The Whipping Turn

Saudi - Goodbyes

Under Edward's watchful eye, each day Anya felt better, the swelling reduced and her body slowly healed itself.  In the end, she stayed in their quarters for just under a week, watching all the Harry Potter movies Rick had thoughtfully downloaded for her onto his laptop. He called it a "marathon" which didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. Weren't marathon's about running? But not only did Anya love the movies, she was immensely touched that this person who had only known her for a short while, had done this for her. And with Russian subtitles!

Rick had taken to calling her Annie, and when she thought of the conversation surrounding that, its still made her smile.

"Do you have a nickname, Anya?"

Rick was lazing back on the other side of the large bed, arm tucked in behind his head and watching his father tidy out his medicine bag on the small table they usually ate at. Pill packets, bottles and instruments scattered the table. It would have been more than slightly scandalous to be lying next to another man, but Anya was ignoring those rules in the safety of this room, and judging by the, only silent looks she got when visiting, so was Jida.

She was scrolling through available books on a website, Edward had told her to pick some to put on his electronic book thing. It was amazing how much was here. In English and Russian.

"What's a nick...name?" Who was nick?

"It's like a shortened version of your name. My full name is Richard which is awful and so everyone calls me Rick, which actually isn't much better."

He glared at his father then, who shook his head, smiling while he carefully placed the contents of the table back in the bag. "It's a noble name."

Rick turned his face to Anya and shook his head, eyes wide with feigned disgust. She couldn't help but smile.

"Um, well, yes. Anya is a...nickname. My name is Anyanka."

"That's very Russian."

"Yes. I am."

Rick laughed his full loud laugh. Anya had realised that he liked humour when she sounded serious but wasn't, and she loved making him laugh like this. He'd told her she was good at being 'deadpan', and while that sounded like an odd word, it usually got a laugh.

"Are there more nicknames for Anyanka?"

She had to think about it, which  was hard in its own way. Her grandfather had called her Nya before he'd died. She tried to be objective.

"Yes. Nya. Ani. Nanka."

"Ohhh, Annie suits you. Can I call you that?" Rick took the Russian version, Ani, and missing the nuances of Russian sounds, drawled the name out in the anglicized version. It sounded sweet and affectionate and Anya liked it. She liked this other version of herself she could be with him and Edward.

"Yes. What about your name? Richard. Is there other short names?"

Rick paused before answering but not answering. "Well. Yes, there are."

"I say Anyanka names. Now you." Anya pretended to be indignant, sure that Rick could see through this.

"Ok ok ok. Um. Ricky."

"You are not Ricky."

"Fine. Also...Dick is common."

What?

"...Dick?"

"Yes."

"But in English that is, um, also, um-"