Wings of Change | Yuzuru Hanyu

15.

Warning: Shots fired, general and sexual violence, war scenes

Time passed quickly and soon enough came the GP final.
Yuzuru managed to win even with a weird abdominal pain plaguing him. He decided to email Joan and see if her medical knowledge would be of any help.

One week passed, then another without any answer, making the Japanese a bit worried about her but he knew there were times she couldn't access the internet.

Nevertheless, the pain got worse with training so eventually he had to go see the doctor. The diagnosis was fast, urachal remnant, and he needed surgery.

It was almost Christmas and there was still no news of Joan, he wanted her opinion on this but doctors kept insisting he shouldn't wait, eventually deciding on having the surgery.

He would be out of training for 6 weeks, too long in his opinion, especially with the world championships coming up soon.

Yumi was starting to worry when Joan wouldn't answer her texts either. Usually, the girl always found a way to reply to her and it had been weeks.

 Yuzuru went through the surgery and everything seemed to thankfully be going smoothly but still, they had no news of the girl.

December, Afghanistan

Joan's team was once again called to an off-campus mission, the medical team always had to go and with the recent ambushes, not a lot of doctors were in condition to be on a full mission, leaving only Joan and her Lt. Colonel with that responsibility. She wasn't even near becoming a real doctor, with 2 years of studies still missing, but the high demand of doctors for this mission next to how good she was made her the first choice.

As they were arriving at the scene, something felt off right away, everything was peaceful. Too peaceful...

Soon enough, an ambush surrounded the team, some managed to escape, but it didn't take too long for guns to start firing. Joan could see a few of her teammates being hit, one after the other and she thought that maybe this would be the end. There was no way they were getting out of here alive.

A bullet went through her stomach, but after a quick self-examination, Joan concluded no major organs had been hit, she ripped a bit of her shirt and wrapped it tight around the wound to stop it from bleeding.

In the middle of the mess, she managed to sneak into an abandoned building with two other soldiers, one of them had been shot, making Joan immediately get to work as soon as they were in a seemingly safer place. 

They couldn't hide forever and eventually, the rebels found them. Joan saw two soldiers being shot in the head and dropping to the ground. Everything told her that she was next, but instead of shooting, they blindfolded her and took her to a van.

No military training could ever prepare her for what she was facing, she tried to memorize the road through bumps and turns but it was useless. 

They held her captive for what seemed like an eternity and brought her food once every week and water every other day. Everything was brought by another woman. No one questioned her, they didn't want information, they wanted to use her for leverage. But knowing her country, they wouldn't get anything out of this.

She wondered if anyone had made it out, if there was even a chance of getting out of there. Her wounds were certainly infected by now, but they were the least of her concerns.

After what she assumed was a few days, but turned out to be 2 weeks, a group of men entered the place where she was being held for the first time. Joan knew this was trouble, only women had entered until now, they probably didn't get what they wanted and were going to get rid of her.

They spoke in a foreign language, she didn't understand a thing. One of them eventually decided to approach her and speak in English.

"Your country doesn't want to cooperate but we fed you, so you're going to have at least some use"

Joan was confused for a second, until her clothes started being ripped. Tears fell from her eyes, after this, she would be dead inside. They would probably just get rid of her after getting their share, but for the first time in her life, she wished she was dead.

"Our little slut, You Americans are usually nasty enough. I bet you're even going to enjoy this, huh? All of us" one of them said putting his hands on her body.

Being touched without permission was disgusting to her, she felt dirty and used when the unknown hands roamed her naked body.

One thing she knew, she wasn't going down without a fight. She hit one of the guys' groin with her knee and did her best to fight with her legs, the rest of her body tied, she couldn't do much more.

A noise erupted from the upper floor and soon enough the place was raided by what looked like another American team.

One of the soldiers covered her right away and she could recognize the med patch on the uniform.

"I was shot, looks infected" she told the soldier.

With a nod, the field surgeon examined her carefully.

"What's your name soldier?" The commander of the team asked.

"Officer Joan Santos, sir"

"Were you ambushed?"

"I think so, sir"

"Can you walk?" The med asked.

She looked at her injured leg and only then realized how much pain she had been blocking.

"I'm not sure" She tried putting her legs down only to be followed by a sharp pain

"Don't try, you're going to make it worse"

"How bad is it?"

"You will need a good dose of antibiotics, a few stitches, and probably surgery on the gunshot, but we'll see better once we examine you properly."

"Ok"

"Officer?"

"Yes?"

"Did they touch you? You know..."

"Not that way... You arrived right on time"

"Still, I know it's a traumatic experience, if you ever need counseling, please do get it"

"Yes, sir"

They took her out of there and into the field hospital where she was further examined. The conclusion was that the best decision was to move her back home and have the surgery there, where it was safer.

"Let's take you home, soldier" the commander officer came to her and said with a smile. "You've done your fair share for this country"