Waiting For The Sun To Come
Karla shook her head roughly at the sound of Buccaneer’s voice, trying to keep herself awake. “How… How did you find us?” she asked weakly. “How did you know to come look for us? I… I didn’t think anyone would find us…”
She flinched suddenly as pain ripped through her. How in the world could she still be hurting? Sure, pretty much every inch of her body had been marked and marred in some way, but… surely some of her injuries would’ve started healing by now…
“I’m… I’m sorry…”
” Mrs. Curtis’s husband- we found him trying to bypass the wall.” he began, pushing the long coat from her shoulders so he could assess her injuries. Even covered, he could see that she was badly beaten and bloodied, in ways he couldn’t even begin to imagine yet. “Determined he’d get by it, too. Wouldn’t talk to me, not until I threatened to send him down the mountain.”
I can’t just set her on the snow. She’ll freeze even more.
He set her back against the cave wall carefully and leaned back on his haunches- he wouldn’t be able to do much with his Crocodile. He grabbed the pack and yanked it open, pulling out the first aid kit, a screw driver, and his normal auto-mail. He began to unscrew the button that connected the nerves, barely wincing when they disconnected. He pulled the Crocodile free and let it drop to the snow.
He removed his Briggs overcoat, draping it over her shoulders and he pulled the other one down so that it was between her cold, quite bare body and the snow. He pulled up the furred hood to conserve body heat, and tapped her on the nose with a flesh finger.
” Did’ya really think I’d leave you out here once I learned where you were?” He asked softly, his usually hardened features, soft, vulnerable, and just for her, in that split second. He smirked and ir was replaced by a stoic expression.
He sighed as he held up his normal-autmail to the port, holding it with a stubborn expression on his face. He placed it into the port and then reattached the nerves, wincing as they did so.
“Don’t apologize.” he said, his voice a harsh whisper as he moved his hands over her, gently pressing against brusied and broken flesh.
“Okay Kal, tell me, where did they hurt you?”
Sig frowned at the injury and held her close, supporting her collapsed weight against his easily. He adjusted himself so that he could shrug his jacket off and then laid it beneath her. He settled her on top of it, unzipping her coat and pushing up he clothes that he could see her injury.
His lips pused and look her her. “Is it a through and though?” He asked, hoping for her so say yes.
She nodded. “Yes. I’m sure it’s infected though.”
She had a series of other wounds,but none were as life threatening. Her other woulds would scar,especially the brandings,but the gunshot wound was what was slowing her down the most.
Izumi was sure Karla had suffered the most. She’d been there longer,and had already suffered serious wounds when she got then,and when her rescue mission failed they only had been added to. She glanced toward Karla, knowing very well where they’d hurt her. When Karla had momentarily lost herself she mentioned it,and when Izumi had heard it she wanted to kill every Drachman soldier in sight.
She unconsciously flinched as he touched her, the pressure on her injuries causing her pain again. “E-Everywhere,” she replied, pulling his coat closer around her for warmth. God, warmth… it was something she hadn’t felt in ages, and it felt amazing…. “Some of them aren’t as bad as others… They shot me, they whipped me, they branded me, they did… something else…”
She was extremely reluctant to say that they’d done that to her, because it would show that she was weak, and wasn’t able to fight them off. She’d forever been trying to build the reputation that she was strong… and the fact that they’d been able to invade her and rip her apart like that so easily? There was no way in hell a strong soldier would allow that. “I couldn’t stop them. They were too strong for me. Once they did that… I just wished they’d kill me. I didn’t want it to happen again….”
Her eyes filled with tears, and she impatiently brushed them away. That was the last thing she wanted, to be sitting here crying like a little girl in front of Buccaneer. “I should have fought them off… I should have….” She unconsciously clenched her legs together and huddled in his coat. She wasn’t going to outright say what it was; she didn’t think she’d be able to handle that well…
Shit. Kal.
He bowed his head for a moment, eyes cast to his fists, clenched tight against the blue fabric of his uniform slacks. He could feel his flask on his hip, the cool silver taunting him, teasing him with promises of numbness and a way to make his own memories go away, to make the sudden aching in his chest for the woman he’d come to care so deeply for dull.
She didn’t have to say it, he could see it in what she couldn’t speak, in how she curled inwards, pride and dignity barring her from exposing what she felt was a grievous wrong on her part, her own inability causing it and not anything else.
He looked up at her finally, his mouth pulled into a firm line and his eyes hard, determined. He cupped her chin with his hand, gently tugging her to look him in the eyes. ” What have I told you about being an idiot?” his words were harsh but his tone soft, full of guilt and regret. “Anyone one can be- taken advantage of like that. It doesn’t make you weak.” He swallowed, his throat dry. “If you had fought back, they would have killed you. You did- You’re alive. That’s all the matters. Survival of the fittest, remember?”
“Now- I need to take care of your wounds and clean you up as best I can. Will you let me?” He asked, determined not to do anything to frighten her needlessly or make her feel further violated.
Don’t you give up on me.
Sig began pulling out his own first aid kit, laying the contents out upon the snow. He knew enough first aid training from his younger years to be able to help stop the bleeding for now, but they were going to have to get both of the women to a doctor fast, or they weren’t going to make it.
That thought terrified Sig- his wife was everything to him, and the thought of going on without her was absolutely horrifying to think about. No one knew him as well as she did, and though he knew that eventually, one day they would be parted, they would have had notice, they would have had time to say goodbye.
If it happened today…
No. It won’t.
He pushed up her clothes so that he could tend to he gunshot wound first. HE didn’t blanch at the sight of her injuries, but inwardly he was seething, declaring death to those foolish enough to harm her.
He could hear the Captain talking, and he tried to tune it out. The poor girl had already been through so much, she didn’t need another listening in on such a private moment.
Sig began to disinfect the gunshot wound, dabbing at it with antispetic carefully. “Izumi, what happened?” he asked softly.
