Better Angels
oOo
Janis felt her heart leap into her throat as they grabbed him and dragged him to his feet. Every six seconds. He didn't fight them, didn't pull away from them. Their hands gripped his arms in an iron-like grasp--she could see their fingers digging into his skin, leaving little spots of blood to stain his shirt, and still he did not struggle.
"Wait, get off him!" She wasn't sure why she felt such panic prickling at the back of her scalp or why the idea of Simon getting killed scared her more than it should, all she knew was that they needed him and she couldn't let him die.
Professional distance. Don't get attached. Good Lord, she was not feeling this way for him, for that prick of a British man. For a man in general.
She didn't get far, and truly she didn't expect to. So focused on Simon was she that giving any thought to what would happen if she grabbed him back didn't exactly formulate in her suddenly fuzzy head. Better angels.
She knew how to save him.
One of the men shoved her to the ground and dust coated her tongue, making her hold back a violent fit of coughs. The terror in her flared. She whirled around on her hands and stared up at them. At Simon.
There was confusion all around her, yelling and gun pointing and gruff, angry commands in a language she couldn't understand. But then Simon turned his head and looked at her, and suddenly the whole world seemed to stop for the second time.
His eyebrow was raised curiously and he was gazing at her so intently she felt her fingers itch to cover herself. Somehow, she felt too exposed to him. As if he could read what she had just worked out herself.
Something flashed through his too-intelligent eyes and held her riveted. I'm the rabbit; you're the wolf. Janis sucked in a quiet breath, all too aware of something boiling and growing inside her belly and heating up her face even as terror flooded through her veins.
Vulnerable. She was giving away too much, and he could see it. Her heart stuttered and beat wildly against her ribs, choking her and making her fingers curl into tight fists in the dirt.
The corner of his lips lifted into a barely there smile, a shadow of his usual mocking grin, but softened to one of unusual reassurance that, surprisingly, placated the wild and uncontrolled fear inside of her. His eyes glinted with many secret thoughts and then he turned away from her, his features wiped clear and replaced by a blank, fierce expression.
The world roared back into focus around her.
Janis felt her arms shaking as she was released from Simon's eyes and she had to take a moment to regain her breath, calm herself down and shove everything that had just passed between them to the back of her mind. He stood so calm in front of her, staring down the barrel of a gun and not even flinching. Staring death so easily in the face.
If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back.
She resented his courage. She resented his smile and his eyes. But most of all--
"The prophecy is wrong."
--she resented how much she was starting to feel for Simon Campos.
A/N: Can you honestly say that this week's episode didn't inspire just a little plot bunny? This little bugger hopped on me with a vengeance; all teeth and claw. So, naturally, I obliged....and then practically fell out of my seat toward the end of the episode with the little snippet between Demetri and Janis. It almost threw this drabble out of whack, but alas! it didn't. Sort of. Almost. You know what, you get the point, just review please?