30. Jesse's Girl (Rick Springfield)

A/N: I know I've done one similar to this in this collection, but I'm gonna go from Havoc's perspective, and this'll probably be a good bit shorter. I also changed the hospital scene quite a bit in terms of dialogue.

Also, the song doesn't really match. It's just more to convey how Havoc kind of has to bear the burdens of the whole Royai thing. I hope that makes sense. If you PM me, I might be able to explain it better. I'm not exactly awake right now.

"Riza!"

Havoc was a little shocked to hear the First Lieutenant's given name, but it wasn't exactly that uncalled for in this situation. He had twitched, too, the back of his neck prickling. Something was very wrong. He heard the gunshots and for a moment, his only thought was, Roy's gonna have the heads of everyone involved in this if she dies.

Not, of course, that Havoc wouldn't have much the same reaction, but things between himself and Riza were clearly not as intense (let alone the same) as what Riza and Roy had. He sighed.

Just don't be an idiot, Chief.

He rose to his feet. The flare had gone off. Time to play his part.

Thank goodness she was alright.

Having a little bit less on his plate than Roy did at the moment, Havoc had time to contemplate how things might've gone. He shivered at the idea, though Al's huge body somewhat blunted the reaction. Al's eyes flitted to him for the tiniest second, then back to the Colonel and Hawkeye.

Havoc winced. This was getting too personal for his tastes. He just wanted to be on a date with Solaris right now! Anywhere except here, where the tension was so thick that even a diamond-coated blade would have a hard time taking a tiny chink out of it.

He was relieved when they finally got out of the car. He could go for the routine taking control of the situation. After all, even if this thing, whatever it was, could survive Roy once, there was absolutely no chance that it would survive another encounter with him.

And Barry was easily dealt with, too. Except for his rather large crush on Riza. He remembered the story about that night and almost smiled. Some things just never got old.

Splitting up was always where people ran into trouble in movies and books, Havoc knew, but this wasn't your average haunted-house-seeking group. They were beyond prepared.

Really.

Okay… Maybe not.

Oh, shi—

"Solaris?" he barely managed to choke out.

Notgood,reallynotgood,ohpleasethiscan'tbehappening…

But Roy had a plan.

Sort of.

Well, the point was, it worked pretty well, if Havoc said so himse—

PAIN

No… this wasn't happening. Already, his legs had gone numb. How could he have lost so much blood so quickly?

He only faintly heard her footsteps fading away. Even Roy's yells seemed too far away, even though Havoc knew they were inches apart.

For a very long moment, his thoughts flashed again to Riza. She probably had no idea that that… that… well, it was coming for her. And as much as she could protect herself, after what had happened, he wasn't so sure.

HOT

Roy was closing his wounds, he could tell. It felt horrible, never mind the smell.

Forget about me—you need to go save Hawkeye! If you lose her…

Havoc mercifully sank into unconsciousness.

"I can't feel my legs."

Roy and Riza had the exact same look on their faces.

"No," Riza whispered, shaking her head.

Roy clenched his jaw. "This is the thanks I get for saving your sorry ass?"

Havoc's legs might've been useless, but he could still throw things, and the bowl that had contained his soup from lunch just about knocked a few teeth out of Roy's mouth. "I said 'I can't feel my legs', not, 'I'm completely useless', you bastard."

"Just stop it, you two." Riza had that look, the one that said that if she didn't have to keep it together, she wouldn't.

Roy glared at her, but said no more. He sighed heavily.

You'd better give her a break. She busts her ass for you.

Havoc sighed, as well. "We'll just have to make do." He turned to Riza. "Not that you don't already, but could you do my share of keeping him—" Havoc jerked his head in Roy's direction. "—alive, sane, and on track?"

Riza bit her lip—If you lose it now, I will, too!—and nodded. "Of course."

Havoc turned back to glare at Roy. "You'd better keep to."

Roy glared back, but Havoc knew that to be as good a promise as he'd get from an angry Roy.

"Don't waste this, Chief. I still believe, you know."

He thought he saw tears forming in Roy's eyes, but Roy lowered his gaze to his lap too quickly to know for sure. Riza briefly touched Roy's shoulder and walked out under the pretense of duty.

You'd better be together at the end of this, I swear.

A/N: My second time in as many years (if not more) writing for Havoc. It didn't really help that I was listening to "Jesus Christ Superstar" while I was writing this. It's easier to write when I'm listening to the song in the title.

Also... I meant to post last week, I really did, I SWEAR! However, graduation is drawing closer, so I've got a TON of stuff to do. With any luck, I should get next week's chapter up on time.