"For supplies?" She repeated. Sighing as she settled back down. "I don't even like the sound of that."
"As long as the supplies don't involve me." Hector said, letting his eyes close again and was soon asleep. Cara looked
far too innocent for Hector to have fallen asleep naturally.
"Some Valium." Cara said with a shrug. "If he won't sleep, well, we'll make him. So Mike and Suzette went back to the
camp for supplies, and also to provide doctors and all, since you're tied up here. Most understandably. So is he
making more sense or still mumbling like a madman with moments of clarity?"
Andi was still laughing over the Valium as Potter answered:
"Oh, we've had some real clear moments of clarity."
"It’s been rather nice" Andi agreed. "Though I think I may need an order for a continuous drip of sodium pentothal."
"God help us all." Potter commented. Andi sat up, slowly disentangling herself from Hector. Even asleep his arm
around her was reluctant to let go.
"If he was truly horrid I do apologize." She told Cara.
"He wasn't that bad." Cara said and made sure to tie his now free wrist back down to the bed when Andi got off the
bed. "Just heard a lot about gumbo, basketball, the Yankees." She said as she pulled the sheet up to Hector's
shoulders. "And you." She said and gave the tall woman a crooked smile.
"Okay, I'm a Red Sox fan. I nearly wanted to slit my own throat listening to that crap." Potter said, looking between the
women as he took his post again.
Andi was in the process of slipping her shoes back on when Cara made her last comment and she looked up.
"Yeah?" Her voice was soft and vulnerable. Wistful. Her eyes met the nurse's. It was a girl thing and for the moment
Potter's comment was put on hold. She shouldn't ask. It was really Hector's privacy. But her eyes asked it anyway.
"Yeah." Cara repeated as she finished fiddling with the IVs and sheet. "He spoke of you." She said and stood behind
her for a moment. "This is a base on the very edges of the world, an outpost that will never be acknowledged by our
government. Therefore, we're protective of each other." She said and paused for a moment and looked back at the
sleeping Delta. "Especially of those too busy helping others to look out for themselves properly. Break his heart and I'll
kill you myself."
Andi's smile was slow and soft and she looked down at Hector's sleeping form.
"That's a deal." She murmured. She turned to give Cara a smile. "And thank you. For taking care of him when I'm not
here." She gave Potter a smile as well. "And you too." With a soft exhale, she leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss
to Hector's forehead.
"I'll be back." She whispered to him. Intending to go see if she could find some food. A shower. Maybe what time of day
it was...
Suz suddenly pushed the door open. She had a back pack over one shoulder, Mr. Snuffles under her other arm and a
disgusted look on her face.
"I have brought your clothes." She announced, in a low French purr. "And I am not pleased."
Andi pressed her fingers to her lips and stifled a laugh.
"Really?" She managed and Suzette marched over to thrust the stuffed elephant into her arms.
"Your taste in undergarments is passable. At least you realize you are lace and not leopard spots. But your clothing
choice is horrid. Horrid."
"Mm." Andi commented carefully. Fairly sure she didn't want her underwear discussed in public. Gentle she set Mr.
Snuffles down on Hector's chest. Facing him so the elephant's beady glass eyes could glare imperiously down at him.
Then she turned and slipped a hand through Suz's arm.
"Why don't we find me a shower and you can tell me about my unsophisticated taste in clothes then?" She suggested.
"Unsophisticated? That doesn't cover it." Suzette said, glancing back at Hector with that ridiculous elephant on his
chest. "You dress like my grandmother. I think that shall be my new mission, dressing you more fashionably. Especially
since the Americans are so shallow, their emphasis on appearance."
They walked to where Suzette was shown where showers were. "So uncivilized." She remarked. "Open showers,
though I do have to say, when I found my way around, they came in handy." She said with a wink. "No little scrawny
boys pretending to don the form of a man in this camp. It's empty now. I will stand guard if you would like."
"I thought you said your grandmother is the one that taught you about style in the first place." Andi stated as she took
her soaps out of her pack along with a towel and change of clothes. Pausing she held up a light length of tribal
patterned cloth and her face softened.
"Suz," she chided, "I can't wear this."
The french woman put her hands on her hips.
"You never do. I did not even know you owned sarong skirts until I went into your locker. Match them with a tank top
and one of those wooden necklaces I found in there and it would look good. You are lanky enough."
"I wear this at home." Andi clarified, gently folding the fabric back up and digging for a pair of shorts.
Suz sighed.
"You are so utilitarian." She complained. "Shorts and jeans and one pair of slacks. T-shirts and tank tops and
oversized button ups. You don't have a single dress in your locker. I didn't even know you had the skirts until I saw
them. And why don't you ever wear the jewelry?"
Retreating into the showers while Suz stood guard, Andi snorted.
"When would I wear a dress? I'm there to work, not be a fashion plate. Shorts are comfortable."
"They show off your forever legs." Suzette agreed. "But that is not enough. That is baring. A woman needs her frills."
"Thought you said my underwear had frills." Andi laughed as the water started running and Suzette chuckled.
"Not the same, petite. I think you need some serious help. A woman was not meant to dress boring. You need color to
your feathers."
"Suz," the warning sounded dire coming from the interior of the showers. "Don't you dare start clothes shopping for
me."
As usual it was ignored.
"I will start off gently." Suzette decided out loud. Not mentioning that she'd already called her own tailor that shipped
her new selections from France before she'd even left the camp to return here. Mike had found her apocalyptic fury
and horror funny and completely incomprehensible. "You don't even have a bathrobe. And you need silk for that. So
you remember what being a woman feels like. A summer dress would not hurt you either."
"Where would I wear that kind of thing?" Andi repeated her logic as floral scented suds floated toward the drain.
Definitely changing the way the showers were used to smelling.
Suzette gave a shrug she couldn't see. She knew her friend. Despite her protests. A woman that did not like the soft
touches did not use floral shampoo she had to have shipped in. Or still keep the cotton sarongs despite never wearing
them. Or have such delicate, feminine undergarments. She had seen the small touches, she understood that Andi
wanted them and yet was so used to making due without that she did it automatically even when her situation
changed. Missionary's children - Suz rolled her eyes.
"You will find a place." She answered confidently. "Americans' pay attention to that kind of thing."
"And frogs don't?" Andi's voice was dry despite having to lift a bit to carry to Suz. The shorter woman chuckled again.
"Besides," Andi continued, "Hector doesn't care what I wear."
Suzette made a sound that indicated how highly she ranked Hector's fashion sense. "Don't use a man whose
government dresses him to measure fashion," She stated firmly. "Or undresses him." She added as an afterthought. If
Andi absolutely had to chose a soldier at least she'd chosen one with a pleasing body.
"What?" Andi's sputter could have been a laugh or the result of soap in her ears.
"I said," Suzette lifted her voice a bit, "that it is not your man you should be concerned with impressing. It is the women
in his family."
There was a very long moment of silence then and Suzette was comfortable with it. Arching an elegant eyebrow at a
soldier approaching the showers with a towel over his shoulder so that he swerved away and thought of something
else to do.
"He has four sisters," Andi's voice finally came back. Sounding suddenly worried. Suz nodded. Justified.
Hector woke up with a groan, then a start as he saw that elephant on his chest. "Good god." He said. "Of all the
supplies they went back for..."
"They thought you could use some company besides me." Potter remarked and watched as Hector tried to move his
hand. "They tied you back down."
"Get this off me." Hector said reasonably.
"I don't know, he looks quite comfy." Potter said and went back to his book. Hector stared at the ceiling.
"This is NOT funny." He said, looking over at Potter, who he swore had a smile playing on the edge of his lips.
Suzette leaned against the door after chasing off another soldier looking for a shower. "Sisters? Sisters can be
trouble. Especially if they love their brother. Do they?" She said. "But we'll get you most impressive for them."
Andi scrubbed down with quick efficiency under the lukewarm water.
"I don't want to be impressive for them." She told Suz. "I don't want to meet them." She added in a mutter. Families and
her... they weren't exactly a good combination. She'd managed to permanently ruin all ties with her own outside of her
Mum and Da and she hadn't had any better luck at it with anyone else's since. She was always 'that tall, missionary
girl' to them. Especially after her Grandda had died and she'd had to go home with school mates for the holidays when
she couldn't afford to fly home. Here, in the middle of an African desert surrounded by soldiers and Red Cross
workers, she was normal.
Anywhere else she was just odd.
"What?" Suzette called back and Andi shook her head, running a razor across her legs.
"I said I don't want to impress his family." She repeated stubbornly. Though 'impress' wasn't the word she would have
chosen.
"Yes, you do." Suz called back cheerfully. "You will be exotic. Americans already think anyone with a British accent is
cultured. You will simply be you and they will love you. The way all our camp does." Andi stiffled a chuckle by putting
her face under the fall of water. Suzette had an overblown opinion of her. But that's what friends were for afterall. It just
made her love the french woman all the more. When she came back out from under the spray, Suzette was still talking.
"---perfume. But I will see that you are presentable. Otherwise they will never believe you if you tell them you have a
french woman as a friend."
"I love you, you know." Andi told Suz with a laugh as she shut off the water and reached for a towel.
"Of course you do. You cannot help it" Suzette answered cheerfully.
"Hector loves me too."