It Must Have Been A Monday

[nightbeatcop.livejournal.com]

Elisa came awake all at once, woken by some internal alarm, shrill and indefatigable. She'd done this before— woken up in the hospital, drugged and groggy, but usually it happened slowly, like floating to the surface of some deep pool of water.

The blanket was too warm, but her midsection ached like—

...like a wolf had...

Elisa focused and found her gaze stuck on the meaty ceiling of the med bay, and the slow pulse of her plantsuit around the tender places and bruises. So, it wasn't a dream?

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

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[nightbeatcop.livejournal.com]

Maybe they did, or maybe they didn't— or it could be that it takes a while to come into effect. Elisa could as easily be frustrated with the slime, the nakedness, the near-death and his hovering, almost-worshipful attitude. As if he hadn't seen her for months.

It was all a huge reminder of the possibility that all this was real, and the entire world had been... Elisa wasn't coping particularly poorly, but she certainly wasn't doing well.

"Fine," she sighed and settled back to just...letting him hang on to her. For a moment she seemed ready to muster the anger again, but it came out in the fear of a child, "This...is it all for real?"

[not_the_philistine]

"I am afraid so."

Perhaps Goliath is just being paranoid. Perhaps he's unsettled because this isn't at all what he wanted for their reunion - no, that's a certainty.

Regardless, she is the one who has suffered today, and this conversation will get worse before it gets better.

"Elisa - no one knows more than I the pain of losing your world." He squeezes her hand, gently. "But this is not the end. Your presence here proves that I was right, that the Ohm would not have taken one of us and left the rest behind. Our friends - your family - they are still alive. And for them, we must not give up hope."

This is a battle and they have woken up to it. She's a fighter - she will fight, to protect her sleeping loved ones, with him.

Surely.