Date Point 10y2m2w1d AV HMS Sharman (HMNB Folctha), Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches
Adam Arés
For a blissful few seconds when Adam woke up, there was just the light of sunrise staining what promised to be a clear blue sky and the loose, relaxed feeling of muscles newly mended by Crue-D. In those seconds, the world was perfect.
Then yesterday hit him in the head.
”…Fuck.”
He levered himself upright. He was still in his civvies, basketball shorts and a T-shirt that he’d made himself, one of the few items of clothing he had that was actually loose on him.
BASEBALL was slumped in an armchair in the doorway, snoring quietly with a book on his knee. Somebody had draped a blanket over him, and there was a mug of tea on the floor next to him, untouched and long gone cold. Adam recognized one of Major Powell’s mugs.
Remorse stabbed him right in the heart. Base was going to be suffering from lost sleep for the rest of the day, which was no fun at all on the SOR’s training regime. A quick glance at the clock said it was only 0530. A Cimbrean day was twenty-eight hours long in total – close enough to Earth that people didn’t really suffer from the difference. In fact, the extra hours usually translated to feeling like every day had been both productive and restful.
Still. If Base had been up most of the night…
“John?”
Base started slightly in his seat, and blinked his eyes open. “Uh? Oh, shit.”
He straightened up, moving his back sinuously with a rapid-fire of little pops and crackles as he cleared out the stiffness from a few hours of bad posture. “Wasn’t supposed to sleep…”
“You okay, bro?” Adam asked him.
“Are you?”
“Fuck if I know.” Adam grumbled and sat up properly, swinging his feet down onto the floor.
John didn’t say anything, just bookmarked what he’d been reading, retrieved the tea, sipped it, grimaced, and took both book and drink into the kitchen. A few seconds later, Adam heard the microwave close and hum into life.
First things first—after any serious injury was repaired by Crue-D, the first thing to do was to test it. Twenty push-ups were more than enough to confirm that his elbow was fine, and they blasted out some of the dust in his head for good measure.
He padded through into the kitchen. “You stayed up all night?” he asked.
“Yeah. We figured somebody had to keep an eye on you.”
“Dude, I wasn’t gonna do something stupid…”
“I know, just…” John shrugged expansively, and sipped his re-heated tea.
”…Thanks, bro.”
“First breakup’s always the worst.” John sighed.
“I can’t believe her.” Adam sighed, thumping over to the fridge. To his quiet delight, there was still half a box of Eggos in there. “Where did you even get these on Cimbrean?”
“Londis.”
Adam grunted and nodded as he turned on the grill. Able Seaman Thomas ‘Londis’ Magoro derived his nickname from a chain of British convenience stores, thanks to his legendary ability to procure almost anything. If you wanted something and you wanted it quickly, you went to Londis.
“I gotta ask, brother…” John said. “Eggos?”
Adam shrugged “My dad made them for me whenever Mom was being difficult… Guess they’re my comfort food.” he laughed. “Hell, shove enough butter and syrup on them, they’re probably a great fit for our macronutrients, right?”
John gave a half-hearted half-laugh and sipped his tea again.
“Something wrong?” Adam asked.
“Stop trying to put a brave face on it, man. You’re torn up.” John told him.
Adam hesitated, then shook his head and waved his hands resignedly. “It’s done man. It’s over. Fuck her. Just gotta move on, I guess.”
John just gave him a patient stare.
”…Alright! Alright. I’m fucking… I just don’t know why man?! How could she! What the fuck? She just threw it all away? Why?”
“Brother… I love you, but you’ve got the girl-smarts of a fucking ten-year-old.” John grunted, and drained his mug.
“You’re saying it’s my fault?” Adam asked, incredulous.
“Nuh.” John shook his head. “But it takes two to dance, man. D’you really think you were being fair on her? Never there, not really there there even when you were there… you follow me?”
“She’s still the one who-”
“Yeah.” John interrupted. “but… I’ve done that shit too man.”
Adam blinked at him. “You have?”
“I played around, yeah. Ain’t proud of it, but…” John scratched his head thoughtfully. “Look, the cheater’s to blame, but they cheat for a reason. And at the time it seemed like a good reason. That’s all I’m saying.”
Adam didn’t reply, and they lapsed into thoughtful silence until the Eggos were out of the grill and drowned in butter and maple syrup.
“What could I have done differently, though?” he asked. “I wrote her all the time, called her every chance I got, took as much leave as I could to spend time with her…”
“You know what I remember?” John asked. Adam had served him a couple of Eggos as well, and he’d apparently decided he enjoyed them. “You remember that night we were on the plane coming up to Scotch Creek to jump out here, and she called you really upset about something? And at the end of that call she was mad at you and hung up and you had no idea what she’d even called about?”
”…Yeah?”
“Par for the fucking course with you, bro. Every conversation you two ever had worked out like that somehow. I mean… did you ever ask her how her degree was going? Or, or take a look at her website?”
“She has a website?”
John rocked back. “Are you-? You don’t even fucking know she has a website?!”
“What’s on this website?”
“Her photos, man! She’s a photographer, or did you not notice that? It’s her portfolio!”
Adam just stared at him, shaking his head slightly while he chewed.
“Jesus fuck.” John rubbed his forehead. “Do I actually know more about your girlfriend than you do?”
“Ex-girlfriend.”
“And this is fuckin’ why, man! This shit right here is why she cheated on you.”
Adam looked down at his plate. “Doesn’t excuse it.” he grunted.
“No! But it explains it though!” John took a breath and cooled down. “She didn’t just do this ‘just because’, brother. She had a reason, even if that reason wasn’t good enough. I mean, how much leave did you have saved up? Sixty days? Use it or lose it, right? I remember, the major had to order us to take leave time.”
“Yeah but, ramping down and coming back up on the training takes a month each! That would have put us behind-”
“Adam.” John sighed. “I’m not telling you if you were right or wrong not to take leave. I’m telling you why it happened, and what more you could have done. That’s all. You could have taken more leave, you could have spent more time with her, you could have actually taken an interest. You didn’t do any of those things and… well, this happened. She’s the one who did it, but you’ve gotta ask why she felt she had to. Right?”
Not wanting to admit out loud that he was probably right, Adam forced himself to shut up and think, rather than argue any more.
He kept to himself for the next couple of hours as the rest of the guys woke up, and as the morning routine of keeping the dorm clean and tidy unfolded—necessary, because it would have reeked of male musk, body odour and sweat otherwise—the simple chores gave his mind time to work.
For their part, the guys clearly sensed that he wasn’t in a talkative mood, and were cool with that. They were just there, solid and dependable and giving him exactly what he needed—room and quiet to think. He appreciated that hugely.
They were in the middle of hanging out the laundry when the dorm’s phone rang. Akiyama fielded it.
“Yo, Horse! Call from gate guard for ya!”
Adam and Base shared a frown, and he jogged over to take the call. “Arés.”
“Staff Sergeant, I have a gentleman here asking for you by name. He says it’s important. Name of Harvey, Sean Harvey.”
“Turn him away.” Adam told them.
“He says, uh… He says ‘Ava’s gone missing’, sergeant.”
Adam must have paused for longer than he thought, because the next word he heard was “…Sergeant?”
”…I’ll be right there.”
He notified REBAR of where he was going and jogged the few hundred meters over to the main gates. Sure enough, Sean was loitering at the guard post, pacing nervously.
Adam didn’t waste time on being nice. “What do you want?”
“She’s just… gone. She went to see your dad last night and now she’s… nobody knows where she is.” Sean explained. “I’m kinda worried she might…”
“Shut up.”
Adam spun away from him, and was halfway back to the gates when Sean spoke up. “This is why she did it, you know!”
Adam didn’t turn around, but he did stop. “Do you even care about her?” He asked. “Or did you just wanna get your dick wet?”
“Do YOU care about her?” Sean retorted. “Or just about your fucking territory?”
Several hundred pounds of angry SOR operator was in his face half a second later. To Sean’s credit, he did little more than rock back on his heels. He was shaking, but he held his own. “You’re just going to walk away and let her be missing?”
“I was going,” Adam snarled, “to request leave to go look for her.”
“Sergeant?” The guards had stepped forward, cautiously. “Break it up, please.”
“You know where she is?” Sean asked, ignoring them.
Adam didn’t ignore them. He straightened. “What the fuck makes you think you have a right to know?” he asked.
“Because I’m her bloody friend you giant pillock!” Sean snapped.
Adam’s fist clenched. “Friend?” he asked. “Is that what you call it?”
“Yes!”
“Sergeant…” The gate guards had drawn closer. “Break it up, please.”
Adam spared them a sideways glance, then very, very carefully relaxed his hand before he aimed a finger at Sean’s face. “You don’t get shit from me, Harvey.” he growled. “She can tell you herself where she got to, after I’ve gone and got her. Fuck her, fuck you, and fuck off.”
He stalked back through the gates, back to the dorm, and right up to REBAR, who’d taken over as their NCOIC since they’d lost Legsy. “Requesting leave.” he said, getting right to the point.
REBAR blinked at him. “Dude, you could have just told the gate guard.”
“Yeah just… I’ma be gone all day. Wanted to grab some stuff and tell you in person.”
REBAR gave him a hug. “Okay brother. You go do what you gotta.”
Adam just nodded and gave him a weak smile. He spun round the dorm, grabbing his light ruck from under his bunk to throw in a couple of pouches of juice, an old sweater of his that he never wore any longer on account of it being much too small, two bags of beef jerky and a small first-aid kit.
He changed his footwear too. He usually wore flip-flops or went barefoot around the base—boots and shoes were too expensive and broke too quickly between the size of his feet, his own mass and his tendency to bounce around rather than lumber. His hiking sandals, on the other hand, had taken everything he could throw at them for two years.
A couple more essentials, including his phone, and he was back out of the gate less than ten minutes after he’d sent Sean packing. He hung an immediate left, followed the fence around two sides of the base and then set out through the young broad-leaf plantation that came right up as close as the foresters were allowed.
It was exactly what he needed. Adam had never been the kind of guy who did his greatest thinking in a quiet room at the best of times, and five years in the service had only strengthened the connection between his muscles and his brain. It was almost like one couldn’t work properly unless the other was busy.
Sure, a simple steady hike—even at the hard pace he set—through gently sloping woodland wasn’t exactly taxing, but it was enough to settle his body into a rhythm and let his brain get down to business.
Anybody coming back down the trail would have been a little alarmed to run into a guy who put pro wrestlers to shame talking angrily to himself. He spent the first two miles aggressively rehearsing all the ways he was going to tell Ava off. Then he spent the next two miles telling himself off, rehearsing ways to reconcile, rehearsing her side of the argument.
When he did eventually run into somebody, it was an elderly couple out walking their dog, probably from one of the little peripheral forest communities. Folctha had attracted a lot of them—elderly couples and early retirees wanting a place where their pensions would go further, a nudist camp, the odd religious commune kept under close scrutiny by Cimbrean Colonial Security in case they started showing any cultish behaviour, or just second homes owned by hard-working Reclamation Project workers and Folctha city employees who wanted somewhere quiet to retreat to for the weekend.
He saw them long before they were in earshot, shut up, met them with a polite touch to his forehead and a “Sir. Ma’am.” and ignored the stares. People around Folctha were pretty used to the SOR, but these two had clearly never met one of the Operators before. Their reaction was pretty standard for first-timers.
The contact was enough to shut him up for the rest of the walk, or at least turn his thought process into a steady mill of ideas being worked over internally, rather than a crazy person shouting at trees. He was almost in a positive mood when he finally reached the point where the trail branched, leading off in one direction toward Scrap Point, a research outpost dedicated to diving the alien spaceship wreckage on the lake bed. The other way went down to Sara’s Beach, a public recreation spot that was actually a good kilometre or so from the spot that he personally thought of as Sara’s beach, but much more accessible.
He followed the second trail until it intersected the paved road and, rather than hanging a right and walking down to the lake shore as the trail signs directed, instead crossed straight over and plunged on into the woods.
The ecological calamity that the Cimbrean Reclamation Project insisted on calling “The Terran Microbe Action Zone” (and which the colonists knew rather less formally as “The Skidmark”) hadn’t ever reached out this far, and so none of the native flora had been felled. It was still being steadily and relentlessly choked out by the Earthling imports, but that was all part of the plan. First had come logging everything within ten kilometers of the Zone, replanting and populating with species imported from Earth, and that was it. The natural aggressiveness and biological advantage of Deathworld life was being left to do the rest.
The result was a confused boundary zone where imported broadleaf trees gave way to a tangle of Earth and Cimbrean flora, the latter steadily dying back as the former out-grew them, shaded them over, guzzled the soil nutrients and, in a lot of cases, parasitized them.
And then… nothing but natives. Native trees, native bird-ish things and mammal-ish things and other life forms that were, for the most part, surprisingly ordinary looking. The bird-ish things had mouths with teeth rather than beaks, and the mammal-ish things were covered in something that was more like moss than like fur or wool, and of course the universal constant in Cimbrean fauna was three eyes… but nothing that actually looked amazingly exotic. Just life, getting on with the business of living and oblivious to the creeping extinction only a hundred yards away.
There was even a stand of Cimbreaner Simiscamellia Delanii, the Cimbrean Tea Bush. It was growing not even twenty yards away from a thorny, berry-laden snarl of Terraner Rubus Fruticosus. The botanists had decided very early on that in order to remain sensible and useful, the taxonomic system of classification needed to be amended to include, above the Domain level, the Planet rank.
Adam had to admit. Cimbrean was still beautiful.
He heard Ava long before he saw her. He could hear her voice between the trees and bushes, talking to somebody. He had no idea who—Sean hadn’t mentioned anybody else being missing and people never came this far along the shore from Sara’s Beach…
She turned out to be talking to herself. She was right where he’d known she would be—seated on the same old rock where she’d always sat, facing out toward the same view with her clothes folded neatly on the stone next to her, resting with her elbows and her knees, looking down at her feet.
She flinched when she realized somebody was there, then relaxed when she saw who it was.
”…Hey.”
Adam blinked. He hadn’t foreseen that she’d be nude. “You uh… Did you swim?”
“No I didn’t swim.” she shook her head. “I just… I’m more comfortable this way up here.”
She leaned over and grabbed her t-shirt.
“Aren’t you cold?” he asked.
She flapped the shirt to get it the right way out. “Kinda, but… It’s not too bad.”
“Who were you talking to, anyway?” Adam asked her. There was nobody else present.
“This is going to sound really stupid…” Ava’s face went a little red as she tugged her shirt on and covered up.
“What?”
”…I was talking to Sara.”
Adam hesitated, then gently rested a concerned hand on her upper back. “Baby…”
The term of endearment surprised him. After everything, after learning what she’d done, his first instinct was still to be tender and to love her?
“I know.” Ava nodded, and rubbed her face. “I know she’s dead, I know. It’s stupid, I just-”
“She was fourteen, Ava.” Adam sat down. “Maybe not the best source of life wisdom, you know?”
Ava sobbed a laugh, and they sat together in silence for a long time. Not touching, but close.
“I brought some juice. And, uh, a sweater. And stuff.” Adam handed her the bag. A tiny grateful smile put in a cameo appearance as she dug out one of the juice pouches and the sweater, which she shrugged on. She must have been colder than she’d realized.
“I should probably have told somebody where I was going, huh?” she asked.
“Sean was worried for you.”
“And he went to you?”
“Yeah. He’s got balls, I’ll give him that.”
Ava didn’t answer. Instead, she impaled the juice pouch with a straw and drained it.
”…What were you talking to Sara about, anyway?” Adam asked her once she’d finished.
Ava glanced at him, then down at her bare feet. “You know what’s really stupid?” She asked. “Like, really, really, ‘what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-me’ stupid?”
She looked at him again. “You explained everything perfectly yesterday. You put it totally into perspective. I get it, I get just how badly I fucked up, and still there’s this bitch voice in the back of my head that wants me to believe… that’s trying to tell me I did nothing wrong.” She looked out over the lake. “I was trying to get rid of it.”
“By talking to Sara?”
She nodded, miserably picking at a fingernail. “Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, does it?”
He shook his head gently. “Not really.”
“Nothing makes sense.”
Adam mulled that comment over.
“No…” he decided. “Things do make sense. You know what the weirdest part of all this is?”
“What?”
“If you’d just… told me, or asked me…fuck! I might even have been okay with it! Because I get it, I understand, you put it perfectly yesterday too. I married the Air Force first.” He sighed. “But instead you lied to me, Ava. For… what, two years?”
“About that.” she agreed, nodding sadly.
“I get that I was neglecting you,” Adam told her. “I get that I was making decisions for us both without consulting you. Hell, I get that he was… probably good for you! What I Just. Don’t. Get. is why you couldn’t be straight with me?” He wiped his own eyes off. “For God’s sake, yeah, breaking up with me would have hurt, but this?”
Ava, who usually shed tears so easily, seemed to have run out. Or maybe she’d just gone somewhere past them, where they were no longer relevant. Either way, her face was a mask of dry despondency.
“Why, Ava?”
”…I’ve been asking myself that question all morning.”
“And?”
“And… I really thought I was doing it for you. Charlotte said it was because I was lonely and horny, but… But I can remember thinking ‘it’s this or I lose him,’ and…” she exhaled and ran three fingers through her hair. “It’s so stupid. I’m so stupid. If I hadn’t got so hung up on holding on to the past, at least I’d still have my integrity, you know? But because I got it in my head I was doing it for you, I went and did completely the wrong thing.”
Adam stood up. “I thought I was doing this for you!” he told her, gesturing at the full, hugely-muscled mass of himself. “But you said it last night: You didn’t want or need me to do this, and I sure as fuck didn’t want or need you to cheat on me…”
He sat down again. “Maybe we both need to stop believing our own bullshit.” he concluded.
Ava just stared at him, so he sighed and elaborated.
“I thought I was doing this to protect you.” He said. “Really I did, I was convinced. But you’re right, if I’d really been acting for you, then… hell, I’d probably have gone into Colonial Security and been there for you every night, and… Instead I just got caught up in this. I was angry and grieving over Sara, I wanted to fight back, and then it turned out I’m good at fighting back. The best maybe!”
He looked out across the lake, choosing his words. “Do you know what it’s like to get pulled along into something like that? Where everything just lines up and you’d never even think of slowing down or stopping because it just feels right? Because you’re enjoying it so much you don’t ever want it to end?”
Ava nodded. “You feel like you’re taking back your life.” She agreed.
“Right.”
“You feel like you’re in control but really you’re strapped in for the ride but because you’ve got a wheel in your hands you don’t notice you’re not doing the steering.”
“Right!”
”…That’s how it was for me, too.” she said.
”…Do you think that’s the truth?” Adam asked her. “Or is it just more bullshit we’re inventing to make ourselves feel better?”
Ava paused. “…I…think it’s the truth.” she said. “Or at least… I hope it is…”
She trailed off, then spread her arms helplessly. “I don’t know any more. I spent all this time trying to do the right thing, and did completely the wrong thing instead. I don’t… I don’t know if I can trust what’s in my head.”
“Then how can I trust you?” Adam asked.
Ava didn’t answer, just stared despairingly at the water. A couple of minutes elapsed in mutual silence, before she finally spoke, quietly.
“We’re done, aren’t we?”
Adam nodded and stood up. “I love you, Ava.” he said. “But there’s just no… I can’t.”
“I know…” She looked up at him, grief and remorse written in every nuance of her expression. “I’m so sorry, Adam.”
”…I’m sorry too.”
He turned his back on her, and started back up the trail.
Date Point 10y2m2w1d AV Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Earth.
Xiù Chang
White.
White and beeping.
And sort of a soft blue. Greens, too. Hints of scarlet light, and a click-hiss valve noise that corresponded to a strange pressure in her chest.
Blink. Frown. Focus.
A question floated across her mind in three languages: Where yi nǎlǐ?
That wasn’t right. Wǒ kin I? Shi am nǎlǐ?
So hard to think. She tried to take a calming breath, clear her head, and something started to make an alarming sound.
“Xiù? Xiù! Nurse? Nurse help!”
…Purple? Moving purple, and dark skin, and a soothing tone, like Ayma comforting a wailing cub.
“It’s okay, it’s okay… she’s just awake, it’s okay. Shhh, darling. Don’t fight the ventilator, it’s okay. It’s okay, you’re safe.”
Xiù? What was a Xiù?
Oh.
Right.
…
Nurse.
Ventilator.
Hospital.
Earth.
So hard to think but… those strangers by her bedside. The tiny elderly woman in tears. The skinny old balding man holding her hand with stress plowing his forehead. The tall fat man behind them with his hands on their…
No. No no no, that was wrong! She didn’t have a big brother! Her parents weren’t-
“Okay honey, shhh… calm now… I’m sorry, this is really distressing her, we’d better put her under again… It’s okay darling, you’re just not ready yet… It’s okay…”
Something in her left hand. Something that made all the wrong go away.
Something that…
Something…
…
White.
And… colours. Cards, by her bed. “Get Well Soon!” “We missed you!” “Welcome home!”
There was no beeping, this time. No hissing or clicking, nothing in her throat doing her breathing for her. Just… yes, a drip in her hand, and darkness outside the window. Warm yellow light through a slightly ajar door, admitting hushed conversation.
Xiù sat up, cautiously. She was alone, she had time to gather her thoughts, assess the situation.
Fact check. She was in a hospital, with a drip in her hand. The gravity felt normal. The air had a certain… richness to it, warm and nourishing. She couldn’t tell what the voices outside were saying—their volume was much too tactful for that—but the cadences sounded English.
She carefully selected the right word. “…Hello?”
The conversation outside ceased, and then there were brisk footsteps, a rustle of scrubs, and a middle-aged nurse poked her head round the door.
Her face lit up on seeing Xiù. “Oh! Hi!”
Xiù froze, having not planned the conversation this far ahead. “…Hi. Uh…”
“Oh it’s okay honey, you’re a bit disoriented right now, eh?”
“A-a little.” Xiù nodded. “…I’m in Vancouver?”
“Yep!” The nurse patted the bed “I’m Liz. Am I okay to sit down?”
“S-sure.”
Liz did so, settling comfortably next to her. “You and your friends made a stir when you showed up! You especially.”
“I-I did?”
“Oh! Where are my-? I’m sorry, can I get you something, sweetie? No solids until the doctor says otherwise, but I could call up for some soup?”
”…Actually, that’d be really nice. Yes please.”
“Okay. You’ll be okay for a few seconds?”
Xiù nodded for her, and managed a little smile.
Liz wasn’t long. Xiù heard her feet in the hall, a quick conversation, and she returned in only a minute or two. Still, it was long enough for Xiù to sort out her head and think through the most pressing questions she had.
“So.” Liz said, bustling back in. “Where were we?”
“Are my friends okay?” Xiù asked her. “Julian and Allison?”
“They’re fine. They’re asleep right now, but they’re just fine. You had the worst of it, actually.”
“I did?”
Liz gestured with her hand, raising her left arm and touching a spot on her ribs, with an expression hinting for Xiù to do the same. When she did, there was a dressing there. “You’ve been asleep for about three days.” Liz told her. “There were a couple of operations. Doctor Spilny will explain it all in the morning.”
“Can I see them?”
“In the morning sweetie. You’re all pretty badly hurt, you need to rest.”
Liz’s tone was kindly and comforting, but firm enough to convince Xiù she wouldn’t get her way there.
She looked at the cards on her bedside again. “We caused a stir?”
“Especially you! Vancouver’s own prodigal daughter, gone these ten years, and-”
“Ten years?!” Xiù’s hand flew to her face in shock. “How long were we-? Uh, right… the escape pod… Stasis…”
“Oh, I’m sorry, sweetie, that just came out. I’m sorry.” Liz soothed.
“No, it’s okay… I knew it was going to be about that, but…” Xiù rubbed her face. It didn’t help. Her hands were shaking, so were her shoulders, and there was an urgent heat coming up from deep inside her, behind her eyes…
Liz, demonstrating the sixth sense of mothers and nurses the world over, pulled her into a hug before the tears even arrived, and let her get it out of her system.
“I’m home… God, I made it, I’m home…”
“Yes you did.”
Xiù disengaged gently and sat up, wiping her cheeks. “…Sorry.”
“Don’t even apologise to me, sweetie. It’s okay.” Liz smiled warmly, and indicated that Xiù’s soup had arrived sometime while she hadn’t been paying attention. Xiù didn’t need prompting—she scooped it up and, after a tentative sip to make sure it wasn’t too hot, devoured the lot.
It wasn’t the greatest soup ever. But it was warm, it was comforting, it was chicken—and it was amazing how many things in the galaxy didn’t taste like chicken—and it lasted maybe thirty seconds.
“Whew!” Liz made an appreciative noise. “You needed that, eh?”
“Oh God yes.” Xiù wiped a little from the corners of her mouth, trying not to be embarrassed.
“Do you think you can sleep some more? You really should.”
It surprised Xiù to note that she was in fact feeling exhausted. Hadn’t she been asleep for a few days? But Liz’s suggestion actually sounded really good right now.
“I’ll… yeah, I think I can.” She said.
“Okay. We’ll be just outside if you need anything. Call if you need anything.”
Xiù promised that she would and settled back onto her pillow. Liz fussed gently in making sure she was properly tucked in, then bade her goodnight and left, leaving the door open.
That left only the ceiling in the dim light, and one thought, as Xiù fell asleep:
‘I’m home…’