(Ill ask you this just one more time, and then never again, because I know how you are about people feeling sorry for you,) Jake said, speaking just for the two of them. (Are you okay, Marco?)
Now there was one for the ages; was he okay. There were about a million things he could say, if he were a different person, or if the circumstances werent what they were. But he was who he was, and things were what they were; and that was okay, for the most part.
(Im fine, Jake. And Ill be better. When shes free again.)
Another shark sidled up to him then, brushing sandpaper skin to sandpaper skin. (Its hard, you know, to look into the eyes of someone you love, and know that they would kill you without a second thought.)
(Dont talk like you know me,) he jibbed, feeling like he would have smiled if hed been capable of it in the slightest.
Shara laughed, though she didnt sound particularly happy. (I was talking about me.)
Again with the defying of his expectations; today just seemed to be the day for it. (Well, you know, if you ever want to, uh, talk, you know where to find me.)
(If you really want to listen, I will,) she said, sounding morose. (But you should know what youre asking.)
She didnt say anything else after that, but he didnt ask; theyd find each other again when the time came. When she was ready to talk, he would be ready to listen. It was the least he could do after all shed done for him.
They all headed back to the beach, demorphing once they stood together in the shallows, and he watched as she, Cassie and Slade joined up with each other to morph birds and head back to the barn. He didnt think hed have been all that willing to stay in Cassies barn, not even with his meals delivered by Cassie, the way she had said she was doing. Shara was a lot more dedicated to the Animorphs than even he was; but then, it seemed like she also had a lot less to lose.
Her brother didnt really remember her, and none of the other family members hed heard about from Jake had even seemed to be there at all. Under the circumstances, Marco could understand her dedication. He might have been like that himself, if things had been different.
In the air, looking down at all of the people moving around in the neighborhood that he and his dad now lived in, he couldnt help but wonder just what Shara would have to say when she showed up. He knew she was going to; they understood each other too well for him to believe she would do anything else.
She knew not to pity him, and he knew not to expect pity from her; she was the one to stand beside him when hed been forced to confront Visser One, and hed seen the beginnings of understanding in her eyes.
He hadnt recognized it for what it was, not right then; not with so many other things pressing down on him, all clamoring for his attention. But thinking back, he knew that that was what it had been. They were the same; she would come.
Landing on his windowsill, he looked back out into the sky. She probably wouldnt come during the day; too much chance of his dad coming in, or of them being overheard. Then again, since she would probably be in morph when she came to see him, she could always just stick to using thought-speak.
Then again, staying in morph wasnt exactly the most comfortable way to hold a conversation. And that wasnt even mentioning the risk of going over the two-hour time limit while they were speaking. No, she would probably demorph before she started speaking in earnest.
There were good and bad things about that, but then that was true of pretty much everything.
XXX
Once shed demorphed in the hayloft, turning to survey the barn for a moment, as her brother demorphed behind her, Shara thought about what she was going to do next. Go talk with Marco, likely as not; hed seemed genuinely interested in what had happened to her. More than that, even with all of the similarities to the people shed lost, Marco was clearly his own person. She wouldnt feel like she was ripping open old wounds while she was speaking with him.
And she needed to talk to someone about this, she would lose her mind otherwise. But, not someone who didnt know what it was like to face a family member who would kill you without remorse if they were given the order. None of the others that she knew of, anyway seemed to have that problem. But more than that, Marco reminded her of Cain.
That was one more reason to confide in him, over and above all of the other reasons. It may not have been the most rational of reasons, but trust was hardly rational to begin with. Marco was really the closest thing she had to one of her brothers; closer by far than Slade, who barely remembered her as it was.
She would confide in him; it seemed almost right to do so.