Her back felt like it was a mass of raw skin, and in all actuality, it was. She'd been rubbing it that way for hours now against the inside of her shirt. Rio carefully stretched the burns on her back to test the damage. They were painful, but not excruciating. First, maybe second degree at the most severe. She'd been lucky. Really, really lucky. Following her train of thought, she glanced over at Creedy sleeping on her bedroll. He twitched as if aware of her scrutiny, his face anxious. She hoped he wasn't having nightmares, but there was a strong possibility he was.

He looked much less at ease. Rio couldn't decide whether to wake him or let him get as much rest as he could. After a few tense minutes he quieted and his face took on the expression of quiet sleep again.

At least he wasn't making any noise, she thought. There was no way the dragon would give up if he was raising hell.

She shifted to bring as much of her back into contact with the wall as possible. The cold felt fantastic on her burned skin, but it chilled the rest of her. A nice solution would've been to sit on the bedroll and wrap up her legs, but Creedy needed it more than she did at the moment, and he was a little too big for the roll as it was. Even curled up on his side, his feet reached past the bottom edge. It brought a little smile to her lips but that was replaced by a grimace. She tried to reposition her butt which had gone numb five minutes ago. Her pelvis ached from the concrete floor.

She distracted herself by studying Creedy. He was very compelling in a slightly rugged way with aristocratic features worry lines between his brows. He had an overall presence that radiated intensity. Even in sleep he carried an aura of readiness. Then again, that might just be the shock. He was obviously not entirely himself at the moment. Her wrist was probably going to bruise because of his vice grip on it earlier, but she didn't really mind. Pins and needles spread through her legs. With a heavy sigh, Rio got to her feet. She braced herself against the wall as the head rush brought a wave of dizziness and technicolor patterns swamped her vision. Her back stung when the cloth of her shirt brushed against it and she hissed in frustration.

She hadn't been concerned with making small noises. One of the reasons she chose this place was for the complete lack of acoustics. It had virtually no sound reflection, but Creedy's eyes snapped open at the sound, his entire body tense, ready to fight or flee.

"Sorry," Rio said softly, crouching down so he didn't have to look up at her. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"You all right?" he asked, genuine concern in his voice. It was really quite touching he cared.

She looked away. "I'm fine. My back hurts, that's all." He frowned briefly, probably trying to discern why her back hurt. Comprehension passed over his features, quickly replaced by the concern from earlier. "It's not bad," she added. "Just superficial burns."

He sat up and gestured for her to turn around. "Let me see," he ordered. Rio went perfectly still. "I'm not being a creep, but you should let me look at them. If they get infected you're going to have serious problems. It's not like there are helpful doctors around anymore to prescribe penicilin." He gentled his tone before he went on. "You've been taking care of me all night. Come on. Let me see."

Rio forced herself to keep her breathing steady. If he wanted to rape her, he'd had plenty of oppurtunity, and she knew in her gut that Creedy was a good man. He wouldn't take advantage of the situation. That did not, however, make the situation any less threatening.

He's just returning the favor, she told herself sternly. It's okay. Just do it.

Rio turned sharply on her heel and pulled off her sweater before she could talk herself out of it. The sudden movement tugged the burned skin painfully and she grimaced, but didn't hiss again. Taking greater care to respect the injury, she rolled up her tanktop to just below her breasts leaving most of her back exposed. Enough for him to get a good look at the burns. She was grateful they were on her back so she didn't have to face him under his scrutiny. As it was the weight of his eyes made her cheeks flame. Rio let her chin fall to rest on her collarbones and stared sullenly at the concavity of her stomach.

The flashlight clicked on and cast her shadow on the wall, a demonic, crouched figure.

"Keep the light away from the air hole," she warned. "We don't want anything passing overhead to know we're here."

"Right." He repositioned the light and leaned closer. She flinched when he placed his hand lightly on her shoulder. "I'm not going to hurt you." She said nothing, but shifted her weight slightly to let him rest his palm on her. Rio relaxed into the touch, letting him counter-balance her weight to steady her. "Some of these look pretty bad."

"What does the worst one look like?"

He studied her back for another minute. "Umm.... The worst one is on your right shoulderblade. Kind of white looking."

Shit, she thought vehemently. "Is it seeping any liquid?"

"Some," he answered.

Rio let a tense breath. "Okay, it's only second degree. If that's the worst then they'll all be fine."

"Yeah, that's the worst." He released her shoulder and cautiously rolled down her tanktop. He was careful not to let the fabric drag over the damaged skin. Very deliberately, he didn't touch her in any way as he unrolled the shirt. The gesture was incredibly sensitive and it only made her feel worse for being needlessly tense.

"Thank you." She tugged the sweater on before turning back to face him. "Feeling any better?"

Creedy nodded, his eyes still full of some emotion she intentionally didn't read. "I am. The sleep did me a lot of good, but I feel a bit bad for stealing your bed."

Rio smiled and shrugged. "Don't worry about it. You needed it more than I did." She sat on the unused portion of bedroll next to him, her back soothed by the wall. It was still warm from his body. Now that she was fully clothed she found she wasn't bothered by his proximity. "How'd you sleep?"

He laughed and let his head fall back against the stone with a soft thump. "I've slept better." He rubbed his face with a dirty hand leaving black streaks across his skin. Rio checked the urge to wipe them off. He looked like he was going to say more, but instead he shook his head and asked, "How long until dawn?"

Rio glanced at the patch of sky. "Maybe three hours," she estimated.

"Christ on a cracker, woman, you let me sleep for nine hours?" His tone was incredulous, his eyes wide. Rio couldn't help the smirk that threatened to break into a genuine smile. The combination of disbelief and good humor was utterly infectious. "What a waste of time." As he spoke his eyes lost most of their mirth and she knew he was thinking of his friends.

She sobered herself appropriately before she answered, "We weren't going anywhere regardless. Moving in the day is mostly safe if you can't see them, but moving at night... That's suicide. No, we'll wait two more hours, until the sky starts to get gray. That's when they're most likely to doze. It's our best chance to make good time."

When she looked to him to see if he agreed Creedy raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "You're the boss. I'm just here to add to the scenery."

Rio looked over at him seriously and replied, "I worked very hard yesterday to make sure you didn't add to the scenery."

Creedy looked back at her and gave a half-smile that didn't reach his eyes. "That you did." He said it like it was an evaluation, his gaze heavy on her again, before he glanced away. "That you did," he added with a grave certainty. They sat in tense, not quite uncomfortable silence for ten minutes before Creedy turned back to Rio and said, "You want to Thumb Wrestle? We got to do something to pass the time."

His jovial tone was restored as if it had never left and for reasons she could never quite remember afterwards, Rio said, "Sure."