"Your cut split open." Xander informs Lucy, the pad of his thumb tracing the gash on her cheek. He immediately reaches for the rubbing alcohol. Lucy reaches up and touches the cut, reeling when she sees the blood.
/Her family being stabbed, blood staining every thing./
~Deep breaths, Lucy, deep breaths. You don't want any more people to know.~
/Johnny crying, begging the mean men to stop it./
"What's wrong?" Xander asks, wiping the blood off of her cheek gently. ~Damn.~
/Their pain finally stopping as they breath their last painful breaths./
"Everything." she whispers, her voice so soft that he would have missed it were he not a transgenic. He finishes cleaning her cheek and wraps an arm around her. "You want to talk about it?" he asks, her sadness really bothering him.
"Not now." she sighs, and leans her head on his shoulder, a lone tear falling down her cheek. She tries to block out the painful memories, closing her eyes. His presence comforts her, and she finds herself drifting towards sleep.
"You should rest." Xander says, going to get up. ~I'm gonna mutilate whoever did this to her~ he thinks angrily, not knowing why he's so connected to her.
Her face scrunches up slightly in fear. "No," she whispers, half asleep, "stay here. I don't like being alone." she says, burrowing into the pillow. He heads to the chair, but Lucy opens her eyes and motions him over. "You can't sleep on the chair, moron."
He smiles a little, then lays down next to her. She rolls over, so that they're face-to-face. Instantly he lifts her shirt to check on the knife wound. "Does it hurt?" he asks. She shakes her head, but winces a little.
"Thank you." Lucy murmurs sleepily. His brow wrinkles in confusion.
"For what?" he asks, thoroughly confused. She lays her head on his shoulder.
"For making me feel safe." she says, just before her breathing slows and she falls asleep.
"Anytime, Lucy." he says, placing a kiss on her forehead. "Anytime."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Empty office, TC Medical Center
"How were they so comfortable with each other, Alec?" Max asks, locking the door. He shrugs.
"I don't know. Maybe they bonded." he says, really starting to wonder how Xander and Lucy got so close when they only met that day, and not even for over an hour and a half. Max rolls her eyes.
"No, I'm talking like any reasons meaning transgenic things. And not a whole lot of people can bond like that in less than a half hour, especially when one is critically wounded." she says, not knowing how to ask him without sounding stupid.
"Yeah, I can see your point-not many people are too chatty when they have a hole left by a knife in their side, but what do you mean by transgenic things?" he asks, knowing that Max is uncomfortable not knowing much about their kind because she escaped so young.
"You know, like packs and stuff. You got anything?" she asks, rushing through the questions. Alec thinks about the way they acted.
"Well," Alec says, thinking back to how Lucy and Xander acted, "maybe it was just instinctive of them both."
"What do you mean?" Max asks, pushing a pile of papers off of a desk to make room for her.
"Well, haven't you ever met a person and then just had this incredibly strong bond, even after knowing them for only a short time?" he asks, and the both recall the time that they first met.
"Yeah, I have. So," Max says, "what about the transgenic part?"
"I'm not quite sure about that. But I do know one thing-Lucy is definitely not like the ordinaries. She's special, and maybe that's why Xander and her are so close. She isn't completely human, that's for sure."
"Yeah," Max says softly, thinking about how her pack is gone now. Alec sees the tension on her face.
"And besides that, the two were totally into each other." he says, chuckling in an attempt to lighten the mood.
"Can't deny that." she laughs. "I mean, how can they even pretend to not like each other when they so totally do." They both think about that for a minute, and then Max gets an idea. "Alec, I have an idea. You know the Transgenic Pride Dance?" she asks. He smiles slightly at her naiveness, wondering how she can't realize that he's been planning the perfect time to ask her for the past week.
"Yeah, I've heard about it." he says nonchalantly.
"We have to get Xander to ask Lucy." Max says, "Maybe that will make her stay longer. She kind of looks like she's still on the run. We have to get her to stay here, Alec."
"We'll make it work, Max."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lucy's room
Xander lays on the bed with his eyes closed, wondering what woke him up. He looks down at Lucy, who suddenly starts whispering something incoherently. He looks to the door, where he can see Max and Alec laughing in the hallway,
He brushes a strand of hair out of Lucy's face and pulls her close to him, wrapping his arms around her protectively. "Shshshsh..." he whispers, trying to soother her.
She tosses in his arms violently, and starts crying out, "Blood. Blood...everywhere...dead." He rocks her slowly, and her yelling stops, but her sobs grow louder. He feels Max and Alec in the room, but doesn't look up from her. Lucy's his primary focus right now, stopping her cries is the only thing that matter. "It's ok, Lucy, I'm right here."
Her sobs die down a little, but her face is so pale, and filled with fear . "my fault...all my fault. Sorry...so sorry." she whispers, tears running down her face freely. He pulls her closer, and kisses her forehead. "You don't have to apologize, Lucy. Nothing is your fault." he laces his fingers with hers, and his touch comforts her.
She falls back into a deep sleep, her hand grasping his and her head tucked in his shoulder. He lays her gently on the pillow and checks her bandage. He untangles her hand from his, and covers her with a blanket and turns to Max and Alec, who are watching him intently. They motion for him to follow them. He pulls the blanket further up on Lucy. ~I'll be back, Luce.~
Max watches from the door, touched by Xander's protectiveness of Lucy. ~So that's what it's like to have pack.~ she thinks sadly as she shuts the door behind Xander.
"Ok," Xander says, running his hands through his hair, a nervous habit, "what the hell happened to make her that scared, and can I kill it?"
"We aren't a hundred percent yet," Alec explains, "but we do know that her family was brutally murdered, and White held her captive. We're getting a blood workup done now."
"Shit..." Xander says, eyeing the sleeping girl on the bed.
"Yeah." Max and Alec say at the same time, their eyes following his to where Lucy lays on the bed, the blanket tucked around her.
"Why kill her family? Were they involved in Manticore?" Xander asks, needing to know the reason for Lucy's pain.
"To make her break." Max says sadly. "The bastards took pictures of it, and gave them to her, telling her that it was all her fault."
Xander clenches his fists, trying to control the sudden urge to beat the shit our of something. "Those sick fucks are gonna pay." he promises, willing to do anything in his power to get Lucy's revenge. "Is she okay?" he asks, truly worried.
"Would you be after you saw this?" Alec asks bitterly, holding out the picture. Xander grabs it from him and studies it, his heart sinking. "Damn..." he swears, outraged. "I gotta go." he says, and stalks off angrily after one last heartfelt look at Lucy.
"If she wakes up, tell her I'll be back." he calls from down the hall. Max and Alec look at each other, both not really knowing what just happened. Alec smirks a bit, and tries to lighten the mood.
"Ten bucks says he's gonna kick someone's ass." he says, promptly recieving a punch in the shoulder from Max. "What?" he asks, rubbing his arm.
"Moron. Come on, let's go see how Dix is doing on that blood analysis." she orders, and they walk down the hall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~```
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