Operation Phoenix

Chapter Thirty-Eight

"How long have you been doing this shit!" The man in front of the partners asked, eyebrows ducked intensely with anger—no, more like fear. He grumbled and paced, his hand finding his hair and ruffling it beneath his fingers. Grumbled words jumped from his lips as he trudged in a circle, almost panicked.

Merida chewed intently on her apple, eyes half-lidded in obvious malcontent. Her red curls draped her shoulders and her face, almost like a hood. Her hair had always been this way, ever since she was a child, and she wasn't opposed to it's craziness. She liked it, it made her unique and special. Normal people had normal hair—and Merida wasn't normal.

It took her four months to heal properly. She'd been shot in between the clavicle and sternum, missing her spine by mere millimeters. She'd been out for two whole weeks, sleeping away the days and nights. The nurses wouldn't necessarily call it sleeping more than half dead, but Merida was alive and that fact mattered more than her being in a coma. Mer always survived, it was her thing. Her special skill (besides archery, that had always been what she was best at, the best in all four districts). She hadn't dreamed during those two weeks, it was like she'd closed her eyes and opened them. She remembered none of what Jack had been kind enough to tell her (that he'd brought her back to his truck and drove her all the way home). The last thing she recalled was nearly crying as Rapunzel was dropped to the floor and nearly killed against the impact that exacerbated her concussion.

Then she was shot.

Hiccup had screamed and she'd fainted, blackness consuming her for what felt like seconds before she opened her eyes again. Jack had been there, sitting at her side obediently as she jolted upwards when the memory of the attack came back to her all at once. She'd been panting, nearly gasping for air as Jack practically screamed and fell from where he was seated. Merida remembered ripping out her IV, not recognizing where she was or the fact that Jack was beside her. Her first thought was to find the love of her life and kiss him until she couldn't breathe, but he wasn't there. When she'd finally comprehended Jack's voice amongst her inner turmoil, he'd told her about everything.

Merida could barely move, but even so when Elsa came to visit at the news of her awakening she put up a hell of a show. Her queen had been in tears, happy of course, but Merida cut it short when she'd angrily snapped about her best friend and husband being held, hissing insults about their neglect to get try and get them back.

After she was finally able to move without nearly keeling over in unbearable pain, she was informed of Jack's secret plan—against Elsa's orders—to start a coup against New World. Mer was ecstatic, frantic to get the project moving. The idea that her husband was somewhere known for torturing their own people terrified her. She longed to hold him close, to whisper in his ear all the things she loved about him and cuddle with him in the barn like they used to do so often. She often cried at night, feeling the empty space beside her, or recognizing his absence in everything that she did. Take a walk? She used to do that with Hiccup. Archery? Her and Hiccup used to practice all the time together. Ride horses? She used to do that with Hiccup too.

Speaking of horses, Toothless was lonely without his owner. He no longer 'smiled' like he used to, or was as joyful as usual. He was lonely without Hiccup and longed to be near him—he even neglected to eat for quite some time, so much so that Merida and Jack became worried for his health. When he finally decided to try his luck at food, they'd been relieved—but his melancholy manner still followed him like a cloud.

Jack and Merida spent their limited free time discussing plans and trying their luck at gathering people. Merida assessed the younger men and women willing to fight alongside them, and she forged countless weapons from stolen scrap metal in Hiccup's old blacksmith station (Hiccup). Elsa hadn't found out that Mer was in on it yet, but it was only a matter of time.