Lost in Blue

𝕱𝖚𝖊𝖓𝖋: Closer

"I'm fine, danke." She turned a page. Judging by the font and the big capital letters written at the top, a new chapter was about to begin.

"I'm impressed. You read six books in 2 weeks." Dorn glanced at the neatly stacked pile on top of the bedside cabinet.

"I have nothing else to do here besides read," Fräulein said, breaking away from the book in her hands – halfway read through as he noticed. She put it aside to cast a wistful look outside the window. "After all, I can't really leave this place quite yet."

Henning saw how her orbs trailed the silhouettes of buildings and trees beside the parking lot, stretching inland. Her irises shortly shifted to the people on the rural street below, before her gaze settled on the Rhine's waters in the distance. In the Rhine's Gorge, faintly visible from the hospital's location, the steep slate rock Lorelei towered above blue hues.

"I have nowhere to go," she added, more quiet, as if she rather spoke to herself than to him.

Solitude tugs slowly at one's heart strings, creeping themselves into one's mind, making the heart yearn for connection deeper that what lies at the surface. Just like alcohol makes one's lips loose to spill secrets, solitude can do the same. In this case, instead of secrets, one's hearts lamentations reveal themselves unintentionally when they slip off one's tongue.

It's been approximately five weeks since she had been salvaged from the Rhine, five weeks of mystery and obscurities, five weeks of being trapped in hospitals. No wonder she began to long for freedom.

"How about we go outside together?" Dorn suggested, following her gaze.

She threw her head back, the curls bouncing up and down. A glimmer of hope shimmered in her orbs, followed by thin, raised eyebrows.

"Are we even allowed to?" she asked cautiously.

Henning shrugged. "Arzt can't keep you imprisoned here forever. Besides, it's not as if you'd go completely alone."

"I'm sure he won't be delighted to hear it's you, Herr Dorn, who will accompany me." She flashed an all-knowing smile across her heart-shaped lips, hinting at the doctor's dislike towards the policeman.

He took notice of the polite way she addressed him – Herr Dorn - and decided that this was something he should change in the future in order for further trust to bloom. One day, he would allow her to call him by his first name, but right now, it was still too soon to cast formality aside.

"And yet he knows I'm a trustworthy man," he confidently stated, which earned him Fräulein's quiet giggle. "Where do you wish to go?"

The blonde lifted her chin to point out of the window. "Somewhere near the Rhine. This rock in the distance. If that is possible, of course."

Henning arched his eyebrows in confusion. Being near the place she was found close to could pose to be a traumatizing experience yet again. "Why this spot exactly?"

She hesitated, as if unsure how she should express herself. Then, she settled for an answer. "I'm drawn to it, for some reason."

Their eyes met. They say eyes are the lock to one's heart and so, immediately, he could see the half-truth she kept hidden in them, but he decided against pressing further. Whatever her other reason behind 'being drawn' to that place was, asking her would feel like an interrogation, which was the least he wanted this to look like.

"All right."

"When will we go?" she inquired eagerly, playing with one of her curls.

An abrupt way to change the topic, but a welcome attempt to steer the conversation in a direction Dorn's limited social abilities allowed him to partake in.

Henning thought about it for a moment.

"Sometime next month is a good time. We don't want to give Arzt a heart attack by taking him by surprise."

"That is true." Fräulein chuckled. "It is only the two of us, right?"

Suddenly becoming quiet, her expression took on a note Dorn wasn't quite able to decipher. Those ocean eyes once again kept something within them, in his reach, but they didn't allow him to look deeper beyond than what Fräulein wanted him to see. Something flickered, between seriousness and hope, perhaps, if he had to guess, although these two emotions didn't quite mix together in this type of situation.

"Yes, of course," he answered truthfully, a bit confused.

As if he'd invite Arzt to come along – or even worse, Schneider.

"I look forward to it." Now, she smiled a toothy grin, probably the brightest he had ever seen her display as of yet.

There was a moment where he pondered if he should reciprocate the sentiment just as politely, maybe smile as well, but fearing it might come across as lazy wording or forced since he rarely had any reason to show happiness, he discarded the idea.

Instead, he chose a more formal approach that suited his stern character a lot more than any great speech of agreement: He simply nodded.

𝕹 𝕴 𝖃𝕰 𝕿 𝕺 𝕽 𝕰 𝕿𝕰𝖄

As Dorn exited her room after some chit-chat, he went through their conversation again. On his way to work, lost in thought, the policeman recalled the way she smiled happily whenever he'd enter the room.

Providing company proved useful, she seemed less miserable than when she was first salvaged from the Rhine. Slowly, so it seemed, she began to trust him – enough to agree to meet outside the clinic's safe space. If he were her, he'd agree to anything as well as long as it served the purpose to escape those white hospital halls and break free from Arzt's claws.

We provide her with opportunities, support, safety and the chance to build a new future once we solve her mystery.

Eckert's words echoed inside his mind and intervened his thoughts. Henning didn't doubt his superior's abilities, but he still questioned the approach he took on this case. It was as if the little boy's suffering had been forgotten, dismissed even, to focus on the greater mystery that was Fräulein. On top of that, they used her condition as a sort of stepping stone in hopes of bringing forth the investigation.

Against his will, he caught his mind trailing off to Fräulein again. Something about the way she had looked at him, neither did it seem quite right nor did it get out of his system. The feeling of not having understood the situation properly had stuck like gum to a shoe – not world-shattering, but bothersome.

"It is only the two of us, right?" she had asked. He remembered the way her face looked when stating so, the things she didn't say with her lips but tried to convert with her eyes. 'I'm looking forward to it', she had told him, delighted.

It finally dawned on him what his suggestion under normal circumstances implied. Two people, a man and a woman, both in the same age range. Alone on a trip to the Rhine. Airheaded and oblivious as he was when it concerned a delicate topic such as romance, the fool became aware that he sort of had arranged a date.

He was glad beyond belief nobody was present to witness, because Henning Dorn, one of the most uptight policemen in the department of Sankt Goarshausen's police, blushed with shame at what he had done without himself noticing.

He had been so caught up with the thought to get closer to Fräulein for the sake of the investigation that he completely had discarded the insinuation of it seeming like he made romantic advances to her.

In exchange, we take a little bit of hope, a little bit of trust.

So this is what Eckert had meant and maybe was planning all along. To some extent, brilliance does indeed border on cruelty.