DISCLAIMERS: : Let's all remember this is a dark story. Rory and Rabbit have a long road ahead of them. Maybe some good, maybe some bad, maybe some misery. You've been warned.

BASEBALL: Go, go Red Sox! It is time to believe, again.

FEEDBACK: Please direct all feedback to p.phair@comcast.net. You can check out more of my writing at http://www.phair1.com

COWARD

by Phair

Part 11

"Ra," her voice failed in a painfully dry throat. "Rabbit!" Her call was interrupted when a series of deep coughs racked her body. She finally managed a shallow breath and then another deeper breath. Shaking her head, she tried to rattle her senses back to normal before resuming shouting. Over and over she shouted, "RABBIT! RABBIT! RABBIT!"

"Excuse us," an unmistakable, inhuman voice interrupted her anguished screams.

"OH HO HO, not you bastards again," Rory's speech was slurred. "I thought I was done with you creeps after my last space trip ended," Rory croaked in a hoarse voice. "Yet, here we are again for the first time. Back at the beginning. Once more into the breach, so the bard would say. Same universe, different galaxy."

"We are …,"

"Ya, ya, ya. Skip the introductions, Ms Manners," Rory rolled her eyes as she spoke. "Just tell me where my Rabbit is and nobody needs to get hurt? She's my dependent. A totally legal deduction according to my home commonwealth. If I'm on a space craft then she'd better be here too or you'll be talking to my lawyer, pal! I got rights, you know," Rory warned with a wave of her finger.

She forced herself to push over onto her back and ended up cringing from the pain. The wounds on her back had been treated but they hurt like Hell, none the less. Still, it was worth the discomfort. She wanted to see just where she was. Squinting open her eyes, Rory saw a cell much like the one on the space craft that brought her to New Earth. The only thing missing was the drone of the engines in the distance.

"Please tell me where my Rabbit is. Please, I need her," her bravado flagged with her strength and she ended up begging her captors in a voice just below a whisper.

"We are Varicants. We are your keepers. We are guarding you at Base Level 1. We will provide for your medical needs, daily cleansing, and regular feeding while your government determines the appropriate confinement for your body."

"SHUT UP. SHUT UP. SHUT UP. WHOOP. WHOOP. WHOOP. I'm not gonna listen to that shit, right now," Nearing a panic, Rory shouted above their explanation as she pressed her hands over her ears. "I'm only gonna give you one warning then all sorts of bad stuff is gonna happen. You'd better listen to me!" Once the Varicants quieted, Rory spoke in a more rational tone, "Rabbit is my dependent. That means she stays with me. So send her in or take me to her. I don't care which. Come on, move it, move it, move it. Let's go you friggin' ghosts. I ain't got all day to waste waiting for you idiots to get with the program."

Rory managed to drag herself up into a seated position. The effort made her head swim. As she caught her breath, she noticed how clean the skin on her legs was. Taking an extra moment she assessed the rest of her body and noted all the dirt, grime, blood, and stink had been washed away. She was clean for the first time in…months or was it years by her old Earth calendar?

"Oh, no. Did you do this to Rabbit too?" Her voice dropped back to a whisper again.

"We are not sure of your question. What is the meaning of 'do' in the sentence?"

Rory rested her spinning head against the wall behind her before clarifying, "Did you clean her? You know, wash her?"

"Of course. She was, like you, infested with parasites and larva which we could not permit to travel across our filter barrier. You are both antiseptically clean."

"Oh no, no, no! She must be terrified. Is she okay? She doesn't understand any of this. She was born on New Earth. She's an innocent. She doesn't know any of our ways," Rory was struggling to get to her feet as she rushed to explain. "Please, she's never been alone or clean or come face to face with Varicants before. For the love of God, she probably thinks that you're a bunch of blankets come to life. Please, you must let me see her and tell her it's okay."

"We find that request unacceptable. We would prefer for you to calm yourself. You should take some rest. Your injuries are quite severe. Your recovery depends on…,"

Rory leaned heavily against the smooth metal surface of the wall and ignored the Variants' prattle, "Think those injuries were bad then just watch what these are going to look like."

With that, Rory began to smash her head against the wall. She used a measured cadence for the blows and accentuated the thudding sound with a discrete banging of her palm at the moment of impact. After the third connections, a panel in the wall near her left hand slid open. Ragged sobs filled Rory's cell.

"Rabbit?" she blinked as the voice registered in her shaken senses. "Rabbit, is that you?"

Rory slid down the wall and began to crawl toward the sound. Her vision was clouded from both the effort and the blows she inflicted on herself. She grinned in spite of her pain.

"Worth it. Got my way. Got my Rabbit," Rory muttered to herself as she pulled her beaten body within inches of Rabbit.

Rabbit was naked. Her body and her hair were cleaner than Rory had ever seen before. Rabbit's fine blonde hair shimmered in the cell light. Rabbit was seated and had her arms wrapped around her legs and her face buried behind her knees. A steady stream of sobs rose from the young woman slowly rocking back and forth in the middle of the empty steel cell.

"Rory gone. Rory leave Rabbit. No more happy. No more love me," Rabbit wept. "No more hold me sayin' love me."

Rory felt her own tears start. "Love you, Rabbit."

Rabbit stopped talking. Her body stopped rocking. Slowly, ever so slowly, her head lifted.

"Really Rory?" She asked.

"Yes," Rory said softly as she move next to Rabbit and wrapped her arms around her, "It's really me and I really do love you."

Rabbit buried her face against Rory's chest and begged, "Hold Rabbit now. Always hold Rabbit. No let go no more."

"Never. I'll never let you go again."

Rory held Rabbit and gently began to rock her. She tried to soothe her terrified friend with familiar bedtime stories. With every word out of her mouth, Rory felt Rabbit relax a little more. Sobs were slowly replaced with steady breaths and finally tiny snores. Rory couldn't keep herself from smiling as she kissed the top of her lover's head.

"Sleep now. After all you've been through you could sleep for a week, I bet. I got you. I'll watch over you. You won't freeze and you'll never be alone again. I promise. But, I think we should make the clean thing our standard code of hygiene from today forward," Rory grinned as she whispered to the slumbering Rabbit.

"We are curious," the Varicants interrupted.

"Shush," Rory hissed. "I just got her to sleep. Don't wake her up, you dopes. Can't you see she's exhausted?"

"We will lower the volume but there are questions you must answer for us. We insist."

"What?" Rory readjusted her hold on Rabbit so she could begin to rock her again.

"You were a soldier."

"That's not a question," Rory spoke softly and cradled Rabbit closer to her chest. "It is a statement. How is it that you boys are so smart you can cross the universe at the speed of light but you still can't speak English properly."

"You were a soldier, correct?"

"Yes."

"You were married with a child, correct?"

"Yes," Rory answered quickly before brushing a freshly born tear from her eye.

"Your life prior to this was the antithesis of homosexual behavior, correct?"

"Yes."

"How and when did you become homosexual?"

Rory rested her chin on Rabbit's head and sighed. She closed her eyes to push back some of her warring emotions. In spite of her anger, Rory knew a poorly planned outburst could be physically costly for, not only herself, but Rabbit as well.

"We are prepared to inflict pain if you fail to answer our questions. We have a right to this information."

"I didn't become anything."

"You life before this was a lie, correct?"

Rory flinched as she felt Rabbit straighten up and pull back from her embrace. Apparently, Rabbit had been awake enough for the beginning of the conversation to understand the question posed. Rabbit stared Rory directly in the eye and Rory knew Rabbit wanted the question answered as much as the Varicants did."

"No, my life was not a lie. I love Stephen. Even so many years after his death, I dream of him and it makes my heart hurt because I love him so desperately."

A single tear made its way down Rabbit's cheek. She nodded her head in defeat. Her shoulders drooped with the weight of Rory's words.

"And," Rory continued her confession, "I still dream of my Andy. Sometimes I can feel him hugging me, kissing me, drooling in his sleep on my shoulder. Too many nights, I wake up thinking I smell his sweet, soft skin. But, then I really wake up."

Rabbit tried to dry the tears streaming down her face but for every one captured two more got away. Rory lifted Rabbit's chin to force the woman to look her in the eye again. Carefully, Rory wiped the tears dry with her own rough finger tips.

"Rabbit, my husband and son are dead. It doesn't matter how much I love them. They are gone. They are never coming back. I survived the explosion that killed them. Like it or not, I'm alive. Rabbit, I only know how to say this one way, I love you. For some unbelievable reason, you love me too. I can't explain how a person like me got so lucky in one life time. To find not one true love but two defies all the odds," Rory stopped and to kiss Rabbit's tear stained cheeks.

"If him no deading. What about Rabbit?" Rabbit bit her lip and flinched as she asked the dreaded question, "You still love Rabbit if Stephen alive and kicking?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Rory said the painful truth aloud.

"This is most strange," the Varicants announced as Rabbit crawled to the point in the cell furthest from Rory.

TBC

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