Frank Woods x Reader

Twenty-One

"Bell, a word.", you growled and rushed past Park to grab him.

Curious, he tilted his head.

"Why the bad mood?", he asked.

You let out an annoyed sound.

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"The old man?"

"I said- ugh, you know what? Fuck it. Yes, the old man."

He chuckled. It was just a small sound, barely audible. But he was amused.

"Do you want to talk about it?", Bell got up from his seat. "I need to check some of the infos we've gathered. Feel free to join me."

With your arms crossed in front of your chest, you shrugged and looked around. Talking to Lazar and Sims was out of the question. You've had enough of them for a day.

Park caught your eye. From the brim of her glasses, she looked at you and tilted her head as a silent way to tell you there was a job that needed to be done.

A sigh left your lips. You nodded.

"Fine.", you flashed Bell a smile. "What dirty work does Adler want us to do?"

"Just paperwork."

"Yay..."

"You can always talk to Lazar and Sims if you don't want to help me. It seems the two really boost your mood."

Amused, you let out a snort.

"Holy shit, Belly. Since when do you bite like that?", you asked and let him throw a stack of documents into your arms.

He hummed.

"I've learned from the best.", he said.

You rolled your eyes.

"Yeah, the old man knows how to have a big mouth.", you laughed, annoyed and amused at the same time. "He's always been like that."

Surprised, Bell looked up.

"How do you know I talked to him?", he asked.

"He's quite social, you know. There's no way to get around him."

"You talk good about him."

You shrugged and skimmed through the pages.

"He is a good man. Just not for a relationship. He likes people. As long as they don't get too close."

He hummed.

"Adler gave me some pages of info about the team."

"Usual procedure. Just so you know who's working with you."

"I know. Woods page said he's incredibly loyal."

A soft smile appeared on your face.

"He is.", you nodded. "Like a dog. But that is also his biggest flaw."

Bell frowned. At least it seemed like it.

"How so?", he asked and opened a document that looked like it didn't belong in his hands. "Isn't that something important in a relationship?"

Carefully, you skimmed the page he was on.

It was a document about one of Perseus men. The one that betrayed Bell and shot him in an attempt to get rid of the right hand man.

Seeing his face might could trigger Bell's real memories. That was something to be avoided.

But it would have been too obvious if you'd snatch it from his hands.

With a sigh, you turned your eyes away as if it didn't bother you.

"Don't get me wrong, his loyalty is one of his best qualities...", you took another document. "He'd do everything. He would have died for me. And for those he is close to."

"Isn't that something good?"

A bitter laugh escaped you.

"Not if you love someone.", you said and stopped yourself immediately.

What were you doing?

You ranted to Bell about Woods, as if he was still your boyfriend. Worse even, your fiancé.

And yet.

It felt good to get it off your chest.

In that moment you realised you've never talked to Woods this way. Every time you've told him something that didn't sit right with you, he had picked it up as an attack and things had ended in a fight.

While fighting all the time, you've never told him how it made you feel. And you never told him how he wasn't wrong. You were just worried.

"Shit...", you cursed. "I really fucked it up, didn't I?"

Confused, he tore his eyes off the page and looked at you.

"I didn't say anything.", he said.

"No, you didn't. I was talking to myself."

"Ah...", he hesitated to turn back to the page. "Why... do you think his loyalty is a problem? Don't you want him to die for you?"

Laughing bitterly, you threw the papers into a box and crossed your arms.

"That's just romantic thinking.", you snarled. "People think it's nice when someone gives their life for you."

"You're not romantic, huh?"

"That's not it. But...", you swallowed heavily. "If you love someone... don't you want to spent every second with them? Don't you wish you'd have all the time in the world?"

He shrugged.

"Maybe. I don't remember the last time I was in love...", his eyes moved, as if he had noticed how weird it was for a man his age to say this.

Maybe he was trying to remember why he didn't have anybody.

You knew that Adler had told him about his ex wife. Mason had a son, Sims was married and Lazar and park had some passive aggressive flirting going on. And then there were you and Woods, whatever the fuck it was called that the two of you had going on.

In the end, it all came down to Bell being the only one left out.

You wondered if he was a father. Maybe the brainwash had taken a family from him, a mother, a brother. A wife perhaps. A partner or a child.

He would probably never remember.

And nobody besides Adler knew his past.

"When you're in love, you want that one person to live forever...", you whispered, trying to distract him but also because you felt like it needed to be said. "I wished he'd never get hurt. But Woods is just... fuck... he's so Woods. He doesn't think. He once caught a bullet for me. Scared the living hell out of me. I thought I'd die instead."

For a moment, Bell eyed you.

"You were mad that he saved you?", he asked, eyebrows knitted together.

You shook your head.

"Yes! No... I- I was afraid.", all of a sudden, your hands started to shake. "I thought I'd loose that one person that I wanted by my side for the rest of my goddamn life. But he just didn't get it! So we had a fight. To him, I was ungrateful. To me, he was a selfish bastard. It's just... rotten. We're both rotten."