GenRex Secret Santa
Title: Stones In My Pocket
Rating: T
Pairing: Holix
Summary: The things we can't see hurt us more than the things we can.
Word Count: 4115
Beta: x_x
To: straya
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Holiday sprinted through the halls of Providence headquarters, boots clicking sharply against white tile, the force of her steps sending vibrations up her legs. However the sound was blocked out by the catastrophic symphony around her.] Everywhere there were Providence staff scurrying and shouting, while at the same time wheeling dozens of gurneys full of people, people who were sobbing and screaming and thrashing and pleading and doing their very best to try and escape the restraints which strapped them to their beds. But Holiday wasn’t paying attention to that. No, she had her own goal, her own problems, and so she ran.
Moments later she burst into the landing bay. The massive room was in complete chaos, much like the rest of the facility. Everywhere there was movement: from the airships that were coming in laden with hundreds of sick people-- all half-delirious or worse-- to soldiers scurrying across the floor, restraining some patients while trying to direct others towards quarantine rooms. The sounds of engines and screaming filled Holiday's ears and she gritted her teeth.
Then, on the far side of the bay, she spied her target: the airship 042A. Within half a second she was off, dogging and ignoring all those that blocked her path. She reached the airship just as it landed; the door instantly flew open and soldiers poured out.
“Where are they?!” Holiday yelled over the ruckus, her lab coat and bangs flaring in the downdraft of the ship’s engines. “Where are they?!”
No sooner than she repeated the words, the soldiers parted and revealed
what she was searching for. The sight tore at her heart.
On the floor of the ship lay Six and Rex. Both of them were caked in a foul, yellow goo. Six was pinned down by several Providence soldiers, his body straining bizarrely-- he looked as if he was trying to thrash and simultaneously keep control of himself. His face glistened with sweat and his jaw was clenched, a glimmer of teeth seen between his lips.
Rex lay next to him, semi-conscious and also pinned by the same amount of men, his body in spasms, his eyes roving madly behind half-closed lids. Around his neck gleamed the white collar that Providence used to restrain EVOs. Seeing it on Rex was blood chilling.
“Get it off him!” She stalked towards Rex, shoving past a soldier in her way.
Unfortunately another soldier without his hood-- a mid-aged man with close cropped brown hair and an uneasy frown -- abruptly stepped in front of her.
“Doctor, please. We had no choice! Once the hallucination set in, he became delusional! He started attacking my men! This was the only way we were able to bring him down without seriously harming us or him! We made sure it remained on the lowest possible setting and only triggered it when he tried to power up! Without it on right now he poses a serious threat!” the man defended.
Holiday in no mood to negotiate.
“Move!” Knocking the man out of the way, Holiday rushed forward and popped the manual latch on the collar, releasing it with a small surge of electricity. The second the collar was off, Rex’s eyes snapped opened, revealing bloodshot veins. His mouth gaped opened, as if to scream, but whatever sound he was about to make was silenced by a syringe-- the one Holiday keep for emergencies just like this, hastily snatched from the lab the second she heard the news-- the quick-handed doctor injected into his neck.
Rex instantly froze….and then his body went completely slack, only slight muscle twitches remaining. The soldiers holding him down lurched in surprise but Holiday didn’t stop to explain. Instead she moved to Six, who was still tossing violently under the grip of his subordinates. As Holiday pulled another syringe from her coat pocket, she heard strings of words being hissed from between Six’s locked jaws.
“It’s not….real. Past, can’t be…Moving….Can’t…Isn’t real!” As the doctor moved into his line of sight, Six seemed to recognize her. “Holiday….Holiday! Can’t…can’t control…can’t! Delusions…not real! Medicine! It was….not…long time…gotta stop…And not, and not! Fault! No! No! SIX! SIX!” The green clad man abruptly screamed and began fighting even harder, so hard that two of the men lost their hold on him.
Holiday, who had been frozen by Six’s words, quickly jumped forward and administered the anesthetic. Six, like Rex, quickly froze and then went limp. Everyone, including Holiday, stopped to take shaky breaths then. More than tired from restraining the men, they were all deeply perturbed by Six’s behavior. The mysterious man was legendary throughout Providence for his ability to kill without being seen, much less heard. To see him suddenly screaming like that was simply not natural. It one of the most disturbing things Holiday had ever seen.
However, disturbing things were not uncommon within the walls of Providence, and so it was only a moment before Holiday was quickly pushing the incident to the back of her mind and jumping back into action.
“You and you!” She pointed to two soldiers. “Get two gurneys. The anesthetics I gave them will keep them sedated for the next few hours, and will suppress Rex’s nanites as well.” As the men rushed away she turned back to her boys, but was stopped by the same brown haired soldier as before. His mouth was tight and he looked no happier with the situation than Holiday did. In his hands were the compacted circles of Six’s sheathed katanas. He held them out to the good doctor, his eyes dropped as if ashamed.
“Here. He handed these over when he started slipping. He didn’t succumb as fast as the kid did. I think he knew what was happening,” the man explained in a clipped tone, his voice almost drowned out by the noise around them. Holiday just stared at the blades for a few minutes, a sudden pang running through her chest, before the two soldier’s she sent away returned with gurneys and began putting Rex and Six onto them. Looking away sharply, Holiday grabbed the blades and shoved them into her pockets, then she turned to the others.
“Alright, follow me; I want them in the main lab-- stat!” she barked, marching towards the exit. As walked she could feel the weight of the swords in her pockets. They were much heavier than they looked, like stones pulling her down to incalculable depths.
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Everything had started with a slug-like Evo that had appeared overnight in the very center of the small town of Mayfield, Wyoming. It had been huge, the size of a trailer truck, with no discernable eyes and a spongy yellow skin that oozed a disgusting, sticky mucus like substance. Worse, it had been covered in dozens of sucker like mouths, ringed by hundreds of small teeth, that continuously contracted. It had been slowly crawling through town, eating any organic matter it came in contact with. The only saving grace was that it was terribly slow and seemed to have no way to defend itself except for its mouths, all of which could be easily avoided.
It was supposed to be a quick, simple mission. All Rex had to do was kill the thing and slice it into chunks for Providence scientist to clear away. Six was only there to supervise Rex, and at first everything was all right. The thing clearly hadn’t been made to fight off metallic weapons and Rex had gone straight for the killing blow; the creature had barely had time to react. But it was when the creature had entered its death throes that something had gone wrong. It had apparently started convulsing and had then spewed a strange pollen like substance from its multiple orifices.
Turned out the pollen was a type of dangerous hallucinogenic spore. It had managed to spread out over several city blocks and be inhaled by a fifth of the small town’s population. It was only the Providence soldier’s helmets, and-- as was latter learned-- the fact that the spores were only potent for roughly two minutes after being released, that more people weren’t infected.
But Six and Rex, the only agents of Providence not wearing helmets on the battlefield, had caught the full brunt of the attack.
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The next twelve hours were, in some ways, the hardest of Holiday’s life. Though she had been through worst situations--most notably when the “Sleeping Plague” had hit the world, leaving her among one of the last conscious people on the planet, and the time she’d been stuck on a failing space station-- they’d never been so horrific as what was to come.
Turned out, the anesthetics didn’t work properly, due to the spores. Nobody could get any of the patients to stay sedated for more than thirty minutes at a time. The same went for Six and Rex, and though
Rex’s nanite suppressant did work, it was a cold comfort, because Holiday couldn‘t think anything was “okay” about the situation with all the screaming.
It came from everywhere. There were over five hundred patients now, crammed into the echoing white halls of Providence, and all of them-- from children to senior citizens--were hallucinating, and all of them were having completely hysterical breakdowns, all of which included crying, clawing, screeching, and attacking others. The sounds reverberated through the whole complex, making the area sound like the aftermath of a war zone or something out of the deepest pits of hell. But she was certain that the absolute worst of it, the sounds that made her feel like her entire body was being hollowed out, were coming twenty feet from where she continuously worked on an antidote. They came from Six and Rex.
Rex, who, along with Six, was stripped of his coat, thrashed wildly against his restraints, cursing and screaming and yelling between great periods of writhing and gasping for air. He didn’t cry. He sounded much more angry. He’s sometimes roar out “Van Kleiss” like he wanted to murder the man-- sometimes he cried out "Noah", or "Six", or Holiday’s own name in desperate tone. Sometimes he shouted words like “Stop!” and “No!”
Six’s reactions were different. Like before, he jerked and thrashed sporadically between longer periods of tense stillness, his muscles twitching in protest. He often hissed or murmured words between gritted teeth, too low for Holiday to hear but would ever so often suddenly scream the words “No! Stop!” Sometimes it would be his own name, which Holiday never understood, or worse….He yelled her name.
Every time he did it was like a knife to her gut, a shock through her nerves. It was like he was calling out for her, asking her to help, to hurry, to find a cure and release him from whatever hell he was in. And every time she bit deep into her lip, forced herself to blink back tears, focus, and work.
The weight of Six’s swords in her pockets never lessened.
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Early on in the day, Holiday had made the mistake of underestimating Six. She had started with him simply tied down by a single leather strap across his shoulders, ankles, and wrists. But when she approached him for a blood sample, though, he had thrashed wildly, as if threatened by her and ripped through the straps. If it had been anyone else, the tendons in their wrists would have torn, but of course, all that happened to Six was that he freed his arm, violently slamming an elbow into Holiday’s cheek. Needless to say, as soon as Holiday had been able to re-restrain him-- with the help of two other scientists -- she’d applied several more straps to his arms and legs.
That was eleven hours ago, one hour in. Twelve long hours of hell, watching the two people she cared for most in the world suffer at the hands of something Holiday couldn’t herself see, much less stop….Until now, that is. Looking down, she gripped the two small, and now empty, vials she held in her hand. Twelve hours and seventy harassed scientists later, it might be over. That is, if the liquid she’d just injected into her boys' veins worked. She thumbed the rims of cool metal in her pocket with her free hand.
Holiday had demanded that Rex and Six be the first tested. If the medicine worked--even if it didn’t cure, only alleviated-- she wanted them to be the first to get it. She supposed that it was selfish of her, but looking down at her boys, she didn’t care. Both of them were going through a “quiet phase” at the moment, where all their strained bodies could manage was panting and muscle twitching. Both were white faced, with deep bruises of exhaustion under their eyes, the same color as the large purple bruise that bloomed on her right cheek. She knew the phase would give away to a new round of thrashing and screaming soon if the antidote hadn‘t worked. She’d have to wait another fifteen or so minutes to find out for sure.
Holiday’s mouth tightened and her eyes drifted to focus on Six’s prone form. His white shirt was plastered to his body with sweat and his tie was gone, taken to prevent it from getting in the way or restricting his breathing. His glasses were still on, which amazed Holiday. She’d considered removing them for safety purposes earlier….but she hadn’t been able to cross that line. She didn’t like the idea of removing them without Six being aware of it. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she’s be violating him somehow if she did it without his permission.
A sudden wave of fatigue spread throughout her body; it’d been over twenty-four hours since she’d last slept, and an ache had spread in her chest, all the way down to her stomach. The lab was empty of scientists, save for her at the moment; all other available hands were either working on making patients comfortable or awaiting her news of the antidote. She refused to let them in and risk prompting anymore upset from Rex and Six. Now, she was glad for another reason: privacy.
Slowly, she raised her hand and lightly traced the edges of Six’s tense face for a few moments. At the same time, a few of the tears she’d been holding back raised to her eyes, burning hot, even hotter than the fevered skin of Six‘s cheek, where the muscles twitched under her fingers. She let her fingers linger for a moment before lightly pulling them back to wipe away her tears, her face tensing as she shut her eyes to block them off at the source.
Holiday’s relationship with Six was complicated. She cared for him deeply and she knew he cared for her, though to what extent she didn’t know. The man was a stone wall most of the time, and she had to fight tooth and nail just to get the slightest of admissions from him. But he definitely cared for her. She didn’t need words to tell. As emotionless as Six tried to make himself, the image was a lie. She could catch glimpses of how he felt in the way his shoulders tensed, in the way he cocked his head, or how his lips and brows bent at the corners when he thought no one was looking. She felt it in the air, in the way he hesitated or abruptly became stone still, like he wanted to say something but couldn‘t bring himself to do it-- vibes that balanced on the very cusp of her intuition.
As her eyes stayed closed, her thoughts wandered to just a few months ago, when Rex had been forced to revive Van Kleiss, and the man had repaid him by swallowing herself and Six in suffocating darkness. Holiday could remember the sight of Six reaching for her, long body straining, hand out stretched, thinking in a moment of terror of how her last glimpse of life would be the horrifically beautiful sight of the man she loved trying to save her when he was already doomed himself….
But then there was light. The darkness receded and she remembered awakening, opening her eyes to the sight of his face, relaxed as he was roused from unconsciousness, the feel of his hand encircling her own and the glorious realization that they‘d live. She’d live, and so would he. Remembering this, she bowed her head and hope for another miracle.
“Crying, Doctor Holiday? How unlike you.”
Holiday’s eyes snapped open at the sound of the hoarse whisper. She looked down and was shocked to see Six looking back up at her, obviously awake despite his obscured eyes.
“Oh! God, Six!” Holiday gasped, leaning a bit as shock coursed through her. Her head snapped around to look at the clock. Several minutes had passed without her realizing it. She quickly looked back at Six, relief and exhaustion making her giddy. “It worked!” Holiday allowed herself another moment of joy before reality set back in. “Oh! Oh! Stay right there while I inform the others!” She raced towards her computer, tossing a backwards wave as Six, only to realized the ridiculousness of her comment a second later. She could imagine, more than see, Six’s dubiously raised eyebrow, but she heard the slightest edge of humor in his voice.
“I‘m strapped to a gurney…,” the words finished themselves inside her head. I won’t be doing much moving, will I?, .
“Yes, I’m sorry, I had to restrain you, the spores you inhaled caused hallucinations and made you act--”
“I remember,” Six cut in abruptly. And just like that, any levity left in the moment was gone. As silence descended, Holiday nodded, turning to her computer to make her call.
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Holiday’s call was brief. She simply told the others that the compound had worked, that Six had already woken up, and--after quickly checking Six and Rex’s vitals (the younger was no longer twitching and looked much more relaxed)-- that all signs of delirium were fading. Once they learned this, the other scientists immediately began making plans to distribute the drug while Holiday announced her intent to remain with her two patients until Rex woke up. Six didn’t argue.
“How long have we been out?” Six asked as Holiday ended the call. His face was regaining its color, but he still looked exhausted.
“Twelve hours,” Holiday replied, approaching Six and untying his restraints. “We have over five hundred civilians quarantined in the base right now. You and Rex were, obviously, the first to receive the antidote, which the others will start distributing. Don‘t worry; we have it under control.”
Six just nodded as he sat up and moved to the edge of the bed. He didn’t stand immediately but remained seated, flexing his wrists, trying to get the blood flowing again. The action jogged Holiday’s memory, reminding her of what she never thought she’d forget. Quickly she shoved her hands into her pockets and pulled out the heavy weights of Six’s swords.
“Here, these are yours,” she informed, holding the weapons out to him, knowing he‘d missed them. Six straightened and gathered the items into his hands, but then he paused, swords still held in front of him, causing Holiday to freeze as well.
“What?” she asked, a bit worried. The sounds of his screaming still echoed through her ears.
Wordlessly, Six placed the swords off to his side, instead of placing them up his sleeves, his eyes never leaving Holiday’s. Then he carefully brought up his hand and cupped the doctor’s cheek. Her bruised cheek.
“What happened?” he asked sternly.
Holiday blushed. “It was nothing, really. Another patient--”
“I did this.” It wasn’t a question.
“You didn’t know what you were doing; you were delirious and not in control of yourself,” Holiday argued. Then her voice wavered slightly. “You and Rex….it was bad. Very bad."
“I know….I knew it wasn’t real, even as I saw it, but I couldn’t help reacting….Now it just feels like a nightmare…," Six murmured, almost as if he wasn't aware he was speaking. "It was so real and now it’s gone. And even trying to remember…. It was ridiculous of me to succumb to it.”
However, Holiday couldn’t defend him anymore because in the middle of his speech, Six started moving his thumb lightly across the bruise on her face, much like Holiday had done to his own cheek earlier. The sensation nailed her in place. Her stomach fluttered nervously. Six tilted his head and slowly, cautiously, he leaned forward.
The good doctor stood stone-still, afraid if she even blinked that Six would stop. Soon, he was only a few centimeters from her face. She could see herself reflected in Six’s glasses, laid out in form, absent of all color. He eyes were wide and wanting. From behind the mirrored lenses she could feel the heat of eyes she’d never seen. Then, finally, Agent Six of Providence kissed her.
It was simple, soft, only a careful pressure of warm lips against her own, but behind Holiday’s eyes, fireworks exploded-- the drumming of her own heart pounded in her ears, her skin ignited with heat. It was like everything within her had shifted so that the feel of Six’s lips was the only thing in the universe.
And then Rex had to go and ruin it.
“Dude! My eyes! I wake up strapped to a bed with you two making out in front of me?! I knew you were sick, but come on!”
Holiday and Six sprang apart so fast, they might've left an afterimage of their former positions. They both turned to the other, forgotten, occupant of the room who did not look happy about being strapped to a bed. Holiday flushed in embarrassment, heart pounding, a part of her shouting angrily to ignore Rex and keep kissing Six while the other, better, half of her released a sigh of relief that Rex was finally awake.
She couldn’t help the compulsion to look back at Six, but he was already turning away, slipping his katanas back up his sleeves, and then putting on his tie and jacket once again, both of which laid out on a cart next to his bed. Out of the corner of her eye Holiday could swear she saw a light blush creeping up Six’s neck and over his cheeks. Dammit, she cursed mentally, glaring at Rex, who had continued to rant about his predicament.
“Seriously, guys. I just had the trippiest ride of my life. I’d really appreciate being untied so I can go pound whatever’s left of that slug EVO into the ground!”
Holiday sighed, rolling her eyes. She was relieved that whatever demons had plagued her patients--like “nightmares” Six had said--were fading so quickly. She had been worried about what her boys' emotional states would be when they woke up, but clearly it had been unnecessary. They were too tough to be taken down by spores. So, knowing they’d be alright, the doctor was able to do what she did next without guilt.
“Oh, don’t think you’re going anywhere, young man. I have tons of tests I need to run on you.”
Rex paled. “Tests? But, how come Six isn’t having any tests done? Unless sucking face counts, and if that's the case then…" He raised a suggestive eyebrow. "…do whatever you think is best, Doctor."
Holiday blushed a bit, the kiss between her and Six still fresh, but her face remained composed.
“You’re well aware you’re both biologically different and it took you several minutes longer to wake up. It’s important I run tests on you,” she replied evenly.
“And I have work to do. I‘m sure White Knight wants me up and running as soon as possible,” Six remarked, straightening his tie, all business again. Holiday frowned, her more professional side emerging as well.
“You could wait a little while, just to make sure you’re really okay….”
Six shook his head in disagreement.
“I’m fine. Besides…” He walked closer and, after a split second of hesitation, placed his hand on her back lightly. “You should take care of yourself. You deserve some rest.” With that, Six dropped his hand and made his way to the door.
Holiday stood, shocked that Six was still being slightly….affectionate. At that moment, Six stopped in the doorway and looked back at her over his shoulder.
“After you administer those tests, of course,” he announced, the ghost of a smirk on his face. With that, the door slid shut between them, cutting off any further discussion.
Holiday felt a smile slide across her face at Rex’s indignant shouts.
Rating: T
Pairing: Holix
Summary: The things we can't see hurt us more than the things we can.
Word Count: 4115
Beta: x_x
To: straya
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Holiday sprinted through the halls of Providence headquarters, boots clicking sharply against white tile, the force of her steps sending vibrations up her legs. However the sound was blocked out by the catastrophic symphony around her.] Everywhere there were Providence staff scurrying and shouting, while at the same time wheeling dozens of gurneys full of people, people who were sobbing and screaming and thrashing and pleading and doing their very best to try and escape the restraints which strapped them to their beds. But Holiday wasn’t paying attention to that. No, she had her own goal, her own problems, and so she ran.
Moments later she burst into the landing bay. The massive room was in complete chaos, much like the rest of the facility. Everywhere there was movement: from the airships that were coming in laden with hundreds of sick people-- all half-delirious or worse-- to soldiers scurrying across the floor, restraining some patients while trying to direct others towards quarantine rooms. The sounds of engines and screaming filled Holiday's ears and she gritted her teeth.
Then, on the far side of the bay, she spied her target: the airship 042A. Within half a second she was off, dogging and ignoring all those that blocked her path. She reached the airship just as it landed; the door instantly flew open and soldiers poured out.
“Where are they?!” Holiday yelled over the ruckus, her lab coat and bangs flaring in the downdraft of the ship’s engines. “Where are they?!”
No sooner than she repeated the words, the soldiers parted and revealed
what she was searching for. The sight tore at her heart.
On the floor of the ship lay Six and Rex. Both of them were caked in a foul, yellow goo. Six was pinned down by several Providence soldiers, his body straining bizarrely-- he looked as if he was trying to thrash and simultaneously keep control of himself. His face glistened with sweat and his jaw was clenched, a glimmer of teeth seen between his lips.
Rex lay next to him, semi-conscious and also pinned by the same amount of men, his body in spasms, his eyes roving madly behind half-closed lids. Around his neck gleamed the white collar that Providence used to restrain EVOs. Seeing it on Rex was blood chilling.
“Get it off him!” She stalked towards Rex, shoving past a soldier in her way.
Unfortunately another soldier without his hood-- a mid-aged man with close cropped brown hair and an uneasy frown -- abruptly stepped in front of her.
“Doctor, please. We had no choice! Once the hallucination set in, he became delusional! He started attacking my men! This was the only way we were able to bring him down without seriously harming us or him! We made sure it remained on the lowest possible setting and only triggered it when he tried to power up! Without it on right now he poses a serious threat!” the man defended.
Holiday in no mood to negotiate.
“Move!” Knocking the man out of the way, Holiday rushed forward and popped the manual latch on the collar, releasing it with a small surge of electricity. The second the collar was off, Rex’s eyes snapped opened, revealing bloodshot veins. His mouth gaped opened, as if to scream, but whatever sound he was about to make was silenced by a syringe-- the one Holiday keep for emergencies just like this, hastily snatched from the lab the second she heard the news-- the quick-handed doctor injected into his neck.
Rex instantly froze….and then his body went completely slack, only slight muscle twitches remaining. The soldiers holding him down lurched in surprise but Holiday didn’t stop to explain. Instead she moved to Six, who was still tossing violently under the grip of his subordinates. As Holiday pulled another syringe from her coat pocket, she heard strings of words being hissed from between Six’s locked jaws.
“It’s not….real. Past, can’t be…Moving….Can’t…Isn’t real!” As the doctor moved into his line of sight, Six seemed to recognize her. “Holiday….Holiday! Can’t…can’t control…can’t! Delusions…not real! Medicine! It was….not…long time…gotta stop…And not, and not! Fault! No! No! SIX! SIX!” The green clad man abruptly screamed and began fighting even harder, so hard that two of the men lost their hold on him.
Holiday, who had been frozen by Six’s words, quickly jumped forward and administered the anesthetic. Six, like Rex, quickly froze and then went limp. Everyone, including Holiday, stopped to take shaky breaths then. More than tired from restraining the men, they were all deeply perturbed by Six’s behavior. The mysterious man was legendary throughout Providence for his ability to kill without being seen, much less heard. To see him suddenly screaming like that was simply not natural. It one of the most disturbing things Holiday had ever seen.
However, disturbing things were not uncommon within the walls of Providence, and so it was only a moment before Holiday was quickly pushing the incident to the back of her mind and jumping back into action.
“You and you!” She pointed to two soldiers. “Get two gurneys. The anesthetics I gave them will keep them sedated for the next few hours, and will suppress Rex’s nanites as well.” As the men rushed away she turned back to her boys, but was stopped by the same brown haired soldier as before. His mouth was tight and he looked no happier with the situation than Holiday did. In his hands were the compacted circles of Six’s sheathed katanas. He held them out to the good doctor, his eyes dropped as if ashamed.
“Here. He handed these over when he started slipping. He didn’t succumb as fast as the kid did. I think he knew what was happening,” the man explained in a clipped tone, his voice almost drowned out by the noise around them. Holiday just stared at the blades for a few minutes, a sudden pang running through her chest, before the two soldier’s she sent away returned with gurneys and began putting Rex and Six onto them. Looking away sharply, Holiday grabbed the blades and shoved them into her pockets, then she turned to the others.
“Alright, follow me; I want them in the main lab-- stat!” she barked, marching towards the exit. As walked she could feel the weight of the swords in her pockets. They were much heavier than they looked, like stones pulling her down to incalculable depths.
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Everything had started with a slug-like Evo that had appeared overnight in the very center of the small town of Mayfield, Wyoming. It had been huge, the size of a trailer truck, with no discernable eyes and a spongy yellow skin that oozed a disgusting, sticky mucus like substance. Worse, it had been covered in dozens of sucker like mouths, ringed by hundreds of small teeth, that continuously contracted. It had been slowly crawling through town, eating any organic matter it came in contact with. The only saving grace was that it was terribly slow and seemed to have no way to defend itself except for its mouths, all of which could be easily avoided.
It was supposed to be a quick, simple mission. All Rex had to do was kill the thing and slice it into chunks for Providence scientist to clear away. Six was only there to supervise Rex, and at first everything was all right. The thing clearly hadn’t been made to fight off metallic weapons and Rex had gone straight for the killing blow; the creature had barely had time to react. But it was when the creature had entered its death throes that something had gone wrong. It had apparently started convulsing and had then spewed a strange pollen like substance from its multiple orifices.
Turned out the pollen was a type of dangerous hallucinogenic spore. It had managed to spread out over several city blocks and be inhaled by a fifth of the small town’s population. It was only the Providence soldier’s helmets, and-- as was latter learned-- the fact that the spores were only potent for roughly two minutes after being released, that more people weren’t infected.
But Six and Rex, the only agents of Providence not wearing helmets on the battlefield, had caught the full brunt of the attack.
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The next twelve hours were, in some ways, the hardest of Holiday’s life. Though she had been through worst situations--most notably when the “Sleeping Plague” had hit the world, leaving her among one of the last conscious people on the planet, and the time she’d been stuck on a failing space station-- they’d never been so horrific as what was to come.
Turned out, the anesthetics didn’t work properly, due to the spores. Nobody could get any of the patients to stay sedated for more than thirty minutes at a time. The same went for Six and Rex, and though
Rex’s nanite suppressant did work, it was a cold comfort, because Holiday couldn‘t think anything was “okay” about the situation with all the screaming.
It came from everywhere. There were over five hundred patients now, crammed into the echoing white halls of Providence, and all of them-- from children to senior citizens--were hallucinating, and all of them were having completely hysterical breakdowns, all of which included crying, clawing, screeching, and attacking others. The sounds reverberated through the whole complex, making the area sound like the aftermath of a war zone or something out of the deepest pits of hell. But she was certain that the absolute worst of it, the sounds that made her feel like her entire body was being hollowed out, were coming twenty feet from where she continuously worked on an antidote. They came from Six and Rex.
Rex, who, along with Six, was stripped of his coat, thrashed wildly against his restraints, cursing and screaming and yelling between great periods of writhing and gasping for air. He didn’t cry. He sounded much more angry. He’s sometimes roar out “Van Kleiss” like he wanted to murder the man-- sometimes he cried out "Noah", or "Six", or Holiday’s own name in desperate tone. Sometimes he shouted words like “Stop!” and “No!”
Six’s reactions were different. Like before, he jerked and thrashed sporadically between longer periods of tense stillness, his muscles twitching in protest. He often hissed or murmured words between gritted teeth, too low for Holiday to hear but would ever so often suddenly scream the words “No! Stop!” Sometimes it would be his own name, which Holiday never understood, or worse….He yelled her name.
Every time he did it was like a knife to her gut, a shock through her nerves. It was like he was calling out for her, asking her to help, to hurry, to find a cure and release him from whatever hell he was in. And every time she bit deep into her lip, forced herself to blink back tears, focus, and work.
The weight of Six’s swords in her pockets never lessened.
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Early on in the day, Holiday had made the mistake of underestimating Six. She had started with him simply tied down by a single leather strap across his shoulders, ankles, and wrists. But when she approached him for a blood sample, though, he had thrashed wildly, as if threatened by her and ripped through the straps. If it had been anyone else, the tendons in their wrists would have torn, but of course, all that happened to Six was that he freed his arm, violently slamming an elbow into Holiday’s cheek. Needless to say, as soon as Holiday had been able to re-restrain him-- with the help of two other scientists -- she’d applied several more straps to his arms and legs.
That was eleven hours ago, one hour in. Twelve long hours of hell, watching the two people she cared for most in the world suffer at the hands of something Holiday couldn’t herself see, much less stop….Until now, that is. Looking down, she gripped the two small, and now empty, vials she held in her hand. Twelve hours and seventy harassed scientists later, it might be over. That is, if the liquid she’d just injected into her boys' veins worked. She thumbed the rims of cool metal in her pocket with her free hand.
Holiday had demanded that Rex and Six be the first tested. If the medicine worked--even if it didn’t cure, only alleviated-- she wanted them to be the first to get it. She supposed that it was selfish of her, but looking down at her boys, she didn’t care. Both of them were going through a “quiet phase” at the moment, where all their strained bodies could manage was panting and muscle twitching. Both were white faced, with deep bruises of exhaustion under their eyes, the same color as the large purple bruise that bloomed on her right cheek. She knew the phase would give away to a new round of thrashing and screaming soon if the antidote hadn‘t worked. She’d have to wait another fifteen or so minutes to find out for sure.
Holiday’s mouth tightened and her eyes drifted to focus on Six’s prone form. His white shirt was plastered to his body with sweat and his tie was gone, taken to prevent it from getting in the way or restricting his breathing. His glasses were still on, which amazed Holiday. She’d considered removing them for safety purposes earlier….but she hadn’t been able to cross that line. She didn’t like the idea of removing them without Six being aware of it. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she’s be violating him somehow if she did it without his permission.
A sudden wave of fatigue spread throughout her body; it’d been over twenty-four hours since she’d last slept, and an ache had spread in her chest, all the way down to her stomach. The lab was empty of scientists, save for her at the moment; all other available hands were either working on making patients comfortable or awaiting her news of the antidote. She refused to let them in and risk prompting anymore upset from Rex and Six. Now, she was glad for another reason: privacy.
Slowly, she raised her hand and lightly traced the edges of Six’s tense face for a few moments. At the same time, a few of the tears she’d been holding back raised to her eyes, burning hot, even hotter than the fevered skin of Six‘s cheek, where the muscles twitched under her fingers. She let her fingers linger for a moment before lightly pulling them back to wipe away her tears, her face tensing as she shut her eyes to block them off at the source.
Holiday’s relationship with Six was complicated. She cared for him deeply and she knew he cared for her, though to what extent she didn’t know. The man was a stone wall most of the time, and she had to fight tooth and nail just to get the slightest of admissions from him. But he definitely cared for her. She didn’t need words to tell. As emotionless as Six tried to make himself, the image was a lie. She could catch glimpses of how he felt in the way his shoulders tensed, in the way he cocked his head, or how his lips and brows bent at the corners when he thought no one was looking. She felt it in the air, in the way he hesitated or abruptly became stone still, like he wanted to say something but couldn‘t bring himself to do it-- vibes that balanced on the very cusp of her intuition.
As her eyes stayed closed, her thoughts wandered to just a few months ago, when Rex had been forced to revive Van Kleiss, and the man had repaid him by swallowing herself and Six in suffocating darkness. Holiday could remember the sight of Six reaching for her, long body straining, hand out stretched, thinking in a moment of terror of how her last glimpse of life would be the horrifically beautiful sight of the man she loved trying to save her when he was already doomed himself….
But then there was light. The darkness receded and she remembered awakening, opening her eyes to the sight of his face, relaxed as he was roused from unconsciousness, the feel of his hand encircling her own and the glorious realization that they‘d live. She’d live, and so would he. Remembering this, she bowed her head and hope for another miracle.
“Crying, Doctor Holiday? How unlike you.”
Holiday’s eyes snapped open at the sound of the hoarse whisper. She looked down and was shocked to see Six looking back up at her, obviously awake despite his obscured eyes.
“Oh! God, Six!” Holiday gasped, leaning a bit as shock coursed through her. Her head snapped around to look at the clock. Several minutes had passed without her realizing it. She quickly looked back at Six, relief and exhaustion making her giddy. “It worked!” Holiday allowed herself another moment of joy before reality set back in. “Oh! Oh! Stay right there while I inform the others!” She raced towards her computer, tossing a backwards wave as Six, only to realized the ridiculousness of her comment a second later. She could imagine, more than see, Six’s dubiously raised eyebrow, but she heard the slightest edge of humor in his voice.
“I‘m strapped to a gurney…,” the words finished themselves inside her head. I won’t be doing much moving, will I?, .
“Yes, I’m sorry, I had to restrain you, the spores you inhaled caused hallucinations and made you act--”
“I remember,” Six cut in abruptly. And just like that, any levity left in the moment was gone. As silence descended, Holiday nodded, turning to her computer to make her call.
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Holiday’s call was brief. She simply told the others that the compound had worked, that Six had already woken up, and--after quickly checking Six and Rex’s vitals (the younger was no longer twitching and looked much more relaxed)-- that all signs of delirium were fading. Once they learned this, the other scientists immediately began making plans to distribute the drug while Holiday announced her intent to remain with her two patients until Rex woke up. Six didn’t argue.
“How long have we been out?” Six asked as Holiday ended the call. His face was regaining its color, but he still looked exhausted.
“Twelve hours,” Holiday replied, approaching Six and untying his restraints. “We have over five hundred civilians quarantined in the base right now. You and Rex were, obviously, the first to receive the antidote, which the others will start distributing. Don‘t worry; we have it under control.”
Six just nodded as he sat up and moved to the edge of the bed. He didn’t stand immediately but remained seated, flexing his wrists, trying to get the blood flowing again. The action jogged Holiday’s memory, reminding her of what she never thought she’d forget. Quickly she shoved her hands into her pockets and pulled out the heavy weights of Six’s swords.
“Here, these are yours,” she informed, holding the weapons out to him, knowing he‘d missed them. Six straightened and gathered the items into his hands, but then he paused, swords still held in front of him, causing Holiday to freeze as well.
“What?” she asked, a bit worried. The sounds of his screaming still echoed through her ears.
Wordlessly, Six placed the swords off to his side, instead of placing them up his sleeves, his eyes never leaving Holiday’s. Then he carefully brought up his hand and cupped the doctor’s cheek. Her bruised cheek.
“What happened?” he asked sternly.
Holiday blushed. “It was nothing, really. Another patient--”
“I did this.” It wasn’t a question.
“You didn’t know what you were doing; you were delirious and not in control of yourself,” Holiday argued. Then her voice wavered slightly. “You and Rex….it was bad. Very bad."
“I know….I knew it wasn’t real, even as I saw it, but I couldn’t help reacting….Now it just feels like a nightmare…," Six murmured, almost as if he wasn't aware he was speaking. "It was so real and now it’s gone. And even trying to remember…. It was ridiculous of me to succumb to it.”
However, Holiday couldn’t defend him anymore because in the middle of his speech, Six started moving his thumb lightly across the bruise on her face, much like Holiday had done to his own cheek earlier. The sensation nailed her in place. Her stomach fluttered nervously. Six tilted his head and slowly, cautiously, he leaned forward.
The good doctor stood stone-still, afraid if she even blinked that Six would stop. Soon, he was only a few centimeters from her face. She could see herself reflected in Six’s glasses, laid out in form, absent of all color. He eyes were wide and wanting. From behind the mirrored lenses she could feel the heat of eyes she’d never seen. Then, finally, Agent Six of Providence kissed her.
It was simple, soft, only a careful pressure of warm lips against her own, but behind Holiday’s eyes, fireworks exploded-- the drumming of her own heart pounded in her ears, her skin ignited with heat. It was like everything within her had shifted so that the feel of Six’s lips was the only thing in the universe.
And then Rex had to go and ruin it.
“Dude! My eyes! I wake up strapped to a bed with you two making out in front of me?! I knew you were sick, but come on!”
Holiday and Six sprang apart so fast, they might've left an afterimage of their former positions. They both turned to the other, forgotten, occupant of the room who did not look happy about being strapped to a bed. Holiday flushed in embarrassment, heart pounding, a part of her shouting angrily to ignore Rex and keep kissing Six while the other, better, half of her released a sigh of relief that Rex was finally awake.
She couldn’t help the compulsion to look back at Six, but he was already turning away, slipping his katanas back up his sleeves, and then putting on his tie and jacket once again, both of which laid out on a cart next to his bed. Out of the corner of her eye Holiday could swear she saw a light blush creeping up Six’s neck and over his cheeks. Dammit, she cursed mentally, glaring at Rex, who had continued to rant about his predicament.
“Seriously, guys. I just had the trippiest ride of my life. I’d really appreciate being untied so I can go pound whatever’s left of that slug EVO into the ground!”
Holiday sighed, rolling her eyes. She was relieved that whatever demons had plagued her patients--like “nightmares” Six had said--were fading so quickly. She had been worried about what her boys' emotional states would be when they woke up, but clearly it had been unnecessary. They were too tough to be taken down by spores. So, knowing they’d be alright, the doctor was able to do what she did next without guilt.
“Oh, don’t think you’re going anywhere, young man. I have tons of tests I need to run on you.”
Rex paled. “Tests? But, how come Six isn’t having any tests done? Unless sucking face counts, and if that's the case then…" He raised a suggestive eyebrow. "…do whatever you think is best, Doctor."
Holiday blushed a bit, the kiss between her and Six still fresh, but her face remained composed.
“You’re well aware you’re both biologically different and it took you several minutes longer to wake up. It’s important I run tests on you,” she replied evenly.
“And I have work to do. I‘m sure White Knight wants me up and running as soon as possible,” Six remarked, straightening his tie, all business again. Holiday frowned, her more professional side emerging as well.
“You could wait a little while, just to make sure you’re really okay….”
Six shook his head in disagreement.
“I’m fine. Besides…” He walked closer and, after a split second of hesitation, placed his hand on her back lightly. “You should take care of yourself. You deserve some rest.” With that, Six dropped his hand and made his way to the door.
Holiday stood, shocked that Six was still being slightly….affectionate. At that moment, Six stopped in the doorway and looked back at her over his shoulder.
“After you administer those tests, of course,” he announced, the ghost of a smirk on his face. With that, the door slid shut between them, cutting off any further discussion.
Holiday felt a smile slide across her face at Rex’s indignant shouts.