Chapter 76 – Sarah Briggs

Octavio stirred a bit in his sleep which eventually led to him waking up. His chest was warm and cold and wet all at the same time. He pulled his arm away from Ajay and looked his IV site to make sure everything was still attached. The site and line looked fine. He looked at the blood dried to his arm and then to the wet blood of his chest. His fingers gently pushed Ajay's hair away from her neck. He pushed his fingers underneath the neckline of her hoodie and toward her right shoulder. He stopped moving his fingers once they pressed against her wet, macerated flesh. He swallowed hard as he pulled his hand away.

He gently pulled his body from hers and stood up from the bed. Next to the bed was a cart full of dressing supplies. He opened the drawers and began pulling out what he needed. Ajay sat up using her hands and left hip as leverage. "Silva?" She rubbed her eyes, "Whatcha doing?" He smiled when her heard her soft voice, "Che, take off your hoodie and your shirt and your bra." She looked confused for a moment but as she started to move she start to realized that she had forgotten about her damaged shoulder. She managed to peel the top half of her clothing off by the time Octavio returned to her.

"Che." He observed her shoulder, "If this keeps going on you're gonna have to build yourself an arm." He smirked at her as he began to dig in her backpack pulling out the first aid kit. He sat down next to her on the bed as she opened it and pulled out the stitch kit. Octavio cleaned her wound as she began threading the needle with the medical thread. Octavio gently took the needle from her began stitching up her shoulder. "What happened Che?"

The first stitch was always the hardest. The cracking noise that the needle made as it pierced through her flesh stung briefly and just became a slight annoyance afterwards. Ajay gazed at him lovingly. She really didn't trust anyone else to stitch her up anymore expect for him. "Revenant." Octavio grew tense. That was a name that he would never get used to.

"During our match." She shook her head as she tried to think, "I don understand though. D.O.C. still isn't functioning in Alexander's nox gas." He looked down at her breasts briefly before looking back to what he was doing, "Did you win?" She smiled for a moment but pain washed the smile away quickly, "Yah. Well my team did." She closed her eyes and tried to focus on something other than the pain in her shoulder. "Does it matter?" He said as he tried hard not to look at her beautiful, round breasts.

Ajay looked down for a moment trying to figure out what he was talking about, "Whatcha mean? Does what matter?" Octavio stopped stitching her up and began to tie off the thread, "Does it matter that D.O.C. didn't work? This shouldn't have happened in the first place. It wasn't even bullets this time right?" He stood up and began cleaning up, "Obviously this isn't a bullet wound. I know the arena is messed up but this is beyond that." He wasn't trying to come off as mean but he was just worried about her.

He climbed back into bed and laid down, "Come on Che." He patted the small space next to him, "Let's just rest." Ajay nodded and laid down next him, curling into him; Once again they fit together like puzzle pieces. Octavio pulled her in tight and covered them both up. He shuddered as her breasts rubbed against his skin. Ajay closed her eyes as Octavio played with her hair and resisted the urged to play with her breasts.

MOB-1316 was one of the few working Titans that Ajay had ever seen up close. She didn't dare ask Sarah Briggs to get inside. Ajay only knew very little about Briggs but what she did know was that Briggs was very intense and held ill feelings towards the IMC. Briggs was about the same height as Ajay. Her hair was short brown and held up by a red bandana. Ajay only ever saw Briggs in Militia gear and armor. As a commander of the Frontier Militia, Briggs was quick on her feet and unbelievable with a smart pistol.

Typhon was the heated battleground for the ending point of the war and it was becoming too dangerous for a lot of the crew to stay there. The planet, itself, was slowly becoming obliterated by the ongoing battles. With the ongoing days it was becoming evident that it was getting harder for ground forces to make any progress. Ajay did what she could as a combat medic but Captain Lastimosa had other plans for her.

It was hard for Ajay to believe that she was back on Harmony again. She was stationed on a small militia base where she saw to all of the staff there. She was quite surprised when Briggs ambled into the medical bay. Ajay assisted to her to lay down on the bed. She didn't bother to ask her what she needed, Briggs what holding pressure to her left thigh. Her pants were saturated in blood ut it didn't seem to bother her. Briggs' face was stoic as it always was.

Ajay got to work, cutting her pants open and tending to her wound. She held pressure with a fist full of gauze to the bleeding laceration as Briggs laid there, "I bet you want to know what happened." Ajay shrugged. "Only if ya wanna tell me. I'm here ta treat ya." Briggs smiled, "It was a fucking Reaper. It's always a fucking Reaper." Ajay grew tense. Hammond Robotics was the last thing she wanted to hear about. Briggs looked up at Ajay, "What's your name?"

Ajay reached beside her for a sandbag and placed it on top of the gauze over Brigg's leg. "Ajay Che." She began drawing up morphine into one syringe and rocephin into another syringe. Brigg's looked a little worried, "I'm Sarah Briggs. I usually go by Briggs. What are you doing Che? Or do you prefer Ajay?" Briggs tried to pull her face back to it's rough exterior. Ajay smiled, "Ajay is fine. I'm givin ya some pain medication because I need ta get ya cleaned up and stitched. I'm also giving ya an antibiotic so that ya leg don fall off."

Briggs laughed as Ajay began to pull up Brigg's sleeve. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. What kind of solider would I be if I started losing limbs?" Ajay cleansed Brigg's upper arm with some alcohol and pinched it. She poked the needle of the morphine through her skin and into her muscle. She injected it quickly and then did the same with the rocehpin.

Ajay pulled out her stitch kit and began threading her crescent needle with medical thread. Briggs finally started to feel the morphine kick in and relaxed into the bed. Ajay set her needle down and pulled the sandbag off her leg. She began cleaning up Brigg's laceration with saline and then began stitching her up. Briggs laid on the bed with her eyes closed and an arm across her forehead. "How long have you been doing this?"

Ajay thought it was funny that everyone felt a need to know about her experience in her field of expertise. "Since I was two years old." Briggs laughed at her, "Really?" Ajay kept stitching, "Yah. From band aids ta first aid. I have done it all." Briggs stretched her arms over her head and then crossed them underneath her head. "You look like you're 22 or 23." Ajay cut the thread and began tying it off, "Something like that."

Briggs open her eyes and looked up at Ajay, taking in her features. She was in fact very young but she hadn't realized it until she actually had a chance to stop and look at her. Briggs was always on the go so she really never took time to get to know anyone or anything too personal about them. War had brought a lot of casualties and it just wasn't worth her time. She had already lost so many people that were close to her.

Briggs pushed her thoughts away as she watched Ajay clean up everything. "Are you done?" Ajay nodded, "Yah. You must not have heard me." Briggs began to get up, "Nah." Ajay stopped her, "I need ya to lay down for a bit. I gave ya a heavy dose of morphine. I want to monitor you for bit." Briggs sighed and laid back down. Ajay covered Briggs up with a blanket and cleaned up the rest of her work area.

Ajay began filling out paperwork as Briggs rested. The sunlight began bleeding into the skyline as night engulfed the sky. Briggs opened her eyes and looked around. She found Ajay still at her bedside, "How long have I been out?" Ajay helped her sit up, "About five hours." Briggs looked confused as she rubbed the back of her neck, "Damn." Ajay removed the blanket to show Briggs her wound, "No baths. You can shower. Come see me in a week to get the stitches out. Or have someone take them out in a week."

Briggs looked down at her thigh. The stitches were so clean and perfectly placed that they didn't even look real, "Wow. That's some nice work." Ajay covered the stitches with an ABD pad and tape. She handed Briggs a bag with extra supplies, "Ya don need to keep it covered but it might feel better if you do." She then handed Briggs two bottles of pills. "This one I need ya to take twice a day until it's gone. It's to prevent infection. The other bottle is for pain. One pill every four hours as needed for pain. Might be best not to take them while operating heavy machinery but I'm not here ta judge." Briggs smiled, "Thanks. I appreciate it. I gotta get back to it. This war is almost over."

Briggs stood up to leave but stopped at the door, "Hey. If you ever need anything look me up. Hell I might be looking you up one day." Shortly after Briggs left Ajay found herself sitting alone at her desk. She watched as her phone as it began to vibrate against the metal of the desk. Her heart skipped a beat. She hoped it wasn't Octavio but somewhere in her heart she hoped it was him. She flipped her phone over and looked at the name on her phone before answering it, "Yah?"

"Hey kid." Anita's voice was straight forward as usual.

"Hey Anita. What's up?" Ajay tried not to sound so despondent as she spoke.

"Did you hear about this battle royale? Apex?" For once Anita had some excitement in her voice.

Ajay sat up, "Apex?"

"Yeah. It's a blood sport. Contestants compete to death in an arena. You don't really die though. You can make a career out of it. Money and fame." Anita chuckled.

Ajay was silent for a moment. "Where do I sign up?"

"I knew you'd be interested kid. I'll text you the info." Anita hung up the phone and shortly after Ajay received the text message with the information. Ajay's heart skipped a beat as she read through of the information. She knew that this was her only shot. She had to try out and make the cut because her options had run out.