Author's Note: So an interesting twist was introduced last chapter. I'm sure you're all wondering why I did that and I can honestly say, that I didn't. That part of the story wrote itself and I had almost no control over how that played out so yeah. On to other things, I have no idea how this chapter will play out…but that's what makes writing fun. When you just plop down and let the story write itself. Here we go!
Once again Andrew felt the distinct chill associated with Mizore resting on his chest as he regained consciousness. What was different this time, was that he felt his arms around her rather than tied down to the sides of the bed. Shrugging that thought off for the moment, he took mental stock of himself. The only thing that was different was that his chest, even through the chill that Mizore provided, still felt sore. Considering he had reopened a wound delivered by a Sangheili, he was rather surprised that he didn't wake up dead.
Banishing those thoughts even farther than where he had sent his thought on Mizore he started to shift, alerting Mizore that he was awake. Mizore still rather deeply asleep scooted up closer to his head placed a small kiss on his cheek and rested her head back on his chest. "It's too early darling, go back to bed." she mumbled sleepily. Andrew was stunned yet again and found that once again that his mind had shut down. After a moment and allowing his brain to reboot, he cleared his throat rather loudly and removed his arms from around Mizore.
Feeling the loss of heat from around her mid-section and the rather loud noise next to her ear, Mizore blearily opened her eyes and they met a pair of blue eyes looking back at her. Her eyes widened as she played over the last few minutes in her mind. She blushed a dark red and bolted from the room, somehow snatching her shoes as she went.
Andrew watched her go with a less confused face than the last time this had happened. He sighed, he had figured out why Mizore was doing the things she was doing. She was in love with him, and obviously from this most recent encounter not some kind of school yard crush. She was, even if it was sub-consciously, imagining them after they had left the school. They had evidently married and were living together and for some years with the familiarity with which she used the 'darling' endearment.
That got him thinking; what would it be like if he did manage to settle down and it was with Mizore. He closed his eyes and let his mind provide the scenario.
They would live high in the mountains, where the snow never melted and she never had to have one of those suckers to survive. Though she would grow fond of them and keep one in her mouth anyway, when secretly she knew that it gave her a certain look that did things for him that he could never quite control. Their house would be a log cabin affair, with bear skin rugs and mounted heads from the kills he made that kept them fed when the winter closed the roads. She would make it a habit to always have dinner in the pot and ready for when he came home from the self-defense class he taught at the Yuki-onna school, where he was also employed as the gym teacher. The instant he entered his home, a small blur would slam into him; he would wrap his arms around his son and swing him around with him laughing hysterically, asking him to go faster. Mizore would then enter with his daughter clutching her dress, giggle behind her hand and approach. He would settle their son on one side and give Mizore a kiss on the cheek when she came close enough while his daughter would rush out from behind Mizore and latch onto him.
Andrew opened his eyes and just sat on his bed trying to stop the tears that were threatening to fall. The sad fact of the matter was, that even though he could imagine a life after he left the school he knew for a fact that it would never happen. He was a soldier, the only soldier on this planet who had fought the enemy that was soon going to threaten it. Andrew knew deep in his gut that no matter how much he may wish it, he was going to die before the battle was over. Finally he couldn't stop a few tears from falling, leaving streaks on his face. Because he knew now why he was always relieved when she was around and why he could smile, such as it was in her presence. He had feelings for her, he didn't quite know how deep they went but if he could easily imagine them together after school then they obviously went deep indeed. Andrew wasn't afraid to admit that he had feelings for her, but he was terrified of admitting them to her. Because then he knew it would become more tangible if it was out.
Batting those thoughts away, he tenderly, because he didn't want to upset his injury any more than he had, wiped the tears from his face. Afterwards he simply lie there, allowing his emotions to calm before he ventured out into the world. Once he felt he had his emotions under control, he slowly and gently sat up and swung his legs off of the bed. He then slowly set his feet on the cold floor and very carefully started putting some weight on them. When pain didn't immediately shoot up his spine began putting more of his weight on his feet until he was standing straight and off of the bed.
He took a step and when his leg didn't collapse out from under him he took that as a good sign. Andrew looked around and found his clothes that he had worn the day before, though they looked clean as though someone had had them cleaned the day before. Shrugging his shoulders, he slowly stripped and donned his clothes. Once he was dressed he made his way to the door, which opened just as he was setting his hand on the handle.
He looked up in surprise at the utterly shocked look on the nurse's, who looked like she hadn't gotten a wink of sleep the night before, face. It was several moments before he nodded to her and squeezed by as he left. The nurse followed his progress until she couldn't see him anymore still with the shocked look on her face. After a moment to allow the knowledge that Andrew was up and walking just a day after re-opening his wound and losing so much blood, she leapt into action. She bolted after him fully intent on returning him to the infirmary before he opened his wound again and she became a slave to Issa. She shuddered violently at that thought and ran faster.
After a while and she still hadn't caught up to him she slowed to a walk and began looking around frantically, eventually asking the surrounding students if they had seen Andrew walk by. The first few people hadn't seen him but she finally got a lead when an aide to the Headmaster told her that he had been stopped and summoned a few minutes ago. The nurse thanked the girl and dashed off, now with a direction she ran with renewed determination.
She arrived and barged through the doors to the Headmaster's office only to receive a chair to the face. Slamming onto the ground and seeing stars, her brain tried and failed to figure out why she had been hit in the face with a chair of all things. Once she stopped seeing stars she sat up to see the Headmaster laughing uproariously, while her target stood off to the side. He didn't look apologetic that he had hit her with a chair, if anything he looked at her like it was her fault she was hit with the piece of furniture.
Rubbing her aching forehead she stood slowly so that she wouldn't aggravate it. "Now that was the greatest display of reflexes I have seen in a very long time." Tenmei said after he had managed to get his breathing under control. The nurse growled and pointed an accusatory finger at Andrew. "You should be in bed, not chucking furniture at people. Why would you do that anyway?" she said with a growl, then asked with mild curiosity. Andrew just continued to stare at her. "It was the closest weapon I had at hand that would neutralize the threat, besides, you startled me." he said nonchalantly as he shrugged his shoulders.
The nurse could only stare at Andrew dumbfounded; he had thrown a chair at her, because he was neutralizing a threat and it was because she had startled him. She sighed exasperatedly and rubbed her forehead again. "That still doesn't explain why you are out of bed." she said, locking him with a piercing stare that she knew would cow the most hardened monster. What she failed to remember, was that Andrew had seen worse during his three year stint in the H-CW and that the medics there had far worse stares than she would ever be able to come up with. 'Though by the end of this battle she may have developed "The Stare".' he thought.
"I hate being cooped up for any amount of time, makes me feel vulnerable when I can't move." he explained to her accusation. Disregarding her for the time being, Andrew returned his attention back to the Headmaster and their previous discussion. "So when will the equipment be ready?" he asked. Tenmei rested his chin on his interlaced fingers while he rested his elbows on his desk. "I would say no more than two days at best before the uniforms were ready the weapons will take longer obviously. I would estimate that it would be a total of a week before everything was ready for use." he explained.
Andrew did some mental calculations, sighed and shook his head. "If that's the best you can do then I'll just have to live with it." he said. Tenmei nodded his head "It is for now, I'm sure after this first batch more will be available at decreasing intervals of time." he said. Andrew nodded "So now that we have the equipment problem worked out, we come down to the hard part. Finding bodies to use that equipment." he said. Tenmei nodded and looked back at the nurse who they had both forgotten for a moment. "You may go, I'll make sure he returns to the infirmary after our meeting." he said with an air of dismissal.
Taking the hint the nurse left the room, making sure to close the doors as gently as possible in order to avoid any more furniture being thrown at her. Once the doors were closed and they were confident she was gone they turned their attention back to each other. "You know you already have at least five recruits already lined up." Tenmei said after a moment. Andrew nodded "I know, Mizore would jump at the chance to be closer to me, Inner Moka would jump at the chance to try and show me up or just beat on me, Outer Moka would enjoy the chance to learn to defend herself, Kurumu would join just so that she could try and impress Tsukune, and he would join just to prove me wrong; though that's not entirely a bad thing." he said, listing out the reasons that those various people would sign on.
Tenmei nodded "And young Yukari?" he asked. Andrew shook his head "No frontline combat, if she can convince me to let her join at all. At best she would become a field medic performing triage on the edge of the battlefield." he explained. Tenmei nodded once again "And the rest of the student body?" he asked. Andrew thought for a moment "I would have to test their mettle, some people just aren't cut out to be soldiers but that doesn't mean they can't become medics or some equivalent. But let me worry about getting a solid corps of NCO's trained up before I start thinking about an army." he replied.
Tenmei nodded again "Agreed, now I believe that you have an appointment with a rather stressing nurse." he said with some slight amusement. Andrew grimaced but said nothing as he stood and began walking toward the door. "Oh and Mr. Sampson." Tenmei called. Andrew turned with his hand resting on the door knob "Yes?" he asked. Tenmei's eyes weren't quite as bright as they normally were as they bored into his. "Try and live a little, being serious all the time isn't good for one's health." he said. Andrew only stared at him for a moment before opening the door and leaving.
As he made his way to the infirmary, Andrew pondered what the Headmaster had said as he was leaving. He knew that the Headmaster knew things that he probably shouldn't, so it wasn't really a stretch of the imagination for him to have picked up on his fatalistic thoughts and try to curtail them. He shook his head as he arrived at the infirmary and opened the door. The nurse was pacing just inside, obviously agitated, worried and stressing something fierce.
As soon as she heard the door open, she turned her gaze to him and locked him with a glare that did nothing to him, she simply pointed back to his bed. Andrew sighed, stripped down to his boxers and laid down on the bed, feeling his muscles relax and loosen up. The nurse appeared above him and took a moment to check his heart rate and blood pressure. Once completed, she put the information on a clipboard that was sitting next to the bed and turned her attention back to Andrew.
"As much as you may hate being in an infirmary, this is MY infirmary. So what I say goes, whether you're the Headmaster, God, or soldiers from another dimension." she said. Andrew just stared back at her blankly. "Right, now I'm ordering you a week of bed rest, then another week of light work, and I fully intend to make this stick even if I have to get your girlfriend to freeze you to your bed." she explained. Outwardly, Andrew didn't react to the girlfriend comment but on the inside, he was rolling it around. 'Mizore as my girlfriend.' he thought.
Andrew had to admit, the thought did make his stomach warm in ways he hadn't felt since…all of a sudden all the painful memories of his family and the other world were brought back forcefully to the forefront of his mind and a new emotion made itself known; guilt. He hadn't thought about 'her' since his fight with the Sangheili, granted he had spent most of that time unconscious and he had plenty of things on his plate to begin with, but now confined to his bed and everything already taken care of up to that point, he couldn't stop thinking about 'her'.
He closed his eyes and racked his brain for an image of 'her'. After a moment it began to appear in series. 'Her' hair had been a light brown, flowing down to the middle of her back. 'She' usually wore it in a braid to keep it out of 'her' face when 'she' helped her father on their farm. 'She' had a cute button nose perfectly centered in a heart-shaped face. But the thing that stood out the most about her face were her eyes, for at the time, he had thought them the oddest color for eyes for anyone to have. They were a beautiful, bright amethyst.
More of 'her' began to materialize as he remembered more about 'her'. 'She' didn't have the massive, luscious, bright red lips like the "popular girls" did at the school. They were rather normal, with a natural, light pink coloration. Again, unlike the "popular girls" who had, and flaunted with tiny shirts, DD to E size breasts which if he was entirely truthful, they were probably fake, pumped up with a silicone compound that made them seem stretched. 'She' had a respectable C-cup and she usually wore t-shirts that didn't really show all that much cleavage. And unlike those "popular girls" who wore super-short skirts, or booty-shorts with tiny thongs, or sometimes nothing, and high heels that looked painful, 'she' wore baggie jeans with a leather belt and Sneakers. 'She' was shorter than him by about half a head, which made it rather easy for 'her' to rest 'her' head on his chest. But the most interesting thing about 'her' were 'her' hands. Their farms were next to each other, so they were always over borrowing tools or equipment, or over for dinner. He knew how much work 'she' put into 'her' and 'her' father's farm and yet somehow 'she' was able to avoid the typical result of hard work; rough calloused hands.
While his had become veiny and rough, 'hers' had remained soft and delicate. Which, when they had 'finally' confessed to each other, made holding hands rather uncomfortable for him. It also didn't help that his hands were so much bigger than 'hers'. Every time he had reached out to take 'her' hand he would hesitate, pull away and look at his hands, and sigh. 'She' would then giggle and put 'her' hand in his and squeeze. He would look up and 'she' would give him a look that was reproachful and a smile to take the bite out of it, usually followed by 'her' calling him a 'dope' and giving him a kiss on the cheek.
Andrew opened his eyes and once again his face was streaked with tears. The pain of 'her' loss and the feeling of guilt were both rather acute. There had been no body to recover when 'her' transport had been turned into so much expanding gas, and debris, and with so few survivors from their world, there had been a small turnout at the funeral. Of course, it was a mass funeral, all of them gathered to mourn the passing of not just their families and loved ones, but of their planet and way of life.
He couldn't stop the tears as they fell nor did he want to. Somehow, letting them fall made the weight of his new burdens seem lighter. Eventually, the tears stopped, and he found that he was emotionally drained. With nary a sound, he simply allowed sleep to claim him. Falling into a deep sleep that for the first time since arriving, wasn't plagued with nightmares.
The next morning found him waking with the dawn and feeling better than he had in weeks. He felt revitalized, like he could run and fight for another three years non-stop. He looked around simply to find something to occupy his mind. The infirmary was still full of the wounded from the Sangheili's attack two or so days ago. Though it looked like the shell-shock cases were gone, so it wasn't overly crowded like it was when he was in here last. To his immediate left was a girl, she couldn't be older that fourteen. Her blazer and shirt were gone, replaced with bandages that covered her entire torso. The girl's breathing was uneven, ragged and shallow.
He had seen plenty of those type of injuries during his three years in the service. At least one plasma shot to the chest, most likely more covering her entire torso. One of her lungs was probably damaged as well considering her breathing. If she survived, she would carry the scars for the rest of her life as a permanent reminder of how close to death she had come.
Before Andrew could observe anything else about the girl to his left a high pitched tone sounded at the other end of the infirmary followed by several nurses rushing past. He let his head fall back down to his pillow, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Soon enough the keening started of a grieving mother. Another family torn apart by a war they should have never been a part of. He watched with sad eyes as the mother was lead from the infirmary clinging to her husband for dear life and she let her emotions be known to the world. Her husband wasn't much better, though he wasn't wailing, the amount of emotion on his face and the tears that flowed from his eyes was clear enough.
Andrew clenched his fist so hard blood started to seep from his palm where his nails pierced his skin once the pair was out of sight. He turned to look at the girl and he was slightly surprised to see that her eyes were open and looking at him. Her expression was one of pain and sadness as she gazed at him. She reached her hand out and instinctively he grasped hers in his. "I…don't… (cough)…blame…you." she said, wheezing and coughing as she did so. That's when her heart rate monitor flat lined as well, its angry high pitched tone cutting through the silence from the previous families passing.
Nurse's rushed in and began Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, but Andrew knew it was already too late. The girls wounds were just too great and apparently to foreign for any kind of healing factor to help. After a few moments the lead nurse shook her head just as the parents rushed in. catching the nurse shaking her head the mother let out a half-sob, half-scream as she rushed to her daughter and cradled her body to her own. Her husband eventually pulled her away as one of the nurses draped a white sheet over the girls face.
Andrew's hand was still outstretched where the girl had held it for the last time, her words having frozen him into inaction. Noticing this the mother rounded on him "Look what you've done, this is all your fault! You damn humans, all you do is bring pain and death where ever you go!" she screamed into his face. A resounding smack was heard throughout the infirmary as she slapped Andrew across the face.
Her anger fizzled out to tears once again and she ran out of the infirmary, covering her eyes as she did so. Her husband started after her, but he paused in the doorway to look back at Andrew. "She doesn't mean it, she's just a little emotional right now." he said then left. Andrew could do nothing except stare at where two newly torn apart families had rushed out of the infirmary. What the man had said, while meant to be reassuring, was false, it was his fault.
He had been the one to bring the Sangheili to this world, he hadn't been fast enough or aggressive enough to kill it before it could begin its massacre, and the worst part was that more were coming, more innocents were going to die, and every single one of those deaths were going to be on his head. Because ultimately, he had been the one to provide the perfect opening for those bastards to attack.
Andrew laid in his bed, just staring at the white ceiling. He barely even noticed when Mizore, Tsukune and his harem, and Issa entered the room. Before they even got a chance to talk, Andrew beat them too it. "The count's eleven dead and twenty-five wounded now." he said monotonously. Mizore and the rest of the girls covered their mouths in horror, Tsukune lowered his head in sadness and Issa simply stood stoically as he always did.
Mizore moved over to his side and set her hand on his shoulder, pushing her love, support, and chilling aura into him. Andrew's muscles loosened a bit, but were still rather tense. Before Mizore could do anything to help loosen his muscles further, Issa cleared his throat.
Once he was sure that he had everyone's attention he spoke. "Andrew Sampson." he said formally, causing all present to naturally straighten where they stood. "Many years ago I promised that if a human ever gained both my approval and respect I would adopt them into my family. I now make good on that promise." he continued. Issa then pulled a pendant out from his coat and looped it around Andrew's neck. "Welcome to the family son." he finished.
Author's Note: Well that was rather interesting. We had some humor, some tears and some other stuff though no fighting. Ok so answering some questions before they get asked. No Andrew will not become a vampire that would defeat the purpose that I had set in the last chapter. Yes he is going to be meeting the other sisters at some point soon, definitely within the next chapter or so. No they are not all going to become badasses in a short amount of time, they will be basically trained UNSC Marines at best. Yes some of them are going to have load-outs that they go into battle with. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask in your reviews. Rate and Review as you see fit.