The Soulmate Curse

Courage - Part 2

"I can't believe that I'm the Wiccan and you're the one who gets to see a tree spirit."

Zhen had just walked into Finn's room. It was three weeks since the last time she'd been in here. Finn looked a little pallid and had bags under her eyes. She'd just had her spleen transplant and was in recovery. She would stay under observation for a few more days. Zhen's heart felt lighter seeing her smile. She thought for sure that Finn hated her.

"Hey Finn."

"Where have you been?" she asked, sitting up even though it looked like it hurt. She swung her legs off the bed and grabbed the crutches next to her.

"Finn, you don't have to..."

"Shut up, Zhen," she said.

Zhen obeyed the command and watched Finn walk over to her. She took both crutched in one hand and took Zhen's hand in the other.

"See? I'm not useless, Zhen," Finn said, standing right up against Zhen, her face only inches away. "I'm alive. None of this was your fault. Now, can I at least get a hug from my best friend?"

The words hit Zhen like a sledgehammer. That's exactly what had been plaguing her the most. This sense of unbelievable guilt. The niggling doubts and thoughts about everything that she could have done differently. There was so much that she could have changed that would have meant Finn kept her leg. That would have meant she would have never had to see that haunting look on Finn's face when Dr. Scott had told her... Jesse had helped Zhen work through plenty, but it was Finn's words that pulled her fully back from the abyss. She was still standing on the edge, able to fall back in at the slightest push, but in this moment, she was okay.

She hugged Finn and poured all that emotion into the hug.

"I missed you, Zhen," Finn whispered, her voice catching slightly.

Zhen tried to say something back, anything, but she couldn't speak past the lump in her throat. So, she just hummed in agreement.

"Okay. Can you please help me back to the bed?" Finn asked, pulling out of the hug. Zhen nodded and was about to carry her back when Finn suddenly stopped her with a palm on her chest. "This isn't because I'm weak. It's just because I want to know that I can count on your support."

Zhen smiled and nodded, finally able to push out one word. "Always."

Finn allowed Zhen to carry her back to the bed and cover her up.

"I got you something," Zhen said, once Finn was settled. She retrieved a package she'd brought in and placed near the door.

"It's about time," Finn said, accepting the relatively large box. "My room was starting to feel a little empty."

Zhen laughed. Finn's room was chockful of balloons, cards, holographic graffiti, and tons of casseroles dishes filled with delicious smelling goodies.

Finn unboxed the gift and gasped. The mechanical leg gleamed in the daylight streaming into the room. Zhen had spent the last week or so designing the prosthetic leg and had just printed it a few days before, after she got word that Finn had gone through surgery successfully. This was about a week after Finn had been allowed visitors. Zhen had avoided those first few days. She'd known that the hospital would be full of family and friends and fans visiting Finn and she still wasn't ready for large groups of people. It was a little quieter today, especially this late in the day.

"You replicated my tattoo," Finn said. Was that awe in her voice?

"If it looks too meta, just let me know. I have other designs that will look exactly like a real leg that I can replace it with," Zhen said quickly. She'd gone for a classic, stereotypical killer robot, naked metal design from 1980's movie, Terminator, modifying it by adding a metallic rendition of her tattoo on the side.

Finn laughed. "Don't you dare! I love it."

Zhen watched as Finn threw her covers to the side. As with every amputee, the stump of her leg had been fitted with a custom-made prosthesis adapter that created a path to the nerves, muscles, and tendons in her amputated limb. The adaptor was covered in synthetic flesh that blended in with the real skin and ended with a pockmarked flat end that resembled an electric socket. Its universality allowed for amputees to literally be able to pick out prostheses from a shelf. Or have it custom made by anyone with access to a 3D printer, which was what Zhen had done.

Finn fixed her new leg onto the adaptor. It took a few seconds to sync with her neural network, but she was soon wriggling the toes of the steampunk-esque foot. She swung her legs off the bed and gingerly put her weight on the new leg, bouncing on it for a bit. She reached her hand out to Zhen, who walked up to her and let Finn use her as a support while she took those first tentative steps. The base of the foot had rubber padding so that it didn't clunk when she walked.

"This is great," said Finn, beaming. "Thank you, Zhen."

She turned and embraced Zhen, then she walked over to the room's cupboard and started pulling on her civilian clothes.

"Finn? What are you doing?"

"Do you have it? The metal."

"Are you insane?" said Zhen, getting concerned. "You lost your leg over this!"

"And now, I have a new one," Finn replied, turning to face her with a smile. "Made for me by none other than my most favourite person in the world."

Zhen grimaced. Finn had to stop saying things like that. "You're supposed to be resting."

"Do you have it or not?" she said, packing a bag and slinging it over her shoulder.

Zhen sighed and revealed the pendant she'd made to hold the bead with the MechSoft metal. "You just had surgery."

"It's a bioprinted spleen from my own stem cells," said Finn, walking over and examining the pendant. Zhen was pleasantly surprised at how natural her gait was. "Virtually no rejections have been noted for cloned organs."

"Still..." started Zhen. Finn cut her off.

"They took my leg, Zhen," she said, her voice suddenly cold. "They're going to have to pay for that."

This moment reminded Zhen of the time that Finn rebuked her and Jesse for thinking she was doing this because of any other reason except that it was right. That this was bigger than any of them. Even now, while claiming she was doing this as retribution for the loss of her leg, Zhen saw the fire in her eyes. She saw the determination. The will to fight and get through this, not for her own needs, but because she believed it would cause irreparable harm to the world if she didn't.

"Have you ever heard of the hero complex?" Zhen asked with a raised eyebrow.

Finn smirked. "Are you coming or not?"

"Not in the way that I want to," said Zhen, leaning against the bed and folding her arms across her chest with a cheeky grin.

"Despite how I feel about you, Zhen, there's no way I'm consenting to those jokes," said Finn, laughing anyway as she walked out of the hospital room and sneaked past the waiting room that still had a few visitors waiting to see her.