Explanations Past (Due)
Jul 27, 2521
Summer’s Gift - Medical Bay
Late Night – After the Incident on the Victoria
Kiera looked at him critically, her eyes narrowing. She had fastened her red hair back and covered it as well as hiding half her face under a mask. "I'm putting you under this time," she told him in a voice that didn't broach discussing. The accent was gone; now she was professional, as coolly professional as she had been the first time she had shifted his visage. "I'm going to put that pretty face back together and now I want to take the time to make sure that it's right". She had begun to move around him as she spoke, bustling through pre-op with brisk efficiency, but abruptly stopped and fixed him again with her unusually green eyes. They were full of wicked mirth. "Unless you wanna keep that mug. It's not too bad."
--
"No, I've grown attached to Joshua's face. I didn't start with it, but I've made it my own." The voice was still the gravelly voice of Burke, although Joshua's choice of words and phrasing seem to reflect the steward rather the crude outlaw. "Besides, Rina likes this one."
He looked up at Kiera's half face as those green eyes twinkled with mischief. "Play nice, please. You've gone well beyond the call lately and you deserve answers from me. I'll be glad to give you at least some of them after I wake up with my own face again." Although he was going to have to grow the beard out again.
--
Her gloved fingers were gentle as she took his chin to tweak it. "Promises, promises. Sometimes it's better not to know." She sighed ruefully. "But I'll bite later. I'm too damn curious not to." She checked the plastic line into his hand and inserted a needle into the port to inject the sedative. "You are going to hurt a hell of alot after this. Your face hasn't been changed long enough to figure out it should hurt. It "will" figure this out next time you wake up. I just wanted to warn you." Her voice softened, almost achieving a warm fondness. "I'll be as gentle as I can, Joshua, and I'll be here to watch you wake up."
--
"I'll be okay. I've done this more times than I can count. Or remember." He sounded a little sad and a little wistful as he said it, like the thought brought conflicting memories. "But thank you." And he closed his eyes to wait for her to put him under.
--
"You're welcome," she answered as she finished the injection. She searched his face once more as it began to relax, remembering all the quirks and lines of the previous version and found herself wondering just how many times he had looked in the mirror to find someone else there. She would never admit it later, but as she put the mask over his mouth and nose and let the gas begin to flow, she couldn't help but rub a motherly thumb over his cheek. Rina did love the man, but much to her consternation, she was beginning to feel rather protective of him.
Dammit, she was too young to be a momma.
.
.
.
.
"Joshua." The voice was soft and insistent. "Joshua. It's me. You're strapped down so you won't thrash as you wake." Fingers found his, skin to skin, no plastic and grasped them firmly. "Do you hear me yet? It's okay, Joshua" There was a long pause. "I've made you prettier, by the way. Rina oughta kiss me for it." The cutting sarcasm wasn't there to back her words, but the accent was back. "Joshua, squeeze my hand if you understand me."
--
Joshua squeezed her hand tight. "I'm here." His jaw ached with the familiar sensation of pain as he moved his mouth to speak and his voice was scratchy from the post-surgery disuse. He knew that that he'd be dealing with the pain for a couple days in various stages of intensity. But right now, he needed to see his face - it was a key step in unpacking Joshua again. He hadn't been Burke for long, but he also had never done a complete change like that on such short notice. He was pleased with how well he had managed, but he wanted to be careful coming back to Joshua. He didn't want any of Burke's unsavory traits left behind.
"Mirror?" As best as he could with a voice struggling to work correctly, he tried to sound casual. He hoped she didn't think he doubted her work. He trusted her to put him back right, although that comment about being prettier was a little concerning.
--
She put her free hand over his eyes. "Close them and rest. I'm surprised you can even focus yet." She released him after a minute and he heard her rise. "I'll be back. Don't move; just practice breathing." She returned after a bit, mirror in hand. The velcro straps protested with vigorous hisses as she released his arms and legs and she handed him the mirror.
--
As she put her hand over his eyes, he started into his deep breathing exercise from his transformation routine, which he should have been doing from the moment of first waking. His Blue Sun handler would have been appalled about how slack Joshua had gotten. But then again, he wasn't sure Virgil had ever really cared about him other than as a commodity to be protected. By the time Kiera got back and released him from the straps, he could feel the routine taking effect, with the intensity of the pain scaling back.
He took the small mirror in his hand and lifted it up to his face.
There I am. Good as new, so to speak.
The Joshua that looked back at him from the mirror was beardless and with the lack of facial hair, his appearance was a reminder of Lieutenant Wise, whose face had started this whole new life of his. Kiera had done good work, though. She had cleaned up some scars and his face oddly did look a little more handsome, although he couldn't have picked out any one thing she had done. Very subtle, he thought.
He handed the mirror back to Kiera. "Thanks," he said, making it clear he meant more than just for her getting him a mirror.
--
She winked. "Glad you like it. . .I don't give refunds." She settled back onto the rolling stool that was still sitting by his bed and smiled. The smile was predatory in its evolution; the expression easing slowly onto her lips as it completely bypassed her eyes. "Before you went down and a few times before, you hinted that there was more to you than met the eye. Or scalpel for that matter. I can dance around and pretend that you didn't mean to say nothing before the anesthesia took effect. OR. . .we could exchange a little info. I stand by what I said; sometimes it's better not to know. I'm okay with that. I am willing to let you know a bit more about me in exchange." Leaning forward so that she could lower her voice, she added, "But I'm giving you a way out. Rina's chaffing to see you. I let her in; we don't talk about it while you're in a state where you might reveal more than you wanna."
--
Joshua moved back a little, allowing himself to sit up a little more. It'd be nice to see Rina. But he had meant what he had said. The line between crew and passenger had been greatly fuzzed for Kiera and she had done a lot she hadn't needed to do helping the Gift. Sure, she had a bit of a greedy streak. But his intuition told Joshua he could trust her not to turn him in. "Let me ask you a question. How much do you know about Blue Sun? The corporation, I mean."
If she answered jokingly with the standard quip about 'the cola company?' then she probably didn't want to know more. But Joshua had the impression that Kiera perhaps had some history with corporations and what they were capable of. And in that case, his story took a couple more steps toward believability.
--
Her mouth opened and her eyes danced, but she didn't say "it." "Damn it. All I need is more info that will make someone wanna torture me to get it out. Here, let me move the bed upright a little. Jeez, I'm glad Arden has gone to get some shuteye. He'd be fussing now. You really need to rest. At least have a pillow before you start talkin'." She rolled over and retrieved a bed pillow and then rolled back to the bed and helped him prop himself up. Taking a deep breath, she raised an eyebrow and said, "All right; talk. Oh wait. . ." She rolled away and got a bottle of water for them both. "Okay, now talk."
--
"I like Arden fussing. It means he cares about me." He took the bottle of water and opened it up, taking a long sip now that he was propped up enough to drink. The water soothed his throat and his voice finally felt and sounded normal when he continued. "So, I gather you know that Blue Sun has more interests than they let on to the general consuming public. Given that, you can think of me as a very specialized and expensive Blue Sun product." He took another sip and kept his eyes on Kiera as he waited for her response. He wanted to try and get a feel for what she was thinking before he went into more detail. He inexplicably trusted her, but it didn't mean he was stupid either. He could hear Rina's voice in his head telling him to be careful how much he gave away.
--
Curse it all, she thought with irritation, Damn corporate stuff. And he was going to be cagey until she answered the Blue Sun question. He had ignored that she hadn't answered it, but wasn't gonna give up anything without her answer and some depth to that answer also. Well, if he was a Blue Sun product there wasn't much that he couldn't probably get on her past and at least the upstanding contacts she had. The underworld, maybe not. She lay her cards on the proverbial table and called.
"I am the daughter of a wealthy man, unnamed though I'm sure you can find out, but it ain't important right now. He is rather high up in one of the many corporations that are subsidiaries to Blue Sun and is on the Board with another corporation that supplies Blue Sun. I am rather familiar with corporations. He and I aren't in contact often and aren't close. Some background on that. I was accepted to the Londinium School of Medicine. I flunked out." She grinned. "Bet you love to hear that after I worked on you. Anyway, I had a great time and found out that I loved drinking, gambling, and running with what my father called "scum of society." I wasn't stupid, mind you. And Father wasn't going to put up with me surfing on his money and my trust fund, tho'. He bought my way into the med school on Sihnon and assigned a tutor and two large bodyguards to make certain that I went to class, stayed in class, and passed the classes. I had dabbled in pharmaceuticals the first time, recreationally more than study, but now I found that I kinda liked learning about them and the rest of the med field. The Tweedles, as I called them, made sure I attended each class and practice and didn't have a social life at all. Poor guys probably know more about medicine than they ever wanted to know, but they did their work. I ended up specializing in cosmetic surgery due to an low class friend on Londinium. 'Red, he had said, "you could make some money fixin' faces so that people won't be found.'" I kept that in mind and did my residency and training and passed my Boards just as upright as could be done. The Tweedles were finally released from babysitting me and I stayed on the good side long enough for my Father to stop paying attention and for Mother to be delighted with the knowledge of who in her cliques were getting their faces fixed. After a few years, I was able to re-acquaint myself with my old friends and sneak out into the 'Verse with my new skills. And here I am." She raised her eyebrows and leered. "With you," she purred, "lying helpless and nekked. . ."
--
Joshua listened quietly while Kiera's story unfolded. Some distance between her and her father was a good thing for Joshua, anyway. As she talked about drinking and gambling, He just smiled. She really was the hellion she occasionally comes across as. Then, as if to confirm his thoughts, she said something about him being helpless and naked with that evilly seductive grin of hers. He blushed a bright scarlet red and had the typical male reaction to the thought of her taking advantage of him and blushed some more.
He was firmly in love with Rina, but that didn't stop basic male physiology, he realized. Kiera was quite attractive and he had seen first-hand how she had expertise at provoking that exact kind of reaction out of the men she needed something from. A good skill to have on the side of the Gift, but knowing that logically wasn't enough to ward away the embarrassment. He mentally scrambled to try and turn the conversation in a different direction. "So, um," he said, "I guess I should make it clear I'm not with Blue Sun anymore and not by their choice. So I'm trusting you somewhat not to bring Blue Sun back on me."
--
At least he wasn't thinking too hard about her connections and that was what she wanted. The blush was spreading down his neck to places neatly covered by sheet and she couldn't help but laugh. "I'm sorry, Joshua," she finally managed after some helpless mirth. "I'm really horrible about that. It's an automatic game with me; I let you in to my life a little and it's almost knee-jerk to thrust you away by whatever defensive mechanism comes to mind. By the way, sweetie, I've never peeked. But it was tempting." She wiped tears from her eyes and gave a few last giggles. The blush told her more than what Joshua had wanted her to know for certain. "Oh my," she announced gasping a little. "I' haven't laughed like that in a while. So. . .NO, I'm not going to turn you in to Blue Sun and YES, I do want to know what you are and I won't tell nobody. Lord, don't tell Rina that I got to you. I'd be dead in my sleep from a cut across my throat before I could wake up. She might think that we've started somethin' and I don't want to mess with a woman that can juggle two men."
--
At first, as Kiera started laughing, Joshua's blush grew deeper. But then, unable to help himself, he started chuckling alongside her. If he couldn't laugh at himself, he was going to be in big trouble in the very serious 'Verse. As they both calmed down, Joshua realized how she had framed Rina's role. "She wasn't juggling us..." he started to protest, but realized it didn't matter what Kiera thought about that. It was over and Rina had chosen him.
He smiled a little ruefully. "I'm a horrible blusher. They had to inject me with something on missions sometimes to make sure I wouldn't blush at the wrong time. But when I was borrowing, I never really reacted the same way. Being in character, I guess."
He shook his head as he took another sip of water. She had completely flustered him, it seems. "I'm jumping ahead and not making much sense. But once you know a little about my story, my reaction might make a little more sense. Blue Sun made me, really. Took me from my family when I was little and genetically enhanced me. Trained me. To make me into what they called a Borrower. Someone who could become anyone else, step into their lives and have no one notice. That's why the face and that's why I can read people's minds. So until a little over a year ago, I had never been outside Blue Sun's provided environment as myself, on my own."
"So I don't have a lot of life experience in the real 'Verse. Rina is and was my first real relationship." He tilted his head a little as he thought about it. Then he smiled, causing the new muscles to ache which made him wince, causing the muscles to ache a little more. "Some would say it's pathetic, others romantic. I'll let you come down on whatever side you prefer."
He shrugged a little. "That's the short and sweet. I'm happy to go into details if you want - I imagine the whole face switching thing probably intrigues the plastic surgeon in you. But I mostly wanted you to know for a couple of reasons. One, you deserve to know - you've seen enough. Two, I wanted you to understand why we might start panicking when people in suits wearing blue gloves show up."
--
Her face filled with a warmth that was genuine and she grinned. "I know a little about escaping from under the thumb of someone. I've got guns and I'm not afraid to show blue people the what for if the come for you. Might impact Father's retirement happiness a little, but I won't be the first spoiled rich kid to embarrass their parents. Look darling, you need to rest and you're making me feel all too motherly and protective. Hell, I don't even know if I am older than you, but I ain't nobody's momma." She rose to her feet and adjusted his bed down. "Go to sleep or I'll drug ya. You know that I ain't afraid to use no patch." Moving to the door, she turned the lights down. "I'll be close if you need me. I haven't given you any pain meds yet; I wasn't certain what you could have. I can ask Arden if you want or you can tell me. Either way, let me know. We can talk later. Now sleep."
--
He seemed to provoke that protective reaction out of people, it seemed. If he was a little more ruthless, he could use it to his advantage. But Joshua didn't really do ruthless.
As she commanded him to sleep, he nodded at her solemnly. "Yes, Doctor Kiera. But would you mind sending Rina in? I promise we won't do anything that wouldn't be considered rest." The slightest hint of a grin crossed his face so quickly that it might have been a trick of the imagination.
--
"Uh huh." She V'd her fingers and pointed them to her eyes and then to him. "I suspect Arden films this area," she retorted and went to retrieve the worried engineer.
-- -- -- --
Go to Joshua's Crew Page or to Kiera's Crew Page
Go to CREW or TIMELINE
Go to Mutineers
