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Waking up felt like getting doused with cold water. No, wait, you were being drenched in very, very cold water.
“Ah fuck!” you sputtered, trying to shake the droplets off of you. It was only in your thrashing that you noticed your hands were tied behind your back. Dragging your eyes upward, you spotted a man holding a bucket, presumably the one he just dumped on you, and behind him was your team. Cramped in a dingy cell was Lieutenant Ghost, Soap, and Gaz, all looking a little worse for wear.
Right, you had all been on a mission to take down some up-and-coming gang of wannabe mercenaries who were willing to risk another war, as long as it meant that they got paid for their intel. Of course, nothing’s ever easy where Task Force 141 is concerned. Instead of an intel drop, which is what you’d been told your team would be interrupting, it had actually been an arms deal. So yeah, three soldiers and one medic against twenty guys with brand new assault weapons had not gone well in the grand scheme of things. It could have gone worse, though, you reminded yourself. At least the four of you were still alive.
Your head felt a little foggy, probably due to the pistol whip you had sustained to the back of it when a mercenary had snuck up behind you, but your senses were slowly coming back to you.
“Fucking stop it! She’s just our medic, asshole. She dinnae ken anythin’.” That was Soap shouting, further proven by him slamming his body against the bars of his cell. Gaz was also leaning against the bars, trying to get your captor’s attention. You could barely see Ghost in the back due to the poor light, but he was silently watching you.
“Good morning, princess! Now, I don’t particularly care if you know anything or not, but I bet if I make you bleed in front of these men, they’ll be more likely to talk.” Jesus, was this dude fucking stupid? Ghost, Soap, and Gaz were trained soldiers, even under torture. They wouldn’t blab off state secrets just because one little medic got hurt.
The man in front of you was about 6’3, clothed in dark tactical gear. He wasn’t wearing a mask, which meant that his over-confident smirk was on full display for you to see. He had placed the bucket down and slowly drawn out a serrated blade, probably hoping to see the terror in your eyes. Idiot. Gaz and Soap were still yelling behind him, but you wouldn’t be the first to break eye contact with your mercenary captor.
“How long have we been here?” you asked, blinking up at him with your most innocent face. For the sake of wasting time, you’d put on a scared face for this dumbass. Filling your eyes with fear, you made your voice shake as you begged, “Please, I just want to go home.” The man laughed and got up in your face, lightly dragging the knife down the side of your temple.
“You’ve been out for the past twenty hours, sweet thing. And since your team doesn’t need to check in until every twenty-four hours, it’s safe to say that you’ll be here for quite some time. It’ll take the Army another day or so to even send out a team to come and rescue you, if you’re even worth it in their eyes. I’ve got hours to play with you.” Ugh, it was taking everything in you not to roll your eyes. With a quick glance to each side, you took account of the other men in the room. To your right was only one man sitting down beside the open window of whatever building you were in, and to your left were two more. Four combatants, which meant there were roughly sixteen others somewhere throughout the building.
It had been twenty hours since your capture, which meant all you needed to do was stall. You could just see out of your periphery that the team’s weapons were laid out on the table to your right. God, they hadn’t even unloaded the guns, just left them laying on a table not even five feet from you. To be fair, you did play the role of the sweet and innocent medic quite well. You hadn’t been that way for years now, though you think only Ghost really noticed a difference.
“Look at me, darling. Why are you lookin’ away?” he asked, grabbing your face with his gloved hand and jerking it back to him.
“Don’t call me that,” you snapped, glaring at him. Ah, that pissed him off. You had just enough time to close your eyes before he brought the blade down on the left side of your face. You could feel the knife cut down your cheek, barely missing your eye. Fuck, that would scar. Soap’s banging of the cell was getting louder now.
“You have no power here, darling. I can do whatever I want to you and your men would just have to watch, so watch it.” What an original threat, you sarcastically thought. You could feel your slick blood trailing down your face and drip onto the cold, concrete floor.
“That’s enough,” Ghost spoke for the first time. His arms were crossed, but if looks could kill, these mercenaries would have been dead and buried five times over. His eyes met yours and silently asked if you were okay. An uptick of a smile was the only answer you gave him. You intervened before he could continue whatever savior speech he was about to start.
“You made me bleed. That’s not good for you,” you said, dragging your main captor’s attention back to you. You looked up at him with exaggerated hurt eyes and an impressive pout. It was hard to keep the smile off your face when you heard the familiar bird call outside.
“And why’s that, little girl?” he asked, looming over you. You clenched your tied up hands, preparing yourself for the chaos that would soon unfold. Everyone’s attention, mercenary and 141 included, were on you.
“Because my husband hates when other men touch me.” You sneered, dropping the innocent act. You could make out your boys’ surprised eyes from your position; you hadn’t exactly told them you were married.
“Well your husband isn’t here, now is he? How about I send him your head in a box, you little bitch? Bet that’ll piss him off,” The idiot stated, raising his head in indignation. His eyes promised violence, slow and torturous. Too bad he’d never get the chance. Before he could continue, one of the men to your left spoke up.
“Boss, something’s wrong. Perimeter’s stopped responding,” he said, toying with his walkie as if the men on duty would magically respond. They wouldn’t. You heard the birdcall once more, but this time the end note trilled just an octave higher. It was go time. You couldn’t hold in your snort of laughter, which caused your captor and your imprisoned team to turn to look at you. Soap and Gaz’s facial expressions were of worry, while Ghost’s was mostly suspicion.
“The fuck you laughing at, bitch? What about this is funny to you?” Your captor asked. His position put him directly in front of you, but to his left was the open window. Perfect.
“Ya know, you should really check your 9 o’clock,” you said, smiling up at him. His eyes scrunched up and he turned to fully face the window. He couldn’t even get a word out before the sniper round made its home in his skull, splattering you in his blood. You only had a few seconds to act, so you jumped to your feet and swung the chair you were sitting on with your tied hands at the man to your right. He was still trying to recover from seeing his leader’s brains be blown out and didn’t have the time or awareness to block your attack. The chair exploded and he crumpled to the floor, using the wall to slow his descent. You trilled a responding birdcall to your sniper, giving him the go ahead to continue on foot.
“What the feck!” Soap screamed. You didn’t let him distract you as you took one of the guns from the table and began firing at the two other men in the room. No doubt, there were more men nearby, so it was best to get this over quickly. You shot both soldiers twice in their chests, barely dodging one of their own return fire that would have hit your shoulder. With both current threats down, you made quick work on your bindings. You grabbed the serrated blade that Head Dumbass had used on you and cut away the rope around your hands. After freeing yourself, you shot your team a smile and snatched the key to their cell off of his body.
“You just killed three men,” Ghost piped up as you unlocked their cell. The men were careful to walk around the bloody corpses of the mercenaries and began gathering their weapons. All the while, Soap and Gaz kept shooting you confused looks.
“That’s right,” you said, trying to keep the interaction short. You could already hear more gunfire from below this level and you really just wanted this day to be over so you could get your face looked at.
“You’re a medic, not a soldier. You told me when you first joined that you didn’t even like guns,” he said, glaring suspiciously at you. His finger hovered over the trigger of his Remington R5.
“Yes, well, that was five years ago. Things change,” you said, clearing your throat and turning away to find a spare cloth. Having found one, you gently pressed it to the left side of your face to soak up the blood.
“Who the hell is downstairs?” Gaz asked, checking his ammunition slots. The question wasn’t directed at anyone, yet his eyes still found yours. It was obvious to all three of them that you had something to do with whatever this surprise ambush was.
“That would be KorTac,” you said succinctly, turning away from all three of them and heading toward the open door. You braced your borrowed gun in front of you, ready to take on any mercenary who might be hidden. Checking your blind spots, you began moving out of the room and down the room.
Ghost quickly followed after you, Soap and Gaz not far behind. “And why the hell is KorTac here?” Ghost asked, his voice now tinted with anger.
“Ah well, you have to check in with Shepherd every twenty-four hours, I have a check in every twelve.” Turning another corner, you found the stairwell. The blare of a shootout was growing louder with every few steps.
“A check in with KorTac? You work for them or something?” Gaz asked, his voice almost muffled by the shouting and shooting of the men below.
“Or something,” you answered, bringing your fist up to halt their movements. A mercenary burst from the stairwell, far closer than you’d like. Before he could pull a gun on your team, you ran at him, using your momentum to jump and lock your thighs around the man’s neck, swinging him to the ground. The man didn’t even have time to react before you had your gun pointed at his head and fired. Heaving a sigh, you unhooked your now bloodstained legs from around him and got up, flipping your hair away from your face.
“Fucking hell, bonnie,” Soap breathed out.
“Come on, we’re almost home free,” you called to them, heading down the stairs. All around you was carnage and blood, and while it should have made you want to vomit, all you could think of was exactly who was doing the killing. You felt like you were in a fugue state, shooting when shot at, not caring to look at how many bodies you dropped. All you cared about was finding your savior, finding him.
“Friendlies!” You heard, snapping your gaze over to the noise. There, hidden behind a wall, was Aksel. His gun was pointed away from you and you made eye contact, giving him a two finger salute with an appreciative smile.
The sounds of gunfire had wound down, leaving just the four of you standing in the middle of the courtyard. With an “All clear!” the members of KorTac finally revealed themselves. Yet, you still didn’t see him.
A hard grab on your shoulder had you spun around to face your team. It seemed Ghost had had enough of your mystery. “Start talking, now,” he growled out, his mask scrunching up with anger.
“Remove your hand from my liebling, Lieutenant.” You couldn’t stop the smile that formed on your face at the sound of his voice, your König.
Ghost seemed to clench his jaw before he let his hand fall back to his weapon, resting his fingers away, but near the trigger. “Colonel,” he grunted.
You spun around to face him. Colonel König, the leader of KorTac, your husband. “Did you miss me?” you asked, coyly. Your eyes had returned to their usual brightness and your cheeks were dusted with a light blush.
“You had me terrified, you know that?” His tone was entirely too serious, but as he cupped your left cheek, you knew exactly why. “That fucker should not have been able to hurt you, mein liebling.” You gently grabbed his hand, rubbing your thumb over the back of it. God, what did you do to deserve such a man?
“Uh, what the feck? For real,” Soap piped up, once more. It seemed like that was all he was capable of saying today. You cleared your throat and spun back around to face Ghost, Soap, and Gaz.
“Sorry, right. So…König’s my husband. We’ve been married for three years now. Surprise!” You ended this fairly shocking news with slight jazz hands, something you typically did when a conversation got awkward.
“And you’ve never mentioned such a conflict of interest?” Ghost glowered, looking at you and then up behind you, where König’s form towered over you.
“We decided it was better if our relationship was kept off the books,” König piped up, squeezing your shoulder supportively. At this point, most, if not all, of the members of KorTac had gathered in the courtyard. You gave Horangi a smile, knowing that he had probably taken the brunt of König’s anger when he learned you were missing.
“We don’t need officials up our asses about this, Ghost. We have a system that works and keeps us both sane while we’re off on missions. Every twelve hours we update one another that we’re alive and if we miss that window then we go to war for the other. König trained me personally for situations like this,” you said, smiling up at your wonderful husband. Go to war, he had.
“You should be thanking us, Lieutenant. Instead of spending the night trapped in a cell or tortured, we get to go back to base and get plastered,” you added. Gaz and Soap seemed to share a glance, both trying to hide their amusement.
“You hiding anything else from your team?” Ghost asked, looking you straight in the eyes. Speaking of, the adrenaline rush was starting to fade and oh boy, did your face fucking hurt.
You smiled anyway, noting the sluggish flow of blood that got nearer to your mouth as you did so. “Nope, just the whole secret husband and fighting experience thing!” Ghost merely grunted.
“Evac helicopter is inbound,” Horangi alerted, looking relieved to finally leave the carnage they had endured. Ghost, Soap, and Gaz began making their way to where the chopper would land and Soap clapped you on the shoulder as he passed.
“Crazy little lass,” He shot over his shoulder. After a very brief welcome back from KorTac, they all departed, leaving just you and König in the courtyard.
“Gott, liebling. You had me so worried. You didn’t check in and I assumed the worst and thought I’d lost you,” He whispered, gathering you into his arms and encapsulating you into a deep hug. He held the back of your head with his giant hand, keeping you pressed against him. You breathed him in, the smell of gunfire and sweat clinging to him.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. You came for me, just like I knew you would. These guys were idiots, honestly I’m a little disappointed that they were able to catch us so off guard in the first place.” With a roll of your eyes you continued, “I mean, their leader had me right next to our weapons. It was kind of embarrassing how much they underestimated me.”
König moved back a step so that he could look down at you. He lightly grabbed your chin, his featherlight touch tilting your head up so your eyes would meet. “I would walk through the depths of hell for you, schatz. I am just angry with myself that you are hurt. He spilled your blood.” A dark look crossed König’s face.
You slowly brought both of your hands up to cup his face, bringing his attention back to you. You looked at him with all the love you had. “And I would walk through hell for you, my love. It was not your fault, understood?” At his lack of confirmation, you raised an eyebrow. “Understood?” you asked again, this time being rewarded with a slight nod from the giant.
“Good. Now come here,” you said with a devious smile, going on your tiptoes to try and match his height as you brought his head down to kiss him. When your lips met his, König seemed to just melt. All the aches and worries of the day completely faded away. He had his wife in his arms once again and everything was right with the world. You couldn’t help the moan that escaped you as he brought his hand to your lower back and then farther down, caressing your ass.
Slowly, you broke apart. “How about we continue this once I get all patched up, yeah? I need to start cleaning the wound before it can get infected and scar further.” With a silent nod, König began leading you to the evac chopper.
“I love when you talk all medic to me,” he said, pushing a kiss to your forehead through the fabric of his makeshift mask. “I love you, liebling.”
“And I love you.” You beamed up at him as he brought you into his side, his arm going protectively over your shoulder. Things would be okay, as long as you had your loving husband with you every step of the way.