June of fluffy Feverwhump 2026 - Day 4 Wisdom teeth
Something was wrong with Ghost or more accurately with the person hiding behind the mask - Simon Riley.
Sure, even if you only knew the little bits and pieces of the dark spectre´s past, which Soap had been collecting and trying to put together like a gigantic puzzle since the very first moment he´d met Ghost, asking what wasn´t wrong with Simon was a valid question.
But Soap didn´t talk about the way Ghost reacted to certain triggers, how he behaved differently to “normal” people. Because that was just who Ghost was and Soap knew exactly how much it hurt to be looked upon just because you were different. Too loud or too quiet, too energetic or too introvert… and no matter what you tried and how hard you tried to mask your “defects”, it never was enough…
But this wasn´t about Ghost´s autism, Soap´s ADHD or about the trauma both of them had accumulated not only through their jobs but also their pasts.
This was about Simon Riley acting weird – like really weird.
It had started a few days after an intel retrieval in Guyana, that Simon had started to close himself of even more than he typically did. He hadn´t joined the 141 for neither breakfast nor lunch or dinner, hadn´t shown up in the gym in the afternoon like he always did when not deployed, hadn´t joined them for the movie-night. On top of that he seemed to be very irritable, almost hostile, even to those he trusted most, and he was speaking even less than he normally did, the only responses Soap had been getting in the past few days being grunts and hums.
Someone unfamiliar with Simon would´ve suspected the man just needed some time for himself after two weeks in the hot South American jungle, but Soap knew better.
Sure, sometimes all of them just needed a break and some time alone, but due to his autism when on base Simon relied heavily on his daily routines to minimize his stress. Routines like having his meals at around roughly the same time at exactly the same table, only tolerating three persons (Kyle, Price and Johnny) in his close proximity when eating or going to the gym in the afternoon, always between four to six pm depending on when he managed to finish his other tasks.
Of course Simon was also able to go, to somewhat function without most of his routines, otherwise he wouldn´t have managed to make it to lieutenant after all – but every time it cost him heavily.
That was why Price supported Simon by scheduling his cores of the day in a manner that made it easy for him to keep up his routines, why Kyle often volunteered to do the tasks that would disrupt Simon´s routines and why Johnny had (totally unplanned) become an important part of many of Simon´s routines.
Because they accepted Simon the way he was, didn´t try to model him into something he wasn´t, embraced the whole of Simon Riley with all of his beautiful, ugly and difficult parts – let Simon be Simon just like they let Johnny be Johnny.
Here, between just Price, Kyle, Johnny and Simon, none of them needed to hide or mask anything, because they could be themselves.
Johnny could be as loud and fidgety as he wanted, Simon could have his routines and in the end those accommodations not only helped them work better and more efficient, they also resulted in a healthier and less stressful life for the two of them.
And therefore Johnny just knew something had to be very wrong with Simon for the other to just drop all of his routines like that.
And being the nosy little fucker that he was, Johnny had decided to find out whatever was bothering Simon so much and to take care of it.
“Lt, it´s me.”, he announced loud and clearly, knocking on his superior´s door.
With bated breath he listened for any sounds from inside, but there was nothing. No bed creaking lightly, no sound of a chair being moved, no footsteps. Nothing.
“Come on, ye big bastard. I ken ye´re in there.”, he knocked again, this time even louder. Was Simon ignoring him on purpose? Maybe. After all he knew for sure that Simon was in his room, he´d watched him go there after he´d… not stalked but… tailed? Did´t sound better but whatever. Simon was in his room. But he wasn´t opening the door.
“Ghost, I ken ye can hear me.”, his patience was wearing thin but with it came the worry he´d tried to keep in the back of his mind. What if Simon was so sick that he wasn´t able to answer the door? What if the dark spectre had once again hid an injury and was now laying in his bed feverish, delirious, dying!
“Ah hope ye´re decent.”, Johnny tried and failed miserably to sound as cheeky as he wanted to, “Because no matter wha´, Ah´m coming in.”
To his utter surprise the door sprang open with a quiet sound as he pressed down the handle – strange, Simon normally always locked it from the inside – and without further hesitation he entered.
A quick glance around the room told him that A) Ghost wasn´t here and B) Simon really had to be either hurt or sick for his usually so organized room showed unmistakable signs of disorder like the clothes on the floor or the papers strewn on the table, which Simon usually wouldn´t tolerate.
If later asked Johnny would deny how wildly his heart was beating in his throat by now, worry for the love of his life his best friend bordering on fear right now.
But years of service in the SAS had taught him how to keep himself together in even the worst of moments, so he let the logical part of his brain take over and it quickly came to one conclusion.
He had seen Simon enter this room and if he wasn´t here, there was only one possible solution where he could be. And that was the small bathroom connected to the Lt´s room.
Steeling his nerves for what he might find Johnny walked over to the bathroom door with hurried but measured steps and without knocking he quietly opened the door and peaked inside.
What he saw… let´s say it wasn´t what he´d been expecting. For instead of a half dead Lt laying on the floor and bleeding out from a mortal wound he´d managed to hide, he spotted Simon standing in front of the small mirror above the sink.
The man had taken his mask of, his blond hair sticking out in every direction in somewhat greasy strands, and he was… examining his face?
No, that wasn´t quite right. Although it might had looked just like he was admiring his scarred features in the mirror (something he wouldn´t do even if being held at gunpoint) Simon was carefully examining the left side of his jaw and it was obvious why.
Simon´s lower left jaw was reddened and the back part of it was heavily swollen, looking like someone had managed to get in a good hit.
Soap watched how Simon gently palpated the area, almost hissing in sympathy for the pain the other seemed to feel even at the lightest touch. He watched how Simon then carefully tried to open his mouth, the blonde stopping after just a few millimeters, the motion obviously causing him severe discomfort, and then leaned forward to gingerly spit…
“What the fuck!”, this time Johnny couldn´t silence himself as he watched a glob of blood and saliva hit the sink, his exclamation making Simon startle so badly Johnny would´ve almost gotten hit by the soap (ha ha, very funny), Simon reflexively threw at him.
“Johnny?! What the…”
“No, ye´re not the one asking questions here!”, Johnny cut the man of.
For a moment they just stared at each other, but without his mask Simon wasn´t nearly as imposing and scary. Instead Simon almost looked… small, vulnerable, the way he was looking at Johnny resembling the way a child would look at their parents after being caught doing something they weren´t allowed to do. It almost seemed like Simon was just waiting for some kind of punishment.
Fuck, that wasn´t what Johnny had wanted.
Taking a deep breath he tried to calm himself somewhat. “Sorry, Ah didn´t mean to shout at you. It´s just… Ah´m worried, Si. Ye´ve been acting off since the moment we came back from Guyana and now Ah find ye in yer bathroom, spitting blood.”, nervously Johnny fidgeted with the hem of his shirt as he carefully made a step towards the other man and extended an arm towards him, only letting his hand settle on Simon´s upper left arm when the bigger man didn´t show any signs of flinching back, “Whatever it is, please, let me help ye.”
At that Johnny saw something crumble in Simon´s eyes and he immediately felt how the bigger man relaxed underneath his hesitant and oh so gentle touch, so he decided to take another step towards him and slowly brought up his other hand, carefully cupping Simon´s face on the side opposite to the obviously inflamed and swollen jaw.
“Ye´re burning up.”, Johnny whispered concerned, feeling how warm the other man was, not quiet feverish yet, but also not normal either.
“It´s nothing.”, Simon mumbled, opening his jaw as little as possible to let the words out and subconsciously turning his head to rest the good side of his jaw in Johnny´s gentle hand, avoid his gaze.
“Si, I haven´t seen ye eat anything for three days, ye´re hot to the touch and yer jaw speaks for itself.”, Johnny was careful as he directed Simon´s head up and back towards its old positions so that their gazes met again, “Talk to me, let me help ye. Please, Si, let me help ye.”
“…”
“Beg yer pardon?”, whatever the big man had said, it had been so quiet and mumbled Johnny hadn´t been able to make out a single word.
“Impacted wisdom tooth.”, Simon repeated quietly, “I think it´s an impacted wisdom tooth.”
Johnny quirked an eyebrow. Wisdom tooth? Well, that would explain everything. “Can Ah see?”
He saw how Simon´s throat worked as he swallowed harshly and he half expected to get kicked out for his request, but instead Simon handed over a small flashlight, which had been standing on the edge of the sink the whole time, bent his knees so that his face was level with Johnny´s and then opened his mouth as wide as he possible could in his current predicament.
“Uh… aye, that definitely looks like a wisdom tooth problem.”, Johnny confirmed, trying to get the awful pictures of Simon´s swollen, bloody gums and the somewhat broken through wisdom tooth… not something nice to look at.
Simon hummed quietly, again spitting some blood into the sink, as he averted Johnny´s eyes.
“Ach, don´t ye worry. Ye´ll get them removed and everything will be fine.”, the Scot said, trying to cheer the other man up, “It´s just a minor surgery, ye´ll be up and running again in a week or two max. And ye also…”
“Johnny.”
“Aye?”
“I… I haven´t been at the dentist for years.”
“That´s no problem, really.”, Johnny said, making a dismissive hand gesture, “Our dentist at base is a super nice young lady and she…”
“Johnny…”
“Simon?”
“I… I don´t want to go.”, the last words were spoken as a whisper and when their gazes connected Johnny could see a sheen of tears shining in Simon´s eyes.
Fuck. That was something Johnny hadn´t expected. Sure, nobody loved going to the dentist or the oral surgeon, but what he saw in Simon´s eyes wasn´t a mere dislike, it was sheer, bloody fear, panic almost. It wasn´t something Johnny had ever seen in Simon´s eyes and seeing it now, after talking about what should´ve been a walk in the park for a seasoned SAS operator, only made the expression on Simon´s face even more shocking.
He immediately knew that there had to be a reason for Simon´s primal fear, but he also knew that there was no other choice than to let the impacted wisdom tooth be removed.
“Hey, Si. It´s okay.”, he tried to comfort, his heart beating in his throat when suddenly he felt something wet against the palm still cupping Simon´s face and recognized that Simon, Simon “Ghost” Riley, the toughest and baddest motherfucker walking the earth, was crying, honest to God crying!
“Johnny, I don´t want to go. Please, anything but!”
Fuck, and now Simon was pleading, begging Johnny like…
“Simon, I know. But the tooth has to go.”, he tried to reason with Simon, tried to appeal to the logical side inside the man, but it didn´t seem to do any good, is only seemed to distress Simon even more.
“Shhh, it´s okay, Ah got ye.”, Johnny murmured, carefully wrapping his arms around the bigger man in a hug.
“I… I´m afraid, Johnny.”, Simon choked out, “I… I can´t do this, can´t let anyone near my mouth with those… instruments. I can´t… Please, don´t sedate me… anything but that!”
“Shhhh, I know, I know. But ye don´t have to be afraid, okay? And you know why? Because I´ll go with you and I won´t leave yer side for a second. I´ll be there, I´ll protect you and you won´t be alone for any of what is to come.”
“You.. you´d do that?”, Simon croaked, loosening their embrace to look right into Johnny´s eyes.
“Of course, Si. That´s what friends are for, right?”
“You… you´re not disgusted? Appalled by…”
“Why should I be? Simon, it´s okay to be afraid, it´s okay to cry. Because ye´re not a machine. Ye´re a human, Simon, no matter how hard you try to prove yourself otherwise and ye´re carrying so much trauma. And yet ye are still here, standing in front of me despite everything.”, Johnny whispered, “And Ah´m so, so proud of you.”
And before Johnny could decide otherwise he leaned forward and planted a gentle kiss to the good side of Simon´s jaw.
For a moment the two just stared at each other, honey brown meeting sky blue, then Simon swallowed audibly and Johnny instinctively took hold of his hand.
“Ready, Si?”
And Simon nodded, squeezing Johnny´s hand.