Skyler was sprawled out on the hardwood floor of the kitchen, wearing a pair of flannel pajamas and playing with a matchbox car. He was clean and fresh, having just stepped out of the shower moments before, the fragrance of his strawberry shampoo still lingering in his long pretty shiny black hair. The toy car was a metallic blue corvette, which he swished across the floor, making a ?zooming? noise with his mouth.

He lurched to his feet when he heard someone pounding on the door. He ran to the hearth, grabbed a fire poker and yanked open the front door, ready to go to town on someone if they wanted trouble. At first he didn?t see anyone. Then he poked his head out and saw the barely recognizable figure of Mack huddled against the side of the house. The fire poker crashed to the floor as his eyes grew wide with concern. The boy knelt down, lulling her with gentle sounds, ?Shhhhhh,? ?Easy,? ?It?s okay,? ?I?ve got you.? He snaked one arm beneath her knees, one behind her shoulders, then gently and effortlessly lifted her off the ground. Skyler carried her inside, kicking his foot out behind him to close the front door.

Gazing down sadly into her face as he moved along, he winced at the bloody mess that was the attractive young lady with whom he?d taken a dip in the jacuzzi a few nights prior. His bright white cotton socks pattered across the hardwood floors as Skyler carried his new friend Mack to the hallway bedroom and delicately lowered her to the bed.

He held his face closely over hers and looked deeply into her eyes. They were glassy and distant and unfocused ? Mack had a concussion. Skyler left the room, muttering angrily to himself. He wouldn?t ask questions, knowing she wouldn?t be in any condition to talk about it. Besides, the only thing on his mind was helping Mack. Skyler couldn?t stand to see a woman get hurt like this. For some reason he always felt guilty when women got beaten up, like it should have happened to him instead. He remembered back when Jewell and Alex fought in the alley. He remembered seeing Jewell getting throttled. He remembered how he couldn?t protect her. He remembered how weak that made him feel. He remembered how he felt like he was going to puke afterward. Now he didn?t feel much different.

Returning a few moments later with the same first aid kit Molly had used to mend his crab bites a week ago, Skyler sat down on the bed next to Sarah and began to dab at her wounds. He wet a washrag with peroxide and cleaned the blood from her face. Luckily most of the wounds had clotted, so all he had to worry about was cleaning them so they wouldn?t get infected. A bandage went over the hole where her piercing had been. Reaching inside her mouth with a slender finger, he stuffed a bit of gauze down in the gap where her tooth had been knocked out. Now, in case the clot broke open over night, it wouldn?t fill her mouth with blood while she slept.

Finally he used a pair of scissors to cut her shirt from her body. He started at the bottom and snipped his way upward until it tore asunder at the collar, exposing her bruised and beaten body. Sarah was fading fast into unconsciousness and it would have been quite a struggle to get the shirt off over her head. Skyler made two more snips with the scissors; one on either sleeve. Then, all he had to do was pull the garment out from underneath her small form. The boy, pale faced and nauseous, balled up the shirt and hurled it at the garbage can by the bedroom door.

At last he examined the wound in her side, peering closely at the exposed flesh of her ribs. Instantly he recognized it as a sword wound, for Skyler had had plenty of those himself. She would need stitches and a tetanus shot, neither of which he was able to provide. Therefore, he simply cleaned the cut as best he could, put a big, thick bandage over it and taped it down.

With a massive, frustrated sigh, he slid off the bed and drew the blankets up over the bare-chested, beaten girl. He knew from experience that this wouldn?t be a restful night. One could never sleep soundly with such wounds. The pain would soon rouse Sarah from her sleep and torment her until she passed out again. There would likely be agonized moans and confused cries for several hours, then she would wake a little while before dawn, disoriented and aching. At that point he would have to get her into the bathtub to deep clean those wounds, but they would cross that bridge when they got there.

Skyler took the other pillow from the bed ? the one Sarah?s head wasn?t on ? took a spare quilt out of the closet and lay down on the floor beside the mattress. He curled up, pressed his eyelids closed and listened to the girl?s haggard breathing as he tried his best to surrender to sleep, while he still had the chance.

Throughout the night, Skyler only managed to sleep for fifteen or twenty minutes at a time. Sarah thrashed and moaned periodically, rousing him from his state of light, worried sleep. Each time he stood up to check on her, he turned on the lamp on the bedside table to make sure none of her wounds had broken open. Some of them still wept with light blood and puss, staining the bed sheets, but, thankfully none of them bled openly. He would simply wipe down her side, her chest, shoulders and face with the washrag, cleaning away the sweat and the leakage from the wounds, then turn off the lamp and drop down to his pillow on the floor to sleep until her next pained awakening.

Upon each time that Sarah awoke, she seemed disoriented and confused, just as he knew she would. So Skyler dutifully clarified her situation in soft, comforting words. He uttered soothing explanations such as ?You?re here at Cosmo Beach,? ?They beat you up pretty bad,? ?I?m gonna fix you up,? ?I?m watching over you now. It?s all right,? ?Everything is going to be all right,? ?Just relax.? These whispers issued toward her in the dark room, from Skyler?s slender, pajama-clad form, his face looming close to hers as he sat beside her on the bed and tended her wounds.

When he woke one last time to see Sarah sitting upright, trying to push herself up, Skyler knew there would be no more sleep. He leaned close to her ear and whispered warmly, ?It?s time for a bath,? in a tone that forbade objection. In the darkness, he crossed to the bathroom and flicked on the light. He turned on the bath water, making precise adjustments and testing the temperature by swiping his hand under the flow until he was sure it was just right. He turned to get Sarah, but paused, thinking of what he was about to do. Skyler was going to have to put the girl in this bathtub and get her cleaned up, and, well, the situation would be much less awkward if she didn?t have to be so ...exposed. A grand idea came to him, and he felt as though a light bulb had just popped on above his head. The youth dug around in the cabinet below the sink and pulled out a bottle of bubble bath formula. He emptied half of it under the bathtub faucet and watched the tub quickly fill with bubbles. Now Sarah wouldn?t have to be quite so uncovered while she bathed.

Skyler went back into the room to retrieve Sarah, leaving the bathroom door ajar, so that only a sliver of light shone out into the otherwise dark room. He climbed onto the bed and crawled slowly up the mattress toward her, positioning himself between the girl?s legs, as if he was getting ready to deliver her baby. ?I hope you will forgive me for this one day.? Remorsefully, the boy gently grabbed the hem of her skirt and drew the garment down her legs. The room was still fairly dark, and Skyler saw nothing he shouldn?t have. He dropped the skirt on the floor, then went to the side of the bed and picked her up again, cradling her naked body against him as he made his way into the bathroom.

Once they were beneath the bright florescent lights, Skyler slowly lowered Sarah into the big, clean tub, now nearly overflowing with bubbles. He cut off the water, grabbed a clean washrag and some soap, worked up a thick lather and began to dab lightly at the wounds on her face. With his other hand, he brushed her two tone hair away from her eyes. He worked like that for a long while, resting on his knees outside of the bathtub, sadly slumped over the edge, cleaning the dried blood and dirt from Sarah?s battered body as his long pretty shiny black hair dangled down into the bubbles.

He was annoyed by her apology. Quietly, he asked, ?And what were you supposed to do? Lay outside all night and suffer??

Playing the nurturer was so contrary to his nature. Skyler was the Vile Villain ? career criminal, sword for hire. Yet here he was, kneeling over the bathtub, tending to Sarah?s wounds with all the affection of a loving mother. And the funny thing was, the boy enjoyed it. He spent so much of his life destroying things, hurting people in unlawful excursions; it was nice to be able to heal someone.

After a while without speaking, the only sound coming from the light trickle of water from the washrag, he got to his feet and placed the rag in Sarah?s hand. ?Sit in here and relax for a while. I?m going to throw your clothes in the washer. They?re filthy.? When he got to the bathroom door, he dug her communicator out of his pajama pocket. ?I?d give this back to you, but you?re in no condition to go running off yet. Stay with me for a bit, rest up, have a bite to eat, let me get your clothes clean, then go back to your starship. Perhaps you should also consider taking a dip in the ocean before you head out. The saltwater will do wonders for those cuts of yours.?

Skyler ran her skirt through the washer, but her shirt had been cut in half. There would be no resurrecting it. His solution was to raid his own clothes chest for a suitable replacement. He decided on a navy blue cotton t-shirt, one of his favorites, one he?d worn many times because it was so soft and comfortable. He also threw in a clean pair of fluffy white socks. While the laundry was running, he made Sarah a bowl of strawberries and cream oatmeal, opting for something soft in consideration of her sore mouth. Moving about the kitchen, yawning periodically, the faint rays of dawn began to sparkle through the windows before he was finished.

He returned to the bathroom when the laundry was done, the clothes folded and clutched in one hand, a tray with the oatmeal and a tall glass of milk in the other. He left the clothes on the sink for the moment, then knelt beside the tub, balancing the tray on the edge. Sarah wouldn?t really be able to hold the tray in the water and eat at the same time, so Skyler began to feed her one bite at a time. He realized before too long that he rather enjoyed playing this nurturing role; healing and feeding Sarah in her time of pain made him feel good about himself for the first time in a long while, even if he still felt horrible for the girl herself and all the pain she was experiencing.

Spoonful after spoonful was offered toward her mouth, the next bite available at her lips before she was even done swallowing the prior one. Sarah might not have much of an appetite, but as he fed her, he explained the importance of eating after such a significant loss of blood. If she didn?t replenish her strength, she might collapse before she even made it out of the bedroom, especially after so little sleep.

"It was ruined. All bloody and torn ... I had to throw it away. You can just keep that one, though -- it looks good on you."

He came toward her, eyeing her up and down with concern. "You look a little better now." That was the truth, sure, but that didn't mean she didn't still look like hell. Oh well. No need to make that comment; she probably felt bad enough.

Skyler busied himself with stripping the sheets off the bed. They were blood-stained and sweaty. He threw them all in a pile on the floor, pillowcases and all.

After that, he sat down on the edge of the mattress, drew Sarah close to him and pulled up the bottom of the t-shirt, carefully examining the sword cut on her side. He ran his finger lightly across it, frowning. "This is fragile. It could break open any time. You really should get it stitched up." He let the shirt fall, gazing up into Sarah's face, his hands holding her hips as if he was concerned that she might pass out and fall over.

He wondered what she would do now. "You don't have to go back so soon," he told her. "You can stay here as long as you like."