Chapter Text
Price was exhausted from the last mission; his eyes were heavy, but he forced himself to continue dealing with the remaining paperwork before starting a new action plan. Things were chaotic as always, but since Makarov's death, terrorists had entered a kind of competition to take the place of the most problematic gang in the underworld. He no longer knew how to deal with so many hotspots at once; the team was being overwhelmed by the high demand for experienced and deadly agents, so solo missions, which were previously unfeasible, were becoming more frequent. Exceptions soon became the rule, and that was completely disturbing.
His men constantly needed support from other units, but this did not make him feel calmer; quite the contrary, he knew he was making them tense with the fact that they needed to trust a new person every time they went out, the uncertainty of being in sync growing with each mission.
There was a pile of papers with recruits who had some chance of surviving what they lived through for a possible emergency promotion, but it was still not enough; they needed a soldier ready to go in shooting, not a kid who would be another concern for a team already overloaded trying to take care of their own lives and still accomplish the objective.
The captain sighed and leaned back in his leather chair for a moment; the cigar in his mouth had even gone out, and he had no strength to do anything about it. He just needed a moment to pretend things weren't spiraling out of control. In his office, isolated from everything and everyone, he could have these moments of impunity, but when a knock on the door caught his attention, he quickly composed himself.
“Come in.”
“Hey, Cap…” Sergeant Garrick's voice surprised him; it was past midnight, and everyone should be resting to deal with the next tactical steps that he hadn't even prepared yet, but which would be inevitable.
“I brought you some sandwiches and some tea; I haven't seen you in days.”
The tray with food and the hot drink was placed on his desk, in the only small space that didn't have very important things.
Gaz knew his captain was going crazy with the demands coming from above, and he knew even more that the old man had a habit of never sharing the burden with the team, thinking they didn't need more worries. Little did he know that the fact he was isolated from the world for days was enough tension to leave both sergeants in agony, and even the darkest Lieutenant of all was starting to show restlessness.
“Thank you, Sergeant.”
John maintained his stoic tone and made no mention of looking up to see those expectant brown eyes that remained on him. He still had no good news, and information about the next field mission could wait until morning, when everyone was well-rested to deal with another pile of problems to be solved. Contrary to what he imagined, the sergeant did not leave the room immediately, grabbing a chair from the corner of the room to sit in front of Price's desk.
“What can I do to help here?” Gaz asked naturally, as if it were common for the Captain to actually accept some help now and then.
“Don't worry about it; you all need to be ready for the new instructions early on. Go back to your room, Sergeant.” John wanted to be firm with his order, but exhaustion made him less convincing than usual, and that would not go unnoticed.
“And you also need to be ready to lead these instructions anyway, Captain, so how about I help you with the papers and we go to sleep later?”
Kyle dared to opt for a bright smile, tilting his head to the side like a cute puppy so Price would stop being a proud idiot.
“Tsk… They’re just reports, and I need to organize the maps for the next reconnaissance and patrol area.”
“Then it can wait, because I remember Laswell saying we’d wait for the new member to start those reconnaissances.”
Garrick was right, and it wasn't even because he had heard it from Kate herself; it was information given directly by Price at a moment when they were sharing the same bed, with much less clothing and no existing barriers.
“Damn, I still need to find that person… But I can't think of any of these as being a survivor among us,” John said with an even heavier voice, his soft baritone becoming almost the roar of a storm due to his evident irritation at the lack of options.
“Have you seen all the recruits? I thought 096 might have a chance…” Gaz didn't even bother to pick up the pile of files and start flipping through the pages with countless photos and detailed performance descriptions.
“Some are good, but I can't settle for just that; they need to be great, exceptional, resilient, and with some experience that isn't from our training fields.”
“Yeah, that's going to be very complicated… How are the outside recommendations?”
“Discarded, the few I could invite are not willing to be relocated or only return from unknown locations in the next six months.”
Kyle grimaced at the answer and soon gave up trying to find something Price might not have seen in those papers; after all, he agreed, the firepower present in that task force depended not only on physique or technique. Experience counted more than they could foresee, and in the missions they were assigned, there wasn't much room for learning, not if the idea was to stay alive to not make mistakes again.
“I guess we're at an impasse… But we can think of some alternatives tomorrow, all together.”
The sergeant was fully aware that this was a problem and all team members were feeling this pressure, but none of them were freaking out as much as their captain, so he was the chosen one—with unanimous votes, including his own—to go there and fix the situation.
“This isn't your job, lad,” Price still tried not to be rude, reaching for one of the sandwiches on the tray just to have some excuse not to say more than the obvious, because he knew his sergeant was too good at arguments.
“Actually, it is, but we let you try alone for the sake of your pride.”
Garrick laughed openly at how indignant his captain seemed, but that only made John embarrassed, giving a slight chuckle as he realized how his arrogant position had fallen apart much sooner than he had expected.
“Sergeant, know your place…” John complained, but the smile he tried to hide behind the tea mug was noticeable, even more so as he smelled the aroma of the drink that was certainly Ghost's favorite, one that could make someone lose their hand if used without authorization.
“Of course, sir, but only if you also know your place, and it’s certainly not sleeping in that old armchair.”
Gaz had already won, but he was being patient, waiting for the man to eat at least a little more before getting up, then going to his captain's side to force him out of that smoke-filled office.
“Come on, I told Tav that if I couldn't get you out of here in half an hour, he and Ghost were to come in with the kidnapping kit.”
Price laughed at Kyle's comment and let himself be guided towards the door, making sure he was the first to put his hand on the doorknob.
“Haha, you can't be serious…” the words died in the captain's mouth when he opened the door and found a huge shadow with a skull mask on the other side, clearly holding a pair of handcuffs.
“Ghostie, did you get the duct tap- Oh, Cap! Good thing you came out, uh…” Mactavish hid the black cloth bag he was holding behind him, containing who knows what.
“We were worried about you.”
“Oh, of course you were…”
Price sighed and simply accepted his fate, being escorted to his room by his team, having to undress and lie down under the observation of the three to give them the certainty that he would rest. Not satisfied, the three exchanged glances at the bedroom door and quickly decided to enter, each settling as best they could on the captain's spacious bed, without him showing any reaction, other than getting comfortable to allow the presence of four men on the mattress.
Sleep was not long in coming, but in his dreams, he was still too worried about the matter that had been occupying his thoughts for the past few months.
They needed someone else to be a complete team in the face of new threats, but how could they complete something that was already whole? How shaken would they be by this new structure? And their unconventional relationships, how to explain that to a new member? How to explain that to commanders if the newcomer brought it up as a problem?
Price was sure he would solve this one way or another; he just didn't expect that the solution to everything was already on a plane, heading straight for their base, with the promise of a new tomorrow.