What Happens in Vienna {ManxMan}

CHAPTER 13 (Carter)

I was stuck in bed for an entire week before Adalwolf let me walk around with the help of some crutches. Trying to take showers and change into cleaner clothes during that week had been hell, partially because my leg ached, and partially because Tobias was driving me crazy constantly asking if I needed help. As if I was going to let him help me shower.

Although the whole ordeal with the collapsing building and the fact I was so badly injured from it was largely Bryn's fault, I decided not to tell Tobias. The man seemed to be getting overly attached to me, and Bryn was his best friend and second in command. If I were to tell him the guy tried to shoot me (leaving out the little fact I was the one who asked him to do so), before quite literally leaving me pinned to the ground under the collapsing roof, then that would create animosity between them, and I didn't want that.

I would not be the cause of ruining a friendship as strong as theirs.

Whenever Bryn showed up after our argument when the violin broke, I didn't look at him or even acknowledge that he was there, and that kept us from fighting or glaring heatedly at each other, but I couldn't control the little shiver whenever he showed up. I wasn't necessarily afraid of him, but I'd put a gun in his hand and told him to pull the trigger. I let my guard down and let him see my ugliest side, and I was horrified that he might tell Tobias.

As far as I could see, Bryn hadn't said a word about anything, which made me feel a little better, but if I made him mad or upset him in any way then he had that information to extort me with.

Most of the time during the week Tobias stayed in the room with me, and we spent hours just talking, exhausting nearly every subject we could, except for where I came from and what group I was part of.

The more we talked the more I came to enjoy his company, going so far as to smile genuinely when I woke up to see him still in that chair, his hand holding mine. He did that so often I sometimes doubted that he had a phobia against touch, but the way he would lean away from other people with this horrified, sick look in his eyes that he masked with a smile proved that he had been truthful when he told me he didn't at all enjoy physical contact.

Even so, ever since that morning when I'd grabbed his wrist, he'd basically been clinging to me. He would touch me every chance he got, whether it was holding my hand, keeping one hand on my shoulder, or playing with my hair, any amount of contact he could get was enough, and he would always have the same hypnotized look in his eyes, a smile on his lips, watching me like I was the entire world compacted into a single person.

The longer I stayed, the longer I enjoyed it there, even getting along with Adalwolf, whom I decided was a huge step up from Vinet. When I voiced that Adalwolf was a much better doctor than the one at my base because he didn't "experiment on human life", both he and Tobias gave me strange looks, which reminded me that I may have said a bit much.

Kiefer and Klaus were both welcome sights as well. Though I didn't see Klaus often since he couldn't exactly communicate with me, I learned enough with Kiefer as a translator between us. Kiefer had been in the military while Klaus took a station here in Vienna as a law enforcer, basically a cop, and they'd met Tobias one holiday when Kiefer was on leave.

Evidently the entire reason they were alive was because they were from the Prussian area of East Germany, and Tobias thought that was insanely cool. I wasn't surprised. The whole reason Tobias started to talk with me was because I could speak a language he'd never even heard of; it was no wonder he became smitten when he learned the brothers were Prussian.

I had a lot of company during the day when they came to visit while Tobias got some work done, but at night when Tobias had fallen asleep and I was awake with my thoughts, I was reminded that this place, though welcoming, was not my home. The weight of the locket against my chest had become a burden that I resented, eyes closing and trying to convince myself that I would be okay, I could stay there with Tobias forever.