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Someone was in your house. It was the middle of the night and someone was in your house. You hadn't known what had woken you up at first, and you were about to turn over and try to fall back asleep when you had heard it. The sound of a cupboard closing. Fuck someone was in your house and you were alone, Simon was deployed to who knows where and there was someone in your house.
A cold washed over you as panic woke you up fully. What were you going to do? You had no idea if you called 911 if it would send someone from the city or if it'd become some clusterfuck of rerouting to someone on base. What if something happened during that time?
You weren't about to go scrambling out of a window because that seemed like it'd lead to you needing an ambulance rather than escape. Plus you'd have to figure out how to take the boys with you and you didn't trust them to keep quiet.
If fleeing and hiding weren't an option, that just left fight didn't it? Sure you kept a baseball bat under the bed for just in case, but you never really thought you were ever going to need it.
With your heart in your throat you crept out of bed, reaching out for the bat. Even if you had no idea what you were going to do with it, feeling the weight in your hands helped make you feel a little better. It was solid, it was a weapon, and it was going to see you through this.
You were grateful that Simon was so pedantic about oiling all the hinges on the door because it was practically silent when you opened the bedroom to peer out into the rest of the house. It was still so dark but you could just make out some dark shape in the kitchen.
It was large and almost human shape and just standing there. Given how there was no reaction at the door opening whoever it was must have had their back to you. Alright, you could do this. Just needed to give them a good thwack or two and then...figure it out from there. You could do this.
Only you hadn't anticipated that when you finally did manage to get to them and swing, that whoever it was would be faster than you. Before you could register it, the bat was grabbed mid air and ripped from your grip, clattering to the floor loudly before you were being pinned against the wall, a strong arm pressing against your throat.
One hand reached out to try to at least claw at the face of whoever was attacking you, while the other slammed against the wall, searching for the light fixture. Your heart was slamming against your chest. Your nails dug into something, pulling as hard as you could until you felt something snap. You could barely breath let alone speak. It was so dark and you felt like you were seconds away from being swallowed whole by it.
And then you finally found the light panel and you managed to flip the switch. The bright lights hurt your eyes, so that must have meant it'd hurt the intruder. Only as soon as the lights came on things seemed to stop, or at least the arm wasn't pressing so tightly anymore.
"Thimble?"
Once you managed to blink the spots away from your sight you could finally see in front of you clearly. It wasn't an intruder. At least you didn't think so?
"Simon?"
The guy had Simon's eyes, but where the surgical mask typically blocked out the rest of his face, it now was hanging from a single ear. You must have yanked on it hard enough to break it. You couldn't stop yourself from scanning over his face, taking in the slope of his nose, how his lower lip was thinner than the top, the almost split in his chin. He had a scratch on his cheek. Had you done that?
"Bloody 'ell, what the fuck do ya think you're doing?"
You were released from the wall and the first deep breath you took also seemed to rush some sense into you. Fuck Simon didn't like showing his face, and this wasn't like this was a situation where he was willingly letting you see him. You spun around so you'd face the wall instead, also covering your eyes for some reason.
"Sorry! I heard a noise so I just-"
"Decided to meet it with a fuckin'...bat?"
You shrugged, starting to feel humiliation at your stupidity seep into your bones.
"I didn't think I'd make it out a window, and I didn't know if the police would be fast enough?"
You could only imagine what Simon was thinking. Even as you explained yourself you could see how stupid you were sounding. It was silent behind you for a few minutes before you heard a deeper sigh.
"Where'd you even get this thing from?"
"I keep it under the bed when you're gone."
"Hnn."
You were either getting better at distinguishing Simon's different noises, or you were loosing it. Because it didn't completely sound like a disappointed hnn. More one of consideration. Like a 'it could be worse'.
"Turn around, let me take a look at ya."
You almost did but stopped, biting your lower as you hesitated.
"You sure? I can turn the lights off and you can get another mask if you want."
It was the least you could do seeing as you tried to bludgeon the man in his own kitchen. Simon was silent as he considered your offer. without answering the question you could hear footsteps and the soft swish of a drawer being opened. You were so tempted to turn your head and steal a glimpse of him again, but you had a feeling that if you tried to take back your offer to not look it'd break the trust you two had built. So you waited.
"Al'ight you can turn around now."
When you did you were greeting with a more familiar sight, Simon with half his face covered and those eyes staring down into you. You didn't know why you felt so shy all of a sudden. Must have been the attempted assault.
"You okay?"
"Feel like I should be the one askin' that. How's the head?"
You reached up to feel the back of your head, only to unexpectedly have Simon back in your space, his hand moving as if to cradle the back of your head. You both startled, pulling back and stepping away from each other. Or well Simon stepped away. You were pretty much still stuck against the wall.
"I think at worst I'll just have a goose egg back there. How's your wrist?"
Because Simon must have caught the bat in full swing. You weren't the strongest person in the world, but you had swung that bat like your life had depended on it.
"Hnn."
Oh that was Simon's 'I don't want to talk about it' hnn. Which meant it might have hurt. Oops. You pushed past the mountain of a man, your mouth and brain for once running at the same speed.
"Let me get ice or something."
It ended up being or something. A bag of frozen peas that you hadn't quiet figured out what to do with yet. A cold compact would suffice at least. You busied yourself with wrapping it in some paper towels before turning to find Simon yet again looming over you. You needed to put a fucking bell on that man Jesus.
You hesitated to put the cold peas directly on him, unsure of which wrist you could have possibly injured. And of course Simon ignored the offered bag in favor of gently tilting your chin up to look at your throat. At least you assumed that's where he was looking. It was already a strange enough night you really didn't feel like asking a ton of further questions.
"You sure you're alright?"
You'd never heard Simon be so...not timid, but almost smaller. Like the weight of what could have happened was pressing down on him. Like he was already blaming himself for something he hadn't done.
Reaching up you took care to wrap your fingers around his wrist slowly, to give him time to pull away if he wanted. He didn't and you gently rubbed your thumb against his inner wrist. You met his gaze and gave him a small half smile.
"I'm okay Simon. Promise."
Putting things to rights went pretty quickly, thankfully nothing had broken in the struggle. Simon had insisted that you go back to sleep in the bedroom, that he'd prefer to stay on the couch anyways. He had even made a joke that he was a bit more useful than a baseball bat. So you went back to bed and he camped out on the couch.
You didn't fall back asleep easily after that. You laid in bed, thinking over and over again about the look Simon had had in his eyes. It was like he had been searching your soul for something. What you weren't sure, but you hoped he had found it.
It wasn't until you were drifting off to sleep again that you thought about his face in its entirely. You know it was accidental, but you couldn't say that you had minded getting a glimpse of his face. Who knew your husband could be so handsome?