Safe and Sound

Part 8

It was true, the fireflies did appear the following morning, tending to your scratches and bruises, talking to Jerry and overall getting you cared for. The drive itself was actually fun, the cargo container of the truck had been converted into a sitting area, and during the trip you had kept your head resting on Abby's lap, who very happily braided your hair. If you had wanted to listen you would've heard Jerry talk on the radio, to someone you were actually very familiar with, but you hadn't, you were busy happily talking with Abby, enjoying her smile as she enjoyed yours.You wanted to say you liked her because she reminded you of Ellie, and she did in certain areas in all of the ways you adore and admire, but personality wise, her temperament, it was like Joel, something you would never admit to yourself.

When you had reached the new hospital, it resembled the old one in many ways, the flickering lights and the smell of bleach every other turn, the guards doing their best to ignore you two girls while giving their undivided attention and admiration to Jerry, then they had put you up in the rooms on the top level, which is where most of the men and women stayed. The water wasn't as warm as it was in the other hospital but you were thankful for the idea of even being able to shower, to lay on a bed that was more than the ground and your backpack, you were really very thankful for all of those things; even though you hated everything about it. You hated how you didn't have your father here with you, you hated through the past few months you had replaced Ellie. Not just a normal replacement, not temporary, something that was deep and founded into your soul, and you knew it was awful; it was shallow and it was born of a trauma that you couldn't run away from. But, the last few months had been blissful.

Jerry had begun teaching you basic medicine only to find you knew more than the average small settlement medic, so he had started to go to more profound things, such as small producers and life-saving measures that would normally require a surgery, in other words, by the time week two in the Firefly hospital you were a fully trained field medic. However, you would still spend most of your days hovering over the doctor, and with each day more and more people called you the revised nickname he had given you, he called Abby 'Nightingale' and you had become 'Sparrow'. That had also become your call name, because they went they got the all clear the fireflies had made you the field medic, sure the idea of a fifteen year old being in charge of so many lives was a hard one to sell but once they had seen you in action it was hard to deny that you one of the better ones; unfazed by the sight of gore, calm and collected in the face of danger, and you were able to get the job done quickly and well. And you would hear the others, most of the other people didn't even know your real name, so they called you Anderson's Sparrow and or Sparrow. You had realized that the nickname started to hold the same emotional value as 'Starshine'; and you had become fond of the idea of no one knowing your actual name, making you feel like you had an extra layer of protection against the world. So when Marlene had come, you appreciated her respecting that.

Of course the sight of you alone had made Marlene worried. So, she had seated you down once the overall briefing was done and you recapped the seven months before you had met the Andersons; rambling about how you had gotten away from clickers, and Henry and Sam, how you had come upon the safe haven that was Jackson (You had given a false name for the town, you weren't daft) then you had come upon the part where you got separated. Assuring her that they had gotten away, unhurt, and she trusted your word. The last thing she had said before she had left was something along the lines of 'I'm sorry about Tess, Starshine.' It was an unspoken thing, but it was obvious by the way you had stopped mentioning her after a certain point in the story. So you nodded , saying you were sorry about it too.

During those two months it had become a noticeable thing, enough for the guards and soldiers would tease you as their life laid in your hands, enough to where Jerry would jokingly say, 'Ah yes, I remember young love. So pure.' Enough for people to call you the love birds, quite literally with the common nicknames being your soul source of being called. However, you would die on the fact that you were stuck between genuinely good people, one that you had slowly realized you loved, and the other being such a whirlwind that you questioned your mental stability. Not many knew that she could be sweet when she wanted to be, that she was the most attentive person you had yet to meet, how she would notice every last detail about you made you smile. Perhaps Jerry was right, Young Love, it was pure. However it just felt wrong, like you had betrayed something so deep and founded. Yet, when Abby, your Gale, would whisper between the darkness and you, it felt... right. A nightingale and a sparrow.