Whispers

Chapter eleven

Thankfully, even with Doc giving me the wrong antibiotic and not treating me for tetanus, I was able to do leg strengthening exercises. I was looking forward to taking a shower, so the idea of getting my leg back into working order made me excited to walk again.

We started with some light stretching and seeing how well I could bend without hurting myself. The wound itself is healed--the hole is closed shut with only the faintest sigh of a scar and the bruising was almost gone. It had yellowed so much that I could barely see it, but I still knew it was there. 

All that mattered was that it didn't hurt anymore, and that I was in the process of getting out of the infirmary. 

"Alright," Doc helped me to a seated position with my legs dangling over the edge of the bed, "I'm going to put a small weight on your ankle. I want you to lift your ankle as high as you possibly can." I did as told, only slightly wincing. I hadn't used my leg in a while, and the idea of moving it now seemed barely possible. Still, I managed. 

"Very good," Doc held out his hand for me to take, which I did. His hand is warm in mine as be balances me to a steady standing position, "How does standing feel?" 

I shrug, "It doesn't hurt," I shift my weight back and forth, between one leg to the other, giggling slightly when I realized I could stand without wanting to die. 

"Good," Doc lets go of my hand and allows me to stand on my own. I sway for a second, almost falling back onto the bed, but I regain my balance quickly. I look at Doc with a smile, "That was unexpected."

Doc laughs slightly at me, "Good thing is you can stand unassisted. That's the first step of you getting out of this room. Now. I'm going to stand beside you just in case, but I need you to walk right to the wall on the other side of the room," I swallow and nod. Time to try this newly healed leg out for real. 

I turn gingerly, still scared that my leg will start spontaneously bleeding, and take my first step towards to the wall. With each step I gained more confidence, and with each step I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. I made it to the wall, only stumbling forward twice, and then work my way back to the side of the bed where I started. 

I smile at Doc, who is nodding approvingly, "Awesome. Let me get Jason so he can show you to your room. I'm confident that you're going to be just fine, but I want to play on the safer side. Don't want you back in here because you fell on your face," I scoff and shake out my legs.

"Sounds good to me," I say with a sigh. I sit back on the bed and revel in the idea of hot water hitting my shoulders for the first time in a while. 

Doc and Jason come into the room a couple of minutes later and I stand to greet them. This time I don't stumble, and Jason smiles at me, "Would you look at that, she's functional." I roll my eyes and walk towards Jason, my heart skipping a beat. 

This entire time, I have been aware of how I look--a total mess, covered in mud, sweat, dried blood, tears, and ointment. My hair is matted in places it shouldn't be, and my clothes need to be burned when I take them off. However, looking at Jason and Doc, and then realizing I would have to greet other people looking like this make me even more nervous. 

My head spins, and I make myself sit down at the foot of the bed. 

"You okay," I couldn't look at Jason. Instead I am too busy looking at my missing pant leg. I look stupid, and I don't want anyone to see me like this.

"If it makes you feel better, everyone is at training for the next several hours. No one is going to see you or even talk to you." I meet Jason's eyes, which are warm and considerate. "Even if they did see you and try to say something, they wouldn't. Because if they did, I would kick their ass." 

I laugh at him, earning another smile from him, "Come on, I know you want to get out of here. Lets go," I take his hand to stand and thank Doc as I leave. I would be dead if it weren't for him and Jason. 

To get to where a shower is, I have to climb a flight of stairs. Carefully, and with Jason behind me, I make my way to the top of the steps. Jason reaches around me, causing me to flinch slightly, and opens the door to let me into the main room. 

If I thought my last pack house was huge, then I was wrong. This place was bigger, and looked much better. 

For one, the place actually looks like it is lived in. There is a shoe rack for people to take off their shoes when they come into the house, blankets cover the multiple sofas, and tables are filled with magazines and books. There are shelves of books, all of which were by windows, allowing for a good view of the property, and the room itself felt warm and welcoming. I took a deep breath and let it out as a sigh--I thought I was going into another place like my last pack. Or maybe this whole thing had been set up as a punishment by my dad. But I was wrong--this place looks like a home.

"If you'll follow me," I look to Jason, forgetting what I was doing. 

"Sorry, I was caught off guard," I whisper, walking towards Jason without looking. I stumble over my own feet, and Jason catches me to steady me. His warm hand against my bare arm made me shiver and made me fully realize my motivations--shower first, then explore.

I follow Jason to the hallway, "Okay, so I'm going to explain how this works," I nod when he looks at me, "Each hallway is numbered, and each hall has four rooms. The people that live in this house don't have mates, or they are apart of the actual task unit. So, people like me, you and my brother all live in this building. We have a lot of property, so if a person finds their mate they are more than welcome to move into another, smaller, unit somewhere on the property," I nod, understanding so far. We stop at the hallway numbered 6 and walk down it to room C, "This is your room." 

I walk into the room and see that one side is already occupied. "Most of us have roommates. Except for a couple of people. Me, I have my own room due to my rank. Other people who have their own room in this house have mates, and haven't decided if they are going to move yet," Jason says before I can ask. I walk further into the room to look at the occupied side. 

Whoever the person is, they are an incredible artist, "You don't mind rooming with a guy do you? Because if you do--,"

"I don't mind," I say without thinking. I look at Jason, who is leaning against the door frame. He nods and pushes off the door frame to walk into the room. 

"This is the closet. Please don't think we are creepy, but Kitty took the liberty of looking at your clothing sizes. If something doesn't fit just let her know. You should have some shoes and under clothes in here too. Again, if something doesn't fit, let her know," Jason moved across the room, "This is the bathroom. two rooms share one bathroom. There's a closet in there, and everyone has their own shelf with their name on it. If you run out of something, we have a list on the refrigerator of things people have ran out of. Make sure you put your name, hall number and room letter." 

I nod, shifting my weight back and forth between my legs. I just want to shower. 

"Last thing, and then I promise I'll go," Jason sighs, his face showing a slight sliver of an emotion I can't identify, "Laundry room is down the hall to the left. If you need help just ask Bane, or track me down and I'll help you out." 

"Okay," I say quietly. We stand there for another second or so before Jason claps his hands. 

"Alright then. I let you shower now. Um, I'll be by in another hour or so to give you more of a tour if you want? Or you can just have Bane--," 

"Okay," Jason stops and nods at me with a smile. 

"Okay. See you in about an hour." Jason waves at me, and leaves me alone in the room. 

I find the empty bed, across from my roommates bed, and take a deep breath. I couldn't stop the overwhelming feelings from wanting to take over as I let out a small sob. I feel tears flow softly down my dirty cheeks as I let my feelings take over. 

Why am I so sad? I don't miss anything about my old pack, and this place is great so far. I'm overreacting, but I can't stop myself from overreacting. It was easy to think that I would end up staying in the infirmary forever, because that was all I knew for the longest time, but now that I'm here I can't help but feel a sense of doom and sadness. I rub my face, feeling disgusting, and go to the closet. 

I pick out a clean shirt, underwear, bra, and a pair of jeans. I was rummaging around for a pair of socks when I heard the door open. 

"Yeah, yeah, shut up you--," I jump back and stare at the person in the door way, "Oh, hi." The person steps in, closes the door, and walks to me.

I back up, wanting to keep my personal bubble where it was, but this guy has no sense of personal space because every time I backed away from him he just got closer. I braced my back against the wall, terrified, as he looks me over. 

He is taller than me, but only by a couple of inches, with dark eyes and light hair. His skin is a shade darker than Jason's, and he has a lip piercing. 

"You must be that girl I drove back from getting shot by that i***t, Jason," He said, backing up slightly. I swallow and nod at him, "About time they got you out of the infirmary. I'm Bane, by the way," He sticks out his hand for me to shake. 

"Um," I shrink back further, not wanting to touch anyone with anything attached to me. 

"Oh, s**t I did it again," Bane backs up more, "Sorry, I have an issue with personal space I am working on it. I'm sure you want to take a shower and everything. The people who live next door wont be back for a little while longer, so go ahead and hop in. We can start over with intros after." He smiles softly at me, and moves out of my way. I nod, and move to the bathroom. 

The bathroom is like the rest of the house--lived in. The walls are decorated with pictures and plants, and it is clean. I drop my clothes on the floor near the shower, and go to the closet, which had everyone's stuff in it. Just like Jason said, there are four selves, all with names on them. Mine is right under Bane's, and has four towels, shampoo, conditioner, soap with a body sponge, brush, and a toothbrush with toothpaste. I take all that I need and start the shower. I brush my teeth quickly to get the taste of stale blood and vomit out of my mouth, and then jump into the shower. 

I lean into the hot water and sigh as I feel all the dirt and grime wash off of my skin. I scrub my body until it is raw to make sure that all the nastiness I had acquired is gone. I then work on my hair, which I scrubbed twice with shampoo before conditioning it thoroughly. I run my fingers through my hair to ensure that all the large knots were out before putting my face under the water. I let the hot water fall down my cheeks, taking away any evidence of my small breakdown from before, and then shut the water off.  

I dry off in the shower and then wrap my hair up in the towel. I get dressed slowly, enjoying the feeling of clean clothes against my, now, clean skin. I dry my hair and run the brush through it, and then run my teeth through another scrubbing with the tooth brush. 

Satisfied with my overall cleanliness, I dry off my things and put them back on my shelf in the closet. I take the towel with me into the room, finally feeling like myself again. 

When I get into the room, Jason and Bane are there, talking. 

"That's stupid. You didn't mean to shoot her, but you can't go on missions anymore? Literally the only reason some of our missions were successful was because you were there," Bane complained.

"Yeah, because I have half a brain and know how to--hey, Gill," Jason turns to me and smiles. I smile back and watch Bane sit up with a start, making me knock my arm into the bathroom doorframe. 

"Ow, dammit," I rub my arm with a sigh and turn to look at Bane with a menacing look. 

"s**t, sorry," He says as Jason sighs. 

"You have to forgive Bane, he doesn't have control over his abilities sometimes, and he has no concept of personal space. I should have warned you." Jason says with an eyeroll in Bane's direction. 

"Yeah, yeah, we all know I'm flawed, okay. No need for the reminder," Bane gets up from the bed to stretch, and then turns towards me, "But I am sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to freak you out," 

I tuck a damp strand behind my ear, "It's okay. I just need to adjust to this place."

"And I need to adjust to having a roommate again," Bane puts out his hand, which I take. His hand feels comfortable in mine as we give each other our greeting, "You're name's Gill, right? It's nice to finally meet you when you aren't completely covered in blood and dirt," 

"Bane--," Jason says, exasperated.

"What?! That's how I first met her!" Bane let go of my hand.

"You were there that night?" I asked, confused. Bane looks at me and nods. 

"I drove the car while Doc and Jason were keeping you alive in the back seat. Got you here in record time."

"Almost killed us all in the process," Jason crosses his arms with a sigh. 

"But you didn't and that's all that matters," Bane smiles, "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go shower. I smell like sweat, and I want to eat soon so," I move out of Banes way, and allow him access to the bathroom. 

Jason looks at me, "You hungry?" I look up at him and nod. 

I'm not hungry, I'm starving. I have ate barely anything the whole time I have been here, and am dying for some solid food. I place my damp towel over the foot of the bedframe and go to the closet to grab some socks, as I forgot earlier. When I find a pair, I sit down on the floor and put them on my feet. 

"Do I have to wear shoes?" I ask from my seated position. 

"No, not unless you want to," I look down at the running shoes at the bottom of my closet and decide to slide them on my feet before leaving the room. I get up and smile at Jason and follow him out of the room and down the hall back towards the living area, which buzzed, lightly, with activity.

I feel naked without my hair braided, and a sense of doom starts to creep up my throat the closer we get to the living area. I almost don't notice the scent of food over the idea of having to socialize with other people. I take in a shaky breath, hoping it would calm me, and then let it out. 

I pause in the middle of the hallway, my heart racing. Jason notices and turns around and gives me a questioning look, "You okay?"

Was I okay? Physically, yeah I am okay. Nothing hurts, and I'm stable on my feet. 

Mentally? I'm not so sure. The fear of having to see people overwhelms my want and need to eat. My thoughts have been running over all possible scenarios and what could go wrong. I rub my face and run my fingers through my still damp hair. Maybe this was a bad idea. What was I thinking, running away? I should have just stayed in the basement of the pack house--

"Gill," A pair of warm hands fall on my shoulders, bring back to reality. Jason looks at me, concern swimming with the purple in his eyes, "You don't have to go in there if you don't want to. I understand if you're not ready. But, if it will make you feel better, there's not a lot of people in there and I will be right beside you the entire time," 

I swallow, trying to keep myself grounded where I am, "I don't know why I'm so freaked out," I whisper. 

"Don't over analyze it, it'll make it worse. Believe me, it happens to me to sometimes," Jason squeezes my shoulders and lets his hands fall to his sides. 

I sigh, "I want to go," I say, determined. Jason nods and turns to walk, but slows his pace so he is beside me the entire time. 

We get closer to the living area, and I notice that Jason is right; There is, maybe, five people eating in the living area, and they are all watching TV, reading, or on a phone. I sigh with relief. No one is going to bombard me with questions or get in my personal space. We go into the kitchen and make plates of food, and then take our seats at a table. 

I take a moment to look around me and observe the people around me. The people around me have been here for so long--this is their home. Of course they are going to be comfortable here. Hopefully, with enough time, I will learn to be comfortable here too. 

I gaze down at my food, and feel my stomach tighten, and start to eat. I almost didn't notice when someone plopped down next to Jason. 

"Did you actually train today? I thought your training was done." The guy starts cutting into his food and eating like he had never seen or eaten food before. 

"Dom thought it would be a good idea. I already have to retrain in weapons safety, so he thought I could take this time to do some abilities training and regular workouts as well," Jason says, not looking up from his food. 

"Yeah, well that's stupid. You didn't do anything wrong if anything you--,"

"Angel, shut up. I could have gotten in a lot more trouble than I did. I could have been charged with attempted manslaughter. Besides, this isn't the time," He looked up at the guy and nodded towards me. 

I stop chewing when the guy's eyes realize who Jason was sitting across from. 

"Oh, s**t. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring it up--,"

"It's fine," I stab my food with my fork and place another bite in my mouth.

"Still, I should be a little more understanding and perceptive of who's around me," I swallow and smile at the guy, not sure what else to do, "I'm Angel, by the way. I'm Jason's brother," Jason sighs and continues to eat. 

"Nice to meet you," I say with a slight laugh at Jason's expression. It's a mix of pure annoyance and a subtle hint of knowledge. He must have known his brother was going to do this. All three of us eat in silence for about five minutes before Angel speaks again. 

"You know," Angel swallows, and Jason sighs, "I think it is really weird that I didn't feel your energy field when I came over here. I usually do," he squints at me, as if he is trying to see if I was something else other than human. 

"Angel you're a bad Empath, we all knew that," Jason says with a snicker. 

"I am not, I just know how to shut it on and off, you of all people know that," Angel spats before returning to look at me, "I wonder why I didn't feel it?" 

"Because you 'turned off your ability' as you said," Jason moves his uneaten food around on his plate. 

"But I didn't, I just came back from training. Usually, after training, it's harder for me to shut it off," Angel turns around and waves at someone. I look up to see Bane come over to sit with us. I give him a smile as he sits next to me. 

"See, right then, I noticed when Bane came in the room. He wasn't even near me, and I sensed his energy. Now why couldn't I sense hers?" Angel stabs a piece of his food and leaves it there to sit back in his chair to pout. 

"Wait, what's going on?" Bane looks from Jason to Angel, trying to figure out what he missed. 

"The usual. Angel's having a meltdown, and I'm doing my best to ignore him," Jason finally puts more food in his mouth and Bane laughs. I had stopped eating. 

"I'm not having a meltdown, Jason," Angel picks up the stabbed piece of food and puts it in his mouth. 

"You're probably tired, you're used to Bane's energy field, and she doesn't even know what kind of mutant she is, making it harder for you to feel her field. Do all of those things answer your question?" Angel stops talking and shakes his head. 

I pick up my fork and start to eat again, and feel my stomach grow more and more full as I do. It has been a while since I experienced the feeling of a full stomach.

"When will she find out?" Bane asks around a mouthful of food. I look at Jason, curious about the same thing. 

"I don't know. I think that's done by the Council," 

I freeze at Jason's words. 

"But didn't Dom and Kitty do all of ours?" Angel asks, confusion written across his face. 

"Yeah, but they always had Council members there. Regardless, at least two Council members have to be present to be sure that the person is a mutant. It can be done wherever, though." Jason looks up at me, and realizes what he had done. Suddenly, Angel looks at me with wide eyes and Bane stops halfway through chewing to stare at me. 

I could feel my thoughts start to race again. 

"Gill, it's not a big deal--,"

"Before I left they were going to turn me into the Council. I beat the living s**t out of Sarah, my dad, and had lied about the Alpha's son being my mate," I said, pushing my plate to the side. I leaned against the table and put my head in my hands, "They're going to know who I am, what's stopping them from taking me back?" 

Jason looks down at the table, unsure of what to say, while Angel and Bane look from me to one another.

"I highly doubt they are going to make you go back there. If they wanted to, they would have already done it," I look at Jason, who is looking at the table, thinking hard and choosing his words, "They were here for that investigation. If they wanted to they could have told us to take you back, and we wouldn't have had a choice."

I take a deep breath, but found that it is difficult. 

"You're safe here, and we aren't going to let them send you back there." I swallow, my stomach contorting itself into knots while doing more flips than a gymnast.

"Yeah, you're one of us now." Angel reaches across the table, and places his finger tips on my elbow. I feel a slight shock before my fear starts to fade. I look up at me, and he smiles at me. I breathe a sigh of relief and nod. 

"I don't want to go back there," I say with a slight chuckle. 

"Then you don't have to," I smile at Jason and nod. 

For the first time in a while, I feel at home. I feel safe.