Hide and Seek
There was no one there to welcome Colonel Sharp. No one waited for him at the space center. While others were greeted by wives, girlfriends, sons and daughters, the colonel had only one hand to shake, at his own humble request. And thankfully it had been granted. He could only imagine the sort of humiliation he'd go through had Harry's daughter refused to shake his hand. But even though the poor girl was visibly shaken from the loss of her father, she had accepted his request.
After that there was nothing left to do but return to the base, get rid of his gear, and try to calm himself down. He had been trained for this, for years had he flown jets, shuttles, you name it. But this mission had been unlike any other he had ever been on. And he knew he needed some time to recover from what he had seen and been through. Inside the base, higher in rank officials patted his shoulder, saluted him, shook his hand and shot him a few polite welcome back's. He would have given his right hand to just be invisible for a while, and not have to deal with all these ecstatic men needing him to release their excitement on about the whole event.
The barracks were deserted. Everyone had gone home or was still celebrating mankind's victory. A soldier at heart, the colonel didn't care for quarters of his own. All he needed was a bed, and he could choose from about twenty untouched sleeping places right now. Gently, he sank down onto one of the old, creaky matrasses, welcoming the silence in the empty room. He tried to feel his own body despite his decades of training, and detect anything that would require the attention of a medical specialist. He was slightly dizzy, lightheaded, but that would be considered normal. His stomach was a little upset, but even that was nothing unusual. He reached up to touch the tender bruises in his neck left from Harry's giant pincer attack, and flinched at the contact, he was going to feel those for a while to come. A nice reminder of the man that saved humanity.
Letting out a deep sigh he lay down onto his back, feeling his tired body relax slowly. His initial plan had been to come here, take a shower, and then get himself checked by a doctor, as he had been ordered to do according to protocol for returning astronauts. They were also supposed to go through some sort of decontamination process. He frowned at the thought of having a team of eager scientists poke around his already sore body right now, asking him all sorts of stupid questions about the conditions he went through, and how his body reacted to them. The others, the men he brought home, would do all that, with their wives and girlfriends at their sides. Comforting himself with the thought the science team had other people to play with, and his presence wasn't exactly necessary, he drifted off to sleep.
He woke a few hours later, by someone gently shaking his shoulder. He groaned at the uncomfortable gesture, mumbling incoherently at the person to stop touching him. "Colonel Sharp?" the shaking continued. "Colonel, sir?" agitated, he opened his eyes to see who was trying to wake him so badly. A young woman in a white lab coat sat on the side of his bed. He knew her, she was part of the medical team, and he had seen her at several occasions prior to the mission.
"Miss Hall." He confirmed, blinking slowly at her. "What can I do for you?"
She tilted her head at his question, and looked at the clipboard in her hands. "sir, I missed you during the medical examinations." He nodded in response.
"I know. I was really tired. My apologies if I delayed any filing of rapports. That wasn't my intention." He rubbed his sky blue eyes, attempting to shake himself out of his weariness. "I'm ready to go with you now, miss Hall. Lead the way." He assured her, and pulled himself into a sitting position. She didn't move.
"I can do it right here if you'll allow me, sir." She assured him kindly. "Just a couple of questions and then I'll leave you to your rest." Her warm smile made him avert his eyes, he wasn't used to people smiling at him like that.
"Fire away." He attempted to joke, and felt a small victory when her smile widened.
"Ehm.. did you have any feelings of dizziness or nausea following this mission?" she asked, looking down at her clipboard. He thought about the question for a moment, then nodded.
"A little bit."
She nodded, writing down his answer while tucking a strand of her auburn hair behind her ear. "Headaches, sore muscles or any abdominal pain?"
"A little bit."
She looked up at him curiously. "A little bit of what, sir?"
"All of the above." He explained. "But that's normal isn't it?" she didn't answer right away, and tapped her pencil on the clipboard.
"Yea." She confirmed with a smile. "Yea, that's pretty normal. Alright so, any severe fatigue? I think I can answer that question for you.." she chuckled, scribbling away.
"Again, my apologies. I shouldn't have disappeared like that, I know I shouldn't have. I know the protocol better than anyone, I think I even helped writing it." He sighed, frustrated with himself. "Not at all professional, and certainly not serving the right example to the men I was supposed to take under my wing."
Her hand on his shoulder silenced him, and he looked up to meet her eyes filled with gentle sympathy. "There is no need to apologize, sir. I was just worried of where you had gone off to. There were three medical examiners, and you had been put under my name, so when I called out for you, no answer came. I was just worried about you." He said nothing, and swallowed harshly at the idea he had caused this much trouble to this poor young woman just trying to do her job. "But here you are, and I'm glad I found you, sir." She continued sweetly, but her smile dropped when she caught sight of the angry bruises in his neck. "What are those?"
"Oh, nothing to worry about." He said, rubbing his sore neck. "There was a little quarrel on board, nothing serious.."
She blinked. "Seeing the result of that quarrel I think it was pretty serious, colonel. We need to put some cream on those marks." She wrote down her findings. He said nothing in return. He had forgiven Harry a long time ago for those petty bruises, the man had sacrificed his own life for humanity. The fact he had almost choked an air force colonel with a set of metal pincers didn't change his state of heroism.
"Now, have you eaten anything since completing the mission?" the examination continued.
He shook his head. "No, as you said. Nausea.." he made a face at the thought of food. "I haven't even had the courage to try some water. My stomach.." He shrugged, embarrassed. "Just a little upset. It'll wear off."
She wrote down his answer, nodding in understanding. "Would you like to try and drink something now? Water or.. I can get you some warm tea?" he didn't seem sure, and gave her an apologetic half smile, indicating he was already having a hard time talking about food or drinks, not to mention trying to ingest it. "Alright, I get it." she chuckled softly. "Maybe later."
"Maybe." He nodded.
"Have you taken a shower yet?" she then asked, peering at him from over the rim of her glasses. The question seemed rhetoric, as he was still in the clothes he had worn throughout the mission. He shook his head, looking away from her as he absentmindedly rubbed his abdomen. "Why not, sir?"
"Because it's against protocol to take a shower prior to the scientific examination." He recited from a textbook. "Something could be clinging to my skin that could be of any.. scientific value.." he continued, trying to convince himself of this bullshit rule called into life to satisfy a couple of nerds in the space centre that didn't have the guts to go up there themselves. "Debris or.. something of the sort."
She gazed at him blankly. "Right, well let me take care of that, sir. The scientists had their chance to collect debris from the others, I don't think what you have clinging to you is of any unique value." Her writing had turned slightly irritated, but somehow he knew it wasn't because of anything he had said. "I think a shower would be a very good idea right now." She continued. "And then you need to try and eat something."
He seemed less than thrilled at the doctor's orders, but she did her best to ignore his pleading blue eyes to just let him go back to sleep. She looked around the deserted sleeping quarter, twenty empty iron bunkbeds were the only company the colonel had right now. "I can move you to a private bedroom if you'd like, sir." She offered. "Most people have gone home, I'm sure we can find you a better room." She rubbed her arm. "Or atleast a warmer one. It's pretty chilly in here. Perhaps we shouldn't expose your lungs to this right now."
"I hadn't noticed it was cold in here." He said, looking around the barrack with a questioning look. "I thought it was sort of stuffy and hot actually."
At that information, she decided to reach out and feel his forehead with the back of her hand, checking for fever, but his skin was relatively cool. "I think your body's temperature is a bit off. That's not unusual, but you should be careful with that, sir." Caringly, she grabbed one of the folded blankets at the foot end of his bed and wrapped it around his shoulders. "We don't want you to get a lung infection."
"Can I just go back to sleep?" He pleaded softly.
She sighed, defeated, and shook her head. "I think this would all qualify as doctor's orders, sir. It would be extremely unwise not to follow them." He closed his eyes at her words, no rest for the wicked it seemed. "A shower and some tea isn't all that bad, is it, sir? I could have ordered you to get up and get your full medical examination too, which was what you were supposed to have hours ago." He said nothing as he rubbed his tired eyes, readying himself to get up.
"I thought, as no one was there to greet me personally, I could just slip away unseen and.. do my own thing." He complained. "Leave the celebrating to the people who didn't have to fly the whole way back too. With a busted shuttle."
Saddened at his words, her expression softened. "I was there." She protested gently. "Sir, I was there on the landing strip to greet everybody. Especially the people I've known for a while now, like you." Her explanation didn't seem to change anything. "I wanted to go to you and tell you how happy I was to see you in one piece, but you were gone so quickly." She continued. "I'm so sorry I got distracted by people fainting as soon as they got out of that shuttle. They weren't used to dealing with gravity sickness, and I had my hands full."
"You have nothing to be sorry for, miss Hall." He told her. "You're a doctor, so of course your first priority would go to the people requiring medical attention. I don't blame you for anything." He swallowed thickly. "I just didn't want to stick around in a place where I was treated like I had nothing to do with the whole thing." he looked down, away from her eyes, ashamed of his own hurt. "I fucking flew that goddamn thing there and back. Why weren't my two little girls there to welcome back their dad?"
She listened to him silently. She knew he was divorced, since a couple of years, and communication with his ex-wife was, if anything, turbulent. His twin daughters, now eight years of age, were sporadically allowed to visit their father, but were obviously denied to witness his return to earth by their mother. She was no doubt informed about the whole mission, but it hadn't changed her decision.
"Colonel, I have no idea why they weren't there. And I'm so very sorry this hurt you this bad. You don't deserve that. You're as much as a hero as any of those men outside celebrating." She tried warmly. "I know it doesn't change or help much, but I was so happy to see you come out of that shuttle, sir. I know I'm not the one you want to hear this from, but I would hate for you to seclude yourself from something that is owed to you as well, perhaps even in bigger form. I would be devastated to learn you consider yourself any less than those men because your family wasn't there to greet you."
"I was looking for them." He explained tiredly. "Somehow, I had convinced myself they would be there."
She didn't know what else to say. She had truly been very happy to see him uninjured, and she had wanted to tell him, but she was also there to do her job, and she had been unable to catch him in time. He had already disappeared by time she was done tending to the ill men.
"But thank you for saying you were glad to see me, miss Hall. Had I noticed you were there, the feeling would have been mutual." He forced himself to say for her sake, and gave her a weary half smile. "Not that I'm not glad to see you now, though. I'm pleased to know you.. pulled yourself through these past difficult days."
She then decided words weren't enough anymore, and she reached out to pull the tired colonel into a gentle hug. If anything, he let her, too weary to care about who decided hugging him was the best idea right now. He rested his chin on her warm shoulder, the material of her lab coat tickling his neck, but it was by no means uncomfortable. "If you're not your family's hero." She whispered to him. "Then you can be mine." He smiled lightly in response to her ever so kind words, and returned her embrace gently, enjoying the touch of another human being. "Welcome back, Colonel Sharp." She continued. "I'm so happy to see you again."
He wasn't sure she meant every word, it wasn't like they knew eachother that well. But she had been present during every training, even prior to this mission, and she had never failed to safe a smile or two for him. But she was good to everyone, and this heart-warming gesture may have just been coming from her kind personality, instead of a real bonding with him personally. Although sceptical about its authenticity, he enjoyed their moment nonetheless.
"Thank you, miss Hall." He told her, his gratitude genuine. "It's good to be back."
She let go of him slowly, gazing into his amazing blue eyes. They had always stood out in every room, no matter how crowded, the colonel was in. They had caught her eye the first time they were introduced, and she fondly remembered how she had lost the ability to speak for a few seconds, making the situation considerably more awkward. She had never thought she'd work as a medical specialist at a military base, overseeing missions at NASA's space centre from time to time. Alongside a team of colleagues, she oversaw the medical examinations prior and post space related missions.
He smiled at her then, and she was convinced this smile was real, and not the polite sort of detached way he had when dealing with people. She had been cheering him up, and it had worked. "Thanks for looking in on me." He continued. "I was never any good at hide and seek."
She chuckled. "But you're a damn good pilot." He looked almost shy at her unexpected compliment, and averted his gaze from hers. "Get some rest, colonel. I'll be checking in on you in a while again." She got up from the creaking stretcher. "If there's anything you need, I'm down the hall in the coffee room." He nodded at her words absentmindedly, and lay back down into the matrass. By the time she had reached the door to the hall, he was already asleep.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
She had been finishing her medical rapports with the help of half a gallon of coffee when colonel Sharp entered the deserted coffee room hours later, looking around for the doctor, he found her all the way in the back, typing away on a laptop with a stack of files next to her. Coming up to her, she looked up and smiled.
"Good evening." she said, taking off her glasses and smoothing back her hair. "You look a lot better."
He looked down at himself and shrugged. He had taken a shower, and put on some clean clothes, she must have noticed. "Doctor's orders." He told her, and shoved back a metal chair to sit down next to her. "I was feeling a little thirsty so I thought I'd try some coffee." He announced, eyeing the coffee pot sceptically. "If you don't mind my company, that is." He quickly added, looking at her. "I understand if you're busy."
"Not at all, sir." She smiled, pouring him a cup of coffee and shoving it toward him. "I was just finishing up." She stretched her back, her arms above her head, and yawned. "How are you feeling?"
He blew on his hot coffee, holding the mug between his hands. "Much better, thank you." He took a careful first sip, and felt his stomach protest at the sudden ingestion of substance after neglecting it for so many hours. He made a face and put the cup down, shoving it away from him gently. "That was a bad idea." He told her, chuckling nervously.
"Give it a minute." She suggested kindly. He waited, like she had said, and leaned back in his chair with his hand resting on his abdomen. The coffee room, more of a cafeteria, was usually pretty crowded. The complete silence of the place felt unnatural, like he and the doctor were the last people on earth. The chaos of the days before the mission had made place for the absolute nothing. Her scribbling on paper was the only sound in the room right now, and he found himself gazing at her gentle form.
"Don't you have something to go back to, miss Hall?" He broke the silence. "A husband, boyfriend? Kids?"
She looked at him from over the rim of her glasses again. "I'm not married." She told him. "Boyfriends are nothing but an unnecessary distraction." He chuckled at her answer, even though it was dead serious. "I have a cat." She spoke bluntly. "Whiskers. He's my best friend." She looked up to meet his still tired eyes. "I suppose you saved his life too."
His smile widened. "You're welcome. I'd say anytime but.. I sincerely hope I don't ever have to do this again." They both chuckled at the silliness of the subject, although it held much truth. Their gentle interaction filled the empty, sterile room, with much needed laughter. Making the place look less grim, less detached from the outside world, still celebrating victory.
Thanks for reading!