Close Behind || Aaron Minyard

She kept her eyes open the entire flight, even before Nathaniel had fallen asleep, but she wasn't really awake. The next time Natalia feels she's seeing the world is when they're getting off the plane.

Her hands were gloved but her fingers felt so cold. There was no damage done directly to her hands because then she wouldn't have been able to pick up a racquet, but Natalia had eaten very little in the Nest and she'd lost a lot of blood over the last three weeks. It would be a miracle if her circulation was ever the same again.

Nathaniel looked around blearily as he awoke, his eyes were searching for something. Natalia grabbed his bag off the floor and put it in his lap for him. It didn't seem to help his panic but looking at her did. His eyes were still mostly unseeing. His eyes were bright blue.

They got off the plane and Natalia kept a tight grip on his hand as she led him through Upstate Regional Airport on shaky and used legs. He seemed to have disconnected from everything and seeing as she'd spent her time at Castle Evermore doing that while he stayed awake, she let him have a turn.

His legs were as weak, if not more so, than hers as they walked so Natalia had to carry him at some points. Completely ignoring the searing pain in her lower back and in her knees and in every inch of her lower body so she could get them out of here.

She got them towards Arrivals and paused at baggage claim when she realized there was nowhere to really go. Natalia heaved them over towards a wall and deposited Nathaniel against it.

After a few seconds of just wallowing in the pain he seemed to be back to instinct and started going through his duffle bag. Natalia tapped his back and made him crawl over to an outlet so he could plug in his phone. She didn't try to find hers.

It took a second or two for it to turn on, it was probably dead for a few weeks now. Two...three. His hands numbly held the phone and Natalia had to tap him to start moving. Nathaniel looked across the numbers and she ignored it, she didn't want to see any names.

"Coach."

He nodded a little deftly and tapped a button on his phone. Natalia let herself lean into the wall and slowly slide down it while Nathaniel was on the phone. She could barely hold herself up anymore.

When he hung up he looked over at Natalia and nodded a little. She sighed and let her head fall back to the wall and finally, finally, closed her eyes.

Some time later, she doesn't know how long, Nathaniel's phone goes off and Natalia pushes herself up then moves to help him up. It's more of a struggle the second time. She only gets them to the curb before dropping them on the ground.

"Up," someone says to them. "We're getting out of here."

She looks up with bleary fear and stands up with a flinch from the pain. Natalia reaches down and hauls Nathaniel up by the shoulders and doesn't let the other person touch either of them as she gets them in the back seat of the truck.

Natalia doesn't let herself close her eyes, she doesn't let go of where she's holding Nathaniel by the bicep and she doesn't take her eyes off the front seat of the car.

It seems Wymack notices her looking and he catches her eye in the rear view. Natalia stays looking him in the eye and tries to remind herself who this is. It's Wymack. It's Coach. It's safe. She'd told Nathaniel to call him because he is safe.

They pull into a familiar parking lot and Natalia has to will herself into moving. She pushes herself out of one side of the car holding both of their bags with death grips and moves around to help get Nathaniel out.

She doesn't get there before Coach. He's already picking up her brother and carrying him and Natalia races in front of him to stop him from moving. She stares wide eyed at her brother. He's just asleep, she keeps reminding herself.