Tucker woke up with a start, blinking into the blackness. He listened for a moment for what could have possibly awoken him, but heard nothing. Not that he wasn't used to waking up in the middle of the night, however. For as long as he could remember he would wake up during the night if his subconscious felt something was a bit off, or if he wasn't perfectly comfortable. Like when he had ruined his dick friends idea of a joke putting whip cream on his face while he slept at a sleepover, or when his door was open a crack for some reason.
Tucker blinked, trying to get his eyes to adjust to the darkness. He turned to his right to see Caboose sleeping peacefully, holding his helmet tight to his chest and mumbling something about, "Tucker did it". Shaking his head, Tucker stood up and stumbled over to the door, opening it slowly and quietly so as to not wake Caboose, and stepped into the hall. The hall was slightly brighter than his shared room, but not by much. Tiptoeing, he stepped into the makeshift kitchen and inspected it. He wouldn't put it past Sarge to try to kill them in their sleep, despite the reds and blues being on relatively good terms for a few years. Old habits died hard, he knew.
Satisfied that the kitchen was safe of reds, he walked outside to check there too. It was silent, save for the whisper of grass in the breeze and the creaks of the ship's decapitated engine. He closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the unusual quiet and the feeling of grass under his bare feet. God knew, he didn't get to wear civvies often.
He headed back into the base, happy to think that he had simply woken because his neck had been in the wrong position. He stopped by Washington's room however, and wondered if it wouldn't hurt to make sure all was right in there. He was no stranger to his leader's nightmares, but knew that Wash preferred his door locked, and that he could take care of himself. He was halfway to his and Caboose's room, when he heard a gunshot. He stopped in his tracks and stayed there for a moment, listening. Another gunshot went off, and he dashed back.
He slammed Wash's door open(it wasn't locked, surprising).The first thing he noticed was that the walls were covered in cat drawings and photos. Most of them were done in crayon and looked to be Caboose's handiwork, but some were professional photographs.
The second thing he noticed was he wasn't shocked to see the former freelancer sitting up in bed. What was unusual was that he had a pistol in his hands and was set on shooting a certain point on the wall.
"Stay away!" Wash screamed, pulling the trigger again, adding a third bullet to the wall.
"Whoa, Wash, wake up man!" Tucker shouted, wanting to get closer but was afraid of getting shot.
"Don't touch my men! Stop!" Wash continued to scream, setting round after round of bullets into the wall.
Tucker hovered at the door way, wondering if he should leave Wash to wake on his own like he usually did, but felt that this nightmare was different somehow. Wash had never started shooting while asleep before.
"Wash! Wash! Washington! Wake up, it's just a nightmare! There's no one hurting you! Wash!" for a moment Tucker was afraid that someone hearing him shout Wash's name at the top of his lungs in the middle of the night might give them the wrong idea, but at the moment he had more pressing concerns than what the reds thought he might be up to.
Suddenly Wash sucked in a sharp breath and dropped the gun to the ground, pressing his face into his hands and trembling.
Feeling it was safe enough to approach, Tucker walked over to Wash and pushed the gun far away with his foot. He was about to shake Wash when Wash shook his head.
"Please, don't hurt them, please. I don't care if you kill me, just don't hurt them, please."
His voice was so full of sorrow and pleading that Tucker felt his heart squeeze in his chest.
"Wash, no one's hurting anyone. We're safe at blue base, remember?" Tucker sat down gingerly on the end of Wash's bed.
Suddenly Wash's head snapped up and he looked in Tucker's direction, but his eyes didn't fully focus on him. "York?"
"No, Wash, I'm—"
"York, oh my God I'm so sorry." Wash grabbed Tucker's sleeves and looked desperately at him, his face one of a sinner bent on repentance. "I'm so sorry York. That I wasn't there for you when you died, or that I never went looking for you after the project collapsed. I couldn't, you understand, right?"
"Wash, I'm not—"
"I was the one who recovered your body, and I met Delta. I didn't even try to comfort him, York. I couldn't even bring myself to grieve over your death. After what happened with Epsilon—but that's not an excuse. I'm so, so sorry York. You forgive me right?" Wash looked pleadingly at Tucker.
Tucker sighed, about to tell him again that he wasn't York, but the look on Wash's face pulled at what sympathy he had, and shut his mouth, before opening it again with something else in mind.
"Yeah, Wash, I forgive you, of course. 'Cos that's what friends do, right? They forgive each other for mistakes. Apology accepted, Wash."
Wash smiled and let go of his shirt and fell back onto his cot, sleeping peacefully almost immediately. Tucker watched him for a few more moments, to make sure he wouldn't have another nightmare, but Tucker's acceptance of his apology seemed to have put his mind at rest. Tucker stood up and walked over to where the bullets had entered the wall, and figuring it was best it Wash didn't remember his episode, tacked one of the many cat posters over the holes. He turned around to see Caboose standing in the door way, looking at him quizzically.
"I heard screams." Caboose whispered. "Did Agent Washingtub have another nightmare?"
Tucker walked over to Caboose and put his arm around the soldier, guiding him out of Wash's room and shut the door carefully. "Yes he did, Caboose."
"Is he okay now?"
"Yeah, Caboose, you don't have to worry."
Despite Tucker's assurance, Caboose didn't look at ease. He hugged the helmet Wash had made for him tighter to his chest.
Tucker sighed and slid down the wall next to Wash's door, and Caboose followed suit. They were quiet for a long while before Caboose piped up.
"Tucker, why do people have nightmares?"
Tucker shook his head. "I dunno man."
"No, but really. I have nightmares sometimes too."
"I know you do." Tucker was usually the one who was woken up by Caboose's muffled cries and had to console him back to sleep, or kick him awake.
"My nightmares are usually about Church leaving and never coming back, or of you being his best friend instead of me, or running out of crayons."
Tucker chuckled at the last one.
"But it doesn't make sense. Why would my own brain want to hurt me? It doesn't seem very nice." Caboose cocked his head as if considering his own words. "Agent Washington's brain doesn't seem very nice to him. And he has nightmares more often than I do. I don't get it."
"Yeah, neither do I." Tucker thought for a moment. "I guess, its 'cos, y'know. Everyone has things that they're afraid of, and during the day we can repress those fears 'cos we're awake. But when we're sleeping we don't have any control over our mind, and we have to deal with our fears eventually. And Wash…well, he's been through a lot of shit. He fought in a real war and nearly his whole team died and an AI committed suicide in his brain…so I'm sure he has plenty of things that he's afraid of."
Caboose pondered Tucker's words for a long time. Tucker was starting to get afraid that his explanation had been too complex for him, but suddenly he spoke up.
"What are you afraid of, Tucker?"
Tucker hadn't expected that question. "Uh…I dunno. Normal stuff. Like having to run drills for the rest of my life or the world suddenly having no more ladies in it."
Caboose grinned. "I still don't know what you'd do with a lady."
"Yeah, and you probably never will."
Caboose yawned and stretched. "I think we should sleep here tonight, so we can protect Agent Washington from nightmares trying to enter his room." Caboose put on his helmet to demonstrate how he would protect Wash.
"Yeah, that's a good idea Caboose. Just a sec." Tucker hurried back to his and Caboose's room and grabbed a couple pillows and blankets.
"There, now we can sleep."
Caboose took off his helmet and got under the blanket and fell asleep quickly. Tucker had a harder time doing so. He lay under the blanket thinking a long time about his and Caboose's conversation before finally closing his eyes.
Tucker woke up with a start again. Immediately he was afraid that Wash was having another nightmare, but when he opened the door a crack and peered inside all was quiet and calm. He closed the door again and made sure Caboose was still sleeping before gathering his blanket and pillow and walking back to his room. His watch read 4:23 AM and he was thankful that he had gotten up early. He knew that Wash woke up relatively early and didn't want him to find both himself and Caboose sleeping in front of his door. Tucker knew it would be no surprise to find Caboose sleeping there, Caboose often woke up in the middle of the night and went to sleep in front of Wash's door, but Tucker sleeping there would be a bit weirder. Tucker collapsed onto his cot, exhausted, and fell asleep.
"Hey, hey, hey sunshine! Time to wake up!"
Tucker opened his eyes blearily and looked at the time. 9:03. Weird, Wash usually woke him up around 7. Tucker rubbed his eyes and ran a hand through his thick brown hair. He stretched and got up and walked into the kitchen. The scent of pancakes filled the air as Wash was flipping one over the "stove", humming some old army song. He wore the pink lacey apron that Donut had given the blues after one of the red's surrender a few years back. He wasn't even wearing his armour, Tucker noticed with a raised eyebrow. Tucker took a seat next to Caboose who was frantically scribbling a picture with crayon.
"You're in a good mood today, Wash." Tucker noticed aloud.
Wash flipped two pancakes onto two plates and handed them over to Caboose and Tucker.
"Yeah, I guess I am." Wash beamed. "I'm not quite sure why. You guys must not have woken me up last night."
Tucker and Caboose shared grins when Wash's back was turned. "It's because we protected him from nightmares, isn't it Tucker?" Caboose whispered behind his hand.
Tucker smiled and nodded. "Yup." He poured syrup all over his pancakes and took a huge bite. Yep, he could tell today was going to be a great day.