Bravest
October 14, 2005
Heero would always try. He would try his best.
The specialists went through their routines, sometimes altered their schedules due to new orders and exercises, jacking him up on nutrition pills and placing suction censors to his skin, an IV needle in the soft skin of his left arm. They would always brief him before they would do anything, and Doctor J would always make an appearance and talk to him prior to the exercises. Make him feel a bit more comfortable. Make sure he isn't frightened of anything first.
In the last five years Heero never appeared frightened before the exercises. The specialists now knew what to expect of him.
Today however was the second time Heero had passed out during the same exercise.
When he woke up it was cool and dark. Perpetual humming songs of the machinery greeted his senses. He felt himself placed on protruding rollers of a metal table, covered with a wool blanket. Heero shook his head from side to side slightly, signaling that he was almost conscious, and then there were flashlights in his face from the doctors checking his vital signs. Two pairs of hands lay on him, feeling for damages and mending his scrapes. One hand ran up the side of his ribs and settled on his tiny collar bone. Heero shut his eyes and turned his head to the side, seeing large, working, searching hands.
A sharp pain in his right arm shot up through his side when the pair of hands settled on his tight muscles. Heero gasped and then smothered it back down.
There was a murmur amongst the adults, a few looks, a couple of nods and chuckles. Doctor J was next to the man with his hands on his dislocated shoulder.
The tall doctor pursed his lips when he gave Heero a belt folded in half to chew on. The boys' nostrils began to flare, his chest rising and falling very quickly. The doctor folded the sleeves of his shirt back and loosely gripped Heero's shoulder without warning. Heero breathed hard through his nose, his eyes threatened to leak, and he clamped his teeth on the belt looped in his jaw. After a few seconds the pain diminished, while there was still a dull throb on his shoulder, now reddened and a little purple, and Heero's breathing refrained, slowing back into a normal rhythm.
Heero's jaw released the thick belt when the man reached to remove it. He was so tired now, but there was an unconceivable wrath along with new determination within him.
The man removed the tape roll he was keeping between his teeth and dropped his elbows to the table, able to speak lowly to the boy with no name and fierce eyes.
"You are the bravest boy I've ever seen."
Breathing hard, but steadily, Heero wanted nothing more than to try it again.
end.