Agent 38: I Never Forgot You

Chapter 19: Concern

     Alex pulled the needle and string from the medical kit, Sarai holding her torso in front of him.
     "You wanted to do this yourself, right?" He asked, struggling to thread the string through the needle. Being partially blind was definitely not a benefit when he had to be precise. Being partially blind wasn't really a benefit in general, and he thought the only good that could come of it was just looking cool.
     He heard her ragged breathing and shifted his focus from the needle to her. "You okay?" He paused, then added, "Be honest."
     She was quiet for a second. "No."
     "Where does it hurt?" Three asked.
     "Where do you think, genius?" She shot, turning to glare at him.
     "Hey, why are you mad at me?" He protested. "I'm helping you. I'm not the one who hid a bleeding wound for a week."
     She inhaled as if she was gonna say something and then stopped halfway, driving her unspoken sentence into stillness. They were both silent for a long, long moment as he fidgeted with the needle and string, unable to thread the string through the hole. His blind eye was certainly not a positive contribution.
     "Everywhere," Sarai whispered, pulling his attention away from the needle and back to her again.
     "What?"
     "You asked me where it hurts," She clarified, her eyes frozen in place. "Everywhere. It hurts everywhere."
     "I can check to see if we have painkillers, but I can't promise they'll work." He said, shifting his focus back to the needle and string. He lined up the tip of the string with the hole in the needle, only to have the string slide off the side of the thin metal. He groaned, frustrated.
     "Need help with that?" Eight asked, a soft smile on her face.
     Alex let out a sigh and handed them to her. She threaded the needle with ease, knotted the tip, then traced her fingers to the end of the string and knotted it as well.
     "Do you know how to do this?" He asked.
     She stopped, realization dawning on her face. "No. No, I don't." She gave him back the needle.
     "You really trust me to do it?" He said, incredulous. "I'm partially blind and I walk into things if I'm not looking where my legs are. That's how bad my coordination is now. I couldn't even thread this stupid needle!" He held it up between his index finger and his thumb. "If I were you, I wouldn't trust me in this situation."
     "I don't really have any other choice," She said, wiping her forehead. A small shiver seemed to tremble through her body every few seconds. "I'm sick, so I don't want anyone else coming in here and getting sick too. Besides, you're the only person I know who knows how to do this. If you screw up, then that's fine. As long as you get the job done."
     Alex hesitated, looking from the needle to the wound, then back to the needle. "I can't do this. I'm gonna end up hurting you even more or- or I'll screw up the stitching pattern or something." He was about to give it back to her when she caught his hands and pushed them back to him.
     "Please?" She asked, her fingers cold and soft against his wrists. "I don't know how to give stitches to anyone, let alone to myself. Even if you call Aaron or Jordan, they can't come in because I'm sick and I don't know if I'm contagious. You're the only person who knows how. I need you."
     "But- what if I-"
     "Don't focus on the 'what-ifs', then you'll really mess it up." Eight said, shaking her head. "Just do this one thing for me. Please."
     "I-" He sighed. "Alright."
     Three steadied his hands and cautiously pressed the needle into her skin. She instantly flinched away from it.
     "If you flinch and I mess up, that's on you." He informed. Eight swatted at him and he laughed. "Seriously, don't move."
     Three slowly finished the first stitch, pinching the wound to keep it together. Sarai had her eyes screwed shut, biting her bottom lip in pain. He tried to be as gentle as possible, but gradually stitching it together would hurt more, so he had to speed up a little.
     The needle accidentally scratched the wound, earning a gasp of agony from Eight. She keeled over, exhaling through her teeth and clutching her stomach, and he quickly withdrew.
     "See? I told you!" He said. "I can't do it! I'm gonna mess it u-"
     "You're literally halfway through," She cried. "Just finish it!"
     "But-"
     "Just do it. Please."
     He sighed. "Alright."
     It took an annoyingly long amount of time, but when he finally finished, he was satisfied. The pattern looked neat and orderly, certainly not what he would've expected. Sarai, however, did not look neat or orderly at all. She looked much worse than she had 10 minutes ago. Her skin had paled, so much so that even the sanitized skin had faded to light hues of blue and green, and a sheen of sweat coated her face and body. The slight shivers he'd noticed earlier had turned into full blown trembling, her eyes were unfocused and dilated, and her fingers twitched every now and then.
     Three gently tugged on the end of the string to tighten the wound together, then knotted it and cut off the needle. He reached for her hand and shook it. "Hey. You ok?"
     She blinked and met his eyes. "Yeah. I'm fine."
     "Liar." He said. "Tell me honestly. Are you okay?"
     She inhaled and then slowly exhaled, as if holding back tears, and slowly curled her legs in to hug them. "No. No, I'm not fine. I- my head hurts, my body feels like it's being torn apart, I'm freezing but overheating at the same time, and I can't get myself to stop shaking. I'm not fine." Her words came out weak and soft, but with a rough edge of anger to them, like she wanted to scream but couldn't.
     For a second they were quiet as he tried to say something comforting, and then he heard a little sob, and then another, and another. He turned, confused, and realized something.
     Eight was crying.
     And if she was crying, then he was really worried, because it meant she was either in extreme physical or mental pain. He knew this because she hardly ever cried, not if she could help it.
     Three edged towards her, gently rubbing her back, and she immediately started crying harder. He knew not to say anything, not to talk, not to ask if she was alright because it would only make things worse. Instead, he pulled her close and held her tight, hoping that silent comfort was enough. She was shaking violently, her face buried in her knees, leaning on him as though he were a wall. She was frighteningly hot, but trembled as though she was cold.
     "I'm so tired, Three." She choked out. "I'm so, so tired."
     "I know," He whispered, stroking hair out of her face. "I know. I'm sorry."
     They stayed like that for a while, until her cries slowed and eventually turned to sniffles, until his arm went numb from staying in the same spot for so long, until she finally pulled away with a small, weak, "Sorry."
     "Don't you dare be sorry," He replied. "You have nothing to be sorry for."
     Eight turned her head away with a nod.
     "I'm gonna go put this back," Alex said, gesturing towards the medical kit. He pressed the back of his hand to her forehead and instantly withdrew, eyes widening in shock. "Oh, cod. You're burning. Lay down, stay here. I know you feel cold, but please don't cover yourself with anything, it'll make your fever worse."
     He stood up with the kit in hand, debating whether he should go put it away or stay and watch her. Eight had done what he said, her skin pale and her cheeks flushed, lying still and completely unmoving on the couch except for her shaking. Her eyes were open, but they were so unfocused that she looked completely out of it.
     Quickly, he went to go leave the kit in its drawer and find medicine.
     Her forehead was too hot. Dangerously hot. He worried, ransacking the cabinets. And if things go south, I can't take her to a hospital either because they'll freak at her appearance. Dammit.
     You know what, frick those people at the hospital. If things go south, I'm taking her anyway, I don't care. I'll pay any price, any extra fees. I don't care how many Salmon Run shifts I have to work, I don't care what demon I have to sell my soul to. I'm not losing her again.
     He turned another plastic bottle around and finally found what he was looking for. When he unscrewed the cap, though, only 4 little pills rattled around the interior. He frowned.
     It'll have to do.
     Alex rushed back out to the kitchen and filled up a glass of water, then back to the living room. She hadn't moved from her spot, her eyes glossed over and dark circles forming under them. She didn't seem to notice him entering the room, and he had to shake her shoulder to grab her attention.
     "I need you to take this," He said, handing her the glass. She sat up and took it in her shaking hand, and the pill in the other, but hesitated. "What's wrong?"
     "Nothing. But... what's it for?"
     "Painkiller. It'll help bring your fever down, too. Why?"
     "I'm just... paranoid, I guess." She admitted, softly. "They sedated me when I was sanitized. I- I don't wan't it happening again."
     "I would never do that to you,"
     "I know."
     Alex sat down next to her and leaned back as she took the pill. She set down the glass and layed down again, this time leaning on his shoulder. She was so warm, borderline hot, and he could hear her teeth clicking together as she shivered. He snatched the thin blanket from the armrest and set it down over them.
     "I'm tired." Her words were barely a breath on the air, so quiet he nearly didn't hear her.
     "You can just go to sleep, y'know." He said. "There's nothing stopping you."
     "Yeah, there is." She argued. "There's your eye and- and your mom and- and we have to worry about Gabriel, too- and then there's me, I have to take care of myself-"
     "Hey, relax." She looked up at him, her brows creased in concern. "You don't have to worry about any of that. We can take care of it when you're feeling better, alright? And when you're sick, I'm legally required to be the one taking care of you, not you taking care of yourself, okay?" He joked. "Besides, we can't do anything right now because you're sick. So if you really want to get out and worry about those things, start with getting some rest. All those problems can come later."
     Eight slowly exhaled, returning to her spot leaning on his shoulder. "You're right." He could feel her head instantly nodding down as she fell asleep.
     "I'll be right here the whole time." He promised.
     It didn't take long until her chest was rising and falling peacefully as she slept. Three tried to stay completely still, not daring to move, because the calmness that had taken over her features was too precious to disturb. He still had to keep an eye on her fever, though, for fear of it getting any worse.
     They stayed like that for hours. The time flew by fast as he, too, drifted in and out of sleep. By the time the sun had set and the moon crawled over the horizon, he had already carried her to the room, and they were both out on the bed.

     A loud, high-pitched, rough noise instantly woke him up, and something beside him was thrashing and kicking furiously. Everything around him was pitch black, and for a panicked second, he thought his other eye had gone blind, too. It took him a moment to realize that it was the middle of the night, and the thrashing was Eight, and the shrill, chilling noise was screaming.
     He turned, hearts racing, to see her shrieking and seemingly fighting for her life under the covers.
     Night terror, He thought, eyes wide. She's in the middle of a night terror.
     Three reached for her shoulders, trying
to shake her awake. He knew you shouldn't wake a person while they were having a night terror, but loud noises in the middle of the night could get the cops called on them.
     Her eyes flared open the moment his hand made contact with her skin. Her screams now turned into pleading, her skin damp with sweat and alarmingly hot to the touch. Her legs kept kicking, her arms still thrashing as though she were fighting someone. "Please, please don't do it again, please-"
     "Eight, it isn't real," He tried, but it seemed like she didn't even hear him. "It's me. I'm not gonna hurt you!"
     "They're going to do it again- I won't come back this time- please-" Her eyes were crazed and wild, terror radiating off of her, almost like she was in the middle of a life-or-death situation. It wasn't until he learned that she was crying, too, that he realized he had no idea what to do.
     He'd already made a mistake; you don't wake someone while they're having a terror. Since they're stuck in the middle of a nightmare so bad to the point where they're screaming, if you wake them up it disorients them, and they think their dreams are their reality.
     In the end, he really couldn't do anything but watch. So he did. Making sure she didn't fall off the bed, making sure she didn't kick off the sheets, and keeping track of the actually intelligible things that made it out of her mouth in an attempt to figure out what she was dreaming of. It was gutting to see her like this; frightened and terrified of something that wasn't even real. She didn't know that, though.
     The screams had eventually silenced themselves, and the thrashing gradually slowed to nothing. Still crying, still talking, but this was a bit better, because now he could do something.
     Alex pulled her close, her shaking body curled into fetal position, damp and hot against his. Her eyes were open and frantic, panicked. Tears streaked across her cheeks, and her hands trembled violently.
     "They're gonna take me," she whispered, her words coming out in short gasps rather than sentences. "They're gonna take me and this time I won't come back- he isn't gonna save me again."
     "Who?" He asked quietly.
     "Three," Eight responded. A shiver ran down his back. "He's gonna leave me, he'll find- he'll find out what I did, he'll never take me back. I don't- I don't want him to leave me, I'm so scared."
     "I'll never leave you," He breathed, stroking her hair. "Never in a million years."
     "He'll find out what I did, he'll- he'll find out and he'll leave me."
     I know I shouldn't do this, but...
     "What did you do?" Three paused, waiting for an answer, something that would tell him that what he thought she did was wrong.
     "I ki- I killed him, I know I did," Her face collapsed in fear, tears streaming down her cheeks. "He'll find out, he'll-" she cut herself off, sobbing hard.
     "Shh, it's okay," He comforted, unease creeping into the corners of his mind. It was unsettling to see her so scared and vulnerable, something he wasn't used to seeing. He instantly regretted asking what she had done; it had only made things worse. "I'm right here, and I'm never gonna leave you."
     She curled in closer, trembling, her head just below his chin. Her forehead was pressed against his collarbone, hot colliding with cold, and worry seeped in because it finally registered with him that her fever had not and was not going down.
     Another sad realization sunk in.
     Sarai was scared of him.

A day late lol
Sorry for any typos or mistakes
Word count: 2720