Time is strange. It can build you up, knock you down, it never stands still and at the same time it seems to slow down and stop and the worst times. But all the same it continues on endlessly without pause. Here he stood, watching it happen again and again. Every day he watched his sister lay waste to the people she was told to care for, leaving each one more broken than the last. And there it was in front of him, one of the most broken and still, the most persistent. Shes had the fight beaten out of her over and over again, and still she smiles. Shes had her voice silenced a hundred times over and she still carried on. He had watched it happen, everything had been ripped away from her and everyone she cared about had been beaten and traded away to some far away land. And yet for every day she'd been bruised and beaten and hurt she still seemed strong, unfazed, unbroken
Or so it seemed
Now she was there in front of him, sitting on the kitchen table alone. One of their few medical kits lying open in front of her, it contents strewn around her messily. Her jacket was thrown on the floor nearby as she bandaged one of the hundreds of injuries covering her body, scars could be seen everywhere her uniform didn't cover and bruises were everywhere else. Her face was somber.
He stepped forward and she turned towards him. She looked dead tired, a small, weak smile tried to force its way onto her face. And then was gone. She slumped forwards, dropping the bandages to the floor, the haunted look in her eyes seeming to take over as she watched it roll away. She seemed heavy all of a sudden like she had the weight of a hundred worlds on her back.
silently he walked over to where she sat, scooping up the discarded bandages and wrapping them around her wounds. She didn't move, she just shut her eyes, her breaths her shaky, and uneven and her skin was cold to the touch, like ice. The silence hung thick in the air, like a fog that weighed heavily on his shoulders, he reached out and brushed a stray hair out of the Lithuanian womans face, she ignored him, her mind somewhere far away he dropped his hand and continued bandaging up what was left of her injuries.
Carefully he lifted her off the table, leaving the medical supplies as-is for the time being, he carried her to the small, drafty room she called her own. Laying her down on the mattress, he felt her fingers tighten on his coat.
For the first time she spoke, two, quiet words.
"Please stay"
Her voice was tired and barely audible. He didn't move, then, slowly, he crawled over beside her. Careful not to hurt her. And wrapped his arms around her small bandaged form. Her grip on his coat tightened and she curled up close to him
"Thank you"
