Nine
Reece
"You fucking bastard!"
What the hell… where did that come from? That wasn't… another hallucination, right? Because it sounded distinctly like a very, very, very agitated Major Lorne. Agitated enough to bellow loudly enough that it manages to sound through the forest, over the rain coming down still hard.
But no, it can't be a hallucination because the Major's head whipped around just like mine did… and Rimmers'. "Reece, down!" What… not even getting as far as questioning the order, I simply let myself fall to the ground the same moment Rimmers whips around again and starts firing at us immediately. I manage to roll to the side but I still feel a cutting pain ripping my left upper arm. Not caring about anything I start crawling away from the bullets still coming in my direction… and suddenly it's quiet again.
I dare to lift my head… and see Rimmers lying on the ground, the Major's knife sticking out of his throat, his body unmoving. A little disbelieving I turn around… and see the Major who's also on the ground, half-sitting, facing away from me, clutching his right forearm and swearing like a trooper. Seriously, I've heard the Major swear a lot over the past months but not like this… okay, should probably go over there and give him a hand…
"Kid!" he calls out and it sounds really worried.
As fast as I can I scramble up, ignoring the pain in my arm and try to get over to him. "I'm here, sir."
He turns to me, wants to say something… and ends up calling, "His gun, Kid!" the moment I hear someone to my right breaking through the underbrush with full force. Giving up thinking once again I don't even look to my right, simply dive to Rimmers' side and manage to pry his Beretta lose. Purely on instinct I finally turn around, see someone – Lieutenant Strathen? – charging at me with a face that does not look like he's here to help me… and pull the Beretta's trigger.
Just a moment – or maybe also an eternity, I really don't know – later I hear additional firing coming from the same direction Strathen broke into the clearing we're at and I see him falling to ground, almost as if in slow motion.
I have to stare so hard at him that at first I don't even realize that… Laura knelt down beside me and immediately started treating whatever makes my arm hurt so much. As if in a daze I blink and look at her… and another groan from the direction of the Major snaps me finally back to reality. "Laura… the Major… he's got…"
"I'll take care of him in just a minute, Maureen." I shake my head furiously. No, no, not in a minute.
"Now, Laura. Arm's broken, at least. Looked ugly." She wants to keep on treating my arm but dammit, I'm okay. "I'm fine, Laura," I tell her stubbornly and try to shake her off.
However, it takes an intervention from someone else to get her off my back. "We need you over here, Laura. Looks like he's gonna pass out any minute." Oh. Major Lorne. Well… that probably explains Lieutenant Strathen… or maybe not. Quite frankly… I don't care anymore. All I want now is a hot bath and a nice, comfortable, warm bed… I'd even take one in the infirmary. Mmmh…
"Fine. But someone get their ass over here to take care of this graze shot." She looks at me again. "Promise me not to pass out right now?" I nod. Yeah, I think I can do that… although the graze on my arm is slowly starting to get really annoying. "Good. Keep it up until we're back at the Beta site, right?" I nod again and she gets up, albeit reluctantly. Only then… do I finally realize that it's over… and for some reason I start to shiver and it has nothing to do with the cold and the rain and the dark. How fucking embarrassing.
Moore
God… either I'm growing old… or some strange pollen on that planet makes me react like a pussy. But damn, does that arm hurt. At least I don't seem to have acquired just another gunshot wound when I let myself fall to the ground while burying my knife in Rimmers' filthy throat. And dammit, I'm not going to pass out any minute, Lorne. I'm about to tell him so but he only gets up and suddenly Laura crouches down beside me. Oh goody, someone had the sense to bring my medic along for the ride. However, whoever it was… I'll have to shoot him later. No one endangers my medic except me.
I want to say something but she starts examining the arm immediately, giving me almost too much pain to handle. Noticing my slight discomfort, she stops her examination and starts rummaging around her medic bag. "I take it you'll never again bitch about me letting Maureen move in with me?"
Ah yeah, that's the Laura I know… always getting straight to the point. But now that she reminded me of Reece… I try to sit up a little straighter against the tree stump Lorne and Winslow have propped me up against and find out where Reece is. She was right in the line of fire when Rimmers started pumping bullets into the scenery and… God, where is she?
I take a deep breath while Laura is preparing a syringe, hopefully full of that wonderful painkiller stuff. "Kid… she okay?"
Laura nods, but doesn't move aside. Oh God, something happened to the Kid, didn't it? That's why she won't let me see her. "Yeah, far as I can tell. Lorne's with her."
Oh… uh… "Not sure if that's a good thing."
She throws me an evil look… but dammit, let me see her. "Just shut up and let me do my work."
When you let me see her, I will. I take another deep breath, trying to shut out the increasing pain from the arm. "Let me see… Kid."
"Shut. Up." Uh-oh, she's not amused. In fact, she looks almost pissed. "Seriously, no painkillers for you if you don't shut your trap now."
Yeah, as if you would. "Can't threaten me with that… that's illegal."
She raises her eyebrow. "Oh yeah? Watch me." With that… she moves to put the syringe away… and I finally get a look at Kid, sitting a few feet away from me, looking a little shaken up… but otherwise okay. Forsberg is doing some bandaging on her left arm and Lorne has his hand on her shoulder, talking to her… but she's alive. Oh thank God she's alive and her "I'm here, sir," wasn't some pain induced hallucination. I allow myself to lean back again.
"Another day, Laura… another day." She turns back to me, syringe still in hand and ready, smirking.
With a very satisfied "I knew you're too much of a sissy to make it without painkillers," she drives the needle right into my thigh and seemingly half an eternity later I feel the pleasant numbness of the morphine set in. God, this feels good.
After that, it's only a matter of minutes until Laura has corrected a bit of Reece's work and while I start slowly drifting off to painkiller wonderland, she leaves my side to have a look at Reece again. But instead of blissful loneliness I get… Evan Lorne. Oh great, she must have ordered him to take care that I wouldn't do anything stupid… as if I could.
"Pretty little mess you got yourself into here, Moore." I just roll my head to give him a look but that only makes him grin. "Well, you and your little Lieutenant, that is. Never thought she'd turn out to be quite a handful." And here we go again. Ever since my slip of tongue about having to break my Lieutenant out of jail he just can't let a chance to get a jab at me go by. Bastard. It also seems he's not quite finished. "And by the way… too much "Casablanca" for you, Moore."
I manage to raise my eyebrow. "Point being?"
A grin escapes him, telling me he's going in for the kill now. "Here's looking at you, Kid?"
Idiot. And idiot me that I let him hear that somewhere. I growl, "Just shut up."
His grin grows brighter. "Nope. That's too good to ignore it."
Okay, so much for peacefully drifting off to painkiller wonderland. I have to fight that just for a little while longer… just long enough to get him what he deserves. "You wouldn't say that if I wasn't too hyped up on painkillers to be any real challenge."
His grin becomes a tad smug now. "Face it; you will never be a real challenge to me, with or without painkillers."
He really wouldn't say that if I wasn't too hyped up on painkillers to do anything more than sit around here and throw him glares. Maybe I'm not his superior in unarmed combat skills or higher mathematics but I'm positively his equal. "Does grating on a wounded man's nerves actually give you some kind of sick satisfaction, Lorne?"
A raised eyebrow. "You really need to ask that?"
I can only roll my eyes. At least he always preserves some sense of self-irony. "You got a point there."
He just shrugs and then starts getting on my nerves again. "So… about this Kid issue…"
Nope, buddy, not today. Because, you know… I think the morphine finally caught up with me. "Shut up… and let me pass out in peace." I don't even hear his answer because the moment I say it… I let the morphine do its work.
