No rest for the weary [DragonSong]

[Marjorie]

Something dawned on Raf after he'd said he didn't know what worked. "I'm hardwired for military response when I'm there... we could try and IFF... identify friend or foe protocol. You'd have to initiate it.

"You said 'Identify, friend or foe.' I answer: delta whisky tango epsilon kilo. You answer 'alpha foxtrot charily hotel zulu, friendly.' It was the last verbal IFF I had on my last mission. You have to give me 'alpha foxtrot charily hotel zulu'... If you get it wrong..." He'd probably really try to kill her. "Alpha foxtrot charily hotel zulu." Actually that could be a way for Val to be safe around him too... though he'd rather be safe than sorry with her and have her just stay away and get Ava.

It was Raf's turn to be silent now. He listened. He didn't interrupt. She'd said something about Val being made before... the peaces fit. Ok. Ok, he could work with that. This made more sense that he'd expected. "She could be a spy, a scout... just someone, possibly one of many, placed in random places, to see what they might see... traveling with a circus means she moves around too. It's a good cover... though how she'd relay information back... or have it extracted..." Well he had no fucking idea about that. "Tell me more about the doctor."

[DragonSong]

Ava finally looked at him, meeting his eyes. “Alpha foxtrot charily hotel zulu,” she repeated, clearly and succinctly. Just for a moment, a hint of a small smile flickered at the edge of her lips. “I won’t forget.”

She turned her gaze back out to the stars with another sharp exhale when he spoke again, mouth and eyes right at the corners. “Maybe,” she conceded softly, “but I don’t think so. The doctor didn’t care about her like with the others, she was...a failure, I guess. I’m not sure why. She—she called her an it. She didn’t do that with the others...”

A soft shudder gripped her frame as memory resurfaced and she tried to force it back down into its little box, clutching her arms tighter around her body—and wincing when it pulled at her stitches. Fuck, she really needed to look at those.

“I don’t really know what I can tell you about her,” she murmured after a few more moments of silence. “I don’t know where she is. I don’t even really know who she is, only what she told me. I don’t know what she can do, and I don’t know what she wants.”

She shook her head, eyes strangely hollow. “I don’t know anything. I just know I can’t let her get Val.”

[Marjorie]

Now Raf shifted in his chair. Ok, maybe not as cut and dry as he'd thought. "Ok, well... it still teaches us something. If one was a failure, then she's after something specific. Even if we don't know what... there's a motive not just insanity. It means we can learn as we go." They'd just have to be really smart about it.

Not it was Raf's turn, he uncurled his fingers and then curled them up again, hesitating, then reaching out to touch her arm lightly, about the elbow. "Listen," he said, fiercely, "we won't let anything happen to her. As long as there's a breath in me, I'll kill anything that tries to hurt her." At least then this all - all the tragic failures in his life might have lead him to do something worthwhile.

[DragonSong]

She tensed, startled, and looked down at him with wide eyes when he touched her arm. She stared at his hand for several silent moments, as though it was a specimen of some strange creature that she had never before encountered.

Then she exhaled sharply and nodded, reaching up with her opposite hand to brush her fingers against his lightly in her best attempt at a gesture of gratitude. “Right...”

Her eyes flickered up to him and her mouth curved dryly at one corner. “...I don’t think you really got paid enough for all this.”

[Marjorie]

Raf gave her a weak, uncertain smile. Weren't the two of them just fucking lovely... all broken to pieces and unwilling to admit it. Maybe they deserved each other... Val deserved more though.

A peal of loud, genuine laughter broke loose from Raf cutting right threw the palpable tension in the room. "That's for fucking sure." He grinned back at her. Then some lights on the console flashed.

'Raf,' Liss addressed him, 'we're approaching Trenz mining colony. Taking evasive revenuers now, you might want to secure yourselves.'

[DragonSong]

Ava smiled back, and then—quite despite herself—laughed. It was sort of tight and hysterical, but it was a laugh.

It unfortunately didn’t last long, her head snapping up when she heard the ship’s AI and wincing at the phrase “evasive maneuvers.”

“I’ll go make sure Val is okay,” she muttered. Sort of absently, she gave Raf’s fingers a little squeeze before she removed his hand from her arm and headed back out of the cockpit.

[Marjorie]

"Liss'll give us a smooth landing... it's just this mining colony's on an asteroid."

Raf looked at her hand when she squeezed his fingers but made no move to stop her.

"We'll be there soon."

The evasive menuver's weren't that severe... a little dodging asteroids. In a comfy bed, Val and Ava would be quite safe and mostly comfortable too.

Twenty minutes later they'd docked. This colony lived under a dome, and the minors went out in vac suits and AEVs to work. It was shitty, dirty, poor as fuck kind of place... but it wasn't sleazy like some places on Cancer. It had a homey feel, like the whole colony was part of one extended family. There was comrade and even a pervasive contentment here.

"Liss try to raise Griffin on coms.," Griffin was the call sign of one of the few of his army buddies who were still alive.

'I'll let you know if I get threw.'

Raf headed down the ladder and into what he now though of as Val and Ava's room. "You two ready to go?" he asked, "I've got friends here... Griffin - Nevel, and his family. They're good people." They'd give them a place to stay, and hide, for a bit, if that's what they decided they needed, and barring that, they'd feed them until they exploded before wishing them well on their way.

He looked rather pointedly at Ava then. "There's a doctor here too, one I trust. Griffin's wife." 

[DragonSong]

Val had woken up with the slight lurching of the ship, though it hadn't been enough to distress her unduly. Ava managed to convince her to stay in bed rather than race back up the ladder to watch their descent, so she was in the process of sorting through the supplies they had left in her pack when Raf came down again.

A very small, tight smile twitched at the corners of her lips and she nodded. "A doctor would be good. I'm fairly sure I've pulled some of these stitches out." She paused, then added almost absently, "You did a good job, though, actually. I'm honestly surprised they held as well as they did."

"Mama." Val frowned at her. "That wasn't very nice."

"Oh." Ava blinked, looked at her daughter, looked at Raf, and then chuckled. "You're right, chickadee, it wasn't. Sorry." The last was directed at Raf with an even smaller but slightly less pained smile.

"...Mister Raf?" Val had edged her way closer to him, sort of fidgeting her hands in front of her body. She paused, glanced back at her mother, then reached up to slip her tiny hand into his, eyes large as she blinked up at him. "Is it okay if I do this now?"

Ava's heart lurched, but she didn't try to pull the girl back. She'd managed to explain--as best to could to a seven-year-old--that if Raf got scared again Val shouldn't try to help him like she would with her mother, she should find Ava instead. Evidently the idea was still fresh in Val's mind.

[Marjorie]

Raf chuckled when Val scolded her mother. He smirked at Ava. "It's alright squirt, your ma's just teasing."

He took a knee to put himself close to eye level with her. "I told you kid," he winked at her conspiratorially, "it's just Raf. I'm no mister." He gave her little hand a gentle squeeze, and something inside of him broke. [[It was his heart and he still denies it's alive.]] "Yeah, it's ok now." He mussed her hair with his other hand.

"If you don't want," he looked over her head to Ava, "you don't have to tie up her wings here... it's a safe place for all kinds."

[DragonSong]

Val’s already wide eyes went wider, her mouth opening slightly as she stared at Raf. Then she whipped her head around to look at Ava, a fierce, desperate hope shining in her eyes that nearly knocked her mother’s legs out from under her.

“C-can I, Mama?”

“Oh...” Ava swallowed thickly. “Baby, I don’t...” She looked at Raf helplessly. “How—how safe? Recordings, video, magical means of observation, I can’t...we can’t risk that...”

Val’s shoulders slumped slightly and she looked down, her wings curving automatically closer to her spine. Ava felt her chest go tight and she had to swallow again passed a new lump in her throat.

[Marjorie]

"This place was built by refugees," Raf said - to either of them, both of them... it was the sort of place he would have happily fraught for and died for before he'd been shattered. "They'd rather die than..." he glanced at Ava,"than be oppressed." 

He glanced down at Val then. "I know one place here though that's safe, even from cameras and magic." He brushed wild blonde strands out her face, and looked back at Ava again, and then looked back at Val, "It's a secret though. If I share it with you, you can't ever tell anyone. Do you know what a train is? There's no train, but it's an underground railroad... and it's really under ground." He winked at her. "It's jammed, no signals in or out," Raf said, now he was talking to Ava, "and the crystals in the rock block magical scrying."

[DragonSong]

Ava felt herself hesitating, torn, as she looked from her daughter to Raf and back. “I...”

Val’s eyes were giant silver moons in her tiny face. Ava gritted her teeth. “Okay, chickadee,” she said slowly, making sure to hold the girl’s eyes firmly. “But only when Raf says it’s safe, okay?”

Val squealed and threw her arms around Raf’s neck, then spun around to tackle her mother’s side in a tight hug.

Both froze as Ava hissed in pain, and Val backed away again quickly, stricken. “Oh no! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—!”

“It’s...it’s okay, baby,” she assured her with a tight smile, studiously ignoring the burning twinges of pain from her side. “Let’s just be gentle with the hugs for a few more days, okay?”

Val nodded, silent and guilty, but there was still a sparkle of excitement and anticipation behind her eyes that she couldn’t mother. Ava’s heart clenched; Val deserved so much more, especially after what she’d been through the last few days.

“Okay, Mama.” The girl turned back to Raf, shifting and ruffling her wings so they tucked back into her shirt, though more loosely than she usually did. “Are we going?”

[Marjorie]

Gods... the look on Val's face would have made Raf's heart ache if he still had one.

"We best get your ma to the doc first, then I can show you around the colony."

'Raf,' Liss said, 'incoming message from Griffin. Single burst, voice only.'

"Play it."

Raf, you old scoundrel... what are you up to? Has Liss been taking good care of you? Are you looking for work... I've got a group needs transport out, I just go their papers. Come over for dinner. Janees will make supper to feed an army when she finds out your in town, and the kids miss you, uncle Raf.

[DragonSong]

Val gasped in delight as the ship spoke--it seemed that was still a novelty to her--and Ava couldn't help smiling a bit as the message was relayed.

"Well," she noted quietly when it was over, "I supposed we'd better get moving. It seems there are people who are anxious to see you, Uncle Raf."

Her tone was light, teasing, but there was some genuine warmth in her eyes when she looked at him, and perhaps a bit of surprise as well.

[Marjorie]

Fucking Griffin. Raf scowled at Ava, but even though that was a harsh look, there didn't seem to be any bite to it. He grumbled something under his breath, but headed up the ladder, and toward the air lock.

Once they were threw the air lock and out on the docs, Raf lifted Val and put her up on his shoulders. "It's not far." The colony was small... just enough to be mostly self sustaining. They sold the ore they minded out of the rock for whatever the colony needed, but were small enough that the profits weren't so high anyone wanted to come in and buy them out.

It left them oddly free, if not also somewhat poor. As they walked the streets, Raf pointed out his favorite places to eat or hang out and good places to resupply on everything from weapons to food stuffs.

It was maybe fifteen minutes before they reached a tall apartment complex. Poor, but free meant stairs. The building was 7 stories... and there was no lift.

"He's on the fourth floor," Raf glanced at Ava, "you good?" He could just as easily carry her as Val, if it came down to it.

[DragonSong]

Ava chuckled quietly to herself, and despite everything, she found she was almost...hopeful as she followed Raf and Val off the ship.

In a lot of ways, the colony reminded her of Reckless; a good deal more industrial obviously, and bigger, but the--the feel of it, she supposed, was similar. She managed to take in their surroundings without coming across as entirely paranoid, or at least she hoped. She'd even managed to slap an emergency bandage over her side before they left, so she was able to follow at an only slightly sedate pace without reopening the wound.

The mention of four flights of stairs, however, was enough to make her pause. She tried not to let the hesitation show, though, replying fairly quickly, "I'm fine, really--"

"I can help!" Val tried to scramble down from Raf's shoulders. "I don't want you to hurt yourself, Mama. You always tell people they need to know they're limits when they're healing, you should listen."

Ava resisted the urge to gape at her daughter. She...really didn't have an argument for that.

[Marjorie]

Raf noticed that pause. She wasn't fooling anyone. "Val," he said with a smile, "I bet you'll still be full of energy after bouncing up all these stairs... can you carry your ma's bags? It'll be a big help." Her kit wasn't that heavy. Once the girl had her mom's things, Raf came around her good side and picked her up before she could protest and started huffing it up the stairs. That way, if she struggled, it not only would hurt like a mother, she probably make them both go rolling down the stairs.

"C'm on Val. I used to run with gear that weighed more than you and your ma on my back... I'll race you to the top."

[DragonSong]

"Wait, what are you--Raf!"

Before she could try to avoid him, Raf had scooped her up easily. Ava winced, her side twinging--though she knew ultimately it was a lot less pain than she would have put herself through making it up all those stares, a fact she studiously chose to ignore. She grabbed onto his shoulder in an effort to steady herself, gasping and glaring.

"You put me down this instant," she demanded, accidentally slipping into her Mom Voice.

Val, utterly delighted, snatched up her mother's pack and shrugged into the straps. "Threetwoonego!" she giggled in response to Raf's challenge, and took off up the stairs.

"Val, careful--! Really, Raf, I'm a grown woman, I can walk up some fucking stairs!" she hissed, and at the last moment managed to lower her voice just enough to avoid her daughter hearing her swear.

[Marjorie]

Val's delight was infectious. Raf didn't giggle, but he did laugh, really laugh. "Did I tell you know, I'm immune to mom voice," Raf said, "drill instructors are much scarier than you."

He let Val slip past him as they went around a corner. "Yeah, but this is more fun," He grinned at her, and kept huffing it up the stairs, not far behind Val. "You better watch out girly I'm catching up!"

[DragonSong]

Ava continued to glare at him, despite her inability to really do anything. "Then you learned to fear the wrong authority figure," she grumbled ineffectually, almost pouting.

Except of course she wasn't actually pouting, because she was a grown woman and a well-trained medic. Right.

Val squealed and ran faster, panting lightly as she hit the last flight of stairs. Her wings fluttered almost daintily under her shirt and she whirled on the landing to stick her tongue out at Raf and her mother, eyes dancing.