Editing Story:ROAD TRIP! (Warhammer High)/Part Two (section)

===Forgive Me===

Alex and Remilia waited on a couch in the room outside the operating room of the local hospital.  Freya paced, her fangs bared.  Venus sat in the corner, eyes dimmed and wet.  A small army of serfs, reporters, and curious onlookers – VULTURES!  CARRION BIRDS! – hovered outside the stark room.

A doctor emerged from the operating theater, stripping his gloves off and loosening his mask.  Freya was behind him, inaudible and invisible, in a heartbeat, her killer’s instincts unleashed, but under command.  Remilia shot to her feet.  Venus tried to stand, but the doctor knelt at her feet instead.

“Your Highness.  Sieur Seager will live.  He’s strong, the glass didn’t break anything.  He’ll be as good as gold in three days.  We got the Triacetyl mono into his brain in time, no lasting damage.”

The doctor vanished in a black rush as Venus wrapped her arms around him in a fierce hug.  “Thank you so much, Doctor.  The Apothecaries will revere your name,” she whispered brokenly.

“All in a day’s work, your Highness,” the man said, extracting himself from her arms.

“Well done, Doctor,” Remilia said gravely.  Freya let out a sigh she had been holding, slumping against the wall.  Alex leaned back in his chair and covered his eyes.

Venus burned the doctor’s ID into her mind with a glance at his hospital badge and released him, letting tears of suppressed fear and newfound relief pour from her eyes.


Jake himself stirred some time later.  He was back in the Castle, he could tell, both from the chilling cold and the décor.
His head…didn’t hurt.  He gingerly ran his fingers along where the bottle had hit, and found nothing but smooth skin and a lack of hair.  He sat up, noting his sleeping clothes were on, and that the little calendar-clock by the bed said that twenty-seven Terran hours had passed.  “Venus?” he called to the empty room.

“Jake…” Venus whispered.

Jake turned away from the clock.  Venus was sitting in the chair beside the bed, clad in her exercise clothes and with a dataslate in her hands.  She dropped the slate and launched into the bed, halting centimeters from him.  “You’re okay,” she managed, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and squeezing him like a vice.  “Jake, you’re okay,” she cried.

“Easy, baby, easy,” Jake said, returning the hug and easing her down onto the bed next to him.  “I’m all right, it’s okay.”

“Jake…” Venus wept.  “I…I thought he had…m-murdered you,” she sobbed.

“I’m all right, baby, really,” Jake said, burying his head in her hair and breathing her in.  “I’m all right.  Please don’t cry.”

Venus sobbed in relief.

The door swung open.  “Hey, Venus, we’re going to turn in…JAKE!”  Alex suddenly roared, crossing the room in seconds and crouching by the bedside.  “You stubborn fuck, you nearly gave us heart attacks!”

“Yelling.  Yelling in my ear,” Jake said, flinching back from his ebullient friend.

“Sorry, sorry.”  Alex beamed at him.  “Man, you scared the shit out of us!  How do you feel?”

“Good, actually,” Jake said, flexing his hands experimentally.  “Tired.  Little sore in my legs…other than that, I feel fine.”

“Awesome.  Hey!  Get in here!” Alex called, shielding his mouth from his friend.  Venus sat up and sniffled.

“Hey, sleepyhead!” Freya said cheerfully, bounding into the room with Remilia in tow.  “How’s that thick head of yours?”

“Fine, I think.  It’ll take weeks to regrow my flowing, golden tresses, though,” said the dark and curly-haired teen.  “What happened?”

“Some fuckface thought you made a good target for a revenge killing.  He’s chained to the floor in the basement if you wanna go exact Salamander vengeance,” Remilia said.

“That sounds good.  What does that involve?” Jake asked.

“Live-fire practice with flamers,” Remilia said.

“Cool.  I’ll let him rot, though, I’m a softie.”  Jake sat up, squeezing Venus’ hand.  “I was out for a whole day?”

“And the doctor says you’re down for one more, so rest up,” Freya advised.  She leaned forward and nuzzled Jake’s neck, smiling fiercely.  Jake blushed.  “Rrrgh, so GLAD!” she said, happily hugging him herself.

“Thanks, Freya,” Jake said.  She leaned back in a playful crouch on the edge of the bed and grinned at him.

“We’ve been clustered around the door to your room for the last day, doing nothing but ordering takeout and working out,” Alex said drily.  “Venus hasn’t left your suite since they dragged you back from the hospital.”

Jake leaned over and kissed his girlfriend.  “Thanks, baby,” he said quietly.

She managed a shattered smile.

“Well…dude, if you want, we can pick up where we left off.  Go be tourists for a while more before we leave for Fenris.  My imbecile father is still fucking around in Clymene, the Tide is in orbit…you can do whatever you want for a while,” Alex said.

“Let’s go be tourists and not let stupid drunks ruin a good thing,” Jake said, an air of finality filling his tone.

“Attaboy!” Freya said.

“You were very brave, Jake,” Remilia said quietly.

“Naw, I was deaf and prone.  Venus was brave.  Alex was brave.”  Jake sank back into his pillow and grinned.  “You guys are the best friends I could ever ask for.”  Remilia sniffed.

“Well.  You sleep.  I’m gonna go rest, too.”  Alex bumped fists with the smaller man and made for the door.  “Night.”

“Me too,” Freya added.  She leaned over and nipped Jake’s ear, lingered there.  “I’m glad you’re okay,” she whispered.

“As am I,” Jake said solemnly.  She smiled and flipped off the bed, clearly planning to capitalize good feelings.

Remilia leaned in and hugged him, slow and gentle.  “Thanks, Jake.  You really, really scared me,” she managed.

Jake squeezed her back.  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he promised.

Finally, only Venus was left.  Jake looked over at her and nearly gasped.  The light in her eyes was gone.  Not dim, not fading: dead.  Her eyes were balls of blank, red meat.  “Venus?” he asked, worried.

“One of my people tried to murder you because of your skin color,” Venus said.  Her voice was flat and empty.  Completely devoid of the emotions that defined her.

“Venus…don’t you DARE blame yourself for this!” Jake pleaded.  Sudden adrenaline pounded into his legs, sparking circulation in muscles that hadn’t been used in a day.

“My people hate offworlders so much, one tried to kill you.”  It was a statement of fact, not a question.

“One!  ONE person!  Venus, the man I grew up next door to was murdered for his stereo!  There’s always wackos, there’s always morons!  You think I’m going to let this change what I think about Nocturne?  About-”

He stopped.  His logic trains switched rails.  She thought of herself as Nocturne, blood and soul.  She didn’t think this was literally her fault.  She thought it was a defect of her people and her world…which meant it was part of her.  Not physically, but spiritually.  In a way, he suddenly realized, was more important to her than any other thing else in her entire life…besides the one thing that mattered most of all to Nocturneans: her family.  Him.  She was thinking that a fault in her way of life had nearly murdered him.

Without a word, he slid his arms under hers and hugged her deeply, dragging her unresisting body across him until she was prone on top of him.  Remilia discreetly closed the door to their suite and left as fast as she could.

“Venus, Venus baby, please, please don’t do it,” he whispered.  His heart seized as she managed a single, wracking sob.

He pulled her under the covers next to him and slid his torso over hers, holding her down and staring desperately into her dead eyes.  “Venus, listen to me.  I can not, will not EVER blame you for this.  Not you, not Nocturne, not the Salamanders, not ANYTHING but one stupid drunk and some Terran criminals.  Do you understand me?” he urgently asked.

“I nearly lost you,” she rasped.  “It shouldn’t have happened.”

“And Keiter shouldn’t have shot Morticia in the back!  Horrible people happen to strangers!  Never let that get between us!” Jake pleaded.  Tears were gathering in his eyes now.  “I love you so much it hurts when you’re gone,” he whispered.  “Never think this will change that.”

Venus closed her empty eyes and let her own tears flow.  “…I have…never…felt such shame...” she managed.

Jake buried his head in her shoulder and hugged her until his arms ached.  “No…no no no no no…Forgedaughter, my little fire, you’re better than that,” he sobbed.  “Better, you’re, you’re the Drake Princess and the love of my life and stop, please stop,” he babbled.

“…Jake,” she whispered, utterly drained.  He pulled back and stared as her eyes creaked open.

A single, tiny spark appeared in both.

His heart leapt.

Her eyes weren’t focused as she whispered.  “…I’m a hopeless mess.”

“Sleep,” he said, through his own tears.  He pulled her exercise clothes off and huddled her bare body against him under the sheets.  With a snap of his fingers the lights died.

The vaguest red glow of life flickered in her eyes.  It glimmered off of the light fixtures in the ceiling, anemic and watery.  “…Jake…I thought I lost you,” Venus’ ragged voice said in the darkness.

“I can’t imagine what that was like,” Jake said.  “I’ll try not to do it again,” he managed to say with a smile.

She turned her eyes to him.  Tiny little balls of remorseful flame danced in them.  Her skin was cooler than it was when she was fresh from a swim.  “I’ll…sleep for a week,” she said faintly.

Jake slid his arm under her head and snugged her up against him.  “I’ll be here.”  He breathed a sigh of relief as she finally moved, running a tremulous hand up his chest to rest on his heart.

“I haven’t…felt that kind of loss…even when Morticia…” Venus confessed.

Jake nodded, squeezing her hand with his.  “I know.  Wouldn’t that have been the crowning irony, though?  The one guy in the group that doesn’t drink gets killed by a beer?”

She was quiet for a moment.  “…I want to laugh, but I don’t have any in me,” she said faintly.

“It’s okay, that joke sucked.”  Jake let the tension of his horrified realization bleed out.  He was a bit shaky, himself, now.

“My world…my family…” she whispered.  “All I want to do is show you the best parts of them.  The parts I love.”  She sighed again.  “Or…the parts Dad said I would love.”

Jake nodded in the darkness.  “Well, baby, so far, Nocturne has amazed me.”

Her voice was so soft he almost missed it.  “I hoped you’d say that.”

Jake propped his head up a bit more and kissed the top of her head.  “I’m glad you didn’t have the guy executed.”

“Why?”

“It wouldn’t have made the trip better, certainly, but…I don’t want to think of you as a killer, even completely justified,” Jake said.  “I love you, Venus.  You know that?”

“I do,” she said.  “Sometimes I don’t think I deserve it, but you do it anyway.”  She finally managed a ghost of a smile.  “Keep going, okay?”

Jake slid his hand across her bare stomach to link with his other hand.  Her flesh was slowly warming back up, but she wasn’t back up to full heat.  He tried to enjoy the rare moment.  “As long as you want me to.”  He tried to marshal his thoughts.  “Venus, don’t answer this if you don’t want to.  What did you think about when I was out cold?”

Venus didn’t answer for a moment.  When she did speak, at length, her voice was deliberate and paced.  “Not much.  I just sat there recording a message for Dad, mostly.  I told the whole story.  I haven’t sent it.”

“All right.”  He tugged the covers up to her collarbone.

She sighed lightly.  “We talked a bit about how we would reschedule things if you wanted to stay here.  The governor came by a few hours ago to offer me his apologies.  A Salamander Brother-Lieutenant came to me with the drunk guy’s file, which I told him to burn.  The file, not the guy.  I don’t care who he is yet.”

“Me neither,” Jake said.  He placed a hand over her stomach for a moment, and smiled into her hair as he felt a bit of her flame reignite.  “See?  You’re getting better.”

Venus closed her eyes and tried to think.  “I didn’t even leave for food.  I just stayed.”

“Thank you,” Jake said softly.  He felt his own eyes water a bit again as the depth of her devotion started to dawn on him.  “I’m sorry I made you hurt.”

“I’m sorry you got hurt,” she said in the same voice.  “You know…Remilia told me that the way I looked when I thought you…had died was so scary that everyone in the room took a knee.”

“I couldn’t hear it, but I saw it,” Jake murmured.  The memory was clear in his mind, much more so than the ride to the hospital.  “I’m not surprised.  What were you saying?”

Venus winced against his arm.  “Can we not talk about that?”  Her voice was strained with exhaustion.

“Sure, baby,” he soothed.  “I’ll see you tomorrow, huh?”

“Yeah.”  She ran her hand over her eyes, rubbing weariness away and trying to settle down.  He slid his arms free of her, but paused before he rolled away.

“Venus.”

“Hmm?”

He leaned across her and kissed her as gently as he could, barely more than a brush against her lips.  “I love you.  Don’t ever think I won’t.”

“I know, Jake,” she whispered.  “I wish…I wish I could show you what that means to me.”  She bit her lip as another tear worked its way down her face.  This one was relief, not self-loathing.