"I fell out of a helicopter."
"Christ. Again?" She cracked a nervous smile, her hand drifting to the side of his face as she looked into his eyes, rubbing a scar that was on his cheek from a previous mission.
or Agent Ballinger helps Gaz put on his paint before they get the Los Vaqueros base back.
The tension was still apparent in the room as people spread out to do their own things to prepare for the mission the newly merged Ghost Team was about to embark on.
Agent Ballinger sat by herself on a bench, a large bandage peeking out from under the left sleeve of her t-shirt, a permanent souvenir from her time in Las Almas beneath.
Kyle approached slowly, pulling at the black mask as he sat down next to the agent. "How you doing?"
Vaughn was pulled from her thoughts, smiling up at the man standing next to her, "Been better." She patted the empty space to her right, "Sit with me."
He didn't need to be told twice, he sat down and watched as she went back to pulling at the laces on her very scuffed boots. It reminded him of the first op they worked together just over a year ago, well the day after; she put on boots that were more beat up than the ones now and shrugged saying they were lucky.
"Could you help with the paint?"
"Sure." She twisted her body and sat on her knees beside Gaz, letting their fingertips brush against one another as she took the paint from his grasp.
Her hands went to his face and started swiping and tapping away around his left eye.
It took everything in him to not lean into her gentle touch or to lay a comforting hand on her thigh as she painted his face. They've been seeing each other for about ten months, but never talked about telling either of their direct superiors, Laswell and Price, or any type of coworkers really, deciding that whatever they were was better just between them.
He watched as she worked away, swiping the paint on, and the feeling he got as he realized it was her coming up the rope at the prison crept back up on him: concern and worry. Worry that was surely misplaced, she was a capable agent but she wasn't even meant to be in Las Almas.
Vaughn was supposed to be at his flat in London. Gaz wasn't meant to be there either, he should've been on his way home from Amsterdam, on his way home to collapse into her arms and sleep the mission off for a day.
The silence didn't go unnoticed by Vaughn, although it was certainly welcome as she still hadn't wrapped her mind around the last 36 hours. She was lucky to be alive, lucky that Graves believed her when she said that she didn't know anything about 141.
"I fell out of a helicopter."
"Christ. Again?" She cracked a nervous smile, her hand drifting to the side of his face as she looked into his eyes, rubbing a scar that was on his cheek from a previous mission.
"Yeah, it was— I hated it." Kyle took a moment to lean into her touch, almost like a cat demanding scratches between the ears.
"We need to put your ass on a no-fly list or something, Gaz." The agent laughed, taking her hand away dipping her finger into the grease paint.
Kyle took a moment to just watch her before responding, "That'd be kinda hard in this line of work."
"Unfortunately." Vaughn lamented, continuing her work on his right eye.
"Is it bad that I really want to kiss you right now?" He whispered up at her, watching as her hair curtained their faces from the doorway that Captain Price went into a few minutes ago to talk to Laswell.
"Kinda. Only because I really want to kiss you too."
"So what's stopping you?"
Her face went straight, trying to hide a smile as she shook her head, "Don't even start, Sergeant."
He smiled as he leaned back into the hand that was now on his right cheek. It was almost as if they were alone, no one was paying them any mind, it was just them in this little base.
Looking back up at Vaughn, he noticed she was checking over her shoulder then she turned and looked over the shoulder. "What are you—"
"Come here." She smiled now cupping his face with both hands, she leaned in and their lips met, melting into each other.
She hummed as she pulled away, resting her forehead on his before whispering to him, "I've missed you." She went in for a quick peck.
"Missed you too." He replied, trying to follow Vaughn as she pulled before pushing him back against the bench, hand on his chest.
"Are you crazy, Gaz?" She let out a light laugh, "There's so many people here."
"Maybe it's the helicopter crash. Coulda knocked a screw loose." He shrugged as she went back to work, finishing up around his eyes.
"Oh shut up."
Gaz laughed, watching her try to contain her expression as she rolled her eyes. It really felt like just them at this moment. He kept a hand on her knee as she checked over her work.
Finally deciding to take himself out of the moment, he felt off. Vaughn started messily smearing the paint over her own face, only a small compact to see what she was doing. He looked past her shoulder and saw a pair of eyes looking in their direction, almost through them it seemed. Ghost.
His eyes widened and he drew in a breath, looking back to the agent who was still oblivious to what he just saw.
"What's up?"
Gaz swallowed, "Look behind you."
"Fuck," she mumbled, setting the compact down, "Is it Price?"
Closing his eyes, cringing at the thought, he shook his head, "Worse."
"No." She drew out.
Time moved in slow-motion as she turned her head to see who Gaz saw, chills running up her spine as she locked eyes with the Lieutenant. She let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding in as she turned back to Kyle, who still had his eyes shut.
"He wouldn't say anything, would he?"
