"If you are, then I should thank you, too," he says: quieter, but completely sincere.
They never spoke of what transpired in their respective dreams, during those late night talks. But Mulcahy was not the only one who woke up screaming sometimes. Panicking, gasping hoarsely for air that could not seem to make it into his lungs, shivering hard enough that it sometimes took multiple blankets and a good twenty minutes before Gaeta's hands were steady enough to hold a cup of tea. He'd become so used to bearing it alone that the simple gesture of someone shaking him awake -- hearing a voice not his own, grounding him in reality -- almost undid him the first couple times it happened.
And so the cautious trust he placed in Mulcahy settled to a comfortable weight. Familiar. Welcome. He didn't expect it to come so easily once it began, but it found the grooves worn deep in Gaeta's nature, cleared out the debris left behind by Raptor 718... and here they are now.
"Mm." He thinks it over. "When you first mentioned the basics, that it was a home invasion and kidnapping, I thought it might be a POW situation. But... it was more than that, wasn't it?"
His voice doesn't quite tip up into a question, but it's there.
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They never spoke of what transpired in their respective dreams, during those late night talks. But Mulcahy was not the only one who woke up screaming sometimes. Panicking, gasping hoarsely for air that could not seem to make it into his lungs, shivering hard enough that it sometimes took multiple blankets and a good twenty minutes before Gaeta's hands were steady enough to hold a cup of tea. He'd become so used to bearing it alone that the simple gesture of someone shaking him awake -- hearing a voice not his own, grounding him in reality -- almost undid him the first couple times it happened.
And so the cautious trust he placed in Mulcahy settled to a comfortable weight. Familiar. Welcome. He didn't expect it to come so easily once it began, but it found the grooves worn deep in Gaeta's nature, cleared out the debris left behind by Raptor 718... and here they are now.
"Mm." He thinks it over. "When you first mentioned the basics, that it was a home invasion and kidnapping, I thought it might be a POW situation. But... it was more than that, wasn't it?"
His voice doesn't quite tip up into a question, but it's there.