Good day,
this fanfic occurs directly after Half life 2, Episode 2. Also, Gordon speaks, sorry. I thought it over a long time before making that decison, but there, he speaks. If you wanna know my reasoning, just ask, don't wanna spam everyone here. Anyhow, I've mostly been writing fantasy short stories the past few years so I'm pretty much just writing this for a change of pace. Fun and all that.
Enjoy.
As she wept, the last few minutes reran in Gordon's mind. The joy that had engulfed all of them in the light of the successful launch. The possibility to finally gather more knowledge about his mysterious 'employer', possibly leading to Gordon's freedom form his creepy influence.
Eli telling him how proud he was.
Eli..
Killed by an advisor. Slaughtered while Gordon just watched, unable to move, unable to do anything to save him.
Eli, lying dead on the ground right in front of him, his otherwise so happy and cheerful daughter in agonizing tears. Gordon tried to move his head, but the pain in his neck seemed excruciating. Had the advisor thrown him on his neck? He dimly remembered having hit the wall and the floor soon afterward but... it didn't feel like the fall itself hat hit him that hard. Maybe the advisors grab had damaged his spine.
All these thoughts were more or less in the back of his head. He was focused on Elis lifeless body and Alyx crying over him, wanting to come over, comfort her, mourn with her.. Eli had been a good friend. Despite all the weirdness in these past few days, Gordon had been so happy to see him, had hoped for a chance to truly reconcile with him as soon as the borealis thing was over. Not just about the mystery-man, but... life. From his point of view, the resonance cascade had just happened about two weeks before and since then he barely even found time to sleep or eat, not to mention truly rest.
But he would never speak to Eli again. Gordon felt a nauseating sadness dwelling up in him and he quickly focused on his body again. As he tried to move his toes and fingertips, the felt fuzzy and cold at the same time, yet he could move them, - therefore, his spine couldn't be all that damaged. While he was still trying to get moving, he heard loud footsteps and men shouting something. People came running in and stopped in their tracks immediately.
„No...NO!", someone cried as other voices shouted their names while they recalled the lift to come down to them. „Eli! Alyx, is he...? Where's Freeman?!"
Gordon could never really tell the voices of the camp personal or refugees apart. There were just so many of them and usually, so little time to get to know them. Why couldn't they see him, though? At the second part of the question, Alyx hat turned around slightly for the first time after her fathers death. Her beautiful face was pained and tear stained while she still held her fathers corpse close to her chest. Looking at him she looked even more frightened and seemed conflicted for a moment when several men came running out the elevator towards them. Only now he realized that he seemed to be stuck under something. He started to regain more feeling, helped by the familiar sensation of blood trickling down his spine. He grunted quietly, watching how two of the man sat with Alyx and her father while the others came toward him. He felt a tiny, angry pang in his head, watching as one of the others put his hand on Alyx shoulder, although he was soon preoccupied with his own situation as the other three tried to pull something – whatever it was – off his side. As they freed him and pulled him back on his feet, he suddenly understood why he hadn't been able to move his neck. A barren of steel had been blocking his back and neck, functionally immobilizing him. Was that why his head was bleeding? His sight was a bit woozy while the cracked voice of his HEV suit told him that there would be morphine administered, but he didn't really care right now.
Alyx was still holding her father. The others tried to make her let go, That she couldn't truly mourn if she didn't accept his death in the first place but she wouldn't have it. She held on to him tightly, quietly whimpering for him not to leave her.
He staggered toward her uncertainly before kneeling beside her, putting his arm around her back.
She didn't seem to mind. Holding on to her father, leaning into Gordon, she just wept.
It took some time to get her to leave him. He didn't know if hours or mere minutes passed, nor did he care. After he had finally managed to get up to comfort her, they had stayed at her fathers side for as long as he felt was right for her, before he slowly got her to get up. At that point, she hadn't resisted anymore. Others had come, almost speechless in shock and mourning, taking the body. As he had slowly lead Alyx away he caught a quick glimpse of doctor Kleiner staring in at the corpse in absolute shock.
This man too, had lost one of his oldest friends.
People down there had helpfully advised him where he would find Alyx quarters as he slowly moved her. She wouldn't look where they went, clinging to him, still sobbing on his steel-covered chest while he just held her close, guiding her uncertain steps through the elevator and up to the base. As they stepped through the hall people looked at them in confusion. Everybody seemed to have heard that something had happened, but they didn't know what. At first, few of them seemingly wanted to ask him what was going on but he stared at them and they quickly left him alone. He didn't know what his stare contained right now. He felt unbelievable empty inside, sadness and rage dancing somewhere in his core. He knew he would probably be mad with anger later. It was his usual reaction to loss. Especially when he felt at fault.
Reaching her quarters he slowly opened the door, slightly surprised that she actually had a room to herself but all the more grateful for it. He brought her inside, closed the door and sat her down on the bed, still stroking her back. In the last two or three minutes, her sobbing had grown quieter. He didn't know what to say to her, rocking her back and forth in an attempt to calm her, trying to murmur unformulated nothing in a reassuring way.
His own emotions seemed incredibly unimportant right now. He had to take care of her.
When she was sleeping, there would still be time to go insane.
It didn't take long for her to fall asleep in his arms. He smirked sadly at the irony. Had Eli been alive there would have been all kinds of jokes about the two them being alone in her room. Joy, he himself would have probably been really happy to spend some quality time with this astounding woman, but now... well. He lay her down slowly, careful not to wake her before putting the nearby blanket over her so she wouldn't wake from freezing. He went outside for a moment to get some water and left the bottle on her makeshift bedside-crate. Looking at her sleeping, the sadness inside him started to become clearer. He had lost a good friend. She had lost her father. In a weird way, he was sad for both of them. Moving out of the room, quietly shutting the door, the sadness grew larger, but was soon overtaken by rage.
Now she was safe and asleep.
Now he was free to make somebody pay.
