Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Thanks Doc,” the Duro waved with his non-injured arm a farewell as he departed the medical tent. 

Juno didn’t reply, just collapsed onto the cot. She was exhausted after hours of back to back patients. Sunday evenings were rough in the medical tent, a weekend of strife finally boiling over into drunken fights or riders pushing themselves too hard to injury chasing a check. At least it was quiet finally, the stars were out and the main arena lights were off. 

She idly sipped her strawberry lemonade, long since lukewarm but it was quenching regardless. The sweetness pulled back the memory of that morning, beating Tech in pole bending and winning herself this treat from him. She wished she could have savored it cold and with him but they had tasks to attend to and job duties came first. 

Juno focused on the flavors of her drink, pulling out Tech’s words from her memories. “Tart and sweet, just like you are to me.” His voice soothed her tired mind, a faint warmth coming to her face. The world around quieted to just herself, unable to stop herself from finishing the rest of the sweet juice. 

Unfortunately she realized the drink was too sweet right before her consciousness slipped completely away. 

✰ . ✰ . ✰

“Is she gonna be okay?” Wrecker watched over Tech’s shoulder as he ran her vitals for the fourth time that hour. 

“She will be.” Tech’s tone was clipped, eyes never leaving the woman who now occupied his bunk. “It appears she was affected by a central nervous system depressant that was consumed orally. She bears no other injuries to explain her sudden fainting nor any signs of infection nor heat stroke.” 

“So… she’s staying here then right?” 

“Of course she is, this is the safest place for her.” He worked on administering a simple IV fluid bag, the sooner the depressant was flushed from her system, the sooner she would wake up. He worked efficiently following the protocols she had taught him for the IV. He wished she was directing his actions over his shoulder rather than laying motionless before him.

He had heard her fall onto the floor of the tent, it was the only peace of mind he had right now. There were only seconds where she was unwatched in this state, it could have been so much worse. The possibilities ran wild in his mind, a stampede of the unthinkable beating down on his heart. She was in this state because she was drinking what he had gotten her that afternoon. Tech may have not been the one to place the drug into the cup, but he was the one that opened the door for this situation to even occur.

He took her hand in his, softly rubbing a thumb over her knuckles. She would not be left alone like that again. It was foolish to allow her to sleep in the office alone anyway, there was an empty bunk in their barn. Juno’s place was with them, Tech set his mind to it. Hunter would just have to deal with it. 

“Hey,” Wrecker’s hand and voice startled Tech out of his racing thoughts, “you’ve done what you can. You should rest, vod.”

Wrecker didn’t move until Tech nodded in agreement. He continued to linger until Tech climbed to the top bunk and laid down himself. His biggest brother gave his back a few gentle pats before laying down himself. Tech had planned to stay up and listen for any changes in his patient, his friend, but the exhaustion claimed him to uneasy dreams. 

✰ . ✰ . ✰

“I promise I’m feeling better.” Juno pressed her surety into the hold of his hands in hers. He would not stop fretting. “I am just fine.”

“You were unconscious for thirteen hours and have only regained consciousness for three.” His golden eyes were uncharacteristically full of worry. “You are welcome to come back to our ranch, rest and recuperate there.”

She wanted to take him up on it, her mind and body ached but she couldn’t impose. She forced a smile on her face, “I appreciate that, it’s a kindness I don’t deserve.”

“Nonsense, you have proven your place among us.” Tech freed one hand to shakily push a wayward curl behind her ear, “Please, it would make me feel better. Seeing you like that… I can’t explain how it made me feel other than bad.”

Warmth flushed in Juno’s cheeks and chest, her self control held by the thinnest stand of hair. “How about I take directions to your ranch, and if I don’t feel well, then I can come there.” 

He quickly drafted such a map, explaining every detail to her. He finally folded up the paper and pressed it into her hands. “You promise to come if you are ill or injured?”

“I promise.” Never in her right mind would she actually go there and bother him, but the promise of it eased Tech’s tense shoulders. She couldn’t explain what the exact feeling it was, but seeing him sigh and relax felt good.

She let him ride at her side until the edge of the rodeo grounds. She kept turning to look over her shoulder to watch him shrink in the distance, the map to his home burning a hole in her inside vest pocket.

Chapter Text

Of course she was targeted. That’s why she had been drugged at the rodeo. Whoever hired the two men wouldn’t be hearing from their bounty hunters now. She left them in the desert scrub brush to be picked over. Attacking her as she slept was cowardly behavior and didn’t deserve the time and energy to dig even one shovelful of dirt. 

Packing up her tiny camp was difficult with only one good arm and her good leg had several new slashes in it. Chariot stood nicely for her to throw the saddle back over his back and climb up. The leg wounds she could patch herself, but the bullet to the shoulder she wouldn’t be able to handle without a straight on viewing angle. 

The folded paper map finally came out of the inner vest pocket. It had seen sky a few times in the last two weeks for a moment before quickly being hidden back away. 

“You promise to come if you are ill or injured?”

“I promise.” 

Juno blamed it on the blood loss as she clicked Chariot forward towards the ranch Tech and his brothers called home.

✰ . ✰ . ✰

It was mid afternoon by the time the ranch came into view. Juno was barely holding on, all three of her spare shirts had been soaked with blood and her spare pants were no better. She knew the symptoms of blood loss and she checked every box. She needed help… she needed him.

Chariot, the sweetest big appaloosa she ever knew, figured out their path and carried her the rest of the way up the long driveway to the house. She was gone, slumped over the horn and his neck, by the time he halted in the front yard. The strapping used to balance her bad leg to the saddle was the only thing keeping her in it now. 

At the sound of hooves, all five men stopped their tasks and came running. The ranch was not the place for visitors, especially unplanned ones. 

“Juno?” Tech recognized her and Chariot first. He rushed the horse and tried to rouse her, his brothers left to catch up. 

“Why is she here?” Hunter refused to holster his pistol. 

Tech was not gentle as he yanked the strapping free on her saddle, she had clearly put a lot of work into making sure she wouldn’t fall from her perch. 

“Clearly she’s in trouble,” Echo took up the reins, trying to calm the tired and wary horse. 

“Come on, Juno.” Tech pulled her from the saddle, having to go completely to the dirt as she was completely dead weight. That fact only wound his anxious mind further into the spiral it was in. “Wake up. I got you, please.”

“Let me help.” Wrecker offered his strong arms, “I can get her inside.”

“She’s not coming inside.” Hunter was stock still, rage from him dripping like the blood pooling into the dirt from Juno. 

Tech snapped. Fueled by white hot anger and raw desperation, he stood with Juno in arm. “I’m taking her inside, whether that is in the house or the barn, can be your choice, but she will be tended to.”

Hunter and Tech held that tension for a long moment, ultimately it was Crosshair on Hunter’s shoulder that broke it. The sharpshooter pulled his riduur away, offering a small nod of solidarity to Tech in the process. 

The next hours were a blur of protocols and cleaning, so much cleaning. The bathroom had been selected as a medical field for its clean tiles and ceramic tub. They didn’t exactly have blood stores to give Juno so she had to deal with just more fluids to just keep the blood pressure up. 

Gentle fingers cleaned dried blood and dirt from her raw skin before disinfecting the wound and stitching them up. It would be a collection of nasty scars, but his new view of her skin showed that they were not alone. Finally she was not on death’s door and his adrenaline waned. 

From his position leaned over the tub lip, his heart broke anew. He knew about the scars along her hands and arms, she felt so much pain for them and he felt for her in return. Yet now, skin exposed for treatment, the scars were not just isolated to her arms. Big angry scars along her abdomen, thick criss-crossing slashes on her thighs… all worn down by years if not a decade. How young was she when she faced this trauma? 

He fell asleep like that, hung over the edge and held her hand for dear life. 

✰ . ✰ . ✰

She was foggy and out of it for two days while her body worked to refresh its blood supply. The whole time Tech never wandered far out of reach. Every time she tried to stand he was there to balance her. She wore his soft orange flannels and sweats, the softest and nicest clothing she had worn since the Academy. He settled her in his old room, his old bed, and it was comfortable, safe.  

Maybe being here, with him, was okay. She wanted to take him up on his offer to stay, maybe she had done enough to redeem herself finally. 

✰ . ✰ . ✰

“Don’t get any ideas.” Hunter cornered her on the porch a week later. 

She was out admiring the stars, thankful to have a chance to be on her own amidst the new chaos of living with so many people. His stalking presence and refusal to sit next to her should have been enough of a warning that this was not about to be a kind discussion. 

“You are not staying.” His arms stayed crossed, mouth set into a scowl. “You have one more week and then you will ride out of here regardless of what Tech offers.”

Tech was going to offer? Her heart spun wildly at the suggestion. 

“You’re not aliit. You’re not one of us.” He gave her one more look of disgust before stalking back inside. 

She gulped back the single tear that wanted to fall. She hadn’t done enough after all. Who could truly love and accept the monster the Academy had groomed her to become?

Tech did offer her to stay, but she rode off regardless. The map back to his home burning a hole in her inside vest pocket.