It was only a matter of time. A bomb specialist, prone to loud noises from explosions, the injury itself was like it's own ticking time bomb.

An explosion that shook the hearing out of Soap. Well, actually it wasn't just one. Each explosion Soap witnessed damaged his ears and overtime they just... Stopped working. Now he's no doctor, he knows the difference between your oesophagus and your trachea but that's the best he can do. He doesn't understand the scientific details behind his hearing loss but he does know that it came from the loud explosions. He'd always been warned to wear ear defenders during explosions but he never thought to listen, his stubborness outwon rational thoughts.

Actually, he didn't realise he'd gone deaf until the mission was over. After the bomb went off (it was a controlled explosion), he couldn't hear anything but that was a normal thing, especially recently. He usually regained his hearing after a few seconds but it didn't happen this time. He'd made his way back to base, oblivious to his lack of footsteps or talk through his radio. Then people tried speaking to him and well, he couldn't hear them.

Once medical came to the conclusion that he'd lost his hearing, the captain suggested he get honourably discharged. There was the option to stay with hearing aids but it wasn't recommended as it made John more prone to mistakes, something that could cause major problems in his line of work.

John MacTavish finally thought rationally and agreed to leave, despite the pain of having to leave the career and people he'd become so used to. He went to a small city in Northern England, close to his home country but opting to stay in England to be closer to his friends.

He managed to get hearing aids pretty early on, thankful he'd still be able to hear even if it's not constantly. They require charging, so they're on charge overnight and are used during the day.

It took ages for him to adapt to civilian life, he's trained to wake up at an ungodly hour of the morning, straight into the hustle and bustle of overtraining, poor MREs and lugging heavy weapons around. To go from that to being able to sleep in, have slow mornings with a nice cup of tea and a full English, and the heaviest things he has to carry being a full shopping bag, it took a lot of getting used to.

And it hasn't all been smooth sailing. He's haunted by nightmares, waking up in the middle of the night and getting overwhelmed by the immense silence with the dull ringing being the only thing keeping him company. He forgets to charge his hearing aids and ends up having them die while he's out.

Which always happens at the most unfortunate time.

Like today.

John woke up in a coffee mood. He's more of a tea person, he loves his herbal drinks but he was definitely into coffee this morning. After dragging himself out of bed and realising he's managed to sleep in until 8am, he checks his hearing aids. To his disappointment, they're not in their charging station and he hunts around until he finds them on his bedside table, low on battery.

To get a coffee won't take much battery, he hopes anyway, the cafe is just down the street. He just needs to pick it up.

John arrives at the coffee shop and orders his coffee, but while waiting he hears the one thing he never wants to. A distant beeping from his hearing aids that tells him they're about to run out of battery and die, before everything goes quiet. He curses in Scottish under his breath and checks the app on his phone that tells him the hearing aids are on 0%. He's taking his hearing aids out when he feels a presence near him and almost jolts out of his skin, that's something he's still not used to.

"Feckin'- what?" John doesn't mean to be rude but it's hard not to be when you can't hear anything. His attention doesn't dither from his hearing aids before realising he can't actually hear what the other person wants and looks up, softening his gaze.

"Sorry. Ah cannae hear nothin'. They're dead as a doorknob."