I Have Crossed the Stars to Find You - BOOK ONE

Chapter 20 - Time Flies when You're in Hell

Warning: mentions of violence, blood, vomit, guns

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

3rd Person

As months begin to pass, Jake never gives up on his attempts to rescue Rose. He spends hours upon hours staking out Bridgehead while perched high up in the trees, using the large leaves and the darkness provided by the night to hide him as he does so.

When he's not staking out the military base, Jake's back at Hometree planning out how to rescue her without risking too many casualties, Norm working together with him to draw out maps of Bridgehead and mark where it seems like the weapons are held, where the prisoners are most likely held, and which would be the safest entry and exit points. In the few moments Jake would allow himself to do things other than work on his rescue plan, such as eat or go visit Norm and Ninat's children, he would always pray to Eywa in the quiet moments. "Ma Eywa, oe pawm nga hawnu oe yawne muntxa. Hawnu fko ftu hrrap ayfo ngä'än fte ayfo tsunslu tätxaw oe. (O Eywa, I ask of you to protect my beloved mate. Protect her from the danger she suffers so that she may return to me.)"

Meanwhile in Bridgehead, Rose has proved herself to not be an easily controllable hostage. She's learned the names of the Recombinants, and she regularly picks fights with Lyle and Fike, calling them skxawng or saying things to them like "Nga lu fwem na prrnen. (You are stupid like baby.)" which they would always make her translate, and once they did they'd lunge at her and try to tackle her to intimidate her but she would always fight back. The fights would go on until someone like Mansk, Zhang, or Prager would walk by and break it up, Rose usually only a bit bruised maybe with a split lip while her opponent regularly ended up with scratch marks everywhere, little bite marks all over their arms dripping with blood. Then when someone would bring Colonel to yell at them Rose would just smile up at him with her blood-stained teeth and say "He started it."

Though over the past few weeks Rose had started picking fights less, mostly just staying quiet in the corner of the room or against the wall. After two months of being there the General and Colonel decided she would be allowed throughout most of the rest of Bridgehead as long as she behaved, one or both of them reminding her on the daily that if she tried to escape, hurt any humans, or if she was seen with a weapon, they would not hesitate to kill her and dump her body out in the forest for Jake to find. As much as she didn't want to seem intimidated by their threats, she knew better than to underestimate them and so she behaved as they told her to, aside from the fights with the other Recoms and the arguments she had with the Colonel regularly.

✭・.・✫

One morning Zdinarsk went down to wake Rose up and bring her up to the mess hall for breakfast, only to find Rose curled up in the corner of the room sobbing loudly with her arms curled tight around her abdomen, hair a mess and clothing disheveled. Z walked over to her swiftly, crouching down and gently lifting her head up to feel her forehead, frowning slightly when she saw how much Rose was crying, "Jesus Christ Cupcake, you're burning up. Let's get you to the doctor, yeah?" Rose nodded slowly, wiping at her eyes with one hand and letting Z try to pull her to her feet but immediately crying out in pain and almost falling back down but Z-Dog helped her sit down more slowly. Rose slumped back against the wall and continued clutching at her stomach as Z tapped the button on the side of her communication band around her neck, "Mansk, Lyle, Walker! Need you down at Cupcake's cell, pronto!" Once she received confirmation from all three of them she once again focused on Rose, Rose chuckling weakly at the nickname all the Recoms had given her while Z started gently prying her hands away from her stomach to try and see what was hurting her, lifting the bottom of her shirt carefully and gasping quietly at what she saw.