My Way

Writers: Bree, Eimi
Date Posted: 6th July 2006

Characters: M'galec, Abrei
Description: M'galec agrees to take Abrei to Dragonsfall Weyr--if she agrees to his conditions.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 13, day 3 of Turn 3

Abrei

It had taken nearly three candlemarks after U'kaiah's departure, but Abrei had finally cried herself out. She wasn't sure if all the tears had been about Talryne, though she knew in precise detail exactly how unlikely it was that her cousin's child would live long enough for her to see her a last time. Even if she survived, the girl she'd known would be gone. The tears were still drying on her cheeks when she dragged herself to the door of her weyr, wobbling without her crutches but too tired to find them.
She had been expecting U'val in any case, and for once wanted nothing more than to throw herself into his arms and let him soothe her the way he had when she'd been a little girl. Holding her weight on her good leg, Abrei opened the door and was already leaning in to collapse onto U'val's chest when she realized that the wrong man was at her door and jerked back quickly enough to lose her balance.

"Whoa there, Master Abrei," M'galec said as he rushed forward to catch her before she fell back on her bad leg. "Walking around without your crutches is not a good idea." His tone was not accusing but gentle. The bronzerider knew how bad the news she had received that day was for her.

"I thought you were U'val," she replied, righting herself hastily. Then her eyebrows drew together as she studied M'galec. "Shards, what's gone wrong?
Do I need to go to the infirmary?"

"No," he replied, still frowning slightly at her lack of crutches. "Here, we should get you to the sofa. Lean on me."

"No, I'm fine." To prove it she got her hand onto the back of her chair and hopped the few steps it took to sink down into it. "See? Didn't even walk on my bad leg."

M'galec wasn't exactly pleased, but she did at least follow his instructions that time. "Anyway, I have just come to see how you are doing. I know the news you received today was... quite a shock."

"You're here... to check on me?" She hadn't meant to say the words out loud--and certainly not in that tone of utter disbelief. "Well, yes," he replied matter of factly. Tact had never been her strong point, but with the emotions of the day it had deserted her entirely. "Why?"

M'galec had come prepared for this question. "Because, despite our differences, we are both human beings. If you and I did not care for our fellow human beings, we would never have become Healers. Therefore, it is only logical that I should care for you, and worry about you."

"It's only _logical_ that someone who cared about me wouldn't say the sort of terribly hurtful things that you say to me on a fairly regular basis,"
she retorted, swinging her injured leg up onto her footrest with a grimace.
"I don't know what sort of game you're playing with me now, M'galec, but I don't want to play. And I'd think that choosing _today_ to play it would be beneath even you."

"I do not play games," M'galec responded dryly.

Abrei looked even more upset, her emotions far too close to the surface today. "Then _why_ are you here? Do you have some more judgments on my character you'd like to share? Maybe if you try really hard, you can make me cry in front of you this time." "I am not trying to make you cry," the bronzerider as he walked over to perch himself on the edge of the sofa. "You have a lot to learn about how to relate to people, Master Abrei, but I do respect you as a very good healer. You are not all bad."

"_I_ have a lot to learn about relating to people?" she retorted angrily, wishing she couldn't feel the beginnings of frustrated tears. "I may not be good at it, but at least I _know_ that. You, on the other hand, have managed to become more obnoxious than I am. And I've had _ten turns_ of a head start on you!" "I have heard no complaints," M'galec frowned. "And I only say hurtful things which are true and need to be said."

Abrei made a frustrated noise, turning away from him as the tears that had been threatening finally appeared. "Well I'm complaining," she said thickly.
"So just go away, already. I've had a bad enough day." The bronzerider frowned again. This was certainly not the way he had intended this meeting to go. "Abrei, perhaps we have _both_ said and done things that were... out of character. Perhaps we should try to make a fresh start."

She let out a choked sounding laugh. "Weren't you paying attention earlier, M'galec? I'm not having a very good day. I can't take any more right now.
Please." "And that is precisely why I am here. I am here to..." Shards, why _was_ he there... "To offer you my friendship and support in your time of need. Of course, if you do not need that, you can ask me to leave and I will go. But the offer has been made."

Abrei turned back to face him, letting him see just how upset she truly was.
"You want to be a friend, M'galec? Put me on your sharding dragon and take me to Dragonsfall so I can see Talryne before--" The words died in her throat, swallowed by a fresh wave of grief. Shards, Talryne _couldn't_ die. M'galec watch the tears well up in her eyes and could feel his stomach twist into knots of sympathy. He reached out and put an arm around her shoulder.
"I will do that for you, Abrei. I will take you. But you must do as I say, and you cannot go with anyone but me. I cannot let you do any more damage to your knee."

Having never gotten her way through tears before, Abrei didn't immediately understand what he'd said. "You'll--I can go? You'll take me?" "Yes, but you must remember to do as I say," he cautioned her. "You have to understand, I would not normally do this..."

She scrubbed at her cheeks with one hand, the other stretching past the arm of the chair to try to reach her crutches. "My flight jacket is by the door.
Thank you, M'galec." "You just wait here a little while. I need to prepare Dwarkanth, and make arrangement for a rolling chair to be ready when we arrive. We must do this _my_ way, remember?" His voice was firm, but also very gentle.

Abrei froze. "I do _not_ need a rolling chair! Shards, it's almost been a _month_--" she bit her lips to stop the words, afraid that M'galec would change his mind. She could always escape him at Dragonsfall if she had to, if she could just _get_ there...

"And it is exactly this attitude that made us have to go in and repair your knee _twice_. There will not be enough left of it to fix if we have to go in a third time. You _will_ use the rolling chair the entire time you are at the Weyr, and I will personally be pushing you around in it to make _sure_ you are in the rolling chair. After all, I will be holding your crutches, so there will be very little choice. That is the deal."

For a moment the picture of having to face U'kaiah while being pushed around by M'galec made her want to say no. The image was replaced with one of Talryne, laying in the infirmary threadscored and dragonless, and any idea of pride faded. "Fine," she said quietly. "We'll do it your way." M'galec gave her a quick approving nod. "Then I will make preparations and return to you in less than a candlemark."

Last updated on the July 9th 2006

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My Way