Not good, not good, not good, not good! Dove thinks as she's sprinting through the gunfire and explosions.
She's panicked like she's never been before. One second, Benny was beside her, the next he's somewhere else that she can't see and it scares the hell out of her.
No time to focus on it though, she's gotta get to Fish. He needs help, Benny can handle himself, he's fine, he's fine, he's just ahead of you, hell he's probably already at Fish. She tells herself.
"I'm out!" She hears yelled in front of her, Pope. "Where the hell is Dove?" He yells. She can hear him clearer.
"Pope!" She yells at the top of her lungs. "I'm here!" She sees him through the smoke, just a glimpse, but she sees him nonetheless. Him, Fish, Ironhead and Benny all standing together like how they always did. Each of them watching each other's backs. She almost smiles.
She would've if she hadn't felt the unmistakable burn of a bullet grazing her neck. She knows it's not life threatening, it didn't hit an artery, it just grazed her. She'd already be down if it did, but she can't help but panic at their faces. It looks like they just witnessed a baby being killed in front of them when they see the wound.
It's small, but it's bleeding and it's on her neck. That's enough to render their faces white as a ghost and for their fingers to start trembling on their guns. The unmistakable sound of Pope's gun shooting the person who shot her.
She runs to them, immediately throws herself into a crouch to the left of Will behind their cover. She can hear them yelling at her, scolding her and telling her she got herself fucking shot and is just standing there like nothing happened. She can feel Will's iron gaze on her, waiting for her to collapse, to bleed out, but she waves him off with an arm. "I'm alright, Jesus Christ it's just a graze. Didn't hit anything major, you can unclench."
They visibly relax a slight amount. Their shoulders force themselves down, the grip on their rifles loosens enough that their weapons are no longer trembling. "What the fuck was that, Dove?" Will yells.
"What was what?" she asks. She only followed the plan.
"That!" he exclaims.
"I literally followed the fucking plan, dumbass!" She yells back. "Was that wrong?"
"You got shot!"
"How many fucking times have you gotten shot? Whatever, because you were supposed to be watching my back, dumbass!" she yells at Benny, pointing an angry finger at him. "Let's just finish the fucking mission, and then we can yell at each other!"
They all grunt in passive-aggressive agreement. She catches Benny's guilty expression. He feels bad, shit. She thinks. I fucked up. She apologizes to him quietly, if he hears her, he doesn't show it. They're thrown back into practiced silence.
--
When they return, the boys are all over Dove, trying to soothe the angry wound on her neck and the small cut on her right shoulder.
"Dios mio, you pendejos are going to drive me fucking crazy." She complains. Her head is tilted to the left, so far it starts to hurt. She's got Pope swabbing her neck with a paper drenched in alcohol and Will at her shoulder doing the same. "This is gonna cramp up my fucking neck."
Frankie sighs to her left. "You got shot, Dove. We take care of our own."
"I told you, it's a graze." She rolled her eyes. "I'm fine."
"A graze that could get infected so relax for a few more minutes, Princesa." Santiago stated.
"If you call me princess one more time, I'm going to kill you." she muttered in Spanish.
"That'd be a lot more intimidating if you didn't just get shot."
"Yeah, because Ironhead wasn't watching my fucking back like he was supposed to." She grunts in pain as Will harshly dabs at the wound on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Dove. I got distracted." he muttered. Though it sounded sarcastic, she could hear the subtle guiltiness in his statement.
"It's fine, Miller. Just don't do it again, por favor."
He nodded outside of her view. "You're all done, sweetheart."
"Perfecto," she stood up quickly, slightly disorienting herself before hugging the younger Miller brother. "Sorry for blowing up on you, babe." she pecked his neck.
"Sorry for not watching your back," he kissed her head in return. They both leaned back to give eachother a peck. "Love you." he muttered between kisses.
"Love you too."
"Break it up lovebirds, we've got work to do." Santi hollered.
"And there goes that." Benny mutters before kissing her again.