Ben's room [Ellis Island, Enderverse, Wednesday afternoon, Fandom time]

[momslilassassin]

Ben finally got his hand extracted from Ender's (he hadn't really been trying that hard while Alai had been visiting), and left the room to give Val (and Alai, sigh, grumble, whatever) some time to spend with Ender as well.

Ben went for a walk, got lost four times, found some food and a shower and finally made his way back to his room.

He sat down in an uncomfortable chair on the theory that if he sat on the bed he'd fall asleep for a week, and began making some long-delayed calls back to Fandom.

With his luck, time had sped up there, he'd been gone for a month, and Karla was after his head...

[OOC: If you think he called you, he did!]

Comments

[glacial_queen]

Karla was unsurprised. Vastly, vastly unsurprised. It wasn't like this was new. "Well, he probably doesn't know about the nightmares," she pointed out. "Ender was a lot less touchy then, too."

[momslilassassin]

"I wasn't going to tell him," Ben replied.

He'd also been kind of amused to be warned about Ender's violent tendencies when he woke up. That had stopped being a problem for them, barring random shifts to animals or girls, almost a year ago.

"Besides, Ender had a death-grip on my hand. I wasn't going anywhere."

[glacial_queen]

"Like you would have gone anyway," Karla said softly. "You don't leave your friends, Ben. You and I both know it."

[momslilassassin]

"Not without a fight," he admitted quietly. "Alai's smart enough to recognize that. Besides, Ender's only been up for a few minutes at a time."

[glacial_queen]

"So little jealous pissing contests is about as far as he can push you," Karla reminded. "Why keep playing that? He wins when you do. You know that, right?"

Finally! Relationship advice!

...She just couldn't tell him that's what it was.

[momslilassassin]

"I know," Ben said, "and it's been pretty easy this week to see the petty things for how stupid and pointless they are." He ran his fingers through his hair. "It was close to me having to make an entirely different call for you."

[glacial_queen]

Karla was just going to sit down on her bed, her knees not liking the implications of that call. "I'm going to assume that you mean a panicked call for help with Healing," she said, a slight tremor in her voice betraying the fact she knew that wasn't what he's meant. "Because if it's anything else, I might throttle Ender before I have a chance to Heal him up proper."

Didn't Ender realize how much he meant to them? How selfish it would be for him to just end it all?

...Not helpful thoughts, no, but...dammit Ender!

[momslilassassin]

"He's been beat up enough," Ben said, just a little bit of steel in his voice. "He'll have a very neat explanation for why he did what he did. It might even be the truth."

[glacial_queen]

Karla sighed and glared at the phone. "Do you really think I would throttle Ender? Really?! Especially when I'm in full-on Healer mode?"

Leash it, Ben.

"If it isn't the truth, you gonna call him on it?"

[momslilassassin]

"Yes," Ben said, "but not here. There are too many cameras here."

[glacial_queen]

"Graff," Karla said sourly. "And maybe Peter. And anyone else who feels free to listen. One of these days, I'm going to make you guys aural shield bracelets for whenever you leave the island. I have a feeling they'll come in handy."

Like...all the time.

[momslilassassin]

"It might just get them more interested in figuring out what we need to say that they can't hear," Ben offered. "A worry for another time, either way."

He closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. "I miss you."

[glacial_queen]

"I miss you too," Karla said. "It's been forever since I've seen you. Or so it feels like."

Sure, she'd visited on Naboo and they'd done a movie when they got back, but something had changed over the summer. On all their parts, maybe. There was a distance there that hadn't existed before.

"We have to hang out more when you get back. For more than just Healing up Ender."

[momslilassassin]

"You have some kind of story to tell me about visiting Jono's world too, I think," Ben said, sounding a little Warlord Prince-y. "You used yourself up too much."

Didn't mean he wouldn't be demanding healing for Ender anyway, but...

[glacial_queen]

"I wish I could have done more," Karla said, not even bothering to deny it or even protest. "He called us in a panic after coming home and finding a bunch of people from his new school crucified on the front lawn. And then the next day was worse."

So, so, so much worse.

"What Hobart is doing, he's doing it for power and politics." Her voice was very soft. "I can't condone it, but I can at least understand it. What happens in Jono's world--and Bobby's and Warren's--the mindless fear and hate that leads to exterminating millions...I just can't."

[momslilassassin]

"That part I have more insight on," Ben said sadly. "That's got the Yuuzhan Vong War--and the rise of the Empire, to an extent, written all over it."

But he wasn't going to go into details right now. He had enough of a mess on his hands without digging up the past.

"How much worse did it get?" Ben said. He'd been to some gruesome situations with Karla, and if she thought it was bad, he was going to believe her.

[glacial_queen]

"'Hundreds of bodies in a church' worse," Karla said, tucking her knees up to her chest now. "'With dozens of still-living experiments in the basement' worse."

Because this was exactly what Ben wanted to hear about while worried out of his mind for Ender, right?

[momslilassassin]

Ben shuddered. It was at least a different kind of worried?

"Warren there too?"

[glacial_queen]

"Yup," Karla said, sounding weary and guilty. "Jono just said he needed Healers, and Warren's blood Heals. He's also gotten good at medical stuff from Panem and the like, so I asked him to come along."

Which meant he got treated to another helping of nightmare material at her instigation. Yay.

"I didn't know--and no one could have guessed about the church--"

[momslilassassin]

"Hey," Ben said softly, "I'm not blaming you, and I'm sure Warren isn't either."

[glacial_queen]

"I am," Karla said. "I hate that the vast majority of awful things he's seen, it's somehow been because of me. I'm not trying to protect him--" anymore "--but I could really wish that I wasn't somehow present and involved in almost every traumatic event he's faced."

[momslilassassin]

"Pretty sure you've also been involved in some of his good events," Ben replied. "Not that I'm asking for details of those."

[glacial_queen]

"Honestly, Ben, do you think I'm the kind of witch who kisses and tells?"

She was. She so was.

"But in the wake of all that, it's hard to think a good morning blow job really rates much."

THAT WASN'T A DETAIL!

[momslilassassin]

"Depends on the blow job," Ben said, blushing furiously.

[glacial_queen]

"..."

Oh, now you got her attention, Ben. Fear.

"Just what has to go into a blow job to make sure it does?" Did you hear that rustling in the background, Ben? That was Karla. Preparing to take notes.