Dear readers: Soft Heart is officially caught up to The Unforgotten. I felt bad that I had paid more attention to one story and not the other, so from here-on, chapters will be posted alternating between Soft Heart and The Unforgotten. Here is chapter 10 that I accidentally spoiled to some of you, so for those it's not much of an update, I'm very sorry about that.

Pain. Pain was the first thing that registered, letting her know that she was still alive. Her brow knit tightly as she squeezed her eyes closed. She whimpered and blinked her eyes open, greeted by the earthen and dead-grass ceiling above her.

"She's awake!" called a small voice and she felt her arm loosely grabbed. Kaylin turned her head to look at the concerned face of Tyke, small pink lips pursed as he stared at her unblinking.

"Don't go back to sleep Kay," he pleaded. She moved, flinching and holding her hand to her side. She looked down, lifting her shirt to see a large bandage wrapped around her abdomen, and a large bump over where she remembered being shot.

"How long was I asleep?" she asked, trying to sound sorry for worrying Tyke.

"About a week," she heard Julian say. He walked up to her from the 'kitchen' with a cup of steaming liquid, and as he got close, she recognized the smell of her tea blend.

She carefully sat up, feeling the sore pulling feeling in her abdomen, and accepted the drink, saying quietly in a hissing voice, "thank you."

Julian watched her take a drink , kneeling down by her bed, "I did the best I could, you know, not being a doctor. You had a high fever for the first three days, I was worried we were going to lose you," Julian looked over at Tyke, who had not taken his eyes of Kaylin. The older man comfortingly squeezed the boy's shoulder, "he stayed by your bed the whole time."

Kaylin lowered the cup from her lips and felt her eyes burning as the finer details of what had happened surfaced. She remembered the blood. So much blood. She remembered the pain of hearing that Jone was dead, and of watching Ressa get gunned down right in front of her. She even remembered Tyke screaming for help, alone, as she faded away….

"Kay, why you crying?"

Kaylin rubbed her eyes on her wrist and sniffed, turning away so that Tyke did not see her mourn. He had enough to deal with than her emotional weakness. She heard him quickly patter away and then return. Warm hands plopped into her lap and released a white blur into her teary vision. She sniffed again and smiled, rubbing a finger against the blur, twitchy whiskers dancing against her skin.

"There, Algae will make you feel better."

"Thanks Tyke," Kaylin said quietly and took a relaxing breath to calm herself down. She lifted the cup to her lips again, feeling only the heat from the liquid before it halted. Seven days. Her eyes widened in horror and she looked over at Julian.

Her mouth worked the air for a moment before asking fearfully, looking even paler, "what's happened?"

Julian frowned deeply, "all-out war's broken out," he said quietly, turning Tyke's shoulders. The young boy obediently walked away and plopped down on the ground to play with some wood blocks that were crudely carved. Julian stood up and then sat down on the edge of Kaylin's bed.

"Several people came to check in on you, some came for healing," Kaylin felt a pang in her chest, "I had to turn them away. They asked what had happened and…."

Kaylin didn't want to think it, but she felt a dark pit in her stomach that told her the Mels were now few in number, or no longer existed.

"It's slowed down, we've heard less and less gunfire the past couple days. I don't know what it means…."

Kaylin took a shaky sip of tea, swallowing the hot liquid, staring straight ahead. She knew exactly what it meant. Nothing had changed but the weapons, "they're recuperating. Skirmishes always start with heavy fighting, and then it peters off and stops for a while so that everyone can recover," she looked at her cup of tea. The red-amber colored liquid gave her no comfort.

Handing the drink to Julian, Kaylin tried to get out of the bed. Julian's surprised expression turned stern as he put a hand on her shoulder, surprising her with the strength he had to keep her seated, "no—."

"I'm needed—."

"You're still injured," he countered, handing her back the cup, "for once, take care of yourself first. If you work yourself now, you'll help one person, maybe two, before you fall ill again. Stay here and rest," for not being a doctor, Julian had sound advice that Kaylin found hard to argue against.

Once he saw that Kaylin wasn't going anywhere, resigned to defeat, Julian spoke up again, "I'll go let Cee know you're alright."

Julian slowly released the cup as Kaylin took it in her hand again. Once she had it in her hand, he adjusted his glasses and stood. He walked over to Tyke and ruffled his head, "hey, make sure she stays in bed and drinks her tea. If she's hungry, get her bread."

"Okay," Tyke said looking back down at his toys, "you're going to go to the white guys now?"

Julian frowned but it faded quickly, "yeah, I'll be back in an hour or so."

Julian left out the door, closing it behind him.

Tyke gathered up his toys and moved closer to Kaylin's bed, depositing the toys on the ground and looking straight at her, "drink your tea," he ordered, pouting, before dropping down by his toys and beginning to build something once more.

Kaylin didn't obey, looking at Tyke, who seemed too carefree. Maybe he was coping? She wasn't sure. She felt like she didn't understand anything anymore.

"Did Julian make those for you?" she finally asked, looking to the boy once more.

"Yeah," Tyke responded.

"Hm. He's taking good care of you?"

"Yeah. He's like you, he's a nice white guy."

Kaylin frowned but nodded, looking into the dark tea again, "is he the one who brought me here?"

"Yeah," Tyke responded again, "when you didn't get up, I ran to your house and Julie was there. He came and carried you back. Then he dug the bullet out of you, you know, like you did for uncle Joe. Then he wrapped you up and you slept for a long time," Tyke set a triangle-ish shape on his box-ish shape, making a sort of house, "I thought you were going to sleep forever, I'm glad you didn't, even if it sucks to be awake."

Kaylin frowned, looking down at the top of Tyke's head as he carefully tried to stack some column-shaped blocks on top of each other. She swallowed painfully and looked at her tea, drinking a bit of it again as Algernon scampered away, bored.

"Hey, Kay?"

"Mhm?"

"You look pretty with your hair down, you should braid it, like my aunt does."

Kaylin swallowed suddenly, lifting a hand to her mess of hair that fell over her shoulders. She then imagined herself with cornrows and couldn't help but smile a bit.

Tyke did take good care of her. Eventually she felt well enough for some bread, and was sharing piece by piece with Tyke and Algernon. Julian returned shortly after that, with Cee with him. The leader of the Skulls' arm was in a sling, and he looked worse for the wear. Kaylin lowered her head guiltily, her right hand tightly clenched.

Tyke caught Cee's gaze with a scathing glare, and Cee scowled back for a second before approaching Kaylin's bed. Tyke stood up, shoulders back to defend Kaylin against Cee's advance, but Kaylin held the boy's shoulder and pulled him back, out of harm's way, and also sending the silent message that the boy was under her care.

"How are you feeling Kay?" he asked, stopping a few feet away.

"Better, your shoulder?"

"Healing, I fixed myself up from memory of the last time you did it, seems to have worked. When do you think you'll be back on your feet?"

"Cee—."

Cee shot a glare at Julian before turning to look at Kaylin, "I mean, when do you think you can walk? I want you in Skull territory, not out here so far away from everyone."

"You know I can't do that—."

"Kaylin, you almost died because some bobo shot you and no one was near enough to help you. It's not safe out here, not with everyone else trying to kill everyone."

Kaylin's brow furrowed, "and whose fault is that!?"

Cee looked taken aback, and then angry. Kaylin dropped her head in defeat, "I'm sorry, I just… I told you to leave them alone, I told you this would happen."

Cee huffed heavily through his nose, looking sharply down at the young dark-skinned boy who looked defiantly back. The hatred for each other that had been taught to them since childhood was thick, indestructible. Kaylin could tell that Cee felt that Kaylin's injury was somehow the boy's fault, and there was nothing she could say that would change his mind on the matter.

"People are hurt, Cee," Kaylin said finally, returning his gaze to her, "I will treat them like I've always done, impartially, here, on neutral territory. I'll be okay," she said, looking up smiling, disarming Cee suddenly, "I promise, okay?"

Cee shifted uncomfortably, unsure of how she could smile the way she was, with what had been done to her, but finally he relented, "alright," he said, definitively, "but if one thing goes wrong, and I find out that some other bobo or chunt got to you, I'm dragging you out of here, whether you want it or not."

His voice lacked a conclusively caring tone to it. It was more a threat than a promise. Kaylin watched his back as he turned it to her and left out of the hut, closing the door behind him. Had it been heavier wood in a wood frame, it would have slammed.

She felt Tyke's hand on her arm, but the silence wasn't broken. Julian looked over at Kaylin as her eyes fell to her blanket. She lifted her shirt and began to unwrap her abdomen. The wound was still an angry red, Julian had sutured it the best he could it seemed, but the edges definitely showed the usual pull of healing.

Julian was watching her carefully, hands up, prepared to hold her down if she tried to get out of the bed. She saw this, piled the bandages to the side, and lowered her shirt.

"I begin walking in two days," she said with conviction, leveling her eyes at Julian, "after that, I go at my pace."

Julian's lips thinned, but then he sighed, "alright, two days. You're the doctor."

The two days could not go by fast enough, especially for the longer days that Neo-Australia had. Tyke did well to keep her spirits up, sharing her bed to play with the building blocks, and to help her feed herself and Algernon. He didn't seem upset by the loss of his parents at all, which confused Kaylin profusely, but she didn't want to ask; she was afraid she might just bring up something he was successfully repressing.

Julian, it turned out, was an excellent cook for dealing with alien vegetables and spices.

"Don't you have any meat?" he asked once.

Kaylin chuckled, "I can't hunt, and meat doesn't keep well."

After two days, Kaylin removed the stitches and began to carefully walk around the hut. It was painful to move, but was more of a sore pain that started to fade as she busied herself outside in her garden, which had accumulated a few weeds. Tyke gladly helped, but often lost interest and began playing in the trees some tribal game, using a stick to pretend to hunt, hollering and whooping and making Kaylin smile.

However, she felt sad every time she came back into the house and saw the gaping hole leading to the longhouse, unused. Eventually she hung a cloth over it.

There hadn't been any gunfire in days.

After a week went by, Kaylin started making plans. There were things she needed for her grown household, she couldn't bear letting Julian sleep on the floor while her and Tyke had the bed. She made a list on the sparse paper she had and gave it to Julian.

"Go to Skull territory, ask for Micheal, if he's…," she cleared her throat, "he's the woodworker who made the bed for me. Ask him if he can make one for you and Tyke. But don't mention Tyke," she added hastily, "just say a bed for a child."

Julian took the paper slowly, studying Kaylin's face carefully.

"If you could, help them out while he's working to pay for it, that's what I usually do, they keep a little hut available for me to stay in when I'm there. Let them know I'll be ready to receive patients again soon. It shouldn't take longer than two weeks, well, maybe a little longer, with everything that's going on—."

"You want me to stay there while he makes these?" Julian interjected.

Kaylin frowned, "it would be polite…."

Julian sighed, "alright, I'll check up on you though."

Kaylin nodded, smiling, hesitating for a moment before leaning forward and hugging Julian. The man didn't react at first, but then laughed and embraced her back. It felt natural.

"I'll see you soon then," she said. She and Tyke stood in the doorway, waving Julian off as he headed down the road.