It was late on a Wednesday night and Veld hadn’t been at work except for a few hours that morning; his body hurt too much to focus on anything, so he had gone home, ignoring the reminder that flashed on his phone to go to his physical therapy session. It had only been a month since they had released him from the hospital, a month and a half since the Kalm Incident and he was struggling.
Struggling with adjusting to the heavy metal arm attached at his shoulder, that he couldn’t seem to make work, struggling with being unable to be at the office, with not being on the field, with trying to remember to take the seemingly endless line of medications he had been prescribed. Most of all, he struggled with the reality that his nice home he’d worked hard to build on weekends, was gone. That his sweet, soft, too understanding wife was gone, burned to ashes in the ruins of their home; that Felicia was gone. That hurt more than any physical pain and nothing was helping it to stop, but he was willing to try anything...
He was vaguely aware of someone banging on his door, but he couldn’t seem to get up from where he’d fallen in the kitchen; none of his limbs were cooperating anymore and he couldn’t even finish the second bottle of whiskey. Giving a shuddered sob, he slipped sideways onto the lino and curled up, tears coursing down unshaven cheeks; why wouldn’t the person at the door go away and leave him alone with his grief?
Then the door was open and he closed his eyes against the harsh yellow hall light that flooded his apartment. The concerned voice was familiar, the hands on his shoulders gentle as they pulled him upright. He swung a fist but it was easily caught and he was pulled close, arms going around him, for comfort and to keep him from hurting anyone, himself included. A moment passed where he was ridged but then Veld felt that great, welling, choking feeling coming up from the bottom of his heart and his flesh hand fisted into Gast’s shirt as a broken cry escaped him, angry tears soaking into the other man’s shoulder.