Archive of Our Own ^beta

    George pulled against the restraints that held his wrists in place. Desperate even as he heard the sounds of the attack and he knew what it meant. He knew that they were found and that the screams making way to his ears were the sounds of safety for them. George knew that. He knew that it was over. That things were going to be okay. 

    Tears still ran down his face. He couldn’t breathe right. He couldn’t scream through the gag in his mouth. His tongue forced to choking himself and he could barely breathe. 

    He couldn’t take his eyes from the screen in the corner. 

    The camera aimed directly to a cell set up like a lab. A slanted table with a body strapped into it so tightly George wondered if his circulation was being impacted. The strap around his head pushed his hair up. 

    His eyes were open, lidded, dull, unfocused. 

    He looked dead. 

    Dream looked dead. 

    They had been near each other before. A mission that was just for the two of them and they had run it proudly. Bantering with each other and leaning off one another. They knew their patterns inside and out. A communication that did not need to be repeated for the fact that they could read each other through the language of their bodies alone. They knew where their lines were and what their marks were. 

    They had plans for when they would make it back to the safehouse at the end of the mission. How they were going to lean on one another and how excited they were to have peace and be able to wind down for the night. How they were going to shower and change and curl up on the couch together and watch stupid shitty romcom movies with each other for the rest of the night. They were going to tune out all the bad of the world. 

    It became their routine. Every time he and Dream would have their missions just the two of them they would take it to be the one chance they got to truly unwind with each other. When the mission was over and they stayed out another night before heading back to the barracks and HQ for their reporting. Unless something terrible happened that was all it really needed. They would indulge letting themselves have the soft things in life. 

    The lights all on in the room and the soft blankets and smooth pillows. Their body heat mingling as they laid against each other on the couch. The popcorn and icecream and drinks they would share between them. The calm they had for one another when they got to breathe and laugh and cry in something that was safe. 

    Something they would never really have. 

    They’d gotten good at pretend but both of them knew it would never be the same. 

    They had plans for the same thing. To watch old romance movies with each other until they were sick of them and could quote the cheesy lines to one another in their comms during their missions. How they wanted to reach for each other and how they wanted to talk to each other. They wanted something so much more. 

    They’d been on the roof. Talking about it and laughing their jokes they already had lined up and ready for what they were going to watch. They were excited. Something they didn’t think they were really going to have the chance to feel with each other again. 

    They’d scanned the area when they made it their look out. 

    They had been watching. 

    They still missed the sniper that settled across the street. They’d missed them until the darts landed into their necks. Until they were waking up strapped down and held apart from each other. It was before they’d been gagged. It was when their captors were thinking they could still scare them into talking and that they wouldn’t be able to put up a fight since they were held down. 

    They threatened Dream to him. George refused to break. He knew the consequence of using him to get to Dream. 

    Their enemies learned it later when the alarms came blasting through the halls and Dream burst through the door with his stolen gun up and at the ready. George could see him stripped of uniform and down into loose hanging scrubs much the same as what was on his own body. Dream had been bleeding. Bruises already forming on him and one of his wrists looking nearly torn apart. 

    Dream had fought for him. Angry and fast and in moments like this he remembered why Dream was the top agent. He remembered why Dream was so feared and why he was seen as an example to the new recruits. Why he was the leader of their team and why he was the one that won everything he did. 

    Dream wasn’t wearing his mask. These people had seen his face. 

    He didn’t think Dream was leaving any of them alive to tell the tale. 

    That was, until the moment one of the soldiers grabbed him from behind and another tore the gun from his grip. George was helpless restrained as he was while the soldiers jammed a needle into Dream’s neck. He couldn’t do anything but watch as his lover slipped limp against their captors and hung in their arms. Eyes closed and breathing slow. 

    Dream was helpless. George was helpless. It made him sick. Even more when he watched them manhandle Dream and drag him away and they didn’t place him back to the cell across the hall where he’d been before. 

    They took him to a larger room. One that was too white and too sterile and George could practically imagine the smell of antiseptic. He watched Dream be thrown to the table like he was nothing but a sack of meat for them to haul from place to place. They strapped him down. They connected him to machines. They pulled open his eyes. 

    New guards came in to watch George. Ensuring that he could see everything they were doing and they set up the radio call between the rooms. The audio coming through crisp and clear and George heard the whirring of the vents in the room. He saw the clamps attaching to the table. 

    A woman stepped in with a labcoat. A man dressed much the same to Dream. She grinned as she looked him over. 

“Agent, you and your coworker have caused us quite a struggle tonight.”

    They’d been tailing information on the pharmaceutical crimes leading to this company for the last three months. He didn’t know what mistake they’d made tonight that led them to being caught. That led them to this. But they surely had missed their check in by now. He didn’t know how long the both of them had been out but even if their trackers were turned off it would set something wrong to their higher ups. He knew that Sapnap liked to watch when it came for their missions. He knew that hey were going to be marked AWOL soon and someone would come for them. 

    If they weren’t already on the way. 

“Do you have anything to say yet? Anything about that performance of your coworker?”

    He couldn’t help his eyes moving back to Dream. He couldn’t help watching the way he was touched while he couldn’t protect himself or even be aware of what they were doing. The woman leaned back to follow his eyes. Humming only a moment before she lifted a mic to her lips. 

“Wake him up.”

    George’s heart lurched to his throat as electricity snapped through the room and into the table Dream was against. He watched his lover jolt and arc from it as much as he could but the restraints held him down in place. They weren’t meant to hurt them, it looked like medical strapping. Like they were unruly patients at risk of hurting themselves. 

    He forced himself silent. He watched Dream fall limp again on the table. How the other scientist reached out and pushed another needle into his veins. How Dream’s breathing changed and he opened his eyes and took in the room quickly. How fast his face set into anger. 

“Don’t tell them anything! I’m fine!”

    He needed Dream to know. The guards moved immediately. A fist slamming into his jaw and forcing his head to the side before the gag was shoved into its place. He saw Dream fighting on the screen. He knew his lover would put up a fight as much as possible but that was why he needed to take the risk and tell him. Dream had already fought hard for him once and now all of their enemies knew that he would protect him with a violence that left him hurt. They all knew where Dream’s weak point was and he didn’t know what they were giving him. 

    He would assure his partner no matter what. 

    George took the gag with all the grace of a bull in a china shop. Glaring and attempting to bite the fingers that forced their way into his mouth. He knew that Dream could hear his struggles given the way he protested and fought against his restraints. 

“One of you is going to give us what we want.”

    George was gagged. There was no way in hell Dream would ever tell them anything. 

“You’re both too stubborn right now, I think. You need some help.”

    He didn’t like the way they worded it. He didn’t like that he could see an IV of some kind of chemical being wheeled beside Dream. He didn’t like watching them prep the needle to go to his open arm. 

“We can help you.”

    Monitors were hooked up to Dream. Latching onto him and George could see the lines as they picked up the readings. He knew the measured bumps of Dream’s breathing. He knew that he was controlling his heart to keep it from speeding. He was refusing to show them fear. 

“Turn on the drip.”

    Dream struggled without success. George could do nothing but watch. 

    The moment the chemicals hit his veins, Dream screamed. Raw and unyielding and George knew exactly what kind of pain it took to make his lover scream. He knew the pain that lanced through him and shot his body. He knew the nightmares that Dream would still have and how the sound would catch in his throat because he was scared to do it again. 

    For him to scream meant it was nearly worse than death. 

    It didn’t stop. 

    Not when his vitals turned erratic. Not when he started to flatline. George yelled incomprehensible words into his gag and choked as he tried. The cloth stealing everything he tried to get to his partner and nothing worked. He couldn’t break free from the restraints. He couldn’t kill all the people here. He couldn’t get to Dream to save him. 

“Bring him back.”

    The jolt through the table now showed its real purpose. 

    Dream’s heart stayed still. He heard the high pitched whine through the speakers of the screen. 

“Again.”

    Nothing. George felt his own heart shrivel and wilt and prepare itself to die. 

“One more time.”

    Dream breathed. His pulse skipping back up into time and the man with him assessed him in person. Working and blocking the camera’s view until he moved away and George found Dream’s eyes too far gone to be there at all. He looked like he was still dead. 

    His vitals on the screen the only thing of him that looked even remotely alive. 

    George lost track of time after that. He let his mind focus in on Dream and only Dream. He didn’t care what they did to him. He didn’t care what threats they gave. He wasn’t going to talk to them. He wasn’t going to reward them for taking his lover. He wasn’t going to give them anything they wanted and he was going to fight until his final breath if he had to. He would count every touch they laid to Dream and he was going to fight against all of it. 

    The new alarms should have brought relief. The rush and the fear that reached the eyes of the woman in the room with him when the screaming met their ears. He didn’t allow himself to care. Not when she left escorted by guards to escape. Not when the guards left him alone to fight. 

    He could only watch Dream. 

    Unmoving, not reacting, lifeless on that table. 

    The door to his room burst open and George heard Sapnap call his code name before his friend was rushing to his side. 

“Hey, you okay? You with me? Look at me.”

    Sapnap worked the gag out of his mouth. He fought back the urge to be sick all over himself. 

“XD.”

    Sapnap opened his mouth before he turned to follow George’s eyes. Seeing the screen and cursing sharply at what he was seeing. Dream was alone now on the screen but that meant nothing with everything else considered. Sapnap worked off his restraints. He was shaking. He was dizzy. His friend kept him upright. 

“Do you know where he is?”

    He knew what direction they went in. 

    They moved. Working their way through and Sapnap keeping an eye out for any of their enemy until George caught sight of a door that was labeled as simply as ‘lab’. 

“Here.”

    He thanked every god he knew that he was right. 

    George was with Dream in seconds. Cupping his face in his hands and holding him to try to turn his head and make him look. 

    His eyes found nothing. 

“Look at me.”

    No change to his expression. No reaction in his eyes. Not so much as a twitch or a shift of his breathing or heart. 

“What did they give him?”

    Sapnap removed the needle of the IV. Looking up to the bag of it and shaking his head as he shoved it away. 

“No idea. It’s not labeled. We’ll bag it and take it back with us. XD? You hear us?”

    Sapnap worked on Dream’s restraints. George’s hands were shaking. His fingers found his pulse despite the steady beep that told him it was still there. Machines could lie, he needed to feel for himself that his lover was still in there. That he still was fighting. That there was maybe still a chance. 

“Wake up. I need you to wake up.”

    Dream didn’t react. He pet along the ridge of his cheek. His voice dropping to a whisper. 

“Dreamie, if you can hear me, I need you to wake up.”

    He looked dead. 

“Your name is Dream.” He took his recently freed hand and twined their fingers together. Moving Dream’s limp limb to his chest to press over his heart. “You are my partner. You are leader of the best agent team in the nation.”

    He looked to Sapnap. He looked scared. He looked on edge. 

“You are strong and stubborn and an idiot six days of the week but you are my favorite person.”

    His voice was shaking. 

“You like romcoms and popcorn that tastes like butter and you want a cat for the barracks so bad you’re planning to smuggle one in next month if the adoption goes through.”

    His fear was swallowing him. 

“You are brave and kind and you’re the best person I’ve ever known, Dream, please.”

    He pet through his hair. Dream’s eyes slipped closed. 

“Please, Dream, I need you.”

    He didn’t move.

“I need you.”

    The machine said he stopped breathing. 

“I need you.”

“Four—”

    Dream breathed. Sharp and gasping and his body moved with the force. His eyes opening and the dull glaze was still covering them. He wasn’t focused but he was moving and he was trying to look around.

    George stayed still. 

    Holding him and bracing him and he felt his heart skipping in his chest. The force of the relief of seeing him alive and acting like it nearly sending him down to his knees because of it all. His hands stayed on Dream’s face. 

“Look at me.”

    They had to keep him calm. He needed medical and calm was the one thing that might slow whatever was in his system until they knew more about it. 

    Until they knew he was safe. 

“Look at me, it’s okay. It’s over.”

    Dream’s eyes were bouncing around him. He could hear his pulse picking up on the monitor and he wanted to rip it off. Sapnap was already getting to work disconnecting things. 

“Everyone else will handle the situation here. Our only job is him.”

    He nodded. He was feeling worse by the moment but the only thing that mattered to him was Dream. Dream, who hadn’t tried to move again since he’d found his last attempts unsuccessful. Dream, who was looking like he was losing more and more awareness as the moments ticked by. 

“Did you hear that? We’re only worried about you. Nothing else matters.”

    Nothing else would ever matter. 

    George didn’t care about the mission. He cared about Dream. He didn’t care what their bosses would say or what they would order or hell, even if he lost his job for believing things like that. Dream gave so much of his life to selling himself to this line of work. He deserved to be treated and valued as a human being. There were far too many times where he wasn’t for George to count. Too many times that made him hate himself and he didn’t know how to fix it. 

“Dream.”

    His eyes were closing.

“We need to get him out of here.”

    He didn’t want to take him until he knew. 

“Dream, wake up.”

    A pat to his face and green eyes were opening again. Looking around the room at a pace far too sluggish for what Dream normally would do in unfamiliar territory. Right up until the moment he found his face and stopped. 

“Where?....”

    He breathed something that sounded like a laugh. Sapnap touched his shoulder and actually managed one. 

“Welcome back to the land of the living, brother. Ready to get out of here?”

    Dream nodded. Slow and pained but they worked as a team to help him get up off the table. They helped brace him as he trembled and his legs gave out. As he fainted against them and they struggled to keep his body up and moving. 

“Just hold on, we’re almost there.”

    Dream made a keening sound of agreement. It sounded too hurt for his comfort. 

    But they made it. 

    Working off of each other until they were getting out of the building and into the medical chopper that was waiting for them. He watched Dream be laid down on the board and the straps they went to tie him to it. He saw the panic the moment Dream saw them too. 

“Don’t.”

    He held Dream’s hand. His other moving into his hair. 

“But sir—”

“Just don’t. Not right now.”

    The medics listened as they got into the air. George watching the ground vanish beneath them and his heart finally started to ease. Enough for the dizziness to hit. Enough for him to lean back and close his eyes. 

    He just had to wait out the flight.