doc_holi | Musebox #2 [CLOSED]

Entry tags:

musebox

Musebox #2 [CLOSED]

Who: Holiday and Six
What: Being STUPID AWKWARD with the hope of some fluff
When: week after #1
Where: Providence HQ
Warnings: Spoilers for "Six Minus Six" up in here.

She had to get this over with. After the first three days (two of which, she was awake for the entire time), she had known that she was right in the first place. There was nothing she could do. It was over. He probably really was gone.

To know anything for certain, there were still some pieces that she was missing... Pieces that only Six had.

After a firm peptalk, she decided to give him a call or something. Beep his communicator or... something. Just as she was about to do it, though, her face met her hands again. How could she do this to him? First of all, she hadn't so much as seen the man since.... whatever his last visit was. Second, she couldn't turn around again and tell him that she wanted the old Six back. She did, but she by no means wanted to force it out of him against his will.

... She still didn't know what he wanted with his life. She knew he wanted the other Six to come back, but was that only for them or was that for him, too?

She sighed. She needed to do this. You can do this... She was so tired and it was already getting late. Maybe he'd be asleep...

AHA! LEAVE A MESSAGE. Brilliant. Sort of.

Alright, after another sigh, she leaves a message on his comm-link. "Six, if you're willing, there's some more tests I'd like to run on you. Only if you're up for it, though. Just come by at any time." And she killed the feed.

And yeah, any time was fine. She was going to be up for a while.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

As the test finally came to an end, he raised his hands to remove the headphones as the table slid back out of the machine. Instead of getting up immediately, he sat with his long legs dangling over the edge and brushing the floor.

He glanced up at her for a moment. "Do you mind if I wait for results? I'd like to know...how it's progressing."

He was struggling to keep the neutral tone. He was just so tired and beaten down. It had been a long week.

She looked to him, almost in shock, but she was a little too tired for that. She did give him a little smile, though. "That's fine with me."

That was perfectly fine with her. He may ignore her or something, but... he was still there. That meant that there was a chance, right? Some way to put things back together again?

... For some reason, she doubted it. She had no idea what to say or where to start. Especially some way that wouldn't end in another fight. Maybe she should busy herself with something...?

He kept glancing up in her direction as he waited. The amount of awkward surrounding them was knee-deep.

He stared at the floor some before muttering, "I'm sorry about last week."

It was pathetic. A poor attempt to show how grateful he truly was that she was willing to put up with him. Even if he wasn't her Six.

She looked up to him again, this time with surprise. He, HE, was apologizing? Six never apologized. Not about personal things like that. She thought that would've been a trait of him now, too.

Secondly. "That wasn't your fault. There's nothing for you to apologize for. I'm the one that's sorry."

Her eyes went back to her feet at her words. She couldn't look at him, much less in the eyes. Throughout the past week, she had gotten nowhere. So far, she had been absolutely no help to him during the one time he needed it most. It was killing her. He had done so much for her and she couldn't do anything in return. This was killing her.

"I yelled at you when you were just trying to help," he said flatly. "I hardly think that's 'nothing'."

How would his other self have dealt with it? He'd assumed apology, but she'd looked so shocked by it.

"I yelled, too," she said, before finally glancing a look his way. "You have every right to yell at me. Still do."

She kind of wanted him to be like that. Wanted him to be angry with her, at least. She wasn't doing her job and it was, by no means, fair to him. He had to have known that. She was simply too "brilliant", so said most world leaders, to let someone she cared about go through this when she owed them so much.

"Why? Salazar's machine is the root cause of it."

He wished that Rex hadn't smashed it. Perhaps one more time would've fixed things. Though the possibility of a coma wasn't a welcome one.

Total amnesia though...that wouldn't have been so bad. Then he could've completely started from scratch without every bad memory and regret.

He shook his head to clear it. No. Best not to go down that road. He'd be even more useless to them had that happened.

"I know," she sighed, then spoke in anger, "But I'm not exactly helping you out here. I owe you so much and the only time you actually need me, I'm useless."

... The anger quickly faded though, and she just sighed again, slumping her shoulders. She didn't have the energy get mad, anymore. Those nights were catching up to her.

"I don't remember neurology being one of your three PhDs," Six said with a faint hint of a smirk.

He was trying to get her to give him something other than self-blame. It wasn't her fault. She was trying. That had to mean something, right?

She just blinked tiredly to the floor.

"It's not. I should still be able to do something, though."

And she will. Soon as she figures this brain stuff out. Which she will. She had to. She had already been working on this stuff with Rex, it shouldn't be so difficult to put it in practice with Six.

"I need to do something."

If she couldn't help him, what if she could find someone that could? She's not keen with any other doctors, since Fell and Moses, but he needed someone.

"You are doing something."

It just wasn't producing the results either of them wanted. Not her fault that however he'd lost those six years didn't show up readily on basic tests.

He looked back down at the floor, hands neatly folded in his lap. His practicing of his other self's habits--what few he'd managed to discover--had paid off a bit. It was easier and more natural to do one thing instead of another, but it still wasn't perfect.

"And it's not helping," she said back. It was almost with an argument tone, but with a lot more exhaustion than she intended. "I need to do something that matters."

For the past week she had been going nonstop. Now that she was finally taking a small break, it was starting to way down on her a little. She felt so frustrated that it just hurt now.

Six was tired and frustrated and wanted to just crawl into a hole and hide...

...but he couldn't stand seeing her miserable anymore.

He looked at her before raising her hand and beckoning her towards him.

"Come here. No tricks. I promise."

Slowly, her eyebrow trailed up until it was just about as high as it could go. What on Earth was he getting at?

After a beat of surprise, she moved from the desk she was leaning on to walk over to him.

He nodded to the spot beside him on the table.

"Sit down. I imagine it'll take a bit for the computer to compile all that."

It was taking a lot of willpower not to squirm at the close proximity. It took some getting used to to have people in his personal space bubble who weren't trying to kill him or One.

This was... still a good bit odd for the man. The other Six certainly didn't care for close proximity and she was sure this one was uncomfortable with it as well.

Was this because of the way she had been acting? But she was right!

... She sat down, anyway, not saying a word.

After a moment, he said wearily, "It's all right. It'll just take time."

A lot of time. A whole lot of time.

If he'd had the energy, he would've been tempted to run Salazar through for playing with fire.

"Hopefully," she answered, still not looking to him, but opting that the floor was a much nicer view.

Maybe his memories would come back with enough time, but maybe they wouldn't. Maybe he did medical intervening, but... maybe he didn't. Maybe no matter what, they wouldn't come back. Maybe they would.

It was all just guessing games and she was tired of leaving this to chance.

"Yeah..."

Six also took a moment to be fascinated by the floor. This was so stupid. She couldn't even look at him.

He looked back at her before slowly reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder.

This was also pretty surprising. Six had just gone out of his way to intentionally touch her in a moment where she needed it.

But when she looked back to him, it wasn't in surprise... or happiness, or worry, or gratefulness. It was just exhaustion. She closed her eyes, but... she opened them again to look at him, before putting her own hand on his.

A smile was far off, though.

He tensed for a moment as she reached up to put her hand on his but he forced himself to relax. She wasn't armed. He could see that. She was...well, if not safe, at least not a threat.

He imagined he looked just as exhausted as she did. He hadn't gotten much sleep since he'd lost his memories. That first night he'd been flying to Jagastand to complete a job. After that, he hadn't been able to find any real rest. Too paranoid about sleeping in a strange place. The best he'd managed were little catnaps when he found a secure spot to curl up for a moment.

She felt him tense, but he relaxed. So he wasn't in his comfort zone. She was right. He hadn't changed all that much, after all.

... He did look tired.

After a second, she took a slow breath in and out.

"Thanks"

To be honest, she didn't know if she meant it or not. Just because she was loosing sleep, didn't mean he had to.

He nodded his head, slipping his hand off of her shoulder and back into his lap.

"Least I could do."

She did know to stop sounding so hopeless around him all the time... He just seemed like the only one that would listen. Seems she would learn this lesson after the first two or three times.

She does give him a kind of half smile, though, before looking away again.

He sighed before starting to talk quietly. "...I still want to remember. Even with all the frustration he went through, I imagine he had a lot of good memories with you and Rex."

YET BEING THE KEY WORD.

OR IS IT? >> THINK ABOUT THAT

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