Using fragile one for clothes once more

My forcefield peeled away from me, moving me as little as possible. Forcefield hands brushed my hair off to the side, over my good shoulder, tugging it where blood made it stick to cloth or skin. I began pulling it off in increments.

*****

I let her hold my arms, gently raising and bracing them, holding them with a strength that didn't let them waver or shake. Handprints stood out against my skin.

*****

She left, and I worked on extricating myself from my costume. Forcefield hands removed the breastplate, setting it aside.

*****

My costume and the long-sleeved shirt I'd been wearing were inexorably bound together. I put them to one side, folding them.

Nurse Leah touched the forcefield, and I stopped.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said. She reached out tentatively, touching it again, a hand on a shoulder.

The Fragile One slipped out of her grip, moving up to the bed, sitting just behind and around me. It was like I was the Wretch again, but only a part of me that was still shaped like ordinary two-arms, two-legs, one-headed Victoria was there. The rest was invisible, invincible, and fragile.

"She's out of your way now."

"She?"

"Secret," I said. The Fragile One lifted the wet, scrunched-together cotton cloth to my lips, the fold in roughly the dimensions and length of a finger.

*****

The athletic bra hugged my upper body, and more blood had settled into it, adhering it to my body. I was not looking forward to removing it. It was one of my favorites, too, though two days of exertion had probably halved its lifetime.

I tore it off, the Fragile One applying gentle pressure to my body to approximate the light constriction of it before digging into it with fingernails, tearing the cloth. Skin pulled and wet bandage helped with the tricky spots when it came to the stickiest bits of bloody cloth.

*****

The nurse held the paper gown up against my front, and I had the Fragile One hold it there. I didn't put my arms through the sleeve and the nurse didn't ask me to. It was a pointless movement of my arms when every movement of my arms hurt and I'd need to take it off anyway.

- Last 20.9