ir vestido de gris 2/5
ir vestido de gris 2/5
Losers, comic!verse
pairings: somewhat cougar/jensen. (it's practically canon anywho)
warnings: slight comic!spoilers, mostly off screen violence/mass murder, misuse of mules, 'accidental' blue on blue, swearing (like a motherfucker) and a CareBear death match.
summary: Then Santa Maria happens and Clay doesn't think much about anything.
Beta'd by the lovely choasangel - though any remaining mistakes are very likely mine.
I
Then Santa Maria happens and Clay doesn't think much about anything.
They're too far away to do anything but listen to the distant gunfire and the occasional scream that gets picked up by the wind and brought to their position.
When the orders to stand down comes through the radio, Jensen had screamed profanities back until Clay had had to literally pull him off it.
The tech breathed, quick and hard gasps, shivering with adrenaline and something that might be rage. For a moment, Clay thinks Jensen's going to turn his wrath on Clay, but instead he just shakes his head,
"This ain't right, Colonel."
and wonders off to sink against a tree trunk, glaring silently at everything.
The rest of the team pretty much follow suit, silently trapped with their own thoughts and the soundtrack of far away (but not far enough) mass murder.
To make matters worse, they're ordered to rendezvous with the ParSec contingent later that week.
Pooch groaned in that long suffering way, the I-am-not-suprised-but-am-in-no-way-down-with-this-shit kind of way.
Roque pulled out his biggest knife and pretended that it needed sharpening.
Cougar checked the sights on his rifle with a jaw clenched so tight Clay expected to hear teeth cracking.
Jensen had done that weird thing he did sometimes - stopped talking and basically shut down - picked a spot in trees and stared at it. His nose wrinkled a little in disgust when Clay made the announcement but other that, he doesn't move.
Clay, well Clay is angry. He fucking hates being put in this postion, and he hates more than anything that he has to play nice with those fuckers.
And of course, it doesn't go well. The ParSec jerks are still fucking hopped up from slaughtering civilians, so when they get to the clearing and Jensen mutters to Pooch - "Hola assholes" - one of them opens fire.
There's a grunt of pain and then everyone is pointing their guns at everybody else.
Except for Cougar, who studies them through his scope for a millisecond and then lets the SR-25 drop back on her strap.
Hands free, he leaps at the guy with the itchy trigger finger.
Roque waits until he's broken the guy's jaw before pulling him off.
He stands shivering with rage, like he's about to throw himself at them again.
Clay places himself between the sniper and the targets. Cougar's eyes snap to Clay's, and okay, he's totally pissed and Clay really hopes that he hasn't royally screwed this up.
Cougar looks hard at the guy in lead of the ParSec lot. Clay hopes the he sleeps with a gun, because the sniper looks like he's marking him for later, and an angry, vindictive Cougar was off the fucking scales dangerous.
"Go check on Jensen." He orders, because goddamn it the kid's been making I'm-in-pain noises and Cougar hasn't even glanced in his direction.
Cougar looks away as if he's just realised the same thing, then takes one last long look at the ParSec guys and growls in disgust. He stalks over to where Pooch is trying to get Jensen to stay still long enough to deal with the hole in him. It isn't serious, a through and through, barely under the skin in the junction between his neck and shoulder.
Jensen's bitching in an extremely annoyed voice, one hand pressing over the holes. As the sniper approaches he tries to dodge Pooch's attempts to remove his hand and to congratulate Cougar on his fine hand to hand at the same time.
Blood is seeping between tightly gripped fingers and he grins in a twisted, bitter way. Clay always forgets how fucking sharp Jensen can be, but he gets a fast reminder when the tech opens his mouth and yells.
"Do I look like a fucking innocent woman or child to you?!"
Clay winces and just wants today to be over because nothing is going to make it all right.
Cougar slips off to the international airport pretty much as soon as they touch ground on base. Hat pulled low, duffle full of mostly dirty clothes slung over his shoulder.
Jensen watches his retreating back for a moment, then starts talking brightly about visiting his sister and his niece.
Especially his niece. She's starting kindergarten soon, and Jensen's going to teach her knife skills. Or maybe he should just start with plastic spork skills, Pooch suggests and Clay stops listening.
When Clay comes back, he's a little surprised that he's not alone in their barracks. From the look of all the energy drink cans and the way everyone on base gets wild eyed and silent at the mention of their barracks, Clay can't be sure how long Jensen's been cooped up inside, but he bet it's been a while.
He's got his laptop on his bunk, dark circles under his eyes, and Clay has to wonder how long the kid's been awake for.
Clay's not good at these talks. He's still trying to work out how to word it when he sits on the bunk next to Jensen's. It's usually Cougar's, but today it's covered in wires and electrical equipment.
Clay stares at the stuff, distracted, it's all starting to look very familiar.
"Is that our comms equipment?"
Jensen looks up innocently, and then looks just plain shifty.
"Uhh."
"Do we need to have another talk about the destruction of army hardware?"
"We don't have to. I don't think we do. I was just fixing it. Making improvements. More of an upgrade, really." He continues to babble on the defensive and Clay frowns at the mess.
"Where are the rest of them?" And he really hopes the answer is because i kept one intact.
"That's all of them. There's definitely none anywhere else."
Clay looks at him. Uses his I-see-through-your-bullshit look,
"Okay. But in my defense, I had to field test it. And Blane's team was doing some sort of pack animal exercise in the hills and. Well. It's on a mule."
"A mule?" Okay, yeah, Clay is going to add this conversation to the never-repeat list.
"I know where it is though! Or, well. I will, if. WHEN I find the right frequency."
"A mule?" Clay repeats it again because he's pretty sure something's got to make sense soon.
"Yeah, you can have a listen if you'd like." He holds up the headset like Clay really wants to listen to whatever noises mules might make. "I have no doubt that Charlie stuck it around the thing's neck for extra gigglies. Weird mother fucker."
Clay leaves him be and definitely doesn't say takes one to know one. He'll have a serious talk with Jensen one day. Just not today. Maybe he'd talk to Cougar first.
Santa Maria changes everything. Screws up the teams dynamic.
They all change in little ways, ways that no one would really notice - except they live in each other's pockets for weeks on end - and you got to know your fellow man's habits and quirks pretty damned well by the end.
Clay knows he's gotten harsher. Hears it in his voice when he gives orders, feels it in his veins when dealing with command and knows it in the way he questions everything brass throws at him.
Roque gets grumpier, if that's even fucking possible. Or maybe, it's more discontent. He and Clay have worked together for years, now it seems that every second moment they're not just disagreeing on a course of action, but fucking arguing. Arguing to the point where it just gets nasty. And personal.
Pooch's good, teddy-bear side turns into a question-every-plan-and-find-flaws-in-every-mission side. When he's not doing that he fiddles with his wedding ring and all Clay wants to do is send him home - not because of the questioning or flaw finding (it's actually surprising how much Pooch can find wrong with a plan) but because of all them Pooch is probably the only one that could function in the real world.
Jensen doesn't change. He's loud, laughs at inappropriate times and everything's okay. Only his loudness has a nervous skittish edge to it, like he's worried that if he shuts up someone will hear something they don't want to acknowledge. His laughter almost turns hysterical and the only one he's fooled with his 'everything's okay' is himself.
Cougar gets real quiet, quieter. Smiles less, laughs even less. That's a fairly mild change, Clay figured, it wasn't as if Cougar was the most extroverted person to begin with, but the most alarming change is amount of going off-mission he does. He comes back after hours of no contact, no apologies, no excuses, just slinks back in like the wild animal he's named for. Clay yells at him 'til he feels theres no oxygen left in his body, but it seems like the words just wash over the sniper who waits patiently for him to finish before pulling his hat low and feigning sleep.
Then there was that month they spent working on and off with ParSec in the sand. Officially Cougar's accuracy rate dropped, unavoidable and accidental blue on blue incidents. Secretly Clay figures Cougar's accuracy sits at the alarming and scary one hundred per cent.
Clay pulls him aside at the end of that month, hands gripping his fatigues tight, pulling them nose to nose.
"Get your fucking head in the game."
He can't tell whether he's more pissed off at Cougar's dicking around or the fact that he's been reduced to sporting analogies. He fucking hates sporting analogies.
Clay's dealing with it. Dealing with the changes in his unit, feeling like they're all new to each other all over again.
Then Cougar goes off mission in San Salvador.
They're hunting a cartel lackey, one of those really nice guys who is in charge of setting up drug processing in remote villages and to hell with the people who actually live there. While they're sitting practically on top of him, just waiting for the sweet green light, they're ordered to pull back until some political bullshit is dealt with.
Cougar goes off mission,
(well, Clay would admit it was really on an offed mission but he's too busy swearing up a storm on the comms to laugh at the irony)
and an hour later he contacts them briefly, a short static-y "Jensen. Problema." And silence.
It's only chance that Pooch and Jensen find where he is. (Jensen actually says it's not chance, that the static on the comms was created by a specific interference, and after narrowing it down, there was really only a few places he could be. Random chance, Clay calls it. Statistical surety, Jensen claims in that overly confident voice that usually means I-Am-Flying-By-The-Seat-Of-My-Pants.)
And it's pure luck that the two of them get him out of there.
When the three of them come back Jensen and Cougar are bruised and bloodied. Pooch looks like someone stole christmas. For ever.
Roque wraps tape around Cougar's broken fingers, carefully avoiding the missing nails whilst bitching, he'd call it reprimanding but it's really not, about how fucking annoying it is to have to play hide-and-go-fucking-seek in a city.
Jensen stands to the side, by himself, rubbing at the side of his head and muttering at varying volumes. From the look of the blood that's leaked from his ear and the powder burn across his cheek, Clay can guess why his hacker is now half deaf and glaring at Cougar.
The sniper has a bloodied and broken nose and skinned knuckles. Jensen has bloody fists and a black eye.
Clay corners Pooch, who for once is as fucking unintelligible as everyone else.
"Fuck it, I think Roque is the cuddly one." He says as Clay walks up.
Jensen wouldn't win in a fair fight against Cougar. Clay knows this. He also knows that no one ever passed Selection by fighting fair.
"It was like watching Care Bears fight to the death." Pooch says with a look of pure desolation. "Those two? They hate happiness."
This time, when they get back to base, when Cougar walks off like he never wants to see any of them ever again, Jensen doesn't even look in his direction.
He doesn't bother to pretend he's going to do anything but lock himself up with his computer for the next couple of weeks either.
Next!
Notes
Santa Maria is briefly touched on in the comics. spoilers ahoy, so if you don't want to spoiled, even though it's slight, please read no further.
"Wade's Par-Sec unit wiped the village of santa-maria right off the map. Every man, woman and child, shot in the back of the head and dumped in the river. We were barely half a klick away. Our CO ordered us to stand down, not intervene. It never even made the news up here.
I think it gets mentioned again vaguely in another issue. next time i'm rereading i'll update if i find it
Losers, comic!verse
pairings: somewhat cougar/jensen. (it's practically canon anywho)
warnings: slight comic!spoilers, mostly off screen violence/mass murder, misuse of mules, 'accidental' blue on blue, swearing (like a motherfucker) and a CareBear death match.
summary: Then Santa Maria happens and Clay doesn't think much about anything.
Beta'd by the lovely choasangel - though any remaining mistakes are very likely mine.
I
Then Santa Maria happens and Clay doesn't think much about anything.
They're too far away to do anything but listen to the distant gunfire and the occasional scream that gets picked up by the wind and brought to their position.
When the orders to stand down comes through the radio, Jensen had screamed profanities back until Clay had had to literally pull him off it.
The tech breathed, quick and hard gasps, shivering with adrenaline and something that might be rage. For a moment, Clay thinks Jensen's going to turn his wrath on Clay, but instead he just shakes his head,
"This ain't right, Colonel."
and wonders off to sink against a tree trunk, glaring silently at everything.
The rest of the team pretty much follow suit, silently trapped with their own thoughts and the soundtrack of far away (but not far enough) mass murder.
To make matters worse, they're ordered to rendezvous with the ParSec contingent later that week.
Pooch groaned in that long suffering way, the I-am-not-suprised-but-am-in-no-way-down-with-this-shit kind of way.
Roque pulled out his biggest knife and pretended that it needed sharpening.
Cougar checked the sights on his rifle with a jaw clenched so tight Clay expected to hear teeth cracking.
Jensen had done that weird thing he did sometimes - stopped talking and basically shut down - picked a spot in trees and stared at it. His nose wrinkled a little in disgust when Clay made the announcement but other that, he doesn't move.
Clay, well Clay is angry. He fucking hates being put in this postion, and he hates more than anything that he has to play nice with those fuckers.
And of course, it doesn't go well. The ParSec jerks are still fucking hopped up from slaughtering civilians, so when they get to the clearing and Jensen mutters to Pooch - "Hola assholes" - one of them opens fire.
There's a grunt of pain and then everyone is pointing their guns at everybody else.
Except for Cougar, who studies them through his scope for a millisecond and then lets the SR-25 drop back on her strap.
Hands free, he leaps at the guy with the itchy trigger finger.
Roque waits until he's broken the guy's jaw before pulling him off.
He stands shivering with rage, like he's about to throw himself at them again.
Clay places himself between the sniper and the targets. Cougar's eyes snap to Clay's, and okay, he's totally pissed and Clay really hopes that he hasn't royally screwed this up.
Cougar looks hard at the guy in lead of the ParSec lot. Clay hopes the he sleeps with a gun, because the sniper looks like he's marking him for later, and an angry, vindictive Cougar was off the fucking scales dangerous.
"Go check on Jensen." He orders, because goddamn it the kid's been making I'm-in-pain noises and Cougar hasn't even glanced in his direction.
Cougar looks away as if he's just realised the same thing, then takes one last long look at the ParSec guys and growls in disgust. He stalks over to where Pooch is trying to get Jensen to stay still long enough to deal with the hole in him. It isn't serious, a through and through, barely under the skin in the junction between his neck and shoulder.
Jensen's bitching in an extremely annoyed voice, one hand pressing over the holes. As the sniper approaches he tries to dodge Pooch's attempts to remove his hand and to congratulate Cougar on his fine hand to hand at the same time.
Blood is seeping between tightly gripped fingers and he grins in a twisted, bitter way. Clay always forgets how fucking sharp Jensen can be, but he gets a fast reminder when the tech opens his mouth and yells.
"Do I look like a fucking innocent woman or child to you?!"
Clay winces and just wants today to be over because nothing is going to make it all right.
Cougar slips off to the international airport pretty much as soon as they touch ground on base. Hat pulled low, duffle full of mostly dirty clothes slung over his shoulder.
Jensen watches his retreating back for a moment, then starts talking brightly about visiting his sister and his niece.
Especially his niece. She's starting kindergarten soon, and Jensen's going to teach her knife skills. Or maybe he should just start with plastic spork skills, Pooch suggests and Clay stops listening.
When Clay comes back, he's a little surprised that he's not alone in their barracks. From the look of all the energy drink cans and the way everyone on base gets wild eyed and silent at the mention of their barracks, Clay can't be sure how long Jensen's been cooped up inside, but he bet it's been a while.
He's got his laptop on his bunk, dark circles under his eyes, and Clay has to wonder how long the kid's been awake for.
Clay's not good at these talks. He's still trying to work out how to word it when he sits on the bunk next to Jensen's. It's usually Cougar's, but today it's covered in wires and electrical equipment.
Clay stares at the stuff, distracted, it's all starting to look very familiar.
"Is that our comms equipment?"
Jensen looks up innocently, and then looks just plain shifty.
"Uhh."
"Do we need to have another talk about the destruction of army hardware?"
"We don't have to. I don't think we do. I was just fixing it. Making improvements. More of an upgrade, really." He continues to babble on the defensive and Clay frowns at the mess.
"Where are the rest of them?" And he really hopes the answer is because i kept one intact.
"That's all of them. There's definitely none anywhere else."
Clay looks at him. Uses his I-see-through-your-bullshit look,
"Okay. But in my defense, I had to field test it. And Blane's team was doing some sort of pack animal exercise in the hills and. Well. It's on a mule."
"A mule?" Okay, yeah, Clay is going to add this conversation to the never-repeat list.
"I know where it is though! Or, well. I will, if. WHEN I find the right frequency."
"A mule?" Clay repeats it again because he's pretty sure something's got to make sense soon.
"Yeah, you can have a listen if you'd like." He holds up the headset like Clay really wants to listen to whatever noises mules might make. "I have no doubt that Charlie stuck it around the thing's neck for extra gigglies. Weird mother fucker."
Clay leaves him be and definitely doesn't say takes one to know one. He'll have a serious talk with Jensen one day. Just not today. Maybe he'd talk to Cougar first.
Santa Maria changes everything. Screws up the teams dynamic.
They all change in little ways, ways that no one would really notice - except they live in each other's pockets for weeks on end - and you got to know your fellow man's habits and quirks pretty damned well by the end.
Clay knows he's gotten harsher. Hears it in his voice when he gives orders, feels it in his veins when dealing with command and knows it in the way he questions everything brass throws at him.
Roque gets grumpier, if that's even fucking possible. Or maybe, it's more discontent. He and Clay have worked together for years, now it seems that every second moment they're not just disagreeing on a course of action, but fucking arguing. Arguing to the point where it just gets nasty. And personal.
Pooch's good, teddy-bear side turns into a question-every-plan-and-find-flaws-in-every-mission side. When he's not doing that he fiddles with his wedding ring and all Clay wants to do is send him home - not because of the questioning or flaw finding (it's actually surprising how much Pooch can find wrong with a plan) but because of all them Pooch is probably the only one that could function in the real world.
Jensen doesn't change. He's loud, laughs at inappropriate times and everything's okay. Only his loudness has a nervous skittish edge to it, like he's worried that if he shuts up someone will hear something they don't want to acknowledge. His laughter almost turns hysterical and the only one he's fooled with his 'everything's okay' is himself.
Cougar gets real quiet, quieter. Smiles less, laughs even less. That's a fairly mild change, Clay figured, it wasn't as if Cougar was the most extroverted person to begin with, but the most alarming change is amount of going off-mission he does. He comes back after hours of no contact, no apologies, no excuses, just slinks back in like the wild animal he's named for. Clay yells at him 'til he feels theres no oxygen left in his body, but it seems like the words just wash over the sniper who waits patiently for him to finish before pulling his hat low and feigning sleep.
Then there was that month they spent working on and off with ParSec in the sand. Officially Cougar's accuracy rate dropped, unavoidable and accidental blue on blue incidents. Secretly Clay figures Cougar's accuracy sits at the alarming and scary one hundred per cent.
Clay pulls him aside at the end of that month, hands gripping his fatigues tight, pulling them nose to nose.
"Get your fucking head in the game."
He can't tell whether he's more pissed off at Cougar's dicking around or the fact that he's been reduced to sporting analogies. He fucking hates sporting analogies.
Clay's dealing with it. Dealing with the changes in his unit, feeling like they're all new to each other all over again.
Then Cougar goes off mission in San Salvador.
They're hunting a cartel lackey, one of those really nice guys who is in charge of setting up drug processing in remote villages and to hell with the people who actually live there. While they're sitting practically on top of him, just waiting for the sweet green light, they're ordered to pull back until some political bullshit is dealt with.
Cougar goes off mission,
(well, Clay would admit it was really on an offed mission but he's too busy swearing up a storm on the comms to laugh at the irony)
and an hour later he contacts them briefly, a short static-y "Jensen. Problema." And silence.
It's only chance that Pooch and Jensen find where he is. (Jensen actually says it's not chance, that the static on the comms was created by a specific interference, and after narrowing it down, there was really only a few places he could be. Random chance, Clay calls it. Statistical surety, Jensen claims in that overly confident voice that usually means I-Am-Flying-By-The-Seat-Of-My-Pants.)
And it's pure luck that the two of them get him out of there.
When the three of them come back Jensen and Cougar are bruised and bloodied. Pooch looks like someone stole christmas. For ever.
Roque wraps tape around Cougar's broken fingers, carefully avoiding the missing nails whilst bitching, he'd call it reprimanding but it's really not, about how fucking annoying it is to have to play hide-and-go-fucking-seek in a city.
Jensen stands to the side, by himself, rubbing at the side of his head and muttering at varying volumes. From the look of the blood that's leaked from his ear and the powder burn across his cheek, Clay can guess why his hacker is now half deaf and glaring at Cougar.
The sniper has a bloodied and broken nose and skinned knuckles. Jensen has bloody fists and a black eye.
Clay corners Pooch, who for once is as fucking unintelligible as everyone else.
"Fuck it, I think Roque is the cuddly one." He says as Clay walks up.
Jensen wouldn't win in a fair fight against Cougar. Clay knows this. He also knows that no one ever passed Selection by fighting fair.
"It was like watching Care Bears fight to the death." Pooch says with a look of pure desolation. "Those two? They hate happiness."
This time, when they get back to base, when Cougar walks off like he never wants to see any of them ever again, Jensen doesn't even look in his direction.
He doesn't bother to pretend he's going to do anything but lock himself up with his computer for the next couple of weeks either.
Next!
Notes
Santa Maria is briefly touched on in the comics. spoilers ahoy, so if you don't want to spoiled, even though it's slight, please read no further.
"Wade's Par-Sec unit wiped the village of santa-maria right off the map. Every man, woman and child, shot in the back of the head and dumped in the river. We were barely half a klick away. Our CO ordered us to stand down, not intervene. It never even made the news up here.
I think it gets mentioned again vaguely in another issue. next time i'm rereading i'll update if i find it