Inception

Chapter 16: What Is Wrong With You

She came to sitting on a bench in a white hallway. At least the floor was grey, so she wasn't in heaven, sadly. She was in the medical bay.

She didn't know how long she sat there, blinking slowly at that gray floor because it was less painful than looking at the white. The bottom of her vision was blocked by heavy gauze. She stayed in that numbness, afraid of what she'd find when she came out.

Faintly, she remembered people talking to her. One of the on duty doctors hurriedly sewed a few stitches into her cheeks before slapping on some stick-on gauze and rushing off somewhere. The guilt that filled her at the thought someone had died because her face had gotten hurt had dragged back her awareness to the numbness, and she went back to examining the faint flecks of lighter gray in the linoleum.

It didn't really matter what happened to her now. The world could be eaten by kaiju, for all she cared. Maybe a jump off the medical building would do. Three stories was enough for a quick death, right? No. She should probably go higher.

It's a back hallway, she noted dimly. For the patients who just needed to sleep off anesthesia or had a bad cold.

Nobody was here.

Just as she made up her mind to get up and start walking, a flurry of footsteps broke through the quiet. Someone skidded around the corner at the end of the hall but kept running. She looked up just as they started to slow down.

Vice Captain Hoshina, still in his combat suit and flecked with blood, panted for breath.

"God damn it, you really did claw your own face! What is wrong with you?"

He came to a stop in front of her to flutter his hands over her face, as though just stopping himself from tearing off the gauze to see for himself. She'd never seen him this grim nor this harried. His eyes were wide and his fingertips trembled across her cheeks.

"Your brother's fine, he's going to be fine, we got him back in time and they're taking care of him right now. Lena, did you hear me? Baby Leno's going to be okay."

A beat.

Then it crashed over her like a bucket of cold water. Air finally filled her lungs. She finally became aware of how hard she trembled, her light head, and the gut-stabbing nausea. The floor tipped and she fell backwards. Hoshina caught her arm just in time to steer her back far enough to fall on the bench.

"If I'd known having your brother on base was going to have this effect on you, I would've transferred his sorry ass, good god."

"Leno's okay?" it came out a squeak.

Hoshina's expression softened.

"He's okay."

"But he—there were so many—"

"The suit stopped his bleeding and they got him in a pod. He'll be good as new within a few days. Like nothing happened."

Lena burst into tears. Within seconds the gauze on her cheeks had been soaked and the cuts underneath started stinging something fierce.

Hoshina hesitated, his eyebrows steepled and his mouth tightened. Then he pulled her into his arms.

His hard armor pressed in around her like stone. Stone walls that wouldn't let anything by to hurt her.

"You're okay, sweetheart. You're okay."