Chapter 13

Sitting up with the aide of two large pillows, Rainier was subjected to the worst kind of torture he could not quite believe was able to exist. It was so pain-filed and monotonous that he thought he would rather have just had the RED spy kill him back in the infirmary. This terrible torture was just that bad.

"Ya know, I used to live in Boston back in the day, but moved to NYC for my pop's work? Ya know NYC stands for New York City, right? Anyway, my parents are from Boston and their parent's parents are from there too. So ya gotta know the place was that great. I mean, the only thing I like more about NYC than Boston would be the number of giant skyscrapers there are. They always felt so welcoming, secluding, something ya don't find way out..." the scout waved his hands in a general direction, "here."

Shut the hell up!

It was so hard to not just reach up and strangle him to keep his fucking mouth shut. If only they hadn't handcuffed his right hand to the rails of his bed! Oh, they saved this little brat's life by putting on those damned handcuffs.

And he was not just about to let the kid know that he spoke English either. Oh no, that would be a mistake. Even though he had been hit by a baseball bat, almost died from hypothermia, and was subjected to this-

"Yeah, so I told my mum that I wanted to join the military. You cannot believe what her face did then! It turned the brightest shade of red. No joke, I swear!"

Torture.

He knew better than to show all his cards when the game had only started.

"Shut the fuck up, you stupid brat. I'm so sick of your fucking life story," Rainier said quietly, not wanting the scout to catch on that it was an insult, but still wanting to blow off some steam from a really disastrous day.

The scout tilted his head to the side and then his eyes lit up like a very important thought just crossed his mind.

"Ya gotta go to the bathroom, right?"

Way off in the French to English translation but embarrassingly true. He did need to go, but his muscles felt so weak and they had just got his tremors to subside. He did not know how the scout was planning on doing this.

"Jay gave me this awful bed-pan for you ta use, but I mean damn! How degrading!"

You bet your ass it was.

"So let me just help you to your feet..."

The scout slipped from the edge of Rainier's bed and melted from his vision to behind his head. A faint click and the guardrail fell with a metallic boom. The stupid kid forgot to uncuff Rainier's hand, so as soon as the rail folded under the bed, so did half of his arm. Embarrassed, the scout pulled a small key from his pocket and began to fumbled with the handcuffs below the side of the bed. Another click and his wrist was free. Standing back up, the scout maneuvered an arm very cautiously under the bend at Rainier's knees. His face dipped close to his own to the point where he could see the kid's strong blue eyes take on a tone of seriousness. Warm puffs of air escaped the scout's scowling mouth and caressed Rainier's bare neck.

And all too soon, it was gone for the scout had another epiphany on the matter.

"Look I don't want ta scare ya," he removed his arm from under Rainier's knees and pointed to the white-painted door to the left of the medium sized bedroom. "I'm just taking you to the bathroom."

He said 'bathroom' with a drawn-out intention to make Rainier aware of his new destination. But in reality, if he had not known English, who the hell would care if the word was drawn-out or so quickly spoken that it sounded like a squeak? Bathroom translated to bathroom. Damn stupid kid.

The gentle arm returned under his knees and soon he was sitting upright with his legs dangling hazardously on the edge of the bed. The floor looked like such a long way down, almost like he was standing on top of one of those tall New York City buildings.

For some reason this freighted him very much. Rainier frantically clutched his hands to the front and back of the scout's red shirt. Instead of feeling a shove of aggravation, he felt gentle hands rest on his own waist. The scout gave a reassuring smile before standing, and thus effectively pulling the spy to his own feet.

Damn, the room was spinning fast.

But the scout was patient. He made sure to take each step as slow as possible and allowed Rainier to put a great deal of his weight on his own body.

When Rainier finally made it inside the bathroom, he grasped onto the sink just as tightly as he had held onto the scout.

"I'll just leave ya to your business... If ya need me, holler."

Damn stupid kid.

The door shut softly behind him. Rainier stared gravely into the mirror just to make sure.

This gave him ample time to stare at his face as well. The familiar thick lines that formed under the dark half circles that outlined the bottoms of his eyes. His lips were still blue-tinted and his visible skin was as pale as paper.

Hell, why not?

He dug his cold fingers into the bottom hem of his mask, and ripped the fabric free from his head.

That was better.

The tired lines remained in their thick formation. His eyes still dull and blue with large dark circles underneath. Now he could see the thin red lines from the mask's stitching on the pale skin of his face. His dark-blonde hair was in one of the most disheveled look he had ever seen it in. Some parts were sticking straight up from the motion of removing the mask. Some parts were swiped behind his ears. Some parts almost completely in his eyes. He had no clue what the back looked like either. God knows how bad that part looked.

To put it simple, he looked like death warmed over.

He noticed he was also missing his suit jacket, his vest, and some other miscellaneous items like his shoes and socks. Damned thieves. At least he still had his blue pin-striped pants and white dress shirt. Though it was a small condolence to know he was still wearing some of his personal clothing for the pants were torn in the knees and the shirt looked like a wrinkled mess. Oh well, it matched his new hair style.

While gazing at the half-missing ear that barely held his hair back, the sight brought the inspiration to get down to business.

How to get out of here.

He thought about making a run for it. Who would expect a half numb, half frozen man to come running for an exit? He did not believe it either. What if he disguised himself as the scout? That would require shutting up the idiot long enough to steal his clothes and work his magic.

He slumped to the bathroom's tile floor.

He was just so weak.

He would have to wait on that one. Either that, or he could find a weapon...

With a new desperate vigor, Rainier hoisted himself back up with the aide of the sink and began frantically searching for anything, anything he could use to kill with. He shuffled through the dirty laundry with his foot.

Nothing.

Maybe a roll of toilet paper might actually be his best bet in this entire damned bathroom...

He began to gaze again into the mirror, lost in thought. That's when he noticed the odd angles on the mirrors edge. He felt the angles with mild curiosity until he found that the mirror opened into a medicine cabinet. Inside, he found the best thing he could hope for.

A razor blade.

A knock on the door.

"Ya almost done in there? I'll give ya five more minutes..."

Rainier did his business quickly, tucked the razor blade deep within a front pants pocket, and slipped his mask back on just in time as the door creaked open.

"Good, you're done!"

A scent that he had not realized had become familiar filled his senses again as the scout gingerly helped him back to his bed. Finally lying down within the warm cocoon of blankets, he felt his eyelids begin to droop again.

"It must have been pretty tiring for ya, huh?" the scout noted, avoiding looking Rainier straight in the eyes.

Maybe it was just guilt.

The kid, silent, raised the guard-rail back into position, and loosely snapped the handcuffs back on.

"Look, I... You take a nap. I'll come back with dinner when I know you're awake."

The scout slipped his hands into the folds of the blankets to tuck them neatly to the form of the spy's body. Once satisfied with his work, Rainier watched him tiptoe silently to the door that was right of the bathroom. It strangely reminded him of when he had stayed with Elle for the month after Lyle was born. She would do that same quiet motion when Lyle had finally fallen into a deep sleep. Rainier soon found himself doing that same motion too, when he opted to take care of the screaming child into the wee hours of the morning to give Elle and her husband a well deserved break.

Who did this scout think he was? He was not some new-born just finally getting to sleep. No, he was a full grown, twenty-four year-old man, and yet... it scared him to think that that was just how he felt. Like a new-born, completely dependent on another being. Oh God, he just wanted to cry, but that might make him even more of a sight.

During his racing thoughts, Rainier had not noticed that the scout was staring silently at him from the door-frame. It seemed as though he could read his mind.

"Don't worry. You'll soon get your strength back. When that time comes, you'll be back to bugging us on the BLU side in no time."

Unspoken words.

"In the mean time though, I'm Anthony."

There he was again, making his name drawn-out and long as he pointed to himself with his thumb.

There was a small moment of silence of the scout just blatantly staring at the spy.

"I'll call ya Bleu. Like B-L-E-U, not like the color blue."

How original. Did he know that bleu in French still meant blue? And where in all hell did he come up with that one?

"I mean, sense that's what Beau decided to call you."

Are you sure he did not mean Blue, as in his team color? As in, 'that is a dangerous blue spy'?

"Anthony," the kid pointed to himself, "Bleu," His index finger shifted to point at Rainier.

This was going to be a long stay.