The blood wouldn't stop, there was no slowing it as they lay her on the table-like surface. There was a vial that caught the attention of the taller man. It was a solution that was designed to help clot the blood and thus make healing quicker. Cabrette opened her eyes as they were talking about the possibility of injecting her with it.

"I need Fen," she managed. "Please, I need Fen." Her eyes closed again and the others looked at each other. What else could they do? Jet sped to the core, taking the woman's place at the Op station.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"It's because of something else, it's not going to heal nicely, I'll need to stitch it or something." Fenra was running a cool cloth of her friend's forehead, Jared still on hand.

"What happened?"

"Some punk thought that he got a lousy test score because of Cabrette, being an Op meant a way out of Zion and he hated the place. One night as she was walking back to her room he nabbed her and very slowly pushed a metal rod no thicker than a bullet through that very spot." The woman shook her head. "She was wake the whole time, the bastard didn't even knock her out. Kept on about how it was her fault, teacher's pet and all the rest." She shrugged, preparing to do what she could to cauterize the wound. "He's in rehab still, tried something similar just before she took the post as part of Control, different outcome though. Cabrette kicked his ass and delivered him to Lock. Let me just say that it wasn't pretty."

"Why would he attack her again?"

"Who knows, he's a sicko." Slowly the blood was stopping, the skin held together by crude but firm stitches. "Who's going to tell the cap?" The woman smiled, sighing.

"I think you don't want to leave her so I will. Cleo and I will come up with something. He's just being hard on her because he let her get hurt."

"That makes no sense." His eyes were resting on the calm face of the woman lying so still on the cold surface.

"Well let's put it this way, the chances of him sleeping tonight are slim to none. He'll just beat himself over the head with this until he's just exhausted. He may seem like a callous, hard-hearted prig, but she's the only one who's ever got this close to him. I can't tell you how many times I wished she'd be here to help him deal with the world."

"That explains nothing. Why wouldn't he give her some word of encouragement, approval, anything?"

"Because feeling related to love make thinking damn near impossible." She looked into his eyes, trying to convey all she knew. "If anything happened to her, here or in Zion, Sorlin would blame himself, even if he was all the way up here. He wouldn't sleep or eat when we told him about the second attack. Even though she managed to get out fairly well he was ready to kill the guy. And he doesn't even know about the spike thing." The Op rolled her eyes and made her way to the door so she could head back to her post.

"If he cared he would have let her be helped."

"If he can't do it, he doesn't want anyone else to. That would mean that he wasn't enough for her, and that is the real problem, he probably isn't." She left without a reply being given or another word spoken. He sat there, thinking about what he knew of the captain, of the crew, of Cabrette. The Valiant was one confusing ship.

*~*

A/N: I just thought I'd put more up because I got a review, Yay for a review! *Does a dance* :) I hope all your stories are going well and the muses are smiling on you all.

Silver Dragon, Iron Claws: I really don't mind how late a review is, I'm so glad you took the effort to review it :) I know this doesn't explain much about the history between Sorlin and Cabrette, but I'll get to that sooner or later. Thanks again for the review :D