Once again, thank you so much to my reviewers and EVERYONE who continues to come back. You all deserve triple chocolate chip cookies!
Chapter 5
Heavy breathing permeated the stark silence of the room. Bernie raised her head to look at Serena sitting against the wall in front of her, aware that it was in fact her breathing that was echoing off the walls.
"S-sserena?" she slurred, trying her damndest to focus her eyes.
Serena's head shot up to look at the other woman. "Bernie?" she said breathlessly as tears continued to stream down her cheeks "Bernie, is it actually you?"
Bernie smiled "l-last time I checked" Serena chuckled, her panic attack slowly receding at the answer.
She held Bernie's gaze for a few moments longer, her breathing seemingly returning to normal of its own accord. It was only when Bernie broke the gaze that she remembered where they were "What are we going to do, Bernie?"
Bernie frowned and pushed herself forward onto her hands and knees so she could crawl across the floor to Serena. Serena eyed her cautiously. As she came closer, Serena got a good look at her eyes. From where she sat, she could clearly see how blown Bernie's pupils were and this worried her. "Bernie?" she began as she slowly pushed herself up from her seated position, her mind still very much aware of how quickly and easily the woman had reduced 3 thugs to their knees "do you know where we are?"
Bernie stopped dead in the centre of the room, her face telling Serena that she was clearly thinking about her question. Bernie's brow furrowed as she drew her eyes up to meet Serena's "do you?" she said, blinking a few times to try and clear her vision. She could hear thumping, who was thumping?
Serena reconciled that it was a bad question to ask considering she didn't even know where they were. "Ok Bernie, do you remember what the hospital is called where you work?"
The thumping grew louder and louder in Bernie's ears, almost drowning out Serena's words. "Ser-ena I'm s-sorry about…" Her head began to roll from side to side as the thumping began to penetrate her head and vibrate inside her skull "what is that?" She moaned "Its getting louder, tell it to stop!" she clamped her hands over her ears but continued to roll her neck.
Serena strained to hear what was offending the blonde. 'She will however begin to hallucinate. Nothing bad, the drug is mostly used for pleasure, not pain' echoed in her mind. Though a part of her wished it would, she knew logically no drug could have worn off in such a short period of time. Her thoughts were swiftly proven when Bernie's head stopped rolling, her eyes snapping wide open as fear over took her soft features.
Bernie's eyes darted around the room, hands still clamped over her ears as she watched the walls burn from the top down. Looking down to where she sat on the ground, she was shocked to find herself knelt upon soft, warm sand. Taking one hand from her ear, the noise forgotten, she ran her hand through the powdery substance. Snapping her eyes back up to where Serena stood, she quickly became breathless as a world of dirt trek roads and shanty town-like shacks manifested itself around them through the swirling heat of the desert.
Serena watched with mounting worry as Bernie's gaze travelled around the room, her eyes seemingly seeing past the grubby walls that confined them.
"Bernie…" she began, cautiously taking a step towards her colleague "Bernie are you alright?"
"No" Bernie said, the word merely surfing upon her breath as it left her mouth. She shook her head "No it can't be…" She wiped furiously at her eyes, the dust making them water and blurring her vision.
Serena slowly lowered herself to the floor so as not to startle the distressed blonde "Bernie, can you hear me? Tell me what you see" She needed to get Bernie back and without help, the only way to do that was to get her to focus on talking to her. At least she still acknowledged she was there.
"A street…" she whispered, tears building in her eyes "I've been here before"
Bernie looked up at the sound of chatter and watched as people began to mill about the street she was knelt directly in the centre of. Bernie watched as merchants sold their wares and people, so unsuspecting and innocent, went about their day. For a moment, she calmed. A smile ghosted across her lips as children began to play near by. She could almost imagine her own children in their place; the innocents of children truly were universal until the poison of the adult world set in.
"Bernie, keep describing what you see to me" Serena pushed, though Bernie had a smile on her face, she wasn't willing to let her guard down to the unknown drugs running through her system.
"There are children" she chuckled "Playing" a tear began to trail down Bernie's cheek "they're so innocent…" Bernie's eyes drew back to the merchants and their costumers "All of these people… are innocent" She turned her head down "And we took it all away" tears began to run from her eyes as memories hit her like a freight train.
Serena, not knowing what else to do, simply rubbed Bernie's back as she continued to probe the woman with questions to keep her talking "How? How did you take it away?"
Bernie's eyebrows drew together in frustration as the thumping sound returned to her ears, she hadn't even realised it had stopped. She closed her eyes to the pain it caused in her head as it echoed once again against the inside of her skull.
"Bernie, talk to me" Serena pushed once more, wary of her sudden change in facial expression. "How did you take it away?"
Bernie's eyes shot open and she jerked her head up to see a child stood directly in front of her, his wide eyes starring at something in the distance behind her. She recognised his face, but from where? Where had she seen him before?
Reaching a hand out to touch his young face, flashbacks began to invade her sight. Each scene violently slamming into her with little remorse. She'd found him, barely breathing, under a collapsed roof, amongst the rubble. She then watched as his broken body was removed from the wreckage, his whimpering, dear god, his nasally whimpering… shed never forget it. Blood began to gush from his mouth as his body fought against his internal injuries. She fought to keep him alive but ultimately, she'd failed. This was a child of 8, no older than her own son, and there was nothing she could do for him. It wasn't even his fault that this had happened! "No" Bernie said in a broken voice.
"No?" Serena questioned.
"NO!" she shouted, her fists connecting with the cold concrete beneath her. Serena flinched and give serious thought to distancing herself should the blonde become more violent.
"Bern, he's gone. There's nothing you can do for him" Said a familiar voice.
Bernie looked up to see Alex's face looking back at her "BULL SHIT!" Alex looked back at her with a serious face, it was then that Bernie realised "He's just another body to you, isn't he?" Tears streamed down her face as she looked up into Alex's eyes as the sun beat down upon them "ISNT HE?!"
"Ma'am, this isn't the time or the place. With all due respect, I suggest you get your head in the game"
"Game?" She snorted, who did this fresh out of the womb Second Lieutenant think she was "THIS IS NOT A GAME, DAWSON! THIS IS PEOPLES LIVES!"
Serena attempted to shuffle away from Bernie but stopped when she started shouting. Frozen to the spot, she watched as the woman argued. She could only assume without context that she'd lost a patient of some sort down the line, whether it was in the army or in a hospital. There was too much guilt marring the woman's features for her not to have been directly involved.
"You wouldn't understand, Alex" the blonde whispered harshly to the empty air around them "You're not a mother" Serena threw her hand over her mouth, dear god please say she didn't loose a child.
Bernie flinched as an unknown force from inside her shook her body. Swaying where she still knelt in the sand, she looked up from her blood soaked uniform to find herself back in that calm street. Looking around though, she knew something was wrong.
"Bernie?" Serena tried again, the sudden silence in the dim, dank room threatening to suffocate her. She'd been sitting; eerily frozen in place, for far longer than Serena was comfortable with. Yes, she seemed calm, but more often than not, the calmness was the reprieve before a storm. "What can you see?"
"They've all stopped." Bernie murmured back.
"Stopped? Stopped what?" She asked, once again getting closer to Bernie.
Bernie looked around her "Just… stopped" she said absentmindedly as her eyes trailed over each face, all-facing in one direction. Following their line of sight, Bernie turned around where she sat and looked to the sky behind her.
Serena leaned back as Bernie turned to face her, the words 'violent tendencies' constantly repeating themselves in her mind. She cursed herself for being stupid; Bernie didn't have violent tendencies… but then again... "B-Bernie…" She began once more, shakily "wh-what can you see?"
Serena physically jumped back from Bernie as blown pupils moved to stare directly at her "We're going to die" she whispered, her mouth forming a toothy grin as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Serena's blood ran cold. That was the expression she wore earlier… no, Bernie wouldn't hurt her like that! Emotionally, the woman was a disaster area lately, but no… she wouldn't physically hurt her… would she?
Serena crawled a little further backwards, the movement seeming to trigger something in Bernie as her eyes immediately zipped to somewhere above her head again. Realisation seemed to dawn on Bernie as her face crumpled from its grin and an air of panic over took her.
"Oh no…" she said hoarsely.
A dull thrumming sound began to accompany the heavy thumping that seemed to be getting louder. Bernie once again shut her eyes to the sight of planes in the distance and clapped her hands over her ears.
"Bernie" Serena said softly.
"MAJOR!" yelled a rougher female's voice, the word ripping from her throat in desperation.
Bernie heard them both at once. The rough nature of Alex's shout droning out the softness of Serena's tender voice. Her eyes shot open, her breathing erratic. She looked up to Serena stood over her, her sight swimming as Serena's delicate features blurred out of view and became the sharp edges of Alex.
"MAJOR, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"
"A-A-Alex?" Bernie offered weakly, confused. Where'd Serena go?
"Bern!" Alex cried. It was then that Bernie realised she was upside down, still strapped into the drivers seat. Bernie looked around her, her unfocussed mind taking in the reds and pinks of the flowers that dared to stand proudly through the broken glass and fractured metal of the vehicle.
"Bern, come on please, WAKE UP!" Alex cried, desperately.
Bernie felt fingers on her. She looked to Alex, confusion marring her features "But I am awake" She said, head swimming as fingers continued to grab at her. She looked around once more and caught sight of a single poppy standing over Alex's shoulder, the most beautiful shade of red she'd ever seen. She chucked to herself "Reminds me of Serena" she said happily to herself.
The smile quickly dropped from her face as the thumping and thrumming made its self the focus of her attention once more, the vibrations in her head churning her stomach. The world around her seemed to spin on its axis and the fingers clutching her shoulders became almost painful to her. She looked up to tell Alex to stop but just as she caught sight of her grey eyes, her face grew less angular.
"BERENICE GRISELDA WOLFE! YOU WAKE UP THIS INSTANT! YOU ARE NOT LEAVING ME HERE!" came Serena's frantic cry.
Sorry to leave you with such a cliff hanger but the next update won't be until possibly Monday *hides* Don't blame me, blame the social convention of having to go to work and earn a living ;)