Something Wicked This Way Comes

Chapter 8

Carter nudged the door shut with his foot once Steve left. He'd encouraged him to spend some one on one time with Aja before they had to go, and after some prompting Steve finally left. Carter let out a sigh, leaning on the table. The bottle laid on its side next to him, the faint sound of tiny waves crashing against the glass could be heard.

"You should rest," Fenris' voice echoed in his mind as the Wolf materialized beside him. Carter never quite understood the way Fenris' powers worked. He could walk through a wall if he wanted to, or appear out of thin air, but he only ever seemed to do it when he wanted to sneak up on Carter. "You look terrible."

"Thank you," Carter said sarcastically, rolling out a kink in his shoulder. He immediately regretted it, pain flaring down his arm and back when he raised his shoulder too high. He hissed in pain, clutching the injured spot. "Ow, dammit."

Fenris sniffed his injury, nudging his arm gently with his nose. "Do you need to go back to the infirmary?"

"And worry Barbara further? No, I'm fine." He sighed, leaning on the table with his right arm. "I heal fast."

"Yes, you say that, and yet you constantly suffer mobility issues from past injuries." Fenris sniffed almost indignantly and Carter bit back a laugh at how very Archie it was. "Don't think I haven't noticed how you flinch every time you land hard on your ankle, or when your wrist aches when you put too much pressure on it."

Carter absent-mindedly rolled his right wrist, remembering the day it broke. "I'll have you remember, that was yourfault."

"My point is," Fenris said, moving closer to him so Carter was basically buried in a mountain of fur. "You have limits. You're still mortal, you can still get hurt. Why do you pretend otherwise?"

Carter pursed his lips, fingering the panel on the back of his prosthetic hand. "I can't let anything slow me down, buddy." He said softly. "They need me to be the strong one. The fighter. I can't afford to be anything else. Not now."

Fenris leaned closer to him, nudging Carter into a sort-of-hug. Carter let out a breath, his shoulders sagging as he buried his face into the thick fur on Fenris' neck. He closed his eyes and let this very powerful, very scary, very cuddly wolf snuggle him for a moment. "What about what you need, Carter? What you want is important too. I know you hate fighting, and battling, and constant endless wars. You can't expect for this to be all there is for the rest of your life?"

"I don't want it to be," Carter admitted with a whisper. It was so easy to be vulnerable with Douxie, Fenris, and sometimes Archie. They were the three people who knew him best in the world. The only family he'd had for eighty years. It had been just the four of them for so long, that Carter almost didn't know how to function in a group like this other than to fight and keep fighting. Because he was good at it. He was bred for it. Even though he hated it with every fragment of his soul. "I just want to rest."

"I know," Fenris' voice was soft in his head. Carter wrapped his arms around the Wolf's shaggy neck, burying his face into soft black and gray fur. "I know you do, my boy. Someday, Carter... someday you're going to have everything you want, because you deserve it and nothing less. You've been so brave for so long. It's okay to not be for once."

"I can't," Carter murmured, chest tightening. It was one thing to break down in front of his fiancé, it was another thing to admit his fears like this to his battle partner. "Fenris, I can't."

"Yes you can." Fenris licked his cheek tenderly. "I know you're frightened, terrified that we won't succeed. It's okay to be scared, Carter."