Author's Note: KellyCat77 - Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I hope that you like this chapter!
To say that LEP Headquarters was a mess would be an understatement of truly majestic proportion.
The building was largely empty at the moment. More than half of the officers had either been shipped off to various hospitals or were immobile on the lower levels being treated for more major injuries sustained during the B'Wa Kell's revolution. Most of the remainder were currently involved in transporting the offending goblins to Howler's Peak. In the upper levels, one lone fairy made his way toward Commander Julius Root's office.
Captain Trouble Kelp paused as he picked his way through the littered bullpen outside the LEP commander's office. Headquarters may have been a mess, but his officers had acted with distinction. Not a single fairy was lost, and they'd managed - barely - to hold out until the DNA cannons were reactivated and the revolution could be put down once and for all. The captain quietly observed the destroyed headquarters for a moment, his chest puffed up with pride.
Today was the kind of day that made a fairy proud to be part of the LEP.
Captain Kelp laboriously forced one foot in front of the other as he continued his trek to the commander's office door. He had been overjoyed to hear that both Root and Captain Holly Short were alive, let alone that they were responsible for the ending of the goblin revolution. However, they had both been immediately whisked off to some other top-secret operation before returning to HQ. Now, hours later, the commander was finally due to return. This meant that Trouble - who had somehow become the de facto leader of the beleaguered LEP, despite the presence of several senior officers - could give his full report and go and check on his men.
Trouble stopped outside the commander's door. He found himself tempted to go in. Take a seat. Steal a few moments' rest for the first time in more than thirty hours. He ground his teeth, turning his back on the office door. He still had fairies out there working or fighting serious injury - he was not the type of leader to kick back while his troops did the heavy lifting.
No, he would stand guard. Wait for the commander. Give his report. Do his duty.
But that didn't mean he couldn't simply lean back against the wall. Perhaps even allow his eyelids to droop closed for a few seconds over his blurry, stinging eyes. He would still be there, waiting at almost-attention, when Holly and Root finally returned.
Those thoughts were still in his mind when he awoke to a pair of hazel eyes boring worriedly into his own.
"Captain," a muffled voice said, sounding like he was hearing it from underwater. "Captain Kelp, wake up."
There was something strange in that request. Wake up? Why would they ask that? He was clearly already awake, standing watch outside the commander's door . . .
Wake up.
His eyes jolted open. He leapt to his feet, ignoring the groans of stretched muscles and poorly-healed burns as he snapped to action. His Neutrino was already in hand by the time he made it off the floor, and it took several seconds to realize that the owner of the hazel eyes was not an immediate threat.
It took several more seconds to realize that he recognized her.
"Holly?" he asked, blinking several times to clear his eyes. When he finally succeeded, he almost wished she hadn't.
It was indeed Holly - a relieved grin now turning the corners of her mouth. Behind Holly was Commander Julius Root, regarding Trouble with arms crossed and one eyebrow raised. Behind the commander was the technical genius that until very recently Trouble had held in contempt for the entire revolution.
He felt a gentle tug on his right wrist and looked down to see Holly securing his arm with a loose but firm grip, likely as much in an effort to wake him as to keep him from firing his newly recharged weapon on any of them.
"You're alright, Trouble," she said reassuringly. "You must have fallen asleep. I just wanted to make sure nothing was wrong."
Kelp shook his head, then did his best to pretend that the action hadn't rattled his brain into semi-incoherence once again. "Of course not," he said with a cocksure grin, "I'm invincible, you know that."
Holly rolled her eyes. "He's fine, or at least what passes for it in his brain," she called over her shoulder.
"Good," Root answered gruffly. "Then step aside. You're in my way."
Trouble quickly sidestepped out of the way to allow the Commander passage, snapping to attention in the process. "Sir, I am prepared to give you my full report right away."
"Not at the moment, Captain," Root said with a shake of his head. "I'm afraid the genius here and I are going to spend the rest of the night going over how he allowed his entire system to be taken down and single-handedly nearly destroyed the LEP."
"Would you like us to sit in?" Short asked, taking a step forward toward the office.
Foaly spoke up, having been very uncharacteristically quiet. "I'd rather the good Captain Kelp not be present until we can clear this whole mess up once and for all. Over the past few hours he has made several rather convincing threats to my person that were not only upsetting, but frankly bordered on disturbing."
Root crossed his arms again, looking Trouble up and down. "And just what kind of threats have you been making, Captain?" he asked.
Too tired to feign innocence, Trouble simply shrugged. "I may or may not have promised Foaly that if I survived, I would take his hide and make a rug out of it. And then donate that rug to Howler's Peak to give the inmates something to spruce the place up."
The commander regarded him through narrowed eyes for a moment before his dark expression turned mirthful and he let out a low chuckle. "I like your style, son," he said approvingly. "But no, I won't be needing either of you tonight. Go home and get some rest."
The commander then strode into his office, the door clicking shut behind Foaly.
Trouble turned to Holly, then to the mess he would have to pick his way back through to leave the bullpen. Making an executive decision, he pressed his back against the wall and let himself slide to the floor. Less than a second later he was joined by his fellow captain.
"So I hear you've had quite the day," he said casually, wiping some dust off his uniform.
"Nothing too fancy," Holly said with a grin. "Stopping a criminal takeover of Haven, defeating megalomaniacs, saving the world . . . it was a pretty regular Tuesday."
Trouble laughed, but winced when something within him disagreed vehemently with the effort. He closed his eyes against the pain and leaned his head back against the wall.
Holly turned to look at him, concern clear in her face. "What was that?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Nothing," Trouble lied, refusing to make eye contact with her. He started pushing his way to his feet. "I should be going, I need to go check in on the situation downstairs."
She was having none of his diversion tactics. With a firm hand on his shoulder, Holly pushed him back to the floor. "Let me guess, then - you're completely out of magic, you're hurt, and you've been too stubborn to let any of the warlocks look you over. Does that about sum it up?"
He thought about arguing with her or telling her she was wrong, but he could tell by the look in her eyes that such an attempt would be futile. "It isn't that bad," he said instead.
Holly rolled her eyes. "Let me see," she said, shifting until she was kneeling in front of him and gesturing for him to open his uniform jacket.
This time Trouble did protest. "It's nothing, really," he tried lamely. "Besides, you spent the better part of a day getting cooked by radiation - I'm sure you need it more than me."
"I'm practically running hot," Holly countered. At Trouble's inquisitive expression she explained, "I'll tell you later. It's a long story involving an emergency situation and a ritual completion of questionable legality. But for now, either you allow me to heal you or I'll stun you and do it myself."
She was wearing that stubborn look that meant trouble for anyone it was directed at. After a few moments of contemplation, he finally decided that he was too tired to try her on it and slowly opened his jacket and lifted the hem of his shirt beneath it to reveal a dark pattern of mottled bruises over the ribs on his left side.
Holly made a sound somewhere between pity and appreciation as she looked the mark over. "How'd you earn this one?" she asked idly as she reached a hand out to gently prod the bruised skin.
Trouble hissed when she made contact. "Lucky kick during the second breach attempt," he hissed. Embarrassed to be seen in such a state, he quickly added, "But you should see the other guy."
Holly grinned as she gingerly touched a second spot of bruises. "Guess we all came away with our marks today. I lost a finger earlier," she said casually.
Kelp opened his eyes in surprise, reaching down to grab her by the wrists and lift both hands high enough that he could see them. "I count ten," he said when he looked over her hands, his tone questioning.
The other officer grinned and wiggled her various digits. "What?" she asked, her tone a mockery of naivety, "I got better. Emergencies and questionable rituals, remember?" She then pulled her right hand from his grip and leaned forward. "Now shut up and let me focus."
She splayed her hand and, as gently as she could muster, rested it over as much of Trouble's side as she could reach before whispering "Heal."
Blue sparks danced down her fingers and sank into Trouble's side, making quick work of resetting a pair of broken ribs and healing their connection. The magic also pulsed against the bruises on his skin until they cleared. When the work was done, Kelp sucked down a lungful of air.
"Better?" Holly chuckled while Trouble leaned his head back and rested it on the wall behind him.
"Maybe," he said, still too stubborn to let her have the satisfaction of being right. He heard her sigh in exasperation and settle back down next to him, leaning tiredly against his side. They passed a few minutes in companionable silence, over the course of which Trouble felt himself succumbing once again to the call of sleep. His head was just beginning to droop again when Holly broke the quiet.
"How did everyone hold up?" she asked, kicking at a pile of rubble near her foot. "Better than HQ, I hope."
Trouble nodded. "No permanent injuries, luckily. You got power back into our DNA cannons just in time - if you'd been a couple of minutes later I don't think the story would have ended as happily as it did." He paused for a minute before adding, "But Grub got hit pretty bad at the end there."
Holly leaned away so she could look up at him, concern on her face. "What happened to Grub? Is he okay?"
The older Kelp nodded stoically. "There's hope he'll recover, but it was ugly. He stubbed his toe something fierce while he was passing out the electric rifles." Though he tried, Trouble couldn't keep the grin from his face. "I'm sure Commander Root will be hearing about it for the next decade at least."
The concern dropped from Holly's face as she started to laugh softly, leaning back against his shoulder. "The Council ought to commission a statue in his honor," she chuckled.
When she looked up at him he suddenly realized how close they were to one another. He also realized that for some reason he was wondering if her lips felt as soft as they looked when she smiled at him.
In order to forestall his brain from saying something to that effect, he brusquely dusted off his pants and rose to his feet. "I should go check in on my men," he said by way of explanation.
Holly rose beside him and had just opened her mouth to respond when Root's office door swung open once more.
"Short, Kelp!" the Commander's gruff voice interrupted whatever she was about to say as he poked his head out of his office. "I thought I already told you to go home."
Trouble stood again, bracing his hand against the wall to keep himself steady. "Sir, I was just on my way to check on my wounded."
"No you weren't," Root interrupted again, his complexion darkening at the mere thought of being questioned by one of his officers. He looked Kelp up and down, then sighed deeply. "You've put in good work today, Trouble," he said, passing a hand tiredly over his face. "But for now the best thing you can do is go home and get some rest. Wing Commander Vinyáya left some very detailed notes in her report, and she spoke very highly of your leadership under pressure. We'll have some things to discuss when you report back in - not the least of which is her recommendation that you be promoted."
Then he turned to look at Holly. "Captain Short, I am authorizing the use of any means necessary to get Kelp and yourself out of here. Stun him and drag him to bed yourself if you have to - just see that it gets done."
Then he was back inside, his door rattling in the frame as it slammed shut.
Trouble's jaw dropped open and he found himself at a complete loss for words. Had the commander just referred to him by his first name? That was a rare show of camaraderie, particularly from a fairy as hard as Julius Root.
He felt a single finger press upward on the tip of his chin, closing his mouth for him. "Come on, Trubs," Holly said with a grin, forestalling any further argument. "I'm under orders to drag you to bed."
Perhaps it was the exhaustion, or the thrill of a possible promotion coming down the line, or perhaps he had taken one too many hits to the head over the past few hours. Either way, Trouble was as surprised as Holly when he heard himself say, "Why Captain, I am a fairy of standards. You'll have to work harder at it than that if you are so keen on getting me in bed."
Her shoulder connected with his chest hard enough to knock him back onto his rear, but the flustered look on Holly's face was well worth it. She glared at him for a few moments more before finally relenting and offering him a hand.
He took it and let her pull him to his feet and lead him out of the building. If anyone noticed that their hands stayed connected a little longer than was absolutely necessary, he was sure he could explain that away as mere coincidence.
They were just helping each other balance.