Chapter 14
Arthur's and Atlanta's visit didn't last long. In the evening they left and went somewhere and did not return until after midnight. Arthur's nightly goings were nothing new to his family, after all, the boy had done so countless times before.
Thomas woke to a terrible back pain. Groaning, he got up from his bed and put on his boots. He made his way towards the bedroom's door with short steps while being careful not to wake his woman. He closed the door slowly behind him without making a sound and headed for the front door. Stepping out of the house, he pulled on his jacket with a groan. It was still dark outside, and he descended the stairs taking support from the railing.
He started walking aimlessly around the courtyard to ease the pain. He walked to the edge of the field and saw a hare making its way across it. The hare progressed slowly, stopping every few feet to look around. He watched it for a long time.
His thoughts shifted away from the hare, and he started to think about more important things. His thoughts drifted to the ditches and the possible need to deepen them in the near future, but he banished the thought for now.
The hare saw him and for a moment they stood still and looked at each other until it started slowly to trot in the opposite direction, occasionally turning back to look at him. A smile rose into the man's eyes as he watched the animal go. He had always liked animals and especially hares, even though they sometimes harmed saplings.
He walked to the barn and checked on the horses that were asleep. He checked them even though there was nothing to check about them. He had made sure that the animals were well. He had two horses. The older one was already over twenty and he was getting old and slow. Thomas' father had bought it at the time and couldn't tame the colt, so he had had to tame it. It had taken a long time, but eventually the horse had become the best in town, at least if you were to ask it from Thomas.
Upon returning to the house Thomas saw Arthur and Atlanta returning from somewhere.
-"Where were you?" Thomas asked and sat down on the porch with a loud sigh.
-"At the river." Arthur answered. In truth, he and Atlanta had spent some time together in a nearby field barn.
-"Mmh… " Thomas mumbled. He tried to hide his amusement as he watched those two who thought he didn't know. He too had been young and full of vigor once. That, and he saw the hay in their hair.
Atlanta and Arthur sat down next to the old man, and they watched the stars together. The silence lasted long between them before Arthur broke it:
"Is your back still aching?"
-"It hasn't left me isn't going to leave me… You should brace yourself too. It has been in our family for who knows how long. My father got it in his thirties. He worked himself to death, but you knew that."
Arthur just nodded and continued to stare at the stars.
-"Where are you headed tomorrow?" Thomas asked fumbling his pipe out of his pocket.
-"Base Lima. I have some papers that I need to drop off there." Arthur said and turned to look at his old man. The man seemed older, worn out. He didn't know what Thomas was thinking and even if he knew he wouldn't have said anything.
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-"Good morning."
-"Morning."
Washington entered Reed's office just as it hit seven o'clock. It had grown into a habit for her to enter right on time. Every morning she stood there outside of Reed's office for a few minutes waiting for the right time before entering. The first time Reed had heard about that she had laughed and told Washington being a minute or two late or early wouldn't do any harm.
Stretching her neck from left to right, Washington made her way up to Reed's desk and started to sort some papers she had laid on the desk. It took her only a few glances at the Admiral to notice something was wrong, that and the loud yawn Reed let out.
-"Didn't sleep well, did you?" She asked after she had stacked the papers.
-"… You could say that." Reed answered slowly.
-"Something on your mind that kept you awake?"
-"Yeah… You remember that I saw Allen, right? Well, the codgers at the bureau wanted Captain Allen to be sent to the nearest 'normal base' to report on the interactions of the KANSEN and his men."
-"So you fear that something will happen to him when he's there?"
-"Yes and no. I-uh… I had another meeting with Observer Alpha last night and she knew about me sending Sanders to take those papers to the nearest base that happens to be Base Lima. But she said Sanders wouldn't be in danger."
-"Wait, let me get my notepad and write this down." Washington intervened and quickly grabbed her notes and a pen. She quickly wrote down the outlines before sitting down and crossing her legs. "So, Captain Allen and Lieutenant Sanders are both at Base Lima and nothing is supposed to happen to Sanders?"
-"That's right."
-"You pondering if you can trust her word this time? It wouldn't be the first time she has lied to you."
-"Spot on… I have given it much thought and maybe O.A. has different kind of understanding about being in danger than what we have. I mean before the last attack here she said that we weren't in danger." Reed said and massaged her left arm.
-"That's a possibility. Maybe she thinks that one is in danger only when their life is on the line. Or maybe we are looking too much into this." Washington said and wrote something down. She turned to look at Reed and her arm massage caught her attention:
"Something wrong with your arm?"
-"No, it's fine. Just a bit sore. I must have slept on it or something." Reed twitched on her seat. A cold bead of sweat slid down her neck when last night's memories filled her mind.
-"I can massage it for you if you want." Washington said and raised one of her eyebrows. Something was clearly wrong with her Admiral, but she didn't know what it was.
-"I said I'm fine!" Reed rejected quickly "Let's get to work."
XXX
At nine o'clock they took a break as usual, and Reed left the office to go for a little walk. Stepping onto the quay number fourteen, she took off her hat and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She closed her eyes and let the wind rattle her hair. Reed sighed and tugged her uniform's collar. She was hot, too hot. Her dress shirt's back was damp from her sweat beneath her jacket.
She watched her fleet. The ships slowly pitching in the slight waves. It was relaxing for her to see the waves hit the concrete and foam.
All of a sudden, she started to feel nauseous. Her head started to throb, and her vision turned all blurry and everything was purple. Her breathing started to wheeze, and she coughed. She coughed a lot. Her chest burned and cramped at the same time. She crashed next to a lifeboat trying to pull herself up. Her coughing only worsened, and in a moment, it was so bad she couldn't breathe properly between the coughs. Still, vigorously she tried to yank herself up. She squeezed the side of the boat so hard that her fingers dug into the wood and her knuckles turned white.
She heard yelling but it felt it was coming from miles away. She didn't recognize anything that was yelled, not until she heard her name:
"Admiral Reed?! Admiral Reed!"
She hauled herself up and rested against the rowboat and the world around her slowly stopped spinning. She stood up on her unstable legs and turned around to see the yeller. There was a black-haired girl with a white crop top and shorts. Slightly behind her there was similarly dressed girl with pink hair. They both had worried expressions on their faces as they ran up to Reed.
-"Admiral! Are you okay?" The black-haired girl patted Reed's back a couple of times.
Reed coughed a few times more and spat before clearing her throat and saying:
"I'm fine, Northampton… I'm fine."
-"Well you don't look 'fine'. Your face is all purple and I can see the veins." Northampton said and supported Reed. "Houston, could you find the Admiral's hat?"
-"Yeah sure! I-uh…" Houston looked around before spotting the white cap floating down in the sea. "There it is! Just a moment!"
Reed watched as Houston stepped on the quay's edge before taking a one-step more and gracefully falling. Just before her feet touched the surface of the water, Houston was surrounded by bright blue light and her rigging appeared. She didn't splash into the water but stood on its surface and as if skating moved towards Reed's hat, which had already dragged against the concrete for some distance.
-"Here, lean on to me. Let's get you to Vestal." Northampton said with concern in her voice and slid her arm under Reed's.
-"I said I am fine!" Reed snarled and managed to escape Northampton's grasp.
Reed managed to stand on her own two feet, and she dusted off her jacket and pants. Northampton looked at Reed frowning. Reed took a couple of deep breaths and straightened up. As soon as she did that, she began to fall backwards. Northampton cried out but she didn't manage to catch her in time.
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Several hours later
Twitching, Reed regained consciousness. Turning her head to the side, she looked around her. She was in the medical building lying on one of the beds in a private room. She didn't remember anything that had happened. When she tried to get up on her elbows someone put a hand on her chest and pushed her back down.
-"Easy," Washington said sitting next to her bed. "You've been out for a while."
-"What? What happened?" Reed asked and tried to get up yet again but now someone on her other side pushed her back down:
"Just lay there for a moment. Northampton told me you passed out at the dock. After coughing a lot." The small but strict repair ship said firmly and patted Reed's shoulder. Reed's shoulder relaxed and she stopped fighting against Vestal. "I need you to answer some basic questions for me if that's not too much to ask." Vestal said as she grabbed a clipboard. Her tone indicated that Reed would answer her whether she liked it or not.
-"Fine, just get on with it." Reed sighed and rolled her eyes.
-"Can you tell me your name?"
-"Susan Reed."
-"Do you know who I am?"
-"Vestal-class repair ship, Vestal. One of the two doctors on this base. That enough?"
-"One more question. Do you know which day of the week today is?"
-"Is this really necessary?" Reed asked and snorted.
-"Just answer her already." Washington said concernedly.
-"Wednesday."
-"Right. Everything seems to be alright with you for now but I'm still going to keep you here at least for today. I would prefer you stay here for longer but knowing you, you would just escape through the window or something. But I still want you to check up here daily." Vestal said and searched for something in a drawer.
-"What?!" Reed asked surprised "Come now, I'm perfectly fine and like you said I have rested."
-"You coughed until you passed out." Washington said and eyed Reed.
-"Why are you two making such of a big deal about it? I have coughed before, and I have passed out before."
Washington and Vestal looked at each other and then at Reed.
-"You coughed up blood. And not a small amount." Washington pointed towards a coat hanger where Reed's uniform was hanging. Both sleeves of her jacket were bloody red, as was the front of the jacket. There were bloody handprints in the thighs of her pants.
-"What the-?" Reed cried out, shot up and raised her hand in front of her mouth and felt her rough lips. She grabbed a hand mirror from the bedside table and stared at it. Back at her stared bloodshot eyes. Her lips were cracked and bleeding, there were bruises on her cheekbone and on her forehead.
-"Northampton carried you here. You had reportedly shouted and struggled at the beginning until you went completely limp. You didn't even breathe when she rushed you in here. Poor girl was hysterical and couldn't say anything but 'She's not breathing, she's not breathing.' Over and over again."
"Oh…" Was the only thing Reed managed to let out. She lowered the mirror and laid back down. "Is she alright?"
-"Yes, Perseus is keeping her company. Washington has filled me in about your sightings or what they are. And yes, I'm a bit annoyed that you haven't told me about it, but that's not what I'm worried about. It's this" Vestal said and raised Reed's left arm. "Washington told me your arm was 'a bit sore' this morning, but I'd say this is a bit more serious."
Those burn marks were clearly visible around her arm but that wasn't all. The marks were surrounded by yellow rings that seemed to glow pulsating.
-"I had Perseus take some basic tests but all seemed normal except your body heat is a tad bit higher than normal. What comes to these marks; I can't say anything. I guess one of the Sirens did this to you." Vestal looked at Reed questioningly and she nodded "I'd say it was either Purifier of Observer Alpha but still my money is on Alpha."
-"Yeah, that's right. I upset her by saying those dreams were not real and she wanted to prove me wrong."
-"I haven't seen anything like this before but like you probably have already guessed I don't think it's good news. I took notice that it seems to pulsate with your heartbeat." Vestal flipped through the pages on her clipboard.
-"Let's keep quiet on this for the time being. I don't think it would be good to stir up panic among the girls especially now."
-"Agreed."
That's when the room's door flew open:
-"Yo, Vestal! Perseus said we'd find you here. Do you have those painki-" Ned Brown barged into the room with Helena in tow. His sentence was cut short when he saw Reed sitting on the hospital bed. "Jesus Christ! What in the goddamn happened to you?"
-"Admiral!" Helena cried and ran up to Reed's bed. "What happened? Are you okay?"
-"Well, I guess that plan is out of the window now." Vestal sighed and stood up.
XXX
After making Brown and Helena swear not to tell a soul about Reed, she filled them in on about her condition. However, she did not tell them about Reed's visions as she thought it was unnecessary.
-"So, do we know how she got it?" Helena asked after Vestal stopped talking. She stirred her hot chocolate Perseus had brought to them.
-"We don't know for certain but it's likely she got it from one of the Sirens personally when she met one of them face to face." Perseus said as she took the platter "But you have to excuse me, I promised Montpelier that I wouldn't be gone for long."
-"How is she?" Helena asked. She had never been close with Montpelier. They had only spoken a couple of times, but she was in the same fleet as Helena's sister, St. Louis when she got hit.
Perseus glanced at Vestal who subtly nodded:
"She's… alive. She has gotten better but she won't be sortieing for months." Perseus flashed a sad smile before exiting the room.
-"… That's a lot to take in." Brown said and leaned back on his seat "You think the high command would suspend you from your position if they knew?"
-"They'd probably have me shot if they could afford it. But yes, they'd probably remove me from here, isolate me and have me write out plans for our next move from some padded room." Reed said and stared outside through the window. She sighed and took a sip from her drink.
-"Yeah, I'm not jealous of you that's for sure."
-"Hah." Reed laughed "Yeah… Me neither. Everything looks a bit bad right now but once we can start accepting commissions and get the girls sortieing, we should be able to stand on our own once again."
-"And when is that? I think Hornet was talking about that a few of days ago." Brown chewed on a matchstick.
-"It shouldn't take too long anymore. I sent the necessary damage reports and other stuff on their way a couple of days ago." Reed said to Brown.
-"That means a week or so?" Helena asked.
-"Something like that. The sooner we get a green light the better. I've-… We've," Reed glanced at Washington who tried to give her a smile "We've been drowning in commission requests, and we have like a cabinet full of them just waiting to be accepted. It seems like the Sirens are using this opportunity to attack everyone and everything on water while we are unable to response to them."
Helena's grip on her mug tightened. Brown noticed it and placed his hand on her knee and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
-"Do you know where Sanders is and when he is coming back? He didn't want to tell me where he was headed, and that peacock is starting to really annoy me."
-"I had a job for him but he should be back before Sunday." Reed said and watched those two
-"Good. If I have to put up with that birdbrain too much more, I might do something that until now I have only been talking about." Brown said and stretched.
-"Oh no you wouldn't!" Helena said and poked his side.
-"Ouch!" Brown exclaimed and rubbed his side. "Hey, didn't you promise you'd help St. Louis with something today?" Brown turned to Helena.
-"The decorations! I forgot!" Helena quickly stood up and made her way to the door "Miss secretary, Vestal, Admiral." She said farewells and slipped out of the room.
Reed chuckled and said:
"That girl never changes…"
For some time, they sat in silence just waiting for someone to say something. Reed looked around the room a bit uneasy for she really didn't know Brown and didn't know if he would keep her secret. She caressed her arm and watched as the sickly circles pulsated.
Brown spat out the chewed matchstick's pieces. He aimed for the trashcan, but part of the stick caught on to his lower lip and hit the side of the trashcan.
Vestal frowned and turned to look away as Brown tried discreetly to move the stick into the can with his shoe. He cleared his throat for a couple of times before opening his mouth:
"So… Where exactly did you send Sanders to?"
Reed let out an annoyed sound and said:
-"Like I said. He's doing a job for me."
-"You're not going to tell me anything more?"
Reed frowned and said:
"No."
Brown straightened his back and leaned back on his chair. He took a pen from the table and spun it in his hands:
"Well, how about Allen? I've noticed he's not here either."
-"He too will be gone for a few days more."
-"Hmm… How about Lieutenant Smith? Is she on vacation?"
Reed growled and said now really annoyed:
"Do you expect me to list you every man and woman deployed on this base and where they are right now?"
-"Aye, that would mighty kind of you."
-"Who do you think you are?" Reed tried to get up, but Vestal pushed her back on the bed.
-"Don't you know me?" Brown said happily "I'm just a poor boy named Edward Brown but call me Ned… Everyone does and so do I."
Reed stared at the man and blinked a couple of times:
-"What?" She said before shaking her "Never mind. Get out, you're dismissed."
-"Not before you tell me the whole truth."
Washington stood up and said threateningly:
"The Admiral dismissed you."
But Reed held out her hand and motioned for Washington to sit down.
-"Yeah I heard her alright. But I know you aren't telling me everything. Do that and I'll go."
That's when Vestal stood up and said sharply:
"Corporal Brown, I can't have you bothering my patient anymore. I have to ask you to leave."
-"Like I said I'll leave when I have heard the full story."
-"What makes you think I'm hiding something?" Reed asked from Brown, but Vestal interrupted her.
-"Mr. Brown you are testing my patience." Vestal took a step toward Brown.
-"I have gotten pretty good at reading people the last few years in the army so I know when someone is either lying or not telling me everything." Brown ignored Vestal.
For a second Vestal stood still weighing her options. She hoped that Brown would listen to her and leave on his own but when Brown stood up and took a step towards her, her mind was made.
In a flash Vestal summoned her rigging and grabbed Brown from his collar and dragged him out of the room. It was actually quite comical looking. A small doctor dragging out a man easily double her size. When Brown realized what was happening, he tried to resist for a moment but gave up almost instantly when it didn't matter.
-"Okay, Okay I get it! I can find the exit on my own now." Brown said when they entered the lobby.
Vestal let go of his collar but began steering Brown out of the hospital holding his arm with her both hands.
-"You are a fool, Mr. Brown. I hope you know that."
-"I know." Brown said after being quiet for a moment.
-"Admiral Reed might forgive a lot of things but she still has drawn the line somewhere. And if you cross that line, it will end poorly for you." She sighed "I would chew you out but honestly I can't be bothered. But I will be informing miss Helena about your behavior."
-"Do you have to?"
-"Yes." Vestal stated flatly. Brown knew there was no talking Vestal out of this.
When they reached the door, Vestal let go of Brown completely and opened the door for him:
"Now, Mr. Brown. Try to stay out of trouble. Goodbye."
-"Alright. Take care Vestal." And with that and a wave of his hand, Brown started to walk away from the hospital.
Vestal watched him go, placed her hands on her hips and sighed deeply. It was not the first time she had to escort someone out of the hospital, and it wouldn't be the last. Once she had had to escort the Rear-Admiral herself out of the hospital because she refused to leave Washington's bedside when she had been injured. Reed had refused to eat or sleep before Washington woke up and at the third day Vestal carried the Admiral out of the building and into the mess hall.
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A/N: Heyy, remember me still? I'm glad. Yes, I'm not dead (yet at least).
I guess I start on why this is well over a month late even though I don't have uploading schedules. I have a few reasons. I got a job so that is something. The work I do is super exhausting. When I usually come home, I grab a shower eat something do dailies on AL and sleep or just lie on my bed. This chapter has sat on 2.5k words way back from end of May.
The second reason is writer's block (I heard that term somewhere and it sounds like a good excuse). It's actually quite funny that while working I have thought a lot of things that would and hopefully will happen in this fic but when I get home I can't be bothered to write.
I was thinking about posting this story on the AL subreddit for more reviews, but I decided against it. It feels a bit… rude to post a story there when it is already like halfway done.
There has been a surge of new fanfics in here and that makes me happy even though I can't read even half of them.
Also, I'm just gonna throw this out there that you shouldn't expect frequent uploads for now. Maybe after summer I can get myself together and start to write more.
Like every time reviews are very much appreciated no matter what ya want to say!
See ya hopefully next time. Some Dood out.