Paradise 10

With a groan and a sigh, Scorpius rolls to his side only to be blinded by the light from the window. He drapes a wrist over his eyes and wills the pulsing pain in his ribs and gut to go away. The stinging to the cuts on his arms and legs he can handle. He knows he should be used to being shove and around and hunted while constantly checking to see if his head is still attached but he's not used to it since becoming some what domesticated. The excitement of being in power has lost all it's appeal.

With another painful grunt, rolls to the other side in hopes of taking the pressure off that rib. He clonks into another head who gives her own whimper to the light bump. Opening his eyes finds himself looking at a beautiful but battered woman. "Alyssum?"

All she can do is 'hum' in response to her name being groggily pulled out. It warms her dearly to hear it after so many years of silence. On top of that, to feel a safe warm person beside her. These emotions she feels fluttering inside her sound so much like what her mother felt for her father but she is also no fool. Alyssum slowly opens her eyes and sees the soft ice blue ones looking back at her.

A breath away from each other yet worlds apart. So close they have cared for each other but so far to care for each other more. A few things they have shared but could have a life time more if only…. Both of them close their eyes afraid to read any further into what they saw. Fear of going where he has been hurt before and she afraid of tread on something never experienced before.

So rest pulls them back down again and into tortured dreams of being beaten and torn away from each other again.

This time, Scorpius is forced to get up. The call of nature is too primal to avoid any longer. When he carefully returns, he sees Alyssum is sitting up carefully as well. "Please go see to the boy, I can handle this."

Scorpius nods to the wise decision and heads out. What he finds surprises him very much. The kill the family had found is laid on the table, but the boy and the packs are gone. Swiftly he looks in all directions but he can see that the boy has been gone for quite awhile. Looking up he can see the sun is past noon and heading back onto it's decent side. He and Alyssum have slept much longer than he anticipated.

With a sigh of relief, he turns back to the cabin. Caring for the boy is just one more thing he did not need in his life at this time. The conversation he had with the young man had left him with the confidence that Alyssum will be left in peace on her homestead from now on. The fight yesterday also confirmed a few things to the black circle on the calendar.

Scorpius pulls the door back open and stalls. Scars or not Alyssum is a gorgeous woman that he can not ignore. Right there before him he can see her bare back with that red hair being brushed over her shoulder leaving her strong freckled spine exposed. Strong as a Scarran with the gorgeous curves to the hips of a Sebacean female. He finds it impossible to move as he watches her set the brush down and wince to lift her hands to try braiding her hair from the top. Two more times she tries but can't get her arm to help. Screeching out, she slams a fist to the bed and a sob cracks.

For all this time she has been strong and safe on her own. Something had told her to hide but she thought it was Scorpius coming back so she didn't and then they were upon her before she could do anything. A moment of weakness that her brother had told her not to fall for and… She slams her fist down again.

"Allow me."

Hanging her head down, she feels his gentle hands comb up and under her nape to pull the long tendrils out. It's been so long since he's had his fingers in hair that he finds himself playing with it gently while she pants out her frustration.

His soft massaging of her head and hair calms her quite quickly. Seeing that it's helping, he threads and soothes some more. "Better?"

She nods. "Should I ask how you know to do this?"

That takes a deep painful breath from his chest, "I had a lover once who enjoyed my touch in her hair as much as I did." His hand is ever so tender panning and weaving his way through.

"Had?"

"Yes, had." Just as he is afraid to tell her blatantly, she is afraid to ask a painful question. Instead, she pans her hand over his seated deep into the nape-nest. It's her soft way of asking but also leaving him in peace if need be. "I killed her for her treachery," he nearly whispers.

Traitor, a very painful word to both of them.

"Is that why you were truly escaping your command?" She squeezes back.

Pulling his hand away, he lifts the brush and carefully puts the locks in order to be braided, "No. I was, betrayed again by my captain."

She knows her life is quite simple to understand: she was cast away because a more useful tool came into their possession. Yes, the same tool they abused. While she has been physically struggling to make a life for herself here, he has been twisted and turned and abused by the word 'trust'.

Scorpius begins the braid. Not a tight one that will hurt but not a loose one that will fail either. A compromising gentle one. He reaches over to take the tie but finds her hand covering it. "Scorpius, I have a very simple life. I have nothing to hide or to gain."

Laying his hand over the top of hers he gives a warm comforting breath into her nape, "I know, Alyssum. That is why I am wary of tainting it. I am no angel."

Her head turns and looks into his not so cold eyes, "Maybe, but you sure felt like a guardian yesterday."

He huffs pulling back and taking the tie, "With hideous timing maybe!" In nothing flat he has the braid secured and pushes himself away from her naked form. "The boy left us his kill. It should be prepared but I am not so sure how to do such a thing. I know normally a Scarran would eat it raw, but I do not have the pallet for that. You?"

Alyssum brings the blanket to her chest and turns round to him, "I will be there in a moment."

Scorpius finds himself staring at her in the natural light. So innocent and yet so primal. So pure and yet so scarred by life. "D-do you want me to look at those wounds?"

She drops the blanket and he finds himself cussing out loud. "Those bastards! Oh could they!" With her naked he can see the old scars from when her brother had been killed and then the new ones where they tried to finish their mutilation. Alyssum drops her head and flushes in humiliation and tries to turn away.

In two strides Scorpius is in front of her and cupping her chin, "You do not need to hide those from me. You have seen my own body beaten and scared, right?" Alyssum nods carefully in his hand. "I got those from the bitch that 'raised' me, if that's what they want to call it. I was bred, not born. I was an experiment. I always have been. But you…."

Both hands pan over her soft bruised face, "Oh damn, Alyssum, you were created. Do you understand the difference? You are a work of art, I was nothing but a monster. A beast of burden!"

Alyssum grips her hands around his wrists keeping him right there, refusing to let him retreat. "Please don't leave me, Scorpius. Please, I understand if you have to flee in order to get the adventure or revenge you need-"

Scorpius huffs again and pulls away from her. "I've tried that and lost." Pounding fist to his chest he snarls, "That's all I have been striving for. Revenge against the Scarrans for raping my mother to breed me! Revenge against the Peace Keepers for taking me in and then usurping my plans right and left. Revenge against anyone who spoiled my attempts to conquered the wormhole technology that would end this bloody war of my two races. Revenge, revenge, revenge. All of it for not!"

Alyssum pulls the blanket back over her chest to give herself something to hug while he spills forth everything he is.

"And fate just has to laugh in my face! I did not want love. I did not want family. I did not want riches. I wanted… peace. I wanted to control my life. But I had to be depended on so much and so many. Everywhere I turned they were trying to use and abuse me. I had no point in this universe. My life was… a mistake." He drops his shoulders to look down to his bare feet. "And fate wouldn't even allow me to take my own life. Once more had to show me that I was NOT in control."

The soft female voice joins his revelation, "I knew that when I was abandoned I would never have a taste of the love my mother shared with my father for even a brief period of time. I knew that fate had been cruel by not only making two enemies fall in love but then to tear them apart again. And then to cast their offspring aside like dust in the wind. Fate is an evil beast that is cold and heartless. I decided to spit on it and keep living. So it decided to take my brother and remind me once more it was in control."

Both of them raise their faces to look at each other. One with the sweet innocent eyes of a Sebacean one with the eyes of a broken and crushed leader.

Scorpius answers the next piece of her conversation, "And then fate has decided to throw the one man who caused your banishment right in your face."

She looks up at him answering his issue, "And you get thrown into a woman who shares your fate."

"Do we tempt fate or do we curse it?" He asks.

"I will not allow fate to make my decisions now. I will make my own."

A slow smile comes across his face. "I do like the way you think."

Alyssum laughs lightly, "Doesn't mean I'm going to sleep with you so easily."

To his delight, releases a full bellied laugh only to be caught short by the pain to his ribs. Alyssum groans with him but he waves her concern away easily, "All well worth it, Alyssum."

With a careful hand to his aching rib, gives her the softest looks of concern, "Please let me look at those wounds?"

"Will it make you feel better?" She presses back. From his revelation she gets the impression that he did not let his emotions or concerns out easily. The pain to his lover betraying was heard quite loud and clear so this is her careful attempt to letting him know she will never betray his feelings.

With a soft release, he nods. It warms him that she understood and respects him this much.

Alyssum lays back down and he grabs the basket from last night that had their medical supplies. Carefully she tries to cover herself, but to no avail. For the wounds are pretty much all over her torso. Scorpius gives her a soft smile and strokes her cheek.

"I wasn't kidding when I said you are beautiful. Has anyone ever told you that?"

With a soft shake of her head, "I was dressed as a nun, remember."

He takes a damp cloth and blots away some of the excess blood and paste being mindful to the tender skin, "Even nuns are beautiful."

"So are Scarrans," she gives back her own compliment to him and her father. He only snorts to that. "Scorpius, please," she tries to get him to accept her words as she was to accept his.

He doesn't look at her just focusing on his work, "Not now, Alyssum. It's just too soon for both of us." Her chest stills in holding her breath. That does make him look up, but he says nothing more and so silently they go through the motions of patching each other up. Once that is accomplished, he takes another set of clothes and goes outside to change while leaving her to dress inside.

Sure both of them have seen each other naked for medical care, but still the act of getting dressed together would be too personal as if they were in a bound and committed relationship. Yes maybe he has decide to say here on this planet and even on her homestead but it doesn't mean he is in any rush to make a relationship with her.

Sure his body would love to take her into his arms and bury his face into her hair, but that doesn't make a relationship. With a curse, he wonders if he even knows WHAT a relationship is. Both of those females were so close to him and used him. Like a fool, he had let his defenses down with them. Maybe not completely down, but down enough for them to play him for the fool.

Scorpius throws his tainted clothes into the burn pile and grabs the shovel. Hurting or not, the last thing he wants Alyssum to see is the blood spilled on her crops. First he chops them with the blade and then buries them in the turned over ground. It would be better for them to be turned to mulch and next year's seed than to try swallowing down the blemished crops. No sooner does he have that done, then he hears a sound at the outside table.

Apparently his rage had caused his ears to tune out her coming outside. He finds her leaning on the table and carefully cutting the hide from the game that was killed. No one says a thing just focusing on the task at hand.

By the time the useful parts of the animal have been cut, cleaned and stored into the deep storage unit, Alyssum looks like she is the one who had been attacked again. She laughs a little looking down at herself, "You know for not being a soldier, I sure have my fair share of blood on my hands this week."

Scorpius gives her a half amused smile watching her brush a fallen lock from her face.

Alyssum motions to the sack of unusable animal remains, "If you grab one side and I'll take the other and I'll show you what I do with these." Once more silent, he does as she says.

To his surprise, she takes him to a well used spot near the lake. They set the sack down into a pretty deep divot in the ground and Alyssum shows him the next miracle. With a few stones pulled from the make shift dam, lake water pours into the divot. Almost immediately, the bones and entrails begin to bubble as if eaten by acid. Scorpius' eyes go wide while she puts the rock back sealing up the dam.

"Just as a warning, don't feed the alpaca from the wrong barrel," she tells him.

"I-I don't understand," the scientist in him is just baffled.

Alyssum shrugs, "I don't know myself but I did notice that when a rare animal drank from the lake it would scream in horrible pain and… die. It looked like a chemical burn or something from the inside out. So, Dandy and I were just as baffle."

Scorpius points to the lake, "But you and I have been drinking it and I have been submerged, how?"

Running a finger over her Scarran trade marks she tips her head, "I think it's one of the blessings we have been given. It would also explain why not one comes here. In town they call this Bitter Lake. Supposedly it's poisoned."

Watching her step away, he sees her go to the lake shore and wade in. The water does nothing to the fabric. He turns back to the pit of animal remains. The sack remains but any mucus or blood covered entrails are dissolving. The bones are bleached white. This was something he had NOT tested in his experiments.

The blood on his hands is really beginning to itch and so he too comes to the water's edge preparing to just wash the tainting off. Seeing Alyssum set her fabric up onto a near by rock he changes his mind and turns to head back to the cabin.

"I promise not to look if you don't," she tenderly calls back to him.

He turns back and sees that only her head is above the water. No it's not murky, but the day is beginning to set and there is plenty of room in the lake. Besides, he really could use the weightlessness of the water to ease his aching body. After all, he's not as young as he used to be.

"Oh hell," he huffs and launches himself into the lake. "Ohhhh," he groans into the sweet wonderfully feeling of encompassing water over his body. Sore or not, something about being surrounded and supported by the cooling water is something he just really enjoys. Not a sensation you get often on board a space ship and not something Scarrans are known for. A steaming sauna sure but not this.

On and on he just lets the water comfort his aching form until he is forced to come up for air. The giggling from off to his left makes him turn. For that, he tugs his sopping shirt off and flings it at her.

"Oh is that all you have?" She teases again.

With a soft scowl, he flings his pants over too. Easily she catches those too and tosses them over with her clothes. With a smirk, she gathers them up and starts to head out of the lake. Oh he knows what she is going to do!

Reaching past the pain in his ribs he kicks off and long arm stokes his way to her. With a squeal of false terror she tries to move faster to the shore with her stolen cargo clutched to her chest. He's swifter than her and also a soldier of cunning ways. Diving down, he tugs at her ankle throwing her off balance.

Yes he knows this was all in fun and game not to real malice so he doesn't hold her under. Nor does he let her keep the prize. He snatches what he can of the fabric and heads away. In the waning light he holds up the fabric when he gets his footing. With a pursed face, finds that he has snagged her clothes not his.

Alyssum pops up to the surface and begins laughing again seeing the floating fabric before her is not hers but his. "I like fate."

Now his scowl is a bit more menacing, "You change your tune too quickly, woman." Throwing the fabric to the beach, he begins his next move. Alyssum tosses the fabric in her possession to him and tries to back pedal, but he catches and cast that aside too.

"Scorpy-"

"Don't EVER call me that," he snarls continuing his move.

"I'm sorry, Scorpius," she ever so respectfully apologizes. With a curt nod, he accepts it but still continues towards her. Just to let her know he won't harm her, shoots a smirk and raised brow before returning to the false menacing one. She tries to smile but is a bit worried what he will do once he catches her, for she knows good and well he will.

First of all he's in way better shape than she, second he is a cunning deadly warrior then lastly, she wants him to catch her.

a/n If this seems a bit bi-polar in their relationship, it is. They just can't figure out what they want, need or where to go.