the fact that you're single now and she just—loses it for a few moments. like a bad dog, she attacks and doesn't let go. they call the round quickly but she doesn't let up, like she doesn't even hear them.

they have to pull her off the guy, still snarling, anger still vicious and hot and thrumming in her veins.

ex gf pitfigher!vi who sees you after the fight, knuckles all split and perhaps still a little wound up. you can tell something's wrong, sense it in the air, in the bunching of her shoulders.

"what the hell happened out there?" you ask her, leaning against the doorway of the med bay they have backstage of the fighting pit.

he said something about you, and i just saw red, she thinks. your name barely formed on his lips, and i just lost it. i hate the idea of anyone even looking at you like that. i hate the idea that i'm not yours anymore.

instead she bites out, "i don't know—adrenaline, or something."

"vi—" you say, "that wasn't just adrenaline. what's going on?"

and like a bad dog, she snaps, "what the hell do you even care?"

you look stricken when she says it, and she immediately regrets it, deflates a little.

"i'm not allowed to care about you anymore?" you ask.

"we're supposed to be broken up, sweetheart." she scoffs, finally moving to find the wrap in order to bandage up her bloody knuckles. you drift further into the room, passing the threshold of the doorway, and into her space. you take the gauze from her hands before she can begin to do it.

(you always used to bandage her up after her fights.)

"you don't really act like it." you retort gently, urging her to sit again and she goes easily. sits and lets you approach her. spreads her legs a little and though you drift nearer, you keep your distance. still, you take one of her hands in yours. palm to palm for a moment. she fights the urge to bear down on your hand, to close her hand around yours and pull you to her. pull you into her lap—

"how am i supposed to act?" she asks, leaning back a little to look up at you and—it's a good view, looking up at you like this. always has been.

carefully, you begin wrapping her hand with the gauze. your fingers are nimble, deft.

"you could stop calling me 'sweetheart', for starters." you say and she feels your fingers over the back of her hand, then back under her palm as you wind and wind the bandage around her. there's a ghost of a sad smile on your lips when she finds your face, when she watches your expression.

"you want me to stop?" she asks.

your face twists up a little; several emotions flicker across your face and you've always been so expressive. so open—her little crybaby, her emotional storm of a girl. in the end, the emotion that settles onto your face is some sort of regret or sadness. raw.

you tie off the gauze on one of her hands. you fiddle with the roll of it.

"no." you finally admit, lifting your eyes from your narrow focus on her hand to find hers.

your gaze clashes with hers.

heat sears through vi. an aching burns inside her chest, heart on fire.

ex gf pitfighter!vi who says fuck everything, and reaches out with her free hand to settle on your waist. who urges you closer to her. tugs a little and suddenly pulls you into her lap, makes room for you there with the flex of her hips.

the gauze slips from your hands and unravels across the floor.

"vi—" you warn, but it sounds just shy of desperate. her heart sings.

here you are, her baby, wanting for her so bad. trying to be so brave and strong and independent.

vi exhales, wrangling you into her arms, quelling your minor fussing with a little coo. she leans in a little, and says;

"tell me to stop."

you go still in her arms. caught. your breath hitches.

"this is a bad idea." you manage to get out.

"you want me to stop?" she murmurs, her now bandaged hand coming up to cradle your jaw, the nape of your neck. her thumb skims your bottom lip, your chin. she dips closer, nose nudging yours.

"tell me to stop, sweetheart."

a heartbeat. a breath later—

you shake your head, just fractionally, and mewl, "don't stop."

and who has vi ever been to deny you?

ex gf pitfighter!vi who doesn't stay your ex for very long ever. who always manages to pull you back in, hands all over you in the middle of the night, at the bars, after bad fights. who makes you furious, but also makes up for it tenfold.

ex gf pitfighter!vi who, like a bad dog, is always on your heels, who can't quite let you go when she's got you.

[fictionadventurer]

I love libraries.

I'm browsing the WWI shelves (as you do) and notice a very old book about the war. I glance at the first pages that talk about how one day the war will be over and we'll look at this place and not see any signs of the battlefield.

Then it hits me. And I check the publishing date.

This book was printed before the war's end. Not written. Printed. The physical object was created in 1918, while the war in question was raging and the end was as yet uncertain.

Now I'm standing on the other side of the apocalypse, with this physical link to that era in my hands. I'm living proof that the war did end and life did go on and we can all look at the end of the world as a long-ago memory.

Reading old books is cool enough, connecting our minds and hearts through the ideas of people who lived long ago, but there's something extra profound about holding a copy of the book that comes from the time that it was written. It's a physical link between the past and the present connecting me to those long-ago people. A piece of the past come into the future that gives me the chance to almost take the hand of some long-ago reader, to hold something they could have held, connecting not just mentally but physically to their era, a moment of connection across more than a century.

Excuse me while I go weep.

[milkywayes]

GARRUS VAKARIAN: DATABASE IMAGE ACCESS. > PT. 1 : 2160, 2166, 2170. > all files backdated according to user preferences: (terran_coordinated.calendar).