Chapter 3
"Is she going to be okay?" A silence hung between them for a moment, the tent billowed, and the medics continued to work. Lupo took it as a no as they avoided her gaze and tended their work. Each medic's body language was
"Her body temperature is rising." Jackson said. It was not an answer, not even close to one. Just because she was getting warmer didn't mean she wasn't bleeding out internally. Lupo glared at Smith, then Jackson, to the girl, back to Keys: no one had much to say for themselves. If there was not a girl struggling for her life on the gurney, a screaming match would have ensued. But, the girl needed quiet, and Lupo respected that need.
"Somebody tell me something."
"I'm not sure as of now, but recovery is going to be slow. We do not have x-rays, nor do we have any facility for surgery." Key's said. They couldn't do much more.
"You think she needs surgery?"
"I don't know." She replied sharply. In any other situation, Lupo would have torn her head off for such an experience. Though, Keys took pleasure in being the main medic, she was too valuable to be crossed by their captain. Smith and Jackson, they'd face the wrath of the "wolf mother" later. "We need to finish treating her injuries first." Respectfully lowering her voice.
"No I.D. on her other than the dog-tags?"
Jackson's head snapped up, a jumpy young woman, "That's correct, ma'am." Smith nodded in agreement. He wondered what would happen afterwards.
Lupo came to her head, "Who are you, ma chere? Where did you come from?" She didn't get any response. Hesitantly, she rested her hand upon the girl's head—ice crystals had melted out of her hair, leaving it cold and wet, sticking up wildly.
Maybe this girl would do something good for their leader, Keys wondered. Though, Lupo pulled away just as fast, out of her element and retreating, "I should probably tell Billy." She was a trained killer, after all, not a medic.
"Maybe he could identify her for us." Smith said as they finished cleaning up the injuries. Messy stitches across her torso were wrapped in gauze. Her hands were concealed in thick white mittens of bandages.
"Agreed. Can I bring him in now?" She asked.
"Smith, help me get her in a gown." Keys said, Lupo took that as a 'yes'. She left the tent, and put her head down against the fierce winds. Nous allons passer un nuit blance. She thought, coughing. How stupid she'd been, thinking it was not a crisis and she was getting to bed early. She had a dying girl and her partner was somehow associated with her. There would be no sleep, not for a while. She threw open the flap to the tent where Billy and two others gathered around the lantern, nursing mugs of bitter black coffee,
"Coen! Nous avons une petite probleme! We have a small problem. Ronnie and Duncan-" They got up and left on cue, knowing Lupo intended to talk to Billy and him alone.
"What's wrong? And what's the status on the woman back there?" He asked her, tiredly taking another drink of the coffee.
She opened her mouth, and then shut it again. This was her partner, either she was going to give him terrible news or confuse the hell out of him, "I...I would like you to explain..." She shut her mouth again, and shifted her weight. There was no point sugar coating it, "Your dog-tags are around her neck."
Billy's eyebrows shot up in shock, he pulled the cup of coffee away from his lips with shaking hands and returned it to the table. The only one who took them was—
"No…no way...are you positive?!" He couldn't believe what he just heard, "Let me see them."
Lupo produced the article from her pocket and slid the metallic tags across the table toward him. "Unless there is another William Coen who served in the American Marines...which is a possibility."
At first Billy just stared at them. He picked them up to see if it was the real thing, and it was. He looked at the name-his name-inscribed onto the dog-tags. "These are mine." He drawled, and tossed them back onto the hard surface and stood, "Where is she?"
Lupo exhaled: exactly what she was afraid of, Billy had connections with the person, "Sit down. We talk first. Who is she? Care to explain?" She hissed, and leaned back on the chair. A cough rattled from her throat, momentarily diverting her piercing eyes.
Billy glanced at his dog-tags for a moment. "Is there a reason I should explain myself to you?" He met her, equally cold. How in hell had Rebecca gotten herself out in the middle of the snow in the middle of nowhere? She was accident prone, that much he knew, but the fact of the matter boiled down to the fact there was nothing she should have been after. Their missions were run remotely—that was why they were in the middle of nowhere.
"They were around her neck." Lupo placed emphasis on each word, leaning in aggressively.
Billy was good at hiding his emotions, he had been since he was in prison, and he certainly was not going to show his distress now. She's here? "Where is she?" He needed to see her before anything else, only after that, when he was sure it was her, would he explain the truth behind the dog-tags.
Lupo's glare refused to waver, "Who is she?" A woman trained to lead; she understood her current tactics were not getting far, "Coen." Her voice softened. This girl was something to him. She saw the fierce glimmer of protectiveness behind the anger it materialized in, "This is security, Coen...What's her name?" She could not afford to lose Billy, not even his mental state. They plowed head first into their first winter, or rather; the winter seemed to be pounding into them. Every man needed to be on his game, especially as the delved deeper into the conspiracy they faced.
Billy decided to at least offer Lupo her name. "Rebecca. She was a member of S.T.A.R.S."
"...I presume you met her during the incident with the train...Raccoon had a S.T.A.R.S. force." She replied, staring at the patterns in the faux wood table. "She's a lovely girl." Lupo begun to piece it together, she knew scraps of Billy's story, and knew that a R.P.D. member had let him walk free at some point, "She's the one who filed the fake report, isn't she?"
Billy nodded. "I owe her big time for that. After that ordeal, we went our separate ways. Lupo, I'd like to see her."
"Was she looking for you?" Lupo asked. It seemed the most plausible to her, why else would Rebecca be out there?
"I'm not sure if she was. I mean ...unless she somehow knows we're here." Billy shook his head. "I believe she was out here for something else."
"Well...she found something …I can tell you that much." Lupo exhaled and walked over to the makeshift heater, putting on a percolator for coffee.
"You mean she was attacked?" He asked, the mug in his hands grew cold. "How is she? I-is she going to be okay?"
"I mean I don't know. We have no idea what happened to her. But she's hurt bad, and has defensive wounds." She topped off Billy's cup with the warmer liquid and nudged it into his limp hands, "The medics are doing what they can for her." He said nothing.
They're doing what they can. That never meant anything good, especially in terms of emergency medicine. He couldn't accept it, and he knew she was waiting for him to give her a response. If there was one thing she hated, it was when people didn't respond to her when she spoke, "Did…Did you find anything else on her?" He asked, but was unable to look up from the dark coffee.
"No." Lupo answered, knowing that he was trying to find an excuse as for why it wasn't the person he was thinking of, "She's tiny, pale, she has short hair."
"That could be anyone." It described her nearly spot on, but he refused to deal with that.
"It could be." Lupo replied, "And I 'ope it's not who you're looking for. But, look at the facts. She 'as your dog-tags. She's about...twenty if I had to guess."
"Twenty?" Billy thought about it, the age was nearly spot on too, but it still wasn't enough. He couldn't accept it unless he saw for himself.
Lupo wiped her nose with the back of her arm, "The medics are still working. You're going to stick your head in the door. That's all." There was privacy to preserve, but at the same time poor Coen needed to see. She couldn't leave him in the current state of wondering.
"Alright." He replied. As long as he saw her face, then he would know for sure. He stood up and followed Lupo outside in the fierce snowy weather.
She led him into the tent, "We're going to identify her, Keys."
"Alright...but he can't stay in here."
The medic backed away from the girl on the bed. Lupo motioned the man forward, and let the tent fall closed, keeping them safe from the brutal wind.
No matter how hard he braced himself, the man was not ready for the sight before him. The blood drained from his face. He wanted to take her cold body into his arms and hold her. She was pale to the point where she turned a grey color, parted lips gasped for shallow breaths. Shit, Rebecca. A bandaged leg, and bandaged wrists-
"C'mon, Billy. Come with me." The pressure of her strong hands on his arm.
Billy was at a loss for words, only able to follow in a state of numbness. "I can't believe it. It's her." It took a lot of will power not to run back to her.
She returned him to the common tent, barking at some men to leave. Her shouts echoed in his deaf ears. Lupo shoved the still-steaming mug into her comrade's hands, the same one he'd left on the table. "Are you alright?"
He was far from alright, silent for while. The only thing running through his head was the images of Rebecca in her current state. She was alive and healing, it could be worse, it could be worse. She has a chance. "I'll be...alright."
Lupo reached out and touched his arm and took a deep breath, "When she was attacked, she fought so 'ard that all of 'er knuckles are split…then…she managed to drag 'erself away on a broken leg, and survive for at least three 'ours out there before they found 'er. She's a 'ell of a fighter."
"How bad is she hurt?" He wanted to know more, sure, what Lupo said was true, but he wanted to know the full extent of her damage. Rebecca was stubborn as hell, a girl with fire in her eyes. Though, he knew enough about first aid, enough about their situation. It didn't take a genius to realize she was in some trouble.
"A broken leg and wrist, blood loss, and she's 'ypothermic." Billy knew she was in bad shape, Lupo didn't sugar coat it. She respected him too much for such nonsense.
The storm crashed on them as they sat in silence. Waiting for news which didn't seem to come, and lost in their own worlds of thought.