Ashes in the Darkness

Heartache Pt. 2

Just letting y'all know the next chapter is THE chapter.

I woke up with the sun setting, the streams of light coming through the cracks in the wood of the barn. My body was stiff, making my muscles rattle with fatigue. Stretching my limbs, I sat to see that Soap was on watch duty while Rudy and Ghost slept on the hay bales on the other side of the compound. "We are wheels up in 30," I heard Soap say. I nodded and looked over at Ghost, laying on the opposite shoulder of his bullet wound.

"I need to change the dressing on that wound," I said, looking back to Soap.

"Good luck waking him," Soap said with him, "he's been snoring for at least two hours."

"He's always a happy man when he gets a good rest," I said and then immediately regretted it when I saw the look on Soap's face, a devious little bastard taking everything that I said out of context. I walked over to Ghost and placed my hand on his shoulder, shaking just slightly. He whipped over, hand jutting out to grab at me, but quickly realized who I was, breathing in gently against the feeling of my hand on him. "I need to change the dressing on your wound."

Eyes sleepy and burning into mine, he nodded and sat up. It surprised me that in the short time that we had known each other, despite the obvious frustration and aggravation, we had become comfortable around each other. It had really become a major part of our relationship when he had entrusted me with the knowledge that we were going to kill Graves together. Of course, we had planned too late, but the plan was still going to come to fruition. He reached and pulled at the collar of his sweatshirt, pulling it over his head to reveal his scarred body. I had to avert my eyes slightly, before I caught my breath and looked back at him. I let my eyes trail for a moment again, but they quickly went to the brown stain on the gauze pad over his wound. "Don't piss me off this time," I said as I reached up and began to pull the sticky part of the gauze pad off.

"I learned my lesson the first time," he chuckled. I smiled slightly back but my eyes found themselves on his torso, burned and scarred. Little drops of light seemed to pool on the white scars that were fully healed. He was silent again as I felt his body go rigid under my touch. "You're staring."

"I'm sorry," I apologized, catching myself and returning to dressing the wound.

"You can ask," he said, this time his voice was calm and almost witty, like he was expecting me to have asked already.

"I don't want you to have to think of unpleasant things while I am hurting you," I answered, but I knew his mind was already heading to the place of emotional pain. His eyes glazed over, and he seemed to lose focus as I went to the gauze pad on the back side of his body.

"Trust me, your little fingers and a band aid don't hurt me," he said, but saw his shoulder twitch as I peeled the back part off. He was in pain whether he wanted to admit it or not. "What's the most painful thing you have had to endure?"

"I broke my wrist when I was fifteen doing motocross with Hayes," I smiled at the memory but then my mind was flooded with much more painful memories, "but that was nothing compared to the turmoil I went through under Oswald."

Now he truly flinched, his whole body being hunched over like he had been shot again, "I'm sorry. No one should ever have to endure something like that," he could no longer meet my eye nor form sentences properly.

"Which one was most painful for you?" I said, sensually tracing a line over one of his scars on his upper arm as I blotted the corners of his wound where small dots of blood were forming. His eyes went to the ground, and I felt his body shift to place a hand on the large crater like wound on the side of his torso. His breathing shortened as my hand went to the same place, feeling the now coarse skin. It was jagged, with ripples of skin that were hard surrounded by smooth scars. His hand caught my hand, harshly first, then intertwining my fingers in his. I looked over to Soap who had his back to us as he cleaned the barrel of a sniper rifle. "Who did this to you?"