Jensen slept for the rest of the day, only occasionally blinking his eyes open and squeezing the wrist of whoever he was holding at the moment. Pooch had refused to move for hours, not wanting Jensen to wake up with his hand empty, until his bladder couldn't take it anymore. Clay threatened him with murder when he eyed the bedpan at the side of the room and Cougar saved the day by offering his own wrist. So after that they would switch off whenever they needed to.
Roque had come in a few hours after they took Jensen off the vent. He pretended like he wasn't affected by the good news, but Clay caught the relieved breath he let out. Jensen and Roque were going to have to work out their crap later, but that was an issue for another time.
It was the middle of the night and Clay was dozing, trying to ignore how stiff he was going to be after sitting in this hard chair for days. Pooch was on wrist duty, sleeping with his head resting on the edge of Jensen's bed. Cougar and Roque had gone back to the motel to get a few hours of real rest and showers, although Cougar was reluctant to go. They really had adopted this kid.
"Did you get it?"
Clay twitched, his hand instinctively going to his belt before his brain recognized the voice. Jensen was awake and staring at him.
"Hey kid, how are you feeling?" Clay asked, leaning forward so Jensen wouldn't have to talk as loud. It reminded him of when he did the same in the van, when he thought he was listening to Jensen's last words. This wasn't the same though.
"Did you get it?" Jensen repeated, looking a little impatient.
"Get what?" Clay asked.
"The drive."
"You shouldn't be worrying about that right now, but yes, we did," Clay assured him. Jensen's focus on getting the job done, even over his own well-being was commendable, yet bittersweet. Of course in the Army you were supposed to be willing to give your life for the cause, but Clay knew it wasn't all that. "I sent it off to where it needed to go. You did a good job, soldier."
"Yeah?" Jensen murmured, letting a pleased smile flash across his face. "Sorry I got shot again. I don't usually make a habit of it."
"That's good to know going forward," Clay chuckled.
"Something to pass on to my next team?"
"You think any of us are willing to let you go? Do you think Pooch drools on just anyone's bed?" Jensen glanced over to his other side where Pooch was, cringing a little when he noticed the puddle getting dangerously close to where they were joined.
"Better than pee, I guess," Jensen laughed, wincing from the pain it caused. "Damn, this hurts."
"Yeah kid, I know," Clay nodded in sympathy. This was going to take a lot longer to recover from than the row of stitches on his back.
"Any idea when they're letting me out?"
"A bit eager for someone who wasn't even breathing on their own a day ago. How about we wait until you can move without pain before we think about busting you out?"
"'Kay," Jensen yawned.
"How about you go back to sleep? The more rest you get, the faster you'll heal up," Clay directed, but Jensen had already fallen asleep again, this time looking more relaxed than he had before.
"You're telling me someone kissed me and I missed it?" Jensen groaned a little breathlessly. He had begged off the supplemental oxygen and the doctors were willing to give him a break, as long as his oxygen levels stayed up. And of course, instead of resting, he was talking. But Clay wasn't going to tell him to stop. After not knowing if they'd ever hear it again, it was welcome.
"It wasn't very good, kid," Clay snorted. When they'd gotten to the hospital and Clay saw Jensen's blood smeared on his lips, he'd bent over the nearest trash can and puked up his guts.
"Not the worst review I've gotten," Jensen shrugged, grimacing when his injuries protested the movement. "I need to remember to stop doing that. Even typing is going to suck."
"Which is why you're not going to overexert yourself and set back your healing," Pooch warned.
"Ah man, are you going to mother me? Even my own mother didn't mother me," Jensen whined.
"Well, you better get used to the idea. We take care of our own around here," Pooch said sternly.
"I really need to stop getting hurt," Jensen grumbled.
"Good plan," Pooch agreed. They started trading war stories, trying to one up each other with injuries. But instead of bringing up the devastating ones, they brought up the silly ones. Like when Cougar broke a toe running through the jungle or when Pooch almost sliced off his ear trying to build a bookshelf to impress Jolene when they were first going out. They shared their first "I love yous" to each other in an emergency room waiting area. Clay even told the story about when he got a tooth knocked out in the early days of his enlistment. A skittish recruit had gotten spooked during some training and caught him in the face with an elbow.
"Oh man, that sucks," Jensen chuckled, hugging an extra pillow to his broken chest. "One time I was hanging out at this construction site, don't ask, and this flock of pigeons flew out at me. I stepped back in surprise and set my foot right on a nail. Even saw the tip of it poking through the top of my foot. Flip flops were a bad choice."
"That's disgusting," Pooch cringed.
"You're telling me. I had to hobble back home with a piece of wood attached to my foot. My sister freaked out and had to drive me to the hospital since my parents were plastered. I think she was about 12 at the time," Jensen recalled, shaking his head at the memory. "No one called her about this, right? I have her listed on all my forms as an emergency contact, but I don't like to worry her unless it's completely necessary."
"We didn't," Clay confirmed.
"Good, since I'm gonna be fine. And even if I wasn't, it's not like she'd be able to make it in time to do anything. Better to save that money she'd waste on a flight," Jensen smirked. None of them really had much in the way of family to care about them, besides Pooch, but it was sad hearing Jensen talk about himself as if he didn't matter much to his sister. It probably had more to do with the fact that Jensen didn't really seem to care about himself all that much. "So anyway, I got a tetanus shot and my foot wrapped up like a mummy for a while. Luckily the nail missed all the bones and stuff, but it still stung like hell. And I developed this habit of walking on the side of that foot, which was surprisingly hard to break-"
Jensen cut off his words and they all turned to face the new visitor standing in the doorway. Roque was hovering, looking a bit less menacing than usual, but still gruff. This was the first time he and Jensen were seeing each other since the injured man woke up and Clay had the urge to turn the oxygen back on, despite the protests. He hoped Roque wasn't planning on starting anything, but you could never be completely sure when it came to him. Fights came as naturally to him as breathing.
"Roque," Clay greeted, nodding his head at his longtime friend. Roque looked unsure of himself, which wasn't a typical sight to see. Normally, Roque would storm into anything like he had all the answers, even when he was going in blind. This hesitance was a bit unsettling.
"Here," Roque grunted, walking over and dropping a bag on Jensen's lap. Jensen stared at it for a moment, like he was waiting for it to explode.
"What do I do?" Jensen whispered, looking over at Pooch and Cougar for help.
"Just open it!" Roque growled, startling Jensen into compliance. He poked open the bag and pulled out a small box, eyeing it warily. Clay tried to think of the kinds of wildlife native to this area, hoping that if it was a snake or something that the hospital would have antivenom at the ready. Jensen took as deep of a breath as he could manage at the moment and opened the box.
"You got me a knife?" Jensen asked, pulling out a small blade that was sheathed in a leather pouch. "Are you presenting me with the murder weapon you're planning on killing me with?"
"Having a backup weapon is smart," Roque grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Of course, I'm just not very good with knives actually."
"I'll give you some pointers when we get back home," Roque muttered, keeping his eyes away from the group.
"Yeah, okay," Jensen agreed quietly, looking around at everyone for their reactions. Cougar was grinning and Pooch looked smug. Clay gave him a nod of approval and Jensen beamed, knowing what this meant. Roque, in his own way, had shown Jensen that he had been accepted onto the team.