Xenotober 2022 12 Family, end.

a/n: Three absolutely unnecessary interactions as Lila returns to her normal life, but this is my party and I want to write dialogue.

All the good things belong to Monolithsoft.

It would have been too much to hope that Gino wouldn't notice anything wrong when Lila returned to the station. She didn't even bother trying to avoid him. She rolled off the transport plane and scuttled across the road toward the station. She was still panting, leaning against the knee of a parked skell, waiting for her stomach to settle into something close to comfort, when he sidled over to her.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"Bad things, Gino. Bad things." She took one last deep breath and stood up straight. It wasn't enough. She toppled toward him.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she repeated as he dragged her sorry form over to the customer waiting area and dropped her into a lawn chair. The metal armrest dug into her side when she landed. She hissed and managed to sit properly, rubbing her sore side. "I'm fine."

"Bitch, please. Shut up a second." Gino was gone and back in a minute, giving Lila enough time to scan the station. Another technician was dealing with the only customer in sight, but she knew the lunch rush was approaching. A cold bottle dropped into her lap.

"Drink it," ordered Gino, cracking open his own energy drink. Lila did as told. As she sipped carefully, thankful that her nausea didn't reappear, Gino asked the question she knew was coming. "Where's Avery?"

"I don't know."

"Go to hell. What happened?"

"They arrested her, I think. Or something. I don't know where she is now. I was pretty out of it the moment things started to happen." She coughed, then tugged ruefully at the standard-issue shirt she was wearing. "They cleaned me up at the Mim Center and sent me home."

Gino leaned over towards Lila and took a thoughtful sniff. He wrinkled his nose. "Flash bangs? On that little thing?"

"I was out from the start. Maybe it was something else. Anyhow, I'm fine now."

"So we aren't going to see her again, huh?"

"I don't know. Maybe, maybe not."

"You with your maybes." Gino leaned back in his own chair. "You think they made a mistake?"

"No."

"You think they'll rehabilitate her or something?"

"Maybe. Or maybe they'll send her back to the Ganglion." Lila hunched over, suddenly sick with the image of booby-trap BLADEs, sent into battle ready to be captured by the Ganglion. They didn't need any additional horror in their conflict, but it was a clever enough idea that someone would propose it. Maybe someone already had.

"No way!" Gino was irate, swinging his bottle around for emphasis. A splash of sweet liquid landed at Lila's feet. "We do not send our people back to those soulless demons. No matter what they do."

"I just don't know," Lila said, draining her bottle. She got to her feet experimentally and was pleased to find the ground stayed flat and steady.

"Shit," Gino said, a sort of memorial blessing. "Well, I got a little something for you to take your mind off of things that you absolutely don't fucking know. I hear the official depot may be going down for repairs, so we should be seeing a boom in traffic by the end of the day. Make those credits, nice!"

Lila snorted. "If it's an emergency situation, the contract with the ECP says we have to charge official rates. We won't break even." She closed her eyes, not from unsteadiness, but to better enjoy the richness of Gino's response.

xcxxcxcx

The week was ending. Contrary to Lila's prediction, the station was solidly in the black. What they hadn't earned in fuel sales (sadly limited by the minor yet official state of emergency), the station as a whole had more than made up for the loss in increased sales of snacks and Nopon scratcher tickets from the attached Quicky Quicky Mart and from extra services like skell washes and tread detailing. Lila had offered coupons to new customers with a free hand, a pittance of a discount for any return visit after the emergency was over. It had been a bustling time, and Lila was glad to have been kept busy. She almost didn't have time to think about Avery at all.

She was dashing between two skells, about to climb the ladder to begin the linkage sequence while simultaneously reassuring a worried young Interceptor that the job would be done in less than 10 minutes while also checking the station's fuel storage levels, when she spotted a slim blonde waiting by the office. She choked for a second, then walked over to the visitor.

"Eleonora."

"Lila! My, but you seem busy." Eleonora looked around at the station with keen interest. A tiny golden Ma-non robot whizzed by her feet, trailing glitter, before honing in on a construction skell and starting to tow it to the parking area.

"What can we do for you?" Lila said formally.

"I wanted to see how you were doing."

Lila gestured toward the office door. It was quieter inside, cluttered with invoices and tools without being messy. Lila sat at the office desk. Eleonora took a look at the dubious couch and chose to remain standing.

"I sent you a note," Lila said.

"Yes, I got it, but I'm not sure why you bothered."

"Don't start trying to bring me in again."

"Lila, dear, we weren't the ones that sent Avery to you. You asked us for help. All things considered, I think it worked out very nicely."

"That's why I sent it. It worked out. I don't want you thinking I ever want to do that again."

Eleonora shrugged and took a careful seat on the edge of the desk. "The site was pretty degraded, but we found signatures of three different BLADE members in the debris. All of them missing, presumed captured or killed. At least now we know for sure."

Lila didn't answer.

"We're trying to find connections to the Industries, Grenada primarily but the others as well. There may be movement but it's too early to say."

"You don't want me to know about it," Lila assured her. "I wouldn't trust me with that kind of information."

Eleonora nodded. "I really did respect your wishes when you left, Lila. I don't agree, but I'm respecting them. Nothing has changed."

Lila rolled the words around in her mouth for a second before saying them. "Thank you." She stood up and started to walk to the door.

Eleonora got the hint and followed. "Don't mention it," she said brightly. "Well, I'm glad that we've cleared that up. I only want to emphasize that the ECP is on your side. We're grateful for what you did, and I wanted to reassure you that we will always respond in situations like this."

"I'll remember."

xcxcxxcxcxc

The station had been running overlapping shifts to manage the uptick of customers, but there is a certain line when support crosses into interference. After three shifts of it, the night manager had kindly told Lila to walk away. They didn't need her puttering, cleaning, restocking, or generally being helpful when the clock crossed from one day to the next. The night manager told Lila to go home, speaking as forcefully and bluntly as Prone women are apt to do. Lila ignored her and finished the little chore she was busy with, and then she walked the 20 meters to the back of the station and her small room.

She made herself a cup of instant soup and forced herself to drink it. Her last meal had been a while back. She couldn't really remember when she'd eaten properly. There had been the lunch at the Repenta with ... she bolted the rest of the salty broth. She got into pajamas, cleaned her teeth, said a brief prayer by rote, the words mumbled but not felt. She lay down and turned off the light and tried not to think.

Her comm device whistled and she pounced on it. It wouldn't be Avery's number, she knew that, but it didn't stop her from grabbing it before the first vibration had ended. She fumbled the screen, held it more securely, and stared at the caller id. It whistled again, then again. She sat up fully, bare feet on the ground, and answered. "Hello, Commander."

"Lila."

"Did Eleonora ask you to call?"

"What? No. I wanted to say, I don't know, I'm sorry?"

"I'm fine." Even Lila was getting sick of that phrase. She'd have to think of a new one, when she wasn't so tired. Maybe there was a list on FrontierNav.

"I hated to walk away from you."

What a nice man, she thought acidly. So caring. It hurt you to walk away. Have a cookie. She didn't say any of those things. After a pause, she answered him. "You were needed. I'm glad you could do ... whatever it was that you did."

"I'm glad you're safe."

She closed her eyes and let herself believe that, and then let herself believe her answer. "Me too."

"You holding up okay?"

"Yes." She paused. He was waiting for the next thing. Did she have something left to say? To her surprise she did. "It was just nice to pretend to have someone, if only for a little while. But I think I'm too good at doing that. Probably a good idea to give it a break. I'm sure you have things to do," she hurried on. "I'll let you go." Indeed, she could faintly hear someone trying to get his attention in the background.

Neither spoke for a moment. He broke the silence with a heavy rumbling sigh. Lila closed her eyes tighter. "Good night, Brown. Take care of yourself."

"You too, Chief. Good night."

a/n: Reminder that Lila worked for Vandham, then dated him, then went through a series of spectacular breakups and reunions. She also worked for Eleonora but only broke up once (until she didn't, in AUgust 2022/19, Spies and Assassins, whoooo evil Lila)

Next up: THE RETURN OF THE PROMPT let's see it's ... um, "strife". Or you could drop a suggestion and see what happens.