Awareness returned to Clay in the form of flickering light across his eyelids, which stopped as soon as he started to shift. The movement spiked agony in his leg again, bringing back memories of where he was and why he was in so much pain. The blonde groaned, rolling his head for a moment to ensure he still had proper movement.
"You just can't keep yourself out of trouble, can you GQ?" Sonny's voice drifted down to him, and relief flooded Clay. Not only did Sonny's snark mean his brothers were safe, he'd been found. Getting him out, though...probably a different story.
"Just trying to keep things interesting…" His voice drifted off as he remembered the fact that his team believed that he'd sold them out to his father. "The others okay?"
"The hostiles you warned us about moved on without seeing us, thank you, and the rest of the team continued with the mission while I came for your sorry ass. So...what's the damage? Is that blood on your leg?"
"Yeah...compound fracture that...frankly is hurting a hell of a lot more than it did when I first fell," Clay replied, easing himself into a sitting position and trying to get a look at his injury without pulling on it.
"Probably adrenaline wearing off, gotta hurt like hell. Stop moving so much, you might make it worse. Let me give the team an update and make sure they don't need overwatch...don't go wanderin' off." Clay ha-ha'd and watched the Texan duck out of view.
Once he was alone, Clay returned his attention to the blood caked onto his pant leg. With slightly shaky fingers, he reached down to pull the fabric away from his skin, and stars burst in his vision at the first tug. "Oooooh fuckfuckfuckfuck, don't pass out, don't pass out…" Not trying that again until the team gets him the hell out of his hellhole.
"If you really were this bad-ass SEAL capable of erasing my steps, you would've seen all of this coming, you know."
Impossible. Not happening. I'm actually hallucinating...wonderful. Opening his eyes, Clay found his father sitting against the wall to his left, a smug grin on his face. "All of what, Ash?"
"The sabotage, the fact that your so-called brothers turned on you the second the news broke, hell, that damned hole in the floor. You think you are going to surpass me making bullshit mistakes like this? You're lucky you're not dead."
Clay rolled his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose. "I can't be that lucky if I have to listen to you even when there is no possible way you're here…"
"Don't pretend that it matters whether or not I'm physically here, because even still I'm messing with your head, and that is what matters. Because regardless, you know it's all true. You're in this predicament right now because you weren't paying attention to your own damn feet. This team doesn't care about you the way you care about them...the way you need them."
Clay shook his head, fighting the rise of nausea that had nothing to do with his pain. "Yeah, maybe I made a careless mistake because I was too worried about my team...maybe it's got me fucked up that they don't trust that I wouldn't sell them out." He was silent for a long moment, breathing through the pain and grief. "Even if you cost me everything...even if I lose the career I love and the only true family I've ever had, because you are more worried about your fucking money and fame...I won't regret a second of my life as a SEAL. Because I got to learn what true SEALs look like...men who would die for one another, and men who would never jeopardize the integrity of their mission."
Jason Hayes could not identify a time when he'd wanted to strangle one Ash Spenser more than having to listen to his youngest teammate lament the perceived loss of his team and his career. Not if I have anything to say about it.
"Four, you need to hurry the hell up and get down here. There should be room for everyone, might end up needing everyone...but the kid definitely needs you ASAP, Trent. He's delusional...talking to me like I'm his father but eyes staring right through me."
"Shit," Bravo Four muttered in response, repelling down into the space next to the team leader. He tugged a glove off with his teeth and pressed the back of his hand to Clay's forehead, which didn't garner even the slightest response. "He's burning up…" The medic shifted down towards their injured teammate's leg, and the others carefully joined them in the tight space.
"I just don't understand why, Dad...what did I do to make you want to ruin me?"
The question tore out Jason's heart, made him imagine his own children asking something so vulnerable. With a growl, he grabbed Clay's face with both hands and leaned in close. "Listen to me, Spenser...listen to my voice. Ash isn't here. Bravo is here...your brothers are here. Do you understand me, kid? Clay, look at me!" Slowly, pained blue eyes focused on him, and Jason felt a glimmer of hope as Sonny and Brock landed. "That's it, there he is...we're not abandoning you, Clay. We've got your six, brother...out here and whatever it takes to get this bullshit with your father out of the way once we get home." He looked up at Trent, whose face had gone pale and grim. "This is going to hurt like hell, but the team is all here, and we're going to get you home. Do you understand me?" Clay slowly nodded, tears filling his eyes as reality seemed to finally sink back in.
"I've gotta pull the fabric away from his leg, and it's not gonna be pretty. This'll be safer for all of us if you each take a limb and hold him steady. If it's a compound fracture, I'm going to have to set and splint it before we can move him," Trent explained. "Not liking the idea of giving him morphine with the hallucinations." The team deftly positioned themselves around their fallen brother, Sonny and Jason each bracing a shoulder while Brock took his uninjured leg and Ray offered the strap of his gun to Clay.
"Can't help with the pain, brother, but this'll help protect your teeth. Open up…" The blonde obeyed with a shaky breath, and bit down once it was in place.
Pained eyes turned to the team leader once more, and Jason couldn't be sure if he was seeing Bravo One or his father again. "We've got you, Spense. You don't need to be strong right now, let us take over from here brother."
Clay watched him silently for a moment, breathing heavily through his nose, gaze seeming to pass in and out of focus, before he closed his eyes and dropped his head back onto Ray's knees. He reached up to wrap his fingers around Sonny's and Jason's wrists. Bravo One clenched his jaw, sympathetic to his teammate's impending agony, and nodded to Trent.
"I'm sorry, kid…" With quick and sure hands, the medic tore away the pant leg and yanked firmly on the bone, the resulting snap and barely-muffled scream sending Jason's stomach rolling. The wounded man arched against the rest of the team, and Ray leaned over him murmuring a soft prayer. "Splint kit," Trent called. Sonny handed over the requested supplies with one hand, maintaining pressure on Clay's shoulder with the other. "I think the hallucination came from infection...where the bone broke through the skin is a mess; that combined with the fever..." He didn't need to say anything further.
"Okay, then we need to get Goldilocks the hell outta Dodge and to a place that can give him the good drugs, so let's get moving shall we?" Sonny demanded, squeezing Clay's shoulder in a feeble attempt to comfort.
