Hello again… Hope you're doing fine.
"Hey, Dunc…?" Cooper said after they both had been silent for a long time.
"Yeah…"
"You think they've added any sort of painkiller at all to that bag hanging up there?" the blond nodded towards the IV bag of antibiotics.
"Yeah. They did…"
"Oh…" Coop nodded and closed his eyes to think.
Dunc looked at plastic bag, and then at Cooper's face. He didn't like the way all the lines in the blonde's young face had deepened and made him look a lot older than he was.
"It's not enough? Is it?" Dunc didn't really need to ask, one look at Coop's face and he actually knew.
The blond shook his head, opened his eyes and looked up at the bag with a frown. "So far I think all it does is give me a horrible taste in my mouth… My hand still feels like it's being driven over by a tractor…"
"Well, that's a mental pain-picture I didn't expect…" Duncan shuddered, "You want me to go look for someone who might be able to give you some more?"
"That'd be great…" Cooper nodded.
"Alright, I'll be right back…"
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"So… Still haven't heard anything from the base?"
"Nothing good…" Boxer shrugged, "I keep asking why we don't get a bird ASAP, he keeps telling me that there's a crisis but that it's on a need to know basis."
"That's ridiculous…" Jack frowned in the waning light, "We're like the guys who are supposed to know when there's just a handful of people who should know…"
"Yeah, I tried verbally beating that into the Captain's brain…" Box rolled his eyes, "Guess he left his brain back stateside."
"He must have…" Pete shot in, kneeling down next to the two others. "How are you doing boss?"
"Good…" Jack nodded, "Little anxious about a few things that I'd like to be miles away from… But other than that I'm all good."
"The leg's not bothering you too much?"
"Nah…" Jack shook his head, "It's fine as long as I keep it still…"
"Well, at least we've got one thing going for us…" Boxer sighed, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm almost ready to go off script…"
"And what do you suppose we do?"
"Well…" Box shrugged his shoulders, "I mean, we might not have the numbers for any other brass written down… But we all had to learn phone numbers by heart back in the day…"
"I kinda didn't, Grunt-pa…"
"Don't Grunt-pa me!" Boxer growled and swatted Pete, "I ain't old enough for that yet."
"Eh… Anything over 38 is old enough for that nickname in this business…" Pete joked back, "And you've hit the big 4-0 already Box…"
"Shut your pie hole…" Boxer groaned, "Anyway… Wyatt and me had to learn numbers by heart back in the day. And I think I can conjure up another number if I try… I just want to know that you're on the same page before I try…"
The poor light was just enough for Pete and Jack to read each other's facial expressions.
"Try the Captain one more time…" Jack said after a long time, If that POG can't find a way to get us outta here soon, we dial up either one of his superiors or one of the choppers direct."
"Okay, just excuse me for a minute… I've got to make a call to a brick wall…" Boxer sighed as he readied himself to get to his feet.
"We can't stay here." Jack drawled, and lowered his voice so just Pete and Boxer had the chance of hearing him, "I don't think either one of us is comfy with what we know is hidden here. And I feel more and more stupid every time I've got to tell these people who we've kinda rescued that we don't know when we'll be picked up…"
Pete nodded, "I totally agree. But we might get in big trouble for this…"
"Well, if you haven't noticed it yet hotshot, we already are…" Boxer remarked as he toed his boot into Pete's boot.
"He's got a point…" Jack nodded, still looking at Pete. "It's not safe to be here with all of whatever you guys found in there…"
"Well, let's just hope we won't get court martialed." Pete shook his head and looked over at the group of almost rescued hostages, "But it's the right thing to do, and it's worth it…"
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"Sorry kid, but our choppers are still busy."
"We need one. NOW." Boxer put his free hand to his side, "We need to get out of here!"
"Kid, you're not listening to me. There's no choppers available."
"Listen here, call me kid one more time and I'll find a way to crawl through this phone and slap you up the face!" Boxer growled, almost certain that he could be older than the guy he was talking to.
"I'm sorry, there's nothing…"
"Oh shut it! Go sit on a pine cone or something!" Boxer barked, tired of not getting through to the Captain. "We need a chopper. Preferably 5 hours ago."
"I'll call you back up when there's one available."
"That might be too late!" Box tested, hoping that it would get him anywhere.
"You've just got to wait…" the Captain said, "I'll call you up."
The phone disconnected and Boxer fought the urge to send the sat phone flying.
He had to take a few minutes to calm himself down enough to dial the next number from memory.
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"You've reached Colonel Barnes." A rough voice greeted him, "Who am I speaking with?"
"Claude Boxer."
"Boxer?" there was recognition in his voice, "How've you been doing son?"
"Good. Mostly." Boxer shrugged, "Look, I've got to ask a favor of you…"
"Just tell me what it is?" the Colonel started, "I'll try and make it happen for you. You guys really saved my ass back in Fallujah."
Boxer nodded, a smirk creeping up on his face at the memory. "We're on a mission, ready to be extracted."
"Okay? So what's the problem?"
"The jackass Captain we were to report to claims that there's no available birds in pretty much all of Afghanistan." Box rolled his eyes, "That's what he makes it sound like anyway."
"Okay, well. There is a situation going on in Shaikh Ali, but he should be able to pull at least one chopper on short notice." Colonel Barnes answered with dismay. "Let me know your coordinates and I'll get you outta there straight away."
"Okay, we need room for 15. 12 hostages and 3 operators." Box informed, "A little extra legroom would be nice too, Wyatt broke his leg. He doesn't need a medic, but…"
"We could try to make sure he can have his leg up?" the Colonel offered when Boxer didn't find his words, "Make it a little more comfortable for the man…"
"Yeah…" Box nodded, "I don't know if you remember how he is… But…"
"Oh, I remember." The Colonel assured, "And I remember you two sounding like a bitchin' ol' married couple when things went sideways."
"Hey, what can I say?" Box chuckled, "Somebody's gotta look after that freak."
"If I recall, you were the one who had been shot…"
"Yeah, but just a graze wound… And I had to make sure that lunatic didn't get it worse than me…" Boxer chuckled.
"So, room for 15 or more… Got it…" the Colonel nodded, "Location?"
Boxer nodded and gave the coordinates he had memorized for the location, then once he was done, he cleared his voice. "Look, our orders were to contact the Captain, and only the Captain… So it would be great if you could keep this kinda unofficial… We're probably gonna get our heads chewed off already, but… We can't stay here. There's explosives here. A lot of them and we really don't know if they're stable or not…"
"Okay?"
"Our orders were to blow it up on site. There's way more than we had intel about, and we can't really figure out a safe distance."
"The only one who needs his head chewed off is that no-good Captain who shouldn't have been in charge of this in the first place." The Colonel sighed, "I guess I can have a bird out there with you in 40 minutes. Most of the choppers are near Shaikh Ali, and it probably needs to refuel before they can come for you."
"Sounds good, sir!"
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"ETA 40 minutes…" he grinned as he made it back to the two others.
"Did you win over him, or did you call someone else?"
"Called Colonel Barnes." Boxer grinned, "Think it took me 10 words, and he was working on fixing it for us."
"Nice." Jack grinned, clapping his hands together. "Gonna be nice to get outta here!"
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"How is it now? Is it better?"
"Yeah. A little." Cooper nodded, "Still not anywhere near comfortable, but better."
Duncan's eyes went to Coop's bandaged hand.
"Hey…" Cooper said as he used his foot to bump against Duncan's arm, "It's not that bad…"
"I'd be a lot more freaked out than you are right now, if the roles were reversed…" Duncan admitted and scratched his head, looking away from the thick bandage.
"There's no use in freaking out now, is there?" Cooper scrounged up his nose, "I mean, I could… But my hand would still hurt just as much and need just as much time and rehab to get back in fighting condition."
Dunc nodded. Secretly he had strong doubts about Coop's chances of actually getting back in action.
"Hey, cheer up a little…" Coop sighed, "You look like you're about ready to go to my funeral. That's not the case."
"I know it's not…" Duncan chuckled, "Just… I don't like that you're still in pain…"
"It's not that bad anymore…" Coop tilted his head a bit, "Just bad enough to make me not want to move it…"
"The fact that that's coming from the guy who walked around with a broken arm for weeks without getting it checked out… That's not reassuring." Duncan sighed.
"I told you…" Coop shrugged, "I really didn't think I'd done anything to my arm back then…"
"The fact that it kept on hurting for weeks on end didn't raise a suspicion for you?"
"Didn't really hurt enough to call it that…"
"You're digging yourself deeper and deeper in this not-reassuring hole…"
"Okay, maybe I am…" Coop sighed with defeat, "But, trust me… I'm coming back…"
Duncan wanted to ask how he could be so sure of it. Because right now he saw nothing, except the sheer stubbornness of his buddy, that would suggest that was even an option. "You sure are a glass half-full kind of guy, right?"
Cooper shrugged a little, "It's not fun focusing on all the things that could end up not working out all the time… Way too easy to lose motivation then…"
Duncan just shrugged.
"Deep down I know…" he admitted, "The doctors, nurses… You… None of you have said anything yet, but just by how my hand is feeling, I know I could end up with a stiff hand, that might not ever work as it should ever again… But… This… I can't let myself think like that all too often if I want to get back. If I focus on the bad, then I know I won't be able to get past this…"
"So… You know…"
"Yeah…" Coop nodded, paling a little at the thought. "I know how bad it looked before I got here… I know that the fractures could cause a lot of trouble. I know whatever they did to save my hand in the first place, I know that could probably end up causing me problems. –You mentioned they cut away a bit of flesh, right? The wound was massive to begin with… You don't need to be a grade A student to figure out that you probably are gonna end up with some permanent damage."
Duncan flinched at the words.
"So, let's just agree. Right here and now, that the two of us are finished with all the thoughts that says that I'm not gonna make it back. Because I'm going to do all that I can to come back, and you know it…"
"Yeah…" Duncan shook his head, before a chuckle left him, "Okay. We're done with the 'Coop's not coming back at all' thoughts. Okay… But I still get to worry about you? Right?"
"You worry too much…" Coop winked.
"Well, you don't worry enough." Dunc rolled his eyes, "But I don't doubt that you're gonna do everything in your power to come back and be the direct cause of my high blood pressure for another decade or two…"
Cooper laughed, then it morphed into a yawn.
"Damn Coop, haven't you slept enough today?" Duncan chuckled, suddenly feeling overwhelmed by exhaustion himself and caught off guard by a yawn himself.
"Yeah… No…" the blond shook his head, "Kinda tired… Kinda wanna sleep for a week or two…"
Nodding Duncan looked up at the clock on the wall. "Nine o'clock, you're not feeling well, that's for sure…"
"Told you…" Coop answered as he closed his eyes for a second, "Feels like I've got at least 5 different strains of flu all at once."
"Yeah, you did say something like that…" Dunc nodded, "I'm gonna go talk to the staff here, figure out if I can stay here and sleep in a chair somewhere. Don't bother staying awake for me…"
"Already ahead of you…" Cooper smirked as he closed his eyes once again. "Night."
"Night…"
Okay… Another literal mess. Hope you enjoyed.
Nada action in this one, 'sowwy'…
Have a good one!