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

[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."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

He stayed where he was, recognising she needed space. "He married you? Is that what you're saying?" he asked incredulously, even though it was better than some of the possibilities which had unrolled behind his eyes. "Why? And don't you have to," he ran his hand through his hair, rubbed the back of his neck, "consent for that to work?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"He didn't. Not officially. They got me out before the official ceremony happened." She stopped near her desk and picked up one of the picture frames to study. It was one of the few pictures she had that actually included Tess and the only reason it was still around was because it was on of the few pictures Isabel had that actually had her and Alex together.

"There's a long story I'm about to skip over. But the important thing is, Max has a son. And Kivar has him. With a royal wife, and custody of Max's son, Kivar could rule as regent instead of usurper. The people are tired enough of war that they'd be willing to settle for that. Especially after he told everyone about the great love he had for Vilandra."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

It made perfect sense. Horrible, but perfect, sense and a very distant part of Jack admired the elegance of it. "Isabel." He stood up, walked over to stand in front of her, not touching, but there if she needed him. "It still doesn't mean anything. He can say anything he wants, it doesn't make it real. If you didn't agree, then it was a lie. The tattoo is a lie."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"But that's the thing," Isabel said, hanging her head and barely whispering out the words. "I did agree. I was tired, I was scared, and I finally gave in and said yes. I betrayed Max once again."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

It took awhile for that to register, and he stared at her. "No," he said firmly. "No. You wouldn't, not just because you were tired and scared." Jack stepped closer, bending his head so he could see her eyes, every muscle so tight with anger held back he felt like he was vibrating. "What did he do to you?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel stepped back, even though she knew Jack wasn't angry at her, it was too much to deal with. "Nothing. I swear. I was tired and scared and everyone kept telling me it was the right thing to do. That it was the responsible thing to do. And finally, I believed them."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

That made no sense. Starting to wonder if there'd been some sort of damage done, something besides what he could see in front of him - because she'd already said she'd been alone in the dark - he turned away, walked several steps, breathing slowly until he could shove the anger away to deal with later.

Calm once more, he slowly walked back, saying, "Everyone, Isabel? Who's everyone?"