Chapter Twenty-Six
With a jerk, her eyes opened.
"Nightmare," he whispered. "Just a nightmare. You're awake now."
She was panting with fright, her eyes quickly going through the small, darkened room.
"W-What?" she asked confusedly.
"Slow, deep breaths," he said.
She nodded and sat on the bed nervously. After a glance at the watch, she saw it was a quarter to four in the night.
"Have some water," he said, giving her his canteen.
"No," she said hastily.
He raised his eyebrows at her quick response. Alice refused water, because she refused to pee.
"I know you helped me. I know you did things that made you uncomfortable."
She quickly brought her eyes down.
"But America, don't be embarrassed. You were only doing your job as a nurse. It's okay."
He handed her the bottle and insisted she took it to drink. She didn't realize her thirst, until the water went through her throat. Then she nearly inhaled all the water until the last drop.
"You can sleep as much as you want," he said. "We don't have to leave at six."
"What changed?"
"You deserve rest after throwing away your needs for a full day to save my life."
"Oh. Well, I'm a bit rested now. Besides...I'm sick of the nightmares."
He nodded carefully.
"Hungry?"
She smelled something amazing, but imagined it was just a hallucination. She didn't know what he'd killed in the woods or how he'd cooked it, but she wanted to have it.
She was nodding very hard.
"Let me get it for you."
Alice was famished and impatient, but when he returned, it'd been worth the wait.
"It's probably dry now, but still warm."0
In his hand was a bone with meat on it. Alice did not even care what animal it was, but she guessed it was a bird. Or a pig. Maybe a cow. She couldn't see clear because of hunger and the smell of that food.
She got up on her knees and took it from his hands in both hers and took a large bite. Her front teeth grazed the bone. It wasn't dry, it was delicious.
"Thanks," she muttered, sitting back again.
He hummed softly.
When she finished, she realized he was staring at her. He was staring quite openly.
"What?" she asked in a small voice.
"You saved my life."
She nodded, looking down at her lap. Yes, she saved his life.
"You didn't have to."
He leaned down to sit on the bed, staring at her like one would when not wanting to lose focus.
"So did you," she whispered. "You avoid the Nazi. You've killed my friends, but you've killed more Nazi than good people, as far as I know. I believe it was an honest mistake. We saw Nazi, so naturally, we shot. You and Aro defended yourself, because we shot. You work undercover, I'm certain. It must be a special mission to uncover some secret of the enemy, and I think you have immunity to protect you against murder of your own kind, but-"
She looked away, feeling strange. He'd kept her alive, while he could've easily chosen not to. He could kill her if he wanted to. But he hadn't.
"I can't figure out why you'd help me. I must be more of a load than help to you. So that's why I needed to save you. Because for a strange reason, you've saved me as well."
He shook his head.
"No? No to you're not undercover? No to you're not avoiding the Nazi? No to what?"
"W-When Aro was killed," he mumbled, his voice trembling, a sound Alice had not heard yet, "my odds of survival shrunk. Also, I was in pain from where you're lover shot me."
"Jacob shot you?" she muttered with wide eyes.
"Yes. Aro shot Jacob, but hit him in the abdomen, not fatal. Seth shot Aro dead. I shot Seth and Leah in the head. You ran. I ran after you to kill you. I wanted to look you in the eye before I did that."
Alice gasped audibly at the harsh statement. He actually had been planning to kill her. Alice wondered if that still was his plan, because he made no signs of wanting to kill her.
She could not avoid her lips from trembling now she knew so precisely whom shot whom.
"Lucky for you, you were a nurse and that's what I needed. I thought that I could might as well use your expertise before I killed you."
Alice flinched. He spoke very easily about murder. More importantly, he spoke easily about killing Alice.
"B-But you didn't kill me," she said, reminding him of a pointless fact.
His lips twitched.
"Am I a dead girl walking? Was my time up when we met?"
"You talked," he said instead. "You showed me your strange way of dealing with your suffering. I tried to shoot you, you must remember."
"What stopped you then?" she whispered.
He shook his head.
"You won't tell me?"
"I can't."
"Will you tell me after the war?"
He looked at her in amusement, then asked, "Do you believe we'll see the end of it?"
"I must. Why else would I be an American Army Nurse? Why else would you be...whomever you are?"
Perhaps she spoke too optimistically, too hopefully, but she needed to remain those things in order to not fall prey to the depression of the war.
"Come ask me after the war," he said a chuckle.
"I will," she said with a firm nod.
They were both aware that that day might never come, but they chose to believe that their small deal was possible.
"So does this mean you're not planning to kill me anymore?" she asked uncertainly.
"Alice, you have shit in your hair," he said, looking at it.
"Oh," she said, running her fingers through her now greasy hair and to her shock, she felt dirty hard bits from probably the Nazi whom Jasper had shot yesterday.
She felt the blood drain from her face, because maybe she'd been foolishly misled. How could she know what his plans truly were? He really seemed like the good guy and the shooting between her team and his team was, how cruel this may sound, an honest combat. It was a war.
"Go take a shower. Everything's set."
She looked in horror, but he watched her pointedly.
"Trust me, okay? Go."
Alice was yearning for a shower, but not one where the dead was watching her.
"Your friend never came," she said instead.
She wondered if he was dead.
"No, he didn't."
She got up reluctantly and dropped the bone in a trash bin where Jasper had thrown all her used and dirty medical supplies.