Kapkan gritted his teeth to tough out the pain of the bullet wound on his hip. Fresh blood from a knife wound flowed down his cheek.
He cradled Frost's body as two White Masks advanced on their position. Out of bullets for every gun he had, he made a grab for the pistol in Frost's holster. Not his weapon of choice, but it would have to do. He dropped the safety to the off position and thanked his lucky stars that Frost used a silencer on her pistol before killing the two White Masks. He took the L85A2 from one, stole the magazine from the second, then dragged Frost into the back corner and hunkered down, preparing to die at his position.
Two terrorists walked down the hallway. One spoke.
"We're the last ones here. We need to kill that Canadian."
Immediately, Kapkan sprang into action, lighting up the hallway and sending the two terrorists sprawling for cover. The mag ran out, so Kapkan checked the second one. Empty. Fuck. He tossed it to the side and drew Frost's pistol, then unattached the silencer and fired three rounds, one of which killed one of the terrorists. The other terrorist fired twenty rounds, some of which struck the wall, others of which went through the nearby cover.
Kapkan checked the magazine. Two rounds left. He fired once, and by some act of a higher power or insane luck he destroyed the receiver of the terrorist's 552 Commando, meaning the gun couldn't actually fire bullets anymore.
The terrorist pulled a pistol and fired until they had one round left. Forgetting that magazine capacity existed, the terrorist pushed up to where Kapkan and Frost were hiding. Turning the corner, the terrorist saw a Spetsnaz soldier, battered and bloodied, holding an unconscious Canadian JTF2 member, who had blood on her abdomen and on her hair and mask, falling slowly from above her left eyelid. One of the Russian's hands was tightly clasping her abdomen, trying to stop the bleeding. The other hand was supporting her back. Her chest swelled and dropped evenly.
"Don't touch her, bastard," the Russian said. He laid her down, revealing the gun that he had hid behind her back.
"Orders are orders," the White Mask said.
"You do realize that the moment you aim at Tina here, I'll put a hollow-point nine-mil through your forehead?"
"I'm too fast for that to happen."
"I guarantee I am faster."
The two warriors stared each other down, each aiming their weapons at each other's forehead.
Two guns fired. One person died.
Kapkan caught the terrorists as they fell and shoved backwards. Then, he tore a medical kit off the wall and took off Frost's jacket to get at the wound that plagued her. She coughed as he unzipped the heavy parka and took off her undershirt.
"Sorry it has to be this way, dorogoy, but I have to get at your chest. Trust you don't mind."
Frost stayed silent, but if she had been conscious, she likely wouldn't have had any objection.
The wound was a stab wound, and a deep one at that, which had been aimed at her heart and been blocked by her breasts, somehow. Kapkan felt awkward and felt blood rushing about his pelvis but silently thanked his maker.
He grabbed a bit of gauze and pressed it into the wound while he fashioned a sling for it to keep it there. It would be awkward, and she was definitely going to need stitches, but after applying a bit of medical tape it stayed there. He moved onto her arm now, bandaging a minor cut with a band-aid and splinting a broken forearm. He wrapped the splint and tightened it. Then, he began padding her bleeding eyebrow, wiping the blood out of her hair and eye, cleaning up her face. Silently, he thanked his lucky stars that she didn't wear makeup, or mascara would have been abso-goddamn-lutely everywhere and he did not have the time to clean it up and waste precious supplies and time.
The total vulnerability of his love suddenly dawned on Kapkan. Here she was, unconscious and wounded, lying in his arms, totally at his mercy.
"You're cute when you're asleep," he said quietly.
Frost stirred, then lapsed back into her pain-induced sleep.
Kapkan sighed, then laid her back on the ground and began working at the satcom phone he had.
Frost woke up from her delirium about ten minutes later. Immediately, she made a grab for her pistol, which Kapkan had kept for the time being.
"W-where the fuck am I?..." she asked the world, completely confused.
"Ah. You're awake, kotyonok."
She turned on her hip to find Kapkan sitting a few feet away.
"What the fuck happened?"
"You don't remember? Huh. Well, I wouldn't recommend doing anything with your right arm. It's broken."
"And my pistol?"
"I had to use it. I'm totally out of ammunition. Hope you don't mind?" Kapkan said, presenting her pistol, with its standard issue Canadian Army camouflage.
"May I… have it back?"
"You going to shoot me?"
"Not unless you do something worthy of it. Please, Kapkan."
"Fine." Kapkan passed the pistol to Frost. She checked the magazine and the round in the chamber. Kapkan had reloaded it, so there was a round in the chamber and a full magazine.
"Now, Basuda, if I may ask… why am I only wearing one of your shirts?"
"Ah. That. Well, simply put, you got stabbed and it went through your vest, your shirt, and almost all the way to your heart. I… um… hope you don't mind, but I had to give you first aid and…. It was rather revealing," Kapkan said, blushing.
"It's… fine," Frost said. "As long as you didn't…. You know…"
"I didn't," Kapkan said. "I would never do that, dorogoy. Never."
A silent moment.
"Um… where's the hostage?" Frost asked.
"Dead and gone. White Mask bomber blew him to hell and he isn't coming back. Body is in the closet."
"So we failed."
"Well, we're still living. Something, right?"
"Yeah. Something." Frost attempted to stand. "Ack. Fuck, that hurts. We're going to have to do this together."
Kapkan looped her not-broken arm over his shoulder and stood her up. They hobbled out of the house to a waiting Mazda saloon car, where Pulse had apparently appeared. (Kapkan had called him via satphone.)
"Oh, shit. You good, Frost? Kapkan told me you were wounded, but…. Oh, shit," Pulse said. "I'll drive. You two, get in the back."
"Ah, crap," Frost whispered to Kapkan. "I'm going to be utterly useless this month."
Kapkan looked at her with honest, caring blue eyes. "We'll do this together."
"Together," Frost echoed.