Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the plot.
Claudia sat straight up in bed, startling Leena so badly she nearly fell out of her chair. She immediately righted herself and pushed into Claudia's aura to get a reading of where the young woman was in her mind, but before she could establish a solid link, Claudia buried her ruined face in her scarred hands and cried, the sobs shaking her so badly the headboard of her bed rattled against the wall. Leena went to her, offering comfort and solace, but Claudia shrank back.
"Don't touch me, Leena!" she cried, her voice scratchy and rough. Claudia glanced down at her arms and shrieked, holding them away from her as if they were malignant growths. She tore the blankets off her naked body and ran for her full-length mirror. Claudia froze when a monster looked back at her.
"No, no..." she whispered, putting her fingers over her mouth and watching in horror as the creature in the mirror mimicked her. She reached out a hand and touched the reflection, and when the realization hit that this grotesque thing was really her, Claudia fell to her knees, her strength gone. When Leena came over with a blanket to help her up, she didn't protest. Claudia mutely let Leena guide her back to her bed and lay her back down.
"I'm going to get Artie."
Claudia grabbed Leena's sleeve. "Please don't," she begged, fear stabbing through her soul. "I don't want him to see me like this."
"Claudia, he's already seen what you look like." The young woman covered her head in fear and shame.
Leena pulled the blanket away from Claudia's face. "What are you so afraid of?"
Claudia's voice was muffled, having pulled the blanket back over her. "I don't want to see the look of disgust on his face."
"Now, why would Artie be disgusted by you, Claudia? He loves you no matter what you look like."
Pulling the blanket off her face, she glared at Leena. "When people say stuff like that, it means they will love you if you get fat, lose your hair, or get wrinkles." Claudia gazed down at her blanket, grateful that it was covering the rest of her so she wouldn't have to see it. "People don't say that and mean 'I will love you even if you turn into a hideous creature.'"
Leena smiled. "Trust me, Artie doesn't think you are a hideous creature. You're his Claudia, no matter what." She reached out to stroke Claudia's hair, but Claudia shrank back from the her touch again.
Leena pulled back her hand and sighed. This isn't working. Deep read it is, then. She concentrated on Claudia and pushed forward, momentarily rendering Claudia unconscious. Leena pushed deeper, going past layer upon layer of guilt and pain, rapidly cycling through Claudia's mind to get to the source of her fear and root it out.
She had been digging for a few minutes and was getting ready to give up when a spectral image of Claudia, healthy and unscarred, appeared and sat down on the bed. The specter looked at the blighted blanket-covered form and heaved a great sigh. "I'm scared that MacPhearson was right."
Leena narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. "How so?"
"He implied that my relationship with Artie was based on sex, not love, and I'm afraid he was right." She glanced up at Leena. "I may be smart, and I may be clever, but what Artie likes best is how I look." Ghost-Claudia stared at the bed, throwing off wave after wave of sadness and despair. "Artie asked him to marry me when I was a normal-looking person," she whispered, hopelessness making her choke. "I'm no good to him now, don't you see? He won't want to marry a monster."
Leena pushed even deeper, feeling that she hadn't heard everything Claudia had to say. The wisp grimaced as a deeper wall broke down.
"I'm just a rock, Leena, plain, coarse and unimportant, but to Artie I'm a diamond. I shine for him. I've never shone for anyone before." She glanced at the form on the bed and gulped. "I'm not shiny anymore."
"Do you feel this way about Artie?" Leena asked quietly.
"No. Sex is just a small part of what I feel for him." The image shimmered, its edges losing their sharp definition. "I love him so much it frightens me."
"Don't you think Artie feels the same way about you?"
Claudia shook her head. "Men have only ever wanted one thing from me, and when I wasn't willing or able to give it, they left. Sometimes they took what they wanted by force, but they always left just the same." The image began to dissipate. "I don't want Artie to leave me, but I can't give him what he wants."
"What do you think he wants, Claudia?" Leena asked.
"For me to look normal." The form gave a final sigh before disappearing.
Artie was so eaten up by guilt and lost in his own thoughts that he jumped when Pete stood and reached out his hand.
"Truce?" the younger man said.
Artie looked him for a moment before taking his hand. "Truce." He looked at Pete suspiciously. "Why?"
Pete sighed. "I saw the look on your face when Myka told you what she had done. Up until that point, I thought you were deliberately hurting her by being so obvious with Claudia." A pained look crossed his face. "Like I was with Kelly."
"Ah." Artie nodded in understanding, finally getting the gist of what was going on. He steepled his fingers. "Making Myka jealous."
Pete slumped back into the kitchen chair. "I didn't know how badly it hurt her. When she didn't let on that nothing was wrong, I figured I would stay with Kelly, because I kind of loved her." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table and his head on his hands, and sighed. "I am such an asshole."
Artie took the chance to break away from the conversation. "Well, I'm going to go check on Claudia." He got up from the table and paused. "You going to check on Myka?"
Pete nodded. "Yeah, I better. She gets lost in the dark when she's by herself."
Artie grimaced, knowing intimately what it was like to be a little frightened of your own company.
They got up when Claudia gave a shriek. Artie arrived at Claudia's room just in time to see her a ghostly version of her sitting on the bed. How is it that I can see her? Artie wondered incredulously before the answer dawned on him. A deep read, of course! It's visible to everyone, not just Leena.
Artie heard and saw everything. His heart broke when Claudia spoke of how he only wanted her for sex and that she didn't shine for him anymore. After all this time, how could she even think that? He choked back his tears, thinking of how she sounded so lost and alone. You shine for me every day, Claudia.
Artie walked into the room as Claudia was waking up. She took one look at him and dove under the covers, shaking with fear and dread. He sat down on the edge of her bed, and Claudia scooted away as close to the wall as she could get, wrapping herself in her blanket so Artie couldn't see anything but her eyes.
Leena got up. "I think you two need some time alone." She smiled at Artie as she left, closing the door behind her.
Artie sat for a long time, thinking of what to say. How on earth could she think I wouldn't love her anymore?
Claudia broke the silence first, her voice semi-muffled by the blanket. "I don't have much moved into the new room, so it won't take me very long to bring it all back."
"Why would you need to?" Artie asked quietly.
"Because...because..." She squinted her eyes shut, willing the tears to go away and failing miserably. "I'm hideous." She began to shake. "Why would you stay with someone hideous?"
"Claudia, look at me." When she didn't comply, he added a hint of sharpness to his voice, an edge that always got her attention. "Look at me." She opened her eyes and faced him. "And take that blanket off your head." She hesitated but obeyed.
"Here I am, Artie." Her face was covered in reddish-black scars, and her head was dotted with large bald patches. "See me in all my glory," she snarked.
Artie scooted over the bed to her, blocking her only means of escape. He reached out a chubby hand to her and she pulled back, the blanket covering her face again, her eyes wide with fear. "What are you doing?"
He cupped a hand to her ruined face, and she shuddered a moment before leaning into it. "I'm reminded of a line from the Song of Asherah: 'The world I see beyond your pretty eyes makes me want to stay.' " He softly ran his thumb across her blanketed cheek.
Claudia moved over, leaning against him but still wrapped in her blanket. "How does the rest of it go?"
Artie softly crooned to her:
"And who can heal those tiny broken hearts,
And what are we to be?
Where is home on the lonely path of stars?
I dry my eyes again.
In my dreams I am not so far away from home.
What am I in a world so far away from home?
All my life, all the time so far away from home.
Without you I will be so far away from home."
When he was done singing, Artie leaned in, pulled the blanket down, and kissed her. He immediately drew back in pain. "Ow!" He felt his lip and was shocked to find a scar, angry and sore.
Claudia slunk back. "I'm sorry, Artie," she whispered in guilty horror. "They hurt me too." She touched her lips. "Except for where you kissed me." She looked at him in wonder. "That doesn't hurt anymore."
For a brief moment, Artie was stunned into silence. Something was done for you, Arthur, something painful and brave. He finally knew what he had to do. He stood up and began removing his clothing.
Claudia pulled her blanket tighter around her in alarm. "Artie, what are you doing?" His only response was to climb into her bed naked.
"Give me your blanket, Claudia."
She shook her head violently. "No fucking way, old man." Artie made a distasteful face at her swearing, but she didn't care. "You are not getting me out of this."
Artie raised one eyebrow and held up his right index finger. "Don't make me use this."
"You wouldn't."
"Watch me."
She narrowed her eyes at him, calling his bluff. "I dare you." Artie took his index finger, put it up to her armpit, and barely wiggled the tip. The effect was nothing short of shocking. She thrashed around wildly, desperate to get away from his evil tickling finger, but the only means of escape involved taking off her blanket.
"Alright, uncle, uncle!" she cried, giving in so he would stop. Artie pulled his finger back, gesturing for her to take the blanket off like a kidnapper would gesture with a gun. She sighed, resigned to her fate.
"There, are you happy now?" she said, tossing her blanket to the foot of the bed. "Are you happy that you got to see the monster?" Artie was speechless. Oh Claudia...
The scars covered her entire body, and there wasn't a square inch of skin that wasn't marred in some way. The places where the tree bark had removed chunks of flesh looked red and painful. He had no idea how she had not died of a massive infection with all her open wounds. "Oh honey..." He touched her shoulder and drew his hand back with a painful hiss. He now bore a mark on his shoulder too, and she was startled to find that hers didn't hurt anymore.
"I don't think you should touch me anymore," she said in a scared whisper.
"Claudia, look at me." She turned to face him. "I want you to know that I love you."
"Oh, Artie," she said, unaccustomed to him stating his feeling so openly. "I love you too."
He shook his head. "No, you don't understand. I love you with every fiber of my being." He leaned in close, their noses almost touching. He lowered his voice into an angry growl. "And don't you ever, ever think that any change in your appearance would make a difference to me." He looked deeply into her eyes. "You are going to be Mrs. Claudia Nielson, and to me, you shine brighter than the sun."
Her breath caught in her chest. "I love you so much, Artie."
He gave her a crooked smile. "And I love you, Claudia."
She had no warning when he reached out and embraced her.