Sick Companion

For the first time since they met (times when he was shot up, sliced up, or blown up don't count), Christian isn't beautiful. He's pale and his hair could use a washing and he's sweating. The joys of illness. He's laying in bed, staring up at his ceiling. He's been there for three days now.

The worst part of Christian being laid up sick as a dog is that he can't enjoy too much in the way of fresh fruits and vegetables. Nika feels bad that the poor guy's been stuck with chicken broth and weak tea, but nothing else has really seemed to appeal to him. She knocks once and then brings a tray in, glancing at him. "Hey there... how ya feeling?" Yeah, yeah, she asks him every time she comes in, but still!

Christian manages a wan smile. Even sick as a dog, he's remained in good spirits. "I think I've felt better." He says, "But I'm having trouble remembering past a few hours ago."

Nika nods easily. "Not surprising, really. You've been running a fever for a couple days. Arden says you ought to be coming out on the far side of it at this point, though."

Christian mms. Mming is easy to do. "Good. I don't like fevers. I prefer my heat to come from other activities. Or something. I think I'm too sick to quip. I must be ill."

She laughs quietly at him and moves to help him sit up against his pillows. "C'mon... let's get a little something into your stomach, you'll feel better."

Christian wiggles and, with help, manages to sit up. "Thank you. We should have taken gone through planet-side immunization procedures when the kids came on board, I think."

As she settles him, Nika smiles faintly. "First thing Arden did was a full workup on the kids, and we'd had the immunization packets when we landed. But I guess we should have done it twice. He managed to immunize the rest of us before it spread, but you were the one in most proximity to the kids as they came aboard, so..."

Christian closes his eyes. "Hazards of the job, I guess. Are they getting enough to eat? Some of them looked much too thin."

Nika nods, heading back to the table to bring the tray to the bed. "We picked up a week's worth of fresh vegetables before we took off -- We've been feedin' 'em pretty good."

Christian laughs, weakly. "You're getting them to eat their vegetables? Good. That must be fun." He lets out a long, deep breath. "I hope things are better for them, where we're going."

There's a shrug as she sits on the bed with him. "They're eating whatever's put in front of them because they ain't got much choice -- they've eaten far worse, from what I can tell. Or been without enough times to be grateful for whatever they get. Maybe both."

"And how is our charter doing?" Christian asks. "Getting plenty of footage? He's got a good cast. A former cortex star, a sick Companion, a surly Russian engineer, a cloned doctor, and a gorgeous girl next door pilot."

Nika rolls her eyes and offers him a spoon. "You gonna eat or am I gonna feed you?" She shrugs at him, though. "So far, he hasn't been too offensive."

Christian accepts the spoon and begins sipping at the soup, slowly. "He's paying well. We've been doing pretty well, these last few months. Keeping on top of expenses, actually paying ourselves..."

"We're doing far better nowadays, that's for sure," Nika comments. "Rina wants to upgrade the sensor array ... can't say that'd make me unhappy." She smiles. "But I'm pretty content at this point -- we're eating regularly and we're only up to our eyebrows in debt some of the time."

Christian chuckles, "Yes." He takes another sip. "Are you thinking of the future? Beyond this, I mean? You own your own ship. Or part of it. What more do you want?"

Leaning back on her hands while he eats, Nika considers. "Don't really know. But going home... " It fixed a number of things in her soul that have been, up to this point, a bit broken. She's not sure how to articulate her thoughts, so she merely says, "It's good to see Nala happy again. And I'm glad we found out the things we did." It doesn't alter what happened that day, but... the return trip home and settling things with the Johannsens has given her some peace with it.

Christian sips from his spoon. "Do you want children? A cousin for Kevin?"

Nika blinks at him. "Oh yeah... can you see me raisin' a kid onboard? That's no life for a kid!"

Christian glances up at Nika. "Not what I asked."

Nika's posture unconsciously goes defensive. She sits up restlessly and her shoulders hunch a bit inward. "Thinkin' about kids means thinkin' about being grounded, darlin'" she replies gruffly. "The Black ain't noplace for kids. And I'm selfish enough I don't wanna give up flyin'."

Christian nods his head. "Honest." He agrees. The soup must be helping. He's more coherent. "I've been thinking about things, since our encounter with the Swordsman. Our lives, our futures."

Wary blue eyes rest on him. "Yeah? And?"

Christian closes his eyes and sorts his thoughts. It isn't easy with all those wonderful drugs in him. "He might have been right, to a point, about Arden, but he was also wrong. Think about who we are and what we've accomplished together. Someone once said, "Never doubt the power of an individual to change the world. Indeed, that's the only way the world can be changed." Out here, outside the system, not bound by politics and games and ideology, we can make a difference in people's lives. Maybe not everyone's but... we're in a good place. We're doing what we should be doing."

Nika smiles at him. "I can agree with that," she comments.

Christian finishes his soup and hands the bowl over to Nika. "For now, I'm content not to plan into the future. I think the 'Verse is sending us where we need to be."

There's a look of relief on her face when he stops thinking so hard. Nika takes the bowl and nudges the tea toward him. "If you think too hard, you'll give yourself a headache," she tells him mildly. "For now, I'm content. Can't tell you if it'll stay that way... we've got some things we gotta take care of. Like figuring out what kind of wild goose chase Otto's got us on -- cuz I sincerely doubt it's all about how Arden's living his life."

Christian mmmms. "True enough. There's an agenda there. Arden needs to find out, though. We all need to know who we are."

Nika nods to him. "Well, we already agreed to make our way that direction, and the cargo we've got currently is on the way. And as you said... the cameraman could prove useful at getting the word out about other things. Like... what's going on in Blue Sun and all." She smirks faintly. "And if we run into Reavers, hell... maybe he'll be stupid enough to get footage that can hit the Waves."

"Depending, yes. The standard Cortex Networks won't be showing footage the Alliance doesn't want them to show." Christian points out. "We'll see what happens when we get there."

Nika shrugs. "There's ways... you know it." She smiles at him. "Can I bring you anything else? If you're feeling up to it tonight, we'll get you into a bath."

Christian sighs. "Oh, I'd love a bath. Right now, I think I just want to sleep. I feel like I've gone five rounds with a meat tenderizer."

Nika reaches down to brush his hair back off his face. "Get some rest," she tells him affectionately. "We'll see what we can swing for you."

Christian closes his eyes. "Good to know..." He says, "... my family's always here for me." He pats Nika's hand and then slips off into slumberland.