Unexpected Grief

Posted on Sat Mar 19th, 2022 @ 1:31am by First Lieutenant Bethany Harrison

Mission: HYDRA: Another Head Rises
Location: Drake Academy Medical Center
Timeline: Present Day

The state of the art hospital room was dark and quiet, save for the soft light and odd, random tones from the medical equipment over the bed. The man that they kept vigil on seemed to be sleeping peacefully, his vital signs all reading normal. Bethany knew that it wasn’t normal though. Nothing about what was happening was normal at all.

Sure, they had always managed to find trouble, and they’d been through some interesting misadventures, but this had been a calculated attack on multiple fronts. The round that he had taken had been meant for her. She should have been the one in that bed, with people wondering what in the world had happened.

All that they had been able to determine was that it was some kind of nano-technology. They didn’t have a clue how it worked, but it just seemed to shut them all off. They had promised her that they would do everything in their power to bring him back, but there was no guarantee, or even a predictable timeline.

Bethany stared out over the normally well-lit grounds of Drake Academy, only vaguely registering the fact that certain areas were dark, still being cleared after HYDRA’s attack. The only thing that the young woman could focus on was the painful, dark silence from the man that her soul had been bound to. The man that should have been her husband by then.

The green-eyed brawler reached up with a pale, thin hand, quickly, angrily wiping the tears from her face. Some random thug had ruined the night that Jon had proposed to her, and HYDRA had destroyed her wedding day. She had paid them all back in kind for their efforts, though. Not that it really made her feel any better. But then, it didn’t really make her feel any worse.

Jon was silent, still, and feeling nothing from him felt like a knife stuck in her ribs. Again. It even hurt for her to breathe. Everyone kept telling her that she couldn’t shut down, but really, that’s all she wanted. If he wasn’t there with her, it didn’t really matter to her. Being separated from him had nearly killed her before. Sure, he was alive, right there in front of her, but he was...gone.

A light knock came on the door, then it opened slightly. A small Asian woman poked her head into the door, her red reptilian eyes settling on the young woman at the window. Syn sighed softly, and stepped into the room when Bethany didn’t turn to greet her. “I thought I would check in before the madhouse gets going,” she said, closing the door behind her.

Bethany shrugged slightly, wincing a bit as she did, the pain of her own injuries from the fight rearing up to worsen her already beleaguered mood. “I appreciate that,” she responded, then sighed as she turned.

An eyebrow raised over one draconic eye as Syn got an eyeful of the young fighter. Her face bore the fading yellow remnants of a black eye, as well as significant bruising across her cheek and jaw. That was to be expected after the battle, and she knew that Bethany preferred to deal with her injuries with Dyami’s accelerated natural healing, rather than other options. It was the pale, drawn look that had settled over her young features, and even though her oddly thick hair. “You require nourishment,” the diminutive dragon lady stated plainly.

“I really don’t need another lecture,” Bethany said, her green gaze meeting Syn’s evenly as she crossed her arms over her chest. The black tank top that she was wearing did nothing to hide the healing scars and bruises on her arms and upper body. “I’ll survive off of what I get through the window and when they have the lights on all day. It’s not great, but it works.”

Syn approached the far side of Jon’s bed, seeming to grow in height as she did. She glanced at the monitors, then over to the man lying on the bed. “Your suffering does him no favors,” she said, her voice soft, gentle.

“He’s not feeling anything right now. Trust me,” Bethany said, looking at him sadly, her teeth clenched slightly as she choked back tears. She moved over to the bed and reached out, gently, lovingly running her fingers through the gray streaks at his temples, absently straightening his mussed hair. “He’d hate his hair being so out of place. He definitely needs a trim,” she said, her voice strained.

“We can arrange...”

“No,” Bethany interrupted quickly, looking over at Syn, shaking her head. “I brought his grooming kit. I can handle it.”

“Bethany...”

The grieving green-eyed brawler raised a hand and shook her head. “Look, I appreciate your concern. But there’s nothing that you can say that can make me feel better, unless you’re here to tell me that this waking nightmare is over.”

“I wish that I could say that,” Syn said, her own voice sad, tired. She sat down on the chair and looked up at the dangerously powerful woman opposite her. “He is not the only one in this condition. I know that he’s the only one that truly matters to you, but I have students and friends filling this ward right now. I never liked the feeling of being so powerful, yet so helpless in some situations.”

“I would burn this world to ash for him,” Bethany said, looking at Syn curiously. “And if it means finding the tech that will snap him out of this, I just might.”

Syn actually chuckled a bit darkly at Bethany’s comment. “If I didn’t have to be the bright, stable face of the Academy, I might be right there with you,” she said, leaning back and adjusting her black, golden-dragon embroidered robes. Not all of her long life had been spent fighting on the side of good.

“Also, I can’t let you burn the world down,” the diminutive administrator said with a slight smile. “HYDRA? I really couldn’t care less how many heads you have to burn off. Just keep the collateral damage to a minimum, if you would?”

“No big speech about how I should just take time to heal and use a level head before I go running off to brace the beast?” Bethany asked, glancing back to the small, dragon-eyed woman.

“You’ve never really been one to listen to lectures,” Syn redirected pointedly. “Of course, that is sound advice. You would be at a tactical disadvantage in your current condition.”

As much as she hated to admit that the Academy’s odd little headmistress was right, she knew that she was. “You’re good at manipulation, aren’t you? Getting into people’s heads?” Bethany said, arching a brow, studying the mostly unreadable being sitting across from her.

“I promise that I’m not creeping around in your head,” Syn said, raising her hands, as though the powerful telepath was trying to show that she was unarmed. “One doesn’t need to be able to read minds to know what you’re thinking right now. It’s bleeding off of you. You want revenge, and I can’t blame you. But, you’re still recovering, you’re grieving, and you’re starving yourself. You’re not exactly at the top of your game right now. That would only give our enemy the tactical advantage.”

Bethany’s face nearly went white, as did her hair. “I can do what I have to do,’ she said, though she knew that what she had to do would only serve to cause her more suffering. Again she gently ran her fingers through Jon’s hair, sighing heavily.

Syn stood and gave Bethany a small bow before moving towards the door. “Take the time that you need. You know that you’re welcome here as long as it takes. Sunrise is in two hours. I won’t demand that you step outside, but the sunrises here are pretty stunning, if you’re so inclined.”

As the door closed behind the odd dragon lady, Bethany was again left in silence. Part of her gave a sigh of relief, while another part of her almost wished that Syn had stayed just a bit longer. She absently went about gathering up the things she needed to see to Jon’s trim and shave.

The green-eyed young woman then carefully set about making sure that Jon’s hair was cut and styled just so. She carefully, lovingly shaved his stubble with his straight razor, just as she’d been doing for the last three years. By the time that she had him looking as dapper as ever, the sky was beginning to turn pink above the mountains.

Bethany gently ran her fingers down Jon’s face, tracing over where she had once left nasty scratches, then pressed her forehead to his. “You have to come back to me. I don’t care what I have to do to make that happen,” she said, her voice hoarse with emotion, tears rolling down her face.

She kissed his forehead, the way that he always did to her, then kissed his still lips. “I love you,” she whispered. “Please come back to me.”

After a few minutes of just being close to Jon, crying with her head on his chest, feeling the rise and fall of it as he breathed, listening to the sound of his heart beating, Bethany pulled away. She smiled sadly as she caressed his cheek again, then rose and took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

“I’ll be back soon,” Bethany promised, finally managing to tear herself away from his side. After a short trip to the bathroom to wash her face, the young woman paused at the door briefly, struggling not to turn right back into the room. Her teeth ground together for a long moment, then she stepped out and closed the door behind her.