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The sea air felt amazing on Leon’s face. It smelled like salt and ozone, and he breathed it in greedily as he sped away from the exploding island. Ashley’s arms were wrapped tightly around his waist, giggles escaping her every time they bounced over a wave. Leon almost wanted to go over more waves on purpose–Ashely deserved to have some fun after all the hell she’d been put through–but every time they slammed back down onto the water it sent shockwaves through Leon’s body, aggravating the aches and bruises that littered his skin. If it were just that he would’ve been willing to tough it out, if it weren’t also for the long, gaping gash through his upper thigh where one of Saddler’s tentacles had caught him, which burned every time he braced for impact.
“Where’d you even learn to drive a jet ski like that? It was like something out of an action movie!” Ashley yelled over the wind, referring to some of the crazy maneuvers Leon had to pull (and some he probably didn’t have to) to get them out of the exploding caves.
“Secret agent school!”
Ashley snorted. “Are you being serious?”
A smile tugged at his lips. Part of his military training did actually include defensive maneuvers for seafaring vessels, but it was more focused on boats, not jet skis. They were basically the same thing in Leon’s eyes though.
His earpiece suddenly cracked to life in his ear. “Condor One!? Leon!? Are you and Ashley safe? Damn it! Come on, Leon, where are you!?” It was Hunnigan.
Leon quickly brought a hand up to his ear to respond. “I’m here, Roost. Me and Baby Eagle are on our way back to the mainland now.”
Hunnigan audibly sighed with relief. “Good.” Then she cleared her throat, adopting her familiar professional demeanor once more. “Head to extraction point F, a helicopter will be there to get you in about half an hour.”
Leon pulled up his mental map of the area. We should be able to make that. “Ok. Condor One to Roost, out.” He adjusted their course to head towards the predetermined location: a rocky beach about half a mile from the village.
“What’s the plan?” Ashley asked.
“A helicopter is picking us up at a beach to take us home.”
She cheered. “Thank god! I'm going to take the hottest shower of my life when we get back.”
Leon seconded that. He was covered head to toe in crusted-over blood and gunk from the exploding plagas. He would probably have to trash his clothes; he didn't think he'd ever be able to wear them again while knowing what they were once covered with. Part of him was almost glad he lost his jacket before he became covered in gore–it saved him the pain of having to throw that beloved piece of clothing away.
They made it to the beach quickly enough. It was small and secluded, set into a cove next to a large cliff and littered with boulders that had been sheared off the towering stone. Leon brought the jet ski as close to shore as he could, gritting his teeth against the sound of rocks grinding along the metal bottom before hopping off. Water splashed up around his thighs, completely soaking the already damp fabric of his pants as he and Ashley waded to the beach.
“I thought you said a helicopter was getting us?” Ashley asked, her eyes scanning the sky as she wrung out a section of her skirt.
Leon sat down in front of a boulder, leaning his head back against it and letting his eyes slip shut. “They’ll be here in half an hour.”
“Ok.” There was the sound of stones bumping into each other under her feet. “What should we–Leon!”
Leon's eyes shot open and his hand flew to his gun. Fuck, I thought they were all dead! Where–
“What happened to your leg!?”
Oh. Ashley was staring horrified at the gash on his thigh, which was starting to leak fresh blood that seeped through his pants and painted the stones under him a dark red. The saltwater must have washed away the clotted blood that was stemming the bleeding.
His adrenaline faded and he leaned his head back, closing his eyes again. “It's fine, just a little present from Saddler. No big deal.”
It was silent for a few moments. Then there was the sound of clattering stones followed by the soft rustling of fabric directly next to him. Leon cracked open an eye to find Ashley kneeling beside him; her lips pressed into a thin line as she gazed worriedly at his leg.
“It needs to be cleaned and bandaged, or it might get infected. Do you have anything that–”
Leon cut her off. “Seriously Ashley–it's fine. Don't worry about me.”
She glared at him, and he was startled to see tears gathering in her eyes. “Stop doing that! You keep saying you’re fine when you're obviously not, and it's–” her voice wobbled and she stopped, taking a deep breath to calm herself before continuing. “I let it go before because I understood we had to keep moving, but now all we're doing is waiting. There's no reason not to treat it.”
Leon felt…awkward…with that much concern leveled at him. It really wasn't that bad of a wound; he'd gotten far worse over the last few years and he had the scars to prove it. Ashley did have a point about infection being a potential problem–God knows where those tentacles had been–but the helicopter was sure to have better medical supplies on board. Any bandaging they did would just have to be removed so the wound could be treated properly once they were on the helicopter. Ashley was looking at him with a strange sort of desperation though, and he found himself agreeing anyway.
“Ok fine, Ms. President’s Daughter.”
Ashley smiled. “Right! So, uh, do you have any more of those weird herbs, I guess?”
“A few, yeah.” He pulled out one of the vials filled with green herbs. She motioned for it and he handed it over.
“Um, you usually just sort of, down them, right?” She turned the vial over in her hands, studying it. “But sometimes I've seen you like, stuff them into the wounds instead?”
He grimaced. “Yeah. Really it works best if you put some on the wound and chew some too, but most of the time I don't have time to properly dress a wound, so I just–” he mimicked knocking back a shot.
Ashely frowned at that. “Well, we're going to do this properly.” She looked around at the empty beach. “We have the time after all.”
Leon held up his hands, “Fine! No more doing drugs on the job, I get it.”
That pulled a small laugh from her. “Good.” She then clapped her hands together. “Alright. I did a first aid class last semester, so let's see how much I remember.”
“You know I can just do this myself, right?”
Her expression twisted, then smoothed over again just as quickly as she waved a hand. “Nuh-uh. Enough of you helping me. It's my turn to help you now.” She paused, then– “Uh, do you have any more bandages as well? And I think I’ll also need your knife. The blood looks like it’s stuck your pants to your skin.”
He handed over a roll of yellowed bandages and his combat knife, and Ashley started cutting away the material around the gash as carefully as she could, trying not to knick him or tug his skin too hard. As the fabric was peeled away, Leon was able to get a better look at the wound.
It was about four inches long, curving around the outside of his thigh in a wide, lipless smile. Dark red blood wept from where the saltwater had washed away the clots. Thankfully, it didn’t seem too deep, and the bleeding was sluggish.
Ashley sucked air through her teeth. “That's gonna need so many stitches.”
Leon decided not to mention that he’s definitely needed more. “Yeah, probably.”
“Does it hurt?”
It was starting to sting, now that the adrenaline of everything was wearing off, but not too bad, yet.
“Nah. Not really. Saddler’s gotta do better than that.”
Ashley gave him a look–a familiar one, from her, with a furrow in her brow like she didn’t believe him–before she sighed and started to gently pack the green herbs into his wound. Her hands were surprisingly steady, even as crimson caked under her nails and pooled in her cuticles. The blood quickly saturated the herbs, turning them a dark red as they clumped together.
“You know, I’m kind of surprised you’ve made it this far,” she said, still focused on packing the herbs. “What with you eating whatever conveniently placed, mysterious drug herb that crosses your path.” Ashley glanced up at him with a small smile.
Leon huffed a laugh, ignoring the way it burned his ribs. The adrenaline was really starting to wear off now. “Yeah. Me too. Sure, we get field medic training, but you try figuring out which plants are medicinal when you’re barely conscious from blood loss.”
“One of these days someone is going to drug you by disguising it as a potted plant.” She tsked as she finished layering on the herbs and switched to the bandages.
Leon bent his knee, wincing as he lifted his thigh off the ground so she could start looping the bandages around. “Nah–no one would bother kidnapping me. I’d be way too much of a pain in the ass.”
Ashley’s hands stuttered at that, pausing their wrapping before continuing the motion once more.
“I’m sorry, by the way.” She kept her gaze fixed firmly on his leg. “For putting you through all this.”
“It’s not your fault, you know.”
“It’s not like I made your job easy.” Leon was surprised at the venom in her voice. “All I did was get grabbed. You were risking your life to protect me, and the only thing I could do was kick and scream. I couldn’t do anything.”
She had started to wrap the bandages around his leg faster, and Leon put a hand on hers to stop her.
“Hey. Don’t do that. You did your best.”
Ashley scoffed softly. Leon could see her eyelashes were clumped with tears.
“No really, you did,” he continued. “It’s not your fault they weren’t normal people–there was only so much you could do.”
She tugged her hands back. “I ran away from you for God's sake! Because I got scared!”
“Sure–but then you got me out of that cage all by yourself, and you dropped that Regenerator into that pit, and you managed to get rid of my plaga after I went unconscious. That’s not nothing.”
Ashley pressed her lips together. “But Luis–”
“–Not your fault. That one’s on me. Trust me.”
She looked like she wanted to argue, but dropped it. After a few seconds of silence, she glanced up with a small smile. “You’re forgetting about the wreaking ball.”
“Ah, how could I forget? After that, you’re a bonafide secret agent yourself.”
“And don’t you forget it!” Ashley was properly smiling now, her tears beginning to dry as she finished wrapping up his leg. “Right–that should do it. Not too bad if I do say so myself.” She leaned back, putting her hands on her hips as she admired her work.
It really wasn’t half bad. The bandages were a little loose near the bottom, but otherwise they were secure and seemed to be doing their job well enough, with no blood seeping through.
“You did a good job. That first aid class was worth the money.”
Ashley barked a laugh. “Not really. The professor was crazy.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. He went on and on about this–”
She was cut off by the roar of a helicopter sweeping in from over the cliff, making a small loop around the cove back to them and hovering over the pebble beach.
“Looks like our ride is here,” Leon said as they tossed a rope ladder down.
Ashley stood up, attempting to wipe some of the blood off her hands with her skirt. “Finally! I can’t wait to get home and shower.”
“You and me both.” Leon straightened out his leg and hissed through his teeth as it burned sharply. Shit that was hurting now.
Ashley looked down at him, worry creasing her brow. “You ok?”
Leon thought for a second, the reflexive affirmation on the tip of his tongue, then, “How ‘bout helping me up?”
He reached out a hand, and when he grasped Ashley’s still-bloodied palm, her grin was blinding.