MARIEL

6~ Condescending Bitch ~

Wednesday, January 29th, 2020

"Agent 4."

Gripping the phone in her hand and staring at the screen, Tira scowled and then raised her eyes to meet the male nurse's gaze as he stood in the doorway. "What?" Agent 4 snapped.

Just moments ago, she'd ended the call with Esther Caravan, and the quiet sadness to the subject's voice left her feeling confused and empty. Was it because she wouldn't send a picture?

Or was it because she actually spoke truthfully... and missed her?

"I've brought those clothes for you. Do you need help getting changed?"

Tira wondered what missing someone was like. Was it purely mental, or was there a physical component as well? When Esther's soft voice had bid her goodnight, she'd experienced a strange ache in her chest, like someone had gripped her heart and squeezed. She'd felt it every time she thought of the subject, every time she saw some reminder about her. A young female's laugh. Brown eyes. That brown-haired, female nurse that had a slight skip in her step, like Esther did whenever she was excited, or mischievous, or flirty or -

"Agent 4, did you hear my question?"

"What do you want?" Tira fumed. Her eyes darted to the clothes in his hand. Quickly, her arm shot out. "Give me those. And then leave."

"Agent 4, you may need help getting changed."

"I do not need your help." With her uninjured left hand, Tira snatched the bundle of clothes from his hands and glared at him. "Go. If you touch me, I will break your penis." She meant it.

The nurse's face paled. With a stiff smile, he left the hospital room.

Snarling towards the closing door, Tira held the pile of clothes against her lap and returned her attention to the phone.

Esther had seemed hurt. Had her feelings really been hurt simply because Tira refused to send a picture? Frowning and shifting her eyes back and forth, Tira attempted to understand the subject's thought process, tried to put herself in Esther's mind so she could determine a method to make the subject smile without actually taking a picture of herself.

But... would one picture be so harmful?

"You are being an idiot," Tira mumbled in Russian, closing her eyes tightly as if it might convince her to change her mind. A picture of herself on someone else's phone could only lead to bad things. The less proof she had of her existence, the better.

Yes, this was best.

However, Esther had seemed really hurt... hurt that Tira hadn't trusted her to keep the photo private.

"That shouldn't matter though," Tira said through her teeth, speaking in Arabic this time. It shouldn't matter if Esther was hurt. She needed to keep herself private, to be smart about how much she shared with people she simply could not trust.

'Will you send me a picture of your smile?'

Tira's eyes opened. Gnawing her lip, the agent turned her attention to the clothing in her lap. It would be her first time in normal clothes since her hospital admittance. Following the surgery on her hip yesterday, the medical staff had given her a goal to transport herself around the private hospital halls today... in a wheelchair. Tomorrow, before returning home, the staff hoped that she'd have the ability to walk with a crutch, or a cane.

It angered her immensely, that feeling of physical helplessness, especially since her weapons had not been returned to her.

Letting out a huff of annoyance, Tira reached behind her waist to untie the strings on the hospital gown. If she was going to take a photo, it would not be in a hospital gown. Logic advised her that Esther wouldn't care, but she felt an internal urge to make herself a little more presentable than she'd been lately.