TF2: Doctor's Assistant

(21) Cameras Don't Lie

As much as I didn't want to, I had to go back outside to help finish the fight. I picked up my pistol, giving the Medic one last glance before leaving the room. Just from the supply room I could hear that it was quieter than before, and things seemed to have settled down a little. I ran past the garage door, looking around. Engineer's sentry was still standing, but it was smoking and seeming to droop. It looked like their Heavy had gotten to it, for there were enough bullet holes in it to make it fall apart there and then. The BLUs were gone and our team stood panting around the fire, but it didn't look like everyone was there...

"Is everyone okay?" I asked, walking to them. Most of them nodded, sitting down to tend to small cuts and bruises. Demo was helping to wrap up Pyro who had a bullet hole in his shoulder. Even though everything was calm, it was almost too quiet for the aftermath of a battle. Something wasn't sitting well with me....

There was Pyro...Engineer...Heavy...Demo...Soldier...and Spy...but where was Sniper?

I looked up at Sniper's perch on the roof of our base, but I didn't see anybody in there through the windows. I narrowed my eyes, running back inside to go check, hoping to God that he was still up there. I ran up the stairs and through another long hallway and up another flight of stairs, running to the perch as fast as I could. A chill wind blew across my body as I ran across the roof. 

"Please...please...please...please..."

 I opened the door, looking in. His perch was a small rectangular building right on top of the roof. It had three big windows from which to shoot from. The small building was made of wood unlike the rest of the building, and although easy to see, the windows were narrow, making the possibility of being shot almost impossible. I could see all the way to the BLU base from there.

I looked around, a painful feeling growing in my chest. Jars of Jarate were scattered all over the floor, his Kukri was on a box in the corner, stained brownish with old blood, and his rifle lay umong the spilled Jarate on the floor. The chair which Sniper usually used when he was scoping in was tipped over. Next to it was the Sniper I had been looking for.

I threw my pistol down, quickly crouching beside him and scooping him up, looking at him. He was unconscious and limp in my arms, but once his head rolled towards me I saw something that made me almost jump back in fright. Someone had shot him...right in the left eye. His face was almost horrifying to look at. His eye was completely popped, what was left of it was draining down the sides of his face and had made a hideous mixed color puddle on the floor, mostly consisting of blood. He was amazingly still breathing, but it was shallow, and he was still losing blood. 

I tried my best to pick him up, my legs shaking in an effort to lift him. He was very heavy, but eventually I was on my feet. I stumbled to the door and looked out at how much farther I had to go. The roof seemed to stretch before me, my legs still trembling with weakness. I tried not to look at him any longer, I just slowly made my way across the roof, the chill wind now seeming heavenly. I was still sweating from the heat of the earlier battle and the stress. 

As I made my way down the stairs, I almost fell many times. Each time I would step down I felt myself fall forward a little more, gritting my teeth as I would pull myself backwards again. My determination was so strong, I couldn't call for help like I really needed to. I knew everyone else was busy, so I held my tongue and kept pushing forward. That BLU Sniper...I was going to kill him one way or another. 

Another hallway...more stairs...

I pushed through the clinic doors, backing into them gently and turning around again. The bed was taken, so my next best option was the chair next to the bed. I gently put him down, making sure he wasn't going to fall over, then stretching my arms. My whole body screamed in protest as I turned around again. The Medic was completely healed. Sighing in relief, I then aimed the Medi gun over at the Sniper, quickly going over to take his hat off. 

"There..." I sighed, wiping the sweat away from my forehead. I took another towel and walked back to the Sniper again, gently cleaning off his face. It was almost painful to say that he almost looked like himself again. I turned once again to put the towel back in the table when I gasped, jumping back. There was someone standing on the other side of the bed, and it was no one that I was expecting. 

"M...Miss Pauling..." I said, putting a hand over my heart to slow it down. She looked up at me through her glasses. She'd apparently had been standing there the whole time, looking over the Medic during my frantic running to save Sniper. My heart was sinking in my chest. 

"Scout." She said back to me, seeming to straighten up a little. "I didn't expect you and the Medic to switch places." Her voice didn't at all sound intimidating, so I calmed a little. 

"Yeah..." I replied slowly. " We didn't...we were just up on the roof when the BLUs attacked. We both fell off."

"I noticed." She said quietly, looking at my arms. I had completely forgotten that they were bleeding, even that my shoulder was throbbing horribly. I took the towel again and gently wiped the gravel out of my cuts. 

"What were you and Medic doing up on the roof anyway?" She asked. 

"All of us were watching a meteor shower." I immediately felt as if I'd said something wrong, for she suddenly frowned at me. 

"And you and Medic were up on the roof. Alone?" I held my tongue, my gaze wandering away from her.  

"Scout?"

I didn't want to lie, but I couldn't be honest. Nevertheless I slowly nodded, looking back up at her. Her lips were pressed into a thin line. 

When Miss Pauling and I first met, I never really got a good vibe from her, but I knew that she was just trying to keep up with the Administrator as best as she could. As a result, her job was more between putting up with a bunch of children and doing things to the best of her abilities. I'd made a promise to her that if she let me join the team that I would be perfectly trustable, since I hadn't been picked or requested by the Administrator herself. Otherwise I would get thrown out. Back then they seemed to take advantage of the fact that I wasn't some "Dim-wit from Teufort." 

At this point she was looking right at me. She didn't look angry, but she didn't look too happy either. She closed her eyes for a second, slowly looking at the camera in the corner of the room. Somehow I knew where she was going. 

"Scout...do you remember that promise you made a while ago?" She asked quietly. I nodded shamefully, but I opened my mouth to protest for myself. She shook her head at me. 

"Cameras don't lie, Scout." She then looked at the Medic, then back to me, my jaw dropped as I realized I'd just been shoved in the corner by her words, just like I'd done to the Medic only a few months ago. "You do realize that he's about twice your age, right?"

Words left my head, and I no longer had any more words to defend myself with. It was no doubt that not only Miss Pauling, but the Administrator both knew about the Medic and I, and they weren't happy about it. I looked down again. 

"I...I know." I forced out. 

"I just came to pass a word from the Administrator..." She said, giving me a glance that made me almost uncomfortable. The way she said them seemed more forced than true, and I knew why. She'd had the same problem with Scout...but...Scout...

"And that would be?" My voice was low...defeated.

"You have one more chance...either do your job and let him do his...or the deal is broken.."

She hadn't come to play games with me. She didn't make an offer with any weapons or lie to me about him, nor did she even say anything bad. She knew how I worked, and she knew that I would listen, and it broke my heart to come to terms. My heart slowly tore itself in two as I started to tremble again. Regretfully...I nodded. She then nodded back, leaving the room...leaving me alone.

I walked over to the chair by the window...and cried.