When I opened my eyes, it took a while for me to remember where I was. The chilling cold and the grey gloom was all to familiar at this point. The prison cell. Perfect. But... how did I get here? There was a sense of heat that I was somehow leaning against, I instinctively leaned in closer towards the warmth.
I looked up expecting to see Zim curled up to me again. But I was shocked to see Dib, my head now snuggled right up to his shoulder and his hand gripped firmly in mine. His glasses askew and black trench-coat draped over the two of us. I smiled and closed my eyes again, enjoying the comfort against the heart wrenching pain that I felt inside as I slowly pieced together the events of the night before. I needed to distract myself, this wasn't doing me any good.
Dib shifted in his sleep, making his one spike of hair droop into view. With my free hand I reached up and pushed it back into place and couldn't resist running my fingers through it. I don't know what kind of gel he used but that hair was rock solid! No, there was no gel, don't tell me it was naturally like that? I smiled internally and continued to smooth it in place for a while, I couldn't resist and it was actually really therapeutic. I was aware of how creepy I might look, but by the way he was smiling absentmindedly his sleep, he didn't mind.
Oh, he wasn't asleep.
"Enjoying yourself?" he asked, arching his brow playfully.
I blushed and snapped my hand away, "Sorry, I..."
"Don't worry, how're you feeling?"
I noticed I was still curled up against him, I pushed myself up and smoothed my hair down, chewing my lip.
"Um, I'm..."
"I did try and warm you what Zim was like, I'm... I'm sorry." he tried, placing a hand on my shoulder.
I wanted to change the subject, "Can you call anyone on your communicator?"
"I tried, no answer." he sighed.
"Now... now I'm not feeling too good." I muttered, swallowing back a sob.
I wiped away any tears the threatened to fall and avoided eye contact. I still couldn't believe that Zim had left us here. No, he couldn't have, we'd been through too much now for him to do that.
"He's coming back for us, I know he i." I said, maybe I was kidding myself, but it was less painful that way.
"Yeah right, Zim's only ever returned to save me once on Halloween and that was just because he needed me to save his own skin."
"No, he's going to come back, he has too. He's more human that you think, no ones that heartless."
"Amy... Maybe seeing the good in people who aren't good isn't the best thing right now..."
Tears spilled down my face, I couldn't speak. There was no point.
"But," he added, shifting awkwardly, not used to me crying, "If you want to believe it, then go ahead, I won't deny that's its a nice thing to think about..."
Dib carried on trying to comfort me, but I was inconsolable. In the end, he did exactly what I wanted without me even telling him. He just sat next to me, and let me cry on his shoulder. That's all I needed. Just someone to be there with me. And that is exactly what he was... he was with me.
After a while, he broke the silence, "You know, he's not worth all this." he smiled.
I sniffed and tried to tidy myself up, I was just embarrassing myself now, "I know, it's not just him though."
"What else is it?"
I sighed and swallowed hard, "How are we going to get out of here? My mum's going to be so worried, and my little sister! What if I never see them again? And... your dads probably going his nut right now!"
Dib shifted awkwardly, "Actually, he's probably never left his lab. He's barely ever home so, it's not like he would notice anything."
Wow, harsh, "So, you've had to pretty much raise Gaz on your own?"
He nodded, his expression darkening, "It looks like having kids doesn't matter when you have a big fancy lab to hid in where they're not even allowed in without six passes and a written warrant from the big man himself!" He breathed heavily, "Sorry, but you don't know what it's like."
"Yeah, I do actually. My parents split when I was little because my dad buggered off to work in some car shop and then marry some cow, then they have kids and all of a sudden you're only allowed to visit if it includes you doing some child-care to kids that aren't even yours. Not to mention your mum meeting some guy and having a kid only for that guy to leave at the sight of some skinny random."
"At least you still have a mom!"
"What happened to her, Dib?" I asked, gently.
He swallowed hard, "I don't know. Dad never told us." he answered bitterly.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't think, here I am rambling on about myself and I never even considered - "
He smiled weakly and pushed his hand over my mouth, muffling any more words that threatened to spill away, "Ramblings okay, when you have someone to ramble to."
I knew what he meant, he did have a tendency to talk to himself, if I was there I'd nod and pretend that he was talking to me, just to save him embarrassment. He took his hand away and smirked. I relaxed a little.
"I am sorry though."
"I told you it's - "
"I mean about everything, about me rambling, your family, Zim, having a go at you... everything."
He shrugged, "Forget it! Look, even if you said you hated me I wasn't going to hold it against you. I'm used to people not liking me so when you came along and were actually interested the paranormal, not to mention believe me about what Zim was, I wasn't going to let you walk by. As for my family, they can't be helped, it's the way things are. Zim however, again, can't be helped. You have a good heart, Amy, people are going to take advantage from time to time. But I'll tell you this."
I looked up at him, waiting for his next words.
"I promise that we're going to get you home."
"That's a promise?" I asked, sceptically.
He nodded, nudging me playfully.
"In that case, when we get home, I promise to talk to your dad and get him to spend more time with you."
He folded his arms and looked at me questioningly, "Really?"
"I have a way with people, plus, with me a promise is a binding verbal contract." I grinned, winding my pinkie finger around his, "No going back and results guaranteed."
We laughed for a while before fading into silence. I wasn't going to raise my hopes again, but it wasn't easy when he had sounded so determined. It was hard to say how long we were silent for, but it wasn't awkward. It was comforting and calm. In the end, Dib who broke the quiet by asking why me and Zim had been kidnapped in the first place. I couldn't bring myself to tell Dib the truth about Zims mission being fake, it wasn't my place to say and it would only become worse later. There was still something about Zim that I was sure was good, or at least decent. Even if that belief had dwindled a bit due to past events...
So instead I made up a story about going to see Zim and walking in on him talking to the Tallest and they sent a ship to kidnap us as punishment. It wasn't really that far from the truth, I did overhear a transmission, and we were he for punishment. I hated lying, but sometimes it was necessary.
There was no getting out of the cell it seemed and as we were still under Irken imprisonment, we were going to be left for dead. All we could do was talk. Problem was, was that days were starting to pass, and we were only getting weaker. No food and no water, nothing was making sense anymore. If it wasn't for us holding on to one another and our pointless conversations, I would have gone insane by now. When I say talking about nothing, I mean nothing.
"But you Americans have no idea what football is." I pointed out one day.
"We do!"
"You carry the ball! That's not football, that's rugby. Football is when you only use your feet!"
"Oh, you mean soccer?"
"No, soccer doesn't exist, it's a pointless name! Your football is out rugby and our football is your soccer, you yanks have no idea what your doing if you can't even get the names right!"
"You British just over complicate things..."
"We aren't the ones playing football with our hands!" I giggled.
"Details details, do you even like sport?" he asked, sceptically.
I sighed and lay back on the ground, "No..."
"Me either..."
That was it, constantly thinking of anything to talk about to keep ourselves sane. I had to admit, it worked from time to time. But occasionally one of us would crack. I would break down in fits of tears and convulsions while he would start hallucinating and screaming into the night. We couldn't go on like this any longer. Death seemed like a good option by this point. Maybe a week or so had passed, but it seemed so much longer.
"We're never getting out, are we?" I asked one day.
He didn't answer, he just shrugged. Playing around with one of the two helmets that had remained with us since the night we were left behind. We would put them on from time to time to get clearer air. Their ability to filter atmosphere for human use was still in proper use, and it helped sometimes, bit it wasn't a miracle worker. We weren't getting any stronger with them, but it was the psychological factor that they helped. Dib rolled mine over to me; I put it on, finding myself short of breath. The clear air rushed through me, waking me up a little. I moved over to sit next to dib. Our shoulders brushed against each other, but we didn't move away.
"I'm sorry, Dib."
"What for?" he asked, leaning in closer to me.
"For not getting the chance to keep my promise."
He blinked and then remembered the other day when we were first locked in together. He sighed.
"No, I'm the one whose breaking promises." he said, pushing his helmet back, I mirrored him, "We can't get off this ship from inside this cell, I knew that and I still carried on."
"You didn't break any promises." I smiled, I carried on when he looked at me questioningly, "Remember when we used to look through your telescope and it was freezing so we had to huddle up? Well, when we're sitting like this and I close my eyes, it's like we're back there." I closed his eyes with my fingers and then shut mine, "See, it's like we're home right now."
"Maybe it's best if I do die here, no ones going to miss me anyway, being captured by aliens is a little cliché, but I can cope with that."
"That's not the Dib Membrane I know. Look at it like this, you achieved your goal in proving the existence of an alien armada to at least one other human. You've flown through the stars in a daring rescue mission and fought off attacking alien guards. Dib Membrane: the world's greatest and most dedicated paranormal investigator!"
I heard him exhale with a chuckle and shift in closer. My eyes really were getting heavy, we'd been sleeping a lot lately, so little energy. Then I felt something on my cheek. A quick, gentle moment where something soft pressed itself against my skin. I peaked through my eyelids and saw Dib, eyes still closes, smiling contently. Home... I really wish we had been home for that.
