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It was a day of celebration. Quarantine ended for the men at Jester's house and the women in the farm house. Suu was the second to act on it in the early morning.

Cut & Suu

Suu had barely moved away from the window overlooking Cut for the three days the men were in isolation. He was mostly coherent the first couple of hours but too weak to do more than look at her. His face looked so old, so lined in pain that it was all she could do not to cry.

Kix and Jester kept him company the most, telling him what had happened in the last two weeks or spoon-feeding him soup, but Sinker and Quad also spent a lot of time with Cut. Shaeeah visited Jester's house daily, mostly her father through the window, but sometimes Quad at a distance or Boil and Waxer with Numa. Jek didn't visit at all.

"I'm too busy, Shaeeah," he'd tell his sister and it was true that he spent a lot of time in the fields. His uncles helped, but they told her and Suu that he often preferred to be by himself.

On the third day, with no signs of red shadow virus, Suu simply moved into Jester's house, walking past Boil, who held a box in his hand and was contemplating cooking cereal grain for breakfast and Waxer at the table with a cup of caf in front of him. Both men grinned at her and Waxer raised his cup in salute.

Fives was playing a game of solitary while Quad lounged on the sofa.

"Morning, Suu," murmured Fives. "It's a beautiful day."

"Indeed it is," smiled Suu. "You'll be seeing Sula and the peach later today?"

Fives only grinned as he began stacking the deck in a pile. There was no need to play cards while one of his wives waited for him. He handed the cards to Quad. "I'm going to go see if my wife is awake." He glanced at Suu with kindred anticipation as he stood and turned toward the kitchen. "She's not quite the early riser you are but maybe I can convince her today is worth it."

"Or you can take the peach and let her sleep," suggested Suu.

"Good Idea, Suu." Fives was out the door.

Kix was silently sitting in a chair next to the bed. Cut was sitting up, leaning against some pillows. His eyes crinkled in joy as his wife came into the room.

"I thought you'd grab me at the door." Suu chided.

"I had planned to," grinned Cut, ravaged lines still on his face. "But Kix said if I stayed in bed until you got here, he'd let you scrub my back while taking a shower."

Kix shrugged. "I don't think he's strong enough to manage a shower by himself, Suu, but I did promise him …" Kix blushed, his ears flamed and his cheeks went bright with embarrassment. "I said…" He scowled and Cut laughing, rescued him.

"He promised solitude, Suu. Curtains drawn and door closed and no interruptions for the rest of the day."

"After the shower, you have to stay in bed," ordered Kix.

"I couldn't have said it any better." Cut grinned and held out his hand for Suu to join him. His fingers were thinner and his hand trembled slightly but he wrapped his arm around her as she sat at his side; they wrapped themselves in each other and the outside world ceased to exist.

Still blushing, Kix left the room with a few words. "Someone will be in the house if you need help so just yell." He wasn't sure if they heard him.

Waxer & Boil

Numa and Shaeeah came together, hand in hand, with baskets of fresh nuna eggs and vegetables to cook for the men.

"Nerra Boil, Nerra Waxer." Numa smiled as they entered the kitchen. Boil hugged Numa tightly as she entered the door.

"A'lu a'hr," he murmured softly in her ear. Waxer, caf in hand, stood for his own welcome. Shaeeah gave him a small hug of welcome then moved to the stove.

"I suppose mom and dad are busy?" she smirked then smiled as she rolled her eyes. "They're supposed to be too old for that sort of thing."

Quad laughed as he came into the kitchen, attracted by the noise of more people than Boil and Waxer. "I get the feeling there's no such thing as too old for that sort of thing."

Shaeeah gave him a hug around the waist, putting the side of her face against his chest to listen to his heartbeat. "I'm glad." He bent his head down as she looked up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"You haven't cooked breakfast yet, have you?" ask Numa as she moved from Boil to Waxer.

Waxer shook his head at her then clasped Numa in his arms. "Only three days, Numa. Three days and my heart aches for not seeing you."

Numa nodded. "My heart began sorrowing the moment you left the camp." She brightened. "We have brought the freshest eggs for you, the best forest mushrooms, vegetables that were plants until this morning. Aureki even packed some spices for the omelets we're going to try to make." She gave a chagrinned smile. "Though it will probably turn out to be scramble instead of omelet. This morning we will cook for you; saving you from Checkout's brefkast."

"Brefkast?" Waxer's eyebrows went up.

"That's what the troopers are calling it," quipped Numa as she picked up a knife and cutting board.

"Or brick-fast" added Shaeeah as she pulled some bowls and plates from the shelves. "He's improved but not much and now Backup is helping him."

Waxer nodded. "He was shamed when he volunteered to go to Issuya and we wouldn't accept him."

"As he should have been," said Boil. "As he should have been."

Dare

Dare smiled. It was a small smile, barely more than the curl and slight opening of his lips, but it was unmistakably an engaging smile and not the grimace he'd had when his jaw had been firmly set. He opened his lips, just the smallest bit, just enough for a small bite of food. He moved his jaw, ever so slightly. He breathed deeply then sighed, blowing air out of his open lips.

Saria had broken her isolation and, with Edge's help, replaced the wires two days ago with what she called flexibands. She had said his jaw was healing properly and, after he winced as she touched his skin; that it was unlikely any facial nerves were damaged. She seemed pleased with her work.

Pleased! Dare laughed, a small noise from deep in his chest that bubbled out of his lips and sounded more natural, more normal than the past … how long … years of imprisonment and weeks of a broken jaw. When he was totally healed, he was going to ask everyone to tell him jokes so he could laugh; loud and long and hard. "Pleased" did not begin to describe his feelings. He was ecstatic!

Today he could have solid food, Saria had promised. She had him use the straw and nutritional supplement for the day after surgery and had prohibited him from speaking. He followed her direction explicitly now.

Aureki had seen him by the house yesterday after surgery, where he normally was, trying to stay as near Sula as possible. She kept him from falling into a deep depression, radiating peace and contentment for him. Aureki told him that the girls planned a special breakfast at Jester's house. He'd looked for and found Numa and had written the word in the dirt with a finger. Breakfast? She had nodded.

"Jester's, shortly after dawn tomorrow," she'd said in her low voice. "We'll cook for you, you need to put on some weight and Checkout wouldn't be able to manage that."

Dare had nodded and tapped his chest with his fingers. Then he remembered she was a scout and gave her the hand signals. Victory. Rendezvous. She smiled.

They were in the kitchen, he could hear their voices and laughter and the lesser sound of food cooking. He could smell the heady scent of solid food and his stomach gave a lurch of anticipation. It didn't seem right to simply walk in though he'd been invited, so he knocked softly on the door. Kix opened it and handed Dare a cup of caf.

"I recall you like it dark and sweet," he smiled.

"Yes," said Dare softly, returning the smile though not as wide. He glanced at the table and nodded to Sinker. "Good to see you, Sinker. I'm glad you made it." He wasn't loud, but it was more than a whisper.

Sinker nodded as he held out his arm for Dare to clasp then glanced toward Kix.

"He has aphasia, Dare. Difficulty speaking, understanding the written word, numbers, directions." Kix took a drink of his own caf and turned his attention back to Sinker. "We'll talk with Saria later today to see if there's some kind of therapy that'll help, but truthfully Sinker, I'm not optimistic."

Sinker grinned and touched his chest. "Am," he declared emphatically. "All. Scape."

Dare nodded. "I tink I'll be I'll be optimistic, too."

"What would you like in your scramble?" Shaeeah was at the stove with two eggs in one hand and a spatula in the other.

"Hot spices, Treaded nerf jerky." His voice had sounded a little odd, constrained by the flexibands, and shen was a lost cause, but Shaeeah nodded her understanding. She cracked the eggs into a small bowl, added a little blue milk and some spices. He moved closer to watch her cook. It was an important skill to learn. All the troopers had vowed to learn after the very first day of Checkout's cooking.

"More," he told her in his quiet voice, standing behind her looking over her shoulder. "Very hot."

Shaeeah turned and handed him the bowl of pepperspice. "Spice it yourself."

He poured a heaping spoon of the pepperspice into the frothy egg mix and watched her lips pucker. She didn't say anything as she whipped up the eggs and slid them onto the heated metal plate. When the eggs had barely turned solid, Shaeeah added the shredded meat and some white, creamy substance that started to melt.

"What's dat?" Dare couldn't yet say his trills, but Saria had warned him that trill along with shen and a few other letters would be difficult to pronounce until the flexibands had dissolved, so he wasn't alarmed.

"Yai-yai. Saria said it would be good for you and Jester said he had some that we could use." Shaeeah moved the spatula in a crisp movement but the omelet disintegrated. Shaeeah sighed and quickly stirred it into a scramble. "It's just for you and no one else."

Dare nodded. He'd heard of yai-yai; it was a nutrient-dense, high calorie Mandalorian food.

"Where is Jester?" Kix looked around. "He can't still be asleep, can he?" All the men who'd been in Issuya, except Jester and Cut, were sitting at the table with unfinished food and caf or leaning against the wall. Everyone knew where Cut and Suu were.

Quad laughed. "He was gone at midnight to visit Saria."

"They were at the front porch this morning, wrapped up in a blanket." Shaeeah handed Dare the plate, the egg scrambled soft and still moist, the nerf jerky shredded thin. He closed his eyes and lifted the plate to his nose. The scent was tantalizing, more so than any other food he'd ever had the pleasure to smell.

He sat at the table, Waxer vacating a chair for him, and lifted a small forkful of scramble to his open lips. Heaven! It was pure pleasure, the eggs nicely salty and hot with the spices that tickled the back of his throat, the nerf requiring only the barest nibble before swallowing. He held the egg on his tongue for a moment, pressing it up to his palate, before swallowing.

"And his first words after eating real food are …" introduced Quad with humor in his amber eyes.

"Paradise," mumbled Dare. "I have died and gone to paradise."

Numa gave him a quick hug as did Shaeeah. Waxer, right behind him, slapped him lightly on the shoulder. Sinker nodded and tapped his arm with a fist. The others, brothers who had seen his hardship with the broken jaw, applauded and laughed in delight.

"Paradise," said Quad as he lifted his cup for a toast.

"Paradise,"