Jason looked over the five other guys who was in the middle of packing away their parachutes. His heart was beating double time, he needed to figure out who had been in trouble going down. He started looking for the members of his team in order.

Ray.

Sonny.

Trent.

Brock.

Clay.

Full Metal was the missing one.

"Anyone see if Full Metal got his reserve open?"

"Was it Metal who had problems?" Ray asked looking around, "Yeah, saw the reserve open, but he was really low when it did…"

"How low?" Trent asked, a concerned look in his eyes.

"Probably got a rough landing, but should be alright."

Sonny was the first one to get on his radio, "Alpha-1, this is Bravo-3. What's your status? Over."

A couple of seconds passed.

"Alpha-1, this is Bravo-3. What's your status? Over."

Another couple of seconds passed, no answer.

"Did you see which direction he went down in?" Jason asked Ray.

"I didn't see where exactly, but it was near the hill with the giant rock on top." Ray said, pointing in that direction.

"We need to find him." Jason swallowed.

"Alpha-1. This is Bravo-3. What's your status?" Sonny repeated yet another time, before looking at the rest of them when no answer came. His expression clearly stating what all of them were thinking.

SEALTEAM

They had walked in the direction Ray had picked out for almost two hundred yards when Brock keyed his mike, "This is Bravo-5, I see a reserve parachute a little west of those five trees… About 300 meters out."

"Good copy Bravo-5, I see it too." Jason nodded, "Alright guys, brace yourselves for what we might find."

SEALTEAM

Trent was still almost 35 yards out when he heard that they wouldn't find a corpse. He heard someone whimpering, and dead people don't whimper.

"Hey, Full Metal!" he called out, "Are you awake?"

A second or two passed before Full Metal answered, his voice was laced with pain, "Yeah."

"You hurt?" he asked as he stepped closer. Dumb question, he knew it.

"Yeah." Metal's voice sounded like a grimace, "I think I've broken something."

"Neck? Back?" Trent asked as he got close enough to actually see Full Metal laying flat on his back through the three feet tall grass. The tall man didn't move and he was pale.

"No-no-no…" Metal shook his head a bit, "My left knee. My left leg in general, to be honest."

Trent nodded and knelt down, the rest of the guys showing up one by one. "Why didn't you answer when Sonny called you up on the radio?"

"Was trying to reach you." Metal bared his teeth and growled, "No answer. Traced the cord from my headset. Radio's gone."

"Oh, okay…" Trent nodded, "Are you hurt anywhere else? How's your head?"

"My leg is worst." Full Metal grimaced, "My head is fine. Got a few scrapes and bruises all over."

"What happened up there?"

"Line wrapped around my leg." Metal growled, "Think it yanked my knee out."

"Out?"

"Dislocated it or some shit…" Full Metal grimaced, "Disconnected, but the lines were still wrapped around my leg. Had to get rid of it before I could deploy my reserve so they wouldn't tangle."

Trent nodded, there was no doubt in his mind that Metal was in a lot of pain. He had known the man for actual decades by now, and the man's usual way of handling pain was to 'rub some dirt on it, and walk it off'. Vivid memories of Full Metal ignoring injuries which shouldn't be ignored danced around in his mind.

"Was low when I finally got loose and could deploy the reserve. Landed feet first, but hard. Pretty sure my left leg is both torn and broken. -And I twisted my right ankle."

Trent nodded, "You know I need to take a look at that leg of yours?"

"Not a fan of it, but yeah…"

"Better get that backpack away from your legs first."

Metal swallowed hard, "Just cut the backpack strap which goes around my leg, alright? I don't want you to move my leg at all."

Trent nodded, "Of course."

SEALTEAM

The whole team cringed when Ray lifted the backpack away after Trent had cut the backpack strap, and Full Metal's leg followed the strap sideways with almost no resistance.

The sound Full Metal made sounded more like the primal growl of a large predator than anything a human should be able to produce.

"Crap…" Sonny was the first to regain the ability to speak, not to anyone's surprise, "That's not good."

Trent shook his head as he crawled down to Metal's feet and started cutting away at the fabric of his pants in order to reveal the mangled leg.

Metal's ankle and leg looked bad enough, swollen and starting to bruise, but it was the knee Metal had pointed out being the worst.

SEALTEAM

His guts twisted painfully as he revealed his friend's knee. Best word to describe it was shapeless. The entire leg looked wrong, but the knee was the nightmare fuel of it all.

It would bruise a lot, it hadn't gotten there yet, but it would. If they were lucky the main vessels would be intact. If not, they should put a tourniquet on. He was a bit concerned, since Metal was paler than usual, but that could also be written off as an effect pain had on him.

He got a bright idea, and moved to get the combat boot off of Metal's foot. He sensed that Metal tried his best to keep quiet, but there was no way for him to accomplish that task. Not with a leg like that.

"Still got a strong pulse, Champ!" he informed as he looked up at Metal.

"Good." Metal winced.

"I'm just going to check your chest and abdomen as well. Make sure you're not hiding some internal bleeding there." Trent informed as he silently instructed Clay to keep Metal's foot in the position it was in.

Metal nodded and helped getting his gear off, "Didn't hurt anything in my torso."

"I'm gonna check anyway." Trent declared, "That leg is enough to blind you for other pains and aches. And I want to do my due diligence here."

Metal nodded and lifted the chest-plate aside, before he tugged his shirt out from under the belt.

"Any abdominal pain?" Trent asked as he looked over Metal's now exposed skin.

Metal shook his head.

Trent nodded and placed his hands on Metal's stomach, checking if his abdomen felt cold, clammy or distended. "Let me know if this hurt."

"Only my leg's hurting."

Trent pressed his lips hard together, he had known the man on the ground for long enough to not trust him entirely when he said nothing else hurt. "Any chest pain, shortness of breath?"

Metal shook his head.

"Shoulder pain?"

Metal shook his head.

"Dizziness or feeling faint?"

"I was hoping to pass out when that leg moved." Metal shrugged a little, "No such luck."

"I'll take that as a 'no'." Trent shrugged as he finished up checking Metal's abdomen, "Gotta check your chest as well."

Metal frowned a bit, but it didn't look like it was from the pain this time around.

"What?"

"Full disclosure?" Metal scrounged up his nose, "I bruised a couple ribs on my right side a couple of weeks ago. Still pretty colorful."

Trent raised his eyebrows a fraction in disbelief, "Alright, let's see them."

Metal sighed, and lifted his shirt further, "Only stings when there's pressure on it. So… You don't have to press down right there."

Trent rolled his eyes once he had studied the old mottled bruising. "Sure you only bruised it?"

Metal shrugged a little.

"Metal, what happened there?"

"Fell off my sister's roof." He sighed, "Was helping them put new tiles on the roof. Lost my footing."

"You talked about going to do that almost two months back…" Trent frowned, "When did you say you did this?"

Metal didn't answer straight away, it was obvious that he didn't want to answer.

"Metal…"

"It happened that weekend." He finally admitted.

"So this bruise is almost two months old." Trent scowled, "Which means you probably broke a couple of ribs, not just bruised them…"

Metal swallowed.

"Which means you probably shouldn't have been on this mission in the first place, but you CERTAINLY shouldn't have been on the last ten spin-ups." Trent scowled down at the man, as he put slight pressure directly on the old bruise.

"Hey, I said don't do that!" Metal frowned and swatted Trent's hand away from the bruise, "Already told you that stings."

"Yeah. And I'm trying to imply some negative association with hiding injuries from the team!" Trent huffed, then he took a deep breath to collect himself, "Alright, sorry… I shouldn't be doing that. -But you should know better."

Metal shrugged a bit, "Didn't slow me down."

"You know how tempting it is to press down on that bruise?" Trent shot Metal a look.

"Copy that." Metal nodded.

"Now, does it hurt when I press down other places here?"

Metal shook his head.

"Alright, looks like you avoided any internal injuries to your chest and torso." He nodded, "I'm going to check on that every now and then until we've sent you with the medevac team."

Metal nodded a little. "How are we gonna do this?"

"We need to stabilize your leg first." Trent informed.

"No. Medevac." He grimaced, "We're 30 clicks inside a country we're not supposed to be operating in. They won't send a helicopter for me, will they?"

Jason shook his head, "No. Since it's not life threatening at the moment, so they won't."

Metal grimaced, his left hand pressed against his left hip, like it would help stabilize the leg further down.

"Orders are to get you on a stretcher and head for the border. Mission is stalled until further notice."

Metal nodded a bit, his face still overtaken by grimaces every now and then.

"What do you think boys?" Trent swallowed hard, "Splint the bad leg against the good one, minimize movement as best as we can."

"Good. My knee is Jell-o…" Metal sighed, "Painful Jell-o…"

"Sure has the structural integrity of it…" Sonny admitted, letting out a short profanity when Ray's elbow connected with his ribs.

"No need to punish the guy Ray." Metal gritted out, "I know how bad this is."

SEALTEAM

Clay almost felt faint himself as the helped Trent move Full Metal's leg back into position.

In his hands it felt like he was holding something which had just been attempted being put back together with Elmer's glue, long before the glue had set.

There was no resistance at all.

But the worst was the small whimpers rolling off of Full Metal after the initial scream died down.

He'd seen the older man cuss. He'd seen the man yelp, like once. He'd never seen the unbreakable Full Metal so broken down. Never seen him so frail.

"I'm so sorry…" he said it, but he doubted Full Metal even heard him.

"Still a strong pulse." Trent informed once Metal's leg was more straightened out. Then he started securing Metal's legs against each other, using parachute canopy as padding between Metal's legs and as the ribbons to tie his legs against each other.

Not long after they had managed to roll Metal onto the tactical stretcher Brock had assembled for them, and secured him to it properly.

Full Metal had paled even more after the jostling.

"Still a good pulse." Trent assured as he checked Metal's pulse once again, "Does it hurt when I check?"

"Hurts all the time." Full Metal bit out, "Don't really notice you fondling my foot."

"No?"

Metal shook his head a bit.

"You don't feel me touching your foot at all?"

"You could sucker-punch me straight in the nose right now, and I wouldn't notice it because of how bad my leg hurts."

"Okay…" Trent frowned, not exactly believing Metal's explanation. It wasn't exactly like he didn't have first hand experience with nerve damage, "You need more pain relief?"

"I need some pain relief." Metal nodded, "Couldn't sit up. Couldn't reach the personal med kit. Haven't had any."

"We should probably do something about that before we start carrying ya…" Sonny frowned, "Why didn't ya say something?"

Metal shrugged a bit, "Was a bit distracted."

SEALTEAM

The 30 kilometer trek with Full Metal on a stretcher took a bit longer than any of them had hoped for. 30 clicks with a man on a stretcher should be entirely possible to accomplish in one day, if the terrain had been a little bit easier than what they actually met.

About 22 kilometers in, the sun had dipped below the horizon, the team had pushed on for a few more clicks with night vision goggles in place, but eventually had to get some rest.

So they hunkered down for the night.

SEALTEAM

He laid there listening to the snores of the rest of the team. He was in too much pain to fall asleep.

Instead he ended up laying there, listening and looking up at the black nothingness above him. The only thing he saw up there was the full moon.

He knew the stars would be out as well, but he didn't see them. He'd experienced this before. He knew morphine could mess up his night vision.

He listened. He could point out each team-member's distinct sleeping sounds.

Jason had the most standard snores, but only every third or fourth inhale.

Ray had soft snores, constant. Like a comforting 'I'm still here' message to whoever was close.

Trent had this funny whistle-like sound on his exhales. He didn't snore, not even when he laid on his back. But his exhales sounded like someone who didn't know how to whistle attempting to whistle.

Clay hummed a bit every now and then. Kinda like sleep talking, but not talking.

Sonny's wood-mill snoring was missing though. Either the man had found the one position which kept him from snoring, or he had stopped breathing. -Or he was still awake.

"Sonny?" he whispered, angling his head in the direction he thought the Texan would be in.

"Yup…" Sonny whispered back, "Cant's sleep?"

"Nah, hurts too bad." He had no problem admitting that, the rest of the guys had seen his leg. He probably wouldn't have cared if it was daylight and Sonny had been able to see the wet trails leading from his eyes and back to his ears. There was no need to hide the pain. "You?"

"Thinking too much…"

"About what?"

"Previous missions. This mission. Home. Family." Sonny listed up, "Both this family and blood relatives."

"What kind of missions?"

"Where any of us got hurt beyond the regular nicks and scrapes." He heard Sonny shrug, "This is the BEST job ever. But it's also the worst job ever."

Full Metal nodded a little bit to that. He agreed. No matter how much pain it had caused him throughout the years, it had all been worth it.

"Well, I don't think society see you and I as fit for anything else." He smirked half a second before a sinking feeling appeared in his gut. What if this was the end of his career?

Sonny huffed a laugh, "Words of wisdom there, my friend."

He pushed the unwelcomed doubt away. "Yeah. Just imagine the two of us in any other profession."

"What would that even be like?" Sonny mused, "I can't really imagine either of us with an 'Apple pie life' and a 9-5…"

Metal nodded, "True. I don't think I even had a fallback plan when I joined."

"I didn't." Sonny admitted.

"I really don't know what I'd do if I'm done for…"

Sonny moved a bit to his left, Metal guessed that the man got up on his elbow, "I hope that's a work related question and not a 'I might suck-start a pistol' kind of statement."

"Relax. It's just me being worried about the future." Metal almost smiled, "I've got stuff to live for outside of these missions as well. Got three great kids I'm the uncle to, and believe it or not, I've got friends as well."

"Good." Sonny's voice was a bit more relaxed, "I'm not ready for another funeral this decade."

Metal smirked, "You know, the decade has barely started."

"Doesn't matter." Sonny whispered back, "I'm never ready for another funeral."

Metal nodded, "Yeah, me neither."

"So, fallback plan? What would that be like now?" Sonny asked as he laid back down.

"You mean, if I don't heal well enough?"

"Yup…" Sonny drawled, "I better start window-shopping fallback plans in case I ever need one."

"Not sure." Metal sighed, "Always figured I'd die in combat."

"That's what we all think…"

"Not all of us…" Metal shook his head, "I know for a fact that we've got at least three members of our team who's picturing rocking chairs for their retirement."

Sonny chuckled a bit next to him, "Yeah, okay… But we're a different breed. They started families. They had fallback plans for their fallback plans."

"Probably did." Metal smirked, before he did an involuntary sharp inhale as something in his leg decided to amp up the hurting.

"You good there?"

"No." he admitted, "But nothing new. Guess I had a muscle twitch or something."

"Sucks, huh?"

"This whole day has sucked." Metal sighed, "Ever since we jumped out of that airplane, this day has sucked."

"Sure has. Gonna be good to get you in that medevac chopper or whatever they send for us tomorrow."

"I hope it's a chopper."

"Yeah?"

"Imagine being transported in the back of a vehicle on the bumpy roads this area is known for…"

"Aiii, that's nightmare fuel…" Sonny winced in sympathy.

"Yeah."

"About the afterlife… I always figured I'd travel back to Texas if I needed to… Help out around the farm." Sonny sighed, "I somehow worked it all out with my dad, last time I was there. But… I'm never guaranteed that I'd be in a condition to actually help if I got injured…"

Metal nodded, "I won't be able to help my parents either."

"Yeah, what do they do?"

"Well, both are retired now. Dad still takes on a few smaller construction gigs every now and then. Mom is the designated babysitter for my sister. Nothing I'm up for at the moment. Probably won't be up for it again either, if I don't heal well enough to get back in the field."

"Well, I've met your nephews and your niece…" Sonny started, "And I can see how you wouldn't keep up with them if you weren't cleared for active duty first, but I do think you'd be up for helping your dad out with light-duty stuff after your leg recovers."

Metal shrugged, "As much as this hurts right now… I can't imagine it…"

"Well, I believe in ya…" Sonny drawled next to him, "If anyone's strong enough to make it back after that accident right there, it's you."

Metal swallowed hard, "Thanks bud…"

They ended up chatting about all and nothing for a good while. Both knowing it probably was comforting for the other one to just be able to talk quietly into the night. At least until Sonny fell asleep.

SEALTEAM

The last few clicks went okay enough. The terrain had taken a turn for the more challenging, but nothing they couldn't handle.

They needed almost six hours for the last five clicks, but with the rough and steep terrain, and the fact that they had to carry Full Metal for the second day in a row, the pace they kept was a good one.

SEALTEAM

"See you back home, brother…" Trent winked Metal before he turned his attention to the medics who would take care of him until they got to a hospital, "Take good care of him, alright?"

The medic closest to him, the one who looked like he was all of 14 years old, nodded. "WILCO!"