Dirges In The Dark by SecondGuess

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“…nothing I miss more than those little puff pastries from the bakery on the Level Four Promenade. Mmmm, I can almost taste them now! A little espresso, a stroll on the board walk. Perfect.”

John slowly climbed out of his blissful oblivion to the sound of someone speaking, his befuddled brain doing its best to account for his current status. He felt numb, mostly. He couldn’t tell if he was cold or warm, if he was covered with blankets or if his ruined legs were exposed, or even attached. Mostly, he couldn’t feel much of anything. For a few moments, he did nothing but lie there, relishing the absence of pain.

“You know, Morgan, I can honestly say I’ve never met someone so poorly suited to the beauty of nature in my life, you’re truly a marvel.” That was definitely Bess, he realized slowly, her soft drawl playing across his fuzzy brain like lemonade over ice cubes in summertime.

“What’s to like about nature, Bess? Unpredictability, unforgiving fury, little crawly things that get in your shoes. No thank you, I’ll take auto-tropic temp control and sweet, sweet sterility any time.” Oh lord, Danziger wondered dully, who let Martin into the Med Tent?

“Morgan, stop fidgeting. I’m almost through.” That would be Julia.

As tired as he was, Danziger couldn’t help but want to join the land of the living. Marshalling his strength, he ascended the final lofty steps to full consciousness. He tested the waters, fingers twitching against the soft fabric of his cot. Concentrating hard, he still couldn’t account for the lower part of his body. Surprisingly, he wasn’t remotely concerned, but rather singularly thankful for this respite. He was in a luxurious limbo, the kind that forgave all previous trespasses and instead fostered sheer docility. Maybe True was right, he did work too hard. Where was True-Girl?

“You know, I think after this ordeal, Danziger and I might finally be able to bury the hatchet. After all, it’s my blood flowing through those burly, veiny forearms, right? How you gonna argue with that?”

Enough was enough, no drug was that good. Cracking open an eyelid, he was shocked at the weakness of his own voice.

“Always figured I’d go to hell…” He grumbled, the generic lighting of the Med Tent giving him no clue as to what time of day, or what day for that matter, he’d woken up to.

“John, you’re awake!” Bess crooned, and he turned his head slightly to take in the scene.

Morgan wasn’t kidding, he realized, even has his eyes gradually focused on the bureaucrat perched on the stool next to his bed, trussed up like a turkey with Julia’s equipment, a thick stream of crimson oozing into one of Julia’s softly whirring machines. An equally ruby-red tube connected the machine to the crook of his own arm, which was starting to vaguely resemble Yale’s robotic appendage with it’s various inputs and outflows.

Danziger’s tongue felt as though it had grown fur, but just as he attempted to relay this fact, Julia approached from her bench at the worktable, carrying with her a tin mug.

“Hey, there, sleepy.” She greeted him, holding the cup to his mouth. “Go slow, Danziger, it’s been nearly a week since your body’s metabolized anything but intravenous nutrition.” She warned, but the mere coolness of the tepid water against his teeth was enough to satisfy him. Swallowing thickly, studying her delicate honey brow, the riot of the past few days flooded his memory like a freight shuttle barreling into port.

“Julia…” He spoke her name as though it was the beginning of a thousand questions. Much to his relief, her relaxed smile was the answer to every one.

“You’re almost out of the woods, John.” She proclaimed proudly, brushing her fingers through his tangled hair. “It was touchy for a while there, but when I went back in to stop the bleeding I was able to reinforce the femoral artery of your left leg, and almost immediately the blood flow to your extremities improved.”

Danziger grinned, lethargically registering what she was trying to tell him.

“No peg leg?” He mused, trying to glance down at himself, his head entirely too heavy for such an undertaking.

“I’m not going to promise you’ll be scouting any time soon, but they’re both there.” She teased, the significance of the small victory outweighing the uncertainty of the future.

“Be positive, Danziger!” Morgan chimed in, violently waving his tethered arm over his head as though he just scored a goal in a Lasercrosse match. John winced, wondering if Morgan’s donation would have any lasting ill-effects on his own personality.

“You’ve been under for almost three days, but the rest has done you good.” Bess assured him, forcibly lowering her husband’s arm as an afterthought. John couldn’t help but release a huge sigh of satisfaction, and Julia’s indulgent chuckle rang through the quiet tent.

Leave it to Eden Advance, the mish-mashed crew he’d found himself stranded with, to cheat death again with their own understated fortitude. For all the times he’d placed their fates on his shoulders, Danziger had never quite resigned himself to relying on them to seal his. It was about time he gave them all, even Martin, the benefit of the doubt.

“So Doc…” He inquired, pausing to take another small sip of the water when she offered. “I’ve been meanin’ to ask you…”

“What is it, Danziger?” She asked solemnly.

“Think that ZED bullet’s gonna leave a scar?” Before the stoic doctor could realize she’d been had, Morgan’s raucous laughter peeled through the tent, and Bess beamed as she came to sit on the edge of his cot, looking down on him tenderly.

“Danziger’s back.” She confirmed softly. He tried his best to give her a big smile.

Something crucial was missing, he realized, wishing he possessed the energy to reach up and rub his eyes and clear his cloudy vision.

“Where’s Devon?” He queried, glancing towards the ajar flap of the Med Tent longingly. Julia and Bess exchanged a knowing look that went almost unnoticed.

“She went to go round up True.” Bess confessed conspiratorially, an excited expression lighting her face. “We decided we’ve kept her from her Dad for long enough. We didn‘t think you‘d be awake, but here you are, right on the money!”

At the mention of his baby girl, so strong and independent, on his way to see him, John’s hazy mind reeled at the torment and uncertainty he must have put her through. His eyes immediately began to sting, even as his anticipation grew.

“True-Girl…” He whispered, closing his eyes as though her name was a salve to sooth all wounds. “Bess…Morgan…I can’t thank you…it means so much, that you kept her safe for me. I just…I wouldn’t have made it through this if I thought for one second I had to worry about her--”

“Don’t be silly, John! We loved having her with us, and she was so brave! You’d be so proud of her, she didn’t fuss once. She knew that if she was patient and calm her Dad would get through this and he would get well again, because he loves her.” John had always found it funny that the black and white mentality that was so unbecoming on her husband suited Bess to a T.

Overcome with emotion, Danziger savored her unyielding conviction and gentle honesty. A glance toward Morgan showed that even he was a bit teary eyed, watching their exchange with shy curiosity as Julia clamped the line in his arm and disconnected both men from the Transfuser. Danziger raised a shaky hand to wipe away a stray tear, resigning himself to the fact that sooner, rather than later, he’d have to learn to go easier on the guy.

“I hope she isn’t raisin’ hell. God, seems like years since I kissed her good mornin‘…” Methodically typing numbers into the control unit of the monitor, Julia quietly marveled at the human mind. For days Danziger had been suffering, and endless pattern of waking and sleeping, fever, delirium, cruel lucidity. And yet in his foggy, drug saturated brain it seemed he equated it to one long, terrifying day. Perhaps it was best for both parties that he didn’t fully grasp what Eden Advance, especially his traumatized daughter, had been through.

Worried in equal parts about telling John too much and keeping too much from him, she feared this would all change when Devon returned with True. After all, it would take more than hazy smiles and soothing words to erase what the girl had seen a few days back.

“Am I okay? I mean, to see?” The gravel beneath his reed-thin voice couldn’t be helped, John realized, trying in vain to clear away the fatigue. “I must look like a zombie arcade vid.” He worried sadly.

Julia shook her head dismissively, swiping at his arm with a cloth as she carefully disconnected the plasma link. “Compared to before, Danziger, you’re the picture of health. Besides, True is well-aware that her Dad is currently a trifle below par.” For all her causal posturing, the doctor suddenly seemed unable to meet his eyes. Bess eagerly agreed with Julia, her eyes shifting nervously to her husband’s as she spoke.

“She’s gonna be so tickled pink to hear your voice again it doesn’t matter if you’re a little run down.“ She assured him, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“What?” He asked softly, suddenly aware of the weight of the air in the room, laden with tension. “What happened?”

“John, it’s nothing.” Julia quickly countered, sitting on the stool that Morgan had recently vacated. “She just had a little bit of a scare, that’s all--”

“Devon told me…she promised me she didn’t see!” He cut her off, the anger and panic quickly climbing to his ashen cheeks. His shaking hands moved to pull back the blankets, as if he was lying prone by will and not necessity. Firmly, Julia took them in her own, reminding herself to tread softly, that Danziger still wasn’t even close to thinking clearly, and that by absolutely no means should he be made upset.

“Shhhh, she didn’t see the accident, you know Devon would never lie to you.” She reminded him. Against her palms his fingers flexed rhythmically, the frantic pulse of his unease. “A few days ago, after I operated to stop the new bleeding, she was working by the Transrover when she saw Devon walking to the outskirts of camp and decided to follow her. Devon had been looking for a secluded spot to wash some of the dressings and blankets, and True saw all the blood and panicked.”

“My poor baby…I’m so sorry.“ Squeezing his eyes shut, he winced reflexively as another set of hands, Bess’, fluttered across his brow in an effort to calm.

“Against our better judgment, Devon and I decided it was for the best that we let her see you for a bit, you have to remember you’d lost a dangerous amount of blood and it had been over four days with very little improvement.” His eyes opened again, flashing with conflicting emotions, anger and sorrow. “John, it wouldn’t have been right to keep True from seeing her father, no matter how upsetting it was for her.”

Danziger swallowed thickly, searching his mind for the faintest trace of memory that she’d been there with him, that she’d touched his cheek or gripped his index finger with her whole hand like she always did when she was scared.

“Did she cry?” He whispered hoarsely, his gaze flitting between Julia and Bess, desperately trying to read the truth from their expressions. He was met with twin porcelain masks, both sculpted with careful hands, unreadable.

Finally Bess’ cracked, but instead of revealing pity and sorrow he instead found a coy spark of amusement. There had been tears, all through the night and into the break of day, but in her father’s presence, sitting with her legs dangling from his sickbed, True had been the picture of strength.

“Now John, when was the last time a Danziger cried when things got tough?” She asked, her index finger tapping him gently on the nose. Danziger flinched again, distractedly wondering when he had become an oversized child to the women of Eden Advance.

“She told you jokes, mostly.” Julia confirmed, a tinge of modesty flushing her cheeks. “Although you may want to rethink letting her hang out with you and your friends at the bar.” She ribbed.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard the phrases ‘Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?’ and ‘A hooker walks in to a bar’ uttered so close together. And I’m a politician!” Morgan chimed in from Julia’s workbench.

The throaty chuckle bubbled out of Danziger before he could catch it, and even Julia joined in, pressing his hands lightly before returning them to his sides.

“That girl…” He sighed, his Cheshire grin wiping away the last of his distress. “I figure, she’s damn well kept me alive for the last eleven years, shouldn’t be any different now.”

“Exactly.” Bess confirmed, her tone rife with conviction, as though she’d known the Danzigers for years. “Besides, you’re on your way to recovery, and you look much better today, so much so, in fact, that Julia and I have been trying to convince Morgan that his blood isn’t actually the secret of life.“

Danziger reluctantly looked towards the bureaucrat again, stifling a laugh. “Eh, don’t be so sure Bess…maybe he could bottle it, sell it to the Grendlers for scrap metal.” The Earth-Res swatted at his arm in mock consternation, even as Morgan himself let out a hasty guffaw.

“Hey, that’s good! He’s…ha…funny.” He nervously agreed, as though he could already envision Danziger happily pasting colorful labels onto the jars.

“Relax, Martin. I owe you for this, big time.” The big mechanic conceded, and almost immediately Bess began to chatter away the emotional tension in the tent.

“Anyway, we’ve spent all morning sprucing you up! Morgan and I brought the blankets from our bed rolls, so we could get rid of the…uh, stained ones you were using before, and just before you woke up we changed all your bandages and gave you a bit of a bath.”

Danziger wondered if he was pale enough to hide his rapidly blushing cheeks. Just the thought of everyone doting over him was enough to leave him thoroughly embarrassed.

“I know you’re excited to see True, but I don’t want you to over do it, Danziger, okay?” Julia scolded in advance, adjusting the blankets around the monitor still clamped to his toe. “The pain meds have got you feeling good for the moment, but they’ve been such a shock to your system I’m going to have to administer them pretty sparingly. Don’t get yourself worked up or you’ll regret it.”

“Don’t worry, no heroics…I’m having a bit of a time keepin’ my eyes open as it is.” He confessed, and Julia nodded distractedly, studying her monitors and dials.

“Why don’t you just take it easy till True gets here then?” Bess suggested, perusing the edge of his bed, adjusting and tweaking here and there, tugging his covers up a bit and smoothing out the wrinkles. Wearily, he let his eyes fall shut, summoning the strength to put on a show of fortitude for his little skeptic.

“There, all covered up.” Satisfied with a job well done, John felt the mattress sink as Bess took up her perch again. “You know John, at the rate you go through clothes, you’re going to be borrowing drawers from Morgan soon!”

For the sake of everyone present, Danziger shrewdly feigned slumber.

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