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the-pan-ace-writings · 2 years ago

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Why hes called...

First Next Last Masterlist AO3

a/n I really wanted to change the name of the series to Why hes called Badger what do we think of that?

They were loaded into a van and had a pickup truck full of Los Vaqueros with them in a staging area. Time felt like it was dragging on while they waited for Ghost team one to clear through the tunnels and into the base. Badger had smoked down to the bottom of his second cigarette and was questioning whether to light a third when finally Alejandro's voice jumped onto their comm channel.

“All Ghost, one is inside”

Badger quickly put out the cigarette on the bottom of his boot and rolled his mask back down to cover his face completely while Simon responded back,

“Copy that. Two is inbound to the gate. You’re cleared hot when target is marked”

The van and the truck rumbled forwards on the road towards their target, and a helicopter could be seen rising from the tree line as well. Simon turned to them this time “We think Graves is in the HQ, holding his ground”

“Once we’re in, we split up. Close air clears the way.” Rudy pointed towards the helicopter that Captain Price was in. They all nodded and Simon continued

“With Shadows on the run, we locate Graves and kill him. Comprendes?”

“ completely , Lieutenant. All Ghost, stand by for breach”

Badger nodded and rechecked his newly issued weapon from the safehouse, he was packing light with only a hand full of replacement magazines being available for his use, he supposed Alejandro couldn't have expected that he would have to completely rearm the Los Vaqueros from just one safe house. He was trying to not bounce his leg in nervous energy the closer they got to the target.

“Soap, get the designator and mark targets for Price in the helo” Simon pointed to a scope on the wall of the van, Soap made an affirmative sound before collecting the scope and turning back to Simon. The van stopped in front of the gate, Badger's grip on his rifle tightened as he looked out the window to Shadows moving out from their post in suspicion. “Soap, you’re up- spot the entrance for the Captain”

“Security gate is off our left side” Rudy pointed out for Soap to get a better idea of where he was to be aiming the captain.

He stood from his spot next to Rudy and pushed towards the driver side crouching down in the window before bringing the scope to his eye, it only took him moments for him to target the right spot.

“Request for fire, Target marked” no sooner than the words leaving his mouth did the target turn into a fireball, and they got first hand witness of Shadows being tossed into the air from the force of the explosion and an entrance being made for Ghost team.

“Good guns, Bravo-6” The van was speeding towards the now open gate

“Copy, get to the HQ and find graves. Alejandro, use the chaos for cover and get to Valeria.”

“On me--go, go!” Rudy was rushing out the back of the van before it had even come to a complete stop, the driver was similarly bailing from the vehicle and they rushed to follow Rudy, the team from the pickup falling into as they rushed into the compound.

Badger stuck to Johnny like glue as he used the designator scope to mark targets for Price, Johnny had dropped to a knee the moment they had taken cover at the first building to mark up another building further up the road that had shooters firing down at them.

“Target marked- fire when ready.” He sounded a little giddy, it was expected when he was involved with blowing things up. Badger felt conflicted when the air support came in through, because on one hand they needed that cleared and on the other they were severely damaging the Los Vaqueros base, likely home for most of them. Rudy didn't seem to be bothered by it at the moment though.

“If Graves is in the HQ. we need to find him, keep pushing up”

They pushed forwards as the building in front of them erupted from the attacks from Captain Price and the Pilot. They came closer to the building, decimated and fired upon the Shadows that seemed to be flooding from the flames, most of them unable to return fire due to the flames that seemed to be sticking to them. Badger was trying to be tactical with his shots all too aware of the inability to be able to restock while hunting Graves but the firefight was chaos like Captain Price predicted and he was already reloading a magazine.

They pushed forwards again closer to where a scaffold tower was, well that is until they got pinned down dodging into the poor cover of cement barriers.

“Taking belt-fed fire from beneath the tower! Take it out!” Simon shouted into the comms looking over at Badger and Johnny from his own cover, Johnny was peeking out from behind the barrier to target the tower and Badger anxiously scanned the area to ensure no one was targeting Johnny specifically, it all seemed to be cover fire intent on keeping them in one spot for now. Not that it would last long if Johnny got his targeting right.

“Target marked, you're cleared hot!” He finally pulled back into the cover of the barrier and they took the moment to wait for Price to confirm the target.

“Copy- engaging your mark”

The Tower came down horrifically, the metal screeching as it crashed into the roof of a neighboring building and the suppression fire ceased, presumably crushed under the tower. They still had to fight through a motor pool littered with Shadows with the intention to kill, they pushed up as fast as they could, taking down any shadow that popped out from behind the cover of the cherry red tanker trucks parked in neat rows.

Rudy took the lead again running up to the stairs that lead to the higher level of the courtyard, this level held the destroyed tower and the building it crashed into. This of course was also filled to the brim with Shadows. Badger was surprised at how many Shadows Graves had managed to transport here originally, it seemed like an absurd amount of them for something that originally started as a covert mission to capture Hassan.

Badger and Johnny were following closely on Rudy's trail for cover, but Badger shouted when Johnny suddenly dropped down to his knee. His panic was only subsided when he noticed the scope back in Johnny's hand and he was targeting the building that held the tower.

“Requesting fire, grids marked”

“Copy your mark, weapons lose" Price confirmed as Johnny was being hauled back to his feet and dragged along with Badger.

“Feckin call when yer doin that shite, though you were fuckin shot” Badger snarled at him and Johnny looked to almost pale at the words, he nodded but Rudy was speaking to them before he could respond to Badger.

“Go through the barracks to the main building, That is the HQ. Graves would be there”

“That tower looks like it could get us closer to the HQ” Simon suggested as they pushed forwards again toward the barracks that Rudy pointed for them. Badger and Johnny pushed into the barracks, dropping anything that moved in their way, the place was crawling with Shadows that seemed to materialize in the corners. He had to reload again.

“Badge, targeting” Johnny called to him before he knelt again to steady his hand, he was looking out the window towards the HQ building. “Requesting fire, target tagged.”

“Target acquired, shots out”

They watched as the Helo drew closer, and the ripping sound of its gun tore through the air as the trucks that once in front of the HQ turned to fireballs killing the Shadows inside them. They targeted the men on the sidewalk in front of the doors to the HQ as they pushed from the barracks, Captain Price continued with the supporting fire allowing them to get closer with the limited cover between the ruined barracks and the HQ building.

“There it is, Graves should be inside!” Rudy and Simon were pushing up towards the further staircase from Badger and Johnny.

“Still got your flag up on the HQ”

“Let's keep it that way”

They got to the front doors and met back up, and checked the doors, all locked.

“It's locked, Rudy, what do you got?” Soap pulled on the door of the HQ again in a futile attempt to get them to open.

“Breacher charge”

“Nice” Soap took a step away from the door and let Rudy set the charge, Simon pulled Johnny further back from the charge, pushing him between himself and Badger.

“Clear to engage all threats inside. If you see Graves, drop him” Simon was ordering as Rudy was putting the final touch on the charge, watching as he too took a step away from the door. Johnny leaned out from between them and in an apologetic tone spoke to Rudy,

“Hey- Sorry about your base” he truly sounded remorseful, so did Rudy when he responded,

“ Me too, brother” he had the controls for the charge in his hands and he nodded to them before counting down and executing the charge, the door blew open and they rushed inside and were met unsurprisingly with the fire fight. Badger caught sight of Graves running on the second deck further into the building.

“Contact! Second Deck, Graves is on the run!” Badger shouted as he took fire towards Graves, he really wanted to get his share of the butcher bill from Graves, burning need for revenge and slowly started to replace the ice in his bones.

The second floor of the building seemed to be office space, or something similar because Badger found that he was jumping over desks in an effort to catch Graves, but Shadows per usual seemed to be popping out of nowhere keeping him from getting his hands on Graves.

Badger hadn't realized how much further he had gotten from his group, he was already in the control room and chasing Graves out an exit. He had just enough on Badger that he couldn't catch up and the shots that Badger managed to get off missed as Graves seems to be running erratically. Badger in his haste and unfamiliarity of the building ran outside and immediately fell half way down the flight of stairs that started only steps from the exit door. He cursed loudly.

“All stations, Be advised, Graves went over the wall.” Price reported over the comms.

“Sergeant!” Simon sounded furious. “Keep close” He was hauled to his feet and nearly thrown into Johnny as they moved down the stairs. They made it to the bottom safely just in time to watch an unseen RPG hit the helicopter that Price and the Pilot were in. Dred filled him as he watched the helicopter spiral with no control and Captain Price's panic come in over the comms

“We’re hit! We’re hit!”

“Price-!” Simon sounded equally as panicked as he watched the spiral come closer to the ground.

“Going down. We’re going down!”

“Steamin’ hell…Captain!” Soap was shouting into the comms looking for away to reach the Captain, they heard the helicopter crash as it went out of view,

“ That fucking bastard, Graves!” Rudy cursed “lets get over and stop him”

“Rodolfo, what's on the other side?” Soap reluctantly left the locked door that he thought would have brought him closer to helping Price, they had to focus on the mission they had to get Graves. He had to get Graves.

“Training grounds, who knows what his plan was with that” Rudy was standing at the base of the wall and looking up towards the top. Johnny immediately crouched to help Rudy up the wall.

“I gotcha, go on” Soap urged as he boosted him up to to the wall, ”let's end this asshole”

Badger helped Johnny get up the wall. They both sat straddled on the wall looking down at them, and Soap looked down at them expectantly. Badger hesitated.

“Guys coming?”

“No. Price and the pilot need help,” He nodded to Badger “you three finish this” It was all the permission that Badger needed, he hauled himself up the wall taking Johnny's hand for help to make it all the way over. He looked back down to Simon once he got onto the wall. “Don't get distracted” Simon was taking off as soon as the words left his lips.

“Look!” Rudy sounded panicked and it brought his attention back to the situation at hand. “That's not ours” Fuckin hell it was a tank coming around one of the buildings

“Holy shit… Graves brought a fuckin tank” This just got alot harder than he expected it to be. Badger's usual grace continued as he crashed down off the wall barely escaping the shot from the tank, Rudy and Johnny rolled out of the way with ease and took off in opposite directions. It was important they did not bunch up.

“Looks like the hunters are gettin hunted now, huh? Ain't that a kick in the ass?” Graves voice flooded over the comms, it shouldn't of been unexpected considering they've shared comms before but to hear his voice now sent a shiver down Badgers spine. He darted into the first open building he saw, he needed to get to higher ground.

The building wasn't empty, he ran straight into a nest of Shadows, it was stupid to assume Graves wouldn't of had support in the training grounds, He exploded into action taking down the first two closest to the door before dodging behind the corner of the stairs for cover.

“Contact! Buildings are festerin with Shadows!”

“Can't wait to bake this bastard” Johnny was teasing over the comms, Badger watched him dart behind cover in the open. Another set of shadows moved from their own cover, and with another burst of fire he watched as they collapsed to the floor, the final one shouted and scrambled for cover again.

“We'll need something stronger to Kill Graves in that tank” Rudy was also dodging between cover outside of the main training building. “This is our training area- plenty we can use, look around.”

Johnny was bolting again and narrowly missed being fired upon by Graves, who knocked down a wall in an attempt to get closer to Johnny, Badger cursed as he watched Johnny stumble, and cursed, he should have his help but he had to clear this building damned if they got Graves only to be taken by a stray shot. Rudy rushed to his position and dragged him to his feet and pointed to a brightly colored boxes that littered around the training grounds “Soap! Find some C4 we can use on the tank” He pushed him towards the box before he fired upon Graves again taking the attention away from Soap as he searched. A Burst of fire pebbled the wall right next to Badger, he cursed as he turned around to see the Shadow that had scrambled for cover, weapon shaking in his hand.

“Thought yer were elite private army?” Badger shook his head and moved towards the Shadow who was struggling with his weapon, a jam maybe? He raised his own weapon to fire upon the Shadow when he bolted, out of the building, weapon thrown at Badger in an attempt to get more time. Badger just stepped to the door watching as the Shadow ran to the only area of the training grounds that seemed not to have cover. He collapsed as bullets tore into his armor and into his flesh. Badger turned back to the house and went to the roof.

“You and your Mexican friends fucked with the wrong hombre MacTavish” Graves voice was grating,

“Come on out and lets talk about it”

“You think this is a fucking game out here? You wanna play war? Lets place some fuckin war chicos!”

Graves spotted the building that Johnny was rummaging through and fired upon the building bullets tearing the wall open,

“One o’ you dip-shits need to die last-- whos it gonna be?”

Badger lost track of Rudy on the ground and he only hoped that Johnny hid further in the building. Graves needed to be distracted, he had to get him away from Johnny so that he could get the C4.

“Oi! Graves!” Badger had ran down and out into the same open section as the downed Shadow. He fired blindly towards the tank, well aware that it was doing nothing against the armor.

“Oh the little Badger back again?” Well he certainly got the attention he was looking for, the ground between him and the tank was torn up with Graves firing upon him, He darted between cover shooting blindly in the hopes to get Johnny and Rudy more time for whatever they were doing. The supporting Shadows were gone, He did his job. “Badger this cat and mouse game is significantly less fun when you hide the entire time!”

Fuck. He had done it this time, the last place he darted behind was too close to the outer training wall and Graves cut off his only other escape. “You know Badge, I wasn't finished playing before your friends interrupted, I think you've earned last to die” His voice grated on Badger's nerves, he wanted to get out from the cover, he wanted to get away, he wanted to tear Graves limb from limb.

“Go fuck yourself Graves!” Johnny! The tank turned away from where Badger was cornered and instead to view where Johnny had successfully made it to the roof of the building.

“You got a healthy respect for authority Soap” Badger was a forgotten plaything again, “I like that about you” Badger bolted from where he was pinned down, he caught a flash of Rudy running and he met up with him. He had a handful of C4 and a detonator.

There was a loud explosion from where the tank had been before Badger ran. He heard Johnny whoop and Rudy looked over his shoulder to the tank.

“Tank is taking Damage, hit him again!” Rudy reported before he waved Badger to follow him back towards the tank, he tossed his load of C4 and waited for the tank to cross over it. Johnny jumped down from his spot on the roof, moving towards the same direction that Rudy's C4 was, leading him.

“You’re Shepherd's lapdog. You get paid to break the rules”

“There's only two rules here, boys. Walk away or win. Guess which one I choose?”

More shadows entered the training grounds and crossed where Johnny was heading, Badger cursed and headed that way.

“Shoulda gone home when you had the chance Soap- y'all and that asshole with the mask, hiding behind that uniform” Graves was starting to become belligerent, the previous misplaced humor retreating from his tone.

Badger entered the same building as Johnny, the firefight inside already started in full, he entered through the carport and fired into the first shadow he saw, watching them fall back onto the hood of a rusted out car, they partially fell into the hood of the car it crumbing under the slack weight.

“You wore that uniform!” Badger shouted into the Comms, turning to further enter the building, he could hear Johnny going up the stairs, bodies littered behind him.

“That uniform was a limitation, I shed that skin..” Like the snake he is.

“Like a fuckin’ snake-” Johnny sounded disgusted as he spoke, Badger met up with him on the roof and followed after him as he pointed to a torn up building before jumping down from the roof, Badger rolled back to his feet following Johnny to the bright red box.

“Like a fuckin soldier, son” they had him, he was angry and the tank wasn't moving in a logical manner anymore,

“You had to make your own little army cause you couldn't hack it in the real one” Johnny was egging him on to get closer to where he was standing, he had another pack of C4 and shoved another one into Badger's hand. Rudy was urging them to keep pounding the tank.

An eerie laugh came from Graves “that's almost funny comin’ from you but then again, I remember my first rodeo too.” Another shadow appeared out of the cover of a wall, as soon as they were seen they were gone, a bloody pool on the ground. More were entering the building “you're on the short road to hell now, son. I told you to go home but you didn't listen”

“You'll hang for this” Johnny led them up to the roof, Badger did his best to provide cover fire but there were too many for just him to pick off in the time they had. Johnny tossed two grandads down the stairs and waited for the blast. Nothing moved behind them.

“Knock that honor shit off, Johnny, I'll be sipping Tequila, forgetting where I buried your ass in a week, That goes for all of you. Can you say the same?” Badger wished that he would forget where he'd bury Graves but he has the feeling that this mission is going to stick with him for a long time.

Graves must of caught sight of Rudy because the tank stopped in the pursuit of Johnny and Badger and instead turned away from them

“Hey-Rodolfo! Don't go thinking lo uno, Quatro, Unos are su amigos, Rodolfo, cause they ain't. Ellos no le gusta usted.” Johnny took the moment to launch another set of C4 at Graves, and Badger hoped it would drown out the sound of Graves' extremely American sounding Spanish.

It didn't. “Quando estees completo, los amigos will drop los vaqueros like a bad fucking habit brother. Comprende?” Badger launched his C4 at the tank as well, watching as fire bloomed under the tank. He finally drove over the set of C4 that Rudy threw ages ago, and he took the opportunity to set it off as well, the whole tank turning into a fireball. It stopped moving.

“We got em'” Rudy joined them in front of the blaze. Soap bumped his shoulder into Rudy's celebratory “Brought a gun to a tank fight…”

“Yeah we did.” Johnny was laughing and watching the fire with delight. Badger was staring into the flames and the smoke and watched as the hatch ever so slightly lifted before dropping down again.

That fucker was still alive.

He snarled and stepped to the tank, it took little effort to get himself on top of the wreck he could hear Johnny and Rudy protesting, they hadn't seen the hatch move.

The heat from the fire was borderline uncomfortable, but it replaced the ice. The hatch was scorching to the touch through his gloves but he tore it open, nearly tipping off the wreck with the effort.

Systems were blaring in the tank and he could hear the commotion of Graves in there, trapped like a bug. He didn't have to go too far into the tank to see that Graves was panicking, he was pulling at the driver who was most definitely dead, his neck turned at an unnatural angle. Graves was battered from the explosion, he had blood pouring from a gash across his forehead and flames had startled to lick into the inside of the tank, turning the heat to a swelter. He smiled looking down at Graves. Who stood pleading.

He shook his head and used one finger to cover his own lips over his mask in a shushing motion, Graves' pleas fell on deaf ears, quite literally unheard over the commotion of the fire and the shouting of Johnny and Rudy.

“You asked me why I was called Badger!” He stood straight and aimed his weapon into the tank, “Funny thing about badgers, they never seem to let things go” he leveled it off to Graves forehead, right between pleading eyes. “Belligerent as a Badger.” a single shot and his rifle clicked. He relished in the way that Graves collapsed to the floor of the ruined tank, relished in the warmth of the flame. He took the empty magazine from his weapon and whipped it towards the carcass of Graves. The fire was worsening around him, heat no longer a comfort and instead becoming scorching. He turned from Graves.

He stepped down from the tank feeling lighter than before, a grim look settled upon him as he fell back in line with Johnny and Rudy, They both looked startled at what they had witnessed. Badger picked up his Radio.

“Badger to Ghost, I've got Soap and Rudy, Graves is KIA. How’s Price” He pulled his mask up and lit a cigarette that he took from his vest,

“Angry. Lost a good cigar in the crash…pilots okay too. Out” Badger nodded in response although it was unseen by Simon. He turned to look over at Johnny who was flushed from the little skin that Badger could see.

“ Alejandro - base secure. Graves is dead. We’re coming your way” Rudy turned away from the wreck and led them towards the RV with Alejandro.

It took them a while to reach the area designated for RV and once they reached it Captain Price's voice was ordering in their ear.

“Soap. prep for transport and get Laswell, Hassan and the missile are in Chicago.” Fuck. Badger took the last drag of his cigarette before he crushed it into the ground. Rudy was quick to help get them transport to the hangar three, and was greeted by Alejandro smirking with a barely compliant Valeria in his grip.

“Tonight, Las Almas can sleep” He smiled wolfishly as he spoke and they all saw his grip tightened as Rudy opened the door of the truck for Alejandro.

“I'll be free in 24 hours” Valeria was smug as she was shoved into the seat. “Can't say the same about you, Vaqueros”

Soap was in the lead following behind Alejandro and took the moment to step closer and egg Valeria on.

“You're going down for what you did.”

“It doesn't matter what I did. It matters what you can prove…” she leered forwards before Alejandro shoved her further into the car and Rudy slammed the door shut. Price and Gaz loaded into the plane behind them, settling down into conversation with Laswell over the computer and going over plans for Chicago.

The Three of them stood with Alejandro and Rudy saying goodbyes.

“Go, you have work to do.” Alejandro pulled Johnny forwards in a brief hug, that wolfish grin returned as he whispered something into Johnny's ear, he flushed.

“Keep fighting the good fight, hermano” Johnny stuttered only slightly

“To the bitter end, my brother” they separated with a handshake and Johnny turned to embrace Rudy similarly though this time it didn't seem like Rudy whispered to him.

“Good luck Amigos” he nodded his head toward Simon and Badger who stood only a few steps behind. Johnny took the step away and brushed his shoulders with both of them as he pushed through them to get up the ramp to the transport plane.

Simon turned to watch him go up but Badger stayed facing Alejandro and Rudy.

“ Thank you for the hospitality” he laughed with them before settling back to serious “ sorry about your base. Best of luck.” he nodded and started to step back before Alejandro pulled him into a hug and Rudy pressed his hand to his shoulder.

“ Come back to visit” it was simple and it was a goodbye. Badger turned to follow Johnny on to the ramp. Simon trailed behind them.

“Ghost” Alejandro called out for his attention when he was halfway to the ramp, Simon turned. “ don't get lost, brother”

“ Of course” He raised his fist and then slipped onto the transport. Alejandro and Rudy were smiling as they watched them leave.

To Chicago

First Next Last Masterlist AO3

SOoo in game im pretty sure Graves isnt dead, this franchise def seems like no body means not dead. that being said i dont plan on him coming back up and it seems fitting that Badger gets to have the last say, plus i like to make him a bit deranged :)

Tag list!

@aphroditeslovr

@thatgaytevinter <3 hello dear!

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renegadecantlife · 1 year ago

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CoD AvP au prompt

Feel free to use!

The 141, who are sent to investigate a breakout of some important materials in a small rural village nearby a city. Discovering that said package was a Xenomorph nest complete with a queen that was steadily widdling down the village to grow their nest.

The 141, who attempt to fight this nest only to get cornered by the Xenomorphs, expecting this to be the end, unarmed and scared they watch as the queen closes in on them until-

The reader/oc appears out of thin air with a crackling blue energy, shooting strange futuristic weapons into the hide of the queen, from the other side comes a bellowing roar and the same blue energy crackles to reveal a Yautja. The 141 watch as both the reader/oc and the yautja tackle this beast, ultimately bringing it down and sending the rest of the hive scattering to the wind. (That clanship would send out a proper cleanup crew later).

The reader/oc turn to face the 141 as their mate (the yautja) walks up behind them. Huh. So that's where that missing SAS member went all those years ago.

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b0g-b0y · 3 months ago

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Part2 requested

Simon ghost x m reader shadow company

Been sitting on this one because I didn’t like it.

As days go by and refusing to see Simon daily. It was time that Y/n could check out of the hospital but the Doctor would have preferred him to stay longer , y/n couldn’t stand the white room he couldn’t stand to hear the crows in the garden he felt as if they were laughing at his expense. He felt bitter. Y/n held his bag tightly as he walked out of the hospital. “ You shouldn’t be out yet.” A gruff voice spoke. Y/ns hand twitched. “ Out of all the people in the world I don’t want to see you the most.” Y/n spat out. “ You don’t mean that love. You said you loved me more, I know I’m in your heart still can’t push me out that fast. I know you Y/n did you forget?” Simon chuckled softly. “Piss off. Simon I don’t want to see you, you buried whatever we had that’s on you! Not me I gave you loyalty and for what, to be put down like a damn dog you didn’t want anymore you put the dog to sleep, don’t lie to me I’m just a pet you couldn’t keep. I’m not stupid Simon.” Y/n spoke.

Simon's dark brown eyes looked at the small man in front of him. Y/n was right, hell he always was. “ I can’t prove to you anything… but I’m your ride back to base.” Simon spoke. “ Absolutely not, I’ll walk!” Y/n grumbled out. This caused Simon to let out a laugh, a real laugh, something that isn’t often heard; it felt like music to Y/n's ears. “ You’re as stubborn as the day I met you mate. You're not walking 30 miles.” Simon said with warmth in his eyes. You hated how Simon was right, you couldn’t walk that. “ I’m driving.” Y/n finally spoke. “ No.” Replied Simon. “ You are the worst driver in the world Mr Reily there is no way I’m letting you drive!” Y/n argued back. “ Too bad, I got your Dr notes and I got orders to drive and Graves said not to let you drive “ Simon smirked through his mask. “ I hate you.” Y/n grumbled out.

The car ride was silent. Y/n wanted to be mad at Simon for everything he did, but every petty argument brought a little bit of warmth into his heart. It wasn’t even five minutes into the drive before Simon spoke.” You almost hit a buck once. You're supposed to hit it, not swerve out of the way.” Y/n was baffled that Simon remembered that, how did he remember something from one of their first assignments together. “ At least I know how to drive!” Y/n shot back. Simon rolled his eyes, but he knew he was getting back into Y/n's heart and the anger phase had ended. Unfortunately he was left with the sassy phase.

The car pulled into a small clearing that was almost a park. “ Why did we stop?” Y/n asked. “ Come on.” Simon spoke as he grabbed a bag. With curiosity Y/n followed. There was a large pond with ducks. Simon pulled out a loaf of bread and offered Y/n some as he started to throw small bits of bread at the birds. Y/n let out a huff Simon knew he loved animals it was his biggest weakness. They sat in silence as the birds quacked and raced to get to the bread. “ You're not a dog.” Simon spoke.” No shit.” Y/n replied. Simon let out a sigh “I meant that, you’re not a dog you’re not Graves damn dog… When Graves gave the order to hunt 141 down you let me go, you’re a good man. You should have killed me.” Simon said softly. “ I can’t kill you… I can’t hate you no matter how much I should. I hate that I love you.” Y/n spoke as he finished feeding the ducks. “ I know. And I might love you back.” Simon said as he put the now empty bag of bread in his pocket.

They were in the car again. It would be an hour drive.” I promise you won’t die alone, that’s a promise I won’t break. Let’s start over not as lovers or someone to warm a bed but like we used to be.” Simon said. “ like how I wouldn’t stop talking about every useless fact I knew and bother the hell out of until you were annoyed enough to talk back?” Y/n spoke. Simon chuckled.” No, let's go back to before we slept together. Let's start fresh we’re we would lay down and talk about things we wanted to do.” Simon said as he looked at the road.” Like when I told you I wanted to garden? You know it never grew. Was away too much to tend to it.” Y/n confessed. “ Yeah I remember you telling me how you used to garden as a young lad.” Simon spoke.

They sat in comfortable silence for the drive back and Y/n had somewhat forgiven the Brit. Y/ns e/c started to close all the bumps in the road and the long drive had eased him into a sleep. He was going home.

#cod x male reader #cod x male!reader #x male reader #ghost x male reader

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the-pan-ace-writings · 2 years ago

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Kill or Capture

Mind Over Badger

First Next Last Masterlist AO3

Sergeant Badger sat cramped in the back of the truck, pressing against his current Bravo team and the newly met Sergeant Mactavish. The night was surprisingly pleasant all considering, the weather wasn't horrid, the sweltering of the day subsided into cool night, and the mission was clear. Kill or Capture. It was hard to mess that up. Hopefully,

The truck rumbled to a stop a few yards from where the transport Razor was. It was open in the rear awaiting for bravo team to load up, alpha team was already strapped in and going over weapons. Badger looked over to the end of the truck bed as it dropped open to let them out, Sergeant Mactavish or Soap as he overheard from his incessant talking jumped down out of the truck and strutted over to an imposing figure.

He was big, taller than Badger and certainly taller than Soap, he looked disinterested in what was going on around him, and if you were watching closely you could see him speaking under his mask to an unseen figure from the coms. The bone color of a skull hard shell mask was mildly unsettling, especially when those deadpan eyes landed first on Badger and then settled on Soap.

“Let's get ourselves a win, yeah, Lt” Soap sounded enthusiastic, clearly not put off by the Lieutenant. To Badger's surprise he reached forwards and lightly punched his shoulder before smirking “save ya a seat, sir” and sauntered off, gesturing to Badger to Follow.

Badger trailed him up to the Razor, he looked over his shoulder to see the skull clad Lieutenant shaking his head lightly and just barely caught the exasperated whisper of “Fucking hell” that esacped him.

Fucking hell was right, all cramped together in the Razor, the Lieutenant now introduced as Ghost went over the mission parameters with both teams of marines. As he spoke Badger went over his weapons and counted munitions. He repeatedly redid the lashings of a longer handed sledgehammer on his kit, he had tuned out the briefing having heard it several times from when he was called upon for this mission,

Bravo team is sweeping and clearing while alpha clears and secures building three.

He was still messing with the lashing on his kit when the Sergeant next to him that had previously been paying dutiful attention to the briefing kicked at his boot. Badger looked up from what he was doing, Soap was looking back at Ghost but had leaned over to speak quietly to him.

“Quit messing with that, you look nervous.” he then lifted his chin to point out one of the marines looking at him warily. He grunted and frowned, He wasn't nervous. Hell he was rather excited to get back on the field, it was his first mission back after an unexpected medical leave. He schooled his face and re-did the lashings one more time, and settled with the kit between his feet and back pressed into the cold metal wall behind them leveling his head to once over the marines on their team.

“Roger” it was quiet, a whisper meant only for Soap to hear but he could have sworn he saw Ghost's head turn just slightly towards him.

It wasn't the first impression he had wanted for either his commanding officer and fellow Sergeant.

Pulling his kit back on he readied his rifle as the Razor landed the ramp opening into darkness of the field. They quickly exited and Badger adjusted his comms.

“Razor 1 all bravo deployed, moving to secondary HLZ” the Razor Pilots voice crackled though the comm link as he adjusted it to the right channel.

It was upon Ghosts orders that they started moving towards the first building, it was quiet besides the soft sound of boots on dry grass. So far it seems that they are undetected. They kept making their way forwards.

Badger saw light streaking in the sky just before the almost frantic call through the comms came through.

“All stations- Razor-1 is bracketed, we’re getting lit” He paused for a moment looking towards the sky, the lights had doubled and a stone settled in his stomach. “Incoming- Flares! Flares!”

The lights of the Razor were seen dancing in the air as it tried its best to maneuver around enemy fire, to try to get Alpha team to safety. A larger streak of light nearly smashed into the Razor, and the breathless whisper of a marine to his right caught his attention.

“Shit that was close”

Badger saw the missile streak up from the ground, it was clear it was going to hit.

“Second missile” he called out as more of the group paused, they all started to turn towards Ghost who watched the Razor bloom into a fireball.

“Razor-1 going down! We’re going down!” The pilot cried over the comms just before impact was seen. Soap and Badger moved up to Ghost's position. Ghost brought a hand up to his com link, and Soap raised his hand to halt the team.

“Alpha what's your status?!” Ghost’s voice was urgent as it rumbled through the comms. No response.

“Alpha, how Copy?” Another long pause, Soap took another step and opened his mouth to speak right as the crackling of a clearly damaged comms unit started.

“Bravo-” he sounded out of breath, rattled deeply “Alpha is immobile, multiple critical”

Soap let out a sigh of relief, while Alpha team had taken losses they were still there. Panic crept into the Alpha leader’s voice and it nearly broke “oh shit-! We’re taking Effective fire!”

Ghost gestured for the team to start moving again, moving closer together as they started moving forwards at a sprint.

“Alpha, were moving to building 1. Hold tight” Ghost ordered over the comms voice surprisingly steady for the full sprint it was in. Badger followed fast gesturing to the group of marines with him.

“Ghost, we need to secure that crash site now” Soap’s voice was also steady for the sprint, but was laced with concern wanting to help the stranded alpha team.

“First, we clear for Hassan, that takes the heat off alpha. Then we secure the crash site. Clear” he was stern and looked back coldly at Soap, who looked at little crestfallen before nodding.

“Roger that” his voice didn't give away the emotion that flashed on his face, Badger nodded in affirmative with him. They were almost to the house, stone fencing and a small strip of land that passed over a swampy stretch of water was the only thing in their way.

“Force up to the house” Ghost led them with ease, taking point as he slowed the pace down for them to approach the house silently, they could hear the clamor of the soldiers inside as they approached the door silently. Ghost gesture to Badger, and steps back from his spot closest to the door. “Breacher up”

Badger pulled the hammer down from his kit, and readied to break the door in. He looked to Ghost for the confirmation. And with a simple nod from Ghost Badger broke into a crooked smile pulling the hammer back and slammed the top of it right next to the lock, it shattered sending splinters of wood into the air and surprising the soldiers inside.

Ghost and Soap pushed in at the same time as a smaller group of marines burst into the upper floor from the outside stairs. Badger stepped into the house as the last soldier dropped to the ground a pool of red leaking from him.

“Let's crack on, yeah” Badger settled the hammer back where it was easy to reach and pushed forwards past the collection of dead from the house, Soap joined him in pace as Ghost took the lead again as they pressed towards the second house.

“All stations, crash site is taking rocket fire from building two, second deck” The alpha leader’s voice broke over the comms again. Badger cursed quietly.

“Alpha, taking building two now. Hold Fast'' Ghost called back to them and brought them back to a run towards the second house. They could hear the soldiers readying for them, probably having seen the lights from a gun fire in the house.

“7-1 moving interior” Soap pushed into the building clearing the bottom as Badger followed closely.

Badger took the lead going up the stairs, rifle level and ready to clear any more enemy combatants.

“Pushing up to the second deck” Badger called out before pushing up the stairs. He heard the enemy soldiers moving about in the room closest to them as they entered the top level

“Fire the Rockets! I will cover the door!” Badger took a step back and motioned for Soap to pass him.

“They’re up here Soap.” Soap had a flashbang in his grasp ready to be tossed in to the room. He nodded to Badger before the same smirk that he had when speaking to Ghost Appeared again as he tossed the flash in.

They pushed into the room, Soap finishing the soldier as Badger checked to ensure the room was actually clear. It was. Except they could hear the dragging of something heavy and metal just through thin walls. They hadn't found the rocketeer yet.

Soap took lead pushing through to the open roof at the end of the hall, Badger watched him take a sharp turn and fire off into an unforeseen enemy.

“Ghost, enemy rocket down”

The room they entered was empty, poorly lit and extremely cramped, it barely had enough space for the desk and the two men. On the desk was an old laptop and it played a recording of Hassan spouting off about the death of their General, Soap let out a small sigh,

“Of course this shit wouldn't be easy. Always too much to ask for huh?” he chuckled at the end of it and bumped into Badger with his shoulder. Badger just grunted in acknowledgment. He was right. Of course this shit wouldn't be easy, that's why they were sent for this mission.

“Ghost, we’re secure. Negative on Hassan.” Soap spoke into his comm link looking up at Badger, he looked back down at him shook his head and leaned over to close the rambling laptop silenting the room.

“Roger. Time to hit the crash site” they both nodded out of habit at the order, Soap had started to leave the room.

“Got a video of Hassan here. Old laptop” Badger relayed back to ghost, it felt important that the video was playing as they died here.

“Hassan's their hero '' was short but almost with a slight bit of humor, Badger wasn't sure. It was hard to get a read on Ghost and he was positive that was by design. Soap though was much easier to read, to figure out what he was thinking.

“They’re going to need a new Hero” Soap barked a short laugh into the comms.

“All Bravo, circle up outside” Ghost cut him off, he let out another laugh

He bumped into Badger again jokingly.

“Guff bastard might blow a gasket if we don't hurry”

“Dosser” Badger mumbled and pushed out the room down to the rv point with the rest of bravo. Once all collected they moved out towards the crash site, taking a brief pass at some of the only remaining decent cover left. Ghost halted the team and turned around.

“Soap, Badger- we’re moving to the crash site to help the wounded, Rest of you hold here and cover us”

“Ghost AQ’s working with some good gear” soap warned. Ghost pointedly seemed to ignore the comment and instead called to Alpha team on the comms.

“Alpha 0-2, bravo 0-7 building two is secure. We’re coming to you.”

“Alpha copies all” the man sounded relieved, Badger didn't want to imagine the torment of crashing and being quite literally tossed into a firefight with help far away.

Ghost gestures for them to follow, they formed up behind with Ghost at point, rifles ready they took off.

“Expect contact, AQ’s waiting for us”

They announced themselves as they rushed into the hull of the helicopter joining Alpha team. It wasn't the best sight, it was obvious that some died on impact, strapped into helmet askew, or partially dashed across the hull on the inside. The team leader was couched down next to a marine who looked quite battered, he had a gash on the outside of his arm, it was weeping into the makeshift bandaging the team leader had managed. The team leader looked absolutely dreadful. He too was battered and honestly looked a little dazed but nevertheless he had a weapon in hand defending through the window as he continued to render aid to his soldier.

“Damn good to see you guys”

“Bad dose of it huh sir?” Badger moved to help cover the window that the team leader kept popping up to, trying to help give him a break.

“You're the one tellin’ me Badge” he huffed and looked over to Ghost. “We got five KIA, one wounded, it's just my gun and I'm low on ammo” It was a tough go of things for sure. Badger looked away from the team leader reporting to Ghost and back out to look at the tree line. Something was off. Soap had taken to the window next to him asn was also looking out to the tree line. The team leader hadn't noticed anything outside or the sergeants searching out the windows and was instead starting to move the marine, he looked up to Ghost. “Help me move him”

“Lt, hate to break it to ya but we got movement out here” Soap tossed over his shoulder, he gestured for Badger to move out from where he had taken to watching the treeline. “Help him move em’”

“No time. They’re here. Get your gun on that tree line.” it was clearly an order. And Badger snapped his head up to catch the Lieutenants eyes and watch them slide off of him to the tree line. Badger's lips pressed in a thin line, and shook his head clenching his jaw. He looked down to the team leader who was slightly struggling with the marine, and quickly grabbed the straps on his tac vest and dragged him closer to the ramp before settling him against the wall. He nodded his head back to the team leader, a wordless request for him to continue rendering medical attention.

“Got movement” Soap called again as he started firing out the window, he felt rather than saw the glare coming from Ghost.

“Serge-”

“Roger sir.” Badger cut him off and pointedly avoided looking back at him instead taking station at the ramp.

All hell seemed to break out the second that Badger started firing, it was like men were just materializing out of the fire, quickly it seemed like they would be overrun. The team leader had started firing down the ramp with Badger as AQ soldiers kept getting closer and closer to the ramp.

“Fucking hell” Ghost cussed as he readied a grandade tossing it out the window out, “Cover!” Badger watched soap and Ghost backup from their windows turning to put their backs to the explosion, Badger just tensed and continued to fire out down the ramp. It wasn't helping, instead of clearing enemies it just shuffled them further down the hull and towards the ramp.

“Watch the ramp Badger!” Ghost shouted over the clamor of the fight. “they're pushing up!”

He was right they weren't just close to the ramp, they were on the ramp, he was going to be overrun, and the team leader was finally out of ammo and his own rifle was concerningly light. Badger wasn't necessarily thinking when he stepped forward towards the ramp, the first AQ soldier he could reach balked at him, it was insane. Badger grabbed him by the vest and threw him into another soldier stepping up behind him. Knocking them both over, he stepped forwards again stepping onto them as a third just turned the corner towards him. He snarled as he reared the butt of his rifle up and through the face of the soldier a warm splash reached Badger, there was only one more that was approaching up from the otherside of the ramp.

“Badge!” soap called out the warning.

He whirled, righting his rifle and the moment he was in sight he dropped heavy, a satisfying thump on the metal. There was squirming under his boot. He dropped his eyes down to the soldier that was trapped under the one that was thrown. A quick shot and another spattering across his face. He grimaced and looked back up at the treeline.

“Are we clear?” Soap sounded like the breath was knocked out of him, but he seemed to drop the watch on the window in favor of looking out to the mess that was the ramp.

Badger was breathing heavily, and he wiped the gore from the butt of his rifle before returning to the cover of the hull of the helicopter. “For now”

Ghost tossed him another magazine for his rifle “Get in here, Soap cover the ramp, keep sharp on the tree line” he gestured for Badger to return further into the hull. Ghost seemed to have a dark aura around him, deadly stern with him, deadpan gaze turned murderous. Soap moved past him to take up his previous watch from the ramp, Badger faintly heard him speaking to the team leader and the marine. “Call for fire, I want close air on that treeline.”

“rog , calling it in.” Badger nodded back to him trying not to incur the wrath of Ghost, he called for the fire, taking the moment to recheck the working of his rifle as both the Lieutenant and the other sergeant watched the treeline. Everything was in working order and he finished on the comms.

“Lieutenant, CAS is three minutes out”

“Ghost we’ve got incoming!” Soap hollered again and pointed out to the treeline. Ghost made and affirmative sound and turned back to the window, he reached over to where Badger was starting to take sentry at and roughly pushed up on the barrel of his rifle before Badger had it set to start firing.

“Use this side this time damnit” and he started firing out the window again, Badger watched as each shot went home with precision, men dropping like wet paper.

“Rog, sir” Badger was brief and started his own barrage.

“Air support inbound” the team leader called out fiddling with his own coms. He heard Ghost curse under his breath again and he turned to see what had caused it. A genadire was too close and already launched. “Incoming!’ “Take cover!”

Badger dropped against the hull of the helicopter clasping his hands behind his head tucking his face into his knees, he watched as Ghost did the same. The hull rocked severely and nearly knocked Soap down from where he was crouched on one knee.

“Holy show!” Badger popped back up. He could only see two more combatants. They were quickly taken care of. Soap called a clear on his side now at the ramp again.

“Badger, patch us through to air support” Badger made the affirmative and started working with his command control, Soap had walked back further into the hull and they all stood together.

“Ghost we should fall back to the house” Soap looked towards the team leader as he spoke, Badger could see Ghost shake his head.

“Negative- we golf or we push forward. Hassan’s still out there” Badger made a small whoop of success, everyone's coms sparked to life as the voice of airsupport broke in.

“7 actual, kilo 0-1. Fire is one mike out”

“Kilo 0-1, you’re cleared hot on anything forward of our position. Danger Close approved.” Ghost confirmed. He motioned for them to clear out back towards the rest of Bravo team.

The team leader stood up from worrying over the marine, and seemed to be hesitating, Badger stepped up next to the leader and hummed in question.

“I don't think i can carry him.” The marine was very much out of it but it seems like his bleeding had become minimal. Badger motioned for him to step a side and leaned down, collecting the marine over his shoulders. He looped his arm behind the marines knee and grabbed his loose arm in one hand, his remaining free hand grasping his rifle as he stepped out of the helicopter to start on his way to the rest of Bravo team.

When they made it back to the RV point he handed off the injured marine to another asking the team leader to keep with the other injured. Ghost had them set off towards the third house as soon as Badger was unburdened.

The third building was a cake walk compared to the hellscape firefight of the helicopter crash, and it was fast too badger could’ve sworn it was cleared faster than it took for them to reach the building, trying to navigate the ruins of the road from the airstrike they had called in.

The warehouse was big and full of crates and shipping containers, they cracked open a few of the crates to reveal weapons, it was one of the largest weapon caches that Badger had seen in his life, they could supply a small army with this warehouse.

He was wandering around the warehouse till he heard Soap call out for him. Soap was standing in front of a large shipping container that the lock was undone on, he motioned for Badger to ready his rifle so that he could clear it as Soap opened the door further.

He rushed in and froze in shock, there was nothing to clear but there was a whole lot of tech that looked suspiciously like missile controls. Soap opened the container further and stepped up next to Badger, the rest of the team filtering behind them,

“What the fuck is this?” Badger whispered, Ghost had stepped up to join them again looking around the container,

“It's all in english”

They all stepped back from the controls

“Steaming Jesus.” “Ballistic missiles.”

“Its a mobile launcher '' Soap sounded in awe almost as if he was simply just impressed with the fact that he was in front of one of the largest ballistic missiles Badger had seen. What did Hassan need a ballistic missile for?

“These’ll go 1,000 miles” Badger whispered, that's alot of possible targets, this just got a lot bigger than he thought.

“At least” Ghost agreed with him. Soap took another step back and started walking around the shipping container,

“How the hell did Iran get their hands on this?”

“Badger, get us through to Laswell”

“Rodger, stand by” he clicked his com to the right channel “Badger to watcher-1, How copy”

“This is watcher-1, send traffic”

Ghost picked up from the comms, badger went to follow soap trying to to figure out what he's was looking for,

“Laswell this is Ghost, we got something”

“Tell me you found Hassan '' She sounded almost relieved, hoping desperately for a mission success. Badger helped Soap on to a stack of crates and watched as he started to pull on tarps, he was like a hound on a trail, zero into something. He pulled the tarp all the way down and it pooled at Badger's feet, he looked up to see what Soap just uncovered.

An American flag painted on the side of a ballistic missile.

“By the light, fucking hell” Badger looked to Soap who looked just as surprised,

“Ghost, take a look at this” Ghost rounded the corner and looked a little miffed that soap had climbed so far up before soap took a slight step back letting ghost see the flag, he paused.

“Ghost, do you have Hassan?” Laswell questioned over the comms again.

“Negative, we found a weapons cache. Hassan's got missiles… they’re American.” There was a small gasp of surprise before the comms cut out completely. It was a few moments of silence all three of them looking at each other trying to take in the meaning of Hassan having access to American missiles.

“0-7 this is golden eagle actual, repeat your last” It was Shepherd, and he sounded right pissed.

“I say again- Hassan has American missiles”

More silence, Badger jerked his head at soap requesting for him to get down, he had a sinking suspicion that they'd be on the move quiet soon. Ghost took a step back assuming soap was to jump down again like he did the truck earlier in the evening but instead he sat down and surprisingly pushed on Badger's shoulder to steady himself to get down. Badger opened his mouth to protest but the crackling of the comms interrupted him,

“Golden Eagle actual to Ghost- move your tram and call for fire, I want those weapons destroyed”

“Roger that, Actual”

They all stared for another moment before Ghost turned away to order the rest of Bravo out to the new exfil point. Soap swaggered behind him looking like he couldn't be bothered by the fact that they had just been ordered to destroy american missiles instead of taking them and the control center into custody, it feels like they're letting a lot of important information go to fire.

“Badger, are you coming or you wanna join the missile?” Soap hollered back to him. He shook his head, he was thinking too much for someone that was just supposed to follow orders, his stomach turned as he jogged to catch up.

They didn't have to wait long for another Razor to come collect them, and when it landed they piled in the injured first, strapping them securely and letting the medic that came with the razor to do their work. Ghost Soap and Badger stood outside the Razor, the blades whipping up the dirt around them as they waited for the airstrike to land just over the ridge so they could report confirmation of destruction.

As the ridge lit up Soap leaned over into Badger's space, he took a half step away and looked down at Soap who was holding out a cleanish rag. Badger looked back stupidly at him confused.

Soap smirked again and with a chuckle pushed it towards him again, “Badge you've got-” He waved his in front of his face “all over you, you look frightening” Badger stared for a moment longer before taking it from him and cleaning himself up, offering a thanks back. Soap had turned back to watch the ridge again and Badger caught Ghost eyes wandering while he finished wiping his face, he hopped it cleaned up a bit the rag looked absolutely horrid when he was finished,

“Good enough?” he looked down at Soap for an answer but Ghost responded

“Like a right Bloke, now let's load up and get the hell outta here”

First Next Last Masterlist AO3

alrighty guys I wanna give yall some more background on Badger. He is the definition of big boy, thick im tell yall, hes a solid dude and not to be messed with. he stern but a low key kinda nervous or antsy. Im trying to write him as irish in the most not shoved in your face kind of way, and very much a pagan dude (i dont really plan on this coming up, but if he says some weird things it’s probably that, most of it is stuff I say or do with) but hes hair is important to him and he braid it back to keep in regulations and keeps a manageable beard thats well trimmed as well. He has a sister named otter that I dont think will come up much, but she is a signalman (Radio) and Badger used to be apart of her attachment mostly with the intention of keep the guy with the radio alive. This is why he becomes a brawler. please ask me more questions i would love to answer them for you!

#john mactavish x simon riley #john soap mactavish #simon ghost riley #simon riley #cod mw 2022 #mw2 2022 #taskforce 141 #kate laswell #slow burn #im ace and im not good at relationships so it gunna take a second yall #ghost #john soap mctavish x reader #John soap MacTavish x male reader #ghost x reader #ghost x male reader #Simon ghost Reily x reader #John soap mactavish x reader #soap x reader #simon ghost riley x reader

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the-pan-ace-writings · 2 years ago

Text

Interlude

:) ssry in advance i like to damage men <3

i personally dont think its that graphic but I also cant judge how people take things to please just be careful when reading this one he is def tortured in this but not it like a super bloody way.

First Next Last Masterlist AO3

Badger caught list glimpses of things passing by, caught moments as he was brought into some unknown compound. He knew Alejandro was there with him and he knew he was yelling but the thundering in his ears and blurring of his vision left him unable to follow along in the slightest.

The only moment he knew he caught half well was when they seemed to start to be split up, Alejandro and his detachment of Shadow guards split off from where Graves was leading the men holding Badger up. Badger was certain Alejandro was screeching and thought he could make out his own name a few times before Alejandro was silenced and tossed into a cell. He does remember the ringing of the metal as slammed in its frame, and the silences that followed it. Alejandro wasn't shouting anymore.

They walked further and he nearly fell down a flight of stairs if the Shadows at his arms hadn’t steadied him, surely no matter how much they disliked him they wouldn’t want him falling on top of them. He heard Graves bark an order before disappearing with another set of Shadows. Badger was pressed against a wall still dazed but his vision slowly came back to something solid.

A Shadow filled his vision, he held a knife and another held Badger in place to keep him from pulling away. The faceless shadow was silent as he cut away the ballistics vest from Badger tossing the remnants to the ground, they patted him down roughly again as well. He put up little resistance to them, not particularly wanting the knife buried in his flesh.

Tossed him into a room that was mostly cement, he could hear their laughs as they went off to do other tasks set about them.

His forehead was bleeding again from either being struck or the wound that Johnny had patched up for him was open again, his nose throbbed and likely broken. He tried to take account of himself as best he could for being bound at the wrist behind his back.

He was just starting to get his feet underneath him when the door was thrown open, he paused looking back and tried his best to steal his nerves. Graves was looming in the doorway and ugly sneer twisting his face and a sickening spark settled in his eyes.

“Oh wouldcha look at that? The Badger is finally back up?” He stepped in further into the room and two shadows filled in behind him carrying something. Badger didn't respond.

“Cat got your tongue Badge? Or are you still stunned stupid?” Graves stepped closer to Badger, blocking his view of what was going on behind him, Graves made a falsely kind cooing sound and went to grip his face. Badger snarled and jerked his head forwards in an attempt to headbutt Graves but he shoved him back and he slammed into the cement wall and his breath nearly knocked out of him.

“Of course you're fixin to make this difficult huh?” Graves gripped the front of his shirt and tossed him into the chair. Badger tried his best to settle neatly into the chair, try to look unaffected, there was only one reason he could think of for him to be so separated from Alejandro and sent to the bowls of this compound.

Badger's hands were undone and instead strapped to the arm of the chair and he tied his around the chest to the chair well. Their hands were rough and unforgiving as binding cuts into his wrists, and they more than once jostled him unnecessarily before Graves snarled for them to finish up and to get out. He loomed over Badger the moment they were gone, the hands that had been searching for his face found it again without resistance. He pulled his head this way and that to look at the gashes and his nose, he was clicking his tongue in disapproval.

“If I had Shadows that attacked as recklessly as you do I'd have to beat them” He let go of his head pushing him back slightly so that his back knocked flush with the back of the chair. “But I suppose your 141 doesn't care that much do they?”

Badger didn't answer, he just looked back at Graves defiantly, his face betraying none of the nerves he felt starting to spike.

“Or maybe they do, but not for their designated brawler?” Graves sat down on the lip of what looked like to be a basin, it was whatever the Shadows had dragged in while Graves blocked his vision. He didn't respond to him. He narrowed his eyes at Badger, a frown started to twist his lips, but he didn't speak to him and instead dipped his hand into the basin. Badger could hear the clinking of ice as his arm reached in, grabbing a large jug out from the water and setting it down at his feet.

Graves looked back over at him and then back down at the jug with a sneer,

“Figured you weren't going to be very talkative,” he leaned forwards a bit, and shook his hand off the water, droplets fell onto Badger's face. Cold. “you don't give off the chatty vibe.”

Badger again searching for a confidence he didn't quite feel leveled his gaze off with Graves, and he lounged back in the chair and waved his hand in an off handed gesture, or attempted to with how tight his hands were bound.

“Well you know how it goes” He let the words drip from his lips, and was proud of how much sarcasm he had managed. Well that is until he watched the almost easy going look on Graves face absolutely disintegrate.

Graves dug his fingers into the nape of his neck and ripped his head back tilting his chair back with him, a cloth settled over his face and he only had a moment to hold his breath before freezing water from the jug was pouring over his face.

Gasping, he was gasping and choking the freezing water felt like it was cutting his face. quiet , he had to stay quiet.

He stopped pouring the water, and the cloth came off from his face, Graves wrenched him forwards the chair thumping back on to all four legs as he panted catching his breath. Graves looked smug and the jug he had used set back down into the basin to be refilled.

“this works a lot better if you tell me what you're looking for” He took a shallow breath and tilted his head to glare at Graves, a smug lopsided grin tumbling off his lips. “You know, instead of just drownin’ me”

Graves took the jug out of the basin, the ice water dripping off his gloves as he turned back to face Badger completely, smug confidence nearly dripping from him in excess, he set the jug down on the floor and stepped closer to Badger looming over him again.

“I don't need any information from you.” He laughed at the momentary confusion that slid across Badger's face before he schooled it “No, that's why we have your compadre, Alejandro.” He leaned down towards Badger again and ripped him back by his hair again, “you? I simply don't like you”

The cloth was back and he was drowning again in an ice sea, it was so much colder than the waters they had just come back from, that they had just fought together on. It didn't make sense. Badger hadn’t trusted Graves but this didn't make sense. His throat was burning and something in the room sounded god awful.

“You know it's been a long time since anyone has gotten one on me, and I think I might just make you pay for it.”

The water was still coming, it wasn't ending, his throat felt like it was being ripped to shreds and he could feel the warmth from his wrist start to mix with the chill of the water.

It all stopped. The sour air of the confinement cell was almost sweet to the breath, especially as the cloth splat off of his face and Graves grip from his hair was gone. He heard the jug bubbling in the basin as it filled.

A sharp punch landed on his cheek and he nearly bit his tongue, he felt his teeth split his lip. His eyes fell sharply on Graves. He looked annoyed, and he leaned his head forwards as if he was waiting for an answer.

“Sorry doll, guess i didn't hear you,” He flinched as Graves punched him again “water in the ear, you know what a bitch that can be” Badger leaned over and spat out onto the ground while looking up at Graves.

Graves just chuckled at that, and he settled down on the lip of the basin, leaning forwards with his elbows on his knees.

“Badger? Where was all this attitude before?” He gestured around himself of handedly “I think we mighta gotten along a lot better if Soap hadn’t been the only sociable one of y'all” hadn't. He ignored the drop in his stomach and instead leaned back in the chair, trying to exude confidence instead of focus on hadn’t. Hadn’t isn't enough, hadn’t is a slip of the tongue.

Badger made a sound of discontent, and chose not to respond and instead licked at his bleeding lip.

“Ah well there you go being silent again, well that's just no fun.” He turned and plunged his hand into the basin again pulling out the jug again. Badger tried not to look nervous as he approached him again. Rough fingers burying themselves heedlessly into his hair again. He was thrashing this time, and he knew for a fact that sound had to be coming from him, he felt pressure on his leg and he was nearly certain that Graves was using his body to keep him in the chair, he could feel the burn of the rope against his wrist and chest, the deep ache it pulled from him as he thrashed against the rope. He felt a hand come down on his throat and it felt like an eternity, how could one jug of water hold so much, why wasn't that enough, why was the hand tightening. He could feel the heels of his boots beating on the concrete, could feel them catching on the cracks as he was thrashing around.

Yet no begging came from him. And that angered Graves, especially when the jug finally emptied of water, He came off of Badger so fast that he nearly knocked him over chair and all, and the empty jug bounced off of him when it was whipped at him. He flinched but couldn't see, the cloth was still plastered to his face and he was having a damn near impossible time of simply trying to get a breath of air.

“Fuck! You're so boring!” Graves was almost whining, and when he stepped forwards to rip the cloth from Badger he looked like he might strike him again. Badger took a shaky breath and tossed him a weak smile.

“Sorry to disappoint” His voice was absolutely destroyed, and he could feel himself shaking but he didn't know if it was from the chill of the ice water or simply from the act itself. Graves face twisted up in anger and he did hit him this time, and Badger could taste the blood from his lip and if he was questioning the broken nose it definitely was this time.

"Why don't you just kill me then?” Badger warbled as he turned back to Graves, who settled back down on to the basin edge.

“Where would the fun be in that?” he swept his eyes over Badger, who was half slouched in the chair, still trying to catch his breath and blinking blood from out of his sight. “Why do they call you Badger?” it sounded like a genuine question. It took a great deal of effort for Badger to turn his head to look over at Graves, perched all nonchalant.

“Wouldn't you like to know you gobshite?” He glared at him and with even more effort spat down at his boots, an ugly mix of blood.

Graves' face twisted with rage and he surged forwards and this time really did knock his chair over, and a solid kick to his stomach knocked the wind from him.

“I lied, you oughta just shut up” He knelt down and shoved the cloth back over his face, nearly pushing it down his throat. Badger was turning his face from him trying to tossed the rag off his face before rough hands grabbed him again. “You make me get the shadows in here and I'll make you regret it.”

He stilled and felt Graves take a step away, he was trying to catch as much of a breath as he could, he tried to use practiced breathing from his training and empty his mind, to simply just be ready, but all he could focus on was the commotion of the water basin being dragged over, it thankfully didn't sound like it had a lot of water, but enough that Graves was certainly making an effort with dragging it over, he could hear the rattle of ice against the metal walls of the basin.

Graves was laughing and gave Badger no warning before the basin was slowly being emptied on to him, it sloshed over his head and soaked into his body, soaking him. He shuddered and turned away from the stream of water. He felt a boot push at his cheek turning his head to face upright, the cloth felt like a part of him at this point. He couldn't catch any air and the water seemed to rip through him. It felt like he was swallowing the sea.

As quickly as it started it stopped, and Badger was simply grateful that that also wasn't thrown at him. He was coughing, and sputtering. He did yelp this time when Graves grabbed him, pulling him up slightly.

“This is quickly losing its entertainment factor, I'll go find something a little more shocking to play with” He dropped him back down and kicked the chair again leaving him on the ground shuttering as the door to the cell slammed shut.

He had to get up, had to get on his feet. He was stuck, beyond belief he was stuck, he could hardly breathe let alone move. It wasn't good. And air he could catch was coming back out in panic little pants.

Calm. he had to calm down. He refused to be seen like that by Graves. He had to be back on his feet. He pulled at the rope at his wrist and found it loose from his position on his back, same with the rope at his chest. A another shaky breath. The pounding in his ears was quieting. He pulled again at the rope and tried to slide his hands back out of the rope. It moved just a tad. Another breath. He shouted as the rope dragged against the open wounds of his wrist but he was finally free from them.

He ripped at the rope at his chest in frenzy, with no success, another moment of panic tore through him and he swore he could heard clamor in the halls, Fuck. He wrenched his hands under the rope this time and pushed it away from him, a groan tore from him as the rope cut into his palms and pressed on his back, but he could feel the rope creaking looser. That's all he needed.

He shuffled out from the chair and away from the puddle of cold water. He dropped to his knees and emptied his stomach of swallowed water before leaning backwards against the wall once again trying to catch his breath and try to take account of his body. He could still walk. He had mobility of limbs, and while he was certain his face looked god awful he could still fight, so long as he could keep his vision clear from the blood dripping down from his forehead again.

There was more clamor in the hall, closer still. Badger was certain that it had to be Graves with more shadows, maybe he was going to need more hands to hold him down. Maybe he thought he was too dangerous, maybe he thought he would break, and he wants an audience.

He stood up clumsy and braced himself next to the door, pressed firmly against the wall. He tried to steal his breath, trying to prepare for what was likely about to be a fight for his life, the roaring in his ears got worse and he could only hear the rushing of his own blood. He couldn't hear the hall anymore. His control was slipping again.

The door cracked open just slightly and Badger launched himself through it, barreling through and slamming the shadow into the wall across from his cell, hands were tearing at him and he shouted before trying to slam the Shadow his his grasp into the wall again, he was gripping him closer though, and Badger tried to pull away instead.

The shouting in the hall was getting worse, and Badger was tearing at hands that seemed to come down on him too gently. His voice was hoarse as he choked out a curse, he could feel tears running down his face, He couldn't get out, he couldn't get out and he was going to be dragged back into that room, and another set of hands dropped onto his shoulders, these were firmer but not nearly as rough as Graves. He was still thrashing trying to separate from the man he trapped before he was flipped onto his back thrown from the hands that were pinning him closer.

Words were crashing down on him and suddenly all the hands were gone from him, just simply curled in on himself covering his head, damn trying to look calm and unaffected, the literal last thing he wanted was to be tortured to death and that's what this was going to be. They didn't want information, there was no reason to keep him. He was a play thing now. He tried to catch his breath. But it wasn't working, he was nearly sobbing. Whispers of words started filtering in.

“Badger?” “stop, hey!” “Badge” “Ghost?” “fuckin’ hell”

Badger was trying to stand up again, hands tried to help him and he swiped at them, using the wall for support instead. His vision was clearing from the out right panic slowly as no more hands went to touch him. He was looking down the hall before he settled on a familiar set of figures and he let out a shaky breath. Ghost was holding Johnny back from reaching out to Badger again, Johnny's face was painted with concern and Ghost seemed to be barely able to contain the rage that had lit his eyes. They were here.

“What are-” Badger leaned over and spilt the contents of his stomach again, and he was shaking as he leaned against the wall again, he heard rather than see them approach closer.

“We wouldn't have left you behind” Johnny slowly reached a hand down to help him straighten up and come away from the wall, Ghost gently handed him a rifle. He looked like he wanted to say something more, the both did but Badger caught the twitching that came with incoming comms, A flash of guilt seemed to pass over both of them before Ghost settled back into a softer version of his usual stone wall on the war front personality. Johnny looked barely contained now that Badger seems to pass whatever visual exam had just happened.

“This place is crawling with Shadows, Los Vaqueros might not have cleared them all.” Ghost pulled him a bit closer as he spoke, they started walking, and he was nearly sandwiched between the two, Johnny having taken the lead and Ghost nearly plastered to Badger's back.

“Have you seen Graves?” Badger's breath hitched at Johnny's voice and he only continued forwards with a nudge from Ghost.

“You didn't kill him? He's still here?” Badger could feel his tenuous grasp on his panic start to slip from him again.

“Well get em’” Ghost was firm, and it was spoken as a promise. “Where is he?”

“He was just here, he couldn't be too far” Badgers voice sounded down right horrid, and he was surprised that either of them could understand him, Johnny tossed a look of mild concern back towards him as he led them through the compound, Badger looked over to Ghost who he was surprised to find was already staring at them. “Where are we anyway?” he questioned.

“A shadow black site, looks like a prison, they had the Los Vaqueros and Alejandro upstairs, were supposed to be linking with them now that we’ve got you.” Johnny made a sound of affirmation to confirm with what Ghost was saying and Badger just nodded along. It was taking too long for him to be solid again and he kept bumping into both of them as they walked through bloody corridors.

Badger could hear the crackle of one of their comms going off, and Johnny picked up pace leading them to a large open room reminiscent of a mess hall. He could hear the greeting shouts of the others and Badger took a deep breath and tried to clear his face. Now wasn't the time for anything other than their mission. Whatever that was now. Badger did try to stay close to both of them as they saddled up to Alejandro and Rodolfo.

Badger flinched at the gasp that came from Alejandro and quickly dodged his glace, he forgot that he probably looked like a drowned cat, a growl seemed to tear from Johnny though and Alejandro cleared his throat, eyes slipping from him and instead pointing to the chains on the door handles.

“Its padlocked” Alejandro managed to make that sound apologetic, Badger schooled his face again and tightened his grip on the rifle. Ghost stepped forwards from where he had taken sentry next to Badger, grabbing the bolt cutters off of his pack.

“I got it.”

“The Ghost, always prepared” Alejandro was clearly trying to ease some of the tension he accidentally built, he waited for Ghost to step back from the door before he kicked it open and took point, Rodolfo trailing closely. Johnny took his position leading Badger again, and Ghost similarly took his post behind Badger.

“Stairwell leads down and out… we’ll link up with the others and exfil the fuck out of here” Alejandro lead them down the stairs into a control room.

“Exfil vehicles are set. Ghost planted charges to help us get out” Rodolfo reported.

“With Johnny's help.” Ghost added to Badger's surprise, Alejandro snorted looking over his shoulder back towards them.

“I cant call Soap 'Johnny'” He was pushing through another room and they followed behind, Soap sounded surprisingly un humored at the comment.

“Don't. Only they can pull that off” But he chuckled at the end and patted Alejandro's shoulder before letting him lead again.

“Well have to cross the yard to get everyone out”

“Lead the way Soap, let's give these Sombres hell” Johnny nodded at the order from Alejandro and looked back towards Badger and Ghost, Badger nodded to him when he made eye contact. He was fine. He had to be fine, now wasn't the place to break. He didn't like that they saw him start to crumble.

When Johnny stepped out into the yard ducking behind the burnt out remnants of a car a firefight broke out, Ghost was leading him to cover as Alejandro called out where the fire was coming from. They all pushed up in a moment of silence, Badger could feel the cold enveloping him, the cool of combat he supposed and felt himself falling away from himself, his hands were firmer on his rifle and he was finally taking effective firing rounds helping to clear out the shadows.

“Johnny- that truck got one of our charges on it, Detonate it” Ghost barked into the comms watching as Johnny pushed up further than the rest of them.

Johnny sounded giddy. “Here it comes,” a pause “Ka-freakin-boom, baby!” he was ecstatic and the heat of the fight seemed to only egg him on, Badger felt Ghost chuckled next to him.

“Good effect, lets move up!” Ghost was moving as he spoke heading to the next set of cover, Badger following, he watched as Alejandro took their cover. A turret was stopping Johnny's forward progression and Ghost barked out that there was a detonator to use to take it out. It moments it was gone and they pushed into another smaller yard.

It was chaos in there again and Ghost yanked him back from rounding a corner to enter further into the yard, a sound of surprise dropped from him when he hit the wall, and just for a moment he felt cool water on his face, he let out a short panting breath before a steady hand settled on his shoulder once again. The sounds of the firefight died down again.

“We clear?” Johnny was behind a concrete barrier a few paces up from them

“For now” Alejandro popped up from his cover with Rodolfo in tow, “Rodolfo, where to?”

“Cut through the building left side” He pointed before letting Soap take the lead, the moment he stepped into the building he was firing again though, it seemed like there was a straggler left behind.

“These Shadows are crazy,” Johnny complained as they followed behind them

“Mercenaries, Johnny. Bloody wannabes” Ghost sounded nearly disgusted when speaking about the shadows, Badger remained silent, the ‘bloody wannabes’ got the better of all of them.

“I'll get an OP up top and cover by fire. Rest of you, wait for my signal” Alejandro was hauling up the ladder and signaling for Johnny to follow. Gunfire started the moment they disappeared.

“We’ll have to clear the courtyard to get across” Rodolfo turned to them and pointed towards an exit door, Ghost let him take the lead and pulled Badger to be in front of him again. The courtyard was filled with Shadows and they hid behind anything in sight making killing them difficult.

Badger tucked himself behind a dumpster and was peeking out taking fire of opportunity, the men were dropping like potatoes the moment they were out of cover, he fired until his rifle clicked empty, he reached towards his vest and instead found wet cloth. Right. He looked up towards where Ghost was crouched in cover,

“Ghost!” Badger tried to shout over the clamor, but his voice broke and Ghost didn't turn around, his lack of comms was frustrating to say the least “ Ghost!” This time his voice didn't break and Ghost turned around with violent speed, and his eyes were searching the area around him before he settled on him. Badger unloaded the empty magazine and shook it at Ghost, he didn't think he could shout again. Ghost nodded,

“Come ere” Ghost waved him over and took care to provide him cover before he passed him a new magazine.

“We need to get up and over that wall” Ghost pointed out to him before he led him towards more cover, he felt blind on the field with no comms to hear into orders, and suddenly he was extra glad that Ghost was keeping so close to him, he might be stuck behind again without the extra direction.

They were rushing clear across the courtyard when the roaring of a helicopter filled the air and came into sight, dropping low enough to nearly clipped the roof of the buildings edging in the yard. It was firing down at them as well and Badger detoured them into the cover of an archway.

“Its Price!” Ghost shouted over the fire and the noise and put his hand on Badger's arms pushing it down from where he had previously been firing upon the helicopter. A green fare was dropped at the wall that the Helicopter had just been at, Ghost rushed them forwards towards the wall meeting back up with Johnny.

Badger wasn't given warning when a warm arm pulled him across the waist and the command to hold on was barely issued before he was in the air held on by Ghost who was using his ascender to get up and over the wall on the ropes Captain Price had deployed. He squawked when they reached the top and he was handled roughly again being pulled back onto the top of the wall, he stepped out of reach as quick as he could manage trying to not look like he was panicking again.

“Sergeant MacTavish” “Good to see you, Captain” “Ghost” It was a lot all at once, especially when they turned to him.

“What the hell happened to you?” Price's voice was typically one that Badger tended to find comfort in, but currently it was grating on the nerves and he just wanted people to stop looking at him, to stop speaking at him and especially stop touching him. But instead of exploding he took a deep breath and took another small half step to keep a comfortable distance.

“Oh well, you know how much I like to take a spontaneous dip.” He chuckled lightly and tried to brush it off, turning from the Captain and the others eyes. He saw Gaz open his mouth to question him and saw the sharp shake of Johnny's head to him.

“How’d you know?” Johnny took a smaller step back towards Badger as he spoke to the Captain and Gaz.

“Laswell”

“As soon as Shepherd went dark, she called us”

“Laswell, still solid as a rock” Ghost let out a relieved sigh and Johnny nodded as he turned to help Alejandro and Rudy up the wall.

“Colonel Vargas, meet Captain Price and Sergeant Garrick” Johnny introduced as he steadied Alejandro on his feet, he was turning to look back at his men also getting up the wall nervously.

“Thanks for the assist- my men need cover fire”

Price nodded to Alejandro before jerking his head towards the now complete task force 141 signaling them to overwatch, Badger tucked behind one of the wall panels at bit further down from Johnny or Ghost, and he caught a not so happy glance from Johnny for that but he tried to just focus on clearing a way for Alejandro's men. Another truck pulled into the yard and was quickly detonated. Badger was distracted by fire from the right, it seemed like Shadows had made it back up here.

He cursed before rushing down towards the tower, and he supposed he was lucky that he was able to clear the tower of the Shadows before his rifle was clicking empty again, he stole the weapon from the shadows and shoved his pocket with magazines he pilfered from the dead men.

Badger made it back out to the team just as the last of the Vaqueros were making it up the wall.

“Were good to go, colonel”

“Let’s get the fuck out of here, hermanos”

“Down the wall… We are leaving!” Price was up and over the wall and dropping down Johnny and the rest in tow. Badger held his breath as he gripped the rope to drop down and held a little too tightly the rope cutting into his hands without gloves. Johnny steadied him when he touched down.

Price pointed out vans for them to pack into, Gaz hopped into the drivers of the van Price led them too, Johnny and Ghost settled down into the back, Badger settled onto the bench of the seat in the corner closest to the back door. Price ordered Gaz to drive as Ghost and Soap started to report to Price the situation.

“Shepherd burned us” Ghost nearly growled when he was speaking and Johnny was speaking over him

“He sent Graves and his Shadows to kill us and round up the Los Vaqueros”

Price nodded his head “we know why”

“Laswell did a bit of digging” Gaz tossed over his shoulder as he was driving

“What did she find?” Ghost questioned as he looked back over his team, he settled on Badger for a moment. Badger who was barely listening, and at this point was trying to hide that he was shivering in wet clothes.

“The truth,” Price caught that Ghost was looking elsewhere and found that his gaze was settled on Badger. “What happened to you kid?” Price's voice dropped to something less demanding, less like a Captain.

Badger sat up a bit more but didn't turn to look at any of them, and instead favored the view out the window of passing trees. He took in a shaky break and with a voice still broken and rugged spoke.

“Captured at the gate, I rushed Graves and he took it personal, Suppose Americans and waterboarding really isn't a joke” He didn't elaborate more and instead settled back and closed his eyes trying to gain a semblance of peace. He just wanted a moment, a handful of hours to just recover, to get the feeling of rope from his wrist, to heat up from the ice that seemed to settle in his blood. He had a sick feeling in his stomach that he'd be lucky if he got more than this ride to recover.

That feeling might have been relieved, only slightly, when a warm body shifted closer to him, and when he felt himself nodding off he didn't stop himself from leaning on Johnny, simply grateful knowing that with Johnny and Ghost nearby that he could relax, even if it was for just that ride.

First Next Last Masterlist AO3

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the-pan-ace-writings · 2 years ago

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First Next Last Masterlist AO3

A/N > YALLL VIOLENCE i mean it, please if that is something that doesn't settle well with you please please please skip over a portion of this chapter, the start and end sentence are underlined, the last sentence will be a link to a tame summary of what happened so youre not lost.

They had four hours to get their shit together, formulate a plan for Chicago and prepare for it. Badger was especially appreciative of Alejandro and Rudy's send off as they restocked and rearmed him, helping him get a new kit, of which he was currently rechecking for the third time since the conversation of what was to be going on in Chicago started.

They all sat together watching the computer Price had set up shortly after they had taken to the air, it contained Laswell who was briefing them on their current mission.

“El Sin Nombre told us the third missile was smuggled into the United States through the Port of Chicago” Gaz quickly briefed them on what had happened while Johnny and Badger had been off dealing with Graves. “Hassan and his AQ soldiers are with it, no doubt.”

“We don't know where the missile is or where it's headed,” Simon leaned forwards towards the computer currently displaying a map of the area around the port of Chicago, Price nodded along and pointed towards the display this time.

“We do know that Hassan was taken to a building in downtown Chicago owned by a shell company of the Las Almas cartel” It was a tall skyscraper along the river that ran through the city, surrounded by many other buildings likely holding civilians. Not good.

“Police are on the ground cordoning off the streets around the building” There was no way that wouldn't tip off Hassan and his men, as much as Badger wished they weren't stupid. “They're on the lookout for a stolen container full of weapons, they do not know we’re dealing with a missile” Laswell spoke in a grave tone and it was clear that she was smoking as she was speaking, although of the camera. “We believe Hassan is holed up in a fortified server room on the 54th floor of this building” the building that Price had pointed out earlier was highlighted on the screen, Badger leaned in closer to see the monitor better. “I will be on the ground working to locate the missile.”

Gaz leaned further back in his seat, pressing into the wall of the cabin, he looked like he was making an effort to look relaxed, Badger eyed him nervously as Price started to speak. He went back to retightening a strap on the bag in front of him. “Gaz infil with the marines on the Chicago river and move in on the ground level.” He nodded towards Ghost “You and Badger will heli up to an OP across from the objective for armed overwatch, we'll touch two helos down on the roof of the target building, one with a troop of Marines, the other with me and Soap.”

Badger looked up momentarily towards Johnny and Simon, Simon was still watching the screen seemingly focused on the situation, But Badger and Johnny caught eyes and a nervous look passed between them. Badger knew logically that separating for the sake of the mission was important but it didn't sit right in his stomach, especially since over the past few days Badger was attached to Johnny's hip as he seemed to have a penchant of wandering into trouble and needed the extra help. Johnny tried to pass along a look of confidence but Badger dodged his look and instead looked back down at what his hands were working on.

“While Gaz and the Marines push up the building Price and Soap will work their way down, with Soap repelling-” Badger felt his stomach drop and it took all his will power not to look at Johnny in panic. “To the server floor, pinching Hassan in the middle” Laswell spoke as if this was going to be a simple routine mission. “Our primary mission is to locate and stop the missile, but you have execute authority to kill Hassan.” A dark rumble fell from Simon as he sat back when the execution authority was relayed and a dark look flashed across his eyes momentarily.

Laswell disconnected the call with simple formalities and informed them of the remaining time left of the flight urging them to rest.

Unsurprisingly, Johnny as soon as they had been released from planning seemed to overflow with conversation with Captain Price and Gaz. Badger was reminded that he was in fact one of the newest members of the task force 141 and had little to no interaction with the majority of the task force before this, he was reminded that while Johnny and very likely Simon were actual friends with the Captain and the other Sergeant and that Badger was simply a new co worker, and one that seemed manage to get captured on their first real mission with the task force.

Badger slinked away from the conversation that had bloomed, and instead took to repacking his kit again, pulling everything out examining for damage and replacing it back in its proper spot. He also was going over his vest and counting every magazine and knife he had on him, he managed to tuck in a few extra knives than usual for his load out, but the experience of being stripped completely of his weapons wasn't one that he wanted to go through again. He readjusted the place of his breaching hammer as well, he was thankful that Rudy had managed to find one similar to the one that he had before. The conversation had drifted from his mind as he was working but he was pulled back to it quickly when Gaz’s voice called his name. His hand stilled on the grip of the hammer that he was relacing again.

“Don't you think you've gone over that enough?” Badger didn't straighten up from what he was doing but instead just moved his gaze to lock on Gaz, he didn't look angry but his face almost looked too neutral as if he was purposely trying to hide what he was actually feeling. Badger felt his lips turn down as he kept silent, he flicked his eyes over the rest of them, Price similarly had an overly neutral look, Johnny looked mildly concerned and his eyes too were bouncing around the group, and surprisingly Simon looked tense and had his gaze locked on Gaz.

Badger chuckled nervously, sitting back up “right, sor-” “He's fine.” Simon interrupted Badger as he spoke. He paused momentarily and flicked his eyes to Simon who was now looking at him instead of Gaz, he dodged the stare and instead turned his eyes back towards the hammer grip in his hand he finished fixing it and tucked it back in its place on his kit.

He felt a slight itching under his skin as he left his kit alone and instead pressed further into the wall of the cabin, he tried his best to look unbothered, as if he wasn't wanting to make himself look smaller. He closed his eyes trying to drift off to sleep in the few hours they had left to get there. The conversation seemed to pick back up a little but he was certain he felt a presence closer to him but he didn't have the will to bother to look, he simply wanted to rest.

0200, it was dark out but the city lights kept it manageable. Badger and Simon were settled in their helo waiting for the clear from Laswell, Badger was about to recheck his rifle again before he stilled his hands clenching his jaw and turned to look out the window of the still grounded helicopter. Johnny and Price were across the lot in their helicopter and it seemed like they were chatting on either a separate comm line or they could hear each other over the sound of the helicopters.

“Give it to me” Badger turned from the window to Simon, who had his hand reached out towards the rifle in Badger's grip. Simon didn't give him a chance to question him and instead pulled it gently from him, and made a slight show of pulling it apart and inspecting each piece before putting it all back together and loading a magazine from his own vest into it. He handed the freshly inspected rifle and the other magazine back to Badger who was staring in mild awe.

“Thank you” it came out more breathy than he had meant and he swallowed looking back towards the other helicopter, he could feel his face warming up, he could also feel the weight of Simon's silent stare.

Their radio crackled as everyone turned back to the mission channel and Laswell's voice filtered onto the comm.

“Watcher-1 to Bravo-6 Actual, perimeter is secure. We have a possible hit on the missile container. we ‘re moving in now”

“Solid copy” Badger watched as Price gestured for Johnny to sit further back in his seat as he spoke to the pilot. “All Bravo, move to set. We’re on.”

“0-5 copies all” Gaz reported back, he was up river from the target building instead of on the small lot they had taken over for the helicopters.

Badger held his breath momentarily when the helicopter left the ground and sped towards the target building, they had an awful track record of keeping helicopters in the air and the last thing Badger wanted was to be thrown from the open door of the helicopter as they maneuver over Chicago. He took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, now wasn't the time to get worked up, they had a mission to do and they had the relatively safe part of the mission to complete. He wasn't the one that should be worried about personal safety when Johnny was preparing to scale a skyscraper.

They were only in the air for a few moments before they could spot Gaz's team of Marines on the river.

“Bravo 6-2 is twenty seconds from the target building. Intel reports multiple AQ inside”

“Ghost, get to your overwatch” Price's order followed quickly after Gaz’s report, and their Helicopter split off from Price.

“Rog, on the move” Ghost responded and made a small wave towards the Helicopter that held Johnny.

“Floor fifty six is our primary objective. Its well fortified with limited access. Hassan may be holed up there.”

“Copy. Let's nail this bastard once and for all, sir” Johnny's confidence in the comms relaxed some of Badger's nerves. Their helicopter landed first on a shorter building across from the Skyscraper that Price and Johnny just landed on.

Simon rushed out of the helicopter and Badger followed, they were to stay on the roof and keep overwatch. Or rather Ghost was to keep overwatch and Badger was there to make sure they stayed in place. Badger swept the roof, ensuring that it was clear he also noticed that the roof access door wasn't locked, he frowned at that.

Simon was quick to set himself up on a partial platform, he was prone in front of his sniper rifle and was currently adjusting the scopes to view inside the windows of the target building. Badger once he deemed the roof safe, settled next to Simon he wasn't on the platform though and instead used the ledge to perch his weapon so that he could use the scope to watch the target building.

“Ghost, we’re set. You have eyes on?” Price's rumbling voice came through the comms, and Badger caught them in his sights watching as Johnny tugged on the rope that connected him to the building.

“A-firm. Flashing now” Both Badger and Simon flashed the lights on the barrel of their weapons, watching as Johnny stepped up on the ledge nodding in their direction.

“Copy visual, LT. What've you got?” Johnny tipped over the ledge and was walking face towards the ground on the outside of the building.

“Civilians” Simon sounded tense as he watched Johnny step onto the side of the building, Badger caught Price hooking on a bit further down and also turning over the ledge as he spoke.

“Hostages”

“Hassan's buyin’ time” Johnny continued further down the window, he was walking in an awkward manner as if he was trying to gauge his own movements.

“You lads clear all threats. Bravo-3 secures the hostages, RV on the target floor” Price ordered as he took off down the wall, Johnny still looked like he was struggling to orient himself and they could just barely hear his breathing pick up as he was staring down below.

“Reposition if you need,” Simon breathed into the comms as he too watched Johnny pause again in his movement, he turned around so that he was facing the sky, “two x-rays below, you're more visible to the enemies this way Johnny”

Badger watched as Johnny nodded in silent acknowledgement and continued down towards the window Simon had pointed out to him. The two men near the window were caught off guard as Johnny dropped down into sight and shot through the window, Simon called the clear as he inspected further from his overwatch neither of them catching more movement on the floor that would hazard Johnny.

“Bravo-3, five-five secure.” Simon reported to the inside team, getting an affirmative response and entry notice, Johnny continued to another floor. “Four x-rays ahead. Three in the room. One in the hallway”

They were dispatched easily, Badger watched as the AQ soldiers dropped the reactions of the hostages on that floor. A woman was cowering under a table, she back peddled and seemed to be shouting when one of the AQ soldiers dropped dead an arm reach away from her. Badger frowned and felt his jaw tightening at that.

“Five x-rays on the next floor. Three moving. Two stationary” Simons voice pulled him from watching the hostage and back to the mission. It was stupid to get so distracted from the mission. “Get a visual before you engage” Simon heeded at the end of the report and they both watched as Johnny flipped himself on the line to walk slowly to the next floor and try to peek without being seen to get a better handle on the situation.

He was hidden by a division in the window as he slipped into position. He was turned to take down the Soldier who was harassing a hostage first. There wasn't a warning before he opened fire, the man harassing the hostage dropped first and then the two by one of the ugliest paintings Badger had seen in a long time, the splattering of crimson not adding to it nicely either. Johnny shuffled to the right to get a view of the next room over, there was only one man in there but he was already firing at Johnny through the windows.

Badger swore under his breath, there was no reason to expect that Johnny couldn't handle one gunman in the room, but he seemed to be struggling with his gear again and slipped slightly when he misplaced his footing. Badger sensed Simon tense, he went still and let out a short breath.

The man firing at Johnny more or less ceased being there and Badger watched as the glass of that window shatter from the force Simons shot.

“Bravo, we’re clear on five-one” Simon sounded unphased by the situation, and simply adjusted his scopes.

“0-7, copy. Moving” Badger watched as the bravo team entered the floor and the area near the windows, sweeping all of the men double tapping where it was necessary, and checking on hostages.

“Price, all hostages secure” Johnny turned away from watching Bravo team as he spoke, he had flipped himself again so that he was facing towards the sky, he seemed like he was taking a moment to breath as he waited for Price to respond.

“Copy. Rally on the server floor”

Badger spotted Captain Price in a window further to the left than where Johnny was, he was currently crouching at the window and away attaching a breaching device. This was the floor Johnny was entering.

“Charge is set. Get clear” Badger watched as Price waved his hand at Johnny through the window urging him to get some distance from the window that was going to shatter into little pieces in moments.

The window blew outward just as Johnny cleared the area, and a small sound of elation escaped over Johnny's comms from the explosion. He made quick work of pushing off the outside of the building and landing solidly inside the server floor with Price.

“Watcher-1, were on the target floor. What's your status?” Price steadied Johnny as he was standing and gave him a once over while he was awaiting Laswell's response. “Laswell, what the hell was that?” Both Johnny and Price seemed to perk up at a sound that was unheard by Badger and Simon. They walked out of their view and deeper into the server floor, Badger felt Simon tense as he watched them disappear into the building.

“John, the missile is active, it's in the first stage. Be advised- controls are not in the container.” Laswell's voice was teetering on calm, urgency and concern slipping into each word.

“That means Hassan has them.” Price growled over the comms. “We're pushing into the target area now. Out.”

“We need those controls” Johnny urged. Badger distinctly disliked not having Johnny in eyesight when the stakes were this high, the calm of the roof top compared to the chaos inside the target building unsettled Badger.

“Let's hope Hassan’s here”

As the words fell from Price's lips, gunfire and shouting broke over the comms, they had met contact. It sounded like they had it handled, most of the shouting wasn't from either of them. They heard a scuffle and a shout up close from an AQ soldier and they heard the slashing gurgling come in over the comms and a whispered curse from Johnny before he called an all clear.

“Negative on Hassan”

They heard a door kick open and immediate fire afterwards, they must have breached into another room. Badger tried to refocus on the overwatch he was supposed to be performing instead of zoning out listening to the comms, he scanned the windows around the server floor hoping to catch Hassan or reinforcements heading towards where Johnny was operating. Nothing. He let his breath out slowly and focused more into the comms again.

They entered into another server room, it sounded like this one was more reinforced than the other two had been as the firefight seemed to be getting exponentially louder over the comms and they could hear more cursing from both Johnny and Captain Price. They heard the denotation of a smoke grenade, the hissing of the gas clearly recognizable over the comms and Badger hopped that it was either the Captain or Johnny who deployed that and not the AQ soldiers trying to get one on them. Badger was absolutely certain that they were out numbered as they hadn't seen bravo team follow after them.

They heard several more explosions presumably from grenades and another push forwards order from Price, and more firefight. It finally came to a slow a few moments later and several clicking of empty magazines.

“At the control room. Stack up” Price ordered and then they heard the breaking down of a door, and finally they could be seen again from the overwatch sight. Simon seemed to relax momentarily in his prone position before his breath hitched slightly, Badger turned from where he was standing to look at Simon. He was back to being stone and either didn't notice the hitch or was actively choosing to hide it.

Johnny looked a little beat up but alright, he had charged into the room and threw up his hands in frustration when there was no one in the room.

“Feckin’ hell. He's gone.” he paused to look out the window and towards where they had been positioned. Price joined him looking out to their post.

“All stations, negative on Hassan, Control room is a dry hole” he sounded frustrated. “Ghost, you got anything?”

Badger looked over at Simon again and was surprised that he wasn't looking into the server room that they had emerged into, but rather something further down. Rely on the Ghost to keep his head clear and focused on the mission, Badger bit his tongue in frustration. He turned back to the overwatch scanning towards where Simon was watching.

“A-firm. Possible visual. Forty-sixth floor” Simon rumbled over the comms, and adjusted his scope so that he could get a better ID on what was moving on that floor.

“Copy, we’re moving” Badger flicked his watch back up to where Johnny and Price were, Price was setting up another breach charge and taking a step back, both him and Johnny turned away from the blast.

“Hook up sergeant” Price was walking to another window and setting it to blast and hooking on as Johnny was stepping out the window, urgency this time keeping him more steady.

“Entry point if four levels down” Price waved for them to start moving towards the target floor.

“All Bravo, five is making entry on floor forty” Gaz spoke up into the comms,

“Copy. We’ll push him your way, let's tighten the noose” Price was taking larger jumps down the building, “Soap, we find those controls, it's up to you to disarm that missile”

“Copy that” no pressure right. Badger turned from his watch and took a step away from the wall and the platform that Simon was on. His skin felt like it was crawling, anxiety heightened but he felt with more and more certainty that he needed to check the roof again, the access door coming to mind again.

“Badger?” Simon sounded stern, it was certainly less of a question and more of an order to come back. Badger looked over his shoulder at where Simon was still facing forwards and focused and shook his head choosing not to respond. It didn't take him long at all to sweep the roof again and ensure that it was clear, that there wasn't any threat to them at that moment. He stood in the roof access door again and listened to the stairwell, he took a few more steps inside the stairwell and looked down towards the ground floor, nothing that he could see or hear.

Satisfied he returned to Simon, settling back into his overwatch position. Simon grunted at his return but made no more an effort to ask what he was doing.

“RPG!” Price shouted and they heard glass shatter over his comms, “move in! Now!” Badger hadn't had the chance to re center them back in his scope so that he could see what was going on, “I can't cover you sergeant! Get in here!”

He found them. It was a large open room with a ceiling that seemed to stretch what would normally be several floors. Johnny was still on the outside but they could see and hear the firefight that was going on in the room.

Johnny rolled into cover as he jumped into the room, Price was nearby returning fire and Johnny burst into action as soon as he was oriented. He was dodging in and out of areas that Badger could see, but he handled his own well, and quickly the room's defenders seemed to dwindle in numbers.

“All Bravo, be advised” Simon was reporting “Hassan is in the stairwell, he's moving down”

“Solid copy! Gaz- he's headed your way!”

Johnny jumped down from the stop of the banister and onto one of the final AQ soldiers, they heard them grunt and a wet squelch as Johnny dispatched the man trapped under him.

“Roger that!”

Another troop of AQ soldiers had to have made it to the room that they were fighting in, as what previously was a dwindling firefight seemed to renew in full as men seemed to filter in from everywhere again. Johnny was running through magazines like crazy.

It felt like an eternity had passed before Johnny called out a clear and Price ordered them to the stairwell that Hassan fled to.

“Gaz, sitrep?”

“0-7, target is cornered! Floor forty-six!”

“Copy we’re moving to you!” they disappeared from sight again as they went further into the building. Badger looked over his shoulder at the roof access door and fought the urge to recheck. He was simply finding a bad outlet for his anxiety, a growl tore from him in frustration but he turned back to watching the windows.

“On me Sergeant, let's hit the stairs” the tell tale sound of a crowbar was heard and then the echoing of a stairwell. “Downstairs, move!”

“All stations, missile is hot! I say again, the missile is launching!” Laswell broke over the comms, they all caught sight of the fiery streak launching from the ground, it made a sickening curve and seemed to take off with increased speed. They were running out of time.

“No no no-!” Price shouted over the comms, anger and panic clear in his tone

“Feckin’ hell!” Johnny joined in the outrage

“Watcher, where's the target?!”

“Unknown. We’re working on it” it sounded like she was detaching from the situation, her voice was ice.

“Copy. we’re going for Hassan!”

The sound of firefight reentered the comms, it sounds like they found Hassan's defenders.

“Gaz- where's Hassan?!” they must have linked with Gaz and his marines.

“End of the hall! Hassan’s held up behind those doors!”

“Let's clear this out and bag him, then!”

“Follow me” Gaz shouted over the firefight, only the sounds of fighting could be heard for a short while. “Hassan's behind those doors''

“Ill snake a camera in there”

It irked him to no end that the area that they were operating in was out of sight from the overwatch, they only had a narrow view of the width of the room, and Badger's scope wasn't strong enough to see all the way back to where they were.

“Soap, get positive ID on Hassan, we need those controls.”

“I'll get them” Johnny reassured.

There was an explosion, Badger heard Johnny grunt in pain and gasp escape him. He couldn't see what was going on but had seen the flash. He could hear AQ soldiers speaking over the comms, they were too close to their team. Firing picked up, he could hear someone being dragged their comm pulling against the floor. He heard Captain Price cry out in pain.

“Price!” Gaz called out for him. The firing didn’t seem to be stopping, Johnny hadn’t confirmed his status in the comms. “You broken?” He could hear Gaz questioning again.

“I'm good,” it was Captain Price “go, you got this”

“Soap, let's move!” Gaz urged.

“Watcher, Hassan has the missile controls. We’re going after him!’ Price reported, his voice only slightly betraying the pain he must be feeling.

“Copy, be advised, the missile is headed towards D.C. we don't have much time to divert!”

“Hassan's in the last car. Use the lift cars to get down there” a spike of ice ran up Badger's spine, he could only hope he didn't mean the elevator cars especially when they were on the 46th floor, a drop there would certainly not go well.

“Overwatch! Be advise, we’ve caught AQ movement in your building” Fuck.

An explosion came over the comms. Double fuck. Johnny shouted and Badger could hear the mechanical cluttering of a falling elevator cart.

“That car won’t hold! Jump down” Badger might throttle Johnny the next time he sees him if the thought of jumping into an elevator shaft onto what were presumably extremely damaged cars considering the amount of action that had been going on on the bottom floors was a good idea, no matter if that was the fastest way to get to Hassan.

He heard Johnny shout as he jumped and heard the grunting as he landed, another voice was there with him.

“Move sergeant!”

“Overwatch, AQ is heading towards the upper levels again, they’re sweeping floor by floor in teams.”

“Roger,” Badger responded, he turned to Simon “I've got it, keep an eye on Johnny, yeah?”

Simon hummed in response, but he turned away from his scope and eyed Badger before nodding at him. Badger nodded back before stepping away towards the roof access door. He'd be damned before he let them get up here. They needed overwatch.

Badger felt him slipping into the peace that was having a specific task, clearly outlined mission. He did a quick count of his munitions and went to the first floor, he could hear movement in the stairwells, the whispering of AQ as they tried not to alert the overwatch. They were close, too close. Badger felt sick that he hadn't noticed them before, that must have been why he was compelled to keep going back to the stairwell.

It doesn't matter.

Badger was just barely making it down to the top floor in the stairwell when he could hear the commotion of AQ soldiers working in teams only two floors beneath him. He moved silently and struggled to keep tabs on the moving teams below. He was grateful that Laswell had given him the heads up because he clearly kept brushing off any signs that there was a threat to him and Simon.

The top floor was disappointingly set up poorly for defense, clearly civilians did not think about things like cover when creating a penthouse level office building with glass doors and walls willy nilly everywhere. There were hardly any solid walls to take cover behind and the fire door that led to the stairwell opened outward, so he couldn't even barricade it effectively.

He knew his time was coming short, it was unlikely that high up they would assume the sniper position was going to be anywhere other than the roof, they might simply choose to go straight there as they continued to be spoilt in their attempts to find them. He looked around for anything that could help provide cover, he was going to have to draw them into the office level he was on. He had to keep them from getting to Simon. Keep them from pulling away Johnny's back up.

The office had a number of fancy solid wood desks, it would have to do. He made short work running through the offices and over turning and dragging the desks into better locations other than the glass boxes they mostly resided in. Badger didn't understand the purpose of the glass offices for a business, didn't they need the privacy for operations? Or maybe they favored the show of their work instead. Now wasn't the time to think about that. Focus.

He hoped the commotion of him over turning desks were enough to keep them from bolting to the roof, he wished that he had caught them at a lower level, to give him a few floors to fight through before they reached Simon. But now it really was the final defensive. He felt calm. He had a set of tasks to do. And he would die making sure he succeeded.

He readied his weapon in his grip and moved towards the fire exit, he could hear the footsteps of the AQ men on the stairwell, there was a distinct lack of conversation going on between them. Badger expected a team leader to be ordering them to split off, or simply expressing frustration. Nothing. And they were approaching his floor. One of the men in the front waved towards the door to the level he was on, and the rest of the team continued to the stairwell that accessed the roof. Fuck.

He let out a breath, steeling himself and then threw the door open, slamming it into the unfortunate man that had to open the door. Badger felt the door squish into him and heard him groan in pain as he was trapped with the handle digging into his stomach. The stairwell erupted into chaos at that moment and he wasn't able to get a count of how many men were there.

He fired wildly into the hall, trying his best to pull the attention of all of the AQ there, to get them to chase him. He snarled insults at them and backed into the dark office floor that he'd ripped apart, he ducked behind the first desk that he had dragged close to the door.

AQ poured into the room, it seemed like three fire teams at minimum in this force. He got lucky that they seemed to be under armored and pinched together at the door. He had dropped four of them as they tried to step into the room, they piled in front of the door blocking entrance to the others in the stairwell.

He heard shouting in the hall and the men pouring in seemed to stop. Something was thrown into the door in the vague direction that he was taking cover in. It clattered to the floor. Double fuck.

He turned tailed and bolted away from the canister, he dived behind the cover of a desk closer to the back of the floor, he covered his ears and clenched his eyes closed. It was a flash bang. He managed to avoid the majority of the effects, he was only a little disoriented but his bolt to the back of the floor gave him the moment he needed to catch back up to what was going on. Of which was the pouring of the men from the hall into the office space, guns blazing with disregard to where he actually was.

The glass of the office walls shattered and came down upon the men in the room. The wall closest to him was cracking as rogue shots spiderwebbed into the glass. He needed to move.

He bolted to another desk nearby, taking shots as he could to drop some of the threats around him; they hadn't wandered deep into the level and still seemed to be bunched in teams. His initial count of three firing teams had to have been wrong as he was still counting three of them, though one seemed to consist of only two people now.

They caught his movement further into the floor, he needed to pull them in further away from the door, keep them from getting back to the roof should they lose interest in him. He heard the order for them to break up. Tailing shots kept missing him, but a wall of glass shattered in front of him right as he was passing in, the glass poured down onto him cutting little knicks in any exposed skin. He covered his head the best he could without losing a grip on his weapon. He fired blindly behind him and flipped another desk in the now more open floor plan of the office he was passing.

He knelt down and replaced a magazine in his weapon before he peaked out from his cover. Nailing a pair of AQ stalking closer to him. They dropped with a shout and he could hear another team closing in on his location. He wasn't good at being stealthy, wasn't good at keeping the commotion down, so it meant the second he did something there were men upon him. Thankfully they seemed to only come in twos or threes, and he could hear the other teams tossing anything they thought he could hide behind.

He worked himself further to the back. It was a mistake. He started to become cornered, the walls here weren't glass and made visibly even harder.

“Fuck.” he cursed

“Sit rep, Badger!” Simon broke into the comms, Badger had forgotten about the comms still being linked, he had completely tuned out for the moment. He breathed hard trying to catch his breath, and whispered into the comms. AQ hadn't figured out that he pinned himself down yet.

“There's a lot and I'm starting to be pinned down.” Badger tried to sound detached, he didn’t want Simon to come down here. He needed Simon to stay on Johnny.

“I'm pulling back,” Simon sounded on edge. “Attention all stations- overwatch's pul-”

“Negative.” badgers own voice startled him, he didn't recognize the growl that had torn from him. “Stay on mission. I've got it handled.”

“Badg-”

“Not alone- he’s got AQ guards with him. I'm gonna kill every one of em’... and then I'm going for him. Out here” Johnny's voice cut back into the comms, Laswell was done speaking with him and they could only hope that meant the missile was scuttled. Johnny's tone was dangerous as he raved.

The pause was thick with desperation. He sighed.

“Stay standin’ Badger ” Badger could hear the struggle in Simon's voice, but Badger did a good job of sounding confident while Johnny sounded crazed.

Badger let out a shuddering breath, clicked off the input end of his comms and pushed back from the wall that he was leaning against, there couldn't be too many left, there wasn't enough commotion for there to be. But they had worked quietly before.

He rounded the corner and walked straight into a group of four of them, he dived back behind the cover of the corner he had just turned and fired back at them, he heard one drop to the floor. He peaked back over the corner, they had tucked into door frames and behind a filing cabinet for cover in the limited space.

He fired through the filing cabinet, the sound of the bullets ripping through the thin metal was sharp and the shout of pain and the following forward slumping of the AQ was satisfying. The other two had moved too far up the hall for him to reach from his position.

He was tired. Could feel the compounding of injuries from Graves compile with the exertion of fighting alone in this office level. It didn't matter right this moment. He had to get the rest of them.

A man jumped out from a corner that Badger hadn't seen and slammed into him, barreling him into the wall. The breath was knocked from him, his head bounced off the wall and he paused, trying to catch up with what had just happened. He thrashed trying to avoid the hands of the man that barreled into him, his weapon was tossed from him and tried to reach for it, but the AQ brought his fist down hard on Badger, he could feel the crunch of his nose under fist again.

With a shout he reared, sitting all the way up and grabbing the hair of the man on top of him and ripping him away, using the momentum to slam his face into the corner of the wall that he had burst from. He could hear the shouting of the final man from this team down the hall, he turned his head to see him taking aim but hesitated. He didn't want to shoot the AQ trapped in Badgers grasp.

Badger felt another snarl rip from him as the man stunted from being slammed into the wall started to thrash again with more vigor, he was ripping at his vest for a weapon. Badger saw the leg holstered handgun attached to the man and ripped it off of him. In seconds he downed the gunman further up the hall and slammed the face of the man he trapped back into the wall with a satisfying squelch.

He was breathing hard, his face was throbbing but he felt at his nose before continuing. It was definitely more broken. Shit. it simply isn't catching a break.

He leaned down and collected his rifle from where it had landed when he was barreled into, and stalked into the more open parts of the office, he hand to lure them out to him again, they were deep in the floor and had not come running towards the commotion that was killing that last team.

“Come on you ugly fucks! Out with ye!” he shouted standing with his back in a corner facing the split off that led deeper into the office, they would have had to come from that direction. And he simply hoped that the glass walls around him would hold up for a tiny bit longer.

He heard their shouting before he saw them, it was only three of them and breathed a small prayer of thanks to whoever that that was all.

They were caught off guard, and Badger nailed them the moment two of them stepped out from the entrance, they hadn't expected him to be so close and they now decorated the wall. The third one bolted from him running towards the stairwell door, fear was pouring from him and he was running frantically blindly firing towards Badger.

It was easily dodged and Badger took the moment to make a precision shot towards him, watching as his knee was no longer able to support him and he went falling face first into the shattered glass of the closet office walls to the door. He was crawling away from him, the weapon seemed to be forgotten in his panic.

Badger closed on him pressing a boot squarely into his back, watching as he writhed trapped in the glass.

“How many were there?”

The man babbled, Badger regretted his loose grasp on Farsi as he wasn't able to understand the man as well as he wanted to. He pressed down harder on the man and pushed the barrel of his rifle to the back of his head.

“ How many !” he tried. He wasn't certain the man understood and he shouted the question again roughly pressing the man into the ground, he was squirming and a sickening laugh erupted from him as he strained to turn his head to look at Badger.

“One more.” the man spit towards Badger. He squeezed the trigger, and he grimaced at the warmth that splattered his face from the blow back.

Another shot rang out, and the final standing glass wall from the front office shattered, Badger flinched at the sound of the falling glass and whipped to see behind him.

There was one man. He was wounded, gravely so if the clutching of his stomach and the growing pool of blood at his feet was to say anything. But he had one pistol in a shaking grasp leveled at Badger, the first shot clearly missing and bringing him to his attention.

Badger arrogantly took just too long to level his weapon at the doomed man, they fired one after the other. The man collapsed in an unnatural pile, distorted and crumpled, and Badger fell backwards, over the deadman and landing in the pile of glass digging into his palms with a hiss.

He backed himself against the wall closest to the stair access door and was gasping for breath. It felt like fire had bloomed from his chest and radiated throughout the rest of him. He tried to calm his breathing and take account of himself.

He brought his hand to his chest. Dry. No hole. Thank the light. He let out a shaky breath and tried to bring himself back to what was happening around him. He could feel the damage of the plate in his vest, thankful that Alejandro had graciously gifted it to him.

He could hear the sound of something being dragged, and he searched what parts of the area he could see, nothing. His comms. His comm was active again.

“I told you your nation would see fire. You think you can stop me…?” Fucking hell that was Hassan. And again with the dragging. Did Hassan have Johnny?

“Ghost..” Johnny's voice was hoarse and weak. Fuck. Fuck. fuck. Badger desperately wished that he was back on the roof. He need to see what was happening. Johnny never should have been left without backup.

“Soap…” Simon breathed back into the comms, he was tense. Simon could see what was happening. Simon would take care of it. He had to. Fuck.

Badger's breath was bordering uncontrollable, he felt his whole body shaking and he no longer could keep a grip on the weapon in his lap.

“Watch the window..” what the fuck did that mean. There was an explosion followed by shattering.

“We are not attacking…” Hassan's voice was picked up by Johnny's comms again. “We are invading” there was a sound of struggle from Johnny. Dread filled Badger and he simply stopped breathing.

There were more sounds of struggle, Johnny was cursing a storm at Hassan but small gasps and wheezes still escaped him, Badger was hiccupping and pulling at his own skin. He didn't want to hear Johnny die over the comms. He didn't want Johnny to die at all.

He felt sick to his stomach, could feel the bile burning up in his throat but all he did was dry heave.

A shot rang out. Not over the comms. Not over the comms. Simon. It had to be Simon.

He could hear heavy breathing over the comms, it sounded like Johnny. He couldn't be sure, what if Hassan took his comms. What if Simon missed. He couldn't have missed. Simon was silent too.

Another heartbeat of a moment.

“Perfect shot, Lt” Johnny sounded shaken up, Johnny.

“You called it, Sergeant”

The tension drained from Badger. He couldn't focus on anything, he no longer was paying any type of attention to the comms. He was simply tired. Johnny was safe, Simon had not missed. He slouched against the wall, he felt so tired. The mission was over. The missile dealt with, Hassan was dead.

He was being shaken. He groaned. Shook again, rougher. Fuck, he had to have missed one. Someone was coming for the butcher's bill and he was on the top of the list.

He struggled in the grasp he found himself in, a whine escaped him. His whole body felt useless, he struggled to move. He wasn't getting out of this.

“Badger please!” He felt like his head was going to fall off with the force that he was shook, his arms screamed for release from the iron grasp on his shoulders.

“stop… please” It was barely audible, he barely registered the words falling from his lips in complete desperation. He felt ashamed, he hadn't begged Graves why would he beg a random AQ. His hands pushed at the solid chest in front of him trying to create space, his head throbbed but thankfully the shaking had stopped.

“Badge, hey! Badger” Simon, it sounded like Simon. He tried to focus his eyes on who was in front of him. Slowly, oh so slowly did he recognize a familiar mask, and concerned eyes turned relieved. Badger heard his name before he was pulled into a too tight hug, a small groan leaving him but he pulled his arms to cling to Simon and bury his face into the others shoulder.

Safe. They all were safe.

“Can you walk?” Simon was pulling back from him, hands roaming checking for major injuries, he was gently prodding at his head and nose again.

“Hope so, feel right banjaxed though” Badger chuckled before reaching his arm up to Simon, who graciously pulled him up and kept him from stumbling.

“You look it” Simon pulled him a little closer than necessary and walked them towards the elevators in the middle of the office floor. “Hope these are still workin’”

“Right, o’wise you’re carrying me the forty whatever floors down”

They made it to where the two buildings had been cordoned off and filled with medical and police, the lights of which had Badger squinting his eyes and wanting to bury his head. Simon was leading them towards one of the empty medical trucks when a shout of their names stopped Simon in his tracks. Johnny!

Simon turned Badger just enough to not catch most of the impact of Johnny crashing into them, Johnny was shaking but pulled them both closer to him burying his face in Badger's shoulder as Simon's hand came up to cup the back of Johnny's head. He was speaking so so fast and it was nearly unintelligible, only little snippets of thanks that they were safe, and holy fuck hes done with heights and how cold he was. He was laughing but it quickly seemed to devolve into tears.

Simon turned all three of them again away from the prying eyes of bystanders and shuffled them into one of the trucks, Badger was certain the glare that Simon sent to the medic was murderous as they bolted from the back of the truck.

Badger settled back into the seat, peeling himself away from both of them for a moment, thankful that they were out of the flashing lights and in the relative peace that could be found in the medical bay. Simon made a sound of protest when he pulled away but Johnny simply just pulled him back closer and wedged himself between the two of them. He was clinging to Simon and had buried his hand in Badger's vest, near hysterical.

Something about a window, he was terrified and his breathing was coming out in short stutters and gasping. His whole body was tense and kept trying to speak but was hiccupping on the words. Simon turned to look at Badger desperately, he didn't know what to do. Badger stared back at Simon who was clinging to Johnny nearly as much as Johnny was clinging to him.

Badger took a steadying breath and scooted closer to the both of them, the hand that was attached to his vest relaxing as he got closer, Badger made a humming sound and put his hand over Johnny's lightly, not prying, just simply there, the other went to the back of Johnny's neck running his thumb over the exposed skin soothingly. Simon leaned his head down to rest his chin on the top of Johnny's, low words of comfort and reassurance slipping from him too quiet for Badger to make out other than the timbre of his voice.

It took a long time for Johnny to calm down, eventually they managed to pull themselves away from each other long enough for a medic to check on them.

Badger didn't like the medic that had come to inspect him, he was sure they were nice but their hands on him made it feel like bugs under his skin, and he felt nauseous when they flashed a light across his vision. He must have made a sound of discomfort because suddenly there was an ominous presence on his left leaning towards the medic who again looked fearful before muttering an apology. It was determined that he had a mild concussion, several bruised ribs, possibly even a crack, multiple lacerations from glass and a definite broken nose. Johnny similarly had a concussion and was significantly battered but thankfully alright. With medication pushed in hands they were sent out of the truck and towards Laswell and the truck that contained a cursing Price and a hovering Gaz.

“How is Price?” Johnny questioned the medic attending to him now, saddling up to Gaz in their hovering and constant harassment of the medic with non stop questions. Badger turned to Laswell who was currently taking a deep drag from a cigarette and looking up towards the target building.

“You got another one of those things?” Badger nodded his head towards Laswell’s cigarette when she looked back at him questioningly. She dug in her pocket for a pack along with a lighter and offered it to him.

“They didn't say anything about not smoking?” She teased looking back at the medic that still seemed to cower from them. Badger laughed more to himself than anything.

“You think that's gunna stop me?” He brought the cigarette to his lips and inhaled as he flicked the lighter to life, he exhaled the smoke slowly facing away from Simon and the truck with the rest of 141. “What's next?”

It was Laswell’s turn to laugh cynically before answering. “Hell if I know, you all will be put up in a secure hotel floor, we'll deal with the rest tomorrow. We’ve all been through hell and none of you are good to fight at the moment” She turned back to look over them all, she seemed to be cataloging them and he could see the wheels turning in her head. He stayed silent smoking his cigarette and nodded at her.

“We have transport for everyone to the hotel, we'll meet up at a secure location tomorrow to debrief.” She waved off handedly at a set of blacked out SUVs that were on the road a few paces from them. “Get some rest. You guys need it.” and with that she walked away from Badger, leaned her head into the truck that Price was fussing in, said something and then slipped into another sedan and drove off.

Simon plucked the cigarette from his lips, gloved fingers brushing his lips in the process and he pulled his mask up to smoke. They stood just close enough for their shoulders to lightly brush each other and they watched Johnny as he joined Gaz in fussing over Price as the medic stepped away with care instructions for Price.

Finally the day was over, and it was time for them to rest.

First Next Last Masterlist AO3

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the-pan-ace-writings · 2 years ago

Text

The moments after

First End Last Masterlist AO3

A/N two things guys, firstly im so sorry at how long this chapter took, i struggle to write actual romance when its direct, especially when i know i want it to lead to something with a little heat, but i actually am a little proud of this one and hope yall like this chapter and it doesn't seem too out of character. Secondly, yall this is the end! i think i might write a few blurbs from Simon or Johnny's perspective from a few chapters. Thirdly ( i lied sorry) I would love to write anything for yall, send me ideas or comment directly on this post and ill see what i can do <3 thank yall so much for the support yall have offered this whole time!

They nearly collapsed into the SUVs. Simon surprisingly tolerated being piled on by Johnny who now that they were away from prying eyes, hadn't let go of either of them and instead pulled Badger down on to him to the point that Badger felt like he might be crushing him. Johnny didn't complain.

It was a long ride and Simon kept shaking them awake keeping them from falling asleep so soon after being concussed. The medic had insisted on at least two hours of them staying awake and monitored before they could simply go to sleep. Badger understood the reason but lamented the ability to sleep as soon as they hit the hotel room.

Johnny mindlessly filled the silence with conversation on nearly anything but he did seem to be avoiding speaking about the mission and he didn't ask Badger what had happened on overwatch that they nearly had to pull out. Instead though he did take to running a gentle but firm hand over the arm that he had trapped in his grasp. Badger hummed and nodded along to what Johnny was saying but he mostly paid attention to the passing city, he was counting cars and noting landmarks that they drove past. Johnny grumbled something at Simon when he started to fall off from speaking, and he twisted about in his position in the middle to nearly lay in both of their laps before he continued speaking. He had put his legs across Badgers lap and had pulled the arm he trapped previously to his chest playing with his fingers rather than his arm, he put his head down on Simon's lap and looked up at him as he spoke, Badger was a little surprised to see a gloved hand come to settle on Johnny's collar.

It was another short while before they came to a rolling stop in front of a nice looking hotel that stretched high, the driver brought them to a side door instead of the front entrance and slipped them hotel room keys and explained that Laswell had set them up and for them to have a goodnight.

They each had been handed a key with instructions to the way up to the rooms and the reassurances that the building was safe and secure. The additional Sentries and assurances that no one else was permitted on their floor had Badgers shoulders relaxing a tad. It would be nice to get some actual rest and not have to worry about watching his or the others backs for one night.

He was listening to the Handler intently as he spoke to them but caught that Simon had leaned down to whisper into Johnny's ear while looking almost anxious over to him as they spoke. Badger chose to ignore that for right now.

Once the Handler dismissed them Simon took the lead to the floor that contained their rooms, Badger focused on the three doors that were close to each other but painfully separate. He knew logically that they should have their own rooms, that it not only would be necessary when whatever resources Laswell at her disposal clearly wasn't limited, it would be improper for the three of them to share a room without it being necessary. Separate. It had to be fine.

He was focused on trying to ignore his feelings of anxiety that he missed the look the Simon and Johnny shared before they offered pleasantries before stepping into their own rooms.

Badger's room was quaint, neat and tidy, specifically unlived in. He felt out of place, the niceties of the room were a source of anxiety rather than comfort. He could feel the grime of the day and mission as thin film over himself, he could only imagine staining anything that he touched in here. There was a duffle bag set on the end of the bed closest to the door. He carefully lifted it from the bed and dumped the contents of it on the overly lit counter of the restroom.

It was simple enough, several changes of clothes, a small first aid kit and a fresh pack of cigarettes. He hummed with approval plucking the pack from the collection of clean clothes and stepped from the restroom to pull the balcony door open.

It was a small balcony, almost small enough to not deserve the name, it barely seemed to fit him, especially with the tacky lone bar chair propped to overlook the ledge and built-in counter. It took him a moment to get situated but eventually he fit himself in the corner without the chair and instead leaned against the wall with one of the disposable paper cups as an ashtray. He was halfway through a cigarette and staring blankly at the stucco walls that made the balcony private when timid knocks on the door reached him.

He turned slowly to face the door in full and took the cigarette away from his lips waiting to see if the knocking would continue. It did, of course. Badger put out the cigarette in the makeshift ashtray and walked to the door, checking in the peep hole to see that it was Johnny with hair damp and fresh clothes knocking at the door.

Badger froze for the moment and checked the time, it had been almost an hour since they've arrived here, almost an hour of him not cleaned up, sitting in the dark and zoning out staring at a wall, while Johnny at least had the common sense to clean up and he could only imagine that Simon had too.

“Badger?” Johnny called through the door to him, he was staring again and hadn't opened the door. “Badger I know you're standing at the door, open up” It was lighthearted but he could hear the concern lacing his voice. He took a breath and passed his hands over his front trying to look a little neat, he was still in his vest. Fuck. Johnny called out for him louder this time, and the door handle shook a little with his effort. He was bringing too much attention. He opened the door suddenly, Johnny's hand raised to knock on it and he looked startled suddenly looking back at him instead of the door.

Badger looked down at Johnny, he should say something, put him at ease. Instead he stared frozen like a statue blocking the entrance into the still dark hotel room staring down at Johnny who seemed equally stuck.

“What's wrong Badge?” His voice was whispered, and he turned away from Badger to look down the halls at the sentries provided by Laswell's people. Badger shook his head trying to coalesce any thought instead of the fog that seemed to have settled in his mind since stepping into the too neat, too clean, too nice hotel room.

“Nothings wrong Johnny, why are you here?” Badger was surprised at how steady his voice had sounded, Johnny turned back to him his face was pinched with his own thoughts, his brow furrowed and his eyes seemed to bore into his own.

“Why are you still in your vest?” Johnny's hand came up to pull on one of the straps on the front of the vest, He pushed Badger into the room and he followed. He paused looking around the room, and his eyes settled on the counter that was the only source of light in the room right now. “Are you okay?” Johnny questioned as he went over to the counter that Badger had dumped the duffle bag on, he noticed that Johnny had his own that was settled at the door just out of sight. Badger stayed silent watching him as he was neatly putting everything back in his duffle before handing it to him.

“We’re going to Simon” Johnny smoothed his hands over Badger's arm before leading him towards his own door before collecting his own bag and leading them to Simon's door. Johnny didn't have to knock, Simon had opened the door right as they were reaching it. Badger looked down the hall before stepping in. Both the sentries in sight were staring pointedly in different directions or out windows, specifically not in their directions. Johnny pulled on his vest again to lead him in the room.

Simon stepped back to the table that was pushed against the wall where he meticulously disassembled all of his gear and had the contents of his duffle bag set out neatly for inspection. It was clear that he had been going over it before they interrupted. Except they hadn't. Simon seemed to have known they would be standing there. Badger chose to ignore that too.

Badger's eyes settled on Simon taking him in noting the significant lack of gear hadn't taken too much away from his bulk. He was wearing very similar lounge wear to Johnny and Badger presumed that he too had a set tucked away in the duffle. Although unlike Johnny who was wearing a tight short sleeve with his sweats Badger could see the looser collar of a long sleeve under the wider collar of the hoodie that had ‘Lt. Reily’ stitched into the breast.

Simon caught Badger's eye looking him over before he flicked his eyes over to Johnny then back to him.

“There's hot water” Simon announced to them, he was focused intently on Badger, but Badger simply felt foggy again. Like he wasn't there. He wanted to be there. Instead he hummed in acknowledgment and stood dumbly watching them stare at him. Simon and Johnny shared another look before Simon took a step towards him removing the bag from his hands, his fingers were warm against his. He wasn't wearing gloves. Badger took another moment to look Simon over.

He wasn't wearing gloves obviously, but he also was wearing a balaclava cut similar to what they all had worn in Mexico though he was missing the eye black. He had pretty blond lashes. He was speaking at him.

“Badge why don't you follow Johnny, yeah?” Simon urged as he set the bag down on the desk beside his own and he too started to root about the bag. Badger was distracted from his staring when Johnny's warm grasp pulled him towards the restroom.

This restroom had slightly better lights, less overwhelmingly bright and more warm lighting. Johnny was speaking to him lowly but he was having a hard time following along, though he was sharply pulled back to the conversation as Johnny worked on pulling his vest off. Badger had flashed out to grab at Johnny's wrist, he tried to keep his grasp from being bruising especially when he watched Johnny flinch in surprise.

“I got it.” It came out more as a broken grunt than anything else, but he tried to smile down at Johnny to reassure that he wasn’t mad. He just had to be the one. He needed then control, otherwise it would feel like it was being torn from him again leaving him open for attacks. He was safe here. He took a deep breath.

“Okay,” Johnny nodded back to him and stepped to the shower, turning it on and placing his hand in the water stream testing the temperature before turning back to Badger, who'd now managed to peel off most of his gear and harnesses trying and failing at putting them down in a neat manner. Johnny simply took them from him, and pressed his shoulder into his arm for a moment, just trying to be close. “I'll have Simon work on these while you're in the shower” And he stepped out leaving Badger alone. He didn't want to be alone.

He frowned momentarily watching as the door clicked shut after Johnny stepped out, and he turned back towards the now fogging mirror barely catching a glimpse of his own face. He looked rugged, dirty and exhausted. His forehead was patched up with actual stitches this time and his nose was taped again. He tore his gaze away and focused on undressing trying his best to ignore the multitude of angry red and deep purple bruises covering most of his body, especially trying to glance over the largest that centered on where his plate had stopped the close range shot from the AQ Solider that pulled one on him.

The shower was scalding and he took care to keep his face directly out of the shower at Simon's reminder tossed from the other side of the door. He scrubbed vigorously at his skin to the point that is was raw, stinging under the heat of the water and he was rougher than he needed to be washing his hair scratching at his scalp feeling the film of grime that seemed to have collected all over his body leasing its grip on him to slip into the drain.

The water turned cold. And he snatched the handle to stop the water. He could hear his breathing picking up slightly and tore at the shower curtain to escape the claustrophobic walls of the cold tile.

The warm air of the steam greeted him when the curtain was thrown open. His breathing calmed again.

A towel had been set out for him on the toilet seat and there was a change of clothes on the counter. He made quick work of drying himself and dressing, thankful to whoever Laswell had packed the bags that the clothes had been a bit loose on him.

He stepped from the restroom and glanced Simon and Johnny out on the balcony chatting, they were overlooking the city line joking with each other quietly.

He moved to join them but caught himself in a mirror that was on a closet door. Or rather more specifically he caught the stitching on the sweater he had previously put on carelessly. The neat little stitching of “Lt. Riley” not his name. He looked out to the balcony again to where Simon, in just the long sleeved undershirt, turned ever so slightly from where he was speaking to Johnny to watch him. He nodded his head in a silent invite to join them on the patio. Simon's balcony was significantly bigger than the one in his own room, but it was similarly blocked in by stucco walls although it lacked the tacky built-in counter and lone chair. Instead it boasted two monotoned modern deck chairs with an equally too nice table between them. It was a quiet little sitting area.

Badger settled himself into one of the chairs on the balcony, Simon and Johnny who had been standing at the ledge looked over to him before Simon offered Badgers own pack of cigarettes to him. Badger made a face of false annoyance before reaching out to take one out of the pack.

“Do you have a light?” Badger raised the cigarette to his lips and looked over at them expectantly, both of them had their own lit cigarettes hanging from their lips. Simon's mouth curled up in a smirk before nodding down at Johnny. A devious look slid onto his face as he pushed off from where he was leaning on the ledge to waltz over into Badgers space.

He stopped right in front of him, settled in between Badger's knees from where he previously was settled rather comfortably in his deck chair. Now he was tense at having him stand between his knees and was looking up at Johnny confused, he started to sit up a bit straighter pulling back from the situation. Johnny's hand on his shoulder stopped him and he leaned down towards him.

“Johnny don't tease the poor bastard that much.” Simon's voice was teasing as he watched from the wall, taking a deep drag and flicking the ash over the wall. “Give him a light first at least”

Badger was sent back to the last time Johnny had pushed this close to him on the rooftop of the Mexican special forces base only a few days ago. It felt like a lifetime.

Johnny was humming to pull his attention back from the memory, he could feel his face heat under his gaze. Johnny was looking at him asking for permission, that much was clear. Badger nodded at him and leaned in a bit closer to touch his smoke to Johnny's. But instead he was pushed back into his seat and a comfortable weight settled on his lap, then his cigarette was lit and he felt like he was sputtering and his face felt ablaze.

Johnny looked proud as he settled in Badgers lap, pulling his hand to help support his spot and keep him steady. Johnny's own hands slipped around Badger's waist as he leaned forwards to rest his head on Badger's shoulder, looking over towards Simon, who looked rather pleased as he moved to stand behind the chair that Badger was now trapped on.

“You're not very subtle” Simon complained as he settled his hand on Badger's opposite shoulder, the other pulling on Badger's chin lifting it so that their eyes made contact. He had slid his mask up further onto his face, showing off a wolfish grin that was complimented by a scar crossing over his lips.

Johnny laughed, pulling back and taking a drag of his cigarette, blowing the smoke into Badger's face, the same devious smile gracing his lips as he did so.

“I'm not trying to be. You've seen how daft he can be.” Johnny leaned towards Simon as he spoke, before turning back to Badger taking another drag before he continued to speak. “You've seen how he stares, plus I think he could use a bit of a distraction”

Badgers took a nervous drag of his smoke, eyes darting between the two men as Johnny leaned closer and closer as he spoke. He could feel his hands that held his waist caressing as he spoke. He was glad for the reassurance.

Badger just barely caught Johnny's glace flickering upwards to Simon before he watched him take a final drag of his cigarette before suddenly warm and only just barely chapped lips locked with his. He hummed into the kiss as the taste of tobacco and something specifically Johnny reached him, he could feel Simon's hand that he had forgotten on his jaw petting at him lightly.

Johnny pulled back only when Simon's fingers carded through his hair and tugged him back slightly, the sound he made was absolutely sinful. Badger tightened his grip on him, sliding his hands from his waist to his hips and thigh.

“You're hoggin” Simon chastised, his hand sliding down from his hair to run his thumb over Johnny’s lip, tugging it lightly. Simon's other hand that had been cradling Badger's jaw pulled him further from Johnny, tipping his chin upwards so that it was easier for Simon to catch his lips in a heated kiss.

He was nipping at Badger's lips and when he let out a soft gasp Simon licked into his mouth, he could taste the smoke lingering from before and quickly became distracted chasing it.

Simon's hand wandered from Johnny and onto Badger's chest, wandering gently before Johnny had caught his hand and slipped it under the collar of his sweater to press it to where he could feel Badger's thunderous heartbeat. A coy laugh escaped from Johnny as he watched Simon step closer pulling them both to him slightly in possession.

Another gasp escaped Badger as Johnny was squirming on his lap, his eyes pleading for attention again from either of them. Simon nipped at his lip a final time being careful of Badger's split lip before he leaned forwards pulling Johnny to meet him.

His hand slid up from his heart to settle back loosely on his throat and was caressing while his other was tugging into Johnny's hair yet again. Johnny lurched forwards to try to get closer to Simon. Badger quickly clung to him pulling him further onto his lap to keep him from falling and simply to keep him still, his constant squirming was going to cause a problem he certainly didn't have the energy for in that moment.

Badger watched them as they kissed, bouts of rough clicking of teeth to soothing laves of tongue over harsh bites. Entranced.

He's not certain how long they all had been trading kisses and soft touches but Badger was simply having a hard time just keeping his eyes open, and Johnny was slouching tiredly into both of them.

“I think it's time for some real rest” Simon was tugging at a lazily protesting Johnny from Badger. He was complaining of the cold and that he was comfortable and wanted to stay put. Badger was surprised when Simon simply lifted Johnny up and deposited him on the large bed that the hotel suite boasted.

Badger watched them from his spot on the balcony chair as he pulled on the sweater he was wearing trying to keep some of the warmth that Johnny had provided. He felt a lazy smile tugging on his lips as he watched Johnny try to pull Simon down in the bed dramatically only to be foiled when Simon shoved one of the numerous pillows in his face instead as he told him to wait.

Simon made his way back to Badger, his mask tugged back down over what was definitely bruised lips but little chilled puffs of breath escaped him as he stepped back to Badger.

He stood between his knees just like Johnny had before he sat down on him, Badger chuckled before meeting Simon's eyes.

“I don't know if I can hold you right now if you sit on me” it came out in a joking laugh, as he reached out to grasp at one of Simon's hands that seemed frozen at his side, Simon was staring at his chest. He looked down to where Simon was staring at the ‘Lt. Riley” stitched into the sweater. Badger felt his lazy smile falter a moment.

“I'll give it ba-”

“I think you should keep it.” Simon interrupted him and he could just barely see the rosiness of a blush reach the bridge of his nose.

“Alright” Badger whispered, running his thumb over his knuckles. Simon flipped the grip and started to pull him up and once Badger was standing he was tugged into a tight hug and he felt cold hands slip under the hem of the sweater to rest on his lower back and a face press into the top of his head. They stood like that for a while.

“Oi! It's baltic here alone, come ere’” Johnny protested from his spot in the bed, the look he tossed them looking down right threatening if they took too long. Badger hummed as Simon chuckled and led him inside and shutting the sliding door of the balcony and closing the curtains. He pushed Badger towards the bed before he disappeared into the restroom with a promise of only being a few moments.

Johnny didn't give Badger a moment to hesitate getting into the bed and instead pulled him down under the covers before clicking the lamp off and curling into him. The only light left in the room came from what filtered in under the restroom door. Johnny settled himself on Badger's chest, he tucked his face into the crook of his neck and his hand settled on his jaw caressing. Badger grunted in surprise at how fast Johnny had made himself comfortable but took in stride to hold him close.

“I'm glad you're safe” Johnny spoke into his neck and his thumb swiped over the split on his lip gently. His voice sounded watery, and Badger pulled him closer and hoped he would take comfort in the rumbling of his chest as he spoke.

“I'm glad you're safe too, that we all are.” He turned his head so that he could press his lips into Johnny's hair and he ran his hand down his back. He could feel Johnny fall asleep, slowly relaxing into him more and his breath evening, Badger was feeling the pull of sleep too until he felt the bed dip next to him.

He tried to sit up a little disoriented and sluggish until a gentle hand pushed him back down.

“Shhh, Badge, go back to sleep.” Simon's voice was soothing and Badger nodded in the dark, it was hard to see anything in the room. He felt lips brush the top of his head and the movement to his side settled, Johnny had mumbled in his sleep, adjusting himself so that he was also pressed into Simon. A hand settled on Badger's hip and tugged him a bit closer.

“You'll stay?” Simon's hand tightened on Badger's hip as the hesitant question escaped him. And for once Badger didn't have to think, there was no reason to.

“Of course” and it was Badgers turn to pull them both close.

Thirdly ( i lied sorry) I would love to write anything for yall, send me ideas or comment directly on this post and ill see what i can do <3 thank yall so much for the support yall have offered this whole time!

First End Last Masterlist AO3

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@lieutenantlashfaz

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the-pan-ace-writings · 2 years ago

Text

Ghost Team

Hey howdy hey! Im back

First Next Last Masterlist AO3

Badger was groggy, the adrenaline that had kept him standing through the prison break had slipped from him in the drive to Alejandro's smaller safe house compound with Los Vaqueros. His whole body ached and his throat felt like he swallowed rocks, he wasn't certain that he would be able to speak if the desire had been there.

During the drive to the compound Price with the remote help from Laswell explained the Shadow's botched transport mission and the subsequent cover up. It was a right mess that Badger was upset that they had been pulled into. But he understood. He tried his best to keep up with the report and debrief of the situation but he kept slipping deeper into the dark than he meant to, and he knew he flinched himself awake at least once because he remembers the tight grip that lingered on his arm.

When the van rumbled to a stop and they poured out from the back, Price stepped out last and looked over his team. Badger had clearly taken the worst of it when they had been separated but the others weren't unmarred. Johnny was battered and had a bandage wrapped tightly on his bicep, it looked like it was starting to bleed through but was surprisingly neatly done. Ghost, not unsurprisingly, was mostly untouched, but his gear was slightly askew and the significant lack of knives was a tell-tale sign of physical combat and if one paid extra close attention, not that Badger was, he was ever so slightly favoring his left leg when he walked. They all looked exhausted. Price frowned at them, worry evident on his face.

“Clean up and get some rest, when the sun's up we’ve got a call to make” He waved a hand at them before turning back to Gaz who had just slipped from the van, pulling him along in conversation leaving them alone.

Badger felt like he was taking too much effort just to stay in one place and not wobble, he had no idea where they were supposed to go, it was a larger compound and it was poorly lit in the early hours of the morning. He looked up lamely to Ghost and Johnny, Johnny looked similarly unfocused and Ghost was just staring at the two of them before he made a grunting sound turning away from them too. Johnny had started to protest at being left behind before Ghost turned back to them expectantly. They clearly were meant to follow.

Ghost led them to what thankfully seemed to be a small private quarter, and Badger was simply thankful to be separate from the mass of Los Vaqueros that were reconnecting in the more open parts of the building. There also was a small restroom, it was simple and worn down, the mirror was tarnished giving it a cloudy look and was chipped in the corners, the sink had a wide basin but was stained and similarly cracked, a tub with a showerhead also graced the restroom and was relatively intact as well.

The room itself was also simple, it had two twin beds that were made in the same manner one would find in a barracks inspection, a small foot locker was at the end of the beds and a desk was pushed up against the wall underneath the only window the room boasted. The blinds were drawn. Ghost had pulled the curtain tight when he had entered, dumping his gear on the desk and set to work in relative silence, Johnny too was peeling off his gear adding his to the pile on the desk. Badger looked over himself and his distinct lack of gear and he felt a shiver run through him again, he locked himself in the restroom before they had finished, before they had a moment to look him over too.

A sound of frustration slipped from Badger as he stood in the small restroom, he stared into the tarnished mirror little bubbles and chips in the glass doing nothing to keep his eyes from tearing at his broken face. His nose was even more crooked than before, and he had a trail of blood that had dried leaking from his nose, it had caught on his lips making the split look like it had poured blood. He stretched his lips tight against his teeth, a small hiss of pain came from him as the split reopened and blood bubbled back to the surface.

He tilted his head to look better at his forehead, that of which was also split open and had leaked blood down this temple, he looked disgusting. A bloody mess and he felt sore and cold, like ice replaced his bones. His hands trembled as they settled back down onto the counter of the sink, he took a deep breath in and held it listening to what was going on out in the bedroom.

He could faintly hear Johnny rambling on and bickering with Ghost, who just responded in turn, he could hear gear being cleaned and the clicking of a weapon being dismantled.

He took another deep breath. He looked back down at his hands again, his fingernails dark with dirt and blood, his knuckles had been split as well though he doesn't remember how they came to be that way. He avoided looking at himself in the mirror, he didn't want to see himself as broken as he felt. He felt small, and he felt damaged.

He can’t. They had a mission to do, he couldn't be broken. Broken tools were set aside, left behind.

Another breath. He stepped away from the sink and towards the shower. Clean, he wanted to be clean. He turned the water on and hoped that he could get it relatively warm. Anything that wasn't the ice cold of the basin. That wasn't the case.

He stood dumbly before the shower still in the ruined clothes from the day, He could feel the tiny pinpricks of ice cold water splashing back from the tile and onto his skin. The ice of his bones felt ever colder and he turned the shower off. He couldn't face the cold again. He watched the water drip from the tile into the drain, he could feel bile bubbling up and he swallowed hard.

“fuck” he whispered. He was broken. He took a shuddered breath, and he could feel himself unraveling by the second. He swallowed and tried to steel his face, he just wanted to go back into the bedroom and sleep, he wanted to pretend that this hasn't happened, he wanted to just get back to simple missions with clear paths of actions. His body felt heavy with exhaustion. He opened the door.

One of the two beds in the room was strewn with parts from a rifle that Johnny was cleaning, he was perched on the foot locker. Ghost was still at the desk organizing and cleaning some of the gear. They both stopped what they were doing and looked back at Badger. Badger who was standing in the doorway of the restroom, still dressed in ruined clothes, nearly as bloody as when they saved him from the depths of the prison and definitely as distraught as then.

“oh…Badge?” Johnny set down the item he was working on and sat up straighter when he spoke to him. Badger just shook his head. He didn't know why he opened the door, he should have just stayed in there, let them fall asleep, rest in the few hours they had until they had to continue. Johnny turned distraught to look over at Ghost when Badger didn’t speak, Ghost was staring at him, eyes felt like they were boring into him, he felt himself try to deflate at the stare, he nearly took a half step back into the restroom. In the restroom the only eyes he had to feel would be his own in the clouded mirror.

“Come on Badger,” Ghost was stepping away from the desk and towards Badger “let's get you cleaned up, yeah?”

They all crowded into the small restroom, Ghost sat Badger on the lip of the tub and Ghost perched himself on the lid of the toilet, his hands lightly gripping Badger's face to inspect him, their legs threaded between each other so that Ghost could sit closer. Johnny was sitting on the floor, his back pressed against the tub and he had first aid supplies pulled from the sink cabinet strewn in front of him, he was taking the time to organize it. They sat in silence.

“Your nose is broken” Ghost stated simply before turning to look down at Johnny, who handed him a damp rag. Badger just nodded, he knew that. He brought the rag to his face and was gentle in cleaning his face, Johnny kept replacing the rag that he was using. Badger kept dodging their eyes but he could feel Johnny staring at him while Ghost worked, especially his hands that currently had a death grip on the tub.

Ghost tossed the latest rag into the sink behind him before he started to tape his nose, it wasn't much especially since it couldn’t interfere with his vision for what was to be upcoming, but the simple pressure and stability of the tape was a relief. Badger was staring blankly at a spot on the wall behind Ghost. Johnny's staring was making him anxious, he wasn't used to him being so silent.

He startled slightly when cold fingers touched the split at his lip, the bitter taste of an antiseptic gel made him grimace slightly and his eyes came back to focus on Ghost, his eyes seemed softer than usual and faintly held worry. Badger swallowed nervously before flicking his eyes back down to Johnny then back to the spot on the wall.

Fingers went to his forehead last, it had gotten a bit better from when it first was split, but of course Graves managed to make a mess of that as well. Badger let his eyes slip closed as Ghost worked.

Johnny pulled his hands from the grip on the tub and instead into his, Badger looked down at him and quickly flushed at the little smile that Johnny had shared with him. Johnny moved closer, he was leaning on Ghost's legs, he almost looked like he was lounging, as if the cold tile of the room wasn't bothering him. Maybe it wasn't, his hands felt warm compared to the ice of Badgers.

He ran a damp rag over his knuckles coming away red, he was gentle they both were being gentle and he was starting to notice the frequent breaks they took when touching him, and he was grateful. Slowly they replaced the memories of cold and ripping hands with their light touches and soft reassurances.

Johnny folded Badgers hands onto his own lap, he pulled away carefully and started to clean up placing the first aid kit back under the sink, Ghost also stood from his spot across from Badger as disappeared into the bedroom, returning after the sounds of rummaging through the footlockers ceased and he had handful of clean clothes, pushing them into Badgers hands.

“Here.”

Alone in the restroom again he looked down at the clothes in his hands, they were simple enough and clean and that’s all that mattered to him in the movement.

When he emerged from the restroom dressed and hair fixed to be more neat than what it had been he stood dumbly looking over the room. Ghost was gone but had clearly claimed one of the two beds in the room, his gear and knives set out against the still made sheets. He looked over to the other bed that Johnny sat at the foot of, his weapon still dismantled and being cleaned set across the footlocker.

“You look a lot better” he barely looked up from what he was doing, he sounded upset.

Badger hummed in response and sat down at the head of the bed, tucking himself into the corner watching Johnny work in silence on his weapon. His hands seemed to be trembling slightly as he worked pieces through a cleaning cloth and oil and he had his lip trapped between his teeth.

He was working in a more frantic manner the longer Badger watched him, he didn't know what to say, was he mad? No, it seemed more sad. It didn't matter because he tossed the pieces down in his lap and turned sharply towards Badger, his eyes were glassy, Badger froze.

“Johnny?” He nearly winced, his voice sounded so rough and it came out barely a whisper, he thought Johnny didn't hear him until he was suddenly outpouring of emotion.

“I'm sorry, I didn't want to leave you behind, were not suppose to leave people behind, we took so long to get back to you, I'm sorry, badger im sorry” it same out in a rush and it sounded like he was begging, he hand even leaded closer towards where Badger was staring back at him.

“Johnny its ok-”

“It's not okay! We were safe! Safe while you we subjected to graves,”

“Johnny stop” he ignored him,

“it's not right, Badger it's not right im sorry,”

“Soap” he was spiraling and he wasn't listening

“we shouldn't of even left, we should have followed, we shou-”

“Shut up!” Please just listen to me. “Johnny, you were shot, and outnumbered. There wasn't anything you could have done.” It was easier to be logical with Johnny's breaking than his own, breaking wasn't the right word for it, Johnny didn't break.

He stared at him, Badger didn't like how his face was twisted in despair, that he was shaking, he seemed like he might fall apart. Johnny was gripping his arm awfully close to where he was shot, and he shook his head before looking down at his lap.

“Come here,” he had shuffled a bit closer to the wall so that Johnny could sit next to him but instead he got the full weight of Johnny settled between his legs and pressing into his chest. His mind blanked for a moment before he wrapped Johnny in his arms, not that he seems to notice the hesitation. “It's not your fault, we had no idea what was going to happen. And it's not your fault I rushed Graves and was caught.” he tightened his grip on Johnny and leaned back into the wall.

“What happened to you guys anyway?” Badger felt Johnny take a sharp inhale before slowly letting it out, he didn't lean back to look at him when he spoke and instead kept his face tucked into Badger.

“Graves had started shooting and I was shot when everything started, you were already on the ground, you looked so bloody, your eyes were barely ope- I don't think you could see anything, Graves was stepping on you and I swear it sounded like a death rattle from you, i tried to stay, to help but Ghost kept shouting for me to leave, that it wasn't safe and that I had to go. I think he shoved me. I went over the road and down a hill. I don't know where Ghost had gotten off too, if he was alive, if you were alive.” Badger felt him shudder, “I couldn't get him on the radio for a while, I thought I was alone out there. I was for a while I guess. Ghost helped me through the City when I finally got him on comms, he made it to a church I guess and took to overwatch.” He paused and settled farther into his arms, Badger could feel his face flushing and he avoided looking down at Johnny settled safely in his arms, Johnny who looked like he felt safe, looked comfortable with his face resting on Badger's collarbone, his hair a whisper on his chin.

“I can't really remember a lot of after I met back with Ghost, I remember us pulling off the road for him to bandage up my arm, and us getting to a safehouse. Not this one. Rudy was there. Ghost fixed me up better there and he insisted that I rest, I don't know for how long but we made the plan to reuse Alejandro and you, and well you know the rest.”

Badger felt his hiccupping breath start up again and he was starting to mutter about leaving him behind again, Badger nearly crushed him pulling him closer.

“It's okay, you're not alone.” He spoke into the crown of his head, and he slowly felt Johnny's grip on his arm soften, Badger rocked slightly and tried to distract Johnny from his own thoughts, it seemed to work as eventually he felt his breath even out and him go slack in his arms, soon Badger followed into the inky dreamless dark.

Badger woke to the sound of clicking in the room, the lights had been turned off from when they were forgotten by Johnny and Badger earlier, but the window that had been dark was faintly filtering in the early morning sun. Ghost had taken up Johnny's previous spot at the end of the bed and was finishing the cleaning and reassembly of Johnny's weapon. He was missing the hard shell of his mask from previous and instead was in just the balaclava, and he was lacking the usual eye black that he typically wore. Badger could hear the faint dripping of the shower in the restroom.

Without the hardshell mask and the eyeback Badger could see the touches of his past, there was a deep scar that cut up from his right eyebrow disappearing into the balaclava, just under the same eye was the tail end of another scar that seemed to be sunken into the skin that too disappeared under the balaclava and at the bridge of his nose he had a jagged scar that still had touches of pink on it from healing.

Honey brown eyes met his own and he wasn't awake enough to look sheepish for being caught holding Johnny let alone staring at Ghost. But he didn't seem upset, rather he seemed content. When he finished with Johnny's weapon he set it down lightly against the bed and turned to lean on the wall and look back at Badger.

“I'm glad you're back” it was simple, and honeyed. He looked almost at peace, if only for this moment in the little sanctuary that was private quarters. Badger nodded back to him and he felt the beginnings of a smile on his lips. “We have to be up in 30,” He looked down to Johnny who managed to completely tangle himself in Badger while they slept, Badger could have sworn he saw Ghosts eyes crinkle in a smile before he stood up. He made a show of placing a new pack of cigarettes and a lighter down on the desk next to a tac vest that hadn't been there previously before slipping into the restroom again.

Badger looked down at the sleeping man in his arms, his eyes tracing resting features, none of the previous despair marring his face, his hair was a little messy and Badger could faintly see the impression of lines on his face from his shirt. With reluctance he shook him lightly, running his hand across his back trying to rouse him gently, not wanting to startle him into consciousness. Johnny mumbled slightly and pressed his face further into Badger, his breathing slipping back into sleep.

“Johnny,” he was a little firmer with his hand shaking him slightly again, a louder protest came from him. A low chuckle came from the restroom and Ghost peaked his head around the corner, eye black present under his balaclava.

“He doesn't get up if you're being nice about it.” He spoke like he had experience and looked at Badger expectantly. The corners of Badger's mouth turned down slightly before looking back down at Johnny, he wanted to be nice about it, clearly Johnny was having a rough go of it too. “Badge, I didn't mean be a monster about it, just be more firm and quit worryin,” He flushed this time, he didn't like being caught worrying and especially by Ghost.

“Johnny, it's time to get up” Badger started to sit up more from his half slouched position with Johnny in his lap, this time Johnny did wake fully and turn a dirty look upon him. “Quit yer fussin,” Badger sat them all the way now that Johnny wasn't leaning into him completely, he looked dog tired still and he yawned as he stood up to get ready.

They all hasten to get ready and soon they left the little sanctuary of the private quarters, the further they walked away from the room and closer to where they were to meet Price Badger could feel each other falling back into their rolls. Ghost was stern, and kept his distance, Johnny more awake now stayed in the middle of them and seemed to light up at the opportunity to strike back at Graves and the Shadows. Badger tried to look like he was put back together, he smoothed his face and stood with false confidence, he was to be stone again, quiet, dependable, not broken.

“You hid this-” they stood in a dark room, or rather a shed just outside of the main building of the safehouse, light filtered in from a covered window behind where Captain Price was sitting, he was ‘conversating’ with General Shepherd. “Why?” Price spoke with barely contained anger.

“We all keep secrets, Captain”

“Why the hell wasn't I informed?” his voice dropped to a deadly whisper, Badger was glad that he wasn't on the other side of the computer.

“Consider yourself well informed now, John” Apparently General Shepherd wasn’t that concerned about being on his side of the computer after all, he spoke with lazy confidence similar to Graves.

“Oh, that's really fuckin’ helpful, General, thank you” Price leaned forwards closer to the screen to better glare at Shepherd. “But you're a day late and a missile short, there's three of them- we only found two”

“Then point yourself in that direction and fix it” Shepherd was speaking as if they were children asking obvious questions, Badger gritted his teeth and watched as the others shifted in annoyance.

“And who fixes you, eh?”

“I don't need fixing” he was taken aback “I'm a patriot protecting my country”

Price huffed and got out of his seat, he was starting to pace, clearly annoyed with Shepherd he didn't turn back to the computer as he spoke. “You're protecting your own ass”

“I do what needs to be done and no one holds me down with a roll of red tape” Price was shaking his head and turned back to the computer, “I know what's best for the cause”

Price had a humorless smile across his face and a dry chuckle escaped him as he leaded back towards Shepherd

“You’ve lost your mind, General”

“And you’ve forgotten what you’re fighting for, John. To do good you gotta do some bad” His voice was rising as he spoke until he was shouting “when we shit we bury it, that's how it works.”

“Yeah” it was simple, and detached, Price was staring down the screen “we don't bury each other with it, do we?”

“You need to turn off that side o’ your head and face down the real enemy”

Price seemed moments from raging, he pulled the chair back from the table and stood in its place, his hand came down hard on the table as he leaned down to speak.

“You need to call off your Shadow.”

“Graves?”

“Yeah .”

Shepherd laughed “He's a dog with a bone, and I highly recommend you don't try and take it”

“This is your last chance to change your mind”

“Then what?”

“Then after I go for him…” he leaned ever closer to the camera, anger radiating from him “I'm coming for you.” He slammed the computer shut and looked back at them standing around the table, and nodded.

It seemed to be a que for Alejandro, a devious smile tore across his face as he stepped back from the table and led them to the main room of the safehouse though the quickly gathering Los Vaqueros trailing behind them.

“Hey- Vaqueros, pay attention.” Alejandro waved them over to another large table that Rudy was already standing at, Price took up the head of the table with Alejandro on his left, Ghost took his right, Badger and Johnny stood across from them next to Gaz, the Vaqueros officers filled in where they could.

“Alright, listen” Price's voice projected to fill the room, “we are taking back your HQ. we are getting our prisoner. We are killing Commander Graves”

“When?” Rudy looked eager as he spoke looking around the room.

“Now.” Ghost answered

“This is a fight against our own,” Price was speaking with his hands emphasizing each point “we are not 141 and Los Vaqueros on this, were a team” Ghost dumped a bag of masks onto the table, “Ghost team”

Ghost set the bag that had contained the masks down on the ground and he pulled his own mask off. Badger was surprised, and he felt Johnny shift next to him, He knew they were both staring. Staring at a conventionally handsome face with a strong nose, short cropped and the most lovely shade of honey blonde hair, he had eye black going over the tops of his cheeks and just above his eyebrow. Badger was most surprised by the neat beard he sported. He was right about the scars he saw in the restroom. He had a long scar that went from his chin, through his lip and stopping just at his eye, it was sunken slightly and pulled the corner of his lip just slightly. He was stunning.

“Good to see you again, Simon” Price was looking at Simon as he spoke, and a flash of jealousy struck through Badger. It was uncalled for, there was no reason that Price wouldn't have known his name being the Captain and all, but yet hearing Simon's name for the first time come from anyone other than his own lips stung. “If your in, take a mask… if not, don't”

As quick as Simon's face was there he pulled one of the masks from the table on to cover him again, they all did. It only took moments for all the masks to be cleared from the table in front of them, Los Vaqueros pushing forwards to join them and listen to Alejandro debrief them for this mission.

“My troops know the Fuerzas Especiales facility better than Shadows” He nodded as he spoke, “so we’ll have the advantage. Be advised, they'll be on high alert because of the prison break. We’ll infiltrate the base with two Ghost teams. Team one is Captain Price, Gaz, me and one pilot, Team two is Ghost. Soap, Badger and Rudy.”

Rudy had placed a few maps and blueprints down on the table as Alejandro was speaking and now he was pointing to sectors on them as he continued to explain the plan, they all focused on committing it to memory. “Team-1 will use the tunnels to get to the tarmac and commandeer a helo, the pilot will take the Captain up. Team-2, will stand by outside until Price fires on the entry gate and lets them in to fight their way to Graves.” His voice turned dark “I suspect he’ll be in my HQ defended by his best shooters. While Gaz and me locate and secure Valeria, Ghost team-2, will find Graves and kill him”

A small roar of excitement erupted from Los Vaqueros, Alejandro looked over the room with confidence before joining in the roar.

The mission was set, now to follow through.

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