This piece is written for the author's self-pleasurement and doesn't carry intention to please anyone else ^_^ except the author herself. However, if you like it and comment, the author's pleasure will be even bigger!
Gordon was present here with his body and partially with his mind. Fixing his blank eyes on the much more friendly wall, than the one before, he seemed to be much calmer. His lips were slightly open, as if he froze with a though ready to be said.
A pitiful sight…. Alyx sighted for the fifteenth time this day, being forced to look at this once strong and brave man… Now she couldn't stop the rumors and bleak looks and opinions buzzing among the Resistance.
"Doctor Freeman is finished", "Doctor Freeman is not who he was supposed to be" "Gordon is mental"
She wiped his face with a wet towel again. What else they could do? No psychiatrist or at least a psychologist was available in the area. Or at least none wanted to admit to be one. Perhaps because the responsibility was just too big.
"They don't want to help the savior of the human kind!" She said to herself while trying to warm up his ice-cold hands. They did everything they could for him, but whatever had happened… The doctor was keeping the horrible truth to himself.
"You're a doctor, but no one can help the doctor like you. " She looked down on his palms wearing signs of many combats, despite the heavy duty protection of the gloves. "Maybe you can help yourself, Gordon?"
All the sudden, the doctor sighted deeply. And started breathing rapidly like he was going thrugh a nightmare with his eyes open. He was perceiving something in his mind. Whatever it was, she couldn't do more than to put her hands on his arms. H was still very resentful with hugging approach.
He blinked rapidly and she finally saw the face of the old Gordon, very tired and pale, but it was him. At least for a while… He gave Alyx a look as if predicting she was a threat or not… Focused for a few seconds trying to remember…
"Where are we?" He said in the end. She felt a relief.
"Oh my god, Gordon! I was so worried…"
"Where are we Alyx? Where is my crowbar?" His tone wasn't friendly enough. It was pretty bitter.
She let go his arms, because he ignored her touch anyways.
"I want my weapon!"
She was already standing in a safe distance, feeling almost the same bitterness. Gordon was still in a shock, or maybe went paranoid… And she couldn't believe it happened to him like it had happened to dozens of people before.
He stood up and went crazy. Although he was still too weak and walking on feet wounded to the bones, he managed to make a wild leap right to the locked door! Alyx hesitated too much. Sick or healthy, Gordon was a killing machine and now he was a paranoid killing machine.
As he was jerkjing the door handle and screaming how badly he need is crowbar, the door opened and he was pushed to the floor. A few guys heard him and came for the rescue. Pretty much the same guys that were "assisting" Gordon back in that underground facility.
"Let me go bastards! If you want to kill me, why you keep on playing with me?" Moaned Gordon pinned to the ground.
"Grab him, Joe. Don't listen to him!" Instructed the chubbier man, that had seen the doctor first in shock.
"Easy to say…" The other guy was clearly surprised how strong the doctor is. He barely managed to hold his right arm down, almost being hit in the face a second before. "Geez, no wonder he made it in Black Mesa."
The chubby guy just chuckled a bit, still shy to laugh at the man that he respected.
Gordon stopped struggling. Alyx was staring at this scene speechless. She could see a new Gordon, a drama queen! He was in a worse mental state then they expected…
"I just wanna go home…" Whispered Freeman and closed his eyes.
He was squeezing his crowbar so hard, that his palms went almost totally white, with bones and
veins clearly standing out. His eyes were perfectly still, piercing like lasers anyone who happened to come across.
Dr Kleiner looked as if he stopped perceiving Gordon as a human. He didn't say much and avoided any conversations about his mental condition. He was more than worried, Alyx could se that actually, Kleiner is close to a nervous breakdown himself, as visibly as a scientist like him could be.
He just gave Freeman this few weird gazes and went back to his quarters. Computers and exotic matter was much safer now. Dr Freeman was the unknown, therefore dangerous substance.
But since he got his crowbar, that they had found buried in a pile of zombies and zombines, he calmed down a lot. Just started giving everybody this extremely disturbing looks, as if he wanted to kill you. But only if you behaved in any suspicious way and that was almost anything. Alyx shivered when she got under that look for the first time. The man she once knew, was much more than she thought before. He had some kind of majesty in his insanity… Intelligent beast.
He refused to eat and when he slept, he was having some horrible nightmares. Talking and moaning, sometimes even for two hours in a row…
Alyx got brave enough to come closer only when he was asleep now. His post-traumatic stress disorder was slowly making her anxious too… He was whispering some gibberish again, holding the crowbar in right hand like it was a teddy bear. Very suitable.
She was thinking how to tie him up or do something else so they could force him to eat. You could see already he lost a few pounds. They gonna have to use a drip solution if…
"Don't kill me!"
Alyx jumped back and the guarding guy moved forward, ready to protect Alyx and Freeman from himself. Gordon moved abruptly to the other side and continued to sleep. Making some surprising satisfactory sounds.
She touched his forehead gently, where some tiny pearls of sweat were forming and felt that he's much too hot. He was too hot anyways… But she had to act quickly, before he wakes up and goes crazy again. It was extremely hard to get enough sedatives for a grown up man and even harder to apply any to him.
Alyx ordered the guard to bring all the stuff she needed.
His clothes were covered with sweat, so it was necessary to take off his clothes. She almost felt some primitive pleasure thinking of it. However, Gordon's state left nothing for romantic atmosphere…
"I'll help you, Alyx" Said Jack.
That would prevent all unwanted thoughts.