please just let me help you. @pittmade
the adrenaline still pulses like mortar fire in her ears, the sheets had tangled tight around her waist, unravled in the abruptness when she lept from bed. her breath comes in short, calculated bursts, the kind meant to hide the panic, not soothe it. A SURVIVAL RHYTHMN, a trick she learned in tents and triage units under foreign skies. eversteady hands tremble and fumble with the script. that emergency bottle to sit beneath her tongue and chase away reflections of war. she hasn’t cried, she doesn’t, not even now, but her body feels like it wants to. not out of fear. not anymore. but exhaustion, a deep marrow-tiredness that never fades, just gets buried under scrubs and charts and too much coffee.
please just let me help you.
it’s the way he says it, like a quiet promise in the dark, like he’s offering her a place to land instead of a spotlight to stand under. guilt tears through sinew and soul. no one had ever seen her like this; the burden she'd refused to unleash upon the unknowing, the unwilling. she slept so well beside him, no issues arising until the inevitable push against her ribs to recall. her eyes meet his, not fully, not yet, but just the edge of him in the ambient light of her bathroom. honey eyes far away, attempting to find her HOME again. the bottle nearly crushed in her hand as she followed the sound of his voice. she caught the warmth of his scent and reached for him. something in the most broken parts of her being following his imprint of energy like a ship to harbour in a winter storm. ❛ jack. ❜ a voice so raw, so haunted, crawling back to life. gloria is pressed to him, instinct of spirit sought and driving action. ❛ i'm sorry, i'm sorry. ❜ muffled against his chest, but she breathes, finally.
❛ your fascination with me will be your death. ❜ Leon / @washsins
a warning? perhaps a favour spoken by toeing the line. gloria breathes it in, lets it settle in the space between them like smoke. heavy, impossible to ignore, and he’s close enough that she could touch him if she wanted to. it’s not the danger that draws her. she’s seen worse, survived worse. but there’s something about him, all sharp edges and old scars, some still bleeding under the surface. she recognizes the kind of violence he carries. it’s not posturing, it’s not a threat, it’s a language she's fluent in. gloria doesn’t know when she started needing him like this. beyond warmth and safety, but for the way his presence drags her back into her own body, sharp and aching and real.
she’s never been good at doing the right thing when her hands are already shaking with want. she could pretend enough, hold up a reflection of the goodness she tries to uphold with a heart-wrenching dedication. how she falls back into the consuming grief, haunted and so unfathomably broken. she couldn't be repaired. ❛ maybe i'll just die wanting you then. ❜ a smile that shouldn't be there, but one that echoes a sentiment she couldn't place. the gallows humour dancing across her lips. ❛ or you could save me the heartache and put me out of my misery now. ❜
she doesn't waste another glance on the brewing storm. she'd spent enough years tending the aftermath of ego; split lips, shattered knuckles, the kind of hurt that clings long after the blood dries. the pressure built from years of silence and pushing war down your throat because it's not man enough to admit it's there. so the marines punch the Green Berets and the SEALS knock both of them to the ground. on and on, like all traditions of broken systems and the bodies they leave behind. it’s an old but familiar ache now, a quiet grief for how easily people throw themselves into ruin, knowing there's nothing she could do to stop it.
❛ smart. ❜ once, she might have stayed. might have tilted her chin up and thrown herself into the fray out of pride or stubbornness, to prove she could survive. it's almost worse knowing she can. worse, even that she might have tried to if she had felt the spark of violence gather close enough to the surface. gloria was grateful for lizzie's presence. a tether to the femininity the former combat medic nurtures within herself as though it might undo every terrible act.
❛ not just that, i have a bottle of zacapa if you think you can handle it. ❜ it's a gentle nudge of words, limbs slipping into her jacket, purse tucked high beneath her arm. gloria bids the rabble behind, leading out the door.
lizzie dons a mask of careful ambivalence, holding the brewing fight in her peripheral as her sights languidly cycle: her present company, her empty glass, the fine lace of condensation wound along its surface. a tattered slice of lime sits at the bottom, sprawled over half-melted ice. she prods at it with the end of her straw, quietly indignant of the acuteness of her awareness so deep into the night, but she avoids the bartender’s eye. tries to stifle the way she stiffens as egos swell, boisterous voices teasing the bounds of violence. she knows this game. could, theoretically, understand its basest appeal: the thrill of a fight projected. life rendered in adrenaline bursts and broken skin. finds herself, suddenly, inwardly, grateful gloria doesn’t seem to share in this interest.
“not much of a gambler.” only in the company she keeps, if murmurs were to be believed— diluting their business to the simple whim of gangsters and murderers. as if she were any better. but, stealing another glance over her shoulder, lips pursing in careful assessment, lizzie inclined to agree. with a little over a foot of difference between them, they weren’t exactly entering on even odds.
“yeah?” she smiles at @medicbled's choice of word, obnoxious, shouldering her purse in silent acceptance.
GOOD MORNING !!! Going to tidy up and finish organizing my house then get on my blogs to get things going cause spice is coming a day late friends. ALSO , welcome the newest member of my blog roll and latest mistake @enduredshe
❛ you’re a fucking nightmare. kiss me. ❜ / dex @weaponid
it doesn’t sound like desire, it sounds like a dare. gloria stands there, breath tight in her chest, jaw working like she's chewing down a scream. maybe, once upon a time, she would've flinched. denied it. tried to scrub the blood off her hands and weigh the scales of morality, not anymore. it isn't something she can just outrun. it wouldn't matter how many lives she saved; she still took without mercy when the orders were given. never hesitated, never uttered the realization that she liked it. gloria laughs, and it's a caustic thing. like she's clinging to the last fragments of dignity before she inevitably begs him to dish out pain as personal penance. ❛ aw, am i keeping you up at night, dex? ❜
it’s been a long time since anyone’s looked at her like she’s something real. not a saviour or a soldier. something he doesn’t want to fix, maybe even something he wants. her hand finds his jaw, fingers rough from the violence of trying to hold onto softness. from too many nights spent stitching other people’s wounds while ignoring her own, she tilts his face down and meets his eyes with something broken and burning. her thumb brushes his cheek with the barest touch of reverence—or—warning. it's a slow melt into him, but not an ounce of hesitation. gifting him the taste of something sweet before her fingers curl roughly into his hair, and teeth graze his bottom lip. a fucking nightmare made flesh if he wanted it.
❛ i don't know why you're telling me. i'm not involved. you made that, very clear. ❜
holt & diaz quote starters // @bychuck ( frankiiiieee )
FUCK IT. dialogue starter call but it's just rosa diaz and captain holt quotes.
her hand doesn’t move. it stays there, over his chest, over the heat of a heart still BEATING, even if it feels like it’s barely holding on. her fingers curl a little, as though she could press through flesh and bone and cradle it in her palm with tenderness. ❛ what am i without my hypocrisy? ❜ her smile is world-weary, a life lived before she ever stepped foot into the emergency department. one she couldn't shake from her bones or broken soul. just the same, she couldn't shake off obligations, duty, her purpose in this world. ❛ i know we do, trust me on that — ❜ a pause to relinquish touch, if only to toy with the pocket of his hoodie. ❛ i'm just asking for a day. the details of which i will be forcing you to relax and in turn i will relax so it's mutually beneficial. ❜
tired eyes flick to the hand on his chest like it's an open wound. the warmth of it hurts and sears his skin, in the way that softness does when you're starving for it. he can't afford to vanish. too many people need him functioning, unflinching. to unravel is not an option, not even at the seams. “ have you ever thought about taking your own advice? ” he offers a small grin before shaking his head. “ people like us. we belong here. ” they couldn't walk away if they wanted to.
❛ i could never be the one to love you. i can only be the one that kills you. ❜ @putrefacerem
she lets the silence that follows stretch, taut and trembling. notions of self-preservation died with her girlhood; war reconstructed her into a walking grave. making it off the battlefield, alive meant she's really only living on borrowed time, death lying in wait. she’s not a soldier anymore, she’s not even just a doctor. she’s the woman who lets a monster drink from her throat and bandages the bite like it doesn't mean anything. a woman who tells herself she’s doing it out of pragmatism, routine, a mutual benefit — nothing more.
gloria should feel powerful, shouldn’t she? he needs her. her blood, her pulse, her will, and he feeds because she allows it. yet somehow, mínluben is still in control. she watches him, that ruin of a mouth, those eyes that look too long and hard. like he’s piercing the depth of her soul and measuring her worth through every sin, and she pretends it doesn’t hurt. ❛ and why haven't you? ❜ maybe the tragedy is knowing she'd let him because when the teeth pierce skin, it feels like she’s needed, really needed. impossible to count how many times she'd cursed an empty sky, demanding a trade of her life for the fallen beneath her palm. under the heavy framework of her grief, to die as sustenance to life doesn't make her feel any ounce of fear. she steps closer, haunted honey gaze sought him out. near enough that the scent of ichor would invade his solitude. her neck tilts into the smoke of her challenge. ❛ what's stopping you? it's right here. ❜