Starcrossed || Fifteen

Half an hour later, night had fallen completely. The lakes of Rikondi thrashed with intermittent nocturnal activity, while the Tazlor bugs flashed and hummed in harmony. Behind a veil of strategically arranged greenery, Kaye, Jared and Elise sat around the glow of Kaye's glow stick. Elise was sitting on Jared's shoulder again, putting her nearly at equal eye level to the giants. There was a pile of sticks in between their feet that Jared promised to turn into a fire. He had yet to deliver on that promise.

"At first, I thought the worst." Kaye was saying. "I thought that maybe she had brainwashed you with some type of alien ray gun or something. I just didn't understand. But... You were right. I couldn't live with the guilt, knowing she could be innocent. The more I thought about it, the more it didn't let me rest. You're crazy, but not that type of crazy. Whatever good you saw in her must be real."

Kaye's brown eyes finally flickered to Elise, apologetic. "I'm sorry for being so harsh earlier." She said, ashamed. She perked up a little as she slid her leather satchel closer and unfastened the top. She pulled out a black case from the surplus of supplies she had packed inside and slid it over to face Jared.

"I brought you a peace offering." Kaye unlocked the metal fastener and pulled open the lid, revealing the remains of Elise's ship.

"It's okay," Elise answered with a quiet smile, inwardly very relieved that Kaye had come around. But she leaned forward with interest to watch as Kaye dragged her bag into the light, retrieving a case from it. It was hard to see, but as the lid lifted open, Elise sucked in a gasp so quickly that she nearly fell backwards off of Jared's shoulder.

With her hands firmly latched on Jared's collar, Elise leaned forward as far as she could. Her ship was there, or at least ... it appeared to be all there. It was, sadly, in several pieces. But at least it was closer to being put back together than if it were still in government custody.

"Oh my God," she blurted. Happy, relieved tears brimmed in her eyes as she looked over the contents of the case. Elise didn't know the first thing about putting a ship together. But somehow, seeing all of the familiar things there was comforting. She turned her eyes to look at Kaye. "Thank you," she told her breathlessly.

But this meant that Kaye had stolen from the government. Elise's heart clenched to think that both Kaye and Jared had gone to such great lengths to help her. She didn't doubt that Kaye understood the consequences; after all, she had warned Jared of them when he called her.

Kaye smiled at Elise's reaction, finding worth in the young woman's joy. "You're welcome." She mumbled.

Jared's eyes went round. "Kaye..."

She crossed her arms, coming to terms with her actions all over again. Sitting here, her shoulders slumped in what appeared to be a relief of the tension she'd been carrying since stealing the ship. "The guy had it coming, believe me. Total wad."

"What guy?" Jared asked, raising a thick eyebrow.

A guilty smile spread over Kaye's face. "I don't know. Whatever scientist they left to do the cleaning up at night. I shot him up with a concentrated dose of Lydochlorin." The sore spot on her cheek tingled as she recalled the man's immediate reaction.

Jared grinned in awe, glancing at Elise instinctively to glimpse her reaction  as well.

"Damn, Kaye. Remind me not to piss you off."

She gave a short, hearty laugh. "Like you can talk! Breaking into buildings, running off with an alien, hacking your own registry code? I even heard you gave some cute little pencil pusher a pounding." She shook her head, the teasing tone fading out.

"Speaking of which. Why the server room?" She asked, eyes growing reverent again. "They said nothing was taken."

"I hacked into the server, using the long-rang satellite coverage to contact her boss."

"The ambassador, right?" Kaye remembered, looking over to Elise for any correction. The bitterness she saw there pulled at her heartstrings. "And... I'm guessing that didn't go so well."

Jared scoffed quietly and turned his head so Elise was in his peripherals. He slid two fingers down her side, stroking a brief comforting pattern into her side.

"He refused to send help because of the risk. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he's had his own encounter with Secretary Ambron."

Kaye gaped incredulously at Elise, lowering her voice respectfully. "So, you're stranded here?"

Elise's brow pinched at the mention of Ambron. She hadn't thought of it before, but it made perfect sense. If she were the ambassador and she'd been in contact with Ambron before, the planet would certainly make her nervous too. The woman was nothing if not intensely driven. It was too bad that drive was aimed towards imprisoning Elise for a crime she hadn't committed.

"Until I find a way to get that ship put back together," she answered, "it looks that way." Her eyes wandered over the parts of the ship thrown together in the padded case. That was a pretty tall order. Elise didn't know the first thing about ship building. She could maybe straighten out a dented hull given the proper tools. But this ... the scientists had been incredibly thorough in taking it apart.

Even if she did know how to repair the ship, they were undoubtedly looking at months if not a year of work. Even without the surgical disassembly, the ship had been knocked around quite a lot when it landed. And a few pieces of it were space debris now, probably gone for good.

Elise shivered. Her clothes and Jared's were still faintly damp from the sprinklers, though Jared had at least had the wind to help him out. After a pause in which she allowed Jared to softly stroke her side, her eyes wandered over to the pile of firewood he had gathered.

"Um ... do you want to try to get a fire going again? Or, I could give it a try if you want," she offered, looking up at his face, angling herself slightly so she could see him from her perch. She didn't know if the others were cold, but if they were, a part of her really wanted to be able to do something about it. After everything they had both now done, Elise felt the need to not be dead weight.

"Oh! Yeah, I'll get right on that." Jared replied hastily. "Though you might wanna get off first. I'm afraid I'll toss you right off my shoulder otherwise."

Elise was set down on the floor of the cave. The girls sat back and watched as Jared hovered his hands over the pile of sticks, selecting two skinny sapling branches and gripping them firmly. He clapped them together and started the tedious process of creating friction between them. After five minutes of running them together relentlessly, he began to wonder if he had missed a step somewhere.

Kaye chuckled, amused at his lack of talent in fire-starting. "You've never started a fire from scratch in your life." She observed unhelpfully.

Jared shot her a withering look and stopped to feel the sticks. "They're warm! Really warm! It just... fades out before a spark forms." He grumbled.

After a few more agonizing minutes of him trying and failing to rub the sticks into submission, Kaye sought a solution elsewhere.

"Elise, you ever played with fire before?" She asked hopefully.

Jared slapped the sticks together once again, then stopped short and looked over at their resident alien. His male ego resisted the idea of asking for her help, but logic won out. Freezing to death with his pride intact seemed to defeat the purpose of rescuing her in the first place.

Elise watched patiently as Jared attempted to ignite the sticks in his hands (though to her, it was like he was banging telephone poles together). She had never once imagined what the process would look like at an enlarged scale. But, she had a feeling that the wood would be reduced to sawdust before actually sparking that way.

"I think I know how to get something started," she answered. "It's been a while, though." She glanced over at Jared to make sure he was done moving before approaching the pile of kindling herself. Several of the pieces would be far too large for her to even consider lifting. Thankfully, she was able to find a flat piece of bark and a narrow twig that would probably look like shavings to Jared and Kaye.

Elise also dragged a large, crinkly dry leaf down from the pile, folding it over with some effort to break it. She formed a decent pile of broken leaf, and propped the piece of bark on top of it. She braced it with her boot, kneeling over the whole setup. Elise hoped this would work; it had been a long time since she tried.

She pressed one end of the stick into the flat side of the bark, moving it back and forth to create a groove. After several moments, the pressure combined with the friction to create small wisps of smoke and some blackened wood. Elise hurriedly moved the spark onto the dead leaf fragments and crouched low. Her cheeks puffed out slightly as she gently blew on the tiny ember, willing it to ignite.

A faint whoosh accompanied a flame hopping out of the pile she had made. Elise quickly stepped back as Jared reached over to add more kindling so that the fire wouldn't go out right away. She couldn't help the triumphant smile that lit her face. She had actually done it! "Wow. I'm so glad that worked," she commented, relief evident in her voice.

Jared's smile was aglow in the new light of the growing fire. He beamed down at her, impressed and a bit humbled by the fact that she achieved ignition success so quickly.

"Damn. What do they teach in that space-academy of yours?" He asked, half-teasing.

Once a meager flame was sustained, he carefully moved the little fire towards the rest of the kindling. The fire grew, and with it a blessed heat. A pleasant shiver ran down his spine as the heat replaced the chill of his damp clothes. Elise's ship was locked up again and pushed out of the way while Kaye revealed the stash of food she had packed away with her. It appeared she had more time to prepare her runaway plan.

They took turns using her thermos, heating up the water over the fire to create a tasty linguini Alfredo and cheesy diced potatoes. It was a surprise to all of them that by the end of the night, they were actually pretty comfortable, hiding out there in the cave.

Kaye shook her head, still processing all that Jared and Elise had caught her up on.

"I can't believe you survived a Rikonda attack." She said, lying out on her side, head propped up in her hand. "You're such an idiot Jared."

He smiled faintly, watching her shifting to find a comfortable position for sleep.

"Hey, do you have an extra shirt?" He asked.

Kaye looked at him funny. "Yeah, but if you think you're gonna stretch out my blue blouse, think again."

He smirked but shook his head. "I meant for Elise. My extra clothes got soaked by the sprinklers, but if you bunch up a shirt, it makes a nice cot her size."

Kaye raised her eyebrows, but happily lent her blue blouse for Elise's use.

Thanks to the warmth and the heavy food, a lot of Elise's tension was easing out of her shoulders. She stared absently at their campfire. Though, she felt like she was looking at an enormous bonfire, one that would be catastrophic back home if not kept in check. She came back into the conversation at the mention of her name, looking up at the two of them in turn.

"Oh," she muttered when Jared folded up Kaye's shirt and set it near her. A large part of her body begged her to go and lie down immediately. To give her healing bruises a break and rest. But Elise remained where she sat, sheepishly looking at the others. They'd be sleeping on the hard ground. "You don't have to do that for me," she said, looking at her hands rested on her lap.

It wouldn't be fair for her to sleep in relative comfort while they had to rest on a bumpy stone floor. Especially considering the burdens they already carried. Now, both Jared and Kaye had betrayed their own government and would likely be dealing with the consequences of that indefinitely. That, and Jared's burden of actually carrying her everywhere, probably moving around endlessly to avoid being found. It simply wasn't fair.

Jared frowned down at her, hoping she would meet his gaze but she stubbornly resisted.

"Uh... Why not?" He asked, an bemused smile on his face. "Elise, you must be exhausted. You didn't sleep earlier today... Not to mention you haven't had a moment's rest since the crash."

Elise glanced up and immediately felt the heat rise in her face, turning her cheeks a faint pink. Both of them were looking at her funny now. Were they really going to make her say it out loud? The brief silence indicated that apparently, they were. Suddenly Elise was a little embarrassed to have worried about it.

"W-well, it's just," she began, glancing between them sheepishly. "All I've done since I got here is cause you so much trouble, s-so why should I get to sleep comfortably while you have to ..." she trailed off, indicating the ground beneath them with a hand.

Elise ducked her head again, affecting one of her polite bows. "I mean, I'm very grateful," she added. "For everything you've done already." Jared was right. She was exhausted. But she had already taken so much advantage of their hospitality.

That's not your fault and you know it, he thought back at her silently. But it was clear she wasn't going to be swayed on this.

Jared sighed heavily. "Well... If you change your mind." He resigned himself to leaning back against the sloped wall. The blue shirt was left there on the floor for her consideration.

Kaye folded her arm over a pair of white denim pants that substituted for her pillow. "You gonna sleep sitting up?" She asked, her eyes already heavy.

"Nah. I'm too wired to sleep. Besides, it can't hurt to have an extra pair of eyes on the watch." He replied.

Kaye shrugged, conceding this fact and stretching out her legs towards the recesses of the cave. The firelight enhanced her features in a strange way, her brown eyes staring into the embers for a long while. Jared watched out of the corner of his eye as Elise lay down on the stone floor, squirming to get comfortable.

As he sat there in quiet thought, a small weight became more obvious now that he had no tiny people to keep track of on top of him. He reached into his still-zipped pocket and pulled out his foldable mini-tablet. After the rough treatment the rest of his things had received the last day and a half, he expected his tablet to be in much the same condition. To his surprise, the screen lit up when he unfolded the glass and let it settle into its proper form.

"Hah. Still thirty percent battery." He announced with a grin. "At least something didn't break."

"Shh. Trying to sleep." Kaye shushed him, burying her face more into her jeans-pillow.

Once everything settled down, Elise couldn't help one more glance over at the folded-up shirt. It still looked amazingly tempting. But, as she laid down, one arm tucked under her head, even the ground wasn't completely terrible. Her tired body conceded, relieved at least to be horizontal.

The fire cast a flickering, almost hypnotic glow throughout the cave. Elise sighed almost contentedly, the warmth making her pleasantly drowsy. Jared's triumphant announcement made her jump slightly, the sudden noise cutting the air. She smiled faintly as he settled in to playing a game on the tablet. The backlight of the device lit his face, contrasting strangely with the orange of the fire.

"Sweet dreams," she said softly, directing it to both of them. Despite the worries of the day and the hard bed she had chosen for herself, Elise drifted off fairly quickly.

Her dreams were not sweet.

Elise found herself back in that glass vase. The room beyond it was blurry and wavering, her memory not building it perfectly. She could see Jared across the room, casting his gaze around. Elise tried to call for his help, but a pressure around her chest prevented her from making any noise. To her despair, he seemed to give up the search and left the room once more.

She tried to call for him to come back, but the next man to enter the embassy was not Jared. He was monstrous, even more so than in real life, and he filled the room with malice. Warren. Elise could only watch as his hand descended on her once more.

Elise's breath hitched and her eyes flew open. The fire had died down to smoldering coals, dancing with orange glow. Elise let her heart calm down its fearful pace as the nightmare subsided. Thank God Jared had found her. She might be sleeping on the floor of a cave, but somehow it seemed so much better than wherever Warren would have taken her. Her eyelids fluttered closed once more, letting her drift into less harrowing sleep.

A pair of hazel eyes watched over her silently from above. Jared had stowed the tablet away once it hit ten percent, saving the remainder of the battery just in case. At this point, he wasn't sure what was going to be useful. His eyes were heavy, but hearing Elise whimper in her sleep kept him alert enough to keep an eye on her. He saw tense in her sleep, stirring briefly enough from whatever nightmare disturbed her before falling back asleep.

Jared couldn't help but feel her restlessness came from her uncomfortable position. He sighed out through his nose, forcing himself to hold off a little longer. Just until he was sure she was asleep again. As quietly as possible, he took off his jacket and folded it under his head. It was about time for him to get some shuteye too. Nothing aside from the Tazlor bugs seemed to be active in this area. It seemed like they had finally caught a break.

He closed his eyes and sought the rest he so dearly needed. To his dismay, it wouldn't come. Irritated, he opened his eyes and turned his head to where Elise was curled up on the floor. Why couldn't she just take the shirt? Now he felt like an ass for letting her suffer. Not that he didn't wish the best for Kaye, too, but Elise was so much more vulnerable in this world. Following through on the guilt-charged sympathy, he leaned over the tiny woman, his bulk blocking out the firelight over her as he ever so carefully pushed his hand under her head and shoulders, and the other under her legs. He froze as she stirred briefly, but not enough to come to consciousness. Thank God she was so out of it.

"There we go," he muttered, laying down and arranging her atop his chest. At least she would be warmer now, and no lizards could come along and try to claim her as a meal.

Her tiny fingers and toes scrunched up his shirt as she was settled in. Chin to his chest, he was able to see part of her profile. His heart beat calmed as he watched her sleep, a contented look in his eyes. It was a shame she couldn't be this at peace all the time. She didn't deserve the fate she was faced with. Like he was trying to soothe a kitten, Jared slid his hand over her, running his thumb down her long black hair and over her back until he was satisfied.

He fell asleep with his hand blanketing her legs, his busy thoughts dying as he drifted off.