It was a strange sensation and one that Gilan was still getting used to. Having people around you move and speak but not being able to hear them. He had to give in his oakleaf, of course. Halt said he would retire as well but Gilan wrote down on a piece of paper in capital letters that he'd come after him if he even thought about it and besides, Will needed him. And both the men knew that. Crowley was reluctant, it had happened in the worst way but sometimes rangers get put out of action in the battlefield, Gilan was just too young but ever the optimist, he had said or rather wrote that it would give him the time he needed to plan pranks for Halt. Will only found out a week later after the accident, the letter had been lost in the mail and eventually reached him but it still took him a couple days to ride to Whitby.
Will came crashing through the door but the sound was muffled to Gilans ears. He wasn't completely deaf, not yet anyway, he could still here roughly what people were saying but their voices were dimmed, as if someone had turned down the volume on everything. Halt stood up in alarm then relaxed seeing it was Will. He rushed to Gilan's bed, the side that was not occupied by a mother-hen Halt. Over the past week, he had gotten quite good at lip reading as well as starting to learn some basic signs as well as using some ranger hand signals to fill in the gaps. He could still talk, it was his hearing that had been robbed, not his voice, but without knowing how loud he was talking or if sound was even coming out properly, he prefered to sign or write stuff down until he got used to it. "What happened?" Gilan deciphered, is what Will asked Halt as he pulled up a chair on his other side. He assumed that Halt filled Will in because the next thing he knew, Will was looking at him sadly, tears pooling in his warm brown eyes. He signed the ranger signs for 'you' and 'give up', adding a shrug at the end to show he meant it as a question, but Gilan understood well enough. As a response he reached into his shirt and pulled out a gold oakleaf, Will looked at him sadly and placed a comforting hand in between them. He reached for the pen and paper on the bedside table and began to scribble something in black marker. He held it up for him to read, "I'm sorry I wasn't here." It read and Gilan began to shake his head dismissively and gestured for him to hand over the paper and pen but Will began to scribble something else, tongue sticking out in concentration.
"It should've been me." Gilan looked up from the paper Will had handed him to see that he was crying now, he couldn't blame himself, in what way was this his fault? Will saw he was confused and took the paper back and began scribbling again. "I left early, if I had stayed, you might not be here." Will had left the mission he Halt and Gilan were on once they had rounded up the criminals, after much persuasion from them both to get back to Redmont for Alyss' birthday, he finally left a few days early. It was around a day later when the prisoners broke free and the fight had started. Gilan signed the ranger signal 'don't know', which they didn't, there was no way of knowing what would've happened if Will had stayed. The younger of the two smiled, catching the memo and hugged Gilan.
"Are you going to learn sign language?" A new question appeared on the paper. Gilan shrugged and then nodded. He watched as Will talked to Halt and then he wrote something else down. "Will you teach us?" It said and Gilan wrote back. "Only if you want to." "We want to be able to talk to you." Halt took the paper now, his messy handwriting slightly harder to read than Will's, but Gilan smiled at his comforting words. With his family, he could do anything, he had already been through so much, but with Will and Halt by his side, he could withstand so much more.
AN: yes, I made Gilan nearly deaf. Of course this never actually happens but I read a fanfic about it with Will and thought it was an interesting concept, so shoutout to whoever made that. Requests are always welcome, please r & r.