A/N: Last chapter was sooo long! Omg by the way, the Ghosts should show up in this chapter so enjoy! :D

Everything hurt. It was hard to breathe. Why was it so hard to breathe? He could hear people talking but didn't know what they were saying. He could hear the helicopter rotors. They were so fucking loud and that really didn't help with his headache. Damn he was tired. It felt like he hadn't slept in forever...

"Hey! C'mon Roach, you gotta stay awake."

He felt someone lightly slap his face and tried to bat their hand away, but his arms refused to move. Why wouldn't they just let him get some sleep? He felt like he'd been run over by a tank.

"I should get a look at that cut on his face." Archer sighed.

Archer? Wait... wasn't he dead? Maybe he's a zombie! (...Yeah, Roach has lost too much blood...) That would be so cool! Having a zombie for a friend would be awesome. As long as he didn't eat him... that could be an issue. He'd have to think of a way to get around that.

He felt someone touch his face, right by his cut and he flinched.

"C'mon Roach, sit still."

One hand held him still while the other cleaned around the wound. It was definitely infected. There was dirt and grime all around it and puss was in it. He had gotten lucky this time. It had just barely missed his left eye. He reached around behind him and grabbed the bottle of peroxide. Since the cut was on his face, he couldn't just dump peroxide on it, so he poured some on a cloth.

Roach hissed in discomfort when he felt Archer start to clean out the wound. It stung and he didn't like anyone messing with his face. Fresh blood dribbled from the now aggravated wound as he cleaned it. He finished cleaning it out and looked through the first aid kit for a needle and thread. The cut was pretty deep and needed stitches.

"ETA 15 minutes," Nikolai informed them.

Damn it. They were gonna have to hurry. He found the needle and thread and put the thread through the eye of the needle. Leaning over Roach, he put one arm across his chest to keep him still and started stitching with the other. Roach yelped and flinched as the needle went through his skin. He hated stitches.

"Woah, easy, bug. It's okay." Ghost said, trying to calm him down some.

They all knew how much he hated stitches and they felt bad for the kid, but he needed to get better and from the looks of it, he was going to be getting a lot of stitches. The cut on his face wouldn't need many, it was more deep than long, so maybe about ten or twelve. But he couldn't say the same for some of his other injuries...

The needle went through again and he wanted to beg them to stop. He hated this and just wanted it to stop. He squirmed uncomfortably as it went through for the third time and Ghost tightened his hold on his wrists, but was mindful of his broken arm, which they had decided to fix when they got there. It went through again and he was done. He jerked back away from Archer's hand and tried to get away from Ghost, but wasn't strong enough.

"Damn it, Roach!" Archer yelled.

"Leave m-me be!" He said, still trying to get Ghost to let him go.

Archer reached over and grabbed him. He growled in response and jerked back again, but couldn't get away from him this time. He felt a pair of hands grab his legs and pin them to the cot. He tensed up, not liking being unable to move. He really didn't like this. He felt so helpless and a bit naked without any of his weapons and the fact that he couldn't move didn't really help with that. He struggled against them for a few minutes but eventually gave up, opting to lay there and cry instead, hoping one if them would take pity on him and stop.

"You know, if you relaxed this would probably hurt less." Archer sighed as he finished the fifth stitch.

He whimpered as it went through again. Why wouldn't they just let him die? Someone accidentally touched his ribs and he jumped and yelped, almost messing Archer up.

"Shhh, easy, we're almost done."

It only took a couple minutes for him to finish up. They still had a few minutes until they got to the Ghosts' base, so he cleaned up his supplies while also keeping an eye on Roach.

"Has he met the Ghosts yet?" Toad asked.

"No, I don't think so. I wonder what he'll think of them." Price grinned.

"I think he'll like Logan. They're about the same age."

They watched as the Ghosts' base went past them and they slowly started to descend. They could see the Ghosts standing at a small distance away from the helipad, waiting to greet them. When they landed, Archer and Toad immediately grabbed Roach and moved him onto a stretcher, then headed towards the base. They needed to get him stabilized, and fast. The Ghosts watched as they headed for the base and let them go. They saw how bad the poor kid looked and knew they needed to get him stabilized. They went to go see the rest of the Task Force.

Archer and Toad ran into the base and went straight for the infirmary. Everyone in the Task Force knew this base like the back of their hands, except for Roach, he hadn't been here before. As soon as they got to the infirmary, other nurses and doctors rushed over to help. They set him down on one of the empty hospital beds and started working on him. First, they inserted an IV into his arm. Then they set his broken arm and put it in a cast. They started working on cleaning some of his many wounds and they wrapped his broken ribs. They also doped him up on pain meds.

"Why haven't you taken the knife out yet?" One of the doctors asked.

"We tried, I think it's curved at the end and we didn't have the supplies to dig it out on the helicopter."

"Oh, well how do you plan on getting it out?"

"What do you suggest?"

"Honestly, I think the best way to do it would be to give him anesthesia, dig it out, and stitch it up."

"Can we give him anesthesia while he's unstable, though?"

"We'll have to. We can't wait until he's stable to get that out, if we do he'll most likely die before we even get it out."

Archer hesitated for a moment then said, "Alright, let's do it."

"I'll go get the anesthesia."

When he left, Archer started tending to some of his other wounds. He cleaned and bandaged the wounds around his wrists and ankles, and he did the same with several other cuts and scrapes. By the time he was done with that, the other doctor was back and already had the anesthesia ready. He knew Roach wasn't gonna like this, but they had to get that knife out and this was the best way to do it.

Roach sat there on the bed, almost asleep, when someone put something over his mouth and nose. His eyes flew open and he quit breathing, not wanting to breathe in whatever that stuff was. He saw Archer sitting beside him on the bed, holding the mask in place. He tried to move, but couldn't, he was too tired.

"It's okay Roach, just breathe."

He couldn't hold his breath any longer. Damn it. He gave up and inhaled the anesthesia. Great. Now he was even more tired then before.

"That's it, relax."

He knew this never ended well and wondered what they were going to do to him. Maybe zombie Archer was going to eat his brain. Wow. Of all the ways to die, he never though it would be like this. Darkness started creeping up on him from the edges of his vision. He felt himself relax against his will as the darkness took over.

"What the bloody hell is taking so long?"

"I don't know."

They had been waiting outside of the surgery room for over an hour and apparently they still weren't done. Merrick had told them to put their stuff away and get some food, but none of them were hungry. They were too worried about Roach. They'd seen him with some pretty bad injuries before, but this one took the cake. He wondered who did this and why. He knew it was probably for information on the 141 but there could be other reasons too, you never know. Soap could practically feel the nervousness coming off the other members in waves. It was like that when one of their own got hurt, though. They were a tight knit group.

A few minutes later, several nurses rushed out of the room, taking an unconscious Roach with them to the infirmary. The knife was gone. After a few moments, Archer and a doctor came out. Archer shook his hand and thanked him, then went over to them and sat down.

"How did it go?" Price asked.

Archer sighed and ran a hand through his hair, trying to gather his scrambled thoughts before answering.

"We got the knife out and Roach is stable. I'm just a bit worried that he won't wake up."

The others exchanged a concerned glance and looked back at Archer.

"Why?"

"We put him under while he was still unstable which increased the possibility that he might not wake up. I'm probably just being paranoid, though."

"He'll be fine, he always is." Price reassured, trying to sound confident even though he felt far from it.

"So what was up with that knife, anyways?" MacTavish asked.

They were all really curious about that. Archer got up and went back into the surgery room. Several moments later he came back out, holding something. He sat back down and held it up for them to see. They gasped, not even wanting to think about how the got the knife in, much less out.

"Now do you see why it took us so long?"

"What the fuck is that?" Toad asked, dumbfounded.

"I think it's some kind of torture weapon, but I've never seen anything like it."

"Let me see." Ghost said, holding a hand out.

He handed it to Ghost and he turned it over in his hands.

"Damn, that must not have felt good..."

"No shit, Sherlock."

Archer remembered something and got their attention.

"Hey, I also gave him a new tracker. Since his other one is... gone."

"Oh that's good, at least we don't have to worry about doing that later."

"Ummm... remember how he was having nightmares for a while?"

"...Yeah, why?"

"Well, that happened for like two weeks and then he got captured for like a week and I'm sure he hasn't gotten much sleep in that time, so I was wondering if-"

"If you could sedate him for like a week and get him some rest?"

Archer nodded.

"I guess you could, but when he wakes up and knocks you on your arse, I'm not gonna blame him." MacTavish laughed.

A/N: Whoo! I'm sure you guys have noticed I've been updating a lot more often now, but I'm sorry to say that's only because I'm on Thanksgiving break. Yea, it's sad. I have to go back to school tomorrow, so that's gonna suck. But it will suck ALOT less if you review! *hint* *hint*