Feliz Cumpleaños

Cougar was not in a good mood.

As a sniper, he was used to enduring crap situations, staying calm under pressure, generally turning the other cheek. Normally, that wasn't a problem. Every now and then though, even he needed a break.

The last operation The Losers had embarked on saw Cougar lying on a frozen cliff in the middle of a blizzard with only his fatigues, hat and scarf to keep him warm. The better part of his day was spent there, covering the team. His hands were pretty well frozen and he couldn't feel his legs anymore, but things were going surprisingly well for the group, which sadly enough, sent up red flags in the sniper's mind. After all, things Inever/I go smoothly for them. Smooth they were though. Clay and Roque had gotten in without a hitch and had just radioed in that they had the target in sight while Jensen and Pooch were covering the exit. In the chaos of their "bust-down-the-front-door-guns-blazing" entrance, Cougar managed to neutralize a good portion of the guards, smoothing the way for the others. Still, as cliché as it was, things were too quiet now.

Just as he was starting to think his suspicions were unfounded, the sergeant caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned just in time to catch a boot to the face. It all goes a little fuzzy after that. He remembers static-laced yells coming through his earpiece and then all around him when he opens his eyes again. The others had, rather fortuitously, finished the mission and arrived while he was out of it. When Cougar finally managed to stop seeing two of everything he noticed one pendejo taking aim at Clay. Now, Cougar is an amazing shot, "a genius with a rifle" some might say, but an almost certainly concussed sniper with nothing but his rifle is not exactly in his element in a close range shoot out. Even in top shape, getting his rifle up and aimed in the time it would take the guy to kill Clay would be a feat. The only option left that he could see was to position himself in front of his commanding officer. Which he did. From there, it's all white-hot pain and then cool darkness.

Cougar's next attempt at waking up was much less dramatic, thankfully. Ever so slowly, he managed to force his eyelids to open. Muted light from the grungy street lamps fought its way into the otherwise unlit room. As far as he could tell, they were still in the same Podunk town in a place too cold for Cougar to care to remember its name that they'd been working out of for the last few weeks. New lodgings though, relatively speaking. Rather than squatting in some abandoned house huddled around a wood-burning stove, they seemed to be in an only slightly rundown motel with central heating. They must've gotten paid.

Turning away from the curtained window, he found Jensen sitting next to his bed, tinkering with one of his laptops. Never let it be said that the kid was oblivious to his surroundings. The small movement of Cougar turning his head caught the tech expert's attention.

"Hey Coug," He greeted in the quietest voice Cougar had ever heard him use. "How you feelin'?"

Considering he took a boot to the side of his face (and his left eye was definitely swollen from it now that he took the time to notice), and he had a bullet wound in his gut, he could be feeling worse. Roque must've broken out the good painkillers for him. From that standpoint, Cougar felt the most appropriate response was a one-shouldered shrug.

"You had us worried there for a bit." Jensen went on regardless. "Can't say seeing Roque dig a bullet out of your stomach was very high on my list of things to experience before I die." Cougar raised an eyebrow. Yeah, he could see how that would suck, he was glad he was unconscious for that part.

Even knowing it was pretty much the worst thing to do with a concussion, Cougar found himself falling asleep. Apparently being unconscious for any length of time was tiring. Jensen must have seen it in his eyes, and damn if the kid wasn't good at reading him. "Get some sleep buddy, I'll wake you up to make sure you're still with us."

That was all the encouragement he needed at the moment. Before he knew it, he was asleep.

Three days had gone by since then and here Cougar was, still holed up in the motel room he shared with Jensen and still not able to venture too far from the bed. Roque had taken him off the heavy-duty painkillers so at least he could stay awake for more than a few hours, but the trade off was that he was a lot more aware of how angry his body was at him for the moment. That and he seemed to have caught a cold while he was out in the blizzard, he was all plugged up and his throat hurt something fierce. To add insult to injury, literally, the day of the frozen mission from Hell also happened to be his birthday. Now, considering their line of work, it wasn't uncommon to be on a mission during someone's birthday but even so, they would always try and do something special for that person. They were family, after all. Maybe it was a little juvenile, maybe Cougar was just feeling a little sorry for himself due to feeling altogether crappy right now, but he found he was more upset about getting shot on his birthday than he would have expected.

Yes, Cougar was not in a good mood.

Throwing an arm over his eyes since his beloved hat was currently out of reach, the unhappy sniper had every intention of going back to sleep when the door to his room burst open and shouts of "Feliz Cumpleaños!" filled the air.

Gingerly, he sat up in bed, sleep tousled hair sticking out every which way, and gazed in stupefied awe at his team, his family, singing a horribly out of tune rendition of Happy Birthday. Clay carried a tray of small dessert dishes, complete with candles that looked like they were stolen from someone's votives. The Colonel carefully placed the tray in front of Cougar. After their cacophonous song was finished, the sniper blew out the candles to the cheers of his raucous team.

"Happy Birthday, Coug." Pooch started handing out the dessert. "Hope you didn't think we forgot just figured it might be better to wait 'til you were a little more lucid."

Cougar took the offered dessert with a smile. Able to see it clearly now, he was surprised. It was Crema Catalana, his favourite.

"I remember you mentioning how much you liked that stuff. No one in this town even knew what it was." Clay laughed, "Jensen looked it up online and Pooch gave it a shot, hopefully it's not too bad."

The team waited with bated breath as Cougar tasted a spoonful. He let it melt on his tongue for a moment, savouring the taste. It wasn't as good the crema back home, but it was a close second.

"Es muy bueno." Smiled Cougar.

With that, the team dug in, offering "compliments to the chef". They spent most of the day camped out on and beside Cougar's bed sharing stories and enjoying one another's company. As the hours wore on, the still recovering sergeant was showing signs of slowing down so Clay suggested they let him get some sleep.

"I never got a chance to thank you. Not just for the other day either." Clay started, helping the others clean up the various dishes that had accumulated. "I know none of us would be here now if it weren't for you, Coug, so thanks. Really." Everyone agreed with this, taking a chance to clap him on the shoulder. While he knew how they felt every day, it was still nice to hear it. Cougar smiled and nodded.

Clay put his hand on Cougar's shoulder and gave it a squeeze as the others left. "Get some rest."

Letting his sharp eyes close, the sniper huffed a sigh. Maybe it wasn't such a bad day after all.

When he opened them again he saw Jensen standing there. While that wasn't odd being that it was also Jensen's room, the fact that he was actually quiet and seemed to be at a loss for words, Cougar tilted his head in question. Jensen sat down in the same chair he occupied that first night.

"I know we don't usually get anything for everyone's birthdays, but, uh…" He cleared his throat. "I, saw this in one of the towns we were in a few months back and thought, maybe you could use it. I mean, of course you can use it, but like…Yeah." Cougar was having a hard time following Jensen's meandering speech and raised an eyebrow to show it.

"Aw hell, here." The tech specialist handed Cougar a mahogany box with a gold latch on it. Curious, he opened it. Resting on indigo velvet was a Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum Model 629. Its grip was also mahogany and its silver barrel was etched with intricate designs. Quite simply, it was one of the most beautiful guns Cougar had ever seen. "I know you always have our backs, but you don't really have anyone to watch yours, right? And after what happened the other day, I mean, you could use a close range gun in case something like that happens…"

Cougar put the box down and engulfed the kid in a hug.

Yeah, he got kicked in the face, shot in the gut, and caught a cold from sitting out in a blizzard. It was all done while watching his family's back though, and he'd do it again in a heartbeat.

"Gracias."

~Fin~

A/N: Thanks for reading. Just a few notes:

This was originally written for the fic meme at TheLosers_Fans community on LiveJournal. The original prompt was: "It's Cougar's birthday and Jensen gets him a gift." The immediate thought that popped into my head was: "That's where his revolver came from!" And then this crawled it's way out of my brain.

It was also written in one sitting very late in the night with no Beta present... so yeah. *laughs*

Thanks again!