Fic: A lion sleeps in the heart of every brave man (Chaos, gen, PG)

[starrylizard]

Title: A lion sleeps in the heart of every brave man.
Author: starrylizard
Fandom: Chaos
Rating/genre: PG, Gen, h/c
Spoilers: Nothing specific
Word count: ~1500
Summary: Stuck in a less than nice situation, Billy tries to keep Martinez’ spirits up.
Notes: Thanks to rinkle for the quick grammar beta. She hasn’t seen the show, so any mistakes are totally mine. Thanks also to lukadreaming and faye_dartmouth for poking my muse into action. This came out of a conglomeration of the prompts you sent my way. I haven't written anything in a while, so I'm a bit rusty. Any constructive comment is welcome. :)



Another frosty bucket of water rained down through the grate in the ceiling, followed by a few taunts and jeers in Russian. Billy had long since stopped bothering to ask Martinez to translate after he’d ascertained that their taunts were about as original as their methods of torture and then decided that perhaps he should be grateful for that.

“Well, this sucks,” Martinez dead-panned.

“Martinez, my friend, have I ever told you that you have a gift for summing up a situation succinctly?” Billy asked.

“Not in so many words,” Martinez replied.

It was hard to tell if Martinez’ droll tone was all irony or more to do with physical exhaustion. It’d been the same thing for the last… who really knew how long? Hours, though, not days. There was still some small measure of natural light seeping in from above. The two operatives were tied to chairs, back-to-back, in the centre of what appeared to be an old wheat silo turned torture chamber. It was cold, dark, dank and generally depressing.

Martinez coughed and groaned quietly and Billy sighed. Tied as they were he couldn’t get a good look at the other man, but they were both shivering and he sounded as miserable as Billy felt. Drawing on his deep, inner-well of optimism, Billy decided it was time for a story.

“Did I ever tell you about the time the ODS parachuted into Africa on a dirty bomb tip-off?”

Billy paused deliberately, waiting for an answer, both because of his natural sense for drama and because it was the only way to keep tabs on Martinez’ condition since he couldn’t turn around to look at him.

“Nope, I don’t believe you have.” Martinez drawled.

Billy smiled, noting a slight lift in the other man’s voice that had been missing before. Martinez was new enough to the ODS that he’d yet to tire of Billy’s stories, which was good, because Billy never tired of telling them.

“Well, we were dropped from 13,000 feet in the middle of the night. Full tactical gear. It was very James Bond, if you know what I mean?” He added a bit of Sean Connery flair to that last part and he was gratified to hear Martinez chuckle under his breath. “So, we’re falling into what felt like this pitch black void, just jungle below us and the lights from the nearby illegal airstrip to guide us. We reached pull altitude and I realised I was coming in too close to the trees with no chance to change course.”

Billy paused again and Martinez prompted him with “Did you get hurt?” as was his role.

“Mmm- only a little. My parachute snared and tangled in the trees along the edge of the landing strip though, and I was stuck tight, dangling up there like a Christmas decoration in full view.”

Billy smiled as Martinez didn’t give him time to pause for drama this time.

“But the others would have got you right down, right? Michael and Casey and-” His voice faltered a little before he added “– and Simms”.

“Yeah, they were coming for me. But they’d also been blown off course, gusty old night that it was, and the three of them were legging it back toward me. I could hear them over the radio, even though I couldn’t reach it to reply. But, just then I heard a gun cock and a bright light was shining in my eyes. You see the smugglers of fine endangered African pelts that ran the particular airstrip establishment we were using as a landing area had noticed my presence.”

“But Casey took them out, right?” Martinez butted in again unheeded.

“Nope, the rest of the team were getting closer, but it was something far more spectacular that saved me that night.”

“Oh yeah?” Martinez sounded sceptical now, and highly amused.

Another bucket of water rained down onto them without warning, followed by the expected jeering and laughter from above. Billy shook his head like a dog, flinging drops of water from his hair and blinking it from his eyes. He took a moment to get his chattering teeth back under control before he could continue.

“Ugh.” Martinez made a soft sound of annoyance.

The bonds that held both their hands tight behind their backs pulled slightly and he suspected Martinez had just slumped further in his seat. There were some more wet-sounding coughs and Billy winced in sympathy.

“You alright, mate?”

“Been better.” Martinez answered with his characteristically direct honesty that somehow made Billy feel even worse.

“We’ll get out of here soon, you’ll see.”

“Yeah.”

“So, where was I?”

“Something spectacular was…” Martinez fell quiet as sounds of a fight broke out above them.

From where the two men sat, the sounds echoing down to them sounded rather like something out of an old batman episode. POW, BAM, ZOT, WHAM! The thought made Billy giggle slightly, but he stopped himself, sensing the hysteria building that he could ill afford right now.

Soon enough, there was only silence and then, to his left, there was a large BANG as the only door on the lower level burst open and Michael rushed in.

“Billy, Martinez… You hurt?”

Michael’s tone, full of controlled worry, had Billy smiling up at him instantly in happy relief.

“A little worse for wear, but nothing a little TLC won’t fix. Check Martinez, though, he doesn’t sound so good.”

“I’ve got him, Billy.” Casey’s droll voice, coming from directly behind him, made Billy jump and he realised the man must have rappelled down from above. He was definitely not at his best if he was missing such seriously cool events.

“Come on; let’s get you guys out of here. We’ve got a chopper coming in ten.” Michael worked at cutting the ropes that bound Billy as he spoke and Billy winced and sucked in a breath as the feeling started to rush back into his hands and feet. “Can you walk?”

Billy just nodded, too busy trying not to imagine how much this was going to hurt and then he didn’t have to, as Michael pulled him to his feet and shouldered a good percentage of his weight.

“Martinez, you good?” Michael asked.

“Yeah,” Martinez replied.

“Broken ribs, general contusions, and a possible concussion,” Casey answered a little more truthfully. Billy thought it interesting that Martinez only really seemed to feel the need to play the tough guy around Michael.

The next few minutes were a blur of pain and noise and whirring chopper blades. There was a sharp pain in the back of his hand and then blissful darkness.

He awoke some indeterminate time later to crisp white sheets and the fuzzy, cotton-wool feeling that meant someone had been doling out the good drugs. And it all came flooding back…

“Martinez?” he croaked, sitting up a little too quickly, causing several muscles to protest and the room to spin lazily.

“He’s fine,” Michael answered.

Billy turned toward the voice to see Michael propped up by the window in an uncomfortable-looking chair. He pulled his glasses off and set aside the newspaper as he quickly stood to place a restraining hand on Billy’s shoulder and point to the bed next to his.

Martinez was propped up with several pillows behind his back. He was sporting some stitches in his forehead and there were bandages wrapped about his naked torso. Still, despite looking like a truck had hit him, the man simply smiled at Billy and gave a little wave.

“Aww, I never knew you cared.” Martinez’ puppy dog eyes and delighted smile made Billy want to throw pillows at the man.

“I just never got to finish telling you my story is all,” Billy quickly lied, settling back into the pillows behind him. “And it’d be a shame not hear the ending.”

Michael snorted derisively and, with another pat to Billy’s shoulder, he headed back to his uncomfortable chair and the waiting newspaper.

“So what spectacular event transpired to save you from the smugglers?” Martinez asked and Billy grinned in delight.

“You were listening. So, I was dangling there, no way to escape. Michael, Casey and Simms were miles away…”

“Miles,” Michael stated incredulously.

“Hey, who’s telling this story anyway?” Billy reprimanded, before continuing. “Michael, Casey and Simms weren’t coming to the rescue any time soon. The bad guys had their guns pointed at me and it was looking pretty bad, when all of a sudden…”

“Yeah?” prompted Martinez, subconsciously leaning forward a little.

“All of a sudden there was this giant roar and out of the trees there came this huge brute of a lion. Big flowing mane and everything… So, in the best piece of karma I have ever seen, this lion comes tearing through the trees, chasing down the smugglers…”

“Wow! But weren’t you there on a dirty-bomb lead?” Martinez asked.

“Bad intel,” Michael stated. He didn’t look up from his paper.

“Yeah, I’ll get to that in a minute.” Billy threw the team leader an annoyed look and went on. “So, this lion…”

~THE END~