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The mission could not have gone any worse.
Hunter was out cold from a shot to the chest, Tech got hit in the head, left with a minor concussion and a nasty bruise.
And Crosshair got shot in the shoulder from an ambush of commandos.
He didn't see them coming; he was a bit preoccupied giving Hunter cover fire when he went down. He should've seen them coming. Commandos were down with the rest of the squad as well, that's how Hunter got shot. He should've seen them coming. Crosshair didn't think they'ld come from his sniper nest too. He should've known they were coming.
Tech got banged up when one jumped on him, he should've shot it ,Echo was fortunetly able to shoot the kriffin thing before it did anymore damage. Wrecker almost exploded them all before they even got back to the ship, that's how kriffin many of them there were. Tech was in no condition to to be helping Hunter or Crosshair, so Echo had to do it all himself while Wrecker somehow got them into hyperspace.
They would've been dead if the 212th wasn't in a nearby sector.
He should've looked harder. Those things didn't show up in any of his perimeter scans, he should've actually looked for them instead of scanning. They didn't have any word of commando droids, as far as they knew, they were only surposed to be dealing with B1s.
But he should've still looked.
Hunter was out now. And it was his fault.
Hunter was being monitored in the medbay now, in bed unconcious. While him and Tech were being closely monitored outside of the medbay.
Crosshair especially.
If anything medical was involved, then Crosshair would most definetly have a panic attack. Even settle, he hated the medbay. But it doesn't meen that he wouldn't still try to hide them from medics trained to know if someone was having or hiding an attack.
He had to stay in the medbay the first night while Tech got discharged.
It was just him and Hunter, and seeing Hunter like this already wasn't helping.
The constant moving of tools, or grabbing hypos triggered a lot of attacks and even if they weren't being used on him, it still made him wanna run. Especially when they used them on Hunter.
It also didn't help how Hunter was right next to him, you'd think that help, but hearing him through pained breaths was not soothing.
And he stopped breathing in the middle of the night.
Crosshair was sobbing then, he wouldn't let any of the reg medics even touch him. Tell him everything would be fine, but they didn't know. It was his fault.
He watched them put a breathing mask on his brothers face and do anything and everything to get him to just breathe.
It was only 12 seconds, but it felt like eternity.
Echo and Wrecker were called in that night after Hunter was sable, and Crosshair a mess, and thankfully; the regs realized that Crosshair would recover ten times better out of the medbay so he was discharged that night.
They'd given him medication and painkillers for his shoulder in hypo form, which Echo snatched right away once they got back to they're temporary barracks.
Crosshair was known for not taking the medication the regs gave to him, or just staight up throwing them away, so this time, Echo would make sure that Crosshair actually took them.
It was when he stopped eating meals when things started to spiral downhill.
He'd skip breakfast, which didn't really matter since none of the batch really ate that meal anyways. Then lunch, which caught everyone's attention when Crosshair didn't show up in the mess hall.
Echo made sure Crosshair ate after that, usually Hunter would, but Crosshair didn't want to think about that now.
Then he found a blade in their barracks. How it got there, Crosshair didn't know, but it was sharp enough to cut his skin.
He only made marks on his arms, but somehow Wrecker found them one night when his sleeves just happend to be up. He dismissed them nothing more than scratches, but Wrecker knew better.
"You're not hurtin yourself are you?"
Crosshair looked around the room, kriff, that probably gave him away, but no one else was near.
"No. Why would I do that?"
Crosshair tried to keep his tone level, but Wrecker wasn't falling for anything. Wrecker knew he wasn't very good at getting Crosshair to open up, just comforting him, so he told Echo the next morning who confronted Crosshair during breakfast. Crosshair, like normal now, stayed in his bunk till after breakfast was served, so Echo took his opening then.
"Let me see it."
Crosshair's stomach dropped.
"See what?"
"The marks Cross. Let me see the cuts."
Kriff, Echo wouldn't let this go.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Echo knew this was gonna be difficult, but he knew this was real, he could see a split second of fear in Crosshair's eyes. He just had to get him to realize that what he was doing wasn't good.
"We can go back and forth of you denying this, but I know what you're thinking. None of us want to see Hunter on that bed, but marking yourself, is not a good way to go through this Crosshair. It's not your fault, no matter how much you deny that, it's wasn't your fault."
But it should've been.
"The entire squad didn't know about the commandos, and just because they wouldn't show up on your scan doesn't make it your fault."
Yes it does.
"Even if you didn't use the scan, I bet you still wouldn't see them because the were too far back. Not even a Jedi would be able to sence them from back there because it's what they were designed to do. And you were being ambushed by them for kriffs sake! You would never be able to shoot the droid that shot Hunter in time, or the one that jumped Tech. No one could've."
There was a long pause before Crosshair got up, and showed Echo the marks.
Echo inspected the marks to make sure they weren't infected before he pulled Crosshair in a hug. Crosshair was too shocked to hold back his tears now.
He cried in Echo's arms for a long time, trying to stop himself when it got bad before Echo would hug him tighter and rub circles in his back, and asure him that he understood, and that everything would be okay.
That Hunter would wake up, that the others aren't coming back yet, and that even if they were back, they'ld only want to help they're little brother. That he shouldn't cut himself again, that he wouldn't tell the medics, and that he loved him and just wanted him to be okay.
"You're alright vod, I'm here. I won't leave."