Chapter 50: Fixing the World Through Science!
Timothy couldn't help but look at his lab partner, she really was a seriously intimidating presence, standing about eight feet tall and built like a brick shithouse, as he let his eyes roam over her broad and incredibly well-muscled back, her shoulder tops were bigger than his thighs let alone her arms.
Honestly, she kinda reminded him of a picture of a female Orc that he'd seen in a comic that one of the scout teams had recovered from a trip into the city once, she was completely solid with not a single ounce of fat on her anywhere that he could see which given that she seemed to be wearing an oversized lab coat that the odd spider centaur boy Malakai had made for her.
But what he could see was as solid as bunched steel, she had her sleeves rolled up to her elbows showing off her massive forearms and hands as she worked on dismantling the helmet that she had, he also couldn't help but be impressed by the nimbleness and dexterity of her large fingers as she worked.
She seemed to sense him looking at her and she turned to look at him shooting him a surprisingly shy smile as she did while also brushing a long bang of her long black hair over her ear.
Another shock came to him in just how handsome her face was, despite being a super mutant she was a very handsome woman, her features were feminine and attractive and that both shocked and scared him.
He'd been taught since the day he was born into the Brotherhood that he should hate super mutants and in fact, anyone who is different from humans, this attitude had indeed eased somewhat towards Ghouls the hatred still prevailed in its entirety towards the super mutants and to be fair it was with good reason, it was kinda hard to be understanding or to go easy on creatures that would happily kill you and desecrate your body by eating you.
For as long as he had been alive Super mutants had been a threat to humanity where ever they chose to tread, killing villages and towns, attacking caravans and killing simple people who were doing nothing more than trying to scratch a life for themselves in this awful world.
But now with the emergence of these smart super mutant groups, the water got muddier because it brought in a moral and ethical question to the equation, whereas before it was easy you see super mutants you kill them, simple.
Now though if there were intelligent did they have a right to simply exterminate them for nothing more than existing?
Especially if they were non-violent like Shauna here seemed to be, now according to Seven, the group that Shauna had come from that called themselves the Amazons had been exterminated by Seven's group freeing others like Shauna.
Then there was the other group that Seven had mentioned calling themselves the Greasers who were made up entirely of male super mutants and oh boy did that feel odd to say, now most people made the mistake of thinking that all super mutants were boys when infact they were genderless, it simply didn't matter what gender you were going into the vat coming out you were one of them plain and simple, but now apparently with this new variant in play you go in and come out the same but different, same person, different body.
So this left the question, did anybody simply have the right to simply just exterminate these poor people?
Yes, they were super mutants but no they weren't like their genderless cousins, Shauna and Raymond who he had met only briefly when he had delivered some equipment to the lab along with Visa and Ven.
Oh boy, now there was a whole new eye-opening world in themselves, sentient Deathclaws that talked and felt the same as any human and hell any other sentient race and the fact that they could love and even mate with humans or indeed other races.
The thought genuinely shocked and scared Timothy but it also made him kinda curious, what exactly did a claw see in a human and visa versa, but apparently they were very happy with each other both Visa and Seven did seem to genuinely love one another as did Ven and Gregory which was even more surprising in that a male claw loved a male human.
In fact, the whole group was a living breathing testament to what humans and non-humans could achieve together and not just in-between the sheets, from what Seven had said this group was responsible for removing the threat of Paradise falls to the region which was no lightweight feat.
That group had held so much power that even the Brotherhood had seen them as a threat to their operations and safety, but given the sheer amount of fighting that had been doing with the super mutants they simply hadn't had the people or the ordinance to deal with them but these guys as small as they were in number had simply walked in there and taken the whole place out in one fell swoop proving they were not people you would want to mess about with, not that messing about with death claws was generally advisable in the first place.
But somehow contrary to what not only what he would have believed to begin with but what he had been taught with the Brotherhood, this group had already achieved incredible things and now here he was being offered a chance to be a part of.
That brought him back to Shauna and the smile she was shooting at him, he couldn't believe that in any way shape or form that he could find anyone other than another human attractive, not that he'd exactly had a lot of experience with the opposite sex, one or two of the paladins had made a couple of advances towards him but he'd always rebuffed them due to his nervousness and his lack of confidence and indeed self-worth which had evoked a mixture of reactions from them ranging from pity to outright anger, he also discovered that the paladins and soldiers whispered worse than a sewing circle and he had been the subject of the giggling-behind-hands brigade more than once which had done sweet fuck all for his confidence.
But in all honesty, while he could see attractive qualities within his own race now being presented with an attractive member of another race his entire world had been shocked to its very core, but he simply could not deny what his eyes were telling him, Shauna truly was a beautiful woman and an incredibly smart one too.
He smiled back at her shyly feeling exactly the same as he did every time one of the paladins or soldiers had given him the same smile, "So have you seen anything like this before?" Shauna asked snapping Tim out of his daydream state and he shook his head to clear it.
"No but I've been hearing the stories about them," he said stepping forwards up to the workbench and looking at the disassembled helmet that had been taken from the head of one of the enslaved deathclaws the Enclave had been using.
"I gotta give them this it's an incredible piece of kit, I'm no engineer I'm a biologist and virologist so I can at least figure out how it's manipulating the brain of the claws if you can figure out what each part is doing," Shauna said and Tim nodded lifting one of the parts and turning it over in his hands.
It took them hours and a whole lot of coffee that the pair were grabbing in pots from the mess of the safehouse/bunker that they were in but eventually, they began to make progress as Tim began to identify each part one by one until they began to see how they worked in conjunction together, but finally after many hours of work they had a eureka moment.
"I've got it! I know how they are fucking doing it!" Shauna yelled suddenly making Tim nearly jump out of his skin and dropping the charge coil onto the bench from where he had been studying the coil.
He spun around and saw Shauna standing at the whiteboard that she had been doing equations on writing them around a picture of a claw skull and brain they'd drawn in the centre of it, "What have you got?" he asked walking over to her.
"Look here, this component you identified is changing the claw's neuroelectric field yes?" she said holding up the circular component that Tim had plucked out of a receiver that sat between the two tesla like coils and what he had figured out was a radio wave receiver.
"Yeah so?" he said.
'THey've mapped the muscle response of the claws! Think about it, its the only way this could possibly work, what they must have done is subject captured claws to invasive scans and bioelectrical probing to map what signals are sent to what muscles and how, so what this thing does is act like an interrupt, the only ones that get through are the ones that control the claw's organs like it's heart, lungs et cetera, but the ones to its legs and arms and everything else are being interrupted by this little thing and then are being replaced by the signals being sent from the controller to the receiver which is then sent to the claw's muscles and boom radio control claw" Shauna said.
"So all we have to do is figure out the frequencies being used and scramble them and..." Tim began and Shauna grinned broadly before snatching him up off the floor and hugging him to her incredibly ample chest which her lab coat did a good job of hiding from sight but not from his skin as she hugged him to her.
"No more radio-controlled claws!" she exclaimed happily hugging him tightly against her and pinning his arms to his sides.
The muffled and surprised cry that Tim let out seemed to alert Shauna to the fact that she was kinda suffocating him and she quickly pulled him out of her chest and placed him back on her feet blushing brightly as she did.
"I-I-I'm so sorry Tim I-I-I didn't mean to grab you and touch you without permission, I umm just kinda get kinda excitable sometimes, its umm the mutant in me, it can be a challenge to keep a lid on it sometimes," she said sounding both shy and also worried which really surprised him, the fact that a powerful creature such as her would actually care about his feelings and boundaries was actually both heartwarming and deeply touching.
"I-I-It's fine Shauna honestly, just surprised me is all, I umm don't really mind honestly, I mean what kind of heterosexual guy would I be if I minded being hugged by a beautiful woman right?" he said trying to ease her tension with a joke before he realised what had actually just tumbled out of his mouth.
Shauna looked completely stunned but not horrified, "Y-Y-You think I'm beautiful!?" she exclaimed and Tim could almost taste the boot he'd just completely jammed in his mouth.
"Well you are most certainly the best looking super mutant I have ever seen," he said trying to deflect the embarrassing question but the look in Shuna's eyes told him she was not going to let him get off that easy.
"Is that all I am to you? A super mutant?" she asked sounding very sad and her eyes fell to the floor as her whole body language changed distancing herself from him.
"N-No it's not that I just..." Tim began but Shauna cut in.
"No it's ok I was just being stupid, I mean who would want to look at me right? I'm just another fucking super mutant!" she said and Tim was shocked by how bitter and angry her voice was, a fact that was easily read in her expression and her body language when she stomped towards him and loomed over him getting right in his face making him shrink back on the spot before his instincts took over and he to his shame actually cowered crouching and raising his arms to shield against the perceived incoming blow, which to be fair if one was coming he'd have had zero chance of stopping.
Shauna froze solid like she's just stared into the face of Medusa, from between his arms he caught a glimpse of her face and she looked both scared and horrified, with a whoosh of movement which washed a slipstream right over him Shauna turned and ran out of the room with her face in her hands leaving Tim still cowering on the floor in stunned silence.
When he finally felt brave enough to move he slowly stood up and tried to stop his hands from shaking violently by reaching out and gripping the edge of the workbench, his heart was hammering in his chest and he could feel sweat stinging his eyes, as well as his legs, were shaking.
"I really thought she was going to give you a much-needed beating right then," a voice said and Tim turned his head to see Faith standing there with a smug-looking expression plastered all over her face and her arms crossed over her chest.
"Oh great it's you, come in here to gloat have you why don't you just fuck off and leave me alone?" Tim said trying angrily to steady his nerves.
Faith's face morphed into a mask of anger and she stormed forwards to get right into his face causing him to recoil once again, it also reaccelerated his heart again as fear gripped him, he had no idea what this woman was capable of, all he knew about here was that she had survived a rather long time and right now she looked crazed.
'What the fuck did you say to me smooth skin?" she snarled at him.
Timothy could feel his knees shaking and he could feel every nerve in his body firing on full as he faced her down, every fibre of his body wanted him to back up but there was nowhere for him to go as he was already in the corner of the room but right now he was angry not just at her but at himself, first Shauna had put him on the spot and he'd upset her causing her to very nearly lash out at him and nowhere was this crazy Ghoul woman wishing violence and pain on him for no good reason other than he represented something she didn't like and now she was the one getting angry when he told her to leave him alone.
So yeah he was starting to feel angry, "You heard me, leave me the hell alone, I have done nothing to you NOTHING, but here you are wishing pain and violence on me for fucking what? Because I'm human and you aren't? Is that why you're angry with me? Because before I woke up in this place I'd never met you before, I've never done anything to you or any other Ghoul but you are happy to see me get hurt or killed, you would be happy for me to lose my life wouldn't you?" Tim snarled at her as his heart began to slam against his ribs as he stared into Faith's blood-red eyes trying his hardest to fight his instinct to break her piercing gaze.
Faith growled low and menacingly, "Who the fuck do you think you are to speak to me like that smooth skin? I could kill you right here and now and no one including you could do a fucking thing about it and sure people would probably be a little angry at first but in the end, they'd be fine, they'd see that I did the right thing because all you are and all you will ever be is some mindless bigoted drone and this world does not need people like you!" she yelled getting right in his face so that the spittle from her mouth flew onto his face and straight away he could smell the wash of alcohol on her breath showing she'd had quite a few drinks.
Timothy felt genuinely fearful for his life but that's when he'd had enough, "Well what the fuck are you waiting for then!?" he yelled right back and by the look on her face she was genuinely taken aback by the level of vitriol in his voice but he was all in now this was either going to end incredibly badly and in which case he'd lose his life but at least he wouldn't have to be scared any more or it was get her to back down and leave him alone.
"I'm right here! And you hate me so very much right? Because I have wronged you in so many ways, my mere existence is an insult to your precious Ghoul victimhood right? Because I have done so many vile things to you personally and your people even though I have never said a single fucking thing to you or done a single thing to any Ghoul or any other person, but because I belonged to an organization that has done bad things to them that means every single one of us does and thinks the same fucking way right? All while you've done nothing but try to provoke me, to get me to say something, to bait me into saying something just so you can fucking justify your fucking anger towards me or more towards this uniform that I wear!" he yelled making Faith flare right up.
"Don't you fucking dare preach to me like you have any fucking idea what it feels like to be a Ghoul!? I didn't choose to be like this! I didn't CHOOSE any of this!" she yelled right in his face again.
"And you seem to be under the fucking delusion that I had a choice to be in the Brotherhood! I was fucking born into it! I had about as much choice as you did and for the umpteenth fucking time I don't care about the fact that you are a Ghoul, if anything the only one who seems to have a fucking problem with it is fucking YOU!" he yelled and it was this that finally pushed Faith right over the edge and she snapped.
She lunged forwards striking Timothy with a short-range punch to the face that whited out his vision with starbursts of white-hot pain that flashed across his eyes, before his head and sprung back forwards a second hit caught him right in the throat snapping his airway shut and instantly starving his brain of vital oxygen and causing his body to go into panic mode as it flooded his body with adrenaline.
But Faith wasn't done there as his hands came up to claw desperately at his throat she caught one and pulled him off balance before kicking his legs out from under him and slamming him down hard on his back which knocked his besieged senses about even more, instantly he felt a weight drop down on his torso and as he snapped his eyes open he saw the flash of a blade before feeling the coldness of the blade against his exposed throat, this was it, this was how he was going to die, helpless and defeated at the hands of a crazed woman who he had done no wrong who was going to slit his throat and bleed him dry and he felt fear like a kind he had never felt before, it was so powerful that no cognitive thoughts made any sense to him any more.
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The rage that was coursing through Faith's veins was like liquid fire, it was hot and it made her feel powerful, this rage she felt was righteous, it filled her with a vigour she had never felt before, this man, this bigot, this vile smooth skin was a living breathing representation of everything she hated, he was one of the people who had killed so many of her friends and fellow Ghouls that it had become hard and painful to open herself up to making new friends because she was just so fucking tired of the pain of losing them all over again.
But now SHE had the power and it started here with this new group of people, this group that embraced the principles of no racism or bigotry, they didn't see Ghouls, mutants, claws, humans or anyone else, they saw simply people and it was in their name she was going to do this, she as going to kill this fucking bigot, she was going kill him in the name of all those Ghouls that had fallen, she was going to take his life away from him like his people had taken so many lives away from the Ghouls that had survived against insurmountable odds only to be killed over the way they fucking looked!
These poor people had lived through the nuclear fire only to be killed by the soft lead of fucking bullets fired from the guns of people just like this fucking scumbag right here, so by killing him she'd be avenging those lost souls, right?
But that's when everything changed, she looked down at the man whose life she was about to end in the most horrible way, she wanted to look right into his eyes so she could see the moment that the arrogance of his smooth skin existence left him and he felt the true helplessness that she and indeed all Ghouls felt but instead of arrogance or anger, she saw something very very different in his bright eyes, fear, pure unadulterated fear.
But it wasn't just fear she saw in those surprisingly pretty eyes of his, she saw herself, quite literally, she could see her reflection staring right back at her and what she saw not only shocked her it scared her to death.
She looked crazed, she could actually see the joy of the power and sick enjoyment she was getting from this, from having this living breathing symbol of everything she both hated and feared powerless beneath her, to have his very life in her hands at the tip of her blade and that's when it clicked, right now at this moment how was she any better than him?
That's when the red mist that was clouding her vision cleared and she truly saw the consequences of her actions as clear as day as if she was looking into a crystal ball, just like one of those vending machines that spits out cards that predicted your fortune and if she did this there would be coming back from it, this would be where he life would end because if she slit this man's throat then while yes while it would end his life it would do the same to hers as well because the final shred of the humanity she had been desperately been hanging onto would be gone forever and she would become exactly what the Brotherhood and the others just like them had been preaching since the beginning, she would be the monster they made her out to be.
That's when she truly saw him, saw this young man whose life she was holding hostage at the edge of her dagger's blade that was pressed against his jugular vein, the most precious highway of blood along with his carotid arteries in his body, this man was young, just really setting out on the journey of his life breaking out of the box he was grown inside of and her she was ready to end it prematurely over a silly fucking fight, ver an insult that she had thrown at him and gotten enraged when he snapped back.
He was right when he said he had done nothing to her personally, he had given no insult, he had not harmed her or her people and infact here he was now trying to help their cause not because he was being forced but because he had been offered something he saw as superior to what he had but here she was ready to take all that away from him along with everything else he had ever or would ever experience, ready to send this young innocent soul into the void for nothing more than an insult that he hadn't even given.
The clouds inside her mind further retreated and cold hard clarity set in allowing her to truly see this young man below her, she saw his fear, she saw his helplessness, she saw his pure terror, but also she saw something else and that thing scared her more than anything else, acceptance.
It was written on his face and in his eyes over what she had done and was about to do to him for absolutely nothing, his body was limp and lifeless, there was no fight in him, he was not resisting, he was not struggling and fighting her for his life, he had accepted this, he had accepted that he was going to die by her hands and he was willing to just let it happen and that saddened her beyond words, she was over two hundred years old and in all that time she had carried this anger with her and it had grown and grown and morphed while being focused, but now this young man had robbed her of it because he had shown her exactly what it truly was, what she truly was.
Suddenly she knew that if she did this she wouldn't be the avenging angel her anger had almost convinced her she would be, she would be a murderer, a killer of the innocent, a monster pure and simple.
The blade fell from her hand clattering onto the hard concrete floor and bounced away from them, Faith fell off him and scrambled backwards away from him feeling a rising feeling of bile and panic building in her chest as she sat hugging her knees and staring at Timothy who just lay there panting and staring at the ceiling, he wasn't looking at her he really didn't seem to be looking at anything, he was looking off into space.
"T-T-Timothy?" she stammered not really knowing why she was speaking or what she was even going to say all she knew was that she couldn't stand the silence for a moment longer, she needed to speak to him she had to explain, to apologise, to make him understand how and why what had just happened but he didn't respond, he just stared into space like a zombie.
"T-T-Timothy please listen, I-I-I'm sorry I..." she began but rather than speak or even acknowledge her Timothy seemed to snap out of the fuge he had gone into and climbed shakily to his feet and stumbled out of the room without so much as a glance at her, he never even acknowledged her existence he just left her sitting there alone on the floor stewing in her own fear and misery.
It broke her, Faith lowered her head to her knees and began to sob uncontrollably as the reality of what she had so very nearly just done crashed in on her and her whole body shook as the sobs racked her whole body and being, was the Brotherhood right? Was she a monster? Did she even deserve to live or to love?
These and a million other stinging questions swirled around in her brain as she sat there with the coldness of the concrete seeping into her rear end, that innocent human had really been ready to die to simply show her who she truly was, she had seen it in his eyes and she knew that no matter how long she lived now she would never ever forget that look in his eyes, that look of pure acceptance that this person before him was going to take his life away from him, was going to kill him for nothing more than standing up to her when she had insulted him, for nothing more than fucking meaningless words she had been ready to make him die horribly, to drown in is own blood and to feel a fear that no being should ever have to feel.
Seven's words swam into her mind, words about how his group was structured and the whole point of it, showing the world what humans and non-humans can do if only they realise their differences, embrace them and make them work to their advantages, while at the same time showing them how love could bloom in the most unlikely of places, of how it could bloom between two beings born of two different species and who weren't born for one another but were meant to be together and form what she'd seen before she'd entered he and Shauna had been fumbling about possibly taking their own first steps down this path until they'd stumbled and it hit her how her actions would have hit the super mutant girl as well.
It was obvious to anyone with eyes apart from Timothy himself that she liked him, so when she'd asked him outright obviously fishing for a compliment while trying to figure out his feelings and he'd stumbled out of fear she'd nearly made a mistake of nearly hitting him out of embarrassment and pure reflex before stopping herself and running out in embarrassment leaving him to come to terms with what had happened and she'd just piled more stress on top of his already confused feelings and threatening his very life.
Now the reality truly sunk into what she had really done, her actions had most likely completely ruined any chances that Shauna had with the young human because right now he was probably so fucking scared of all non-humans after nearly being the victim of not one but two instances of violence from two separate non-human females in a matter of minutes he'd probably go running right back into the arms of the Brotherhood and all their lies about non-humans, therefore, undoing everything Seven had tried to do while completely ruining Shuna's chances of finding love with this young human while also making a new enemy for the group in the form of the Brotherhood as he would undoubtedly tell them how a crazy near-feral Ghoul had attacked him for no good reason.
Oh she had royally made a fucking mess out of this and it was down to her to fucking fix it because if she didn't Seven would blame her and possibly all Ghouls for what she had done here, she had to fix this before it was too late, so she jumped up and ran for the door.
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The panic attack truly didn't take hold until he was back in the room they had given him and alone. first, it was shaking, then sweating, then palpitations that made it feel like his heart was going to explode in his chest, his legs simply wouldn't hold him up any longer and he collapsed and rolled himself into a ball hugging his knees against his chest while burying his face in between his knees as the tears came.
It had taken him a very long time while Faith had been holding the knife to his throat to regain the ability to breathe and a very real fear had been burning him the entire time, it was fucking awful, that powerless feeling of just waiting to die, it was something that he hoped he'd never feel ever again, he'd thought he'd be safe among these people, that he was going to see a new way of life among them, but in the matter of just two short minutes one had barely avoided striking him over a misunderstanding and another had put a knife to his throat to end his life, now he had no clue what to do or who to turn to, had he made a giant fucking mistake joining these people?
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Shauna sat on her bed hugging her knees to her chest and sniffing as she felt the tears dripping off her chin, "Hey are you ok?" a voice from the doorway asked and she looked up to see Malakai standing there looking concerned.
"I-I-I'm fine," she said and he shook his head scuttling in and right up to the bed so he was looking down at her.
"Well you don't look it, come on tell me what's going on, did someone say something to you?" he asked and she sighed heavily, Malakai was such a kind and gentle boy and she didn't know if it was because he was a fellow non-human or just because he was the right person at the right time but it all just came tumbling out, everything, her blossoming feelings, the misunderstanding with Timothy, right up to her nearly striking him over her feeling embarrassed and angry over his words after she put him on the spot and even the supreme feeling of guilt.
"Well then let me ask you something, you claim to have feelings for him correct?" he said and she looked up at him in surprise like he hadn't been listening to all of the words that she'd just spoken to him but there was a sharp look in all six of his eyes that stopped her dead.
"Yes," she said quietly.
"Then what the flying fuck are you doing here?" he said.
"W-What?" she exclaimed at his bluntness.
"I said what the flying fuck are you doing here? You nearly hit that poor man over something stupid, yes he embarrassed you and his words made you feel shitty but come on do you truly believe that's what he really felt?" he said raising three eyebrows at her while folding his arms over his chest.
She hung her head and twiddled her giant thumbs together, "No, I-I-I put him on the spot and I think he knee jerk answered me but when I think about it he didn't insult me then either, he actually said I was the most beautiful super mutant he'd ever seen which I think was actually his way of saying he likes me, but he is kinda shy, just like me, hell if he's have asked me the same question I'd have probably done the same thing" she said and Malakai nodded.
"Exactly so you get on your feet and you march that green butt of yours in there and you fucking apologise to him, it is NEVER acceptable to raise your hand to someone you are supposed to love, if you had followed that blow through Shauna you'd have seriously fucking hurt him and he needs to know that you are drowning in guilt over it and deeply regret it, if he chooses to step away from you at that point you will have to accept it because you made the mistake, but you have to take the step to make it right, this group believes in honour Shauna and we cannot stand up for it if we do not uphold it within our own ranks, so get up and get in there apologise and make him believe it!" Malakai said in a surprisingly fierce and forceful voice before he pulled her to her feet and pushed her towards the door.
But that's when it hit her, the young Arachnakai boy was absolutely right, no matter what he'd said or done he did not deserve to live with the threat of violence against him for nothing but a misunderstanding, she could not and would not let what Seven and the others were doing be undone by her actions, so with a sharp shout of "Thank you Malakai!" she set off towards the lab but she never made it because before she reached it she saw Tim fleeing the lab and heading into his own room but something was not right, he was as white as a sheet and he looked scared out of his mind.
She quickly changed direction she turned and headed to his room and while she intended to knock and to wait patiently until he agreed to speak to her as soon as she got to the door she heard something that froze her heart solid in her chest, she heard tears and what sounded like the purest grief she had ever heard, a grief that reminded of her own when she'd lost Sheila, something was wrong, really wrong so she burst right into the room and there he was curled into a ball sobbing his heart out.
"Tim!? Tim, what's wrong? What's happened!?" she exclaimed crossing the room in a single step and quickly reaching out to touch him.
"NO! No more! Don't hurt me anymore! I don't want this! I don't want any of this!" he screamed freezing her in place because at that point she saw his face and she saw the blood around his nose and mouth, she also saw a massive bruise forming on his throat as well as a black eye forming, someone had hurt him, someone had assaulted this gentle human, someone was going to die this day and Shauna felt a bomb of pure rage go off in her heart as she barely restrained feeling of love that had been rapidly growing for this incredibly intelligent, funny and gentle human man burst out and ignited like petrol vapour being sprayed through a naked flame, someone had hurt the one she was falling in love with and she was going to make them pay for it.
"Who did this to you, Timothy? Who hurt you?" she asked her voice turning to a cold snarl, but rather than answer his fear-filled eyes darted to the door before widening into dinner plates showing that that person was behind her and Shauna stood up and turned around to find Faith standing there looking fearful and as guilty as sin.
"I did, I did this to him," she said quietly and the only answer Shauna gave was a blood-curdling bellow of pure rage.