The Name of Life

[Kuzo]

She paused, quiet for a moment before answering, the expression on her face pensive.

"Soon. My new....." She grimaced. Every word seemed wrong. Host. Vessel. Body. She opted to just skip over picking one with a wave of her hand.

"It'll be ready soon. It was a little more complicated than a straight clone, because of the virus and getting a clean sample. And while they could accelerate the growth, it's still taken a while. But I've been told that it's almost ready. And when it is, I do not intend to wait."

She looked down at her hands, fingers fidgeting with the cuff of her sleeve. He knew the bruises that she hid.

"Two weeks. Three at most."

There was a tightness in her voice, but also a hesitant optimism. Irajah had lived with Gideon for over a year now. Pain. Exhaustion. The need to always, always be focusing on it to the detriment of the things around her, simply to keep it from taking over. The idea of finally living a life free of that? She didn't dare get her hopes up, not fully. So much could still go wrong. And yet.... she *was* hopeful.

"Thank you for coming," she said, smiling up at him, a bit ruefully. "I'm sorry that it was.... under these particular circumstances."

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

With a slow nod, processing the information, he turned and looked out of the slightly tinted windows out to the lake below the rolling hill down.

"Three weeks. Not long at all."

Pursing his lips, smacking them together in thought, he wondered how she was feeling. Bar the obvious signs, was she excited? Scared? Anxious? All?

"And please," he turned his head back with a smile, "as you said, no apologies needed. I just, I just hope it works out for you. I am sure it will. Your soul is strong and your determination to succeed in everything you do is stronger. You're a fighter, and that counts for something."

He placed both hands on either side of her shoulders and held her, as if holding her up so she didn't let the worry knock her down.

"When this is over, for us all, I will come and find you. I will expect to see you stronger than ever, and then we can see where our paths lie, because I do hope they cross again. When we are both fixed."

How could he say that and expect the best. It was a dangerous time for her. For them all.

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

It was not the first time Irajah had heard him talk about 'the next time I see you, I will be better'. It brought both of her eyebrows up and she tilted her head at him slightly. Her hands came up to his on her shoulders, and she squeezed them gently.

"I don't know what you're planning- you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. But, be careful?"

And it was not the first time she'd told him that either, in response to those words.

She'd patched him up before, and since she hadn't needed to since, she didn't bring it up. It wasn't, after all, something she held over his head in the slightest. She just hoped that she'd never be working over his unconscious body again.

She didn't argue that they weren't both broken. It would have been ridiculous to try.

[member="Connor Harrison"]