Beep . . . beep . . . beep . . .

Her ears were ringing. Her head was sore. Her stomach was throbbing.

At last, Clockwork's one eye fluttered open. Her vision was blurry at first, but it didn't take long for her to realize that she was in the infirmary back at base. Next to her bed, a heart monitor was beeping steadily. Excruciating pain was drumming on her abdomen, and a weighted blanket shielded her body.

Wait, that blanket wasn't weighted . . .

Clockwork lifted her head to see Zero sitting in a chair at her bedside, softly snoring with their head and arms laid down on the blanket. Their white box braids were strewn out on the sheets. Clockwork opened her mouth to speak, but her throat was sore, as if she had swallowed a bucket of needles. Finally, she squeaked out a word.

"Baby . . . ?"

With a slight groan, Zero awoke. Seeing that her wife was no longer unconscious, their gray eyes flooded with relief.

"Oh thank fuck-!" Zero cried, and she leaned forward to fling their arms around Clockwork. Clockwork lifted her arms to hug her back, but she was still confused. What had happened? And why was she in so much pain?

"The hell happened to me?" Clockwork grumbled sleepily. "I feel like I just had a fucking C-section."

Zero kissed Clockwork's nose before pulling away.

"I found you passed out in the snow," Zero said, their voice slightly breaking. "Someone cut your stomach open, sweetie. You've been in a coma for four days." She sniffled.

Clockwork's eyebrows shot up into her hair. What the . . . ?

"Are you shitting me?" Clockwork demanded. Her throat hurt with every word. She tried to get up, but she gritted her teeth as her stomach flared with pain. Zero gingerly nudged her back down.

"Lie still, babe," Zero ordered in a firm yet gentle tone.

Clockwork kept her jaw clenched as Zero stroked her hair. She was shocked. She hadn't had an injury so severe since she had gouged out her right eye. Was it the naked girl who had done this to her?

Suddenly, Clockwork found her mind drifting to her six-year-old daughter.

Poor kid must've shat her pants, she thought sympathetically.

"Where's Eris?" she asked.

"Rouge is taking care of her," Zero answered. "Want me to go get her? I'll get Tim and Brian, too."

Clockwork nodded. Tim and Brian, or Masky and Hoodie, were the top dogs in the Alliance. If Slenderman was a god, they were his high priests who hated his very existence, but knew better than to disobey him. Basically, they were the ones in charge when Slenderman wasn't around, which was most of the time.

Zero gave Clockwork a quick peck on the lips before getting up and leaving the infirmary. As soon as she was gone, the door on the other side of the room opened. In walked a six-foot-seven man with grayish-blue skin, a ponytail of dreadlocks, sharp black claws, and pitch voids where his eyes once were. From the black holes, a tar-like substance dripped down his face. When his thick lips parted, you could see rows and rows of sharp teeth that looked as though they would befit the maw of a shark.

"She gone?" Eyeless Jack grumbled in his deep, raspy voice.

"Hi, E.J.," Clockwork sighed.

"Oh, you're awake," Jack exclaimed. "Good - sooner you heal up, the sooner you're outta here."

Clockwork ignored his rudeness. Jack was Slenderman's first modern-day proxy, having been initiated in the early 1980's. When he was twenty-two and attending medical school, he was kidnapped by an evil cult that had sacrificed him to the deity they worshipped, believing the police wouldn't investigate his disappearance due to his race. Jack's eyes had been gouged out and filled with a mixture of blood and tar, but thanks to Slenderman, he was granted vision only when he was in the infirmary so he wouldn't make any fatal mistakes when tending to sick or injured proxies. He was an all-around jerk, and many of the proxies did their best to avoid him - they already had enough bullshit to deal with.

"When'll I be out?" Clockwork demanded.

"I'd say tomorrow," Jack replied. "You're lucky: when you were brought in, your guts were about to spill out. So you owe me your life, missy."

"Shut up, Eyeless Jackass, this is your job." Clockwork snarled back.

Jack groaned and turned around to head back to his office. Clockwork thought she heard him mutter, "ugh, women," before he slammed the door behind him.

Didn't think sexist gay men were a thing, Clockwork thought as she rolled her eyes.

A mere moment later, the infirmary door flew open. Clockwork caught sight of a flash of milky brown hair with white streaks before someone cried out, "Mommy!" and jumped on top of her. She let out a cry of pain that was soon quieted by the smile that crossed her face when she saw her daughter.

"Eris, be careful!" Zero scolded her.

"Hey, princess," Clockwork chuckled through the pain.

"Mommy, are you okay?" Eris asked worriedly. Her hair was disheveled from lack of sleep, and her grayish eyes were red and puffy.

"I'm fine, don't worry," Clockwork answered, patting Eris on the head. "I've been through worse, believe me."

"Hey, sugar," Brian said in a somber voice as he rested his hands on his hips. He was a burly, muscular man with brown curls, a small mustache, and chin stubble. He was in his late thirties, and he had a Southern accent you couldn't cut through with a chainsaw.

"You doin' okay?" he asked sympathetically.

"Never better," Clockwork answered with a hint of sarcasm. What did he expect? "Hi, Tim."

Tim, Brian's husband, raised a hand in greeting. He was a chubby guy, also in his late thirties, with heavy bags under his eyes. Clockwork and her friends liked to joke that he looked like a sleep deprived Elvis Presley. He was carrying a notepad and pen with him.

"Sorry to break up the reunion, kiddo," Tim said to Eris, "but I'm gonna need to talk to your mom about what happened to her."

"When'll you come home?" Eris whined.

"I'll be back tomorrow, promise," Clockwork answered. She flashed a smile at the girl. "Don't leave me lonely here, though."

Eris nodded in response, and Clockwork lifted her arm to tousle her hair. Zero then took Eris's hand and led her out of the infirmary. Clockwork lifted her arms and rested them behind her head as Tim sat in the chair that Zero had been sitting in not long ago.

"So, what's been going on?" Clockwork asked.

"We dunno," Brian answered. "We've been scouring the territory for days, but we haven't found anyone suspicious."

"Do you remember anything from before you were injured?" Tim asked.

Clockwork swallowed and began to tell them everything about what she had seen. Once she had finished her story, all three adults were in agreement that an emergency proxy meeting would have to be called.