(no subject)
Title: The Silent Treatment
Author: Grundy
Fandom: BTVS/Star Trek 2009
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 950
Summary: Faith didn't understand Nero's silence until the day he died.
Note: Day 18.
Disclaimer: Not mine. BtVS belongs to Whedon. Star Trek is Gene Roddenberry's baby.
Faith stared blankly out the window. The view hadn’t changed in the thirty-two hours she’d been looking out the window. She was sure the doctor would be giving her knockout drugs at some point soon. He was worried about her. She’d overheard enough to know that.
She supposed at some point she should mention that while she was human, she wasn’t only human. Even if this was a different dimension, she was still a Slayer. Just one that was the farthest from home she’d ever been- in more ways than one. Even on that hell planet she hadn’t felt so utterly alone.
It had been idle curiosity that had made her look in on the prisoner, really. She’d heard that they had a prisoner, and had assumed that there must be a good reason for it. She didn’t concern herself with the Narada’s operations outside her own assigned duties. After all these years, especially given all they’d been through, she was accepted as part of Nero’s crew despite not being Romulan. She hadn’t spoken anything other than Rihan in several years- there was no point, since no one else on board aside from Ayel spoke English fluently. Well, maybe Nero, but he didn’t really count, seeing as he didn’t speak.
Or rather, he hadn’t until the other day. She’d heard him speak at dinner for the first time the night before her world turned upside down. She’d been startled to hear his voice- and more so when she realized he actually had a nice voice, and was in a great mood to boot. It was at that meal that she’d first heard about the prisoner.
When she’d discovered the prisoner was a human, and one who spoke her own mother tongue, she’d decided to talk to him. It had been fairly easy to convince the guard on the door to go take a break- it wasn’t like she was going to bust him out. Besides, where would they go even if she did? Nero knew his own ship far better than she did.
What the prisoner had told her had shattered her world. The people who had saved her life, who she had lived among for over a quarter of a century, who had treated her as kin once they’d seen how things stood between her and Ayel- those same people were trying to destroy Earth. The planet she had a duty to save. They had already destroyed another planet- casually obliterated it while she’d been eating lunch, and she hadn’t even noticed. More lives had been lost during her salad than she and B had ever saved. All the men in all the multiverse to fall in love with, and she’d gone and fallen for the Big Bad’s right hand.
She’d tried to deny it, but got no farther than a gut reaction, “you’re lying!” when someone else burst in the door. Another human. She’d moved in front of the prisoner reflexively- once a Slayer, always a Slayer. The newcomer had automatically assumed she was here to help, although Faith herself had been torn at that point. Duty said save the man and the planet. Loyalty screamed that the only way to do that was to destroy all that she held dear in this dimension.
For one horrible split second, she’d prayed to any deity or power that was listening for this to be the moment that Red finally worked the mojo to take her back home to Earth- her Earth, the one she’d ‘died’ saving. Anything to mean she wouldn’t have to live through whatever came next, because no matter which way it went, it was going to be bad.
The decision had been made for her, though. The new man had hauled the prisoner upright, and bellowed into a walkie-talkie to make that three to beam back. Faith felt the tingle of a transporter kick in, and then they were no longer on the Narada. The doctor who rushed forward to take the newly freed man into care yelled behind him for a nurse to bring the girl along too. The man who had called for the beam out told Dr. Bones that she had also been a prisoner, and then he and the others hurried off.
Faith had followed the medical personnel quietly to what passed for a hospital here. They’d scanned her to ensure she was in good health, not accepting her assurances of the same, and asked her name and age. Then they’d shunted her to a waiting room, since clearly they had higher priorities than a woman without so much as a single bruise. Unfortunately, the room had a window, so she’d had all too clear a view when the Narada had fallen into whatever had eaten it alive. Faith was no rocket scientist, but she knew that whatever had happened, everyone she knew was now dead.
That’s when she’d stopped talking. She just couldn’t bring herself to say anything. There was too much in her head- pain, loss, loathing, recrimination. Redemption had been a hard enough row to hoe her first time around. How the hell did you do it when you’d contributed to the death of billions? That number was so big Faith couldn’t even wrap her head around it.
So no matter how much Dr. Bones worried, she wasn’t talking. Not right now. Maybe not ever. Hell, Nero hadn’t spoken for twenty-five years. She’d thought it was weird before, but she could sort of understand it now. It might take her that long herself to get over what had happened. She was pretty sure if she opened her mouth right now, she’d scream loud enough to shake the ship apart.
Author: Grundy
Fandom: BTVS/Star Trek 2009
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 950
Summary: Faith didn't understand Nero's silence until the day he died.
Note: Day 18.
Disclaimer: Not mine. BtVS belongs to Whedon. Star Trek is Gene Roddenberry's baby.
Faith stared blankly out the window. The view hadn’t changed in the thirty-two hours she’d been looking out the window. She was sure the doctor would be giving her knockout drugs at some point soon. He was worried about her. She’d overheard enough to know that.
She supposed at some point she should mention that while she was human, she wasn’t only human. Even if this was a different dimension, she was still a Slayer. Just one that was the farthest from home she’d ever been- in more ways than one. Even on that hell planet she hadn’t felt so utterly alone.
It had been idle curiosity that had made her look in on the prisoner, really. She’d heard that they had a prisoner, and had assumed that there must be a good reason for it. She didn’t concern herself with the Narada’s operations outside her own assigned duties. After all these years, especially given all they’d been through, she was accepted as part of Nero’s crew despite not being Romulan. She hadn’t spoken anything other than Rihan in several years- there was no point, since no one else on board aside from Ayel spoke English fluently. Well, maybe Nero, but he didn’t really count, seeing as he didn’t speak.
Or rather, he hadn’t until the other day. She’d heard him speak at dinner for the first time the night before her world turned upside down. She’d been startled to hear his voice- and more so when she realized he actually had a nice voice, and was in a great mood to boot. It was at that meal that she’d first heard about the prisoner.
When she’d discovered the prisoner was a human, and one who spoke her own mother tongue, she’d decided to talk to him. It had been fairly easy to convince the guard on the door to go take a break- it wasn’t like she was going to bust him out. Besides, where would they go even if she did? Nero knew his own ship far better than she did.
What the prisoner had told her had shattered her world. The people who had saved her life, who she had lived among for over a quarter of a century, who had treated her as kin once they’d seen how things stood between her and Ayel- those same people were trying to destroy Earth. The planet she had a duty to save. They had already destroyed another planet- casually obliterated it while she’d been eating lunch, and she hadn’t even noticed. More lives had been lost during her salad than she and B had ever saved. All the men in all the multiverse to fall in love with, and she’d gone and fallen for the Big Bad’s right hand.
She’d tried to deny it, but got no farther than a gut reaction, “you’re lying!” when someone else burst in the door. Another human. She’d moved in front of the prisoner reflexively- once a Slayer, always a Slayer. The newcomer had automatically assumed she was here to help, although Faith herself had been torn at that point. Duty said save the man and the planet. Loyalty screamed that the only way to do that was to destroy all that she held dear in this dimension.
For one horrible split second, she’d prayed to any deity or power that was listening for this to be the moment that Red finally worked the mojo to take her back home to Earth- her Earth, the one she’d ‘died’ saving. Anything to mean she wouldn’t have to live through whatever came next, because no matter which way it went, it was going to be bad.
The decision had been made for her, though. The new man had hauled the prisoner upright, and bellowed into a walkie-talkie to make that three to beam back. Faith felt the tingle of a transporter kick in, and then they were no longer on the Narada. The doctor who rushed forward to take the newly freed man into care yelled behind him for a nurse to bring the girl along too. The man who had called for the beam out told Dr. Bones that she had also been a prisoner, and then he and the others hurried off.
Faith had followed the medical personnel quietly to what passed for a hospital here. They’d scanned her to ensure she was in good health, not accepting her assurances of the same, and asked her name and age. Then they’d shunted her to a waiting room, since clearly they had higher priorities than a woman without so much as a single bruise. Unfortunately, the room had a window, so she’d had all too clear a view when the Narada had fallen into whatever had eaten it alive. Faith was no rocket scientist, but she knew that whatever had happened, everyone she knew was now dead.
That’s when she’d stopped talking. She just couldn’t bring herself to say anything. There was too much in her head- pain, loss, loathing, recrimination. Redemption had been a hard enough row to hoe her first time around. How the hell did you do it when you’d contributed to the death of billions? That number was so big Faith couldn’t even wrap her head around it.
So no matter how much Dr. Bones worried, she wasn’t talking. Not right now. Maybe not ever. Hell, Nero hadn’t spoken for twenty-five years. She’d thought it was weird before, but she could sort of understand it now. It might take her that long herself to get over what had happened. She was pretty sure if she opened her mouth right now, she’d scream loud enough to shake the ship apart.