Redemption

CHAPTER VIII: Refuge

It had been a couple hours since Nikolais rescued Graves from hostage. It was practically dawn at that point, and they were met with a new day... with a new sun to loom over them over the horizons of bloodshed and crime. Nikolais still couldn't believe that he managed to rescue Graves from the cruelty that he brought himself on, he thought it was stupid that he just let himself be reckless just like that, but if that didn't happen then they couldn't have shown their love for each other as comrades.

Graves was once again back on his infirmary bed, trying to rest and to get healed by the medics. There wasn't any fatal injury on Graves, only a couple bruises on his face because of being abused once in a while inside that wicked jail.

From behind the scenes, Graves was being abused inside there. He couldn't explain it to himself, but he recalled that he would always get a couple of punches and swings to his face once in a while for Shepherd's entertainment. It was disgusting.

He knows it would happen to him again in the future if the chance was given.

After a while of just blankly staring at the ceiling and messing around on his bed, he gets visited by Nikolais. The sight of seeing him was enough, because Graves knows that he gets overworked by their captain and would often be really drained and not in the mood to chat.

Considering that, being rescued by him was a privilege. It was more than enough.

"Graves! You feeling okay?" He greets the man who recently just sat up and changing his posture entirely. Yes, he is okay.

"Of course I am, Nikolais. Why would I not be?" He smiled afterwards. Finally, they're back together. Both shared the same thoughts – psychic.

"That's great to hear, brother." Nikolais said that with an open heart.

"Oh, I almost forgot. We both have a meeting assigned by Captain Dmitri back at his office later. Please do prepare and compromise, he really wants to talk with the both of us." Captain Dmitri... that must be the name of the Russian Captain that is currently leading this operation.

"Acknowledged."

Nikolais nods as he heads out of the infirmary, he looked like he needed to take care of a few things first, which was okay for Graves because he understood him – much more than anybody else actually.

Graves sat on the bed, still in his old and dirty clothing of the dark blue shirt with the same pair of pants he had on yesterday. It was unsanitary, but really... what can they do other than help him out of his battle armor? His mind was overthinking the most ridiculous possibilities ever, but snapped out of it because it was getting way too deep and thorough.

He decided to go out of the infirmary as he tries to explore the base once again. No matter how many times he'd see the base's interior, it would never fail to amaze and shock him on how the technology of these Russians were on point. They weren't like the usual ones you'd meet or encounter, they were more advanced than them. It was intimidating to think about considering that he doesn't know what they can do with that amount of sheer knowledge and technology.

But he just hoped for the best as he traversed the empty hallways again.

As he walked in the hallways, he thought about that moment with Soap back at the Shadow Outpost. He had a chance, but it was not given any reason to be fulfilled. He felt melancholic again, knowing that Soap acted that way to him because way before the betrayal, they were both close and would do shit together as comrades-in-arms. It didn't really faze his mentality that much due to the fact that he knows that Soap wanted nothing to do with him, but it just hurts knowing that a person he loved deep down, would never hear from him again.