"Listen, I'm looking for Casimir Moreau. I know he's here, I followed the ambulance here, you can't just TELL ME THIS MAN DOESN'T EXIST." Ms. Pauling lost her patience hours ago when she arrived at the airport and now the poor hospital secretary suffered her wrath.
Patiently behind her, a distressed young lady waited. Probably someone who knew who she was looking for and wasn't going to be angry about it.
"U-um, excuse moi?" she tapped on Ms. Pauling's shoulder. She whipped around, prepared to answer to an impatient, grieving woman about how she would interrogate this man all day if she had to, "I-I believe we are looking for the same person..."
Ms. Pauling composed herself quickly, "Oh.-Wait! You're Katerina, aren't you?" she said, sounding more scary than enthusiastic.
"Y-yes...?"
Her heart sighed in relief, "Thank god I found you!" she ushered her outside, assuring the receptionist they'd be back, "I don't suppose you remember me, I'm Ms. Pauling. I'm from the company your godfather works for-"
"Bien sûr (Of course)! I spoke with you on the phone!" Katerina gave her a relieved (and rather enthusiastic) hug.
She nervously accepted the hug, patting awkwardly, "Your English has improved since then, I've noticed..." she attempted to make small talk.
When Katerina let go, she instinctively began to speak French (despite her compliment), "Donc, que fait-il? Est-il quelque chose d'intéressant? Casimir faisait toujours des emplois intéressants . Attendez!" She paused to correct herself, "Never mind... How do we get them to let us in...?"
"I don't know, they say that he's not on their records, which is impossible because you and I saw him get driven here."
"What about the... um... organismes sans nom?" Katerina suggested.
"Organismes sans- OH! The John Does'. I didn't even think about that." Her impeccable understanding of context clues came in hand. Ms. Pauling returned to the reception desk with Katerina in tow, "We might be able to identify one of your John Does'." she whispered something to him over the counter, low enough for Katerina not to hear.
The receptionist conceded, he pressed a button on his phone, "Uhhh yeah, hey Jim? I got two ladies here who want to visit with the new John Doe... She says he's part of the Teufort Nine?"
"What is the 'Teufort Nine?'" Katerina asked. Ms. Pauling went cold; of course Spy wouldn't have told her anything, he wasn't allowed to. This week was just one broken rule after another. "I promise I will explain, just not right now-"
"He's been moved to ICU, but you've been given clearance-"
"Great! Thanks!" Ms. Pauling did not hesitate and dragged Katerina down the hall, following the arrows to the Intensive Care Unit.
"Ms. Pauling!" Katerina desperately fought for control of her arm, "I know this is important, but I need answers!"
But Ms. Pauling didn't comply. Her mind was set on getting her employee back to base; explanations would come later or not at all, she told herself. She ignored Katerina's qualms and explained to someone at the Nurse's Station her situation, while her companion wandered, peeking into every room she passed.
And then she saw him.
Room 116.
"Père!"
Katerina tripped over her own feet running to the bedside, her eyes summoning tears that had been subdued all day. Her cries were loud and painful, as if she were the one in the hospital bed.
"My dear, please don't cry." He spoke to her in his native tongue.
She looked up, shocked to find her dearest godfather was unphased and not unresponsive like the nurses had led on, "You're okay...?"
He sat up like nothing was wrong, "Of course I am. I've experienced much worse." Spy said, referring to his many deaths and non-visible gunshot wounds.
Ms. Pauling joined them shortly after. "Spy! But the-" She shut the door quietly, "But the nurses said you were unresponsive."
"I was. I did not want to deal with them." He stated simply.
"Hold on. You..." Katerina could not find the words she was looking for, "But why?"
Spy looked at Ms. Pauling, She looked at Katerina and shrugged. Spy gave her a sincere look, Ms. Pauling sighed.
"I guess we should tell her."
-----
The Red team had been sitting in traffic backed up all the way to the airport exit, the very same traffic Ms. Pauling had been caught in. The initial wreck had happened over an hour ago, the aftermath was estimated to last for at least another two hours.
This did not sit well with the Mann Co. employees and their fiery tempers.
Instead of hailing a taxi like they had originally done to get to the airport, they used the airport's in-house rent-a-car service. Heavy sat in the driver's seat with Medic in shotgun, Melissa, Scout and Demoman sat in the row directly behind them, Engie, Soldier and Pyro behind them.
"Let me drive! I'll get us there faster than you will!" Demo attempted to crawl in front to relieve Heavy from the driver's seat.
"We take next exit when traffic lets us." Heavy stated firmly, clutching the steering wheel. He was tempted to let Demoman take over at this point; staring at the heat coming off of the cars ahead of him, he couldn't tell if they were moving forward, backward or at all.
"Patience, mein friend," Medic patted his shoulder keeping his best buddy calm, though he secretly desired to have his medi-gun so he could ubercharge this vehicle and go as fast as possible past all of these idle cars. Oh yes. What a nice thought.
Scout was shaking his leg, which was something he never did. Why was he so worried about Spy? That asshole went out of his way to make sure he was miserable most of the time. Maybe it was how much he seemed to genuinely care when Mel was at the base? Yeah, but she still almost died because of him. By that logic, why didn't Mel hate him too? He was so deep in thought, he didn't feel his daughter tug on his sleeve.
"Daddy...?"
He reawakened from his trance, "-Yes, Mel?"
"What exactly is your job...?"
The entire van went silent.
Scout looked to his comrades for assistance, Heavy and Medic offered no assistance while they pretended to navigate, Demoman acted like he was knocked out from all the scrumpy (but then again, he could've actually passed out), and the entire back row just shrugged.
Gee, thanks guys, "I...- I mean, WE- We fight bad guys, angel. Y-you saw it first hand..."
"But why?" she pressed further.
"B-because..." he tried his hardest to fabricate a story, "Do you remember that blue building? See that... that's a prison! Prison breaks happen all the time!" He didn't know where he was taking this but he ran with it, "It's not a very good prison, so they break out with big weapons and stuff! And we gotta take 'em out before they break out."
The van held its breath.
"Oh, ok."
And sighed in relief.
Scout slumped back in his seat, Melissa crawling into his lap. "You're safe with us, kid. You should know that by now."
"I know, but are you safe here?"
He paused.
And did not answer her this time.
YOU ARE READING
Family Time #2: Spy
Fanfiction[This is the second story in the Family time series based on the Daddy Fortress AU by tumblr-user paperfrays] Spy reunites with a friend from the past, unintentionally endangering their life even further. Can Spy mend the bonds torn by time or will...
