Ender's War

Chapter 24 - Waking Nightmare

Ender found himself laughing at her joke, before he chimed in himself. "Unless you want us to?"

"No!" The little girl screamed before racing her brother up the steps, and into the house.

Petra grinned at Ender, wrapping an arm around his shoulders as they both began to walk inside after the kids. "Don't ever doubt my methods." She nudged him.

There was nothing they could do. Look, I know this is hard. You've just lost Mazer, but you need to get a grip, okay? Get some rest and we'll figure everything out tomorrow.

Ender feigned a look of hurt. "You really used a kiss to fool our children? I thought I was more to you than a ploy."

Petra scrunched her face up at him, causing small wrinkles to form around her eyes, giving him a harder nudge. "If I didn't love you, I'd kill you."

"Ouch. Now that's just rude."

I'm fine! I don't need rest. I need to work: meet with the lieutenants, train the Launchies, talk to Graff. There's no time!

_

Ender felt the cold touch of a hand resting on his forehead, and his eyes flew open. On instinct, he was up and ready to tackle whoever had touched him.

"Give me a heart attack much?!" Valentine's voice drilled loudly through his ears, causing Ender to groan.

His head instantly started pounding, his eyes hurt, and he felt both disoriented and dizzy on his feet. Knowing there was no immediate threat, he lay back down onto the bed, closing his eyes. Why were there so many bright lights? And why did he feel like crap? Where was he?

"Are you okay?" Her voice was quieter this time, but that didn't make the pain in Ender's head subside in any way.

"What–what happened?" He whispered, hoping Valentine would do the same.

Ender's closed eyes prevented him from seeing Valentine's expression, but that didn't stop him from noticing the slight pause before she answered. She was debating on what to say.

"We sort of had to sedate you." She said cautiously. She was waiting for him to snap at her.

"Because?" His calmness was unexpected. His mind was foggy.

"I don't know how much you remember, but after we found out about....you were hysterical. The nurses were worried...I was scared that you were going to...but you wouldn't stop. So I had no choice but to put you down. Temporarily, that is."

Ender digested her words carefully. There were a lot of unspoken things Valentine had conveyed, but Ender knew what she meant.  The previous day's events slowly reappeared in his subconscious mind. He remembered it vividly enough. Petra was gone. He had gotten angry, and Valentine was right, he could've done something terrible in the state he was in.

"You wouldn't leave her side. You kept saying no...you wouldn't let them near her. So the nurses gave me the needle." She paused again. "I'm sorry for that by the way. I didn't want to do it."

"I understand." He mumbled. His mind was swirling with the memories of what Valentine was describing. Petra's lifeless body was etched into his skull, and he didn't know if the image would ever leave. Just like Bonzo and Stilson, he thought to himself. Their bodies were always there too. "How long was I out?"

This made Valentine nervously laugh. "Almost twenty hours." Before Ender could respond, she continued. "It wasn't supposed to be that long, but I'm not a nurse and I gave you a huge dose."

He stayed silent in response before bringing his hands up to help shield his eyes from the lights. His eyelids weren't doing a good job of that. "Where are we?"