Chapter Text
“Trust me” he’d whispered and she’d walked out of that house listening to Serena in hysterics with a smile on her face, she had no idea where she was going, but she was leaving. A hand to her stomach and she was going, did she trust him, she didn’t know, possibly, probably, whatever the truth she was pretty sure he had a vested interest in the life growing inside her and at that moment it was what she was clinging to. “A pregnant handmaid is a safe handmaid”.
The truck finally stopped and she waited holding her breath as the door was opened, she was unnerved to find it was yet another anonymous Eye, she had hoped prayed it would be him, but knew that would be too good to be true, the Eye gestured with his assault rifle and she left the van, she was in an underground parking lot, and other than Guardians she saw nobody. The friendly chap who’d ordered her down poked her forward with the muzzle of his gun and she walked towards the brightly lit corridor in front wondering where the hell she was.
They’d put her into a room that smelt of sweat and fear, but wasn’t as far as she understood a cell, there was a couch and a table and a chair. There was even old wiring on the wall that probably once held a TV, there was a camera, and she stared at that, the door was locked and the room was too bright. When she had been taken into this room an Aunt she didn’t recognise had stripped her of her dress, cape, boots, coif and wings. Now she sat here in just her underwear nervous as hell, and more confused than she had ever been in Gilead. She really hoped she could trust him, trust a man, in Gilead, it sounded ridiculous even to her, she really, really hoped she could trust him.
The door opened and the same Aunt from before came in, she didn’t look at June but the 4 Marthas who filed in after her did, they stared down at June and she felt like a zoo exhibit. The Aunt took out her brown folder and June swallowed.
“She will need to be bathed, her hair pinned, and the dress will be available after the bath. She will need to be shaved and plucked, and the ear” June put her hand to her tag “you will need to give her something for the pain and then dress it under the hair” she made tick marks on the folder as June watched “do we understand?”
“Yes Aunt Margaret” they Martha’s chorused
The Aunt finally turned to June “you are a lucky, lucky girl, you should praise the lord for he is good”
“Praise be?” June said unsure and got a nod for her pains. The Aunt stalked out and the first thing that happened was one of the Marthas took a spray bottle and sprayed June's ear, in a few seconds it went numb. “Whats happening?” June whispered but the Martha just smiled and took a red plastic tool and placed it to June's ear, she flinched at the clicking and sudden flush of blood as her ear tag fell to the floor. It hadn’t hurt and the Martha put pressure on it immediately. June stared at the tag, she was no longer a handmaid she guessed, what did that mean, the colonies, the wall?
The bath was too hot for her and she’d been stripped by Marthas. It was worryingly like another ceremony, was this what was happening, she’d been walked down the bright corridor flanked by Guardians to this bathroom, and it was a large full bathroom, June wondered once again where the hell she was. There was a further door from the one they’d entered in, and all the time she was in the bath being shaved and plucked Martha’s came in and out of that door. She was torn with the desperate need to know what was beyond it, and the fear at what she might find. The Marthas wouldn’t talk to her, she kept asking what was happening but they ignored her. The only time they spoke to her was when she had made a noise at the heat of the bath, and one of them told her it was “only 99degrees, cool enough”.
She was wrapped in towels and taken through the door, the other side of which was a bedroom and she swallowed. Another ritual another rape she hesitated “trust me” he’d said, it was getting harder.
“Sit down” the Martha who seemed to be in charge asked her, her voice weirdly gently “on the chair” she pointed to a seat beside a dresser in front of a bright light, there was a mirror in front, of June and she looked at herself, ear bandaged, hair wet, pale and scared. The Martha picked up a hairbrush and started brushing June’s long blonde hair. Behind her in the mirror the other three were laying something white on the bed, June couldn’t help but watch, there was a dress on the bed a white dress, what kind of salvaging was this. “We’ll have to pin this carefully” the Martha told June and then whispered “I’d kill for some hairspray” and smiled. June stared at her reflection in the mirror, as her hair was dressed, and pinned carefully to hide her ear. “Right I think that's got it, shall we get you in the rest?” The Martha asked.
June stood up shaking, on the bed there was clean white underwear and a white dress and a veil. She shook looking at the Martha “what?”
“This is a happy day, a blessed day” the Martha told her “come on, let's get you dressed”.
June was panicking, dressed all in white a veil covering her face flanked by guardians and Marthas she walked up the corridor to an elevator, one Martha and one Guardian rode with her, she kept half an eye on the assault rifle, she could see less than she could under her wings, it was terrifying, what new torture had Gilead invented for her, dressing her as a bride to salvage her. The door opened and the Martha put a hand on her arm “congratulations, blessed day”.
“Under his eye” she replied as the woman pushed her lightly out of the elevator and she walked down another bright corridor with the Guardian, at the end of the corridor there was a dark wooden door and the Guardian knocked, before opening it. June swallowed hard as music started, music wasn’t really allowed in Gilead, but she recognised the strains of Pachelbel's Canon in D Major, she looked into the room and there was a commander standing facing her, and several others sat around him, standing in front of the Commander was a man, a man in black, his hair slightly messy and she swallowed “trust me” he’s said, so she did.