Marcus knows his role on his team: he’s the one who carries the gun, makes the hard calls - and takes the hits. He has no time or patience for anyone or anything else. But when Jake - a brand-new recruit Marcus has been tasked with training - messes up on his first mission and gets them both captured, nothing could prepare Marcus for the way his world quickly spirals out of control.
Levy: (historical) the act of enlisting someone for military service
Contents: living weapon, recovery, on the run, sci-fi medicine, gunshot wound, learning to walk, touch aversion, touch aversed Marcus, secretly touch starved Marcus, Marcus still isn't aware of his own feelings, collapsing in someone's arms, the boys talk about SOME feelings, platonic confession
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By the end of the day, Marcus was ready to try and stand. Even though the thought of it made his skin crawl, he let Jake take his hand, let him grab him under the arm and pull him to his feet. It felt… unnatural, when he didn’t have the immediate urge to pull away from Jake’s touch.
It felt unnatural, when he got to his one foot, and Jake let him go – and he felt himself leaning toward Jake, chasing the warmth, the… the feeling of it.
His brow furrowed. How is the shock still affecting me like this? Jesus fucking Christ. Slowly, carefully, he placed the foot of his injured leg on the floor. Slowly, carefully, he put his weight on it.
It held.
“Holy fuck,” he breathed. “This NanoStat’s good shit.”
“You should be careful,” Jake said, his hand still hovering near Marcus like he might keel over at any moment.
“Oh, I am.” Marcus experimentally put more weight on his foot. “Feels pretty weak, still. But…” He peered at the wound. The skin had closed, but it was still bright red – a weeks-old scar, developed over only a day. He prodded it. It ached, but not like a wound that had been open and bleeding out just yesterday. “Huh.”
“That’s wild,” Jake breathed.
“Definitely.” Marcus took a step. His leg held, although it twinged. “Damn.” He took another step. He pushed his luck and took another.
The muscles failed. He crumpled, and internally braced to hit the ground hard.
Jake caught him and lowered him to the floor. Once Marcus was on his knees, Jake yanked his hands away, like Marcus was burning him. Marcus pressed his hands against the carpet and caught his breath.
“I’m sorry,” he rasped.
Jake sat on the floor beside him. “For what?”
Marcus drew a deep breath in, pushed a deep breath out. He felt the muscles in his calf trembling like he’d just done the hardest workout of his life, and all he’d done was take two steps. Fuck. If we have to run, we’re fucked. “For… I don’t know, kid. I’m just… I’m just sorry.”
Jake crossed his legs in front of him. Slowly, Marcus sat down, too, stretched his bad leg out to the side. He wouldn’t look at Jake, though he could feel Jake’s gaze on his face.
“You know I don’t… blame you,” Jake said. “For all the stuff that’s happened.”
“I should hope not,” Marcus said with a bitter laugh. “It’s not like I’m the one who’s running shit. But… fuck, Jake, being a Lev sucks. I should know. But I… I never made it… easier. On you.”
“But you did,” Jake murmured. “I already told you, you did.”
Marcus huffed. “But I know I piled shit on, too. And I didn’t have to.” He drew his hand over his face. “Fuck, I… I didn’t have to.”
Jake was silent for a long time. He opened his mouth. “I—”
“Don’t fucking say it’s okay,” Marcus said sharply.
Jake shot Marcus a look. “I wasn’t going to,” he said. “I was just going to say… I think you did what you… could. And I did what I could.”
“Yeah, but what you could was… was trade your life for mine, Jake. What I did seems pretty fucking sad, in comparison.”
The kid was silent for even longer, this time. Eventually, he seemed to give up on saying anything at all. He just nodded, and raised his eyes to the window.
Marcus heaved a sigh. “Alright. Time to try this shit again. Can’t spend the rest of my goddamn life in this room, can I?” He shifted onto his hands and knees, prepared to get to his feet – without Jake’s help. He needed to be able to do that alone, at least.
“I couldn’t let you die, Marcus,” Jake whispered. “After everything… after everything you did, and more than that. But it wasn’t a… a trade. I need you to know that. I wasn’t sitting there and thinking, he’s taken X whippings for me, he’s protected me from Y, so I have to do Z. I just saw you go down, I saw that guy hold the knife to your throat and I… I just couldn’t let it happen. I wasn’t thinking about consignment. I was just thinking about… about you.”
Marcus’s spine was cold, from his skull to his tailbone. He couldn’t raise his gaze to look at Jake. He just stared at the filthy carpet between his hands.
Jake shrugged. “That’s it. You don’t have to say anything back.” He stumbled to his feet. “Now come on. I know you’ll want to stand on your own, but… maybe try taking three steps, then you can sit. I’ll help you down. I don’t want you to fall.”
Numb, Marcus got to his feet. He took four trudging steps. Then, he let Jake put a hand on his arm and carefully lower him to the floor.
Summary: when you were finally allowed to leave the infirmary Phasma told you that you would be staying with her for the foreseeable future.
Warnings: hospital recovery, fluff
Requests open
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You have been in hospital for the last 8 months and the whole experience was torturous. Learning how to walk again has been a frustrating experience in itself. First you had to gain strength in your legs by doing these exercises. The pain caused in the first few weeks was horrible. One leg was in pain because you had been stabbed in it and the other leg was in pain because it was completely mangled when you crashed.
Then came the standing exercises. You had to stand for a certain period of time before being allowed to sit down. At first you obviously needed support from others and the surrounding area but as time went on you relied less and less on everyone and everything. When you were finally able to stand on your own you felt like you had overcome this huge mountain.
That was when it dawned on you, learning to stand was one thing, you still needed to learn to walk and this battle was nowhere near over. Even though you had overcome this huge challenge you felt like it still wasn’t enough and that you would never get around to walking.
Throughout this time Phasma still hadn’t left your side. She stayed with you each day and night and was there through the whole process of you trying to walk. Unfortunately she normally got the receiving end of your anger and frustration of learning to walk however she never showed that it was bothering her.
You were grateful that Phasma had decided to stick around because deep down you knew that without her you wouldn’t be where you were now. You would most likely still be in your hospital bed telling yourself you couldn’t do it. Thankfully with Phasma’s motivation you were finally able to walk again.
Aside from learning to walk you also had to get back physical strength elsewhere in your body as well as trying to gain some control over your memory loss. There are still some areas that are a bit patchy but you were lucky to have gained back most of your memory.
The doctors said you were lucky that this was the only type of brain injury that occurred because considering you died twice on the table the impact that it had should have been a lot worse. You were just a lucky person.
Today was the day that you would go home, finally getting to leave the hospital. You were scared but also excited. You were scared because you obviously didn’t know how well you were going to cope on your own. You had spent the last months with someone constantly by your side whether that was Phasma or the nurses.
You didn’t know how well you were going to cope but unfortunately was going to be something that you had to overcome. Although the anxiety was there you were definitely excited to be finally leaving this place. You loved everyone that cared for you but you really were looking forward to being able to live your own life again.
You were currently sitting in your room on your own, enjoying your own company. One of your favourite members of staff had just entered your room to bring you your breakfast. “So are you excited to be going home today?” they asked you as they placed your food in front of you. “I definitely am. I am sick of this hospital food” you laughed which caused them to laugh.
“Yh I don’t really blame you there. The food isn’t the best and I’m the one that serves it” they laughed which caused you to let out a little giggle. “Well I better be getting back to work. These people definitely won’t be feeding themselves” they laughed as they made their way back to their trolley before heading down the corridor.
You happily ate your sad breakfast. You couldn’t wait to have a proper breakfast. You looked around your room and seeing it bare and back to normal made you feel a number of things. Phasma had packed your bags that she had brought in when you first arrived at the hospital. They were all piled in a corner ready to go back to your room. Well most of them were. Phasma had already started taking them back to your room as she knew you wouldn’t be able to carry any of them.
You waited around in your room for most of the morning before one of the doctors finally came round to see you so they could discharge you. While you were waiting Phasma had managed to make a number of trips before finally leaving about 10 minutes ago with the last couple of bags and she just so happened to arrive at the same time the doctor had shown up to talk to you about going home.
Phasma sat down next to you to await to see what the doctor had to say about you going home. “Ok, so upon reviewing everything you are now in a suitable position to be going home. We are going to issue you a wheelchair as well as a walking stick. This is just so if you have days where it is getting too much you have the options to use them if need be. You will need to go to physiotherapy once a week to continue to build strength in your legs as well as weekly counselling to deal with any trauma” they said as they handed over the paper for you to sign.
You quickly had a read over the paperwork that had been handed to you before signing your name at the bottom to confirm you were being discharged. With the doctor happy with everything he turned to you one final time to ask you one last question. “So, who will you be staying with for the next few months?”
You gave him a look of confusion before answering. “What do you mean? I thought I would be going to be living in my quarters” you said to the doctor. The doctor looked at you before looking at Phasma. “I did mention it to her but she must have forgotten” Phasma said to the doctor. “Tell me what!” you shouted starting to get frustrated.
“Calm down, it’s alright. Basically you are going to be staying with me for a little while. It’s just so I can make sure you are safe and with your memory the way it is at the moment at least I will be able to keep an eye on you and I know you will be safe” she said as she crouched down so she was eye level with you.
You looked at Phasma before anger took over you. “Taking care of? I’m a grown adult! I don’t need to be babied. I just need to get on with my life. I want to be able to take care of myself!” you shouted before you started crying. “I know, I know, as soon as you are able to remember things without forgetting and your physio has finished then you can go back to living in your quarters. Trust me y/n I won’t be babying you. I will just be there if you need a hand” Phasma said as she caressed your hand.
Phasma was right as much as you hated to admit it. You needed help even if it was temporary. Phasma could see you were thinking. “Look y/n, as soon as you are in a position to look after yourself without being a danger to yourself then you can go back to living by yourself in your own quarters” she said looking at you trying to read your face.
You took a deep breath before sighing. “Fine. I will stay with you Phasma but as soon as I can look after myself properly I am going back to living by myself” you said quite quickly. “That is absolutely fine y/n but just know that you will always be welcome at my place” Phasma said with a little smile on their face. You couldn’t help but smile at her, she was too cute.
“Ok, I’m ready to go then” you sighed. Phasma helped you out of bed before helping you sit down in the wheelchair. “It’s a long way to walk with your walking stick so I’m going to wheel you back to my room. From there we will work on walking further and further with your stick as time goes forward” she said smiling at you once you were sitting in your chair.
“That’s fine. I’m pretty tired anyway. I don’t feel like walking that kind of distance just yet” you said as you relaxed back in your chair as Phasma pushed you out of the hospital room. You made your way down the corridors before finally leaving the hospital behind. All you had to do now was get to Phasma’s quarters. The good thing about having the hospital on the flagship meant that you didn’t have to travel too far.
As Phasma was pushing you down the hallway to her quarters she could tell you were feeling a bit depressed. “Hold on” she said as she started running down the hallways of the flagship. You gripped the side of the wheelchair as Phasma ran quicker and quicker. You couldn’t help but laugh as she ran down the halls. Maybe staying with Phasma for a little while might not be the end of the world. Deep down you were looking forward to what these next few months may bring you.
Your character has to re-learn to walk following a terrible accident. The recovery is slow and frustrating, but the second they’re able to put one foot in front of the other, the caretaker beams with pride.
