Chapter 37
When Hermann wakes up from the first peaceful sleep he's had in possibly years, there's a moment of dissonant disorientation as he opens his eyes and sees Newton sleeping peacefully across from him, his arm draped over Hermann's torso. After a moment's consideration though, his first thought is: who's yelling at the door?
Somebody is yelling right outside their room in the medical bay. A man raising his voice and several other voices underneath. Hermann glances over at the door but the vague shapes moving in the small glass window tell him almost nothing.
He looks back in time to see Newton wake up. One moment, he is asleep and the next he is wide eyed, tense and awake. So he hears the shouting too.
Their eyes meet as the shouting clarifies into audible words.
"No I demand to speak to them this instant!"
"They've just been through hell, they should rest."
"You're trying to tell me we have to end this line of study and now you want to deny me access to the subject."
"His name is Dr. Geiszler, Admiral Patel"
Slowly Hermann sits up and sets his feet off the side of the bed.
Now it might look like he is just sitting with Newton. A glance back at the other man shows he is sitting up now looking terrified. But he nods when Hermann catches his eye.
The door slams open and an older man in a suit strides into the room followed by Lightcap, and Hansen. He can see the labtech Dr. Siddiq hangs in the doorway.
The man stands straight and barges up them with a glare. Even his glare is loud.
"You were tasked with finding information that could help us in the case of another breach. Did you find anything?" The question would be a decent one if it weren't for the tone it was asked in. Hermann frowns at the man who seems to take up very little space in the room, he is barely taller thanNewton. Hermann looks down at him and his receding hairline.
Hercules stands by the door looking at them almost apologetically.
After a moment Hermann quickly realizes Admiral Patel's glare is not focused on him so much as it is on Newton. A glance back at Newton shows him looking pale and subdued.
"I-I-I found n-noth-" his words come out slowly and are cut off when the admiral whirls away to face Lightcap,
"Is he brain damaged?"
Everyone falls utterly silent. All eyes are on them and Hermann realizes with a pang that Newton would not want his new form of speech discovered so publicly.
Newton goes red with shame.
After a moment Caitlin speaks softly through gritted teeth.
"The damage is minor-"
"So he could go in again?" The admiral demands and the room goes dead, as if all the air has left the room. Newton clutches at his sheets with pale hands. Caitlin is staring at the small man with a blank expression that somehow radiates fury.
"Let me go get his paperwork."
She goes to a cabinet against the wall and pulls out a folder. Without a word she shoves it into Admiral Patel's hands. They watch quietly as he opens the file.
Hermann sits and watches, he is steeped in tension. After a moment he thinks of the man behind him and reaches back to grab one of Newton's shaking hands. Their matching tremors are almost a comfort. Unlike Caitlin, he makes no attempt to hide the hostlity in his gaze when he glares at the admiral.
The man is currently flicking through the pages of his file barely reading them. Across the room Caitlin meet's Hermann eyes and nods fractionally. He doesn't quite know what to make of that when he can hear Newton's panicked breathing just behind him.
The admiral pauses on a page, his expression shifting to something other than predator.
He flicks to another page and another with growing consternation.
"These aren't signed," he states and Caitlin looks at him with that blank expression, her eyes going wide,
"Oh, what isn't?"
"Release forms, consent forms, none of it."
"Oh my, that must be very bad," she says, as though the thought just occurred to her. In the doorway Dr. Siddiq begins to grin.
The admiral pales and stares at Caitlin.
She stares back with a blank smile.
Hermann tightens his grip on Newton's hand before adding,
"Well without official consent one could argue about the legality or possibly even the ethics of this avenue of research. One might even go so far as to question the PPDC's methods in court." His tone is delicately neutral, but his posture and gaze are like iron.
From the doorway Dr. Siddiq adds,
"Without consent they could win that appeal...I would hate to be the one involved in this study."
The man goes still paler until finally he whirls on Caitlin.
"Oh my, that seems not at all good," she says shaking her head with big, innocent eyes. The admiral goes red as he shouts,
"You planned this. You and this one," he points to Newton, "You planned for this. Well we are trying to save mankind here-"
"Mankind d-d-doesn't need sa-saving." The words are slow and stuttered but the room goes silent.
"The k-k-kaiju a-and their pre-precursors...they a-are dying out. Th-th-the whole sp-species i-i-is dy-dying out. With any l-l-luck, th-they will be g-g-gone b-before they c-can ever at-attack u-u-us again."
The admiral glares at Newton with narrowed eyes.
"This isn't over" he says as a final promise and all eyes glare at him
From the doorway Dr. Siddiq says,
"I think it is, if this gets legal I'm sure there are a million human rights violations you violated while you were at it."
He glares at her before storming out of the room. Herc nods at them before following the admiral out.
All of them look at each other for a moment.
"I d-do not e-envy th-that g-g-guy right now," Newt stutters with a crooked smile. The words startle a laugh from Hermann that finally breaks the tension in the room. He takes a moment to glance over at and Dr. Siddiq.
"Thank you," he tells them as sincerely as he is able. They share smiles before Hermann turns back to Newt. He opens his mouth to speak when the door bursts open a second time.
It's Mako standing in the doorway looking like a tired storm. Her mouth is a thin quivering line and her hands are fisted at her sides.
The pair turn to stare at her as Raleigh edges into the room behind her. He glances back and forth between her and them seeming like he wants to say something but is at a loss for what to say.
The moment of calm before,
"What the hell were you thinking? You had some of us really worried, what is wrong with you?" Mako demands her voice rising in a contained combustion.
Newton is staring at her in obvious surprise. Hermann sighs, this is his fault.
"Perhaps I should have called..." he begins
"Perhaps you should have called," she repeats, her voice controlled.
Dr. Lightcap and Dr. Siddiq are in the doorway looking surprised and possibly ready to intervene. He glances at them and then at Newton.
"I think Ms. Mori and I need a moment," he says. He stands, grabbing his IV stand and cane. He briefly grasps Newton's hand before turning away from him.
It is awkward to walk with the cane and the IV stand clutched in shaking hands. Never is he more grateful that he managed to convince Dr. Lightcap last night to give him back his trousers. The hospital gown hangs over him as he slowly makes his way out into the hall. The doctors make themselves scarce in a hurry.
As soon as the door swings shut it's just them.
Mako's already lost some of her fire as she stands there in front of him, arms folded, shoulders hunched. He wonders if he looks as tired as he feels.
When she speaks, it's almost a whisper,
"I didn't want to say goodbye to another friend."
He stands there momentarily silenced by her.
"I'm sorry Mako. There was...there wasn't time." he says not knowing what else to say.
"What happened?" she asked softly.
He sighs and glances around, another door sits ajar to an empty examination room. He looks at her and nods at the room. She nods and Hermann makes a beeline for the nearest chair. She sits in the one beside it and turns to face him.
"Newton was coerced into drifting with a kaiju...I believe the idea was suggested that...if he didn't do it than I would be forced somehow..."
He paused to glance at her, her mouth was tight.
"I didn't know that's why he had been acting so strange. I followed him and found him in the middle of a drift...he was seizing and he wouldn't have made it if I hadn't-" he cut himself off and the only sound in the room was their breathing.
"I saw how you...I saw how you were with him just now...what happened in there?" she asked. He looked at her with a heated blush and a rueful grin.
"What happened with you and Mr. Beckett, you seem more comfortable now"
It was her turn to blush a little.
"You first," she said
An hour or so later they walked back in to find Raleigh sitting next to Newton's bed.
"Got any threes?" he asked
"No, g-g-go fish, how can you be th-this bad at go f-fish?"
"How can this be the only card game you know?"
"I t-told you I liked W-war but y-y-you said it was boring!" Newton exclaimed throwing his unsteady hands in the air.
"That's because it is boring," Raleigh insisted evenly without a trace of irony.
They both looked up expectantly as Mako and Hermann stepped into the room. A moment of quiet before Hermann gave the smallest of shrugs and Mako, a tiny smile.
"Oh g-good! I-I-I figured when we h-hadn't heard you for a-ages y-you were either t-t-talking or dead!" Newton exclaimed and Raleigh lightly shoved him before turning to Mako.
"So everything's ok?" he asked her with all the earnest sincerity he had. She looked at all three of them and her smile grew.
"I think it is for right now, yes."
Raleigh grinned back at her, big and goofy, and she blushed a little.
From across the room Newton looked at Hermann and Hermann nodded.
For right now everything was as close okay as it could ever be.
Then the pair settled on Hermann's gurney to watch Newton and Raleigh continue their game. Eventually Mako would join in and then the three of them would lure Hermann in with the promise of math and numbers.
It was far from perfect.
But it was okay.
Notes:
So this is not the end! We've got one final epilogue style chapter after this.
Thank you to everybody who is still reading this quietly or commenting on it. It's been almost a year now and I'm glad people are still enjoying themselves