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The chair was the most uncomfortable piece of furniture Kapkan ever encountered, but he wouldn't move from his current spot for anything or anyone. The hunter was so exhausted that the beeping of the heart monitor stopped being annoying, and now it was a constant rhythm lulling him into closing his eyes…
Kapkan opened his eyes with a start, sure that he heard something odd, and anxiously checked that everything was alright. The steady beeps of the monitor weren't enough to quell his paranoia, he grabbed Tachanka's hand to make sure he could still feel his pulse and the warmth of his skin. He had been so unbearably cold after being released from the stasis foam, and so still, barely breathing. Despite the assurances that it was to be expected, Kapkan had feared the worst. Because nothing about this situation was expected or normal, not even for REACT.
While Tachanka had jumped at the chance to combat the Archean threat, Kapkan couldn't. Not because he didn't want to, he remembered the first contact with the Chimera virus all too well. Stopping this thing was the number one priority. However, just because the world was at risk by a threat literally out of this world didn't mean humanity suddenly united to defeat it. Some dipshits thought the current chaos was their best chance to blow up some buildings and kill people, or threaten to release some suspicious biological agent and kill people, or some other harebrained scheme to blackmail and kill people. Kapkan wasn't overly surprised in truth, people were like that. Which unfortunately meant he was needed elsewhere.
It wasn't until months later that he finally found himself aboard the Pioneer, the ship-base Tachanka had told him about. But Tachanka wasn't there to welcome him. At first Kapkan was disappointed. After months of no contact, he missed Tachanka fiercely, and assumed Tachanka missed him too. It seemed he was wrong, though. Until he saw Fuze and Finka waiting for him -and Glaz too, he supposed- their grave faces immediately making him uneasy. As usual, his instinct was spot on, because the news they delivered hit Kapkan like a punch to the face. Tachanka was missing in action and presumed dead.
To say Kapkan went ballistic would be downplaying his reaction. He stormed Ash’s office, demanding explanations. It was well known all of their operators had GPS trackers on them when they went on an incursion, and that if someone was left behind, they could pinpoint their location and mount a rescue.
“It’s not that easy,” Ash sighed, giving him an unimpressed look. Kapkan didn’t care if he was interrupting her work, or causing a scene, he wanted answers! “Besides, it’s restricted information.”
Kapkan blew up. He yelled, threatened, cursed in several languages, and even pleaded. The ruckus made his comrades and the rest of REACT’s leaders come rushing to the office, but Thermite’s attempts to reason with him went nowhere, and Kapkan even turned on Fuze and Finka for being so calm and accepting of Tachanka’s fate. Just as it seemed the tension was about to snap and turn into a brawl, Mira’s voice cut through it with stern efficiency.
“That’s enough. If you want answers, I’ll give you answers.” Ash protested, reminding her it was classified information, but Mira waved away her concerns, and faced Kapkan again. “You’re going to join, right?”
He would have sworn to commit crime if that was what it took to get some answers and mount a rescue. His curt nod was enough for Mira, who whisked him into her lab and delivered the most mind breaking and chill inducing revelation of this whole ordeal: Tachanka was probably in a different dimension.
Mira explained to him -in what he was sure was the condensed version, thank god- the issue of the anomalies they had been finding, what Proteans were, and that whenever an operator crossed that anomaly they lost all contact with them for weeks. As Ela and Pulse indicated, Tachanka had tackled one of those Proteans in order to save a badly injured Ela from getting hit again. The mad bastard had brought down the almost dead Protean just with his fists, while Pulse helped Ela. And then the anomaly exploded and both were sent through the exit portal but Tachanka was nowhere to be seen - and nowhere to be detected by the Pioneer either.
It was an overwhelming amount of information, but rather than unpacking the ramifications of portals to a possible different dimension, Kapkan focused on one thing: Tachanka was probably still alive. He had to be, the stasis foam would keep him from dying, right? They just had to get into that same pocket reality thing and bring him back.
That was easier said than done, but Kapkan refused to give up or even entertain the thought that Tachanka might be dead. So he blazed through the mandatory training, then he volunteered for as many incursions as Ash would allow him.
A squeeze on his hand broke Kapkan away from those harrowing memories. Tachanka was finally awake, drowsily smiling at him. "Hello, princess."
Kapkan squeezed his fingers back, feeling a knot on his throat and blinking back the moisture on his eyes. After another team brought Tachanka back from the alternate reality, and seeing the amount of treatments Tachanka needed -for his wounds, and getting out of stasis, and special therapy for the extended time inside the anomaly- Kapkan hadn't stopped worrying about whether Tachanka would wake up or not. He sat by his bedside, day after day, barely sleeping and feeling completely useless and powerless, and now he couldn't articulate the immense, heart stopping relief that flooded him. Tachanka was safe and awake.
"You look like shit," the bastard said, caressing Kapkan's knuckles with his thumb.
A choked laugh came out of his throat, surprising Kapkan himself. “You’re one to talk, at least I don't look like a truck ran me over."
Tachanka shuffled to the side and opened his arms in a clear invitation, and despite how narrow the available space was, Kapkan climbed into the bed and squeezed himself next to Tachanka. It helped that he was glued to the other man in a tight hug, face buried against his neck as he reminded himself this was real. Tachanka's arm draped around his shoulders and Kapkan let out a shaky breath.
"What the fuck were you thinking? Everyone took you for dead, nobody knew where your body could be!" It had been a close call, and the idea of losing Tachanka left him numb and cold inside. Kapkan snuggled closer to him, kissing his jaw. "I wasn't ready to say goodbye, you idiot."
"Thank fuck you saved me then, hmm?" Tachanka's voice was raspy, sounding very tired and sleepy still, yet Kapkan thought it was the best sound in the world.
In the end he hadn't been the one who saved Tachanka, although not for lack of trying. And seeing what the stakes were, Kapkan knew he might have to try again in the future, or maybe Tachanka would be the one looking for him. Either way, they needed each other. He needed Tachanka, in many more ways than he wanted to articulate. "I'm staying. Someone has to keep you in check from playing at being a hero."
"Good, I missed you." Tachanka inclined his head to rest against Kapkan's, before his breathing evened out and he fell asleep again. Kapkan closed his eyes as well, finally at peace and allowing himself to relax just a little bit.
Hours later, Doc would find them both asleep, still clinging to each other.