Bliss was in the cafeteria tinkering around with one of Elliot�s broken cameras when Roan came in for some food and drink refills for her, Ric and anyone else that might join them. The two women talked for a few moments about their relationships and other stuff before Roan returned to Ric�s room.
Erin Daria came into the cafeteria for a break just as Roan was leaving. She and Bliss spoke for a few minutes before Sirronalia the Syrynykk, also known as Spike, arrived. The three talked and joked around for the remainder of Erin�sbreak.
Colin entered the cafeteria and Bliss greeted him on herway out, telling him to get something to eat and to get some rest. Erin returned to work and Spike went on his way.
Up in Ric�s room, Roan and Ric exchanged some faintly bitter banter about his day. Stuck in the Stryker frame where they turned him like a roasting dactyl on a spit, Ric could go no where, do nothing. In five weeks they were going to take him out of the frame and begin rehabilitation so that he might sit up in a wheelchair and learn to take care of himself again.
Knowing Roan was pregnant with his child - a fact she had given him as soon as he first woke up from the accident which broke his back - Ric asked Roan if she'd be showing by then, by the time he was out of the frame. He focused on the child, trying to imagine it inside her, in the dark. He tried to touch it telepathically, as he could his brother to tell it not to fear.
She was only sure she'd be bloated and he'd be running from any responsiblity. Certain he'd be running nowhere, Ric asked Roan to marry him. He didn't have anything to offer her, less even now. Who knew what the future held? She had never contemplated marriage. Her previous profession as call girl had let her see marriage from it's seedier side. Most of her customers had been married.
"Don't say yes," Ric told her when she didn't answer. "I'll make a lousy husband... just... " He was fixated on the child. He wanted to do the right thing by Roan.
"You ... you don't have to ask." Roan told him, believing he only wanted to do the "right thing". But the look on Bliss' face when she spoke about her own future started flashing by. Roan was scared, scared to be too happy, to tempt fate too much.
"I'll ask later," Ric said, seeing only her hair now.
"Why?" She was still shocked, flustered, and a bit confused.
"Cause you didn't say yes right away. And I'm not ready. I can't even move. And you don't know me." They hadn't been together that long. The physical had come before the emotional and mental ties. Though she was getting a first rate education on Ric when he was sick.
Roan smiled. "No ... why would you want to marry me?" She didn't mean for it to come out that blunt, but there you are ...
He thought it was obvious, which only proved how little they really knew one another. "I dunno...you got big breasts?" He was running a fever that must have been why he made a joke.
Roan laughed a lot. Ric couldn't remember when he'd heard her laugh so much. He smiled as she said, "Well, that's the best reason I've heard so far..."
She shook her hair back as she laughed. She looked back down at him. "Really?" He knew she meant did he really want to marry her, not did she really have big breasts.
"Yeah, but like I said... you should say no. And I'll ask later."
"Well, if you're gonna keep badgering me, maybe I should just give in now..."
"You're a brave woman."
Roan was tracing his scars with her fingertips again. She liked doing that and he closed his eyes to savor the sensation where he could feel it. "That's one of the things Bliss taught me. No fear," she told him.
Everything above his waist experienced a new level of sensation now.
"Don't feel right marrying you like this though..." He said, meaning while still stuck in the frame. Anything else cut off by her sudden kiss. He deepened it as best he could. While he couldn't move, she could and she rearranged herself to kiss him better, careful of his back.
"Stop worrying about how you feel. I think you feel just fine." She said, close to his mouth. With a broken back and everything. He drifted for a bit as she held him and she tried then to convince him he was getting the bad end of the deal. He wanted her to name one bad thing about living with her. Everything she named he countered all to easily.
"I don't drink coffee," He told her.
She stared in mock horror. "No ... coffee ...?"
"Sorry, toots."
Her hand rose dramatically to her breast. "Can such mixed
marriages work?" And the more she said the word, the less scary it was.
That made him laugh. If there was a good thing about this injury it was that he wasn't afraid of those things... like marriage or love anymore. Strange.
"I'm just scared, and trying to scare you off ..." Honesty, instead of humor .... a night of miracles.
His look turned level. "Well don't...all I got are words right now, and I've never been good at 'em. I love you. I ain't scared."
She lowered herself onto her elbows, half on top of him, her
chest on his. "I love you, too. I'll try to be brave." Then she lowered her head on his chest and, exhausted, slept.
