Everyone's Ohana

Part III

A Lilo & Stitch Fanfic

By Brenna "Snakelady" Dawkins

Rating: PG13

Disclaimer: Lilo and Stitch and all subsequent characters are owned and copyrighted by Disney Studios. I have made no money off of this or any of my other fanfics… pity!

Summary: Lilo and Gantu must work together to escape capture, if only they can cooperate long enough without getting on each others nerves.

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"Maybe I should see how bad it really is." Lilo offered.

"You aren't a xenologist." Gantu snorted sourly as he rested his chin on the hard ground.

But Lilo ignored his brusque comment and grabbed a hold of some of his sleeve and scrambled up onto his arm.

"What are you doing?" He demanded grumpily. He could barely keep her in site from the corner of his eye. There wasn't anyway he could by turning his head, to move any part of his body was a lesson in new pain.

Lilo scaled her way up to his shoulders. "Wow, your shoulder's are as wide as a Buick!"

"What's a Buick?"

"Big, blingy car." Pause. "E-e-eew."

"What? What do you see?" Gantu couldn't help but ask anxiously.

Lilo fingered her lip and tried to side step some of the shrapnel that littered the giants back. Blood was oozing everywhere she looked. But that wasn't what really worried her. Part of the wall and ceiling was pinning him down. Upon closer inspection, she could see that some of the metal had embedded itself into his back. That's where most of the blood was coming from. She knew that there would be no way she could move it. And Gantu could barely lift his pinky, let alone the thing that was pinning him.

"Um, we-e-e-e-ell-" Lilo hedged uncertainly.

Gantu sighed. He could guess by her reluctance. "I see."

"Don't suppose you can get up?" Lilo wondered.

"No." Was his curt reply.

"I can't move it."

Gantu's face was screwed up into a very unpleasant scowl, partly from the pain, partly from having to deal with the child. "Just get down from there. There's no good you can do up there and besides, I am NOT a jungle gym."

He felt her scramble back down, doing her best to avoid hurting him further for a change. He was relieved when she came back within his sight once more. It made him nervous not being able to see her and being so completely helpless. This was not how he figured how he would go. This was the ultimate humiliation. Even worse then dying while helpless and alone was he'd be dying alone and stuck with this annoying Earthling child!

"Just stay where I can see you." Gantu tried to order. But he knew better. One, he was in no position to order anyone around, and two, he knew she'd always just do what she wanted to do anyway.

"You got trust issues." Lilo said as she sat back down. Once more she was nearly eye to eye with the giant ex Captain. He was still scowling at her. She didn't know if she'd ever seen any other expression on his face.

"Is this small talk to pass the time or is it genuine?" Gantu asked. For someone who didn't pay attention to directions, she was unusually observant. He'd learned long ago that it didn't pay to trust too much, if at all. Every time, EVERY time, he ended up paying for that mistake.

"Um, the first one?"

Gantu snorted, "Then forget it."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure."

Time passed. He was really starting to feel the blood loss. The lightheadedness was hard to ignore. Gantu knew he was dying. Depending on how quickly he was loosing blood, maybe a day or two, but more then likely, just hours. Funny how when things looked their bleakest you tended to dwell on regrets. How many years had he been stuck on that planet? How many hours had he been literally isolated from the rest of the galaxy? It had eaten away at him, slowly but surely. Pecked away at his will and pride until what remained was wholly unrecognizable to him. He was no longer the prideful and competent Captain of the Galactic Alliance, but the pathetic castaway scrounging after failed experiments for a wanted criminal.

"I'm thirsty. I think I hear water running up there."

Through the fog that was forming in his head, he managed to slowly swim back to reality upon hearing her words. "Pipe must have burst from inside the wall."

Lilo saw that it wouldn't be much of a challenge to get up to where she thought the pipe might be located. The problem would be the potential to cut herself on the sharp metal, rather then getting to the leaking pipe.

Much the same way she climbed Gantu, she slithered up the shorn metal. She made quite a lot of noise as she made her way up. The last half of the climb meant she had to scale the very piece of wall that was embedded in alien's back. She heard him inhale sharply from the pain as she added her slight weight onto the metal beam.

"Sorry." She climbed across the beam as quickly as she could. Lilo made it to the hole in the wall safely. It was like the walls at home except they were metal. Inside the wall from the other room and their own cell was any number of pipes and wiring. The blast had shorn enough of the wall away so that she could see into the next room. Actually, it looked like a hallway. It was so weird that with all the racket of the blast that no one had ever come to see if their prisoners had escaped.

Lilo squeezed her way partially inside the wall to get to the running water that was leaking down into the depths between the part of the wall that still existed. She cupped her small hands under the dripping and waited for it to pool in her palm. Lilo drank until her thirst was slaked. She had no idea how long she'd been in that cell. She knew it was wa-a-a-ay past her bedtime. Lilo was about to climb down when she guiltily recalled how helpless Gantu was and that he might be just as thirsty as she had been. But she had no way to get any water down to him. Definitely not in her hands. She took one last handful of water and her cheeks bulged from it. No, no way would she give him water mouth to mouth. The very thought gave her the willies.

So she had to think of another way. For some reason, she thought of laundry day, how it took simply forever for her favorite pajamas to hang dry. Suddenly inspired, she smacked herself in the head for not thinking of it before and shrugged off that long sleeved shirt Nani had made her wear. The water poured over her shirt, soaking into it thoroughly. She knew he would protest at being given water in that way, but it was the best she could do.

Her climb down was a lot faster then it had been going up.

"Got you some water." She said to him.

He eyeballed the sopping wet shirt. "You're kidding."

"This or nothing."

With a long-suffering sigh, Gantu reluctantly took the offering. His mouth opened and she got a good look inside that cavernous mouth. So many sharp teeth! And she was going disturbingly close to them. The image of JAWS flitted through her mind sending shivers down her spine. She hesitated a moment then screwed her courage back into place. She laid the shirt onto his tongue, holding her breath against his own fishy foulness. If they were both going to survive this, she was going to suggest mouthwash to him.

It was like chewing on a cotton swab, Gantu noted. But when he bit down, some cooling water squeezed out onto his tongue and down his throat. He hadn't realized how parched he'd been because of the blood loss. Her scent was soaked into the shirt along with the water, changing the taste. But he wanted the water enough to not care what it tasted like.

"Um, thanks." He managed over the mouthful of the shirt.

Lilo smiled and sat back down in her spot.

After Gantu got all the water out of the shirt he was going to get, he spit it out. "You should go and save your sister."

"What about you?"

"I'm finished. But your sister may not be. Don't waste the opportunity I gave you to escape. Go get her and get yourselves out of here."

Lilo looked into his eye uncertainly. "You'll die."

"I'm dead already. You cannot save me. Go- save your sister."

She stood slowly, looked up at the hole in the wall then back down into his eye. "By the way- I don't hate you. You saved me. Thank you."

For the first time, she saw him smile, not the malicious smile of triumph when he'd temporarily had captured an experiment, but a genuine smile. "Get out of here."

Lilo nodded and once more climbed her way to the hole in the wall. Once on top, she looked down once more at Gantu. Her smile was bitter sweet. In the end, it seems he wasn't the Big Dummy after all.

Gantu heard her leave and heaved a heavy sigh. Now he was really alone. He never figured that he'd miss her, even though it was mostly silent company. But at least it was company. Upon reflection, he should have taken the offer to talk. Not that he was necessarily the talkative type, but she had offered an ear and he had refused.

He cursed his father for planting the seed of distrust. How much unnecessary pain had he had to endure because of it? He then cursed himself for his own stupidity. For listening, for not listening. For all the wasted time and lost chances. He closed his eyes tightly, but that didn't blot out his life's mistakes. Only one thing would, and that would come soon enough.

Let it, he relaxed his body. Just let it come and be done with it all. He finally blacked out.

To Be Continued-