Dogs of War

Chapter 24

I wake up to someone roughly shaking my shoulder, "Wolf, wake up. Wake up Wolf, you're having a nightmare." The gruff voice of my handler sounding concerned as his fingers grip into my fur hard enough that I was sure he was going to leave behind bruising on my shoulder. I gasp as if I'd been held underwater for too long, eyes flying open as I register a fading scream.

"Oh thank fuck," he mutters, sinking back onto his heels as he crouches next to me. His hand, bare of his usual gloves presses against my forehead. "That was some nightmare, hey?" he speaks softly, yet I can detect the waver behind his gentle tone, the concern that still ebbed and flowed from him it's all I could smell in my disoriented state. The sight of his sightless, glassy eyes stuck in my mind and I whimper, flinging my arms around his shoulders. To see him still alive and well sending wave after wave of relief, fear, concern and desperation to make sure he was real. 

"You're alive," I gasp through the tears sliding down my face and I feel him freeze after catching me in his arms. Then, his arms tightened around me, hand running down my hair soothingly as he realises the gist of my nightmare. 

"I'm here," he whispers gently. "I'm not going anywhere any time soon, pup."

I can sense Soap coming up along the hallway. 

"Ghost, did ye manage to wake her?" he asks softly through the open door, clearly unable to see into the room very well.

"Yeah, she's awake now." His voice is still soft and soothing as he speaks to Soap. I can hear Soap shuffling into the room and as he gets closer he must be able to hear my soft little hiccuping gasps for air as I begin to scent his own concern growing stronger. He crouches down, bringing his arms up from behind me, in the process embracing Ghost as well as they hold me together.

"It's ok, lass. We're here now. T'was just a nightmare."

"Johnny," Ghost says in warning, shaking his head once. "I think it was more than just a nightmare. The first thing she said to me was that I was alive."

"Oh." Soap hesitates briefly. "Shit, that's pretty fucked up thing to be waking up to."

The comment catches me off guard and I snort, unintentionally covering Ghost in snot and tears in the process. I stare at Ghost for a second before I choke on my laughter, trying not to make the situation worse while still simultaneously crying. Ghost just looked at me with grim resignation as I tried to claw my way out from between them to get tissues. 

Ghosts arms tighten around me refusing to let me move. "Don't worry about it, pup. You can wash my clothes later though," he threatened me. 

I shake my head, still laughing and crying and manage to gasp out, "I don't want to accidentally lay in snot if I forget..."

Soap begins laughing at the absurdity of the situation, pressing his face into my neck to muffle the laughter somewhat. Soaps arms shift to hugging me as Ghost acquiesces and stands up to clean my snot from his shirt.

"It would serve you right, whelp. Snotting all over your handler like that." Even with his back to me, his eyeroll was so loud I could practically hear it. 

"I'm sorry," I say, gasping for air. "I didn't mean to," I say, with Soaps laughter getting louder in my ear. "Shut up, Soap."

"Nay, lass. Watching Ghost get snotted on wasnae somethin I was expectin ta see tonoight. Worth the unexpected wake up call."

"At least someone's amused by this cursed night," I grumble, resting my head against his chest.

"Aye lass. How about you tell us what happened?" Ghost turns as Soap speaks, no doubt interested to know about my nightmare as well.

I settle back to get more comfortable sitting in Soaps arms and instead he just shifts us both so we're sitting on the bed properly. 

"We were on a mission in the Amazon forest. Which I'm absolutely devastated was just a creation in my mind. It was so beautiful," I digress for a moment before continuing. Anyway, we'd had intel Makarov was hiding out in a hidden base with a tonne of experiments. The intel was wrong, when we arrived, the base had only Konni mercs, no Makarov. I was investigating the basement when I got a message from Ghost that cut out. Then as I was coming back, explosions started happening. Ghost came to find me, but we both got caught in an explosion. He got flung, his head hitting a wall while I was impaled on a spike and waited for the next explosion to kill me..." I trail off, still hiccupping, but feeling better relaying the traumatic nightmare to the two of them.

"Steamin' fuckin' Jesus," Soap mutters, arms tightening around me even more. "No wonder you were screamin' loud enough to wake the whole damn base up."

Ghost shudders, fingers absently running across a scar on his ribs through his shirt, no doubt remembering a real life situation similar to the one I had experienced in my dream. "Pup, are you alright now?" he asks, his voice hoarse.

I nod. "Yeah, I think so. Just... unsettled."

"Ok." He kneels down in front of me. "I'll be back in a bit." He ruffles the top of my head before standing and walking out. The scent of his distress is strong and I go to follow after him, but Soaps arms keep me trapped. 

"Let me go, Johnny."

"Nope, you're staying right here lass. Let the man have a moment."

"You don't understand-"

"I unnerstan' jus' fine, Uilebheist. Ghost has a lot of trauma, and while you help him with a lot of it, I think this one hits too close to home, yea?"

I stop struggling and feel Soap relax as he realises I'm willing to listen. 

"Ghost just needs space for this once, ok? You're nightmare was far to similar to experiences he's had, and if he's left when you're in distress? He desperately needs a moment away." Soap pulls me back into the bed proper so we're laying spooned against each other, his bigger body almost completely on top of me, protecting me from the world. And no doubt preventing me from making my escape at the same time. "He'll come back when he has his shit unner control, yea?"

"Ok." My voice is whiny in resignation as my body completely relaxes.

"If ye can, go back ta sleep, Uilebheist."

"Fine, fine," I close my eyes, and with the compression of Soaps body on top of mine, I'm asleep again almost immediately.