On a promise

Who: Cass, Jay
Where: The corridor outside the canteen
When: Two days before the inspection
<ooc>Events have moved on a little, but this demanded a response, so here it is :)</ooc>

<snip>
Cass softened a bit. "So you're not going to flush me from an airlock?"
</snip>
Jay smiled at this; he’d missed her black sense of humour
"Cass” he began “We..." he took a breath "I’d miss you too much"
Her eyes flicked up to meet his for the briefest of instants before she wordlessly flung herself into his arms, her momentum carrying him backwards to bump awkwardly up against the bulkhead while her arms curled sinuously up around his back and she buried herself in him
Hesitantly returning the embrace, Jay chided himself for not waiting a while and doing this after they had at least managed to get a shower and freshen up, rather than while they were both caked in grime and blood; although that said, he reflected, Cass would probably have taken hours to get that damn hair of hers washed and dried, so in spite of them both looking like refugees from a horror movie, there was definitely no time like the present; and besides: Even in spite of the vile headache he was nursing and all the gore, it felt good to have her (or at least someone human) back in his arms again

It took him a moment before he realised she was crying; her hot breath against his neck and the occasional hitch of her shoulders the only outward signs
"Hey you..." he murmured, gently smoothing a hand down her back, only to have her squeeze herself, even tighter, up against him
"These last weeks have been awful" she managed, her voice barely above a whisper "I'm so sorry"
Jay shook his head
"No Cass... I'm sorry"
Relaxing her hold on him, she pulled away a little to gaze into his eyes, her cheeks streaked with tears and the remains of her eye makeup
Jay silently moved a hand to pull a stray lock of her filthy hair back away from her face and tuck it back out of the way; a gesture of such familiarity that she crumbled up against him again, this time into heaving sobs
"Hey, come on" he soothed after a moment "There's no need..."
“It’s been awful” she bubbled “I’ve missed you so much”
Jay grimaced with the knowledge that he alone was responsible for this hurt
“I’m so sorry” he murmured again, before glancing away down the corridor at the sudden sound of voices “Listen, I think some of the others are coming – Do you want to get out of here?”
"Shit. Yeah" Cass gasped, pulling away to embarrassedly grind her tears from her eyes "Someplace else would be great"
Turning, she caught his hand up in hers and pulled him away in the direction of the Promenade

----------------------

Walking hand in hand with Jay in self-conscious silence, Cass shyly glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, drinking in his appearance and quietly revelling in his company for the first time in ages
His good looks aside, and in spite of there not being a mark on him after his recent travails, to her mind he didn’t look all that so great - There was a pale tiredness about him, and he looked older and more careworn than he had done just a few short weeks ago
“So when are you going to tell me what that’s all about?” she asked as they emerged out onto the Promenade
"What?"
"That" Cass nodded at the five centimetre wide hole, scorched through the front and back of his t-shirt
“Oh...” Jay shrugged, his free hand moving unconsciously to his chest and nervously fingering the charred hole in his clothes “it’s nothing”
Cass stopped walking and turned to face him, reluctantly leaving go of his hand
“You were all but dead when you crashed through that wall” she said bluntly “and yet you were up and running around within seconds - That’s not ‘nothing’!”
“Cass” Jay grimaced “Honestly, I... I...”
He suddenly stumbled, the colour draining from his face as he pitched forward into her arms, Cass struggling to hold onto him as his weight bore them both, uncomfortably, down onto the ground
“Jay!” Cass screamed, struggling to haul him over into something resembling the recovery position, his head lolling in her lap “Smeg’s sake... Jay!”
To her relief, his eyelids flickered a few seconds later and his consciousness began slowly returning
“Ah shit” he croaked, blinking and looking up at her in confusion “What happened?”
“You fainted!”
Cass laid a cool hand on his clammy forehead for a moment and then smoothed her fingers around through his hair, cradling his head in her lap, her green eyes lit with concern
“What the smeg was that!?” she demanded, her panic slowly subsiding
“Mmph. Must have bumped my head earlier” Jay tried to push himself up, but gave up and flopped back down into Cass’s lap as black spots began dancing in his vision “Ow” he groaned
“Smeg’s sake Jay, what’s going on?” Cass asked “To my knowledge you’ve never been as badly hurt as you were earlier, but if your wounds heal as fast as all that, then why the hell are you suddenly doing shit like this and asking me to look out for Katrina and Max?”
Jay sighed and looked up at her, wishing for a moment that she wasn’t quite as sharp as she was
“It... happened back at the STCP headquarters” he admitted eventually “Some guy spiked me with a tailored virus of some sort. I dunno...”
“Aw smeg – What’re the symptoms?”
“Just stuff” Jay shrugged “It heals me. Hurts me... Kills me”
“No” Cass moaned, paling beneath the grime covering her face
“Bummer, eh?” Jay gave her a humourless smile and rolled over to push himself up into a sitting position, this time without any ill effects
“Are you okay?” Cass frowned
“Yeah, yeah, I'm fine” Jay waved a dismissive hand
“And in general?”
“Shitty”
“Who was it that made your diagnosis? Phi?”
“Yea, it was her”
“I’ll review the data” Cass scowled unhappily and drew her legs up in front of her “Did she mention any possibility of a cure?”
“Nope” Jay shrugged and hauled himself to his feet with a grunt “As far as I’m aware, it’s been tailored just for me; there’s no cure”
“Like hell there isn’t!” Cass snorted "Brittany will have planned this knowing full well that it's within my capacity to engineer you a cure"
"You mean you can do something about this?" Jay asked hopefully
“Well, yeah” Cass said, as she too clambered to her feet “But, I’ll need access to facilities more advanced than we have here on the Dwarf”
“There’s a cloud in every silver lining” Jay muttered glumly
“Bollocks” Cass shot back “That’s one of my lines; you don’t want to start sounding like me”
“Well, it’s just that I’m not sure if I’ve even got enough time left to find a medical facility like that...”
“If it comes down to it, there’s always stasis” Cass sighed, stepping forwards to take both his hands in hers “But there are lots of things we can do before that”
She stared into his eyes in silence for a moment
“I’ll tear the smegging stars from the sky for you if I have to” she breathed “but I promise you Jay: You’ll have your cure”
Taking a breath, Jay blew out his cheeks
“Cass...” he began, but she silenced him by stepping towards him and planting a brief but lingering kiss on his lips
She pulled away before he could protest, nervously biting her bottom lip, her eyes searching his
“I don’t know what the future holds” Cass murmured “but I want it to be with you”
She paused to take a deep breath before continuing
“If you ever get fed up with sleeping on sofas Jay – Please come back to me”
Surprised, Jay raised his eyebrows
"Who told you about that?" he demanded
"I can occasionally lower myself to gossip and tittle-tattle" Cass smiled sadly "Katrina and I do talk"
Moving to leave, she turned back to him
"I'm going to pull your medical files and double check Phi's results to see what we're up against; are you sure you’re okay?"
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine now” Jay frowned exasperatedly "Why does it not surprise me that you've got access to our medical records?"
"Smeg's sake man, when will you ever learn!?" she smiled broadly "I'm the one in charge around here!"
Turning, Cass began walking away down the Promenade
"It took a lot for me to make that offer" she called back over her shoulder "Please don't dismiss it lightly"
<ooc>Aw, even after all that, she still likes him</ooc>
<tag: Jay, or tbc />