The War to End Everything

[angxla]

Trin hadn't thought much about the question when it first slipped out, but the more she thought about it, the worse it sounded - to her at least. A question like that suggested that she'd be seeing him again, and fairly often at that. And with that came two issues. One being whether the head of the hospital would even let her spend time with a healing patient after his week of recovery before he's moved into general care. The second being that she had no idea if he would even want her to continue dropping by, but that wasn't really a question she was going to embarrass herself with, not today at least.


A smile lit up her eyes as he replied, again finding away to lift her spirits with the jokes he managed to slip into everything. "I'll stick to Julius then, it suits you," she responded with a gentle shrug before she slowly started to stand up. It was late, and despite her burning hatred for the nurses barracks, she knew she couldn't go on without sleep for very long. So far four days was her record, and she wasn't itching to break it any time soon.


"Well, you've probably seen enough of me for one evening," She chuckled, placing her hand on his shoulder gently. "I'll check in on you tomorrow morning. And if anything happens when I'm not here, just tell the nurses to get Nolan. I can be back here in minutes," she explained, offering him a friendly smile, before she glanced back over at the letter on the other side of his bed. "I can send it out tonight if you'd like, I'll make sure it gets to your family by the time you're up and walking again," Trinity offered, her voice a little softer than before as she knew this was a bit of a heavier subject.

 

[missbrightside]

"Peachy," he responded. Kip truly didn't know the last time he had heard the use of his given name, not counting the enrollment process or being chewed out when he told his family about that. It was entirely possible that no one had used it since his father's death since he was the only one that ever seemed to call him by it regularly. It would be good to hear it again, and it felt fitting that she would be the person to bring it back into his life. The choice felt like it had some kind of significance to it, even if he wasn't quite sure what that was.


"Thank you," he replied with a soft smile, reaching up and lightly setting his hand on hers. It occurred to him now that these nights at least had the potential to get very long. He reached over to grab the letter, holding it out to her. "Promise you won't go to much trouble." He felt like he had more than likely already taken up enough of her time... Not that he intended to take up any less of it if he got the chance. "And get some rest, it's been a long day for you too."


When friends weren't planning the assassination of a second Julius because he was being demanding, they were usually telling him that they already had enough parents, so he could quit his mother henning. His friends didn't tend to get their way.

 

[angxla]

A faint smile slowly grew across Trin's face as he spoke. It was nice to be on a first name basis with someone, especially someone who made things feel normal. Talking with him made it seem like they were in the eye of a hurricane; she knew it wouldn't last forever, but they could at least have a few moments to just catch their breath.


It was hard to hide the bright smile that lit up to her eyes when his hand covered her own. It wasn't awkward or anything, in fact nothing he did really came off as awkward. He was an absolute enigma to her, but in all honestly, it was nice having an mystery around - especially one that could somehow make her laugh despite the wave of suffering surrounding them.


"It's no trouble at all, and even if it was. This is important," she replied softly, taking the letter very carefully into her hand. Just as she began to step back, his last few words caught her by surprise. Frankly, Trin couldn't remember the last time someone had expressed genuine concern towards her. Not that she needed it of course, she could take care of herself after all. It was just comforting to know that he seemed to care about her wellbeing.


"I will, I've gotta be well rested for our next round of nostalgia," she joked, winking casually as she rubbed his shoulder briefly before removing her hand again. "Good night, Julius."

 

[missbrightside]

She had an excellent bedside manner. He felt as though she was most definitely on his side, like you would feel about an old friend despite the fact he had known her for hours. It was something in the way she seemed to have invested a keen interest in his wellbeing.


"Goodnight, Trin," he said, still laughing at her joke. She was full of surprises, this one. You would think a wink might seem out of place for her, but it didn't.


For better or worse, Kip was used to making up his opinions about people pretty quickly, and he more often than not stuck with them. But even though he had liked Trin from the start, she was turning out to be more than he originally expected. He was betting that there was probably a lot more surprises left in her, too. Something about her was just a little bit calculated. The wall was convincing and nearly transparent; he wouldn't have known it was there except for the the times he did something unexpected and he saw the cracks. Also for better or worse, he could be like a bloodhound on the trail now that he had caught a whiff of the scent. He wanted to see more of whatever it was she was protecting.

 

[angxla]

A respectful nod and a smile, was her simple response as she carefully closed his door, saying a silent prayer to the god she wasn't sure existed that he would have a comfortable night. Within about an hour, Trin had visited her brother - as she always did - and convinced him to send out to letter under an urgent status for her, seeing as he owed her more than a few favours. When she finally did make it to bed, her thoughts ran wild with the memories their previous conversation had reminded her of, not in a sad way though. After about two hours of photo album binging, Trin had finally dozed off, clutching several polaroids of her family.


The next morning was as normal as it could've been - certainly not as eventful as the previous day's where she'd woken up to an ambush of only four survivors. She made her way back through the hospital, working through her rounds and having a couple of the nurses run back and forth to check on him and then report to her how Julius was doing. When one of them finally reported that he was awake, she figured she'd finish up with her patients and head up, at least to tell him the letter had been sent out if nothing else.


By about midday, she slowly began to make her way back to the recovery wing. Her attire stuck out like a sore thumb there, an issue that was impossible to avoid. Trin always wore a black dress since she wasn't allowed to wear pants and she didn't want to get mistaken for a nurse all the time. But with the overflow of nurses in this unit, her cotton black dress that fit her slender form and went to about her mid calve made her impossible to miss as she gently knocked on the door of the soldier she'd promised to see.

 

[missbrightside]

Kip woke up from a restless sleep into what felt like the beginnings of a restless day. He was the worst at falling asleep in different places, and it was hard for him to stay asleep because he couldn't get too comfortable. Then there were the waking matters. He knew that he was going to have to find some way to come to terms with everything that had happened, and he was just going to have to deal with the fact that he couldn't just solve it and be done. That much was obvious. But with nothing to do and no one to talk to, that was an environment conducive to dwelling, which was not conducive to Kip having a great day.


He did like something about the hospital, despite its somewhat underwhelming curb appeal. There was a sense of rhythm to it, like a beehive or a tide. It was busy but he found it peaceful in its own way. The sense of order and inevitability was calming. If the world stopped spinning tomorrow, these nurses would still be here doing their rounds regardless.


There was a knock and then Trin came into his room. He couldn't decide if he was surprised she was there or not, after all she had said she would be back. But he did know that he was happy. "Hey there," he said, flashing a lopsided smile. "You look better today. Well rested."

 

[angxla]

Trin couldn't say with very much certainty that she could predict exactly how he'd react when he saw her, but the way that he did respond was frankly quite better than she'd expected. She couldn't hold back the bright smile when she saw him, chuckling softly as she shook her head at his words. "Well, I think not performing four surgeries at the crack of dawn probably helps with that," I pointed out jokingly before shrugging as she sat down.


She explained quickly that she just needed to check over a couple of his vitals, gently resting her index and middle finger over his wrist to count his pulse, before quickly jumping into her next tidbit of information. "Alright, good news first for today. Your letter should reach your family within the next few days, I made perfectly sure it was sent urgently. And a few of the men from your squadron that have recovered are really anxious to see you, they mentioned they might drop by some time today." She explained before sitting back down in the chair.


"The less good news though," she chuckled nervously, running a hand gently through her hair to push it back out of her face. "I'm going to have to start weening you off of the pain killers. If you take them for too long, you could become dependant which is the last thing you need." She explained, trying to offer him a warm smile. It was hard in situations like these, Trin never knew just how much of the truth to tell. The next week was going to hurt like hell for sure, but all things considered, he was incredibly lucky to be alive. And she was determined to help him through the next week anyway that she could.

 

[missbrightside]

Four surgeries? Kip gave a slow blink as he contemplated that. What did they say... "In the army, you'll do more before 7 a.m. than most people do in a whole day?" Something like that. What malarkey. It sounded like they definitely gave that slogan to the wrong bunch. He was almost sure he had never saved four lives in a morning. Ended four, possibly, but that belonged on its own entirely separate list.


Oh no, not the good news/bad news thing. At least Trin wasn't one of those detestable folks who insisted on making you pick which one you wanted to get first. That took either a special variety of sadism or stupidity, neither of which did he want to see on his medical provider. The good news was.. good. He wasn't sure what to anticipate from being reunited with the other remaining men of his squadron. He would be glad to do it, of course, but he didn't know how he was going to feel upon seeing them, or worse, how they would feel when they saw him. He didn't want any pity. He didn't want them to treat him any differently, which he knew was going to be impossible. And he was deathly and irrationally afraid that they would look at him and hate him, that they would see written all over him what he had feared was there all along: the unmistakable marks of blame. Nevertheless, facing them was looking like the next thing on the road to cementing all this as part of the past, which he was eager to do.


Plus, it was surely better than lying here and counting the ceiling tiles.


Her nerves triggered dual reactions inside of him. For one, he wanted to take the image of her sitting next to him, anxiously fussing with her hair, and tuck it back in some pocket of his mind to live as a little bright point, independent of anything else to happen before or after or someplace else. But he also wanted to take it and smooth it out, erasing anything in the proximity of her that wasn't intent amber eyes or unguarded laughter. Strangely enough, nowhere did it occur to him to be worried about whatever bit of his own bad news was causing her concern. "The last thing I need.." he echoed, taking his scraping his teeth along his bottom teeth as his eyes became contemplative. "I'll do whatever I have to do."


His father had drank himself into his grave. Kip had never asked why he had started drinking, and even if he had there was no way his dad would have blamed it on the war, but regardless, Kip had always thought there might be a connection between the relentless pain from his combat injuries and the alcohol, at least to begin with. The idea that Kip might have inherited that tendency for addiction was one that scared him, much more than any pain he might have to face. He had always avoided alcohol because of it. He would avoid pills because of it. He would do what he had to.

 

[angxla]

Trin was known for being the quiet type, the kind that would listen to every word someone said you her and put them all together into one giant puzzle piece, adding in the person's expression and their voice to help her build up the corner and work her way in. She scanned Julius' face as she spoke, trying to gauge his reaction - which was made all the more difficult with the little amount of actual response that he actually did give her.


His words did seem to strike her as a little odd, she'd never seen anyone react to the forecast of pain the way he did. She was bright enough to that it wasn't something she should delve into, but it couldn't seem to get out of her head. "I'm going to help you through it, I promise. I'll do what I can to make sure that this isn't completely unbearable for you," she explained, choosing her words carefully as she hoped the idea of having someone that would see him through it might be a bit of a morale booster, despite his grim situation. "And we can find you a different combination of medications - some with a lower risk. They won't hold pain back as well, but they'll take the edge off."


Trin's voice trailed off as she leaned back into the chair that she sat in, a little unsure as to whether or not she should stay any longer or if she should take off so that his fellow soldiers could get a few extra hours with him - god knew they were worried enough to deserve it. It always intrigued her how much most army men tried to make it seem as if they didn't care. There were at least fifteen men on the other side of the door, each one trying to appear more aloof than the previous one. And yet Trin could see in each and every one of them the concern they held back for their fellow warrior. She never understood it, someone had once told her that love was a sign of strength, that it wasn't something that people should be afraid of. Trin didn't see how this was any different.