Favor

“You look like hell.  Have you been getting enough sleep?”

The sudden sound makes Sage jump in her seat.  It takes her a good second to register Sabine standing in front of her desk.

Sabine gets infinitely more worried about the sentinel by her reaction.  She dashes forward and feels Sage’s forehead with the back of her hand.  “No fever.  So, I’m guessing it’s just fatigue.  I could make you a sleeping pill.  It will be just as potent as the regular ones, but its side effects will be less so.”

Sage releases a deep breath.  She shakes her head.  “There is no need, Sabine.  I will be fine.  There are just some… things that have come up,” she tells the chemist.

In all honesty, however, Sage wants to tell Sabine that apart from not getting enough sleep, she’s also not been eating properly and not been able to stop obsessing over thinking of one single thing.

She doesn’t, though, because Sage doesn’t want to worry Sabine.  She would never add to the things that the others worry about – they have too much of that already.

“If you’re sure,” she presently hears Sabine mutter.

“I am,” Sage smiles, thankful for the reprieve.

“However, if I may ask of you something,” the sentinel continues, looking rather shy about what she’s going to ask.

“Yes?” Sabine prompts her.

Sage fiddles with a pen on her desk as she inquires, “Did you happen to give Reyna some antibiotic?”

Sabine raises a brow at the question.  “Yeah,” she answers, “a few days ago.  She wouldn’t tell me what it was for, nor would she allow me to examine her.  I got tired of her, so I just threw her some and gave her instructions.”

“I see,” the bastion says, looking down at the stack of papers in front of her.

The reply doesn’t satisfy Viper.  “Why do you ask?  Do you know what is was for?”

“I- yes… she told me,” Sage answers quietly.

“Ah,” is Viper’s only response.  She turns and moves to occupy her desk in the med bay, readying some files for the day’s scheduled mandatory agent check-up.

Silence, then, envelops the room, as the two try to figure out what to say next.  Sage especially doesn’t like it; she’s always been able to talk with Sabine about almost everything.

So, Sage resolves to bring up whatever mundane topic that her brain would come up with.  She looks straight at her companion, opens her mouth… and chokes on air.

Sabine looks up in alarm.  “Are you okay?” she asks the healer, already half-standing from her seat.

Sage brings her hand up to stop Sabine from coming over and fussing on her, “I am alright.”

Just then, they hear the door to the med bay open.

“The Big B’s are here,” Sabine remarks, stopping in her tracks to look at the door’s direction.  It reveals not two big burly men, but one smaller and leaner figure.

“Not quite,” Reyna answers.  “The Commander has to attend to a crate of weapons that has… mysteriously gone missing,” she informs the two, “and I traded spots with Breach.  It’s going to cost me a pack of premium bitter, but it lets us see each other first,” she continues, sauntering over to where Sage is seated.

Viper is quick to get to Sage’s side, effectively blocking Reyna.  “And you didn’t think to bring another agent with you?  You know how this thing goes.  We attend to two agents at a time,” she tells Reyna, green eyes shooting daggers towards the latter.

“Oh, was that the protocol?  Forgive me.  I don’t really work here in the med bay.  I didn’t know there are now officially two medical officers who could ‘attend to two agents at a time,’” Reyna quips, meeting Viper’s glare head-on.

“Enough, you two,” Sage pipes up, hoping to break the tension in the room.  It doesn’t, so she makes her second move.

“Sabine, please, let me take care of this,” she says, one hand coming up to clutch onto the chemist’s forearm.  “Perhaps you could find Breach and bring him in for check-up,” she continues, beseeching the controller.  She then turns her gaze to the duelist and declares, “I am sure that that will not avoid whatever agreement he has with Reyna.”

The Mexican’s attention goes to the healer upon the latter’s utterance of her name.  She sees the glare the sentinel is giving her, so she opts not to bid Sabine a ‘good luck on finding an agent’ and instead just stays silent.  She keeps the smirk in her face, however.

The non-action from the duelist seems to help persuade Viper to heed Sage’s words.  She leaves the med bay without a word.

Once Viper is out of the room, Sage takes the opportunity to sate her curiosity, forgoing with clinical history since she has those files already.  “How did you know about her?” she asks as she motions for Reyna to sit on the chair in front of her desk.

“About who, cariño?” Reyna responds coyly, blatantly watching Sage as she gets up from her seat and moves to stand before Reyna.

The healer gives her an exasperated look.  “The fox we were trying to help.”

“Ah, the one with the beautiful heart,” Reyna says, picturing a characteristic white patch of fur on an orange body.  “I just happened upon her,” she continues, grinning.

Sage squints her eyes, not inclined to believe the duelist.  The latter’s smile only broadens at the former’s reaction.

Sage huffs.  If there’s a bit more force when she grabs Reyna’s chin, then she just miscalculated her strength and no one can prove otherwise.

“Open your mouth,” she directs, and the duelist spiritedly obliges.  Sage places the thermometer tip under Reyna’s tongue.

Reyna has an inkling as to why the healer opted for the oral method instead of the axillary one in taking her temperature.  The mumbled, “Why must you always be so infuriating?” in Chinese, confirms her theory that she has, yet again, gotten under the skin of the sentinel.  She takes a deep breath in and out through her nose, resolving to sit still as the healer takes her right arm to set up the blood pressure gauge.

As Sage was taking Reyna’s blood pressure, the thermometer beeps.  Sage doesn’t move to get it, instead taking her sweet time to measure the duelist’s BP and scribbling the result in one of the medical forms in her desk.

When she had no more excuse for keeping the thermometer in Reyna’s mouth, Sage plucks it out.  She silently checks the results, not sparing a glimpse at her companion.

“If you really must know, little dove,” Reyna suddenly says, making Sage snap her head towards the former, “I saw the three of you head out to the woods.”  She then shrugs, “I got curious, so I followed you.”

There’s a small part in Sage – the one that is rejoicing right now – that wished that Reyna be candid with her.  She never thought it would happen.  Which is why she’s dumbstruck now that it actually has.

Sage nods – she could only do so at the moment – before she moves to get behind Reyna.  She wordlessly continues with the check-up, placing the stethoscope’s chest piece on Reyna’s back.  She rasps a quiet, “breathe in… out,” but that is the extent of her speaking capabilities until she’s gathered her thoughts properly.

When Sage has finally sat back on her chair, she chances a look at her teammate.  Reyna is looking at her still.  Sage doesn’t know why she suddenly averts her eyes.  But she does manage to speak again.

“Thank you,” she starts softly.  “I was never able to tell you yesterday.  But what you did for her was very admirable.”

Reyna’s answering smile is Cheshire-like.  “Oh, you flatter me, mi hermosa.  I’m just glad to be of service to you.  If you want, I could teach you what to do in those situations.  You’ve never gone hunting, have you?”

Sage shakes her head.  Reyna pounces at the opportunity.  “We can make a day out of it.  I’ll make sure you have fun.”

Before the sentinel could respond, however, the door to the med bay bursts open.  In comes Viper, dragging a half-asleep Raze with her.  The poor dear looks like she was pulled from her bed, protested, but was hushed with threatening words, or stare – or both.

The controller is quick to sit the warhead down.  She’s even quicker in doing the standard physical examination.  The other two occupants of the room watch her: one in amazement, the other in wry amusement.

Soon enough, Raze hears the word “done,” and she exits the med bay as lifelessly as she had come in.  She’s so sleepy and tired that when she left, she couldn’t even properly close the door, leaving it ajar.

But that didn’t matter to the three-remaining people in the room, as Viper is quick to turn her attention to the only duelist left in the room, “You’re still not done?  Enjoying yourself, aren’t you?” she asks, gaze falling on the hands which are on top of Sage’s desk.

It’s only then that Sage realizes that Reyna’s finger has been drawing circles on the back of her hand that is holding onto the duelist’s medical form.  The healer retracts her hand as a result.

She dimly remembers Reyna reaching out and she not retreating from the advance.  ‘It was when she offered to teach me how to hunt,’ she thinks.

“Not so much now.”  Sage presently hears Reyna reply, bringing her back to reality.  She sees that Viper is now hovering over the duelist.  Something kicks inside Sage and makes her get up from her perch.

“Aw, did I hurt your feelings?” the chemist taunts.

“Not really.  Did I hurt yours?” the duelist ripostes.

Viper sneers at that, “Your very existence hurts everyone’s feelings.”

“I can think of one who isn’t,” Reyna smugly replies, and it makes Viper snarl while taking a menacing step closer to the former.

“Enough of this.  Now.” Sage finally commands, wedging herself in-between the two, one hand on each agent’s chest to push them away from each other.  They relent, but not from glowering at each other.

She knows she won’t be enough to stop the collision course, but she can at least try to keep it from happening until the next-scheduled agents come in for their check-up.

It comes sooner, much to Sage’s relief.

“Hey, Reyna done yet?” Breach asks, head popping into view.

“Yes,” is Sage’s quick answer.

Breach looks at her, sandwiched between a serpent and a vampire.  She’s looking at him with the same pleading eyes that those pesky Kingdom agents give when asking for their lives to be spared.  The Swede hasn’t the slightest clue as to why the little monk is giving him that stare.  Nonetheless – and bless his heart for this – he pushes the door more widely and walks in.

“Well,” he says, taking the free seat by Sabine’s desk, “we should start with my check-up then.  There’s a bar seat in the city with my name on it, and time’s a-wastin’.”  He tells the three, eyeing them half-curiously.

It’s Reyna who backs away first.  And Sage is not surprised to see that her lips are curled up in a sardonic smile again.

“Be seeing you around, corazón,” the duelist simply says before exiting the room.

“Hey, don’t forget about my lager!” Breach yells at the leaving duelist.  The Mexican merely waves her hand, not bothering to look back anymore.

The standard routine check-up commences from that moment on, and its Brimstone who is the two’s last patient of the day.  He tells them about the vanished crate and its miraculous reappearance in the storage room.  “Those damn brats…” he says, shaking his head as he leaves the med bay.

Viper disagrees with him.  The younger agents are known for their pranks, but each of those are more explosive than the last.  This one was stealthy, which, after considering motive, narrows down the chemist’s suspect list to one wily agent.

“It is Reyna, is it not?” is Sage’s query, which stuns Sabine.

“It’s not the kids’ MO, and I doubt Omen would pull something like that.  The only one I could think of who would get some kick out of that is her.”  Sabine tells Sage bluntly.

“Indeed,” the healer agrees.  “But what I cannot fathom is the ‘why.’”

Sabine stops herself from scoffing, barely.  “Didn’t she already say so earlier?  What was her exact phrase?  ‘It lets us see each other first.’  Yes, that was it.”

Sage sighs.

The chemist raises her eyebrow.  “She’s also the reason for your lack of sleep, isn’t she?”

“I- yes…” Sage solemnly confesses.

She hears Sabine snigger, however.  “I’m pretty sure you keep her up at night too,” the controller responds.

The healer looks at her, eyes somewhat dejected.  “Sabine… is that the reason you do not like her?”

Green eyes return her gaze.  Their owner is the one to sigh this time.  “Not at first, no,” she starts.  “At first, I didn’t like her because I thought she couldn’t be trusted.  But then, I was proven wrong.  Do you wanna know how?”

Sage simply nods.

“I saw that she wanted you.  And if she wanted you, then she couldn’t betray us, unless it’s your life on the line.  Brimstone may be high command, but you’re what’s holding us together.”

Sage’s brows furrow.  She wants to say that she couldn’t have such a vital role in the team.  Sure, she provides healing and resurrection, but that doesn’t necessarily make her a central figure.

She’s about to say those things when she, again, hears Sabine chuckle.  It’s Sage’s turn to frown then.  “I am glad my circumstances could provide you with amusement,” she says with her usual bite.

“It’s not that, believe me.  I just remembered something Jett and I theorized,” the chemist opens up.

Sage raises her eyebrow, prompting Sabine to continue.

“Do you know that falling in love with you is what truly completes the recruitment process in the Protocol?  An agent is not fully a Valorant agent unless and until they have fallen for you, passingly or otherwise,” Sabine says, trying to pass it off as a joke.  Sage remains unamused.

The controller, thus, schools her face, and with a serious voice says, “You clearly want another’s input about your – honestly simple – situation.  So, here is mine: you’re not dense, Sage.  You know exactly how she feels, as well as how you feel.  You just don’t want to acknowledge any of it – for what reason, I wouldn’t presume to know.  I’m not gonna sit here and pretend that I know precisely how you feel or think… but I do know that you at least feel something and that you think of her as something.”

Sage is quiet for quite a while after that.  When she speaks again, however, the query is not one Sabine expects.

“Why are you suddenly rooting for her?” she asks, tone light to convey it as a jest.

Sabine frowns at her.  Sage gives a sheepish smile in return.

“I’m rooting for you – for your happiness.  She just happens to be the lucky one there on your path,” Sabine says.

“So, you still do not like her?” the healer inquires.

“Wanting your happiness and liking her aren’t mutually inclusive,” is the chemist’s dry response.  It makes Sage laugh – freely laugh.

Sabine isn’t able to help the smile that blooms on her face upon the sentinel’s reaction.  But just as she was about to speak again, a knock on the door comes.  It draws both agents’ attention.

“Hey guys,” Jett greets.  “You done yet?”

Sabine answers for them this time, her body already moving to get up from her seat, “Yes, you’re just in time.”

“Cool,” is Jett’s satisfied comment.  She smiles at Sabine, but she consciously takes some time to let her gaze drift towards Sage and smile at her too, her expression oddly shy.  It makes Sage wonder why.

“Are you gonna be alright closing up alone?” Sabine asks Sage, breaking the latter’s pondering.

“Of course,” Sage replies with a reassuring smile.  “You two go on; you clearly have an arrangement with each other,” she tells her companions, unaware of the insinuation of her statement.

Jett’s eyes widen and her cheeks become dusted with a red hue.  ‘Oh, that is why she is acting bashfully.’

The realization makes Sage smile.  She’s happy for them.  And if Sabine is rooting for her happiness, then you can be sure that she is damn well rooting for her dear friend’s too.

Which is why when Sabine suggests that they close up first so she won’t be alone to do so, Sage dismisses the idea and lightly shoves guides the chemist to Jett.

The chemist has a lightly incensed look on her face as a result of the woman-handling.  Sage just gives her her widest, sweetest smile before bidding them goodbye.

Sage looks at their retreating figures.  She will eternally be grateful to Sabine for everything that the latter has done, and possibly will do, for her.  Added to that list is Sabine’s silent acknowledgment of her need to be alone right now to process – because she has a lot of that to do.