(this is what i imagine Faith playing in the ward, it's exactly as i picture her playing and voice.)





























𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐱 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫

❝ 𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬 ❞

































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"THERE'S A DEEP CUT ON HIS HEAD, PROBABLY BECAUSE OF THE HELMET. THAT'S ABOUT IT. HE'LL BE ABLE TO LEAVE BY TOMORROW."

They were in the Medical wing, the entire squadron, and the Admiral and Captain. Faith had gotten the cut on her hand stitched and wrapped in bare minutes, demanding that she'd do it herself. She ran back into the hallway as soon as she was done wrapping it up.

"Thank you, Doctor Hunt." The Admiral nods at the doctor, before looking towards Faith, who was leaning against the wall between Jake and Natasha.

"What happened, Archer? At ease." Hurricane asked Faith, who straightened up to salute him. Her back slumped, and she felt her knees get weak.

Taking a deep breath in, and leaving a shaky breathe out, she feels as Natasha rubs her back in comfort, and Jake puts his hand on her shoulder, squeezing.

"I had the shot, but the bogey, he was unpredictable, he was pulling all these maneuvers, and he ascended all of a sudden- We- We flew into his jet wash." She gulps audibly

"I lost control, it's my fault." Faith crosses her hands and tucks them to her chest, looking down at her shoes in shame, a cold tear running down her face. She closes her eyes, shaking her head in disappointment at herself, raising her hand to wipe the lone tear.

"No, don't blame yourself, Archer, you kept him safe. You kept him breathing." Hurricane his hand on her shoulder, sending her a curt nod, before he moves out of the room.

The Captain gives her a quick nod, and comforting smile, before following after Hurricane.

Faith rests back against the wall, closing her eyes, as she waits for the nurse to come out and tell them that they could visit him when he wakes.

The nurse comes out of the ward, looking around the large group before calling out, "Faith Wilson? He's calling for you. We'll keep him for observation tonight, and he can go home tomorrow. Don't worry, he'll be up and ready in a few days time."

Immediately, Faith leaps off the wall, unfolding her hands and wiping them on her uniform. Natasha pats her back, before nudging her towards the door.

She looks back to the squad when her hand is barely inches away from the door handle, and they all give her an encouraging nod, ushering her to go inside. Opening the door, she takes a deep breath, stepping into the room to meet his hazel green eyes.

All the fear she felt completely vanished as his eyes met hers, and all she could think about was that he's safe.

Completely safe.

She steps closer, moving over on his side, and taking a seat by the hospital bed. "How are you feeling? You scared the shit out of me when I saw you not breathing." Faith shakes her head, shifting her gaze to the IV in his hand, grasping his other tight.

"Like I just burned in, Wilson, how do you think I feel?" Bradley gives her his usual smirk, holding her hand and squeezing it.

Letting out a soft chuckle, she leans forward, resting her chin on their entangled hands. Looking up at him through her eyelashes, she feels him leave her hand, and bring it up to caress her cheek. "Thank you." She leans into his soft touch.

Faith opens her eyes to see him looking at her through half-opened eyes, and the sweetest of smiles on his face, "For what?" She furrows her eyebrows.

"For saving me." Bradley's face softens even more than it already had, and he gazes into her eyes deeply, love in his eyes.

Faith squeezes his hand, shaking her head, as her eyebrows furrow, "No, Bradley. You saved me. You crashed into me, literally," She chuckles as she sees his smile grow bigger, "You stayed around, and now, I-" Faith looks back into his eyes, giving him the largest smile he'd ever seen her smile, "I can't imagine my life without you, Bradshaw. So you better not leave me anytime soon." She raises her eyebrows, trying to intimidate him, but he just smiles, squeezing her hand.

Faith leans close to him, barely inches from his face, feeling his warm breath on her face. She kisses him softly on his forehead, squeezing his hand she was still holding. She rests her forehead against his, taking deep, full breaths, she felt she had never taken before, never been so calm before.

"Don't leave again, alright? You stay with me." Faith whispers to him, soft breaths escaping her nose as she breaths in his scent. She feels him nod against her, softly smiling at him, both their eyes still closed in the bliss of the moment.

"They're gonna keep you tonight, for observation." She announces to him, opening her eyes, and pursing her lips, leaning back from him, looking to his hazel green eyes.

She sees him nod again, and she feels a little disappointed to leave his warmth.

"Will you stay? I don't really like hospitals, or being alone. If you want to stay." Bradley softly speaks, eyebrows furrowing the slightest, pleading in his eyes.

Without missing a beat, she nods, "Of course, Bradley, I'll stay with you. Uh, I- I'm gonna ask the rest of the squad to visit. I'll go home and grab some stuff, probably be back in, say, half hour? You fine with that?" Faith looks to him for confirmation, leaning away from him to get up.

"Sure, Fae. Just- Just come back." Bradley whispers, eyes holding a wave of yearning he thought she couldn't see.

"I promise, half hour. Be good." She points to him with raised eyebrows, pointing a finger at him.

"Yes, Ma'am." Bradley gives her a two-fingered salute, grinning largely.

Faith looks at him from over her shoulder, giving him a soft smile, and a raise of her eyebrow, before moving out of the room, only to be met by everyone else smirking at her.

"What?" Faith looks around, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. After no one answered with the exception of their smirks widening, she shakes her head at their antics, "He wants to see you guys, I'll just go home and grab some stuff and be back in thirty."

"Wait, you're staying?" Natasha asks, eyebrows raising, smirk widening into a grin.

"Yeah, he asked me to." At Faith's answer, a series of 'ooh's and 'wow's echo in the quiet hallway.

With an unimpressed expression on her face, she fakes an angry stomp on the ground, faking moving towards them. Hangman, Coyote, Fanboy, and Payback file up, cowering behind Phoenix.

The two women look at each other, before bursting into laughter at the boys' antics.





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AS SOON AS SHE RETURNED BACK HOME, FAITH WAS MET WITH THE CONCERNED GAZE OF HULK.

The poor kitten must've sensed something was wrong when he heard her heavy footsteps. He immediately brushed his body against her leg, trying to comfort Faith in anyway he could. She picked him up, nuzzling him close to the crook between her shoulder and neck, giving him kisses as she closed her eyes, listening to him purr softly.

"He's okay, Hulk. He's okay. I know you love him in your own weird way, alright, it's kinda obvious, sweetheart." She laughs at the narrowed eyed expression the kitten gives her, blue eyes squinting at the sound of her laugh.

Faith put him down gently, sitting down on the floor, as she watches Hulk climb up her leg, laying his tiny body on her thigh. She lays back against the wooden floor, hand on her stomach, the other sprawled out to her side.

She looks up at the ceiling of her home she was temporarily sharing with Bradley, noticing the glow in the dark stickers he had helped her put up the day he started living with her, saying her home looked dull.

A soft smile appears on her face, as she feels the kitten resting on her chest, eyes closed, enjoying the rare moment. She barely had time she could spend with him nowadays, too busy with her training, and she missed playing around the house with him.

"There's something about him, Hulk. Something which makes me want to open up to him. God, it's the-" She closes her eyes, seeing his hazel ones in her inward eye, reminded of the sparks.

They were a color she never wanted to forget. Beautiful. A soft sage green at the ends, but a forest brown near his pupils. Never would she forget the first time she met him, when she crashed into him, the spark she felt on his touch as their fingers brushed against each other's as he handed her the papers.

The look in his eyes he always thought she couldn't see, whenever he would look at her. Adoration, possibly love, maybe even a tinge of yearning. And he knew she felt the same.

"Oh, god," Faith closes her eyes, shaking her head. Opening her eyes back, she puts a hand on her hand, brushing it back, as she removes the hair tie. The headache had now become a throbbing one, hurting at just one side, but with epic force.

Faith runs a hand through her open hair sprawled out on the floor, scratching at her scalp softly. She runs down her hand down her face, closing her eyes again, bringing her other to softly brush through Hulk's fur.

"I'm falling, aren't I, Hulk? I'm down deep." She opens her eyes, looking down at her chest where the kitten laid, head tucked on his crossed paws. He just looked at her. But his gaze said something along the lines of, 'you definitely are'.

"Damn it." She scoffs out a laugh, chest shaking with her movement, making Hulk open his eyes, as he meows in disapproval, like he was saying, 'I'm trying to sleep.'

"Well, I'm sorry, but you gotta get off, bud, he's asked me to stay with him at the hospital, so I need to get up and pack a bag." The kitten looks in her eyes, huffing out a deep, quick breath, before getting up on all fours to stretch his tiny body to stretch on all fours, still on Faith's stomach. She brushes a quick hand over his fur as he jumps off her body, hearing him purr, before getting up and making her way up the stairs to pack her bag.



✈ ✈ ✈



FAITH TOOK DEEP BREATHS AS WALKED DOWN THE HALLWAY OF THE MEDICAL WING.

She couldn't believe she was actually going to spend the night with him. In different beds, of course, but she just couldn't shake the sudden nervousness she felt. It's not like Bradley was a monster, or something, she thought to herself.

She had grabbed her guitar, thinking about doing so when she noticed there was no source of entertainment for them to watch as they shared the takeout she had hidden in her duffle bag.

Opening the door to Bradley's ward, she watched, not announcing that she had arrived, looking at the squad sitting by Bradley's bed on the floor, still in their uniforms since the morning. Bradley held Natasha's phone in her hand, holding it horizontally as he placed it on his forehead, looking down at the other four who were giving him clues.

They were playing Heads Up. His word was best friend. Faith had not noticed the sly smirks Jake and Natasha shared before pointing to the door where she stood. As soon as Bradley saw her, he exclaimed, "Best friend?"

The other two oblivious ones look over to the door, following Bradley's soft gaze to the door. Everyone cheered at her entrance, even more at Bradley's answer.

"Hey guys." Faith smiled at Bradley, never breaking her gaze from his.

"I brought some takeout, from that Chinese place we went to in the first week, remember how everyone was groaning?" The cheers got even louder, and they all laughed, reminiscing that day.

"You're a genius, Wilson! How'd you even sneak take-out in here?" Coyote asked, getting off the floor to grab some of the stuff she was carrying.

"Well, it's in my duffle bag, and I ran down the hallway from security. They didn't even bother checking when I showed them my ID." Faith shrugged, taking her place beside Natasha on the floor, removing the take-out from her bag, and passing it over to everyone, giving it to Bradley first. All he had eaten today was just pancakes in the morning and a cup of coffee.

Bradley muttered a thank you as she handed the food to him first, gazing down at the order written on the cup, "You remembered my order?" He asked, eyebrows raising, lips crinkling in the tiniest of smiles.

"Of course I did." Faith said, shrugging it off with a quick smile.

"Hey, did you bring your guitar?" Jake asked, looking over at Faith with his usual annoying smirk.

"Yeah, I figured, uh, well, there's no source of entertainment here, so I thought I'd play some songs." She waved him off.

"Well, then, darlin', we need to hear a song or two, huh? What do 'ya think, boys?" Jake calls out, opening his container and throwing in a bite.

A chorus of 'whoo's are heard in the room, as everyone starts chanting 'Archer' repeatedly, hyping her up.

Shaking her head at their antics, she puts her hands up in surrender, moving to her guitar and removing it from the case.

"What do you guys want me to play?" Faith calls out, looking to everyone who had their attention to her. A silence spreads in the room, and Faith moves her hand to take a bite from her own food container, knowing it'd take them a long time to come to the final decision of what they wanted her to play. She smiles as she hears the squad bicker over it.

Looking over to Bradley, she finds him staring at her already. His eyes remind her of the stars which shine brightly in the moonlit sky. Something that glistens within the others, something that shines out to her. She quickly places the food to her side on the floor, grabbing her guitar, and playing a few notes, before she falls into harmony, eyes never leaving his.

"City of stars," Faith sings as she strums her guitar softly, not even bothering to look at the others in the room who had just suddenly stopped bickering at the sound of her guitar, looking to her in disbelief. Her eyes never left his.

"Are you shining just for me?" Her brows furrow as she sings, keeping her eyes in his steady, soft gaze.

"City of stars, just one thing everybody wants," Faith looks down at her guitar, shifting chords, before looking back to Natasha and the others, who had gentle smiles on their faces.

Faith shifts her gaze back to Bradley as he takes another bite of the take-out, giving her his comforting smile, "There in the bars, and through the smokescreen of the crowded restaurants." She looks down to her guitar again, hiding the flush on her face as she sings the next lyrics.

Lifting her head back to Bradley's gaze, she smiles back as she sings, "It's love, yes, all we're looking for, is love from someone else." A maroon flush covers her soft expression, going with her subtle confession, noticed by everyone.

"A rush, a glance," Faith closes her eyes, soft smile still on her face, as she is reminded of whenever her and Bradley's fingers would graze against each others, whenever she would find him staring at her, or when he'd find her staring back with the same look he'd give her, what they felt for each other. The rushed flush that would seep into their faces whenever they were around each other.

"A touch, a dance," She smiles wider, thinking back to whenever she'd feel that electric sparks at his touch, whenever he'd do his silly dance to cheer her up.

She opens her eyes slowly, falling back to his gaze, "A look on somebody's eyes, to light up the skies, to open the world and send it reeling," Faith thinks about whenever she'd notice him giving her that look he always did, the one he always thought she wouldn't notice. But she was giving him the same gaze as he would whenever he'd look at her. He always made her feel like it was just them two in the room whenever she was around him, like e had tossed the world away for her.

"A voice that says 'I'll be here', and 'you'll be alright'." She remembers when he'd punched her disgusting father hard in the face, and immediately pulled her into his arms, whispering that he'd stay with her for however long she needed him, assuring Faith that her father would never be able to hurt her again.

"I don't care if I know, just where I'll go, 'cause all that I need's this crazy feeling," Faith shakes her head, as she sings out the words, truly meaning what she wants to tell Bradley so badly, knowing he'd want to say the exact same words to her.

"A rat-tat-tat on my heart," Everyone joins her as she sings softly, hushed whispers underneath their own breaths, as they watch Faith and Bradley chuckle softly.

Everyone else except Faith and Bradley stop singing, looking to each other with knowing looks on their faces, as the other two simply look to each other and sing, "I think I want you, to stay."

Immediately, the room is filled with claps, cheers and laughs as they hype Faith up, by cheering her on with her callsign. She dramatically takes a bow, and laughs when Natasha yells out with loud claps, "That's my best friend, y'all!"



✈ ✈ ✈





EVERYONE ELSE HAD LEFT, AND IT WAS JUST THE TWO OF THEM IN THE ROOM.

Bradley had sat up after finishing his take out, giving Faith space to sit by the foot of his bed, as he watched her play more songs for him. He had requested 'Hooked on a Feeling' by Blue Swede, not long after everyone had gone back.

Just as she finished the song, Bradley reminds, "Uh, don't you want to get changed? I'm sure you're not planning on sleeping in your uniform, Fae." Giving her knee a squeeze.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll just get changed. You need anything?" Faith asks, unfolding her legs to get off the bed, ready to hand him whatever he needed.

"Just some water." Bradley nods at the table where some water bottles were kept. Faith hands him the bottle quickly, and grabs her duffle bag before moving towards the bathroom, calling out, "I'll be just two minutes."

As soon as the bathroom door shuts, Bradley lets out a breath he never felt himself hold. What was he thinking, asking her to stay with him like this? Was it just him, or did she look at him with the same look he'd always give her whenever he looked at her? Was it just his fantasy, or did he actually feel shudders and chills run across his back the entire time she was singing to him. Did Faith feel the same for him, as he did for her? No. It wasn't possible, right?

Bradley traces his moustache, rubbing the back of his neck as he smiles at the thought of the haze in her emerald eyes as she sang to him.

Just then, Faith comes out, dressed in an oversized shirt of his and pajama pants with airplanes on them, she hears Bradley snort at the sight.

"Isn't that my shirt?" Bradley crosses his arms over his chest, careful with the IV as does so, raising his eyebrows and giving his usual smirk at the sight of her in his shirt, not minding it at all, just teasing.

"Hey, it looked comfortable. Besides, it was tossed on the bathroom floor, and it's an AC/DC shirt. I'm a simple girl, I see AC/DC, and I'll bring whatever it is back with me. Did I mention how it looked so comfortable?" Faith gives him a smug smile, crossing her hands over her chest, mimicking his expression.

"Keep it, it looks good on you." Bradley whispers, suddenly feeling tired as he yawns loudly.

Faith moves towards him, grabbing the cover tucked under the mattress, and tucking it over Bradley's shoulders after seeing him shiver at the air conditioning. She tries to ignore his gaze at her, so close to him, taking care of him, and brushes a stray strand of hair off his forehead, leaning down to give him a quick but lingering kiss on his forehead. She notices his eyes close as he dozes off, probably feeling extremely tired from the day's events.

Faith slowly moves back to the couch, where she quickly sets up her makeshift bed. She lays down, facing Bradley as she hears soft snores escape his mouth. She chuckles softly under her breath, thinking about how peaceful he looked as he was in deep slumber.

Pulling the blanket over her body, she keeps her gaze on him, feeling her eyes slowly close as a wave of exhaustion hits her deep, falling into a light slumber.