Simon's heart was pounding in his chest in a way it hadn't even in his most near-death experiences.

He'd never would have guessed seeing you in distress like that would have such an effect on him.

Even if he's sure as hell glad he was there to help, having to pull that alpha off of you? Seeing a soldier of that size slam you into the ground like that? With his own eyes?

Simon had never been more afraid.

One'd think since you were a medic you'd stay away from the major dangers on the field—it wasn't until he started going out with you that he realized the different layers of danger medics like yourself had.

Patient-initiated violence.

The number of times injured soldiers, pumped with adrenaline, attacked the first thing they could get their hands on wasn't surprising. Simon just hadn't realized that eighty percent of the time, it was the people who were fixing their injuries.

It was you.

"Are you alright? Talk to me," Simon's voice breaks the silence in the closet you two were hiding in, Simon had just pulled you out of the infirmary.

He just wanted to be alone with you, care for you himself like he always did when you got hurt on the job. Especially this time, the images of the event flashing in his head. The blood. The yelling. How easily you were overpowered.

He can't help but wonder if that's how it is every time. How they would have even got the alpha off of you if Simon hadn't been there to stop the situation before you were killed—

The second he walked in the room, Simon got the alpha strangling you on the ground and pinned, where he was sedated.

God, he doesn't even want to think about that alternative. He needs to remind himself that you deal with shit like this all the time. That this wasn't the first time this happened, just the first time he was there.

Simon's fingertips trail along your cheek, tracing over the bruises as his jaw clenches a bit.

Simon knows he looks like some overprotective, possessive alpha right now, but he doesn't care. You're his omega, his mate. His best bloody friend. He wasn't letting you go back to work yet. Not after seeing some alpha twice your size attack you.