After the Drift

Chapter Eight: You were there?

Present

Chuck sat back down after some calming on everyone's part.

His hands were shaking in his lap. I scooted closer and held them both in mine. Just as warm as ever.

A look crossed his face like surprise then relief when he saw it was me holding onto him.

That part still ate at me ...

Where did he think I was this whole time?

"Chuck mentioned something about me ... being lost to him?" I looked at them both as they looked between each other. That looked a lot like guilt.

"We had told Chuck in the beginning that we never found you... we did not want to get his hopes up when we did not even know what his chances were." Mako began speaking, looking sadly between us.

"In the beginning, you were placed in a medically induced coma. It took a few years to get the research through to testing. It was all experimental at this stage. We did not even know if it would take like we hoped. We didn't know if you would even be you afterwards."

Chuck began working his jaw. His entire body was tense. It radiated off him like heat waves.

"Once we began your new medication and a few operations to keep you fully functioning outside of cryostasis or a coma, you were not even coherent. You were in intense pain from reattaching your limbs and all the other trauma you obtained...You would call out to her... it was heart breaking." She breathed in heavily, looking down at her hands.

Raleigh patted her hands. "The new treatment worked, to make long story short. It's actually what we use in normal medicine now when people get seriously hurt. So thanks for that, Chuck." He gave a cheeky grin, earning a glare from Chuck.

"About five years ago, we brought your dad in to see you. He was updated constantly on your condition but wasn't able to actually see you until you were considered unquestionably stable. After that, little by little we brought you back into the present." Raleigh gestured to Chuck.

"I remember that day. I hadn't seen dad cry like that since mom died. Kept saying it was a damned miracle. Even gave me a hug." Chuck looked far away, remembering his father who had passed a year ago.

I had gone to his funeral. Seeing his headstone sitting next to Chuck's in a small family plot in a town in the suburbs of Sydney. It was like a knife to the gut. I had cried for what felt like two straight days afterwards.

I felt so empty. Like barely anything from before remained. There were few constants in my life other than my job. Herc had taken to being a father like figure to me. He gave me sage advice when I needed it. He told me a dirty joke to make me laugh when I needed it. I missed the old bastard terribly.

Chuck turned in his chair. "I saw you there, you know." I looked at him, eyebrows furrowed.

"What?"

"Well I didn't know it was you. I just saw this girl... woman really... who had this beautiful long dark hair, weeping in the back row and left as fast as possible. I didn't even get to see her face... that was you wasn't it?"

I stared hard at his face.

He was there.

I felt like the air was being squeezed out of my lungs. This was all too much. I started to feel incredibly dizzy, my breathing became erratic. A worried look came over Chuck's face. A distorted "Ruby?" reached me before everything went black.