Medic's eyes fluttered open and he groaned softly to himself. He'd fallen asleep at his desk yet again. He'd not wanted to leave Frau alone in an unfamiliar place, especially after a sedative. After an hour of watching her sleep and nodding off a couple times himself, he'd moved to his office to look over and update his files for the few of them that were left and had apparently fallen asleep.
He sat up, rubbing at the kink in his neck, while feeling around on the desk for his glasses. He was just slipping them on when he heard whispering from the main room. He stood up, trying to hone in on the voice. It definitely sounded like a single voice, but it was so soft he couldn't make out the words. He came around his desk and started for the doorway, his face settling into a mask of curiosity and confusion.
"Sophia ... es ist ok ..."
Medic's eyes narrowed as he entered the exam room. The voice was coming from the direction of Frau's bed, but sounded heavily muffled.
"Sophia ... Mama und Papa sind bald hier ..."
He stepped quietly toward where he'd left Frau sleeping earlier. As he approached his stomach dropped when he saw her bed was empty, the blankets crumpled at the foot. The mysterious voice was momentarily forgotten as fears for Frau's safety rushed to the forefront of his thoughts. She had been sedated and he was concerned she had wandered off, possibly groggy or even sleep walking. He reached out to flick on the light above her bed, when he heard the voice again only this time he could actually make out the words.
"Sophia, ich werde dich nicht verlassen ... ich verspreche ..."
The voice was quiet, but higher pitched…like that of a child. His brain, already on edge, changed course yet again and was suddenly filled of ghost stories his Grandmother would tell him back in Rottenburg. Stories of little children that had wandered too far from home or naughty little children who wouldn't listen to their parents and ultimately met an unfortunate end. As an adult he understood that these were tales meant to instill in him life lessons. At the current moment, in an eerily quiet hospital in the middle of nowhere, it was only instilling unease and when a pale hand reached out from under the bed and grabbed his ankle he damn near had a heart attack then and there. It was only an involuntary reflex of snapping his jaw shut with a loud click that kept him from screaming out. Slowly, he lowered his gaze and for a brief second he just knew the pale hand gripping his ankle was that of dead child.
Then his reason decided to override whatever sleep deprived phantoms were floating around his brain and he took a closer look at said hand. Though slender and slightly delicate the hand was definitely an adult and most likely a female.
"Sophia?"
Narrowing his eyes, Medic knelt down and pulled aside a bit of sheet that was hanging in his way. His eyebrows shot up in surprise, then softened. Frau was curled up on her right side, legs drawn up to her chest, and it was her left hand gripping his ankle. She was also sound asleep.
"Can you hear me? Können Sie mich hören?"
Medic had no idea just who Frau was talking to or dreaming about. Whoever it was must be important to her, but she sounded so sad and scared. He maneuvered himself into a sitting position and gently slipped his hand into hers, pulling it off of his ankle.
"Da."
There was a sigh of relief from under the bed and Medic felt the tension loosen from Frau's grip.
"Sophia, you scared me. You can't scare me like that."
"Sorry."
Frau sighed again and seemed to fall back asleep. Medic started to get up, determined to somehow get her out from under the bed without waking her up, when the grip on his hand tightened again. He lowered himself back down and leaned his head back against the bed.
"It is going to be a long night…"
~ Several Hours later ~
When Medic awoke next, the pain in his neck had returned, but at least he was not hunched over his desk. He sat up, reaching up to rub at his neck, and realized Frau's hand was no longer in his. Startled he shifted to his feet and found her sitting cross legged on her bed, holding Archimedes in an open palm. The Dove, who absolutely never allowed anyone other than himself to touch him, cooed contentedly at the girl as she delicately stroked his head.
"Please forgive me for last night, I was having a nightmare. One I haven't had in several years, I do apologize."
Frau smiled at up at him, looking both embarrassed and apologetic. He sat down and smiled back as Archimedes nudged at Frau's hand, which had momentarily stopped stroking him. She turned her smile from Medic to the insistent bird and began once again to stroke at his head.
"Given yesterday's adventures I'm not surprised zere vas some residual mental stress. How are you feeling othervise?"
"Very well, thank you." Frau grimaced slightly. "I suppose some kind of explanation is in order about our sudden appearance, my friends and I that is."
"Your friends did fill my teammates in on zis being a game and such zings. I admit I vasn't listening particularly close. I am however interested in your ability to…alter yourself. Also you are far more skilled in battle zhan I vould expect of just a good gamer. At least given the explanation of vhat a gamer is from your Soldier."
"I vaguely remember Froggy, my soldier, talking about gaming. It's all a bit hazy though."
"Vell yes." Medic cleared his throat. "You did attempt to have a conversation but I felt zhat vas ill advised at zhe time."
"It probably was. I do remember saying something about my parentage however." Frau lifted her eyes to meet Medic's, sighing heavily. "Some people don't take well to my family for various reasons, some warranted and some not. I come from money and when I say money I mean money. The kind of money that makes the world turn in unexpected ways."
Medic nodded, understanding instantly what she meant. She came from wealth and the kind she was talking about usually meant alienation to a degree and certain expected personality traits. She would be expected to act a certain way and people would treat her a certain way, depending on if they wanted something or not. He had a bit of experience with that himself.
"My father is a businessman and my mother was, well she had a proud linage so to speak. My father is American and my Mother was German." Frau sighed again, setting Academies in her lap. "They met in Berlin. My father was there on a business trip and my mother was the interpreter. My father extended his trip so he could try wooing her properly. My mother wasn't exactly receptive at the start, that proud linage thing reared its ugly head a few times from my understanding. But eventually he persevered. They wed in the country side of a small village called Wren, on Lake Constance. My Mother's family was from there."
Medic was familiar with the area but not the town she had mentioned. Perhaps it didn't exist here, but only wherever she had come from. But Stuttgart was roughly and hour from the midpoint of Lake Constance and was dotted with many villages great and small, he could easily of missed that one.
"They had my sister and me only a year later…" Frau's voice trailed off and she took a deep breath before clearing her throat. "She passed seven years later in an accident. We moved back to the U.S. full time shortly after that. Before that we'd mostly lived in Germany, in fact my sister and I were born there and I carried dual citizenship for a time."
"I'm sorry." Medic said softly, watching Alchemies nuzzle at Frau's hand. The little bird understood moods better than most people and was trying to comfort her. "Zat must have been hard."
Frau nodded rubbing absently at her right shoulder. Medic immediately understood the implications. Her Soldier had said she'd had a dislocated shoulder, lacerations, and bruising from an accident at seven but hadn't elaborated from there. Whatever had happened, happened to both of them but only one survived. Medic guessed, judging from the nightmares she had been having while sedated…
Sophia, ich werde dich nicht verlassen ... ich verspreche ...
Sophia I will not leave you…I promise…
It was traumatic, whatever had happened, and it had stayed with her. His eyes strayed back to her face as she smiled down at the dove who was once again cooing contentedly. He really was an attention seeking little dolt at times, but it was helping he so Medic wasn't' about the shoo him away any time soon.
"I'm sure zthat your friends are vorried about you." Medic smiled as he stood and stretched. "I'll find you somezhing to wear."
"Thank you." Frau said, smiling as she set Archimedes delicately on the chair Medic had just vacated. "Are they alright?"
"Your Pyro and soldier are fine, some minor battlefield injuries, already taken care of. Your Scout…"
Medic trailed off as he heard a low growl come from Frau. He lifted his head from the cupboard he'd been pulling clothes from and glanced back toward her. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, her yes narrow and her body tense. She looked up at him and he was momentarily taken aback by the amount of hate he could see in her eyes.
"If he wants to cut and run as well as endanger the lives of my team, he can take his chances out there on his own." She slid off the bed, adjusting the shirt she was wearing as she did so. "I don't have the patience or time to protect someone who only thinks of themselves. We live or die as a team. Besides sacrificing, or in this case, attempting to sacrifice the Medic is unredeemable. I won't trade a Medic for a Scout."
Medic felt that familiar heat being to spread up his neck and across his shoulders. Luckily Frau had turned her attention back to Archimedes, who was making the lack of attention very well known. She picked the bird up, speaking to him softly in German as Medi stood staring. His mind drew back to the jumping into the middle of the firefight. She had no fear and held nothing back. He was impressed, in hindsight, to find out her reasoning. It was to save the team…to save him, that she sacrifice an ear and refused help, pushing them forward.
"Are you ok?"
Medic snapped out of his thoughts and Frau looked at him quizzically, Archimedes perched on her shoulder.
"Fine." He responded gruffly. "Just a bit tired."
"I am sorry about that."
Frau glanced down, a pink hue coloring her cheeks and looking sheepish. Medic pushed the cabinet doors shut and walked toward Frau, holding out the clothing.
"It's fine. Bedside manner is part of zhe job." He said, smiling. "Besides it vas still marginally more comfortable zhan my desk. Zhings have been…difficult as of late."
"So it would seem." Frau said, taking the offered clothes. "How long has this been going on?"
Medic turned away as Frau pulled a curtain in front of her to change. He wasn't even 100% sure about the timeframe, the days had begun to blend together.
"At least a monz, possibly two."
"What happened?"
Medic turned his head as he heard the curtain draw back. Frau was wearing another of his shirts, one that had shrunk. It was still big, she had the sleeves rolled up and the bottom tied into a knot like a mid-drift. The pants weren't his, they'd belonged to the Red Scout. Somehow they'd gotten mixed in with his and he'd never gotten a chance to return them. They looked loose on her. The waist was hanging low on her hips but the length seemed to only be relatively alright, since they were supposed to rest just below the knee and now stopped mid-calf. As Medic looked her up and down, Archimedes fluttered in and landed on her shoulder once more
"You're such a silly thing." Frau said quietly, rubbing his head.
"He's not typically this friendly." Medic muttered eyeing the bird suspiciously. "As for your question,. zhe robots just showed up one day. Since ve test veapons for TF both us and BLU assumed it vas simply anozher skirmish…ve vere vrrrong."
