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Fred knew today was going to be hard - they all did, but tried to get through it like any other. It started off well anyway. Some playful shoving and a few insults slung. The Gammas seemed rested and wound up, ready for a couple hours in the gym to burn it all off.
Looking back, there’d been warning signs. Mark missing that blunt opportunity to snark back on Olivia, who had walked behind him today instead of alongside. Ash hadn’t wanted breakfast.
When it happened, they were in the middle of the sparring mats. It was so sudden. Ash broke down and couldn’t handle it anymore. Who knows what had been the last straw; maybe a comment or sound, maybe a movement. Maybe the pressure had just been building over the days, and he was tired of pretending it wasn’t eating him alive.
They called it a day when he couldn’t stop crying. Fred shot a quick message off on Waypoint, and gave Mark and ‘Livi a nod as the two gathered Ash, shaking and hyperventilating, from the mats.
On the way back to their quarters, the other two gave in. Their grief compounded by the sight of their brother - their leader - falling to pieces in their hands. They didn’t know how to help him. They were broken in all the same ways.
Two years ago today, they’d lost Onyx, and, for a second time, damn near everything they had. Their fellow Gamma teams, Dante, Holly, Kurt. Will, who they’d been denied the time to know. A whole other world they’d come to call home. Gone.
When they finally arrive, Fred is nearly carrying the three of them. He feels an odd mix of pride and pain that they’re still trying to keep themselves up and make their own way. Simultaneously holding each other up as they all fall down. Still trying to push through.
The door shuts and they collapse in a pile against the wall beside their bunks, just tucked into the corner and slightly hidden from the doorway. Much as you can conceal four huddled Spartans. Fred can’t leave them this way, so he stays.
Nobody says a word, and the room is only tears and shameless sobbing; hands grabbing hold of one another and knees tucked in tight. The three shivering kids swept up under Fred’s open arms. Eventually, they’re worn from the anguish and fall into an exhausted sleep. Eyes swollen, red and puffy. Mark’s breathing stutters.
Fred swallows his own heartbreak and closes his eyes.
—
Veta makes it out of another droning meeting and automatically heads toward the training gym to meet up with the Gammas. They were scheduled for the whole morning since she’d be absent. But a search of the expansive facilities turned up nothing. Checking her commpad, she finds a waiting message from Fred.
–Bad day. //
She runs the entire way back to their quarters.
When she arrives, Veta finds them there in the corner, still asleep and cuddled up tight, all save for the empty space at Fred’s front. Veta slips her shoes off and quietly kneels down, slowing her breaths as she curls up between his legs and rests against him. Olivia, enfolded beneath Fred’s left arm, is facing her - reaching out, Veta runs the back of her hand tenderly over the girl’s forehead.
“Thank you.” Veta whispers into Fred’s chest.
“Always.”