Imperium: Volume 2
Chapter 10.

It's been a few days since the new recruits arrived. I've been kept busy doing the routine checkups and ensuring everyone arrived in good health and with no injuries. From what I was aware, it took them a couple weeks to venture out here, and by the look of things, everyone seemed in good health. Aside from the typical symptoms one would have with this environment, but burning and itchy eyes were the least of my worries.

I've been keeping a close eye on June while she recuperates. Her strength is getting better with each day, but fatigue still hits her like a ton of bricks towards the evenings. But I do see she is able to last longer throughout the day, which is a good sign things are coming along.

I've also been keeping an eye on Sarah. What happened the other day, had my chest pounding, and my nerves rattled. Seeing her screaming on the floor was torturing, and I'd hope never to see that again. I'm not sure if that's the physician in me, or my feeling towards her are something I have to stop denying. I find my self waking up each day hoping to see her face, at least in some part of my day. I want to say she could sense that, because she always made sure she did and would throw a smile my way.

We have been tasked with joining the reconnaissance team. Her for her sense and telepathy and mine for my medical. Jay had pulled us into mission control, and alerted us that we would not be vanquishing any compounds but, doing recon around the compounds. That is until we found the mole. Someone was relaying information, and Jay was in constant contact with the other base, to find out who.

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I knew how those compounds operated, and the people working within them. If anything, that was the last place I wanted her to be in, but her confidence in her ability re assured Jay she could get the job done.

I was currently walking through the food court, and heading back to the infirmary, when I spotted her. She was sitting alone at a table with her hand rubbing her eyes. She had her eyes closed, and I could see her leg tapping rapidly under the table. She was tuning into people's thoughts for days now, and looked as if she was barely getting some sleep. She looked tired, and when she spotted me looking even her smile looked forced.

I don't think she could hide the exhaustion any longer.

I approached her and slid her the cup of coffee I had in hand and sat down across from her.

"How ya holding up?" I asked.

She slowly looked up and gladly took the coffee.

"Tired." She still managed to smile.

I looked around the court, and saw the familiar faces of the new recruits, that I had been tending to. Watching them make their way around the mall almost reminded me of my first day of residency. Not knowing where to go, or where to find my station. It was chaotic to say the least. I looked back to Sarah.

"Listen, I think you should go get some rest. You've been at this for almost 2 weeks, and you havn't felt or heard anything yet. You could use a day of rest Sarah." I suggested.

"I'm okay... really Rowen. Thank you for your concern, but I'll manage." She told me.

"You have nothing to prove, just go get some rest please...."

She looked down at her cup of coffee.

"Your wrong." She said. I looked confused. "I do have something to prove."

She moved her gaze slightly behind me, and I turned around to see another man with his back towards us. It was the one that had her arm the other day. Knowing that he was this close to her pissed me off, and I could feel my brows furrow. What could she possibly have to prove to him?

"That I can be who I choose to be......without him." She said to me softly.

I looked back to her. Her eyes looking in mine, and I suddenly felt my heart flutter.

"I'm sorry.......I should have just asked you."

"It's okay....I should have stayed out of your thoughts. It's kind of hard to, when the two way lane is open to all drivers." She said with a smile.

I laughed. "Fair enough." I looked at my watch and didn't realize how fast the time creeped up on me.

"Oh shit! Sorry Sare but I've got to go.....Grayson will be waiting for me. Apparently he needs bigger muffs."

She bursted out laughing, and almost spewed her mouthful of coffee all over the table. It caught me by surprise, and I wasn't sure if the fatigue was really getting to her but I laughed aswell.

I got up from the table, and made my way over giving her one final glance before falling out of her gaze.

I pretty much jogged to the infirmary, where Grayson was waiting for me. I had a heavy duty set of noise cancelling ear muffs set aside for him, that I lined with additional padding, and had him sit on the bed, while I quickly checked out his ears.

"Hmm...their still awfully red and inflamed." I said.

I took the current ear muffs, and discarded them in a drawer for safe keeping and placed the new ones on his ears. He looked around then quickly shot an amused look to me.

"Wow! these work pretty good!" He yelled.

I smiled and told him he didn't have to speak so loud.

"Ahah sorry!" He said.

"How's the volume?" I asked.

"Good. It sounds like a normal conversation. This will work much better! thank you." He said.

He hopped off the table and I handed him some antibiotics.

"Take these 3 times a day till the bottle is gone, and that should help the inflammation go down." He took out his hand and I shook it. I smiled. See ya later buddy.

For the rest of the day, it seemed pretty busy. We had people in and out for some minor treatments, and a barrage of other recruits coming in for some check ups. Overall the day was pretty satisfying.

It was approaching dusk, and the infirmary was starting to quite down. The other assistants seemed to have everything under control, and I started to make my way out, when someone peered through the entrance. I immediately stood still, as I watched the man who Sarah had pointed out to earlier take a seat in one of the chairs. He was holding his one hand, that looked bruised and bloody in the other.

I of course had to help him. As much as I already despised the guy, even without really knowing him, I pledged the oath to uphold the integrity and medical knowledge towards all patients. I walked over to him.

"What happened here?" I knelt down and took his hand to get a better look.

"Oh hey. Ya.....kind of embarrassing really." He said. "I'm a bit of a klutz, and dropped some machinery on my hand."

From the look of it, it didn't look like something fell on his hand. More like his hand went into something.

"Okay, follow me and I can take a better look at it." He did so.

I pointed him towards the bed and had him sit on the side while I rolled my chair over. I had a small table on wheels that I wheeled over aswell so he could set his hand on it.

"Up here please." I had him place his hand on the table.

I further inspected his hand, now taking a hold of it. I ran my fingers along each finger and gently squeezed till I heard a wince of pain fall from his mouth.

"And what did you say dropped on it?" I asked.

"It was a converter." Was all he said.

I looked up at him. He was fucking

lying, and I didn't believe a word he said. He was a fucking snake. Much like the ones that were running the compounds.

"You broke 2 of your fingers." I sighed. "Unfortunately there isn't much we can do about that, so we can tape them up and they should heal within a few weeks."

"Sounds good Doc." He smiled, and all I wanted to do was take a scapula and slice his face apart. Everything about him irritated me, and I wanted him to leave. So I taped him up and sent him on his way.

Ain't no fucking converter fell on him. He definantley took his fist to something. The scabbed up knuckles told me so. I quickly cleaned up the tape and put away the scissors, when I heard him talking to someone.

It was Sarah.

I quickly walked out, and watched as they shared a scolding look at eachother and he made his way out. She watched him leave, and once he fell out of sight I saw her draw in a breath. What the fuck did this guy do? She was in defense mode, and everything told me to go comfort her.

She finally turned to me as I watched her and she smiled.

"I saw you in here earlier so I thought I would return the gesture and bring you some tea." She handed me the mug.

I took it, and noticed she had more colour in her face.

"Looks like someone got some sleep." I grinned.

"Yes.....I did....and thank you. I needed it." Her smile just beaming from ear to ear.

My heart started fluttering again. I hoped to god she wasn't listening in.

"I was.....wondering if I could get your help." She asked unsure.

"Ya....is everything okay? Sare....did he say something to you again?" I quickly put my mug down and started walking towards his direction.

"No.....Rowen.....wait." She said placing her hands on my chest.

"It's not about Cam.....its actually about my ability." She reassured.

I felt stupid for quickly concluding something was wrong, but the guy put me off.

"Oh..okay. How can I help?"

"Well.....I'm trying to stretch out the range of my telepathy, and trying to further distance myself from another's mind. I....I was wondering if you would help me." She asked.

"Ya of course." I said with no hesitation. "What do you need me to do?" I smiled as I watched her reach out a map from her back pocket. She already knew my answer and came fully prepared.

"Here is a map of our outer perimeters. I've already gone ahead and marked the trail, with 1 km markers. So essentially if your aren't busy, you would sit here at base while I talk to you telepathically as I trek the trail. Its roughly 20 kilometers, so it would take me about...mmm......3.5 maybe 4 hours to walk the whole thing, then head back."

"You've already marked the trail?" I asked curiously.

"Awhile ago yes, but it's been so busy here and I rather have someone I enjoy talking to while I test it out."

I looked at her, and immediately saw her cheeks turn a rosy colour. If only I could hear what was going on in her head.

"Sounds good." I chuckled.

"Great! how does tomorrow sound?" She jumped right to it.

"Ummm? Sure, I'm confident these fantastic ladies got things covered here." I looked to them closing things up.

"Ya, ya." The one assistant said.

"Perfect." Sarah seemed pleased. "It will give us a couple days before we depart for our reconnaissance mission." She folded the map and placed it in her back pocket.

"And how are you feeling about that?" I wanted to know her mind set going in.

"Don't worry Rowen. I'll take care of you." She smiled and made her way out.

She left me fluttering again. I rubbed the back of my head and turned around to see the other assistants gushing over our conversation.

"What?" I asked.

They just giggled and resumed locking up everything.

If there was one thing she was doing to me, it was taking my mind of this war. It almost felt selfish of me, to even feel this way, when the Dominion still had so many families ripped apart and in prisoner camps.

Should I really let myself feel this way?

•~Hey Rowen? •~

Suddenly Sarah's voice appeared in my head.

•~ Yes Sarah? •~

•~ Earlier.....you called me Sare•~

•~Oh ahah I'm sorry, it must have just slipped out•~ I said.

•~ No.....Its okay...I liked it......goodnight Rowen•~

•~ Good night •~

The answer to my question.........was fuck yes I can.

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