(I tried to write Nick's selective stutter but couldn't get it right, even though it's the same as mine, so he might sound off. Set right after the Misfits' attack on The Reclaimed.)
Marshie hadn't been home barely a few hours before she wandered from her room downstairs. She paced back and forth in the garage, looking for something, anything to do. It was late as far as she could tell, so most of the others were done asleep. The place did look more lively though, full of greenery and flowers.
She started to head back towards the stairs to find someone awake to bother when something caught her eye. Out the large window, she could just barely see someone outside. It wasn't abnormal for someone to be stationed for lookout overnight when needed, but they weren't anywhere near the barrier. She squinted through the glass.
Sekah was sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest out in front of the tower, head hidden. Confused, Marshie stepped outside and walked closer to see he was at a decorated pink tree planted in their concrete yard. 'That wasn't there yesterday.'
"Sekah?" She gently touched his shoulder. He sniffed and peeked his head up. His eyes were bloodshot and tears were rolling down his face in waves. Marshie pouted out her lip and sat next to him. "What's wrong?"
He wiped some of the tears away. "Bri-" he hiccuped, his voice strained. He stretched out his legs a bit and Marshie scooted closer. "Bri's...dead." Fresh tears started falling and he pressed his balled up fists onto his knees. "She's gone."
Marshie's heart skipped dangerously close to fully stopping. What. "What? What do you mean? What happened?" she rambled rapidly. Her fingers curled in on themselves, gripping Sekah's overshirt sleeve.
Through choked sobs and slowly dying vocal chords, Sekah told her a brief version of the day's events. Marshie's heart clenched as he told her about being kidnapped, only for it to drop completely when he got to the end. Sekah buried his face in his hands as he sobbed his frustration out and Marshie hugged him while he did, trying to emit any calm she had left to him.
"It- it was all my fault. If I hadn't gotten my dumb self taken, we wouldn't have had to change the whole plan. We'd be free of the Reclaimed, Bri would still be alive... I just can't believe it still."
"It wasn't your fault. It was you against what sounds like a huge group of military guys. You did what you could. Besides," she bumped his shoulder with hers, "you did pretty good taking down a whole bunch of guys on your own. That takes a lot of skill."
He dragged his hands down his face and cracked a wry smile. "It was mostly the robot arm."
"Robot arms, as cool as they are especially yours, don't help that much with aim. And yours is awesome!"
Sekah chuckled. His eyes were still ladened, still threatening to water, but his face wasn't as pale and his voice wasn't croaking. "Thanks for listening to me, Marsh." He shakily stood up and she helped, holding his arm steady. "I should get some sleep. We- we have to go somewhere else in the morning."
She would've questioned how much of a good idea that would be after everything, but she really would've been a hypocrite then, at least according to Nick.
He waved and Marshie watched Sekah go up the steps and into the tower. As soon as the doors closed behind him, she took one look at Bri's tree, turned on her heels, and took off over the barrier and into the city.
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Weighed down by fatigue, Nick slowly dragged himself up the apartment stairs. Banging his knees on every stair, he finally reached his temporary room and staggered inside, tossing his bag across the room. Everything hurt; eyelids dragged down with tiredness, limbs sore down to his nerves.
A small, recognizable, blue figure was curled up on the other sleeping bag. He internally groaned. His body was yelling at him to throw himself on the floor and get some sleep. He could just leave the conversation for the morning, provided she was still there and they weren't jumped in the night.
He started to lay down, his bones cracking with every move, when a sniffle made him stop. He froze, slowly reaching for his gun and ears peeled. Another sniffle came, from the girl he assumed was asleep.
Nick dropped his hand from his gun and begrudgingly zombie-walked over to her, dropping down beside her head. In the dull light from the moon, he could clearly see her face.
She was awake, only briefly glancing at him when he joined her. She looked just as tired as him, he noticed, but her cheeks were stained with dry tear streaks. Nick sighed and leaned back, mentally preparing himself for late time social interaction. "What's wrong?" It came out short and gruff, but Marshie didn't even flinch, already used to it.
She looked up at him, her green eyes wide and dark-lidded. "Bri's dead."
"Who?"
"Another Misfit. She was part of our family... I didn't even know what was going on until Sekah told me. I knew the Reclaimed were after us, but-"
"Wait," Nick cut off, "the what?" It was probably rude to cut off a crying, grieving person but something about the way she said 'reclaimed' poked at him unnervingly.
Marshie sniffed and sat up, leaning against the wall and pressing her arm against his. "Austin told us this group called the Reclaimed was after us for some reason. I think they used to be military. He didn't want us going out into the city alone, but I didn't know who else to go to."
Nick sucked in a breath, torn between scolding her for risking her life like that and interrogating her further about the so-called Reclaimed. Former military going after a bunch of teenagers? Everything about that didn't sit well with him, but neither did seeing Marshie so distraught.
Her lip quivered and Nick awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. The girl who wasn't in the least bit downtrodden by the apocalypse was now sitting next to him on the verge of bawling her eyes out. If she hadn't already done that before he showed up. He had no idea what to do.
Grief wasn't scarce in the military, but dealing with and comforting those who suffered from it were. Likewise, he didn't know how to handle it and especially when out of left field like this. It wasn't like people dying in the apocalypse was surprising, but somehow Nick figured bringing that up wouldn't exactly help anything.
So, he decided to do what he normally never would. Ask.
He cleared his throat. "What-what do you want me to do?" It sounded accusatory and he winced, but once again she took it easily.
Marshie brushed the hair out of her face. "I talked some of it out with Sekah, but I didn't know Bri as well as him and the others. I'm not at the tower much these days-"
Nick snorted. "You're telling me."
She smiled thinly. "But we're still family. The Misfits gave me something to be proud of in all of this. No matter what, we're all really close and... I'm going to miss her a lot. I guess I knew in, like, the back of my head that one of us could die but I didn't want to think about it."
"And-and what about now?"
"I still don't want to think about it. I can do that tomorrow." She pressed her lips together and gave him a very forced smile that he just narrowed his eyes at.
He sighed and stood up, stretching out his disjointed joints and letting them pop. "Well, you know the drill. You're more than welcome to stay here."
Marshie looked around her at the empty space before looking back up at him. "Can I sleep over there closer to you?" she asked simply.
Nick shrugged, flopping down on his makeshift bed on the floor and bending his arm behind his head. "Knock yourself out."
She dragged the sleeping bag over near his and took off her jacket, balling it up and laying it next to the pillow. Nick closed his eyes and fell asleep, the final thing he saw before finally giving in to exhaustion being Marshie's slightly peaceful face smushed into her jacket.
