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Doc’s been resting in the hospital for a while now. By that he’s been recently sent to the hospital after an accident that occurred through a mission. Hank, though, he remembered everything that happened.
Hank, Doc, Deimos, and Sanford were assigned from the Agency Against Auditor to take out any of the sleepwalkers, abominations, and captives who had escaped out of the Nexus Core and went to Nexus City. They were given the estimated amount of cloning defects and how much each of them had to kill.
Things were already awkward enough between Deimos and Sanford at Hank. Hank, remembering that Deimos had killed him after he killed Jebus. The duo swore to themselves to not talk to him for the entire mission to save the drama and potential murder.
And God knows they don’t want to go where Hank went whenever he dies.
Luckily, Hank paired himself up with Doc for the mission. When they entered the city, it’s not said, but Deimos and Sanford quickly got out of the car before the other two said a word, fearing that Hank would harm them.
Doc grabbed his VSS Vintorez, a couple of grenades, and a tablet to keep track of the progress of the mission. Hank grabbed his sword and AK-47 before leaving to find their targets.
Doc headed to the building. He wandered around room to room, then stopping once a while to hear unusual non-human-like sounds. He paused when he saw a room with a large space, and also had another door on the other side of the room. Perfect.
He went through other rooms to find the unwanted beings who chased him. It was going as planned. He lured the crowd of beings to the room. Doc rushed to the other door and took three grenades, setting each of them to throw at a room that’s infested with experiments. He covered his ears and giggled in content.
A huge explosion occurred that Hank heard from other rooms. From context he assumed that it was Doc’s doing, then moving on to slaughtering zombies.
Doc opened the room, then cheered out loud that he got the majority of the experiments. He stomped his feet in the ground in excitement. He grabbed his gun and killed the remaining sleepwalkers that managed to survive. He was still a smiling mess at his accomplishment.
Though he felt his shoulder tapped, expecting it was Hank. But it wasn’t them, their hands were bigger and warm. These hands are small, cold, and shaky. He looked behind him and saw an abomination staring at him with those cold bloodshot eyes.
Doc let out a scream that alerted Hank to stop his work. When Hank saw what’s happening, he grabbed his gun to aim at the abomination yet he was greeted with another scream and a lot of gunshots that were coming from Doc.
The abomination turned and looked at Hank with its damned teeth that had grabbed flesh… a familiar flesh. Doc was there as parts of his face were torn out, his teeth and jaw that is visible to his eyes. Hank shot the abomination before it even ran to them.
He looked back at the ailing man who was frozen from the action. Hank got closer and waved his hand in front of Doc’s face, which he flinched and got his conscious back. He looked at the tablet and saw that the mission wasn’t done yet. Though on the bright side they were almost done.
“Doc, are you-”
“No!” He interrupted in a harsh tone and stared at Hank. He took a deep breath before continuing. “No, I’m not. Just get me the hell out of here.” Hank silenced and watched the man breathe heavily, trying to remain calm.
He watched as the man’s eyes started to water and tears streaming down to his cheeks. Doc’s trying to keep calm but bits of whining came from him. Hank hated it. He hated that Doc was crying.
He lifted Doc’s arm and walked slowly so he could keep up with him. Doc’s struggling to not complain but either way it wouldn’t make a difference. The two were outside, and Hank silenced the man. He could hear groans from abominations but they weren’t visible to see now. He was positive that they won’t attack Doc any sooner.
Hank laid Doc down to rest and keep himself quiet, grabbing the tablet and leaving him again to head back inside. He trusts the man that he could manage himself while he can finish the mission.
While fighting off the clones, he found untouched bandages he could use for Doc. They grabbed the tablet, tallying up the dead clones, along with the ones he killed for Doc’s assignment. He realized that both of them are done with the mission. He placed the bandages in his pocket before leaving the building.
When he got back, his sight directed to Doc shooting up more abominations, though his eyes half closed and he started to falter. The shorter man flinched when he spotted Hank, grabbing a gun and shooting him because his vision had mistaken him for another agent. Luckily he dodged it and spoke.
“If your eyes are a bit more open you can see me.” He scolded the man. Doc dropped the gun down.
“Sorry that my jaw fucking hurts right now!” Doc yelled, which caught Hank off guard with how rude he sounded. The dissenter mumbled an apology as the tears kept going down. It must’ve hurt more for him than what it’s showing now.
“Be quiet while I put these bandages on you. And take deep breaths.” Doc obeyed. Hank took the bandages and wrapped it around the dissenter’s jaw. In a logical sense, the pain would already become almost numb to him. Though Doc was still tired.
Hank sighed and carried Doc in his back. Doc didn’t care at that point so he closed his eyes and went to sleep. Hank ran to find the nearest ER.
The ER was greeted with a grunt that is taller than all of the employees, who’s holding another man who had passed out minutes ago. The employees were intimidated by the sight of their appearance, making an appointment with no hesitation.
Hank placed Doc down in a chair beside him while getting an appointment. He shook the shorter man’s arm to wake him up. Doc jolted his eyes and panicked, for Hank to reassure that he needs him to give out information for the appointment.
Hank and Doc were in a room waiting for a doctor to come. Doc thought it was the best idea to sleep so he closed his eyes, whining every time the pain got back to him once in a while. The only thing Hank could do is pat his back and mumble words that do the minimum amount of effort.
What Hank didn’t expect is that the person out of the room wasn’t a doctor, it was Deimos and Sanford who managed to intrude the ER. Sanford’s eyes were angered as Deimos was holding a gun because of Hank’s existence.
Hank’s pretty sure that Deimos’ gun would get them arrested. But it’s Nevada. Anything is legal in Nevada.
He sighed and opened the door. “Doc was bitten off by an abomination. I took him to the hospital.” Hank said before any of the two could speak. Sanford’s mouth closed and Deimos lowered his gun.
The two looked at the rested individual whose jaw wasn’t like before. Deimos could spot Doc breathing heavily while remaining calm. Sanford diverted his eyes away from the man while Deimos kept on staring.
“How is he?” Deimos asked.
“I don’t know.” Hank replied, then told them to get out and stay in the waiting room. The men obeyed and got out of Hank’s sight.
A few hours passed by and Hank was already tired of the whole process of the ER. He was bombarded with questions from doctors along with Doc getting the same treatment but worse. By worse, it was blood tests, XRays, medicine, etc.
He was then assigned back to the waiting room for the doctors to give Doc his treatment. They were greeted by Sanford and Deimos, when Hank noticed Deimos was no longer holding his gun. The two offered a seat next to them. Hank sat in front of them instead, eyeing at them menacingly.
The two left to get back at the agency while Hank stayed for who knows how long. He received a text from Deimos saying he bought him some McDonalds because of his concern. Hank’s not a fast food fan, or much of an eater at all, but he accepted it. When given the food, Hank devoured everything up as employees of the ER stared at them.
Hours later he was given the permission to see Doc. Hank sighed in relief and followed the doctors back to the dissenter’s room.
They opened the door and saw that Doc’s eyes were still closed. Hank assumed that it was the anesthesia that got him. He stared at the guy’s left side of his cheek whose flesh was no longer there. They could see the teeth and gums, a bit relieved that it didn’t appear worse to affect his lifestyle fully.
It sent a shiver down Hank’s spine with the thought of being in Doc’s position. His jaw is fucked, but his tolerance of pain is already high to not have a burning feeling. Doc was another case.
Hank decided that he has stared at him for far too long and turned around to open the door.
“Oi, you leaving without saying hi to me?” A voice asked, quiet to where Hank almost couldn’t hear the guy. Though he woke up after experiencing a traumatizing event that caused something he could never get back. Hank turned back around and met his eyes with Doc’s.
“Doc.” He spoke.
“Hank.” He replied. Hank’s back shivered again as his eyes diverted to the teeth that were moving along with Doc’s words.
“What did they say? Are you able to go on missions now?” He asked. Well that was a stupid question to ask. Hank wondered why can’t he just say something normal like ‘how are you doing, Doc?' or ‘Are you okay?’
But Hank wasn’t normal. So he couldn’t ask Doc a normal question.
“Yeah. But they recommend that I give myself protection for my mouth so it won’t happen again.” Doc explained, Hank nodding his head in response.
“Oh. So you’re going to wear a mask?”
“Exactly, but,” Doc stopped talking and grabbed the new notebook in front of him. He faced it in front of Hank. “I started designing my own mask.” Ah, so Doc woke up earlier to draw.
Hank takes a look at Doc’s drawing. The mask is meant to cover Doc’s whole face, though Doc noted that the bottom part can be detachable. There was also something circular on the top right side of the mask.
It was written “DOCTOR HEADLAMP???” and “MAGNIFYING GLASS LOUPE???” which implied that Doc was stuck on choosing either of them.
The rest of the mask is up to Doc’s creative liberties as there are other things written in the other page beside the drawing:
“Sensor goggles”
“Clout goggles”
“DON’T LISTEN TO THAT ONE”
“Mask should be breathable”
“Air filter solution”
Hank squinted his eyes in the left side of the notebook. The pages were thin that he could see other drawings that Doc drew earlier. If he was right he could spot heads from familiar employees from the A.A.A and drawings of guns. The ink from a blue marker had gone through the drawing that Hank could recognize that it was Deimos drawn along with a cigarette in his mouth.
Doc really likes drawing.
“Why does your mask look so angry?” Hank asked, pointing at the eyes of the mask. Doc brushed Hank’s hand away, saying to not smudge the lead.
“Have you met me?” Doc asked as his face went into an immediate straight face. Ah, yes, the angry face. The one he uses when he gets irritated at an A.A.H.W agent. The face when he protected his agents. And totally not the one he uses when Hank entered back to the A.A.A with a very bloody coat.
That face.
“Hand me your sketchbook and a red marker.” Hank said. Doc nods his head and grabs the sketchbook to hand at the standing man along with a red marker. Hank took his mask off and took off the marker cap with his teeth to doodle.
“What are you gonna do? Grade my design?”
“No” Hank said, “I would give it a C though.” He said with sarcasm.
“Rude.” Hank ignored that and scribbled the red ink on the visors. Hank tapped the notebook with his marker, then brought it back up. He drew a small volleyball in the top corner of the page. It was there for no reason but for his enjoyment.
“There.” Hank said as he put the cap back on the marker with his teeth which Doc murmured out an ‘ew’. Hank gave him back his sketchbook and Doc looked at the change.
“Oh. That’s cool. But now I look too angry.” Doc said. He grabbed his pencil again and scribbled the bottom part of the lens to look like tilted rectangles. Hank gave Doc a thumbs up, signaling that he should give it a go.
Days after the ER, Doc is trying to find ways to deal with what he lost. It took him a while to eat food and he had to restrict himself with what he could eat. He’s been less talkative to people because he didn’t want to risk any injuries from what the doctors said. It meant distancing on agents to resist the urge of talking before any further notice that it’s okay.
Hank has noticed the sudden change from him, feeling a bit bad if he were in the man’s shoes. He’d go to Doc’s room to keep him company. Both men didn’t need to talk because their existence was already good enough.
Though, Doc told Hank to back off the visits for a while. He’s been planning something as a surprise to the agency and him. And so Hank waited.
A week later Doc was done making his mask, along with a mission he was assigned with Hank. The mask received positive feedback from the employees of the A.A.A. Doc wanted to see Hank’s reaction also when he meets him.
His phone vibrated, sending off the most annoying ringtone that Sanford managed to put. He should change it later. He looked at his phone and it was no other than Deimos who called.
He picked the device up. “Hey, Doc! I heard that you’ve been showing off your mask to people lately.”
“What? It’s nice showing off once in a while.” Doc insisted.
“So when are you going to show it to Hank? Ya know, the one you suspiciously admire a lot.” Doc twitched his eye.
“Deimos.” He murmured, sighing.
Deimos snickered. “What? I’m just saying. You’d do anything for that man, I tell ya.”
“Ugh, it’s not like that. We just do things because we respect each other, and doing that outside of work also because we wanted to... You suck.” Doc deadpanned.
“Haha! Come on, you love me, Doc.” Doc was silent for a while. Did he really want to give Deimos his gratitude of tolerance?
“...Love you too. I’m hanging up.” Yes he did.
“Have fun today 2BDick-” Doc tapped the hangup button before Deimos could finish his sentence. Across from him was Deimos’ laughter from another room, which flushed him from embarrassment.
His shoulder was tapped again and flinched. The hand was no longer small and cold, it was warm and big. He turned around and saw that it was no other than Hank. Doc sighed in relief. Hank raised his eyebrows at the sight of the new mask in Doc’s face.
“How do I look?” He asked.
“You look like a squinting grandpa.” Hank jokes. Doc elbowed Hank’s arm hard. “Rude.” He said as he elbowed Doc’s arm back. Which had made him recoil badly.
The mask looks amazing.
“Ow!” Doc yelped. Hank patted his back, signaling him to walk to the van. He then stopped his tracks.
“Don’t fuck up your jaw next time.” Hank demanded.
“Yeah, yeah, I won’t.” Doc said, then walking away from him silently to get to the van. Hank followed the man as he sighed in relief. He was glad his coworker is back in business.