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"Austin shot him first, with the rifle.. the man just..it was like he absorbed it, and shot it out of the chest od his armor. As for what he said, yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. " She managed to get out before he grabbed her shoulder. Big mistake.

It was like she'd forgotten where she was for a moment. She panicked, and shoved his hand off, other arm swinging her fist to punch him. When fist connected with his cheek, it seemed to snap her back, and she gasped. "Oh my God, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I just I don't..I don't like being grabbed and I.." it we too late. Nurses had already swarmed in at the man's yell, and stuck her with something. ddie kept mumbling her apology as they sent her back to sleep. The man's time was clearly up for the time being.

~~~~

"So, you have no recollection at all of what happened, and how you got onto that cruiser. No explanation at all?" He seemed displeased, moreso than usual. He read something on his pad for a moment, then sighed, agitated. He stood, and headed for the door, knocking firmly. It opened, and the medical team came in, to FINALLY treat Austin. "We will continue soon, Operative. There are still many questions you've failed to answer."

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The man just swallowed, pressing his hand to his cheek. The tablet dematerialized and he walked out of the room, putting his other hand to an earpiece that hadn't been there before. He spoke inaudibly as he left, and quickly moved down the hallway.

~~~~

Austin just glared. "I do not, sir." He thought back to when he was in charge of the CYBORG Recovery Project. Before it turned into this. He used to be the one asking questions before new protocols were instated and people were added left and right. Generals and Marshals and Lieutenants... These peoples' ranks weren't supposed to apply here. SET was its own project. Its own branch.

His authority was stripped, and he was used expendably.

The man walked out and Austin whispered to himself. "I'm looking forward to it."
Addie was left in peace to sleep off whatever she'd been given, and when she woke up, she felt like she had been hit by a freight train. However, her leg was no longer throbbing, and since she seemed to have even more tubes and needles stuck in her veins, it seemed that they had decided to fix the nasty break while she was unconscious.

She was suddenly aware of someone else in the room, and she blinked away the sleepy drug haze to stare over.

Toby was another SET operative who had been brought in to try and talk to her, since the last man kind of dropped the ball. He was tall, broad shouldered, and a handsome guy, but Addie didn't particularly notice. Seeing that she was awake, he stood, setting his datapad down on his chair, and slowly approaching, hands up, smiling. "Hi, how are you feeling?"


Her tongue felt heavy, likely due to the medication still pumping through her system, so she just managed to lift her thumb up. She felt okay. All she wanted to do was see Austin, though. Where was he?
Toby's smile was more genuine than his colleague's. He wore SET casual wear- A dark grey t-shirt with the SET Logo ((OOC Note: still trying to figure out exactly what it looks like. ><)) and a pair of black pants.

"Good. You think you could answer a few more questions? If you can't or don't want to, then that's no problem. You don't really have to answer any more anyways." He laughed softly to himself. "I'm really just here to keep you company. Help you recover, that sort of thing. I guess you could say I'm an, eh.." He rolled his eyes. "A therapist, but not really. I'm just here to listen to anything you might have to say." Suddenly, he realized she was more than a little bit drugged. "But of course, you're all doped up on meds, so I guess it'll just mostly be you sitting there and staring at me..." Another laugh before he regained his composure and cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry. Right now I'll just go over what happened and you give me a thumbs-up if I've got it right, or a thumbs-down if I messed something up, okay? Sorry for making you go through it all over again," He leaned over and put his hand against his face as if he were telling a secret. "The higher-ups are a little bit anal about getting stories they didn't witness themselves right." Toby winked at her before leaning back in his chair. "Alright, so, you lived in Ackerly, Texas, alongside ten children and three other adults, right? An old lady and two guys?"
Addie struggled to lift a hand to adjust the oxygen tubes shoved up her nose, to catch her breath. She didn't want to talk about it. She wanted to forget it, to block it out. They just wouldn't let it go.

She lifted her thumb though, at his questioning. Yes,that was correct.

While he droned on, she studied him. He was much warmer than the others, which made her relax. He made her feel comfortable, probably for the first time since...she didn't even remember when. But she felt like she could actually trust the man, therapist or not.
These people weren't worried about her feelings, or her well-being. They cared about information. The goal was to take down the Phoenix project- Which was apparently still running in the post-apocalyptic world of mutants that Earth was now. Once he was done going over the story again, Toby wanted to make his job as painless as possible.

"Alright. So you guys made your way to Fort Worth, Texas shortly after Austin dropped, and you were unable to use the checkpoint." Toby checked his notes, and sighed. "By then your group was just four of you, and a mysterious man ambushed you at a motel, taking the children." He paused, waiting for her response.
Fighting the drug haze she was still in, Addie listened to him summarize her story quickly, for which she was grateful. Again, she lifted her thumb to indicate he had gotten it correct again, once she had let his words sink through the fog wrapped around her.
"Okay, good. You're doing great, sorry." He glanced back at his tablet. "So then..." The syllable was drawn out as he read over the next events. They had by now transcribed everything that was recorded from Addie's watch into a manuscript. He was skimming over that- Mixed with the notes of the other two men who conducted the debriefing earlier.

"Oh, okay. So you guys traveled for a bit, right? Trying to find the boys before..." They met a crazy lady who died, were nearly attacked by hundreds of Infected, peeled out, traveled for months after, and finally got into a wreck and waking up unscathed on the only remaining cruiser in orbit above Earth. ".. You made it to the checkpoint, met up, headed to the control tower, sent out a distress signal, and were picked up which leads us to now?"

Once she confirmed his questions, he smiled again and put his tablet away. "Alright, sorry about asking so many questions today. Tomorrow I'll just let you talk at me for a change, alright? Bye now."

And he walked out of the room.


The next day, at around three, Toby knocked on the door to come in. "Hey, Addison, it's me again. Can I come in?"
Addie gave him a final thumbs up before he left. She was too tired to stay awake much longer, so it was a good thing he was done for the day.

The next day, she was more alert, sitting upright in the bed, just kind of staring down at the untouched tray on the table stretched over her bed. Whenever he knocked, she glanced up, clearing her throat before speaking with a scratchy cough. "Yeah, come on in."
Toby walked in the room with a warm grin on his face. "Glad I caught you at the right time. You feeling better?"

He pulled up a chair and sat down, clasping his hands together and making himself comfortable. He cleared his throat and leaned forward- Creating a posture of attentiveness. "I'm here to help talk you through anything you're having a tough time with, or if you just want to vent or get something off of your chest... I'm just here to help you get back on your feet, alright?"
"I guess.. Not really sure if I'm getting any better or if they're just keeping me medicated." She frowned slightly at him, pushing her table away.

He was suddenly in 'shrink mode' and internally, she groaned. She'd never been good with discussing her problems with anyone, and after carrying Austin and his issues for so long, she felt like she didn't know how. She just shook her head. "Look, I'm fine. Talking about what happened isn't going to make it better or change anything. Why keep bringing it up?" She asked, a little sharper than she meant to.
"Honestly? It's probably a little bit of both. They're medicating you and keeping you loopy so if they have any questions it'll be easier to get answers. But you've also endured enough physical trauma to need more than a few painkillers." He noticed her sudden change in attitude- Almost defensive. Like she was opposed to the idea of discussing any problems she had openly.

He'd had it happen before with others, so it wasn't anything new. Just kind of funny, since venting was one of the things people came to him for the most. "You'd be surprised, actually. I get told that often enough, and every time after someone starts talking, they realize that it's much better afterwards. I'm not going to force you to talk to me, (that's the other guys' job.) But talking about what happened, without giving it like a report, I mean- Actually talking about it your way, discussing what bothers you most... It'll help you to let it go."
Addie sighed in exasperation. She didn't want to talk about it anymore. She couldn't. All she could think about was..well, not thinking about that.

She was silent for a while, staring down at her hands before glancing over at him. "Do you know why they won't let me see Austin? It's been days, I think.." She was purposely trying to avoid doing what he wanted. All she wanted to do was forget, not talk about it.
Toby just nodded and waited in silence for as long as Addie did. She was trying to forget it, but they both knew that was impossible. Put it behind her? Sure. Come to terms and accept it? That was the plan. But short of unethically using the experimental false memory equipment that Phoenix developed for its Experiments... Forgetting the whole ordeal was impossible.

When Addie spoke, Toby sighed. "Austin's in rehab training. They're making sure everything works okay, getting him outfitted with a new neural link for SET Interface, making sure he's mentally stable, and getting him outfitted with an AI partner to help him cope during downtime. He's doing a hundred different things at once, and I'm sure you'll see him when he's done with it all. But right now he'd want you to talk to me. That's what I'm here for. To talk to. Trust me, the sooner you get all of this off of your chest, the sooner we can figure out what's going on in your head and help you to cope with it. After going over the video archives in your suit, I'm surprised your this stable even if it's an outward appearance. There's no way you don't have at least a little bit of PTSD." He wasn't exactly a conventional shrink- Being argumentative isn't something you'd see with most pay-for therapists. He made it clear that he knew exactly what she wanted, and she would get it by doing what he recommended, as opposed to just ignoring everything.

"... Would it help if I said please?"
Addie covered her face with her hands, and laid back for several minutes. All she wanted to do was see Austin, but now, they were using him like some bargaining chip.

"And what exactly do you want me to say? Hmm?" She lowered her hands and turned her head to glare at him. "That I'm handling this poorly? That I'm about to have a mental breakdown? Clearly, you all already know that, otherwise, they wouldn't have sent a bloody shrink in to hassle me about it." She was tensing up, crawling back into her shell.

"I've spent the last God-knows-how-many months 'dealing' with everything. You-" Her voice cracked, and she sucked in a sharp breath. "You have no idea what the hell I've dealt with, and yo uhave no right to say what will or will not help me." She spat out, turning her head away to stare at the wall stubbornly, in silence, for quite a while.

Her anger subsided, and when he remained, she sighed in defeat. "Where am I even supposed to start?"
Addie didn't want help. That much was clear.

The man sighed as she began to get angry. He nodded subtly as she spoke, letting her let off steam. She was bothered. He'd seen it before. Some people were desperate for help, but just as many people refused to believe they needed it. He waited for her to be done. She turned over and faced the wall, sitting there.

He would have almost believed that she had fallen asleep, but she wasn't breathing the same way a sleeping person would. Eventually, she spoke.

And so he replied. "Look, Addison. I'll be blunt with you here. I can't tell you that I've been in your exact same position, but I was in a pretty similar spot. Me and my partner, Clark, we were assigned an escort mission. We were supposed to get this group of around maybe fifteen or so people from a rehab hospital to the checkpoint over twenty miles away. A few of them were able-bodied, but a lot of them weren't. And a few of them weren't all there mentally. We got some cars, and found some supplies, and made a small camp on the side of the road the first night. Apparently, someone had decided to use the restroom without one of us to escort them because the next thing you know- I hear screaming. Clark hears it too. And then suddenly all these people are screaming. All fourteen of them. But it sounded like a lot more than fourteen. Out of fourteen people, you wanna know how many of us survived that night?"

He paused for just a second.

"Four. Four of us survived that night. Only two of that whole group had the presence of mind to actually listen to us when we said to get in the cars. We fended off the monsters for as long as we could, practically shoving these people in the cars. But... Jesus. They were torn to shreds. Some of them weren't. I wish they were. They just screamed and screamed, and then suddenly they were just as weird shaped as the monsters we were protecting them from. I had to shoot down these people I was ordered to protect."

Toby sighed. "I was out there for five months. Clark and I heard nothing from Command. Nothing. He just about went crazy. Our cars broke down. We were attacked time and time again. In the end, he shot himself. Left me to finish the job on my own. Said it was hopeless. And you know what they did to me when I got back. Of course you do- Same as what they did to you. They questioned me and these two recovering injured people about everything that happened. This 15 year old kid with a concussion and a girl my age who was missing an arm. These guys were dealing with problems before I even got there, and when I showed up all it seemed to do was make it worse. Those five months were hell. I carried the guilt and burden of fourteen dead people on my shoulders. And I forced myself to carry it long after we made it back onto the ship. I told them I was fine- I hid my moments of weakness. Finally, they caught me and forced me to go through the stupid therapy program."

He sat in silence for a minute, as if wondering whether or not that was the right thing to say. "So when you tell me I don't know about what you've been through... When you say I don't have a right to tell you what'll help you or not, I want you to at least know my story."

Obviously, Toby had gotten a little involved with the storytelling. He breathed out deeply and then leaned back in his chair. "Just... To start, tell me about what really bothers you. Just get anything you have off your chest."
Addie didn't want to hear his story. It didn't matter what he'd been through. He wasn't there with Austin, with her, when it all fell apart. Sure, he'd been through something similar, but he wasn't her, and he damn sure wasn't Austin.

Suddenly, she felt something she hadn't allowed herself to feel in months.

Grief. And oh, it swept over her like the damn plague. The guilt rolled in just as quickly, and for several minutes, it looked like she was choking on her words, unsure what to say.

She'd been strong for so long that she had forgotten how to let herself be human, to feel and be angry and scared.

"Those boys." She managed finally, a single tear escaping the corner of her eye before she quickly wiped it away.

"We let them down. I let them down. And their parents. I swore I'd get them out. That they'd be okay." She bit her lip sharply, shutting her eyes and slowly inhaling.

"I couldn't help Austin, either. When the boys were taken. He just..he was different after that, and there was nothing I could do to fix it."
Toby sat there, waiting on her to speak. His story might not have done much, but she opened up anyway. Perhaps hearing that someone else had gone through something similar caused her to remember her humanity.

As sad and as heartbroken as she was, it was a huge improvement over a cold and bitter refusal to acknowledge her sadness. She expressed her guilt over the boys they had left behind- Her sadness over her inability to help Austin recover. She had the weight of the world on her shoulders, and now she was going to finally be able to unload it.

"I'm so sorry." He swallowed. Not being able to keep promises was the worst. But it wasn't Toby's job to say anything encouraging, or reassuring. He needed to help her get it all out, and then make sure that her memories stayed memories. Not triggers or anything that might cause her problems in the future. "Why do you feel like you weren't able to help Austin?"
Addie covered her face with her hands, sucking in a sharp breath. Oh, she didn't want to think about it anymore. She didn't want to remember, but now that she'd started, she knew he was right.

If she held on to all of this by herself, she'd crack, sooner rather than later. Exhaling shakily, she let her hands fall to her lap, staring at the wall in front of her. "I couldn't get through to him. He wouldn't let me in. He just.. he shut me out. I couldn't get him to see that I was trying to help him." She sighed, shaking her head and closing her eyes.

"I tried so hard, not just for him, for everyone, to keep it together. After we lost some of the kids, he struggled, I tried to be the glue that held the group together, but after that man tookthe boys, I couldn't..Everything fell apart."
Toby pursed his lips and listened.

The recordings from the suit revealed that Austin was really affected by the Infection and the side effects of the chip removal- Causing him to have violent and drastic mood swings. He kept the worst of it to himself, but she got the cold shoulder a lot of the time. She probably knew about the mood changes, but she thought he was shutting her out rather than protecting her.

And in a way, he was. Shutting her out was better than being vulnerable with her- In his eyes. If he started to vent everything to her- To reveal to her everything going on in his head... She might doubt him more than she did.

"So you think Austin was... Shutting you out? Keeping you distant? Why?"