Bring The Heat

18. Taking A 'Break'

Wren laid still, with her eyes shut. Her body felt weak and heavy. The crackling of fire echoed powerfully around the room. She could feel immense heat on her face, the front of her body, and behind her head. Screaming and crying rang out around the room - before it was silenced after a loud rumble and crash. Her eyelids struggled to pull open.

She was in a house, one that felt faintly familiar. Getting up slowly and drowsily, Wren noticed that she was in someone else's body; a small boy, surely no older than 7 or 8. Dazed and confused, she examined her surroundings. The roof was collapsed in some places, collapsing in others, and was covered in a thick blanket of smoke. The fire raged almost all around her.

Sluggishly, Wren dragged herself out of the room and towards where she seemed to intuitively believe the front door should be; just down the hall and to the left. As she limped into the hall, her aches and searing burns muffled by the dreamy fuzz in her skin, she heard a whistle behind her.

Wren had barely finished turning when she saw flames and debris alike get flung to the side as something invisible barreled towards her faster than a fighter jet, and ripped her face at the edge of her jaw! Wren felt the horrific wet trickle of flowing blood down her chin, and clapped her hand to the edge of her face, only to find...

That she was completely fine?

Looking around the room once more, Wren found that she was in her bedroom. Her heart beat a mile a minute, and that clear air felt so good as she sucked in deep breaths. She grasped at her jaw and found the only moisture was the sweat she was drenched in.

Wren sighed. Just another nightmare.

Despite the dim lights in her room and the hall suggesting it was very late still, she decided to get out of bed. She walked down the hallway, the heating only slightly countering the jabbing chill of the air, and made her way to the hangar. Already, as the heated metal flooring turned to cool concrete, and the wide open entrance allowed the freezing night air to invade the compound, Wren felt better. Her body had pretty great internal heating (probably the fire).

She leaned against the edge of the hangar entrance, looking up past the trees to the moon, beginning to recede towards the horizon, allowing herself to be embraced by the silver lunar glow. Wren loved looking at space, and felt like some fragment of her soul resided up there, calling out to her magnetically. She took a deep breath of the frigid air, but found that it stung her throat, which was dry and scratchy, so she headed off to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

On her way there, Wren passed the medbay, and noticed light still shooting out from the edges of the door. Weird...

Wren began to knock, but the door slid open halfway through. Inside was Lewis, not typing at the terminal this time, but instead sprawled out on the medical bed, staring up at the ceiling. She turned her head lazily to Wren.

"You're up late."

"So are you, unless... you were sleeping... you don't sleep in here, do you?"

"No. I just rest. Why are you up?"

"Agh. Couldn't sleep..."

Lewis stood up, way too quickly and normally for someone who should definitely be tired at this point. She approached Wren in the doorway, getting pretty close, at least Wren thought.

"Nightmares? Those'll happen. Also dehydration, maybe a loss of motor control sometimes, etc etc... that's why we don't lose limbs, Wrennie. It doesn't tend to work out."

"I don't think it's the plant hand, but sure, whatever. Uh... are you ok, by the way?"

"What do you mean? I told you, I'm not tired or anything."

"No, like... from earlier. It seemed like you and Rebound got in a fight or something."

"Agh... you know Rebound. Hard not to fight with him, no? Look, I need to get back to work, so unless you got a plant hand issue, don't talk to me. G'nite, Wrennie."

Huh. Talk about evasive. As much as Wren loved snooping, she decided to leave it, at least for now. You don't get that evasive unless you REALLY don't want to talk about it.

Wren continued on to the kitchen. She filled a glass with water, and sipped it gently. Her throat cleared up, and the skin on her plant hand had a strange loosening sensation; like it was tight this whole time, but she hadn't noticed.

As she sat there, sipping, she got scared almost out of her skin by BM silently slipping into the kitchen. It seemed he got a similar fright from Wren.

"Fucking hell... how do you make literally no noise?" she whined.

"Uh, that's another Best Man thing. It's not just strength and intelligence, y'know. It's heightened senses, homeostasis control, balance, pretty much everything you'd want to feel good doing stuff. Wait! Don't try to distract me like that. What're you doing up?"

"Couldn't sleep. I'm not tired or anything. Technically, I slept when I was unconscious earlier, from, y'know, losing my hand. Is there anything that needs doing? I'm a little bored."

Wren saw no issue with this request. In fact, she was proud of herself for being such a go-getter!

BM felt the opposite. When you start trying to work on the basis of having rested during a medical emergency, you need time off. Especially considering this was Wren, who didn't have the best track record of work-life moderation.

"Yeah, y'know what? I'm gonna give you the week off. Not just work, but I want you to stay outta recruitment stuff too, ok?"

Wren was confused.

"Uh... how? What else am I meant to do?"

Ah. BM now realised how much he had messed up the delicate situation that was raising someone with complete memory loss to lead both a normal and abnormal life simultaneously.

"Uhhh... Cece could show you tomorrow! Go sleep, ok? You're gonna want more sleep than just some recovery rest."

Nicely done, BM! Part of leadership is task delegation, after all.

"Fine, fine. Cya, BM."

Wren returned to her bedroom, and laid down on her bed. It took her a while to get to sleep, but eventually she drifted off.

-(THE NEXT MORNING)-

A girl skipped cheerfully through town. Heads turned to watch her, the general public seemingly immobilized by infatuation. She went up to one man in a suit, and gave him a hug. He was so incensed by love that he didn't even notice her hand slither into his blazer pocket, stealing his wallet.