Her short blonde hair was still damp. She must have taken a shower. Sasha had taken a long time to chew him out, but it had been worth it. Her uniform seemed a little loose around the shoulders, the fingers of one hand curled near her mouth. Cas stood frozen to the spot, not sure if he should wake her or let her sleep.

He touched his cheek absently. A grin broke slowly over his face and his eyes lit up. Maybe Nicolai wouldn't be such a big deal after all.

"Shit, Blink. Can't you wait to torture the poor kiddies till after breakfast or at least till after lights on?"

Blink?... Helen vaugely remembered that name... it was one of the names posted outside of her cell.

"Aww come on Jac, can't ya let me have a little fun with the fishies?"

Curled up, facing the wall, she couldn't exactly see the second boy who spoke, but he didn't seem too bad. Pushing back with her feet she made contact with the boy still on her bunk, causing him to tumble to the floor. Helen rolled over to see his reaction. The kid was definitely off guard and was mumbling incoherent curses under his breath. "What did you do that for fishy?"

Still tired from the other day, Helen wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep. "Bug off."

The lights flickered on and Helen winced as her eyes adjusted.

"You must be the girl that people were talking about yesterday. The one going out for scout." Her eyes now adjusted Helen could finally make out what the boy, still lying on his bunk looked like. Short black hair, crew cut. "Here we were thinking that they meant sparrow here the entire time."

"Hey!" cried a sqeaky voice from above her bunk. "It's raven... not sparrow."

"Raven...sparrow, same thing. You do know that Sasha's not going to let a girl be his scout..right?"

He'd slept only fitfully. He was too excited about this morning. The Phoenix Scout was good, really really good...but he wasn't Helen. Helen was phenomenal.

He took a deep breath and exited his cell, trotting down the hallway to Cell B and palming it open. Inside the room was a bit of a mess. Blink was on the floor, looking dazed and a little resentful, Jacob blinking tiredly at them. A small darkheaded girl was in the bunk above Helen. Perfect. Another girl. Sasha had to be thrilled. None at all for the entirety of his command and then two right in a row.

But Helen was about to prove her worth, and he knew it.

She was lacing her boots up frantically, and looked up when he came in. He grinned at her and knelt next to her, lacing one as she worked on the other. "Hey, calm down. We've got another twelve minutes before we have to be in the Game Arena, and that's a lot longer than you might think." He finished just as she did and helped her to her feet.

Blink was crawling back into his bunk, looking angry and a little amused. Jac was halfway asleep again, but wouldn't be for long. Class started at 7:30, and they only had an hour and a half to eat and shower before they had to hurry off.

Helen was a bit more than happy that it was empty, she wasn't exactly in the mood to have to talk to anyone, she just wanted some quiet to relax. She kicked off her boots and removed her jacket and crawled into bed. She wanted Cas to be safe as much as he did her, but she hated waiting in here for him to finish his work. If anything happened to him, she wouldn't be able to help him out. She was helpless. But safe.

She opened the door silently, absent of any squeak, from hundreds of times of practice. She paused once she stepped into the hall to pull the door almost close, leaving it the slightest bit ajar.

Across the hall, light flowed out from under the door of her parents' room. Her stomach growled loudly and she froze in fear that she'd be caught. But the door remained shut. The sound had been drowned out by the muffled talking over parents and the sound of drawers opening and closing. Seeing that she was save she tiptoed down the dim hall, memorized steps carrying her over the creaky boards that would give her away.

She let out a sigh as she reached the den, even if she did hit a bad board, her parents would hardly hear it from all the way down the hall. The fire burning brightly in the fireplace, spawned black children, dancing upon the wall. Unlike some of her friends, she didn't find herself scared at the shadows, more of a comfort because to have the shadow you needed light, and that light illuminated the room enough for her to navigate. A luxury that she didn't normally have.

Free and clear, she entered the kitchen. From there, if her parents made an appearance, she'd have a million places to hide and enough time to get there. She moved the stool to the counter and climbed up. She reached for the cabinet above when she heard the click of a door opening and saw light begin to stream down the hallway. She sunk down behind the counter.

Although she couldn't see them, she heard them walking down the hall, hitting the creaky boards along the way. Gathering up her courage she peeked over the edge to see them standing near the fire. Her father turned, as if taking in the room for the last time. His eyes burned with a passion, a craziness. And Tayce froze.

He turned to his wife and picked up the duffels that they had carried out with them. He walked out of the room leaving the woman. Tayce looked at her mother curiously. What was going on. Her mother walked to the liquor cabinet and opened up the doors and tipped it over, glass bottles breaking with a crash as a small river of alcohol made its way towards the fire.

She waited until she heard the front door close and walked out, unsure of what had just happened. She walked over, taking a hop to clear the mess of broken bottles, slipping in some alcohol she fell her nightgown sopping in the smelly substance, she pulled herself up and stepped over it, lodging a piece of glass in her foot in the process, but she barely noticed. Her brother had woken up and she could hear his crying down the hall.

She ran, leaving small dots of blood where her foot landed, and pushed on the door. But it didn't open. Didn't she leave it ajar? She swore that she did. She reached for the handle. Her hand wet with sweat, it slipped. She dried them off on her nightgown before trying again.

It wouldn't turn. Locked...

She started pounding. "DAVID!! DAVID!!" She coughed as she inhaled smoke. Glancing down the hall she saw that a fire was burning its way toward her. "DAVID!" She gripped onto the door knob, planting her feet on the door and pulled, falling on her butt. She scrambled up and tried again, pulling harder. She had to get him out of there. He was going crazy, bawling between coughs as smoke seeped out from under the door. She lost her grip and tumbled backward, her head hitting the wall behind her.

Her head was swimming, time had no meaning. She just laid there watching the fire glow closer, unable to will herself up. Even when the fire had started to eat the alcohol soaked dress she couldn't force herself to move. The hollers, as men poured into the house, were muffled whispers in her consciousness. Someone threw a blanket over her, smothering the flame on her nightgown, and the flame that had begun to singe her hair. She was heaved off the ground as she looked dazed at the man... her neighbor?

"David..." she whispered pointing towards the door. The man shook his head, "You're brother's in Chicago with your mother." he said as he started running with her. She tried to shake her head as she fell into unconsciousness.

She woke up, walls white, smelling of a doctor. She sat up, not feeling the familiar feel of her hair falling on the back of her neck. "They had to cut it off. It was burnt in the fire." Tayce turned to see a nun sitting in a chair near her bed.

Hopped out of bed, feeling a weird sensation on her foot as she vaguely remembered the glass shard that had been in there earlier. She glanced in the mirror, running a hand trough her hair. "I look like a boy."

The nun chuckled at her and started rambling about something. "You see. God has a plan for all of us." She got up and walked behind Tayce, fastening a cross-necklace on her. "You see Tayce. God has plans for you. He protected you."

"And he didn't have plans for David?" The nurse seemed at a loss for words as a man walked in.

"Tayce, I need to speak to you about what happened. Your brother-" Tayce ran out of the room, saw some nurses rolling something by covered with a white sheet. She ran up to it, her foot throbbing slightly. And pulled over the sheet.

Her brother, charred. She could tell just by looking at him that he was dead. She stared at him for a moment, not a tear leaving her eyes, and all the sudden the face stared to morph. The nose... No...

"Thanks, pilot. Now go back to sleep. I promise not to spy on you anymore."

She looked up as he pulled away, eyes meeting, a shy smile still creased her face. But there was an awkward silence. Should i say something...? She tried to pull together words, how happy she was to see him, how worried she'd been when he hadn't come back right away, how much she missed him.. but she found herself strangely at a loss for words. Her cheeks grew pink as cas slowly leaned forward and kissed her cheek and whispered goodnight before slipping away and into his barracks. She stood there stunned for a moment, staring into space, his scent still lingering in the air. "Night Cas..." she whispered into the empty space. She took the few steps to her own door and glanced across the hall one last time before entering.

She heard something fall to the floor and she leaned over to see what it was. Raven. The girl still was a clutz.. She picked up the piece of the uniform and tossed it back up to her.

She started sorting the pieces, it was probably at least semi-simetrical, maybe she could figure it out. She made small piles sorting the pieces by what she thought went together with what, but it still was far from actually putting it together. She needed somone to help her, someone that actually knew how to do it. Blink and Jac were out of the question, they'd walked out shortly after she'd pulled out the uniform, They were probably busy having fun in the game arena or some other place. She'd ask the commander to come and help her, but the way that he looked at her made her decide it wouldn't be for the better. He still seemed bitter about having her in his army, but then again, he seemed even more so about Raven. And Helen could partly see why.

Resigned to the likely possibility of failure, he clicked the link and waited. And waited. The network must have been pulling from one of the monstrous old servers the military still used for old and hopelessly outdated information. It took nearly ten seconds for the entire file to load, and it was less than fifteen megabytes. Cas shook his head and opened it up.

Elation swept over him until he realized he was looking at outdated material. This didn't dampen his spirits entirely, though. The configuration was still much the same. This schematic would work. He gathered his desk and the rest of his gear and left his cell to go find Helen.

They were about halfway done when she realized that she hadn't spoken a word since Cas had entered the room, she'd been concentrating too hard on getting dressed that it didn't even cross her mind that she should say anything. She was too afraid of what Sasha might say or think if she couldn't even get a damn uniform on correctly.

"....Thanks Cas..... I had no idea what I was doing....." She realized as she said it that she only partially meant it for his help with her uniform.. she mainly meant it about the Engineering Bay. He put up with her sudden bursts of affection and then didn't ask her about it. He gave her the security and comfort that she needed, the things that he seemed to be the only one that could give.

In the back of her mind she could only imagine what her mother would say if she saw her now..'What are you doing? Why are you letting him do that?' 'Do what?' 'Never let someone help you like that, it makes you appear weak an vulnerable.' Like you're one to talk about weakness. '......' 'I only did what I did because it was the only way that your father couldn't hurt you anymore.' 'Didn't happen quite the way you wanted I guess, since I'm still here.' 'But he can't hurt you.' 'You only say that because you're not me...Cas is there for me in the ways that you never were.' '......'

He finished Helen's uniform, doing his level best to ignore everything but the cloth under his fingertips, but he was blushing a little by the time he was done, and turned on Raven with a relieved sigh. He felt a little sorry for the girl. She seemed lost and overwhelmed, and he was sure Sasha hadn't treated her kindly. Finding out about Helen had been traumatic enough for the Panther Commander. Another girl transferred in so soon with none of Helen's piloting skill wasn't a burden he thought Sasha would take well at all. The jumpy, nervous manner the girl displayed, pitifully grateful of his help, confirmed it.

Her uniform went more quickly. He considered trying to explain what he was doing, but Helen had probably picked it up along the way, and Raven probably wouldn't understand even with an extensive explanation. How had this girl made it through BattleSchool? He wondered silently and closed her left cuff. "Just don't take it off, ok?" he said gently before turning back to Helen.

The dress uniform was a monstrosity, but Helen made it look worthwhile.

"You...uh...you look nice," he said with little conviction, wincing at his own tone. Nice? She looked fantastic. She looked ... regal.

He added a stupid grin.

Smooth.

"Pilot?"

She glanced around? Cas? She blinked several times, where was he? The flowers and the wind faded out more and more with each blink, leaving her in the darkness of her cell. A dream. That's all it had been. David was gone. Probably burried in some cemetary with little more than a gravestone. No flowers. No butterflies. The figure beside her bed slowly focused as the sleep left her eyes.

"Cas?" her voice was almost inaudable, her body threatening to pull her back into her dream. The little sleep that she'd gotten in the last week was starting to catch up to her. Her eyes tiredly adjusted to the dark and she noticed the look on Cas's face.

She slowly sat up, looking curiously at Cas. Something was definitely wrong, something was bothering him. He wouldn't have come here in the middle of the night for just anything. And the look on his face confimed it.

"You okay Cas? What's wrong?"

And then what?

He'd go back to his cell and listen to his roommates snore and wonder who was dying in the Engineering Bay tonight.

It was one or the other, and Cassius Martin decided it was better to be frightened out of his mind with someone else than frightened out of his mind alone. He couldn't bring himself to tell Helen about the fight; he didn't want her to know about it at all. She shouldn't have to deal with a bad thing just because he did. He didn't want her to deal with any bad things ever again.

Ever since he'd known Helen, she'd had small periods of time when she sort of withdrew and got quiet and didn't want to talk. Her eyes would get a faraway look, and Cas would wonder what she was thinking, but he'd never been brave - or rude - enough to ask her about it. He could tell she didn't want to talk about it, and that whatever it was must be very bad.

He didn't ever want to give her a reason to look that way.

"Me? I'm fine, I mean, I didn't...I just...um. Are you...are you ok?" he asked haltingly. Perfect. He'd come in and woken her up from a sound sleep she'd somehow managed to attain after an extremely stressful day with a parade review run by some crazy IA guy where they burned someone to ask her if she was ok.

It couldn't have been that. There must have been something... But he said he was fine. So he didn't want to talk about it. She contemplated for a second pressing, but discarded the idea. He had always granted her the space she sometimes needed when she had her withdrawls. Maybe he wanted the same thing, for her to just ignore it, pretend that she didn't even notice. It's not like waking her up in the middle night was at all unusual or anything.