A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 53

"Nothing much – I don't think," Callie shrugged, "You're with D'Arcy and anyway, I know that you're pretty tough and I don't want any trouble, so I just wanted to say that I'd defer to you in any decision or anything. I'd rather try to be friends."

Rudhi looked up at Callie a little hopefully, "You mean that you would do what I say if we all live together?"

Callie nodded, "Yes. Not like a servant or anything, but I'd help where I could."

Rudhi nodded, "Then please, Callie, if you know anything about - " she looked at Randi, "What is it that you said that I need a good one of?"

"A massage," Randi smiled, "You need a good back rub."

"Yes," Rudhi groaned, "D'Arcy is a violent lover. My back hurts so much and my hips hurt me even more. So if you are good at this back rubbing business, then please help me and we are friends at once. We already are friends. I liked you yesterday. It was why I went with you."

"I thought that you would have liked making out with D'Arcy," Callie said as she jumped up on the tank and patted a spot there for Rudhi to lie down on.

"She loved it, "Randi grinned, "She's just not used to someone who's a little ..."

Rudhi rolled her eyes, "Who is a little what? D'Arcy is not a little anything. He is a lot of everything. He picked me up by the hips and held me in the air while he used that mouth of his and I hung upside down.

Well it goes from here to here," she said, indicating how far his open mouth spanned on her, front to back.

"He chewed and bit and licked and... Well, I cannot hold still for this. I am ..." she looked at Randi again, "What am I?"

"Very ticklish," her friend nodded with a grin, "and don't mind her, Callie. If he walked over here naked and asked her if she wanted to play, she'd be off that stump and into his arms like a shot.

She's been so unhappy here because nobody here fools around the way that people did on her home world. Well, she's been trying to learn that making love is a phrase which doesn't – or shouldn't have the word 'murder' in it.

Now she's found somebody who can take her abuse and hand some back to her as well, and she thinks he's wonderful, but they had so much fun kicking each other's ass that I'm lucky they didn't tip my tank over. They went at each other inside my tank tent for a while. It's made to sleep four people who want to sleep. It wasn't made to house a couple of brawlers like them when they screw! When they wrecked that, they settled in to bopping like bunnies all over the light snow that fell last night.

That's why her ass is covered in pine needles."

Rudhi spun around to try to look and she hissed in pain as she hurt her already stiff neck and groaned in dull achiness and a little embarrassment.

"I guess that finally the cold got to them and they crawled up onto my piggy here and without a word of a lie, they almost overheated the engine because they'd blocked the hot air exit. My husband and I woke up to the tank rocking!

Do you have any idea how hard it is to rock a seventeen ton tank?"

"Kicking each other's ass?" Callie asked, "Really?"

Randi grinned, "Oh yeah. Where she's from, telling somebody that you love them just isn't done without belting them at least twice."

"It is so," Rudhi said, a little mournfully as she got up to lie down on a towel for Callie, "I only see him and I grow wet. I almost cannot hold still when he holds me. I have never wanted someone so much and everything is like playing when we are together. I could probably kill him, but I have not been able to hurt him even a little yet.

He is the perfect lover for me.

He never commands me, but I know that if he did, I would be like a lamb for him. He holds me in a certain way and I am a little helpless. He forces me in some ways and I allow it and cannot wait for his touch. I just cannot help it. But when he lies on his back and holds me while he takes me from behind me, I always look up. We are just the right sizes that I can do that. I lie on my back on his hard chest and I look up – because I cannot help it. I see his eyes and I am helpless for him. "

"I told you before all of this," Randi said, "Don't look into his eyes then."

Callie shook her head, "No Randi, I don't think you understand. D'Arcy and Shane are really pure wolf-born. If you're making love with somebody like that and you've got feelings for them at all, then you have to look. If he's an asshole, you'll see amazing promises there that mean nothing. But if he loves you, he'll show you ..."

"Everything," Rudhi whispered to herself as she looked off into the forest, seeing something of her memory of the previous night.

"Everything," Callie nodded, "So you saw?"

Rudhi nodded, "I saw his heart. This has never happened to me before."

Welcome to the wild," Callie smiled a little, "If you saw that, then you know that he's yours – and you're his. You just see it and you know. That's why wolf-born pair for their lives. Once that happens, it's all over and you know that you just -"

"Belong to each other," Rudhi said in a whisper. She shook her head and looked at Callie.

"Did this happen to you?" Rudhi asked and Callie nodded with a smile, "Yeah. I crawled onto his chest a little and I looked in his eyes. But I gave him my heart first because I had to do it that way. Then he held my hips with his hands and we did it. So are you happy?"

Rudhi looked at Callie for a second and she nodded, smiling a little, and then groaning a little more as Callie got to work, "If you are the same as me and belong to the younger one now," she smiled weakly, "then I think that I complain too much, Callie. I am the bitch that we spoke of to each other and I will need your help and do anything for you as well, if we are now in this family of theirs."

Callie sighed, "I never thought that it would happen for me, but that is what we are now and I think that we need to get along, you and me."

"So we go, "Rudhi groaned under Callie's fingers. "D'Arcy is very good for me, so I should just count my chickens before the bridges burn."

Callie chuckled, "I think you mean count your blessings."

"Yes," Rudhi nodded, "just so."

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In the dim light of the early morning, Nancy woke up and found that she was still in his arms and still very warm and comfortable. The tip of her nose protruding out of the blankets told her just how much colder it was outside. She snuggled a little closer and watched his eyes open. To see his soft smile meant everything to her and they just stayed like that for a time until he said that he'd have to get up soon.

After he'd left her to speak with D'Arcy, she huddled in the blankets and thought some things over. She knew that it would never work for her to just try to find a place somewhere in this strange hierarchy that she didn't really understand or have the time required to figure it all out. So she decided to take her cues from Buttons.

As she stood and finished getting dressed, she noticed that he was almost head-deep in his bags, rooting around as though he was desperately searching for something. At last, he came up with a strange-looking holster-ish looking thing and he walked over to her.

"I want you to have this," he said and he handed her an odd-looking thing as he adjusted a long leather strap to fit over one of her shoulders. Nancy looked at it as she held it in her hands for a moment. Then she got it and grinned, "This is a shotgun!"

"Yes," he smiled, "A sawn-off over and under. It's a lot thinner that way than this kind," he said, holding up a different one which was a side-by-side double-barreled one with external hammers. "What the hell," he smiled, "Take this one too. It's a four-ten, so it shouldn't break your hand to shoot it. The one in your hands there is a twelve guage, so make sure you hang onto it when you shoot."

He stepped behind her and adjusted the hang of the holster so that it wouldn't be particularly noticeable under the cloak that he gave her. It left no bulge at all since it hung there against the small of her back. Then he got to one knee and Nancy looked down into his face with a smile as he strapped a holster for the second shotgun onto her thigh.

"You do know that seeing you like this in the daylight just makes me want to take stuff off instead of putting it on, right?" she smiled.

"Yeah, "he smiled up at her, "Me too."

She adjusted her cloak a little and they walked off to see D'Arcy and Shane. When they found them, they were with a couple of the others and Nancy thought that she could recognize one of them as one of the ones who'd tried to frighten her the previous evening.

"Well," he leered at the pair, "it's Buttons and his new toy bitch."

The next sounds heard were the clicks as Nancy drew her side-by side up from out of her cloak and cocked both hammers with the palm of her left hand, her index and middle fingers on the twin triggers of the piece. The young wolf-born stared and froze with his mouth open.

"You don't know me from anybody," Nancy said coldly, "but I'll re-arrange your pretty face the next time that you call me a bitch and there's no respect in it. You want to talk to me, you call me Nan. Otherwise, keep that thing shut, Scooter."

He stared at her, "Scooter? What the fuck?"

"That's right," Nancy nodded as she leaned forward a little, "Scooter.

You're all mouth and air, trying to cover the hole in your self-confidence with bravado and bullshit. But nobody really wants to hear it since we all know what it is. You'd get a lot more respect if you keep your tongue behind your teeth. The hole will get filled in time with experience. "

D'Arcy smiled and Shane laughed a little, "Man, she's got your number."

The eyes in front of her almost glowed, "I'm wolf-born, and I'm –"

"I know," she grinned a little, "You're stuck up over it. You're wolf-born, so what? So is almost everybody here but me and Callie and the people with the machine there," she said.

"Guess what, puppy-breath? We all gotta fall out of somebody's crotch somewhere, don't we? Your trouble is you landed on your head and Mamma fussed over you too much. Now you think you're important. Don't you ever let me hear you call him Buttons again," she said.

"So you know him as Wheezer. Keep it that way."

He looked at her as though he wanted to tear her apart, but he also saw Wheezer's smile, just as Shane and D'Arcy convulsed in laughter. But that laughter faded as Callie stepped over to speak to Shane about something and found Nancy's shotgun against her forehead as she pulled the triggers.

The double – clicks were fairly loud and Callie had to steady herself against Shane for a moment as she looked over in shock.

"Now we're even, "Nancy said as she drew back the piece, "And you know how it feels. By the way, you've got my pistol. I want it back."

"How did you know that was empty?" Rokand asked, and she looked over her shoulder, "Other than guessing that you wouldn't keep loaded shotguns lying in your bags, I didn't," she shrugged.

"The gun was empty!" the young roadman said, as he began to smile and reach for Nancy, but he stopped when her hand curled over his snout and she began to pull. His head moved sideways and tilted at an uncomfortable angle to try to follow the motion as she stretched his lip painfully enough to cause involuntary tears.

"The threat wasn't, asshole," she frowned, "You might be able to kill me today, but it won't be very satisfying. Use your little brain and back down."

As she let him go, he looked around and knew that the longer this went on, the less credibility that he'd have. He knew that he could kill her, but then Wheezer would have something permanent to add, and that was the final deterrent. He scowled and walked off.

Turning back, she said, "I'm sorry that I was such an ass to you all yesterday. I don't expect you to like me much, but I'm going to try to behave at least a little."

She stepped over to D'Arcy, "I'll do anything that I can to help if Ewan needs details and names when you get to the hospital, but I'm not going there with you."

She reached for a few of the shells which were stored on her bandolier and she opened the breech of first one weapon and then the other, loading them and then setting the safeties before she replaced them in their holsters.

Then she looked at Callie, "Well?"

Callie blinked, "Well, what?"

Nancy's gaze didn't waver, "I want my pistol returned to me. Or do you want to try it with a loaded shotgun this time?"

"Oh yeah," Callie nodded, drawing the revolver out of the pocket of her cloak, "Sorry."

"Thank you," Nancy said, meaning it.

She turned to Ewan, "You're wrong. I didn't do anything to turn your sentence hard. But I know who it was, so when it gets to that point, I'll help there too. That one doesn't live or stay near the quarry, so you'll need me along to get her, and I'll do that. I want to do that.

You and I haven't exactly seen eye to eye on many things, Ewan, but other than ask you to go to bed with me that one time, I haven't really had anything to do with your treatment. Mostly, I was just the accountant. I guess I've got a lot of apologizing to do to you anyway. So I'm starting right here and now. Please try to forgive me if you think you can."

Ewan thought about it and he nodded, "If you try, then I will, especially if you can help me get to the person who fucked me out of a lot of my life."

Samantha stepped forward then, "Are you really just gonna let her walk?"

He nodded with a shrug, "I think she's at least part right. If I hang onto hating her – and she's not the one, then what's it all for? I wouldn't be any better as a person, would I? She says she'll help me; then I'll give her a chance."

"But the way she talked to you, the way she acted. What about that?"

Nancy spoke up then, "It might be a little hard to do, uh Samantha, but try to imagine that you're in that place. When you speak to a prisoner, you need to remember that you're not trying to build up a good work relationship. You mostly just need to get things done. Sad to say, but talking somebody down is the quickest way if they know that there is the threat of force present, though not necessarily something that can be seen every second of the day."

She looked at Ewan for a moment, "He's not stupid any more than anybody else might be, but if you have to get him to do something that he doesn't want to do, how are you going to do it? Shoving a gun in his face all day long is just asking for something unfortunate to happen sooner or later.

So I'll help you, Ewan. Just don't hit me anymore."

Ewan nodded and even did his best to smile a little so that he didn't come off looking mean. He realized that he likely already had, but like a lot of things, once done, ... "Uh, sorry for that, too."

"Roland," Shane said quietly, "Where did you get the name 'Buttons' anyway?"

"Try to think of me as very young and small," the tall one whispered, "I was about four or five when I was caught by Nancy's father. She was maybe two."

Shane and D'Arcy gave it a second and then nodded. It was a stretch, but they managed it, "Yeah."

"Now try to imagine me being very friendly and happy to meet you," he hissed quietly.

There was a moment of silence and then D'Arcy looked down and chuckled, "Ok, you lost me right there, but I think I get it."

"His eyes looked like shiny buttons," Nancy said.

"Take Ewan to town and tell Clancy what happened," he said to D'Arcy, "I'm taking Nancy to my place. I'll be back in a few days."

She looked at the brothers and smiled, "Ok, it's at least partly what you think. I'm gonna let him tie me up and do whatever he wants."

Shane grinned a little, though he tried very manfully to hold onto a neutral expression, "I wasn't thinking anything like that. You?" he asked his brother.

"Not me," D'Arcy smiled, "Uh, did you say that he was going to tie you up?"

She nodded with a smirk, "I never knew that I liked that. Then he's gonna bite me."

There was another long and awkward silence before Nancy laughed, "No, he's going to try to turn me. I think that's what he called it."

D'Arcy looked up then, the humor in his face fading, "Nancy, you have to know that not everyone survives it. At least ten percent die from a bite, no matter how gently it's done."

"I know," she nodded, "I've decided to roll the dice anyway. We'd like to try being together now that we've found each other. If it works, Scooter there will really have something to grumble about."

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Three weeks later, Randi and her partners were cranking out about all the meat products that they could prepare and deliver to a few of the towns. The increase in productivity allowed them to make money hand over fist.

The foursome were already fast friends, and though they always really enjoyed fooling around together now and then, for the most part, it was just two couples who had quickly grown to be comfortable as friends and then some. Randi and Ayt'han were the same between them, but Lindsay and Samantha had found a place for themselves at Randi's farm and were finally happy together.

It was just at the middle of April, after a winter which had seemed to hang on by its fingernails as though it would never let go of its hold on the land, that they were on their way back from market, rumbling and rattling down the road, following the roadmen and their empty ( this time) wagon. Nancy rode next to Roland out in front, just ahead of D'Arcy and Rudhi.

They'd agreed to meet up on the road and head for Randi's farm together for a bit of a party when they crested a small rise and Sam had to hit the brakes to avoid running into the roadmen, who had stopped suddenly and sat staring at what lay ahead of them.