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[dadication]

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[gr1m]

Felt he had to ask, like if he didn't no matter how illogical the thought was, the moment he was out Jack would be gone. Still clung, a twist of it could even be felt through the connection with how open it was. Vulnerable with the only person he could ever be that way with and still feel safe—

"I don't know if I can." Sleep.

No matter how physically tired he was, no matter how mentally and emotionally exhausted all of the crying and letting it out had been. He would no doubt, there was no winning what wasn't even a fight against sleep after all. Still, Gabriel didn't know if he could.

[dadication]

With the bond open and passing back and forth their degraded emotional state, there was no way that he could up and pull himself away. He had a habit of sticking close to Gabriel after missions where their link had to be locked down, and this was no different. If anything, sticking close was even more necessary because he thought he would come completely unraveled if their bond shut down again.

"Rest then," he murmured as a compromise. "We are going to have to be ready and leave in about eight hours."

He suspected that Gabriel would eventually sleep, maybe not long but sleep enough to recover some energy. He also suspected he would as well, though the moment he moved his broken hand or wrist, he'd be awake and unhappy all over again.

[gr1m]

"Gotta hit up a drug store," because going through what they needed to do after they left was all he could think to do. Even as he kept that hold on Jack's arm, Gabriel as tucked back against his chest as possible. "Get some sort of clothing before that- can't keep running with just what's left of our clothing and EMT jackets," his voice was shot, like it hurt to speak, but there he was.

Breathing a little better at the very least? It was something. "Snag some ride- motorcycle... probably best."

Was going to drift off in to unconsciousness even while he spoke, that exhausted by it all. Even if it wouldn't be for long

[dadication]

"We'll worry about that later," he murmured softly, aware that neither of them were in the condition to be running off to steal things just yet. They might have to break into other places for clothing, but for now, it was better that Gabe slept to recover for the hours that they had left.

He still snorted softly. "You want me on or driving a motorcycle? That will be exciting." He wasn't going to be able to wear a face helmet, though it would have solved a lot of their problems. They would be too tight to get over his face, probably kill some sutures along the way.

He remained awake for a little while then bunkered down himself now that their bond was safe and open and dozed behind Gabe. It lessened the urge to go wandering.

[gr1m]

He hummed a little, at least making it clear he was listening, even if the worry would still be there. The plan at least not just trapped inside of his head in silence. But- "Can't drive with your hand- would have to be behind and hold on," to Gabriel while he drove. He didn't like driving mostly because of life in LA, but he could. "Easiest to hide or ditch, what we need."

Quick and maneuverable as well, but that was the last thing he said, mumbled and dying off as he was out like a light. The sleep deep enough that it was likely going to be as restful as it possibly could given conditions. Wouldn't sleep the full eight hours of course, had only the smallest boosts from what little food he ate for his healing as well.

But he never let go of Jack's arm.

[dadication]

He waited until Gabriel had fallen asleep before he sighed heavily and rested his head against the back of the other man's neck. "Wouldn't be the first time I've driven with one hand," he whispered to no one in particular. He lifted his head to look at his bruised hand above his head and wiggled his fingers slightly, causing a twitching wince from him. Definitely made a mess of it.

While he dozed, he would quick to wake and take in their surroundings. His brief bouts were only minutes at a time, guarding his sleeping bond as much as possible. Not particularly restful, but he didn't want to miss their time for the owner to show up looking for more money.

He never tried to withdrawal from Gabriel who seemed to be sleeping well and deeply, the cry and the situation taking its toll where exhaustion came to play.

[gr1m]

It was about two hours before their time for the owner to come knocking for more money that Gabriel would wake up. Starting to stir as that deep sleep turned in to something more fitful, something that was rare whenever he was sleeping near Jack, but perhaps it spoke for just how bad this situation was for them.

Nails dug in to Jack's arm, Gabriel's grip tightening before he did finally jerk in to being awake, breathing quick and shallow, but otherwise didn't move or speak. Made himself keep still, loosen his grip, because he could still feel and tell it was Jack pressed so close to him.

Bit of a whiplash, but it was fine. Clearly fine.

[dadication]

Jack came out of his own dozing when Gabriel began to thrash and jerk in front of him, and he lifted his head as the grip on his arm tightened alarmingly. He made a noise of confusion before he recognized what was happening, but by that point, Gabe had also awakened. He flexed his fingers, tugging on his arm which had made every effort to go to sleep itself by that point.

He moaned and buried his face into his arm, having forgotten it was held together with sutures and jerked it up when pain flared along the healing lacerations and bruising. He shifted to sit up carefully on one elbow so he could look for the clock.

"...we need to pack up. You want to shower or eat before we go?"

[gr1m]

"Shower- you can try to eat." Better to get clean to the point that he wouldn't look much more like ht had just crawled out of hell. "Will you let me wrap your hand to give it some support? Bit of bandaging, but mostly medical tape," to protect certain areas of skin from the tape itself. Better than just walking around without stabilizing it a bit.

Slowly pushing himself to sit up, grabbing hold of a digital clock off the bedside table on his side of the bed.

"I'll see if I can eat something after a shower."

[dadication]

He decided to nod at the idea of eating, not certain how much he would be able to stomach, but maybe a nibble or two on a protein bar. The MRE had gone cold in the hours of Gabe sleeping, though it would probably be packed with a bit more calories for him to live off of.

"Yeah fine, you can wrap my hand," he agreed grudgingly. He still wasn't convinced it would help do anything but draw attention to them. "I'm going to need you to look at my side too, make sure the bleeding stopped." He slowly tried to right himself, but the sheets came with him, adhered to his blooded side from dried clotted blood. Ah... that wasn't going to help.

"Go shower and I'll try to disentangle myself here."

[gr1m]

Better cold than nothing at all, and if he tried that mean he'd get something now- which again would be a lot better than nothing at all. Needed to give their bodies enough to work with in order to heal quickly, because the last thing either of them needed was their bodies cannibalizing itself to get what it needed.

He stood up, very slowly, glancing back at Jack with half a frown- "Wash the blood with a wet cloth and I'll fix that- after my shower. Don't need you bleeding through what clothing we do have." Maybe grab a pair of mittens to put over both hands, it was cold enough this time of year here after all.

"Be careful, sunshine."

With that he was vanishing in to the bathroom to shower and see about what he could salvage from his own clothing.

[dadication]

Jack waited until Gabe rose and disappeared into the bathroom before he tried to actually disentangle himself from the sheets. Without stripping the bed, there was no way to get a cloth, so he carefully teased them free with some time and effort, only disturbing some of the clots.

He rose slowly from the bed, stretching because he hadn't been laying in an ideal position to begin with, but that was fine. He grabbed a protein bar from their pack of things, opening it and breaking off pieces. Unfortunately, it was too difficult and chewy on his face that he gave up after a few bites and ate the cold MRE instead, which was difficult with one working hand.

Still, he managed and even held it down as he began to systematically go through their packs and consolidate items together into one. The less they had to take with them, the better in his mind.

[gr1m]

Gabriel was just busying himself in getting most of the dried blood and... everything else off. Fortunate his hair was still short enough he didn't have to worry much about it. All the better reason to keep that buzz cut, just fuzzy and enough to grip at since he hadn't had time to shave it back down yet. Watching the filthy water circle the drain in silence.

Only stepped out once the water was running clean enough, careful as he had checked over stitching just to make sure he didn't get them too wet. Better for the both of them in the long run. Grabbing a towel and stepping out in the middle of Jack sifting through the bags.

Was needed, moving what was left of the medical bag in to the other, keep them to one bag and the rifle they'd taken. "Need some help?"

[dadication]

He looked up when the bathroom door opened and he winced as he had a good sight of the many wounds that Gabriel sported but with the dirt and grime removed, the bruising was as apparent as his own. They really had been put through the ringer, blackened and purple patches of skin showing the severity of their bruising on top of everything else.

At least they were clean.

He grunted softly at the question, nodding because doing this one handed wasn't ideal. He had his bruised and swollen hand and wrist tucked close to his chest as much as possible, but he had been forced to use a pinky finger here and there to open the folds of the bag. "Do we need to bring that last oxygen tank?"

[gr1m]

"No, can use it to hurry along any fire we start burning this shit out," because their blood was on the sheets and- they had to cover their tracks, even if it may have seemed like an overly paranoid way to go about it. Couldn't trust that it wouldn't be looked at.

Gabriel moved down, crouched just beside Jack, to help sort their things in to one bag. "Remember to leave enough out to re-do some of your stitching and to wrap your hand with. It'll at least help pad it out and give some needed stability," even if not make it hurt any less, it was better than nothing- "We're taking the rifle with us." Right then it was their only weapon after all.

Worry about pulling clothing together soon enough.

[dadication]

"That kind of explosion will draw attention to this place," he reasoned softly. With the ambulance burned out and then an oxygen tank exploding... it might put down a trail they would rather not have anyone follow. "What about a cigarette in the bedding? Easy enough to explain away."

He hesitated then grunted as he packed up their bag as carefully as he could, leaving out bandage materials and some suture and needles for Gabe to make use of. He glanced towards the rifle and shrugged his shoulders. "I can't use one right now, so it will be your weapon of choice for the time being." One of the reasons he had damaged himself. The temptation to just run out and kill those responsible was less if he didn't have a physical means.

He looked over to Gabe crouched next to him. "Your sutures have held from the shower?"

[gr1m]

He grunted, "It'd just be something else to carry then- and we can't just leave it here otherwise." Not saying Jack wasn't right, hell the fact he relented was saying he was right, but then what else did they do with it. "There a pack in the bag we took off the sniper? Not like either of us have any."

Gabriel gave an extra hand or two as needed while Jack continued to pack, even moving the materials he'd need to use soon enough aside once they were left just t keep them out of the way. "So I figured," would be the only weapon they had until they could get themselves situated better. Knew he had some spare shotguns at the bunker he could trade off for but- well... At least both of them were trained to use a multitude of weapons.

"Yeah, did my best to keep them dry while still getting clean. Can check them if you want, but I think I'm good."

[dadication]

He nodded his head, understanding that they couldn't and wouldn't carry it around. That was too much weight and would slow them down. "We could sell it," he said softly, looking over at a tank. "Or leave it for someone to find. Blowing it is going to track back to us." He would prefer to wipe it, either earn money or just plain help someone out who might need oxygen. "Yeah, I left it in the bag, since neither of us smoke."

He didn't stop Gabriel from helping him, and the job was accomplished faster for it too. Soon enough they had a single bag to drag around with them until they had reached the safe house that Gabriel was going to take them to in just a few hours. He sighed and pushed the wrapping material over to Gabe and held out his broken hand. "Do what you have to." No point delaying the inevitable.

"I trust you know how to keep yourself from blowing them out," he said with a shrug. He had already glanced at them when Gabriel had come out of the bathroom.

[gr1m]

"Selling it might be our best option, we'll need whatever funds we can pull quick in pocket for the trip." Like hell he was going to allow either of them to try and get in to any squirreled away money in accounts from anywhere unsecured. "Likely has a lighter we can use to help ignite the cigarette fire then. Just piled all the shit we can and light it."

That hand was taken carefully, Gabriel sitting on towel mostly as he was getting a good look at what he was going to be working with. "You know it's going to hurt, because I've gotta get shit back in place, right." Warning, because the quicker he took care of Jack's hand the sooner he could get to restitching those blowouts.

"Don't want to have to go through stitching it all back up again, and I know you won't either after I fix you back up."

[dadication]

"Selling it takes it out of our hands, but it also ensures that it goes somewhere else while this place burns," he agreed and thought that it would be worth a shot at. "The money might be necessary to get out of town safely too." It wasn't as if they had easy access to any kinds of funds, and he wasn't looking to start armed robbery just yet. "Yeah, he had a lighter and matches from what I saw."

He did what he could to avoid looking at his purple and swollen hand, aware that it was distorted and that there were bones that needed to be reset. He had done it once to himself the first time he had broken it on the floor, but he hadn't bothered when he punched the wall in the bathroom. His hand and fingers were trembling, and he had no way to stop them so far. "Just do it," he replied with a deep resignation. "As long as I can use it again soon." That's all that mattered.

No, stitching would be much harder one handed he would admit. His own stitches were a bit of a mess in places, and he should probably just bandage them up. Who actually cared with how deeply he would scar? "Is that your way of saying you're going to make me be more careful in future?"

[gr1m]

He hummed, "Yeah, I still think we need to look in to picking up a bike, even if we're just taking it from some bar's parking lot." Because so very easy to maneuver and ditch as needed, better than a car or other vehicle of that nature. "We'll keep the matches and up to you if we keep or leave the lighter to burn," and honestly? He was debating keeping the pack of cigarettes already, didn't smoke now of course but...

Gabriel set right to work, setting broken knuckles back in to place not done gently, because there was no gentle way to go about it. At least once that was out of the way he got to actually wrapping Jack's hand, making sure everything was stabilized and give his hand some support. Keep the fingers in place as well. Still being them, just not pull them apart, all the the name of stability for healing. This was the part he was more careful with, trying not to make anything too tight- "You'll be able to use it again, sunshine."

His nose wrinkled a bit. "Something along those lines, but we're both going to have to be very careful in the future."

[dadication]

"There are plenty of places to scam a bike," he agreed, aware that they would need to be quick about it once they left this place. They had to get as far from here as possible while it burned. Couldn't risk being identified no matter how much of mess they were. "There good matches, waterproofed because it's obvious he was going to be out there waiting."

Jack remained tense and agonized as his knuckles were reset. He had to keep from biting his own lips open or making too much noise, so he ended up chewing on the corner of the comforter to muffle the sounds of pain from him. There was no nice way about it, and he didn't expect that either. He sagged in on himself when the deed was finished, breathing hard and his complexion right back to being ashen like he might pass out at any moment. Even through bandaging, his hand trembled and there was no real relief right now. That would come with time. "...shouldn't have eaten before this... I think I'm going to vomit."

He nodded his head, aware that being careful was now actually going to have to be their motto in life, and he wasn't looking forward to it. "Once we're at the safe house, we can be more careful than we are now."

[gr1m]

"Can let the lighter burn then, can always pick new ones up anywhere if matches don't cut it."

He at least stopped, didn't just move right on to stitching, when he was done with Jack's hand. Instead he moved in closer and fixed himself behind Jack, pulling over some trashcan with a bag in it that had been in the room closer. Setting that in front of Jack and just holding him. Letting whatever soothing feelings he could muster flow through the bond. Hand rested lightly against the other's forehead. "Rest for a minute or two. Just breathe slow and deep, see if you can keep it down or not."

Whatever was needed out of him, no matter how he himself felt, he wasn't having to deal with bones being reset then and there. "Yeah. Can see what we can take from there, too."

[dadication]

"How many days travel will it be to your safe house? We should supply what we can to carry us over to there," he murmured. Being prepared for any inevitability was why they had won the war eventually.

He gratefully leaned back into Gabe's chest, slowly lowering his bandaged ruined hand to rest carefully across his belly. He pulled his legs up towards his chest and only then leaned forward over the garbage, dry heaving twice but managing to hold down the little he had eaten. He coughed - which hurt - and once it seemed he wouldn't just vomit everywhere, he slowly leaned back against Gabriel again, allowing himself to be soothed and closing his eyes. As long as he didn't move his hand, he was okay he found.

He made a small sound and pressed his face to Gabriel's neck, just taking those slow deep breaths. "I'm okay... I'll be okay."

[gr1m]

"If we're slow going a week, think if we're careful we can cut that by a few days and still not be pushing it to hard." It was out there, and he for one would drive for days straight while Jack slept given the option. "We'll camp off the roads if we have to while traveling," just get a tarp for a make-shift shelter, could use the bike as a side.

Once Jack leaned back after the dry heaving, Gabriel slowly brushed fingers through his hair, petted him soothingly as he could. Sit there as long as they could afford to as well. Wanting to let him settle, help his stomach get over the twists of pain that had made him sick to it. Could rig up a sling for him easy enough, keep the arm supported and hand up near his chest and out of the way—

"You will be, both of us will be. This pain will pass and heal as it always does for us," spoken softly.