Ashes Remain (A Man Named Terran #2)

Silent and Hospitalized

December 16th, 2027

3:35pm

Hickfield Clinic

He didn't want to talk. Especially after hearing about Athena. He just muttered "I told her to go." before closing his eyes. He let Trucy talk to him for a while, but didn't talk back. After Pearl got out of school, the Wrights went back to the agency. It was Apollo's idea, Athena was still on the table.

He waited in a vicious cycle for hours: jamming the button at his bedside that would grant him morphine, laying flat against his back sleeplessly, listening to that infernal clock which sounded like the bomb's ticking, thinking about Athena being just as awake as he on an operating table.

The nurse came in every so often to check on him, his IV, and to reapply burn cream to his wounds. "Your girlfriend still isn't here?" She'd ask every time she came in, which completed the cycle. No matter how softly she spoke, or how often she pulled a heartbeat check for him,

It felt like Clay all over again.

~~~~

December 16th, 2027

5:10pm

Hickfield Clinic

~~~~

He'd given up on paying attention, everything hurt so much. He was just going to close his eyes until he passed out.

That's when he heard it.

It started as the normal cracking open of the door, then he heard squeaking of some kind.

And then he heard her. He heard her whimper, and he was fully alert.

"Oh, you hear her, Mr. Justice?" He saw another nurse, brown curled hair tumbling off her face. "Your ears are sharp, that's good for her."

What? Athena's ears are better than mine!

"What do you mean? What happened to her?"

"Well, Mr. Justice... she may have gone deaf."

What?!

"We couldn't get her to respond to sound, and she hit her head really hard... we're just thankful right now that she made it through, and that she's not blind."

Athena's magic was in her ears, what would life with a deaf Thena be like? She would lose the part of her that made her so perceptive. He couldn't tell her how fine she was! Athena was such a peppy person, filled with words and music. If that was gone now, what would she be?

"We're currently letting her recover from surgery before we evaluate her for deafness. She's artificially deaf now. We gave her something like anti-hearing aids. Like the main function of regular aids is to turn the world up, these turn it down. She's basically on mute until it's time for evaluation." Another nurse wheeled a gurney up, with Athena laying in obvious pain. Wiring wrapped around her ears and head, several IVs running into different places. Yet, when her blurry eyes saw Apollo, they sparkled. The nurse wheeling her in took her hand to his mouth and mouthed 'You see him?' slowly.

How odd, was Apollo's initial thought. Would this be how they communicated now? To surpass the sign barrier?

Athena smiled and reached out barely, thin hand trembling while an IV ran just beneath her elbow.