[for Florence]

[wishesandsmoke]

The more bored Eden became, the further out she wandered, sometimes flying out past Summerfell in her little hovercar, sometimes striking out on foot for farther parts of the island. She never crossed into the dinosaur section -- boredom and recklessness were not one and the same, at least not in full, and she'd too much experience with death to

Comments

[doesnt_speak]

Through she's been on the island more than ten days now, Florence isn't quite what she's willing to call settled, despite feeling comfortable enough in her new surroundings. There are things she isn't letting herself think about yet, how she works in this world, how it's different from the Realm, but those answers will come in time. Florence trusts this.

She's trekking carefully through the jungle when she hears the shriek and there's no time to think about her reaction. The gun comes up and she's moving over rocks and fallen trees, racing toward the sound. Within seconds she's reached the source of the noise and she sees a girl lying at the bottom of a slope, no sight of an assailant. It's an injury, it isn't an attack, she can feel this and so she clicks the safety back onto her gun and lets it dangle from her shoulder strap again, then makes her way carefully down the slope to the girl at the bottom.

[doesnt_speak]

Content enough with the silence and sensing no real discomfort from the woman in her arms, Florence makes no attempt at communication for the rest of the walk, making her way carefully through the jungle until she reaches a path. Standing there a moment, she discovers her sense of direction and sets off on the last leg of the journey, finding the Compound closer than she expects.

When it comes into view and she mounts the steps, she offers Eden a small smile, both to assure her that things will be fine now and to somehow express that she's fine. She's not so arrogant to think the other woman is worrying about her, but what she's just witnessed -- Florence discovering she's really lost everything she'd once had -- is extremely important. Maybe more important than she knows and Florence finds herself slightly embarrassed.

[wishesandsmoke]

Florence wasn't the only one, that was for sure. It was one thing to be carried through the jungle, but here where there were people, Eden felt all the more like a kid. Maybe there was a blessing in not knowing so many people, because Claude would have laughed his ass off to see her now, the bastard. "Thank you," she said suddenly. "I really appreciate this."

Come to that, Gideon would probably have done the same thing as Claude, had he seen Eden. She had a real knack for picking them.

[doesnt_speak]

It's what I was created to do. That's what Florence's gentle smile says, expressing that sentiment with every fibre of her being in the best way she knows how. There's a difference between people who believe they're meant to help and Florence, because she really has been created for the sole purpose of healing.

She can't do it anymore and that knowledge aches, deep down in her chest, but she'll still help. She'll still do everything she can.

Shouldering open the door, she carries Eden down the hall toward the clinic. Since her arrival, she's memorized the layout of the Compound and she enters confidently, finding a bed to settle Eden on.