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The first thing Bill noticed was light against his eyelids. This was unusual in and of itself – he was up before sunrise most days, scouting the perimeter and resetting his traps. Maybe the light came from the fire; he vaguely remembered how it raged against the dark and cold of the night, setting those raiders ablaze in one fell swoop. But no, this light was softer, not nearly as piercing against the back of his eyes.
The fire, the screams, the gunshots all echoed in his ears as his body slowly regained awareness, and all attention quickly shot right to a pounding pain in his side. His hand wandered down to it, curiously tracing the edges of the bandage around the source of his pain.
“Yeah, that’s gonna scar.”
Bill roused as best he could at that familiar voice. It was difficult against the fog of pain and disorientation, but he was a stubborn bastard, and there was only one man he would fight through all of that for.
As his eyes cleared and came into focus, he saw Frank. He was as still as a statue, arms crossed, his shoulders taut. He had a thin veneer of that wry smile on his face, but it looked worn around the edges, chipped away by worry and fear.
Bill grunted, then tried his best to sit up to assuage that fear. But when he tried, a bolt of lightning went down his side, and Frank had to catch him before his body hit the bed.
“And I’m the dramatic one,” Frank groused, fluffing the pillow before letting Bill’s head rest on it. He was always doing little things like that. Things to make it easier for him. To make everything nicer, even here at the end of the world. He was insane like that.
There were a million questions Bill should have asked him. How many traps went off? Was the bunker breached? What did you do with the bodies?
But what came out instead was: “Did you get any sleep?”
Frank blinked in surprise, looking up from where he was checking Bill’s side, probably making sure he hadn’t started bleeding again. It hurt Bill’s pride a bit that he couldn’t do that himself, but exhaustion still threatened to pull him under again any second, no matter how hard he tried to fight it.
“Too busy patching your sorry ass up to get any sleep,” Frank said jokingly, like he hadn’t saved Bill’s life just last night. Like they both hadn’t thought Bill was as good as dead.
“Then lie down.” The order was mumbled, but he pat the other side of the bed to make his point clear.
“I can’t believe you’ve been awake two seconds and you’re already bossing me around,” Frank groused lightly, but he got under the covers, anyway.
“You like it,” Bill muttered, eyes falling closed, and he could feel Frank laugh beside him.
“Just get better, you nut,” Frank ordered in turn. To his credit, his voice shook only a little bit. His wide hand slid across Bill’s chest as he moved in close, and Bill used the last residues of his energy to put his hand on top of his.
“Yes sir,” Bill whispered, before fading back into the darkness, warm and held and loved - despite all odds.