Chapter Nine: Full Circle

Both Courtney and Gui'Yata spun about glancing down the darkened alley behind them. Courtney was unable to make out a whole lot from the pitch, and ached suddenly for her mask.

"There is a human crouched behind the rubbish bin," Gui'Yata filled her in, falling into a well practiced caution. "To your right."

With the Soua at her back, Courtney padded that direction. Darting a glance back, she noted that Gui'Yata had already taken the precaution of camouflaging himself. Courtney's hand went to the butt of the sasa tucked into her newly purloined belt, not drawing it but at the ready in case this was a trick or a trap. She put her hand back in a signal for her companion to hang back. It was a precaution, most couldn't see the refractive light that hid the predators, but the last thing she wanted was to have him in her shadow and have someone actually pick the blur out of the background light.

A pale light reflected from further down the hallway, and Courtney used it to help her locate the human who had announced him or herself. It still took her long moments to locate the person, for he or she had used the garbage in the alley to break their profile, as if fearful of being found.

Courtney slowly turned, crouching down and taking in the huddled form half blanketed in black shiny bags of garbage. It was a young woman, her dark clothes were tattered in several places, and her reddish brown hair was unkempt. Makeup that had been heavily applied streaked from her eyes down her cheeks. Her cinnamon brown skin was smudged with dirt and blood.

Several tattoos adorned her hands and arms, and Courtney barely suppressed a gasp, seeing one she recognized as a long standing LA gang mark. The woman was holding a bloody wound on her shoulder with one hand, the other held tightly to a switchblade. She looked as if she had been on the losing end of a fight.

Absently Courtney set down the pack she miraculously retained from earlier in the evening. Her free hand reached toward the wound, attempting to pull the hand away. With reactions nearly matching Courtney's own, the girl lashed out with the knife. Courtney jumped back, just clearing herself from the blade's arch.

"Leave me alone, you fucking bitch!" The girl spat, not as out of it as Courtney had first assessed. The look that came through the dirt, make up, and blood on her face was murderous.

"I am only trying to help you child," Courtney replied in soft words with her accented English. She knelt again, just shy of the girl's reach with the switchblade and regarded her steadily. A part of her was wondering why she was bothering. She had seen this too many times before, a kid spiraling out of control headed for nothing but a messy death. Yet there was a part of her that remembered that she had been assisted out of a similar vicious cycle and that part wanted her to pass on the things that she had figured out. First she would have to tend that wound.

"I'm not no damn kid!" she growled, shifting against the wall, as if trying to get up from the position she had fallen into.

Courtney nodded in demure acknowledgement, "This wound will not heal itself. Gangs are, after all, a nasty business. Did you win...or lose?"

"I'm not in a gang..." she denied, shaking her shaggy mane of hair and making it rustle against her black leather jacket, "And I won."

"Los Diablos," Courtney uttered, pointing to the tattoo on the back of the girl's hand. She watched smiling as the girl tried to hide her shocked expression, "I was almost a member myself. They're a nasty group if they are even half of what they were when I was younger. I am still very glad that I got talked out of it."

The young woman turned away, but her gaze was drawn back as Courtney pulled her backpack toward her.

"What're you doing?" She growled.

"I'm...in the medical profession," Courtney answered carefully, drawing out the very alien looking box that held her more extensive supplies. The med kit was much larger than a standard Soua triage kit, but she was a Soyasa, and that extra amount has saved many a warrior's life. Breaking out the Totant, Courtney began mixing it in the self contained bowl. Mashing it together until it was an even blue and slightly iridescent, she turned her attention back to the woman shifting until she was within arm's length, for that matter within stabbing distance.

"What's that?"

She looked at the girl searchingly, scratching the side of her nose, "I'm making a...poultice to pack that wound with, so that it will heal."

"You some kind of witch doctor?" she snarled, making an attempt to back away, and hindered by the wall at her back, "You some kinds of wanna be, got your license taken away so you prey on the unwitting?"

Courtney smiled at the inference, "Oh no, you'll find this much more effective than any herb remedy found on Earth."

"Yeah, right."

"Well it is obvious to me that you are not in a rush to be seen by a hospital. So your alternatives are; let me help you and sit here and bleed to death. Which would you rather?"

Scowling darkly the girl reluctantly lowered her hand to her lap, and seemed to work hard at not wiping the crimson liquid onto her dark jeans. Courtney shuffled yet closer and with deft hands, examined the wound. It was not nearly as deep as it had looked on first assessment; in fact it had been a glancing blow, laying the meat of her upper arm open. Courtney cleaned it as best she could with the old rag of a shirt that she had again unwittingly kept.

She looked the girl in her dark brown eyes, grimly relaying, "This is going to sting."

Her face set, as if she was trying hard to prove that she was up to the pain. The human Sougra smiled wryly, knowing there was no being ready for the first time totant burned into the skin. She was beginning to admire the girl's strength of will, if not her character.

"Do you have any family?" Courtney asked absently.

"No," she barked, fear of the coming pain, belied by the quaver in her voice, "Mom died about 15 years ago, I ran away from that abusive bastard who claims to be my father when I was 14."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Courtney answered sincerely, "What is your name?"

She began applying the totant thickly at that same point, and a hiss of pain escaped the girl.

"Teresa," She bit out.

Courtney leaned back and let the chemicals set the poultice and bandage. There was nothing in her that connected the pieces of information she had garnered, "Pretty, my daughter's name was Teresa."

"Was?" The girl said with spark of interest, her face still heavily pinched at the sure burning sensation concentrated in her shoulder. As that look eased from her features, she added, "What happened to her?"

Courtney was packing the unused items back into her Soyasa pack and shrugged, "I haven't seen her since she was five, she went to live with her father, and I ended up going on a long trip."

When she looked up the girl was staring at her hard.

"Is there something wrong?"

Her face pinched again, and her eyes squinted as she bored holes into Courtney's face, "Divorce?"

Courtney nodded leaning in once more to check the set of the poultice.

"Why?"

She shrugged once again, "Because his lawyers were better than mine, because I wasn't convincing enough in my accusation of abuse. I never let him touch my daughter though."

The girl swallowed, "Always between us, always protecting me."

Courtney was peering at her strangely, for she sounded a little delirious. It would be typical to the pain and the blood loss.

"Y...your name...is Courtney?"

She was unable to help the jaw drop that reflected her shock, "What did you say?"

"You're Courtney Salazar," she stated, nodding, "God, that fits! Everything you said, it fits!"

"Oh my God," Courtney whispered, a desire welling in her suddenly to retreat.

"Where did you go? Everyone thought you had died!" Teresa's hand flexed as if her heart and her mind were warring about reaching out and touching Courtney's face.

Courtney darted a glance toward the shadows, toward where Gui'Yata was standing and most likely listening to the entire thing. She wondered what the Soua was thinking about this, and yet not certain she wanted to find out.

"I had to go away," She uttered, meeting those pain glossed brown eyes, seeing suddenly the resemblance to herself. Butterflies were tickling the lining of her stomach.

"Dad got worse after you were gone!" She whined accusingly, "Somehow even the thought of you had kept him in check! When they said you had died he hit me, he punched me! I had to run...I was so tired of being his punching bag! I even tried to find you, I thought that the rumors were just that. But you weren't there! Why did you leave me?" Her angry tears made the dark streaks of mascara worse.

"I didn't have a choice," Courtney said softly. Suddenly, she was overcome with guilt. So this is what had become of her family, her ex more brutal than ever, and Teresa falling to a life that she understood was a vile one.

Teresa's mouth thinned severely, as if she didn't buy such a pat explanation.

"How long...how long have you been living like this?" Courtney asked, her maternal instinct kicking in hard, suddenly angry that her daughter would allow herself to get into this life.

"Six years," She replied sharply.

Courtney did gasp then, snapping her mouth closed as she once more assessed the look on her daughter's features. She nodded imperceptibly, noting the hard edge, the bitterness that came from living in the shadows, in fear of your very life. She had obviously done things that would give Courtney's hunting status a run for its money, just to stay alive and connected to the dregs that had taken her in. The initiation rites alone would have taken her virginity and her self esteem all at the same time, and bonded her for all her years to a life of underworld dealings.


Gui'Yata stood in the shadows watching the scene in confused fascination. His bondsman had a daughter? He had never been told Courtney's past, she had always been adamant about keeping any mention of her life on Earth from his ears.

His gaze strayed to the youth that was still huddled amongst the refuse. The girl was tall and husky when compared to the wiry build of her mother. She looked strong, and yet agile, vicious; she would have been trophy material to any Soua passing through the area. He had a sudden urge to know what the girl's father must look like.

Gui'Yata focused again as Courtney leaned forward passing the girl's arm over her slight shoulders and drew her to her feet. The girl wobbled, and if Courtney wasn't as strong as he knew she was, Teresa would have unbalanced them both and drug them to the alley floor. The two of them made steady progress toward him in his shadowed hiding. As they came even Courtney gave a meaningful glance at his shadow and with a silent motion of her head told him to follow.

He complied willingly, curious on how this was going to play out. When they had cleared the mouth of the dark alley, Gerard was adamantly searching them out. Catching sight of Courtney, he bound their direction, sliding to a stop at the scene before him.

"What's going on here?" He asked incredulously.

"This woman is injured," Courtney answered as if it was totally obvious.

"I can see that," he muttered.

"Do you have a place of your own?" Courtney asked the girl. Though Gui'Yata wasn't sure just how cognizant she was at the moment.

She nodded minutely as Gerard slid up next to the girl on the other side insisting on taking her from Courtney, "About three blocks up," came her pain faded voice.

The group of four moved in silence up the street until the girl came nearer her home, which she pointed out to them, her voice sounding farther and farther away.

Teresa let them into her squalid little apartment and managed to walk to the rumpled bed in the corner before her legs finally gave out on her. Courtney had purposely stood near the door so that Gui's entrance wouldn't draw any undue attention.

Once he was inside, she shut the door, a guilty glance up at the fuzzy outline of his form, and then she moved over to the now unconscious girl on the bed. Gui'Yata moved to a heavily shaded corner of the room before he turned his camouflage off. He watched silently as Courtney tended to the girl, giving boosters, administering painkillers, and antibiotics from a section of her kit that was specifically designed for human physiology. She performed these actions with a deftness that readily described her skill as a soyasa.

She finally rose and moved toward him, and he straightened a bit, wondering just what she was going to say. She suddenly looked haggard, upset and more concerned than she usually was when dealing with patients.

"She's lost a lot of blood," Courtney relayed in a soft voice, glancing at Gerard as he joined the three of them. She shook her head, "She should pull through, but that is not a guarantee, I have no idea how long she had been sitting there before we found her."

"And you helped her, why?" Gerard asked gruffly.

Courtney glared at him.

"She's a gang-banger, Courtney!" He hissed, "All you're doing is delaying the inevitable."

Pain crossed Courtney's face.

Gui'Yata put an end to his tirade, backhanding him in the shoulder, "Mind yourself!" He growled, "One does not question a soyasa's choices."

"She's my daughter," Courtney blurted self consciously.

"What?" Gerard laughed, thinking that the other human in the room was pulling his leg, "You have kids?"

"Kid, just one," She whispered, "I lost her to a divorce, didn't even get visitation. I haven't seen her since she was five."

Gerard was no glaring back at the still form on the bed, "That is a hell of a coincidence that you would just happen to run into her on a dark back alley someplace, don't you think?"

She nodded, "It is, but it's true."

"Oof," Gerard said, "Hell of a welcome back there."

Again pain moved over his bondsman's features, and it quickly turned to anger, "I've got to find her father."

"What?" Gerard and Gui'Yata both blurted at the same time.

"Why?" Gerard continued.

"He drove her to this!" she snarled, "That fucker, I warned him not to lay a hand on her."

Gui'Yata and Gerard shared a mutually confused glance, noting how little that statement had made sense. At least he knew that Gerard hadn't been privy to any more than he had. She had been withholding her past from them both.

Asserting logic, Gui'Yata said, "Ensure that she will get through this."

The words and his hand on her shoulder had the desired effect, for Courtney's body lost the tension that had been there.

"Of course," She said not meeting his alien gaze.