Stars Above The Willow Tree

Chapter 35 - Moonshine

***Ah! I suck! I didn't realize I hadn't set this chapter up to auto-publish! Sorry it's late my lovely readers!***

Dethrhhek gazed at Willow as she slept beside him, lips parted, snoring softly.
She had purple smudges beneath her eyes and her skin was pale. A bruise along her jaw was fading to green and the pale arm she had laying against his chest was lined with needle tracks from all the blood the humans kept drawing and the injections they kept giving her.

Chemicals. They were testing different chemicals on her to see if any of them weakened Casey and so far, nothing had worked to hamper the battlesuit. Casey diligently protected her and thwarted everything. Apparently some of the injections were deadly to humans, and Casey had filtered the poison out of Willow's blood before it could have any effect.

She'd been exposed to various forms of radiation, extreme pressure, and constant drills and fights, all the while, teams of Tilith and Koli ran simulations of the Ssketch ship.

For all that they used robots for most confrontations, humans still put themselves through brutal drills and training.

Willow had lost weight and her cheekbones appeared sharper. Dethrhhek traced them with his fingertips, his heart aching that she was going through so much and he couldn't help her other than to be there for her and support her decisions to let her people experiment on her. Willow insisted that it was all controlled and she was safe, and that they weren't hurting her too badly, but the bruises and marks on her arms gave him severe doubts. It made him feel helpless.
Willow's eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him.

"Hey," she said with a soft, feminine hum.

"Hey, beautiful," he whispered, cupping her face.

"Are you just... watching me sleep?" she asked, a little crease forming between her eyebrows.

Dethrhhek nodded.

"Why?"

"Because I miss you," he admitted. "I know that if I fall asleep, the time will pass quickly and before I know it you'll be taking a shuttle off to a battleship where your people will hurt you in their quest to discover how to incapacitate Casey. How does Casey feel about that, by the way?" he asked.

The receptor around her throat undulated up her neck and jaw in little smoky eddies and words appeared on her cheek.

'Not Good,' they said.

Dethrhhek's eyebrows raised in surprise as Willow rubbed her cheek, seemingly unaware that the battlesuit had just communicated directly with him using her face as a display.

"Casey doesn't like it, but they understand the necessity. So far, nothing they've done has affected Casey. It's just me who gets hurt," she said with a huff.

"But, Casey is integrated into your nervous system. So, what you feel, Casey feels, right?"

The word Yes, appeared on her cheek.
She rubbed her cheek again as she said, "That's true. In that, we're in this together."

Dethrhhek shook his head slowly. "It kills me to see you going through all this. When does it end?"

"When we find a weakness," she said, eyes going distant. "When we are ready."

"Willow, this constant drive could break you. You are not sleeping well, you're losing weight. You're exhausted all the time, and I can tell you're in pain. For your sake and mine, please, take a break. And before you say no," he said quickly, seeing her lips move to protest, "Just a day. A day to rest. To do something that reminds you why we're doing all of this. Tell me, your people are here, surrounding us, still. So, if you were not on a rescue mission and you were just a crewmember on one of their ships, what would you do for fun?"