Stronger

Chapter Twelve

Wounds

Hector had never been possessed by a berserk spell before. His memory of what happened was spotty, but he remembered a few things. He remembered blood, water and Florina. Not that his mind allowed him to register her as anything other than a life that had to be ended, but it was her. Now, as he was brought back to conscious action by Lucius' restore staff, what would remain etched on his mind was the sight of her hand, white and bloody, trembling with pain. After she was resuscitated––he could tell she was breathing by the long, hacking coughs she made––he could see her blood everywhere. He could hear her screaming; he had never imagined she could reach such volumes.

Matthew and Wallace came up on either side of Hector and ushered him away.

"Trust me, you don't want to see this," Matthew said. Hector's feet felt like lead, and he couldn't hear much above his own breathing. He saw Ninian in tears, Eliwood's arm around her; Lyn was on Kent's mount, hugging his waist and trying unsuccessfully to hide her crying. Hawkeye rushed past him, carrying Florina's bloody form. It was then he heard the plaintive question.

"Is Lord Hector all right?" she asked. That stabbed him worse than anything. It hurt him even worse than Farina's steel knuckled glove against his cheek as she punched him mere moments afterward.

"How the hell could you let this happen, you bastard!" she shouted. Hector didn't make any move to defend himself. This was what he should expect: an eye for an eye. Her sister was hurt, Farina wanted him to hurt. Another punch was sent his way, and he was expecting more of an onslaught, when Fiora of all people came to his defense.

"Farina stop this foolishness," she snapped.

"This is your fault too! You let him near her after all she's been through! You of all people should have known that he would hurt her!" Farina cried.

"You're the last person to talk of hurting anybody, you've tormented Florina for years!"

"But I've never harmed her! And you'll make concessions for this two bit lord just because you're bedding his vassal—"

"I am doing no such thing! I can't even have a simple relationship with someone without you being so lewd about it! You will leave my personal life out of this!"

"Or what? Your man will come and stop me! I'm going to take charge with Florina. It's obvious that you can't—"

"She's not a child anymore, she can decide who she wants to be around on her own! Besides, she's safer with him than she is with you!"

Hector hadn't expected that and it was obvious neither had Farina.

"How can you say that?" Farina said in a much softer voice than he expected. "You saw what he did to her, how can you say that?"

"Isn't it obvious? When she's with you, I never see her more stressed out and more unsure of herself. When she's with Hector she…" Fiora fell silent. She covered her mouth, regained her composure and continued. "If he had his wits about him, he wouldn't have hurt her in the first place. It took complete mind control for him to even dream of doing Florina harm. He is nothing but patient with her, more patient than you've ever been. She's changing and opening up and I want her to continue to do so."

Fiora turned to him finally and put a shaking hand on his shoulder, "I'm upset right now, I am…but it's not your fault. It's…really not your fault."

Fiora left them wiping her eyes. Farina glared at Hector clenching and unclenching her fists. Finally she shook her head and stormed off. Hector was unsure of what to do exactly, but he wanted to make sure Florina was all right. He hurried to the medical tent and heard Florina's cries from yards away. This happened on a regular basis in the army. Serious injuries were just a part of life. How often had he heard the agonized cries of an ally? This was different. This was Florina and she was only there because of him.

Lyn was crouched by a tree with Kent at her side. She was screaming something he couldn't understand, he wasn't sure now if she was speaking in the Sacean tribal languages or her voice was so lost in sobs he just couldn't make it out. He couldn't just leave Florina like that he had to wait to hear word of her condition. As he reached the medical tent, he found Farina and Fiora there. Before he could go any closer, a firm hand caught his arm.

"Don't go any further," Oswin said. Hector was about to protest, when Florina screamed for Elimine to save her. He flinched at the sound of her voice.

"You're only going to punish yourself, and if you don't I'm sure Farina will," Oswin said. "Let her alone for now."

Hector did not resist and left without a word. He cast a glance over his shoulder before stealing away with uncharacteristic silence to his tent.

Hector heard snippets of what happened to Florina as he got breakfast.

"…broken collar bone…"

"Almost completely severed!"

"Shattered shoulder blade…"

"…blood everywhere! She can hardly stand!"

"Lucky it was her left one…"

"Still, she may never fight again."

He wanted to shut it out. He wanted to take it back, he wanted to make it so he would never have been taken over by that bishop. Nils pushed past him rather harshly and filled up a large bowl of the morning's porridge.

"That's an awful lot of food, Nils," Lowen said.

"Florina and I are sharing this morning. Serra said she might not finish her breakfast, so I should just get a bigger portion," the boy replied. Hector couldn't escape this. Just when he was about to head toward the edge of the camp, Eliwood sat beside him.

"Hey, Hector," he said. Hector grunted in response. The two were silent for a while.

"She'll be fine," Eliwood reassured him.

"I almost cut off her arm, Eliwood. I almost strangled her and then as if I hadn't done enough to cause her pain, she almost bled to death. Tell me how she'll be fine?"

"The key word is 'almost.' She was doing better this morning."

"Eliwood, you'll never understand. You'll never hurt anyone you care about, but I did. I did so much work just to get her to trust me and now she probably won't talk to me again," Hector said. He stormed off to his tent. What ever he had with Florina was gone, and that hurt him more than he could ever admit.

It was an otherwise uneventful day as he waited for night to fall. Aside from hurried whispers and a few reproachful looks, no one really spoke to him. Hector waited until most of the camp was asleep before he went to the infirmary. As he approached this was the first time he understood what Florina felt every day. A dread built up in his chest. He didn't want to see how much he had broken her. He wanted to see her but not like this.

He was about to turn around and walk away, when Serra exited the tent looking very worn. She was surprised to see Hector and her face clearly showed it. She was too tired to mask her feelings with her sense of superiority. Her usual snide remarks didn't seem to come, Serra even looked…sympathetic?

"You did quite a number on her, that's for sure. Her arm could have been completely cut off. Needless to say, you shattered her shoulder blade, her collarbone is crushed and you broke a few ribs, and you might have hurt her worse if she wasn't wearing more armor. You were hairs away from collapsing her lung as well," Serra began. "She's got bruising on her neck, she's lost a lot of blood, and when she's awake she's a little shell shocked, but…I patched her up pretty well."

"Will she ever fight again?" Hector asked.

"Usually I would say no, but I got to her very quickly and I've had enough practice in Saint Elimine's higher healing arts that I can get her back to normal in three weeks or so. With Lord Pent's guidance and input, it's been so much easier."

"Thank you, Serra."

"I'm not doing this for you or to ease your guilt or even because I'm your vassal. Florina is my dear friend, and…I'd like her to live to be the Lady of Ostia," Serra told him. "Well, go in. She's not going to wake up so she can't be afraid of you."

Hector nodded and went in. The tent was only lit by the moonlight that streamed in through the flaps, but he could see Florina clearly. She was sleeping, obviously through some sort of sedative. She looked a wreck. Her skin was pale no doubt from the loss of blood and the dealing with constant pain. Her left arm was in a sling, and her left shoulder was bandaged up. Her eyes were sunken in a little and he could see the dark bruising around her neck.

He always imagined that if such a thing were to happen for her, he probably would have chopped the guy's head off and would be ready to offer it to her on a plate. Would she accept just an apology? What would it take to get that comfort and trust back? He ran his thumb along her jaw line and sighed.

"I'm just happy you're alive. Even if you never speak to me again, I'm glad you're still here," he said.

Hector was never one to brood, but since he met Florina, this was becoming a more frequent occurrence. He was so unsure of what to do when it came to her. Even if Florina would have been awake for longer than ten minutes at a time, she probably didn't want to see him. A week had passed, and Farina was finally starting to at least tolerate his presence, though Florina still hadn't regained much strength. He wanted Florina to trust him so badly and who knews how long it'd be until she even talked to him again. His thoughts were interrupted by Lyn storming into his tent.

"Go see Florina. Today, tonight, I don't care, but go talk to her," she ordered. Hector was about to respond, but she cut him off. "She's finally able to stay awake long enough to really talk to us and all she talks about is you. She wants to see you. She asks about you all the time and we tell her you're okay, but she thinks we're lying. She said if you were all right, you would have come to see her already. You should have seen the scene she caused with Fiora."

Hector was taken aback by that.

"She wants to see me?" he asked.

"Yes, you idiot. I don't see why, but she insists," Lyn said. "And I'm not mad at you for what happened. None of us are, really. I'm more upset because you didn't go to see her."

"Yeah…Thanks. I mean for not being upset," Hector told her. Lyn nodded absently and left the tent.

"You're both hopeless," she said under her breath as she walked away.

It was late and Hector waited near the medical tent until the only other person left inside besides Florina was Serra. They were going to start the healing session, and every minute of it sounded painful. It was a matter of realigning bones and restoring tissue, all of which made Florina cry out in pain. Serra ended the session by wrapping up her wound well and putting her arm back in a sling.

"Try to get some sleep, all right, Florina?" Serra told her friend as she left. Serra wasn't so surprised to see him this time. She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

"Well, it's about time!" Serra said. "You think one visit while she's asleep counts as seeing her? Well, I'll save you the lecture because she's waiting for you. I've wanted to see her smile even a little bit since her injury."

Serra opened the tent flaps and motioned for him to go inside. He entered the medical tent somewhat quietly. He heard Florina's sniffling, and he hated the sound even more so now because he knew that he was the cause of it.

"Florina?" he called, allowing the tent flaps to close behind him. She wiped her eyes, trying to hide the tears, but it was too late.

"L-Lord Hector," she stammered. "I-I'm sorry…I-I didn't think anyone…"

"Florina," he said as he sat on the stool by her cot. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I didn't want to hurt you at all."

"I…I know. You…h-have low resistance to magic…I noticed."

"I never really paid attention much when it came to magic," Hector said. Florina sat up slowly.

"Hey, you! Should you move so much after such injuries!"

"P-please…would you…I need…um…"

"Stay here and rest," he insisted. She reached and grabbed the fabric of his shirt.

"P-please take me to Huey," she said quickly. Was her hand trembling from pain, nervousness or fear? It didn't matter, in any case, the fact was that she reached out for him when she felt uncertain. He carefully took her in his arms.

"I-I didn't…ah…you don't…L-Lord Hector!" she cried. He sighed.

"You wouldn't have made it the whole way to the stable anyway," he told her. "Besides, if it embarrasses you, don't worry, no one can see us. And you're my friend and friends help friends. Right?"

Florina's face, he was sure was dark red, but she nodded. He brought her to Huey's stall, and let her stand so she was leaning against it. Florina smiled and she rubbed the pegasus' nose a little.

"I'm all right Huey," she cooed, forgetting that Hector was with her for a moment. It was beautiful the serenity that crossed her features. If only she could be that way with him, even for an instant…

"I need….I…um…I just want….help," she said.

"What? I'll get it," Hector offered. She shook her head.

"Huey…he doesn't…he won't…let you," Florina tried to explain. She slowly opened the door to the stall and stumbled in. Hector put a hand firmly on her right shoulder. Effortlessly, she plucked two feathers from Huey's wings.

"F-for you…" Florina said, holding them out to him. "Pegasus feathers…are highly magic resistant…."

His eyes widened. After all that, she was still going to help him? She pressed them against his chest.

"F-friends help friends, right?" she said and smiled weakly. Hector mussed her hair a little.

"You're going to be a saint some day, you know that?" he said. Before she could protest, he had her in his arms again, carrying her back. Most girls, when in this situation of being carried by the man of their dreams would probably lean their head against his chest, or wrap an arm around his neck. Florina did neither of these, but her blush was uncontrollable.

He laid her back on her cot and she pulled her blanket over. He took the pegasus feathers from Florina, their fingers brushed against each other. Hector knew that something was in order, a kiss maybe? No, too soon, she'd pass out from sheer embarrassment. He took her right hand in his and gave it a little squeeze.

"Thank you, Florina," he said.

Florina blushed seven shades of pink and mumbled, "You're always welcome, my lord."

He left the tent shortly after, brushing the feathers against his lips thoughtfully. Once inside his own tent, Eliwood still missing, he tied the feathers around a bit of leather string and put it around his neck. So no one would as questions, he stuffed it in his shirt, close to his heart.

Oswin didn't know what was becoming of his lord. Hector was sleeping in and in his state of lethargy, he was slower than usual in getting his armor on. Oswin did note that before putting on his breastplate, Hector pulled out some feathers on a string from his shirt, smile and placed them back. Oswin could guess where they came from, judging from their color. He shook his head but placed his hand reassuringly where his own set of feathers hung beneath his armor.

I had planned to hold on this a little longer, but it was too mean to keep this. Hopefully, you enjoyed this chapter. :)