Ludma and
Zephyr would have been interesting to watch; but Nathan knew that his place was
at Lily’s side right now. Everyday just
brought more and more bad news to the crew and Lily always suffered the most
for it. When she wasn’t cleaning up
after combat injuries that Zephyr ended up giving to Nathan, she was busy
making sure that anything that Gilarose or Arachne might have caught was
treated immediately. Lily never
complained though, she was worked the hardest out of everyone in the area and
was always there to lend an ear, yet she was always hurting. The loss of her father had taken its toll on
her and she was still getting over that; Garrus’s betrayal had torn the wound open again.
By this the
time Nathan had even begun to grasp just how poorly Lily must have been
feeling; he found himself standing in front of her door. A few quick raps against the cold bulk-head
steel signaled his arrival. Lily only responded
with a mousey: “I want to be alone
please.” Leaning up against the door,
the janitor would find his forehead touching the surface of it before he spoke.
“Hey, it’s
Nathan. Lily…open the door please.” There was a pause before the sound of sniffling
along with the shuffling of feet brought the nurse closer. When the door happened to come ajar, the pair
stared at each other for a moment not needing to speak. Nathan entered and Lily started to dry her
eyes before they locked themselves back inside.
Lily’s room was different than what Nathan had expected, the walls had
been painted a lighter blue while the sheets of her bed were a forest green
with white pillows that had targets of the same green designed into them. Her kitchen had been transformed into a nurse’s
office and vials of medication of all sorts lined up against the walls with
little pieces of tape labeling what each one was. Picking up the nearest one, an orange bottle
with green and purple pills inside of it, Nathan would read the table: “Androzorphine, what the hell is this?”
The
question was soon answered, though the janitor didn’t really like what he
heard. “It’s an alien form of Viagra essentially. Some of our clients have problems and well…for
a fee we provide the solution.” Nathan
would only put the bottle back up the moment that Lily answered, though he was
happy to see that the woman was at least cracking a smile at him. “It’s not ideal, but it’s more money in our
pockets at the end of the day.” She was
trying to be strong, Nathan could see that much at least, but the shaking of
her hands gave away that Lily wasn’t going to remain that way for long. Both of her legs trembled for a moment and
suddenly, she took a seat upon the black leather coach that pieced together the
‘lobby’ part of the room.
Lily’s
collapse shocked Nathan who pushed forward and bent on one knee towards the
only person who he truly considered his friend on this messed up planet. God,
please just be feeling tired. I know you’re
hurting, but I can’t deal with a break down.
Lily please, I’m so close to one myself.
You’ve been so strong, stronger than I could hope to be. Those thoughts slipped away as he wrapped
his hand around Lily’s and quietly leaned forward towards her. “Everything is going to be ok, I’m here,” Nathan whispered this and he had no idea why
or how he managed to say that without breaking up himself; however, Lily flung
her arms around his neck and started to cry.
Her skin was calmly, she had
obviously cried enough and neglected to drink to the point of dehydration,
Nathan didn’t know what to say now. Lily’s
sobs echoed in the room and her grip around his neck was too tight for him to try
to break. Not that he wanted to
either. One hand quietly stroked her
back as Nathan just held her and occasionally told her everything would be
alright. After they sat like that for
around ten minutes, Lily pulled away and wiped her eyes slowly. “Sorry, I just…I’ve been holding it all in
for so long.” Lily breathed out for a
moment before walking over to the fridge and sliding a bottle of hard liquor
onto the table. Nathan could see from
the amber color that it was just a stand-by bottle of whiskey. “Up for a round?”
“Sounds
like a plan to me,” Nathan said with a smile, “though you might want to hydrate
first. We don’t need our doctor hung
over.” He was greeted with a blush from
Lily, only for the woman to comply and pour a few glasses of water. Over the next several hours, they laughed,
they cried and just vented inside of the dark room to one another. After
about an hour of drinking, Nathan got the bright idea to pull out a deck of
cards and the two played Go-fish as if they were kids just killing time.
“You know
Garrus wanted to fuck me sooo bad back on the ship.” Lily stated through a momentary hiccup in her
balance before righting herself again.
She was lying on the couch flipping through a few cards while Nathan sat
on the other side, not yet tipsy but getting there rapidly.
“Him and
everything else on that ship that had a penis aside from the captain.” Nathan retorted with a chuckle as his hair
had become disarrayed as the night had gone on, mostly through running his
hands through it in frustration. Staring
down at his hand, he would fold them together before speaking. “Got any sevens?”
“Go Fish!” Lily’s cry of triumph made Nathan sigh as he
picked up his card and placed it back into his hand, though not before she
started speaking again. “I mean, he
really wanted it. Like, he was always
pestering me about getting drinks or doing something. Guy was desperate.” Lily snorted at the last bit, red faced from
laughing before he asked if Nathan had any jacks. The janitor would respond by handing over one
that he had in his hand only for Lily to slap down the remaining three onto the
table.
“Lucky,”
Nathan murmured under his breath but was intrigued by what Lily had said about
Garrus. “Really? He always struck me as someone who was pretty
independent or at least satisfied with his hand when it came to sex.” The two would continue talking about Garrus,
telling embarrassing stories about like when he got his pants stolen by
Faulkner and had to spend the day running around the ship in nothing but his
boxers or another time when he ate a bowl of Gulgadon excrement without even
knowing it.
As the
night went on, Nathan and Lily ended up snuggling against one another in the
quite of the night. Both wrapped in the
same bright red comforter, Lily’s head leaned up against Nathan’s shoulder
while her blonde hair hung in a mess against her face. Blowing upwards, she managed to make it clear
that region before she sighed once. “I
miss him.”
“I miss him
too.” Nathan agreed. Garrus had been
like a brother to him and despite the betrayal; he couldn’t help but wonder if
the pilot was doing alright. “All we can
do is hope he’ll come back. Maybe he
went out there to get some information, who knows.” Nathan stated quietly before wrapping his arm
around Lily and cuddling with her. The
pair too intoxicated to even begin to contemplate sex or rather sex that would
have been satisfying. Exhausted, the pair collapsed together having
vented out their frustrations and spent the night getting closer.
In the
following week, Zephyr and Nathan stood outside. The pair holding some cheap pistols that they
had managed to get their hands on.
Nathan had taken to the weapon like a fish to water, putting rounds
square through the skull of a target at thirty feet after just a few days’
worth of practice. "Dad “used to
own an old Winchester rifle. I would
spend hours just shooting it when there was no work to be done. By the time I turned thirteen, my dad was
already getting me up every Saturday morning to go hunting with him.” Nathan mused a bit as Zephyr just nodded
finding him to be a better shot than punch.
“I’m glad
you didn’t have a gun when you came after me.
I’d probably be dead right now.” Chuckling, Nathan would put another round between
his targets eyes before looking down the road at the sound of an engine. A vehicle he’d never seen before was rolling
up to the brothel/hotel. “New guests.” Nathan pointed out to Zephyr as the vehicle
parked by the front blocking the new visitors from view. “Want to go take a peek at them?”
“Wouldn’t
that make customers uncomfortable?”
Zephyr asked as he began to clean his own gun with a spare rag and let
out a low yawn. “Well, that is if they
know this place is a brothel. Clients
have to ask about that.” Nathan nodded a
bit, though he felt a little uneasy just letting anyone in. “Maybe, but I doubt it would hurt to just
poke our heads inside.”
