AN: You might want to make sure you read chapter 3. I think the email was down when I updated it. I never even got an update notice!
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My children were dead. I knew it. That perro had killed my children. My arms pulled against the restraints they had tied around me. A prisoner once more, I stared up at the smooth grey ceiling of the isolated room. The hot magma had cooled to a heavy, dark, solid stone within my chest. If I could have stopped my body from breathing, I would have. Short puffs escaped my lips.
Time passed. They offered me food, but I would not eat. They poured water over my lips, but I would not drink. They put their needles in my shoulder, pumping fluids into my body. My body lived. I grew thinner, but I would not die. The restraints were removed. I turned on my side. I curled up into myself, hoping to evaporate.
Daniel came to visit every day. He spoke, but I did not listen. Teal'c and Sam came a few times. Wolf came once. He stood in the doorway late at night, hoping I was asleep. I saw him.
I did not sleep. When I slept, I dreamt. He was over me, surrounding me, hurting me. The lizard men, then Hawk, then, finally, Wolf. He was the worst. He was the one I had allowed myself to…
I heard them talking. I was learning their language. I understood nearly everything they said, now. Some of the medical terms were untranslatable, but I noticed, idly, that I was starting to think in their language.
Daniel spoke to Dr. Janet about bringing another kind of doctor to see me. She looked concerned, but she agreed. A while later, time was fluid here, a woman stood at my bedside. She was tall, but not as tall as Sam was. Her hair was long and plain brown, her eyes an odd combination of green and brown. She spoke softly to me, her voice soothing. I did not respond.
I was placed in a 'wheelchair' and rolled into a room. The room had three chairs and a light. Wolf was sitting in the chair farthest from the door, looking uncomfortable. I was rolled next to the chair in front of the light. Daniel sat down quietly beside me, taking my limp hand. Behind the light in front of me, the woman sat in the chair, arranging her blue skirt modestly.
The lights in the room dimmed as the light in front of me was turned on. It flashed brightly, the pattern mesmerizing. The woman spoke, her soothing words flowing over me in waves. I felt light, freed, unburdened. I knew I should not be feeling like that, but I did not seem to be in control any longer. Oddly, it did not disturb me.
The woman spoke and I responded.
"I am Doctor Emma Young. Do you understand me?"
"Yes," I replied simply.
"Good. What is your name?"
"Mayva," I said first, and then I remembered, "no, May."
"Why did you change your name?"
"I did not. Lobo did."
I heard muttering from Daniel beside me. Dr. Young nodded.
"Do you like the name May?"
"It fits me, now."
"Why? What does it mean? What does Mayva mean?"
"May means bitter. Mayva means mother. I am no longer a mother. May fits me."
"May, where are your children?"
"Dead."
"Why do you think they are dead?"
"Lobo killed them."
"Why do you think he killed them?"
"He said he would. I did not please him. I am not useful to him anymore."
Dr. Young raised an eyebrow.
"When did he say he would kill your children?"
"That night."
"What night?"
"The night I went to him, to show him I was still useful."
"When was this?"
"After my children were born. I wanted to show him I would not be a burden. I wanted to show him that I would repay him for caring for my children. For Owen."
"Why Owen in particular?"
"He is not his. He is Halcon's son. Lobo could have killed him when he was born. Lobo had no responsibility to care for him."
"Who is Halcon?"
"The bird-man who captured me."
"How long ago were you captured?"
"I do not know. A long time."
"Can you describe your captivity for me?"
"Why?"
"I want to know what you've gone through, so I can help you."
"Do you have the power?"
Dr. Young's eyebrows rose abruptly.
"Power?"
"The power to help me. Are you more powerful than Lobo?"
"Yes," she answered hesitantly.
"I was cleaning the blackboard."
"When?"
"When the bird-men came to my village."
"Were you a student?"
"No. I was almost a teacher, like my mother. I was about to get my first class."
"What happened when the bird-men came?"
"People were screaming. I watched them come down the street. They took people. They went in every building. They were coming towards me."
"What did you do?"
"I looked for a way to get out without them seeing me. I opened the coal vent. I could see outside. Halcon and another bird-man came in."
"You were captured then?"
"No."
"No? What happened?"
"I ran. I escaped through the coal vent."
"What did Halcon do?"
"They chased me. I hid in a tree. They found me."
"Then what?"
"They took us to the museum."
"Who is 'us'?"
"Three men and another woman from my village. They took us to the museum and pushed us through the ring of water."
I described my captivity, calmly repeating every detail I could remember. I vaguely noted reactions from the people around me- whispered conversations and gasps of disbelief.
At some point, Dr. Janet entered the room. When the lights grew bright once more and I awakened from my trance, tears were on everyone's face, except Lobo's. Dr. Janet looked disturbed and angry through her tears, Dr. Young intensely sympathetic, Daniel looked sick, almost green, but Lobo's eyes were shuttered, cold.
My throat was sore from talking and I felt exhausted. Dr. Janet silently wheeled me back to my room. For the first time in a long while, I fell asleep without fighting it.