Fire Was All Around Us

"Evan! Stay down!" Someone was screaming. He couldn't tell if it was McCarthy or Jones or Drew or someone he didn't know the name of. He couldn't hear anything except for the loud and piercing ringing in his ears that made him want to throw up.

He felt his body moving, clawing at the earth with bloodstained hands. How had they gotten like that?

He didn't move far and he felt his leg stuck in something. He huffed in frustration. Tugging non-to-gently, he ripped his leg free and kept crawling. Where, he didn't know.

All he could feel was pain. Pain in his torso like a thousand pounds weighed on his chest. His head was pounding too much to make his eyes focus. His fingers hurt as he felt tiny rocks digging into his skin.

Maybe that's where the blood had come from.

From his position on the ground, he could see light flames licking the structure around him. What was left of it. He could have sworn that they had just infiltrated the stronghold that the terrorists held as their go between.

It was an important mission. Getting the information contained in this building would have guaranteed that they would find the location of the ringleader of these anarchists. The ones who were hell bent on finding new and cruel ways of torturing those they thought were beneath them.

Including him and everyone he left behind.

But what happened? And why the hell did his head feel like it was in the process of imploding?

Oh god, did he just get blown up?

Shit.

He tried pushing his hands into the ground, ignoring the plain shooting up his arms. Heaving air into his lungs and disregarding the odd feeling in his chest, he crawled on his hands and knees towards a fallen body. He didn't recognize them, thank god.

Immediately, he felt sick inside. It didn't really matter if he knew them, it was still a fallen soldier, they deserved more than his relief at it not being a familiar face.

"EVAN!" His name was called again. Or maybe they had never stopped calling his name, he wasn't sure.

"Here", He tried to say. He didn't know if anything had even come out of his mouth and was about to try again when he saw a blurry figure scrambling over to him.

It wasn't long before they reached him.

Diaz.

"Evan", Diaz clutched his face in his hands, examining him closely, "Are you okay? You don't look too hot."

Evan felt a grin touching his face, "Well neither do you dipshit."

Diaz grinned back at him. Evan tried to ignore how his annoyingly white teeth were bloodstained.

He faded, "Evan."

He was startled when he heard his name again. "What?" He groaned.

"Evan, we need to get to a med tent."

Why would they need to get to a med tent? Oh god, "Why?" He panicked, "Are you hurt?"

"No, no, no, I'm fine. But your leg..."

"I'm pretty sure that Buck couldn't intimidate someone even if he had a gun to his head. He can't even lie." Buck almost snorted when Chimney said that with such conviction that anyone would believe him.

If he was being honest with himself, he was relieved that this was the picture his teammates had of him inside their heads. Always happy, goofy, optimistic, golden-retriever Buck. He was grateful that he never had to put on the 'mask'. The mask he often had to don during his time in the Seals. The mask he hated with every fiber of his being.