He saw the four guards hunched over at a corner, discussing something frantically. They straightened up considerably upon seeing and saluted uniformly. He knew that the story they were about to present was more than absurd but that somehow kept him into the shadows, more ground to act inconspicuously.
He stood near the open door of the ward, unable to keep himself from taking a small peek back. He saw Tatyana standing near the curtains draped around the bed. He ground his teeth, when she leaned towards the hem, and looked away. When he looked ahead once more, all the four guards were standing in front of him, prepared for the questions.
"Report." He said stiffly through a tightened jaw. They couldn`t miss the chill in his tone and knew that they had to do their best or everything would get nasty.
Ocelot didn`t listen to the half of it. The other half, which he did listen, was just a babble of deliberate distraction while he waited for Tatyana to get out. The wound had been dressed as was the holder. He took a glance back and saw her hunched over the body as she bid her farewell to the unconscious form and drifted away, walking pass him and giving him a fleeting look of malice.
He turned around, holding up his hand as a gesture for those who were still speaking that he was done, and started at a brisk pace towards the bed near the far corner of the hall. Sergeikh walked out of the dispensary just then and yawned heavily.
"I`m about to call it a night." He said as he muffled another yawn with the back of his hand, "the sentry is still up at the ward`s entrance?"
Ocelot nodded shortly.
"Its not likely that he`d wake up tonight. I`ll see to him tomorrow." he turned to walk back in his private room for some rest. Then seeing that Ocelot was still standing there, he turned and sighed, "you can go to bed too, he can`t do something damaging anytime soon."
Ocelot looked up at him, restraining the urge to raise an eyebrow. "I wouldn`t take any chances." He stole a brief glance at the redressed drained form on the bed, forgetting the pain coursing through his jaw as its tightened muscles protested.
The medic shrugged before retiring for the night.
It was only after a couple of minutes that Ocelot sighed and turned towards the door. Ascending from it was the magnificent body of the Boss; a hard expression marked her features as she regarded him with a look.
"a Guerrilla attack huh?" she seemed just as skeptic as he was himself. There was no hint of humor in her tone as she passed him to stand at the side of the bed. Ocelot didn`t need to reply to that. She observed the other keenly, without touching, while Ocelot firmly kept his head turned in the other direction.
The Boss was fully dressed in her post uniform as if she hadn`t even taken it off for the night, just like him. From the corner of his eyes he could see hesitation as the older woman extended her hand and laid it on Snake`s forehead.
She didn`t move as she closed her eyes and tried to relive the memories with her apprentice as much as she wanted to believe that she could neglect him, she couldn`t. He was one heck of an enigma but she had faith in him. Even when he was caught by the USSR military, she believed that he would manage it. He had the potential more than any other being that she`d met and she had seen that about a decade earlier.
"Ocelot?" Her voice was distracted and her eyes still closed as her hand rested on his forehead.
"hmm?" He still refused to turn to the scene directly.
"I am giving you an official order to keep an eye on him," she paused and inhaled before opening her eyes and pulling her hand back. She then turned to him, her eyes detached and her voice still below the standards of vigilance that she used, "and an unofficial order to keep an eye for him."
Ocelot raised his eyebrows at her, turning to look in her eyes for the first time.
The Boss shook her head and looked away sighing, "good night Ocelot. I assume you`ll be staying here till dawn?"
"more than that." He muttered as she strolled away in the same swift pace, her blond hair dragging behind her, not really caring if the phrase went unheard.
Once alone, Ocelot felt the air getting colder. He strolled towards the bed and stood at its side for a few minutes, looking at nothing in particular. His gaze wandered across the figure, lingering at the wounded limb before he let out a breath and took a few steps back.
He leaned against the wall near the foot of the bed and took out his revolver, closing his eyes to distract himself.
He watched as the window behind the bed started to show the first traces of dawn. It was only after half an hour, he assumed, that the morning sirens began ringing as a wake-up call for the soldiers. He hadn`t once been annoyed by it, he was an early riser, but today felt a little different. He wanted to crush the damn thing into smithereens before it woke up the only other occupant of the room. To his slightest dismay, it didn`t.
The doors opened to reveal the two guards previously on night duty. They were failing at the attempt to hide nervousness from their faces.
"sir," one of them saluted, "you may rest for a while, we are guarding the doors."
"No." Ocelot said slowly, "I`ve orders to keep an eye on him. You keep the guard up."
Knowing better than to irritate the Major the two walked out again, giving a quick side-glance to Snake. Ocelot watched their backs disappear and detached himself from the wall. Just as he reached the bed, the medic, Sergeikh, walked into the room. His face seemed fresher than last night as he stepped into the light to examine Snake.
He frowned to himself before walking back into his office, only to return after a moment or two with a syringe and a small injection. Ocelot watched silently as he shook the injection container once before filling up the syringe and bringing it up in front of his face for examination. He narrowed his eyes at it before lowering it near the patient`s body.
Ocelot crossed his arms in front of his chest, suddenly getting a new found interest in the blank pattern of the high ceiling. From the corner of his eyes he could see the needle piercing through the skin of his arm and closed his eyes, letting out a slow breath.
Sergeikh turned to Ocelot, shaking his head disapprovingly, "you better get some rest too. I already have enough on my hands."
Ocelot was about to shrug it off when he noticed the medic`s eyes still boring at the side of his face. He walked up to a chair near Snake`s bed and dropped into it, "I`m good enough."
Sergeikh didn`t look convinced but didn`t argue either. He sighed and walked away, not in his office but outside through the main ward entrance.
He hadn`t gotten a good night`s sleep in ages. Extending his legs, he placed them, crossed over each other, on the other`s, at a distance from the wound. He watched as the other`s chest rose and fell rhythmically giving him some odd sense of relaxation inside. It felt like each second was dragging at a snail`s pace and the environment suddenly felt peaceful, his wasted eyelids heavy. He closed his eyes, sighing as waves of serenity emitted by the one lying on the bed engulfed him in a thick blanket.
Eva walked inside and narrowed her eyes at the Ocelot Major. She knew that he would be keeping a close watch on Snake so that he wouldn`t escape. His back was towards her, legs over Snake`s bed as if he owned the place. She glared at the form and turned around to leave, a perfectly planned visit ruined. No worries, she assured herself, I`ll just drop by later.
AN: okay so no Snake and Ocelot in this one.. sorry. just wait for Snake to wake up.
i don`t know what`s wrong with me. i don`t have anything to do but i`m still too preoccupied and uh.. lazy(?). i`m so sorry. i`ll try to update quickly. =S