The Losers, Cougar/Jensen, it's the fifth time this week he's had to rescue him

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Rescued

So everyone thinks Jensen's the incompetent one always in need of saving, that it's always Cougar who's got his back and he's never going to deny that because hey, Cougar has got his back, totally. And while he's on that point, Jensen thinks Cougar's got absolutely mad sniper skillz that have saved his bacon on many an occasion when he's infiltrated whatever place Clay sends him to for intel.

What people don't realize is that the process is two way. Cougar is not totally self-sufficient, not completely incapable of fucking up. Take last Saturday as an example. They had the evening off and Cougar, chick magnet that he is, decided a little R&R was in order. Now before anyone gets the wrong impression here, Jensen is fully aware of just how many girls are attracted to Cougar, hell he agrees with them, so duh! Cougar being attracted back – that's a different thing altogether. Jensen has no worries on that score, Cougar may flirt, Cougar may smile that sneaky snipery smile and the girls may swoon and do all that girly shit, but Cougar isn't going anywhere without Jensen, with anyone but Jensen. Or not on purpose he isn't anyway. Last Saturday would be the case in point. The details? You want the details! Okay, well, as far as Jensen could tell this is what happened, and no, there was absolutely zero point in asking Cougar, because well yeah . . . the point. It started with them shooting a few rounds of pool with Pooch, there'd been a couple of girls hanging round. They'd flirted with Pooch for a bit but he'd just kept talking about Jolene and eventually they'd given up and turned all their attention to Cougar and Jensen did his best not to be too upset by that because it wasn't like he wanted any of them anyway. So while Jensen and Pooch had been playing, Cougar had gone back to the bar for another round and well, he hadn't really come back again.

It was Jensen who'd noticed he'd been gone too long, missing the sniper's gaze on his ass every time he bent over to take a shot but he won't admit that one in public. Making excuses about needing the bathroom, he'd gone looking for Cougar. What he'd found was not good . . . not good at all. Cougar was propped against the wall in a dimly lit alley behind the bar and the girls who'd been flirting earlier were going through his pockets and attempting to remove his clothing. Jeez! The guy was black ops and a girl with a pretty face had managed to slip him a roofie and was now in the process of robbing him blind. So Jensen stepped in and boy, he was surprised by the way those girls could beat a quick retreat in such high heels and miniscule skirts, but he's relieved they're gone and now he can focus on Cougs. Jensen managed to get his clothing back in some sort of order, retrieve his wallet, which thankfully the girls had dropped without taking the contents and then he'd lead Cougar back to the car, using his cell to call Pooch and get him to meet him there.

He'd put Cougar to bed and then spent the night watching him breath, thankful that nothing worse had happened and trying to tamp down on the wild reaches of his imagination were trying to play all the ways that situation could have turned out in glorious Technicolor. When Cougar woke in the early hours, disoriented and nauseous, Jensen was there to make sure he got to and from the bathroom without adding to the damage done.

Sunday . . . well he's not sure Sunday really counts or whether it was just a continuation of Saturday's saving but he's pretty sure that he can count it as this week's save number two. Clay was on the warpath, looking for wayward team members and of course there was no sign of Roque and Cougar hadn't emerged from under the covers. Jensen was pretty exhausted after spending the night watching him, but that only served to hang more weight on his explanation that Cougar got sick and he had spent the night looking out for him. Pooch was willing to back him up on that score, because seriously Pooch had never seen Cougs so out of it on so little alcohol. Under normal circumstances, the man can hold his tequila so Pooch was pretty sure that whatever happened, Cougar was really fucking ill. Clay stuck his head round the door of the room that Cougar and Jensen were bunking in and accepted Jensen's explanation, particularly when Pooch told him how early they made it back from the bar. So saving Cougar from the wrath of Clay must count, right? Because there's no way he'd be living down being roofied by a couple of girls in a bar if the truth came out!

Save number three, well . . . save . . . not like a life and death save, not like save number one but still Jensen's going to count it. Cougar's a little forgetful at times . . . not like mission related times, just real normal boring routine life times. Save number three happened on Tuesday, Cougar was just so wrapped up with, well Jensen wasn't really sure what he was wrapped up doing, didn't really matter anyway. But the evening came and Cougar suddenly realized that he'd not made the bank transfers that he'd been supposed to make on Monday and that by now he was already clocking up whatever overdraft charges the bank had decided to lay on him, and no doubt charge him extra for the letters they'd send out telling him he was overdrawn. He'd looked so dejected sitting there that there was no way Jensen could ignore his pain . . . what kind of boyfriend would he have been if he'd denied that sad look when he could fix it? So yup, he had hacked the bank and he had adjusted a few of the ingoings and outgoings to make sure that Cougar wasn't going to be either overdrawn or due for any charges any time soon and okay, he may have tweaked one or two of the accounting figures while he was there so that Cougar was earning a little more on his savings than he had been. He'd picked a few other of the same type of account of people who looked like they could do with a few extra cents. Hey, he hadn't stolen it or anything, just . . . diverted it from the over paid bank CEO's salary. Well everyone knew those fat cats were quite happy to take huge bonuses while the man on the ground got no interest on the savings he managed to scrape together. It was justice!

It's a little considered fact that being a team's sniper is bad for your health. Jensen isn't sure why it doesn't occur to more people, unless all snipers are as stoic as Coug, in which case that might explain it. The way Jensen sees it, Cougar lies on the top of, at best draughty, buildings for hour after hour. He is still in one position and his muscles cramp and he has to ignore it, waiting for the perfect shot. The sun beats down and he gets sunburn and dehydration; the rain cascades over him, slipping its way down past his waterproof and sneaking in to leave him drenched to the skin. So Jensen packs accordingly, it means carrying a little extra in his pack, but he doesn't think twice, not if it means he's prepared for the worst.

On Wednesday, it was the sun. He'd got up with Cougar at four in the morning and despite the dark hour, he'd insisted on rubbing high factor suncream into every piece of skin that Cougar would let him near. He'd also slipped the tube into the small pack Cougar would carry with him. Next he filled two canteens of water for Cougar to take with him. He made sure they were both full to the brim before tucking them tightly into Cougar's pack because sometimes the sniper becomes so focused on making sure his rifle is in perfect condition that he forgets about himself. Just after Cougar left, Jensen made a third canteen, one that he carried for when they picked up Cougar when the mission was over. In it was a mix that helps with rehydration for when Cougar had had every last drop of moisture beaten out of him by the unrelenting sun.

It was a good job he did, because Wednesday was a bad day and the sun beat down without mercy and the op dragged on and on for hours longer than it should. When Cougar finally got the order to move from the roof, Jensen knew he was in trouble. The sniper was confused, disoriented and Jensen was out of the van in seconds and on his way to fetch Cougar before he took it into his head that taking a nosedive off the side of the building was a good way to get himself down.

As soon as he reached him, he handed over the canteen with his rehydration mix and had Cougar drink some, then he moved his attention to getting them both down in one piece. They stopped a couple of times en route and Jensen had Cougar drink more. By the time they were back on the ground, Cougar's focus was returning, but Jensen knew it would take more than just that to have him back to rights. Pooch hit the gas as soon as they were loaded and Jensen spent the rest of the journey forcing more liquids into Cougar. He was watching for signs that this was more than they could deal with alone, but Cougar's tough and Jensen was well prepared. He didn't however, like the too red tinge to Cougar's skin, showing that even the sun cream and Cougar's hat haven't kept him shielded enough from the sun and once they get back, that was next on his list of things to deal with.

So Rescue number five of the week is down to Jensen as well and that's in progress right now. They are the Losers and they are fuckin' awesome at getting the job done in pretty abysmal circumstances. They are also used to tight deadlines and friggin' horrendous Intel that bears no real resemblance to what they need to know. Jensen has been up most of the night hacking computer systems, searching for floor plans and guard rotas and personnel files and anything else that might be useful so that Roque and Clay can get in and out without any problems. He's exhausted already as they load up the van with everything they need. He's just going along for the ride really, his job should be over, but he's gonna sit tight in the van and keep Pooch company, just to make sure everything's a-ok.

Things seem to be going fine for Clay and Roque and Jensen for an instant is feeling smug that it's his Intel that made this job so easy because what they'd been handed was next to useless. Of course, feeling smug is a sure fire way to guarantee the shit will hit the fan and it's not from the direction anyone expects.

It's rare for Cougar to ever be the one to break radio silence unless he's seen something one of the others needs to be made aware of for their safety. When it comes to himself, he tends to suffer in silence unless it's something he either can't put up with or can't get himself out of. Today, Cougar's breaking the silence and that just can't be good. "Jensen!" he sounds slightly panicked and the whole team is alert. "Jensen, I have a problem."

Jensen clamps down on any panic he might be feeling and stays calm as he says, "Tell me about it, Coug." If Cougar is telling him there's a problem, there are two possibilies; the first is he thinks Jensen is the one to get him out of it, the second is that he doesn't think he's getting out of it at all. Jensen isn't willing to entertain the second possibility so he's already getting himself set to work on the first.

"There is a security system on the roof." Jensen's immediately tapping in to his computer and trying to hack the security plans and details for the building that Cougar's on.

"I'm on it but tell me more, dude." The request is as much to know that Cougar's still alive to help stave off his own panic as it is to get more information about what kind of security he's looking at. His fingers are flying all the time, his eyes flickering through plans and code and trying to find what he's looking for.

Cougar sounds a little calmer for the reassurance and as Jensen utters a quiet, "Ah! Gotcha!" he lets a sigh of relief pass his lips.

"Oh!" Jensen mutters a moment later, "You've already triggered the system. I guess you already know to keep really still, right?" then the stream of sweet nothings that pass his lips after that are clearly intended for the machine he's hacking or the one he's hacking with (no-one's ever entirely clear on that score) and not for Cougar, no matter what they feel for each other.

It's fortunate that things are going well for Clay and Roque as Cougar is in no position to provide any cover for them and so by the time Jensen's managed to disable enough of the system and send confusing instructions to the guards who were on the way to Cougar's position, they are already executing their exit plan. It's fortunate really because he's managed to turn off the automated security on the roof so Cougar can move again, but the guards know the system has been breached. "Cougar, get out of there. Security is going to be headed your way soon!"

Cougar's not going to hang around with an instruction like that and is already attaching a line to exit over the side of the building. Bare minutes pass before he is climbing into the van with Clay and Roque and they're all leaving.

They never say much about these situations, after all they're only doing their job, but Cougar does say a quiet thank you and he gives Jensen one of his smiles. As they drive away and Jensen feels a hand settle on his knee and squeeze, he knows just how much Cougar appreciates it when Jensen's got his back.