gaz whump bc I can absolute nothing burger and a v small, soft 141 scene.
He'd made it behind the wall, at least. He wasn't sure it was enough, but it was something, the wall at his back, the noise of the firefight still crackling somewhere behind him, further away now.
Kyle pressed his hand harder against his side and looked up at the grey sky.
He should call it in. He'd been telling himself that for... how long had it been? He didn't know how long. A while. Probably. His radio was in his hand and he couldn't remember picking it up. He clicked it twice, the way they did when words were too much for whatever reason, and then didn't know what else to do so he just held it.
His face was wet. His eyes burned, dust or otherwise, everything. He wasn't thinking about it.
Stay awake, he thought. And that was all. Stay awake. Because he had to. He couldn't rest or close his eyes because he had to be awake enough to tell them he was alright. He had to be awake.
Soap came around the edge of the wall fast, rifle up, and then he saw Kyle and he stopped just long enough for fear, surprise, anger, something to move across his face before he locked it down and crossed the distance between them and dropped to his knees.
"There you are," he said. Like Kyle had simply wandered off.
Soap's hands moved, checking and assessing, and Kyle watched him and watched his expression stay as steady as Soap could manage, which was its own kind of reaction.
"More than that." He kept his eyes on Kyle's body. "How long have you been here?"
"Okay." A pause. Something in the pause Kyle didn't love. "Okay. Price is behind me, yeah?"
Soap looked up then. And the look on his face, tired, and frightened in a way he wasn't trying very hard to hide, made Kyle's chest tighten.
"Kyle," he said. "I need you to talk to me. Be annoying and difficult. Tell me a story. Can you do that for me?"
Kyle laughed weakly. "Think so."
"Good." Soap's hand came up and gripped his shoulder. "Go on."
So Kyle talked. About nothing. About everything that didn't matter, because Soap had asked him to. He talked and Soap worked. And between Kyle's heavier and heavier blinks Price arrived and crouched down on his other side.
"Gaz," Price said, easy as anything. Like they were back at base. Like this was just a Sunday after a jog.
He'd heard Price use it twice before, in situations he didn't like to think about, and it always meant the same thing, somewhere along the lines of "I need you calm, so I'm going to be calm for you."
"Don't." Price's hand squeezed around Soap's arm.
"Kyle." Soap's voice again. His hand still on his shoulder, shaking gently. "Stay with us."
Kyle meant to say something back, something dry, that would have made Soap roll his eyes and Price almost-smile and everything would've been right again.
His vision darkened to black and the words slurred behind his tongue.
His senses came back to him in a disorienting wave of sterile quiet and harsh, clean whites of a hospital room.
He turned his head, slowly, testing.
Price was in the chair by the window. Not asleep, making himself sit still, arms folded, eyes on something outside the window. His eyes looked tired.
Soap had his head down on the edge of the bed. Arms folded as a pillow, face turned sideways, dead asleep.
And Ghost was against the wall. Back straight, arms crossed, chin dropped to his chest. Asleep or close enough. His balaclava and kit replaced by a simple face mask and black sweats.
Kyle looked at the white ceiling again. He took a slow breath, as deep as he could manage.
His eyes stung again, but he didn't stop the tears. He just let them exist, quietly, and looked at all three of them and breathed through it.
He nearly died. The image of Price's face above him came back to him in a flash. It had been hiding that worry, fear. Same as Soap's but somehow, impossibly mastered over the years.
He had nearly died. And yet.
After a moment Price looked over. He didn't say anything for a long few seconds. Then the worried creases between his brows finally eased.
Kyle didn't trust his voice yet, so he managed a nod.
Kyle let the tips of his fingers find Soap's arm. He laid his head back. And he rested.