Work Text:
Soothe
"I've been officially sanctioned." Sydney says it in a mocking tone, as though her tongue is thick with sarcasm rather than tears. She's been quiet since leaving the hospital, though, and, as they stand just inside her front door, the corners of her eyes turn down, betraying her in a way her mouth wouldn't.
"Who? When?" Instantly, Weiss is furious, ready to go into battle for her, and he can completely understand what makes Jack and Mike and so many other people so goddamned protective of her. He actually has to flex his fingers to keep them from curling into fists.
Her gaze falls toward the floor but trips on his hands. "Dixon. He still thinks we should keep the truth about Lazarey from the NSC for now, and he obviously seemed okay with it all at first. But after the mission debrief tonight, he was -- God, Weiss, he was so angry with me for lying to him about something this important. Again."
She stares as he keeps fighting the clench of anger. He knows that has to have been an interesting meeting, knows she was probably biting back either tears or a hell of a lot of curse words to have only received a sanction.
He manages to get a better grip on himself by wrapping his fingers around her shoulders. "Syd, you weren't yourself. You can't blame yourself for --"
"Killing an innocent man? Murdering someone's father in cold blood? Admittedly, the fact that it was Sark's father makes it a little easier to bear, but --" Her eyes refocus, tightly, on his. "I killed him and who knows how many others. The Covenant turned me into something I swore I would never become, no matter how bad it got, even at SD-6."
Weiss shakes her slightly and holds her gaze. "It's. Not. Your. Fault. None of this is."
"Is it her fault? She works for Lindsey; she's the one peering over all of our shoulders and trying to solve Lazarey's murder. She came in and took -- she -- why can't I hate her?" Sydney's voice was angry during the first several words, but the last are colored by despair.
He won't ask what she isn't telling him. No matter how complicated and screwed up the whole thing is, no matter how much he should be saying, Weiss doesn't have to think before responding with the sheer truth to all of it. "Because you're a good person."
There's a streak of tears down her cheek now, but he ignores that. Instead he is caught by how her mouth finally crumples, how she fractures right in front of him.
Jesus, he wants to put her back together and keep her together, and the only way he can imagine doing that just then is to lean forward and press his lips against hers, sealing them like a bandage. But the wound of her mouth opens further beneath his so that he has to try something else. He slicks his tongue inside as though that will push away the hurt and heal her.
She moans, and her arms go around him. He kisses her with everything he's got because she needs someone who won't hurt her any more. And Weiss is nothing if not a buffer zone.
- end -