"You bet your ass that when I get back home, first two things I'm gonna do is find a cold one, and get some caramel corn…" Coop chuckled as he steered the car they had acquired around another bend, "I swear, there's no limit to how bad I'm craving that right now…"
"Guys, you better believe him…" Duncan chuckled on the passenger side, "Lurch's cravings get real sometimes…"
"Hah… Shut it…" Coop chuckled good naturedly as he shifted down to second gear, in order to prepare the shabby looking vehicle to make the steep incline the road presented them with. The vehicle coughed a little, but climbed willingly, Coop groaned before he muttered under his breath, "Freaking worn stick shift…"
"-Or it's just you who can't drive it…" Dunc teased.
"Wanna switch?" Coop offered with a glance towards him, long enough to see his best buddy shaking his head. Then he looked in the review mirror at the three in the back, "Anyone?"
"No Boss…" the guy named Woods replied in a thick Boston accent, "But you could rearrange those massive feet of yours to find the gas pedal, I swear I saw a snail racing past us a minute ago…"
"You really want me to force this pregnant roller skate to go any faster on THIS road? One good bump and I think we'll be sitting on the gravel…"
Woods fabricated a sigh and rolled his eyes, "Alright, guess you're right. Everything would've been better if Monty hadn't managed to kill the Humvee earlier…"
"Well, that's why he's riding behind us on a motorcycle…" Dunc chuckled.
"Honestly, I could've switched with him right about now…" Coop squirmed a bit in his seat, "Windows open ain't doing shit here… And AC is a myth, obviously…"
"Complaining-complaining-complaining…" Dunc grinned, "is that all it is with you?"
"Right now?" Coop looked over for a quick second again, "Yeah, it's a hundred-and-hell degrees in here… Give me another ten minutes and it'll look like I just stepped out of the shower…"
"You are kinda sweaty…" Dunc admitted, "And it is on the limit of bearable in here…"
"It's past that…" Malik grunted, "I'm with Top, hundred-and-hell degrees in here indeed."
"What? Your North Dakota ass can't handle a little heat?" Oliver Redding teased back, wiping off his forehead with the back of his hand.
"Shut your pie hole Buck…" Malik scoffed back, "Your rodeo riding yippie-ki-ay ass ain't doing much better…"
"I ain't complaining yet…" Oliver shrugged back.
"YET being the operative word…" Chris Woods chuckled, "I'm about ready starting that little-kid 'DAD ARE WE THERE YET?' whining just about now…"
"Please don't…" Dunc grimaced, "We could tie you to the roof for half the price…"
"Please…" Woods rolled his eyes, "Gotta beat being squeezed between two sweaty as hell operators."
Cooper chuckled as he guided the crappy car around another bend.
"Sure about that, a wall of mountain on one side, and pretty much 60 feet of nothing on the other side." Dunc looked back over his shoulder at Woods in the middle, "I know this ride ain't first class, but I wouldn't willingly be strapped to the outside while that guy is driving."
"Sissy…" Coop winked over, earning himself a punch in the shoulder. Rubbing it and feigning hurt he looked over at Dunc, "Ow… You know that rule, 'Don't disturb the driver', it's a pretty good advice…"
"So now is the moment you decide that driving safety is a real thing?" Dunc chuckled, "Bro, I've seen you do all sorts of reckless stuff behind the wheel over the years. Like, taking your M4 and making Swiss cheese out of a guy with a rocket launcher…"
"Well, the rest of you were busy…" Coop shrugged.
"When was this? I can't remember that…" Malik asked.
"Oh, it was way back when…" Duncan shrugged, "Back before that lunatic made top position…"
"So… Before all of US then…" Buck assumed.
"Yeah…" Coop nodded, "Before you guys came along…"
He drove the car around another bend where the steep hill on the left blocked the view.
"We're meeting a truck up ahead…" Duncan said as he spotted a light colored truck a little further up the road, "Think we'll meet him in about three more of these scary turns…"
"Scary?"
"You behind the wheel and that steep a hill on one side?" Dunc chuckled, "You should be impressed I haven't found God all of the sudden. Started prayin' for all our stupid asses."
"I'm not a bad driver…"
"You ain't a pro either… And I'd like a pro on this road."
"I'd like a better car…" Coop shrugged and forced the poor car into a better gear, "Something a little sturdier would be nice…"
They drove around two more bends without speaking much. Coop was for once concentrating on keeping the car on the goat path of a road, the others kept quiet in hope of them all making it back to base in one piece.
"We're gonna meet him right by those rocks…" Dunc noted as he pointed to some large boulders on their side of the road, "Looks like we're lucky for once…"
"Yeah, would suck meeting anyone on the smaller parts of this donkey path…" Coop nodded.
They closed in on the rocks, and the other vehicle came closer too.
"Wait…" Malik swallowed, his eyes going wide, "Is it just me or is he picking up speed… Heading straight at us too."
"He is..." Dunc agreed, glancing over at Coop who was already mouthing cusswords soundlessly.
"This is gonna suck…" Coop growled as he realized there was no way around what was gonna happen next, "Brace yourselves!"
DELTA*SPECIAL
It was hard to breathe when he came to. Apparently the rust bucket they had taken had working airbags, which had deployed and filled the air with some sort of powder that made breathing sting.
He coughed a few times and let out a low growl. He did a quick assessment of his own state. Possible light concussion, nothing to worry about though. His left shoulder felt dislocated, quick fix most likely as long as Dunc was up for that task. Maybe a rib or two that had given in to the force of the airbag, or the steering wheel itself, that was gonna make pretty much everything miserable for a while. And then the subject of his legs. His left leg had to be broken, it hurt like possessed. His right had had rough handling too, but he wouldn't write it off as broken just yet. He looked down, didn't see anything wrong except that his legs were pinned in place by the collapsed front of the car.
Wincing he looked over and saw Duncan doubled over, completely still.
"Dunc…" Coop reached out with his right to lightly poke at his best buddy, "Dunc… Brother…"
No response.
"Dunc!" Coop could feel panic and concern rise up in his chest, as he gently started poking harder, "Bro, please wake up, Dude…"
With a sharp jerk and a gasp Duncan sat up straight, wild brown eyes darting around to take in the situation.
"Dude, you okay?"
"Not really…" Dunc admitted as he once again doubled over, this time clutching his left arm with a groan, "Think I broke m'arm… You?"
"Pinned down pretty good." Coop tried keeping his voice level, "Gonna need someone to set my shoulder."
"Dislocated?"
"Yep."
"Left?"
"Yep."
"Anything else?"
"Pretty sure something's wrong with my left leg…"
Dunc took the liberty to look towards it, almost letting out an expletive as he did, "Yeah. There is. We gotta wake the guys in the back, someone's gotta do something about that bleed pretty quick…"
"Bleed?" Coop asked with a puzzled frown and looked back down, seeing the area around his left knee soaked in red, "Shit… That was not like that last time I looked down…"
While Duncan attempted to poke some life into the three in the back, Coop slipped his belt off himself one handedly and tread it under his thigh, then he tightened it, still using only his right as his left hung limply by his side. "Ought to do for now… How are the boys doing back there?"
"Woods and Malik are starting to come to…" Dunc reported, "Buck is still out cold…"
"Okay, okay…"
"Problem is, we need Buck awake to get the other guys out to help you?"
"Huh?"
"We're at the edge…" Dunc almost barked back, "Ain't a damn thing to step out on on my side…"
"Copy that…" Coop swallowed hard.
"What happened?" a grouchy voice interrupted them from the back.
"Buck? Buck is that you? You awake, kid?"
"Barely…" Oliver groaned, "What happened, did I get bucked off?"
"You're not at a rodeo now…" Dunc smiled, momentarily forgetting the gravity of their situation, "We crashed a bit… You okay?"
"Head's ringing…" Buck swallowed and groaned, "Think one of my ankles are sprained too…"
"Okay." Coop nodded in the front, "You able to get the two other goons to come around too?"
"I'll try…"
"They seemed closer to waking up than you did…" Duncan shrugged his right shoulder.
"Ah… You know Buck… Sleeps like he's dead anyway…" Cooper cleared his voice when he felt pain was seeping through his voice.
"You good Boss?"
"Been better…" Coop admitted, "And I'm stuck…"
"Stuck?"
"Yeah. Gonna need help to get outta here…" Coop admitted.
A couple minutes later, all three in the back was awake. All three having only minor injuries.
DELTA*SPECIAL
Monty pulled up behind the wrecked Mitsubishi just in time to see Buck, Woods and Malik crawling out of the back. Buck was limping heavily and had blood running down the left side of his face.. At first he couldn't see anything wrong with Woods or Malik, but when he got closer he noticed that Woods was guarding his right wrist, very unwilling to move it or to accidentally bump it towards anything. And that Malik looked like he was in some sort of pain too.
"Yo, guys! What happened?"
"Are you blind? We crashed…" Malik frowned and brought a hand up to press against one of his eyes, trying to stop his head from spinning the way it did, "Top needs help out."
"And Dunc?"
"Dunc needs to crawl over to the driver's side to get out…" Woods replied as Buck started tearing at the door to get it open. Luckily it came open quickly with a loud creak.
"Shit Boss…" Buck grimaced, "That's a good amount of blood…"
"Yeah. Thought so too…" Coop grimaced.
"Monty, look in the back… Find our radio and SAT phone… We need to call in medevac…"
"Is it that bad?"
"We need medevac anyway…" Buck nodded, "Better just do it straight away…"
Monty nodded and quickly opened the trunk to find something to call in with. Then he headed up to where Buck was leaning through the door to check on Cooper. He looked over at Malik and Woods who had gone to the back of the car to find something to place Cooper on once they had him outside.
He was just about to ask Coop how he was doing when Buck gripped a hold of the tallest man's arm and manipulated his shoulder back to how it should sit. Coop gasped sharply, before he exhaled long and slow.
"Will you call in?" Buck asked looking up at Monty, before he focused back on Coop.
"I think… Dunc… Dunc can call it in…" Coop winced, "Gonna need Monty to get me outta here…"
"Yeah, hand me the whatever… I'll get help for us…" Dunc nodded as he craned his neck in an attempt to meet Monty's eyes. Already reaching out across his body with his right arm.
DELTA*SPECIAL
"How are we gonna get you loose?" Malik frowned as he tilted his head to look at Coop.
"-Take his seat all the way back?" Woods suggested, trying to snake his left hand down towards the lever which would allow the seat to slide, "Gonna be easier…"
"Dude's 6'7"…" Malik glared at Woods, "I think the seat's as far back as it's gonna get…"
"Actually…" Coop sucked in a sharp breath, "Think there's a notch or three left. Buck was behind me, remember?"
"Why did the second tallest guy sit behind the tallest guy?" Monty frowned.
"Dunc, Woods and Malik got in before me…" Buck shrugged.
"Okay, take his seat back as far as it'll go…" Malik nodded, "Maybe it'll be enough to wiggle him loose…"
"Gonna hurt bad either way…" Coop frowned.
"I don't doubt it Boss…"
"Maybe we should just leave him there until the medevac arrives?"
"Don't think so…" Malik shook his head, "The truck we crashed with is smoking, and it's getting worse… And that truck is about two and a half feet inside he one we were in… It's gonna start burning soon…"
"Shit… It'll explode…" Woods looked up with frightened eyes.
"No…" Malik rolled his eyes, wincing when that move made him see stars and galaxies, "But it's gonna catch fire… Burn up fast. We don't want Top and Dunc trapped in there when it does…"
"Yeah. Right." Woods shook his head, then nodded, "Man… My head's a mess."
Woods finally managed to sneak a hand in to pull on the lever that adjusted the seat, sliding Coop back a few inches, while the tallest man tried to hold in a growl.
"You okay?"
"No…" Coop groaned.
"Sorry…"
Cooper just grimaced.
"Guys… Guys-guys! We've got flames…" Monty declared and shoved Woods out of the way. Leaving the guy from Boston letting out a sharp cry as he brought his right hand close to his chest to guard it.
"Shit man… We've gotta hurry…" Malik grimaced, "Sorry Top, gotta do this like a band aid…"
"Not a fan of that idea…" Coop winced, knowing he had no say in how it would go down anyway.
"One shoulder each?" Monty asked Malik.
"Yeah, think so…" Malik agreed, "Buck, can you guide his legs?"
"Sure."
"Look, my left wrist feels funky. Can I go on his left? Don't think I'll be able to pull his weight properly if I go on his right…"
"Yeah, sure." Monty nodded and waited for Malik to get a grip under Coop's left arm.
They lifted and Cooper let out a gut wrenching scream, sure to make everyone's hairs stand on edge.
"Sorry… So sorry Boss." Buck apologized as he guided Coop's legs, "Shit… This is really not good."
"Really not good?" Woods asked, "How really not good are we talking?"
"Boiled spaghetti leg?" Buck shrugged as Malik, Monty and him laid Coop down on a ground pad they had laid out, "Okay, it ain't THAT loose, but there's way too little resistance…"
"His leg's crushed…" Malik frowned as he crawled down to take a look at it, "Man, you've got every damn right to cry… Just… Open up the floodgates when you feel like it…"
Coop shook his head, but his eyes were squeezed tight and his lips formed a thin line over his teeth.
"We should find something to make a splint out of…" Malik sighed and looked around, "Not really sure how much good it's gonna do, but worth a shot, right?"
Coop nodded, as his grimace deepened a bit more, "Dunc… Anyone help him out?"
"I made it out fine all on my own buddy…" Duncan replied as he stood up from the driver's seat. He was holding the communication devices in his right as he simultaneously was supporting his left with that same arm. "How are you brother?"
"Feel like I'm about to pass out…" Coop answered, breathing hard, "Or at least I'm hoping I do…"
"-Ouch…" Duncan said more like a thought.
"Yeah." Coop agreed, before blowing some air past his lips. "Dude… This feels like… Like IT…"
"Like it-it?" Dunc asked hesitantly.
Coop nodded a little, "Yeah."
"No, you're gonna make it…" Malik interrupted, "You're not gonna die… That belt is slowing the bleed enough…"
"No… Another it…" Dunc sighed walking over and getting down on his knees next to Coop, "You really think so?"
"Feels like retirement, dude…" Coop grimaced, "Feels like retirement."
"Could feel worse than it really is…"
Coop shook his head, "No… This is what FUBAR feels like…"
"Well… Chopper's gonna be here in about 10…" Dunc sighed, "Anything you need in the meanwhile?"
"Enough painkillers to sedate a horse?" Coop growled and bit his lip a little, "Or a small elephant. I don't know…"
"Sorry… All we have are Motrin…" Malik shrugged, "I'll find some."
"How's the guy in the other car?" Coop pressed out after a couple of seconds.
"Dead."
"Sure?"
Malik nodded, "There's no way he survived being half-decapitated by his windshield when he broke through it."
"Yeah. True." Coop nodded, taking an unsteady breath, "Man, this hurts!"
"I believe you man…" Malik winced, "Retirement, huh?"
"Yeah…" Coop inhaled sharply, "That's the early guess."
"Let's get you to a doctor first, before you start taking guesses like that. It's clearly not good, but could be better than we fear."
Coop shook his head, "Nah… I can already tell you it's past broken… All I can really do now is be thankful I'm not a horse, or I'd be sent off to the glue factory already."
Duncan bit down on his lower lip to keep from laughing at the capitulated tone in Coop's voice. "Well, luckily you ain't no horse…"
Coop nodded, clutching his hands against the pain.
DELTA*SPECIAL
"Not that you probably give a rat's ass about this right now, but you have really nice veins…" Grant Weston commented as he fastened the strap around their patient's upper arm, a second or two later he had placed the line and captured the patient's eyes with his again, "In a couple of seconds I'll administer something that'll make you sleep. It's gonna take about 30 to 60 seconds and you'll be properly out and ready for surgery. Then, when we're all done here, you'll wake up in another room. The surgeon in charge over there, the one with… I'd say red hair, but that's covered… The one who's standing by your left hip just about now, he's going to come and let you know how the surgery went. Alright?"
The patient swallowed thickly and glanced towards the doctor Grant had indicated, then back at him. The man gave a short nod. "Please, just get on with it…"
It sounded almost like a plea, and judging by the scars he had already seen the patient having, Grant guessed it wasn't the guy's first time being sedated. Grant also guessed that the guy figured he wouldn't feel anything once he was under, not before he woke up high as a kite after the surgery. And then it would probably feel a bit better than it did right now at least, or he simply wouldn't be able to care for a little while.
But it would eventually start hurting again. There were no way around that.
"Alright, wanna make a bet on how long you can stay awake from now?"
The patient shook his head, "Nah man… Just make sure I don't wake up before you're done…"
"Alright…" Grant nodded, smirking as he noticed the first signs of the patient being affected by the drugs. "How are you feeling?"
The guy blinked slowly a couple of times looking like he considered the question and how to answer it, before he nodded and slurred, "Better…"
"That's good…" Grant smiled and watched as the large patient finally drifted off.
DELTA*SPECIAL
"Hey buddy…" Duncan smirked as he finally was allowed to visit Coop after the surgery, "How are you feeling?"
"Right now?"
Dunc nodded, "Yeah, right about now…"
"Good…"
"Any pain?"
"Probably a lot worse than what I'm actually registering." Coop took a controlled breath and looked towards his elevated leg. "Doesn't hurt too bad right now…"
"That's good…"
"And you? Your shoulder?"
"Arm…" Dunc corrected, shrugged and nodded towards the sling his left arm was nestled in, "Broke it in two places. They decided to go both belt and suspenders with this one, at least for the first while."
"No way? Both cast and sling…?"
"Yeah." Dunc nodded, "And you… Is your shoulder and everything else well enough to allow you to start hopping around on crutches soon?"
Coop shrugged and moved his own left arm, testing it. "My shoulder is sore, not sure how stable it is… But other than that I think I could've pulled it off. But I don't think I'm allowed to yet…"
Duncan nodded. "Let me guess…"
Coop waited.
"You're getting shipped home because of this."
Coop nodded, "Yeah. Doc was in here a little while ago, I'm going back home. He said I had shattered parts of three of the bones, and broke my kneecap in two as well…"
"Ouch…" Dunc frowned, "Shattered is never a good word."
"Like I said… Retirement." Coop sighed, "Felt like it."
Dunc nodded.
"Now, onto something a little more cheerful…" Coop attempted a smile, "When are you back in action?"
Dunc wasn't able to smile, "Not sure I want to…"
"What?"
"You know we kinda made a deal back when we were young and green, right?"
Coop smiled and nodded, then he schooled his features. "You don't have to quit. You've still got plenty of years left in you…"
Dunc shook his head, "I don't know if I want to continue…"
"Come on…"
"No…" Dunc shook his head, "We said we would retire together…"
"The kids still needs you…"
"…The kids…" Duncan couldn't help but smile. Yeah, that was exactly what they thought of the younger operators as. "Chris, Monty, Buck and Malik will be fine without us…"
"Honestly not sure if I'm ready to let them lose on their own yet…" Coop shrugged a little, wincing as it pulled on something in his shoulder, "They might still need adult supervision…"
Dunc harrumphed, "I think you still might need adult supervision…"
"I think I might need someone to look after me for a little while, while that leg attempts to heal…" Coop half agreed. "But seriously… It was the day before yesterday we were sitting and chatting about keeping on doing this for as long as we were able…"
"WE…"
"Come on… Don't quit because I probably have to…" Coop groaned, "Please…"
Dunc didn't answer, but he started biting dead skin off his lower lip. A nervous habit he sometimes had.
"Come on…" Coop tried again, "Don't quit."
"Make it back here then…" Dunc knew it was way too much to ask of, the information he had about how badly Coop's leg was injured made that crystal clear. But he hoped Coop would take it for what it actually was.
Dunc got his answer when he saw something light up behind Coop's eyes, "Aw, come on… You know I'll be doing my best to get back out here… Just make sure my brother is here still fighting when I finally make it."
A brief smile crossed Dunc's features, pulling at the scar that cut across one side of his face. "Alright, I'll consider it…"
Coop chuckled a little, before his ribs reminded him of just how bad of an idea that actually was, and he transitioned into a low growl.
"What?" Duncan pinned Coop with a worried frown.
"Cracked a couple of ribs too…" Coop grimaced, "Anything resembling laughing is a bad move…"
"That sucks…"
Coop just nodded, "Well, at least that's guaranteed to heal…"
"-Your leg's not…?"
Shaking his head, Coop let out a sigh. "Nah… It'll heal. -But the doctor couldn't say I'd ever walk without a limp. Or if I'd actually be comfortable walking at all…"
"Really…"
"Yeah…" Coop nodded as he started to wring his hands, "Sucks, man…"
"Really does, doesn't it?"
Coop just nodded.
DELTA*SPECIAL
"Hey Malik…" Monty drawled as he walked over and sat down beside the guy, "How are you doing man? Did the crash mess you up, or are you good?"
"I'm alright…" Malik nodded, "Just a whole bunch of bruises…"
Monty smirked a bit, "I bet…"
"Kinda envious of you though… First you didn't have to sit in a hotbox of a car, and on top of that, you weren't a part of the crash…"
Monty nodded, "Yeah… -How do you think Coop is holding up?"
"Top?" Malik tilted his head from side to side, contemplating it, "Prolly been better…"
"Definitely." Monty agreed, "I'm going to go over and check on him when Dunc comes back… Wanna come with?"
"Letting the two brothers have a little time alone first, are we?" Malik smirked.
Monty shrugged, "Figured since it seemed pretty serious, both of them could use it. Coop seemed pretty confident this would be the end of his active career."
Malik nodded.
"The two have been teamed up together one way or another since they joined the army… It would be like… Like if Buck and Woods spent the next 10 to 15 together, and then one of them got injured enough to…. To not keep on working."
"Or us…"
"Or us." Monty agreed, looking down on his boots, "in 15 years or so…"
"I bet both of them are worrying sick over this…"
"I bet they are…" Monty nodded,
"Top's leg looked awful…" Malik grossed, "-Do you think he'll ever walk again?"
"At all, or without a limp?"
"Without a limp."
"Nah… Probably not." Monty shook his head, "Could be lucky though…"
"When have any of us ever been lucky?"
"Think I was lucky once…" Monty shrugged, "Was in Cali once. A rattler tried to strike me. Missed."
"Well, that's lucky." Malik nodded.
"I was just about ready to buy a lottery ticket that day…" Monty nodded.
"I would've…" Malik nodded and clasped his right hand over his left wrist.
Monty saw what Malik did, and locked his eyes on the other man's slightly swollen left wrist, "Sure you're alright?"
"Bruised it." Malik nodded, "Got a lightweight splint to wear,"
"Then why aren't you wearing it?"
"If you'd let me finish my sentence, you would've known it was to wear when I was doing stuff. I hardly think sitting around here counts as doing stuff…"
"Alright…" Monty smirked.
"I swear, you're sounding like Dunc sometimes…"
"And that's cause you, my friend, have a tendency to sound like our leader…"
"I ain't that reckless."
"You ain't not that reckless…" Monty chuckled.
"Trying to trick me into agreeing because of a double negative?"
"Nah… You're not that smart, I don't have to trick you…"
Malik rolled his eyes and shook his head, "Excuse me… Who are you to talk?"
"Shut it…" Monty snickered, "Well, anyway. Wanna play some cards until Dunc gets back here?"
"Round up the other guys and play a little hold'em?" Malik tilted his head a little, a small smile making its way to his lips, "Are we gonna sell it as play for tasks, or for cash?"
Monty shrugged, "Whatever the others feel up for… I guess…"
"Works for me, but I'd really enjoy taking all of your money in a game…" Malik smirked, "Especially Buck's…"
"Still sore after he bluffed the hell out of you last time?"
"He bluffed the hell out of all of us…"
Monty shrugged and hesitated a little, "Well… True…"
DELTA*SPECIAL
Duncan sat silently on a chair in one of the corners while a nurse stopped by to check on Cooper, and check if he was as comfortable as his situation allowed.
Not surprisingly, Coop welcomed some offered cold packs. Once the nurse headed away, he started with placing two packs of ice on top of his cast clad leg. Spreading them as best as he could in an attempt to soothe his leg injury. Then he took the last, third ice pack and weighed it in his right hand before he placing it gently against his left shoulder.
"Sure you don't want an extra one?" Dunc questioned, and gently tapped at his own ribs as he nodded towards Coop, "Weren't some of your ribs…?"
Still squeezing his eyes shut from the sudden lack of boiling desert heat against his left shoulder, Coop shook his head a little. "Nah… I can rotate the one I've got against my shoulder… And to be honest both the shoulder and the leg, especially the leg, grab so much attention that I kinda forget that my ribs are aching too."
Dunc frowned and his eyes narrowed in on Coop's shoulder, and like if Coop had actually sensed it, he opened his eyes and locked his forest green eyes on Dunc, "What?"
"How bad's your shoulder?"
"I'm not gonna point it out on a scale from 1 to 10…" Coop replied slower and more pronounced than strictly necessary.
"Well, humor me…" Dunc shook his head, "I'm worried about you."
"Well, right now… Life is a shit-show. I can't lie about that." Coop rolled his eyes a little, knowing he had nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide. "And if my leg wasn't smashed, and I think that's the right phrase for it, I could prolly have ended up bitchin' and complainin' about my freaking shoulder. -If it would make you happy."
"Hey, bro…" Dunc shook his head, "Only thing related to this so-called shit-show that could make me happy, is news that says you're gonna be alright…"
"I'm gonna be alright…" Coop shrugged.
"Coop…"
"What? I don't think I've used up more than maybe 5 out of 9 lives yet… And I don't think this instance counts as a full one either…" It was obviously an attempt at a joke, but it fell completely flat, "I've got what? 4.5 lives left?"
"Man, you hit your head too or something?"
Coop hummed a questioning tone.
"Or did you leave your mathematics skills back in a shitty public school in California a few decades ago?" Dunc chuckled quietly at the confused face that met him, "Dude, it would be 3.5… 5, plus say half a life, 5.5… That leaves 3.5 up to 9…"
"…Yeah… It does…" Coop nodded lazily, before arranging his best baffled look, "I… I blame the painkillers they are giving me. Which I didn't really think had an effect before now…"
"Your leg hurts a lot, doesn't it?"
Coop nodded a little, "Considering that I'm laying still, and haven't moved it since… Before the surgery I think… Yeah. Hurts."
Dunc's face fell a little.
"-But I'm gonna be alright…" Coop continued after a couple of seconds, "Can't hurt like this forever, right? I'm gonna get better, and we'll see what that looks like when that time comes…"
Dunc crossed his arms over his chest as best as he could with the cast and sling in place, not for the first time since stepping into the room Coop was in and sat back in his seat. "Hey, man… Right about now would be the perfect opportunity to freak out a little. I mean, I know it's not exactly your thing… But, just about every other human being would be freaking the heck out right now…"
"Would've…" Coop shrugged his right shoulder a little, "Don't really have the extra energy to spend on it right now…"
They both glanced down at the massive cast that wrapped around Coop's leg for the moment. Except for the watery blood which had seeped through the underside of the cast, it was fairly pristine and white.
"Kinda nasty looking the way it has seeped through…" Dunc swallowed.
Coop nodded a little, "Guess that happens sometimes… Think I heard them saying that they'd change the cast either tomorrow or the day after that… Before I leave at least."
Dunc nodded and sat forward in his chair, then he let out a small laugh and focused back on Coop's face. "Hey… Wanna go for a jog when this is all over?"
The question was enough to pull a grimace and a pained growl from the blond. "Seriously dude, it's not fair to mention the j- or the r- words before my leg no longer resembles a 500 piece puzzle… -Actually, the w-word is off limits too, until further notice…"
"What? You don't wanna go for a walk?"
"You're evil. You know that?"
"Only a little…"
"Only a lot…" Coop countered.
Dunc chuckled a little, "Yeah… I know…"
Coop nodded and folded his hands over his stomach. He tapped his left index and ring finger on the back of his right hand a few times. "Gonna be hard to come home after this one…"
Dunc nodded.
"I'm gonna have to stay at home with mom and pop until I'm better…"
"Yeah…" Dunc agreed, "But… At least it's not too different than when you come back home in a healthy way."
Coop shrugged his right shoulder, "Well, think I might have to start looking into buying a house of my own now. I can't really imagine that thing healing as it should, at least not well enough to get back into active duty. -And since I probably won't be deployed ever again… I should have my own place. Not just a basement apartment at my parents place."
Dunc didn't move or say anything at first. He let silence fill the room as he studied Coop's leg for almost a full minute. "Yeah. You're probably onto something…"
Coop nodded. "Weird how quickly life can turn around… Like… We were planning to work out when we got back to base. Now we're here, and I might have a permanent stamp on my forehead saying 'out of order'. Man, this blows."
"Life tends to deal out some pretty darn bad blowjobs, right?" Dunc smirked.
Coop chuckled shortly, and winced at the pain burning from where his ribs had taken a beating. "Shut up… I can't laugh. -But yeah, life should really take a few lessons on how to deliver BJs…"
Dunc smirked again. "So… Do you have anything you're looking forward to about going back home? Even in this condition?"
"Still craving caramel corns…" Coop smiled, "Think that cold one might have to wait until I'm no longer hopped up on painkillers of the kind they're giving me for that leg right now."
"Wise choice."
Coop nodded, "And you? Staying here, or are you getting shipped home too?"
"I'm staying…" Dunc shrugged one shoulder, "They figured I'd get good enough before this tour is up. Besides, I'm not the worst person to park behind a desk for a month or two…"
Coop offered a knowing smile, "You deal a little bit better with that than I do…"
"I'd say a lot better…" Dunc smirked.
"Yeah, okay. You do a lot better at that."
Cooper let his left hand travel down to touch the edge of his cast. It was okay enough to move his arm, as long as he didn't jostle his shoulder too bad.
The bandage wrapping the plaster was soft under his fingers. He offered a thought to how bad the next couple of months would be, and how difficult and painful they could be.
"Hey, it's gonna go better than you fear…" Dunc tried in a low voice.
"You really believe that?"
Dunc didn't speak up, just shook his head a little.
"Yeah, me neither…" Coop made a sound that could resemble laughter, only it held none of the humor and sounded flat.
"You said it yourself… You said it felt like retirement."
Coop nodded.
They went silent for a spell, both feeling the full gravity of the situation.
The pause lasted for minutes. Both men found themselves with their eyes locked on Coop's cast.
"Hey…" Duncan finally spoke up after the red handle on the clock on the wall had made it past the top number 12 for the seventh time, and the longest black handle had gone from five past, to twelve past the hour. "What do you say? Think you're about ready for visits from the kids soon? I bet they're pretty shook up about you too…"
Coop trapped his lower lips between his teeth as his eyes scanned over his injuries and the room. Then he nodded rather slowly, "Yeah. Sure."
"-Or do you need to rest? Alone?"
"No… Not yet."
"You okay if I leave you to go get them?"
"Yeah." Coop nodded, a little more confident this time, "Yeah, I'll be okay in the meanwhile. Might zone out and take a short nap if I can."
Dunc nodded, "Yeah, that might be good for you."
DELTA*SPECIAL
"Hell Top…" Malik frowned, "You look like shit…"
Coop managed to scoff in return, "Well, as long as I still look better than you, then I'm fine…"
Malik smiled at the attempted sting, "You've never looked better than me… Can't compete with this poppin' melanin look…"
"Okay. You win." Cooper shook his head a little, "But just cause I'm not up for a verbal sparring match."
"This thing really took it out of you Sport…" Buck tilted his head as he studied how Coop was laid up, "You look like you went 3.7 seconds with the wrong bull."
"More like I lost a fight with a bulldozer…" Coop tried covering a wince with a smile, but all of his friends saw straight through it.
"Or went ten rounds with that beast who beat you up once up on a time…." Dunc prompted, "What was it we nicknamed him? The Bear?"
"The Bear…" Coop nodded, "Furry bastard, but it wasn't him who messed up my hand that time…"
"No…" Dunc unwillingly agreed, "But he did break your arm. Something you forgot to check out. And then you really messed up your arm a few weeks later. And then you ended up looking a little bit worse off than this…"
"Hey, if it's a small consolation, I felt worse after the hand incident…" Coop smirked.
Dunc's only reply was to pin Coop with a glare.
"I felt worse back then…" Coop claimed again, then he admitted to the other part of that same truth, "But I might be in more pain now…"
"I don't know much about the hand incident, but I do believe this accident would be more painful than pretty much anything else you've experienced." Monty shrugged and walked over to the table standing by one of the walls, leaning up against it in a casual way. Buck followed him, attempting really hard to hide that his right leg was bugging him.
"Well, it wasn't any fun…" Coop shrugged his good shoulder, "That's pretty much all you need to know."
Malik nodded and let his eyes travel to Coop's right hand, like he silently said 'I bet'.
"So… You guys…" Coop tried to shift the attention away from himself and on to the others, "Y'all alright? Didn't get tossed around too bad I hope."
"Don't worry 'bout us boss…" Woods shook his head, "We ain't the ones laying in a hospital bed now, remember?"
"Hey, I count two wrist splints, one cast, one sling and a lot of bandages between the four of you guys who were in the car with me." Coop tsked, "And Buck, you look like you could use a crutch or two… At least for the next week or so…"
"Nah Top, it ain't that bad… Had worse…"
"You know, I expect a bull riding Okie to have experienced worse…" Coop smirked, "But I still think you ought to use a pair of crutches until it doesn't ache bad enough to make you limp quite obviously…"
Buck shrugged and reached up to press a couple of fingers against the bandage covering where his left eyebrow had received five stitches. "Nah, a doctor checked it out. It's all good."
"If you say so…" Coop rolled his eyes a little.
The other guys found places to sit down around the room.
"Woods got it worse, remember? He wasn't able to use his right hand back at the site…" Buck decided to remind everyone.
"What? You rat out people now?"
"You claim to be a person now?" Buck retorted with a sideways smirk, "I thought you were some sort of animal. Or maybe, what's its name… Homo neanderthalensis…"
"I'm not a Neanderthal…" Woods was on the way to cross his arms over his chest, but remembered in the last second that his right wrist would not take kindly to that, even if it was in a protective splint, "You're the Neanderthal…"
"Well, apart from this high-brow word tossing… You both could have fooled me into thinking that you were the missing link at least…" Malik chuckled and kneaded the backside of his fingers.
"Shut it." Both Buck and Woods spat at exactly the same time, before they went back to dissing each other with a few more phrases.
"Hey, boys." Dunc cleared his voice, "I don't know about Coop there, but I think at least one of us others have a concussion, and I can't think it's fun to listen your regular pissing match."
Buck gave a short nod, and straightened up a little. "Sorry."
Coop smiled, "It's fine by me… A little trace of normalcy is good."
"Good thing there's only a few months left of this tour, huh?" Malik smirked, "Imagine if those two besties started off like that each tour…"
"I thought the tour was up now…" Coop smirked, "Guess I ought to check out my calendar again."
Monty chuckled, "Yeah. But only thing that should be on your calendar now is getting better, and trying to make it back to us before the end of the next tour…"
Coop and Duncan fell silent, and Monty caught on to it.
"Wait…"
"Most likely… I'm done." Coop managed to admit after about half a minute.
"Doctors agreed with his early assessment…" Dunc added, "Chances are his leg won't heal well enough to make him a fully functional operator again…"
"Shit. Sorry…" Monty frowned and met Coop's eyes, "I didn't mean to…"
"Nah… It's all good." Coop attempted a smile, but just for a split second before his face fell into a saddened expression, "I'll be fine. If I manage, I'll be back. But…"
"…Chances are…" Chris Woods filled in when Coop trailed off.
"Chances are." Coop nodded.
They ended up talking quietly after that. No loud or reckless behavior of any kind. Just the six operators relishing what would be some of their last hours as a full team. Four guys who had never known another team leader, a team leader who would very soon be shipped back stateside. For good. One guy who wondered how it would be to be there without his best friend, and one guy who wondered how life would be for him now that he had to leave what he considered his normal, his reason to exist.
DELTA*SPECIAL
They spent as much time together as they could over the next week before Coop was shipped home. But of course neither of them felt like it was enough.
But Coop was thankful for every moment the guys were able to keep him company. It made the wait a little less boring, and even though it didn't really help with the pain, it kept his mind off the scary reality he was facing.
There had been an attempt or two to call home and deliver the news of the accident, but nobody had answered the landline and Cooper had been very clear in his 'if shit hits the fan notes' that it was okay if his superiors, or the doctors and nurses, tried calling the landline to his parents, but unless it was life or death they should refrain from calling their cellphones. Unless he was dangling by the thread, he didn't want them to worry if they were off visiting relatives outside the US, or on some other sort of vacation.
Then there were ten days where he was in a hospital at home.
And then he was finally cleared to go home.