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Unsung Heroes: Mission Two	By : RavenLadies Category: +G through L > G.I. Joe Views: 1326 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the cartoon(s) that this fanfiction is written for, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
Chapter Two

The door slid open with a soft hiss, Lifeline’s booted feet softly stepping over the threshold and into the observation area of Devil Dog’s makeshift room in the containment lab. The medic had left the Marine dozing a couple of hours earlier, Billy appearing to be both physically and emotionally drained by the MRI attempt. After returning to his office, Rebecca Chambers had found him about half an hour later, the look on the young woman’s face more than enough to tell Edwin that the MRI had yielded nothing useful. Before the two had been able to map out a new strategy, Lifeline had been called away to deal with a minor accident on the main loading dock, only to return to his office the find the CDC representative gone. Stopping by the supply room first, the medic had then made his way down to the containment lab.

He found Rebecca standing in the observation area, watching Billy through the glass as he rested, her expression pensive. She had his file clutched in one hand. She had, in fact, not been without it since her arrival.

“Doctor Chambers...”

Rebecca jumped at the sound of her name, and looked over at Edwin. "You startled me," she said softly.

“Sorry,” the medic said, giving the young woman a quick apologetic smile.

"It's all right." Rebecca returned the smile briefly before looking back through the window. "You know, when I received those files...I never would have expected it to be him."

Lifeline stepped towards Rebecca, stopping when he reached her side, his dark eyes going to look at the man behind the glass as well. “At the risk of sounding like a dork, I guess it’s true about it being a small world.”

"No kidding..."

The medic fell silent as he looked at Billy’s prone form through the thick glass. After several long moments, Rebecca broke the silence. "I think I know a way to get a look at what might be in his chest...Something that won't traumatize him in the process." Pulling his eyes away from the inner chamber, Edwin turned a bit to look at Rebecca. The young woman kept her eyes on the glass. "I should have thought of it before," she went on.

“We do have the facilities for a CAT scan if that’s what you’re thinking,” Lifeline offered up, having had the same thought earlier.

Rebecca shook her head. "It's not. A CAT scan wouldn't give us the level of detail that we need. It's better suited to bones and such." Then she smiled faintly. "I was thinking of an ultrasound."

The medic thought for a few moments, before slowly nodding his head. “It just might work,” he said looking back at the young woman, a faint smile on his face.

"Do you have the equipment here?"

Edwin shook his head regretfully. “No. It’s not...well, it's not something we really have much of a need for here. I could probably get one here in a couple of days though.”

"That would be better than trying to stabilize him enough to take off-base."

Lifeline nodded his head in agreement. “I’d rather not take him off the base if we don’t absolutely have to, especially since we aren’t quite sure of what we’re dealing with yet.” His dark gaze turned back to the glass and the man beyond.

"I agree completely," Rebecca said with a nod, then looked over at Edwin. "So why are you down here?"

“I could ask you the same thing,” the medic responded as he turned his eyes back to the young woman next to him.

"I came down to ask him some questions, but I don't think he can answer most of the questions I need answered..."

“Like what?” Lifeline asked, his head tilting to the side a bit.

Rebecca tapped the file in her hand. "This isn't complete."

“It’s all we have, everything since he first came into Joe custody. I tried requisitioning his original records from the Corps but...well, they seem to have been ‘lost’.”

Rebecca frowned. "He can't remember the name of the institution they took him to, either."

“I don't think he knows,” Lifeline said quietly. “He told me about all the rest, though. I know everything, from the mission his team was sent on, the court martial, what he remembers about the institution – all of it.”

"But he wasn't able to name the facility?" Rebecca looked surprised.

Edwin shook his head. “No, and truthfully, at the time I just figured it wasn’t all that important.”

She nodded at that. "...we need those records...”

The medic quietly regarded Rebecca for a few moments. “I suppose I could try asking again, I don’t want to upset him. He’s already...emotionally he’s...” Lifeline trailed off and shook his dark head, squeezing his eyes shut as he turned his face away from the young woman and towards the security glass again. Opening his eyes, he focused on the man on the other side. “I’ll ask him about it, but I won’t push him.”

"Understood," Rebecca said softly. "Now, what was this about his emotional state? I know all of this has to be freaky for him, but..."

Edwin turned and leaned against the glass. “I – I wasn’t here, so I can only tell you what I was told.”

Rebecca nodded, her eyes on the medic as he moved. "That's all right."

“One of his subordinates came to see me not long before his collapse; he said he was worried about Devil – about Billy – that he thought that he was sick or something, maybe even having a breakdown of some kind. He said that Billy had been isolating himself, and snapping at everyone when he had to deal with them; and that he’d become aggressive and agitated.” Lifeline’s voice was soft as he spoke. “He even got into it with a couple of senior Joes, too.”

"Somehow, I doubt that went over well with the higher-ups."

“Not it didn’t,” the medic said with a slight shake of his dark head. “From what I heard afterwards, he wasn’t very far from an official reprimand and brig time. Scarlett told me that Duke had Billy in his office for almost an hour laying him out after he and Leatherneck had to be pulled off one another in the mess hall.”

Rebecca frowned. Billy was, she knew, an aggressive man who wasn't afraid of a fight, but he had never seemed like a needlessly violent person. On the other hand, if what he was carrying was T-Virus or Nemesis parasite based... "Any idea how long it was between that and his collapse?"

Edwin’s brows quirked together as he thought, “I don’t know exactly. I was gone for a little over two weeks. Hancock would probably know for sure.”

Rebecca smiled a bit and nodded. "Well then, I should probably go talk to him, and leave you to do whatever it was you came down here for."

“I was going to replace the catheter for the epidural.” Edwin said as he pulled away from the wall. “I was hoping that maybe he would be able to sleep a little better without it for bit.”

"All right. Is there somewhere we could meet after I've finished talking to Hancock? All things considered, we should probably make sure we're both working from the same info."

“I’m done for the day,” Lifeline replied. “Although I was thinking of staying down here after I got done – you know, keep him company for a while.”

"Why don't I come back here, then."

The medic nodded his dark head before stepping towards the automated door that opened into the containment room.

# # #

As she made her way down the hall toward the Infirmary, Rebecca tried to remember everything Billy had told her about his unit. She knew, for example, they were really more of a special task force than a traditional unit. When they weren't running drills or out on missions, they had other individual duties to see to. The only exemption they received was that they weren't allowed to be assigned individually to missions that would take them out of the country. In the event that they needed to be mobilized, it was necessary that they be close at hand.

The team was also made up mostly of Marines. Given that Billy was a Marine himself, that revelation hadn't surprised Rebecca in the least. What mattered most to her, of course, was that these were the people Billy spent the majority of his time with. These were the people who saw him daily, and they would be the ones best able to give Rebecca the information she needed.

The infirmary was relatively quiet when Rebecca went in, something the young woman was exceedingly grateful for. Her entrance was noticed almost immediately, and a slender African-American man walked toward her. He was a handsome man, with a toned musculature, kind eyes and a friendly smile on his lips, one that Rebecca found herself immediately drawn to. “You must be Doctor Chambers,” the young man said, his tone smooth and calm, holding out his hand as he came to a halt in front of her; the other arm was in a sling. Rebecca nodded and smiled a little, and the man went on. “Lance Corporal Marcel Hancock. Lifeline told me you might need to talk to me at some point.”

Rebecca nodded again. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Corporal.”

“Please, call me Marcel.”

That made the young woman smile. She'd been a little nervous about the meeting, but Hancock's easy-going manner was quickly putting her at ease. “I'd like to talk to you about Lieutenant Coen, if that's all right. The rest of your teammates, too, if that's possible.”

Hancock nodded. “Sure,” he said, and glanced at his watch. “They'll all be down in the Mess Hall right now.”

They took the walk from the infirmary to the mess hall in silence, Rebecca already trying to gather her thoughts so she could ask the questions she needed to without stumbling over her own tongue too much. Hancock didn't seem bothered by the quiet at all, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. Probably trying to remember everything he thinks I'm going to ask him about, Rebecca decided, and maintained her silence, not wanting to interrupt his thoughts if that was the case.

The mess hall was crowded when they went in, but Hancock led her through the throngs of people effortlessly, stopping only now and again to talk with a well-wisher, or someone who was curious about Rebecca's presence. In both situations, Hancock was brief but never rude, the urgency in his replies extricating himself quickly as he led Rebecca to a far corner. “That's the unit over there,” Hancock said, nodding his head toward the table ahead of them.

A few of the table's occupants noticed their approach, and hailed Hancock. To Rebecca's surprise, there were nearly as many women as men, and they seemed like a very diverse group. Hancock, Kenya Strong, and Raphael Hopper were all African-American. Apparently there was a fourth member who was as well, Jocelyn Freeman, although she was still recovering from a mission-gone-wrong. Raphael Hopper, their pilot, was the tallest and bulkiest of all the men. Kenya, the group's hacker, was his exact opposite, solidly built but slender and very short. Franklin Daniels was one of the quieter members, gifting Rebecca with a gentle smile, but remaining silent. He was a redhead with a dusting of freckles over his nose and cheeks, and had a rather unnerving habit of sitting absolutely still when he spoke. Hancock explained, perhaps sensing Rebecca's unease, that Daniels was their sniper and secondary pilot. Nancy Dale was probably the youngest of the unit, a quiet brunette girl who said very little. She was their Intel officer, and also a hacker herself. Of all the members she met though, none struck Rebecca quite as strongly as Billy's second-in-command, Nina Hutchinson.

The woman was as strongly built as any of them, sporting short-cropped blonde hair and piercing eyes. She studied Rebecca silently, and only nodded at Rebecca as Hancock ushered her into a seat among them all. “Guys,” he said. “This is Doctor Chambers. She's with the CDC, and she wants to talk to us about the Lieutenant.”

“What would you like to know?” Hopper asked, leaning back a little in his seat and regarding Rebecca a little warily now.

Rebecca smiled in reply and forced herself to relax in her seat. “I'm here to try and figure out what's wrong with Lieutenant Coen, and to do that, I need as much information as I can get about him. And while I can learn a certain amount from the tests we've been doing, I also need to know about other things.”

“Like if he's been acting screwy in the head or something,” Kenya piped in, clearly unimpressed with the explanation.

“C'mon guys,” Hancock said. “She's not here to try and lock him up or anything. And you remember what the Lieutenant said. All those viruses and things can do weird shit to people.”

It was Dale who spoke next. “So you think he's got the virus.” It wasn't a question.

Rebecca shook her head. “Honestly, we're not sure what he's got yet. It might be related to those victims you've been finding, or it might be something totally different.”

Silence fell over the table for a time, while each of the members sized Rebecca up. It was clear they didn't trust her or her motives, and were extremely protective of their commanding officer. Rebecca couldn't really blame them. It was likely they all knew what he'd suffered up to this point, and it was clear they had no intentions of betraying him like his last unit had, even inadvertently.

“What kind of information are you looking for, exactly, Doctor?” Hutchinson's voice was low, her arms crossed over her chest.

“Any kind of oddities in his behavior, anything at all that might help me determine if he's got some kind of illness, if he's in the process of having a complete breakdown, or if there's something else more serious wrong.” Rebecca didn't like having to use even half-truths with these people, but she didn't dare tell them about her suspicions. Like she had with both Duke and Lifeline before, she had no intentions of raising more hopes or fears or doubts than she absolutely had to until she could determine for sure just what Billy had. Again, a silence fell over the table, and when it broke, Rebecca found herself being painted a rather unnerving picture.

She was told about their ambush by Cobra, the mission that resulted in both Freeman and Hancock being injured. Billy had taken that hard, they said, clearly blaming himself even though it had been the decision of the unit to disobey his orders and go back for him. When Freeman's condition worsened, and she was eventually shipped off to Walter Reed Medical Center for further treatment, Billy only seemed to get worse. In spite of whatever inner turmoil was going on, however, business carried on as usual, at least mostly. Hutchinson more or less took over the unit during those periods. She explained to Rebecca that she wanted to give Billy the time he seemed to need to check on his two injured subordinates.

The oddness, Hopper offered up, hadn't started happening until after the lock down on base, one caused because of the odd gas-emitting device they'd found pumping its strange chemical compound into the base's ventilation system. At first, they'd thought it was just a product of being too stressed out from the quarantine itself, but the oddities has persisted, even beyond that. It began with small things, Billy's temper becoming hair-trigger and unpredictable. The unit dismissed it, but things only seemed to get worse.

The continuing aggressiveness and hostility finally came to a head when Billy got into a knock-down, drag-out fight with Leatherneck, one of the older Joes. Rebecca frowned immediately at that. Billy had a temper, she knew that. Billy also wasn't afraid of a fight. Hell, to her, it didn't seem like Billy Coen was afraid of anything. But what didn't suit the man's personality was getting into a fight like that while stone-cold sober with a superior officer. Even Billy's unit thought it odd, and no one seemed to be able to tell her anything about what had actually started the fight.

All they knew was that Duke had laid Billy out verbally, and made it clear brig time would be the least of the Marine's concerns if something like that happened again. That fight had been a few days ago. “And he's been acting strangely since,” Strong went on.

“Strangely, how?” Rebecca asked, going on silently, How much stranger can this possibly get?

Much stranger, apparently. After his talk with Duke, Billy had virtually disappeared from view. When they did see him, he was always in full BDUs, although he looked worn out, and a little ill. Hancock tried inquiring once into the problem, but had been brushed off; the medic didn't want to push the subject and let it go. In retrospect, he told Rebecca, he wished he'd kept pushing. When they were all done speaking, Rebecca took up the thread of the story. “So after that, the next thing any of you knew about was his collapse on the practice range, correct?”

Kenya Strong was the one who nodded. “Yeah. He was going over some stuff with me and the others, and he just froze up.”

“Had he been complaining about headaches, or anything else?”

Strong shook her head. “The Lieutenant doesn't ever complain about anything. He's always really quiet about that stuff.”

Rebecca nodded. “So he froze up?”

“Yeah, and I went and got Hancock and Lifeline, and they took him down to the Infirmary. It was really weird, overall. He went all still, like someone flipped a switch in his brain off and on.”

Rebecca filed that note away for later, and finally sat back. “And that's pretty much everything up to my arrival, right?” She asked. Nods all around the table. Rebecca stood. “Thank you all for your time,” she went on. “If any of you think of anything else, let me know, please, or leave word with Lifeline or Hancock?”

Again, there were nods all the way around, and Hancock stood as well. “Did you need me to take you back to your quarters, Ma'am?”

Rebecca shook her head. “No, I'm headed back to the containment labs, and I think I can find my way back. Thank you.”

Hancock nodded. “Hope we've been of some help to you.”

In spite of the first beginnings of a headache, and the fact that Rebecca didn't feel any closer to a solution than she had been before, she smiled. “I hope so, too.”

# # #

The door opened with a hiss, beckoning Edwin into the almost dreary silence beyond. Since the room had been created in a rather makeshift manner, it lacked even the meager comforts of a typical hospital room. It contained little more than the bed, a chair, a tray on wheels, and the monitors Billy was hooked to that kept track of his vital signs.

His tread light, the medic made his way over to the bed. Edwin had already decided that if Billy was still sleeping, that he would leave the Marine be rather than wake him. Edwin's footsteps drew Billy's attention, and the Marine sat up slowly, wincing a little as he did. “Hey, who said you could get up?” the medic asked as he reached the Marine’s bedside.

"Sorry, Doc, but I think I'm done counting the cracks in the ceiling for the day," Billy shot back with a weak grin.

“No sleep?”

Billy shook his head. "I tried. Couldn't do it."

“Couldn’t eat either from the look of things,” Edwin said, his dark eyes glancing to the untouched tray on the table that had been wheeled over to the Marine’s bedside. Again, the other man shook his head.

The medic sighed a bit as he looked at Billy. “What am I going to do with you?” he asked, the usual joking tone in his voice whenever he asked the Marine that question missing.

"Put me out of my misery?"

“That’s not even remotely funny.”

"It wasn't meant to be."

“Don’t,” Edwin started, his dark eyes intent on the Marine, his voice taking on a harder tone. “Don’t talk like that, Billy.”

The edge on the medic's tone was enough to make Billy blink as he met Edwin's gaze for a few moments, then looked away. "Sorry."

Lifeline closed his eyes for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I just...I just don’t like hearing people talk like that, even if it is only a joke.”

"Edwin, I'm not entirely sure I'm joking..." Billy said quietly. "If this thing turns out to be dangerous, and if there isn't a way to cure it..."

“No,” the medic said firmly. “Once you start thinking like that is when you start to give up.”

"I just don't want to be a threat to anyone..."

“Look, can we not talk about this right now?” Edwin asked softly, the subject apparently very upsetting to the medic.

Billy looked up, and nodded. "Alright." An uncomfortable silence fell over the two men, the only sound the beep of the monitor that kept track of the Marine’s heartbeat and blood pressure. "So...what's next? Since the MRI didn't work, I mean," the Marine finally murmured, anxious to break the silence.

Billy’s voice pulled Lifeline back from his thoughts. “We’re going to try an ultrasound – Dr. Chambers’ idea.”

"An ultrasound? Like they use on pregnant women?"

“Exactly,” Edwin said with a nod of his head. “The image won’t be near what we could have gotten with the MRI, but it should work for what she wants.”

"Well, at least it won't require me to be trapped in a tube."

“True. Just laid out with your chest bare.”

"I think I can handle that."

“I had a feeling that would appeal to you much more,” Lifeline said, with a faint smile. “Won’t be for a couple days though, I have to get one flown in.”

"Okay. And since I know you don't come down here because of my sunny disposition, what's up?"

“That’s not true,” the medic protested.

"Oh come off it, Edwin. You may like me, but I know I've been a complete bastard since they put me in here..."

“Would you rather be left alone?” Lifeline asked.

Billy shook his head. "Too much time for me to think is a bad thing..." he said softly.

“Depends on what you’re thinking about,” Edwin said softly as he looked at the Marine, he gaze softening. “If you’re thinking that you aren’t going to let this beat you down, then it’s a good thing.”

"...What I'm thinking is that I'm scared shitless, and I'm not liking it."

Reaching for the safety rail on the side of Billy’s bed, Lifeline unlocked it and slid it down so that he could sit on the edge of the bed. “I know,” he said quietly, reaching for his lover’s hand. Billy gladly took that hand in his, lacing their fingers together. He didn't give a rat's ass who saw them at that particular moment in time. He just needed some kind of reassurance that he wasn't going to be alone through this particular ordeal. The two fell into silence once again for a few moments before Edwin spoke. “I was thinking,” he started. “That once you’re back on your feet, about taking some time off – the two of us.”

"Yeah?"

The medic nodded his head. “There’s something I’ve always wanted to try.”

"What's that?"

“Deep sea fishing,” came the reply with a faint smile to go along with it. “Florida or the Carolinas maybe.” Edwin looked at the Marine. “What do you think?”

"I think it sounds good."

“Maybe you could bring Robby along.”

That brought a genuine smile to Billy's lips. "He'd like that."

Lifeline’s smile widened a bit, although there was a hint of sadness that crept into his dark eyes as he looked at Billy. The Marine's eyes turned to meet Edwin's and the expression there softened a little in response to the emotion in Edwin's face. After a moment, he hauled the medic in for a brief, rough hug and whispered. "I'm not going to give up, Edwin, I promise...I've got way too much to live for."

Lifeline’s eyes slid closed as his arm snaked around the Marine, returning the hug before pulling back a bit after a few moments to press his lips to Billy’s, not caring about where they were or who might see. Billy smiled into the kiss, breaking it a few moments later, and looked up at Edwin. "So seriously," he murmured. "What did you come down here for?"

“To play doctor,” the medic replied, smiling a bit despite his more somber mood.

"Ah. Time to poke more holes in me, then?" Billy said with a levity he didn't entirely feel.

“’Fraid so.” Edwin said as he released the Marine’s hand and rose from the bed.

“Got to put the catheter back in.” Reaching into the pockets of the lab coat he was wearing, Lifeline pulled out several packaged items.

"And here I thought my day couldn't get any better..."

Pushing the untouched dinner plate to the side, Edwin put the items down on the bedside tray and turned back to the bed. “C’mon Devil Dog, time to roll over.”

"Bark," Billy said wryly, before shifting slowly to comply with Edwin's request, ignoring the smaller stabs of pain the movement sent through him.

“Good boy,” the medic said with a small chuckle as he pulled on a pair of latex gloves before turning back to the items on the tray and opening them.

Once everything was laid out, Lifeline turned back to Billy, his deft fingers undoing several of the ties on the back of the other man’s hospital gown. As he parted the fabric, he couldn’t help but wince a bit at the stripes of bruised flesh marring the Marine’s back. Rather than healing, they seemed only to be getting darker, although they were no longer increasing in size. Occasionally, something would ripple under the Marine's skin and Billy grit his teeth against the pain that rippling caused. "So tell me," he hissed through gritted teeth as he felt the hospital gown falling open a bit. "How bad has whatever this is tweaked the tattoo?"

“You’re worried about the tattoo?” Edwin shook his head a bit, his gloved fingers lightly drifting over the inked flesh for a moment before dabbing at the skin around it with a local anesthetic. “It’s still intact,” he went on as he worked, the liquid quickly working to numb the area around where the medic would be inserting the needle for the catheter. “But there’s a big purplish black bruise going through it, though.”

"It wasn't exactly cheap," Billy replied with a one-shouldered shrug, his skin jumping a little when Edwin's fingers slipped over the inked skin. He settled down as the anesthetic started doing its work, and closed his eyes. This is going to suck, the Marine thought to himself and did his best to fight down the reflexive uneasiness.

After a few minutes' wait to let the anesthetic do its work, Lifeline started in on the procedure, his attention focused squarely on the task at hand. Once the catheter was in place, he slowly withdrew the long thin needle, tossing it into the wastebasket near the bed before dabbing at the area around the catheter with an antiseptic soaked cotton ball to clear away the small beads of blood that had welled up around the insertion point.

As he heard the needle landing in the wastebasket, Billy forced himself to try and relax. Topical anesthetic was all well and good, but the needle had still pained him. "Done then?"

“All set,” Edwin replied as he started to retie the Marine’s gown.

Billy nodded, and was about to shift, when he gasped suddenly. He felt something undulate, pressing against his back from the inside out. He tried to ask just what was going on, but no words would come to his lips as the freshly inserted catheter was pressed from his back, the wound beginning to slowly close over. Lifeline managed to catch the catheter before it slipped away, a very puzzled look on his face as he did so. “What the...” the words died on his lips as he watched the skin on Billy’s back knit itself back together, the small mark where he had inserted the catheter replaced by smooth skin in less than a minute. Edwin blinked his eyes, sure that what he had just witnessed had been a trick of his imagination.

The pain faded almost as quickly as it appeared, and Billy found his voice again. "What the hell just happened?!" he asked, not bothering to hide the uneasiness in his tone.

“I – I must not have had it in right,” Edwin responded his wide eyes going from the catheter to Billy’s back as he spoke.

Billy shifted to face his lover, the pain continuing to fade as he looked at the bloody catheter in Edwin's hand and quirked an eyebrow. "Isn't like you to miss..."

Lifeline looked at Billy. “These can be a little tricky sometimes,” he said softly, still a bit confused as to what just happened.

"May as well take another stab at it while the anesthetic is still good."

“Yeah...” Edwin said as he looked at the catheter before dropping it into the trash. Turning back to the bedside tray, the medic reached for an unopened package – another catheter set up which he had grabbed out of habit in case something had been wrong with the first one. After opening it, he turned back to the Marine and restarted the process.

Things went less smoothly than before, Billy gritting his teeth in pain, hissing in a breath as the needle pierced his skin, flesh, and shifted into place. Almost immediately, he felt that same shifting, and then the same sensation of something pressing against his skin from the inside. "Edwin?" He hissed, his tone showing that he was both in pain, and agitated.

“I’m almost done,” the medic said as he looked up at the other man. “Just let me make sure it’s settled in before I remove the needle...” The pushing became more forceful than before, and so did the pressing. It pulled against the bruises, and the needle and catheter began to shift slightly as something rose against the surface of Billy's skin. “You have to stay still,” Lifeline cautioned, unaware of what was happening internally to Billy, his attention focused on keeping the catheter from moving out of place.

“I am," Came the reply, irritation quickly replacing uncertainty, and Billy's tone dropped as the pressing became more firm, the flesh around the needle beginning to discolor. The medic frowned before reaching back with one hand for a roll of medical tape, intending to tape the catheter down to keep it in place.

The flesh around the wound continued to become more discolored, blood welling all around the needle before the skin split, both needle and catheter pushed out violently. There was a glimpse of something odd as the catheter and needle were expelled from the wound. A glimpse of something wriggling and almost eel-like that was gone almost as quickly as it appeared.

The sudden expulsion of the catheter, coupled with the momentary glimpse of something solid and moving was more than enough to startle Lifeline, causing him to take several steps back as the catheter slid away from Billy’s back and onto the bed next to the Marine.

Billy cried out as he felt skin rip and shuddered with a low moan. He could still feel that strange something moving around, more acutely than ever. The pain washing through him was starting to gather in a blinding crescendo that left him speechless, sightless. Nothing existed in that moment for him but pain, and the odd sensation of something moving around inside of him. Something foreign. Get a fucking grip, Coen! he snapped internally at himself. You're letting your imagination get away from you.

He might have thought differently if he could have seen what was going on through Edwin's eyes, watching as the skin once again sealed over without so much as a red mark, the ring of bruising around the entry point already starting to fade away as well. Without realizing it, Lifeline’s hand went to his chest, feeling his heart beating wildly, his dark eyes wide with disbelief as he watched the Marine’s skin knit back together once again, and this time there was no denying to himself what he was seeing. Billy didn't notice, curling in on himself again as the pain felt like it was reaching critical mass. He'd been close to dying more than once, and this didn't feel quite like that, but it was bad enough.

His eyes focused on the Marine's back, it took several long moments before Lifeline took notice of Billy's distress. Once he did however, he immediately went to his lover’s side, slipping his arm around Billy as he settled on the bed next to him. “Billy...”

"E-Edwin..." the Marine moaned, trembling with the pain that gripped him.

“It’s okay...I’m right here...” the medic’s voice was soft and choked with emotion, his dark eyes glistening with unshed tears behind the lenses of his glasses. “It’ll be okay...it’ll be okay...” The words became a litany, the medic whispering them over and over as he held Billy.
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Unsung Heroes: Mission Two