“please don’t leave me alone.” -tytonidae-bones
Jesse froze.
Whatever that gas weapon was, it had gotten Reyes full inthe face, but he’d seemed pretty stable. Irritated lungs and eyes, all that,but he and Morrison both frequently shook off stuff that would constitute amedical emergency for a garden variety soldier. Jesse had made sure he was coherentand mostly out of harm’s way and told him to say put while he helped the crewmop up the last of the targets and radioed in a medivac for him. There was nothingtoo unusual about the situation; he’d really come into his own as an agent inthe last year or so, and gotten accustomed to occasionally slipping into a temporarycommand position in his mentor’s absence.
Absence or incapacity – which appeared to be what was happeningnow. He spun on his heel and almost winced at Reyes’ state; he was slouchinginto the corner that he’d been sitting upright in a moment ago, his browsfurrowed and eyes unfocused. “Don’t… don’t leave,” he repeated, his nervousgaze flicking about a bit before it finally found Jesse’s face, and he reachedout one shaky hand.
“Hey, hey, yeah, it’s fine, boss.” He was back in the cornerand kneeling next to him before he could even think about it. “It’s alright, Iain’t leaving you here. I’m right here, alright?” He put his hands firmly onGabe’s shoulders, squeezing gently and looking him in the eye. “Look, we needto get you out of here, and I need to radio out to do that, okay? And there ain’tshit for a signal in here. So I’m gonna step right outside the door and dothat, but then I’m comin’ straight back in, alright?”
He waited to get a nod from his commander, then didprecisely that – as quick and terse as possible on the radio, send backcoordinates, get confirmation, and in under two minutes he was coming back intothe building. Gabe still looked physically intact, though he was still coughingquite a bit, so it must be some kind of psych agent. He was shaking a little bit,his eyes swimming and drifting as he tried to focus on anything, and his voicehad a warbly little tremble Jesse had never heard in it before. He couldn’t helpthe concerned frown that settled on his lips and creased his forehead, but otherwiseshowed no signs of worry as he sat down next to him, one arm looping gentlyover his shoulder.
“Alright, they’re on their way out. Shouldn’t be too longnow. You okay aside from the shakes?”
Gabe nodded slowly, eyes closing for a long moment. “I can’t…my eyes don’t. Work. They won’t… talk to my brain? My brain won’t talk toanyone…”
“Yeah, that sounds rough, man.” Jesse forced his voice tostay as casual and relaxed as he could manage as he gave Reyes’ shoulders agentle squeeze. “But the med crew’ll get you patched up soon. We’re just gonnachill here for a minute until they get here, alright?”
Gabe nodded slowly, closing his eyes to block out some ofthe dizziness. “That’s good. We’ll go home.” He let out a slow breath, hisvoice barely more than a mumble. “M’glad you’re here, mijo.”
Jesse’s breath caught in his chest; he swallowed hard to pushback the unexpected emotional gut punch. “I’m glad too,” he finally managed, leaning back onto the wall andgiving him another gentle half-hug as they waited in silence for rescue.
