A/N: I am going to pretend that this evening didn't happen. Because this has been cooking for a long long time and I gotta do something with it. After many a long discussion with ThisLife103.7 (who posited this in the first place idea), this has come about. It's gonna be AU, now that they've offed my lantern-jawed friend, but I guess that frees me up to do whatever I care to. Thoughts?
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Rachel's eyes were black as the shadows.
His were pale as the light from the dead flashlight.
The air was warm.
"You know what that means," he said softly. There was a huff from across the way.
"You just don't strike me as somebody who knows about it."
"Lack of oxygen?" She was sour. Her words were short.
"The mines," he grunted.
"The only reason I didn't 'strike you' was because the roof caved in and did it FOR ME." That was what she wanted to say.
Instead, she got up and walked across to where he was sitting, feeling her way. Black. Black black black as the coal pulled from this place years ago. And neither one of them looking at anything other than survival right now. She found a booted foot and then found a place next to his thigh, putting the wall up against her back. Miner here would know a thing or two about air, and it would be easier on both of them if, when they were dug out, they were sitting close together.
He thumped his thick skull against the stone behind him. He sniffed, and it was kind of thick sounding from the blood leaking out his nose.
She shed her jacket and he heard the rattle of the sidearm.
He took in a breath and almost spoke.
"What?" she asked.
"Never mind."
"I'm not going anywhere….Devil….."
"It'll waste air." Which wasn't exactly true, because they'd been close enough to that air shaft that they probably had eight or nine hours of oxygen to burn off before they needed to be worried. It was just going to be hot.
"Not as close as we were to the air shaft."
Of course she'd seen it. Of course.
She persisted. "What were you going to say?"
"You shouldn't'a chased me."
"I shouldn't have CHASED you? You shouldn't have RUN!"
He could taste the irritation coming off of her with the sweat. He'd been scared. How do you explain that to the only black…..oh dear lord. He already felt like he'd put his foot in it and he hadn't even said anything. And there wasn't much hope in explaining that she was the only woman, black, white, lemon-lime or otherwise, that had ever struck fear in his heart with a weapon in her hand. And of course that lead to thinkin' of Ava.
"Well what the hell was I supposed to do?"
"Lay down your weapon? Come peacefully?"
And then he had to bark a laugh. "Lady, I have never come peacefully during ANY activity in my life. Why would I start now?"