Aemae. (Helen, Ayel, Nero, Vulcan Healer)

[mirror_brightly]

The room was quiet, filled with a lazy sort of trepidation, a silent light. Everything was still and the medicine made it seem heavy. Helen was coming, coming with the healer. Thaessu who wanted into his mind, wanted through his skull

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[loyalty_ever]

There were years frozen in that look, in that glance, understandings and orders in equal measure. But his pulse hummed high in his ears--his teeth wanted to crack from glinting at her so sharp.

Nero paced, coiled and furious, and he'd always had startling reach from such broad shoulders. An easy mistake, to assume he was less quick with his back turned.

Couldn't let her make it, with those brittle human bones, with her thin human teeth that rattled little human lies.

He'd had exactly enough of being insulted. Didn't even matter anymore, whether it was on purpose, whether she meant it.

"Honorable?" A long slow hiss of air built behind the word, like steam through his teeth. "You dare. That word. With me."

He broke ranks and yanked Helen close.

[first_noel]

She was silent, considering. There was nothing in the Romulans' sentence that specified it had to be carried out here. And she was aware that a significant portion of the Vulcan populace was less than complacent about the men who had destroyed their world being so close - even if none of them would ever admit it

[mirror_brightly]

"Then don't come back."

It was the simplest answer he'd ever given. She had the knowledge, the understanding to decode it, what little there was.

It was an absolute, he couldn't live here, no matter how much she spoke to him and talked with him, or how deeply they dug their Thaessu fingers into his mind, he would always be there and it would never go away.

He still wasn't certain he wanted it to.

Regardless, she had vowed to help, if she couldn't do this one concrete thing, she might as well have lied.

[first_noel]

She almost protested, tried to reason with him. She was the only one who gave a damn about them, and he knew that. Holding her to unreasonable standards was counterproductive and pointless. It certainly wouldn't help her achieve anything she couldn't otherwise.

But she was worn out, mentally and physically, and she was tired of fighting every step of the way. She couldn't argue with them any more today.

She holstered her gun. She was careful not to nod, or to say anything that might be construed as a promise.

"I'll look into it."