Strength Together

Chapter 9

TW: violence, language, mentions of Soap
WC: 4.4k

Ophelia sat on a hospital bed in her own infirmary as one of her nurses checked her for injuries. Her bicep was bruised from Nolan's rough handling of her and her cheek and hands were raw from her bindings but overall she was okay physically.

Ghost sat on a bed parallel to hers, he watched as the nurse did his check on Ophelia. His eyes locked on the nurses hands, making sure he didn't touch her in a way that would harm her. At one moment, she flinched when the nurse gripped her wrist to analyze it and Ghost nearly jumped out of his seat before Ophelia gave him a reassuring smile and a hand movement telling him to sit.

It was Ghost's turn to be examined but when the nurse went to roll Ghost's sleeve up, he gave him the nastiest glare he could before spitting "I'm fine." in a dark tone.

"I got it, James. Thank you." Ophelia sighed as she slid off the hospital bed. James, the nurse, looked at Ophelia with caution before nodding his head and taking his leave. The nurses weren't there often and there were only two of them so Ghost wasn't used to seeing them.

"Thank you." Ophelia said softly as she rolled Ghost's sleeve back, this time with zero objections from the large man. She slowly pulled off his glove to see his knuckles were bruised and bleeding despite the padded material. "Need you take your mask off, get it cleaned. Here." She handed Ghost a normal, blue surgical mask. "I know it's not black but for now it's what I have.

Ghost took the surgical mask but set it down next to him on the bed before removing his blood covered skull mask and balaclava, though he didn't put on the new one offered to him. He stared into her eyes as she examined his face, blood was splattered a little on the eye black around his eyes but other than that, he was okay. Except...he looked sad.

"I'm sorry I didn't fight back. You wouldn't have had to kill him if I had just reached for the gun when you told me to." Ophelia admitted as she looked at her feet.

Ghost's bloodied hand came to her chin, lifting her so her eyes were level with his. "He could have turned it against you and actually used it. It's good you didn't."

With no response, Ophelia turned towards the small tray her nurse had set up. She grabbed cleaning clothes and a cleaning agent before dabbing Ghost's bloodied knuckles clean. "No more gloves for a little bit while these heal." His hands were double the size of hers as she held one in both her hands to clean it. Once she was done cleaning both his hands and was about to retract her own, he stopped her by taking her small hands in his.

Ophelia looked at Ghost who still sat unmasked in front of her. A quizzical look took over her features as he held her hands in his.

"You could have died. We should have listened when you said I wasn't fit for duty yet."

"What happened wasn't because you were unfit for duty. Nolan was playing dirty and that's not your fault Simon." Ophelia sighed before speaking again, knowing she wasn't going to like her next words. "Simon, I want you to train me. Train me to defend myself. How to handle someone if they do turn my own gun on me."

"Lia that requires guns."

"I...I know. But that was scary, okay? What if he hurt you? I would have had to just stand there and watch. I would be too scared to fire if I did have a gun. If he was on top of you I would have been too scared to do anything, scared I'd shoot you by accident." Ophelia's eyes dropped to her feet once again. "and you know what?" She asked boldly as she straightened her posture, making eye contact with him. "That scares me, the thought of losing you. If that ever happens again, I want to be able to protect you too."