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naavispider · 8 months

Text

Egghead

Rating: Gen

Word count: 3,506

Summary: I’ve run out of excuses I just like it when Quaritch is protective and Spider hates it 🤠

Lyle has always been too eager on the trigger. Spider has always had a knack for getting himself into sticky situations. Put the two of them together in a hunting party and disaster was bound to strike.

In which someone has to tell the Colonel that his son's been shot.

Read on AO3 or under the cut ✨

“Stop!” Spider’s cry rang out through the dense clearing, but it was drowned out by the sound of thundering gunfire and the roar of the terrified viperwolf.

“Stop shooting! She won’t attack!”

To his left, Mansk and Walker were crouched behind a fallen tree trunk, opening fire. To his right, Wainfleet and Z-dog were trying to advance, darting forwards to take cover behind whatever fallen piece of forestry they could. The rest of the quad were far away, back at the camp.

The viperwolf roared deafeningly - a heart wrenching sound of pain and fear. Spider had recognised its hurt immediately. The female had been prowling the perimeter of her territory, guarding her newborn young by the looks of her belly, when the hunting party had stumbled too close. Spider had immediately yelled at the recoms to stop, but in their greed and foolishness they had opened fire, seeing her as an immediate threat.

“STOP FIRING!” He screamed at them again, but it wasn’t enough. The female viperwolf was dazed - deciding which threat to charge first while taking shelter behind a huge fallen tree. The recoms were on both sides; she’d already taken several hits and if she came out again, she could be seriously injured. But Spider knew she’d do anything to protect her young. He made his decision in a split second, half surprised when his legs carried him forwards and towards the animal. He had to put himself between them - otherwise she would be shot to death.

“Easy, easy there…” he called out to the viperwolf, raising his hands in defence as he cautiously tried to get as close as he could. Eywa had always blessed him with his affinity for the wildlife, but even Spider knew this was reckless.

“Spider, get back here!” He could hear Wainfleet’s order ringing in his ears, but he ignored it.

“Be calm. I won’t hurt you. Turn around and go back to your family. I promise I’ll lead them away. Be calm…”

“Kid, get back HERE!”

Spider had advanced to only a few feet away from the tree that the creature was hiding behind. The recoms had finally stopped firing. He could hear the animal’s heavy panting, feel the growls and the raised shackles, even though she was mostly out of view.

“Go back. I’m sorry.” He took another tentative step forward, hoping to be able to touch her, to pass along his words through connecting with her skin. He didn’t own a queue, but that had never stopped him from being able to communicate with the animals. His boldness had prompted Jake to tell him he’d get himself killed before he ever reached adulthood. Jake had been wrong - so far.

“Calm yourself. I won’t hurt you.”

The ground they were stood on trembled with the viperwolf’s fear and anger, and after another step she came fully into view. Her warm breath cascaded over Spider, and he could make out multiple bullet wounds all along her flank. Luckily, her face and limbs had avoided much damage, but she must be in a lot of pain.

“Be calm.”

“Kid, I swear to God!”

The shout from Wainfleet was enough to scare the viperwolf, who had been temporarily subdued by Spider’s calming voice. Upon hearing the anger in the recom’s shout, she gave a mighty roar, spit flying over Spider’s mask and neck, and she leapt from her hiding place - right over the top of Spider. Her claw sank into Spider’s shoulder as she leapt, while at the same time, gunfire returned to the air and Spider was deafened by the noise and his own pain as something white hot seared through his thigh. He collapsed to the floor, clutching his injured leg and praying against sense that the recoms wouldn’t kill the wolf. He lay on his back, completely winded - unable to get up. After what seemed like only a moment, the clearing fell silent. Gone was the gunfire and shouts and roars. There was only the canopy above Spider.

“Shit!” Wainfleet’s face appeared at the edge of his vision, his bald head an ugly blemish on Spider’s beautiful view of the trees.

“It’s not that bad. I’m fine-” Spider managed to get out. The last thing he needed was for this to set him back. He tried to sit up, but his head swam and someone’s arm caught him from behind. “Fuck.”

“Stay fucking still kid, Jesus.”

Spider bit his tongue. He wasn’t sure why Wainfleet was so angry at him. He hadn’t done anything except try and mitigate the recoms’ own stupidity. He glanced down his body to see a deep gunshot wound through his thigh - there was a lot of blood and it was difficult to tell how far it had penetrated the leg. If pain was anything to go by, it should have been blown off completely. He was barely aware of the burn in his shoulder as blood trickled from the scratch that the viperwolf had left him. It felt like only a flesh wound - he’d worry about it later. He cried out in frustration as he realised that he couldn’t walk. Spider hated being helpless. “How does it look?” He asked through clenched teeth and closed eyes, unsure he actually wanted to know the answer.

“It’s just a scratch,” Z-dog yelled, but Spider groaned. He banged his head back on the grass, trying to ignore the blistering pain that paralysed his entire leg.

“Buckle up kid and don’t move,” Wainfleet commanded, and before Spider could protest, he was being pulled up and over Wainfleet’s shoulder. Even if he could get enough air in his lungs, he wouldn’t have the energy to protest. He hated being carried.

The pain of being moved made his head swim and he cried out. Seeing the ground suddenly six feet below him did not help matters.

“Easy kid, we’ll get you back and Ja can fix you up.”

When he could catch his breath, he had enough energy to mutter an ominous warning. “Quaritch is gonna kill you.”

The fact that Wainfleet did not reply told Spider all he needed to know.

“Hey! Shut up kid, if you know what’s good for you,” Walker grunted from behind.

Spider cried out again when Wainfleet leapt over a small creek, jostling him. The pain was starting to become intolerable. In this position, blood had started to trickle down from his shoulder, down his arms and hands, which in Spider’s already heightened state of anxiety only added to his panic. He tried to push himself up on Wainfleet’s shoulder by gripping the man’s belt with his hands, but it was more painful to try moving than just lay limply down his back. “Ahh!” he cried when Wainfleet hitched him higher.

“Someone let the boss know!” Wainfleet ordered.

It was no surprise that Lyle didn’t want to be the one to deliver the message. Spider huffed amusedly against his back.

“Colonel, this is Z-Dog, come in,” said Z-dog into her communicator. Spider couldn’t see anything apart from the forest floor, but he heard her words spoken directly into his ear through the earpiece.

“Zdinarsk, go ahead.”

This is gonna be good.

“We’re five minutes away. Prep trauma kit.”

“Who?” His father’s alarmed voice came immediately.

There was a pause, before Z-dog had the balls to respond. “Spider.”

There was a pause that seemed to last a lifetime before Spider heard his dad’s voice again on the comms, and when he did, he was thankful he wasn’t directly on the other end of it. Anger rippled through Quaritch’s next words, and Spider could picture his furious face as if he were right in front of him. “What happened?”

“Viperwolf attack. The kid ran towards it.”

Pain clouded the next few seconds of conversation. All Spider could focus on was breathing - making sure each lungful of oxygen kept him sustained. He’d sweated so much that his mask had fogged up, and more than anything he wanted to rip it off.

“Spider, come in.”

Spider groaned internally at the thought of just pulling his hand up to press the comms button on his neck. The hunting party was silent while they waited for Spider to talk.

“I swear to God,” Quaritch’s furious whisper echoed down the line, sending fear into Spider in a way that an angry viperwolf never could.

With immense effort, he lifted his hand up to his neck and pressed. “M‘fine,” he managed to gasp out, before quickly dropping his hand down. When did he get so weak? He felt his eyes begin to droop, and knew that he was passing out.

Fuck.

“He doesn’t sound fucking fine.”

“What are his injuries?” That was Ja, Spider thought. He tried to focus on the words to save himself from succumbing.

“He’s… shot in the upper leg. Can’t see bone, but there’s a shitload of blood.”

Spider could practically see Quaritch’s face in front of his eyes as he found out that Spider had been shot, not injured by the wildlife.

“Wrap something clean around it, tightly.” That had to be Ja, but it was hard to keep track of who was saying what, especially with his mind clouding over…

“We’re almost there…”

He got the sense that the recoms in the hunting party just wanted to get him back to the medic as soon as possible. They weren’t going to stop when they were only a couple of minutes away. Finally, voices from the main group surrounded him, not just playing over comms anymore.

“Spider? Can you hear me?”

He was aware of being taken down off Wainfleet’s shoulder and laid on the floor. This was more comfortable, but he was fighting to stay awake, so it barely mattered. He groaned his confirmation.

Hands were on his leg, and something cold was being poured over the wound. Immediately, the burning eased. “Don’t… b’mad.”

“I ain’t mad at you, kid.” Quaritch’s face was hovering above him, his features hardened in concern. Spider had never seen his eyes so deeply. Amber irises surrounded pitch black pupils that seemed so endless it felt like he could fall right into them. Spider closed his eyes, rolling his head to the side to avoid looking.

“Sharp sting,” came Ja’s voice, but Spider couldn’t feel whatever Ja was dosing him up with.

“How bad s’it really?” He asked.

“You’re gonna be out of action for a little while, champ.”

For the first time, anxiety trickled into Spider’s stomach. “Not back… don’t take me back to…”

“If I don’t have to, I won’t,” Quaritch replied, giving Spider a little comfort.

“Ja?” Spider asked, lifting his head up to try and see his injury better. Ja was bent over his leg, hard at work wrapping it tightly in crisp white bandages. He kept from crying out, but he couldn’t help himself from wincing.

“I need to assess how much blood you’ve lost before I decide anything. Just lie back and relax.”

“I’m fine.” Even as he said it, the effort of holding his head up was beginning to drain him.

“Have you seen the state of you?” Quaritch looked over Spider’s leg, which had been drenched in the blood running off the wound, and to his arm and shoulder which were also bloody from the claw scratches.

“It’s fine,” Spider mumbled, the terror of being sent back to Bridgehead far more scary than possibly bleeding out on the forest floor. Ja reached over and gently pushed his head back down to the ground, before taking his hand and inserting something into the back of it. He rummaged for something in his pack and connected it via a tube to Spider’s vein. A bag of some sort of fluid.

“Okay,” Ja sighed. He applied some other piece of equipment over one of Spider’s fingers, before studying the screen of his holopad. “He looks to be stable, but we’ll need to camp here tonight. He can’t be moved unless by Samson.”

Quaritch nodded, and barked at the others to set up a perimeter and establish camp. “It’s okay, kid. You’re gonna pull through.”

He and Ja lifted him closer to a fallen tree, where they set up a more substantial shelter, much to Spider’s annoyance and embarrassment. Whatever Ja had given him, he was starting to feel better already. “I promise,” Spider complained, frustration seeping into his voice. “I’m good!”

He attempted to push himself up, his plan being to stand up on his good leg to prove that he still had capability, but he was pushed down before he could actualize it, and when Ja said “sharp scratch” again, this time he could feel the needle going in. His eyelids grew heavy and Spider suddenly didn’t have the energy to fight sleep off any longer.

When he woke, it was morning. He could tell by the light and the sound of the birds above him. The ground was hard beneath him, but someone had laid a folded up jacket under his head. His shoulder was covered in a large bandage, stuck to his skin at the edges with medical tape. He blinked groggily, his senses returning to him. His leg was painful but also itchy. Immediately, he wanted to grab it and scratch away the bandages, but held back when he caught sight of Quaritch sitting nearby on his holotablet.

Glancing up, Quaritch put his work down and shifted closer. “How do you feel, hotshot?”

“Crap,” Spider groaned. His throat was so dry. Then, remembering what was at stake, decided to back track. “I mean, I’m fine. It hurts but I can walk and stuff.”

A bemused smile slid over Quaritch’s face. “Drop the bravado, tiger. You ain’t walking anywhere, at least not for a while.”

To prove him wrong, Spider immediately sat up. He was slow, causing Quaritch to chuckle, but the Colonel didn’t try to stop him. Nobody else was up, and Spider cringed at the thought that Quaritch must have watched him all night. He gripped a nearby stem and rolled so that he was on his good side. Then, with a huge amount of effort, pushed himself so he was kneeling on his uninjured leg.

“Alright, that’s enough kid. I believe you.”

Spider narrowed his eyes in anger. “Do you?”

Quaritch cocked his head to the side, assessing whether or not to argue with the injured boy. “Sit back down,” he said calmly, but there was no denying the authority that laced the order. Reluctantly, Spider sat against the tree, the rough bark uncomfortable in his agitated state.

“I can’t believe you fucking shot me.”

It was obvious Spider wasn’t talking about Quaritch directly, more so the RDA. A shadow crossed Quaritch’s face as he took in the teenager’s accusation.

“Wainfleet is lucky to be alive.”

The words unnerved Spider, and so did Quaritch. It had been an accident, Spider knew that, and although he was sure he should probably be pissed, right now he was just thankful that no real harm had been done. The thought that Quaritch would go as far as murdering his second in command for this was surely an exaggeration. Wasn’t it?

He watched Quaritch carefully for signs of hyperbole, but found none. A shiver went down his spine.

He felt the need to defend Wainfleet, but caught himself in the nick of time. Wainfleet and the rest of the trigger-happy morons that made up the hunting party were entirely to blame for the whole fiasco. If they had just listened to Spider and not attacked the viperwolf then Spider wouldn’t have been hurt and more importantly there wouldn’t be a litter of hungry pups somewhere wondering why their mom hadn’t come to feed them yet.

“Drink.”

Spider accepted the flask handed to him. He took a deep breath and removed the mask that prevented him from suffocating. When he was done, he handed back the empty bottle to Quaritch. “What time is it?”

“Just gone seven. You were out for about twenty hours. Are you hungry?”

Spider nodded again and Quaritch passed him a human ration pack. Spider made a sarcastic show of looking grateful. “Yum, lovely vacuum sealed powder.”

Quaritch frowned disapprovingly, although Spider could tell he wasn’t really in trouble. “You want it or not?”

“Have you ever tried, I don’t know? Eating what Eywa provides for you?”

“Alright smart guy. Eating what ‘Eywa provides’ for us is what got you into this state in the first place. I think I’ll stick to military grade precision meals.”

Spider rolled his eyes. “It’s disgusting.”

“Yeah, well. I like my Spiders whole.” Quaritch paused, realising what he’d just said.

He was not the only one mightily embarrassed. Spider tore off the corner of the packet and poured in a small amount of water without saying anything more.

They sat in an awkward silence for a minute or two, and when Spider was done, he asked the question that had been burning on his lips since he woke up. “Are you gonna send me back to Bridgehead?”

Quaritch appraised Spider from the side, like a spectator watching a tense snooker game. His eyes flicked from Spider’s wound to his face. “No,” he said simply. “Not unless you annoy me too much.”

“Really?” Spider asked. Despite all his show, he knew that his leg was busted. This would set the mission back by at least several days.

“No one back there needs to know this happened, got it?”

Spider didn’t need to be told twice. He nodded his understanding.

“So no more putting on a show and acting like we’re training for the Olympics, alright?”

Spider frowned. “The what?”

“Forget it,” Quaritch waved it off with a hand. “Just stay down or I’ll get Ja to put you out again.”

While Spider did not appreciate the threat of sedation, he was filled with a hope that suddenly made the future look a lot less scary. The fact that Quaritch wasn’t sending him back must surely mean that he didn’t want Spider exposed to the kind of treatment he’d received there last time? And being stationary for a few more days was annoying for the squad, but ultimately helpful for Jake and the others. It gave them more time to prepare for their next move, whether that was relocating High Camp or launching an attack on the city.

When the rest of the camp began to stir, most of them sent Spider a friendly wave or snarky comment about being alive as they grabbed breakfast. Wainfleet, Spider noticed, kept his distance while Quaritch sat with him, but when the Colonel got up to sort his own stuff out, the second in command came over.

“Hey champ, how you doing?”

Spider shrugged. “I’d be better if I wasn’t shot.”

Wainfleet took a heavy breath, and directed his gaze at the ground. “Look kid. I’m sorry I shot you. I was aiming for the wolf and she just pushed you in a way that… Well anyway, I’m sorry.”

Spider eyed him, feeling stupidly superior for having one over on the egghead. “How the hell did you get into the RDA with your aim so crap?”

Wainfleet grinned conspiratorially. “It’s all in the talk.”

Spider shook his head, smiling. “Loi.”

“Yeah, whatever. I came to apologise but if you’re gonna be a little smart mouth…”

“Piss off.”

Wainfleet retreated jovially back to the main circle of the camp as Ja came over to do his checks.

“How long till I can walk?” Spider asked, wasting no time. He didn’t need to hear whatever Ja wanted to tell him about his vitals or his fluids.

“Not for a while with an attitude like that,” Ja responded slyly.

“Seriously.”

“As long as it doesn’t get infected, a week maybe. You were lucky. The bullet passed through cleanly and narrowly missed your femoral artery.”

Spider huffed, unconvinced. “Yeah, real lucky.”

“I know it’s hard with your mask,” Ja continued, “but keep up your fluids. Drink plenty and for God’s sake, don’t put any pressure on your leg. Just let it heal.”

“Got it, doc.”

Ja eyed him for a moment longer, making sure that Spider was genuine, before returning to the others.

“He’s gonna be insufferable,” Z-dog muttered to Ja as he returned, eyeing Spider with disdain.

Spider flipped her off, which she returned in good faith.

She was right really. Now that he’d literally been shot by his own squad, Spider could hold this over them for… well, as long as he was with them. The thought brought back his musings about rescue missions and escape attempts, but neither of which seemed likely to happen soon given his current condition. Spider sighed as he laid back against the moss covered floor, finally left alone. He said a quiet prayer to Eywa, closing his eyes and concentrating as he asked her for healing and patience. This was going to be a long week, but at least he’d have a cool battle scar to show Lo’ak when he finally returned home.

#avatar the way of water #spider socorro #miles quaritch #lyle wainfleet #my stuff #onehsot #avatar 2 #atwow fanfic #loi

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