Are We Cool Yet? [Complete!]

Dear

Mask's POV

'Cause this man got some explaining to do I guess, plus he doesn't get a lot of narrator time plus he's a cutieface.

And yes, Shy will be okay (for now).

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Shy is spread out on the ground, his chest ripped wide open. Doc drops to his knees and gets to work immediately, fishing scalpels and supplies out of his bag. But the second he touches Shy, Shy kicks him in the face.

The bag is still on his head. He can't see. "It's fine, Shy, it's us!"

He's in too much pain to understand, lashing out in every direction. Blood is dripping from Doc's nose.

I summon several appendages and wrap them around Shy's wrists and ankles, holding him as still as I can, but it hurts. If he wasn't so weak, I wouldn't be much of a match against him.

Doc is working fast and steady. In a few minutes, he's sewing Shy up. He cuts the thread just as my strength gives out. Shy's already pulled several of my joints, and torn through three tentacles. I retract them into the ground, and the pain goes away.

Shy is still panting and struggling on the ground, asking and asking for Larry. Doc and I step back. There's nothing else to do.

His hands were steady during the procedure, his always are, but now they're shaking. I want to hold them, and hold him, and sing to him until he calms down, but he flinches back when I reach out.

"Hey, I-- Im sorry, okay?" The fight. I hit him. I scared him. I hurt him.

"Doc?" I ask. He turns away. His face was in shadow before, but for an instant it catches the light, and I see a huge, black bruise, right where I hit him. "Doc..."

He walks off to his room.

I want to follow him, but I shouldn't. He doesn't want me. Why should he?

I sit down a safe distance from Shy.

I did these things to Doc... but I would do them again and again. I can't let him go back there. I would have taken him away long ago, if there had been a place, or a way, goodness knows we tried at first.

Because they hurt him.

He's been here longer than I have, centuries. He's so used to it, and he interprets lack of cruelty as kindness. He's just...

When I first met him, he wouldn't let me, or anyone, near-- except his subjects, which he quickly dispatched. It took several breaches before he let me come close, and then he would flinch if we touched, because in his mind touch meant pain. That's because of the Foundation. That's what they did to him.

They take pieces of him whenever they like. They broke him. I will not let him be broken.

After checking on Shy, who appears to have calmed down, I make my way to Doc's room and poke my head in. He's curled in a ball in the corner, with his face in his hands. That beautiful face...

As much as I want to go to him, I know that when he's like this, hands-off is the best policy. "Doc," I say quietly, as not to startle him, "I--"

"You were right," he says.

"I-- what?"

"You were right. They... why would they do that to Shy?"

"I told you, he was slated for termination."

"But that's-- that's a horrible way to-- even if he w-wasn't cooperating, why would they t-take out his heart, when he was awake, and-- and-- they were toying with him--"

I come to sit beside him, but leave him space. "He's okay now. You're a good doctor."

"But he almost-- they almost--"

"Yes," I say. "They almost killed him. And I'm afraid they're going to do that to you. I'm sorry for hurting you, but I would do it again."

He looks up, mouth open.

 "I would. I would make you hate me, as long as it meant you were safe."

He scoots a little closer to me, and puts his head on my shoulder. "I've been an idiot."

"It's not your fault." Now that he's given me his permission to touch him, I pull him the rest of the way into my lap and stroke his back gently.

Doc starts crying, and it's messy, and it's loud, and he wraps his arms around me and cries and cries, and I wish there was something more I could do to help him.

I keep holding him, and I kiss his face gently, and I tell him, softly, "It's okay... it's okay... it's going to be okay... I love you..."

"I-- I love," he says, through his tears, "I love you too, Mask."

"I know, dear. I know."