Bury all your secrets in my skin

14. Mitigation

It took Bea a full twelve hours to turn back, and Ava didn't leave her the whole time. She sat in front of the door, watching over the wraith sister warrior as she floated back and forward across the bedroom, a wraith version of pacing.

Ava stayed entirely still, unmoving as she still battled with the urge to attack. The Halo refused to be quelled, burning with warnings every couple of seconds. Her fingernails bit into her palms as she concentrated on the thought of Bea being the creature, until finally a very pale, irritable, and very human, Bea stood in front of her.

Ava jumped to her feet, barely taking in the oversized police uniform Bea was dressed in before slamming into her. There were very few words to describe the feeling hugging Bea gave her in that moment. To be able to feel the sister warrior's body, warm and familiar in her arms was an unbelievable relief. And Bea clung to Ava just as tightly, her face buried into Ava's neck, breathing her in. They only broke apart when Bea's stomach rumbled loudly.

"Hungry?" Ava asked, pulling back with a grin.

Bea nodded, her face reddening all the way to the tips of her ears.

An exhausted, near hysterical giggle bubbled up from Ava's chest. "I'll get us some food." She leant forward to press a kiss to Bea's cheek. "Stay?"

Now absolutely scarlet, Bea nodded again, and with the promise of the sister warrior staying put, Ava raced out to buy whatever she could find at this time of night, which ended up being a pile of the least suspicious gas station sandwiches.

She hustled back to the inn, arms full and nearly crushed the lot of them when the man, Angelo, emerged from a room a few doors before their own looking disheveled.

"I know you..."

Ava hid her internal panic as best she could with a high-pitched laugh. "Well, I would hope so after you spilled my drink all over me at the bar."

"I... I... what?"

"You stumbled into me when I was holding my martini. It went everywhere... remember?"

He shook his head.

"Oh, well, you did seem kind of drunk."

"Maybe..."

"You look much more with it now, but maybe you should try to sleep it off more?" Ava suggested awkwardly, nodding back towards the door of the room she had carried him into earlier.

"Yeah..." He said, blinking slowly. "Maybe I should."

Angelo staggered back into the room and Ava made sure he had collapsed onto the bed before she shut the door.

She leaned her head against the hardwood and let out the breath she was holding. That was way to close but thank God he was alive. Ava really hadn't been sure he would survive, despite checking his pulse numerous times when she had laid the ashen faced man, victim of Bea's hunger, on the bed of an empty room.

Ava headed back to her own room and really couldn't help the little sigh of relief that escaped her when she found Bea sitting cross-legged on the bed, closely inspecting the skin of her right arm.

They sat in silence eating the slightly soggy sandwiches, both too lost in their own thoughts to fill the space between them with meaningless small talk. Ava was kind of glad she didn't have to talk; she was still coming to terms with everything that had happened, and the quiet gave her time to process.

Bea on the other hand, ate and ate and ate. She was ravenous. It reminded Ava of that breakfast at the OCS, when the sister warrior had eaten enough toast to fill three loaves.