Valorous (Book Three)

Chapter: 2

DAY: 105

Bucky

Something happened to Lark, I don't know what but it terrified me. Steve had to call me in just because he didn't know what to do. Finding her beside the railing, shaking almost violently made me more nervous than anything ever before. Something really scared her, and it scared me too because she wouldn't tell me what it was. If it was some invisible monster that only she could see...I felt worse at just the thought of it. She didn't deserve that kind of pain. 

Eventually, she let me look at her face, only after she'd been hiding it for a while. She was tear stricken, red faced, a complete mess honestly. But she looked so frail and small and scared that it broke me. I saw her innocence there and the fear that she desperately tried to shake off. There was nothing I could do but wait. She begged me to go, told me she didn't want me to see her like that. But I wanted to, I wanted to see her face and read the signs that she was afraid and needed me. No matter how hard she pushed and kicked I forced myself to stay. 

When she eventually calmed down enough that her breathing wasn't erratic, I got her to say something. She told me she was afraid to die. She started to cry some more and I pulled her close and comforted her. I laid there on the floor with her, ignoring the pestering Steve at my back and his insistence that we get some more help. 

By the time she had cried herself out, I coaxed her to sit up so that I could carry her. She was reluctant but the dark bags under her eyes and pale complexion worried me too much. I carefully walked her down the escalator past the food court with only one destination in mind, the medics.

Lark lifted her head when we got close but didn't try to fish-flop out of my arms to get away. She seemed to accept that that's where she needed to be. The medics took her alone, I stayed back to wait until I heard something. A nurse eventually appeared to tell me that just wanted to keep her under observation for the remainder of the day, after having giving her some drugs to keep her calm. After I agreed, the nurse let me go to see her.

I sat on the cot next to Lark as she laid there silently, I held her hand, the bionic hand, still trying to come to terms with it being hers. My fingers traced over the sleek new metal, hardly a scratch on its surface. The metal was exactly the same silver steel color as mine, except her arm almost appeared to be just one piece, unlike mine which was two pieces connected at the elbow. It was more advanced and better designed for combat. Mine was stiffer and older in design, limiting me to some flexibility in my elbow. Lark on the other hand, seemed to excel in agility more with the arm. Although she was still clumsy I noticed her ability to rebound faster was increasing.

"How's she doing?" I looked up, snapping back quickly from my daze to see Logan.

"She's resting. Keeping her calm for the day. I think she needed some rest."

Logan nodded and took a seat on the cot across from me.

"Lark made me promise not to say anything," he started to say. "I found her in one of those small hallways in the back of the back of the mall about a month ago. She was curled up like a child, rocking herself and shaking. I sat with her, talked with her even when she told me to shut up. But she calmed down fairly quickly. She's a tough one but I'd never seen her break down so quickly before."

Logan had a point; she was tough and sometimes poker-faced but this was a whole new level of broken. It was the worst anxiety I'd seen in a long time. Coming from a guy who'd seen war...it was serious. So serious it scared me. "I don't know what to do."

"There's not a lot that can be done." Logan shrugged. "There's medication but it doesn't always work. Same thing with therapy. You just have to be ready to be there for her, for anything and any time. It will happen again, maybe not as bad or maybe even worse. Just have patience with her and things will be ok."