I do not own Team Fortress 2.

To Teufort

Every day, Pauling thought of the life she led when all she had to worry about was what she had to wear for the day, what report was next, when was the next meeting; all of these, she would have traded anything she had left to have them all back.

Post-apocalypse!AU, Civilian!AU

A/N: In this AU, the Red team are just normal civilians, or at least some of them are

Her finger pressed against her thin lips, every breath she took could be seen in the frigid air.

An understanding nod came from the younger woman next to her, crouching into the ashes and splintered wood. Pauling's hands shook as she clung to the crowbar with hope that she wouldn't need to use it.

They were trying to find a way out of New York after the enemies sent forth destruction and tore apart their own quiet lives. It raged on, the horrible days and nights where nothing but then the cold took over, blowing in days and nights of endless frozen hell.

The enemies caused this, they were always the cause of discord.

Every day, Pauling thought of the life she led when all she had to worry about was what she had to wear for the day, what report was next, when was the next meeting- all of these, she would have traded anything she had left to have them all back.

Enemies took this away.

They gave her new worries, instead of worrying what to wear she had to worry where she would sleep. If there was anything to eat for the next day. Where the next sniper would be. All this and much, much worse.

Today consisted of looting some poor sap's apartment and finding good, thick clothes to wear. But no matter how much she wore, it didn't help the fact that fear was gnawing away at her faster than the cold. Every word spoken beyond their hiding spot shook her to the core.

"Where did they go?" One of the four men snarled.

"I dunno, stick close-"

"It's not a big apartment, just find them," the same man told them.

Her boss looked around the small room they had gotten trapped in.

It was a bathroom.

A small, boarded window was over the tub, her boss pointed at it, Pauling nodded and carefully walked over to the tub.

She took her crowbar and wedged it between the wall and one of the boards, then stopped, she looked at her sister, judging her.

"Do it, I'll distract them," she mouthed. Her boss had found an axe, it had a better chance against the men, or at least be enough for her to slip away.

Pauling hesitated, then threw her weight into the bar, prying the board off with a screech from the nails and the wall. She kept pushing despite the shouts from the men.

"In here!"

Pauling grunted when she got one plank off, she wedged the bar once again to get the second and final board off, though it was harder. Her boss waited for the plank to come undone and once it was, her boss helped her up and out the window Pauling slid open. She shoved Pauling out of it as she heard more shouting and gunshots, then a man's scream.

All she could do was watch the window rise higher and higher as she fell further, landing into the soft snow that had accumulated. However, something radiated from her left high, she looked down, breathing heavily to see that her right calf had been pierced by a wood that was sticking out of a wall nearby. She choked on air as she shook- the adrenaline pushed her to think of removing it.

She grabbed her leg and tried lifting it- one, two, thr-

Pauling screamed, sobbing as she could feel the blood pulsing out of her. She twitched on the ground, heaving, unable to stand. She had to get away, those men must have heard her- she couldn't hear them, not at all. They were too far up.

"F...f..."

She huffed, she shivered from the cold, she could feel the snow getting into her wound. She sniffled and tried to crawl somewhere to hide- it wouldn't do any good, she was leaving a trail of blood.

The white was turning to black all around her, she hoped that if she were to die, she would at least die without being bothered. She gave up from trying to crawl, her body spent from just reaching ahead of her. She laid on her back, looking up at the building and up at the white sky.

So much for trying to keep up with the normal droning of life, a normal one.

Wake up, go to work, come home, sleep.

Repeat.

No, that was from a far day, a very far day where the small mishaps were blessings compared to now.

She closed her eyes, her breathing slow now.

So much pain, so cold.

Hungry too.

There was no one waiting for her if she would ever wake up, no one she knew was left.

Miss Pauling was alone now, and so far from home.

Her eyes were growing cloudy, just like the skies above her.

She could see her own breath, puffing and fading like smoke.

"No, no, no, Fraulein, you aren't dying here today," came a voice, a German, almost silly sounding.

A shade came into view, closing in on her- so much for dying peacefully.

"Get away," she murmured.

"Let's see vhat you got here, oh, you're really a tough one," the voice went on, she weakly lifted her arm to try and push away the man that leaned over her, examining her leg- she couldn't shift away when she felt his hand touch her, the pain shot through her. "Not good..."

He took his scarf off and tied it around her calf, winding it several times until it was taut and ending it with a knot.

"Let's get you up, Fraulein." She felt arms curl under her knees, then her back, lifting her up into the air. "Goodness, zhose men, if only zhey stayed out of my place."

"...what?" Pauling was confused, she sniffled as she lifted her glasses a bit to wipe her eyes.

"My place, you've taken some clothes from zhere," he went on as he went around the building and entered through a door he had propped open. "You're vearing vone of my coats."

"Sorry we looted," Pauling told him,"it's just cold and-"

"At least I get my coats back." He didn't seem mad that she was in his apartment robbing him. "It's vhat I get for leaving it unlocked accidentally. Careless of me."

He was going up some stairs after he closed the door.

"Must have been quite a shock for you, dropping down three floors," he told her.

"I fell that far? I didn't notice..."

She really didn't.

He brought her back into the same apartment she had gotten out of. Inside, she looked around to see four men dead- one was propped against the wall, blood splattered behind him as he was shot with a gun, possibly a shotgun. Another two were on the floor, both dead from a gun, and then the last was at a doorway, an axe buried into his neck.

Next to one of the men on the floor was her old boss, dead.

A bullet to the chest.

"I couldn't save her, zhey shot her in zhe heart und I didn't get to her on time," he explained, though there wasn't sadness in his voice. He brought her into a bedroom, the same place where she got the coats. He laid her on the bed, propping her head with a pillow. He brought out a box, a first aid kit, and settled it next to her leg. "I don't haf any aneszhetics for zhis, you're going to haf to fight zhrough it."

"...do you have any alcohol?" Pauling inquired as he placed a towel under her leg- he paused to think, then got up and left. He returned with a bottle of some whiskey. She took it from him and began downing it, reveling in the burn as she nodded to him.

"Zhat isn't vhat I'd give to patients, but vhat zhe hell," he chuckled, pulling a chair up next to her leg. He began to roll up the pant leg as she drank more and more. "Slow down zhere! I haf to have some myself vhen I'm done!"

Pauling ignored him as he laughed under his breath, he went to work and she chugged more vigorously, the room spinning and spinning, she could feel the horrid stinging of disinfectant poured into her wound.

She couldn't keep her eyes open as she dropped the bottle.

That clang she heard was the last before she lost sight of the world and the man who decided to help her.