TF2: Doctor's Assistant

(24) Bliss

I tried to call out for help in a haze of sheer panic, but he only added the weight on my neck by leaning into his arm. I tensed and trembled under him, clawing at his arm as I struggled to breathe, he would let me breathe out, but the pressure was too much to breathe in. His pale blue eyes narrowed, a smile spreading across his face with an evil kind of joy that I'd never seen before. I couldn't think straight anymore, the world was fading fast. I was growing weaker. I knew if I slipped under he would've been happy to choke me to death.

In the haze of a last resort, my knee came up, hitting him square in the crotch with as much force as I could muster. He grunted loudly in pain and buckled on top of me. I pushed him off and clutched my throat, hacking out wheezing coughs as I suddenly caught my breath. I clutched my aching throat as my vision swam back into focus, the Sniper writhing beside me. I rolled over onto my hands and knees, grabbing my gun again and aiming it at him, trembling. He deserved this, and I told myself that as he glared up at me with those eyes. My finger squeezed the trigger. 

"Huc!"

My upper body lurched forward, a blinding pain overwhelmed my brain with signals. I couldn't make a sound. I didn't even know what had happened until I was already on the ground. 

My eyes slowly trailed back up so see who's shadow was now looming over me, my brain now slowly piecing together what I was seeing. BLU....Medic...he now held up his bloody bone saw like it was a trophy, chuckling as he walked over to the Sniper, now starting to recover from the kick in the balls he so rightfully deserved. I wheezed in objection, holding my left shoulder that the Medic had so effortlessly sliced wide open, blood literally pouring into a pool under me. They both left me behind in the sweep of a lab coat. 

"...sliced zhe main artery in her arm, she's as dead as a schwein in a slaughterhouse."

I trembled helplessly on the ground, the pain raging like a fire on my entire left side, seeming to spread into my neck. My arm was numb, almost immobile and heavy. My heart pounded in my chest, each breath sending a new kind of shock through my body, a new wave of pain hitting me like a bus. I pushed myself as far up as I could with my good arm, but my other just dangled from what was left of my shoulder. I cried out in pain, struggling to sit back up, but the pain was too much, and the fear of losing my arm grew bigger as I finally collapsed onto my back. My breath came out in what sounded like a half sob, the pain seeming to pulse in sharp waves. One after another...never to stop until I had run dry. I whimpered, staring up at the sky. It was a cloudy day, a few clouds sliding across the sky as I followed them slowly with my eyes. 

Was this it? Was I to just bleed out here and now? I shivered, lifting my head and looking at what I could still see of the battlefield. It was a haze of yelling men and gunfire and explosions, and the Medic? Nowhere to be seen. I dropped my head again, shaking like a scared child. If I died here, it would be the Medic's fault . He had every opportunity to get to me. I'd called for him, and he wasn't here. Through my haze of pain and tears that I'd noticed were streaking down my face, I entered a state of thought. 

Maybe he was hurt...or dead...who knew? My eyesight was starting to fade and my world started to spin, the blood loss not seeming to slow. All of what seemed to be more than just blood was now just a puddle under me. I rasped, my head turning over to look at the Pyro, he was looking back at me, his chest still rising and falling evenly...and that made me happy. I reached out to him, my hand caked in my own blood. Not seeming to mind the mess, he reached back to me and gently grabbed my hand. Fighter or not, I still needed someone to walk with me into the open arms of death. I didn't want to go. Not alone. 

I was calm, the sounds around me seeming to fade away. It just seemed like it was another day, but this time I was staring up at the clouds with Pyro by my side. I watched them once again as they glided by, their shapes changing ever so slowly. My eyes slowly drifted over to the chimney of the BLU base. I watched the smoke rise high into the sky. I shivered again, taking a few more calm breaths before I closed my eyes, letting the darkness embrace me. Maybe...it was better this way....

"Frau!"

I gasped, my entire body jerking as someone touched me, wrapping their arms around me and sitting me up. I shouted, a new pain like never before erupting in my shoulder. It might've exploded for all I knew. The world was a blur as I felt the warmth of the Medi gun embrace me, starting to mend my shoulder at an uncomfortable speed, all the blaring sounds from before returning to me. I was confused...and angry. He had waited until now? When I was so close to death, so close to bliss, and he had to rip it away from me. I wanted to cry...but I wanted to thank him at the same time. My world was a confusing blur of thoughts and feelings as he held me, my arm comfortably placed across my own body. 

My eyes were only half open, as if he had just awoken me from a dead sleep, trying to focus on his face. He was looking back at me, still panting heavily, still looking frightened. He looked over the rest of me before finding my eyes again, relieved that nothing else was wrong with me. I panted with pain, resting my head on his shoulder and closing my eyes again, the sharp claws of sleep still trying to drag me back. I felt him shake his head disapprovingly. 

"Nein...Frau, look at me...stay avake, bitte." he said ever so gently...like the coo of a dove. I cringed, opening my eyes again, my vision swimming into more focus than before. My breathing slowly came easier, the pain slowly starting to fade away. He held me close, after a while resting his forehead on mine and closing his eyes, still trying to calm himself. I could feel his heart pounding. His breath shook, as if on the verge of tears. 

"Oh Frau....I'm so sorry." He said in a shaking voice. I closed my eyes as well, saying nothing. I still wasn't fully aware of the real world yet. I instead opened my eyes again, looking right into his. Those grey eyes....they were so beautiful...A small smile twitched at my lips. Now...as I looked at him...I knew that everything I'd thought before wasn't true at all. He had tried his very best to do his job...and put everything else aside to come help me. 

I closed my eyes once more, not because death had opened its arms and offered a blissful painless end... but because his warm hand had reached up to cup my cheek...and because his soft tender lips were now on mine... 

A whole new kind of bliss...