"If he can talk to her maybe he can pull her out of the coma," Hellboy reasoned.
Liz took a long drag from her cigarette and exhaled slowly. "I don't know. Right now he doesn't even seem too sure of what he's doing. But he's going to end up wearing himself out if we don't watch him."
"Abe knows how to take care of himself Liz, and besides he thinks this is his fault."
"Exactly. We don't need him dying of exhaustion to prove a point."
A knock on the door interrupted their conversation, and in walked John Meyers.
"I stopped by the hospital wing and actually didn't see Abe there. I thought maybe he'd be here with you."
"He's sleeping," Liz said, earning her a shocked look. "He really had no choice, he almost passed out."
After the confused look only got worse Liz explained the situation.
"Well that's weird."
"You're so articulate Meyers," Hellboy said sarcastically.
Meyers ignored him. "We should probably tell the doctor about this, it could be seen as some sort of progress."
"I don't know," Liz said. "They haven't been too thrilled with Abe's visits as it is, they could see it as interference."
Meyers sighed. "So we're back to square one."
"Not exactly. She may not be awake but she's talking, even if Abe is the only one she's talking too," Hellboy said, lighting a cigar.
Meyers excused himself from the smoke filled room and Liz and Hellboy tried to concentrate on more pleasant things. What good was discussing it anyway? They'd know more tomorrow when Abe talked to her again.
It had reached dinnertime and no food was brought to Abraham Sapien's quarters. He had slept for a good part of the day, but for once didn't chastise himself for doing so. Instead he headed down to find something to eat. His body was screaming for food and he had no intention of ignoring it.
As he walked he wondered what had happened to Liz. He supposed she had lost track of time and was probably somewhere with Hellboy. But where was Meyers?
"Hey Abe, you're still here?" It was Nick, head of the kitchen and the best damn pasta chef Abe had ever met.
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"Everybody else left, said there was something going on at the museum."
Abe's hunger suddenly made no appearances. The last thing he wanted was to be excluded, but in his current state he was probably considered a liability.
"You want something to eat before I head back? Dinner's still warm." Nick asked, clearly not registering Abe's disappointment. It was an easy mistake given the lack of emotional range in his features.
"Yes, please."
Nick hurried in and grabbed a plate of lasagna, bringing it out a few minutes later. Abe's hunger hadn't really returned but he picked at the plate in front of him, knowing he'd need his strength to talk to Crys again.
"What's wrong is it too chewy or something?" Nick asked, a chef's vanity apparent in his voice.
"Oh no, it's fine. I just have some things on my mind that's all."
"Like that girl, the new one? Is she doin' any better?"
Abe was a little perturbed that it was so obvious. "No, she's still in a coma."
"It's a damn shame too. Legs like that, hell I'd give-" He was cut off by a raised webbed hand. "Sorry."
Abe finished eating and handed Nick the empty plate, grateful for the escape. He had no use for the remarks of hormonal men, especially when it concerned his friends.
"Oh, Mr. Sapien," a nurse said once Abe had reached Crys's room. "I didn't expect to see you here tonight, what with everyone gone and all." He knew she wasn't happy to see him, she never really was.
"I had some work to do of my own Miss Prosser. Hellboy and Liz are more than capable of handling themselves."
She gave a curt nod and scurried out of the way. Abe wasn't sure why his presence seemed to bother some of the nurses, but he wasn't going to try and figure that out now.
Moving on, he entered the room and took his usual place next to the bed. When he touched Crys's arm this time he felt an almost electric sensation as opposed to the agitation of earlier.
"Crys, are you there?" Abe asked, reaching out with his mind.
This time he saw her, not the emaciated figure he knew he was sitting next to, but the woman he had seen nearly die to save him.
"I'm right here, can you see me?"
"Yes, but… how?"
"I can see you too."
And Abe realized he could see himself as well. This was all getting more and more complicated as time passed.
Crys laughed. "I wanted to see you, so I can. My mind, my rules I guess."
"This is…" His voice trailed off as the darkness around him became Crys's sleeping quarters.
"Maybe you're right, maybe I'm not dying," she said, a marked improvement in her mood since the last time.
"Why couldn't I see you before?" Abe asked, finally finding speech again.
"I didn't know I could do it. It wasn't until I called out to you and knew you'd heard me that I realized my mind was stronger than I'd thought."
"Have you tried-"
"Waking up?" Crys interrupted. "That's all I've tried. Every time I try the darkness comes back and it feels even thicker. It's like I'm drowning sometimes, only it's tar instead of water."
Abe reached out and touched the high backed chair across from the bed Crys sat on. It was solid, so he tentatively sat down.
"How long have I been out?"
"About a month and a half."
"Great. Much longer and I won't be able to talk when I wake up." She was saying when and not if, which Abe saw as a good sign.
"You've lost a lot of weight."
"I bet I look like shit, don't I?"
He didn't reply.
"Yeah, I thought so," Crys said with a laugh. "That's okay, I don't think I'll be entering any beauty contests in the near future anyway."
"Why did you do it?"
The seriousness of his tone caught her off guard. "What do you mean?"
"You almost died saving me."
"You're in my head and you have to ask? I thought you were psychic."
Abe sighed. "It doesn't work like that I'm afraid. So you'll just have to explain."
"It's simple. I set off a freeze knowing it would kill that big ugly lizard… thing. I didn't notice that you were in it's path until I'd already set things into motion. If I hadn't been acting like such a hot shot I would have realized what was going to happen but I thought I had it under control. By that point it was either move your ass out of the way or watch you die. Were you hurt?"
"A little, just from you pretty much throwing me across the room."
She smiled. "Adrenaline, it comes with the ice." After a moment of silence she continued. "Besides, you guys barely know me, if I died it would be no big deal. If you died people would miss you."
"People miss you. I do. Liz, Red, Meyers, we all do."
"Meyers? I thought he hated me. He sure as hell tried to keep me off the team."
"That's only because you tried to kill me."
She blushed. "I was just trying to distract you guys."
"I know. I understood everything, which is why I told them all that I trusted you."
"Appreciated. Hey, I think this is the longest we've talked without me getting pissed off about something."
"Maybe near death experiences change people."
"Yeah, well I'm still pretty damn near death. But maybe you're right. Besides, you were never really the one I was mad at anyway."
Abe refrained from telling her that he knew that already and simply sat and listened.
She was more than willing to continue. "I was usually mad at myself, I have been a lot lately. I used to seem so together, nothing could get under my skin. But that's how I'd been trained. I'd never really been with anyone who cared for me before, I had thought Alex did but…"
She was speaking of Alex Cavanaugh, the man who had taken her in after she killed her abusive foster father. Alex had given her all the love and attention she'd never been shown, but at the same time trained her to kill. She'd spent fourteen years as an assassin for the Church of the Oracle until she wiped out the entire congregation, Alex included.
"It's okay, you're human. It's normal to actually have emotions that go crazy every now and then," Abe assured her.
Tears were forming in her eyes and she looked like a truly broken woman. "But you don't, you never lose your cool."
He left his chair and instead sat next to her on the bed, putting an arm around her shoulders. "I'm not human," he said, wiping a tear off her cheek. "And I do lose my cool sometimes, I just hide it well."
It was obvious that fatigue was settling over Crys's mind as the room began to slowly fade.
"I should go, and you should rest."
Crys nodded. "Thank you so much for coming. I know it must be hard on you."
"It is, but it's worth it. We'll get you out of here, don't worry."
"I'll hold you to that. Goodbye Abe."
End Part 3
