#wait...am i writing chuckerboose now?...

[bearbait-adventures]

(Alright you asked for it...not really but here it is...and it sort of got away from me so...here you go...)

The reds and blues never seemed to stay in one place very long. They almost never had the proper facilities for much, always just making due with whatever they had at the time. Mirrors weren’t very common especially with Simmons, as he had a tendency to break mirrors. Caboose didn’t like mirrors either...they reminded him of why he needed his helmet. Most of the time he didn’t need to worry about mirrors. Tucker, Grif and Washington always made it a point to take them down mostly because of Simmons but also because of Caboose…

Caboose had a tendency to forget…as everyone knew. He didn't remember how he got the scars. But he knew they had something to do with Church. Church had saved him and it was forever burned into his face. A constant reminder that Church wasn't here anymore...not in any of his forms. He missed Church, he missed him so much...everyone knew that too.

Walking in on Caboose as he blankly stared into a mirror wasn’t a good start to a day...as far as Tucker could recall. He could see the red trail of tears that ran down from Mikey’s good eye. The other eye was in the burn trail left from when the AI had overloaded his neural implant sending electrical burns in random directions over his skin. The wounds had long healed but the scars they left were not pretty.

One burn branched from the implant across his ear and over one eye. That one made him hard of hearing in that ear which in turn had made Caboose louder as he couldn’t hear himself as well. It also damaged that eye clouding it over slightly, frying the tear ducts and optical nerves. Caboose had trouble seeing colors after that. Now if the others weren’t wearing there signature armor he sometimes couldn’t tell who they were. Another burn went across his throat over his chin and into the side of his mouth. That one had changed the way Caboose talked and all of it had changed Caboose. He wasn’t the same person he was when he first showed up as a rookie.

The project had taken something from all of them but Caboose really got the short end of the stick. Most of the time nobody really thought too hard about it, everyone was dealing with their own problems. Tucker though was now faced with an oddly silent, confused and devastatingly sad Michael. All because they had forgotten to take that damn mirror down… So Tucker did the only thing he could think of and copied what Washington or Church would have done. Tucker spread his arms out and attempted to brace himself for impact, offering Caboose a small sympathetic smile.

“Come here, dude.” Tucker said. He wasn’t gonna use “buddy” like Church or Wash did “dude” was his thing.

Caboose left the mirror quickly, taking the affection and comfort that was offered from the smaller man. And he cried. He cried hard unable to keep it all in after Tucker had allowed him to let it go. Tucker was the only other original blue team member still here with him after everything had gone down. Caboose was glad, he was thankful. As Caboose was making a mess of Tucker’s shirt, Washington walked in on the two of them. Concern written all over his face at the sight in front of him.

Tucker lifted one hand off of Caboose’s back and pointed at the mirror in the bathroom before making a cutting motion across his neck. Wash made a quiet “Oh” face and removed the mirror from the wall placing in next to the trash can to be disposed of later. After that, he joined Tucker in the effort of comforting Caboose rubbing circles over the big guys back and earning himself a spot in the now group hug Caboose dragged him into with one arm.

“Hey, I’m pretty sure I saw some ice cream in the freezer down stairs.” Washington spoke up trying to get Caboose’s mind elsewhere. Caboose sniffled and took a second to wipe his face with his sleeve.

“It’s not strawberry...right?” the big man asked obviously irritated by the very thought that it could be.

“No, no it's definitely NOT strawberry,” Washington assured with a slight chuckle.

“Okay...” Caboose allowed the change and let Tucker and Wash go after one more quick squeeze. Washington left shortly after taking the trash with him. Caboose waited for Tucker to change his shirt as he knew it was his fault it was now wet and kind of gross. As the two of them left the room to find Washington and his “feel good” ice cream, that was definitely NOT strawberry. Caboose turned to look at Tucker.

“Thank you, for still being my friend...” Caboose said quietly as they walked.

“Guess I’m just too stupid not to be,” Tucker joked with a teasing grin.

Caboose smiled his big smile again, “It’s okay. I like stupid Tucker the most.” Tucker punched him for it, but it was a good punch and Caboose felt a lot better.

To all my other Rvb fans I have an Angst idea.

(This has stuff to do with caboose brain damage and if it wad revealed how he got it lets ignore it for now)

So I headcannon caboose has alot of scars from however he got hos braindamage and caboose rarely takes off his helmet for whatever reason (he dose take it off for baths and showers but has never taken it off infront of a mirror though) But I can imagine a scenario where he takes off his helmet infront of a mirror and sees all the scars and gets really confused and scared and just crys until wash/tucker/ possibly sarge, find them and trys to comfort them.