Next Few Months
Nadia was a gofer, gaining muscles in her arms as she carried boards from the person cutting them to the people who needed them. She started off slow, building her muscles back. People's voices steered her in the right direction being her eyes. It didn't take long for the businesses and dock station to be up and running.
What they could save from scrap they built a place for kids to play, a playground of sorts, dedicated to those who lost their lives. Once she gained muscles, she started climbing ladders with roofing material and nails and hammers. When she started hammering nails that's when she started cussing worse than a sailor, hitting her fingers more often than the head of a nail. Everyone had newfound respect for her, she was out there, blind and working her ass off.
"Imam would be proud of you, hell, you have shocked me and that's saying something." Damien slugging her in the arm. Nadia shrugged,
"Just trying to do my part and hey I'm gaining my strength back, but I suck at hammering." Nadia showing her busted fingers to him,
"Practice makes perfect." Damien letting out a chuckle over her fingers, she flipped him off.
"I still have one finger that isn't busted." Nadia explained,
"I see that, give it time, you'll have that one busted too." Damien seriously.
"Ass." Nadia huffed out as they took lunch. Peter and Damien sat by her,
"So, I take it you and Nadia here got off to a good start?" Damien seriously,
"Oh yeah, she has some good ideas for this place. Told her she could be an awesome designer if she wanted to be." Peter explained,
"Nadia can't draw for shit." Damien taking a swig of beer and taking Nadia's beer away.
"Come on Serge, just one?" Nadia growled,
"You are getting in shape so no." Damien seriously, Peter raised a brow,
"Going to train her combat style." Damien explained to Peter.
"Oh, ha, good luck with that." Peter snickered, Nadia's hand caught around his throat,
"You don't think I can do it?" Nadia angling her head as she stared in his direction and growled out, Damien sat by and watched and drank his beer,
"No…" Peter croaked out,
"Just cause I'm blind I'm not helpless." Nadia growled out.
"I know that." Peter turning blue,
"I …wasn't…laughing …at you." Peter croaked out, Nadia snatched her hand away, Damien gave her the beer back.
"Just one." Damien putting her hand on the beer.
"Thank you." Nadia calmly,
"No one will see you coming that's for sure." Peter explained as he pulled in much needed air into his lungs.
"And why is that?" Nadia narrowing her eyes in Peter's direction,
"Cause you're a hot looking chick." Peter smirked,
"Pete, I think I'd stop before you dig your own grave." Damien explained calmly.
"Figured that chicks like to be complimented." Peter explained,
"Usually guys use the words gorgeous or beautiful, not 'hot looking chick'." Nadia taking a swig of her beer, or trying to, the top was still on. Nadia growled,
"Not funny Damien." Nadia huffed as she put the beer at the edge of the table and slammed her hand down on it to pop the top off, Peter and Damien chuckled,
"Trying to keep you on your toes there Nadia." Damien smirked.
"Uh-huh, that's the last time you'll trick me on that." Nadia huffed as she took a swig.
"Sure Nadia." Damien rolling his eyes,
"Don't roll your eyes at me." Nadia grumbled. Damien looked at her stunned,
"You've been living with me too long." Damien leaning back in his chair.
"Don't I know it." Nadia grumbled. A month later Damien and Nadia had started her training and Cronus, the name Nadia came up with, was almost rebuilt. Damien started slow with her training. He started with teaching her proper punches and kicks, then using rubber plastic knives. Damien taught her how to focus her other senses and they had grown tenfold. It had helped that she had worked to help rebuild the town.
She could hear his movements and fend off his attack on her. He had trained her military style and other styles he knew of. It took a while, about five months before Nadia started to get the hang of fighting with rattan eskrima (bamboo fighting sticks). But this night her focus was off, her mind was elsewhere. Damien struck her in the side, knocking her down, and knocking her breath from her.
"Fuck." Nadia shouted, he tried to help her up,
"I'm fine." Nadia jerked away. Slowly she sat up and ran her fingers through her hair.
"Where are you at today Nadia?" Damien sitting in his basement floor with her,
"I'm here." Nadia grumbled,
"If you were here, you would have tried blocking that, you didn't." Damien explained. Nadia was quiet for a while,
"I miss Riddick." Nadia mumbled,
Okay, I think you need to know about the damage you took." Damien explained.
"Why now?" Nadia asked,
"Within these short few months you have come a long way from when I found you, and you need to realize that too before you give up and quit. The only reason you haven't become a ball of mush that can't get out of bed in the morning because of depression is because you have been going. You have been out there working your ass off to help rebuild the town, and we have recently been doing your training so you should be sleeping pretty good, so I don't…" Damien being interrupted,
"I have night terrors. Those hammerheads are haunting me again, and whoever cut me up, I'm still fighting all of them on occasions. I need him back. He was the only one who could fend them off." Nadia whispered.
"Jesus Nadia, why didn't you say anything?" Damien putting his hand to her cheek, he dried her tears.
"Cause no one can find him, he is a ghost, he doesn't want to be found." Nadia mumbled.
"Maybe this isn't the right time to tell you about the damage you endured." Damien explained.
"No, I need to know how far I have come." Nadia explained,
"Are you sure?" Damien asked,
"Yeah." Nadia staring at him with dull and film covered eyes, Damien swallowed hard, he pulled her into his arms and lap,
"When I found you, you were holding your right breast to where it was supposed to be attached, it was barely still attached." Damien telling her in pieces of what had happened. He heard her suck in air,
"You were holding your stomach with your other hand to keep your guts in place. Your eyes, from your right temple to your left temple, it was as if someone sprayed acid in your eyes because all of it was burnt. Your back was cut up but not near what the front of your body was damaged. Like I said, you didn't have enough skin to do a proper skin graft with so I repaired the internal damage, then gave you a month to stabilize and went back with synthetic skin from your DNA and made sure to fix the damage properly." Damien explained. Nadia had swallowed the bile that she had upchucked, she was quiet for a long time.
"Nadia, talk to me." Damien freaking out,
"So, I'm stitched together like Frankenstein?" Nadia asked harshly.
"No, you barely have any scarring, even your eyes and temples." Damien explained,
"Show me." Nadia explained as she began to shake.
"I don't understand what…" Damien being interrupted,
"Take my finger and run it over my scars. I have to know that I'm not all stitched up and ugly." Nadia explained. Damien took her finger and put it to one temple to let her feel a tiny ridge of a scar, Nadia pulled her sports bra off and Damien took her finger and guided her finger down a faint scar starting at her collar bone and going through the valley of her breasts, it curved around on the underside of her breast.
"Everything was lasered, a few more months and you wont even feel that." Damien explained softly. Nadia put her sports bra back on, she slowly stood up, but she was quiet for a moment,
"Thank you for everything you have done for me Damien, especially with the laser surgery." Nadia explained quietly.
"You are far from ugly Nadia. I wouldn't have left you like that." Damien seriously,
"I'm glad I had you in my dire need, but he can't ever know about any of it." Nadia limping her way towards the stairs,
"Nadia…" Damien being interrupted,
"He can't ever see me in those pictures, all cut up like that!" Nadia shouted,
"Alright, I'll give them to you tomorrow. Where are you going?" Damien asked,
"I'm done for the night." Nadia growled as she limped off upstairs and out of the club.