TEAM FORTESS 2 IS A VIDEO GAME BY VALVE

The name given to Medic is one he was presented by in some merchandising products, non-official. His wife's my invention

It was a rainy afternoon, so dark nothing could be seen past the garden's fence. It had been raining all day long and there were no signs it would stop, all the contrary. Anna, who was wearing a dressing gown, paced around the window and wondered when it would stop raining. That weather was nasty, she couldn't stand it. She never liked to be forced to stay at home with nothing to do, it was something unbearable to her.

In Germany she would have spent all day at the clinic, too busy to worry about the weather outside. Or she would have called her friends to entertain themselves with coffee, games and gossip.

Oh, but there was no use in thinking about the past. She had to look towards the future. She was determined to do it, she had wasted too much time being bitter.

Her husband would go back home soon, for holidays were close, and they would make up for all that time lost in such a stupid way. Ludwig spent the days he was at home lying on the sofa or the bed to read and sleep, but this time she wouldn't allow it. They would dine out, she would regale him with the dishes she knew he loved, they would make love as frequently as they did when they were just married, and maybe she would allow him to amuse himself with some of his...pastimes, while she played the spectator. She came up with thousands of plans. It didn't really matter what, as long as they spent time together. She only saw him a few weeks a year, she feared she would eventually forget his face or the sound of his voice. He had joked in many occasions about the possibility that she took advantage of his absence to approach other men, and she laughed but she saw he wasn't joking completely. It offended her that he thought of that about her. When he came back from fighting tin colossuses she would get that idea out of his head forever.

As if her thoughts would have had the effect of a magical spell, she was thanks to the dim light of a lamppost that there was a figure coming out a van and taking a look at the house. She smiled as excited as a schoolgirl, and rushed, almost ran, towards the door. It was raining harder now but she didn't care. As she advanced towards the door, she could distinguish better the symbol on the vehicle. Yes. It was him. It had to be him.

But she could have a better view of the person who was approaching too and she stopped, very ashamed of her impulsiveness, when she discovered it wasn't Ludwig. It was a bald man, very tall and muscled. He was all covered with bandages and moves as if some of his wounds hadn't still healed, though his face stubbornly hid the pain. The man stopped in front of her. He was so tall in comparison to her that she felt intimidated at first.

"Mrs. Heilburg?" he asked with a deep voice. Judging the accent, it was evident he wasn't American either, but he wasn't German.

"Yes, I am." Anna replied, grabbing the lapel of her gown to warm herself a bit.

"I am...Medic's partner, Heavy, I mean, Mikhail...I came for him."

Anna knew that name, since her husband had told her about that good friend he had in his team, but she made no comment about it. She heard her heart beating violently inside her chest. She didn't stop looking at that man to the eyes in any moment, and he ended up glancing away.

"...Medic was brave...He protected us all with all his might...He gave us courage to go on..."

Anna pressed her hand.

Heavy forced himself to look at the woman to her eyes to add, in a much deeper, lower voice:

"...He died..."

At first, the woman stood still. By the way she gazed at him, it looked as if she hadn't understood any word he had just said. But she had. Heavy had to wait a few seconds to continue, not only for her, but because he had to fight the lump in his throat.

"Before falling," he said, "he told me if something happened to him and I survived, I come here and give you this."

Heavy introduced his hand inside the pocket of his trousers and took a little envelope in which it could be read: "Für meine klaine taube". Medic had been terribly foresighted indeed: he had kept that letter in a safe place and then Heavy had known from his surviving teammates that he had not been the only one who was asked to deliver it to her. It was inside another envelope in which the address they had to visit was detailed and some instructions about the care the woman who he already considered a widow would need.

Heavy passed the envelope over her and Anna didn't give him time to give it to her, she snatched it. However, she didn't open it. She pressed it against her chest and started to weep. In just a few seconds, that beautiful woman was on her knees, soaked in rain and tears.

THE END