Chapter Text
It was never supposed to end up this way.
Andy wanted a simple mission to assess where they were as a group without Booker. After a two month long vacation in Malta they’d reunited in New York to stop an illegal shipment at the harbor. Nicky was sniper once again and normally Joe would have guarded his back while Andy and Booker approached their targets. Joe would only leave his side if there was trouble.
More often then not, there wasn’t and this was supposed to be one of those times.
With Booker gone and Andy mortal, it only made sense to send the second strongest fighter in their unit onto the field. While Nile was by no means inexperienced, she definitely fought far better than he had during the Crusades, she still had a lot more to learn. So Joe went with Andy and Nile stayed by his side, ready to run down to the docks at the first sign of trouble.
Nicky kept careful watch on Andy and Joe’s movement, noting the way Andy edged slightly before Joe. Joe would no doubt be annoyed at that when they got back to the safe house tonight but this was Andy. She would go first, always. Near 6000 years of habit couldn’t be reverted in mere months.
The docks were empty apart from the two of them but they still moved cautiously. They neared the small makeshift building that functioned as the shipping area that Copley had pointed out earlier. There were three others like it, eerily quiet and dark. There were windows to look through but Nicky still wished he was down there.
Joe sent him a halfhearted wave back before stepping into the first of the buildings behind Andy. For long moments, they were both completely out of sight and beside him Nile began to pace in agitation. Then Andy’s voice came through the earpiece.
“All clear Joe?”
He didn’t reply. She posed the question again, with a hint more irritation. Of all of them, Joe was notorious for not checking in immediately. Nicky would call him easily distracted if he hadn’t seen the man spend months at a time focused on his artwork when he had the chance.
Andy posed the question again and Nicky’s grip on his gun turned white. Beside him, Nile had begun mumbling into the earpiece too. Nicky focused, taking in what little he could as he scanned the windows. Andy bit out a curse, and Nicky knew she’d gone looking for Joe.
Any second now, Joe would reply and Andy would proceed to chew him out in every language she’d ever known.
But the seconds only ticked by, the windows remained dark and empty and all he could hear was the occasional sound of Andy’s footsteps.
“I’m going down there,” Nile said.
Nicky followed her more carefully until she was finally within the building as well. She was whispering through the earpiece the entire time, giving him all clears every five seconds because they both knew now that there was trouble. Real trouble. Even if Joe had been killed silently, a near impossible task for how skilled his husband was, he would have woken up by now.
Any struggle and they would have heard.
“I found Andy,” Nile whispered.
That gave him a small dose of relief. She was mortal and it’d destroy Joe if he found out something had happened to her when he was meant to have her back. He waited a couple more tense seconds, debating joining the rest of his team down there when Andy’s voice came through the earpiece.
“I’ve searched the building twice top to bottom. Nile’s done the same,” she said.
Nicky put down the sniper’s gun. He couldn’t shoot anyway when his fingers were beginning to shake this bad. His clothes suddenly felt too tight, face too hot. His heartbeat echoed in his ears, too loud, too fast.
He needed to focus. Needed to breath. Joe needed him.
“Exits,” he asked.
His voice was a rasp stretched thin, barely audible even to his own ears.
“There’s two. One from the back of the building, the other on the left side,” she said.
He resumed his sniper’s perch, scanning the building once before replying.
“I can see the left side exit from here,” he said.
He wanted, no needed to be down there with them. Sitting still was an impossibility with all the pent up tension running through his frame. But he was a sniper, he was honed for this. Andy wanted him here. What she said, went, always.
“Nicky get down here. Nile will be backup,” Andy said.
Nicky had almost forgotten why Andy’s word was obeyed with question. Not because she’d ever demanded it of them. It was because she was always aware, and she always made the best choice. And despite the fact that she couldn’t even see him, could barely hear for how low he’d spoken, she knew where he needed to be.
Nile reached his side, briefly planting a hand on his shoulder before releasing him. He was off, sword strung across his back, gun held in front of him. His fingers weren’t shaking anymore as he reached Andy’s side but she still took a single moment to reach forward and draw him in until their foreheads touched.
“We’ll find him and we’ll make the bastards pay,” she said lowly.
He just nodded, still too wound up to offer much else. He followed her out the building and went for the second one. From the outside, it was identical to the first. Andy stepped in, Nicky on her heels. It was empty, quiet and Nicky’s heart was suddenly racing for a different reason.
“Boss this feels,” he started.
“I know,” she interjected grimly.
Through the earpiece, he heard Nile swear at Copley. Her anger was palpable, and so was Andy’s, more cold and ruthless than Nile’s. Nicky felt nothing for Copley because Copley didn’t matter when Joe wasn’t here. And everything in him, every emotion and every thought belonged to Joe now.
They scoured the second building and Nicky felt like praying as they approached the third one. He was starting to become a little desperate, a little unhinged. Andy noted it, enough to even let him enter the final building before her. It didn’t help that there was an ocean nearby, didn’t help that they’d talked of Quynh more often over the past few months considering Nile’s repeated dreams of her.
The world couldn’t do that to Joe. His Joe, brighter than all the stars in the sky, with the innocent laugh of a child and a deep rooted sense of loyalty and good that hadn’t faltered once in the last 900 years.
“Nicky focus,” Andy said, not unkindly.
The third building came up empty too and Nicky’s heart was a dead thing in his chest as he followed Andy out. He made it back to Nile in somewhat of a haze, barely felt her hands on his shoulder as she pushed him to sit before settling down beside him. Andy pulled out a cigarette, a habit she hadn’t fallen into in a long while.
“You heard nothing over the earpiece correct,” she asked, glancing their way.
Nile nodded. Nicky was drifting, trying to find something to cling to. Nile took his hand in hers and Nicky’s attention narrowed down to that touch, until he could finally hear Andy past the dull ringing in his ears.
“If there was no struggle then Joe would have had to go willingly. But why,” Andy mused aloud.
After a couple of moments, it wasn’t Andy that answered her own question like she had the habit of doing. It was Nile.
“For you. You’re mortal,” she said vaguely.
“There was no one there,” Andy interjected, before the realization dawned on all of them.
Explosives. They’d been so busy looking for a person that they hadn’t done a detailed explosive check when they’d gone through any of the buildings. And besides, Nicky had forgotten about explosives completely considering there’d been someone to check that for the last two hundred years.
Even the fresh reminder of Booker’s betrayal held nothing against the fear crushing his chest, choking his breath.
“We set the explosives off. If Joe’s anywhere near here, he’ll hear and he’ll fight back in some way. We’ll find him,” Andy explained quickly.
Andy was about to follow Nile when Nicky pulled her back by the wrist. She looked down at his hand, confused, like she’d forgotten she was mortal and couldn’t walk away from an explosion unleashed wrong.
“You go first to find Joe. We’ll set off the explosion,” he said.
It was tough for them both, tough for Nicky to not be the first after Joe. It was only recognizing that, which led Andy to reluctantly nod. Nicky followed Nile down to the first building and they set to work finding the explosives. It wasn’t hard once they were actively looking for them.
Booker would have found a way to trigger the explosives and get them all out alive. Joe was probably second best at demolitions. Nile was a fair shot but even she couldn’t find a way to set them off after a time interval.
“You go. I’ll set this off,” he said.
“Nicky you need to find Joe,” she said softly.
“Nile go to Andy. I’ll be fine,” he said.
This was all on him after all, for losing sight of Joe in the first place. As leader, they were all in some sense Andy’s responsibility but ultimately, Joe was his responsibility. His man to love and guard for all the time they had.
And this would be the price he paid for failing in that.
“Go Nile,” he pressed. His tone booked no argument and she went reluctantly. Nicky stared at the mass of wires before him, taking a deep breath in and out.
For Joe, this was nothing. The last thing he heard was Joe’s voice in his mind, telling him that he loved him in the oldest language they knew before Nicky’s world flashed white.