A flash of silence

Aftermath

Alex's POV
When I came to everything was black but I could faintly hear some talking, it sounded far away and i couldn't understand a word of it. As I started to regain my senses the voices became sharper and closer as I could hear Taina "Where is he?!" And Doc replying "Taina, let him rest" as she yelled back "take that rest and shove it up your ass! Where is he?!" I yelled "Taina!" Into the abyss as I heard an echo but no reply from Taina until I heard Doc "what was that?" To which Taina replied "show me to him or I'll gut you right here, right now" he sighed "fine, follow me." I heard the door opening and then closing as I slowly opened my eyes quickly slamming them shut and groaning at the harsh light, as doc spoke "Spartan? Can you hear me?" I heard footsteps moving to my right and I nodded slightly as he asked "can you speak?" As I tried, coughing before I got out "Taina" as she grabbed my hand "I'm here, so are the twins" I slowly pieced everything together as doc asked "can you open see?" I slowly opened my eyes, squinting as they adjusted to the brightness of the room. Doc sighed "you got pretty banged up" I shifted my eyes to him "how banged up are we talking?" He replied monotone "you've been unconscious for 13 hours, you're right leg has some pretty substantial wounds, you lost a decent portion of your calf and you almost went into cardiac arrest several times" I sighed "who pulled me out?" He replied "PJs" I stared at the ceiling as Fantasma and Trevas explored the bed "I'll never live down getting rescued by the Air Force" causing Taina to chuckle, still holding my hand. Doc walked out as I stroked Fantasma's fur as his sister laid on my good leg "so about that date..." she looked at me "you're in no condition to go on a date" I chuckled "can we do a stay at home date instead? Just us and the cubs" she nodded "yeah, I like the sound of that" I turned towards the door as Huntsman walked in "how're you feeling Spartan?" I looked at him "like I've just fought through the battle of Thermopylae" he nodded "Langley has given you a all the leave you could need for that mission, it reset the plans of the masks 3 months. The two leopards are also safe command couldn't say no when they were told you were the one requesting it. The favors helped, now what's this I'm hearing about a date?" Fantasma growled at Huntsman causing him to chuckle as I spoke "Fantasma, it's okay." He looked at me before he looked back at Huntsman before he turned to me, stopped growling and laid down as Taina spoke "we were supposed to go on a date when he got back but apparently he can't ever come back in one piece" huntsman laughed "dear, get used to that. This kid couldn't stay in one piece if you duct taped him together" I rolled my eyes as she laughed "yeah, he always gets hurt" I sighed and continued to petting Fantasma as he purred "can we not do this?" Huntsman nodded "I've let your mother know you're safe. You're good for as long as you need to recover and be cleared for field duty" I gave a sloppy salute as I leaned back while huntsman left "hey T?" She stopped running her fingers through my hair "do you know when I get discharged?" She shook her head no "we'll ask when Doc gets back in here" I smiled as Trevas moved to be curled up under my chin and I got ready to go back to sleep "feel free to join me if the chair gets uncomfortable" as she yawned causing me to yawn causing the cubs to yawn before we all drifted to sleep. When I woke up Doc had just walked in as he looked at me "good morning, Spartan. How'd you sleep?" I went to move until I felt a weight on my arm as I looked over and saw Taina and the two little ones laying next to/ on me as I replied "not too badly, is there any estimate on when I'm discharged?" He shook his head smiling slightly "already trying to get moving, well bad news you'll be here for 2 or 3 months before you go to physical" I nodded trying to remain still as taina, Fantasma and Trevas were sleeping. "Hey doc" he looked at me "yes Spartan?" I asked "could you keep people out of here for a while? I wanna try to get some more sleep" he nodded "just try to relax, you've got a long road ahead of you" I nodded as I rested my head against Taina's and pet Trevas before I closed my eyes and started drifting off again. I stared down the sight of my rifle being back in Afghanistan hunting Taliban leaders I pulled the trigger and felt the recoil hit my shoulder as the target dropped, the scene swirled around me as I was back in in Benghazi on the roof with a mk48 hitting the enemies. The scenes and memories started merging I watched every shot and every raid I'd been a part of flash before my eyes until I saw the last one, the one I'd just been injured on. It started how any of the other memories did until the RPG hit and it switched to a 3rd person view, like a video game. I watched the PJs dragging me to the helicopter, I saw the frantic efforts to save me but then it all just stopped. Everything froze before it went to black and I woke up, "what the hell was that?" I muttered to myself, I flexed my hand just then I felt Taina start stirring as Fantasma ran up the bed and head butted me before meowing loudly causing Taina to sit up and rub her eyes as I scratched behind his ear. "Morning T" she looked back and smiled "morning" I motioned to the two screaming leopards "they're getting hungry" she nodded "I'm gonna go get us all some food" I chuckled "thank you, we'll be waiting for our lovely provider to come home" she smiled as we stood and walked out. I looked at the two cubs "she'll take care of us" Trevas mewed as I nodded "quite right" Just then Doc walked in "hello there" as Fantasma tried to roar at him as doc nodded "fearsome" he looked at me "do you need anything?" I nodded "I need a bowl of water for these two" I motioned to Fantasma and Trevas. Doc nodded "I'll get it for you, how'd you get them?" I sighed remembering the night "taina and I were on patrol their mother thought we were easy prey and she attacked. I took the attack, taina shot the mother and then these two came out of the brush. We felt bad that we had effectively condemned them to die so we grabbed them and now they're ours" he mused "so that's why you had stitches" I nodded as he asked "what'd you name them?" I pointed to Fantasma "he's named Fantasma" and then I shifted my finger to Trevas "and she's Trevas" he asked "what do they mean?" I replied "ghost and darkness, from the Tsavo story" he chuckled "how do you tell them apart? They look the same to me" I laughed "Fantasma has a black nose and three black stripes under each eye. Trevas has two stripes and a bronze nose" he leaned in and looked at both of them "oh I see, they're very pretty" I nodded "try sleeping with them, they run over you all night and you have to deal with them chewing on random parts of your clothes" he laughed "sounds like kids alright" I chuckled as Taina entered with a tray of food as she sat down and the cubs rushed her  and started screaming for their food. She laughed "alright alright settle down" as she placed the plates of pork cubes down on the bed for them and they started eating. She handed me mine "thank you T" she nodded as she looked at doc "what's so interesting about our little ones?" He seemed shocked by the question "I've never seen a leopard in person before much less cubs. They're adorable" she nodded "hard to sleep with tho" doc laughed "Spartan just told me about that" doc put down the clipboard and started walking towards the door "hey Doc, can you let my team and John in here?" He nodded and left. I sighed "this is gonna be a long 3 months" she looked at me as she placed her hand on my arm "maybe, but you've got me and your friends to help make it a big shorter." I smiled slightly "I always wondered what would get me off the field, turns out a rocket is the answer" she chuckled as the door opened and I set in for a long journey.