Chapter Text
Scout didn’t typically think much about birds. It’s not that he hated them or anything he just never really thought much about them. They were always just something that existed in the background. At most he enjoyed their singing on occasion, but that was pretty much the extant of it. He certainly never thought of having one as a pet. He was always more of a dog person. Not that it really mattered. Growing up his family couldn’t afford to have a pet. Heck, his Ma could barely afford to feed eight growing boys never mind trying to take care of any pet be they a dog or a bird. At any rate he just never thought much about birds.
Of course that all changed when he met the Medic. That man loved birds almost as much as he loved preforming experiments on whatever unlucky sucker that ended up on his surgery table. The man basically had a small army of doves at his command. With that said even once he met the Medic and his army of doves Scout still didn’t think much about birds. Of course that all changed when he ended up accidentally getting one of Medic’s doves trapped in his chest. That was one of the worst moments of Scout’s life. Having a bird have a mini panic attack in his rib cage was hell on earth. He could feel the bird’s wings brushing up against his organs, and he could feel the bird bashing himself against Scout's chest to try and escape. To say that it felt unpleasant would be massively understating just how painful it felt. It couldn’t have been much fun for the bird either being stuck in a dark place unable to get out, but honestly Scout’s sympathy for the bird was rather limited. If the bird hadn’t jumped into his chest during the ÜberCharge heart surgery, he wouldn’t have ended up in that position in the first place.
Thankfully, the second Scout figured out he had a freaking bird trapped in his body he had turned right around, and got Medic to get the bird out of him. Medic was able to get his beloved bird out of Scout without too many issues, and the bird went on with his life happy as ever. However, Scout walked away from the situation swearing that he never wanted to go near Medic’s freaking birds again. Suddenly birds went from something he never thought about to something that only brought up a rather unfortunate memory. These days just looking at Medic’s bird Archimedes caused Scout’s chest to ache just a little in memory of that moment.
After that day Scout only went to Medic’s infirmary if he absolutely had to, and he took to avoiding the man’s doves like the plague. If Medic ever notice that Scout sort of stayed clear of his infirmary the man never mentioned it. It was not like they interacted enough for Medic to really bring it up much anyway. Engineer definitely noticed, but that was only because Scout started going to him to use the dispenser that he had set up in his workshop for any injury that Scout had decided wasn’t serious enough to go near Medic’s freaking birds for.
“You know Medic would probably be willing to take care of those injuries,” Engineer would always say whenever he saw Scout use his dispenser.
Scout would always brush the comment off with some sort of excuse. Either by saying the Medic wasn’t in his infirmary at the moment, or the man was in a foul mood and Scout knew better then to mess with a ticking time bomb.
His favorite excuse was “Medic was doing some freaky experiment, and I wasn’t about to mess with that.”
Engineer never questioned him when he tossed that excuse out because nine times out of ten the Medic was doing some weird experiment. Honestly, that was another reason why Scout typically avoided the infirmary. He was grateful for all of the healing that Medic did on the battlefield, but that didn’t mean he was willing to have a bunch of animal organs shoved into his body. Why Heavy seemed perfectly willing to let Medic do so Scout would never know. When Medic wasn’t placing animal organs in people he was usually doing some sort of experiment that reminded Scout a bit too much of the mad scientists that he had seen in some horror movies. That stuff had always made Scout a little weary about dealing with Medic, or going to his infirmary.
The incident with his bird just ended up pushing Scout over the line, and made him think ‘Yeah, I am not dealing with that.’
Ultimately, it was a bird that ended up causing Scout to mostly avoid Medic when they were off of the battlefield.
Ironically, it was a bird that would end up forcing Scout to actually interact with the man which ultimately ended up changing their relationship in ways that Scout never expected….
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The day that Scout’s world would suddenly change rather drastically had actually started pretty great. Engineer had made pancakes that morning for breakfast which was a pretty great way to start a morning if you were to ask Scout. Better yet that day’s battle was taking place on Scout’s favorite battlefield.
They were fighting at Landfall.
Scout couldn’t help but be excited every time that the team was shipped out to the base that was located in the middle of the woods. He knew that most of his team were either neutral to the place at best, or they absolutely hated it there. Engineer hated the place.
“It’s way too out in the open.” Engineer would always complain. “There are way too many places for the darn BLU Spy to slip in and sap my buildings.”
There were others who hated the area for other reasons. The base that was near Landfall and the other forested battlefields like the Sawmill area was pretty much located smackdab in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty far away from any sort of civilization which made getting supplies a bit of a hassle. Demoman hated how far away it was from any sort of establishment that could give him alcohol to the point that whenever they are told they are moving to the base near Landfall the Scottish man would start stockpiling alcohol just to prepare himself. Spy hated how much of a pain it was to drive so far out to get the weekly supplies, and he wasn’t much of a great outdoors sort of guy so being out in the middle of the woods wasn’t very appealing to him.
Scout was pretty sure the only person on his team who really liked it out there was Sniper, and that was because there were no people out there and there were a ton of different animals living in the area. For an outdoorsy guy like him the woods were probably a small slice of heaven. Truthfully, Scout probably should have hated the place as much as most of his team did. He was born and raised in the city. It was all he knew, and honestly he never really left the city until he became a mercenary. Being out in the middle of the woods away from any sort of civilization should have been absolute misery for him.
Yet, against all odds Scout loved being out there in the woods.
The weather there was almost always perfect. It wasn’t too hot, and yet at the same time it wasn’t too cold. There was always a gentle breeze blowing, and the sky overhead was almost always a bright blue and filled with white fluffy clouds. Compared to the freezing cold of Coldfront, and the unbearable heat of almost all of the battlefields in New Mexico the weather there at the woods was paradise. Even the nights there were pleasant. At night it was always stuck at the perfect temperature where it was not too hot, or too cold. Sometimes he would stand outside and just stare up at the starry sky overhead. When they were out here there were no city lights to block out the shimming stars above.
The place was even better during the early morning when Scout would go out for his morning run. It was peaceful out there in the woods with the only sounds to be hear was the chirping of birds, and the wind rustling the leaves in the trees. He loved the city and all the noises that came with it, but he liked the peace that the forest seemed to have. He liked being able to just cut loss and run like a maniac without any worries of anyone thinking he was crazy, or had just done something wrong. He liked that when he ran all he could hear was his own footfalls, and the sound of nature all around him.
Even better when he was out there in the woods he was really able to really push himself to his limits. He would weave through the trees ducking under the low hanging branches. He would leap over stray roots, and if he was feeling really energized that day he would climb the tress, and jump from one branch to another branch. His whole job demanded more from him then just bashing in heads and running real fast. His job required him to be good at navigating any terrain that he could possibly come across. He had to be able to climb and jump any obstacle that he came across to get to his objective. So climbing the tress, jumping from one tree to the next, and dodging stray roots and bushes were all great ways to train his skills.
As for Landfall itself that place was like one giant playground to Scout. It was the perfect place to put his training to actual use. There were so many buildings to duck into to hide from the enemy BLU Team. The bridges that were overhead were perfect for jumping off of. Scout had long lost count of how many times he had jumped off of the bridges to smack an unsuspecting BLU in the head with one of his trusty baseball bats. The battlefield was huge, so there was plenty of space for him to zip around. He had even managed to get pretty good at climbing up to the rooftops of the buildings there at Landfall.
When he was up there almost no one could touch him. The BLU Heavy and the BLU Medic couldn’t follow him up there. For all of the BLU Spy’s tricks he didn’t have the ability or skill to hop from rooftop to rooftop the way that Scout could. The BLU Demoman and Soldier could follow him up there, but there was so much empty space up on the rooftops that Scout found it easy to doge their attacks. The BLU Scout could also reach the rooftops, but he wasn’t as good at getting up there as the RED Scout was. The BLU Pyro could also get up to the roofs if they used their Thermal Thruster at the right place, but the BLU Pyro rarely used the Thermal Thruster so usually it wasn't even an issue. Quite frankly once the RED Scout had reached the rooftops with the Intelligence he was home free. It was for all of these reasons that Scout considered Landfall the perfect battlefield for him. When he was fighting at Landfall he always did exceptionally well, and having a fight there almost always meant that he was going to have a good day.
Today was another one of those good days at Landfall. Scout was a blur racing across the battlefield bashing in the heads of anyone who got near him. No one could touch him. If anyone tried to even aim at him Scout was able to easily duck into a building, or leap off of the many bridges that connected the different buildings together. He was able to climb up to the rooftops where no Heavy or Spy could follow him. There were a few classes that tried to follow him up to the rooftops, but at least on that day Scout was able to blast anyone who tried to follow him up to the rooftops. His only worries on that day were the BLU Engineer’s sentries.
Luckily, Spy and Demoman were at the top of their game that day because the BLU’s sentries were always sapped or blasted to smithereens by the time Scout raced in to grab the Intelligence. In fact, the whole RED team must have been on top of their game that day because they had snatched two of the three Intelligence briefcases before the three-minute mark had passed. The third and last case was proving to be just as easy to grab. By the time Scout had raced in to grab the last briefcase Spy had just placed a sapper on the BLU’s sentry.
“Spy's sappin' my Sentry!" Scout heard the BLU Engineer yell out as he tried to find the invisible Spy.
He was so busy looking for Spy and dealing with his Sentry that he didn’t even notice Scout running in behind him. A couple of smacks against the head with Scout’s trusty Boston Basher bat made sure that the man would regret not paying more attention.
“Lotta good that hardhat did ya!" Scout taunted as he watched the BLU Engineer’s body fall to the ground.
With the BLU Engineer dead Scout was able to walk up to the BLU Intelligence and pick it up without any issues. Of course right when he got the Intelligence the BLU Heavy walked out of the BLU Respawn Room. Even worse he had the BLU Medic with him.
“Ah, shoot.” Scout muttered. He did not want to stick around for that nasty combo.
The deadly duo spotted him pretty quickly, and the Heavy immediately started shooting at him. Scout didn’t stick around to let any of the bullets hit him.
‘Get to the rooftops,’ He thought as he ran. ‘They can’t follow you on the rooftops.’
It didn’t take much to get to the rooftops. A little bit of double jumping at the right places, and he was able to haul himself up onto the roof of the closest tall building. As he pulled himself up onto the roof he heard the pained death wails of the Medic and Heavy. It was a sort of yell that he heard people let out when they got a well-placed backstab from a Spy. Not surprising really. Spy must have stuck around after he sapped the sentry to stab the Engineer in the back, but Scout killed the guy before he could. Scout didn’t let the death of the BLU Heavy and Medic slow him down. He could hear the shouting of the other BLU team members as they tried to hunt him down.
He could also hear his own teammates let out battle cries of their own as they met the BLU team head on. His own team could stall them a little while Scout made his way back to their side of the field. Even with his team backing him up he didn’t slow down. He kept running until he reached the rooftop of the building that overlooked the RED Respawn building. From his place on the rooftop he could see his team’s Engineer guarding their own Intelligence. Scout smirked a bit upon seeing it.
“Shortest battle ever,” He muttered to himself.
Honestly, they probably broke some sort of record for the quickest battle ever won. Scout was about to jump down from the rooftop, but he froze when he heard something nearby.
It sounded like a bird chirping.
Normally, not a big deal. There were tons of birds in this forest, and after so many battles had happened here it seemed like a good chunk of the bird population in the area had gotten used to the sound of gunfire and yelling. They sang their songs regardless of if there was a battle going on or not. Normally, Scout would have ignored the chirping but he couldn’t ignore it this time. This chirping noise was no birdsong. It was frantic sounding like the bird was in distress somehow. It also sounded like it was incredibly close. Scout looked around him only to eventually spot the source of the noise. There lying at the edge of the roof farthest away from him was a little red bird. It was flapping its one wing frantically, but it wasn’t really getting anywhere. It kicked one of its little legs in the air as it cried out over and over again. It almost sounded like it was crying for help.
How Scout hadn’t noticed it earlier was a mystery. He must have been so caught up on getting back to their base that he ran right past it. Scout slowly approached the bird only to freeze when the bird suddenly stopped its struggling only to stare up at Scout. Scout could only stare right back at it. Now that he was able to get a real good look at it he could tell that it was a cardinal. Scout was no bird expert, but cardinals were distinctive enough that he could identify it. Its left wing was clearly broken. The fact that it was still twitching its right leg while refusing to move its left leg seemed to imply that there was something wrong with its left leg too.
Scout wasn’t really sure what the hell could have happened to the poor thing. Maybe he got accidently hit by a passing Soldier when he was rocket jumping by. Maybe he got smacked by a passing weapon when it got too close to the battle. Heck, for all Scout knew maybe it was just a really klutzy bird that smacked into a nearby tree, and landed here on the roof. There was really no way of knowing. It was not like the bird could tell him its life story or anything. All Scout knew was one simple fact.
If he left the bird there it would probably die.
Scout frowned a bit at that thought. He couldn’t leave the poor thing there. With that said he really didn’t know what he could do to help it. At the very lest he couldn’t just sit there on the roof all day with it. He would take it to the Respawn Room, and hopefully figure something out once they got there. Scout knelt down and carefully scooped the bird up. As he picked the bird up he heard it let out a tiny sound of distress.
“I’m sorry,” Scout murmured. “I know this ain’t fun for you, buddy. I’m trying to be careful with you here.”
He wasn’t even sure why he was apologizing to it. It’s not like the bird could understand him. Still, he couldn’t stop himself from doing so anyway. Once Scout had the bird in hand it settled down a bit. It made no noise as it just sat there in his hand. The fact that it wasn’t putting up a fight was surprising. The optimistic part of Scout hoped that some part of the bird knew that Scout wanted to help it. The more negative part of his brain thought maybe the bird thought this was the end, and it figured there was no point in fighting the inevitable. Scout shook that rather dark thought away as he started to make his way down to the ground. The whole time he moved he was being careful to not jostle the bird too much.
Upon getting to ground level he heard Engineer call out “Scout! Back with the Intelligence already, huh?”
Any other time Scout would have made some smartass comment to that, but all of his attention was focused on his little bird companion. Scout dropped the Intelligence down onto the ground next to their own Intelligence.
He didn’t even look back at it or the Engineer when he heard the announcer call out “Victory!”
He just kept his eyes glued onto the bird as he entered the Respawn Room. Upon entering the room he sat down on a nearby bench, and stared at the bird that was sitting there in his cupped hands.
‘Alright,’ Scout thought. ‘I got the bird here. Now what?’
Scout really didn’t know what to do now. He sure as hell didn’t know how to treat bird injuries. Hell, he didn’t know to treat the broken bones of a person much less a bird. There wasn’t anything he could do to help the bird. With that said someone on the team probably knew how to help the bird. Upon thinking that only one name leapt into Scout’s head.
Medic.
Medic would know how to help the bird. The man owned a small army of dove that he absolutely adored. The man probably made sure to learn everything he possibly could about bird medical care just to make sure that he could care for his doves should anything happen to them. Heck, for all Scout knew he might be able to use the Medi-Gun on the bird. If that was the case the bird could be healed, and then released in a matter of seconds. He was pretty sure the Doc would help him. Regardless of what he might of thought of Scout the man wouldn’t let a bird suffer. Of that Scout was certain of.
Feeling a bit more confident now that he had a plan Scout sat there, and waited for the Medic to walk through the door. Of course as he sat there he was all too aware of the fact that he was probably going to be there for a while. The Humiliation Round was going on right now, and Medic almost always participated in the Humiliation Round. Scout was at least somewhat convinced that the man participated in the Humiliation Round to get revenge on the BLU team for gunning for him so much. Medic was sort of number one on the list of people you wanted to take down as quickly as possible. His ability to heal everyone, and ÜberCharge them made him too dangerous for the enemy to allow to run around. Of course Medic usually had Heavy, or someone else nearby that he was healing to help keep him safe. The man was also a rather fierce fighter so he sure as hell didn’t go down without a fight.
Still, great fighter or not that probably didn’t make being a major target any less annoying. Honestly, when it came to Medic’s enthusiasm for participating in the Humiliation Round Scout figured he couldn’t really judge him. Scout was just as enthusiastic about participating in the Humiliation Round, so he honestly had no right to judge anyone about it. If it wasn’t for the bird that he was holding he would probably be out there right now rubbing the RED’s victory into the BLU team’s faces. Scout sighed as he looked down at the little red bird that was lying in his hands. It was still staring up at him almost as if it was studying him. It still wasn’t freaking out although Scout didn’t question it. He was just thankful that it was remaining calm.
The sound of the Respawn Room door opening made Scout look up. He wasn’t surprised to see Engineer walk into the room with Spy following behind him. Those two rarely participated in the Humiliation Round. Engineer usually used the time to pack his buildings up, and Spy didn’t really care much for the Humiliation Round in general. They had shot Scout a few curious looks, but Scout said nothing as he shielded the bird from their view. He really didn’t want to explain why he was carrying a cardinal around yet.
They were probably wondering why Scout wasn’t out there participating in the Humiliation Round, but either they didn’t care that much or they wanted to pack their stuff up first before they asked because they didn’t bother saying anything to Scout. They just walked over to their lockers, and started to put their weapons away. Sniper ended up walking in a minute or so later with Pyro happily skipping in right behind him. A minute or so after that Soldier came marching into the room with a grin on his face with Demoman by his side. A minute after that the Announcer finally called an end to the Humiliation Round. The second the round ended Medic and Heavy walked into the room. Medic had a grin on his face as he held his Crusader's Crossbow in hand.
As they walked past Scout the runner heard Heavy say “Docktor’s aim with the crossbow is getting better and better.”
“Indeed,” The Medic agreed. “The Humiliation Round gives me a good chance to practice on moving targets. I don’t think I’ll ever be on Sniper’s level of shooting, but I like to think I am getting rather close.”
The grin on the Medic’s face made it very clear that the man rather enjoyed using the BLU team for target practice.
‘Sometimes I am really glad that I’m on the same team as him,’ Scout thought as a small shiver passed down his spine.
He pushed that thought away as he watched Medic open his locker, and put away his Crusader’s Crossbow and Ubersaw. The second he had put those two weapons away Scout was up on his feet, and making a beeline straight toward the doctor.
“Uh, Doc?” Scout called out as he approached the man.
Medic let out a soft sigh as he turned to look at Scout.
“Ja? What is it Scout? Are you injured?”
Scout hesitated for a moment, but eventually he said “Well, I’m not injured but I do have something I want you to heal.”
Medic shot him a confused look upon hearing that. Instead of verbally explaining Scout just moved his one hand away so that Medic could get a good look at the injured bird that he was holding. Medic’s eyes widened a bit in surprise upon seeing the small bird in the Scout’s hand.
“Can you help it?” Scout asked.
“Follow me,” Was Medic’s response.
The man walked toward the exit of the Respawn Room that led to the dirt road that would take them to the base. The RED’s base in this area was within walking distance of the Landfall battlefield. Scout hesitated for a second, but eventually he followed the man.
Upon stepping outside Medic asked “Where did you find it?”
“Uh, on the roof of the building that is across from the Respawn Building. It was lying on the roof flapping around trying to move, but it wasn’t getting anywhere. I think its wing and leg are broken.”
Medic let out a small sound of acknowledgement, but said nothing as he kept walking along. Scout followed behind him silently. If the man was thinking of ways to help the bird Scout sure didn’t want to interrupt his thinking by saying anything. When they reached the base Medic flung the doors open, and started walking down the hall that would take them right to the infirmary. Scout couldn’t help but mentally sigh at that. When he decided to go to Medic to help he figured chances were high that he would have to go into the infirmary. He wasn’t looking forward to it, but he would suck it up.
Upon reaching the infirmary and stepping inside Scout could instantly hear the flapping of wings, and the cooing of doves. Scout frowned a little as he looked up at the doves that were staring down at him. He couldn’t help but try to find Archimedes. It couldn’t be hard to spot the bird. He was a bit bigger then Medic’s other doves, and his white feathers were usually stained red with blood.
“Scout, place the bird here.” Scout heard Medic call out.
Scout looked over at the man only to mentally sigh when he spotted Archimedes perched on his shoulder. Honestly, he should have expected the bird to immediately park himself on Medic’s shoulder. Scout does his best to ignore the dove for now as he looked over at the place where Medic wanted him to place the bird.
“You want me to place it on the x-ray table?”
“Yes,” Medic said. “I need to take some x-rays to see what sort of damage that I am dealing with here.”
The man paused for a moment before he said “Also, the cardinal is a male.”
“How do you know?” Scout asked as he approached the table.
“Male cardinals have the bright red feathers all over. Female cardinals are a pale brown color although the feathers on their wings, tails, and crest are typically tinged red.”
Well, Scout could file that under useless facts that he now knew. At least he knew for sure that the bird was a boy.
“You can’t just use the Medi-Gun on him?” Scout asked as he very carefully placed the bird down on the table.
The cardinal was relatively calm while Scout did this, but the second Scout moved his hands away from it and took a step away from the bird it started frantically chirping. It almost seemed like the bird was a bit distressed that Scout was leaving it. The frantic chirping was quickly met with a chorus of loud cooing coming from the doves that were gathered up in the room. Scout couldn’t help but winch a bit at the noise. It was incredibly loud. It also reminded him a bit too much of the frantic cooing that Archimedes has done when he had been stuck in Scout’s chest. His chest already ached slightly from the memory of it all. Thankfully, after a minute or so had passed the doves calmed down. The cardinal had also calmed down somewhat, but Scout still heard him let out an occasional chirp.
“Interesting,” Medic murmured.
“What’s interesting?” Scout asked.
“Nothing,” Medic said as he set up the x-ray machine.
Scout frowned a bit upon hearing that. That was a pretty clear dismissal of his question if he ever heard one.
Scout was about insist that Medic explain, but before he could Medic quickly said “Anyway, I am not using the Medi-Gun on him because it isn’t as affective on birds. I’ve been meaning to come up with a way to make a Medi-Gun that is just as effective on birds, but I never can find the time to get around to it. There are so many experiments that I have to run not to mention all of the battles we have. When I’m not busy with those things I’m either preforming maintenance on my equipment, or caring for my birds.”
The man sighed as he said “There is just never enough time in the day. One of these I’m going to invent something that will make it so that the human body doesn’t need sleep to function, or at least need a lot less sleep. That would really help give me more hours in the day to work with.”
“Wha-“
“Anyway!” The Medic chirped out before Scout could even finish saying a single world. “I have a question for you now.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“Why did you help the bird, and better yet why did you bring it to me?”
“Is there a reason why I shouldn’t have helped it?” Scout asked.
He really didn’t understand this line of questioning.
“No, I think helping it like you did would be what most would call a good deed. I suppose I’m just surprised is all. You don’t seem to like birds much if at all.”
“What makes you say that?”
“You think I don’t notice the fact that you avoid my infirmary like the plague?” Medic questioned. “You don’t think Engineer tells me about how you always go to him to use his dispenser to heal any of your injuries rather than come to infirmary for help?”
The man paused for a moment as he stepped away from the x-ray, and grabbed a mobile x-ray barrier that he used sometimes when he took an x-ray of the mercenaries. He yanked Scout behind the barrier with him without a word, and promptly started taking the x-rays.
As he worked he said “I know the infirmary was never your favorite place, but you never hesitated to come here if you were injured. I didn’t miss the fact that you started avoiding this place after the incident with Archimedes.”
Scout couldn’t help but mentally snort at that choice of words. The way he said it made it sound way less traumatic then what it had really been.
“That had been an awful time for my poor Archimedes. Trapped in the dark with no light, and no way to escape. I can’t imagine it was much more pleasant for you to feel a bird bumping into your guts. Archimedes even left a few cuts with this talons on your-“
“Yeah, can you please stop describing the incident? I was there for it I don’t need a play by play description of one of the worst days of my life.”
Medic shrugged slightly upon hearing that. Apparently, he had finished doing the x-rays as well because he quickly pushed the screen back to its original place, and then motioned for Scout to follow him over to the x-ray machine. Scout did so without comment. The runner didn’t miss the fact that when he was standing near the machine again the cardinal stopped his occasional chirping only to fall silent. Medic raised a single brow at that, but didn’t say anything as he went about getting the x-rays scans.
As the man worked he said “I suppose my point is I’m surprised that the incident didn’t end up giving you ornithophobia.”
“Orni what now?”
“Ornithophobia,” The Medic repeated. “It means fear of birds.”
The man tilted his head slightly to the side in thought as he said “Or did you just end up with a fear of doves? Or a fear of Archimedes? I noticed the weary look you gave him when you spotted him.”
The bird that was still perched on Medic’s shoulder let out a small coo upon hearing his name.
Scout just shot the bird a look as he said “Hey, I’m not afraid of any birds!”
“Perhaps not,” The Medic agreed. “If you truly had the phobia you would display more signs of fear. With that said it is clear that you aren’t exactly comfortable near them.”
“After having one freak out while trapped in my chest can you really blame me for being uncomfortable?”
Medic let out a small hum of thought upon hearing that question.
“I suppose I can’t,” The man said. “With that said can you blame me for being a bit surprised that you not only helped the bird, but came here to get it help when you are clearly uncomfortable with birds and with this place.”
Scout supposed he couldn’t really blame Medic for being at least a bit surprised that Scout would walk right into this place. Scout wasn’t exactly subtle about how he avoided this place. He wasn’t afraid of any freaking birds that was for sure. However, just looking at Medic’s freaking doves made his chest ache a little. It was like feeling a phantom of the pain he had felt when he had a bird sealed inside his chest. It was an unpleasant enough feeling that Scout found it easier to avoid it altogether rather than actually deal with it. Scout sighed as he rubbed his hand over where his heart was.
‘Geez, this really isn’t what I wanted to deal with today,’ Scout thought.
He glanced down at the cardinal upon thinking of that. The bird only blinked a few times in response. Honestly, looking at the bird lying there was sort of a nice reminder that while this day wasn’t going that great it was going a lot better than the cardinal’s day was. The poor thing had a freaking broken wing and leg. Scout had broken his bones enough times to know how agonizingly painful they could be. If the bird could suck it up while being in such a scary situation, then Scout could deal with his unpleasant memories for an hour or so.
He looked away from the bird only to glance over at Medic. The man was ignoring Scout and staring at the x-rays that he stuck up on the board that he typically stuck his x-rays on. Scout only need to take one look at the x-rays to know that the bird’s wing and leg were definitely broken. It looked bad, but it must not have been awful because the Doc didn’t look worried. He did look rather thoughtful as he looked at the x-rays, but he didn’t seem worried. Scout was hoping that was a good sign.
“Well?” Scout asked after a few minutes of silence had passed by.
“It’s a pretty bad break,” Medic said slowly. “The cardinal is lucky that you found him. There is no doubt in my mind that he would have died if you hadn’t found him.”
“So can you help him?” Scout asked. “Will he be able to fly again?”
“Of course I can help him,” Medic said. “Who do you think I am?”
Okay, so maybe it was a stupid question to ask the Medic of all people.
“If I were a regular doctor or veterinarian I would say that bird would never be able to fly again.”
Medic paused for a moment as he looked over at Scout.
The smirk on his face was downright smug as he said “Of course I’m no ordinary doctor.”
The arrogance was pretty strong there, but he wasn’t wrong. He was no ordinary doctor. He did the impossible almost every day. Only he could heal something that anyone else would have just said was a lost cause.
“I’ll have to perform some surgery, and then the bird will be stuck with casts for a while. After a couple of weeks, he should be healed up enough to be let go.”
Medic immediately went over to a nearby cabinet, and popped it open. As he started digging through it he said “You don’t need to be here for the surgery. You can go now.”
“Uh, yeah sure.” Scout said he took a step away from the bird only to hear it let out some panicked chirping.
Medic paused for a moment when he heard that, and looked at him and the bird. Again he looked a bit thoughtful, but after a few seconds had passed by he went back to his searching. Scout just gave the bird a confused look. Again he couldn’t help but think it almost felt like the bird didn’t like seeing Scout move away from him. Maybe Scout was looking a bit too deep into it thinking that. Scout shook that thought away as he started to walk away from the bird all while trying his best to ignore the cardinal’s small cries.
When he reached the door he paused for a second. He never did end up answering Medic’s question about why he rescued the bird. Chances were he may not have been really looking for an answer. It seemed more like he was looking for an excuse to tease Scout over the fact that he avoided the infirmary because of a bunch of doves. Medic probably didn't really care about Scout's answer. Still, Scout figured it wouldn’t hurt to answer the question even if Medic didn’t really care about the answer.
“I couldn’t leave it there to suffer,” Scout said out loud.
Medic paused what he was doing when he heard that, and looked over at Scout. he looked a bit surprised to hear Scout blurt such a thing out loud so suddenly like that.
“What?” The German man said.
“I couldn’t leave it there to suffer,” Scout repeated. “It needed help, so I helped it. I couldn’t bring myself to just leave him there. Like the idea of doing so just made me feel bad, or whatever.”
Scout scratched the back of his head as he said “And as for why I went to you? Well, you’re the Medic. You can heal anything, and you know a lot about birds. If anyone could help him, it would be you.”
“You didn’t think to ask Sniper about it first?” Medic asked. “He also knows how to care for birds.”
That was probably true. Sniper did have an owl named Sir Hootsalot of all things. The man probably knew how to care for injured birds. Hell, he probably knew how to care for injured animals in general. The man seemed to know the most random facts when it came to animals. With that said Sniper wasn’t the one that popped into Scout’s head when it came to figuring out who could possibly help the little red bird.
“Sniper didn’t even pop into my head when I thought of who to for help,” Scout confessed. “You were the first person I thought of. I knew you could heal the bird, so why bother with anyone else?”
Medic stared at him for a moment after Scout said that. It felt like the man was studying him like he was some puzzle that needed solving. Scout couldn’t help but squirm a bit under the man’s rather intense gaze. It felt like he was staring right at Scout’s soul, or something. Eventually the serious look faded away as a slight smile appeared on Medic’s face. It was different from Medic's typical smiles. It was softer looking somehow. Scout couldn’t help but think he looked rather nice when he smiled that gentle almost sweet looking smile of his.
Scout couldn’t help but mentally pause upon thinking all of that about Medic’s smile of all things, but before he could even begin to ponder that he heard Medic say “You can go now.”
“Alright, see you later I guess.”
“But before you go there is one more thing I wanted to say.” The Medic’s strange soft smile remind in place as he said “Starting tomorrow if you ever want to come back and check on your cardinal I wouldn’t object to it. I think the cardinal would like it if you visited him."
“I’ll think about it,” Scout said quickly.
With those words spoken Scout quickly left the infirmary. As he quickly walked down the hall he was already mentally debating with himself over if he should take Medic’s offer or not.
‘Medic is taking care of the bird now,’ He thought. ‘I got it help. My job is done. I don't need to worry about it anymore. Besides, it’s a wild bird. How much could the bird really care if I visit him or not?’
There really isn’t any real reason that required Scout to visit. With that said deep down Scout did want to check on the bird. He knew that Medic would take care of him, but Scout still wanted to make sure that he was okay. He still wanted to see that the bird was alright with his own eyes. Yet, doing so meant going back into the infirmary. He still didn’t feel comfortable around Medic’s doves. Archimedes still made him feel some sort of phantom pain in his chest, and that feeling didn’t go away until Scout had walked out of the infirmary, and put some distance between himself and that place. If he went to check on the cardinal that would mean dealing with that uncomfortable feeling again. He really didn’t want to deal with that.
At the same time the idea of not visiting the cardinal didn’t sit well with him. He had gone through all of the effort to get him to Medic. He wanted to make sure that the cardinal was recovering alright. Also, it really did seem like the bird didn’t like it when Scout wasn’t within his line of sight. Why Scout still didn’t know. All he did know was that while it sounded crazy it really did seem like the bird found some sort of comfort from his presence. By the time Scout reached his room his thoughts were a tangled mess. He still had no idea if he wanted to visit the bird or not.
“Whatever,” Scout mumbled as he took his hat and headset off. “Not like I can do anything about it today anyway.”
He tossed the hat and headset onto his bedside table, and promptly flopped down onto his bed. Medic would be preforming surgery on the bird tonight, so Scout couldn’t visit the bird again anytime tonight. So he didn’t have to make decision about the bird today. He had time to think it over. As Scout curled up on his bed and closed his eyes to take a nap he decided that for now at least he wasn’t going to worry about it.
The question of just what he was going to do about the cardinal was officially future Scout’s problem…