A/N: So this was written for Parisindy who wanted Jensen with a leg injury and the team on the run. Hope this is good, and if any of y'all have other requests, I'm open.
xxxx
Jensen sighed and walked a little faster as Wade pushed through the dense undergrowth. He ducked as Wade hacked aggressively at a plant, nearly taking off a piece of Jensen's head.
"Uh, hey big guy, I know we're trying to make good time and all, but do you think you can tone down the hacking a little bit? My hair took me all morning," Jensen said, laughing nervously. Wade didn't even acknowledge the hacker's presence.
"Okay, that's cool too," Jensen said finally. "Good thing I've got catlike reflexes."
Wade's only response was to hack at another poor, unsuspecting plant.
Jensen rolled his eyes and wondered once again why he had gotten stuck with Wade. The man had been assigned to their team for one mission, and one mission only, and of course Clay had made the executive decision that Jensen would be the lucky one chosen to work with Wade. Granted, he probably did that because Jensen was arguably the member of the team most in need of a huge, hulking bodyguard, but still.
"So this mission has gone pretty well so far, yeah? We've got the info," here, he held up his laptop and grinned, not that Wade was looking, "and Clay got the bad guys, so now we just meet up and we're golden."
Wade grunted in response, which Jensen took to be a good sign. He opened his mouth to say something to his stoic companion when a sudden bolt of pain shot up his leg, and he bit back a scream.
"Holy- shit!" He managed to yelp, collapsing awkwardly to the ground. Once down, his problem became all too clear- a large metal trap was clamped around his lower leg just above the ankle, and blood was already welling around the teeth biting into his skin. "These things- have got – to be illegal," he gasped, panting harshly. "I think it hit the bone. Damn it!"
It took Jensen a second to realize that Wade had stopped and was looking down at him, but making no move to help him, and he laughed humorlessly.
"I'm pretty sure if you can help me open the trap, I can get my damn leg out," he rasped, trying to keep his breathing under control. "Shit this hurts. Damn it! Son of a bitch!" He grit his teeth and tugged uselessly at the metal teeth, groaning in frustration and pain.
Wade stared at him.
"Wade? Can you give me- a hand?" Jensen gasped, a dark feeling of something disturbingly close to panic creeping up his spine. Wade continued to stare at him, and Jensen thought he saw the slightest hint of a smile cross the other man's features.
"Wade?" He whispered, panic morphing into full-fledged fear.
Wade didn't say anything, but knelt down next to Jensen's prone form. Jensen laughed shakily.
"You were f-freaking me out there for a minute," he stuttered. "Glad y-you're- what are you doing?" He flailed, trying to shove Wade from him, but he was too weak to prevent the bigger man from plucking the comm. link from his ear and dropping it to the ground.
"Wade, hang on, what the hell?" Jensen yelped, but Wade just shot him a grin as he stood and brought his foot smashing down onto Jensen's headset. He plucked Jensen's laptop up off the ground in the next instant and grinned at Jensen, giving him a mock-salute. "You bastard," Jensen ground out, but he was in so much damn pain that he was having a hard time focusing. It was pounding in his leg and up his body and his head hurt and he was cold and he was being left in the middle of the jungle by a freaking oversized Neanderthal.
And then he was alone, and Wade was off somewhere and he was still here bleeding and stuck.
What. The. Hell.
Taking a deep breath, Jensen strained as hard as he could against the metal trap; his leg exploded in a sudden flash of pain, and he wasn't sure if he had opened the trap or not or if it had snapped closed again on his leg or if he just hadn't done anything.
And then he passed out, so none of that really mattered anymore.
xxxx
Pooch had hated Wade since he'd gotten assigned to their unit. The man was hulking and angry and just stupid enough to disobey orders and screw their mission or get someone hurt.
So to say that he was surprised by the gun he suddenly found shoved under his nose would be a stretch. To say that he was pissed, however, would be an understatement.
"Get out of the truck, Pooch," Wade said, grinning. "Hands in the air, and I want your piece, and your backup piece, and the knife you keep in your boot." Pooch complied, gritting his teeth as he dropped his weapons on the ground, hands interlocked behind his head.
"What are you doing, Wade? You know you aren't going to get away with this," Pooch grumbled as Wade started patting him down.
"Looks to me like your van is about to be gone. How you gonna meet up with your unit?"
"You're making a big mistake, Wade. I don't know how well you know Clay, but he will hunt your ass down. One way or another, you're going to get yours."
Wade grunted and handed Pooch a set of handcuffs.
"Behind the back," he said, and Pooch flared his nostrils angrily as he complied.
"Where's Jensen, Wade? What did you do to him?"
"He's fine."
"I know Jensen. If you're here, and he's not, he isn't fine." The hacker seemed pretty unimposing at first, but Pooch knew that Jensen was a dangerous person to underestimate.
"He might be stuck and short a few pints of blood, but he's breathing. Happy?"
"Yeah, thanks, I feel way better. Jackass," Pooch muttered, trying to quell the worry that he felt rising. What the hell had happened to Jensen?
Wade checked the handcuffs and seemed satisfied that they were on tightly, then shoved Pooch to his knees, pressing a gun up against his temple.
"I could kill you right now," he hissed, and Pooch shuddered at the warm, rank breath brushing his ear.
"Do it then, you son of a bitch," Pooch growled. There was a click as the safety was turned off, and Pooch felt his heart rate speed up.
"Nah."
There was a pain in his head and then black.
xxxx
Cougar knew something was wrong. Jensen wasn't answering Clay, and now Pooch had gone silent as well. The mission had been a straightforward counterguerilla op; Clay and Roque were taking out a well-known militia leader while Jensen swiped the hard drives of the unit's computers. Cougar provided back up for Clay and Roque, Pooch acted as a lookout in case other factions decided to show up.
Something was wrong, and he was pretty damn sure that Wade had something to do with it.
"Alpha, this is Eagle One, requesting permission to pursue Pinball and Mojito."
"Eagle One, permission granted. Bowie and I will make our way from rendezvous to Mojito's lookout point."
"Copy that. Eagle One out."
Cougar slung his rifle over his shoulder and quietly leapt to the ground. Crouching low, he ran towards the last place he'd seen Pooch, hoping that for once his gut was wrong.
xxxx
Pooch woke up with a headache and a feeling of both dread and fury. He was going to kill Wade, that much he knew, but his more immediate concern was helping Jensen. And figuring out how to get these damn handcuffs off. He struggled to his feet with a grunt, swaying for a second as the world seemed to spin. A few seconds later, equilibrium regained, Pooch headed toward the underbrush where Wade had emerged.
"You stupid bastard," he muttered, grinning as he saw the clearly marked path that the big man had made. He was no Cougar, but even he would be able to follow these tracks.
Twenty minutes later, Pooch was getting concerned. He had no clue how long he'd been unconscious, and the longer he went without finding Jensen the less likely it was that the hacker-
Pooch shook his head. It wouldn't do anyone any good to think like that.
But still.
And then, he was there, saw what Wade meant, saw the blood and the pale and the stillness-
"Jensen!"
xxxx
Cougar had no trouble finding the trail Wade marked, and he hoped that Pooch was following it as well. He didn't want to think about where Pooch would be if he wasn't heading back for Jensen, and he told himself that the small amount of blood he'd found where the van should have been wasn't enough to indicate serious injury.
But still.
He was making quick time through the undergrowth when he heard a yell, definitely Pooch and definitely a bit panicked.
He ran faster.
What he found was simultaneously what he had expected to see and worse than he had expected; it was definitely, undoubtedly worse than he had hoped.
Pooch was on his knees, his hands behind his back, struggling to shake Jensen's still form. He was repeating Jensen's name over and over again, his voice shaky and trembling.
Jensen was pale and he wasn't moving and there was blood staining the leaves green.
"Pooch," Cougar said, walking briskly toward the distraught man. Pooch looked up.
"Shit, man," he muttered, blinking rapidly. "I need- I can't- my hands."
Cougar nodded, slipping a pin from the brim of his hat and making quick work of the cuffs. Then he turned his attention back to Jensen.
The hacker was breathing in short gasps, face crinkled in pain, and around his lower calf was a huge-ass metal trap.
"Fuck," Cougar muttered, kneeling down to look more closely at his injured comrade. Jensen's leg was a bloody mess, and Cougar was fairly certain that he could see glimpses of white bone amongst his tattered jeans.
"Holy shit," Pooch muttered, and Cougar was startled to hear the other man sniffle.
"Pooch?" He said, looking up from Jensen's leg.
Pooch wiped at his eyes. "Don't know what's wrong with me," he said, sniffing again. Cougar frowned and gripped Pooch's head, turning it to the side. He nodded knowingly when he encountered a knot behind the other man's ear.
"Concussion," he said.
"Damn it," Pooch said. "I get all weepy and shit when I get concussions."
"Si." Cougar was getting more and more concerned when Jensen remained motionless as he inspected the trap, trying to figure out the easiest way to loosen it.
"Jensen," he said, and he heard Pooch repeat it. "J." He slapped lightly at the hacker's pale cheeks, then rubbed a knuckle roughly over the tech's sternum.
Jensen groaned softly and stirred slightly.
"There it is, homeboy, come on," Pooch said, and Cougar rolled his eyes when he heard the other man let out a half-muffled sob.
Jensen groaned loudly before his eyes popped open.
"Shit!" He yelled, clenching his eyes shut again and grinding his teeth. "Shit!"
"Stay still," Cougar said putting a restraining hand against Jensen's heaving chest. "We will get this open."
"Tried already," Jensen panted, running a trembling hand through his hair. "Think it snapped back."
"I will not let it snap back again," Cougar said.
"Me neither," Pooch agreed.
"This will hurt. I think that your shin bone was broken."
"Feels like it," Jensen said, letting his hand rest over his eyes. "Damn it."
"Hang on," Cougar said, and moved to open the trap. A bloody hand caught his arm, and Cougar looked up to see Jensen supporting himself on trembling arms into a half sitting position.
"It was Wade," Jensen said. "'M sorry."
Cougar nodded once, covering Jensen's hand with his own.
"Don't be. It was not your fault. Now brace yourself."
Jensen nodded and let his head drop back down, breathing deeply through flared nostrils.
With a single nod between them, Pooch and Cougar pried the trap open and quickly maneuvered the hacker's leg out of it.
Jensen screamed and passed out.
Pooch cried.
Cougar stripped off his shirt, silently berating himself for how dirty and sweaty it was, and wrapped it tightly around Jensen's leg, refusing to let himself think about what he was doing.
"Pooch," he said, looking up at the sniffling man next to him.
"Yeah," Pooch croaked.
"We have to wake him up. We have to meet up with Clay."
"Okay," Pooch said, but Cougar could see his lip trembling, and he silently cursed concussions.
"You have to stop crying."
"Okay," Pooch repeated, and this time Cougar could see him steeling himself.
"Jensen," he said, turning back to the limp hacker. This time he bypassed the slapping and went straight for the sternum rub, relieved when Jensen woke quickly.
"Jensen, we have to walk back to rendezvous with Clay and Roque." He didn't mention the fact that they had no van once they met up with their unit leader, or the fact that he had no clue how they were going to get out of this once they got there.
"Okay. Help me up."
Pooch and Cougar each grasped one of Jensen's arms, pulling them over their shoulders. Jensen, for his part, managed to quell his scream, but the bitten off groan and bloodied lip almost seemed worse.
"You with us, Jay?" Pooch asked. Cougar was glad to note that Pooch didn't sound like he was anywhere close to crying.
"Mmhmm," Jensen groaned. "Yeah. 'M good."
"Okay. Here we go, nice and slow," Pooch said. Jensen smiled lopsidedly.
"That rhymed," he said, chuckling softly.
Cougar smiled slightly and tightened his hold on Jensen's arm, once again reminded of just how muscular the hacker was. He pushed doggedly forward, keeping an eye on Jensen's color and praying to a god he was pretty sure didn't exist.
It was going to be a long walk.