#the_ice_cave

"Not going to waste time trying to tell you otherwise if that's what you want me to think."

"You want me to throw her back?"

"Hirim wants her."

"So?"

"So?"

"I'm supposed to care what he wants?" (Staring at her, intently)

"Don't even know why you do."

"He..."

"She's the real thing, right?"

"So? What are you going to DO about it?"

"I don't do anything. You know that. I never do."

"The past's the past, right? Why not start?"

"Because I'm not... I'm not like you. All I do just... everything falls apart, I can't do it right..."

(A quick grin) "And I don't fuck up? Difference is, Ghost, I still DO something, and guess what? Learned what not to do. Learned not to take a damn corner on ice at 40 miles an hour. Hurt like hell, too."

"Don't even have the guts to just make everything stop. It might..."

"Like... Mama, she'd... "

(He folds arms, waiting for her to spit it out, eyes dark. Reaches out, makes the 'give it here' gesture)

"Mama would be upset."

"Well, find the guts to do SOMETHING. Get rid of her, leave home, decide not to give a shit."

"Trying to not care."

"Gets easier with practice."

"Makes my stomach hurt."

(A shrug) "Probably not as bad as having a baby, people live through that, I hear. Hear Dria talk, think she went through Al Qaida torture chambers. You, probably try Tums."

She shrugs, eyes cast down. "Can we go? I'm tired."

"You WANT to go home?"

"Or you trying to be a good little girl for everybody else?"

"I owe them."

"They owe you."

"And even if you did owe them? Fuck it." (A shrug) "Let's go out."

She shakes her head, hands pressed against her stomach. "Tired."

"So sleep here, you want to. If you don't, let's go."

(He is close, watching down at her seated on the bed)

"Could go home in the morning?"

"Don't ever have to go back at all, you don't really want to. Think about that, Ghost. REALLY think about it. You know it's true. Only thing keeps you going back, is YOU." (He shrugs off his jacket and shucks off his shirts, kicking off his boots) "Scoot over."

"Maybe I want it to be real? Sometimes it feels like it is." she scoots over, curling up on "her" side of the bed.

"Wishes and horses, right? Nockers kind of have a cruder way to say it, you know, something about wishing in one hand, shitting in the other, and seeing which hands gets full first." (He slides on, staying on his stomach, which is unusual for him. Back must be bothered by the rough cotton sheets)

"If it makes you happy, do it. If it don't, don't keep doing it."

"Simple." (His head turns, stares at her from his side)

"I miss how it was."

"Can't go back, though."

"Yeah."

"And taking her back to them, that wouldn't change that either. Just... just have her back with them. And I don't want that."

"So, you happy at least they don't get her anymore?"

"I am glad the Balor don't have her, yeah."

"Kind of a 'Kiss my ass' to the Balor, there." (A quick, hard grin)

"Taking her like that."

"Yeah, kinda."

"So, if nothing else, you gave those bastards the finger. Sleep on that."

"I... kinda?" a wan smile pushing past the fog, for a moment. She hugs the pillow, curled up on her side. "Night, Ice."

"Night, Ghost." (A grin at her smile, and reaches to give her hair a tug, not hard. Then he pulls hand back and closes his own eyes)