Famous Last Words #10
Title: Famous Last Words
Fandom/ Pairing The Losers (comic 'verse, with some help from the movie), eventual Jensen/Cougar
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue, don't take this too seriously.
Summary: Cougar was bleeding all over the bomb in his lap, the last time Jensen saw him. But that was then.
Link to Master List & Previous Chapters
Cougar opened his eyes to find Jensen watching him warily, and he could see the frown deepening as Jensen watched what Cougar was feeling- the onset of another massive headache - make itself known. But Jensen was determined, even before Cougar could find the words to tell him why he was wincing.
"So. Cue awkward morning after conversation. I mean, I know it didn't go, like, all the way, but they went pretty far, and I don't know if it's actually morning, down here, but the principle still applies. We can sort the rest out later, but I need to know one thing. You gonna break my nose?"
"No."
"And you're not just sparing me because you've decided that we're both probably going to die in the next twenty four hours?"
"No. He ran his knuckles along Jensen's arm experimentally. Casting his eyes to the window allowed him to keep watch while avoiding his gaze. "Estado enamorado de ti durante semanas, tal vez más. Nada ha cambiado, otros que cómo me ves."
It took Jensen a few moments to translate, but he relaxed, and when Cougar looked at him again, he was blushing, deep red. "You know you slip back into Spanish when you're nervous? So, ah. Bien. Yo también." He caught Cougar's hand on the down-stroke and squeezed it, once. "Just so you know, and you're not-" he broke off, smirking. "Not the only one showing a card, here."
It was just as well Cougar had no idea how to react, no idea what to do next, because outside, in the hallway, footsteps were approaching. Jensen could hear them too.
---
Jensen was having a hard time getting his head around it. This entire thing with Cougar. He'd meant what he said, and judging by the evidence- the entire lack of laughter and stunned, fuck, happy look on Cougar's face, he'd probably managed to not mangle the words beyond all recognition.
Still, though, that had been ten minutes ago, and he really needed to change gears, here. Their mattress had been taken away, and they were eating their breakfasts as usual- oatmeal with raisins today, fucking disgusting, but at least they'd been allowed coffee.
He stole another glance in Cougar's direction, caught his eyes darting away and the smirk that followed, watched it turn into a scowl as Cougar shook his head. Stop it, man. Focus. Save this googley-eye shit for later.
"You first," Jensen muttered, and turned, deliberately, to watch the hallway, wondering which one of them was going to get the other one killed first.
Pretty soon, they were going to find out. He could see the gurney being prepped in the lab across the hall.
---
Obviously needing it more than he wanted to admit- and that wasn't anything that Jensen wanted to contemplate too deeply- Cougar had one hand on the wall, steadying himself as he stood. It was harder than Jensen had expected not to glance up at him, to check, but they couldn't afford sending out any stray signals. Instead, he shifted his weight, crossing his legs, every inch of him the image of someone settling in for a long boring morning of being held at gunpoint and watching his best friend- ooh, friends with benefits, cool- being tortured.
It also meant that before Jensen could stand up to run, he'd have to move more just to get his legs underneath him, which would be a problem if he had any intention of running. But that wasn't the plan.
This entire thing was going to be an exercise in using things against themselves. This room, these guards, their guns.
He waited for his moment, didn't flinch when the guards shoved their guns in his face for the billionth time that week, and watched Cougar approach the gurney out of the corner of his eye.
And then Cougar stopped. That was the signal.
Lurching forward, he grabbed the barrel of the rifle and pulled it down and to the side, sharply. Even if the guard had released his grip, the shoulder strap would've brought him down. deflecting the guard's aim and pulling him tumbling, more or less, into Jensen's lap.
Another twist and he was slipping the rifle out of his grasp, and was pulling the guard's sidearm- a Walther P99, by the feel of it- out of its holster.
Three slick movements later and he had the Walther up to the guard's chin, and rifle's strap hooked carefully around his own elbow. He shifted so the butt of the gun was propped against the wall, but even so, if he had to shoot it, he'd probably break his own arm and deafen everyone in the room.
But it beat getting disarmed.
And better yet, for those few instants, everyone's eyes were off Cougar.
---
It was elegant in its simplicity, using Goliath's own system against them. Their entire security protocol hinged on one thing: preventing Cougar from becoming corporeal.
They'd completely overlooked the damage Cougar was capable of inflicting with his bare, solid hands, or the fact that Jensen had noticed that while the specialized restraints were heavy, solid things, there was a weak point, two or three centimeters of exposed wires, wrapping around the hinges.
They were obvious, now that Cougar was seeing them, but he hadn't been looking before.
He probably could've busted out any time, if he'd only been paying attention.
But he could get angry about that later. Right now what was important was the fact that they'd apparently decided that three guards and one in the hall were enough to keep them contained, and they hadn't been wrong, until Jensen had three of them frozen in the cell.
He grabbed hold of one of the restraints, and, curling his body around it as if he were locked in place, he kept his posture rigid, his head cocked to the side as if watching the hostage situation unfold, but all his attention was on the guard rushing through the door behind him.
Throwing himself backwards as the guard stepped past, he knocked his ankle, hard, on the edge of the door. Catching the handle, he swung the door shut behind him Recovering in the middle of the hallway, he sidestepped and slid into the laboratory across the way.
The scientist dropped the laptop when he crashed into her, and the impact was enough to steal his breath, too, but that wasn't it, not at all.
The containment field didn't stretch out this far.
When the scientist glanced up, he was nowhere to be seen, but she only looked once before running out of the lab and down towards the exit.
---
Jensen was relieved that the guards probably weren't paid enough to be stupidly loyal to Goliath. And if it wasn't concern for their teammates that had them sliding their guns across the floor and under the gurney, they at least appreciated the finer points of self-preservation.
But they weren't exactly ecstatic about their position, either, and they were watching Jensen carefully. Waiting for their chance the same way Jensen had watched for his. And they'd probably realized, hell, they'd probably known for weeks now, that the doors would only open from the outside.
Alarms were suddenly going off, now, and there was a flashing light in the hallway. In a moment, Jensen was going to be outnumbered on all sides.
And the fact he had no idea what the hell was happening - that he couldn't even glance towards the window lest one of the guards take the opportunity to strike- was not helping him keep his calm, peaceful view of the universe.
---
The headache lessened a bit as he breached the field, but stretching himself out so thin took effort. Even out in the hallway, he could feel the pull of the containment field as it tried to pull his molecules back together, like water down a drain.
He only had a second to test around the edges, look for a clean path out past the doors in both directions. There was a stairwell down the hall, just around the corner from the elevator, and two labs over, someone was speaking hurriedly into a phone as they pressed a button on the wall.
The alarm blared through him, he could feel the vibrations of the keening wail.
Three scientists moved through him towards the stairwells, laptops and purses and whatever they could grab clutched to their chests.
They were evacuating.
---
Cougar scanned what he could of the lab, but there were no obvious means of shutting down the containment field, and when he pulled himself together enough to start flipping switches and pressing buttons at random, he found that his jaw was clenched so tight in frustration that his teeth felt like they might break.
And the pounding in his head was only getting worse.
Another panel, by the lab's door, had line of sight on the cell, just barely, and he could see the guards kneeling, now, shifting to sit on their hands, but the one seated closest to the gurney was glancing sideways at the floor. They were going to make a move, soon, and the payback they'd take out on Jensen would be serious.
And already, reinforcements were gathering three floors above.
---
Three stories above, Stegler and Dr. Harris were fronting the gathered security team, and Aisha was striding out of one of the offices.
"Why are you even still here?" Aisha glared at. Harris, her eyes spitting fire.
"I have all the data, everything, all the results in this drive here. What I don't have is many more times to observe my subjects. And nothing personal, Aisha, but I don't trust your judgment in this matter."
"I'm so glad to see you implemented my suggestions for the security upgrades," she grumbled sarcastically. "You know Alvarez is the last of the test subjects. After him, the well's gone dry. You think Mama Goliath's going to be thrilled?"
"They've got enough for predictive modeling. Everything else is icing. We kill on sight," Stegler waved his hand to indicate another throng of scientists rushing past. "And the call came down from on high- much higher than you, Aisha, to begin containment and cleanup operations. Don't worry about the politics. You'll still get paid."
"The bomb's prepped?" Dr. Harris checked his watch and glanced up at Stegler.
"Wired and ready, all we need's the signal." Stegler raised his hand, brandishing the detonator. "It's on a three minute lead once I press go. We still worrying about Alvarez?"
"He could be in orbit by now," Harris rolled his eyes as he surveyed the area warily. "And as much as I'd love to gather more data-"
"He's here," Aisha snorted, shaking her head. "There's literally nowhere in the world for him to go, any more, and Jensen's still locked down, right?"
"Yes, but he's got four, maybe five guards-"
"The only thing that matters is that Alvarez is still here. Be ready for him." Aisha checked her sidearm. "Looks like we're on wrangling patrol. Soon as we're done, we get the hell out. Primary exit is the north stairwell, secondary is the south."
"And then we get our asses clear of the building," Stegler added as he turned towards the stairwell. "Not that I'm lacking faith, but we don't have any idea how far the blast radius is going to be."
"We do, actually," Harris cut in as he followed them through the doorway. "There won't be one, just a patch of nothing with a parking lot attached.. Which, if you'll remember, was the entire fucking point of this entire goddamned enterprise," Harris muttered as they reached the stairwell. "But hey, it ought to cheer up the shareholders, at least."
"What the hell kind of name is snuke, anyway?" Stegler joked as they headed into the stairwell. "Sounds like something out of a Dr. Seuss book."
---
Jensen could hear the footsteps coming, saw Stegler appearing in the doorway first, his gun aimed warily towards the ground.
Which was why it was so surprising to be going deaf at the sound of gunfire, and he'd been hit, he knew it-
Only he hadn't. The two guards on the end slumped forward as Aisha stepped around Stegler and strode forward, one gun pointed at him, the other covering at the guards.
And once the guards were dead, her eyes flashed at Jensen over the barrels of two guns, carefully aimed.
"Yeah, okay!" he might've been yelling as he set his guns down. "There's no reason to be unreasonable!"
Aisha was shaking her head as Stegler and the doctor filed in behind her, and the ringing in his ears subsided just enough to hear her yelling Cougar's name.
"…we've got your boy, Alvarez…he's dying… unless-"
He missed most of it. But he didn't miss Cougar materializing in the hallway outside, dropping into a crouch and creeping forward.
---
Cougar had missed his shot to get the containment field deactivated, and there was a good chance it was about to get him killed, but a kick to the back of the knee and another one to the head had Stegler going down.
Harris was the closer, easier target, but Aisha was already swinging one arm back to aim at him, her aim disturbingly unerring.
Her other gun was too busy shooting Jensen to notice.
If it hadn't been for Harris' overextension as he threw the first punch, the bullet would've hit Cougar straight on. As it was, though, the shot caught the doctor in the shoulder, throwing him off balance just enough to crash into Cougar.
By the time Cougar twisted free of him enough to glance up again, Aisha was kicking him in the chest, and he bounced against the wall, feeling his head bounce off the concrete. The exertion had been enough to send the blood pounding through his already overtaxed vessels, and his head hurt so badly he couldn't see, but he shoved himself forward again, as fast as he could.
The first hit connected, catching her in the gut, but it had left him open, and the butt of her sidearm crashed against his throat as she suddenly lost her balance. It afforded him the opportunity to glance over at Jensen, see the smirk on his face as he withdrew the foot that had tripped her.
Jensen was wincing, though, as he tried to stand.
"Dammit, my foot's asleep!" he complained, before all color shot from his face "And my other one's been shot"
"Estas bien?" Cougar kicked the doctor in the back, hard as he crossed the floor.
"Oh, I'm peach- shit!"
Expecting a gun in his face, Cougar spun just in time to see Aisha swinging the door shut behind her, before staggering across the hallway.
---
Jensen eased back against the wall, training the gun he'd recovered on Stegler, who was starting to move again. If it came down to it, it would be a criminally easy shot at this close a range. If Cougar would just stop jostling him, for fuck's sake.
Cougar managed to get the belt he'd taken off Harris around Jensen's leg, cinching it tight before slumping against him with a frown.
"You okay?" Jensen's own voice sounded far away, distant.
Cougar frowned, reaching a hand up to his head and glancing again at Jensen's leg, and said something that Jensen couldn't hear through all the ringing. "… should hold."
Stegler was grinning before he opened his eyes, and it turned into a huffing laugh. "… for all the good…" He was holding up the detonator, though, as he sat up, and it was enough to get his point across. He'd probably hit the switch when he'd gone down, if not deliberately.
Jensen could feel Cougar tensing next to him, ready to spring into action again.
"How much time we got?" Jensen called out, and the answering shrug was honestly a little depressing. The detonator was a black box with a switch. A beta version, with no bells, whistles, readouts or countdown screen. There was no way to know.
But if Jensen only had ten seconds left before being blasted out of existence, he didn't want to spend it dealing with Stegler, so he shot him in the face.
---
In retrospect, deafening Cougar, too, hadn't probably been the best way to handle the situation.
---
Cougar couldn't hear anything, and it hurt to open his eyes, but at least then he could see Jensen's face, as discouraging as it was, watching him try to shout at him.
He shook his head, violently. I can't hear
Jensen's head fell back against the wall again, and his eyes were closed, but he reached out an arm. Cougar let himself be pulled close, over, until he was keeling on either side of Jensen's outstretched legs. Avoiding the injury was as close to saving him as he was going to get. Pressing his forehead to Jensen's, he gripped his shoulders, tight.
He'd died in a bomb once, and Jensen hadn't been there.
This was so much worse, and Cougar wanted to apologize, to say something, so he thought te amo as hard as his pounding head would allow, and kissed him back until the shockwave hit.
---
The End.
Epilogue
Fandom/ Pairing The Losers (comic 'verse, with some help from the movie), eventual Jensen/Cougar
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue, don't take this too seriously.
Summary: Cougar was bleeding all over the bomb in his lap, the last time Jensen saw him. But that was then.
Link to Master List & Previous Chapters
Cougar opened his eyes to find Jensen watching him warily, and he could see the frown deepening as Jensen watched what Cougar was feeling- the onset of another massive headache - make itself known. But Jensen was determined, even before Cougar could find the words to tell him why he was wincing.
"So. Cue awkward morning after conversation. I mean, I know it didn't go, like, all the way, but they went pretty far, and I don't know if it's actually morning, down here, but the principle still applies. We can sort the rest out later, but I need to know one thing. You gonna break my nose?"
"No."
"And you're not just sparing me because you've decided that we're both probably going to die in the next twenty four hours?"
"No. He ran his knuckles along Jensen's arm experimentally. Casting his eyes to the window allowed him to keep watch while avoiding his gaze. "Estado enamorado de ti durante semanas, tal vez más. Nada ha cambiado, otros que cómo me ves."
It took Jensen a few moments to translate, but he relaxed, and when Cougar looked at him again, he was blushing, deep red. "You know you slip back into Spanish when you're nervous? So, ah. Bien. Yo también." He caught Cougar's hand on the down-stroke and squeezed it, once. "Just so you know, and you're not-" he broke off, smirking. "Not the only one showing a card, here."
It was just as well Cougar had no idea how to react, no idea what to do next, because outside, in the hallway, footsteps were approaching. Jensen could hear them too.
---
Jensen was having a hard time getting his head around it. This entire thing with Cougar. He'd meant what he said, and judging by the evidence- the entire lack of laughter and stunned, fuck, happy look on Cougar's face, he'd probably managed to not mangle the words beyond all recognition.
Still, though, that had been ten minutes ago, and he really needed to change gears, here. Their mattress had been taken away, and they were eating their breakfasts as usual- oatmeal with raisins today, fucking disgusting, but at least they'd been allowed coffee.
He stole another glance in Cougar's direction, caught his eyes darting away and the smirk that followed, watched it turn into a scowl as Cougar shook his head. Stop it, man. Focus. Save this googley-eye shit for later.
"You first," Jensen muttered, and turned, deliberately, to watch the hallway, wondering which one of them was going to get the other one killed first.
Pretty soon, they were going to find out. He could see the gurney being prepped in the lab across the hall.
---
Obviously needing it more than he wanted to admit- and that wasn't anything that Jensen wanted to contemplate too deeply- Cougar had one hand on the wall, steadying himself as he stood. It was harder than Jensen had expected not to glance up at him, to check, but they couldn't afford sending out any stray signals. Instead, he shifted his weight, crossing his legs, every inch of him the image of someone settling in for a long boring morning of being held at gunpoint and watching his best friend- ooh, friends with benefits, cool- being tortured.
It also meant that before Jensen could stand up to run, he'd have to move more just to get his legs underneath him, which would be a problem if he had any intention of running. But that wasn't the plan.
This entire thing was going to be an exercise in using things against themselves. This room, these guards, their guns.
He waited for his moment, didn't flinch when the guards shoved their guns in his face for the billionth time that week, and watched Cougar approach the gurney out of the corner of his eye.
And then Cougar stopped. That was the signal.
Lurching forward, he grabbed the barrel of the rifle and pulled it down and to the side, sharply. Even if the guard had released his grip, the shoulder strap would've brought him down. deflecting the guard's aim and pulling him tumbling, more or less, into Jensen's lap.
Another twist and he was slipping the rifle out of his grasp, and was pulling the guard's sidearm- a Walther P99, by the feel of it- out of its holster.
Three slick movements later and he had the Walther up to the guard's chin, and rifle's strap hooked carefully around his own elbow. He shifted so the butt of the gun was propped against the wall, but even so, if he had to shoot it, he'd probably break his own arm and deafen everyone in the room.
But it beat getting disarmed.
And better yet, for those few instants, everyone's eyes were off Cougar.
---
It was elegant in its simplicity, using Goliath's own system against them. Their entire security protocol hinged on one thing: preventing Cougar from becoming corporeal.
They'd completely overlooked the damage Cougar was capable of inflicting with his bare, solid hands, or the fact that Jensen had noticed that while the specialized restraints were heavy, solid things, there was a weak point, two or three centimeters of exposed wires, wrapping around the hinges.
They were obvious, now that Cougar was seeing them, but he hadn't been looking before.
He probably could've busted out any time, if he'd only been paying attention.
But he could get angry about that later. Right now what was important was the fact that they'd apparently decided that three guards and one in the hall were enough to keep them contained, and they hadn't been wrong, until Jensen had three of them frozen in the cell.
He grabbed hold of one of the restraints, and, curling his body around it as if he were locked in place, he kept his posture rigid, his head cocked to the side as if watching the hostage situation unfold, but all his attention was on the guard rushing through the door behind him.
Throwing himself backwards as the guard stepped past, he knocked his ankle, hard, on the edge of the door. Catching the handle, he swung the door shut behind him Recovering in the middle of the hallway, he sidestepped and slid into the laboratory across the way.
The scientist dropped the laptop when he crashed into her, and the impact was enough to steal his breath, too, but that wasn't it, not at all.
The containment field didn't stretch out this far.
When the scientist glanced up, he was nowhere to be seen, but she only looked once before running out of the lab and down towards the exit.
---
Jensen was relieved that the guards probably weren't paid enough to be stupidly loyal to Goliath. And if it wasn't concern for their teammates that had them sliding their guns across the floor and under the gurney, they at least appreciated the finer points of self-preservation.
But they weren't exactly ecstatic about their position, either, and they were watching Jensen carefully. Waiting for their chance the same way Jensen had watched for his. And they'd probably realized, hell, they'd probably known for weeks now, that the doors would only open from the outside.
Alarms were suddenly going off, now, and there was a flashing light in the hallway. In a moment, Jensen was going to be outnumbered on all sides.
And the fact he had no idea what the hell was happening - that he couldn't even glance towards the window lest one of the guards take the opportunity to strike- was not helping him keep his calm, peaceful view of the universe.
---
The headache lessened a bit as he breached the field, but stretching himself out so thin took effort. Even out in the hallway, he could feel the pull of the containment field as it tried to pull his molecules back together, like water down a drain.
He only had a second to test around the edges, look for a clean path out past the doors in both directions. There was a stairwell down the hall, just around the corner from the elevator, and two labs over, someone was speaking hurriedly into a phone as they pressed a button on the wall.
The alarm blared through him, he could feel the vibrations of the keening wail.
Three scientists moved through him towards the stairwells, laptops and purses and whatever they could grab clutched to their chests.
They were evacuating.
---
Cougar scanned what he could of the lab, but there were no obvious means of shutting down the containment field, and when he pulled himself together enough to start flipping switches and pressing buttons at random, he found that his jaw was clenched so tight in frustration that his teeth felt like they might break.
And the pounding in his head was only getting worse.
Another panel, by the lab's door, had line of sight on the cell, just barely, and he could see the guards kneeling, now, shifting to sit on their hands, but the one seated closest to the gurney was glancing sideways at the floor. They were going to make a move, soon, and the payback they'd take out on Jensen would be serious.
And already, reinforcements were gathering three floors above.
---
Three stories above, Stegler and Dr. Harris were fronting the gathered security team, and Aisha was striding out of one of the offices.
"Why are you even still here?" Aisha glared at. Harris, her eyes spitting fire.
"I have all the data, everything, all the results in this drive here. What I don't have is many more times to observe my subjects. And nothing personal, Aisha, but I don't trust your judgment in this matter."
"I'm so glad to see you implemented my suggestions for the security upgrades," she grumbled sarcastically. "You know Alvarez is the last of the test subjects. After him, the well's gone dry. You think Mama Goliath's going to be thrilled?"
"They've got enough for predictive modeling. Everything else is icing. We kill on sight," Stegler waved his hand to indicate another throng of scientists rushing past. "And the call came down from on high- much higher than you, Aisha, to begin containment and cleanup operations. Don't worry about the politics. You'll still get paid."
"The bomb's prepped?" Dr. Harris checked his watch and glanced up at Stegler.
"Wired and ready, all we need's the signal." Stegler raised his hand, brandishing the detonator. "It's on a three minute lead once I press go. We still worrying about Alvarez?"
"He could be in orbit by now," Harris rolled his eyes as he surveyed the area warily. "And as much as I'd love to gather more data-"
"He's here," Aisha snorted, shaking her head. "There's literally nowhere in the world for him to go, any more, and Jensen's still locked down, right?"
"Yes, but he's got four, maybe five guards-"
"The only thing that matters is that Alvarez is still here. Be ready for him." Aisha checked her sidearm. "Looks like we're on wrangling patrol. Soon as we're done, we get the hell out. Primary exit is the north stairwell, secondary is the south."
"And then we get our asses clear of the building," Stegler added as he turned towards the stairwell. "Not that I'm lacking faith, but we don't have any idea how far the blast radius is going to be."
"We do, actually," Harris cut in as he followed them through the doorway. "There won't be one, just a patch of nothing with a parking lot attached.. Which, if you'll remember, was the entire fucking point of this entire goddamned enterprise," Harris muttered as they reached the stairwell. "But hey, it ought to cheer up the shareholders, at least."
"What the hell kind of name is snuke, anyway?" Stegler joked as they headed into the stairwell. "Sounds like something out of a Dr. Seuss book."
---
Jensen could hear the footsteps coming, saw Stegler appearing in the doorway first, his gun aimed warily towards the ground.
Which was why it was so surprising to be going deaf at the sound of gunfire, and he'd been hit, he knew it-
Only he hadn't. The two guards on the end slumped forward as Aisha stepped around Stegler and strode forward, one gun pointed at him, the other covering at the guards.
And once the guards were dead, her eyes flashed at Jensen over the barrels of two guns, carefully aimed.
"Yeah, okay!" he might've been yelling as he set his guns down. "There's no reason to be unreasonable!"
Aisha was shaking her head as Stegler and the doctor filed in behind her, and the ringing in his ears subsided just enough to hear her yelling Cougar's name.
"…we've got your boy, Alvarez…he's dying… unless-"
He missed most of it. But he didn't miss Cougar materializing in the hallway outside, dropping into a crouch and creeping forward.
---
Cougar had missed his shot to get the containment field deactivated, and there was a good chance it was about to get him killed, but a kick to the back of the knee and another one to the head had Stegler going down.
Harris was the closer, easier target, but Aisha was already swinging one arm back to aim at him, her aim disturbingly unerring.
Her other gun was too busy shooting Jensen to notice.
If it hadn't been for Harris' overextension as he threw the first punch, the bullet would've hit Cougar straight on. As it was, though, the shot caught the doctor in the shoulder, throwing him off balance just enough to crash into Cougar.
By the time Cougar twisted free of him enough to glance up again, Aisha was kicking him in the chest, and he bounced against the wall, feeling his head bounce off the concrete. The exertion had been enough to send the blood pounding through his already overtaxed vessels, and his head hurt so badly he couldn't see, but he shoved himself forward again, as fast as he could.
The first hit connected, catching her in the gut, but it had left him open, and the butt of her sidearm crashed against his throat as she suddenly lost her balance. It afforded him the opportunity to glance over at Jensen, see the smirk on his face as he withdrew the foot that had tripped her.
Jensen was wincing, though, as he tried to stand.
"Dammit, my foot's asleep!" he complained, before all color shot from his face "And my other one's been shot"
"Estas bien?" Cougar kicked the doctor in the back, hard as he crossed the floor.
"Oh, I'm peach- shit!"
Expecting a gun in his face, Cougar spun just in time to see Aisha swinging the door shut behind her, before staggering across the hallway.
---
Jensen eased back against the wall, training the gun he'd recovered on Stegler, who was starting to move again. If it came down to it, it would be a criminally easy shot at this close a range. If Cougar would just stop jostling him, for fuck's sake.
Cougar managed to get the belt he'd taken off Harris around Jensen's leg, cinching it tight before slumping against him with a frown.
"You okay?" Jensen's own voice sounded far away, distant.
Cougar frowned, reaching a hand up to his head and glancing again at Jensen's leg, and said something that Jensen couldn't hear through all the ringing. "… should hold."
Stegler was grinning before he opened his eyes, and it turned into a huffing laugh. "… for all the good…" He was holding up the detonator, though, as he sat up, and it was enough to get his point across. He'd probably hit the switch when he'd gone down, if not deliberately.
Jensen could feel Cougar tensing next to him, ready to spring into action again.
"How much time we got?" Jensen called out, and the answering shrug was honestly a little depressing. The detonator was a black box with a switch. A beta version, with no bells, whistles, readouts or countdown screen. There was no way to know.
But if Jensen only had ten seconds left before being blasted out of existence, he didn't want to spend it dealing with Stegler, so he shot him in the face.
---
In retrospect, deafening Cougar, too, hadn't probably been the best way to handle the situation.
---
Cougar couldn't hear anything, and it hurt to open his eyes, but at least then he could see Jensen's face, as discouraging as it was, watching him try to shout at him.
He shook his head, violently. I can't hear
Jensen's head fell back against the wall again, and his eyes were closed, but he reached out an arm. Cougar let himself be pulled close, over, until he was keeling on either side of Jensen's outstretched legs. Avoiding the injury was as close to saving him as he was going to get. Pressing his forehead to Jensen's, he gripped his shoulders, tight.
He'd died in a bomb once, and Jensen hadn't been there.
This was so much worse, and Cougar wanted to apologize, to say something, so he thought te amo as hard as his pounding head would allow, and kissed him back until the shockwave hit.
---
The End.
Epilogue