A New Captain Scarlet Fanfiction by Isabelle Saucier
Disclaimer: Thank you Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and the CGI team for creating such a beautiful playground! The characters are not mine, I'm having a great time writing the stories, and no profit is intended from this.
This is my interpretation of what happened after the episode entitled Storm at the End of the World, from Green's perspective—since this occurred after the Proteus episode and my own fanfiction Training Ground, I consider Green and Blue to be an item at this point.
Once again, many thanks to Skybase Girl for her excellent job at beta-reading! Any remaining mistakes are mine.
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Lieutenant Green stared at the computer screen as her mind attempted to process the information she had just received. Doctor Gold was obviously trying to be as optimistic as he could, but the fact remained: Captain Blue had been shot. In the gut. Adam had been shot. He was bleeding. He was in extreme pain. He was in danger of dying.
The young woman drew on every ounce of discipline and self-control she could muster to remain calm and continue working. Captain Scarlet came up on the communication channel, switching places with the medical officer to begin his report. They both knew he could have waited, but they also both needed to do something to keep themselves occupied and fight the growing sense of dread that threatened to engulf them.
Colonel White moved behind her to approach her desk. He was silent as he listened to his captain. He noticed that Scarlet was careful to stand in the middle of the camera shot, hiding what was going on behind him; no doubt in an attempt to spare Lieutenant Green more worry. This was bad. White had come to consider his officers almost like his children. Each time they brought one back on a gurney was not easy to bear, even if he kept telling himself that it was part of the job description.
Something happened behind Scarlet and the latter couldn't help but turn his head to look. Both White and Green caught a glimpse of Blue's head and the apparatus on the lower part of his face helping him breathe. A gasp escaped the young lieutenant's lips and her eyes filled with tears, but she continued working, her hands expertly moving on the keyboard as she assigned requests and entered data as needed.
"Do you want me to call Lieutenant Silver to take over?" Colonel White asked gently, touching her shoulder in a concerned gesture. While Captain Blue and Lieutenant Green were usually able to prevent their feelings for each other from interfering with their duties, White couldn't expect the young woman to continue working under such circumstances.
However, she shook her head. "Thank you sir, but I'd rather have something to do. Their ETA is more than an hour away; I'll feel better here where I can help," she replied.
"He's going to be all right, Serena," Scarlet said, sounding as convincing as he could.
She half-smiled through her tears, and her eyes flickered toward the blond head she could still see on-screen before she continued assigning a crew to handle the damage in Alaska. Scarlet and White exchanged a grim look over her head. The younger man announced their more recent ETA, then signed off after saying that he would keep them informed of any developments.
Leaving the channel tracking the location of the Albatross open so that she could monitor its progress, Serena concentrated on other things happening on the huge glass screen. Colonel White squeezed her shoulder, then went back to his desk to quietly issue orders of his own. Despite the young woman's words, he would still have Silver on standby.
He had also called Destiny Angel apparently, since the Falcon pilot arrived in the control room after a little while. She looked at the ETA—about half an hour— then approached Green with a soft smile. "Maybe you should rest a little and change into more comfortable clothes if you have a long night ahead of you," she suggested.
Although this was obviously an attempt to get her away from her desk, Green saw the logic in Destiny's words. As long as the watch didn't turn into a wake... She swiveled her chair around to look at White, and he nodded at her wordlessly. "I'll see you in sickbay, sir," she commented before signing off and following Destiny out of Central Control.
Both women were silent during their walk to Lieutenant Green's quarters. Not that there was much to say, Green thought. All they could do was wait. Destiny insisted that her friend showered and changed her clothes and unexpectedly, Green felt somewhat better afterwards. As she came out of the en-suite after drying her hair, she noticed that the young pilot had prepared tea. "Any news?" she asked.
"No. It may be a little while, even if they have arrived already. Who knows what kind of operation Doctor Gold may have had to perform on him?"
Green sat down on her bed, turning her mug absent-mindedly between her hands. "When we deployed the Albatross to pick them up, I hoped it was all over; time for them to come back, you know? So then he’d call me. Or send a message. Or something," she said.
Since Blue and Green had acknowledged their feelings for each other, he had got into the habit of contacting her after more dangerous missions, to let her know he was all right. At first, she had found it a little odd and rather pointless, since she expected him to come back relatively unharmed, anyway... But she had come to look forward to his calls or messages. "I told myself that maybe he was busy, that communications were not all that good with the weather... then Elaine called in to report, and still nothing from him. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I wish I could hear him make a stupid comment about kicking Sasquatch butt, or riding out the storm right now," Green continued.
"I'm sure he's going to be all right." Destiny tried to comfort her, unsure of what to say.
They both remained silent for a while, sipping their teas. Green's eyes fell on a picture of she and the blond offier which took pride of place on her work station, and her eyes filled with tears again. "He was so pale," she said before sobbing into her hand.
Destiny put both their mugs on the desk and came to sit next to her friend, holding her and rocking her gently back and forth. She knew the feeling of helplessness only too well. Even if Scarlet always came back, there was still the remote possibility that one day, he wouldn't.
The chime outside Green's quarters rang. Destiny stood up to answer, giving the other woman some time to compose herself. The sliding doors opened, revealing Scarlet's tall frame. He looked grey and haggard with exhaustion and worry. Silently, she drew him into her arms and held him tight, relieved that he was otherwise unharmed. They exchanged a few words in low voices before he followed her into the room, where Green waited expectantly.
"I came to take you to sickbay, although we might have to wait a little before we can see him," he said, opening his arms to hug her to him. "It didn't feel right to talk to you over the com-link, so I came here directly.” He pulled away from her, still holding her by the shoulders. “Is that okay?”
"Yes, thank you, Paul."
"Doctor Gold was able to start working on Adam as soon as we took off,” Scarlet explained as they made their way down to level 2, where sickbay was located. “That helped a lot, apparently. But he’s lost a lot of blood, and the fact that he was shot in the gut instead of, say an arm or a leg, made it a lot worse."
"So what’s Doctor Gold's prognosis at this point?" green asked, back to her more usual business-like mode. Crying wouldn't help her lover, so she pushed back her feelings as much as she could.
"He said Adam has a good chance, but he's going to have to take it easy for a while if he pulls through," he replied.
They arrived at Doctor Gold's office almost at the same time as Colonel White. "Mason, I hope you won't be telling me that I have to contact John Svenson with bad news," White said.
"If all goes well, you shouldn't have to," the doctor replied, eliciting relieved reactions from everyone else in the room.
He sat on the edge of his desk, then continued: "Captain Blue is a very, very lucky man. His injury was located higher in his abdomen than I originally thought, and didn't touch major organs. From what I understand, he covered some distance after Captain Scarlet left him to destroy the town. By doing so, he made his wound somewhat worse, but at the same time, he probably saved himself from hypothermia by taking advantage of the heat from one of the fires Scarlet started. I'm still not sure if I should consider what he did very brave, or utterly stupid. Good thing we had blood supplies with us."
Green closed her eyes, her mouth set in a grim line. She felt Destiny's arm around her shoulders, and was thankful for her support. "He'll be in a lot of pain for the next few days, and we'll have to monitor him in case his injuries become infected," Gold added. "Right now he's in the recovery room. Would you like to see him, Lieutenant? I’m afraid I can’t let you stay for long, though.”
Doctor Gold was master of his domain; few would challenge his authority in sickbay, including Colonel White, so he did not expect any objections to his decision to allow Lieutenant Green priority access to her lover. Sure enough, they took his cue, meekly filing out of his office to take their places in the observation area overlooking the recovery room.
Captain Blue was lying on a hospital bed with his eyes closed. There was no breathing apparatus on his face, so he appeared to be simply asleep, his brow slightly furrowed as if he were wondering about something. Doctor Gold motioned for Green to enter, but didn't follow her, out of respect for her privacy—as much as she could have with a viewing window taking up most of the wall behind her.
The young woman gingerly approached the bed, unsure if she should say something. "Hello Sunshine," she ventured softly, feeling a little ridiculous since he probably couldn’t hear her.
He was still pale. She reached out to touch his cheek with the back of her fingers. His skin was warm, not feverish, and his stubble felt reassuring, as if it were proof that he was really there in front of her. "You had us very scared for a while, you know," she continued, taking his right hand and bringing it up to her lips. "I'm not ready to let go of you yet, so you have to get better, okay?"
She fought the burning sensation in her eyes, but lost. Tears ran down her cheeks, some falling on his hand, then down his forearm. Great, she thought, wiping her eyes with her free hand. "Don't mind me; I'm playing 'Damsel in Distress' for a little while. I should be fine in a second," she said aloud.
His fingers moved against her face, as if he was trying to stroke it. Green looked up, surprised, and her eyes met a pair of striking—albeit a little groggy-looking—azure ones. Her peripheral vision registered the joyous reactions from the people on the other side of the window, but she kept looking at Blue. "Hey," he said in a raspy voice.
"Welcome back," she replied, hugging his hand to her chest.
He stared at her, as if he were thinking of what to say next. "Sorry. Didn't call. Things got a little busy," he grunted.
"I know. Don't scare me like that again."
He made a face at her—or was that a grimace of pain? "You're crying," he muttered, his fingers tightening around her hand.
"They're tears of joy."
"Liar," he whispered, managing to pull up half a smile. "Was I gone for long?" he added in a louder voice.
"A few hours I'd say. Doctor Gold had to operate on you."
Blue frowned and raised his left hand to touch his side. Green stopped his gesture, entwining her fingers with his. "No, no, no, you don't. You leave it alone and you rest," she said in a firm voice.
"I just—"
"No, Adam."
"Yes ma'am," he responded with a sigh, closing his eyes again.
She let go of his hands, putting them back where they originally were on top of the blanket covering him, and bent down to kiss his forehead. "Does it hurt right now?" she asked.
He said nothing, but nodded his head. It probably hurt a lot for him to admit it. She glanced at Doctor Gold, who saw this as his cue to come in. "Uh oh, I'm getting kicked out," she said.
"You'll sleep for a while with this, Captain, but it's the best way to recuperate," Gold told his patient as he injected medicine into the IV bag at the head of the bed. "Lieutenant," he added with a significant look at Green before he left the room once more.
"I'll be close by, and come back in as soon as he lets me," she assured Blue, which made him smile.
She bent down again to kiss him on the lips. It was a gentle, yet meaningful one, and he kissed her back. They were usually careful about displaying affection towards each other publicly, especially when they were on duty or in front of the others, but this time he didn't care much about hiding it. Moments later he was already starting to fall back to sleep and was out like a light before Green walked out through the sliding door.
~The End~
OTHER STORIES FROM ISABELLE SAUCIER
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