A/N: sorry for the very slow update!

Alniss' eyes flew open as she heard the soft brush of the door against the carpet. She hadn't slept a moment, even after she'd conceded to Hallim's suggestions that she go to bed. Her vision was well-adjusted to the darkness by now, and she could clearly see Carla's form tiptoeing her way across the room.

She pushed herself up on one elbow. "I'm awake," she whispered, making the human jump.

They hadn't parted on good terms. Alniss had been less than happy about Carla going to see Kelly and Elsa without her there, but Carla had been unusually stubborn, resistant to all of Alniss' attempts at persuasion, even outright commands. It had taken Akhir taking Alniss aside, promising to protect Carla as much as she would Jasmine, to sway her into reluctant agreement. Well, that and the thought of what Elsa must be suffering, but Alniss was trying not to think about that.

"H- how are you?" Alniss asked hesitantly.

Carla sighed, slumping down on the bed. "I've been better. I'm not hurt, though, promise. It was perfectly safe. How are you?"

"I've been so worried," Alniss breathed. "Terrified about what might happen to you. How was it? What happened?"

"We talked to Elsa. Kelly was with her, but she was fine."

Alniss glanced at the clock. Four am. And there was something strangely guarded about Carla's tone. "You were talking for a long time, weren't you?"

Carla sighed. "We went out to Elsa's farm with her. She was worried Tamhet might show up, so-"

"You did what?! What if Tamhet had been there?! What if Elsa and Kelly took it in their heads to hurt you, all the way out there?!"

"Well, there were three of us and two of them, so-"

"What if Tamhet had been there?"

Carla swallowed nervously. "She was. And we were fine. Like I say, there were five of us and-"

"Tamhet was there?!" Alniss pushed herself to her feet, folding her arms across her chest. "What in Kandrona's name were you thinking?" She felt rage rise in her. "And how dare Akhir do that without my permission!" She reached for her cell phone. "I agreed to you visiting them, not-"

"It wasn't up to you to agree to anything," Carla muttered. "It's my choice."

Alniss froze, shocked. "Carla, I'm just trying to-"

"Protect me, I know. But I can make my own choices." Carla's voice softened. "There are things that are more important than my safety. Don't you want to know how Elsa was?"

She felt her stomach lurch. Of course she did. "That's not what I'm talking about!" Alniss said, as forcefully as she could. "I'm talking about you."

"It was awful for her. There were a couple of times where she couldn't…. she couldn't even talk properly." Carla's voice was thick with tears. "It was like her muscles wouldn't obey her. Alniss, I had to help her. She's been so good to us."

Alniss froze, pain filling her, followed by embarrassment: she had no reason to care for Elsa like this. "She what?!"

"She couldn't talk, a couple of times. Once in front of Tamhet, she must've hated that. And she was really upset, I could tell. Really scared. Alniss, you want her to be safe, I know you do."

Emotion flooded through Alniss, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks, despite her best efforts to prevent them. Defeated, she sank down onto the bed again. "I… I want you to be safe, too. I care about you." Alniss took a breath. "About you both."

Carla shifted across to her bed, taking her hand. "I know you do. See, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"What wasn't?"

"Saying how you feel about Elsa. It's okay. I know you care about her, it makes sense."

"It doesn't," Alniss muttered. "She hurt Silrin."

Carla looked away. "No. The Empire hurt Silrin. Elsa was hurt by the Empire, too. Probably even more than-"

Sudden anger flooded Alniss. "How can you say that?!" she snapped, before she could stop herself. "After everything she did for you?!"

"I love Silrin." Carla lifted her eyes. "You know that. I'm not criticising her. But… seeing how much Elsa's suffered… she was just a kid, Alniss!"

"She made herself suffer," Alniss muttered, trying to push away the pain she felt at that statement. "Silrin could have made her life wonderful if only she'd have let her."

"Not in the Empire she couldn't. Not while taking Elsa's freedom she couldn't. Elsa didn't want a Yeerk in her head, Alniss, not everyone does. Silrin massively improved my life, sure, but I agreed to her being there. And I could ignore what was happening to other people. I'm a lot more selfish than Elsa is," Carla added, dropping her gaze again. "I should never have stood by like I did."

"Carla…" Alniss' anger disappeared as soon as it had come, replaced with a concern as deep as that she'd felt for Silrin, when she'd been in Elsa, arriving at every feeding in pain. "Tamli, it isn't your fault."

"It is. Well, it partly is. I was in the wrong."

"We were in the wrong," Alniss said quickly. "We Yeerks. There was nothing you could have done."

"There was, but there's no sense dwelling on it." Carla shrugged. "Won't help, will it, I've no time machine. But I'm going to help her now, in whatever way I can. She's done that for me."

Alniss hesitated, her heart racing. "Carla… is there anything I can do for her?"

Carla raised her eyes, meeting Alniss' with such understanding that Alniss couldn't help but reach for her hand.

"I don't know if she'd accept it. But you could ask her. It can't do any harm for her to know people are on her side. I can call her in the morning, if you want."

Alniss nodded. "I have to help her. I… ignoring how I feel isn't working."

"I'll call her tomorrow. See if she wants to talk to you."

Alniss' hands twisted nervously in her lap the following lunchtime. They were sitting in the bedroom. Ilkiss had just picked up Kalran to drive her out to Elsa's, but it would take them an hour to get there. The other Yeerks, however, were around the apartment, and Alniss didn't want to be walked in on.

"You ready?" Carla asked, her cell phone in her hand.

"As I'll ever be," Alniss muttered, staring at the carpet.

Carla sighed, coming to sit next to her, wrapping the arm that wasn't holding the phone around her shoulders. "If she doesn't want to speak to you don't take it personally. She's going through a lot right now."

Alniss nodded. "Okay. Just call her, please, I can't wait any longer."

Obediently, Carla pressed the buttons on the phone, each making a small beeping noise, followed by silence as she lifted the phone to her ear. Alniss kept her eyes on the carpet. She could faintly hear it ringing and tensed as it suddenly silenced.

"Hi, Carla," Elsa's faint voice came through on the other end.

"Hey," Carla said, very gently. "How are you doing?"

There was a silence. "I'm okay. Or I will be, anyway. Thanks partly to you. How are you, Carla? I'm sorry about Tamhet, she's such a little shit."

"You can say that again. I'm fine, Elsa, it's you I'm worried about. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm not great right now, but I will be."

"Okay." Alniss could feel Carla trembling slightly. "Well, we're all on your side, you know. Me, Jasmine, Kelly, Kal and Ilkiss. Akhir, too, if you'll take it."

"Reluctantly, but I need whatever help I can get. And she was pretty great last night, even I have to admit that."

"I- er- look, there's- there's someone else who's on your side, too. I- Alniss wants to talk to you. You can… you can say no. You don't have to."

Elsa bit out a short, humourless laugh. "Trust me, Carla, I'm well aware I can say no."

Carla tensed, her voice tight as she said: "Okay. No problem. I'll let you get on."

"No, wait." There was another long silence. "Is she going to blame me for getting tortured? Because I can't handle that today."

"No!" Carla exclaimed. "Of course not. She wants to help."

"Alright." Elsa sighed deeply. "Put her on, then. I reserve the right to hang up at any moment."

Carla extended the phone towards Alniss. "Here. She's happy to talk to you."

Alniss picked it up with shaking hands, pressing it to her ear. "Elsa?"

"Hello." She could hear the girl's voice more clearly now and was shocked at how flat it sounded. "You're through to Elsa Industries, we operate a one-strike-and-you're-out policy on nasty comments to our staff. And I'd like to correct a slight misconception of our wonderful secretary Ms Roberts, I am not in the least happy to talk to you. I am just about willing, though, with a due sense of apprehension. What is it, Alniss?"

"Are you alright?" Alniss breathed in a rush. "Are you hurt?"

"No and yes," Elsa snapped. "Of course I'm not alright. Tamhet tortured me almost constantly for nine months, and now she's back and she's still found a way to threaten me. I feel physically sick, I haven't slept, I've binge-eaten cookies for my breakfast because I know it'd annoy her, and I don't dare leave the house in case she comes back and threatens my family, even though I know that's probably an outside chance. So yes, I am hurt. This really hurts."

Alniss felt like she might be sick. Her body froze in place, words failing her. Carla jumped beside her, turning to her with shock in her eyes.

"So, Alniss, are we done?"

"No, I… I… Elsa, I…" Alniss swallowed against the burning tears in her throat. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Not really. Not unless you can go back in time and join the peace movement."

"That would not have saved you from Tamhet," Alniss began to protest.

"Probably not, but at least you'd have tried."

Alniss gasped, words failing her again. There was a long silence.

"Seriously, Yeerk, are we done yet?"

"No, I- Elsa…"

"Spit it out, my tolerance for you is pretty limited today."

Alniss pulled in a breath. "I'm sorry," she managed.

She heard Elsa gasp, then fall silent. Alniss could feel her heart hammering in her chest as the silence stretched on. She felt Carla take her hand, rubbing her thumb across the back of it reassuringly.

"Say that again," Elsa mumbled eventually.

"I am sorry," Alniss repeated, more strongly this time. Now she had said it once, it was somehow easier to get the words out. "I'm sorry for what we did to you. I'm sorry I didn't try to stop it."

Elsa let out a long breath. "Okay. Wow. I wasn't expecting you to say that."

Alniss shifted uncomfortably, the silence stretching out between them. Just as she began to think Elsa would say nothing else, the girl spoke again.

"Right. Well. Thanks for saying that, Alniss. I can't forgive you yet, but I'll… well, I'm willing to try. Look… let's meet, in a few weeks. Once I've calmed down from this a bit. Let's talk, huh?"

"Is there nothing I can do before then?" Alniss asked desperately.

There was another silence. "Okay. Er. Are you worried about me?"

Alniss hesitated. "Yes," she murmured eventually.

"Don't be. I've coped with crap like this before, I'll be fine in a bit. There are plenty of people helping me. I'll tell you what you can do, though, you can keep an eye on Carla for me, make sure she's okay. Tamhet was a little bitch to her. And she'll probably accept you helping a lot more than she would me."

"I'd do that anyway," Alniss murmured.

"Yeah. I know, but it's all I can think of. I'll let Carla know if I think of anything else, though, sound fair?"

Alniss couldn't speak for a moment. "I- are you sure there's nothing I can do? Bring you food, at least?"

"I don't want you near my family yet," Elsa muttered. "Look, when I'm feeling better we can meet in a café somewhere, and you can buy me- or you can make me something, we can meet in your café if you want. Whatever. Look, Alniss, I've got to go, this is tiring me out. Look after Carla. And… I appreciate you apologising. That's helped me a lot in itself, you know. Take care of yourself."

"You too, please, I-"

The phone went dead. Alniss stared at it for several long seconds, tempted to call back, but then Carla's hand covered her own.

"You alright?" Carla's concerned eyes met her own. "She'll be okay, Alniss. We'll all look after her. And I'm sure you helped."

"I don't think I did." Alniss couldn't tell what she was feeling. "She wouldn't let me. I'd care for her, Carla. If she could only see that."

"I know you'd do everything you could," Carla murmured comfortingly, slipping an arm around her. "You've done so much for me. But what she needs now from you is space, I think. Can you give her that?"

"I don't know. I – I ought to – Silrin would want-"

"Silrin would want you to give Elsa what she needs. Exactly like you have for me, it's just that what we need is different." Carla looked down. "You apologised. That was brave of you. I didn't expect that."

"You didn't want me to?" Alniss guessed. She knew Carla well, now, well enough to read the change of tone.

Carla shook her head. "I'm glad you did. It's just that… well, now I really feel like I have to, and I… I can't."

Alniss tried to conceal the shock she felt: she'd never heard Carla admit her feelings of guilt. "You don't have to," Alniss argued. "Tamli, it wasn't your fault. It was never your fault."

"Elsa might disagree with that. Kelly certainly would. But thanks, Alniss." Carla shook her head slightly, then said in a rush: "Look, can we… I need to do something to take my mind off it all. Would you come to the beach with me? We could hire surfboards again?"

Alniss had loved the thrill of that last time, the feeling of lightness as the wave carried her forwards. It would certainly take her mind off Elsa, if there truly was nothing she could do.

"Sure. Anything you want."