Finding Darkness

Chapter 54 Discussion

Tamar pulled her head down from off Malachi's shoulder and placed it gently on his chest. She could stay there forever just listening to the steady rhythmic pumping of his heart, the inhale, exhale of his slow, relaxed breathing. Tamar had never known what she'd missed, how she could want something, someone so much that she had met only a few short weeks before. This, this was where she belonged, right here.

He had been through so much for her, because of her. Tamar still couldn't believe he'd put up with her, with everything she'd shoved at him. Anyone else would have turned and run from her. He, on the other hand, had taken it all. Why? Why would he treat her like a princess, when she was so much more like a frog? It was as if he knew her, all of her, without needing the time to get to know her. He saw through her outer self, the self everyone else saw, the one she let no, made everyone else see, down to who she really was. The insecure, small, timid girl who wanted nothing more than to hold her baby in her arms, to raise a family. The child wanting, screaming, aching for someone to take her away from everything she knew, everything she'd been trying to escape.

Now she was here, on a ship the size of a small planet, floating between Jupiter and Uranus. Her brain told her she should be terrified, that there was no way she'd get away from all of these people. Their stink, their sounds, their stares were a constant reminder to her that she was not normal, and never would be. When the looks of all the people walking by the door became too much. When all she wanted to do was leap out the door and tear them all into bloody chunks, she would feel him shift below her, would hear him mutter something in his sleep, and that slight motion, the sound of his glorious voice would pour cool water on embers of her anger.

"Please heal," she whispered to him. "I don't know how much of this I can take."

"Hello." A cheerful voice sounded from the door.

Oh great, her again. Tamar thought to herself, rolling her eyes before she poked her head from under the covers.

"Hi, what brings you here?" Tamar eyed Tammy sidelong.

"Just thought you could use some company. Most people don't know you enough to come past the door." she stepped into the room. "Me, on the other hand, I know you don't bite."

"Oh, is that so? Don't you mean, I haven't yet?" Tamar opened her jaws as wide as they would go and watched Tammy's eyes go wide.

"No, I mean you don't. If you did, you would have already. I know you don't like people that much, but the least I can do is keep you company. Besides, there really isn't much for us to do down here. He is our only patient." Walking over to the far wall, she sat in one of the plush chairs lining it.

"What do you want to talk about this time?" Tamar asked.

"I don't know. Maybe where you're from. I'm from the great state of North Dakota, Kramer to be specific. It's a little town just south of the Canadian border. I have, I mean had a family there before." she waved a hand over her head. "All of this happened. I guess they're all dead now." A silence fell over the room until Tammy slapped her knees and continued.

"What about you? Where are you from?"

"A lab."

Tammy was, by now, used to these kinds of answers. Tamar would answer with as few words as she could until she got tired of the one-sided conversation and left. Well, today she had nothing to do, so she would wait and get an actual conversation out of her this time.

"You worked at a lab?"

"No, I was worked on at a lab."

"Worked on, what do you mean, worked on?"