Chapter 35
Making The Best Of It
"So this is the game," Miri said to Tib who was still not pleased about this place he found himself in. "We're going to look for these," she said while holding up a long building nail. "Now you find anything like this, you call me or Al-Jilani."
"Khalisah," came the voice beside her.
Miri turned her attention to the journalist who shrugged. "I think you can call me by my first name at this stage."
"Alright. You hear that, Tib? You call for me or Khalisah once you find one and we'll collect it."
Tib nodded and got to work.
Miranda stared up at the hole in the roof. "That's our first task. Get that sealed up," she mused before she went to one of the bed and ripped the strangely shaped large headboard off.
"This looks large enough. Just need something to cover."
Al-Jilani quickly jumped in. "What would work?"
"Any large plastic covering. We just need to waterproof it in case we get a shower."
"I thought that was pretty rare during this time of year."
Miri glanced at Al-Jilani. "Doesn't mean you shouldn't be prepared. From the sounds of it, they're planning on keeping us here for some time and with the amount of homes needing repair I don't have confidence of having this fixed any time soon. Hell, we've barely got power as it is."
Before Al-Jilani could press the issue, Tib shouted eagerly from the small kitchen.
"MOMMY! I FOUND TWO!"
"That's great, Tib. On my way!"
By the time night fell on their first day, Miranda and Al-Jilani had repaired as much as possible of both the gap in the roof and the one in the front wall. Not perfectly which the breeze that came inside in gusts testified to.
"I should have brought blankets," Miri cursed. "I just... damn it."
Tiberius shivered in his small bed which barely fitted him. Miranda took the thin blanket that been appropriated to her bed and covered over her little boy and his meager one.
"I'll get you a hot water bottle," she soothed Tiberius. "It'll make you feel loads better."
"I don't like it here," Tib squeaked. "Why can't we go home?"
Miranda sighed before kneeling down beside where he was curled up on the bed.
"You see, just for the moment and it won't be for very long, the people who your daddy works for wants to keep us in one place. So they decided that this was the best place to put us."
"But it's cold! And scary!"
"I can fix that," Miri said as cheerfully as possible before she boiled the small kettle they had and filled up one of the hot water bottles she had the presence of mind to purchase before entering the camp.
"Now... feel better?" she asked after putting the bottle under the blankets piled on Tib.
"Sorta. Still scary."
Miri smiled. "I'm right here, baby. I'll keep you safe."
Tiberius eventually passed out, the hot water bottle helping in that task.
Miranda sat on her own single bed as she used her light coat to cover her. Al-Jilani brought her some tea, the only thing they could make hot in the apartment.
"This... this is madness," she said quietly after handing over the cup and sitting beside Miri on the bed.
"Temporary. Just temporary."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Adrien."
Al-Jilani took in the resolute look on Miri's face.
"You really believe he'll sort this out."
"I know him. I... I trust him. Completely. And you've no idea how long it took to reach that in our relationship."
Miri turned her head slightly and gave Al-Jilani a slight smile.
"He'll sort this out. I know it."
"Get in," Victus growled to Garrus who stepped inside, wary of the clearly disgruntled Primarch.
He followed the noise to the living room, finding it full of people he knew with tables roughly shoved together and covered with papers and data-pads.
Garrus said his hellos to Atilius, Titus, Nimerius Crassus who stood alongside Senators Pragius and Akkius.
Heavy smoke lingered in the air with nearly overflowing ashtrays on the tables while Victus's drinks cabinet was wide open and clearly had been dipped into.
"Well..." Victus said as he arrived after Garrus, "... where were we?"
"Figuring out who we need to squeeze," Titus huffed.
Atilius shook his head. "See, I disagree. I think we need to prove that the kids are no real threat!"
"Oh and how the fuck are we going to do that in a reasonable time-frame, Marcus!" Sappho barked back.
"I dunno but dismissing the idea out of hand doesn't fucking help, Titus!"
Crassus got to his feet and stamped his walking stick down hard.
"SHUT UP! The pair of you!"
Nim pointed at Atilius. "I like your idea but requires too much time."
Sappho was next in the firing line. "Your idea is good but leaves us open to repercussions."
"So we need a plan that covers what?" Pragius asked the old turian.
Nimerius walked slowly forward.
"What we need is an idea that accounts for what we want which is the dissolution of these abominations on our world and also allows for the fear the people have."
Sappho snorted. "Why should we? I mean surely-"
"Because they've got reason to be!" Nimerius snapped, interrupting Titus before she could finish her sentence.
"How this got this damn far in the first place is that not one of us took into account the real justifiable fear of the turian people. They're allowed to be afraid of this situation."
Before the rest could argue, Victus spoke – his words carrying the weight of his own current emotional turmoil.
"I agree with Nimerius. For too long we turned a deaf ear to the fears of those around us. Too content to label them as fear-mongers or as a minority that will come around in time."
Everyone focused their attention on Victus as he spoke methodically and with care.
"I'm as guilty of this as anyone is and it's only now that I see what Miri was trying so hard to make me understand without quite forcing the knowledge on me."
"And what was that?" Nimerius asked.
"That people have the right to be afraid. That they have the right to have those fears confronted and eased. These camps were not born out of nothing and they at the moment serve a purpose to ease our people of fear. And that's what we need to replace these with. We need a way of honoring what our people think and feel while respecting the rights of those within the camps."
Garrus broke the silence that fell. "You're right, Victus. Now... how do we do that?"
"I don't know. But I know that I won't be sleeping tonight until I come up with something."
The days seemed so long.
By the end of that first week, Al-Jilani felt like it had actually been months. Everyday turned into a monotony of fetching food from the canteen, attempting to fix the myriad problems that showed up in the building to arguing with the construction workers about how urgent their needs were in comparison to the many other families in similar or worse situations.
Miranda always kept positive, keeping Tib distracted with games and activities from the nightmare that had become their new life.
The one bright spot was the twice daily visit by Victus; once in the morning and once in the evening, often bringing breakfast and dinner with him so he could still enjoy being with his family even if only for a short hour or so.
Miranda refused to let him see the apartment. Instead they'd meet at the canteen at the long rows of rickety tables and benches.
At one point, Victus pulled Al-Jilani aside and asked her to answer him honestly on the conditions they were living in.
"Just about livable."
The Primarch stared at her intently. "Just about?"
"We could use more blankets. Warmer ones definitely."
Victus quickly grabbed his omnitool and started a list. "What else?"
The next day a large delivery of the things she'd mentioned arrived. Not just for them but for everyone in the camp. Al-Jilani kept her mouth shut over who sent the goods even as Miranda beamed about the better conditions that surely meant things were looking up.
By the second week, people started getting sick.
Humans mostly. Sputtering coughs and runny noses. Al-Jilani had been surprised at how cold it got at night, especially considering the heat during the day. The new blankets helped but sickness had been starting to take hold days before they arrived.
Miranda, with her modicum of medical training, soon became the go to person for help. By midweek she was barely sleeping as people called at every hour of the day and night looking for her advice and seeking her to check on their loved ones.
Miri for her part managed to get some medical supplies from the security teams that patrolled the exterior and did everything she could to help.
"You're running yourself into the ground," Al-Jilani finally pressed Miri at the end of that second week.
"Nearly there. The cases have petered off. Did you see the work done on Block C? Fingers crossed we'll be next. Be good to get some proper heating in here and those holes actually fixed."
Al-Jilani frowned. "Miranda... you need to talk to Victus about this. This entire place should be condemned, not repaired."
"No."
"Why not?"
"He'll just do something rash. Adrien needs to figure out the solution first. He can't run roughshod over the Senate. This has to come from consensus otherwise... otherwise this will never be fixed. This situation will always be a threat only one pushed further down the line."
She smiled at Al-Jilani, the black bags under her eyes telling of her tiredness.
"Adrien will find an answer. You'll see."
Sappho browsed over the datapad in front of her.
"This is the final wording?"
Pragius huffed. "Damn right. We've made it as neutral as possible, giving ample room for both sides of the divide to maneuver on this."
"So basically we're proposing a registration. A master list of hybrids, their families and their home addresses in the Hierarchy with some stricter conditions than normal."
"Yep," Atilius replied, weariness of the long nights he'd spent on this all over his face. "I've talked to almost every damn senator in the whole place and what they want is security. When pressed, they stated that knowing who and where the hybrids are was a prime factor in how they voted the last time. This addresses that."
Titus skimmed over the entire proposal. "Short."
"Short and sweet."
She glanced up at Pragius. "What do you need from me?"
"We've got the bill. Akkius and I have put it on the proposal list but can't get it scheduled until next week. Now... now we push. We've gotta hit every senator that we can with this before it goes to the floor. Go over every concern they may have personally."
Titus nodded. "Gotcha. What about Victus?"
"He'll do his best but can't be too forceful on it. People know how invested he is in this. It could backfire spectacularly if he got too personally involved."
Al-Jilani woke up in the middle of night to a noise she hadn't heard in months, in years even.
The pattering of rain as it hit the roof and the telltale splatter of water as it poured into the apartment.
She snapped upright in the bed and found Miri already awake. The floor was flooded with water as streams poured through gaps in their hasty repair to the skylight. Miranda was busy putting containers down to catch the constant flow in an attempt to stop it getting worse while she'd pushed Tib's bed with the child inside to the dry floor of the kitchen. She'd given Tiberius her blankets again while she battled the rain.
"Don't get up!" Miranda said quickly to Al-Jilani. "No point in both of us being soaking wet!"
"But-"
"Just don't. I woke up too late and couldn't save the bags," Miri said while she pointed at the luggage they all lived out of. Their clothes was soaking wet.
"Damn it," Al-Jilani hissed.
"I know. Stay in that dry patch. I'll sort this out."
When morning finally arrived, the rain was replaced by the more familiar heat and bright light.
They hung all of their clothes up wherever they could find the space while the floor dried relatively quickly.
Miri had to abandon her soaking wet clothes entirely and instead sat on the driest chair wrapped in blankets.
Just as Tib toddled over with a cup of lukewarm tea for his mother in an attempt to get some warmth back in to her, Miri let out a terribly harsh and barking cough.
"Mommy! You're sick!"