You could hear the hum of voices and the clatter of cutlery on plates from the hallway as you walked up to the swinging doors of the cafeteria. A look through the bull’s eye told you that the room was packed. No one would voluntarily miss baked potatoes with sour cream and steak, a real gourmet meal compared to the usual bean and sausage stews.
Now you just had to make your way over to your friends without becoming the laughing stock of the base. So far only a few people knew of your idiocy and the damage it had done to your ankle, but if Owen and Jordan noticed your limp before you reached the table, the next days would be made even more painful by everyone’s cruel jokes.
With a determined huff you pushed against the door and clenched your teeth as you waved at some colleagues and hurried over to the loudest room in the table. Luckily for you, Owen and Jordan were having an intense discussion about the usage of melee weapons when fighting infected while Nora loudly commented on their arguments. Mel and Abby sat facing each other and grinned into their plates, obviously glad not to be included but entertained nonetheless. When Abby looked up and raised an eyebrow at your strange walking you just shook your head slightly and sat down next to her, finally able to relax your jaw.
“Slipped. Don’t worry about it.” Abby stared at you for a second, then she shrugged and continued to dig into her potatoes.
Owen had finally noticed your presence and instantly tried to pull you on his side.
“Oh Y/N, great that you’re here. Wouldn’t you agree that a crowbar works much better for killing clickers than, say, a baseball bat? It’s lighter and slimmer and has that sharp end that just goes through heads like butter.”
You grimaced at him while Jordan and Nora started simultaneously arguing with him again and effectively banned you from the conversation before you could actually enter it.
“Aren’t you gonna eat?” Mel had perfected that worried-mom look ever since she had given birth to her beautiful daughter and you immediately felt guilty.
“No - I mean yes, I’m gonna get myself a plate in a minute. Truth is,” you made sure the others were still caught up in their argument, “I took a bad fall today and my ankle hurts like a bitch. I don’t want to limp around in front of the whole cafeteria and become the center of all the jokes for a week, the pain is bad enough as is.”
Now Mel and Abby both looked at you with that face, that “you are our poor baby child and we can never let you out into the wild alone” expression that made you clench your hands into fists in your lap and stare at the tabletop in embarrassment.
“Do you think it’s serious, Y/N? You wanna come to medical after lunch so I can take a look at it?”
“Yeah, Y/N, how did this happen? Are you sure you’re okay?” Abby asked.
You looked up defiantly and rose to your feet. “I’m not a child, I can take care of myself, thanks. Now if you’d excuse me, I’m getting some food before I eat Owen alive.”
Abby grabbed your wrist before you could step over the bench, getting up herself and putting an arm around your shoulders.
“I got it, babe. We’re only worried about you. Just sit down, I’ll be right back.”
Mel patted your hand and offered you some of her water after you sat down again. Both of you watched Abby go up right to the front of the food line and get a steaming hot plate for you. This was unusual for her, she always hated when people took advantage of their rank in order to get special treatment. She was back with a few long strides and slid the plate in front of you.
“For the lovely lady. If only she would tell us why she seems so pained on this beautiful day?”
You shoved an elbow into her ribs but she only laughed and put a hand on your thigh, scooting closer and looking genuinely concerned now. It was apparent you had no other choice but to give in.
“Fine. Leah asked me to help her move some stuff into her new room with Jordan. I was walking up the stairs carrying some boxes when I stumbled. One of the boxes dropped and polaroids spilled everywhere, mind you this is Leah we’re talking about.” Your two listeners exchanged a knowing look and Mel had to fight down a laugh. You ignored her. “Well, I panicked because I could hear people coming down the stairs and I didn’t want them to see, you know, Leah’s tits all over the floor, so I tried to collect them as fast as possible and accidentally slipped on one of the photos.”
Mel burst out laughing and you could see it took everything in Abby to not do the same. She just intensified her grip on your thigh and pressed her lips together, her chest convulsing from silent laughter. You finished your story with an irritated sigh. “So there I was, lying at the bottom of the stairs in the midst of at least 20 nude photos, trying not to scream because my ankle and hip were on fire just as this group of younger recruits came around the corner. They were nice enough to help me up and collect the pictures without a word but for all I know they’ve already told their team and by tomorrow everyone will know about me swimming in Leah’s tits.”
You jammed your fork into the steak on your plate and began to hack away at it, eating as quickly as possible to escape this place and vanish from earth for the next year. Mel had calmed down and Abby finally released your thigh, placing her hand on the small of your back instead. Through your anger at yourself and embarrassment in front of the two other women you felt a rush of calm, warm energy at the blonde’s touch and took a deep breath.
Mel swung her legs over the bench and grabbed her tray. “I gotta head back to medical. Will you come see me when you’re done here?”
“I’ll bring her,” Abby said before you could answer. She smiled at you. “Why walk when you have me to carry you?”
You rolled your eyes at her and went on eating while listening to the weapon experts at the table attacking each other. Nora had left with Mel so it was only the two men now, pointlessly arguing over the same thing over and over again until a fellow soldier at a different table yelled at them to shut up and just find out in training the next time. They had nothing to shoot back at that so they also got up to leave for training and said their goodbyes.
“Nice talking to you ladies, thanks for your input.”
“Bite me, Owen,” you and Abby replied with one voice as they walked away, seemingly in a great mood after making the entire cafeteria listen to their bickering.
When you had finished your plate, Abby brought it to the return window and came back to you with a spring in her step.
“Well then, princess.” She helped you up and turned around, beckoning for you to jump on her back and you happily obliged, letting out an involuntary squeal as the strong soldier beneath you lightly jumped to adjust your position and grabbed your legs. You wrapped your arms around her and pressed your head to the side of hers, ignoring the puzzled looks around you.
Her smell was wonderful, pine and lavender creeping into your lungs and from there into every corner of your body, making you feel warm and at home. You could feel the muscles move underneath you, your weight seemingly nothing to the strong body carrying it. Abby kicked the swing doors open nonchalantly and carried you up the stairs and all the way to the medical tract without breaking a sweat.
She let you down gently at the door to Mel’s office. “I just need to grab some things from my room, I’ll pick you up here in 10 minutes. I don’t have any more tasks today so we can hang out at yours, you could read me some of the new stuff you wrote?”
This woman. You wrapped your arms around her again, this time from the front, and kissed her cheek. “You’re the best, Abby. Thank you so much.” She didn’t let go until you did, then she tapped her forehead in a playful salute and hurried off to her room.
You knocked at the door and Mel called you in, letting you lean on her to get to the camp bed. “All right, let’s take a look at this. It doesn’t look too bad, I think you got lucky.”
Her words made you think of the beautiful blonde wolf that would be keeping you company all afternoon. Yes, you really did get lucky. Maybe this injury wasn’t that bad after all.