Asherah composed herself and started out to find her protégé and deliver a well- earned congratulations when she realized that, with her bloody clothes and bandages and dirty, tearstained face, she'd probably scare the lot of them. She headed toward the hotel instead.
Rain was headed out when she suddenly saw a familiar white head slowly (for its owner, anyway) making its way toward the hotel. Intrigued, and a little concerned, she made her way over to Asherah.
Asherah saw her coming. Damn! But there was nothing to be gained by rudeness, so she stood her ground and smiled pleasantly. "Hello, Rain."
"What happened?" the doctor asked, clearly worried.
"I had a run- in with an old acquaintance."
One hell of a run- in. Rain thought. "Well, I'm a doctor. Come upstairs and I'll take care of that." she offered.
"That's okay. I can take care of myself." Asherah demurred.
"Please, Asherah." Rain looked the other woman in the eye. "I would consider it a favor. It's obvious how much Chibodee's improved, and he didn't do it on his own. Please let me do this for you."
Asherah eyed the Neo- Japanese crew member speculatively, and sighed. "All right."
Another familiar face appeared. "Domon sent me to see if you- daaaaaaaaa- yum." Allenby whistled. "What'd you do, try to take on a Gundam by yourself?"
Asherah's tight smile was getting more strained by the minute. "Something like that."
"Allenby, will you please go tell Domon-"
"That Rain is talking to me and won't shut up?" Asherah interrupted. Rain looked at her in surprise. "I don't want them to know." she told them.
"Why not?" Allenby asked.
Asherah turned a glare on her that plainly stated it was none of her business. "I don't want them worrying about me, or asking inconvenient questions. This is my problem, not theirs." Her dark eyes jumped to Rain. "You don't have to do this, you know. You're perfectly free to leave- which is what you were doing, before I snagged you."
"No." Rain refused; she wasn't about to let Asherah renege on the permission she'd only reluctantly granted in the first place, and Rain's curiosity was thoroughly piqued.
"I'll be right back." Allenby promised, ignoring Asherah's objections and vanishing with a speed that should have done the ex- agent proud.
Rain gently gripped Asherah's arm. "Come on. I'll take you to my room; Allenby knows where it is."
Asherah gave her a sidelong glance and lifted eyebrow in silent inquiry.
"We've talked." Rain explained, dragging Asherah along with her before the other woman could get her to elaborate.
*
"Come in." Rain called in response to a knock, and Allenby's bright blue head peeked in before being followed by the rest of her.
Allenby openly gaped at the wounds. "What happened?"
"Nothing." Asherah sullenly responded, with an air of repetition.
Allenby took a seat. "Listen, I understand if you don't want to talk about it, but something obviously did happen to you, and it might do you some good to get it out." She glanced furtively to Rain. "Who knows, we might even be able to help."
"Thanks, but I'm fine on my own."
Rain shot Allenby a glance. Let me handle this. Allenby lacked Rain's subtlety in dealing with emotional matters, and hadn't spent much time with other women.
Luckily, the Neo- Swedish fighter was perceptive enough to catch the message and settled back comfortably into her chair.
"Who did this to you?" Rain asked casually.
"Jonas." Asherah told her through gritted teeth.
"How did he come out?" Allenby inquired.
Asherah's grimace turned into a sinister smile. "Oh, he doesn't look any better than me."
That's right. I'd forgotten about the language of the fist, and the understanding that fighters share. Rain realized. "So, what does Jonas look like?"
Asherah's eyes widened, her eyebrows rose, and her mouth opened slightly. She looked at Rain and was silent for a minute before deciding to answer. "He's a handsome man. About my age. He has brown hair and green eyes."
Rain quietly sucked in a breath at what she picked up from the white- haired woman's tone. So… this is interesting. "What's he like?"
"Jonas is… very preoccupied with freedom." Asherah's voice was soft, and her tone contained a host of emotions. Rain noticed her shoulders were extremely tense. "He believes that the people of the Earth should be liberated from the colony governments, because those governments neither know nor care anything about them. He believes that the Gundam fights should not be used to determine who gets to rule space. Jonas thinks that there is a better way of doing things, that he can change the world to allow everyone to live their lives in peace. He's willing to spark a war among the colony- nations to accomplish this.
"If anyone could do something like that, it would be Jonas." Her dark eyes were shining with tears that she wouldn't let fall. "He's very accomplished. He and I were the best agents that Neo- America had. Jonas is very intelligent, capable, resourceful, knowledgeable, educated… And he's an extremely good fighter. Sparring and training with him is one of the reasons I have the strength I do." She sighed heavily. "Jonas is a remarkable man. He's just… gotten into some mistaken ideas, leapt to the wrong conclusions, and he's so entrenched in his beliefs that absolutely nothing can change his mind. He will not be stopped by anything short of death."
"You sound as though you knew him well."
"I… did."
A ha! So I was right! She loves him. Rain thought triumphantly.
"It must be hard for you, fighting against a former friend." Allenby commented sympathetically.
"You have no idea." Asherah told her.
"Is there any way we can help?" Rain asked, tying up the last bandage.
Asherah shook her head. "No. But thank you for the offer."
"We're both here if you change your mind. And I'm sure Chibodee's girls or Marie- Louise would be happy to help you, too. As a matter of fact, all of us and Nastasha are going to have a sort of a girl's night in tonight, right here. Do you want to join us?" Allenby enthusiastically offered.
"No, thanks. I don't want to impose." Asherah stood to go, and the other women got up with her.
"Oh, it wouldn't be an imposition at all! We'd love to have you. As a matter of fact, yesterday I heard Shirley say she wished she could get to know you better." Rain butted in hastily.
For the first time since Rain had known her, Asherah looked uncertain. "Are you sure?"
"Positive." Allenby and Rain rang out in unison.
Asherah gave them a small, hesitant smile. "Okay, then…"
"Great!" Rain chimed, grabbing her arm and walking along with her, leaving Allenby to close up the room and catch up. "Just be here around eight, okay? Bring a pair of pajamas. Some of the girls are bringing their favorite treats- ice cream, chocolate, stuff like that, so bring what you want." She winked. "Just make sure you have enough to share, and a cooler for anything that has to stay cold so it doesn't go to waste. And you might want to also take a pair of 'sexy clothes', in case we decide to go out after all."
What the hell have I gotten myself into? Asherah wondered, as Rain and Allenby waved and went on their way. A smile wormed its way onto her lips. Still… I can't help but like it.
Guys might want to skip the next chapter. (Too bad I didn't warn you about this one, huh? Bwahahahahahaha!) Girl stuff. Basically a slumber party- and no matter how old we get, we LOVE slumber parties, don't we, ladies? *waits for whoops of agreement* AND sweets. ^_^ Oh, and the next time you check this story, my username will probably be changed to Pyrinsomniac. Cookies to: LivEvil, who also gets a Lifetime Achievement Award for all her reviews!