"I am impressed," The medic looked straight at the Freelancer who was lying on a cot in one of the infirmary rooms, "You jumped off a swing and managed to break your right wrist and your right ankle by falling."

Wash growled at that, "Better ask the person whose idiotic idea that was in the first place."

His eyes wandered over to Tucker.

"Hey, I didn't make you fall from the swing!" he retorted, holding up his hands in self-defense.

Wash snorted at that again, crossing his arms as best as he could with his broken wrist.

Before Washington was able to form a snarky reply, the door opened and Emily Grey came in with a clipboard in her hands.

"Oh, Agent Washington, falling off a swing! Let's see your injuries." She looked down at the clipboard, flipping through some pages before continuing. "Well, it looks like you have to take care for the next few weeks." She explained.

She then took out a packet of pills from her doctor's coat, "These are painkillers and they will help your body increase its natural healing. You are going to take them regularly or I am going to force them down your throat, you got me? Oh, I'd love to psychoanalyze that!" she chirped happily, Wash for once deciding to comply to the doctor's orders.

"And you." She turned around to Tucker who felt his heart sink, "I think you're going to take care of him until he's well again." She stated cheerily, leaving soon after that and with both of the soldiers in awkward silence.

When the medic came back and cleared Wash to leave, they made their way back to Wash's room with Tucker trying to brace Wash as easily as possible without making it awkward for the both of them.

It was already turning to night when there was a beeping sound coming from Mac's helmet. Then another. And another.

Grumbling, the black-haired woman picked up the helmet and read the messages.

Three unread messages.

What the fuck?

Putting on the helmet that she hadn't been wearing despite having been wearing the rest of her armor at the time, she read the messages

They were all from Tucker.

First message: Mac, you there?

Second message: Seriously, come on, reply!

Third message: I'm in serious trouble here. Reply, please! Come on, sis, please!

With a snort, she opened a private channel between herself and Tucker and immediately heard an extremely distressed Tucker.

"Mac, finally! I need your help! I'm in serious shit here!"

"Cool it, Tucker, what's the matter?" she asked calmly, trying to calm Tucker down instead of sending him into another frenzy.

"Wash is freaking out on me here, and I mean it!"

There was a meowing sound in the background.

"You have a cat with you?" Mac asked, a bit surprised at the sound.

"A cat named Wash!" Tucker whined.

Mac snorted loudly at that, "Wash thinks he's a fucking cat?"

"Fuck yeah!" This time the whine wasn't a whine he usually would sport. It was one of real distress, "I think he is having fucking hallucinations!"

It was her second day into her volunteered exile and she wasn't really ready to go back to base yet, but she had to at some point. So she might as well do it now since Tucker needed her.

She heaved a sigh.

"Okay, Tucker. Give me thirty minutes."

"You're coming down? What about…" Tucker broke off, but they knew who he meant.

"I'm a grown up, I am going to handle it. We're not in high school anymore." She stated simply, Tucker making another noise.

"Okay, just don't overdo it." Tucker replied after a while.

"I won't. I will be okay. Don't worry. First we need to get Wash sobered up. By the way… you haven't seen York around, have you?"

Mac was already out of the cave and marching down the hill.

"No, why?" Tucker asked, a bit surprised.

"Good." Mac replied to that before adding, "He can be quite an asshole when someone's as bad off like Wash is. He's the one who will make videos and stuff when others are drunk."

"I guess it's better that I haven't seen him yet then." Tucker replied with a relieved sigh.

Mac could understand that. He was about the same as York, actually, when it came to making videos when someone was drunk and shit. But this time it involved Tucker's crush. Mac would even go as far to say that he was in love with the Freelancer.

Anyway since this here was Tucker's crush, he wouldn't do such things like make a video when Wash was so bad off. That was a line he would never cross. That's something that was taboo for him when it came to Wash.

Walking down the hill, Mac remembered the night she had found Tucker some days after Wash, Sarge, Lopez, and Donut had been separated from the others.

It was already night outside and far after curfew. Mac was walking back from the war room. She had been called on short notice and thus was only wearing her civvies.

Arriving at the floor that the Reds and Blues were living on, she soon saw a figure on the floor. There were three empty rooms, and there was someone sitting in front of the one marked with "Washington."

Mac remembered very well that Tucker threw a fit when Kimball denied the four missing people their rooms. After he was raging for another ten or twenty minutes, Kimball had finally agreed, Mac needing another twenty minutes to calm the aqua-wearing soldier down.

Now coming up to him, she could see Tucker sitting there in front of Wash's door. His forehead was leaning against the door, in-between his fists which were pressed against the door too.

She could hear sobs coming from him, as well as see tears rolling down his face.

He looked so miserable.

Mac remembered how she had felt when she had lost Drew. How devastated she had been, how sad, and how she had felt like the world would break apart.

She could feel Tucker being in the same phase now. He might not have admitted it so far, but she knew that he had a crush on Wash and their separation some days ago had devastated him. He often was irritable and angry, snapping at the Lieutenants for no real reason. Mac often used to take Tucker aside and calm him down when he was about to snap.

Anyway. He was sitting there now, breaking down and needing a friend.

Walking up to the dark-skinned man, she gently grabbed him by his upper arms and pulled him up on his feet.

"Come on, no need for everyone to see you like that." She muttered lowly, pulling the still crying Tucker with her to his room.

He followed her without starting a ruckus or anything else that he would usually do.

In his room, Mac slipped out of her boots, ordering him to do the same. He followed without back-talking which was worrying on its own.

When Mac turned around, she saw Tucker standing there with tears still rolling down his face. He stared out of the window and looked so lost.

Walking over, she carefully herded the young man over to his bed to make him sit down. Sitting down behind him, she pulled the still crying man into a hug.

Tucker leaned against one of Mac's legs, whereas the other was stretched out for Tucker to stretch his legs over hers.

He fisted the shirt of the woman sitting there, burying his face in the crook of her left shoulder, right above the prosthetic limb.

That was when he broke down and started to wail and sob uncontrollably.

It didn't take long for the door to Tucker's room to open and the chubby face of Grif to appear in the crack, a worried frown on it.

Tucker was wailing so loud and was so out of it, he didn't even notice how Mac shortly spoke with the guy standing there.

"Please, leave him be. He needs some time for himself right now."

Grif only nodded, mouthing a "Take care of him, okay?" to which Mac nodded.

After that, the door closed and that left Mac with a still crying Tucker. Lying a hand on the back of Tucker's head, she started to gently rock the crying man back and forth. The other hand was firmly around his shoulders, keeping him in place.

After some hours, Tucker had fallen asleep in her arms, obviously getting some well- needed sleep for once.

When it was time for breakfast, Mac woke the young man up. He still looked so horribly lost. Fuck, Mac even had to order him to get dressed and to follow her to the mess hall.

She didn't know when, but her instincts to protect him had kicked in at some point. Her adopted little brother needed her and she would rip off the heads of the people trying so much as to look funny at him.

The trip to the mess hall was extremely quiet, Grif and Simmons obviously deciding on doing the same thing and shielding Tucker from everything and anything

.

Kimball obviously had gotten a note from one of them, most likely Grif given Simmons' awkwardness with women, and agreed to give Tucker and Mac two days off to get the young man back on track.

After breakfast, Mac led Tucker to the training room where a huge boxing sack was set up.

He didn't say much since he had gotten up, only some affirmative grunts when you asked him something.

Which was why Mac was mostly talking, explaining now what she wanted him to do while taping his hands.

"Okay, Tucker. After you're ready, you're going to channel all those negative emotions into your fists and hit the sack. You're going to do that until you don't feel so sad anymore. You got me?"

Tucker only nodded.

"Did you hear me?" Her voice got louder, more demanding.

Another grunt came from him, but he was already sounding pretty pissed off.

"I asked if you heard me, Captain?!"

Again, this time she had yelled and was answered by another yell.

"Fucking yes, damn it!" He was up on his feet, fists clenched and breathing heavily.

"Then fucking do what I said!" She ordered, taking up her spot behind the boxing sack, steadying it whilst Tucker started to hit it.

It didn't take long for Tucker to start crying again, hitting the boxing sack like he was out of his mind, channeling all the emotions he was carrying within him into his fists as demanded and hitting with growing frustration.

For once, Mac didn't correct his stance, she let him hit the sack with his fists or his feet, just the way he wanted to and needed it.

Two hours later, Mac called it a day when she noticed Tucker hitting the boxing sack with limp fists and exhaustion evident on his face.

"Go take a shower. We'll meet up in about one hour in your room." She ordered him, the aqua clad soldier nodding and taking his towel before leaving the training room.

The black-haired woman put the stuff away before going to take a shower herself. As much as Tucker was sweaty from working out, she was sweaty from holding against Tucker's hits so the sack wouldn't swing away, giving off a steady target for him to hit on.

When she was showered, she returned to Tucker's room, finding him sitting on the bed freshly showered.

Taking a seat beside him, she observed the young man. She decided to be here with him, just waiting for him to say something and not forcing him to do something he didn't want to.

"You know, I've always thought about what Wash would do if he were in my place. What I should do." Tucker then started, "And when I think of it, I can't come up with anything."

His face and voice were void of any emotions, but Mac took it as a good sign that he was talking about it now.

There was another silence until Mac said, "You know. I happen to know that Wash wasn't always the big leader he is now. I wouldn't be surprised if he would be thinking about the same right now. "What would Tucker do if he is in my place?""

The dark-skinned man looked up from his seat, "I know that he admires you because you're a pretty capable soldier. You often decide things Wash wouldn't have come up with himself. He often takes your ideas and then orders you to act along them." She explained, shrugging her shoulders.

"So I guess we're in quite the same situation then." Tucker muttered with a sad smile.

Mac snorted, deciding against making a joke but replied, "Yeah, pretty much."

After another moment, she then added, "You mind telling me about you and Wash?"

It didn't take much more bribing until he was starting to tell Mac about his and Wash's past, that he had first thought that the Freelancer was completely nuts but had to admit that he felt way more than friendship for the other man after they had gotten separated.

During the next few days and weeks, Tucker trained both the Lieutenants and himself vigorously and mercilessly. Mac often had to remind him to take breaks once in a while, but in the end, he set up the strategy and did most of the assault action himself by leading the groups while fighting at the front.

They had gotten all four of them out, although Wash had some serious injuries from Locus' interrogation techniques that had brought him directly to the infirmary for several weeks.

Tucker wouldn't leave the Freelancer's side in the infirmary until he was cleared and moved to his room.

At the beginning, the nurses were kicking him out regularly and even Mac was trying to do so, but he always found a way to sneak right back in and after some time all of them let him be there. They just made sure he didn't kill himself in the process by providing him a bed to sleep on.

Mac would regularly bring over food and talk with him, keeping him company.

Even after Wash was moved to his room and cleared for light physical exercises… Tucker would stay as much as he could, only going out for his duties, for eating, or when the medics came for checkups.

With a sigh, the black-haired woman entered the block with their rooms undetected by anyone and decided to switch into her civvies before walking the few steps over to Wash's room and entering without knocking. What she saw there made her laugh out loud before Tucker even was able to get a word out.

Tucker was standing in the middle of the fucking room, looking extremely distressed and probably would have loved to kill her right then and there for laughing.

Locking the door, Mac walked in on the situation. Tucker was standing there like a pillar of salt with Wash on all four limbs, walking around Tucker's legs and making cat sounds.

"Whoops? Too much medication?" Mac asked, walking over to the pair.

"I don't know!"

This tone caused Mac to get serious. Tucker wasn't only playing at being distressed, he was fucking distressed.

"Did you already call a medic?" Mac asked Tucker, only to see him shake his head.

"Okay, gimme a sec. I'm going to get one." Mac then stated, shortly leaving the room and informing the infirmary over her helmet about the situation. She requested a medic at Wash's quarters as soon as possible, hopefully without starting a huge ruckus.

Half an hour later and the medic was gone, saying that he would report what had happened to Doctor Grey. He took the medication with him, since that was obviously the reason for Wash's strange behavior.

The effects would last for another seven hours or so, so Mac decided to call in for Tucker, Wash, and herself for the next few days to keep an eye on the Freelancer in question.

Since the medics did such bullshit, Kimball certainly wouldn't argue with them, even less since she already cleared all three of them from duty for another two weeks.

Well, that left Tucker and her with a high Freelancer who currently thought he was a cat. Great.

Sighing, she sat down on the ground, careful to not hurt Wash meandering around and still believing he was a cat.

"Sit down, Tucker." She said calmly, not wanting to send either of the males into panic mode.

Tucker did as she said, sitting down although he did so rather stiffly.

"You ever had a cat back home?" She asked then, making small noises to draw Wash's attention towards her.

Indeed, soon after she had started doing so, Tucker could see Wash coming closer to Mac, mewling.

"Come here kitty, kitty, kitty." The woman cooed the male into joining her.

When he was close enough, Mac carefully reached up and started to pet the Freelancer's head, which was answered with a purr.

Tucker then shook his head, "No, never had a cat."

"You know how to behave around cats?" Mac asked then, still petting Wash like he was an actual cat.

"I petted one I met on my way to school regularly." Tucker replied.

This caused Mac to nod, "It's about the same here. He thinks he's a cat, so treat him like one. He's going to get off of his high soon enough." Mac explained, which caused Tucker to huff.

"I should treat Wash like a fucking cat?" he asked incredulously, still watching Mac petting the Freelancer who by now had laid down in front of her and was enjoying the caressing.

"Exactly. See?" she motioned towards Wash, "He's relaxed now. He'll fall asleep eventually and then you can hope that he'll sleep through the rest of his high."

"Uh, okay? So how should I call him? Wash?" Tucker asked, clearly over-challenged by the situation at hand.

"Try it." Mac stopped petting Wash, earning a disappointed mewling from the Freelancer.

"Uh, come here, Wash." Tucker tried imitating the sounds that Mac had made, but Wash didn't react.

"What now?" Mac could feel how Tucker's stress level rose immediately when that didn't work out.

Leaning over, Mac whispered something to him.

"Try it." She then said when Tucker looked at her more than just a bit skeptical.

"Come here, Skylar." Tucker tempted the Freelancer, who immediately got up with a meow and walked over to Tucker to lay his head down on his lap right after that.

Still with an awkward expression on his face, he started to gently thread his fingers through Wash's blond hair.

"How did you know he would react to that name?" Tucker asked after a while, seeing how Wash had started to relax.

"North once told me that he always had photos of the cats in his locker that he used to have at home before he joined the army." Mac explained.

"Let me guess, one was called Skylar?" Tucker asked, Wash meowing again at the mention of the cat's name.

Mac nodded, looking at the Freelancer in a fond way, "Exactly. Skylar and Ari, those were the names of his cats." She explained.

"I see, so that's why— He-Hey! What are you doing, Wash?!" Immediately the aqua clad soldier froze up when he noticed that Wash was starting to tread the fabric of Tucker's jogging shorts with his uninjured hand.

"Easy, Tucker." Mac reached over to pet the Freelancer, who had looked up at Tucker's reaction rather confused, "When he's doing that, it means that he likes being with you here. Kittens do that so-called 'Milk tread' when they want to get milk from their mom. When they get older they do that still when they are feeling relaxed and comfortable where they are." She explained.

"Bow-chicka-bow-oww!" Tucker winced when she whacked him upside-down the head.

"Not that kind of milk, fucking asshole." She replied with a laugh, which drew a grin out of Tucker. She was glad that Tucker again was joking, which meant that he was relaxing now bit by bit and not going into full panic mode every second possible.

"So, back to the topic at hand. Wash feels at ease with you. Leave him like that and he'll probably fall asleep soon." Mac explained.

"But that'll become uncomfortable with time." Tucker muttered while watching the Freelancer with a fond expression all the same.

"Then how about you get up and lie down on Wash's cot and get him to lie down with you?" an amused grin played across Mac's lips, causing Tucker to turn red.

It wasn't too visible, but she knew her adopted brother too well by now to just know that he was blushing furiously.

In the end, he heaved a defeated sigh, waking the almost sleeping Wash up and lying on the cot. The Freelancer looked extremely baffled at that, making confused meowing sounds.

Those sounds died down the moment Tucker turned around on the cot a bit and called him over. "Come on, kitty, kitty. Come here, Skylar."

Immediately the Freelancer got on his 'paws,' wandering over to the bed and immediately climbing on top of Tucker.

Said young man pulled a face, but he didn't fight or tense when the Freelancer cuddled closer and laid his head on Tucker's chest with a contended sigh.

"See? If you're stroking his head like you did before, he'll be out like a light in five minutes tops." Mac explained with a fond smile on her own features.

She could observe how Tucker slowly started to do as Mac said and indeed, no sooner than five minutes later, Washington was fast asleep on top of Tucker.

Tucker fell asleep soon too after having talked a bit more with Mac.

The woman decided to stay with the two men for the night, if only to explain to Wash what had happened when he woke up in the morning.

No doubt he would turn bright red when he realized just where he was and with who.