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The air was still heavy with smoke.
It clung on to everything. Gear, skin, the back of Chris’ throat as he exhaled slowly, trying to steady the lingering tremor in his hands. The mission went sideways too fast.
It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.
Across the dim safehouse, Piers leaned up against the wall, arms crossed, posture rigid in the way that he was holding something back. He hadn’t said much since the extraction, not to others, not to Chris. It was unlike him.
That set Chris on edge.
“You’re quiet.” He finally said.
Piers didn’t look up right away. His jaw tightened, eyes fixed to the floor like he was still seeing the mission. The explosions, the bodies, the split second decisions that didn’t leave room for him to hesitate, or doubt.
“Just thinking, sir.”
Chris let out a sigh. “Drop the ‘sir’. Not right now.”
That got a reaction out of Piers. Small, but noticeable. His gaze flickered up, trying to read something Chris wasn’t sure he knew.
“...Chris then.” Piers said under his breath.
Silence hung thick in the air between them.
“You’ve got something to say, so say it.” Chris pressed.
For a moment, it looked like Piers would brush it off. He was good at that, being professional. Staying in line and being the soldier everyone needed him to be.
But not tonight.
“We lost 2 men because we hesitated.” Piers said “Because you hesitated.”
Silence filled the room again. Chris could've snapped back, but instead he stepped closer.
“You think I don’t know that?” He said, quieter now. “You think I'm not replaying every moment in my head? Wondering what I could have done differently?”
Piers didn’t back down. If anything, he straightened, pushing off the wall.
“Then why didn’t you act?”
Because for a second, they weren’t soldiers, they were people.
Because I hesitated.
Chris didn’t say any of that. Instead, he met Piers’ gaze, the space between them shrinking until it felt like the moment a trigger could pull.
“I made a call, and I’ll carry it.”
Piers’ expression flickered. Anger, frustration, something else buried underneath.
“That’s not the point.” he muttered.
“Then what is?”
For a second, it looked like Piers might actually say it. Whatever was sitting under the surface, it was something so not like him.
But then a knock at the door, voices, the rest of the team filling back into the room.
The moment shattered.
Piers stepped away first, snapping back into place like nothing happened.
“Nothing, Captain.” he said, the formality he usually has back like armor.
Chris didn’t say anything. He just watched him go, his heart beating out of his chest.
Because whatever was between them, it wasn’t nothing.