Lifeline
Shots ring out all around him, but he doesn't stop, he reaches his fallen comrade's side, grabs him, and pulls him out of there, all the while checking for injuries that may or may not be fatal. It is a pattern he has gotten into, and a pattern he knows well. He pulls his comrade back to the helicopter, then goes back out to the battle field, all the while keeping an eye out for shots aimed at him. The next one he saves is in pain and concious, though a bit delirious. No one but him sees or hears that man crying and apologizing, and no one else but him will ever know about this breakdown.
He's seen them all at their best and their worst, but past those moments where he's their saving link, their lifeline, he's nothing. Just a pacifist in a unit of warriors that some haze, others ignore, and still a few that talk to him outside of missions and reports. He doesn't mind. He does his job, they do theirs, and they keep the status quo.
"Thanks Doc." Wet Suit nodded to the dark skinned man, and then glanced around the room as everyone who can move gets ready to go before the last helicopter with casualties comes in. He's stuck here with some broken ribs and and a broken leg. From what he knows, there hasn't been a fatality. Doc nods and leaves. Wet Suit leans back, then jerks as he hears calls for the operating room to get set up- no one else has gotten a chance to get out of the med bay, and the group stays, waiting to see which comrade has gotten in trouble.
Nothing prepares them for who the victim actually is.
"Lifeline?!" They all stare in shock as the field medic is transferred to a bed, and put on oxygen and a I.V.
"He got shot helping Low Light out of there." Lift Ticket explains at the debriefing. "Low Light got both legs burned by one of Firefly's bombs, he couldn't walk on his own. One of the vipers was aiming for Low Light . . . I don't think he meant to shoot Lifeline. But Lifeline took the shot, it would have killed Low Light."
"Is he going to be all right Doc?" Hawk turns to the doctor.
"Should be, it was a clean shot, bullet went straight through, and there were no complications. We just have to wait for him to wake up."
Doc watches as the visitors come into check on the injured field medic, smiling as some of the women sit there and talk. Low Light stays silent.
Noon on the third day after he was brought in, Lifeline wakes up, first thing he asks is about Low Light and the others. Then he asks what happened to himself.
While Lifeline was unconcious, the base is eerily quiet, everyone thinking about how many times Lifeline had pulled them out of trouble that could have killed them. Each wondering why they had never thought about the risks the medic took, going onto a battle field without a weapon. But once he wakes up, no one goes to visit. They can't. They simple don't know what to say. When they see Lifeline and Doc walk into the cafeteria, they just stare out of the cornor of their eyes as the two medics joke about something. As if Lifeline hadn't been hanging onto life a day prior.
"Hey, Lifeline, thanks for pulling me out last time." Gung ho blinks as Quick Kick, loudly enough for most everyone to hear, thanks the medic. And everyone sees the stunned look on Lifeline's face, like Quick Kick just suckerpunched him.
"Just doing my job like I normally do, Quick Kick." Lifeline shakes it off. "I'm sure you'd do the same." He smiles at Quick Kick and then keeps moving.
"Where in your job description does it say for you to take a bullet?" Low Light speaks up from where he's eating.
"The same part where it says I have to go into an active battlefield to pull people out." Lifeline then returns to the conversation with Doc about medical reports. What strikes them all the most is Lifeline's look when Quick Kick thanks him. Realizing that he never expected to be thanked, even as he risks his life pulling them out.
He just pulls them out, and considers their thanks to be unspoken.
Just like they expect him to be there, to be their lifeline when things get rough.
A oneshot about Lifeline. For some reason his character always seemed like it was taken for granted. The most of a thank you he got was from Bree, and then Junkyard. I also had a slight plot bunny of 'What would happen if Lifeline got injured?' the first two paragraphs and last two sentences were all I had originally written, but then I went back and wrote in that plot bunny. Not sure how well I got Lifeline's character, cause I'm definetly not a pacifist. Never will be, but he's one of the characters I respect cause he has a set of morals that he sticks to, no matter what.