Chapter Text
As Siân lays awaiting triage, every few minutes the Angels reappear with more injured people. She recognises some of them.
A neighbour.
A waiter from the café next door.
More people injured by the explosion.
Some can stand, but those that can't are also carried by Becky.
Siân finds herself wishing she was still being held in those strong arms.
As the Angels disappear once again, a nurse comes and wheels the gurney through the Emergency doors.
Several hours pass as she is treated. Broken right leg, hairline fracture in her left arm, and many cuts and bruises.
By the time Nikki's magic has worn off she's already been put on strong painkillers. She passes out from a combination of the painkillers and sheer exhaustion.
It's late morning the next day when Siân wakes up.
Still a bit disorientated from the drugs, she takes in her surroundings. She's in a private room rather than a ward.
"Good morning".
Siân turns to see Becky sitting the other side of the bed, smiling slightly.
"You must be thirsty" says Becky.
Siân stammers "uh...ye...ple".
Becky pours water into a plastic cup and offers it to Siân.
She takes it with her right hand, has a few sips, then places it on the table Becky has wheeled over the bed.
"Thank you" Siân says in a quiet voice.
"How are you feeling Siân?" asks Becky.
"Uh, a little woozy, but I'm okay I think" says Siân.
She assesses the state of her body. Casts on her left arm and right leg. It's difficult to move.
"Why am I in a private room? Am I contagious or something?" she asks.
"No that's my doing. I wanted to be able to speak with you in private. Siân I don't want to overload you too soon, but there's something I'd like to discuss now before you get too distressed by what you're going to experience" says Becky in a serious yet somehow calming tone.
Siân looks into her blue eyes once more and says "okay".
"You said you felt something before we brought you here. Could you describe it for me?" asks Becky.
Siân thinks for a moment before answering "When I was trapped, I was in pain, panicking, I was certain I was about to die. But then you and your friends appeared".
"Whatever, what was it? Nikki? Whatever she did to me stopped the pain, calmed me down. I no longer felt like I was going to die in my bathroom. But, it's hard to describe, I still felt like I was going to die, just not there. In the flat below me. On the street. In an upturned car".
"I felt I was about to die in several places at once. I was so scared".
"And it stopped when we got here?" asks Becky.
"Yes" says Siân.
Becky pauses, gently places her hand on Siân's right arm, then says "you're like me Siân".
Siân trembles very slightly at Becky's touch.
"You're a mortality empath" says Becky "or mort as we call it. When anyone near you feels like you did, that their life is about to end, you feel it too".
"Wh...what?" stammers Siân.
"It's how we found you. I could feel your fear of imminent death" says Becky.
"Me and the other girls, our powers work together so we could get to you and make sure you didn't die" explains Becky.
Siân looks down, silently processing this information.
Becky continues "The extreme stress you were in manifested this power. I'll explain more later, but I wanted you to know this now".
"As you're in a hospital, you may be close enough to feel the mortality of other patients over the next few days, and I don't want you getting too distressed by it".
"I don't want this!" says Siân.
"I know it's difficult at first, but I can teach you to control it, and hopefully, accept it" says Becky, "But for now, rest and heal. I'll be back to check on you. Do you have anyone you'd like me to call?".
"No..I have no one" says Siân meekly, still looking down.
"Okay, well you have me now Siân. I'll see you tomorrow" Becky says with a smile.
Siân feels a strange sensation in her chest.
*Is this what people mean when they say their heart skipped a beat?* Siân thinks to herself.
Siân looks up into Becky's blue eyes and says "Thank you" with a slight smile and tears welling up.
Becky gets up and leaves, still smiling.
Siân is once again alone, but grateful to be alive.
Over the course of the day various nurses and doctors periodically check on her. She asks about Catsune and is told she's uninjured but is very stressed. She asks if she can go see her if a doctor signs off on it.
She has lots of time to contemplate everything that's happened.
It's the next day. She's bored because she has nothing of hers with her.
*being teleported naked will do that* she thinks *besides, is anything of mine even intact?*
*and how am I supposed to focus on TV or anything after what Becky told me?*
Her mind keeps racing with questions and theories...
... and thoughts of Becky.
When the Doctor is doing her rounds, Siân asks if she can go see Catsune because she's worried about her. The Doctor says it's ok if she's taken by wheelchair because she shouldn't try to walk yet. All the nurses are too busy however.
Becky returns mid-afternoon, to Siân's delight.
"Becky! Hi!" exclaims Siân, trying and failing to hide her glee.
"Hi Siân" says Becky as she walks round the bed to sit down, "How are you feeling? Any mort sensations?"
"I'm fine, pain's not too bad, and no I've not felt any...stuff" says Siân.
"That's good." says Becky.
"We're far enough from the emergency ward that you can't read anyone there. As a hatchling your range is limited right now, which is a good thing. You can increase it with training, eventually enough to cover the whole city".
"I have so many questions" says Siân, "Why...how am I one of these morts? Can I turn it off? Are Nikki and Robyn and Ari morts too?..." she continues, rapidly asking question after question.
"Woah, okay, slow down. I'll explain." says Becky as Siân takes a breath.
"This will be a lot, but we can go over it again later".
"So, there are the 4 powers. There's you and me, mortality empaths. You know the basics of that already".
"Ari is an observer. She can perceive time at a much slower rate than normal, allowing her to assess a situation in a fraction of a second. She can't move any faster than a regular person, so she has to be careful not to hurt herself when in that state".
"Nikki is an anodyne, she can ease pain, calm a panicked mind, and prevent someone from dying, even from fatal injuries, for a short time. She cannot heal those injuries though, which you are acutely aware of".
"Then finally there's Robyn, she's our porter. She can teleport anyone who's physically touching her, or in a chain of people touching, to another location by swapping our atoms with those at the target location."
"Those are individual powers, but we all have a level of psychic connection through touch allowing us to push images and concepts to each other. So when I sense someone feeling imminent death, I can push my sense of their location to Robyn who can teleport us there".
"When we appear there, Ari goes into slow mode and assesses the situation around us. She determines a course of action for each of us and pushes instructions to us. As an example, when we got to yours she saw the damage to the wall, you under the rubble and your cat in the next room".
"She pushed an image of you to Nikki so she could prevent you from dying as the first priority. She also pushed an image to me of the rubble on top of you, and imagined me and her lifting it off of you. Finally she pushed the image of your cat to Robyn so she could go pick her up".
"Wow, I knew the Angels saved people by using powers, but I never really thought much about it" says Siân "but why have I got powers now?".
"Your necklace" says Becky in a hushed voice, "The Families have kept this secret for 200 years. The gemstone in your necklace is the source of our powers."
Siân pulls up the pendant to look at it. The lilac gemstone has a slight iridescence she's never noticed before.
"But how?" she asks.
"We don't understand the science yet. When they first discovered the effect 200 years ago they called it magic, and that's just kinda stuck around" explains Becky.
"Just over 200 years ago 4 families owned coal mines here in Wales. They each discovered a different gemstone in their mines around the same time. It's unclear if it was coincidence or somehow orchestrated for them all to be found. The gems were beautiful, so were immediately mined for jewellery".
"After a few years women started developing these powers. It didn't take long for the families to make the connection with the gems. After prolonged exposure of at least a year, if someone has a surge of adrenaline while already experiencing heightened emotions, it triggers the power to manifest".
"As you can see, lilac gemstones trigger the mortality empath power. Yellow for porter, red for observer, and green for anodyne."
"But how has this been kept secret all these years?" asked Siân.
"As I said it took a few years for the powers to manifest. By then The Families had become quite wealthy from selling these gemstones. Because they were the first to be exposed, they manifested the powers first and were first to connect them to the gems. They leveraged this to become very powerful".
"But by this point, the gems were out in the world, so more women were manifesting powers. The families forged an alliance and whenever a new woman manifested, they would use their wealth and power to ensure the secret was kept".
"Why only women"? asked Siân.
"At first it was thought because the gems were used for jewellery, typically only women had prolonged exposure. But since then many men have attempted to manifest powers, with...limited success." says Becky.
"That's probably a good thing, can you imagine what would happen if men had these powers?" asks Siân.
They both imagine. Neither of them wants to say what they're thinking.
"So, if you touch me, could you read my mind?" asks Siân.
"No" replies Becky, "we can only push things to others. I would only be able to see what you choose to show me".
Siân is silently very relieved, with all the thoughts she's been having about Becky.
"Please, don't tell anyone anything I've told you. The secret must be kept" says Becky flatly.
"I promise I won't" says Siân, "I have more questions, but I need to process what you've told me already."
"Before you go, could you take me to see Catsune please?" asks Siân "I'm worried about her".
"I'd be happy to, Siân" says Becky. She goes to find a wheelchair and returns a few minutes later. Siân struggles, but manages to get into the wheelchair.
To get to the veterinary they'll have to pass through the emergency ward. Luckily there are no patients that set of Siân's mort senses.
They get to the veterinary, Siân shows her wristband saying "Catsune Meowku", and they're led to her crate. Both Siân and Catsune are happy to see each other. Catsune is stressed but unharmed. She's not allowed out of the crate so Siân can only pet her with fingers through the bars.
"Catsune, that's such a beautiful name" says Becky.
Catsune purrs.
Siân starts crying.
Happy tears seeing Catsune is okay.
Sad tears for everything else.
Becky places a consoling hand on Siân's shoulder. She looks up once more into Becky's serenely blue eyes.
She can't help but imagine: [staring into those eyes more intimately. Becky staring back, moving closer. Feeling Becky's breath on her lips].
*Is she blushing* thinks Siân.
[Lips about to touch].
Becky lifts her hand.
*Did she see that?*
Siân, feeling embarrassed, says goodbye to Catsune and they head back to her room.
As they pass through the emergency ward, Siân senses something from someone nearby. Not mortality like before, something else, something very familiar. A nebulous discomfort.
Becky doesn't seem to notice.
It fades.
Becky helps Siân back into the bed, then turns to leave.
"Oh, almost forgot, I went back to your place and found your phone, thought you might want it" says Becky.
She passes it to Siân. Their fingers touch as Siân takes it, both letting the moment linger.
"I'll see you again tomorrow" Becky says as she slides her hand away.
"Thank you" Siân says sincerely, "for everything".
"And maybe I'll bring a treat for you" says Becky mischievously as she exits.
