I Forgive You

Part 2

Ana looked at the doctor with empathy. She sighed heavily as her eye averted away from her. Angela looked at her, waiting for an answer. Surely she wasn't gone that long,

Was she?

"You've been gone.... for a complete week, dear." The old woman answered. She paused, letting the doctor to absorb the statement into her confused, tired mind. Ana then turned back to look at her right in the eyes, a sad expression was evident on her aging face.

"All of us had tried our best, we've look everywhere for you. All of the Talon bases we've checked, but you were nowhere to be found. I guess our efforts weren't just enough." she heaved. Angela quickly shook her head slowly as she weakly went to hold the old woman's hands, trying to give her a reassuring squeeze as hard as she could, but it almost felt like a soft touch to the experienced sniper's gloved hands.

Despite her lack of strength, Ana knew what she meant. She looked at their hands, then she looked at her. The doctor's brows furrowed right at her with a slight aggresion on her expression, but vaguely mixed with compassion and sadness, worrying more about the person in front of her than herself. Ana just gave her a soft smile, but shaking her head simultaneously. She returned the warm gesture with the same hand squeeze, but firmer.

"You should worry more about yourself, not me. Right now you are in bad shape, and I want to know...." Suddenly her face changed. She seriously stared at the doctor with full concern as she leaned closer to get a good attention from the pained doctor.

"What have they done to you all this time?"

Angela didn't speak. Her eyes casted down to the bed, her mouth sealed as she shut her lips tight. She knew it will worry the people around her if she told them what happened. The time when she was thrown inside a windowless cell, a horrid hospitality from the people, torture that she cannot speak off so easily. But it was never entirely miserable for her experience.

If it wasn't for him.

Ana shot a serious look at her, tilted her head closer as she tried to look at the doctor's questionable emotion when she brought that up.

"You can't hide it from me, dear. I knew that some of your scars aren't exactly what people called 'torture marks'. But I knew it wasn't a good kind of marks either." She placed a hand right under the doctor's chin, before she suddenly lifted her head up to get a closer look on the red marks etched on her pale skin of her neck.

The doctor was caught off-guard by the sudden gesture, she quickly used up all her remaining strength to lean away, and escape from the sniper's hand, looked away with a torn expression. Her head hung low with full embarrassment and shame, her eyes slowly teared up from the horrible feeling. The memories that haunted her after all this while suddenly reemerged from the back of her mind, as she had forgotten it through time. Somehow her occupied thoughts managed to make her forget the bitter memory for quite a while.

"If you can't tell anyone about this, how can we help you, Angela?" Ana pulled her hand away from the doctor, a bit disheartened. She could see that the woman was holding back her horrible experience just as much as the tears held in her eyes. It must've been painful for her that it left a huge scar. A deep one to be exact.

She couldn't force her. Not like this. The old sniper realized that Angela's hands started trembling, her lips quivered when she let out an inaudible, shaky breath. Tears were left unblinked by her lashes when her eyes averted away to nothing peculiar.

She rested her hand on the doctor's shoulder, catching her attention fully when her weak body slightly jumped from the sudden contact. Ana's head slowly look for the cheerless expression that was in verge of solemn tears. The deprived eyes slowly managed to find their way to meet the soft gaze of the caring ones.

"I didn't mean to rush you, dear. You can tell me anytime when you feel comfortable. But please..." Suddenly Ana firmly gripped onto both of the doctor's shoulders, but not hard enough to hurt her fragile body. Her eye glued onto the now lifeless blue eyes with concern.

"Don't let it kept inside you. We're here for you. No matter what happens..." Slowly, a gloved hand of hers went to brush away some frizzy hair off the doctor's tired face. The tears were still there to stay, but no signs of leaving.

"...you're not alone." She took another minute to look at her in the eyes, before she leaned closer and wrapped her arms around the weak body lovingly. Angela let the old woman hug her, letting her head resting on one of the shoulders. She stared blankly at the wall she was facing, her thought suddenly went blank.

She's not in cell.

She's not in the dark.

She's not on her own.

Right now, she's in a familiar room, light blinding her developed dark-accustomed vision, with someone right by her side, hugging her.

That gave her an unexpected relief on her body, an unknown burden slowly lifted off of her shoulders, a complete security of her life.

She felt so light, just like her tears lightly rolling down on her sunken cheeks.

She never felt so safe like this before.

Someone to look after her, help her, save her.

But she went back to time on how it all happened.

How it all came to place.

She could never felt this god blessed feeling without their help.

His help.

The unexpected rush of anguish suddenly ran through her system. Her face quickly changed into a twisted frown as a squeak managed to get out from her; it was soft, but realizable. Her hands slowly crept up from behind as she slowly returned the hug with a sharp tug on the sniper's clothes, her face now buried onto the shoulder as she tried to muffle her squeaks and hiccups from coming out. However, it was pointless, and her throat started to sore from her out-of-reflex noises.

Ana patted the doctor's head as she tried to soothe a broken soul. Her heart wretched as every painful broken hiccup came out from the poor woman, a tug on her soul as she felt every pull of her clothes from the hard grasps of the bony hands, and a swelling on her throat grew as she felt the tears slowly growing right by her shoulder.

Angela slowly brought herself to let out a painful and croaked wail as time went on, her sadness grew stronger inside her. She didn't stop herself feeling so grateful to be here, to be beside her friends, to be safe in the arms of loved ones. But she never stop blaming herself for not saving the people that she cared, the people that saved her life, the people that she missed so dearly.

The people that was trapped inside the place she once was before.

Now, they had saved her life,

but who's saving theirs?