Three weeks since Dani had been sold to a dead man in Terra Nova. Three weeks since she left a hell hole where she was sold to someone new almost every day. And in three weeks, she had found a content life living with a woman who played beautiful cello music at nights and helped her with odd and end things.
And yet, after three weeks of freedom, the horrible nightmare still followed, haunting her. No taunting her.
She was broken and nothing could fix her.
"Dani?" Alicia looked over the girl as she wore a tank top and some very short shorts, one's she only wore in the comfort of her own home as the girl had learned earlier.
At the moment Dani had a plex, given to her by Lieutenant Washington fr her studies, on her stomach.
"I…need help with this book. It's really hard." She fidgeted under the strong woman's gaze.
"Tell me one thing first." Her eyes were calculating as she neared the girl. "Why do you wear that jacket in eighty degree heat, such as the heat inside this house right now?"
"I'm cold." She lied, but Alicia saw right through her. With a heaving sigh she then stated, "I have really bad scars."
Laughing, Wash lifted a bit of her tank to show her a nasty gun shot wound, "I doubt you should be self conscious here."
Nodding, Dani stood, took a deep breath and slipped her jacket off. The consistent scars where some of her clients hurt her could be seen on the back of her arms and lower neck, the area where her spine cross over her shoulder's line.
She could already feel the older women assessing her. "What happened to you?" the whispering horror was not lost on her as she tried to put her coat back on.
Alicia held the jacket and gently, slowly, reached out to run a hand over on particularly deep scar running from should to elbow. "Answer me." Dani trembled.
She couldn't tell, she couldn't survive if she had to go back to those memories. She just couldn't. "Only if you help me with my book first." At least she could hold off the inevitable a little longer.
Sighing, the midnight haired woman sat on the couch close enough to touch Dani's shoulder with her own.
Wash, tired and annoyed to hell, let the girl's voice lull her to sleep.
.
.
.
Jerking awake, Alicia felt rested, well rested for the first time in a long while. She looked around and felt a weight on her upper body, Dani.
The olive skin girl's head was pillowed on the pale bony place above the neck line of the tank Alicia always wore.
Strong arms surrounded the girl, and then, only then, did Wash realize that she didn't have a single bad dream last night.
Just a sense of peace.
Moving her head, she had to contain the laughter as Dani's curly hair tickled her chin, but she had to see what time it was.
Cussing loudly, she woke the girl and jumped up, now freed of the weight to run to the Command Center.
She was late, the first time since….ever.
.
.
.
Dani smiled at the door that was ripped open then shut moments before. She didn't have a bad dream about any of her…buyers. Nor did she have to explain the scars either. Maybe Wash will leave her alone about them.
It did help to read with Alicia, too, though the woman did fall asleep first.
Slipping on her jacket she left the house, locking it, and making her way to the Shannon home.
.
.
.
Alicia jogged in and tried to school her features as the man she was secretly far more caring for than appropriate studied her.
"You look…well better. Ready to kick some ass?"
Those words may be simple, but to her and the Commander they were much more. Their own language, his way of telling her that it was okay to be late this once.
As she walked out, Edgar, a scientist from the tenth who had taken a shine to her, stepped out and offered her some flowers.
"So, I really haven't known you for long, but, I would like to have a date with you…Miss Washington." She had known him for a week, and so far they have been very formal with each other.
It kinda made Wash blush at the fact that someone was chasing her. "I have to go otg, maybe…another time." He nodded, a smile on his face.
"That's not a no." He smiled wide and Wash couldn't help but glow a little on the inside, not once did she yell at him about it, not when she had caught him leaving a flower in a vase on her door step. Not now when he made a spectacle of his attempting to court her.
She laughs, she never really…flirts. And thought it would help with her crush.
She just….just needed to move past a fantasy that would never be real…never be hers.
Nodding she ran to catch up to her unit, making sure to smiled one more time at him.
What she didn't notice was the Commander watching the whole exchange with blazing, cool eyes. He had to do something.
.
.
.
Dani sat next to Maddy as she did equations. It was decided that she would be tutored up until she could join her own age group in school, and she was moving quickly.
Maddy was good at teaching, had her three grade levels up since they started, and Dani officially started the fourth grade.
She was proud of herself, and of her new life.
No more dark rooms and stinky men, no more chains and whips and whatever other sick fetishes they came up with for her.
Settling into math problems, she nearly missed a face watching her, looking up, the little girl walked over to her and smiled. "Are you my sister's friend?" She pointed to the girl that was running around and cooking,
She was getting ready for a date and very much flustered.
"Miss Maddy is my teacher, and I am very glad I have her." Dani spoke the truth, she had never had anyone give her their time, and not to work to actually be her friend.
"Dani, you did good today, why don't you go home early?" Maddy smiled and ushered her out before Elizabeth smiled at her on the porch and entered the house.
Jogging home, she passed an orchard and like any person seeing apple bearing trees, had to stop. Walking down the rows, she felt her heart swell at the scent, this was good.
She decided everything, even the dinos, were all so good, all were not here to hurt her.
Sighing, she let a single note escape her throat. Dani loved to sing, and she was told that she had a beautiful voice, even sad, so singing sad songs wasn't hard for her.
As she continued into an old lullaby, she didn't notice the little pterosaurs float above her before landing in the orchard branches.
Then she did notice yellow eyes watching her and soft calls, almost mimicking her song.
A smile lit her as she began another song, and they followed diligently.
.
.
.
Wash knocked on the door of the Shannon house, she needed to know how Dani's schooling was coming.
"Lieutenant," Jim greeted with a happy smile as She looked past him. Oh that's why he's happy. Sitting at the table was a young couple, Maddy Shannon and Mark Reynolds, one of her boys. And he looked terrified.
"I need to speak with Maddy…about Dani." Jim nodded and called his eldest daughter.
She greeted the older woman and looked back to mouth something to Mark. "He'll be fine for a few moments." Alicia stated in a monotone, "I want to see Dani's results." A quick nod and a few minutes later she was looking over, with some measure of pride, Dani's quick results.
"She is an excellent student, but…" Maddy did her famous bitting the lip she had heard Mark say was so cute.
"But," Alicia growled.
"She wants….to be left alone, and doesn't like it when I ask about her family, friends, or her life before Terra Nova."
"Maddy, unlike you and your perfect family, he may not have had one, she is a very private person as am I. Probably why we get along so well." Alicia tried to be gentle when explaining things, but she could already see the genius begin to think.
Sighing Alicia said goodbye and left quickly, making her way home.
.
.
.
Dani stood at the counter, cutting the last of the vegetables and finishing the meal. Alicia would enter the house and walk to her room to drop of her items before returning to eat the meal prepared.
This was their usual routine, but tonight it was broken. Dani did make the meal, but Alicia immediately asked her some unique questions.
"How did you get those scars?" the question was repeated form the night before, and looking up Dani could see that Alicia wasn't going to give up.
"I-I can't….please…it's too….I can't." Ducking her head, she grabbed her meal and ran to her room. Alicia heard the lock before she could follow.
Sighing she eat her meal before staring at the cello in the corner, leaning against the chair were she placed it the night before.
Grabbing the instrument she began a song, this one slow and sad, and it always confused her.
Almost…like Dani.
Please Review. And we are almost at fifteen dollars.:D
