sweet nothings (stris)

whatever here that's left of me (1x19)

Chris gets hit with the poison and in the days immediately following, her and the team recover. Inspired by/a continuation of 1x19 "Source," with a platonic/developing relationship.

Tags/Warnings: Graphic Description of the Poison/Illness, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Early Relationship, Team Dynamic, & Team as Family.

-x-

The pain is as immediate as the loss of control Chris feels over her own body. The VX hits her skin and in less than a breath she's on the ground, coughing, convulsing, but unable to do anything to make it stop. Her hands claw at the surrounding carpet, unable to ground herself as pain engulfs her and her mind goes white. Faintly, she hears Hondo's voice, but it sounds like it's getting further away even as she tries to focus on it. Once his voice is gone, and she's floating in-between her body and mind, she knows it'll be too late, so Chris draws on every last reserve in her body to hear what he's saying.

"Just focus on my voice, Chris, and keep squeezing my hand. Deacon and Luca are on the way. You do not stop squeezing my hand, you hear me?" There's an edge to Hondo's voice that she can't identify, but she feels something slip into her hands and weakly squeezes it, glad to have found purchase on something real instead of the terror and agony coursing through her.

An involuntary gasp escapes when Hondo rolls her onto his shoulders to take her outside, and the fresh air seems to burn her more as he works to rip off her gear. More voices float past, Tan and Street, but then Chris tastes blood on her tongue, and she's sputtering up blood and spit, pushing at the air as she desperately tries to get away from the feeling of choking, except her body just won't listen to her. She thinks her face is getting wet; she can't figure out the source.

Street and Tan jump to get Chris into the recovery position, Street supporting her head on his knees, which at least makes her feel like she's not choking on top of not being able to breathe. Someone is running a hand through her hair, a small comfort over the thought that it will be the last nice thing she ever feels. She tries to squeeze Hondo's hand and finds she can't.

"Hang in there, Chris. Deac and Luca are almost here, okay? Just keep fighting. We've got you, I've got you." The voice is pleading, but the words don't process. Chris can feel the last bit of energy leaving her body and any sensation of what's around her slipping away. Her brain is screaming at her to stay present, but even that command is cracking beneath the weight of every muscle and nerve in her body being on fire. She just wants relief.

"Chris? Chris?! C'mon, stay with us. Please." Street's voice cracks as he rubs over her arm and back, praying that it will help, even though he can tell her breathing is getting weaker. Hondo sits next to her, hands still locked together, and tries to find her gaze as it becomes more and more unfocused. Tan can't stop pacing, looking from Chris to the street like he can will Deacon and Luca to get there faster.

When Black Betty finally pulls around the bend, Deacon jumps from the moving vehicle with the antidote in hand. The team backs up as he plunges the needle into their teammate's chest as forcefully as he can. For a terrible second, nothing happens, and the five men sit in silence as they try to process that Chris may be gone to the background noise of ambulance sirens.

Her eyes open with a gasp that jolts through her whole body. It's like all at once her nerves settled enough for her to regain a sense of the world around her. She looks up at the team around her, and squeezes Hondo's hand as tightly as she can. Their voices swim around her, gentle encouragements about how she's okay, to keep breathing, and the ambulance is almost there. She wants to sit up, to tell the team that she's fine, but her limbs still refuse to listen, and her breathing is too labored to talk. Street keeps running his hand through her hair and she lets herself be comforted by it.