All The Difference

[acts_of_gord]

Time passes, and the medics do their work, and so does the bug juice. Gordon's dimly aware of all of that, at best. He's had a long day. He's not trying particularly hard to wake up.

It happens eventually, though. It always happens. When it does, he notices a few things in no particular order: that the bed under him feels unfamiliar, that he's got a whole new set of aches and pains on top of the ones he's carried since Black Mesa, that he can smell the medications and antiseptics of the infirmary. That he's got what feels like Ace bandages, or some kind of bandages, anyway, wrapped around several still-raw-and-painful place.

That attempting to blink and open both eyes doesn't seem to be working quite as well as one might expect.

Well, he's awake, at least. Even if moving around seems like an utter waste of time and effort, he can at least try to get a better look around, and see who else is here.

Comments

[vance_prime]

"Ah! Sir is awake at last."

With a faint whirr of hoverthrusters, the Vance-Freeman's butler droid comes into view. "How are you feeling, Sir? Would you like some water, or additional painkillers?"

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon jumps a little, which sets off a new wave of pains. Nothing too serious, fortunately. When it subsides he murmurs, "Water. Please."

'At last' could mean anything with this robot, but he's kind of wondering how long he's been out.

[vance_prime]

"Certainly, sir. Here you are." The robot offers him a small plastic cup.

[acts_of_gord]

"Thanks."

Well, at least his hand seems to-

It occurs to him that his depth perception isn't working any better than his blinking. He shifts the cup to his left hand and reaches up verytentatively to feel at the right side of his face with his fingertips.

... that's a lot of bandages he's feeling.

[vance_prime]

"I would recommend against that, Sir," says the droid. "I'm told the bandages shouldn't be removed for another several days."

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon drops his hand immediately. "How bad is it?" he says. "Do you know?"

(It must be pretty awful if it's bad enough that they couldn't bug-juice it into submission.)

[vance_prime]

"I'm afraid not. Medical diagnosis and treatment is not within my parameters, beyond basic first aid," the droid replies. "I am merely here to provide for your basic needs, in the absence of Ms. Vance."

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon nods slowly. Maybe it's not that bad, if she's not here.

(Maybe he's just been down for the count for so long that she had to step away.)

"Did-" He winces, takes a sip of his water. "Did the others make it back?"

[vance_prime]

"I'm not privy to that information, Sir," replies the droid. "You might ask Ms. Vance, when she returns."

[acts_of_gord]

"All right," says Gordon. "All right. Where-"

Damn his mouth tastes vile right now. More water.

"Where is she, can I ask?"

[vance_prime]

"I believe she is currently tending to the children. With luck, she will be returning in short order."

[vance_prime]

Speak of the devil...

The infirmary door creaks open and Alyx shoulders her way in, carrying a dark-haired baby girl who is considerably larger than she was when Gordon saw her last.

She stops dead, still braced against the door.

"Gordon! You're awake!"

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon grins, ignoring the pain of stretching skin (must be burn scars galore under those bandages at the very least). "Looks like it," he murmurs. "Good to see you-"

He'd get up and hug them both if he thought his legs would cooperate.

[vance_prime]

Alyx notices the shift in his posture. "Don't try to get up," she says gently as she walks over. "You've still got a lot of healing to do."

The baby in her arms eyes him with faint bemusement.

[acts_of_gord]

"Figured," says Gordon dryly. (In more than one sense. He's out of water.) "Hi, Hope. Remember me? Daddy?"

... please let it not be that long...

[vance_prime]

Hope just keeps staring.

"...you wanna hold her?" offers Alyx. "You feel like you're strong enough for that?"

[acts_of_gord]

"Please?"

He has to at least try.

[vance_prime]

Alyx wordlessly hands her over.

Hope looks up at her father. One little hand reaches up and grips tightly onto Gordon's beard.

[acts_of_gord]

He's okay with that. He's really okay with that.

We hope you'll pardon him if he isn't able to do much more than look down at his daughter and smile back. Words aren't really his friends right now.

[vance_prime]

Alyx beams too.

"See? She still knows you."

[acts_of_gord]

He'd kiss the top of her head if he could.

"How long have I been gone?"

[vance_prime]

"A... little more than two months? It's the start of December, now."

[acts_of_gord]

He exhales; that's not too bad. It could have been so much worse.

"Did the others....?"

[vance_prime]

"There's only two people not accounted for. Barney and Floyd."

Her smile fades as she gives him a questioning look. She'd rather not ask, but...

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon sighs; that's... about what he feared.

"Barney went down drawing off Combine fire when I was wounded," he manages. "Floyd... punched a hole in their lines to divert their attention. I don't know what happened to him. I'd hoped..."

Well.

Yeah.

[vance_prime]

Alyx gently lays a hand on Gordon's shoulder.

"They went down fighting. That's all you could ask of them."

It still stings, to think of them being gone. She won't pretend otherwise. But at least they didn't die in vain.

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon nods as carefully as he can, so as not to dislodge Hope's grip on his beard. "I'm going to miss Barney," is all he says.

This is Gordon. More words than that would be unnecessary.

[vance_prime]

"Me too."

A brief lull.

"You killed the Overmind. The Vortigaunts confirmed it."

How the Vorts knew that, Alyx has no idea, but she doesn't question that they know. Vortigaunts don't lie. It just doesn't happen.

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon sags with relief; he knows what he felt happen, but hearing it confirmed is something else again. "Oh, good," he says, and closes his-

"Alyx?

[vance_prime]

"Hm?"

[acts_of_gord]

He shifts his grip on Hope so she's sitting a little more comfortably, and gestures awkwardly at the bandaged part of his head with his other hand. He can't quite get the words out, but the meaning is clear: how bad is it under there?

[vance_prime]

Alyx lets out a long, slow breath. She knew this was coming.

"Your helmet was breached by a piece of shrapnel. The medics patched you up as best they could, but... they couldn't save your eye. I'm sorry."

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon considers this for a while. Didn't Simo Hayha- no, no, he lost most of his jaw to that explosive round...

(Yes, it's a stupid thing to be thinking about when he's had such a huge loss, such a huge win. Some things are just much too much for him to grasp right now. He'll think about them later, he's good at thinking about things later, but right now, historical trivia is about as much as he can handle.)

"Good thing evolution gave us two," he says at last. And: "I'm going to have to learn to shoot all over again, aren't I."

[vance_prime]

She offers a faint smile.

"With any luck, you'll be doing as little shooting as possible from here on in."

[acts_of_gord]

"That would be really nice," Gordon says fervently, or at least as fervently as he can manage at the moment. Given his current condition, it sounds more like mild enthusiasm at best. "I finally get to stop."

[vance_prime]

"Yes, you do. We won, Gordon. You won."

[acts_of_gord]

He looks down at the baby, and then up again at Alyx with a very small smile.

"I could never have done it without you," he says, and he means every word.

[vance_prime]

Alyx leans over to give her husband a kiss on the forehead just above his unbandaged left eye.

"Love you, Gordon," she whispers into his ear.

[acts_of_gord]

He can live with that. He really can.

"Love you too, Alyx. Always."