Hello darlings! Hope you're all having a great day!
"Coop…" Duncan rubbed sleep out of his eyes, he had been woken up by the sound of pained moans and growls. He didn't really need to lay eyes on Cooper to know that his face would be scrounged up in a grimace. "Coop, wake up buddy…"
He didn't get any response. Not unless you counted what had woken him up in the first place.
"Hey, Too Tall!" he tried a little louder, his voice still rough with sleep, "Wake up!"
Still no answer. He looked over at the blond he laid head-to-head with, he was twisting and whimpering in his sleep. In the light of the full moon above them, Dunc could make out the wet trails left by tears that had run down the sides of Coop's face. Trailing from the outer corner of his eye and down near his ear.
He was hesitant about touching him to wake him up. But seeing as his friend obviously didn't wake up by being called alone, he figured he had to.
He rolled to his side, resting on his left elbow. He looked up towards Coop's limbs were sprawled all over the place, the exception being his right arm, and Duncan made a mental note about being thankful that they decided to lay down the way they had.
"Coop?! You hear me?"
Nope. No answer.
Duncan rolled up on his knees, sitting a little over Cooper's head before he tapped Cooper on the forehead. "Big guy, wake up! HEY!"
Cooper opened his eyes with a groan, but he didn't make any other sound of discomfort after that. "What?"
"Dude, you were either dreaming or in a lotta pain…" Duncan sighed as he rubbed a rough hand over his face. "Figured the human thing was to wake you up and let you set another 10mg of morphine…"
Clearing his throat in an attempt to trust his voice, Cooper nodded, "Yeah, my hand's cramping and it feels like it's on fire." Cooper paused and growled, "It being broken doesn't exactly help."
"On fire? Cramping?" Duncan looked towards Coop's injured hand with concern.
Cooper nodded, "Think it's cramping because of one of the must-be fractures. Think some piece of bone might be jabbing into the muscle or tendon or something…"
"It could be the infection…" Duncan frowned.
"It's cramping inward." Coop gritted out as he undid the Velcro on the pocket that held his personal med kit, "Almost sure it isn't because of the cut on top of my hand…"
'Infection like that, I wouldn't be…' Duncan thought, but didn't voice his concern. "Anything I can do?"
Cooper shrugged and shook his head, his face twisted in pain.
Duncan felt helpless as he sat on his knees and watched Cooper pull out one of the auto injectors. "Sure I can't help with anything?"
"No." Coop shook his head as he in the dim light tried to make out which end of the injector had the safety cap and which end held the hidden needle. He then quickly pried off the safety cap and jammed the needle end into his thigh. He held his breath for the ten seconds he had the needle in, exhaling first when he pulled it away from his thigh. Looking up towards Duncan he flashed a desperate smile before he admitted "Damn it hurts…"
"I bet…" Duncan said as he cracked his knuckles.
"I can see the starts now though…" Cooper tried to lighten the mood, sensing that Duncan was very worried. "For a little while at least."
Duncan didn't see the humor in it, but feigned a laugh just in case it helped Coop in some way.
"I should take a look at your hand…" he said as a follow up to the laugh.
"You can't…"
"I should."
"We're on full light discipline for this entire mission." Coop grit out, "Can't use a flashlight…"
"I could. No one's here to stop me."
"Some might be." Coop winced, "Up in the hills."
"I could…" Duncan started looking around to find something he could use to cover the lights.
"None of the stuff we've got on hand will shut in the light." Cooper whined, "Damn, my hand…"
"Is it really worth risking your life for light discipline?" Duncan scowled down at Cooper, "You could be in the process of getting blood poisoning right this moment…"
"My life isn't worth risking BOTH our lives for." Cooper groaned, "And it could be that I just jarred it in my sleep."
"You said it felt like it was on fire…" Duncan sighed, "That sounds more like an infection going bad…"
"Sounds like an infection in the first place." Cooper shook his head, looking towards the form of his hand.
"I really should take a look at your hand." Duncan said as he was reaching towards their backpacks.
"Don't." Cooper said curtly as he wrapped strong fingers around his splinted thumb and yanked.
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" Duncan tried shouting over Coop's cry of pain. "What in the name of… WHY!"
Cooper was too busy trying not to pass out from pain to answer. He cradled his right arm and rolled over to his side, panting like a maniac.
MACGYVERxDELTASPECIAL
It took minutes before Coop relaxed. Minutes before his quiet sobs started to even out into proper breaths. Minutes before he was able to form a sentence. Minutes before he was able to sort through the sound of Dunc's voice and understand what his buddy was saying.
"Cooper…" Dunc's voice was no longer loud or accusing, he wasn't mad or furious. He just wanted to help, wanted to end the agony Cooper obviously was in, "Coop, why would you do something like that?"
Sucking air through his teeth, Cooper looked up towards Duncan, "Testing a thesis…"
"Oh, so you're suddenly going scientific on me? Is that it?" Duncan growled with renewed annoyance. "You're stupid, you know that?"
"Think it worked though…" Cooper answered as he focused on taking slow and even breaths, "Hurts like heck, but it ain't cramping up like it did before."
"It ain't?"
"Like I said, hurts worse than you can imagine…" Cooper winced, "But it's not seizing up on me…"
"So that crazy, stupid, knee-jerk hail Mary move of yours actually worked?"
Cooper swallowed audibly, nodded and let out a heavy sigh, "Yeah, feels like it…"
"I should still check out that hand of yours…"
"Let it wait until sun up…" Coop grimaced, "It's not that many hours away anyway."
"Coop…" Dunc started in an accusing tone.
"Hey. Let's just sleep. Okay?" Coop begged, "I'll let you torture me as much as you want tomorrow, just please… Can't we just sleep now… The stars are dimming over again…"
"You're impossible…" Duncan brought his hands to his head in frustration, "You could die from blood poisoning if that infection you've got turns into it…"
"Yeah?" Cooper challenged, "Well, we're out in the middle of freaking nowhere, what are you supposed to do about it if that's the case?"
Duncan had his answer, he just didn't want to say it. Didn't want to admit that it was even an option.
"Thought so!" Cooper said after he thought the silence had lasted long enough, "I'm getting some more sleep. You should too!"
Okay, you got a short-ish chapter today. Hope you enjoyed it anyway…
