MeiAnne woke to find herself in a large room. She tried to raise her head, but was met with blinding pain.
"Oh thanks be." She heard a voice beside her. Someone was gripping onto her hand. MeiAnne turned her head slightly to find Raba sitting beside her bed. Behind him were rows of bed, all occupied by injured soldiers, many still in bloodied uniforms.
"Where-" Her voice was low and cracked.
"Shh.. It's okay, we got you back to base." Raba squeezed her hand as he used a soft voice to try and comfort her. "I'm so sorry-" He trailed off.
The vision of Molis where she crashed flashed in MeiAnne's mind. She felt the air catch in her throat as she began to sob. Pain shot through her with each cry, but she couldn't stop.
She saw Raba wave someone over, and through blurry vision she saw a nurse inject her with a shot. She was only capable of a few more cries before she felt her body drift off and her eyes closed again.
She would wake more, each time she would be reminded of what she had gone through. Each time she would be put back under by a nurse. MeiAnne was grateful that this medicated sleep didn't have dreams, but she also had no idea how much time she was losing.
Soon she would wake and be able to make it through the flashes of memories long enough to stay awake on her own. Gen or Raba would keep her company for an hour or two. Both men had bruises or cuts, but she watched them heal from her bed.
"What now?" MeiAnne asked Gen one day.
"You can find a job here. Many of the staff here that you don't see flying are soldiers that lost their dragons." He replied. "That way officers can monitor them, make sure the loss wasn't too much."
The loss still felt like it was too much for MeiAnne. Each fiber of her body longed to feel Molis beneath her again. Even though her leg was still healing, she longed to feel the wind whip past as she could hear Molis beat her wings through the air. She wished she could see those eyes again, hear the chuff of humor, or feel her hot breath on her face.
It took some time, but eventually MeiAnne was allowed to stand, with the help of crutches of course.
"It will still take some time for you to have full use of that leg again." The nurse reminded her.
"I know, I know. It was shattered. You don't have to keep reminding me." Even though she was grateful for the care from the nurses, MeiAnne was growing tired of having to stay in the infirmary. She was among the last that survived recovering and MeiAnne was growing impatient over it. The nurse just sighed before smiling at her.
Gen and Raba would help with her physical therapy at least. It reminded her of when they helped her with training. A memory of them all celebrating MeiAnne receiving an egg even returned one night, leaving MeiAnne silently crying until she fell asleep.
She dreaded having to watch other soldiers live their life with their partners. She knew they couldn't help that she lost hers, but that didn't stop the feeling. She wasn't the only one that lost her dragon either. MeiAnne knew she was being selfish, entertaining those thoughts.
It had been a month of recovery when she was finally allowed by doctors to change to a soft cast. Her leg was still purple and swollen, and the smell of her skin under a hard cast for so long made her gag. As a nurse helped her clean the leg, each touch caused her to groan, but the nurse held her hand as they pushed through.
Her knee had taken less damage than the rest of her leg so it was left out of the cast. That way she could exercise to rebuild those muscles while still in her cast and it allowed her skin to breath more. However, that meant that when Raba and Gen came to visit next she had to hear them react to her bruising.
They helped her sit up one day and Raba gently grabbed her leg.
"The doctor said if we are going to be allowed to keep visiting, we need to do more work." They all chuckled.
Then it turned into something they did everyday for a week. Raba would visit and gently help MeiAnne stretch out her leg. It greatly helped her get ready for the day the nurses led her through exercises of slowly putting weight back on that leg.
Once the nurses and the doctor trusted her progress enough they allowed her to leave the infirmary with crutches for if that leg gave out or grew tired. Walking around by herself was hard, but it meant she was recovering much faster than if she was just staying in bed all day.
Finally MeiAnne felt like she was at least recovering physically, even though it took a long time. The hardest part would be the grieving to come. She didn't have anything to keep her distracted if she didn't have the pain in her leg anymore.
It didn't help that she was forced to see soldiers walking around with their dragon's just as she had done with Molis before.
What that turned into was going to visit Raba more. He never complained, rather he would leave Gen in charge more often to make time for her. He kept her occupied, usually by inviting her to his room for tea. They would talk about meaningless things, and she appreciated him so much more for that.
With each visit they would sit closer together, until eventually their visits turned into silence as they leaned against each other. He comforted her through all of her emotions. So when he would start to hold her, with an arm around her shoulder, she welcomed it. She welcomed the warmth whole heartedly.