Chapter 2

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I don't own this movie or any of its characters. Which is probably a good thing, because if I did, this fic would totally be canon and then I might get rocks thrown at me by the general populace :P

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She was awakened by a splash of cold water hitting her face. Opening her eyes in surprise, she tried to sit up and immediately cried out in pain. The pain in her abdomen was still unbearable. She collapsed back onto the sofa almost involuntarily and moaned as the action brought on a fresh wave of agony. Gritting her teeth, she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to wait it out.

Almost immediately, she was hit by another splash of cold water, this one larger than before. The pain was forgotten for a moment as she let out a shriek of surprise.

She opened her eyes once more and saw the Engineer kneeling beside her, holding a half-empty bottle of springwater, retrieved, no doubt, from the small refrigerator behind the bar. Its features were twisted in an expression of annoyance, and it looked ready to splash her again if she so much as thought about closing her eyes.

It waited a few moments more, and when it seemed sure she wasn't going to lapse back into unconsciousness, it leaned over her slightly and brought the water bottle up to her lips.

They parted almost unconsciously and let the icy liquid into her mouth and down her throat. She felt relief flood through her body as she drank and realized she must have been teetering on the edge of dehydration. She closed her eyes almost contentedly as she drank several gulps of the liquid.

A moment later the water bottle was pulled from her mouth with a pop! Shaw opened her eyes just in time to get water in them as the Engineer splashed her again.

"Stop it!" she spluttered, shaking her head from side to side to get the water off her face. "I'm not going to fall back to sleep!" Giving the humanoid a glare that almost matched its own, she reached up to brush her now wet hair out of her eyes.

She gasped in surprise when she saw her arm was bare, with no sign of the suit she had been wearing earlier. Suddenly remembering just what the Engineer had been doing when she'd lost consciousness, Shaw raised her head and looked down at herself in alarm.

Except for her undergarments, she was naked. Her suit had been completely removed. And worse, her nakedness finally allowed her to get a good look at the wound in her abdomen. She could see now that, while most of the staples had held, the three on the far left had torn loose, causing the wound to re-open in that spot. Her lower torso and legs glistened with the blood that had been seeping from the torn incision. The wound itself opened and closed like a thin, red mouth when she gasped in shock.

Shaw felt nausea and lightheadedness begin to close in around her once more, but she pushed it back, determined not to faint again. Not only did she not want another soaking, but she felt almost irritated with herself at being so squeamish at the sight of a torn surgical incision. She had remained conscious and focused through the operation itself, hadn't she? Surely she could handle a little patching up.

Shaw suddenly felt the humanoid's hands slide beneath her legs and shoulders, just as they had when it had picked her up earlier. This time, however, instead of picking her up, it merely lifted her slightly and moved her into a sitting position. She whimpered and clutched at her stomach, and the movement brought on another attack of lightheadedness, this one stronger than before. She would have lost her balance and fallen off the couch, but the Engineer held onto her upper body to support her, and she steadied herself by leaning against its forearm.

It supported her like that for what felt like several minutes until it seemed sure she could stay upright under her own power. Then, it let go of her and she saw it turn away from her toward the coffee table that was in front of the couch. She was surprised to see a pile of glass vials and tubes and metal instruments all lying on the table. As the Engineer started rummaging through them, Shaw caught sight of a syringe, some sort of pick, and a pair of metal forceps among the riff-raff. Medical instruments. It must have raided the infirmary while she was out.

As she watched, the Engineer gathered up a few of the items and placed them in the palm of its other hand. Then, it turned and held them out to her.

Shaw could only blink at the "offerings." She saw two vials of different antibiotics, some antiseptic, a pair of tweezers and some I.V. tubing. What was she supposed to do with all this? She looked back up at the Engineer questioningly and shook her head slightly, trying to communicate to it that she didn't understand.

The humanoid immediately turned, placed the supplies back on the table, grabbed another group of them, and held them out to her. This time she could see surgical tape, a syringe, anti-coagulant, and two vials of painkillers.

She reached out and snatched both vials of painkillers, as well as the syringe. Beside her, the Engineer gave a satisfied grunt, and nodded its head. It continued to hold the supplies out for her a moment longer, but when it became obvious she wasn't going to take anything else, it turned and put the rest of them back on the table. Soon, it was offering her another handful to inspect.

She finally realized what it was doing. It was trying to treat her wound, but it likely could make absolutely no sense of what the various medical supplies were and what they were for. The items in the infirmary probably seemed as crude and nonsensical to it as the items in a witch-doctor's hut would seem to her. Laughably primitive, and yet, without the witch-doctor's aid, she'd never be able to figure out how to use them.

With the Engineer's help, she picked out several more vials of pain killers, another syringe, a needle and surgical thread, a vial of antibiotics and finally, what she was most interested in, two vials of regenerative solution, one specifically for muscle tissue. The solution used crude nanotechnology to repair tissue, and the fact that she had been giving herself regular injections of it alongside the painkillers was the only reason she had been able to walk at all after the emergency C-section. The technology was still fairly primitive, however, and the repair process wasn't instantaneous. It took time and inactivity for the solution to work properly. The fact that she had been moving around and subjecting her body to extreme stress almost since the operation finished had hampered the process, and kept the wound from properly healing. It had been like picking at a scrape every time it had started to scab over. Hopefully, now that she was safe and could lie down, she would be able to take it easy long enough for the solution to do its work properly.

Once she had everything she needed, she looked down at her wound with misgiving. She knew she was going to have to sew it shut first, before injecting herself with the regenerative solution, but that was going to be difficult to do while sitting up. She needed to be lying down. But if she were lying down, she wouldn't be able to see what she was doing. She realized she needed the Engineer's help.

She looked back up at it with misgiving. If it didn't know what the needle and thread were even for, how could she ever expect it to sew her up competently? In fact, it was looking at the surgical instruments with a sort of…baffled horror, as if it were trying to guess what they were for and none of the guesses were pleasant.

She sighed and shook her head. She would have to do the sewing herself. But maybe it could help…support her or something. She thought she might be able to make it understand how to do that.

Before she worried about that, however, she needed to numb the area. She picked up the syringe and one of the vials of painkillers. Quickly, she filled the syringe, then injected the solution into her abdomen right above the wound. She sighed in relief when she felt immediate, if not complete numbness begin to spread over the area. After being in such severe pain for so long, any bit of relief from it was more than welcome.

Next, she set the syringe aside and picked up the curved needle. She threaded it with the surgical thread, leaving a long length of thread attached to it. Single stitches were certainly sturdier and would be ideal, but she lacked the strength and the patience to bother with cutting the thread, tying it off, and re-threading the needle after every stitch. She would just have to hope that a single row of continuous stitches would hold out until the wound healed.

Now came the hard part. She looked back up at the humanoid and it raised its head up from looking at the needle to meet her gaze. Hesitantly, she reached out with her free hand and touched one of the being's hands, which was resting on the sofa cushion. The Engineer almost jumped, looking down with wide eyes at the hand she'd laid upon it. Her breath caught in fear as she wondered if the action had angered it. Maybe it was revolted at the thought of a lesser creature like a human touching it without permission.

Still, she didn't really know how else to make it understand what she wanted it to do. Trying to ignore her fear, she forced herself to take hold of its huge hand, more than twice the size of her own. It was smooth and hairless and strangely soft against her fingers, but she didn't let herself pause to get used to the sensation. Instead, she lifted its hand from the sofa cushion and guided it to the small of her back. Surprisingly enough, the Engineer didn't try to resist her, almost as if confusion had stunned it.

Once it got the idea she wanted it to support her back, she pointed to its other hand, which was too far away for her to reach. The Engineer lifted it obediently, a baffled look on its face. She motioned for the creature to place it underneath her knees, just as it had done when it had picked her up earlier. At first the baffled look remained on the being's face, but then Shaw suddenly saw understanding twinkle to life in its dark eyes, as if someone had flipped on light switch inside its head. It almost would have been comical if she hadn't been so uncomfortable.

Her discomfort wasn't brought on only by the now fading pain in her belly either. Now that the Engineer was actually touching her, she couldn't help but be reminded of her lack of clothing…and the unmistakable maleness of the alien who was now cradling her body. She suddenly felt a blush creeping onto her cheeks as he-no, it-slid its hand beneath her legs and lifted them slightly

But doctoring was more important than modesty. She knew she simply had to do her best to put her discomfort from her mind and get to work. She tried to remind herself that this being probably thought of her as lower than an animal, and therefore, she doubted it would have any type of sexual thoughts upon seeing her half-naked.

Avoiding eye contact with the Engineer, Shaw leaned back slightly against the creature's arm. To her relief, it got the idea rather quickly and she felt it adjust its arm so that she was leaning further back, but still supported. Wincing a bit, she tried to raise her legs slightly and the Engineer took the hint and lifted them. After making a few more adjustments to her makeshift "chair," Shaw looked down at her wounded abdomen with relief. From this position, the injury and the area around it were flat and easy for her to both see and reach.

Wincing a bit, she reached out and pulled the three broken surgical staples out of the wound. Thankfully, the painkillers had done their work and she only felt a slight tug when she yanked the staples free. Once that was taken care of, she inserted the needle into the wound, relieved that she could barely feel it penetrate her skin. Wanting to get the stitches over with, she quickly pulled it through the tear, then started on the next stitch. Sweat beaded on her brow as she concentrated, and she thought she heard the Engineer catch its breath as it watched her apparently crude doctoring. She ignored it, not wanting to be distracted by its contempt or its disgust, or the idea of its eyes on her semi-naked body. She completed the third and fourth stitches with little difficulty, then tied off the end of the thread.

She let out her breath in relief as she looked down at her coarse handiwork. The stitches weren't pretty, and they didn't look terribly strong either, but they would hold, so long as she remained still and quiet. Besides, they only needed to hold until the regenerative solution could do its work, and that would only take a few days at most.

The stitches finished, she picked up the second syringe and filled it with the tissue repairing solution. She injected that into the site of the wound, pushing the needle in as deeply as possible. The wound was made up of several layers of severed tissues, after all, and it was especially important to her that the deepest layer be tended to. She knew her chances of ever bearing children…well, more children anyway, had decreased even further given the damage to her womb from the emergency surgery, but she was unable to give the organ up for lost. If there was a slight chance she could heal the damage, she wanted to do so. Even after everything that had happened, even when looking at the hopelessness of her situation, even with her future now so very uncertain, she realized she still wasn't able to let go of the idea of somehow finding a way to be a mother someday. A real mother, not merely the incubation chamber for twisted monsters created by some sort of genetically modifying ooze.

Finally almost finished, she added a third injection, this one of antibiotics to ward off any infection. She didn't know if there were any native pathogens that could have gotten into the wound, and whether earth-antibiotics would be effective against them, but she supposed it couldn't hurt to dose herself with them just in case.

Finally finished with her doctoring, she let out a sigh of relief and laid the syringe on the sofa cushion beside her. Then she looked back up at the humanoid…and almost laughed. It wore an expression of what she could only read as fascinated disgust. It looked like it couldn't believe it had just watched her sew herself back together and then stick needles into her flesh to deliver various medicines to her body. She supposed it and its kind probably had some sort of device that quickly and painlessly healed any injury with the press of a button…and probably gave the patient a lollipop afterward too. Such a device probably made her emergency first-aid look as primitive and barbaric as the old practice of using leeches for bloodletting would look to her. In fact, if the creature had opened its mouth at that moment, she wouldn't have been surprised to hear "EWWWW!" come out of it.

She bit back the rather childish giggle that was threatening, since she didn't know what the Engineer's reaction to her laughing at it would be, and she didn't really want to find out. It certainly didn't seem like it had much of a sense of humor, anyway, during her admittedly limited interactions with it. Why risk making it grouchy again?

Instead, she smiled weakly at the being, the only way she could hope to communicate her appreciation for its help. Then, she held out a hand and motioned for it to set her down.

The sofa creaked slightly as it set her back down and she let out another sigh of relief, grateful for the softness of the fabric and cushions beneath her. Now that the immediate danger was past and the pain had subsided, her mind was finally free to notice the exhaustion of her body. She suddenly surprised herself by letting out a yawn. Sleepiness, which had apparently been waiting in the wings all this time, had taken advantage of her relaxed state and pounced.

Still, she didn't really want to fall asleep next to a bunch of glass vials and unprotected needles. She reached out groggily and gathered up her discarded supplies in one hand, then held it out, hoping the Engineer would figure out she wanted it to take them from her.

To her relief, she felt its hand touch hers for a moment as it closed over the medical supplies and lifted them from her hand. There was a soft clatter as the being must have set them back on the table. Then there was another sound, a soft sloshing sound, as though the creature had picked up something filled with liquid.

Realizing what that meant, she opened her eyes again with a squeak and wasn't surprised to see the humanoid holding the water bottle again. This time, however, instead of splashing her, it reached behind her and gently lifted her head up, then placed the bottle to her lips once more.

She seized the bottle eagerly, pulling it from the creature's hands, but thankfully, the Engineer didn't stop her. Shaw held the bottle in both hands and gratefully sucked the liquid down, thirst being another sensation she was finally beginning to notice once more. In fact, its voice was almost as powerful as that of exhaustion.

In the end, however exhaustion won out. After a few more swallows, she let the bottle slip from her mouth, and almost immediately, the Engineer took it from her. There was still a bit of liquid inside, however, and the slight splash it made when the creature took it made her open her eyes with alarm. Was it going to-?

The humanoid seemed almost as surprised as she was at her reaction. It actually pulled back slightly at the sound of her gasp. Shaw could only look at the bottle in its hands apprehensively. The being looked at her, then at the water bottle, a quizzical look on it face. It held the bottle back out to her and she winced.

Comprehension once again twinkled to life in the humanoid's eyes and it quickly turned and set the bottle back on the table with a thunk! Then it turned back to her and nodded with what looked almost like a hopeful expression.

Satisfied that it wasn't going to stop her from going back to sleep, Shaw closed her eyes once again. Her lips parted slightly and a soft sound of contentment came out, little more than a sigh, but she hoped it would clue the Engineer in that she was all right now and it didn't need to worry about her anymore. She just wanted it to let her sleep right now.

She still felt the humanoid's presence over her as she lay there, and she couldn't help but feel slightly uneasy. Although she no longer feared it would hurt her, she still didn't like it looking at her while she was so uncovered. She wished she had a blanket or something to cover up with, but she had no idea where bedding might be kept, and she was too tired to try and figure out how to ask the Engineer to see if it could find her one.

Instead, she tried to put the being's presence from her mind by thinking of something else...something far more comforting. Her first thought was Charlie, but the pain and grief over his death were still too fresh for his memory to bring her any comfort. Pushing the pain away, she dug deeper. She briefly considered praying, but for some reason, she felt almost…uncomfortable with the idea of speaking to God. No…not uncomfortable. Afraid. Afraid that her anger about everything that had happened would come out…or perhaps even afraid that she would come to realize that everything that had happened was her fault. That she deserved this somehow. That God was disappointed in her, or worse, angry with her.

It was cowardly, and she suspected that these thoughts were wrong for her to have, but it was the way things were right now. She couldn't face her fears…or her god…at this moment. Instead, she turned to the memory of someone else. Someone who carried no guilt…no fear…no judgment. Only love for her.

She thought of exciting trips to exotic locals. Of intelligent conversations where she was never treated like a child. Of laughter and light and love. Of a gentle voice, praising her for her accomplishments…sharing her joy when she was happy…soothing her when she was sad…comforting her when she was afraid…

Her lips curled into as slight smile. Daddy…

Elizabeth Shaw drifted off to sleep surrounded by memories of home and family and love, leaving a single being behind…and alone…to watch over her.

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Yay, maybe she'll stop whining about her wounded tummy so much now. Even I'm starting to get tired of it :P