"Improving." He said. "I'm improving my mother language." He said with a chuckle with faded into a sharp exhale w
hen Martinez disturbed the bandages that were quite happy where they were, thank you very much. But other than
that, he didn't so much as move.
Martinez examined the wound and the area around it, and did some poking and prodding, glancing up at the soldier
from his kneeled down position. The area was less fiery red, the infection was starting to abate. Which was a good
thing. Otherwise he'd have to go back in, and he wasn't sure he could talk Hector into that.
She was curious. Wanted to see Hector's wound and its recovery or lack thereof, for herself. Simply because she
couldn't shut the doctor in herself off and she wanted to see for herself if she agreed with whatever they were going
to tell her. But she only had one set of eyes and those were holding Hector's darker ones the entire time. Full of how
she felt about him and the way he was to her. Arms still around him. She should have kept up an interesting patter of
conversation too but every single time Martinez did something to Hector's wound, she could almost feel it as her own
stomach clenched painfully in sympathy. So she simply held Hector's eyes with her own soft gaze. Loving him.
Once Martinez finished cleaning and checking, he rebandaged it and stepped back, taking off his gloves.
"You'll both be happy to hear it looks much better this morning." He commented, picking up the clipboard to write a
bit. Wondering if either of them were even listening to him. "It's healing nicely and I don't think we're going to have to
worry about the infection. And there are pink elephants raining from the sky." He looked at the two of them on the
bed the same way the MP was. "You know," he commented, "there is a reason we don't usually allow visitors this way."
Hector relaxed once he felt the bandage being replaced. BUt as for actually paying attention to the doctor, well, that
wasn't happening.
"I'm fine." He assured Andi, though neither of them had heard Martinez, or his crack on pink elephants in the sky.
"Yeah, I can see why." The MP said, answering Martinez's rhetorical question, even if no one else would. "But she's
keeping him out of trouble."
Martinez sighed.
"That she is. Beauty and the beast or something like. Too bad she didn't come standard issue with his rifle years ago
though." This wasn't, after all, the first time by far he and Hector had - 'disagreed' about the Delta being in the
infirmary. Usually you could count on at least once a year.
The replacement MP didn't mention it but he thought a girl coming standard issue wasn't a bad idea. Saying so, just
in case Hector really was listening however, wasn't something he felt safe doing. As an MP he had a great respect for
picking the fights you were going to get into.
Martinez hung the clipboard back on its clip and shook his head. He'd seen strange things in his time out here but
this ranked pretty high up. "So I'm done now." He told the couple on the bed. Knowing they weren't listening. "Cara
can take care of the rest when she comes back in. If she's not crushed by falling elephants on her way back in." No
response and he rolled his eyes before heading back out the door. The MP settled back in with his magazine thinking
Delta really did get all the perks.
Andi stroked the backs of her fingers gently down the side of Hector's face. Having seen the way the skin had
tightened as Martinez worked. Seeing him in pain hurt her. Her eyes still held his, softening now that the exam was
done and her lips softened and curved as well at his words. Exhaled the breath she'd been holding.
"Good." She murmured it as she curved her fingers along his cheek. Touched his mouth lightly with hers. Whispered:
"I missed you..."
"I didn't really go anywhere." He said, returning her kiss lightly. "I was just...woozy." He said with a soft chuckle. The
drugs were slowly filtering through his system, he was a lot more clear headed today than he had been previously
since he'd been shot. He liked clear headed.
Even if it meant, being clear headed, that he was still stuck in the infirmary due to a compromise. But one he was
willing to make for the moment. He might be able to convince them to at least let him get out of bed, shower, walk
around, if he promised to return. After all, wasn't ambulation encouraged in post-op patients? He swore he read that
in one of the magazines when he was sitting by Clancy's bed back at the Red Cross camp.
She chuckled.
"I missed you before that." She told him. "I missed you when you were actually gone. I'll take you even when you're
groggy." She kissed him again. Smiling. "You're rather cute when you're groggy."
He chuckled. "Cute, huh?" He said, though he was pretty sure he had outgrown cute when he was around eight or
so. "But I'm glad you came, even if the circumstances weren't the best." He could only imagine what he had put her
through before he became coherent.
She settled more comfortably, watching his face again. Thumb gentle as she stroked his cheek. He was a soldier and
used to leading a hard, forgotten life. It meant more to her than she could ever tell him that he shared that with her.
That he was open to her.
"I told you I would answer if you ever called." She reminded him softly.
"You did." He said with a nod. Though he didn't remember calling her. If he had had his way, honestly, he would have
told her about now in his recovery. When all the bad stuff was past, when she wouldn't have to see him in the state
he was sure he was in the last couple of days.
But he had friends that took that out of his hands. Bastards.
"You won't have to leave if we take a short walk around the infirmary, would you?" Lying in bed for days was just
getting to him, even if he did have the advantage of sharing it with her right now. He just wanted to know for future
reference. Like maybe after breakfast.
The edges of her lips went a bit melancholy and she slipped her hand off his face to rest it against his chest.
Leaving. It always came back to leaving with them.
She pulled in a breath and looked back up at him with a smile.
"I'm sure a single short promenade around the room wouldn't cause me to disappear immediately." She offered.
"Once Cara clears it. I know you hate this," she offered him a softer smile at that one. "But it shouldn't be too many
more days before you can move back to your bunk and pretend none of this ever happened. Except me. You aren't
allowed to forget me."
"Hey." He said and tipped her chin up with his fingers. "I would never forget you. Ever." He said firmly, with very
serious eyes. "And don't ever think for one minute that I would, okay? I love you." They also kept coming back to that,
as if neither one could get enough of saying it or hearing it.
It was funny how sometimes you wanted to cry and it was because of something wonderful. She'd been teasing about
forgetting her. But he'd taken it seriously. And broken her heart. In one of those strange good ways.
"Not ever?" She asked. Lifting her chin for a kiss. "Never never never?"
"Barring Alzheimers or dementia, which can't be held against me," He said with a brief grin of levity. "No. Never ever
ever." He said.
Cara caught the last of the exchange and nearly sighed. Just her luck. "Breakfast."
He was never going to be forget her, she thought. He'd promised. And the sound of his voice while he'd said it did
something strange and wonderful to her heart. And also, at the rate things were going, she was never going to get
properly, throughly kissed either. Probably not thoughts a girl was supposed to be having and not safe ones to be
having considering the position, quite literally, she was in. But she thought them anyway. Pressed a quick kiss to
Hector's chin and than propped herself up on an elbow to give Cara a smile.
"Is it good breakfast?" She asked. "Or should I be leaving him to it’s mercy and foraging for my own?"
"It's....nutritious." Cara offered.
"Oh no." Hector said and laughed. "If I have to eat food that's only nutritious, you get to join in my pain and suffering.
You love me, remember?"
Andi started laughing.
"Oh." She managed. "That's low. That's really low." Leaning down she kissed him, still smiling, laughter still on her
lips. "Pure evil." Grinning she drew back to look down at him. "I don't remember promising to suffer with you over
horrid food simply because I love you more than life or breath or warmth or death or words." She touched her nose to
his. "Besides" she stated. "I'm hoping she didn't bring enough for me."
"Um..." Cara answered. Andi, without looking away from Hector, laughter in her eyes added:
"Because she remembers I am fearsome enough to be a mighty Delta's hired thugee."
Which just started Cara laughing enough to not have an immediate answer.
"Course, if you left, they'd have to tie me down again, and since I’m now with it, I'd yank the IVs out of my arm before
they could drug me and lead them all on a merry chase." Hector said playfully. "Really want to risk that? After all, part
of your thugee responsibilities is to baby sit me, ,cause I can be very, very naughty when left unsupervised."
And Cara couldn't stop laughing.
Andi started laughing even as the pink dusted her pale cheeks. Torn between realizing she shouldn't have let her
mind just go down the path it had and by the fact that it was funny. And a great deal more dangerous than she
should be tempting. Still in the physical position she was still in.
"There are oh so many ways I could answer that." She admitted. Looking down at him. Still laughing. "And all of them
would get me into trouble." Lowering her forehead to touch his, she asked with the laughter: "You're not going to help
me with this at all, are you? You're just threatening wickedness to keep me from deserting you."
"We frown upon desertion in this man's army, remember?" Hector replied with a grin. "And Deltas know every back
door imaginable. So yeah, complete emotional blackmail. Come on, tell me with a straight face you mind."
Cara rolled her eyes. "You two are beyond cute. Why, I think Sgt Garrett might actually be getting cuddly."
"You hear that?" She teased him cheerfully. "You've gone cuddly. Evil cuddly, but cuddly all the same. How am I
supposed to be fearsome if you're cuddly?" Which wasn't at all an answer to his request. But it was a great deal more
fun.
"Yeah, yeah. She thinks I'm cuddly now. Wait until the next time they try and drag me in here." He said with a chuckle.
For despite the bullet in his gut, he had to be dragged in here this time around also. Standard operating procedure
with a certain Delta sergeant.
"Are you available for physicals?" The MP asked Andi, and clarified that after a not so cuddly glare from Hector. "For
him I mean."
Andi chuckled.
"Be nice." She tapped the tip of Hector's nose. Delighted and grinning as she looked down at him, tipping her sharp
chin thoughtfully. "After all, it’s a good question. I don't remember my payment to play bodyguard being fully
negotiated yet. Much less any stipends for house calls being added on." She folded an arm lightly across his bare
chest and rested her chin on it, looking up at him from under her brows. Asking: "So what are you going to be paying
me to be fearsome anyway?"