The Forgotten and The Changed (Raivh & Roses)

Beep... Beep... Beep... The endless sound is what finally caused her to stir, and pull her from the dark void. Body heavy and sluggish the woman struggled to recall exactly where she was or what that incessant beeping was that was driving her insane. Beep... Beep... Beep... She tried to lift an arm but her body felt like lead, so heavy, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to move it. More importantly why couldn't she see anything? Were her eyes even open? Beep... Beep... Beep... And what the hell was that infernal beeping?!

She managed to get her fingers to twitch, then her toes. Something was covering her, something terribly itchy. Whatever this blanket or cloth was, was absolutely terrible.A sound escaped her dry cracked lips as she tried to move her arm and the blanket. IT startled her, unprepared to hear something come from herself it seamed. But what startled her more was the sensation of something stabbing the crook of her elbow. A needle? That was when the sensation of small tubes and wires dawned on her. Draped all over her arms and chest, she noticed their presences all over her body. Was she... In a hospital?

Moving her other arm she flexed her hand and shifted it under the blanket. Her muscles didn't seem to want to work. How long had she been laying there? Eventually she got her hand up to her face. Her eyes were still closed and god were her long red locks greasy. Keeping her hand over her eyes she tried to make a conscious effort to force them open. Bad idea. The florescent lights in the ceiling were blinding and only added to the headache throbbing in her head from the machine beside the bed that was the source of the dreaded beeping. A monitor of some sort. Wiping at her eyes she blinked a few times and tried to clear them as she groaned. Her body ached but was more stiff than anything. So far as she could tell.

"Oh my god! Doctor!" A shrill voice screamed and only made her her want to vomit as her headache increased. Vomit what, since clearly she hadn't eaten, the woman didn't know. "Siobhan is awake! Doctor!"

Siobhan. That's her name. The memories slowly started to trickle back in. There was an explosion. Her chest tightened as certain memories came with others. Ones she didn't want. They should have let her die with him. If he wasn't here there wasn't really a point to going on anymore. She squeezed her eyes shut as she felt a tear foll down the side of her face. The heard of thundering feet entering her room didn't even get her to open her eyes again even as they all talked in hushed voices and whispered things about her.

"Miss Murphy? Miss Murphy?" The woman's voice was trying to be calm but someone with Siobhan's experience could easily hear the excitement and anxiety. "My name is Dr. Leacher. I have been working on you since the incident eight months ago."

Had it really been eight months?

"This is the first time you have regained consciousness. Please can you open your eyes."

Siobhan sighed and took a few deep breaths. Pulling her hand away from her face she slowly blinked her bright green eyes open. There was a murmur through the small group of doctors and nurses.

"Good." Leacher said softly. "Now Miss Murphy we are going to get you some water and something small to eat, easy on your stomach since you haven't had any real intake for months. But there are a great many things we all need to discuss with you."

Laying on the bed the woman with long flaming red hair frowned. She didn't care anymore. The man she loved was dead and she was not. Her life ended when his did. "I don't care." Her voice was harsh, cracking and gruff from months of no use. "Just stop that fucking beeping."

A cold wind sliced through the mountains like a knife, carving its way beneath the layers of clothing he wore in a vain attempt to keep warm. He'd done his best to clear away a patch in the snow, but even the rock beneath was like ice. His lips had turned blue in the cold as he peered through his scope, scanning the area for a target. He know they were out there. He just didn't know where they were hiding.

As he adjusted his sight, he spotted her roaming with her dog. His mouth tried to form a smile over cracked, chapped lips, but it wound up looking something more like grimace. Nonetheless, seeing her down there hard at work made him very proud of her. Shifting in his secluded position, he decided to search the area just ahead of her. While he couldn't find mines from up here, he could at least pick off any living man or woman that dared do her harm.

Reckford.

The voice seemed far away. His head hurt. He didn't feel like waking up yet. Besides, the trumpet wasn't blaring nearby, so it wasn't time for him to get up yet.

Reckford, wake up.

Slowly, he came to, blinking and staring up at a bright light. He groaned as his eyes pinched closed again.

“Sir, it may take some time for him to fully come around.”

There it was again, that same voice, only this time it was louder. Blaine opened his eyes again and let his gaze drift to a man in a white coat standing at the side of the bed. Confused, Blaine furrowed his eyebrows and parted his lips to speak.

The words that followed were weak. “Hey, doc, what's going on? Did I get shot?”

Immediately, the doctor dropped his focus to his patient lying still on a hospital bed. He shook his head, “No, Blaine, a bomb went off about ten feet from you. You look good, though.”

Instantly, Blaine's mind started to function, thoughts churning around as he tried to make sense of what he was being told. That wasn't possible. An explosion that close should have killed him. He lifted his hand and just barely brought his head off the cushion.

“Then how the fuck am I in one piece?” he questioned, voice strained and raspy. Both brows rode high on his forehead now but were pinched together, forming a thin crease between them.

The doctor looked at another man standing on the opposite side of the bed. Blaine hadn't bothered to search around the entire area yet. He was still trying to make sense of what he was being told and how he was feeling, which was pretty damn good for having just been blown up. With a grunt, he managed to prop himself up on his elbows and found himself staring up at Major Vincent Hough. Now, he was even more perplexed and he slumped back down onto the bed.

There was a nurse that had slipped in. She was good, very stealthy. He'd barely noticed her toying with some mechanism off to this left.

“It's got to be a fucking dream,” he mumbled before closing his eyes again, suddenly feeling very groggy again. He heard the doctor laughing, but couldn't bring himself to open his eyes again.

“No, Blaine, it's not a dream. We just made a few,” he paused to search for the right word as he looked down at his patient. Blaine was wholly intact. Mostly anyway. It was a good thing he hadn't bothered to look at his feet. He was still a work in progress, but by the next time they allowed the sedative to wear off, he'd be whole again. “A few modifications,” the doctor finished, but Blaine was already unconscious.

Modifications? Blaine thought as he drifted off again.

"Good, now ten more."

Siobhan grit her teeth and forced her feet to obey her. Muscles were already screaming, legs burning as she tried to get them awake enough to carry her across the room. How hard was it to walk from the bed to a god damn chair. Atrophy. That's what it was. Eight months of lying in bed doing nothing but wasting away had killed all the muscles in her body. All the effort she put into training and staying in shape, maintaing military fitness, gone. Now she was struggling to get up and take a piss by herself.

She couldn't help the small cry that parted her pale lips as she fell into the chair. Panting.

"Good to see you up Captain."

Siobhan's head whipped over to the door, long red strands hanging over her freckled face. "M-major!" Instantly she tried to get back to her feet but he waved her down.

"At ease. I'm just here to see how things are going. Nothing official." He stuck his hands in his pockets. "Rehab going well?"

The woman scowled. "Does this look well to you sir?"

He chuckled. "Well you are awake so I'd say it's a marked improvement."

The woman's demeanor shifted. She knew she had lost Blaine and every time she thought of him she couldn't breathe, she couldn't walk, the nurses thought she would relapse back into a coma. But now that the major was here she thought she might have one small spark of hope. "Major?"

"What is it Captain?"

"Do you know what happened to Rex?" Her bright green eyes were pleading. "No ones told me anything about him. Please."

The man kind of scoffed. "Your bomb sniffing dog? He was reassigned." The man shook his head.

Siobhan let out a huge sigh of relief. She might have lost the man she loved, but at least the dog he helped her train to save lives made it and he was still out there. As soon as she finished rehabbing she was going to go find Rex and get him back. He was the last piece of Blaine that she had so she wasn't about to let some kid get her dog killed.

Blaine sat on a bench in a rather intricate garden. Small birds, bees, and insects flitted or zipped about. There was a breeze. He knew that much. He could see it whisking through the grass, flowers, and gently rustling the branches in the trees. That was it, though. He could see it. Feeling it was a different story.



His eyes lowered and focused on the palms of his hands, watching intently as his fingers curled and then straightened repeatedly. Everything about him was a machine now, save his memory. His mind was the only part of him that was still human. Save that small part of him, he was now just one walking, talking war machine. He supposed it was best. There wasn't anything in the world he'd rather be than a soldier. He was a lifer, too scared to return to civilian life anyway.



“How are you adjusting?” The deep, gruff voice startled him out of his trance, and he looked up to see the Major standing just a few feet to his right.



“Oh,” Blaine started, just barely a mumble, “Uh, good, I guess. It's just bizarre.”



Nodding his head, the Major closed the space between them and placed a large, firm hand on Blaine's shoulder. “Doc says in time you'll be able to feel things as you did in your old body. Give it some time, son.” Gracing Blaine with a smile, he patted his shoulder and stepped away, heading back in the direction of the hospital. “I've got somewhere I've got to be. I look forward to seeing how you improve in the coming weeks.”



Blaine's eyes were trained on the major. He could see everything with such clarity, every blemish, scar, and irregularity of the man's face. He could even see the variances in his irises. “Yes, sir.”



Rising to his feet, Blaine saluted his superior officer before he dropped his gaze to his boots. He was only just getting used to this form, but he had somewhere he needed to be as well. Inhaling deeply, he found the motion felt almost unnecessary. It was a function the doc had added as an extra touch, something to keep remind him that everything that was happening was real. He took off, jogging briskly.



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Sinking down against the mattress opposite Siobhan, the Major studied the girl, gauging her strength.



He decided she'd learn eventually. “Reckford's been reassigned as well.”



The bed creaked as he shifted his weight and folded his arms across his chest. Inevitably, she was going to have many questions. He was sure of it. All this time, she'd probably thought he was dead. Technically, he was. At least as she'd known him.



“There's something you should know, though, Captain,” he continued, furrowing his brow slightly and reaching one hand behind his neck to scratch the base of his head. “That boy doesn't remember a thing about you.”



Rising to his feet, he acknowledged her with a nod of his head before striding over toward the door, his boots clunking against the tile floor. He paused in the door way and looked at her over his shoulder. “And he won't, Captain. So please just focus on getting well yourself.”



With that, he left the room, brushing shoulders with a nurse carrying a tray of food. He snagged the nurse by the upper arm and leaned down to speak into her ear. “Be mindful she doesn't get hysterical. Sedate her if necessary.”



The nurse nodded, saying nothing, and continued into the room. After setting the tray down on a bedside table, she walked toward the blinds and pulled them open. Then, she turned to look at Siobhan. “Would you like your lunch now, ma'am?”

Her lips parted and she almost let out an inhuman scream at the man. But years of training kicked in and she promptly snapped her mouth shut as she heard her commanding officers words to her nurse. She couldn't lose it. Not here. Not now. IF she stepped out of bounds in front of him she might never get answers but....

When the Major left the room, Siobhan grabbed her bag of personal items off the nearby chair and started digging through it. She was in military issued sweats and a tee shirt while she was doing her therapy but she needed something. That one personal thing, all military people were aloud to wear. She found the small plastic bag in the bottom of the giant trash bag holding her things. Seated inside it was a simple gold ring, no stone or gem was inlaid, just a simple gold band, but on the inside was engraved both of their initials.

Memories of his half assed proposal flooded her mind as tears blurred her vision. There was no fancy dinner, no down on one knee speech, no flowers or grande gestures. They were out on a mission, and he just pressed it into her hand. Said he didn't want to do any of this with out her. Oh and the whole lack of a diamond thing well, that was for safety out in the field, or so he said. They both knew the military would be their lives but, the explosion so shortly after was nothing she had expected. Siobhan slid the ring onto her finger and took a deep shaky breath. There was no way he couldn't remember her. Not after everything they had been through. Countless battles, skirmishes, wars. They were made for each other, on and off the battlefield.

But... The biggest question of all was, how did he even survive? Siobhan only rmembered bits and pieces of the explosion. But she remembered Blaine diving ontop of her, his arms wrapping around her and covering her head as his body shielded her. There was heat, blood, screaming. Then nothing. He took the whole force of the blast to save her. No one could have survived, she barely did.

When the nurse was close enough Siobhan's hand lashed out and grabbed her coat, wrenching her closer using all of the little strength she had. "You are going to take me to whereever it is they are keepinng him." If he was in fact alive, there had to be some reason why he hadn't come to see her. Did he really not remember?

The other woman let out a startled sound. "But the Major..."

"I don't care what the major said. You are taking me to my fiance now!" Siobhan sat herself down in the wheelchair in her room and the nurse hurried to push her out and down the hall.

"Capitan... I don't know where they are keeping him. I was assigned to you." The woman admitted as she walked, pushing the wheelchair aimlessly.

Siobhan glared over her shoulder at the woman, her green eyes piercing. "Then you better find out."

As he ran, Blaine's thoughts drifted into a void. There was a part of his mind that felt foreign to him, like a distant land, forgotten but beckoning. Every time he searched it, though, it just turned up black or he was brought out of his thoughts before he could probe deeper into the darkness to find out if there was anything that existed there. He could hear hoots and hollers as he ran and general chatter, all mingling into a web of sounds in the garden.

"Reckford!" Hearing his name, Blaine came to an immediate, sharp halt and wheeled around to face the voice. Stalking toward him was a familiar face. The man's eyes were wide and disbelieving. Gradually, his baffled expression was overcome by a broad grin. "You son of a bitch!"

"Well," Blaine began, chuckling a bit when the man stopped in front of him. "Maybe once. I'm more machine now than what my Momma gave me, but it'd be good to see her again nonetheless."

"Where you off to?" the man asked, folding his arms across his chest and lowering his brow pensively as he chewed at a corner of his lip.

Blaine inhaled deeply and stared off to his right. "I was given a new assignment this morning. K9."

The man's face blanched suddenly before flooding crimson with color. "They assigned you to K9? You're serious?"

Cocking a brow, Blaine looked back at the man and bobbed his head twice. "Yep. Seems like a waste to me, but who am I to speak out." He paused before furrowing his eyebrows into a curious crease. "You look pissed, Sulley."

The man stood before Blaine, grinding his teeth in silence. His eyes were on Blaine, but he didn't seem to actually be looking at the other solider. "Nah, I'm fine. You better get going."

With a nod, Blaine saluted his friend casually and carried on, jogging in the direction of several tall chain-link enclosures.