In The Shadow of Steel (Paladin Danse)

Part Eight

"Hey, how's my little guy? Much better now, huh? Listen, after breakfast, I was thinking we could head to the park for a bit, weather should hold up."

"Nate."

The aching in my arm was as loud as the thumping in my head. My eyes stirred beneath their lids, every movement resulting in shock. I grumbled, trying to lift myself, my head lulling with every push. Constrictions held me down, barriers holding me back from him, holding me back from my husband. "Nnn," my voice was absent, numb, raw.

"Easy, take it easy, you're pretty beat up." The ringing in my ears had become distant, but I knew his voice well enough to recognise that that wasn't his. "You must be thirsty, here, drink. Slowly!" The light was dim, but blinded me nonetheless.
I'm not at home. Nate isn't here. None of it was real, except the war. That had been unforgivingly real. The stranger before me was dressed in grey fatigues, the white sleeves rolled up to reveal bare arms. It was then I noticed the attachments in mine, the drips, the machinery.
"W-where am I?" There was a scratch at the back of my throat, clawing at each word I managed to spit out.
"You're in the infirmary, you were wounded when one of our patrol teams found you. You'd been shot in the arm, but were surrounded by feral ghouls. You were unconscious when they took down the ferals, due to the loss of blood and from the scratches. You had radiation poisoning, but I've lowered your levels with this IV bag. I also managed to remove the bullet from your arm. I injected you with a Stimpak not long before you woke up, so you should heal pretty quickly from now. Do you remember what happened? Who shot you? And why you were laying amidst a herd of ferals?"
The bald man had pulled up a chair beside the bed, his face etched with concern. I reached for the water he'd been holding, offering a tight smile in thanks. The liquid was cool, easing the ache. I tried to think back, to what had happened, the pain in my head clouding my memories. I don't know if I can trust this man.
The walls around me were made of metal, nothing like the inside of the Institute. That's where I had been, before. They shot at me, the synths. Justin Ayo. I'd teleported away in panic. The Institute could never have been home for me, and now even the chances of that had been eradicated. This place isn't the Institute, but can I trust in telling him aspects of the truth?
"S-synths," my voice sounded hoarse. "I was shot by synths."
"Synths?! Those wretched beings, shooting you and then leaving you to get mauled to death by ferals. I'm just glad we found you when we did."
I remembered the synths, the teleporting. But I hadn't been aware of the ghouls, perhaps it had been their approaching I had heard. I'd thought the striders had come to finish me off.

"I'm truly sorry that you had to go through all this. Alas, you are in safe hands now, and may stay with us until you are well enough to leave. The synths know better than to attack us at our headquarters. You've nothing to worry about miss, if anybody can protect you from the Institute and their synths, it's the Brotherhood of Steel."

"What?!"

My heartbeat quickened as the door opened, welcoming a young man with a curious expression, which soon turned to alert as the heart rate monitor began beeping rapidly. Strength had been returned to me as I lifted from the sheets, ready to make a run from it, ready to defend myself. The doctor shot up from his seat and pressed his hands against my wrists, holding me down.
"No! Let go of me, let me out of here!"
"Danse! Grab me that syringe!"
"Please, stop it. Don't!"
"I promise, we aren't trying to hurt you. I need you to calm down, your anxiety is going through the roof." He brought the syringe to my hand, injecting it into my blood stream through the canula. Within seconds I felt the strength I had left in me begin to decease, my heartbeat slowing at the same speed. "That's it, there we go."
My breathing cooled, the shaking ceased. Calm. The fear was still present, though I could no longer act upon it. Damned drugs.

"Your timing was quite impeccable, Paladin." The doctor turned to speak to the new face, who had his eyes on me.
"I was just on my way to see if she'd finally woken up. She was in a pretty bad state when we found her. Why did she panic when she saw me?" His voice lowered to a hush as he neared the end of his sentence, but loud enough for me to have heard it. I tilted my head to the side, catching his gaze.
"I believe she entered a state of shock, which I believe to have been caused by slight trauma. She claims to have been attacked by synths, and then was left in the dirt to become ghoul fodder. The wound in her arm was quite clearly a gun shot, the bullet I retrieved being a laser cell. Now, in all of our records it has been stated that a synth's preferred weapon is a rifle, each which use cells as ammunition. Her story matches up to the evidence."
The younger man's eyes saddened briefly, before they narrowed. "Why were they shooting her? The synths? And how does she know they were synths? Once we'd eliminated the ferals and called for a vertibird, I had some of the patrol team scout the area, there was no one else around, that includes bodies."