Alex swore off love. He didn't do it. He didn't do relationships, not anymore. Not after he lost his leg.

He was too broken now. Too flawed, too ugly. Nobody would want him. The stares he gets as is are bad enough, but adding a partner to that? He would never have peace.

And maybe he was selfish for that, he probably was, but he didn't want to bring someone into the mix who would get ridiculed for being with the 'freak'.

Alex had tough skin, he liked to say that nothing could hurt him. And for the most part that was true. But the stares and whispers when he walked past? The mothers keeping their kids away because the tall, tattooed amputee was too 'scary' to be around kids? The 'jokes' made at his expensive? It got to him. Years of it got to him. Now, he wore long pants and kept his head down.

And it was for the best, everyone said. Less noticeable, less comments. But it didn't work. He still got pointed at, stared at, whispered about. And god fucking damnit, it hurt. The man who left the CIA to go 'rouge' was a 'traitor', the man who lost his leg to an explosion was someone to be pitied, the man who kept his head down was a freak, he just couldn't win.

But that's when you came in.

His old childhood friend from before his CIA days. They had been joined at the hip as kids, but Alex never bothered to keep up the friendship. At first he'd been too busy, then he'd convinced himself he was unworthy of your friendship.

You showed up one day with some obscure Taskforce, and Alex instantly recognized you. They reconnected easily, as if no time had passed at all, and Alex found himself with a glimmer of light creeping into the darkness of his thoughts. It's as if your very existence was a balm to Alex's wary soul and restless mind.

And for weeks, it's like they were kids again. Working together, messing around, playing small pranks. It's the closest to normal Alex had at this point.

Then that godforsaken mission came.

Everything was fine at first, they got the Intel they needed and were starting to exit when Alex heard something that made his blood turn to ice in seconds.

"Hurry up, bud." Alex said, playfully nudging you with his shoulder as they moved through the dark, lifeless hallways, guns at the ready for any straggling enemy. His boots echoed faintly in the still air of the hallway. Unusually still, but he paid it no mind.

Come to think of it, he hasn't seen anyone this whole mission. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, but he brushed it off. "Wanna get drinks after we get back to base? There's a new place downtown, fancy stuff there." He said, focusing his eyes back ahead as he walked. Then he heard a faint, low buzzing. Like a malfunctioning radio. At first, he assumed it was adrenaline. But when the buzzing got louder and louder, turning into a shrill whistle, he froze.

"Shit."

A bomb was being dropped. And he hadn't noticed until it was too late.

Grabbing your hand, he bolted towards the exit, but it was too late. A blinding flash of light filled the air, the shockwave knocking Alex and you back in separate directions. Alex hit the ground with a loud crack of his skull hitting the floor right as everything went black.

As he came too, all he heard was dead silence. Total, absolute, complete silence.

Opening his eyes, all he saw was black. Giving it a few seconds to adjust, Alex noticed he still saw black. Instantly, his mind assumed he was dead. But instead he reached up and felt something hard, slightly rough to the touch, and very hot. He groaned, tracing the thing above him and feeling for an edge, tracing out the shape of a concrete slab.

Now more awake, he started to notice the pain. His back hurt, so did his head and his left arm. When attempting to move his limbs, he only managed to move his right arm. Everything else was trapped under the slab. Using his right hand, he felt the edges of where he was and figured out he was in a pocket under rubble, a slab overtop him and another one holding that one up. He slowed his breathing, focusing on conserving oxygen in the tiny air pocket.

Then it hit him like a smack to the skull.

You.

Where were you?

Trying not to panic, Alex started to feel for a way out with his one hand, finding a small gap that he used to push as much of his body weight as he could against it, flipping it over and freeing himself. He sat up and took a deep breath, squinting against the brightness of the sun as he grabbed his radio. Broken. Looking down, his leg was broken and his prosthetic was cracked and unusable. Looking to his arm he saw it was basically snapped in half.

He looked around and felt his heart stop at what he saw a few feet from him.

A hand.

Your hand.

He was moving before his body could react, crawling and dragging his way over, grabbing the arm and checking for a pulse. It was pale, but not cold, with a finicky pulse. You were alive for now. "Hey, hey! Can you hear me?" He said, checking for where you were trapped. "I'ma save you, darlin'. I promise. Just stay with me, ok?" He ignores the way his voice cracks or his heart clenched painfully in his chest. He ignores the way his mind races with scenarios where he goes home alone, where you die.

He has to save you.