angel with a shot gun

"They only do so because they care. More than you know." He hoped, at least. No— no, he knew. Coin was hell bent on keeping Rory from becoming a commander because she cared. He could tell from the glint in her eye. He saw it in Angela when she was alive.

"You have.. your friends. President Coin, Boggs. And…." Dexter trailed off, pursing his lips. He didn’t really have anything to go back to either. Maybe that’s why they connected. He ended up straightening in his chair and clearing his throat before he talked again. “Aaand you have me.”

"Mm, yes, fortunately so."

"Yeah, well." Rory offered a shrug, expression shifting to a grimace at the motion. "Part of why I did it, actually. Ain't like I have anything to go back to." 

He chuckled and shrugged, taking a seat next to her bed. “That’s the price you pay for throwing yourself in front of gunfire to save some of your soldiers. Which, I might add, are still alive.”

Rory slowly push herself up to sit, biting hard at the inside of her cheek in the struggle to keep her expression neutral. She hesitated for a long moment before exhaling, shaking her head. "Been through worse," she grumbled, even if at the moment it didn't feel like it. "You weren't there when I got shish-kabob'd. That was gnarly." She shivered at the memory, but her expression soon turned dark. "Yeah, well, they don't fuckin' deserve to be. Idiots stuck their necks out and got us rained on."

They could finally say that all the districts were liberated, free from Capitol fingers. The only thing they needed to do was take out the remaining forces in the Capitol and the damned war was over. However, first they needed to tend to their wounded.

Oh, they know. And they’re not happy.

If it isn’t our newest commander.

Do Coin and Boggs know yet?

District 5, here we come.

"I got shot, but apparently my ears went, too. Say that again.”

No.

The hug caught him by surprise, leaving him almost falling back. A warmth shot through his chest as he realized she had done it out of happiness. Okay. So maybe there was still some good inside of him…. somewhere. After she let go, Dexter just cleared his throat and folded his hands behind his back. Right. So. You’d better get to work, Soldier Carrington. I’ll be watching you.

Right, yeah, of course, 

Oh, yeah. Sure. Just gotta work hard for it.

Tempting. We’ll see how you do this month. Work hard.. And it might just happen.

..Are you fucking serious?

You know, you’d make for one hell of a commander.

Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever. I still get shit done and get shit done well and efficiently. 

It means that as your commander, I. Don’t. Have to. Explain. Myself. To you.