Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Jacin
"She will definitely have some form of PTSD after this." Said the doctor, typing away on his computer. "Memory loss is another likely possibility, as well as realistic and terrifying hallucinations, difficulty reading people and environments, and erratic behaviour."
Jacin glared at him. "She already has most of that."
The doctor, to his credit, didn't rise to the bait, and instead simply shot Jacin a sympathetic look. "I know. That's to be expected after neglecting an ability that has such close ties with the mind. But I'm afraid that is nothing compared to what her psyche's going through now." He sighed. "Those powers are probably the worst kind: using them is only considered moral in certain-and for the average person extremely rare-situations, and not using them destroys their owner. If I had a dime for every prodigy I've seen who's suffered the exact same thing…" the doctor trailed off, shaking his head.
Jacin turned back to the figure lying on the bed, and his scowl softened. She looked so peaceful, so calm. There was even a light smile gracing her red lips, as though she was having a good dream. For her sake, Jacin desperately hoped that was true.
But he'd been watching over her long enough to know that this was merely the calm before the storm. Any moment those eyes could fly open, wild with pain and panic. She would thrash and struggle and scream until her voice gave out, before dissolving into hopeless sobs as she flinched and tensed against her invisible attackers. Jacin did his best to calm her down, but it was like she couldn't even hear him, couldn't feel his touch. After the first few episodes, which had led to several pieces of medical equipment becoming damaged and a couple doctors sustaining minor injuries, the medical staff had seen fit to add restraints to her cot. A decision that Jacin was fervently against, though he couldn't exactly offer suggestions for any better options.
"I don't get it." He whispered, not taking his eyes off of Winter's face, savouring this moment of peace. "The problems started because she stopped using her powers. Using them again should have made her better, not worse."
The doctor barked a laugh, a sharp, bitter sound. "If only it were that simple Guard." He said darkly, "But the brain is like a muscle. It's needs to be exercised, every part of it, in order to remain strong. And the part that ties to Soul Blood's powers has been neglected for years. It's naturally grown very, very weak, and can be easily overtaxed. And if you overtax a muscle…" He shrugged helplessly, "it breaks."
Jacin clenched his jaw and nodded. A part of him resented the doctor for understanding so intimately Winter's condition, but still being powerless to help her. Wasn't that what a doctor was supposed to do? Find the problem, fix the problem, let the patient walk away good as new? But most of him knew that he was just being unreasonable. The human body wasn't a car, or a computer or something. It didn't stay in the fixable stage indefinitely if something happened to it. You couldn't just fix the part that was damaged or replace it with something else. Human's weren't mechanical, they were biological and, no matter how painful or devastating it might be to admit, if something was damaged, there was a chance that it couldn't be fixed.
The doctor sighed and stepped away from his computer. "I have to head back to the infirmary. They're still swamped down there. Someone else will show up in a few minutes. You should probably leave the room while-"
"I'm staying." Jacin interrupted sharply.
The doctor frowned. "Guard, I understand that you're close to Soul Blood and want to be around her, but for your own safety, I must insist that you leave the room, at least until my replacement arrives. If Soul Blood wakes up-"
"I'll deal with that when it happens." Jacin said firmly, "'m not leaving her."
The doctor scowled at him, as if he could change his mind through sheer force of will. Jacin met his frustrated gaze with a cool glare of his own. Undoubtedly the doctor was used to stubbornness (he worked for an organisation literally made up of cocky superheros) but Jacin had been forced to stare down the Queen's elite, as well as other soldiers in the Lunars. He'd dealt with way, way stronger wills than this guy had.
Sure enough, the doctor turned away, huffing in frustration. "Fine. You can stay. But I'm leaving a first aid kit and under no circumstances are you to remove her restraints, is that clear?"
"Crystal." Jacin replied dryly.
The doctor nodded, not quite satisfied but placated at least, and left the room.
As the door swung closed behind the doctor, Jacin turned back to look at Winter. She still looked so peaceful, so calm. Happy, even. Jacin just wished that she could stay like this all the time.
He reached out and gently took one of her hands in his, running his thumb over her knuckles. "Please wake up Winter." He whispered, so low even he could barely hear. "I need you. I need my Princess back. I need my best friend."
No answer came from the sleeping girl.
His mouth quirked into a sad smile. "Do you remember back when we were kids, and we would play Princess and the Guard? Those castles we built out of pillows? And how sometimes we'd get some of the servants to play along with us?"
Still no reaction.
Jacin's smile fell away and I sighed. "Winter… I know you probably can't hear me. But I have to tell you: even when we were kids and you were still healthy, and becoming a soldier was the last thing on my mind, I made a promise to myself. I was never going to let you get hurt. As long as I was around, you would be safe. Nothing would ever happen to you." He snorted. "And what a brilliant job I did. You grew insane through neglecting your powers, Levana forced you to scar yourself for the simple crime of being too beautiful, the soldiers leer at you all the time like you're a piece of meat, and now you're stuck here, with your mind in even worse shape than it was before. I failed you, Winter. I failed you, and I'm so, so sorry." Jacin's face hardened, and as he looked at the unconscious girl before him his ice-blue eyes burned with a determined fire. "But I won't stop. I won't stop trying to keep you safe. As long as I'm alive, I'll do everything, everything in my power to protect you because…" he hesitated. His eyes studied Winter's face, taking in every tiny detail. The curl of her eyelashes. The curve of her cheek. The shape of her lips. He sighed, and in that breath the words he had for so long been so afraid to admit were finally spoken. "Because I love you."
He leaned down and, slowly, almost hesitantly, pressed his lips to hers. As he sat back up to look at her face again, he noticed one, new, crucial detail.
Her eyes were open.
A/N: Because we all need a little more Jacinter in our lives.
Please review!
