jebbypal

Title: Sacrifice
Author: jebbypal
Fandom: The Unit
Spoilers: Big honking ones for #307: Five Brothers
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 281
Disclaimer: I don't own them. Just playing and not making a profit.
Author Notes: Thanks to deathisyourart for betaing for me even though it's not her fandom at all.

LD, this is for you --- I heard you needed a palate cleanser for your brain. And well, I figure I can't do anymore harm to The Unit given what happened after the last fic.




He’d die for them. And they for him. That’s why, as he feels the blood soak the table cloth and he’s gasping for air, it’s easy to tell them to leave him behind.

It’s a sacrifice. But one is better than five.

One mother with a lost son is better than three widows and six orphans.

Four with a lost brother is better than no brothers at all.

Hector won’t let him go though. Jonas doesn’t want to, but he’ll make the choice if it means the unit survives. That’s why he’s the leader. Was a time when Mack wouldn’t be so quick to find the exit too. Then again, they’ve all lost a lot in the past year. Mack more than most.

But Hector won’t let him go. And so he hangs on through cutting, searing pain, oh god, make it stop, just make it stop; the chest tube, hurts going in, but nothing has ever tasted so sweet; and Hector’s prying fingers. Who’s the doctor here? He tries to hang onto Jonas’ words, but the black hole swallows him, pain and all.

Then it all just stops.

---

Light returns with suffocating, choking pain. Coughing, he can hear Hector encouraging him, welcoming him back. He wants to respond to his brother, but breathing and blinking never took so much energy.

They walk out as they came in – five. Plus one. And him, carried rather than walking. When you can’t crawl anymore… The marine patrol and their hummvee are like angels at the gates of heaven.

Hector’s checking on him, telling him they made it. And then he’s not.

Sacrifice.

He’d have given his life willingly. But never his brother’s.