As the door opened, Sniper could see the woman standing on the other side. She was wearing a blue dress, with her black hair set up. Most likely Scout's mother, as there was rarely females around these parts, except Miss Pauling now and then. They talked a bit about the boy's condition, but he avoided telling her about the part where he cut Scout and where they decided to not heal him, as it'd probably cause quite an outrage, before letting her into the room. He was unsure whether to stay or leave, so he stood a bit in the open door, before hearing Scout mention him.

"Ma, 'tis's Snipes, he's been keepin' me with company while I've been here."

Sniper turned around. "G'day." He nodded and tipped his hat. "How are you, ma'am?" Just a formality, of course, but Scout's mother didn't seem to recognize it as that.

"My poor baby is in hospital, how do you think I am?"

"Hm, good point you got there." Sniper walked to the chair by the window, as the lady was using the chair by the bed, holding a bit embarrassed Scout's hand tightly.

"Maaa, calm down, it ain't all his fault," Scout said jokingly. "'Dis baby here on my cheek may be, but…"

Scout, what the bloody hell are you doing?
He resisted the urge to turn around and interrupt him; instead, he lit yet another cigarette. It'd probably be a good idea to cut a bit down on them, but at the moment, he really needed it. It was Scout who was having a visitor, so he should be the one talking. If he kept interrupting, it wouldn't put him in a very good light. But the kid could be a bit more careful of what he was saying. In the corner of his eye, he could see Scout's mother get up, but he kept calm and lent back in the chair.

"…hey, it's a'ight, Ma, it looks frickin' badass!"

"Did you cut my son?"Her voice was furious. Sniper looked quietly up at her while blowing out some grey smoke. "Technically," he said without either lowering or raising his voice, "I did."

Scout's mother took a step forward, starting to say something, but Sniper interrupted her. "Listen, ma'am, we've talked about it. There's no need to-"

His head got slapped to the side before he got any time to react. For some reason, his mind noticed a lone, green crayon lying right next to the wall; it'd probably fallen down from the nightstand where the other crayons were. A couple of swears slid through his lips as he felt his right cheek burn in pain and humiliation. He touched it with cold fingers as he slowly turned around to face the woman, keeping calm. Very calm. Getting hit was no problem, but getting hit like this, without even being able to finish what he was saying.

"Fine, I'll leave you alone," he said, getting up from the chair while readjusting his glasses, which had fallen halfway off when he got hit. "Talk to you later, Scout." Scout mother was saying something rude to him, but he closed her out, so the only thing he heard was Scout's "See ya, Snipes" as he closed the door behind him.

The hall outside of the room was quite small, as the hospital was just a small part of the base. The walls were mint green, maybe someone had thought it was a happy colour or something, but instead it ended up looking sick and, well, hospital-like. There were three doors on both the long sides, and one in the end. He slowly walked down the hall, towards the last door. It went directly out, letting him exit the entire base without having to go through the entire building.

Right on the other side of the door, there were a couple of benches placed up to the wall. An open window was placed near the corner of it. As he sat down in the left bench, which squeaked loudly, Scout's mother closed the window. He smiled and nodded politely to her, even though he was still a bit mad at her for hitting him. She flat-out ignored him. The bench was even more uncomfortable than the chair in Scout's room, but it was probably best to leave him alone with his mother for now, so the bench was the best choice. Maybe he could go out for some time, but he didn't want the boy to leave while he was gone, as he was going home to his mother for some time, and it'd be horrible to not say goodbye to him, even though it was just for a month.

This let-him-heal-himself-thing was a horrible idea. It had always been, and would always be. Why had he even voted for? He had no reason to, the kid was pretty annoying from time to time, and a bit too stubborn and overly brave sometimes, but he did have his moments with brilliance. In fact, the way he was acted quite interesting, such an opposite to his own personality. He was pretty darn cute too, and he had to admit, his speed and double jumping was quite amazing. Scout was meant to be running; it was his call in life. What would happen if he became permanently paralyzed? Medic could easily heal injuries that weren't permanent, but as soon as they crossed the line, they were unhealable, like his scars. If the boy got paralyzed, they would probably not notice before it was too late, and then…

Then he'd been stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Just the thought of that made Sniper's heart ache. The once happily running kid, sitting in a wheelchair, not able to feel the wind whooshing through his short hair as his lungs and muscles hurt from the need of oxygen, and his heart beating so hard he could feel it. Not able to jump, play baseball or fight properly. Most likely not able to smile anymore.

For some reason, it wasn't hard to imagine Scout sitting in that grey wheelchair, placed in the corner of the room so he wasn't in the way for anybody. Just a shadow of himself, not really caring where he was placed, as his life had been completely messed up, he'd lost the things he loved to do for the rest of his life. The thoughts led Sniper to new and even darker and depressing thoughts, finally ending with the paralyzed wheeling his way up to a cliff, to the very edge of it. He looked down at the water far down there, if the fall didn't do it, the big pointy rocks would probably fix it. The wind blew his hat off, revealing his face, which was determined, but scared. Then he wheeled a bit forward, tipped over…

Snap!

Noise!

He turned quickly around to the side he'd heard the noise come from. After years with sniping, he'd learned to be careful around noises, both not making them himself, but it was even more important to be aware of the others. If you weren't, you'd probably end up lying on the ground with a knife in your back. Dead. Every sense he got was searching for the source of the sound, eyes flashing around, searching movement.

After about a half minute, he decided it was probably nothing, but it was best to be careful, so he leant against the wall behind him. He chuckled. This was just stupid; there were no RED spies around here, why should it be? There weren't any missions going on at the monment, the Frenchman was probably off buying some fancy cigarettes or something during this break. Not closing out the outside world as much as he'd done earlier, he went back to his thoughts. This time, he managed to not think of Scout at all; instead, he dreamt of sitting against his van out in a bush, it was dark and a campfire was cracking happily, casting a cosy glow over everything near it, including him and Scout, who was sleeping with his head in the Australian's lap.

There was that damn kid again. Was it that hard to leave his thoughts alone for just one moment?

Squeeeak.

This time, the noise was right next to him, and he felt the entire bench move, like somebody sat down on it. In one motion, he turned around and hit the air on his left side in one motion.

"Oof."

He'd hit somebody, and he knew who it was. The thought was difficult to believe, but there was only one answer.

"I know yer there, so you might as well show yourself."

After some time, a red shape started emerging, slowly forming a mastked man in suit who was sitting a bit closer than Sniper's liking.

"Bonjour, Sniper." The RED Spy pulled out a shiny cigarette case from a pocket. He opened it, got a cigarette and lit it.

"Spy." Sniper wished he'd brought his own pack, it wasn't as fancy as the case, but Hell, he felt like having a cigarette right now.

"How are we this wonderful evening?"

"Why are you here?" He had been backstabbed more than enough times to not trust the RED Spy.

"Ohh, grumpy, are we?"

Sniper didn't even look at him. The Spy was not welcome here. Not at all. He leant even closer to the wall behind him, making sure there were no back left unprotected.

"Answer my question."

"Ah, your questiòn." He took a puff from his cigarette. Sniper couldn't resist looking at it, wishing he had one for himself. He clenched his fist. "I'm accompanying mon amour."

"Yer what?" Stupid French words, he probably said them just to annoy him with his fancy-pantcy language.

Spy looked at him, smiling a smile that creeped Sniper a bit. "Ah, what is it called in your horribly brutal language? Ah, yes. It's called "girlfriend", no?"

Girlfriend? There were no girls here, were there? Except...

Through the window he could hear Scout yell something. He couldn't hear what was said, but his voice was filled with disappointment and rage. A moment later, he could hear his mother yell back at him.

"You don't mean..."

"Oui." The Frenchman leant towards Sniper. He was now close enough for Sniper to feel his breath on his face. Uncomfortably close. It was impossible to lean more backwards, so he moved his head to the side. The smile on Spy's face was wide and surperiour. "The little bunny's mother."

"YOU CAN JUST GO FUCK YOURSELF!"The yell was so sudden and loud they both started a bit. It was horrible listening to the shouting and fighting between Scout and his mother. He had to force himself not to run in and break it up.

"Ze boy got some temperament, doesn't he?" Spy had moved away from Sniper now, who was still a bit concerned over the unknown reason behind the sudden closeup.

"He does," he replied shortly, not really wanting to talk with him anymore.

"Ooohh, the bushman is upset that his compain is fighting with mycopine,no?"

"Could you please stop randomly putting those damn French words in yer sentences when yer talking?"

Spy just smiled mysteriously. The fight inside was still going on, but it sounded like they were finishing. Scout's mother was starting to sound hysterical, it was clear that she was crying. Her son just sounded really mad at her. Really, really mad.

"Non."

"Then shut up."

They sat in silence for a while. Spy finally finished his smoke. He flicked it down at the ground, before leaning over towards the other man again.

"Ze boy's going home today, isn't he?"

"That's the plan."

"For how long?"

"A month, I think."

"A month," Spy repeated. "Do you really think he'll come back?"

Sniper felt uneasy. Spy was right. Scout had no reason to come back, not after what had happened. They had betrayed him. He had betrayed him. Scout had followed him because he wanted to be his friend, because he thought he was the only person worth spending time with, and how had he responded to it?
He had cut him and made him fall from a tower. And as if that weren't enough, he'd also voted for not healing him.

He would never see Scout again. The realization made his stomach feel like stone. Never again. That was a pretty long time. Of course, he could visit him, but it wouldn't be the same, not at all. He'd miss the kiddo's comments, his horrible jokes and exaggerated stories. He'd miss his boldness, reckless and foolhardiness. He'd miss him.

"'Course he's coming back," he said, not believing his own words. This was exactly what Spy wanted, making him feel this way, putting these thoughts in his mind, but he couldn't control it. He wanted to run straight back him and tell that woman to not take Scout away from him. Then he'd tell him about how he felt about him, without caring how the boy would react. "He's a team player."

Spy just laughed.

The fighting had stopped by this point, and a moment later the door opened. A very upset mother stepped out, slamming the door behind her. A tiny hope appeared within Sniper when he noticed that no Scout was with her. Spy jumped up and took her arm. "Let's go home, shall we?"

Scout's mother casted a quick glimpse at Sniper before she nodded. They walked away, heads high and arrogant, leaving the Australian alone at the bench. He decided to try and wait a bit before going back in to Scout, he probably needed some time alone.

Two minutes later he was sitting on the edge of Scout's bed, hearing him tell about what had just happened. Most of it was things he already knew, like that Spy was "banging his mother". The boy told it with an expressionless face, like he didn't care at all, but it was hard to believe. He didn't comment on it, though, as there weren't any reason for making him more upset than he already was.

Then Scout looked at him with blank eyes and took a deep breath.

"I guess I ain't leaving, then."

((A/N: I can't speak French, so if there's any mistakes in the little French Spy says, that's why.))