Chapter 7
Healing
Sombra sat on her couch, her stomach in the cushions, while her back was exposed for Hana to see. She was fascinated by Sombra's back. The large black piece embedded in her spine, glowing purple. The four connections in the middle and in the small of her back. The strange circle at the back of her head. She finally understood that the two cables on her forehead were not going into her neck, rather they were connected, twisted around her skull. Her bloody shoulder, where the flesh had been pierced by Reaper's grain bullets. Small holes impossible to discern in the pool of blood covering her skin.
"Maybe I should clean you first." decided Hana.
She opened the box and found tweezers, a needle and threads, a bandage roll and a small bottle of antiseptic inside. It really was just enough for Sombra's wound, maybe a little less than necessary, but Hana was lacking any kind of medical expertise when the wound in question wasn't a blister.
"Do you have anything in which I could pour some water? And a cloth?"
"Bowls are in the kitchen, top drawer left to the sink. Towels in the bathroom, under the sink."
"Thanks".
Hana quickly went to a bowl which she filled with hot water and a towel. This was one of the best things about Sombra, she was precise.
Hana came back with all that she needed, and left it on her table beside her, before she came to sit beside Sombra again, and started to clean her shoulder. It was a real mess. Not only was her shoulder covered with blood, but more seemed to pour with every wipe of the towel.
"Did it hurt?" she asked, her gaze attracted to the component on the other girl's spine.
"Well, you know, being pierced by bullets is never enjoyable."
"No, I mean, that thing on your spine. Did it hurt when they placed it?"
Sombra took in a shaky breath. She tried to ignore the pain as much as possible, but talking made it somewhat harder.
"Immensely. They say you get used to it, but it still hurt, sometimes, when it rains."
Her voice was sad, all of her self-confident gone. Hana had never seen her like this before, and never fathom that it was possible. Sombra without her self-confident was someone else entirely.
After she decided that she had wiped enough blood, Hana took the tweezers in her hand and approached them of one of the entry points. Her hand shook furiously, and she took a few deep breaths to try and calm herself. It was useless. She kept on shaking, her face paling. What if she couldn't do it? What if she hurt Sombra even more when she was trying to heal her?
"You okay back there?"
"I don't think I can do this..."
Sombra let out a deep breath and tried to turn around to look at Hana. She ignored the pain irradiating in her shoulder and her purple gaze found Hana's.
"Alright. Give me the tweezers, then."
"What?"
"Well someone has to do it. So if you can't, fine, I'll do it."
"You are completely crazy. You can't even see what you are doing."
"But you can. I trust you, you'll do fine. At least you'll do better than me."
Sombra offered a small smile to Hana. She couldn't stay in that position much longer and went back to laying very quickly.
"Do as much as you can, okay?"
Hana nodded, her hands still as shaky as before. She wiped the blood which had poured from the wound in the meantime, and without hesitation let the tweezers inside the wound until it hit a metal grain. She carefully took it out, and when she saw how expertly she had managed the first time, she felt a boost of confidence. She could do this just fine, couldn't she?
The little metal grains quickly accumulated at the bottom of the now cold an bloodied water. The bowl, towel, and tweezers were just as red. Hana had stopped counting after ten fragments, and there was probably twenty more left to extract.
"So, how are you feeling so far?"
"Lighter? Like I have tweezers in my shoulder?"
She clenched her teeth under the pain.
"I'm doing fine."
Hana had barely dared to talk until then, afraid that she might mess something up, but now that she had memorized the gesture, she felt confident that she could both talk and extract bullets out of Sombra's shoulder without messing either one.
"So, are you going to tell me why you attacked Reaper, of all people? On your own!"
Sombra hesitated.
"Maybe now is not the right time. Only... thank you for interfering. Without you, I'd be dead by now. So really, thank you."
Hana's cheek turned light pink.
"You really freaked me out with your text, you know!"
Sombra chuckled.
"I'm not sorry. I had to say my goodbyes, you know, in case something went wrong. So that the people who knew I existed wouldn't forget me just yet."
She yelped, only because Hana had pinched her flesh in half-purpose. The other half was out of surprise.
"Do you hear yourself! Suicide missions are not even an option! Never!"
"Says the girl you barged into Reaper and activated her self-destruct sequence."
Hana let go of the tweezers, still firmly planted in Sombra's shoulder, and crossed her arms, covering her suit with more blood. Tears were threatening to spill from her eyes.
"Don't you even dare! Do you think about how sad Alejandra would have been if she had heard you were dead? How I would have felt!"
What Hana had just said sank into her mind only after it spilled from her lips. How would she have felt? Sad, for sure. But why? Because she had lost a friend? It wasn't it, really. They had barely met, barely talked, and yet...
Her thoughts were interrupted by Sombra when the hacker cleared her throat. Hana looked back at the other girl. Oh right, she still had tweezers and half a handful of grains in her shoulder. Hana got back to work in silence, a silence which was only broken by the sound of tweezers hitting the side of the bowl, and metal grains falling through water.
"My mind was made." suddenly declared Sombra. "This... revenge, I've been planning it for such a long time, now was not the time to back down. Even if there was Alejandra..."
Sombra chuckled, her back shaking painfully.
"Or you. As much as I wanted to be done with it, I didn't want you to forget about me just yet. In a way, I feel lucky, you know. I get to spend more time with you."
"Yeah, talk about fun activities!"
Hana extracted another grain and paused. Which holes hadn't she explored yet?
"At least we get to talk face to face... kinda."
"What? A hacker who likes conversations rather than text messages!"
"What can I say, I have the right to be old-fashioned from time to time. Plus, I don't like emojis that much."
"Ah! I knew it! You were just trying to impress me but you are no emoji-pro. You cheater!"
Sombra chuckled, satisfied to have taken the conversation into less dangerous territories, even if it was at her expense.
"Guilty. But you know, emojis are not necessary when you talk face to face with someone."
"Or face to back. Although I have to admit, your back is very interesting."
Hana stopped moving for an instant when she realized what she had just said. Apparently, she couldn't confidently talk and extract bullets. She had to mess one up, and thankfully it wasn't the most painful one.
"Really?"
"Well, for one thing, it's glowing purple. What would happen if I touched one of the connection?"
"You'll probably be electrocuted."
"Oh. I'll stick to your shoulder then."
"Good idea."
