intheblanks | ➹BEEPER

Rudy Cooper would be great if you want to swap this out for a new one. I'm working on the assumption you'd like to keep the leg you've got.

[He stands and walks around her, not happy with this, but not going to assume he knows the pain threshold of a spider woman.

Then he closes the door.]

I'm going to move you into a better position, first. And I work better in an environment where no one's threatening me.

I have to make myself clear.

[She looks at him a long time]

I like you. So you know.

[She sits back, relaxed as much as she can manage]

[Lights on, he drags a chair across to the bed.]

I like you, too.

[And, leaning down, he wraps his arms around her, keeping her as close as possible for the lift. It's only a few degrees difference, but the range of movement will be important in a minute.]

[She's light, like a bird, as if her bones aren't entirely solid]

Good?

Bound to get someone in trouble.

[He checks her hip again, holding the leg still now it's less supported by the other. As confident as he can be in his own skill, he doesn't like playing this blind.]

But if you mean the position, I think so. [He bites his lip.] Want to brace yourself on something?

[He'd say hug a pillow, but.]

I won't sue.

[She puts her hands to her sides, fingers against the mattress]

Do it quickly.

[It was the liking he meant.

Nodding, he rests one knee on the seat of the chair he'd pulled across, bracing his own hands behind her thigh.]

On three. One, two- [It's the kind of thing you can't hesitate over. Snap and twist, like breaking a neck in reverse.]

[Her fingers dig into the mattress, and there's an aborted yelp - it sounds a bit like a gasp - but her leg is back in place. There's movement, like something crawling under her skin under Chase's hands, and she visibly relaxes]

Much better.

[The rippling under her skin isn't a standard aftershock. He spreads his fingers, lightening his touch but tracing that skitter of movement as far as the span of his hand. It's leaving him feeling like he should blink and look again (like nightmares he's had, to drunk to wake himself. Like catching sight of something in the darkness - but just shadows, just shadows after all)

With a slow exhale, he sits down in the chair beside her.]

It's a start. Next we should get you stitched up.

[It's a delicate face he pulls, then.]

And I can get something to wash your mouth out.

[She watches him]

All right.

[He isn't gone long, returning with a bag and a glass of wine. Water isn't going to take the taste away.

He's had a glass of his own. One won't make his hand less steady.]

So you're a woman who turns into a spider.

[She takes the glass and drinks]

Some people might say I am a spider who turns into a woman.

[Pause]

They wouldn't be correct. I'm neither, really.

[He unpacks as she speaks, preps her wounds as he does - the blue of the sterile wipes only a slightly different shade to the smears on her skin.]

You're just capable of both. What are you?

Ananasi.

[She pauses and just lets him do what he's doing]

In the most laymen of terms, I'm a werespider.

[He can probably live with being a layman in this arena.]

Is your sister Br'er Rabbit?

No, that's Anansi. He was an Ananasi.

[She seems to be relaxing even more]

My sister - Daisy - she's more like...Sobek. Since we're dealing with secrets.

[And he is a gentle worker. Careful, methodical, the light touch comes with skill.]

You're stretching my knowledge of foreign... [And there's the thing, what's the term.] myths?

She is, I suppose, a werecrocodile.

But she is more human than I could ever be.

[It seems pain softens Saya a bit, or maybe this is revenge on Daisy for sending Chase here]

[If it is revenge, it's not vicious. Chase won't do anything with the information.

(He'll perhaps be more careful of startling the girl sleeping on his bed)]

What makes her different?

[Not the reptile, the humanity]

Her mother.

[Saya hisses a little - just a little - when he cleans one particularly large cut]

Her mother has to have been the crocodile.

[Or that is a really strange skipped generation. He doesn't apologise, or ease up - there's nothing he can do about the peroxide sting and, after her leg, he's sure she's not delicate enough to complain.]

Yes. Our father was human.

[She keeps her eyes on him]

You're aware that doesn't follow.

Of course it does.

Crocodiles aren't quite as prehistoric as arachnids, but I've never looked one in the eye and marvelled at the humanity.

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]