“What…?”

“Knife slipped.” Jason explained, “Was hoping you could place a couple of stitches, or just make it stop bleeding.”

“What were you doing?”

“Lost my screwdriver…”

“-you lost your screwdriver?” Trent repeated, “Want to tell me how that correlates with the bleeding cut on your hand?”

“Not really…”

“Let’s just pretend I won’t do anything about it unless you tell me…”

“-I might have used my knife instead of the screwdriver…”

“I knew it!” Trent sighed, “You do know most people realize that’s a bad idea, while they’re still kids…”

“I don’t need a lecture, I need stitches.”

“You need both.”

 Ray

Sonny looked back when Ray cussed behind him.

He found Ray sitting on the ground, clutching his ankle.

“You good there?”

“Twisted my ankle…” Ray frowned, rubbing at the joint.

“You think you can complete the run, or…?”

“If we were on an OP, I could’ve pushed on, no problems.” Ray shrugged, “But, give me a minute or two…”

Sonny nodded and stepped over in order to sit down on a nearby rock.

 Sonny

“The hell happened to you?” Metal frowned as Sonny walked in, “You walk into a door or something?”

Sonny grunted, but didn’t answer straight away.

“Okay, don’t answer…” Metal shrugged, “That’s alright…”

“He got suckerpunched at the strip bar last night…” Clay chuckled.

“You did not break the no-touchy rule?” Trent offered up.

“No.” Sonny scowled, “Some guy wanted my wallet. Got a punch in before I knew anything.”

 Trent

He cussed on the way down. He really thought he had it. He couldn’t remember the last time he had straight out failed an obstacle at the obstacle course.

He cussed even louder once he actually landed.

His left shoulder had made sickening sound. He wasn’t sure if it was an actual sound, or just one of those sounds he thought he heard, cause he could feel it inside his body.

His shoulder gave, and for a couple of seconds there was blissful numbness. Then the cramping pain took over and he rolled to his side.

“Whoa, that looked bad…” Sonny grimaced as he landed the way one was supposed to land, a few feet off to Trent’s side, “Did you hurt yourself?”

Trent nodded as he tried to ride out the initial wave of pain.

“Bad?”

“Think I dislocated my shoulder.” Trent bared his teeth, “Feels like it.”

“Alright… Alright…” Sonny nodded, “You need help back up?”

Trent shook his head as he slowly got up on his knees, supporting his left elbow, “I’ve got this.”

“-You probably want to go see some of the professionals to get that shoulder popped back in, since we’re not on a mission right now. Right?”

Trent nodded.

“You want company walking over there?”

“Sure…” Trent nodded.

 Brock

He figured it had to be one of the most embarrassing ways to end up limping as a tier-one operator.

It hadn’t been by going full throttle on a mission, it hadn’t been by sparring with Full Metal or Ray, it hadn’t been by faulty safety gear.

No, he came limping into work because he had gotten out of bed in a wrong way. And now he felt about 97 years old.

 Clay

He couldn’t remember what had happened when he woke up. He was coughing. It felt like he was puking water. Probably not too far from the truth.

“Hey…” Jason grinned down at him, “Thanks for coming back.”

“Wha-” his question was cut short by another violent coughing fit.

“You kinda drowned…” Sonny grimaced.

“-Just a little…” Ray clarified, “Like many did at the 50-meter underwater swim in BUDs…”

Clay coughed some more, “I hated that exercise.”

“Me too, Blondzilla.”

 Full Metal

“Oops.”

“Oops, what?” Trent directed his eyes at the guy he considered one of his best friends, he knew the man well enough to know that ‘oops’ was one of the worst things you could hear from him.

“Sliced my…” Full Metal paused a bit, “Not sure if I should say hand or arm… Sliced something open.”

Trent’s eyes found Metal’s bleeding hand-wrist-forearm, he wasn’t really sure which part of Metal’s arm was bleeding yet, but it was BLEEDING.

And out of all the stupid things Alpha-1 could do, he just stood there, looking at the blood dripping from his hand.

“PRESSURE!” Trent ordered as he wrapped Metal’s own hand around his wrist, “What happened?”

“I… I don’t know…” Metal shrugged a little, finally able to get his eyes away from his hand, “I really don’t know. I was… I was moving stuff around in the shelves in front of me, and then my wrist stung.”

Trent nodded a little, “I’m gonna go through my kit, find something that’ll stop the bleeding. You keep pressure on the wound until I’m ready.”

Metal nodded a little, visibly paler than usual.

“I feel a little sick.”

“Yeah?” Trent looked up from where he was opening up his kit, “Try to sit down, I don’t want you to pass out.”

“And dizzy.” Metal nodded a little and looked around for somewhere to sit.

“-And keep pressure on it.”

Metal nodded again.

“You still feel your fingers?”

“I think so…” Metal shrugged a little, “Man, that really made me nauseous.”

“The blood?” Trent asked as he found the right dressing and pulled it out of his bag. He had already pulled a tourniquet from his vest.

“No, before it started bleeding.” Metal shuddered, “I think it was pretty deep, looked that way.”

Trent frowned, “Alright, let’s sit you down right here. Then I won’t have to worry about you passing out. Then I’ll put a pressure bandage on.”

“The slick warm feeling isn’t helping…” Metal swallowed as best as he could. He had closed his eyes already, making sure he wouldn’t have to look at it anymore.

“I can’t remember you reacting like this to an injury before…” Trent frowned as he removed Metal’s glove and pushed his sleeve up get a proper view of the wound.

“Don’t tell anyone, alright…”

“Metal, that should be last on your list of priorities right now.” Trent almost scowled as he placed the tourniquet to stop the bleeding while he assessed the wound and placed a pressure bandage which would hopefully be enough to slow the bleeding on it’s own.”

“No-no-no-no…” Metal shook his head, “Not about me acting this way. -My high school sweetheart. She… I can’t stand those kinds of wounds.”

Trent felt his jaw nearly unhinge. He had known the man in front of him since what felt like forever. How did he not know that little piece of information already?

“Feel like I’m gonna puke…” Metal swallowed hard once more.

“Please don’t…” Trent grimaced a little, “But if you do… Aim the other way…”

Metal nodded a little.

“-And, if you need to talk about this… Or that other stuff… You can talk to me. Okay?”

“I know.” Metal nodded, eyes still closed hard, one single wet trail leading down one of his cheeks, “I just buried all those memories in that deep, pitch black place in the back of my mind. Hasn’t really thought about it the last twenty something years.”

Trent looked up from where his hands were working, “Okay. But you’ll let me know if you need anything?”

Metal nodded.

*    *    *

 “What happened here?” Ray asked as he entered the room Trent and Metal were in.

“He sliced himself up on something sharp over there…” Trent jerked his head in the direction of the blood pool where Metal had stood, “Felt a bit nauseous and dizzy.”

“Is it bad?”

“Bad placement, and pretty deep.” Trent nodded, then he indicated the floor with his elbow, “Bled a bit. Don’t move stuff over there in that shelf, we didn’t see what the sharp object was.”

“Copy that…” Ray nodded and grimaced at the scene, “You need any help?”

“No, think I’ve got it…” Trent shook his head, “But, you could see if you find one of those chocolate bars in my rucksack, and some water. Think he could use both.”

Metal nodded a little.