Paint the Snow with Crimson
Characters/Pairings: Tim Curran/Laura Reilly, Alicia Washington/Laura Reilly (very little), Tom Boylan
Rating: PG-13
Summary: It had been so cold, red staining the snow. He'd left her alone again and can't think to know who'd be calling him so late. She's there, blanket in hand; she wants to help, but first and foremost she hold Laura close and warms her up.
A/N: Fills for Reilly/Curran--Again from bellakitse and Reilly/Wash--Cold & Blanket from goblin_dae
for the Friday One Word Challenge - Week 5
There is character back-story here for Reilly that I find significant to my use of her character.
White, out of focus, cold; it’s where she finds herself each time, doesn’t know how she gets there, just knows she’s in the same place. Then there’s colour; red, orange, yellow, blue. Cold. The colours don’t match, red is hot. Why am I so cold? White, red on white. Blood stained snow. No, no, no, no...! Snow isn’t supposed to be red! Aching, sharp. A flash to her left and she’s down; ears ringing, heart pounding, more pain. Red snow. A pained gasp when she sees the body next to her.
She steels away her emotions as the air and wind bite at her cheeks and eyes that have begun to fill with tears. She stands and runs. Ducking behind a snow bank she tries to orient herself. Another blast of hot colour against the white. The white blinds her, her bare skin stings in the cold. This is a middle-of-nowhere base, blending in near perfectly to the rest of the goddamned snow around them. There was already a serious lacking of the cold substance and now it’s trying to be blasted away by an enemy they hadn’t seen coming. She sits up on her haunches grabs her rifle and peers over a low rise in the snow bank. She’s next to one of the garages as well, so she has cover. She sees the enemy forces easily; poorly camouflaged in their black and red uniforms.
They’re firing blindly; the base is so well hidden they don’t know what they’re hitting, they only know that they’re hitting something. She lines up several good shots stopping enemy soldiers dead before vacating her hiding spot. Her side throbs painfully but she doesn’t stop. She needs to get to HQ, knows that someone will tell her what their plan is once she does. She rounds a corner and scowls as she speeds up. The icy corridor is her fastest way in and she readies herself for the slide. Her peripheral vision is blurry as her boots slide over the ice, her eyes tear, and she almost feels relieved.
At the last second a black clad soldier rounds the corner a good distance away but he spots her. He shouts something in a language she doesn’t know and she turns on her heels and runs. One, two, three shots fired. She takes two and goes down with a scream she can’t stifle. She falls tumbling through the snow until she’s face to face with more discoloured snow that could be hers or could be whoever is lying behind her.
She’s facing the way her attacker had been, but he’s down, painting the snow with his brain matter. Captain Randal Cliff is running towards her. He slides down next to her, pulling out his communicator and shouting for a medic to get to his location immediately “Our bomb girl is down. Double time. Get Boylan here too.” There’s a touch of fondness to his tone a he turns her onto her back. She can’t hide the tears streaming down her face now. Her left hip and stomach are on fire; a drastic and near violent contrast to the mind numbing cold all around her. Her vision is going white around the edges and the Captain is telling her how Boylan will kill him twice if she doesn’t make it, that they need her around here. Stay awake, stay awake. She thinks she’s passing out when a dark shadow crosses her vision, she forces her eyes open further, and only manages to scream when it’s her Captain’s blood painting the snow around her and on her. She sobbing, with pain and fear, as she stares down the head of a gun.
A series of shots has her gasping, yelping at the pain it causes her. Suddenly Lieutenant Boylan is picking her up and running. She’s so cold she can’t form words. He keeps tapping her cheek to keep her awake but he doesn’t need to, the bone crippling cold is doing that so well she’s reduced to convulsive shivering.
“We’re almost there, Reilly, hold on girl.” His voice is comforting through the pain. Another flash of pain has her flying through the air, her rescuer gone. She hits a wall, and doesn’t realize it until the snow from the roof falls over her that she’s the one screaming.
It’s what inevitably wakes her up.
Laura-however well trained or stoic-bursts into tears, choking and breathing hard as she attempts to regain her composure. He’s not here. He said he’d stay this time. He lied again. She throws her legs over the side of his bed and tries to steady her breathing. She fails only to fall into another bout of sobs as her most traumatic dream of late flashes images through her thoughts. He’d been so consistent; he’d stayed in bed with her for almost two weeks, held her for almost two weeks. But he’s disappeared to his card game at Boylan’s again. Her chest hurts more when she thinks the closest thing she has to a dad anymore is running the games that have her...her boyfriend leaving her in the middle of the night after he’s sure she’s asleep. He’d promised. She puts a hand over her chest, hears her heart beating in her ears and notices she’s hyperventilating. She reaches for her communicator on the bedside table, grabs it, but leans over to far and ends up on the floor. She barely manages to punch in Tim’s code through the tears marring her vision hears the tones, and curls into a ball with her forehead against the floor.
”Connection Denied.” She very nearly wails when the robotic voice speaks and tries again. She’s full out panicking, knows she shouldn’t be, which only serves to make her breathing more erratic. Finally after two more failed attempts he picks up.
“I’m very busy at the moment. This will have to wait.” The sound of the communicator disconnecting has her feeling trapped, the walls coming in closer, her head spinning, vision blurring.
“Laura! Laura! Wake up!” She snaps into reality with a scream, breaking into sobs anew when she realizes where she is and who she’s with. Warm arms wrap around her shoulders and she very nearly clings back burying her face into their shoulder.
“Shh, it was just a dream.” Alicia Washington’s soothing voice has her melting into the embrace but the tears don’t stop falling.
“I fell asleep-I was waiting for you-I thought I could stay awake so I didn’t take the blanket.” As she says it Alicia reaches up and wraps a blanket around Laura’s shoulders and eases back to look at Laura, keeping a hand on her cheek.
“I ran late. Laura, it’s getting worse.” Alicia lets Laura lean into her chest, fitting her head into the crook of her neck.
“I know, but it hasn’t happened in so long.” She takes Alicia’s hand and holds it tight.
“Because you’ve waited for me to come in before going to sleep, you’re centering your sleeping time on mine. It’s not that getting to fall asleep with you isn’t wholly satiating-because it is, I’ve been living on too little sleep since I was five, I can function, but you need sleep.” She presses a kiss to Laura’s temple and rests her chin on Laura’s head.
“It’s some kind of post traumatic stress isn’t it?” Laura asks, and feels Alicia nod.
“It’s likely. You hadn’t seen a lot of action, you weren’t in the thick of things, Somalia had just died out...” She sighs rubbing her hand over Laura’s arm comfortingly.
“I wasn’t an infantry soldier, I was an ammunitions tech who specialized in explosives and had a knack for sharp shooting. It’d been my second deployment, the first had been in North Korea, cold but not as bad as Alaska, saw enough action, but not as much as we heard about happening in Somalia-where you’d been, when Commander Taylor lost his wife and you got shot. Alaska softened us, froze us solid. No one expected to be attacked, they got us during a windstorm that knocked our power out...I’ve favoured heat stroke over any kind of cold for eight years. Only thing that stops the dreams and flash backs are burying myself in blankets or a body next to mine.” She ends up rambling only to have her sentence peter out when she finally relaxes. Alicia shifts, and stands helping Laura off the floor and then getting into bed. It doesn’t take them long to get comfortable; Alicia’s arm drapes over Laura’s waist and holds her close against her body; legs tangle.
“I want to be able to sleep.” Laura mumbles, warm and drifting off quickly. Alicia kisses Laura’s neck.
“We’ll get there. We can talk to the Doctor.”
“Thank you.” Laura says eyes closing. Alicia hums sleepily in response.
“For putting up with me.” Laura clarifies.
“You love me at my worst and best. I love you at yours. I’m not going anywhere.” With that they fall asleep. Warmth allows for the cold not to haunt her, keeps the red stained snow from purging her mind. She just drifts, she’ll feel guilty for needing Alicia’s warmth in the morning (always does), and Alicia will kiss her and tell her that it’s only right for them to share a bed, and that they’ll find a way to help her. They’ll tumble in the sheets and then in the shower, making themselves rush to get to their respective duties. They’ll be happy. She’s exhausted from the dreams, sleeps deeply, but doesn’t miss it when Alicia sleepily adjusts the blankets over her, showing more than words can express in such a simple gesture.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: It had been so cold, red staining the snow. He'd left her alone again and can't think to know who'd be calling him so late. She's there, blanket in hand; she wants to help, but first and foremost she hold Laura close and warms her up.
A/N: Fills for Reilly/Curran--Again from bellakitse and Reilly/Wash--Cold & Blanket from goblin_dae
for the Friday One Word Challenge - Week 5
There is character back-story here for Reilly that I find significant to my use of her character.
White, out of focus, cold; it’s where she finds herself each time, doesn’t know how she gets there, just knows she’s in the same place. Then there’s colour; red, orange, yellow, blue. Cold. The colours don’t match, red is hot. Why am I so cold? White, red on white. Blood stained snow. No, no, no, no...! Snow isn’t supposed to be red! Aching, sharp. A flash to her left and she’s down; ears ringing, heart pounding, more pain. Red snow. A pained gasp when she sees the body next to her.
She steels away her emotions as the air and wind bite at her cheeks and eyes that have begun to fill with tears. She stands and runs. Ducking behind a snow bank she tries to orient herself. Another blast of hot colour against the white. The white blinds her, her bare skin stings in the cold. This is a middle-of-nowhere base, blending in near perfectly to the rest of the goddamned snow around them. There was already a serious lacking of the cold substance and now it’s trying to be blasted away by an enemy they hadn’t seen coming. She sits up on her haunches grabs her rifle and peers over a low rise in the snow bank. She’s next to one of the garages as well, so she has cover. She sees the enemy forces easily; poorly camouflaged in their black and red uniforms.
They’re firing blindly; the base is so well hidden they don’t know what they’re hitting, they only know that they’re hitting something. She lines up several good shots stopping enemy soldiers dead before vacating her hiding spot. Her side throbs painfully but she doesn’t stop. She needs to get to HQ, knows that someone will tell her what their plan is once she does. She rounds a corner and scowls as she speeds up. The icy corridor is her fastest way in and she readies herself for the slide. Her peripheral vision is blurry as her boots slide over the ice, her eyes tear, and she almost feels relieved.
At the last second a black clad soldier rounds the corner a good distance away but he spots her. He shouts something in a language she doesn’t know and she turns on her heels and runs. One, two, three shots fired. She takes two and goes down with a scream she can’t stifle. She falls tumbling through the snow until she’s face to face with more discoloured snow that could be hers or could be whoever is lying behind her.
She’s facing the way her attacker had been, but he’s down, painting the snow with his brain matter. Captain Randal Cliff is running towards her. He slides down next to her, pulling out his communicator and shouting for a medic to get to his location immediately “Our bomb girl is down. Double time. Get Boylan here too.” There’s a touch of fondness to his tone a he turns her onto her back. She can’t hide the tears streaming down her face now. Her left hip and stomach are on fire; a drastic and near violent contrast to the mind numbing cold all around her. Her vision is going white around the edges and the Captain is telling her how Boylan will kill him twice if she doesn’t make it, that they need her around here. Stay awake, stay awake. She thinks she’s passing out when a dark shadow crosses her vision, she forces her eyes open further, and only manages to scream when it’s her Captain’s blood painting the snow around her and on her. She sobbing, with pain and fear, as she stares down the head of a gun.
A series of shots has her gasping, yelping at the pain it causes her. Suddenly Lieutenant Boylan is picking her up and running. She’s so cold she can’t form words. He keeps tapping her cheek to keep her awake but he doesn’t need to, the bone crippling cold is doing that so well she’s reduced to convulsive shivering.
“We’re almost there, Reilly, hold on girl.” His voice is comforting through the pain. Another flash of pain has her flying through the air, her rescuer gone. She hits a wall, and doesn’t realize it until the snow from the roof falls over her that she’s the one screaming.
It’s what inevitably wakes her up.
Laura-however well trained or stoic-bursts into tears, choking and breathing hard as she attempts to regain her composure. He’s not here. He said he’d stay this time. He lied again. She throws her legs over the side of his bed and tries to steady her breathing. She fails only to fall into another bout of sobs as her most traumatic dream of late flashes images through her thoughts. He’d been so consistent; he’d stayed in bed with her for almost two weeks, held her for almost two weeks. But he’s disappeared to his card game at Boylan’s again. Her chest hurts more when she thinks the closest thing she has to a dad anymore is running the games that have her...her boyfriend leaving her in the middle of the night after he’s sure she’s asleep. He’d promised. She puts a hand over her chest, hears her heart beating in her ears and notices she’s hyperventilating. She reaches for her communicator on the bedside table, grabs it, but leans over to far and ends up on the floor. She barely manages to punch in Tim’s code through the tears marring her vision hears the tones, and curls into a ball with her forehead against the floor.
”Connection Denied.” She very nearly wails when the robotic voice speaks and tries again. She’s full out panicking, knows she shouldn’t be, which only serves to make her breathing more erratic. Finally after two more failed attempts he picks up.
“I’m very busy at the moment. This will have to wait.” The sound of the communicator disconnecting has her feeling trapped, the walls coming in closer, her head spinning, vision blurring.
“Laura! Laura! Wake up!” She snaps into reality with a scream, breaking into sobs anew when she realizes where she is and who she’s with. Warm arms wrap around her shoulders and she very nearly clings back burying her face into their shoulder.
“Shh, it was just a dream.” Alicia Washington’s soothing voice has her melting into the embrace but the tears don’t stop falling.
“I fell asleep-I was waiting for you-I thought I could stay awake so I didn’t take the blanket.” As she says it Alicia reaches up and wraps a blanket around Laura’s shoulders and eases back to look at Laura, keeping a hand on her cheek.
“I ran late. Laura, it’s getting worse.” Alicia lets Laura lean into her chest, fitting her head into the crook of her neck.
“I know, but it hasn’t happened in so long.” She takes Alicia’s hand and holds it tight.
“Because you’ve waited for me to come in before going to sleep, you’re centering your sleeping time on mine. It’s not that getting to fall asleep with you isn’t wholly satiating-because it is, I’ve been living on too little sleep since I was five, I can function, but you need sleep.” She presses a kiss to Laura’s temple and rests her chin on Laura’s head.
“It’s some kind of post traumatic stress isn’t it?” Laura asks, and feels Alicia nod.
“It’s likely. You hadn’t seen a lot of action, you weren’t in the thick of things, Somalia had just died out...” She sighs rubbing her hand over Laura’s arm comfortingly.
“I wasn’t an infantry soldier, I was an ammunitions tech who specialized in explosives and had a knack for sharp shooting. It’d been my second deployment, the first had been in North Korea, cold but not as bad as Alaska, saw enough action, but not as much as we heard about happening in Somalia-where you’d been, when Commander Taylor lost his wife and you got shot. Alaska softened us, froze us solid. No one expected to be attacked, they got us during a windstorm that knocked our power out...I’ve favoured heat stroke over any kind of cold for eight years. Only thing that stops the dreams and flash backs are burying myself in blankets or a body next to mine.” She ends up rambling only to have her sentence peter out when she finally relaxes. Alicia shifts, and stands helping Laura off the floor and then getting into bed. It doesn’t take them long to get comfortable; Alicia’s arm drapes over Laura’s waist and holds her close against her body; legs tangle.
“I want to be able to sleep.” Laura mumbles, warm and drifting off quickly. Alicia kisses Laura’s neck.
“We’ll get there. We can talk to the Doctor.”
“Thank you.” Laura says eyes closing. Alicia hums sleepily in response.
“For putting up with me.” Laura clarifies.
“You love me at my worst and best. I love you at yours. I’m not going anywhere.” With that they fall asleep. Warmth allows for the cold not to haunt her, keeps the red stained snow from purging her mind. She just drifts, she’ll feel guilty for needing Alicia’s warmth in the morning (always does), and Alicia will kiss her and tell her that it’s only right for them to share a bed, and that they’ll find a way to help her. They’ll tumble in the sheets and then in the shower, making themselves rush to get to their respective duties. They’ll be happy. She’s exhausted from the dreams, sleeps deeply, but doesn’t miss it when Alicia sleepily adjusts the blankets over her, showing more than words can express in such a simple gesture.