Page 48 of Fall
“I can’t imagine how hard it must be toget used to modern comforts again,” Kyla said, sitting down at the table andgesturing Lenna into the seat beside her. “Hall told me what you’ve beenthrough. I think it’s amazing you did as well as you did.”
Lenna smiled—slightly poignant—and met Hall’seyes as he sat across from her. “I’ve always been a survivor.”
“I’m sure it will take some time to getacclimated again,” Kyla replied. “But when you do, you’ll feel more like yourold self.”
The words were kind, but Lenna didn’tbelieve them. She wasn’t sure she’d ever feel like her old self again.
She wasn’t sure she even wanted to.
The idea of getting back in her old ship,taking smuggling jobs, going through life on her own, completely independent,seemed brutally lonely right now.
She missed Rone. She wished he was hereright now.
But she never could have taken him withher. It never would have worked.
“Or you could do something else,” Kylaadded, evidently noticing that Lenna wasn’t too excited about her suggestion.“People change. Look at Hall.” She gave her husband a teasing, slanting lookthat made him smile. “You can do anything you want now.”
“Yeah,” Lenna managed to say, emotiontrapped tightly in her throat. “I just can’t seem to think clearly right nowabout anything. My whole mind is a whirl.”
“Give it some time,” Kyla said. Then shegave Hall another look, this one more like a question.
Hall nodded, as if he’d understood theunspoken words. He leaned forward slightly, reaching his hand out toward Lenna.“I might be able to help calm your mind, if you’d like me to.”
Lenna had known Hall for a long time, butridiculously she’d almost forgotten about his special gift. He’d been born withan extra-sensory ability to feel other people’s emotions by physically touchingthem, but he was more than just a Reader. He could take their feelings,transform them, and send them back.
Hall had never tried to use his gift onLenna—except for a few times when she’d been injured and had needed immediaterelief from the pain so they could escape a dangerous situation.
But Lenna felt so terrible at the momentthat she was willing to try anything. She stretched a hand out and offered itto Hall.
Without speaking, he touched the bare skinof her inner wrist very gently with his fingertips.
Lenna gasped as she felt some sort ofinternal channel open up between them. For a moment, it felt like he was insideher, collecting her incomprehensible tangle of emotions into a ball and thenreleasing them back to her in an intense wave of relief.
She closed her eyes, feeling better whenhe withdrew his hand. The relief wouldn’t last for long—she knew—but at leastit gave her a short respite during which she could think.
Hall’s brow was lowered inuncharacteristic seriousness as he met her eyes. “We should have brought himwith us,” he murmured, slightly hoarse. “We could have tried.”
Lenna shook her head, realizing that Hallmust have sensed the depth of her feelings for Rone in that brief touch. “No.It wouldn’t have been fair to him. He doesn’t know of any world except his own.I couldn’t just snatch him away, bring him into all this… not just because I… Iwant him. He would be so… so unhappy. I won’t do that to him.”
Kyla was frowning now too. “I’m so sorry.I thought they were all kind of brutal and primitive on that planet. I didn’trealize you’d found someone special.”
“I miss him,” Lenna admitted, a tiny partof her mind realizing that she never would have made such a vulnerableadmission before she’d been planet dumped. “Actually, I miss all of them. Mywhole tribe. Even the ones who weren’t very nice.” She sighed and closed hereyes for a moment, trying to imagine herself back in the cave. “They were primitive—atleast in terms of technology—but they were still human. And to tell you thetruth, the Coalition might be the most civilized world in human history, butthat doesn’t stop it from being far more heartless and brutal.”
Hall nodded. “I can testify to that.”
“Well,” Kyla said hesitantly, after amoment of silence, “I know it sounds strange, but you could always go back. Ifyou wanted to, I mean.”
Lenna stared at her, trying to process thesudden jump in her chest.
“If you liked it there, if you want to bewith your man, with those people, why shouldn’t you go back?” Kyla looked overat Hall, as if for affirmation.
“That’s always an option,” he said slowly.
Lenna gave a huff of bitter amusement.“Right. After you risked your neck coming to rescue me, I’m just going to headright back.”
“You could,” Hall said. “It would bedifferent, going back there by choice. You’d know for sure it’s what you want.It would make the rescue worth it. Plus, we got Desh out of there, and heobviously didn’t want to stay.”
Desh was still in bed. He’d been on theplanet for years longer than Lenna. He had a lot more recovery than her to gothrough.