In the following few weeks, Mina witnessed the birth of two more healthy babies. The joy she saw on the faces of their parents warmed her heart and broke it simultaneously. Every night for the past couple weeks, she had tried to work up the courage to talk to her husband. The image of the children she had imagined constantly floated in her mind, smiling at her. Motherhood had never been a plan of hers until she was faced with the fact that she may not experience it. She worried that she had jumped the gun by telling him that having a family wasn't important to her.
In reality, children shouldn't be a priority in their marriage at that moment in time. They barely knew each other. The things she knew about him was that he was overconfident, reckless, and had a temper. None of these were good traits to have when someone small and defenseless depended on you.
Mina was pulled out of her thoughts by a rumbling sound moving through the compound. The items on her desk rattled and she grabbed her cup to prevent it from spilling. She looked across the room to see Corric emerge from his office.
"What was that?" she asked.
Corric shook his head and crossed the room to the radio system. He grabbed the receiver and spoke into it.
"This is Corric. What was that rumbling? Is medical assistance required?"
Corric's question was answered by another noise, this time a louder rumbling. He shared a look with Mina and the two of them sprang into action. He grabbed his med kit and headed out the door with Mina on his heels.
"I'm getting really tired of hearing that sound!" Mina shouted as they ran, yelling over the alarms that had begun to sound in the hallway.
"You get used to it," he replied.
As they ran down the hallway, they could smell smoke coming from the area that the labs were located. Corric cursed and turned the corner. Mina followed behind him but was stopped short when she ran into his back. She peered around him to see smoke pouring from a room down the hall. There were several people outside the room, coughing as they stumbled away from the smoke. Corric broke out of whatever trance had stopped him and ran in the direction of the people.
"What happened?" he asked, checking people for injuries.
One of the people raised her hand to get his attention, coughing roughly before speaking.
"Some chemicals were mixed incorrectly and exploded. Some were knocked unconscious and weren't able to get out. Some men went in to retrieve them."
As the woman was speaking, a group of people emerged from the smoke filled room. Mina and Corric moved forward to help move the injured people to a safe distance to examine them. Another explosion shook the hallway as a pair of men came through the doorway, knocking them down. Mina walked over and helped the larger of the two men to his feet.
"Are you hurt sir?" she asked, checking him for visible injuries.
The man shook his head and gestured at the one he had helped out of the lab.
"I wasn't in there when the explosion. I went in to save him."
Mina bent down to check the man on the ground, rolling him onto his back. When she moved him, he coughed and blinked rapidly at her. When she saw his face, she sighed.
"Ladon! What did you do now?"
Ladon started to sit up and looked around the hallway at the group of people. He seemed to be looking for someone.
"Where is she?"
The other man shook his head in confusion.
"I don't know what he is talking about. He was barely conscious when I found him and he kept mumbling something about a 'her' and 'Dahlia'".
Mina's eyes widened and she joined Ladon's search of the crowd. She hadn't seen Dahlia in the group, but she could have overlooked her in the chaos. She stood from Ladon's side and pointed at the man before her.
"You!"
"Commander Pranos ma'am," he answered.
Mina waved away his answer. His name wasn't important right now.
"Was anyone else in there? A blonde woman?"
Pranos shrugged unhelpfully.
"I couldn't be sure. There was so much smoke and the flames were growing."
Ladon stumbled to his feet and nearly toppled over, Pranos catching him before he could.
"She's still in there. Dahlia!"
Mina glanced down the hall at Corric. He had heard Ladon's outburst and his attention was grabbed. He started to move in the direction of the doorway.
"No! We need to get her out!"
His movement was stopped when a pair of arms wrapped around his midsection. Mekhai stood behind him, holding him in place.
"Oh no you don't."
Reinforcements must have shown up while Mina had been talking to Ladon and Pranos. Mina watched Corric's desperate attempts to free himself from Mekhai's grasp. She glanced at the room that would surely be fully engulfed in flames and smoke by now. Making a split second decision, Mina pulled her jacket off and wrapped it around her head. She ran into the room before anyone could stop her. She could hear someone yelling her name but she didn't stop.
As soon as she entered the room, Mina could feel her lungs filling with smoke. She coughed and moved across the room carefully, avoiding the open flames. She squinted in the bright light and looked around the room, searching for any sign of a person.
"Dahlia! Are you in here?"
Mina heard a faint sound that was quickly drowned out by the roaring of the fire. She tried to locate the source of the sound, but the smoke made it hard to see anything. The jacket over her head only hindered her vision further. She lowered it to improve her line of sight and was relieved when she saw a hand sticking out from behind a lab table that was on its side. Mina gingerly climbed through the burning debris in the direction of the hand. When she reached it, she could see the woman it belonged to.
"Dahlia? Can you hear me?"
Dahlia lifted her head weakly and coughed. She pointed at the debris that had fallen on her, trapping her in her positon. Mina moved forward to move it from Dahlia's body, but quickly pulled her hands away hissing in pain when she was burned by the debris. She acted quickly and wrapped her jacket around her hands so she could move it without injuring herself. Once she had moved the item from Dahlia, she moved back in front of her to help her up.
"Dahlia can you stand?"
When she got no response, Mina bent down to look closer at her face. She was disappointed to discovered that Dahlia was unconscious. She wouldn't be able to walk out of here and Mina certainly couldn't carry her. The smoke was starting to get to Mina and she was starting to have a hard time breathing herself. They wouldn't last much longer in here.
Mina grabbed onto Dahlia's wrists and began to pull the unconscious woman in the direction of the door. She was dismayed to discover that her previous route was no longer an option and she had to find an alternative. More debris fell from the ceiling around them, some falling dangerously close to them, causing sparks to fly from the burning flames. Mina felt a searing pain on her hands and released her grip on Dahlia's wrists. She screamed in pain and clutched her hands to her chest.
"Someone please help!" Mina screamed, hoping someone in the hall would hear and come to their aid.
She bit her lip to take focus away from the pain in her hands and grabbed Dahlia's wrist again, starting to move in the direction of the door again. She coughed roughly, feeling her lungs starting to give out from the smoke. When she was only a few feet from the door, she felt her legs give out under her. She couldn't go any further.
"Help!" she called out weakly before she laid her head down on the ground.
Mina tried to focus on breathing, but there was no oxygen in the room to enter her lungs and she could feel herself losing consciousness. As her eyes started to drift shut, she could hear shouting. A pair of arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her upwards, causing her to lose her grip on Dahlia's wrists.
"No…"
As she was pulled from the room, her lungs were grateful to get some oxygen. Mina coughed and looked around her with barely opened eyes. She watched another person emerge from the room behind her, Dahlia in their arms. The person holding her placed her down gently on a stretcher and she was able to get a good look at their face. The brown eyes that she saw were unmistakable. Her husband's worried face filled her field of vision as she was lifted on the stretcher. That was the last thing she saw before she finally lost consciousness.
When Mina regained consciousness, she was surrounded by the bright lights of the infirmary. She could feel the oxygen mask covering her face and reached up to move it. When her hands entered her field of vision, she was surprised to find them bandaged. She lowered them again and using her elbows, pushed herself into a sitting position. The infirmary was filled with injured people and bystanders. Mina looked over to the bed next to her and was relieved to see Dahlia lying in it.
"Mina, how are you feeling?" a voice asked.
Mina turned her attention to the source and saw Corric standing between her bed and Dahlia's. He looked absolutely worn out. He reached out and patted her arm, clearing avoiding her hands. Mina gave him a weak smile, wincing in pain.
"I hurt everywhere, but I'll live."
Corric let out a sigh of relief and glanced in the direction of the unconscious woman in the next bed.
"You saved her. You have my eternal gratitude, along with Ladon's. Thank you Mina."
Mina gave him another smile and turned to look across the infirmary where the man he had just mentioned was sitting on a bed talking to a group of people. One member of the group turned to look at her and her eyes met her husband's. Corric noticed where her glance had gone and patted her arm again.
"He's upset about what happened and that you willingly put yourself in danger. But I think deep inside, he's proud of you."
Kolya broke away from the group and started to cross to Mina's bed.
"I guess we'll find out in a moment," she sighed.
Corric backed away as the commander approached, leaving the couple to converse privately. Mina kept her eyes down, avoiding her husband's gaze. Neither of them said anything for a few moments, but the silence was eventually broken by Kolya.
"Mina, why did you run into a room filled with fire?" he asked in a pained voice.
Without looking at him, Mina looked over at Dahlia again.
"She was in there. She deserved to be saved. Not only is she a brilliant scientist, but she means something to people."
Kolya shook his head and placed his hand under her chin to make her look at him.
"But it didn't need to be you. You could have been killed."
"Well Corric tried, but Mekhai stopped him. No one else was moving to do it and we were running out of time. I did what I had to."
Kolya's concerned expression morphed into a combination of exasperation and pride.
"You were very brave Mina. I don't know if I could have done that."
Mina's brow furrowed in confusion.
"But you did. You pulled me out of there."
Kolya shook his head.
"I went a few steps into the room to grab you. That is different from what you did."
Mina reached up with her bandaged hand and placed it on her husband's cheek.
"Thank you for puling me out, nonetheless."
He smiled at her and leaned in to place a kiss on her forehead.
"I will let you rest. Corric said you can come home in a few days, but I want you to heal."
He kissed her again, this time on her lips, before walking away. Mina felt her eyes start to flutter shut again as she gave into the exhaustion that engulfed her.
A/N: I apologize for the long gap between uploads. I hope to update again soon. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review!