#5imon

“No you won’t,” you say, not knowing it’s a lie.

Five opened her eyes reluctantly. Whatever sleep she'd ended up getting was less than restful. It wasnt like in the movies where the hero woke up and spun around, trying to figure out what happened. She knew she would never forget. She sat up and wrapped her arms around herself protectively. As if she could protect herself from her own mind. A tired grunt came from just outside the only doorway to the small room. She realized then it was windowless. It probably used to be a storage room of some sort. Strangely, the confinement comforted her. She couldnt hurt anyone in here... Simon appeared in the doorway, leaning casually against the frame. He looked awful, as one is bound to look after coming back from the dead. Tired and weighed down. She waited for the anger to surface, like it had when he slapped her out of her hallucinations. Like it had every time she had seen him since Van Ark. For her eyes to burn and her nostrils to flare. It never came. "I like the room," she said instead as he studied her. His cheeks gave away a grin under the mask covering the lower half of his face. "I had to put you somewhere you couldn't run off on me. You led me on a merry ol' chase there, Five. I'd forgotten how fast you are." They both looked away at the casual mention of their shared past before Van Ark. Before Simon's betrayal. "You saved me," Five whispered. "Again." She had had plenty of time to be angry with Simon. To hate him. But now... he saved Jodi, saved Five from Amelia, then saved Abel from Five herself. Simon's tone sobered. "I told you I'd always come for you, Five." "Is she out of my head?" She asked, ghosting her fingers along her temple. She didn’t think she could bear the answer if it was no. She exhaled in relief when Simon nodded. "I shot you full of that serum. Gave you a nasty trip, but you should be mind-control proof. Not that Moonchild knows that. She has her drones combing the area for you. Three Sopranos short of an opera, that one." Five shook her head. "Please don't make light of her. She's dangerous." "Its the only way I know how, Love." He lowered his voice. "What do you remember?" What she'd done for Moonchild, holding the ax over Sam, the hallucinations after, it was vivid in her mind like a high-def movie. Again and again and again. Her own memories weren't this clear. Five took a shaky breath and looked down at her shoes. "Everything." Silence dragged on for a minute or three. Five numbly focused on the low groan of a zom outside. "We should move in an hour," Simon said at last. "I'll give you some space..." "No," Five's head snapped up so fast her head spun. "Please. Stay." She held up a hand toward him. He smiled and shook his head, but walked forward and sat down next to her. "I'm sure you would rather have anyone else here," he started. She shook her head. "No. Like you said. You know this guilt." She swallowed. "More than the others can." "Not that it means anything," he whispered. It was weird seeing him like this, not hiding behind jokes and innuendo. Just... Simon. Raw. Five looked at him. "It does to me." Five scooted up next to him, pressing herself against him. He smirked and put an arm around her. She laid her head on his shoulder. "Is this all I had to do to get some action from you, Five?" The snark was back in his voice. It sounded good. "If I would have known I only had to die once then save you from a mind-controling psychopath I would have done it a lot sooner." She grinned, despite everything. "Shut up," she said, teasing. "Aw, that," he said, raising a finger in the air. "Has never been something I was good at." Silence stretched on a while longer. Finally Five broke the quiet. "I saw Archie," Five whispered. Her throat suddenly restricted and her eyes burned. "And Sara. I saw their faces. Heard their voices." The tears started to flow freely now. Five didn't even try to stop them. "We've lost so much. So many people. And we are going to lose more." Her voice seized up on her. She couldn't continue. Simon didn't reply. She met his gaze and saw the pain there. Those devastatingly handsome eyes that were now home to so many demons. She had lost so much. And she knew any of the others could be snatched away from her at any moment. But him. He could be her constant. The one thing she didn't have to fear losing because even death itself couldn't take him away. "I can't lose you," she breathed. He gently kissed the top of her head through the thin mask. "I don't think you have to worry about that. I haven't been very good at dying as of late." "Good." She leaned further into him and closed her eyes. Soon she would be back at Abel, and have to face the nightmare her life had become. But right now, she let the guilt swallow her while she felt supported by the man who sold the world. Her unlikely hero.