This is another long chpater but it would be awkward if I split it into two. Sometimes I like long chapters so that when I get a short one the long chap evens it out somewhat. Enjoy!
When Janet woke up a few minutes later she shook her head and sat up, her hair going wild. She looked around the floor lazily before looking at True. She got up without a word and hobbled to a space by her bed, she sat herself down carefully and then cleared her throat.
"You're Danzinger's kid aren't cha?" She asked.
The girl nodded, "My name is True."
"Ah, forgot. I was always bad with names." She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. "He should be comin for you soon. I don't doubt it."
"What if he's dead? What if they're all dead?" True asked, still stand offish.
Janet looked at her carefully, "They aren't dead kid. They're coming you'll see."
"That's what they said about my mom. That she would be back. But she never came back." The girl said, her voice full of hurt.
"Life hasn't been good to you has it kid?" The red headed looked sad. After True was silent Janet cleared her throat, "Yeah it hasn't been good to me either. But your father looks like a good man, who loves you very much. He wouldn't just die and leave you here on this rock."
"How do you know?"
"Don't you feel it too?" Janet answered her question with a question.
True thought for a moment, "Kind of." It was then that she shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.
The pilot continued watching her sadly, "Listen sweetie it'll be alright. He'll come. Would you like some food or a blanket?"
The girl suddenly looked at her fiercely, "I don't wanna be friends with you, strangers are never nice."
"Whoa hey if you don't want to be friends then that's ok, I wasn't looking for a friend anyway." She cast a sideways look at the wall and glared at it.
Her words made True relax. The sound of rain made its way in through the ship and reached Janet's ears. Without a word she grabbed a thick blanket and threw it at the girl who caught it and gladly wrapped herself inside of it. Janet smirked and closed her eyes. True didn't like the silence and against her comfort she decided to speak to the woman who saved her.
"Thank you for saving me," she said suddenly.
The older woman opened one eye and looked at her. "I wasn't just going to let you drown. Besides what was I supposed to do? Watch another kid die right in front of me?" Her words came out gruff and not exactly nice.
True looked at her red hair. "Another? Do you have any kids?"
Janet suddenly got very still; she had never spoken to anyone about the subject who didn't already know. She shifted in her place and still didn't look at the girl. "Once upon a time," she whispered.
The little girl didn't say anything else. She fell asleep and as soon as she did Janet stood and made her way to where the mess hall used to be. She rummaged everywhere until she found some scraps of food worth eating. She went back to her room and set a plate next to True. When the girl woke up she found Janet asleep and food next to her. It was cold but it was food. True ate and then got up and walked over to the window.
She saw that the mud had stopped flowing and only a little drizzle of rain fell now. She looked at the way she had come and hoped her father was really on his way like Janet believed. She looked around the room and saw how damaged everything was. She saw broken picture frames with pictures of other people with Janet on the floor, a man who looked similar to her with the same red hair with another man with brown hair and pale blue eyes. True picked up one of the pictures and saw Janet holding a small girl with dark copper hair and pale blue eyes like one of the men from the other photo. The red haired woman in the picture looked happier than the woman sleeping against the wall now.
True took the picture of the little girl and Janet and put it in her pocket. She watched Janet carefully as she walked around, exploring the room. Out of the silence came a loud snore and when True looked at Janet she saw her head droop and then she jerked up and woke up.
"What happened?" She asked groggily, "Was I snoring?" She yawned. True tried not to laugh, and Janet looked at her with sleepy eyes. The little girl shook her head. The red head smirked, "Well good. Hey do you want to clean up or anything?" The way she asked was awkward and the woman looked unsure of what to do.
True looked down at herself and saw all the mud that covered her, "Yeah I guess."
Janet smiled as she stood up, "We don't want you looking like that when you're dad gets here." She got a towel from a pile by her bed and handed it to the girl. "The shower doesn't work but the sink does. Don't know if I get hot water. Better than nothing though."
True nodded and then went to the sink and got the towel wet, she wiped her face and arms and tried her best to clean her overalls. Janet sat in her spot by the bed with her eyes closed. As True cleaned herself she began to wonder if Janet was really like Gaal or if she was someone she could trust. She didn't act like Gaal, she wasn't a convict or a trouble maker, in fact the woman didn't even want to go back to the colony. True was almost certain she had been a mom at one time from the way she talked about kids and parenting to her dad. How long ago was anyone's guess.
When she was done she went over to Janet and handed her the towel. "Here," she said. "Thanks for helping me."
Janet nodded, "No problem kid." When True sat down again the red head looked at her. "Have you gone everywhere with your dad?"
True nodded, "We're a team. We don't do anything without each other."
Sympathy rolled over the pilot, "This is scary isn't it? Being away from him in this strange planet. He'll come for you soon I promise." She wrapped her blanket around her shoulders and settled in to wait.
"Why do you keep talking like you know what he's going to do?" True asked. "You don't know any of us."
Janet looked at her and tilted her head to the side, "I know a lot about a parent's love for their kid. I don't believe he's dead and I know he won't stop until he finds you. Now that slide came right by here, if he follows it it'll bring him right here and take you home."
True pulled her knees up to her chest and put her chin on them. She sighed, "If we had a home."
"What. You don't have a home? If this place isn't permanent then where do you call home?" Janet asked her voice gentle.
"I lived at the station before my dad and I were sent out here. We weren't supposed to stay here for so long, just drop everyone off and go back. He promised me he'd get me a cat when we got back home but it's taking forever. I want a pet and the only one I've been able to find here was dangerous."
The woman grinned, "A cat huh? I heard they make good pets, I doubt there's anything as good as a cat on this planet."
"Did you ever have any pets?" True asked.
She shook her head, "I never had anything. No pets no friends. Just myself."
"You're a sad person aren't you?" True asked.
Janet looked at her. If an adult had said that she would have been insulted. But True was a kid, and Janet knew how kids asked questions that they didn't know how deep it could go. "I'm not sad, just alone True. But it's not your problem to worry about, and you ask a lot of questions."
"Then why don't you come with us? You won't be so lonely. There's Yale, he's a cyborg. And Devon, Ully, my daddy. We all have each other." True said, she didn't know why Janet was so alone but she wanted to change it.
"Ever the innocent ways of a hopeful child." Janet said while she stared at the ceiling. She blinked away the tears that had formed and then looked over at True. "I don't think anyone would want me around. I have a feeling something went wrong with the last person your colony saved. Besides you guys have enough to worry about, trying to get to New Pacifica and all. The last thing you need is the sole survivor of a crash that's all my fault."
True was about to say more when the two heard a familiar voice outside the ship. "True!" He shouted. "True are you here!?"
Janet quickly stood and with True helping her along they made their way to the stairs.
"Daddy!" True shouted as the two groups got closer.
"True!" Suddenly there he was, at the bottom of the stairway that led to the hole in the side of the ship. "Oh my god True! Thank god you're alright." He knelt down and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight.
Janet watched from the top of the stairs, leaning heavily on her crutch. She smiled when she saw Danzinger hold his daughter and turned her head as a lump the size of an orange swelled in her throat. She had barely turned around to walk away when Danzinger spoke to her.
"Thank you," he said. It was a simple thank you but the feeling behind reached the woman.
She turned back and saw the tears in his eyes, she nodded. Just as she was about to leave them John stood up.
"Wait," he said. She stood still while he spoke behind her. "Come with us Janet. Please. You need us and we sure could use you."
She took a breath through her nose and then turned, "First off I don't need anyone, and no one needs me. Second of all I couldn't walk to New Pacifica even if I wanted too."
John held True close to him and she spoke up, "Daddy can carry you when you get tired. That's how he helped Ully move along."
Janet grinned, "If your dad had said that to me I would have yelled at him. But I won't have someone carry me around like a baby."
"You won't be a baby," True said, "When you want to walk you can but until,"
John took over for her, "But until we get back to the colony I'll have to help you. We have rovers you can use there until your ankle heals."
The red head sighed and looked at Danzinger and True. She liked True, and her father wasn't that bad to look at either. She already decided that she wasn't going to kill Devon anymore. Maybe it was safe for her to join them, and they wanted her to go with them. Maybe this was her new start as a free woman. After all as far as the Council knew she was dead with the rest of her ship. Still she couldn't shake the feeling that not everyone would welcome her as kindly as Danzinger and his group had.
She looked at True and then began walking down the stairs, Danzinger and True smiled. Half way down the woman suddenly felt the pain in her side, somehow she had forgotten about the stitches that had come open when she saved True. She cried out and grabbed her side, dropping her crutch and slowly going down to the floor. John rushed up to her and that's when Bess, Heller and Solace ran in. Janet pushed the man away when he tried to pick her up in his arms, she caught his smell, he smelled like a strange mix between machine and trees. Or what she thought trees must smell like.
She let him help her up and then down the stairs. Once there Heller inspected her side and with the supplies she had on her was able to help close the open stitches again. She looked over the broken ankle and then helped her stand up.
"Is there anything you want to take with you?" Bess asked her.
Janet took a moment and looked back up the stairs. When she looked back at the humans she pulled out a pair of dark round sun glasses and put them on the bridge of her nose. "No, this is all I have."
"Any clothes?" Bess asked.
Janet shook her head, "As luck would have it they were all burned in the crash. My room was barely livable. I don't have anything else."
True looked at the ground and put her hand in her pocket, feeling the picture that was still there. She looked back up and watched her dad help Janet walk outside. She was glad the red head was going with them, she liked her. The other grown of women in the colony were nothing like Janet and True wanted her to be around more. The group moved out.
