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Episode 3: Revisiting

Valerie tried harder and harder to wake Gessy. She got no reaction from the girl but she drew Deckett's attention. "Valerie? Are you okay?"

She looked from the girl to the large eye looming in the doorway. "Um...potty break?"

Then he looked from face to face. "Ah. I wore her out." He lifted Gessy up and moved her out. Then the giant lifted the bed up and carried Valerie to a table in the living room.

She gazed up at his face as he looked her over. "Okay," he said, "the more you do, the more it'll hurt. The more I do for you, the... Well, there will be other discomfort." He held a cleaning cloth up. To Valerie it was big enough to make a tent out of.

"How about I try, and ask for help if I need it?" He nodded and closed his eyes. She lifted her smock and reached for the bedpan.

Even though she had had a recent dose of medicine her legs hurt every time she moved. To distract herself from the pain she started talking.

"You know, this is the first time I've been able to talk with you without Gessy." He smiled and nodded. "She's... She's different than most people I know."

He nodded again. "Yes, well, I've never really encouraged her to grow up. We have our relationship established. We get along."

"Oh, I see that," she agreed. "I just wonder..." She finished and slid the pan out from under her. The muscle strain made her grunt from the pain.

"Are you okay?" he asked, eyes still shut.

"Yeah," she panted. She replaced the smock and tapped the pan. "I'm done." He opened his eyes and took the pan. She handed him the cleaning cloth and that went away as well.

"Deckett?" she asked as he was about to lift the bed. "Why are you doing this?"

"Being nice to you?" he asked. She nodded. He stared off into space for a moment. "I live with a little person. I care for her. She cares for other little people. Like you. She cares for anyone she meets. So, to keep her happy, I'm more than willing to nurse you back to health. Okay?"

"Okay," Valerie agreed. She mentally crossed her fingers in hope that that was all there was to it. They'd been burned by friendly giants before.

As he carried her back to the box-room, she saw Gessy. The girl was curled up on a pile of cloth beside the box.

Deckett replaced the bed then moved Gessy down. He pulled the curtains shut and left them to sleep.

------

The night before the trip back to the forest was a strange one for Valerie. She was healed enough to be able to sit up in the bed by then. She was thus able to see her own wounds when Deckett changed the dressing.

He gave her an extra bit of painkiller before the procedure. She felt light and transparent for about half an hour. "Beats the hell out of biting down on a bullet," she giggled. Gessy laughed with her though she had no idea what the woman was talking about.

The liquid he'd used to fill the wounds was a dark green. It looked to her like satanic jello but he seemed pleased by the sight.

"Coming right along," he assured her. "As your body replaces the bandage with blood agents, it gets darker." He rewrapped the front of legs, then Gessy helped her turn face down for the other pair of wounds.

"But will I be able to play the piano afterwards, Doc?" she asked.

"Even I know that joke," Gessy said with a snort. They all laughed, Valerie a little longer than the others.

She lay still for a while after the dressing, until she was sure that she was in charge, not the drugs. Gessy stayed beside her as usual.

The Earthling was starting to feel herself again when the teen leaned down close.

"Valerie, are we friends?" she asked.

Valerie reached out to take Gessy's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Of course we are."

"Good." Gessy nodded then leaned down and kissed Valerie on the lips. The older woman was too surprised to do much but sit through it. When she felt the teen open her mouth, though, she reared back.

"Gessy? What are you doing?"

"Deckett does that with his friends," she explained. "Did I do it wrong?"

"No," Val said with a shake of her head. "Not really. But... Does Deckett do that to all of his friends?"

Gessy looked thoughtful. "No," she said slowly. "Only to girls." She brightened and leaned towards Valerie again. "And we're girls!"

"Hold it," Val said gently. "I'm, uh... I mean, I don't... Other than college I've never...."

"You don't want to kiss me?" Gessy asked. To Val's surprise, though, she didn't seem to be as vulnerable as she sometimes was.

"Um... I like you a lot, Gessy, but, well, no. No, I don't generally like to kiss girls." She gave another squeeze to the hand she still grasped. "I still like you but..."

"No, that's okay," Gessy said happily. "Deckett has lots of friends he won't kiss. We can be unkisser friends." She gave Valerie another careful hug.

-----

Deckett placed the cage on one end of the picnic table bench. He was as gentle as possible but Valerie still groaned as the thing set down.

"Does it hurt?" Gessy asked. Then she realized how silly the question was and waved it away. "Do you want the medicine?" she asked instead.

"No," Valerie said through clenched teeth. "If I'm doped up, Steve won't be able to trust anything I say. I can't take anything until after this..." Meeting, she wondered. Maybe a visit? Evaluation?

She sank back against the pillows and stopped searching for a label. Whatever would happen, would happen.

Gessy stroked her whistle and looked around the cleared area.

After an hour or so a ranger walked down the path. He glanced at Deckett's disassembled camera and came closer.

"Papers?" he asked. Deckett produced his ID, work form, forest access, camera pass and pet permits.

"Two little people?" the ranger asked with a glance towards the cage. "What do you do with two?"

"They help each other out," he replied. "I use them to find rare specimens. When I'm not close enough to protect them, they protect each other."

The other man nodded and walked on. When he was gone, Valerie asked, "Since when do I have a pet permit?"

"Since I bought you in a Massakand market..." He paused to check the form. "Three years ago next Tuesday. Happy domestication day."

She stuck her tongue out at him. Gessy found the expression amazing. She sat for a while practicing the tongue sticking face.

An hour after the interruption Valerie saw a bush branch twitch. "They're here," she said. The giant opened the cage door and swung the case down to the ground. He sat so they could see his feet, but he couldn’t see the cage.

Valerie wasn't surprised that only one of her fellow refugees risked capture by coming out of the undergrowth. She was surprised that it was Fitzhugh.

The older man walked gingerly up to and through the cage door, constantly glancing over to the giant's legs.

Finally he was close enough to Valerie to take her hand. "How are you doing, dear?"

"I'm fine, Fitzhugh. What are you doing here?"

"Oh, well," he shrugged. "I managed to convince the good Captain that I should be taking a look and seeing how they were treating you." He started to reach for the bandages. "Let's see the wound, eh?"

"Are you a doctor?" Gessy asked. She'd been sitting quietly in the corner since Deckett put the cage down. The Commander smiled over at her.

"Gessy, is it? It is a pleasure to finally meet you." He reached out to take her hand and kissed it. Valerie smiled at the delighted expression on the girl's face. The rogue could certainly be charming when he felt like it.

"No, dear, I'm no doctor. But I have seen more injuries than anyone else in our little group." He winked at Valerie. "Several of my former associates have felt that discussions are not complete until a lead pipe is used."

He peeled the bandages back gingerly. "Ah, very good. No infection. The color is good." He bent to sniff. "No gangrene." He replaced the dressing, noticing Valerie's hiss of pain.

"Are you taking anything for pain?" he asked urgently.

"Yes," she said after a moment. "Just not now. Need a clear head."

Fitzhugh nodded. "You're going to have to talk to Steve." He pulled out a walkie-talkie and turned it on. His report on her health was short and positive. Steve acknowledged it then everyone got a chance to talk to Valerie.

The rest of the conversation she probably could have predicted. Steve was upset that he hadn't been there to save her from the trap. Betty was upset that Valerie wasn’t taking anything for the pain while Dan was upset that she might be becoming addicted to the painkiller. Mark used a lot of spy-movie terms to talk around the need for an escape, possibly taking Gessy out with her.

Teenager Barry asked a lot of questions about teenager Gessy. When the girl asked if Barry would be a better friend for kissing, Valerie laughed and ended the chat.

"Steve," she said into the radio, "I think I'm safe with Deckett and Gessy. It'll be a while until I'm able to walk, and a bit more until I can run fast enough to avoid capture."

"You think..." he repeated. The unspoken question hung in the air. There really was no way to be certain the pair were trustworthy until they had a chance to betray the Earthlings.

The other concern was how healthy Valerie should be before risking life in the wild again. There were risks leaving her with the giant just as there were if she wasn't ready to survive in the forest.

"Look, Steve," she finally transmitted, "there's no perfect answer. But I think it'll be better for everyone if I stay with Gessy for at least a while longer." She waved at Gessy as she spoke. The girl brought over a dose of the pain medicine and Valerie gobbled it down.

Fitzhugh took the radio for one last discussion. "When shall we three meet again?" he asked Steve, while looking at Valerie. "In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"

Both of the women in the cage with him just stared. "I don't like lightning," Gessy said softly.

"I hate going through the forest during a rainstorm," Valerie pointed out. Fitzhugh rolled his eyes.

"The educational crimes of the giants are to be expected, but you, Valerie, should know - "

Betty's voice came over the radio with the next lines. "When the hurlyburly's done, When the battle's lost and won. Macbeth."

"Exactly," he said happily. "So? When are we doing this again?"

"Steve says that each of these visits is dangerous. But he wants to stay in contact. How about every 30 days until Val is all better?" He raised an eyebrow. Val nodded and he transmitted agreement.

"So, I'll leave you the radio," he started to say.

"No!" Gessy shouted. Beside the cage, Deckett's feet shuffled at the sound. Fitzhugh paled. Valerie took his hand and made calming sounds. "Sorry," the girl apologized. "It's just, we can't be caught with Earther tools. We'll be taken away."

After his scare over the giant's attention, Fitzhugh didn't take much convincing. He was out the cage and across the clearing like a shot. Gessy watched him go, then whistled.

The giant picked up the cage and they returned to his home.



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