Cy glanced aside at Carley's bed to check on her. He was sitting at her desk, though he'd been careful not to disturb any of her belongings. A small book was held in his left hand. He was half-heartedly attempting to read it. Really, he hadn't gotten very far at all. Setting the book down on the desk, he got up and headed into the kitchen. After getting himself a glass of water, he returned to the desk. Again he looked at Carley. He was glad she was safe now. The whole crew had been worried about her. He sipped from his glass and leaned forward a little.
?
Carley didn't stir very much at all. She hadn't since Cy had healed her. Even during her transport to the clinic, and back to her apartment, she hadn't woken for long, and even then, she was barely aware of her surroundings. Rolling to her side, she absently grasped her pillow and squeezed it. Lips parted as quiet words escaped her. "...atar... Cythi, manke naa... ataramin?*"

One of Cy's pointed ears twitched. She'd spoken. Setting his glass of water down, Cy went over toward Carley's bed. He looked down at her. It didn't seem like it had been conscious speech. Trying to wake her seemed like a bad idea.?Instead, he pulled her blanket up a little higher, so it wouldn't get pushed away while she rolled around. He had been told to keep her warm.

Shivering faintly, Carley pulled her pillow even closer as she curled into a ball. "...uuma kela**." Rolling again somewhat fitfully, the blanket Cy had just pulled up was pushed back down. "..manke naa lle***?"

Cy stayed near Carley's bedside. He tilted his head down slightly. Was she having a dream? It seemed like it. Unsure of what to do, it took a moment for Cy to decide to actually try and wake her up. Still not positive it was a good idea, he reached down to gently shake Carley's shoulder. "Carley? You all right?"

Relinquishing her hold on her pillow, the little elf rolled back around. "Nn..." Reaching out, she grabbed Cy's arm and tried to tug him closer. "Uuma kela amin ereb...****"

Cy blinked as Carley tugged him. She had to be dreaming. Even so, he frowned a little and sat down on the edge of her bed. "You're not alone, aier*****. It's all right." He thought maybe she'd be able to hear him.

Carley held Cy's arm close, brow wrinkling over something. Turning her head about a couple times, bright blues suddenly snapped open. Staring up at the ceiling, she blinked groggily a couple times before her gaze shifted towards Cy. She simply stared, for the moment.

"Hey. You okay?" Cy looked down at Carley. He couldn't help but sigh quietly, out of relief. It had only been a matter of time before she woke, but it was still good to see. He didn't try to free his arm from her grasp.

Tilting her head, her expression was one of confusion. "Yeah... of course." Blinking at the fact she had hold of his arm, Carley let go of it before she tried to sit up, grimacing slightly as she did. She ached and felt as if she had been sleeping forever.

Cy pulled his arm back to himself after Carley had let go of it.?It was only for a moment, however as he reached out to gently touch her shoulder. "Easy. You shouldn't be moving around too much just yet." He stood up. "Want some water? Something to eat?"

Pausing, she blinked over at Cy, still confused. Shouldn't be moving around? Sitting up, she didn't make much more effort to move than that. "Uh, I guess." She reached and lightly rested her hand on her stomach. "I'm feelin' kinda hungry, actually." And cold. Why was she so cold? It was summer time. Looking annoyed, she pulled her blanket up to wrap herself up better.

"All right. I'll get you something." He actually had left the materials out to make a light soup when she awoke. Knowing it would take some time prepare, however, he'd also gotten something else. Salted crackers. He went to the kitchen, briefly, and came back with a small package of crackers. "Here. Have these while I make the soup." He held the crackers out to her.

"'K, thanks." Reaching out, she took the package of crackers. Not yet opening them up, Carley frowned momentarily as she toyed with the plastic packaging. "Hey, CyCy? Why are we here?"

Cy had been about to go to the kitchen, but after hearing her question he lingered near her bed. "You don't remember?" He considered just telling her the whole story, but after a moment decided it was best to hear her answer first.


*...father... Cythi, where is... my father?
**Don't go.
***Where are you?
****Don't leave me alone.
*****short elf

She lingered for a few moments before pulling away from Cy. Glancing back up, she smiled then turned to depart from the kitchen, still unsure of what to say. Rather than head straight back to bed, however, Carley wandered past it towards a stack of boxes in the corner. Carefully crouching down, she pushed one aside to access a second one. Top flipped open, she started rooting around.

Cy watched her for a moment. He decided not to say anything else about her moving around. He figured he'd probably want to after being in a bed for so long. He turned back to the soup, which was already quite warm. Steam was rising from the pot. "Soup's almost ready, Carley." Stepping away from the pot, he leaned against a counter and peered over in the shorter elf's direction again.

Pulling a crocheted cap out of the box, Carley set it on her head. "Okay." She paused to sniff the air. "It actually smells pretty good." Genuine surprise was evident in her tone. "Crao tell ya the recipe or somethin'?" Next, a crocheted scarf was pulled out of the box. It matched her cap. She started wrapping it around her neck and shoulders.

"Sorta, yeah. He left me instructions." Cy had memorized them pretty quickly. The actual piece of paper the instructions were written on was in one of the back pockets of Cy's jeans. He looked into the pot for a moment. He moved it aside and ladled a good bit of soup into a bowl. After adding a spoon, he set it on the counter. "It's ready. They said you should try to stay warm for a few days." Seeing her with the cap and scarf reminded him of what he'd been told.

"Yeah, I'm feelin' pretty cold for some reason." Carley wasn't sure why, exactly. Hat and scarf donned, she then pulled out a dark blue cloak that didn't match either accessory. Since that didn't matter to her, the little elf wrapped the cloak around herself and secured it. Not even bothering to close the box back up, she started back towards the kitchen, quicker than she had the first time. She was hungrier than she had thought. "That looks real good, CyCy!" She grinned at him. "Diola lle.*" Reaching to pull the stool out so she could use it to sit at the counter, she winced when it slipped from her fingers and crashed to the floor. Still weak, it seemed. "...oops."

"Lle creoso.**" He glanced aside when he heard the stool smack onto the floor. "I got it." Cy moved over to the fallen stool and picked it back up. He left it out somewhat so Carley would be able to sit at the counter. That seemed to be what she had been planning anyhow. "You want the crackers too? Maybe some water?"

Smiling at Cy somewhat sheepishly, she slowly and carefully climbed up on the stool in front of the soup. "Yah huh, if it's not too much trouble." Bypassing the spoon, she reached down and picked the bowl up. Careful not to burn herself, she started slurping the liquid from the bowl. Loudly.

"All right." He chuckled a little at the slurping. Cy went back to Carley's bed and picked up the package of crackers that were there. He set that by her as he returned to the kitchen. A glass was located and filled with water. That was left near her as well. He then went to get his glass of water from Carley's desk. "Feeling okay?"
?
Bowl set down, she reached over for her water and took a rather big gulp from the glass. Thirstier than she had thought, too. Tearing into the crackers, Carley crunched them and dropped them into the soup and stirred them up. "Yeah, just achy and hungry." She set out to enjoy her food and water again, mindful of hot temperatures.

Cy nodded. He leaned against a wall nearby and took a drink of his water. "Think Orson wants to stay with you tomorrow. He was pretty worried." Crossing his arms over his chest, Cy looked over toward the boxes Carley had been rummaging around in.

She paused and considered Cy's words. "Guess I can't really argue if he wants to. I wouldn't mind. We still haven't talked much lately. It'd be nice to catch up again." She smiled and sipped more soup, considering something. "CyCy, you don't intend to stay the whole night, do ya?" Carley peered at him curiously.

"Yeah. Gonna sleep on the floor. I brought a pillow and a blanket. You shouldn't really be by yourself tonight. Don't suspect anything will happen, but if something did it's better that I'm here than anybody else." Cy chuckled a little. "Grayson wanted to stay with you. That's what I told him to convince him I should instead of him."

Grayson wanted to stay? Carley would normally make a face at the thought, but she only chuckled. She remembered his close call from the attack... "Well, I'm glad it's you, at least. But a pillow and blanket isn't that comfortable..." She couldn't offer her own bed to Cy and sleep on the floor herself, however. She was certain he wouldn't go for that. There was nothing else, though... "Um. I got a sleeping bag. That might be better? Not perfect, but better than sleepin' on the carpet directly. It's kinda gross."

"Yeah? If you don't mind me using it I will, then." He took another drink of his water. "I just didn't think you'd want to be alone when you woke up. I know I wouldn't if it'd been me lying in that bed." Finishing off what was left in his glass, it was carefully placed in the sink.

"No... I don't really wanna be alone right now, honestly." Carley spoke the words quietly before glancing over towards a group of cardboard boxes. "If I remember right, I packed it up in that box there." She pointed to one at the bottom. In the back. "I think... probably packed a lot of junk in there. I should probably clean and organize my things better."

"Yeah, you should." He chuckled and headed over to the boxes she'd pointed at. He was careful about moving them around. Once he got to the box that supposedly had the sleeping bag in it. he opened it. "Here it is. Just like you thought." He pulled the sleeping bag out and went to go put it on the floor somewhat near Carley's bed.


*Thank you.
**You're welcome.

Wandering back into bed, Carley made herself comfortable and, for whatever reason, pulled the blanket up over her head. Silent for a few long moments, she broke it with a sniffle.

Cy turned his head a little to peer over at Carley. Well, her shape under the blanket anyway. "Hey. You all right there, boss?"

It was a lame way to try to hide the fact she was crying, and she knew it. She sighed between sniffles. "Yeah, I guess." Carley paused, still keeping herself hidden beneath her blanket. "Ya probably think I'm a crybaby." She chuckled quietly at the thought. "I'm really not like this, CyCy. I don't know what the deal is... I've cried more this year than I have in the past ten.. fifteen years combined."

"A crybaby? Nah, I don't think that at all." He thought about how he had felt after he'd gone into his cabin. "Everybody cries, Carley. Sometimes so many things happen in such a short time that you can't help it."

Blankets shifted faintly as she snorted. "I can't ever imagine you cryin', CyCy."

Cy turned his head back to stare at the ceiling. "Everybody does." He didn't outright admit it, but it certainly was a roundabout way of saying he did.

Carley remained silent for a few moments, before speaking again. Quietly. "Yer... a real good leader, ya know. I remember... I remember how you were when the sky pirates boarded the Luinista. How you stepped up as the leader, and you handled everything real well. If I had, I'm sure I'd have gotten us all killed..." Sniffle. "You shouldn't have had to do that, though. That was my job."

Cy thought about what Carley said before he responded to her. A few seconds of silence passed as he considered what to say. "Don't think your giving yourself enough credit. Everybody was scared. It was more important for you to be all right than me. Even with all that, you still got hurt." He frowned a little. "I'm not a good leader at all."

There was one thing in particular Cy said that caught Carley's attention. The lump of the blanket seemed to rise a bit. "...why do you say that, CyCy? That it's more important for me to be okay than you...?"

"You're the captain, Carley. Everybody has been worried about you. If you'd actually died, nobody would have been the same after that." He was still staring up at the ceiling. "It was better for me to be the one at the most risk. I could have healed myself if something happened." Really, he wasn't sure if he would have been able to if he actually had been shot.

"Me bein' captain doesn't make me any more important than any one of you." Her voice came somewhat firmly. "Yer all much more important to me than I am to me. And I'm supposed to be responsible for all of you. Not the other way around."

"Mm." It was quite a noncommittal response. He added more when he thought about it. "Listen, boss. You take care of all of us all the time. You make sure we're working, you make sure we get paid, and you make sure we're fed. That's just the beginning of the list. I just did what I felt like I needed to do. That's all."

Carley grew silent once more. But again, a sniffle broke that silence. "I'm not so good with that either..." It wouldn't be fair for her to hold out on information, would it? "CyCy... if it was any other shipment, this wouldn't be a big deal. But... medical supplies are real expensive. I'm sure ya know that. Hell, maybe that's why we were targeted. Stuff like that goes for a lot on black markets."

"I figured." Cy shifted and sat up. "Can't blame yourself for this, Carley. It wasn't your fault. The only people at fault are those sky pirates." Cy rested his arms on his legs. "I kinda thought stuff might be tough after this. Had time to think while you were sleeping."

"Even so..." She trailed off, momentarily. "It doesn't make it easier, no matter whose fault it is. I can't tell people I'm sorry and leave it at that. I gotta make up for this loss. And I still got other stuff to pay for and... the only thing I can think of, if nothing else comes along, is to sell the Luinista." The mere thought of it broke her heart. Owning an airship had been her dream for some time, but she had so much debt now. And she still had to pay her crew. And her rent.

Cy thought about that for a long moment. "Maybe, yeah. Think you're?not counting?something, though." He pulled his legs up and rested his arms on his knees. "Pretty sure everybody would be willing to help somehow. Probably just have to pay them back once you're able." He reached up and scratched behind one of his ears. "I can find extra work around here pretty easy."

"But-" She paused. "That's not yer..." Sigh. "You think so? I... That isn't something you guys should feel obligated to do."

"Ask any of them. I doubt they'll say they feel obligated. Everybody likes working on the Luinista. We're accustomed to each other. It'd be a pain in the ass to go someplace new. I'm sure they'd all agree." Cy looked over at the lump of blankets that was Carley.

Said lump of blankets shifted and fidgeted, before finally sliding off the bed. "Yer the best CyCy." Said lump of blankets then proceeded to hug the tall elf. "I got the best crew, ever, even though you guys kinda suck sometimes." How heartfelt.

Really, being hugged by a lump of blankets struck Cy as being funny. He sort of loosely hugged Carley back, but he was busy laughing. Quietly, but laughing nonetheless. "They're a bunch of morons if you ask me." He was kidding. His tone likely indicated that.

"Yer assumin' I wasn't including you when I said that, CyCy." Carley couldn't help but laugh as well.

"I know you couldn't be including me. Just said I was the best, yeah?" He grinned, although he wasn't quite sure she could see it. He laid down again and let out a sigh.

Carley snorted. Cy won with logic, as usual. "Yeah, yeah." Hearing him sigh, she drifted away, back to her bed. Once she was sure her face wasn't gross, puffy, or covered in some manner of goo, she emerged from the blankets and laid on her bed like a grown up.

Cy glanced aside and caught the fact Carley was out of the blankets. He grinned a little and shut his eyes. "Y'know, I didn't realize you were so ticklish. All I had to do was touch you when we were playing charades to get you giggling."

"Tch, I ain't that ticklish." Carley rolled over, facing the wall, her back to Cy. "You just have one of those faces I can't help but laugh at sometimes." That was a lie, of course.

"Uh huh." Cy wasn't fooled, of course. "If you weren't supposed to be resting, I'd prove you wrong right now." A smug smile settled on the elf's lips. Eyes still closed, he simply relaxed. He felt quite a bit better now that Carley was awake.

Carley tsk'ed, quietly. "Yer just usin' that as an excuse. Later, you'll start tryin' to tickle me, but it's really just to put your hands on me. Your just as big of a perv as the rest of the crew. I'll have to tell on ya to Gramps." The last sentence was spoken sing song.

"Tch. I'm not a perv like the rest of them. 'Sides, you're the one always looking at my rear end according to Bothe. So who's the real perv?" Opening his eyes, Cy rolled off the sleeping bag. He unzipped it and pulled it back so he'd be able to get situated inside it.

"Hmph. Bothe tells me yer the one always looking at my rear." She was sure he wasn't the only one, however. "'Course he says Grayson does too. And that doesn't really strike me as something Grayson would do... I don't think, at least." Carley pondered this harder than she should have.

"He does." Cy nonchalantly offered his knowledge to Carley. Once he'd gotten into the sleeping bag, he pulled the flap back over himself. "More than you'd think."

"Really??" Carley blinked at her wall wide eyed, obviously surprised by the tone of her voice. "He doesn't strike me as that kind of guy..."

"All guys do that sort of stuff. Some of us just know how to do it without getting spotted." Cy rolled onto one of his sides and let out a yawn. He hadn't slept much the last couple of days.

"Guess you should give Grayson some lessons then, huh?" Carley snickered quietly as she hugged her pillow.

"I would, but he doesn't need encouragement. Otherwise he'll be following you around like a puppy for years." Cy was exaggerating.

"Just what I need..." Carley let her eyes shut. "Wonder if he'd be good at fetch at least? Should be easy to house train too... don't imagine he'd like getting hit on the nose with newspaper often. Bad Grayson! Bad!"

Cy couldn't help but snicker. "He's a good kid at least." Cy was glad Grayson was alive too, but he made no mention of that. "You can probably expect to see him tomorrow considering I convinced him not to stay here today."

"That's okay. I wouldn't mind seein' him..." Carley smiled faintly, eyes still shut. She was actually somewhat tired, after all. "He was probably real scared." She didn't elaborate, however. "Ya know... I think... I think I had a dream with Grayson in it."

"Yeah? Were you running away from him while he had gigantic hearts for eyes?" Cy figured that could have been it.

Carley grinned. "Nah, nothin' like that. Well.. kinda. He professed his undying love for me. Then I started flappin' my arms and flew away like a bird."

"Guess you were lucky that was just a dream. Maybe you ought to try and sprout wings before tomorrow." Cy snickered.

"Mm... would have a long time ago if I could have, CyCy. Why do ya think I have an airship? Closest I can get to flyin'..." She squeezed her pillow absently.

"Yeah? Didn't know you liked flying so much." It wasn't really anything special to Cy. "Well, you'll be back to flying on it in no time." Cy thought it was good to be positive. Being negative about the situation wasn't going to help anybody.

"Yah huh... it's real fun." She became more quiet as she spoke. "Especially when no one is around and I can lean over the front railings when we're in the air." She likely wouldn't have confessed that if she wasn't about to fall asleep. "Feels like I'm really flyin' then..."

"Yeah." Cy's voice was quiet. He was getting tired, but it was more because he realized Carley was probably falling asleep. He spoke again, but more quietly. "Quel du mellonamin.*"

"Mm... quel du, CyCy. Diola lle ten'iluve.**" It wasn't long after calling out to Cy that the little elf drifted to sleep.


*Good night my friend.
**Good night, CyCy. Thank you for everything.