Work Text:
Alexander picked Natalie’s wounded figure on his back. A pile of blood under him dirtied his shoes, as well as the blood slowly dripping to Alexander’s clothes from Natalie’s open wounds as Alexander started to walk. Weakly Natalie reached her hand on his mask. She covered a singular part of his vision with her blood.
“Doctor Nox,” Natalie breathed out. A weak smile covering her lips could be heard from her voice. “It is only natural, isn’t it? For one to fall.”
“Quiet, Ms. Paquette. You will only overload your state if you talk.”
“I hope the others aren’t... disappointed in me.” She coughed beside his mask. Her head fell on Alexander’s shoulder. “Will they be?”
“If they are, they will face the consequences by my hand.” Alexander could hear Natalie let out a weak laugh after his statement. He continued; “They are in no position to judge you. Especially Ms. Andrade.”
“I hope so,” Natalie said. She lifted her arms around Alexander’s firm shoulders, and her body felt limp against Alexander’s own. Natalie let out a deep sigh. “How’s Crypto?”
Alexander had not heard of Crypto, if he should be honest. He hadn’t heard any updates on how the hacker was doing on their mission. Did anyone else know of his situation either? Had he seen what had happened to Natalie through his cam, or was he unaware of the whole tragedy?
“He is doing well,” Alexander promised her.
“Good,” Natalie chuckled weakly.
Dead bodies of the mutanted prowlers lay across the streets. Alexander walked beside every single one of the ones he’d shot on his way to rescue Natalie. Renee had continued to select the artifact, and she’d promised to come back on time to leave with Alexander and Natalie. He trusted her words – as always.
“Can you tell me a story?” Natalie coughed. Alexander’s vision blurred for a short second.
“You shouldn’t talk.”
“But if you– you do. It would... comfort me, I’m... I’m sure.”
Would it really?
“If I tell you a story, you will only fall asleep, Ms. Paquette. We do not wish for that outcome.”
Would it take away the pain from her limbs, from the bleeding open wounds the prowlers had savaged into her flesh and bones? His grip under her thighs tightened. Unsure thoughts filled his mind – though they usually never did, not when other people were around him. He was afraid.
“I won’t. I promise. ”
The whirring sound of the ship coming to salvage the three of them – with Wraith still down there – echoed in Alexander’s ears. As the sound got stronger with every step Alexander took towards the ship, his legs under him felt like breaking. Failing. Alexander refused to give up – for the sake of the young lady on his back right now. For the sake of Natalie and of her rescue.
“In my youth, I knew a boy who did not get to sleep,” Alexander said. He approached the ship and shrugged himself up with Natalie clinging onto his back. He lay her down on the safe ground and put his hand on the open wound exposing her flesh on her side. He pressed against it firmly. The bleeding had slowed down, but Alexander could still feel the blood trying to slip through his gloved fingers.
“No one knew where he spent his nights at. His father never saw him after the late hours, and neither did I.” Alexander watched as Natalie pressed her head against the ground now and grimaced. When she opened her eyes and locked eyes with Alexander, she smiled weakly.
“My parents were... strict, I could say. They would never let me outside after seven, and I only had a limited amount of friends. That group had been limited to my parents, a teacher’s child and this boy.” Alexander carefully moved closer Natalie’s body and covered yet another one of her bleeding wounds, but now on the top of her thigh. She tried to cover her arms by hugging herself while quietly whining for air.
“I was a curious child. One day, I broke the rules of my home and sneaked out after seven. How ‘presumptuous’ of me, I got told later... But not by him whom I found.”
“Did you find the boy?” Natalie asked.
“Yes. I searched through the nearby woods and found him at a stream by himself.
‘So this is where you spend the nights at?’ I asked him when I sat next to him. He had his arm covered with water from the stream. I was convinced he’d tried to catch fish.
‘Yeah. No one’s here usually,’ he said. He’d made a little boat from sticks and leaves – a small one indeed, the kind you release into the water for a race and wait for it to hit an obstacle. “
“I used to do those...” Natalie smiled. Her voice grew quieter.
“As did I, Ms. Paquette.” A stinging pain took over Alexander’s chest at the sound of Natalie’s voice. He continued his story.
“I asked this boy, ‘Do you mind my company?’ And he silenced. He looked at me, then he looked at his boat and fiddled with it. I recall him not looking into my eyes when he finally said, ‘No.’
And so he taught me how to build a boat like he had done – that small boat. I had never done anything likely before, as you can guess. I had been stuck at home. But now I had the freedom to learn something else than the projects my parents liked to make me experiment with.
I could say I had fun with him. Every time we hung out before clock ticked seven, and especially now at the stream. I saw sides of him I am sure not even his father had seen.
Then we released the boats – we made them race, and I felt childish because of it. I asked him, ‘Is this really what kids of our age do?’ It was, but I had never experienced it, Ms. Paquette. His voice was soft, I recall, when he told me that yes – yes, children play like this.”
“Huh...” Natalie breathed. She weakly moved herself over to lie closer to Alexander’s sitting figure. She lifted her head on Alexander’s legs, and though Alexander was unsure of what he should do, his first instinct was to try and still cover the wounds but now tighter.
“My boat hit an obstacle, finally,” Alexander told Natalie. “It got stuck against a log. This boy, who had not got sleep and I couldn’t tell for how long, decided to jump after it. His body was weak.
He struggled in the water, but the stream was not too harsh. He got the boat and the joy on his face was indescribable when he turned to see me again. But like I said, his body had suffered from the insomnia... And he crashed.”
“ Did he survive ?” Natalie asked.
He had died. “He got out well,” Alexander told her.
“Do you still know where he is?”
Alexander did not want to answer. Wraith’s footsteps approached the ship. Alexander turned his head to see the young woman with the artifact in her hand. Seemingly she had suffered from a few injuries too, but not nearly as fatal as Natalie had.
“We will now escort you to safety, Ms. Paquette,” Alexander promised. As a faint smile grew back on Natalie’s lips, Alexander placed his hand on top of her head.
“ You will be home soon.”