Nova was released early from Hospital, she had yet to undergo her planned psychiatric assessment but more important things were planned. Not to mention the things on her mind were still very apparent, and she was adamant that there wasn't anything they could have offered her to consolidate on her mental state of mind. She was a mental trainwreck, and your subconsciousness wasn't adding any relief, in fact that's the primary reason why she's insecure at the moment.
Nevertheless, more important matters were at hand and for at least one night the both of you needed to at the very least pretend that everything was okay. It was Nova's inauguration ball as the dean of Psionics at the academy whereby she would officially be sworn in as the departmental head of Psionics. Nova checked out of the hospital with the cast removed early at her request but the pain still lingered so she didn't do much strenuous activity with her right arm, opting to keep it at her side most of the time.
As the lot of you exited the hospital to the awaiting arranged transports, you held Nova's arm in tow to which Nova was still reluctant to agree to. Truth was she could tell that your subconscious state of mind had not yet fully forgiven her, which is to say that your mind still acted on its own when she got close. Emotionally and logically you had very much forgiven her, but it was clear that through your shaking and rather unexplained nervousness when she got close that things weren't quite the way they were prior to the incident.
It annoyed you greatly as it also made Nova feel very vulnerable as she couldn't come close in without triggering some sort of response from you. It was as if your body had automatically assumed the flight option on its own whenever she approached, kind of like how you felt about her when you both first met many years ago at the bar. It angered you as these feelings were keeping both you and her from making a full recovery, which made you consider the option of going to the psychiatric assessment yourself, to have yourself checked out and find ways to overcome it, but you also had your hands tied as you also had to be there at the inauguration ceremony. Well, you didn't have to be there but you strongly felt that you should be there during Nova's ceremony.
Delta tried to keep things in good spirit though, which was nice of her. Trying to distract the two of you to how spectacular tonight was going to be; after all your premises was hosting the function in its upper levels which the staff had been preparing for during the last few weeks. A selection of various banquets exotic in nature as per usual which the staff were always keen on doing with all the best the system had to offer in terms of decorations and floral arrangements. Even after all the hard work Delta had tried to make light of the situation, Nova could only hardly make out a forced grin. If Nova wasn't looking forward to this function a month ago, she definitely wasn't looking forward to it today.
As the evening drew near, and you were in your separate rooms Nova sat alone in the bedroom without the lights turned on as the evening was coming in. She sat at the base of the bed, staring blankly at the door which was clearly newly installed while she was in the hospital. "Nova, can I come in?" Shae politely knocked even though both she and Nova knew she was there. In truth Nova hadn't spoken very much at all since leaving the incident, nor did she make many efforts to talk about it either. Shae let herself in, but slowly opened the door to see a droopy eyed Nova staring blankly back at her. She was hunched forward still in Shae's parka which was given to her earlier in the week. "So you're still wearing my parka huh?" Shae asked trying to open conversation but Nova remained utterly disinterested and somewhat melancholic. "So you're not in a talking mood still I take it then" Shae began conversing with herself at this point as clearly it was a one sided conversation she was having. "Y'know you should really be getting dressed for your inauguration" she said as she sat down next to Nova on the bed.
Shae placed her hand on Nova's shoulder but she was still not giving any signs back that she was even half interested in what Shae had to say. She noted that Nova hadn't placed her arm through the sleeve while her left arm was still in the same way she had put it on for her earlier in the week. "Should I call Will up?" which finally evoked a response, albeit very short lived as it was a simple and clear cut "No" in a very monotone voice. Shae was alarmed as teeping into her mind revealed that almost no thought went into that, as if it was muscle reflex which made that response. Nova wasn't there, it was simply an outline of who she was at the moment, as if her body was on auto-pilot and she just wasn't home.
Shae began to think of what to say at this point to try to lift Nova's spirits, the usual suspects crossed her mind and words of solidarity and consolation didn't quite feel right, nor applicable to the situation she was going through. Shae wrapped her arms around Nova's shoulders, being careful not to cut too close to her arm "Nova, if it means anything I think Will would really like it if you could just try to enjoy yourself tonight". A sense of emotion passed through Nova's headspace, after a brief period of silence Nova sighed "You're right, I guess I should, shouldn't I?" Shae lifted her arms and smiled showing a sense of support even though Nova visually remained emotionless. Shae decided that it was best she leave her alone to sort herself out rather than pressing the matter on her, "I'll come back later to check up on you" she said with a smile before quietly exiting the room and shutting the door silently behind her.
To Shae's surprise you were waiting outside, almost waiting for her. "How is she?" you asked but Shae looked back at you with a stern expression "She's seen better days" you could tell that she was very concerned about Nova's mental state and so were you but you knew that it wasn't quite the time and place for you to waltz on in there since her issue seemed to primarily be with you. With that in mind Shae slowly paced down the hall to her own room where she had to begin preparations for her own look for tonight's occasion leaving you stuck in the hallway. Just before she went into her room, Shae bluntly said "I still think you should go in there, at the very least" which seemed to form a large pit in your stomach thinking about it.
You sat outside the room for a little while longer, thinking to yourself as to what the best course of action should be when suddenly the lights turned on inside the room. At first you thought that maybe it was a sign she was ready for you, but at the same time you figured as the evening was coming closer the only logical thing to do was to turn on the lights or if the lights themselves were left in the automated feature which neither of you really used but could never the less be an option at this point. You were making excuses yourself at this point, reasons as to why you shouldn't open that door and face her, risking making things worse.
To your surprise Nova had begun opening the door, the metal door handle began to creak and twist open. "Nova?" you asked as your attention quickly diverted to the door, but she herself had not gone and physically opened the door, making it apparent that she had teeked it open. Nova was leaning back against the same wall but inside the room in the only real dress that she owned, but even then you had rarely ever seen her wear it these past few years. She began to snivel which forced you up into an upright position and swung your head into the room. She had begun to tear up and weep, now it was your turn to push through the fire and flames, suppressing your subconscious mind into rushing towards her and holding her.
You held her tightly in your arms as she bawled and cried rather loudly. "It's okay Nova, let it out" she began to squeeze you rather tightly considering she had limited mobility in one arm. She wrapped her head against your neck, pressing softly down onto the back of your neck with her chin as she began to calm down. You lifted her up and placed her down onto the bed in an upright position and began to dry up her tears with your sleeve. You patted gently against her cheeks trying to avoid removing some of the make-up she had applied. Shae and Delta were standing by at the door when you entered the room. Shae had just finished her formal look while Delta had already had hers ready for the better part of the last few hours and was helping out upstairs. Nova formed what appeared to be a smile across her face as she tried to force her arms wide open for a family hug.
Nova opted for a very much more simplified and simplistic look compared to the rather extravagant route that the girls had taken. If she had her way she definitely would have just opted into attending in her ghost suit but the girls egged her onto wearing something a little bit more fancy and elegant for the occasion. She donned a simple creaseless black dress that went all the way down her ankles but revealed a portion of her outer leg. She also didn't quite do anything too fancy in the ways of make-up either, opting into wearing what she would normally wear if she needed to be out of the building on that day. What intrigued you the most was that she had opted into letting her hair down, unusual as she almost always had her hair tied up.
As the elevator reached the top floors and opened revealing the large and open area that was the upper function hall, the lights and sound overwhelmed the four of you. Photographers and various media were covering the function and as such a flurry of lights seemed to explode at your face which made you flinch at first but you were reminded by Delta to try to look happy and joyful as you paced slowly towards the centre podium area in the middle of the room. There were various people scattered throughout the hall, seated and standing they all seemed to be enjoying themselves, trying their best to ignore the fact that it was anything but for Nova.
Recent events which had plagued the family had made headlines even though it was under wraps and kept private for the most part. Concerns were had amongst the staff and event goers that the event may be cancelled altogether but Nova's fast recovery had silenced all the rumours that had come up. The local media were intent on uncovering any signs that Nova had not yet fully recovered and were sure to capture every moment of the evening, much to Nova's dismay as she had hoped that they wouldn't even be there, much less focusing on her every move she made. It seemed that even when she was smiling, they seemed to be trying to draw conclusions as to what was actually happening behind the scenes, the trigger fingers on the various cameras around the room seemed to go wild the moment she did anything at all.
You held her hand as the two of you slowly paced towards the centre of the room, constantly trying to remember to smile as you walked up the central isle of the room that was carpeted out with a very dark coloured print, a very deep and earthy chocolate colour which seemed to make Nova's dress and ankle boots stand out even further. Nova wasn't use to this amount of attention drawn towards her to say the least, even as a child she had not received this much attention even during her own fifteenth birthday which was a giant ball held by her father in her name. You noted the heel length of her boots were rather high considering her dislike for heeled footwear, she really was trying tonight to give the impression that she had made a full recovery when mentally, you knew that not only she had a very long ways to go but so did you in order to being back on track.
As the evening drew to an end with Nova reading out the final parts of her speech your attention was drawn to her mouth and general posture. It was a relatively long speech, but not overly lengthy to cause any issues. Your eyes fixated upon her mouth, to an extent where you couldn't concentrate on anything but her mouth and what she was saying and how she said it. A heightened state of awareness had overcome you, you became hypersensitive to Nova. Delta was closest to you, she was sat right next to you when she felt that something was grabbing your attention. "Daddy are you okay?" she whispered into your ear, but you weren't there, Delta reached to grasp your hands trying to snap you out of the state of trance you were in but it was apparent that it was having no effect on you.
Delta's attention slowly drew to where Nova was standing, nothing was out of the usual but now Nova had noticed that something was amiss with you, it caught the corner of her eye but she continued on with the rest of her speech. Delta turned around and teeped at Shae to come on over as clearly something was wrong with you, by now Nova knew whatever it was, it was serious enough to need Shae to come on over. Shae hurried on over, making her way slowly through the crowd as her heels clomped on the ground rather loudly as she made her way over, becoming quieter as she stepped onto the chocolate coloured carpet towards the central podium area where the family had been seated for the better part of the evening.
Your body was locked up, you felt that you could move your hands but your mind decided that something was more important, and that something was Nova. Your mind was locked in a state of trance trying to decipher what it was trying to tell itself, it annoyed you because you knew the answer somewhere deep down inside you but it was as if communications were severed somewhere in your head, preventing you from being able to tell yourself what you already knew. Nova's attention was drawn towards you inexplicably as she stood at the base of the podium when she noticed slurring with her speech.
The moment the slurs came about you snapped out your state of trance but it was apparent that the issue with Nova had suddenly became the priority. Shae and Delta was sat down by your side and were confused just as you were as to what had just happened, but similar to the time when you had sensed that Shae had meningitis, your mind was telling you something was amiss with Nova's current condition. A grave expression crossed your face as Nova forced out the last few lines of her acceptance speech. You could see her legs begin to twitch as if they were about to give way, but your attention diverted back up to her face.
It was only now that your attention drew towards her unusually moist brow, indicative of excessive sweating which you had passed off as perhaps feeling anxious and nervous during her speech. It was too late now though, and the latter stages of her symptoms became more apparent as she was now beginning to lose consciousness. You rapidly got out of your seat and sprinted towards her as she was on her way down, you were fairly close to her so you had managed to catch her right before most of her body was going to slam into the ground.
The crowd erupted into hysteria as the residential staff began to usher people up and out of their seats and back away from the two of you standing at the podium. The media were up and out of their seats, letting out a flurry of camera shots at your expense. Delta screamed and let out a pyro assault against the cameras, she did not want the family to be seen this way and was adamant to not have Nova or any of you be depicted in a negative light, even though she could tell that was their very attention right from the start of the evening. Shae grabbed Nova's legs as you caressed your arms gently around her shoulders and placed her head into your elbow. Shae had opted into a much more physical approach to get through the thick crowd of media towards the stretcher which was being moved into the hall from the elevator.
Nova needed you in her life, it was an emotionally symbiotic relationship whereby you needed her just as much as she needed you. You kept her mind off of the things of the past for her, she was moving forward and looking forward to her future with you as a means to escape the memories which she had purposely laid dormant at the back of her mind which reminded her of her past, before meeting you. The last week and a bit without you had lead her into a mentally traumatized state as not only was she separated from you, but she felt as if it was solely her fault that things were the way they are. Even though in reality you were always a few feet away, she could tell that emotionally the two of you were miles apart from one another.
This depression and anxiety she had meant that she refused most interactions with others, opting once again to fight this silent war with herself and not involving other people in it. This lead to starving herself, only eating bare minimal amounts of food even though copious amounts of it was provided by hospital staff post retrieval from her cell and isolation unit. She had starved herself of necessary nutrients, the bare minimum in order to keep her body functioning; only eating scarce amounts when she was on the verge of starvation which occurred rather frequently. You knew this wasn't healthy but it was the option and path she had taken, and there wasn't much more any one of you, the girls included could do as she had teeped herself locked in her room in absolute silence, no howling or crying.
Despite having eaten things tonight however, the effects of starving herself were only now apparent and becoming a larger issue. A lack of nutrients over the last week and the over exertion on her part tonight led to her sudden loss of consciousness. This was particularly evident now as she lay in her bed, her cheekbones were more apparent and slightly more visible. The outlines of her ribs were also visible in her chest as she took shallow breaths with her ventilator mask strapped loosely to her face. An IV was dripping vital fluids and much needed nutrients directly into her blood stream, which had to be replaced every few hours.
You sent both of the girls off to their rooms for the night, even though Delta really wanted to stay by Nova's side but she had school in the morning and couldn't afford to be missing out on much sleep. Initially you sat in a small chair by the bed but as the night went on it was becoming apparent that she wouldn't be waking up any time soon. You went to the bathroom and got dressed and prepared for what would be a short sleep until dawn now. You had only now just realized that the smell of blood was still present in the room as you moved into the bathroom. Nova was slowly regaining consciousness just as you turned the shower water on.
A dull light was emitted from the bathroom, it was shining through a gap created as you had hurriedly closed the door behind you, not worrying too much about privacy as you hadn't anticipated that Nova would be waking up anytime soon. "Will?" she moaned out as she tried to force herself out of the bed, taking off her oxygen mask and carrying her IV pole with her as she staggered towards the bathroom. The dull light became brighter as she slowly paced towards it, dazed and confused she reached out her arm at the door with just enough force to push the door back. Nova took further steps into the room as she made her way closer to the shower, it was apparent by now that she was at home and you were in the shower. A grin formed across her face as she knew you were completely unaware she was there, she was going to teach you a lesson you weren't going to forget anytime soon.
Nova pushed her face against the fogged up glass, trying to get a reaction from you, and boy did she get one. As you were reaching out for a bar of soap, something caught the corner of your eye through the relatively dense mist of steam. It was the ghostly white silhouette of a woman, you couldn't quite make it out as the mist had formed on both the inside and out. It was a tall one, so that immediately ruled out Delta but during the process of elimination Nova planted her face cheek first into the glass, with her eye seemingly peering into the shower. You freaked the flick out as Nova was literally the last person you had expected to be there let alone pull a prank on you like this. You fell over and lost your footing on the slippery wet floor and landed onto the ground rather heavily.
Nova's distinct laugh echoed in the room as she opened the shower door and offered a hand to get you up, but you declined not wanting to pull the both of you in. "Nova what are you out of bed?" her attention drew to the toilet, you knew she was making an excuse as she wasn't a particularly good liar especially on the spot. "You're back" you said with a fairly noticeable grin across your face as you wrapped your still soaking wet arms across her back which made a mess of her night gown. Of course you were referring to her emotional state returning. She hurriedly pulled out her IV drip from her arm and began to take off her gown and underwear before getting into the shower with you.
Nova placed her hand firmly against your stomach and slowly patted while moving down to see if you had any adverse reactions. A broad grin formed across her face when she didn't feel any jitters or nervousness before she squealed rather loudly and embraced her arms around your neck. "It's been a while hasn't it" you said with a grin, she nodded eagerly as she proceeded to place her neck against the back of yours before whispering "I missed you" and dug her nose up against your neck affectionately. Nova managed to tucker herself out in the shower, miraculously managing to completely fall asleep in your arms in the shower which you didn't even think was possible with running water over you. You carried her out gently and pat her dry from top to bottom being sure to try to not wake her. As now both of her nightgowns were in one way or another out of commission you got one of your tank tops and put it on her. At first she looked rather awkward and it seemed a little too large for her but for all intents and purposes it was enough. It was still cold out though, so you decided to take the extra precaution and put Shae's parka on her, which you had great difficulty in doing as she wasn't being cooperative with her arms.
As a rather sheepish Shae woke up and stumbled down the hallway to the main bathroom at the end of the hall, she noted that you weren't sitting outside of your bedroom. She tilted her head with a sense of confusion as she had expected you to be in that position as you had been these last few days while Nova locked herself away from you. It was still relatively dark out but the girls were well adapted into seeing at low light conditions through their intensive training, as such lights were relatively rarely used in most situations. Shae teeped into the room and noted that both you and Nova were in it, but didn't detect any thoughts being passed to and from each other or receiving for that matter, either you were both asleep or things were dire in there. Judging from past experiences, Shae decided to go with the cautious approach anyway "Nothing ventured, nothing gained" another motto which she taught her students.
Shae gently caressed the handle of the door and gently pushed at it, just enough to ascertain a clear view of what exactly was inside and the situation. Her nose was bombarded with a powerful and relatively fresh scent that she hadn't smelt in a while, the air was also a lot more humid and warm inside the room than it was out in the corridor. It didn't take her very long to add one and one together and get two as the result, she smiled before quickly closing the door behind her and proceeded down the hall. She was sure to complain to the staff about how cold it was as was chilling her down to the bone in her simple dark toned long sleeve shirt which she would always normally wear underneath her parka, but noted that Nova was still wearing it and she didn't quite have the guts to take it back from her nor take Nova's one from her closet even though they were virtually identical.
The two of you didn't get out of bed until much later in the afternoon, Delta had gone off earlier in the morning to school whereas Shae tended to things at the academy. She was very thankful of both Shae and Delta for their roles in trying to bring her back on her feet, and now that she was feeling much better than before she was sure to thank them tonight at dinner when the family was home. Shae had asked her a very important question during the week, she didn't reply at the time but it was apparent now that she was better that the issue should be pressed with a little more effort. It related to you, and more specifically when and if Nova intended for you to sign up for the Ghost Academy. Nova was sure to not sound forceful, she didn't want to make you think that she was forcing you into the academy but she wanted to press the point to you in such a way which would make it appealing and enticing, even though in reality it was anything but as the pressure would be piled on top of you.
Nova sat across from you at the small table in your room, it was a rather quaint table, nothing too fancy about it and was primarily made of furbished wood, almost giving it a rustic appearance which was in stark contrast to almost all the other furniture present in the entire building, apart from the large and exotic mahogany table in the function area upstairs. The matching seats were awkward on carpet as they would sometimes sink in slightly into the floor, giving a weird impression of padded cushions were placed below the chair as if to respond to added weight making it slightly unsettling. The two of you had selected from the relatively large array of sandwiches and breads available that the staff had prepared, once again much more than either of you or the whole family could down in one sitting, much to your dismay but the staff had assured you that the leftovers were given out to the less fortunate. It had never occurred to you that there weren't any homeless or less fortunate people currently on Korhal.
Nova wasn't very good at lying, she was always to the point and you could sometimes tell if she was holding something from you. As of recent events transpiring you wanted complete transparency between the two of you, you reached out for her hand and placed it gently against your belly, kind of as a sign of trust, that you trusted her completely. She grinned, "That's not what's on my mind at the moment Will, but thanks" you turned your head in slight confusion, unsure if that was genuine or not so you pressed "So what is it then Nova?" you didn't want to teep into her thoughts and feelings as generally it was considered on a need to know basis as a family rule to teep into the mind of a family member, unless of course they openly invited you to.
A more concerned look fell across Nova's face from a more joyous and cheerful one moments earlier. "Shae- I want, we want you to well, ponder the idea of going through the Ghost academy Will" you could tell she was placing a great degree of care with how she worded that sentence. Nova reached her hands out and clasped yours, reaching around the plates while focusing elsewhere in the room, she didn't want to seem as if she was pressing the matter too deeply by locking a gaze onto you. She was expecting a "Maybe" or "I'll think about it" type of a response, definitely not a flat out affirmative response once the shock of what she said had settled in, but your response was surprising to her. "Of course I would Nova!" you said with exclaim, so much so that she asked "What? Really, just like that?" as if she didn't believe you. Her attention drew from the corner of the room rapidly back onto you to a more surprized look. Nova let out a fairly loud squeal of excitement as she wrapped her arms around you over the table.
In reality however, this could potentially stir up a whole slew of controversy as your position would have to be worked for, and your performance would have to be severely scrutinized as not only were your family members marking you, but there would have to be evidence to suggest that no foul play occurred during examinations. Furthermore there also had to be further restrictions on the potential for you to be receiving training outside of normal hours and sessions. It would come with enough issues and risks to outweigh the benefits, but Nova was committed to this and was hoping you would too. This was the happiest you've seen her be in quite a while, she didn't often cry tears of joy if at all for that matter, the last time she did was when you proposed to her a while back which reminded you that you never did quite set a wedding date but it was implied that it would have to be postponed until well, further notice as scheduling never quite synched well with things happening. You could tell that Nova was pretty content with just being engaged though, going the extra step seemed a little excessive for her, it wasn't that she didn't want to be married, it was more of a hassle and an out-of-the-way type of thing.
Notes: Think I intended this chapter to finish more of as a connecting chapter, I spent a few days on this story and in particular towards the end as I just couldn't find a way to end it properly without making a time lapse in towards the end of a chapter which doesn't sit right with me at all. So in the next chapter expect to see it pick off relatively closely to where this one left off at, I'm not too particularly happy now with the idea of making the protagonist a ghost, I might end up making it unfold inside a time lapse so I don't bore you with intricacies of how you would go through it, maybe focus more on the end of the program rather than it's lifespan.
I do intend to keep the theme that Nova is or will be going through PTSD, that she isn't magically cured even though it appears that way in this chapter. It's also here where I'll be explaining some of my back thoughts on how and why things happened the way they happened, as explaining it explicitly didn't quite make sense for me during the story, not to mention it'd ruin it for the people who want depth and grasp concepts through what is shown instead of having things thrown at them.
First thing I'll address is why the protagonist locked up or my explanation anyway as to why it happened when he stared at Nova at the podium towards the start of the chapter. We noted previously that the protagonist seemed to have the innate ability to sense something medically wrong with individuals, seemingly in close proximity as noted with Shae's Meningitis. However, that was when you were awoken did you actually sense the issue, not in his sleep. So, this would be the outcome if he was awake while the sensation was brought on. Furthermore why he was dazed etc, I was trying to give the impression that he was determining the issue or medical diagnosis as to what was happening to Nova, but his brain was so locked into it that it tunnel visioned into seeing and realizing what the presented issue was and finding a solution.
Apart from that the reviews in relation to the dislike of having the protagonist be the reader have been noted, and I do intend to have a solution to this, but it does require me to effectively end the story to an extent as we've kind of delved far enough into it that we can't really work around it (I'd find it weird if I completely now just swapped to third person) but I will for the best part try to make the rest of the story have little less to do with the main protagonist (except when I want to add depth and perspective to a particular scene) and try to have a more top down perspective on the family. Uncertain if this will be passed across into my other story as of yet (That one will be hard to have a top down perspective on so probably not is my current stance on that).
Finally, as always if you have a positive or negative feedback please drop a line by either a review or a PM here.
