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Butterflies	By : Esequell Category: 1 through F > Alien (All Movies) > Alien (All Movies) Views: 9166 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Prometheus and I'm not making any money from this (though I'm enjoying myself IMMENSELY!)

Chapter List
- 1-Butterflies
- 2-Unfoldment
- 3-Emergence
- 4-Wings
- 5-Waves
- 6-Caged
- 7-Unbalanced
- 8-Air
- 9-Flight
- 10-Dust
- 11-Grounded
- 12-Aliens
- 5
- 6
- 7
6. Caged
The blue supergiant sun sank behind Anatak. The Polar Observatory cut her lights. Blackout blinds were drawn. Twin telescopic irises pinned and focused, their attention on distant regions of unmapped space, hardlines fizzing with incoming data, feeding an intricate neural net with enough information to keep the researchers happy for another day. David tilted back his head. The manufactured wind, blowing from vents embedded deep on the outer rim, ruffled warm fingers through his hair. In the shadow of Anatak, the darkness was near absolute, broken only by a swipe of stars, like liquid diamond slashed across a velvet drape. Beautiful. David could see the shadows cast by blades of grass even in the dark. The exquisite detail of alien ships moored on the rim.
He smiled at the sky, at peace. Remembering. He pressed the sensor on the hallway panel to unmist the walls. The house transformed into a glass box. He padded silently into Shaw's bedroom. She slept soundly, sprawled like a starfish. For a luxuriant moment he admired her dark crescent eyelashes. The planes of her face. The curve of her bare shoulder.
'David?' she sounded confused. 'Have you been watching me?'
'Did I wake you?'
'Yes,' she murmured.
He left his chair and settled on the edge of her bed.
'I'm sorry,' he said gently. 'You mumble in your sleep, Doctor. Were you dreaming?'
'Yes. David-' she tugged him down by his collar. 'Just come here. Please?'
He sank into the pillows slowly, like a languid creature intent on the enjoyment of every moment. He memorised her. The smell of her hair as she turned and embraced him. The way her breathing evened out. The way her little hands relaxed.
'David,' she whispered, just a breath against his chest. Then she was gone, her eyelids flickering rapidly in the onset of REM sleep.
In the distance, his favourite constellation made its interstellar leap into the sky. He fancied it looked like a mermaid. Or perhaps an angel. His embrace tightened, but Shaw was too far gone to appreciate its meaning.
000
Sinashi got into his first fight with the neighbour's son. Their argument ended with a black eye and a split lip. Shaw grabbed him by the shoulder.
'Stop it, Sinashi!' she yelled.
With a single, savage shrug he dislodged her hand and turned his black eyes on her in fury. His lips curled back in simple, open warning.
'Don't you dare growl at me!' she snapped.
'ENOUGH!' Atri's voice cut through Shaw's secret pain. He threw his trowel at the dirt. It lodged there like a knife. He strode at them with a muttered curse.
'Get up,' he snapped at the boys.
Reluctantly, Sinashi did as he was told. He wiped the blood off his lip.
'Look at your Mother, boy!'
Sinashi did. Shaw hid her tears behind her hand, ineffectually.
'Go home,' Atri turned his attention on the smaller lad. 'Tell your Mother what you've done. I'll be checking.'
Sinashi bared his teeth in fury. Atri growled a low, warning rumble. It wasn't a joke. When Sinashi failed to show his submission to Atri's challenge for dominance, the big mans jaw clicked forward. His glassy incisors flashed in a threat display that Sinashi understood perfectly. The boy broke eye contact first. Atri's face morphed back to normality.
'Real men help each other,' Atri said evenly. 'Idiots fight. Are you an idiot, boy?'
Sinashi didn't answer.
'Answer me!'
'No,' Sinashi said.
'One day you'll be as strong as me. You better learn to hold that temper, or your Mother will cry more. And so will I.'
'Real men don't cry!' Sinashi bit.
Atri knelt in front of him. He pointed to Sinashi's eyes.
'Don't they?'
Atri brushed it away, his hand far more gentle than his voice. Shaw raked her fingers through her hair.
'You owe your Mother your apology.'
Sinashi knew better than to argue. This time. He turned to Shaw and whispered it to her belly. Shaw let him run off. She folded her arms, uncomfortable.
'I can't believe how strong he is,' she whispered. 'Jesus.'
Atri stood. 'Igogi boys are. When I was his age I could throw my Brother across the yard. Wait until he comes of age. Suddenly he'll treble in size and before you know it, he'll be a mass of muscle who can't control is anger.'
Shaw shook her head.
'I don't know what to do. We thought he'd be better off in here. I think...I've isolated him for too long.'
'You have,' Atri said bluntly. 'He needs other boys. When I'm not here I help run a centre for lads. It keeps the scientist's kids out of harms way, and it keeps me busy. Sinashi would fit right in. He'll soon find his place in the pecking order.'
Shaw hesitated.
'At least come and have a look around?'
Shaw put her eyes on the sky.
'Alright,' she conceded. 'I...I don't want him to be violent. But...he's picking it up all by himself. Where does he get it from? David's never taught him that.'
'Don't look at me,' Atri held his hands up in amused surrender. 'I never taught him to fight. It's in his blood. He knows it, deep down. He has to be the best. The strongest. Or he'll never get the house, the girl, the job. It's innate. Our genetic memory runs strong, Eli. It's caused the Igogi problems in the past. At one point, aggression was coded into us deliberately.'
'That isn't very comforting,' she managed a tight smile.
Atri smiled guiltily.
'He can learn to control it. I did.'
000
Atri swept Sinashi onto his shoulders. Shaw followed, roasting in the Observatory's artificial summer. Sinashi smirked at other boys as they passed, pleased to have Atri's undivided attention. He rustled the leaves above him and plucked two handfuls to toss at his Mother. Shaw laughed and threw some back.
'I could do with some of that,' Shaw smiled quietly to David. She'd woken that morning in his arms after the deepest sleep she'd had in weeks. She felt bright. 'What do you think, David? Want to give me a ride?'
'I'm afraid we'd make quite a spectacle of ourselves,' David smirked.
Shaw hooked her arm through his. It was bare to the bicep. She liked his warmth. Her pupil's dilated. Just a fraction. Enough for him to notice. Heat crept up his spine. He marvelled at its crystalline perfection. All his. Her dark eyes sparkled. He mused on how beautiful she was, especially when she smiled. He stuck close to her, delighted by the flat of her palm on his wrist.
Atri brought them to a complex. It was made of twelve domed towers, like unnaturally pert breasts aligned in rows. There was a garden and a field. A small group of boys sat outside, discussing a game animatedly. Another bounced a small, leathery ball and took a pot-shot at a target. He missed. It smelled of toasted bread inside and reminded Shaw of a day care centre she'd been forced to attend after her Father's untimely death.
The biggest boy looked Sinashi up and down. Sinashi bore his scrutiny. The boy poked him in the chest.
'Weed!' he laughed.
Sinashi bowed his head in clean, evident shame. When the older boy smiled triumphantly, Sinashi smacked him hard around the face and pointed a finger at his nose. The gesture was clear enough. Enough of that. Shaw found herself unnaccountably proud, despite her dislike of his violent tendency.
'He's a strong one,' Atri smiled lopsidedly. 'Go on, lad, show 'em who's boss.'
Shaw chewed her lip as Sinashi walked away. She went outside, her lungs closing. David followed.
'Are you alright, Elizabeth?'
'I'm fine,' she whispered, as she leaned her head on the railing. It started. Chest tight, breathing frantic. She tried to calm down, keep it together but her panic escalated, pushed on by knowing she'd brought her son to the very culture which had created a rapist. Shaw grabbed for David, her knees gone. She clutched him. Atri appeared in the doorway.
'Eli-' he rumbled his concern.
'I'm fine,' Shaw gasped for air.
'You most definitely aren't fine, Elizabeth,' David held the bag tightly. 'I need to take her home. Will you bring Sinashi back later?'
Atri nodded. David lifted Shaw and carried her through the heat to the nearest hoverpod station.
000
David lowered her into bed. The paper bag was still crumpled in her hand. She put her head on David's shoulder and closed her eyes against the world. So comforting. He made her lay down, his hands gentle.
'I'm pathetic,' Shaw confessed, her lip wobbling. She chewed it to keep from crying.
'You're human,' he said mildly.
Her eyes were full of tears.
'I used to be so strong!'
'You're still strong.'
She reined in her tears.
'If you were human...it'd be different.'
David wasn't sure what to make of the feeling inside him. Was it excitement? Apprehension? Grief?
'Different?' he covered her up. 'How?'
Shaw bit her lip. She sat up suddenly and kissed him, brief, sweet and gentle. He held her face and watched her organic eyes. She kissed him again. His skin sensitized. He made a soft, eager noise, his hands tightening on her possessively. His heart ignited for her, burning brightly, straining his processors, interrupting normal functions.
'Elizabeth-' he pressed his forehead to hers.
Shaw wound her arms around his neck. She tugged him down. His heart thumped. Delighted, confused, afraid, excited. All impossible. His eyelids fluttered closed. She shared her open mouth with him, slowly and then with more urgency. He hardened, his synthetic nerves firing pleasure signals. His heart pounded. Lines of code he hadn't known existed began to scroll faster and faster. He arched into her touch.
Shaw tugged at his shirt and he shed it for her. Her hands were all over him instantly. He squirmed, his mouth open in shock. Her nimble fingers went to work on his bottom half and suddenly, she took him into her mouth. She sucked him. She used her tongue, licking and coaxing until he bucked his hips helplessly. He buried his hands in her hair and encouraged her until the code was going so fast he couldn't read it. Something was growing inside him.
'David, I want to-' she stopped, bit her lip. She took him in her hand. 'Can we?'
'Of course.'
Tentatively he rubbed his thumbs along the inside of her thighs. He'd thought he might think only of the operation. Of removing the sticky, rotten mass from her ruined womb. He didn't. She was pink, new, beautiful. Whole. Amazing. She was no longer the sum of her parts. No longer blood, flesh and bone. Not to him. There was something that only shone through her eyes and her smile that he needed to possess.
'David?' she bit her lip, afraid. 'Am I...OK?'
He realised that she was worried about her appearance.
'You're beautiful,' he smiled. 'Rather too perfect, actually.'
She reached for him, pulled him down on top of her.
'Do you...know how?' she asked softly.
'I've read extensively, Doctor,' he smiled. 'But I've never. Tried this. First hand. Not with a human anyway.'
Shaw gazed into his eyes. There was no hint of his artificial nature there.
'Like this,' she breathed.
She guided him gently into her body, wrapped her legs around him and drew him in. David made a strange, strangled noise of shock as her body enfolded him. White light shot up his spine.
'Oh God, David-' it spilled from her lips unexpectedly, making him fizzle inside. 'Move your hips...in and out!'
He followed her instruction. Once he'd started he didn't want to stop. She was whimpering, grabbing him, her nails scratching his synthetic skin, her mouth open, flushed pink down to her perfect breasts. He buried his nose in her neck, breathed in her scent.
She tightened around him. He groaned, his teeth grazing the skin of her throat. Her insides squeezed, and this time the feeling took him. She yelled suddenly, arched. Then the building light exploded and for a single, glorious moment he was completely free. His mind, untethered. He floated, eyes closed in a sea of brilliance while his processors cleared and restarted. When he opened his eyes his arms had locked and Elizabeth was panting beneath him. He was still sheathed in her body and sheened with sweat.
'Did I hurt you?' he whispered.
'No,' she clung to him. 'David...I always wondered if you could do that.'
'My Weyland intended me to be..indistinguishable from a real man.'
He moved off her carefully. Shaw rolled into him. He stroked lazy fingers up and down her back.
'Did you...wonder...aboard the Prometheus?' he couldn't help himself.
'Yes,' she nodded. 'I don't understand how a man like Weyland could have made someone like you.'
David's face registered sweet, blissful surprise.
'Someone,' he whispered it back, his throat full. A tear dropped onto her face. 'Thank you.'
Shaw closed her eyes and cuddled closer.
'Stay with me,' she breathed to him.
000
Shaw opened her eyes. She could hear Sinashi playing outside. David was gone, just an indentation left over where he'd lain. He'd risen recently. The sheets were still warm, bunched up around her. She was slippery and satisfied. She found David in the kitchen, methodically chopping vegetabes and piling them into a box for cooking. She slid onto her breakfast stool.
'Good evening, Doctor,' his smile contained a hint of secrecy, a measure of flirtation. It was a secret smile, just for her.
'I hope you washed your hands,' she quipped.
David laughed softly.
'As a matter of fact, I did.'
When had she stopped seeing him a robot, and started seeing a man? Why had it taken her so long to see how handsome he was?
'David. What are we going to do?'
David didn't stop chopping. He didn't look up.
'About Sinashi,' she finished.
There was a minute change in his posture that suggested relief.
'Though I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to, I expect it has something to do with his recent...behaviour.'
Shaw shook her head and smiled.
'Apparently it's normal here,' she said. 'I'm not even going into how many ways he isn't normal.'
David smirked to himself and put the tray in the oven. Shaw sought his eyes.
'He's got to fit in, David. Whether I like it or not. Whatever fitting in means.'
David contemplated that.
'Perhaps we should ask Sinashi what he wants.'
Shaw flushed pink. She hadn't even thought of that. David emptied the peel into the waste disposal. Shaw eased closer. David felt her warmth at his back. He smiled and turned to embrace her warmly.
'David-' she said his name somewhat playfully.
She stood on tip-toes for a kiss. David bent his head and met her mouth with his. When he hardened she smiled against his lips and brushed her hand over his bulge. He pressed closer, charmed, fascinated by this newfound closeness.
'How strong are you?' she whispered.
'What would you like me to do?' his arched eyebrows and wide grin suggested he was eager, whatever it was.
'Hold me against the wall.'
'Certainly,' he nodded. 'Now?'
'Later,' she bit her lip. Then she added softly; 'I want to look forward to it.'
She strolled into the garden. He had to wait for his erection to go down before he could follow her.
Outside, Sinashi had found out how to use wind and strength to fire the arrow straight. He hit the yellow marker, not far from the bullseye. Shaw crept up behind him. She saw his ear twitch and knew she'd been discovered. He dropped the bow and put his arms aorund her neck with a grin. She hugged him. He was getting big. Far too heavy to pick up easily, though David could still manage it.
'Well done,' she smiled, stroking his smooth white cheek. He grinned. 'When you hit the bullseye, I'm going to get you a treat. What do you think?'
Sinashi nodded eagerly.
'Sinashi,' she said softly, 'David and I were wondering, if you wanted to spend some more time at the centre?'
Sinashi's dark blue eyes flicked up the David.
'Atri says they have archery classes.'
Sinashi thought about it.
'We'll still teach you at home,' she said. 'For now. Unless...school?'
'I don't want to go to school,' he said evenly.
Sinashi glanced at David.
'Because you don't like being told what to do,' Shaw teased him kindly.
Sinashi gave her a sly little grin.
'You don't have to go,' David said. 'It was only a suggestion.'
'I want to go with Atri,' he said then. 'I want to be a pilot.'
Shaw had to struggle to keep her surprise and dread hidden.
'Oh,' Shaw said softly. She faked a smile quickly. 'That's good. But you know...you might find something else.'
'No,' Sinashi said. 'I won't.'
000
Shaw's bare toes brused the blood-red grass from the edge of a public bench made for much bigger bottoms. She'd seen this park from the hoverpod network but she'd never had the nerve to come down here. Sinashi played with an older boy and a girl on the edge of maturity. Huge white bodies passed to and fro. Shaw wasn't comfortable. She began to regret leaving David in the upper town. He was only a few minutes away but she wondered if she had a paper bag around, just in case.
Then a shadow covered her. Shaw seized in terror, trying to control the oncoming panic but it was only Atri. He foded himself into the seat. Even sitting down he was still a good head taller than she. He held out both hands in a gesture of peace.
'Chill,' he smiled.
'You startled me,' she said.
'Sorry. David sent me down to check on you,' he leaned against the back of the bench. 'Listen. You're going to want to kick my ass for telling you this, but David told me what happened to you. You don't have to freak out every time I come near you.'
Shaw struggled with her panic.
'What did he tell you?'
Atri's eyes didn't waver. He had the look of a man who'd seen much but rarely chose to speak of it.
'That some spacejockey asshole raped you. That's Sinashi's Father.'
Shaw turned her face away.
'I'll kill him,' she murmured. 'The bloody bastard-'
'Well, forgive me an opinion, Eli...but the way I see it is pretty simple. If he hadn't raped you...you'd be dead.'
Shaw stared at him.
'The Igogi consider life sacred, or you'd be dead. There's no way the Council would have let an alien creature wander about the Observatory for no good reason bar your own...very human...curiosity. You were lucky. And unlucky.'
He gazed at Sinashi.
'Did I ever tell you what I did before I became a gardener?'
'No.'
'I was a consultant scientist for the military. I was deployed twice to assist on alien worlds, teaching advanced cultures how to build space craft and harness natural resources. For a while I worked as a researcher too, gathering data on worlds for terraforming. I got sick of the paperwork. The secrecy. I got sick of space. I got a job caring for sick kids. That's how I met David. He was on probation, a suspected spy. I managed to get an interview with him. He told me all about your escape. I admit I was a skeptic at first. But after a bit he managed to convince me that he was sentient. I took him to meet my kids, hoping he'd learn our culture from them. He did.'
'And now you plant our flowers?'
Atri smiled darkly.
'Yes. For the last two years I've planted your flowers. But for the first I was David's minder. His Igogi guide. I managed to convince Ninurta to give him a chance to integrate here. Then he wrote his book and the rest is history. I spent years around space-jockeys. They're drugged sky high to keep them alert and aggressive. Out in space there's no immediate law. Crimes are hard to detect, prove and punish. The man that raped you is not representative of our whole race. I'm not like that. So don't freak out. OK?'
For a time she wandered the rich, plump red grass at his side. Atri walked slowly, his pleated toga making soft noises as it conformed to his movements. He leaned his back against a huge, white tree and gazed over the park. Shaw sat on a root, tense, worried.
'You know,' he said lightly. He drew something out of his pocket. 'I came prepared.'
Shaw looked at what he offered to her. It was a paper bag. She laughed.
'Keep it. I might not need it,' she lied to herself.
Atri sat down beside her. Not too close, not too far.
'It must be strange for you. Do you miss your own planet?'
Shaw privately thought that her world had come with her on the Prometheus. How long had it been since she last thought of Charlie? A lance of guilt shot through her chest, worsened her anxiety.
'Sometimes I think about it. But Sinashi needs to be here. And I don't really have anything to go back for.'
Shaw gazed at the weird, bright white sky. Atri changed the subject;
'I thought you might like to know. There's a way to give Sinashi a normal life here, if you want?'
Shaw turned to him.
'What's normal?'
Atri shifted a bit uncomfortably.
'Well,' he said. 'He'll not grow to be as big as Igogi men. When he gets a bit older it'll start to show as other boys race ahead of him. Then he'll feel different.'
Shaw swallowed around a lump.
'And what do you suggest?'
'There's a stem cell treatment that would bring him closer to our genome than yours. I think he'd thank you for it, because if he wants to be a pilot, he's going to need to be as big as me.'
Shaw's saliva was thick in her mouth. She breathed out softly, controlled.
'You want to take away my genetic material, and replace it with Igogi DNA, so that my son can be less like me?'
Atri blinked once.
'It's up to you,' he said. 'But Sinashi deserves a normal life. Can you give it to him?'
Shaw shook her head. She rose quickly.
'I've heard enough,' she said. 'You've gotten far too close to this family.'
Atri gazed up at her from the ground. He sighed through his nose.
'Alright,' he said.
Shaw took a couple of steps away and bumped into a solid mass. An Igogi man pushed her and sent her sprawling. She blinked furiously, winded.
'Take your whore somewhere else!' the stranger snarled.
A big white hand sealed itself like a facehugger around her head. Then there was a thump, a grunt, and the hand released sharply. The stranger staggered back with black blood streaming from his nose. Atri snarled, his sharp teeth glittering. A low, warning thrum emanated from his chest. The Igogi weighed his chances of winning the fight and decided that though Atri wasn't that big, he was stronger. He cursed and backed off.
'Arrogant little shit,' Atri muttered, his hand on Shaw's shoulder protectively.
Shaw gripped her hip. It was bruised along with her elbows.
'Are you alright?' he asked.
Shaw glanced at his knuckles. There was Igogi blood on them. She wasn't sure whose.
'I'll live,' she nodded.
'Good,' Atri murmured.
Shaw tried to swallow her tears. Her body protested this treatment. She wasn't as young or as fit as she used to be. She kept her eyes down. Atri rubbed her back.
'Come on, let's find Sinashi.'
Sinashi was standing silently behind a tree, pointing his blunt arrow at Atri's bare belly. He fired it and Atri let it hit then tossed it back at him.
'Little shit,' he grunted, good-naturedly. Sinashi grinned, but then he saw his Mother's tears and suddenly he didn't seem so confident.
He caught her hand. His fingers were nearly as long as hers. Shaw tried to calm it, tried to relax. But then she started to gasp.
'David!' she yelped, as she stumbled. She gripped a tree root, her self control in tatters. Sinashi started to cry. It was the first time she'd seen him do that in ages.
'David-' it was little more than a whisper.
Sinashi backed into Atri's legs. Then he ran. Shaw tried to call him back but there was no air to use, she gasped, her vision fogging. She could hear Sinashi shouting frantically for David. Then Atri fished out the bag, opened it and sank beside her.
His hand was warm on the back of her head. She could feel her tears wetting her hair and face, soaking into the paper. She choked on her own air, and passed out in Atri's lap. He caught her, tilted her back. He touched her hair, fascinated by its softness and exquisite, alien beauty. He brushed a single fingertip along her nose, along her eyebrow. She was so beautiful. Her limp body was warm, soft. Then David came running, whatever he'd been upto in the market forgotten.
000
Shaw woke up in her bed, the drapes half drawn. David had put one of her favourite oils in the burner and left the door ajar. She could hear Sinashi downstairs, repeating the days learnings. She swung her legs out of bed. She stood up, and collapsed. The thump brough them all running. David found her there, a slumped, confused heap. He picked her up. His chest was warm, firm, familiar. She wanted to kiss him but Sinashi was watching. Atri put his hand on the boys head. He had to bend his elbow to do it.
Shaw flopped where David put her. She turned her face to him in mute shock at her own condition. His concern shone though his eyes.
'David-' her eyes went straight to Sinashi.
'It's alright now, Elizabeth,' David assured her. 'You've had a shock, that's all. Try to rest.'
She nodded, mutely.
'That's it,' David said gently, his rhythmic hand a singular comfort. 'That's it.'
When she opened her eyes again it was dark. The stars were out and the house was quiet. Beside her, David was curled up, his relaxed face pressed into a pillow.
'David,' she breathed his name. She needed the bathroom and she didn't trust her legs. He didn't stir. Shaw couldn't find the strength she needed. Something was wrong inside her. She tried to stand but her legs turned to jelly. She sank two steps from the bed with a cry of pain. David hurtled out of sleep.
'Elizabeth-' he threw the blankets off and came to pick her up. 'Why didn't you wake me.'
Shaw gripped his shoulders.
'Something's gone wrong inside me,' she whispered. 'David. Why can't I stand up? I can't walk!'
'I already ran a scan on you,' he assured her softly. 'While you were sleeping. There's nothing medically wrong with you. I'm afraid that this is more of a...mental...issue.'
'Are you saying I'm crazy?'
David thought about it as he helped her onto the toilet.
'That's one way to put it. I prefer to think of you as merely...damaged. For now.'
Shaw felt tears rising. David lowered her onto the loo and bent to look at her.
'We'll finish this conversation in a minute, shall we?'
She nodded gratefully.
'Call when you're ready.'
000
Shaw lay in bed. Sinashi sat beside her, his black eyes brooding.
'Father said Atri is going to be my tutor.'
'Did he,' Shaw managed to smile for her son. 'That's fine, love.'
Shaw tried to kiss him but a wave of nausea swept over her. In the end she tugged him down.
'You'll be bigger than me soon.'
Sinashi nodded. Then he looked at his hands.
'Why do you fall over so much?'
Shaw wasn't sure what to say.
'I-I don't know, Sinashi.'
'Father says you're depressed.'
Shaw bit her lip to keep from crying.
'Will you get better soon?' he asked softly.
She felt a tear slip down her face and swiped it away quickly. She smiled, even though it hurt.
'Very soon,' she promised.
'I don't want you to die.'
Shaw snapped like a dry reed. She hid her face behind her hand. This time Sinashi didn't back away. He put his bald head on her chest and hugged her. He was strong enough that he could slide his arms under her and not need her to lift her weight. She trembled, her whole body gone out of her control. Her boy breathed softly against her breast. She didn't know what to say.
When Sinashi had gone to the centre, David came in to offer her a shower. Her self respect already at zero, Shaw nodded wordlessly. He helped her out of her clothes and into the stall. The hot water cascaded down her back, washing away days of sweat, grime and despair. David reached around her, one hand holding her waist, for the soap.
'Relax, Elizabeth' he murmured. 'Trust me. It's going to be alright. I promise.'
He washed her, his movements slow and gentle, little circles on her skin. Shaw put her head on his shoulder. Her tears mingled with the water. He handed her sponge to wash her private parts, an act of understanding that strengthened her. Then he washed her hair, his fingers a steady, gentle pressure. He rinsed it, applied the odd gel she liked that made it soft, rinsed it again. Then he reached for a towel. He wrapped it around both of them in a moment of unexpected intimacy, his wet chest pressed to hers. His eyes were full of life. He gazed at her.
'David-' she breathed.
He kissed her gently, his lips soft, passionate.
'I don't know what's wrong with me,' she gripped his shoulders.
'Elizabeth-' he was close enough to kiss again. 'It would be difficult to find you a counsellor here. But...if you would like to talk to someone, I am qualified. Even though I appreciate I'm a little too close to the root of the problem.'
Shaw swallowed around a lump of grief. Tears squeezed out of the corners of her eyes. David sat her on the edge of the bed and dried her hair slowly, patiently. Then he slid a sleeping shirt over her body and held her. She trembled.
'Atri seems to care for you a great deal, Elizabeth,' David smoothed her damp hair. 'I wonder if you're running away from him the only way you know how.'
'Why would I want Atri when I have you?' she questioned him, small fingers playing idly with his hair.
'Your body does,' he stated simply. 'It doesn't lie, not to me. You've wanted him since you first met him, and I'm not so stupid to think I can stand in your way. I want to give you what you need, Elizabeth.'
'You already do,' she whispered. She met his eyes and kissed him gently.
000
Shaw rolled over, sweaty, afraid. She didn't know how long she'd been in her room. She couldn't remember how many days had passed, if Sinashi was at the centre or in the garden, or messing about in the house. David came and went, bringing food, drink.
She slept most of her time away, submerged in a place where memories could be sorted and filed. She dreamed of the Prometheus and woke soaked in sweat, screaming, clutching at her belly, so certain she'd find herself eviscerated. She dreamed of the Space Jockey, his grunts and thrusts, his angry eyes. She dreamed of cryosleep and for a time she convinced herself that this was all a nightmare.
A knock roused her from sleep.
'Come in,' she choked.
She'd been hoping for Sinashi, or David. Instead, Atraharsis stepped inside and pushed the door closed behind him.
'Hello, Eli,' he said. 'I thought you might to sample the delights of the season,' he said. 'If, that is, you even know which season it is.'
'Winter,' Shaw murmured, sarcastically.
Atri handed her a wrapped bunch of beautiful, big blooms, the kind of vibrant flowers that only the most imaginative of Gods could have created. They were like cups made of light, shimmering with radiant, rainbow seeds.
'Sinashi misses you,' Atri said evenly. 'He thinks you're going to die. He won't come and see you. I think he fears it'll be the last time.'
Tears clawed up her throat. Atri cleared his.
'Don't you want to live?' he asked her, his direct approach like a slap to the face.
'I already died on the Prometheus.'
'Not to him you didn't.'
Shaw closed her eyes tightly. She was in pain, but it was nothing that bandages could fix.
'Not to me,' he added. 'Do you want me to go away? Leave you and your family in peace?'
Shaw shook her head.
'What use am I to David or Sinashi like this?' she said, thickly. 'They need you.'
'The boy also needs his Mother. If you need me to leave so he can have you back-'
'No!' Shaw whispered. 'No.'
Atri sighed.
'Whatever happened on that ship, you need to get it out of your head. Don't get angry with me. I want you to get up and walk, and be strong again. For him.'
Atri sighed very softly.
'I want you to live.'
Shaw hid her face in her hands. The tears leaked through. Atri reached out to touch her back and stopped. Every time he laid a land on her, she had a panic attack. He left her there.

More soon :)
- 5
- 6
- 7
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Butterflies