Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own The Tribe. Kinda wish I did but that's another story.

Lex walked quietly at Rose's side. "You look better today."

"I feel better." She fidgeted with the hem of her sweater. "I want to go back out to the forest, tomorrow or maybe the next day... You guys could probably use some of the supplies. Something tells me my tribe won't need it again."

He nodded. "A couple of us will come with you." He stopped outside her door. "Well, I guess I'll see you later."

She sighed. "Come on in. I know that look on your face, you need to talk." She went in the room and crawled back into bed.

Lex followed her in and sat on the floor leaning his head back against the mattress.

"You want to talk about Siva, right?" she continued when he sighed. "Why did you break up?"

A little voice in the back of his head answered 'because she thinks I'm sleeping with you.' "It's been coming for a while." He finally said. "We've been fighting a lot."

"About what?" Rose's voice sounded a little tired.

"Everything, nothing, I don't know. She never trusted me. She said I didn't listen to her. She thought I was cheating on her."

"Were you?"

"No, you know how I am."

"You're a flirt."

"Exactly. Just cause I talk to a girl it doesn't mean I'm gonna take her up against a wall."

"Well, there's an image." She sighed. "Some girls just don't understand stuff like that."

"I know. And I tried not to do it."

"Have you ever done anything to make her not trust you?"

"Not to her. Never to her. I may have done some… less than good things in the past." He admitted.

Rose reached out and ran a hand over his hair. "I don't know what to tell you."

"I really wanted this to work. I never did anything to hurt her. I…"

"Is it beyond apologizing?"

He snorted. "You could say that."

"I wish I could tell you more." Rose yawned.

He stood up. "You're tired. I should let you rest. I'll see you later." Lex gave her a smile and quickly left the room.

Rose lay awake thinking in the darkened room. He had changed more than she had thought could change. She was almost glad she had a different name to associate with the man who had just left the room. Her Xander had been trouble, yes, but he had been mischievous and sweet and sarcastic and funny. Lex was different; there was something just beneath the surface, something very dark. He must have seen real horrors to become the brooding man he seemed to have become. No matter what he said she saw it. As she finally drifted off to sleep she thought about the boy she had know and the man he'd become.

Jay went through his daily duties. They all were quickly realizing that as hard as it had been to run a city with Ram in control, it was even harder to do it with him gone. They thought they had it all figure out. Jay and the mallrats would keep peace in the city and Mega and his technos would run the infrastructure. Te first few days had been the worst. Ram had set up a bizarre operating program for the power and water systems. If he didn't enter a specific password everyday the system crashed. Breaking the code and disabling the system were only half the problem. The kids in the city were going into paradise withdrawals and rioting. It was impossible to get them to understand that the more they rioted the longer it would take to get them what they wanted. The carnival had really been a godsend. It had distracted the residents long enough for them to get major repairs done. The return of electricity and running water had done much to restore the peace.

Jay went quietly into the darkened room. Mega was in the corner scrolling trough data at a console. "What did you want?"

Mega jumped and spun around at the sound of Jay's voice. "Must you always do that? This room is bad enough without you sneaking up on people."

"You get too absorbed in your work."

"I have the disk you wanted." Mega gestured to the CD-rom lying on the table. "All the files are still encrypted. I haven't had the chance with everything else."

"Don't worry about it, I'll work on them. Is there anything else?"

"No. His vital sign are starting to slip."

Jay turned his head toward the stasis chamber in the center of the room. "So he couldn't manage immortality after all."

Mega joined him watching their fallen leader in his regulated slumber. "I suppose that's something to be thankful for."

It was late evening before Rose finally woke again. She caught sight of herself in the mirror as she went to leave the room. She hardly recognized the face that stared back at her. It had been a very hard six days since her tribe had been attacked. She remembered thinking that night that she needed to do something about her disastrous attempt at blonde highlighting. Now the pale ends of the chunks of hair looked dirty and the long dark roots made her look even older and more tired than she thought. She had tried to wash up her black skirt and sweater, and Trudy had as good a job as she could mending the hole in the shoulder, but her clothes just looked faded and ratty. All of her make-up was gone and she hadn't bothered to reapply it. Rose had always been one who believed that tribal make-up should be meaningful. Now that her tribe was gone she had no idea what to even put on her face. She rubbed her hand lightly across the fading bruise on her cheek. Rose resolved at that moment to go back to the forest as soon as possible, if only to get her things. She also decided she didn't want to go down to dinner. She had gone back to bed and was just getting to sleep when she heard someone enter the room.

"Hey," Salene set a tray of food on the small table. "You weren't at dinner so I brought you up some food."

Rose pulled herself form bed and joined the red head. "I was just thinking about getting up."

"Amber said you were still exhausted. Just eat, Trudy makes great vegetable soup."

"Thanks," She began eating. Salene was right, the soup was very good.

"Lex said you wanted to gout to the forest where your tribe stopped."

"Yeah, I'd like to go as soon as possible."

"He said that too. We can go tomorrow if you feel up to it. Lex, Jay and I are going to go with you. We figured about a day hike up there and a day back."

"That sounds about right. We should be able to get back quicker if the trucks are still there."

Salene nodded. "Get some rest. We're gonna leave pretty early." She cleared away the dishes and left.

Rose sat alone in the dim light for some time, wondering for the millionth time what she'd gotten herself into.

Comments, Criticisms, etc?