Room 406, early morning

[izzyalienqueen]

After exhausting herself cleaning and organizing, and then reading until she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer, Isabel finally fell asleep

She wasn't in the cell any longer, or at least not the first one. This was a room fit for a queen, but it was still a cage she couldn't get out of. Her shoulder ached but she wouldn't look at it. She didn't have to. Just by closing her eyes she could see it so clearly.

Pacing about she kept searching for a way out.

Comments

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Isabel said quietly. "I don't like the dark that much anymore."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"Okay." Jack looked at the floor and took a drink of his coffee while he thought about that. "That doesn't happen in a week," he finally said, meeting her eyes.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

She looked away, staring off at nothing. "No, it doesn't."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

So it was going to be like that. Jack put down his coffee and turned completely to face her. "Isabel?" He gently reached out to touch her chin, to turn her to face him. "Tell me."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel had wanted to forget about it. To just settle back into things and pretend she'd never left. But it was becoming more and more obvious to her that the nightmares and the memories weren't going to let her. After a long moment, she sighed. "As near as I can tell, I was there for about six months."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack's eyes widened in surprise and his hand fell. "Six months?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Remember I said it was a rift in space and time," she said. "I thought you were going to be gone."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"I would have been. You would have come back and I would've been gone." It shook him, how close he'd come to never seeing her again, but he threw it off. This was more important. "But I'm not. I'm here, and you should take advantage of that."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I thought you were gone. That Parker would be at Oxford. When he told me the date...it was the first thing to make me happy in a long time," Isabel admitted quietly.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Six months, she'd been gone for six months, and now she was afraid of the dark, and that was the first time she'd been happy... "What happened?" he asked, keeping his voice even and gentle.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I don't even know where to begin," she said, folding a pillow with a little more force then needed and then leaning back against it. "They remembered what I'd done before. So they didn't trust me for the longest time."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"The rebels? They remembered Vilandra?" he asked, and he could imagine how it must have been, her brothers trusted, and her pushed to the outside. "Why do I think you did something to try and change that."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Of course they remembered her. How could they forget what she did?" Isabel hugged herself, suddenly feeling cold. "I tried. Max managed to get me a small team of my own. Although it wasn't really a team. It was me and my babysitters. But it was something. And I did what needed to get done. They were just starting to trust me..."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack kicked off his shoes and moved to sit behind her, pulling out the pillow and taking its place. "And something went wrong," he guessed quietly, arms going around her.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, something went wrong alright," she said shakily as she leaned against him. "I remember the briefing. I remember leaving. But then I woke up in the dark. Alone."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"Which is why the light," he said slowly, more to himself than her, brushing her hair back behind her ear. If she'd been alone in the dark for six months-- "Do you know where you were?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Yes. Kivar had found out we were back," Isabel explained. "It was no secret that he wanted Vilandra. He'd told me that when I met him here. It didn't take much to figure out that he'd managed to catch me during the raid."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack's arms tightened automatically at the mention of Kivar, and it took him a minute before he was sure he'd be able to speak calmly.

"What did he do?" he asked flatly, and the thread of anger he could hear told him he hadn't quite managed calm.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Showing was easier then telling. So Isabel sat up an pulled the sweatshirt off her shoulder, exposing the top of the tattoo. "This," she whispered.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack stared at the slightly faded script in silence, then covered it with his hand, hiding it from sight. "Why?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"It says Vilandra, who belongs to Kivar," Isabel explained choking on the words. She tried to pull away so Jack wouldn't feel her shake.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack wanted to hang onto her, stop her from pulling away. Afraid it might trigger bad memories - and he didn't want to think about what Kivar had done to her - he followed her instead, going to his knees and keeping one arm loosely around her waist.

"Well he's obviously an idiot," he ventured, and he didn't know how he kept his voice light. "If I was going to tattoo someone, I'd at least get their name right."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"But that's who I'll always be to him." She laughed bitterly, resting her head in her hands. "The funny thing is? It's supposed to be a romantic gesture."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Which was so revolting a concept, that Jack had to clench his teeth to hold back a torrent of swearing. "Obviously an idiot," he finally repeated. "You're Isabel, not anybody else." He settled both hands on her shoulders, once more covering the tattoo. "He locked you in the dark, and had you tattooed with someone else's name. It doesn't change that. You don't belong to anyone but yourself."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel flinched at his touch and pulled away, pulling the sweatshirt back up to cover the mark. "I know who I am. Don't worry. But he needed her."

She got to her feet, wandering aimlessly about the room. "They're still learning about women's lib out there," she said, trying to figure away to explain a strange culture simply. "It's one of the reason they rebelled against Max. He tried to change things to quickly. What this is, well, when women marry they become one with their husband. And he'll give her a charm that says that. She'll say the words and they'll be married. It's an old custom dating back to when women were property. Now, in most cases, it's supposed to mean more my heart belongs to you, more to do with emotions then ownership. Of course he didn't mean it like that."