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[color=#bf565c][h1]Noah[/h1][h3]The Outlands -- The Hospital[/h3][/color][/center]

Noah’s vision was spinning, his hearing was muted, and he felt abandoned by his senses. He heard Ari tell him something, watched her shoot something, another person was there and then she was not. He couldn’t tell if he was hallucinating anymore. But he did know that when Ari was putting pressure on his wound, he felt warmer. His pain felt as if it was subsiding, he tried to stand and then he awoke face down in the dirt, Ari cursing above him not to try something like that again. He tried once more and failed again. Then once again, against Ari’s pleases he kept trying until he could not.

He awoke several times, being carried back by Sky and Ari, Cru watching their six. What a joke, their first mission, he was a liability to all of their safeties. To the safeties to everyone he swore to protect. Cru said something to Sky, who then patted Noah’s back, Ari kept her warm palm on his wound. He apologized to her, for bleeding on her guard outfit. There was nothingness and then there was the Outlands, nothingness and then the gate. He saw the gate clearly, but he couldn’t tell if it was his gate. Was he dying? Were these the holy gates, is that why they were shut?

He awoke once more, tubes were coming out of his body a nurse silently overlooking him as a farmer does his crops. Ari, asleep by his bedside. Dried blood all over her hands. At first he attempted to sit up, correct himself but the nurse stopped him, putting a steady hand on his toned chest and easily pushing him gently back onto the bed. He didn’t currently have the strength to leave. Though, the nurse informed him the toxins would where off sooner rather than later, no permanent damage other than some scarring. He laid back down into the bed, his chest rising and falling, sweat beading down his forehead. 

“Ari?” He said hoarsely through a severely dried throat. He turned to look at his partner, she was beautiful when she was sleeping. “Is it just me, or is this exactly as bad as you imagined it being when you were a recruit?” Noah said forcing a laugh out of his battered lungs. He coughed a couple times afterwards as the sound filled the hospital walls, rebounding right back into his ears. He laid back down, staring at the ceiling and took her hand gently in his own, giving it a small squeeze. “Thanks.” He said quietly letting go of her hand and giving her a brief glance out of the corner of his eye. “You don’t have to stay, I’ll be back up soon, go get a good sleep.” 

Noah, used to sleeping in hospitals, immediately got into a comfortable position and shut his eyes. What would his parents think of him now? Almost achieving such great things, being a member of the guard, paired with a girl like Ari. Torn down from such a graceful position, only to be caught by the first anomalous he encountered on the first patrol he was ever asked to go on. He’d be the ass end of every joke every guard told for the next decade. He found himself dreading getting released from the hospital and yet… For whatever reason Noah couldn’t tell, he was grinning ear to ear.