William Blake wrote, "A Busy Bee has no time for sorrow."
William Blake never met Aja Bird.
While it was true that Aja was busy, she had time for sorrow.
Her day started out as it always did. Get up, listen to Maria and now Mami tell her she was way too skinny and needed to eat more. Play with Hochi, look over his day to make sure that he would be kept busy and out of trouble, go to the office, send out the mail, look over the orders, talk with Rico and get the routine of the day set up. Go out and check shipments, go into town to talk with the people about what they needed or wanted. Then back to the yards to make sure things ran along smooth.
All day long, go, go, go. That suited Aja just fine; sitting around all day was not something she could do without wanting to scream. Moments in the day were taken to think about the things that happened in her world, with her family and friends.
Today's musings were about last night. Almost losing Anya.
Almost losing her to a man who couldn't take the responsibility for his actions, until the bitter end, when he tried to take a member of her family with him.
Aja recalled the sneer in his voice, the malice that practically oozed from him. The look of murder in his eyes, Aja had seen it before, in the eyes of other men on the battlefield. She'd seen them go down too. They never went easy and she didn't think Renger was gonna go down without a fight either.
Suddenly the scene changed, something Alper did, something that didn't make sense considering what Aja knew about him, but it didn't matter, it changed the game with Renger. She just prayed to the gods that Alper's gamble would pay off.
There was a flurry of activity: a shot rang out, Aja saw the blood appearing from Anya's right shoulder and she moved quickly, grabbing her bag from Rico, digging through it, pulling out the med kit and running to Anya. She wasn't going to be of much help, but she could damn sure try.
There was a lot going on that Aja only caught from the corner of her eye, Renger going down bloody, Thorne and Alec taking care of him. Sivanna was yelling for Neo. Anya was bleeding and while they figured out what course of action to take, the only thing Aja could do was try to slow the bleeding and keep Anya talking.
The activity level was still pretty high once Renger was down. While Neo saw to keeping Anya's life force up, Kel took the bullet out, while Alper and Aja kept her talking. Once the bullet was out, there was the matter of seeing to the others, Misty was a little shaken up, Neo needed recovery time and Anya needed to be taken home. All of that was seen to. Alper took Anya home stating he'd be taking the whole next day off. That, made her sister smile.
Everyone went their ways, thanks exchanged and good nights bidden. Aja took turned for home, walking along the darkened streets, Anya's blood on her hands, on her clothes. She almost dared anyone to mess with her. She was still wound up and frustrated that someone had gotten that close to her family. Almost taking one of them away from her.
Yes, anyone that messed with her would get the full force of that fury. But even RhyDin's criminal element seemed to sense the current and stayed safely away.
It was the long walk home that converted that rage into something else. The relief of Anya being ok, the memory playing over and over in her head of her sister, laying there looking sickly pale and barely speaking. A lone tree along the road side took a series of blasts from her plasma pistols before she knelt down there in the gravel and cried.
It was a combination of almost losing someone she had come to love and depend on very much and her feelings of complete helplessness in the face of such powerful family members. It took several moments but she got herself together finally and stood up resuming her walk home.
She'd kept it together well enough while she told the story for Tru, who, as he often did, had a million questions about if Anya would truly be out of trouble considering the guilty man was now dead. She managed to answer most of the questions before reminding him of what it was she almost lost that night.
Aja came back to the present moment, watching her guys work to unpack crates and get the items to specific sections, as the scenes from last night still flashed in her head. Always returning to an image she wouldn't soon forget. Anya, looking pale. Lifeless. The image had to be shaken from her head and she handed the clipboard to Rico. He didn't need to ask where she was going, he knew her well enough to know that it was Anya's house to make sure she was still ok today.
Once there, Aja sat at Anya's bedside listening to Alper and her talk, content to sit and watch her sister smile, laugh and just breathe. In and out. Nice and steady. Alive.
While most busy bees may not have time for sorrow, Aja was glad for the brief moments of time? so she could appreciate the joy once the sorrow had passed.
William Blake never met Aja Bird.
While it was true that Aja was busy, she had time for sorrow.
Her day started out as it always did. Get up, listen to Maria and now Mami tell her she was way too skinny and needed to eat more. Play with Hochi, look over his day to make sure that he would be kept busy and out of trouble, go to the office, send out the mail, look over the orders, talk with Rico and get the routine of the day set up. Go out and check shipments, go into town to talk with the people about what they needed or wanted. Then back to the yards to make sure things ran along smooth.
All day long, go, go, go. That suited Aja just fine; sitting around all day was not something she could do without wanting to scream. Moments in the day were taken to think about the things that happened in her world, with her family and friends.
Today's musings were about last night. Almost losing Anya.
Almost losing her to a man who couldn't take the responsibility for his actions, until the bitter end, when he tried to take a member of her family with him.
Aja recalled the sneer in his voice, the malice that practically oozed from him. The look of murder in his eyes, Aja had seen it before, in the eyes of other men on the battlefield. She'd seen them go down too. They never went easy and she didn't think Renger was gonna go down without a fight either.
Suddenly the scene changed, something Alper did, something that didn't make sense considering what Aja knew about him, but it didn't matter, it changed the game with Renger. She just prayed to the gods that Alper's gamble would pay off.
There was a flurry of activity: a shot rang out, Aja saw the blood appearing from Anya's right shoulder and she moved quickly, grabbing her bag from Rico, digging through it, pulling out the med kit and running to Anya. She wasn't going to be of much help, but she could damn sure try.
There was a lot going on that Aja only caught from the corner of her eye, Renger going down bloody, Thorne and Alec taking care of him. Sivanna was yelling for Neo. Anya was bleeding and while they figured out what course of action to take, the only thing Aja could do was try to slow the bleeding and keep Anya talking.
The activity level was still pretty high once Renger was down. While Neo saw to keeping Anya's life force up, Kel took the bullet out, while Alper and Aja kept her talking. Once the bullet was out, there was the matter of seeing to the others, Misty was a little shaken up, Neo needed recovery time and Anya needed to be taken home. All of that was seen to. Alper took Anya home stating he'd be taking the whole next day off. That, made her sister smile.
Everyone went their ways, thanks exchanged and good nights bidden. Aja took turned for home, walking along the darkened streets, Anya's blood on her hands, on her clothes. She almost dared anyone to mess with her. She was still wound up and frustrated that someone had gotten that close to her family. Almost taking one of them away from her.
Yes, anyone that messed with her would get the full force of that fury. But even RhyDin's criminal element seemed to sense the current and stayed safely away.
It was the long walk home that converted that rage into something else. The relief of Anya being ok, the memory playing over and over in her head of her sister, laying there looking sickly pale and barely speaking. A lone tree along the road side took a series of blasts from her plasma pistols before she knelt down there in the gravel and cried.
It was a combination of almost losing someone she had come to love and depend on very much and her feelings of complete helplessness in the face of such powerful family members. It took several moments but she got herself together finally and stood up resuming her walk home.
She'd kept it together well enough while she told the story for Tru, who, as he often did, had a million questions about if Anya would truly be out of trouble considering the guilty man was now dead. She managed to answer most of the questions before reminding him of what it was she almost lost that night.
Aja came back to the present moment, watching her guys work to unpack crates and get the items to specific sections, as the scenes from last night still flashed in her head. Always returning to an image she wouldn't soon forget. Anya, looking pale. Lifeless. The image had to be shaken from her head and she handed the clipboard to Rico. He didn't need to ask where she was going, he knew her well enough to know that it was Anya's house to make sure she was still ok today.
Once there, Aja sat at Anya's bedside listening to Alper and her talk, content to sit and watch her sister smile, laugh and just breathe. In and out. Nice and steady. Alive.
While most busy bees may not have time for sorrow, Aja was glad for the brief moments of time? so she could appreciate the joy once the sorrow had passed.