Reunion

<snip>
"Holy smeg .. Katrina?"
</snip>

My guts twist with the realisation of what this smegging woman's return likely means for me, and the world comes crashing in, my surroundings spiralling vertiginously around me as I take in the god-awful tableaux playing itself out before my eyes: Jay sprawled, stunned, on the floor, staring in disbelief at Katrina who was crouched, warily, against the opposite wall of the corridor, like some sort of cornered animal
I must have said something or given some sort of vocalisation to my misery, but to be honest, I don't really remember; all I know is that suddenly, only Katrina would meet my eye, sparing me a brief look of something somewhere between pity and... What was that? Relief?

It took a moment or two, but Jay eventually recovered himself sufficiently to begin moving tentatively towards Katrina; my heart wept for both of us when I saw the tears that brimmed in his eyes as he reached a hand out to Katrina, only to have her shrink back away from him, her naked hatred evident to us all

What a smegging mess

Normally I prefer to take oxytocin antagonists to mitigate the risk of anything more than superficial feelings for my partners; but Jay's one of those rare guys that I'm actually attracted to, and the chances of finding drugs as exotic as that, this side of three million years out from the rest of humanity are slim enough, when even simple contraception is hard enough to find!
It worried me what would happen if I started to care for him, but when it turned out our attraction was mutual, I figured that you only get a few shots at happiness, so I would have been stupid not to have seized my chance

Right now though, I'm really regretting telling Jay that I love him; things had been going so well up until that point, and even though neither of us have professed to having any memory of what happened or what was said that night, I'm quite cognisant of the small but hurtful distance he has maintained towards me since then
All those tender, good times can't possibly have meant so little to him, could they?
I feel like I've ruined everything with those three stupid, simple, little words, and now here's Katrina to make everything even worse for me
If I had just kept my smegging mouth shut, I might have been able to walk away from this with at least some dignity intact, but I smegged up, and now I feel like I'm dying inside!

Looking down at him on his knees on the floor in front of her like that, I just wanted to go to him, to be there for him, and to pull him away from this hate fuelled stranger and try make everything better; but I've no role in this mess other than as the other woman, and I smegging hate it!

I don't want my time with him to be done!
And, yes, I know we've barely been together for a month, but I still find him fascinating company (I'm usually bored and long gone by now); his six centuries of experience proving to be an effective foil against my mercurial nature, and his constant good humour and optimism a panacea for my usual sardonicism and gloom
Heaven only knows, I've been trying so hard; and yet here he is on hands and knees in front of his long dead smegging wife, with no idea what it's taken for me to lower my defences like I have
Not, of course, that I'd dare tell him - I want his love not his pity!

How has this even happened?
Why the smeg is she here!?
She's got a son! – Is he Jay's?
I hope not, there'll be even less chance for us if he is

“Katrina...” Jay near whispered, holding a trembling hand out towards her
“No!” she spat, recoiling even further away from him “Stay away from me!”
Jay inched forward, extending his hand a little further only to be rewarded with a vicious sweeping kick towards the side of his head, that he barely fended off
I'm almost ashamed to admit that my heart leaped when I saw this, and I was immediately on my knees by his side, trying to pull him back, away from her
“Jay” I murmured “Please...”
“Give us the com units back!” Katrina shouted as one of the other Enforcers, a petite Asian woman broke away from the others to hurry to her side
“Kat” Jay pleaded, favouring me with a brief... I don’t know... A what? A thankful glance?
“Give them back!” Kat shouted again, a note of hysteria in her voice “Nobody does defections now! Nobody!”
“Jay, please...” the woman at Katrina's side spoke hurriedly “We'll all die here if we don’t get them back”
Jay's expression was one of confusion and pain
“Kat...” he started, as the air was suddenly rent by a distant mechanical howl
“It's the smegging HK's” one of the Enforcers, a Japanese guy, shouted “Give us the com kits back right now or they'll execute every last smegging one of us!”

<tag>
We've got twelve Hunter / Killer machines heading our way; they're heavily shielded, bristling with weapons and about to systematically lay waste to everything in a wide area – what do you reckon we should do?
</tag>
<ooc>yeah, yeah, I know I'm a few minutes early for first person fortnight, but what the hell</ooc>