[Fanfic] Recreating Camelot (5/?)
Title: Recreating Camelot - Chapter 4
Rating: T
Pairing: Eventually Couger/Jensen, Pooch/Jolene, and some Roque/Clay and Clay/Aisha.
Warnings: Seriously AU. Discrimination. Violence.PTSD and past trauma. Swearing. Will contain slash and het. More may be added with later chapters or if readers feel them necessary.
Summery: When Clay first met Corporal Jensen he knew the kid would eventually be granted a place in his small pack and would flourish there. What he hadn't known was that the kid would start a revolution and drag the rest of them along for the ride.
Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me, I am merely borrowing them for entertainment purposes. They belong to Andy Diggle and Jock.
A/N: I'm sorry this took so long to get up. This chapter was rewritten three or four times. The really annoying thing is that I have most of the next chapter down already, have done for a while.
Prologue
Jensen wasn’t used to being lonely. He had been alone a lot in his life, especially before his parents had allowed his sister to see him on a semi regular basis. He still had piercingly clear memories of being locked in his room with nothing but annoyance and revulsion emanating from his parents, knowing that downstairs his sister was sat at the kitchen table eating her dinner wanting to meet him. So yes, Jensen was used to being alone. When he had joined the army and in the years that followed he had always been too busy to be able to acknowledge how much he was missing his sister and niece’s company, even when no one else would speak to him and his was reduced to talking to himself. He still hadn’t been able to shake the habit.
Somehow, this was worse. He was alone in a hospital room on forced bed rest until he was deemed fit enough to return to the house to complete his recovery. Visiting hours had ended about half an hour before and had his team had only left reluctantly when the nurse had stood at the door with a glare that made Roque hunch his shoulders and shuffle out of the room. Now Jensen was left alone and for the first time in his life he actually felt lonely with nothing to distract him.
The walls were some kind of sickly pale green that hospitals always seem to think helps their patients recover. There was no TV or radio and he’s not allowed access to his laptop, or even a book; he has too many broken and fractured bones in his right arm to be left to his own devices on that one. The stomach and leg wounds also preclude getting out of bed, let alone walking to somewhere more interesting. He doesn’t even have a window to stare longingly out off in the place of something intellectually stimulating to look at.
His team weare on the far side of base. He still thought of them as team. The idea of pack hasn’t entirely sunken in yet but he thought Clay and the others would cut him some slack for that, he had been going into shock after suffering a significant amount of blood loss when the subject had arisen after all.
_-~^~-_
“You better not be thinking of dying on us, Jensen.”
He hadn't recognised it as Clay’s voice at first, but he was just aware enough to know that the waves of concern that flow around him were for him. It took him a little by surprise until he was able to recognize their originators despite how cloudy his senses were becoming. His team. His team were really there.
“Wouldn’t dream of it, sir,” Jensen couldn’t help the way his words slurred even though he tried to speak slowly and clearly. “I’ve only just finished turning you into a proper CO.”
He realised that attempting to laugh was a bad idea when white hot pain shot through him, making him gasp and his vision blur. And Clay didn’t cuff him round the back of the head as he had done in the past when Jensen was hurt but still attempting to act as though he wasn’t.
“Stay still,” Cougar ordered as he knelt down beside Jensen, who must have lost consciousness for a while because the next thing he was aware of was being jostled about in the back of a van with Cougar and Pooch on either side of him.
“You came back,” Jensen wasn’t sure why that realisation was only just occurring, but the words seemed to be on repeat in his head. “You came back.” All his knew was that he had expected it to be like the last time, even then after knowing the Losers for a couple of months and knowing how they felt about leaving one of their own in harm’s way.
Cougar was checking his bandages, saying something to Pooch that sounded suitably medical and complicated, or maybe it was Spanish, Jensen wasn't entirely sure. It was hard to tell over the sound of the engine and through the haze of pain. He knew he was still saying “you came back” over and over again, and his mind was fogged and instead of being able to understand the emotions that were buffeting him he could only see washes of colour. Red felt like anger from Pooch and Clay, but for Cougar and Roque, Jensen was sure it was blue, blurring into purple from Cougar whenever he hisses in pain. He wondered what that particular shade of green means, like the colour of fresh grass, and why he’s even seeing the colours at all but it was getting harder to keep hold of his thoughts and eventually he just lets it all go.
“Of course we came back. You’re pack.” Clay had climbed between the front seats; Jensen was not sure why.
“I’m pack?” Jensen turned his head back and forth from Pooch to Cougar looking for confirmation.
“Sí.”
Jensen would claim for forever more that it was the manly pain-faint rather than the much less masculine you-really-like-me-faint that Pooch would claim it to be. He’ll certainly play the ‘I was injured’ card to the fullest when the time comes, because this is the Losers and the time always comes.
_-~^~-_
The hospital food seemeds to get worse each time he had to hang around long enough to taste it. It made him glad that he has been sent a whole stack of parcels crammed full of various kinds of baked good. The mini lemon curd tarts from his sister and niece weare particularly well appreciated. It turned out that Nurse Ratchet, or whatever her name really is, iwa allergic to all things citrus and Jensen took great joy in humming happily as he ate them as she glared at him through the window in the door, unable to enter for fear of asphyxiation. He’ll have to buy his sister that laptop and Sophie mentioned something about wanting a bike last time they’d talked on the phone. And hugs. They would both get bone crushing hugs the next time he saw them. He wasn’t sure what to get Jolene and Jas for their contributions; he only knew them through Pooch’s stories and even that was enough to know that they wouldn’t appreciate something generic that required no consideration of who the gift was for. He’d ask Pooch later for some suggestions.
It passed the time between when they change his dressings and when his team, his pack arrives anyway. He would never get tired of being able to think that. Pack was a shifter thing. The mages and psyons had clans. Occasionally the two would overlap, like with the Losers. Changelings didn’t have packs or clans, were only rarely accepted into those that already existed. Jensen and Sophie had a family that included his sister, and now Jensen had a pack. He wanted it to include Sophie but wasn’t sure how to bring it up with Clay and the others. He knew that they had accepted Jolene and Jas, with Jolene being human, because they were all that was left of Pooch’s clan. If the Losers could accept one Changeling, an occurrence significantly rarer than allowing entry to an affiliated human, then Jensen would let himself hope.
Jensen looked at the clock. It was almost midday which meant visiting hours would start in just over ten minutes. Jensen couldn’t help but wonder if the staff in the hospital had put the clock in the utterly featureless room on purpose to annoy the patients who used it, or if it was one of those orders that came down from on high, that stated that every room would have a clock no matter how inappropriate it would be with bureaucrats making a yearly round to make sure they stayed there.
He was in the middle of a mental debate with himself over whether or not base sixty was the most suitable system for chronicling the passage of time when the door opened and Jensen was hit with a wave of happiness a nanosecond before he heard Pooch laughing.
“Hey man. We come bearing gifts!” Pooch’s grin was infectious and Jensen ignores the way his bruises twinge to return it.
“Our resident food critic gave them five stars.” Clay nods his head in Cougar’s direction and the other man gave a mock bow complete with hand flourishes.
“He’s willing to stake his reputation on that?” Jensen asked Clay while looking at Cougar.
“And The Hat.” Clay confirmed as Cougar gave a faint twitch that Jensen only saw because he was looking at the other man.
“High stakes indeed,” Jensen said as he took the bag from Pooch and looked inside. The bag was filled almost to the brim with cookies, cakes and lots of chocolate. A veritable hoard of goodies.
“The chocolate is Coug’s secret recipe.” Pooch told him. “It only appears on special occasions.”
“Special occasions, huh?” Jensen was about to take a random chocolate from the box when Roque entered the room in a waft of irritation. “Have a chocolate.” Jensen was careful with Roque in this frame of mind to make sure that what he said doesn’t sound like he’s giving orders because under the irritation is an anger that rose as Roque stewed on whatever was bothering him.
Roque stared at him for a long moment and Jensen was careful not to meet his eyes; Roque’s wolf was too close to the surface right now for that to be safe. Jensen held his breath as he extended the box of chocolate with his left hand, doing his best to ignore the way that even his good arm shook.
Roque looked at Jensen for a little longer before exhaling in a sharp huff and taking one. Jensen grined and Roque glared and what tension had accumulated dissipated.
Jenson was quick to return his arm to where it was supported by pillows and the mattress; a fact he knew the others took note of. He picked his own chocolate and popped it in his mouth.
“So, what do you think?”
It was only when Jensen realised that he can hear but not see Pooch’s grin that he noticed that he’d fallen back on his pillows and closed his eyes.
“Cougar can keep The Hat. What was that?”
That seemed to make everyone laugh.
“Chilli.”
“Seriously? Because now that you’ve said that, it’s kinda obvious. Chilli. I’ll have to remember that. Anyone else want some?” Jensen pushed the bag down the bed.
Jensen laid back and listened to the easy chatter for the next five minutes until a nurse arrived with his lunch, making the bag of goodies suddenly disappear and Jensen had to make a show of eating it all before the nurse took the tray and left.
“What’s the special occasion?” Jensen asked once the man had left.
“Jensen!” Roque growled and Jensen is left with the realisation that he can tell one of Roque’s ‘you are annoying and I want to kill you but won’t’ growls from one of his ‘you don’t stand a chance’ growls.
“It’s always the geniuses who are complete morons,” Pooch said with a laugh.
“Do you think that every tech that passes through our team becomes a part of the pack, Jensen?” Clay sounded almost exasperated, but Jensen thought there might be a little fondness beneath it.
“So that’s the special occasion? Me being part of the pack?”
“What else would it be, Jensen?”
Jensen didn’t know what to say to that so he just grined widely.
“I’ve also arranged for leave once you’re out of here.”
This seemed to be news to the others, as well and Jensen was left wondering whether he should ask his next question or not.
“Would you... That is if you have time and want to...” Jensen hates it when he can’t come up with the right words for what should be easy sentences. “Doyouwanttomeetmysisterandmyniece?”
There was a moments silence when Jensen knew that they were trying to translate what he had just said into comprehensible English.
“Would you mind repeating that, Jensen? I didn’t quite catch that.” Clay asked, and Jensen had a moment to realise that he hadn’t really thought this through all too well.
“Would you, when I’m out of this hole, like to come with me to see my sister and my niece?” Jensen looked around, glancing from face to face and wondering if he’d overstepped any boundaries. “You don’t have to. But if you did, Jolene could come too if she has time - the house is big enough.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me.” Clay answered first, and Jensen could feel as well as hear the man’s amusement.
Roque and Cougar nod, and Jensen was sure that he saw a Cougar give a flicker of a smile before he was back to his usual poker face.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Pooch said after a moment’s consideration. “Maybe you’ll be able to thank the girls in person,” he added, waving in the vague direction of the remainder of his earlier stack of presents.
_-~^~-_
There were a series of complications in Jensen’s recovery - Clay was still looking to make heads role over that - but a couple of months later the Losers were standing in front of a brick built building that was large and looked impressive as they drove up the driveway to the front door.
Jas had fallen silent when they reached the iron gates and Jolene was sat in the passenger seat lost for words.
As they drew to a stop, the front door opened and a tall blond man jogged down the steps to meet them, his limp no longer noticeable from a distance.
“Guys! You made it!” Jensen threw his arms around Pooch who was closest with a delighted laugh and held on tight for a couple of seconds before letting go and stepping back.
“Not what you were expecting?” Jensen flashed him an apologetic smile. “Maybe I should have warned you, but it didn’t really cross my mind. And you must be Jolene and Jasmine, those who make the best cookies in the world.”
Jensen didn’t stop talking as he hugged Cougar and got a face full of hat. He didn’t even attempt it with Clay or Roque, just grinned and gave a wave.
“You wanna come inside? There’s food and drink and TV.”
“Jensen, just shut up and show us where to put our stuff.” Roque interrupted. “Maybe throw in a map while you’re at it. I don’t like you enough to end up dead because I got lost looking for the bathroom in the middle of the night.”
“Oh, right... Erm, this way,” Jensen made some vague hand gestures before turning and going back up the steps. Those left behind shared a look before following the blond into the house.
Chapter 5
Rating: T
Pairing: Eventually Couger/Jensen, Pooch/Jolene, and some Roque/Clay and Clay/Aisha.
Warnings: Seriously AU. Discrimination. Violence.PTSD and past trauma. Swearing. Will contain slash and het. More may be added with later chapters or if readers feel them necessary.
Summery: When Clay first met Corporal Jensen he knew the kid would eventually be granted a place in his small pack and would flourish there. What he hadn't known was that the kid would start a revolution and drag the rest of them along for the ride.
Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me, I am merely borrowing them for entertainment purposes. They belong to Andy Diggle and Jock.
A/N: I'm sorry this took so long to get up. This chapter was rewritten three or four times. The really annoying thing is that I have most of the next chapter down already, have done for a while.
Prologue
Jensen wasn’t used to being lonely. He had been alone a lot in his life, especially before his parents had allowed his sister to see him on a semi regular basis. He still had piercingly clear memories of being locked in his room with nothing but annoyance and revulsion emanating from his parents, knowing that downstairs his sister was sat at the kitchen table eating her dinner wanting to meet him. So yes, Jensen was used to being alone. When he had joined the army and in the years that followed he had always been too busy to be able to acknowledge how much he was missing his sister and niece’s company, even when no one else would speak to him and his was reduced to talking to himself. He still hadn’t been able to shake the habit.
Somehow, this was worse. He was alone in a hospital room on forced bed rest until he was deemed fit enough to return to the house to complete his recovery. Visiting hours had ended about half an hour before and had his team had only left reluctantly when the nurse had stood at the door with a glare that made Roque hunch his shoulders and shuffle out of the room. Now Jensen was left alone and for the first time in his life he actually felt lonely with nothing to distract him.
The walls were some kind of sickly pale green that hospitals always seem to think helps their patients recover. There was no TV or radio and he’s not allowed access to his laptop, or even a book; he has too many broken and fractured bones in his right arm to be left to his own devices on that one. The stomach and leg wounds also preclude getting out of bed, let alone walking to somewhere more interesting. He doesn’t even have a window to stare longingly out off in the place of something intellectually stimulating to look at.
His team weare on the far side of base. He still thought of them as team. The idea of pack hasn’t entirely sunken in yet but he thought Clay and the others would cut him some slack for that, he had been going into shock after suffering a significant amount of blood loss when the subject had arisen after all.
_-~^~-_
“You better not be thinking of dying on us, Jensen.”
He hadn't recognised it as Clay’s voice at first, but he was just aware enough to know that the waves of concern that flow around him were for him. It took him a little by surprise until he was able to recognize their originators despite how cloudy his senses were becoming. His team. His team were really there.
“Wouldn’t dream of it, sir,” Jensen couldn’t help the way his words slurred even though he tried to speak slowly and clearly. “I’ve only just finished turning you into a proper CO.”
He realised that attempting to laugh was a bad idea when white hot pain shot through him, making him gasp and his vision blur. And Clay didn’t cuff him round the back of the head as he had done in the past when Jensen was hurt but still attempting to act as though he wasn’t.
“Stay still,” Cougar ordered as he knelt down beside Jensen, who must have lost consciousness for a while because the next thing he was aware of was being jostled about in the back of a van with Cougar and Pooch on either side of him.
“You came back,” Jensen wasn’t sure why that realisation was only just occurring, but the words seemed to be on repeat in his head. “You came back.” All his knew was that he had expected it to be like the last time, even then after knowing the Losers for a couple of months and knowing how they felt about leaving one of their own in harm’s way.
Cougar was checking his bandages, saying something to Pooch that sounded suitably medical and complicated, or maybe it was Spanish, Jensen wasn't entirely sure. It was hard to tell over the sound of the engine and through the haze of pain. He knew he was still saying “you came back” over and over again, and his mind was fogged and instead of being able to understand the emotions that were buffeting him he could only see washes of colour. Red felt like anger from Pooch and Clay, but for Cougar and Roque, Jensen was sure it was blue, blurring into purple from Cougar whenever he hisses in pain. He wondered what that particular shade of green means, like the colour of fresh grass, and why he’s even seeing the colours at all but it was getting harder to keep hold of his thoughts and eventually he just lets it all go.
“Of course we came back. You’re pack.” Clay had climbed between the front seats; Jensen was not sure why.
“I’m pack?” Jensen turned his head back and forth from Pooch to Cougar looking for confirmation.
“Sí.”
Jensen would claim for forever more that it was the manly pain-faint rather than the much less masculine you-really-like-me-faint that Pooch would claim it to be. He’ll certainly play the ‘I was injured’ card to the fullest when the time comes, because this is the Losers and the time always comes.
_-~^~-_
The hospital food seemeds to get worse each time he had to hang around long enough to taste it. It made him glad that he has been sent a whole stack of parcels crammed full of various kinds of baked good. The mini lemon curd tarts from his sister and niece weare particularly well appreciated. It turned out that Nurse Ratchet, or whatever her name really is, iwa allergic to all things citrus and Jensen took great joy in humming happily as he ate them as she glared at him through the window in the door, unable to enter for fear of asphyxiation. He’ll have to buy his sister that laptop and Sophie mentioned something about wanting a bike last time they’d talked on the phone. And hugs. They would both get bone crushing hugs the next time he saw them. He wasn’t sure what to get Jolene and Jas for their contributions; he only knew them through Pooch’s stories and even that was enough to know that they wouldn’t appreciate something generic that required no consideration of who the gift was for. He’d ask Pooch later for some suggestions.
It passed the time between when they change his dressings and when his team, his pack arrives anyway. He would never get tired of being able to think that. Pack was a shifter thing. The mages and psyons had clans. Occasionally the two would overlap, like with the Losers. Changelings didn’t have packs or clans, were only rarely accepted into those that already existed. Jensen and Sophie had a family that included his sister, and now Jensen had a pack. He wanted it to include Sophie but wasn’t sure how to bring it up with Clay and the others. He knew that they had accepted Jolene and Jas, with Jolene being human, because they were all that was left of Pooch’s clan. If the Losers could accept one Changeling, an occurrence significantly rarer than allowing entry to an affiliated human, then Jensen would let himself hope.
Jensen looked at the clock. It was almost midday which meant visiting hours would start in just over ten minutes. Jensen couldn’t help but wonder if the staff in the hospital had put the clock in the utterly featureless room on purpose to annoy the patients who used it, or if it was one of those orders that came down from on high, that stated that every room would have a clock no matter how inappropriate it would be with bureaucrats making a yearly round to make sure they stayed there.
He was in the middle of a mental debate with himself over whether or not base sixty was the most suitable system for chronicling the passage of time when the door opened and Jensen was hit with a wave of happiness a nanosecond before he heard Pooch laughing.
“Hey man. We come bearing gifts!” Pooch’s grin was infectious and Jensen ignores the way his bruises twinge to return it.
“Our resident food critic gave them five stars.” Clay nods his head in Cougar’s direction and the other man gave a mock bow complete with hand flourishes.
“He’s willing to stake his reputation on that?” Jensen asked Clay while looking at Cougar.
“And The Hat.” Clay confirmed as Cougar gave a faint twitch that Jensen only saw because he was looking at the other man.
“High stakes indeed,” Jensen said as he took the bag from Pooch and looked inside. The bag was filled almost to the brim with cookies, cakes and lots of chocolate. A veritable hoard of goodies.
“The chocolate is Coug’s secret recipe.” Pooch told him. “It only appears on special occasions.”
“Special occasions, huh?” Jensen was about to take a random chocolate from the box when Roque entered the room in a waft of irritation. “Have a chocolate.” Jensen was careful with Roque in this frame of mind to make sure that what he said doesn’t sound like he’s giving orders because under the irritation is an anger that rose as Roque stewed on whatever was bothering him.
Roque stared at him for a long moment and Jensen was careful not to meet his eyes; Roque’s wolf was too close to the surface right now for that to be safe. Jensen held his breath as he extended the box of chocolate with his left hand, doing his best to ignore the way that even his good arm shook.
Roque looked at Jensen for a little longer before exhaling in a sharp huff and taking one. Jensen grined and Roque glared and what tension had accumulated dissipated.
Jenson was quick to return his arm to where it was supported by pillows and the mattress; a fact he knew the others took note of. He picked his own chocolate and popped it in his mouth.
“So, what do you think?”
It was only when Jensen realised that he can hear but not see Pooch’s grin that he noticed that he’d fallen back on his pillows and closed his eyes.
“Cougar can keep The Hat. What was that?”
That seemed to make everyone laugh.
“Chilli.”
“Seriously? Because now that you’ve said that, it’s kinda obvious. Chilli. I’ll have to remember that. Anyone else want some?” Jensen pushed the bag down the bed.
Jensen laid back and listened to the easy chatter for the next five minutes until a nurse arrived with his lunch, making the bag of goodies suddenly disappear and Jensen had to make a show of eating it all before the nurse took the tray and left.
“What’s the special occasion?” Jensen asked once the man had left.
“Jensen!” Roque growled and Jensen is left with the realisation that he can tell one of Roque’s ‘you are annoying and I want to kill you but won’t’ growls from one of his ‘you don’t stand a chance’ growls.
“It’s always the geniuses who are complete morons,” Pooch said with a laugh.
“Do you think that every tech that passes through our team becomes a part of the pack, Jensen?” Clay sounded almost exasperated, but Jensen thought there might be a little fondness beneath it.
“So that’s the special occasion? Me being part of the pack?”
“What else would it be, Jensen?”
Jensen didn’t know what to say to that so he just grined widely.
“I’ve also arranged for leave once you’re out of here.”
This seemed to be news to the others, as well and Jensen was left wondering whether he should ask his next question or not.
“Would you... That is if you have time and want to...” Jensen hates it when he can’t come up with the right words for what should be easy sentences. “Doyouwanttomeetmysisterandmyniece?”
There was a moments silence when Jensen knew that they were trying to translate what he had just said into comprehensible English.
“Would you mind repeating that, Jensen? I didn’t quite catch that.” Clay asked, and Jensen had a moment to realise that he hadn’t really thought this through all too well.
“Would you, when I’m out of this hole, like to come with me to see my sister and my niece?” Jensen looked around, glancing from face to face and wondering if he’d overstepped any boundaries. “You don’t have to. But if you did, Jolene could come too if she has time - the house is big enough.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me.” Clay answered first, and Jensen could feel as well as hear the man’s amusement.
Roque and Cougar nod, and Jensen was sure that he saw a Cougar give a flicker of a smile before he was back to his usual poker face.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Pooch said after a moment’s consideration. “Maybe you’ll be able to thank the girls in person,” he added, waving in the vague direction of the remainder of his earlier stack of presents.
_-~^~-_
There were a series of complications in Jensen’s recovery - Clay was still looking to make heads role over that - but a couple of months later the Losers were standing in front of a brick built building that was large and looked impressive as they drove up the driveway to the front door.
Jas had fallen silent when they reached the iron gates and Jolene was sat in the passenger seat lost for words.
As they drew to a stop, the front door opened and a tall blond man jogged down the steps to meet them, his limp no longer noticeable from a distance.
“Guys! You made it!” Jensen threw his arms around Pooch who was closest with a delighted laugh and held on tight for a couple of seconds before letting go and stepping back.
“Not what you were expecting?” Jensen flashed him an apologetic smile. “Maybe I should have warned you, but it didn’t really cross my mind. And you must be Jolene and Jasmine, those who make the best cookies in the world.”
Jensen didn’t stop talking as he hugged Cougar and got a face full of hat. He didn’t even attempt it with Clay or Roque, just grinned and gave a wave.
“You wanna come inside? There’s food and drink and TV.”
“Jensen, just shut up and show us where to put our stuff.” Roque interrupted. “Maybe throw in a map while you’re at it. I don’t like you enough to end up dead because I got lost looking for the bathroom in the middle of the night.”
“Oh, right... Erm, this way,” Jensen made some vague hand gestures before turning and going back up the steps. Those left behind shared a look before following the blond into the house.
Chapter 5