Fragile (Slow Updates)

Chapter 18: New Reality

"You're just as bad as Enterprise." She commented in a condescending tone as if a mother was scolding her child but he wasn't a child anymore being capable of treating his own injuries.

He sighed, relaxing his shoulders, placing the towel to the side and continued puffing away on his cigarette. "One day you'll understand. Today is not that day, Vestal. Just know that people change."

He looked as if he was twice his age. In addition to his scars, tattoos and battered body he was almost unrecognized apart from say his face and eyes.

"Are you getting enough sleep?" She eyed him with concern, seeing his eyes were gaunt in appearance as if they were in a daze.

"Sleep?" He made it sound like some foreign concept. "Truthfully I haven't slept in a very long time. Not like you have to put up with the faces of your former comrades and friends in your sleep." The Sous-lieutenant spoke with sunken eyes. "I know what you're going to say and ya, I probably got PTSD and overly stressed. Yet, here I am in the middle of it all, forced to take meds and drown my problems in alcohol and nicotine."

She sighed heavily on her face portraying her sympathy for the Legionnaire, the man that was once her Commander. 'Your were so innocent when you first stepped onto this base and now you face the problems no one your age should be going through.' Vestal thought remembering his innocent childlike face and demeanour. Looking up her eyes only saw a man haunted by the flames of war. How it ripped away his innocence and shaped the man sitting in front of her who possessed a thousand yard stare and calmly smoked on his cigarette. "Just try to take it easy for the next few days and sleep." She advised while scribbling down any relevant information into his medical record. "Now your legs."

Him not bothering to fight her and waste the energy, lifting up his left pants leg revealing the metal and plastic underneath. "Surprise." The Legionnaire said in an unenthusiastic manner. "Price of war, Vestal." The dall black metal bearing scrapes and indentation from where damage had been inflicted with a fabric sleeve in the same colour of his skin being severely worn. "This isn't even the worst of it." He parted his hair to the side revealing a deep scar running along the side of his head.

"I sit before you a man who knows what it feels like to feel the wind blow against his exposed brain." Sous-Lieutenant Vogel spoke with a smirk, enjoying his cigarette all the while. She was horrified by the revelation, eyes going wide hearing each word come out of his mouth so calmly. He sighed, shaking his head disapprovingly. "All of you are soft like a marshmallow." A playful smile formed. "Don't ever change Vestal."

"Um...How did this happen?" Her mind couldn't comprehend what she just heard.

"Curious are we?" The Sous-lieutenant asked back with a slightly raised eyebrow with Vestal furrowing her eyebrows waiting for an answer from his own lips.

Sighing between hits from the cigarette he answered. "Fine. Lost my leg to an IED, that's an improvised explosive device. Then there's also the fact I don't have a right foot. Mortar round took care of that." He pointed a finger at the scar running along the right side of his head. "A-10 Thunderbolt II strafed us, mistaking us as the enemy."

Vestal, taken aback by the revelation. How he can act so calmly in front of her despite almost having his head taken off and physically losing a part of him. "Explains why there is no blood despite the damage." Out of curiosity Vestal placed her hand upon the prosthetics before locking eyes. It just looked like a normal prosthetic leg but still retained its full range of movement and reaction time from input as if it were a real leg.

The Legionnaire just eyed Vestal coldly with his gaunt expression. "That look, oh god."

"Why do you keep pushing yourself?" Vestal scowled at him with displeasure.