In The Line Of Fire
John Price x medic female reader ONE SHOT
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a/n: hello this is my first Price ONE SHOT! Hope you enjoy because it's been in my drafts for ages! (was too unsure to post it lol)
Summary: As the 141’s medic, you’ve patched Captain Price up more times than you can count, but saving his life on the field shatters the unspoken line between you. What began as quiet pining ignites when fear, anger, and affection collide after battle. Now, in the aftermath, both of you have to face what’s been building far longer than either will admit.
TW: Hurt/Comfort, Violence (gunfire, injury, battlefield wounds), Blood/Injury (mild), Angst with a Happy Ending, Mutual Pining, Protective!Price, Medic!Reader, Emotional Breakdown / Fear of Loss, Kissing
Word Count: 2.9 k
The firefight was complete chaos. Muzzle flashes cutting through the night, the air thick with gunpowder and grit. Your ears rang with the staccato crack of rifles, the shouts of men, the dull thump of grenades in the distance. Nothing new to you as the trusty medic of the 141 squad, though you never really recover after a battlefield like this.
“Gaz, left flank, keep that pressure up!” Price’s voice was sharp over comms, the kind of steady authority that could cut through even the worst storm. He stood in the open, firing in controlled bursts, commanding with the kind of confidence that made men follow without question.
And then you saw it.
The glint of a scope in the shattered window across the street, the tiny movement that screamed sniper. You didn’t think, you didn’t weigh the risk, you just moved. One shove, hard against Price’s chest, sending him staggering back just as the shot rang out. The bullet slammed into the dirt where his head had been, a breath away from ending him.
You felt the burn as the second shot grazed your shoulder, tearing through fabric and skin, but you stayed upright, teeth gritted as you fired back until the window went still.
“Bloody hell!” Soap’s voice crackled through the comms, equal parts impressed and horrified. “You just shoved the Captain out of the way like he was a mere bairn! Saved his damned life, bonnie!”
“Not now, Johnny,” Price barked, but his eyes weren’t on the field anymore. They were on you. And they were furious.
He grabbed your arm roughly the second you reached cover, his gaze scanning the blood already soaking into your sleeve. “What the fuck were you thinking, love?” His voice was low and dangerous, shaking with something more than anger. “You don’t put yourself in the line like that.”
“I just saved your life, John,” you snapped back, breath ragged, heart hammering. “A thank you would be nice.”
His jaw clenched, eyes flashing. “I don’t need saving. Especially not from you.”
The words stung more than the wound, but there was no time to argue. Ghost’s clipped voice came over comms: “Extraction point’s hot. Fall back to the safe house.”
Price shoved his hat back on, grabbed your good arm, and half-dragged you as the team regrouped. You could feel Soap’s eyes flicking between you both with a smirk that promised endless teasing later. Gaz’s quick, worried glance lingered on you, but he said nothing. Then Soap muttered, “Cap sounds more rattled than the bloody grenades, lass. Better watch yourself.”
The rain began just as you reached the safe house. Cold, relentless, drumming against the tin roof. The old stone building smelled of damp wood and dust, the air thick with the heat of bodies and the leftover tension of battle.
Price barked orders as the others settled in, his voice a little too sharp, a little too brittle. He didn’t look at you. Didn’t have to. You could feel the anger rolling off him like heat from a fire, restrained but ready to ignite. And beneath it, though you’d never say it aloud, was fear.
The safe house was nothing more than four crumbling stone walls, two shabby bedrooms and a roof patched together with rusting tin, but after the firefight, it felt like a palace. Rain hammered against the metal, drowning the silence in a steady rhythm. The air inside smelled of wet boots, gun oil, and smoke from the small fire Soap had coaxed to life in the corner hearth.
You dropped your pack by the door and exhaled slowly, willing the adrenaline to leave your body. Your shoulder throbbed where the bullet had grazed you, warm blood still seeping through the fabric of your sleeve. You moved toward the kitchen counter, searching for a rag to bind it with before the wound could stiffen.
“Sit down before you keel over, bonnie,” Soap drawled, tossing you one of his lopsided grins. He plopped into a chair, rifle balanced across his lap like it was just another evening at home. “Captain nearly lost his head, and you nearly lost your arm, reckon Gaz and I are the only sensible ones here.”
Gaz shot him a flat look but didn’t argue. He slid closer, already pulling the med kit from your rucksack. “Let me help, yeah?” His voice was softer, steady as ever.
You gave him a tired smile, but before you could answer, a shadow fell across the room.
Price.
He stood in the doorway, hat dripping rainwater, hands braced on the frame as if he needed to physically hold himself in place. His eyes flicked to your bleeding shoulder, lingered there, then moved on. He didn’t speak, but the tension in the room thickened like smoke.
“Cap,” Soap chirped, far too amused, “don’t suppose you’d like to thank our lass for saving your neck back there? Could’ve sworn I saw your life flash before your eyes when she shoved you out the way.”
“Enough of that,” Price said sharply, stripping off his wet coat. His voice was rough, his accent heavier when he was angry.
“Just sayin’,” Soap muttered, but the grin never left his face.
Ghost, silent in the corner as always, leaned back in his chair with arms folded. His masked gaze shifted between you and Price. “Could cut the air in 'ere with a knife,” he remarked dryly.
Gaz’s lips twitched, but he kept working at the bandage on your arm. “Captain,” he said lightly, “it’s not the worst thing in the world, you know. At least you got someone watching your six.”
Price shot him a look sharp enough to silence any further commentary, but he didn’t answer. He moved to the far side of the room, shoulders hunched, hands busy with his weapon, cleaning it like it hadn’t just taken several lives minutes ago.
You swallowed, jaw tight. For now, it was easier to fuss over the others, distracting yourself. To hand Ghost a dry rag for his gear, to remind Soap to get his boots off the table, to press an apple into Gaz’s hand because you knew he hadn’t eaten since morning. That was your role: the caretaker, the one who kept the boys human. It was easier than acknowledging the weight of Price’s anger still burning in the corner of the room.
But every time your eyes strayed, there he was, watching when he thought you wouldn’t notice. Fury barely held in check, fear tucked just beneath it. You wondered which would crack first.
The safe house was just beginning to settle into uneasy quiet when Price finally snapped.
He stood up from his spot across the room, pacing like a caged animal. His rain-weathered hat was tossed onto the table, his cigar left unlit beside it. The glow of the lantern carved sharp lines across his face, shadowing the hard set of his jaw. He was usually composed, immovable, but now the mask was cracked.
You were seated at the rough wooden table, Gaz carefully checking the bandage around your shoulder. The sting of disinfectant made you wince, but it wasn’t half as sharp as the fire in Price’s voice when he finally spoke.
“You think this is a bloody game, love?” His voice was low at first, but thick with anger that threatened to spill over. He turned to you, eyes burning. “Charging in like that, ignoring orders... You nearly got yourself killed out there. What the hell were you thinking?”
“I—” you began, but he cut you off.
“No. Don’t you dare tell me you had no choice,” he growled, pointing a finger at you. “You shoved me clear and took a bullet yourself. You put yourself on the line, for what? To play the bloody hero?”
“I saved you, Captain,” you shot back, though your voice wavered under the weight of his fury. You only use his official rank when you're really mad, which he knew. “If I hadn’t gone, you would’ve... Would you rather I hadn’t done it?”
“That’s not the point! You don’t get to make that call. You don’t get to throw yourself in front of a bullet for me. Not you,” he interrupted, sharp enough to make your chest tighten. “You could’ve bloody died, love. You got shot. Because of me.”
Soap whistled low from where he lounged by the hearth. “Easy, Cap. The lass willingly saved your skin.”
“Stay out of this, MacTavish. Every one of you, stay the fuck out of this. This is between me and her, and that's an order!” Price barked, though his voice wavered on the edge of something more than anger.
“C’mon,” Gaz muttered, giving you a sympathetic pat before rising to his feet. “She did what any of us would’ve done. What you have done for us several times, Captain.”
Ghost’s voice rumbled from the shadows. “Difference is, Captain doesn’t like the idea of anyone else taking a bullet for him.” His masked gaze flicked your way. “Especially not her.”
The silence that followed was deafening. Soap smirked knowingly, Gaz folded his arms, and Price froze as if someone had just yanked the ground out from under him.
His eyes snapped to you again, hot, desperate, full of something he couldn’t hide now. His voice was quieter when it came, but it trembled with adrenaline. “Do you understand what you did? Do you understand that I can’t....” He stopped, dragged in a ragged breath, then slammed his hand onto the table hard enough to make Soap flinch.
You couldn’t fight him, not really, not with your shoulder burning and exhaustion dragging at your bones. But you could hold his gaze, steady and unflinching, and you did.
“I’d do it again, John. You know I will,” you whispered, because the truth was, you meant it.
His nostrils flared, his eyes squeezed shut like the words had cut deeper than any wound. When he opened them again, the fire was still there, but it wasn’t anger anymore. It was something rawer. Something that made your stomach twist in ways the battlefield never had.
The 141 exchanged looks, unspoken words crackling like static in the air. Soap muttered something about putting the kettle on, and Gaz herded him toward the corner. Ghost only stayed seated, watching like a man at the theatre, silent but unwilling to miss the show. And Price... Price looked at you as though you’d just pulled him back from the edge of a cliff, and he didn’t know how to thank you without shattering.
The safe house had gone still, save for the creak of the old beams. After some time, the others had peeled off one by one. Soap’s snoring rattled from one of the bedrooms that he shared with Gaz, whose shifting in his bedroll could occasionally be heard. Ghost was silent enough, you wondered if he ever truly slept.
But you, you couldn’t sleep.
Your shoulder throbbed beneath its bandage, a dull ache that matched the storm still rolling in your chest. Price’s voice, sharp, furious, too close to breaking, echoed in your ears no matter how tightly you closed your eyes.
So you slipped outside to the patio.
The air was cool and damp, carrying the earthy scent of rain-soaked ground. The night pressed close, black save for the pale silver of the moon. And there he was. Price leaned against the stone wall just beyond the door, broad shoulders hunched, a cigar glowing faintly between his fingers. The smoke curled up into the night, drifting with the mist. His hat, now dry, was tipped low, shielding his eyes, but you didn’t need to see them to know he’d heard you. He always did.
“You should be resting,” he muttered, voice low and gravelled, as though it belonged to the night itself.
“So should you,” you answered softly, stepping closer.
For a moment, there was only the crackle of the cigar’s ember. Then he exhaled, smoke trailing from his lips in a sigh heavy enough to bow his shoulders further. “You don’t make it easy, love.”
The word hung in the air, heavy, tender, unguarded. You saw the instant he realized he’d said it, the way his lips pressed together as if he could shove it back down. But the silence had already shifted; the battlefield had followed you home, and the war he was fighting now wasn’t out there. It was inside him.
Something in the way he just said that, rough, pained, almost defeated, made your throat tighten. “I wasn’t going to stand there and watch you die, John,” you whispered.
He turned to you, finally, and the sight of him stole the breath from your lungs. Lantern light from the doorway carved shadows into the lines of his face again, catching in the silver of his beard, the furrow of his brow. His eyes burned, still stormy, still edged with adrenaline, but beneath the fury was fear. Real, bone-deep fear.
“You don’t get it, sweetheart,” he said, pushing away from the wall, voice rising before he forced it down again. “I can’t have you throwing yourself in front of me like that. I can’t... Christ, I can’t lose you.”
Your chest ached. “You think I want to lose you? You think it wouldn’t gut me just the same?”
He froze, cigar forgotten, his hand clenching into a fist at his side. The night between you thickened, charged with everything unsaid.
“John I-…” you whispered, but he was already turning again, restless, tormented.
“I’ve lost too many,” he muttered, voice rougher now, thick with something you’d never heard from him before. “Men I’ve buried, soldiers I’ve had to write letters home for. I can handle that. Comes with the job. But you-” His voice cracked, and he stopped, staring at you like the ground had opened beneath his feet. “I can’t bury you. I can’t. I'm not losing you. Never.”
Your breath caught. He’d stepped closer without you realizing, his hands still curled into fists at his sides like he didn’t trust himself to touch you. His eyes were no longer the hardened blue of a commanding officer; they were raw, pleading, terrified.
“I understand that John, and you know that I don’t want to be just another soldier to bury for you,” you murmured, your voice trembling but sure.
“You’re not,” he said instantly, like the truth had been waiting all along. “Darling, you’re not. You’re the only thing that makes all this—” he gestured vaguely, helplessly, at the world outside “—bearable. You’re the only good thing I’ve got left.”
“You’re supposed to be the steady one, love,” he continued hoarsely, taking another step closer. “The one who keeps this bloody family together. You know Soap... he runs his mouth, Gaz takes on too much, Ghost- hell, Ghost would burn the world down if left unchecked. And you... you’re the only thing holding the pieces in place. You’re the heart of it.”
The pet names softened his tone, the fury ebbing away until there was only desperation. When his hand finally rose to touch you, calloused fingers brushing your cheek, feather-light as though afraid you’d vanish, it felt like a dam breaking.
He swallowed hard, voice cracking like it hadn’t on the battlefield in decades. “If I lose you… The rest of it falls apart. I fall apart.”
The words shattered something in you, and before you could stop yourself, you hissed back almost pleadingly, “Then stop treating me like I’m made of glass. Stop acting like I’m anything less than what you are to me.”
You leaned into him, into the scent of smoke and rain still clinging to his clothes, into the warmth of a man who’d built walls taller than anyone else’s and was finally letting you inside. His thumb traced along your jaw, lingering, and when you looked up into his eyes you saw the truth there, laid bare and unflinching.
The silence that followed was thick as smoke, hot as fire. His gaze dropped to your lips, lingered, then snapped back up.
And then he kissed you.
It wasn’t gentle, not at first. It was sharp, messy, born of anger and fear and the ache of almost losing everything. His hands framed your face, rough and trembling, pulling you closer as if to prove you were alive, here, his.
You clutched his coat, gasping into his mouth, matching the urgency because you felt it too. That desperate edge, that awful realization that love had grown out of the battlefield like a stubborn weed.
When the kiss finally broke, he pressed his forehead to yours, breaths ragged, voice breaking.
“Not losing you,” he whispered. “Not ever, sweetheart.” And for the first time that night, you believed him.
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