Viktor's POV I pulled back into the underground garage and slowly pulled myself out of the SUV heading towards the elevator, I leaned against the back wall of it as the rest of the team climbed in. Buck pressed the button bringing us up to our floor before we all separated to our corners and stripped off our gear and changed into civilian clothes as I looked at Buck "Hey Sebastien, call Harry. See if he can get his hands on the traffic camera footage and have our support teams find out where that van came from" he nodded as I sat next to the window looking out over the beautiful expanses of Berlin, I thought out loud "crazy to think that 76 years ago, this was an active war zone" Ela replied next to me "indeed, how's your leg?" I looked over before returning to looking out the window "don't worry about it, I'll be fine" she sighed and pressed "nie, let me check your wounds" I sighed and went to debate it when Timur spoke "Comrade, let her do it. She won't take no for an answer" I looked over and mused "you sound like you've been her friend for a while" he laughed and replied "comrade, we dated for a little while. I know her pretty well" I laughed at the comment. Ela spoke firmly yet compassionately "let me treat the wounds" I sighed before nodding "fine" she smirked "wspaniały!(great!)" I looked down and pulled up my pant legs so they were over my kneecaps as Maverick laughed "Jesus dude your legs are a fucking forest" I looked over and replied "well atleast I have eyebrows Goldilocks" the team laughed as I felt Ela pull out a piece of shrapnel I missed last night when I cleaned out as many as I could causing me to hiss. My vision snapped down to her as she looked guilty I joked "christ, if you were gonna hurt me like that I would've gotten a shot first" she looked up and asked "are you going to keep complaining or let me get this done?" I looked over at Erik "hey baby blue, wanna grab me a shot? Ela's committing war crimes by torturing me" he laughed before picking up the bottle and walking over to me "bet you feel lucky, she never does this for anyone she doesn't like" I laughed before taking a drink as she pulled another small piece of shrapnel that grabbed every piece of flesh on its way out causing me to grit my teeth and get out "christ those fuckers hurt more than the grenade that put them there" Max clapped before offering "well mate, try not to get blown up next time" I looked over and replied with a cheeky smirk "I'll try to remember that, really" he replied "don't hate me because I'm beautiful" I rolled my eyes as Ela spoke "I'm switching legs, Timur stop the bleeding and get that leg wrapped with gauze" he asked confused "what? Are we dating again? You're handing out orders again" she snapped grumpily "just shut up and do it" I looked to my right and saw my Ak leaning against the wall next to Ela, I always keep it loaded causing me to point out to Timur "hey man, I'd listen she does have a loaded weapon next to her" Timur traced my view as Sebastien spoke "my friend, I think you should listen to her" as Erik nodded and Max gave a thumbs up. He sighed and pressed on the freshly opened wound as I hissed in pain "oh sweet mother of god that shit hurts" He laughed as Ela pulled a large piece of shrapnel out of my leg causing me to grit my teeth before I asked incredulously "how the fuck did we miss that?" Causing her to reply sassily "because you did this rushed at 2 in the morning in the dark while the rest of us slept" I shook my head in amusement before I asked no one in particular "anyone wanna grab my sketchbook?" Max walked over to my bag and pulled it out before handing it to me. I flipped through the he drawings until Sebastien stopped me "is that a drawing of Ela?" I sighed as Ela's hands stilled and she asked "co?" I heard Erik "holy shit it is, when the fuck did you draw this?" I shrugged before replying "no clue, I just did. Probably one of those late nights I didn't get much sleep" only for Ela to say "let me see" I turned the sketchbook and showed her the picture.
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(A/N I don't own this. Rights are to the artist) Timur and Ela both let their artistic side through as they critiqued the drawing before Timur spoke "you know comrade, I think you did a good job capturing the true Ela" I laughed before replying "thank you my friend, it means a lot from an accomplished artist such as yourself" he smirked as he started tightly wrapping my leg, I looked at Ela and saw she was distracted while pulling out some shrapnel causing me to say "you know I think someone else should do this, she's distracted" she looked up and shot back "I am not" I nodded slowly as Sebastien pointed out "that's why you're smiling and taking longer with this piece than the rest." Erik and Max spoke in a sing song tone "Ela's falling in love, Ela's falling in love" as she went to grab my ak causing me to lean forward and grab her arm "nie, nie, nie, no killing" she sighed as I looked over the back of my chair at the two "you now owe me your life" Erik laughed and replied "I owe you more than one life brother" as Max spoke "mate, I'm afraid that debt will never get paid. I don't intend to be a hero" I nodded before speaking "good, I don't want you to" Ela finished up causing me to take the gauze from Timur and start wrapping my leg tightly, I stood and took a few steps before Erik spoke "alright everyone, sit down I've almost got lunch ready" I looked at him "when the fuck did you get groceries?" He looked over and chuckled not answering the question. I rolled my eyes but sat down, the team did the same, I looked around the table and saw various expressions, Ela looked both confused and pleased, Timur looked tired, Sebastien looked deep in though and Max looked like he was day dreaming. I asked Sebastien "hey Seb, whatcha thinking about?" He looked up and replied "The battle today" I nodded as Ela asked "what about it? I didn't think it was special" he replied "the fact they didn't know we were there. It's like they didn't put it together that Rainbow hit their guys last night, I dunno it's just nagging at me, like they're trying to get us confident so they can drag us into a huge gunfight" I nodded before speaking "I'll keep that in mind, we'll have to keep our eyes open for any trap they lay" Erik put down a pot filled with spaghetti Max joked "good thing Aria isn't here, she'd kick your ass" I chuckled as Erik replied "she's tiny, if she kicked my ass I'd question my right to live" I rolled my eyes as we started eating, I looked around the table and thought to myself we look like a civvie family, it's so bizarre. Erik noticed my look as Timur asked "Comrade you look troubled" I shook my head no "I'm not troubled, it's just weird. We went from a gunfight to eating like a family" they looked around at each other before a round of laughter was sounded off, Ela joked "Jeez I need a new family, you guys suck" I feigned hurt before Max shot back "well fuck you too" we chuckled at the jabs before I spoke gently "easy, easy. Relax." The team quickly settled down as we started eating, talking. We waited patiently for Harry to send us the coordinates the mask's came from but they never came, I laid in my hammock with my Ak laying beside me hoping that the next morning I'd have intel we could act upon. I woke up at dawn before I walked over to my combat laptop hoping I saw an email from Harry, only to have my hopes crushed when I didn't see one. I sat at the table playing with cards waiting for the rest to wake up for another hour until the email popped up on my screen, I clicked on it and scoured through all the intel until I got to the address and the schematics. I smirked to myself as I printed out the schematics and blew them up before putting them on the whiteboard and marking up Hit tonight, Zero Dark Thirty before I started planning the assault. The team slowly started waking up and coming over after grabbing their coffee and helping plan putting their personal expertise into the plan. We finalized the plan as I spoke "memorize this plan, this is our general idea of what we're doing. Do not plan on this plan working" I walked over to my bag and pulled out an MRE before climbing into my hammock and starting to eat. I heard Ela next to me "how long have you been up?" I shrugged before replying "hour and a half" she spoke "how long have you been planning?" I spoke with a small laugh "an hour, why?" just for Erik to call over "don't worry about it, she's just checking on her hubby" causing Ela to spin and go to attack him as I grabbed her shoulder "nie, niech tak będzie. on tylko się drażni(no, let it be. He's just teasing)" she sighed as I continued eating my MRE and thinking about tonight.