Mission totally and absolutely failed. Nikolai stumbled into the base’s infirmary width his arm slung over Avery, clutching the pouring bullet wound in his side. The head nurse, Nurse Willow, rushed up to him with an annoyed but worried ‘mother hen’-like expression.

“Dear God, Makarov, you never cease to amaze me with your recklessness…” she huffed as she dragged him over to a medical bed. He scoffed gruffly and Avery gently guided him down onto the side of the bed.

“I’ll say. You keep running in, guns blazing, expecting yourself to come out unscathed…” Avery muttered, already picking up a first aid kit and unstrapping his tactical vest to get to the wound.

“I said I’m fine, I’ll do it myse—” Nikolai started, already reaching for the nurse’s hand but she smacked it away, already getting to work. He sighed and relaxed backwards, letting her patch him up.

He looked up at the ceiling, his blue eyes glinting in the bright lights overhead. The world around him spun as the blood loss slowly got to him, so what did he do? He closed his eyes and let the world take him into dreamland.

Almost a day and a half later, he groggily awoke and found himself in a baby blue and white-dotted hospital gown with a large plaster covering where he had been shot. He blinked, dazed, and turned his head slightly only to see a person at the side of his bed, hovering over him.