Chapter 6: Recovery

I put my blaster away, "Thanks Dad. Seriously. I really needed your help." Just then, I noticed Blaze hopping to me. I knelt down, "Hey Blaze, are you ok?" I asked.

He shook his head vigorously before smiling and giving me a chirp. I put him back in a capsule, "Get some rest, you earned it."

I then turned to Carla, "Are you ok? This couldn't have been easy." She was shivering, not talking above a mutter that I couldn't hear.

I wrapped an arm around her and used my other hand to lightly hold her arm, "Come on, let's go and sit down." I escorted her to the place we set up camp the night before, I let her sit on a tree root and put up the tent.

Once done, I brought Carla into the tent, "Anything I can do to help?" I asked her.

She shook her head, "I just…need to be alone…please…" She said quietly.

Though reluctant, I nodded my head, "Ok, I'll be right outside if you need anything." And with that, I exited the tent.

Carla POV

Once Rohan left, all I did was sit there and cry.

I couldn't believe it.

I didn't want to believe it.

"Not only did my father do… do… that. To me…but he did it consciously. Now I finally know why mom divorced him…I wish I had known…" I thought.

I pulled out my com device and paged my mother. As great as Rohan has been, I really need to talk to my mom right now.

She answered, displaying her on the screen, "Hey sweetie." She said, then she noticed how my face was stained with tears, how my eyes were red, and my hair a little in a mess, "Carla, what's wrong?"

I wiped my eyes with my arm, "Dad tried to force me again when I got here." I said, followed by everything that had happened up 'till now, "And now he's being sent to prison, escorted by Eli Shane."

My mom looked at me, "I see…I'm sorry dear, I never wanted you to go through any of that. But at least it's over, now that he's arrested." She said with a smile.

I made no smile, "I guess…but still…"

Mom noticed this, and spoke up, "Why don't we get a new subject?" She offered, "Tell me more about this guy, Rohan that you met."

This caused me to finally smile, "Well, since Da-…since that man prevented me from entering the tournament, Rohan wanted me to team up with him for the tag-team round. We showed each other our slugs, and he treated me to breakfast."

At this, my mom smirked, "Really? Sounds like a date to me." She said playfully.

I giggled, a slight blush reaching my face, "Actually, we decided that it actually was a date, like, half-way through it." I said.

Mom rolled her eyes teasingly, "Ooh, how romantic." She said sarcastically, making us both laugh.

"Fair point." I admitted, "But he's a real gentleman. He's also kind-hearted, funny, sweet…"

Hearing me, my mom smirked again, "Wow. My daughter has it bad!" She said, making me blush even more.

"N-no! I-I-it's not like that at all!" I said with a stutter.

"First, I think he's handsome. Then, I start droning on, and on about him. And now I'm stuttering? Oh man, what am I gonna do?"

My mom laughed, "Well, this Rohan sounds like a great guy. But I should warn you about something." She said in a serious tone.

I leaned in to the screen, "What is it, mom?" I asked.

She paused for a minute, "I have to meet him before you two get official." She said with a mischievous wink.

I face-planted into the tent floor from embarrassment. "I gotta go. Love you mom." I told her, "Love you too dear." My mom said with a giggle before signing off.

ROHAN POV

I had been sitting a little bit away from the tent for about a half-hour or so, now. The whole time worrying about Carla.

"Maybe I should go back in there. Try and comfort her or something."

I shook my head. I had tried that with people before, when I was younger.

Let's just say that didn't end well for anyone. I soon heard Carla walk out of the tent.

"Hey." She said as she sat down next to me.

"Hey. You feeling better?" I asked.

She looked at me with a smile and nodded, "Yeah. A little bit, but I'm still terrified by what happened…and what he said…" She then rested her head on my shoulder, "Thanks for sticking up for me like that. I really appreciate it."

I smiled, but did nothing, "Anytime. It's part of my job as a Shane to protect people who need it." I then looked up, "If anything, I should be thanking you."

Carla looked up at me, "What do you mean?" She asked.

"Your dad beat Blaze without any of his slugs. If he's that strong without them, I don't wanna know how powerful his slugs are. You were willing to sacrifice yourself to protect me. No one other than my family has ever done that before." I then looked at Carla, I looked her straight in her eyes, "I owe you my life for that." Carla and I were, unconsciously, moving closer to one another. I wasn't sure what was happening, but something told me not to stop.

We leaned in closer, and closer, until…

"Aha! I have found you!" Yelled Pronto, startling us, and making me fall off of the tree root we were sitting on, "Once again, Pronto's magnificent tracking abilities, have been displayed." Carla blushed, while I groaned at him.

"I am SO using him for target practice later." I thought.

Mom walked over to us, "Sorry you guys. I told Pronto to leave you be, but he just wouldn't listen." She said.

"Does he ever?" I asked as I stood up.

Kord then walked up, "The officials said that, due to the little disturbance that guy caused, the rest of today's matches have been post-poned."

I nodded, "Ok. Where's dad?" I asked.

"He's taking the guy to Stalagmite 17. He's getting locked up for good." Mom answered. I made a sigh of relief, and noticed that Carla was still shaken. I felt like I had to do something.

Then, I had an idea, "Hey, Carla." She looked at me, "Wanna have a duel?"

This caught her off guard, "What?" She asked.

"Well, I figured that, since the tournament is on hold, we could get a little practice in. So what do ya say?"

Carla thought for a moment before nodding, "Sure. Let's do it." I then patted my leg twice, then pointed down with my pointer, and pinky fingers.

Mom made a very small nod, "Well, while you two practice, the rest of us are gonna go meet up with your father. Be careful."

Once they were gone, and it was just me and Carla, I hovered a hand over my blaster, "Now don't hold back, let it loose." I said.

Carla blinked before nodding, finally understanding what I was doing, and did the same as I, "Alright, it's your funeral." She said with a smirk.

I fired Splits first. Carla jumped over him and shot the Rammstone she won in the last match. It hit me square on. But she didn't stop there. Before I could get up, she fired her Arachnet slug, pinning me down in webs.

I was barely able to grab Burpy and fired. He burned the web and circled around Carla a few times, making a small fire wall. I grabbed Hydro and fired, the slug sprayed water through the fire and blasting Carla to a nearby tree.

This continued for a while. We were constantly picking up slugs we had already fired until all but one of each for us, were exhausted. Hers was the Quicksilver, mine was Burpy. We stared each other down and fired our last slugs. The two slugs impacted each other, both knocking themselves out.

I fell to my knees, "Guess it's a draw." I said, breathing hard.

Carla sat down as well, "Yep. Not a bad way to finish." She crawled over to me, "Thanks. I really needed to blow off all that steam."

I smiled at her, "My pleasure. Although you really did a number on me, that Rammstone has a mean hook." I said as I tried to reach the part of my back that was injured, but couldn't reach it.

After a few grunts of frustration as I continued to reach, Carla giggled, "Alright, stop. Here. Turn around, I'll get it."

I did as she asked and she ran her hands over my back, once she reached the spot, I winced. Carla smiled, "Found it." She then began to apply weak pressure to the area around my injury, slowly adding more pressure and inching towards the center of the part that was injured.

I couldn't help but let a few moans escape, "How'd you learn to do this?" I asked her.

"I once read a book about how to use massages to heal an injury. Never really tried it before now." She answered.

I nodded as I tried to stifle more moans, "Well it's definitely working."

After a few more minutes, she stopped and I noticed the pain was completely gone, "There." She said, "Did that help?"

I did a quick back stretch to check, "Yeah, it doesn't hurt at all. Thanks."

She smiled, "You're welcome. After all you've done for me, it's the least I could do."

I stood up, "So, it's about noon. What you wanna do next?" Carla stood up, "Hm…I don't know. How about we just go for a walk?" I nodded and walked with her through the forest.

By the time we came back, it was about to get dark outside, "Well it's getting late." She said, "We'd better turn in."

I nodded, "Yeah. Goodnight." I said as I went to create a make-shift bed out of leaves and other things.

I told Carla earlier, that I'd let her have the tent. After a few failed attempts, I finally made something that would suffice for the night, and went to sleep.

Carla POV

I tossed and turned in my sleep. I was in the middle of a terrible nightmare.

My father somehow escaped, and was after me. Rohan was being struck down right in front of me…

Then my father says, "Your disobedience will cost you everything!" He then fired a slug, then I wake up.

I awoke with a scream, panting hard, and drenched in sweat. Somehow, my slugs can sleep through just about anything, so they were undisturbed. Tears were streaming down my face. I was so scared. So alone…

"Carla?" I heard a voice ask, "Are you ok? I heard you scream." I registered the voice as Rohan, who was poking his head in to check on me.

I sniffled, "I…I had a nightmare…about him…" Without another word, Rohan walked in. Normally, I wouldn't want anyone, much less a boy, in my room when I'm like this, but I know he's not like other guys.

He sat down next to me, "I can tell you're trying to hold back how upset you are." He said, I glanced at him as he took my hand in his, "It's ok. You don't have to hide it from me. Don't lock it up. It's not good for you." I felt him squeeze my hand affectionately.

That's when I couldn't hold it back anymore. I pushed myself into him, wrapping my arms around his neck as I ball my eyes out. I feel him wrap his arms gently around my upper back, rocking me back and forth as I cry. This is what he did last time, so I was expecting it. But then, he surprised me.

"Come stop your crying, it'll be alright.

Just take my hand, hold it tight.

I will protect you from, all around you.

I will be hear don't you cry."

He was singing. Singing to me. I've never heard any song like that before. It was beautiful. It was like when I was a little girl, when my Slyren would sing to me. I pulled my head up, "What was that song?" I asked.

He smiled warmly, "It's a type of lullaby. I remember my Dad would sing it whenever I woke up crying as a baby. He taught my mom the song, and then much later, they both taught me."

I couldn't help but smile. "Can you…stay here with me tonight?" I ask him, blushing madly.

Rohan begins to blush too, but nods, "Sure thing." We slid into the big sleeping bag, just as we did the night before.

Rohan was about to turn to face away from me when I grabbed his arm, turned him to face me, and cuddled into him, "No." I told him. I could almost feel Rohan smile as he wrapped his arms around me.