NO HARD FEELINGS

You are now and forevermore the coolest, most mysterious student at Rosehill Country Day.

"What?" The Request catches her so off guard that the words take a second to truly register and Ember is left starting at her lover with affectionate surprise. "With you?" Shaking her head to stifle the idea that she'd rather stay anywhere but here, with her. Beau and Ziggy had enough to deal with and really, this was where she wanted to be.

"I know." There's conviction in her words enough to make it clear she did know and expect that the worst was yet to come. "We can grab Hugs and some of my things later... I'm not going anywhere. I want to be here... with you." Lifting her head enough to connect their gaze, Ember smiles softly at her brunette counter part, brushing some of the wet hair from off her forehead.

And here was Ember Wexley, tugging at the invisible strings of Valerii's heart without even knowing it. She could kiss her.

She should kiss her.

A manicured finger gently traced across Ember's cheek as Val smiled at the sentiment. She leaned in to whisper, "Good thing I know CPR" before closing her mouth over Ember's in a kiss of hunger and passion and gratitude because here was a woman who climbed all those walls she'd put up to stop the world from getting in.

He was sure Dr. Vik could find something useful in it, outdated as it was. He had after all. And it was only right that the real doctor of the building should have it. Not her. Whoever she was.

"Wait. You weren't hoping to get ahold of it, were you?" he asked rhetorically with obviously feigned revelation. He clicked his tongue against his teeth. "Sorry about that. But I bet if you ask Dr. Jain nicely he might let you borrow it."

"Maybe another trip to that ship is in order," Ashton murmured, not really wanting anyone to take that risk right now, Zach and him had some understanding of that ship and could possibly take another stab at it. "Our time there was cut short by a horde. We could--" but Ash sighed, talking right now as if he had any say left in anything suddenly felt dumb, he's lost every right to exist, much less give an opinion, "..you could see if that's worth exploring again, and who could do it." Ash would've volunteered with Zach again but, well. Might as well preemptively take himself out of the equations.

Ash raised an eyebrow at some of the new information Val was sharing, "phase one? What's phase two then." World domination or whatever. It was exactly so that Ashton already flagged this up the day Sada flaunted it, that their supply would run out, they needed to focus on making some kind of contact with the North, prove that people are still surviving, and a way to recreate this on their own terms, instead of just pillaging from the entire city. "..one point? What do you mean?" That raised alarm bells. Ashton blinked himself more awake at that note, he knew a red flag trap when he saw one.

Valerii didn't see a point in returning to the ship but she wasn't going to bring that up now. Instead she nodded, as if the idea was one she'd take into consideration. He had enough to worry about right now. "Yeah, sure."

"Consider it government efficiently." Making survivors come to them ensured they could control who was actually getting the cure and stopped the waste of resources from sending out shipments to random points in the city that may be devoid of any actual survivors.

Don't let our people go there yet. "I'm trying."

It's the last comment she makes before the door begins to open and she straightens. Valerii isn't afraid of Sada or her lackies and holds herself with confidence as prying eyes fall onto them. Her jaw tightens as she swallows words she wants to give; offerings of strength and support. She knows that if they were overheard it would only bring Ashton more misery.

It was clear that Sada wanted him hopeless.

A mutual support, instead of one against the other.

Chuckling softly, forehead pressed against the thrumping pulse in her throat, Ember pressed a kiss to her clavicle, finally pulling back enough to be able to really look at her.

Hands lifting to brush ebony strands from the elegant lines of her face, she let her thumbs brush along the curve of her jaw as she pulled back to once more tangle her fingers in her hair. Sure it was supposed to have been Val washing her hair, but it was nice to lose herself in the silken strands, to drink in this woman who had come to pull her from the pits of despair.

"I've always loved your hair, you know that? Even when I'd just see you in the halls. Felt like I should be able to see my reflection in it."

Her focus returns to Ember's long hair and lathering a floral shampoo into it. "I think you should stay with me for a little while." Because it felt just the smallest bit safer to have Ember hidden here out of sight and out of mind in case Sada decided to finish the Wexley line once and for all. It didn't feel like she should be alone right now anyway. "--Or Ziggy and Beau, if that's better." Valerii included the second option to give Ember an out if her offer was too much ( if ember decided to stop pretending valerii was the right person to support her right now ).

It didn't even look like her. It was like staring at a stranger, someone she'd never seen before in her entire life, and for the barest of seconds she almost lost it. Stomach jumping into her throat like when you get too close to the edge of a big drop, but rather than bring her over it seemed to shock her back to the moment. To the present.

To Val.

Just in time to hear 'hot shower'. And that did sound incredibly nice, especially if it was together. Close. Nodding her head to the question with the softest of little smiles, Ember as well started to strip away the layers of clothing that felt like they'd begun to coalesce into her skin. She'd never been ashamed nudity, and it didn't pluss her now.

Stepping beneath the spray with her, the warmth of the water running over her seeped into her muscles and somehow deeper, like it was cascading over the walls of the chasm that held her. Arms lifting to wrap around Val, Ember pulled herself into her, skin to skin and rested her head on her shoulder, leaning against her so her hair could be reached without having to lose the comfort of her closeness.

This shower was less about disassociating through the pain and more about rekindling a connection between two human beings who were very afraid. She can't admit it but Val knows she needs this moment of intimacy just as much as Ember does. She is alone at the end of the world and has just let the closest thing she's had to a friend in two years get kidnapped by a fucking lunatic.

Her fingers begin to work in Ember's hair in an attempt to forget about the way the heated body feels pressed against her. But when Valerii feels a finger pressing gently against her back and drawing circles her desire turns from sexual to something softer. She couldn't think of the last time a woman had touched her like that. Valerii lived her life fast and had largely outran any attempts at an emotional connection. Fuck. She hadn't had these feelings for someone since her marriage ended.

"They started to figure out blood typing in the 17th century. This French guy in King Louis XIV’s court started experimenting with blood, testing all kinds of theories and trying to understand what it is." How did something as simple as red liquid the key to life? "He was the first to document the reaction between incompatible blood samples." The first to even realize that not all blood was inherently the same.

Val's lip turned up slightly. "And for all his hard work the king had him arrested. The French decided it was all too distasteful."

His eyebrows raised, giving her the space to share her hypothesis freely, while it wasn't really his wheelhouse of science, he was more than willing to at least be a soundboard to her. From one person of science to another, there was no judgment nor burden of truth, a thought experiment, that's all. "That's white blood cells right?" Ash tried to confirm with the rudimentary knowledge he had of what she was saying, "maybe they found a way to make these white blood cells to purposefully produce the antibodies." He was thinking out loud, the scenarios range from the hopefully microscopic level of using immuned blood to macro levels of using immuned humans altogether. But the fact remains that Canada was still a question mark, and in Ashton's mind if he had any say left, it was paramount to establish communication in some way.

"..and with that also given her all the leverage," the moment Sada knew the value of the real deal she had, that was it. If she wanted to could infect a whole lot more of them and use the vaccine as a form of control. Ash didn't say the statement as if blaming her, but rather as just a fact, a consequence of who Sada is. "Considering they were so gracious to give these to their neighboring country, safe to say they have made enough, that fast," the cost had to be high.

Ash carefully leaned forward and reached over to help hold pressure on the cotton bud over the puncture wound while she kept the blood, "knowing Sada, is her plan just to raid every single vial over the city at any cost?" He scoffed at the idea, how much more different does that make them from the raiders? That just seemed to be a mountain of problems with it, but she did seem to love hoarding power.

Valerii doubted this would be the last time she had to make that compromise. Sada's power would grow and with it her ability to inflict cruelty. No doubt there was a line that Valerii would eventually refuse to cross but apparently torture wasn't it.

Her head bobbed in assurance that his understanding was correct, neck beginning to crane in curiosity as she considered his own proposal. "That..." She paused in continued thought. "I could see that." It would be a hell of a lot more efficient than her mad scientist committing crimes against humanity theory. "We don't even know what resources they had when making this." Although it had been delivered from Canada perhaps the country had been collaborating with countries that were still capable of this kind of research. The US may be beyond any sort of organized attempts at resistance but there had to be other countries that were keeping the infection in check. "Those test kits came from Korea. That tells us they had a head start on solving this." After Zach and Ashton had checked out the docks where the outbreak started for their city, the question of the Korea's involvement had been on everyone's mind. Had they been responsible for this? Had they somehow engineered this nightmare in a lab?

"That's only phase one of the plan." And sending people out to scavenge and steal against unorganized survivors who couldn't stand a chance against the blood thirsty bastards Sada employed was bad enough; but the next part would be so much worse. "But there are only so many of those cases in New York." And the others, sent out across the border of US and Canada along densely populated areas, would be impossible to track down. "And any future drops are only happening at one point in the city." Anyone after the stuff would be funneled right into what Valerii could only assume was some sort of trap.

"I don't like it. It doesn't feel right." Even Sada couldn't be certain of what awaited them if they took the bait. The government had sealed them in here to die and blown the bridges behind them--why would they give a shit about their survival now?