Even In The Grave, All Is Not Lost

The Cockroach and the Salmon

A/N:

So bad news. The blood vessels in one of my hands have burst and it's swelled up to like twice its size. I've been in severe pain for the last two weeks and finding it very hard to type and to focus enough to proofread. So updates are probably going to be slower.

This is why I haven't replied to any of the comments you guys have left yet. I want to say I love and appreciate them so much and I will eventually reply. This author's note here is using up my typing quota for the day :)

. . .

Luna came to slowly, mind foggy and dark, filled to the brim with echoes of the past, clouding her senses. She winced, trying to orient herself.

The pillow under her cheek smelt sharp and unwelcoming, chemicals filling her nostrils.

It wasn't her own.

She couldn't hear the waves, or the sound of laughter and footsteps tapping across steel flooring, the squawk of seagulls come to roost. She couldn't hear anything.

Except for a light breathing behind her.

Slowly, Luna became aware of the arm around her waist - felt herself start to relax into the hold.

Derrick.

But she knew the weight of Derrick's arm. His body against hers. The smell of his skin. The sound of his breathing.

She knew it all as well as she knew her own heartbeat.

This wasn't Derrick.

Luna sprang around, the present colliding into her with such force that she nearly collapsed under its onslaught.

What-

John. Face creased with chagrin. Hair swept every which way and an obvious pillow crease on his cheek.

John.

It was John. Not Derrick at all. And she wasn't on the rig, she was in the lab. She had been in the lab for weeks.

Derrick was gone.

Everyone was gone.

Adria was-

Luna took a breath. Now wasn't the time to think about that. To feel that.

Because John was awake. John was in front of her - face distorted with an awkwardness that only continued to increase as the seconds ticked by.

They stared at each other.

"Raven made me do it."

Heart pounding, she slowly started to calm.

Raven.

Raven had-

Oh.

Oh, poor John.

Luna's lips peaked in a smile. "I understand she can be very persuasive."

"And a bully." He scoffed, unwinding his arm and shifting back a little to the far end of the narrow bed. "Honestly, I don't know how you put up with her."

Luna suppressed a grimace at the action. At the loss. It had been almost two weeks since anyone had held her. That was longer than she'd gone since she was sixteen.

She missed it.

Missed being held.

Missed the heat of another person's body, molding to hers, the steady expansion of their chest, rising and falling with every breath. She yearned for it in a way she'd thought she would never have to again.