It’d been a week. That was Sydney’s excuse when her knee went out in the fight with Laurel, and her subsequent loss. She knew she was outclassed anyway, but had hoped for a better showing of it. Followed up with Jesse getting his ass kicked by a hot lady and they were down and out for the count, both in creeping bodily injuries and smashed egos.
Instant modes of transportation made it easy to get to their apartment, at least, and Syd had been smart enough earlier in the day to stock up on alcohol. She had grabbed a bottle of alcohol and limped to the bathroom, dragging him along so she could clean up his face and make poor decisions by mixing alcohol and pain relievers.
The petite blonde wouldn’t let him carry her, but hopping up onto the sink edge was proving difficult with the knee twinging in pain, so Syd just leaned her hip against it and let her head fall forward to Jesse’s shoulder as she groaned in pain. “I think you’re gonna have to help me up. And reach the first aid kit, too.”
The one “benefit” to Gabriel Reyes and his nightmare training sessions was that Jesse was used to getting his ass kicked. At least Evie Frye had been more respectful afterwards and not given him a dressing down about his amateur mistakes. Still, he could feel each bruise like someone was digging a thumb into them.
He wasn’t sure if it helped that Syd looked as bad as he felt, if not a little worse. It did give him something to focus on other than his failure at least. He’d watched her try to painfully get herself up on the sink with a faint smile and now he wiped it away quickly so she wouldn’t give him another well-earned bruise.
“Happy to, darlin’,” he drawled, lifting her up onto the sink with a sure grip. Once that was done, he nudged her knees to the side so he could dig the first aid kit out from under the sink. “What’s the damage?”
“On you, or on me?” It was a half-joke, as Syd reached over to grab a little plastic bathroom cup so she could pour them some booze. It wasn’t fancy, but neither were they most of the time. She gulped down a glass full of the mead and poured another for Jesse, holding it out to him patiently as he fished out the first aid kit.
Syd brought her free hand up to brush away a piece of his hair, ghosting just lightly over a bruise forming around his cheekbone. She winced for him, regretting not grabbing a bag of frozen peas instead of the alcohol. “I’ll have to get out my purple wig to match your galaxy of bruises. And you might have to get me a cane. We’ll make a really good pair.”
“We already made a mighty fine pair,” Jesse countered, eyebrows teasingly raised. He set the first aid kit on the counter and leaned in to kiss the side of her mouth. “Stay put, alright?”
He squeezed her hip and went to the kitchen, quickly returning with two bags of frozen vegetables and two thin hand towels. Well, quickly for a fella who was definitely aching more by the second. Setting the peas and corn down on the counter, he popped open the kit to dig around for the ibuprofen first.
“Should we have taken your pants off before I put you up here?” As suggestive as the words were, he mostly sounded concerned. “Saw how bad you were limpin’.”
Syd could’ve gone somewhere just out of sheer stubbornness, but the twinge in her knee meant she was more than happy to just stay put and rest her head against the side of the bathroom mirror. She smiled when she saw what he brought back, all too eager to grab one of the bags of frozen veggies and plop it on top of her knee.
“I think I pulled something. Or twisted something. We’ll have to take my pants off to get in the tub, anyway, so let’s put off wrestling me out of yoga pants for another ten minutes.” Not that it wasn’t normally fun to wrestle her out of yoga pants. She went back to leaning against the mirror as he dug around. “Is it dumb to want to keep trying to prove myself in these stupid fights against people who hit harder than The Rock on steroids?”
Jesse frowned down at her knee, like he was x-raying it with his mind. He hadn’t started more in-depth field medicine training with Blackwatch before he was dumped in Atlantis so his knowledge was limited to if they aren’t gushing blood, it could probably be worse. Even still, he was mostly sure she’d be fine if she kept her weight off it as much as possible.
“Not sure I like that word wrestle for once. Gonna gently peel you out of those pants if it’s all the same to you.” Popping open a bottle of ibuprofen from the first aid kit, he put a few pills in her palm and reached to fill a water glass they kept next to the sink. Her question caught him a little off guard and he missed catching the flow of water for a second.
“Reyes used to always press the whole, if it ain’t hard, you ain’t gettin’ any better angle,” Jesse said after a moment. “But mostly I think that’s up to you, darlin’. Does it feel dumb? Or do you enjoy the challenge, even if it hurts?”
Syd probably would’ve happily taken the pills dry, or with mead like a terrible adult, but accepted Jesse’s water and tossed back the medication without complaint, giving herself a second to ignore his questions and think about them first.
There was always a small part of her that did feel a little dumb, especially when doing things like this. She wasn’t normal, but Syd wasn’t like most other people, either. But she’d had years of self-doubt drilled into her, between Serena and Victor. After gnawing on her lip for a second, she just shrugged. “Sometimes it feels dumb. But then sometimes it feels great when I land a good punch. I like the challenge I just--”
Syd’s face wrinkled up before she finished. “I feel like I should’ve gotten some kind of training montage to go with my tragic backstory, so I don’t feel like i’m playing catch-up forever.”
Jesse smirked and swallowed a few ibuprofen for himself. “Does seem mighty unfair. But you’d probably be a bit of an asshole if you got it that easy, let’s be honest.” He rested a hand on hers, where it held the bag of peas to her knee. At the same time, he picked up the bag of corn and pressed it gently to the bruise forming on her cheek.
“I hate gettin’ knocked down,” he admitted. “But I know what it feels like when I get it right. When I’ve got somethin’ I can really be proud of. I want that for you. And I know you’re right there. You’re strong and stubborn as an ox. A handful of good punches is gonna be a string of damn good matches someday real soon, if you ask me.”
Syd winced as soon as the cold hit her cheek, and pulled a face at him. She reached up, over his hand and gently lifted it away, moving it over to his own face. “Can’t let your pretty face get all swollen, cowboy. You got hit harder than me, I think.” Her bruises were smarting just enough that she knew she’d be seeing them well tomorrow, but she didn’t hate that reminder.
She softened the frozen veggie correction with a little lean towards him, the added height putting her at a good range to rest her forehead against his shoulder. “Thanks. You know what would be nice, though?” Syd peeked up through her eyelashes. “The kind of fight where after you just want to go get even more sweaty against a wall or something. Instead of feeling like an eighty year old that needs a knee replacement.”
“Maybe. That Frye lady ain’t no joke.” Jesse didn’t fight her putting the bag over his face. He wanted to take care of her but he knew damn well she could take care of herself. He rested his face in her hair when she leaned against his shoulder, pressing a kiss there.
“You can have a sexy fight any day of the week, darlin’,” he promised. “You say the word and we move the furniture, roll out some mats. It’ll be a grand ol’ time.” His grin was teasing but there was a serious gleam in his eyes, like he was promising more than a sexy fighting session. Eventually, he huffed a deep breath and shrugged. “Might take a month off fight club for myself, though, I don’t know. Always knew this hand-to-hand garbage was more Gabe’s thing than mine.”
“I’ve seen them fight when I stop by the Underground after work sometimes, and oof.” She gave a little wince thinking about it, watching the Fryes train with others. It was a similar wince to the one she pulled every time Jesse took a hit from Evie. and was sympathetic to boot. Taking a hit from either of the Lance’s sucked on the same level.
Her head lifted off of his shoulder a little and Syd finally grinned, letting the idea roll around her brain a little. “That sounds like a date night to me. Not now but… few weeks.” She didn’t have a free hand to trail down to his belt buckle half-heartedly, but thought thought was there as she mustered out a semi-flirtatious laugh. “You are better with your piece. Doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy it all from the sidelines for the night, less likely to limp home that way?”
Jesse snorted at her wince. He might not have been the best at hand to hand, but Blackwatch had trained him well on taking a punch. No matter how bruised his face was currently, it could’ve been a lot worse. When she sat up, he wet down one of the towels he’d brought and wrapped it around the ice pack to press against his cheek where it ached most.
“I’ll put you down in my calendar for three weeks from today,” he winked. “If we’re feelin’ up to it before then, we’ll just move that right on up.” He lifted the hand she had resting near his belt buckle and nipped at her palm. “I think we could have a good time anywhere, Syd. Maybe we take a month just to bet and drink and do the spectator thing and see how we’re feelin’ afterward?”
“Bet you I can cut that time in half,” Syd wagged her eyebrows a little, suggestively. More suggestively than should’ve warranted right now, given they weren’t up to anything in this beat-to-shit situation, but it was still fun anyway. It was usually fun with Jesse. “But yeah, you’re on.”
She glanced over at the bathtub, and then back at him, and down at her pants and knee situation. “An epsom salt bath sounds really nice right now, but you’re gonna have to help me in and out of it. Think you’re up for it, cowboy? We can definitely fit two in this fancy as fuck tub.”
“I’m always up for it, sugar,” Jesse replied with an impressive amount of swagger considering he had a huge shiner shaping up on his face. He set his towel wrapped bag of corn to the side and patted her thighs before he moved towards the tub. A twenty year old from the technologically advanced future probably shouldn’t have been all that experienced with running baths, but there was something about kicking off his boots at the end of a long day and sinking into a bath that appealed to him. He had a hot bath half-full in no time, epsom dissolving at the bottom, and he pulled off his shirt as he moved back towards her.
“Alright. You made me a promise of a week and a half so...” His hands fell to her waistband and he swooped in to give her a kiss before whispering near her ear. “...Try not to get too distracted when I start takin’ off your clothes. This is real medicine here.”
For the first time that night, Syd barked out a quiet laugh, and smothered it with a slow, gentle press to the side of Jesse’s jaw. She’d been content to just quietly watch him as he went through the motions of a bath, eyes roaming over his body with a simmering annoyance at her fucked up knee. But now he was in her space again, and she felt better. “No promises, doctor.”