Gravity

"It's been one long night....Sittin' here on the floor in the clinic. Anna got hurt... Hurt bad." My heart was still hammerin' over seein' her all broken."Somehow things over the last few days been.... well, complicated..... Not sure if thats the right words for it. I went from bein' spun 'bout to caught in a gravity I can't escape. Like a planet settlin' into it's orbit for the first time." I signed thinkin' of it... Only a few days..."Lily was all excited 'bout her new dress... Weddin' dress. Even said she had one all picked out for Anna. She went to talk to the shepard 'bout doin' the ceremony, then told me 'bout that a few days ago.... but then things started to get gorram confusin'."

"Anna was growin' again. She'd gotten taller. Looked older too. Noticed how her hair got a little darker... and her eyes... They looked different too... Not blue... almost a golden brown.... Seems Lily'd done somethin'... She shut down... no, she severed all the feeds and conections to everythin'... and everyone. She even killed the feeds for the cortex here on the moon. Said it'd keep Anna safe. She was babblin' on 'bout stuff, but not stoppin' to explain what all she was sayin' or doin'."Reachin' over I took AuroraBlue's hand. Holdin' that little hand was like a lifeline for us both.... "That got me worked up when she said it was to keep Anna safe. Thats when I hightailed it to the mines. I knew then then my little one was not on Boros for sure, but down there."

"Deeper, I went. I could catch her scent.... Soft smellin' like a meadow full of flowers on a warm summer day.... It'd come up on the slight updrafts flowin' through the dark shafts. Didn't need much light to go by to follow it. And the sounds... like the whole moon was alive. She was down there. Took me near a whole day of climbin' to get to where all she was. She jumped out from a boulder tryin' to surprize me." Had to chuckle at her excitement and big smile, "I scooped her right up, like she was a feather in my arms. My little sunshine." We talked while I climbed back up. Sometimes lettin' her piggyback on me, sometimes climbin' with me. She told me it was a secret to be down there. That her and Lily played hide and sneak down there."

Lily..... What could I say..."She come up to me the other day wantin' me to talk to Anna 'bout stayin' out of the mines... It was all dangerous... And not for cave in's.... No... Somethin' lurked down there.... Bot's.. Warbots... And the motherbot... Lily ain't one to be tellin' tales on that stuff, so I said I'd talk to her. Of late it's been hard to say no to Anna. Who can? AuroraBlue. She decided she wanted me to call her AuroraBlue. I could still call her Anna when folks were 'round. She was right. Her name was AuroraBlue. She was growin' up. Went to talk to Seana and there was Lily... She was gettin' agitated when AuroraBlue showed up. Lily was harsh speakin' to her. Got me riled to see Lily actin' like that. I took over and started to tell her when Lily up and grabbed my lower leg... And dug her claws deep. Even hissed at me." Scratchin' my healin' wounds, I still couldn't figure what all she did it for. "Anna asked me to let her. As a compromise, I offered to go with her next time she went. Lily'd have none of it. She yelled at her and made her follow to Lily's small apartment. Said for me to stay out of it. It had me fumin'."

The echo of Lily sayin' her and Gallagher were very happy with Anna, echoed again in my head...."Lily was still thinkin' of Gallagher. My friend G..... Not 'bout her and me.... she got to talkin' to AuroraBlue.... but then my world shifted out of focus.... Somethin' had hold of me... my head was buzzin' like no tomorrow. I lost track of what all happened for maybe 'bout an hour or so. Took me a while to get back to town. It'd been happenin' of late. Like someone hangin; onto me. Wasn't all sure what it was... But it's got me bothered."

"Headed back to Fook's. Maybe Anna and Lily'd be back there. Seana was talkin' to Lily...But then I'd heard somethin' 'bout poison and hair needles... Lily had a few for emergencies. Was just happy my little one wasn't harmed. Don't know what all I woulda done if somethin' did." Thoughts of a sun goin' supernova and crushin' me sounded close...."Ended up on Fook's roof. The old Osprey was settin' there where someone had parked it. Could hear Lily and Owl talkin'. My ears can hear pretty good at distance. So it wasn't hard to hear when Lily and her got to talkin' of broken hearts."

Decided to lean back against the cool concrete of the clinic as I watched her breathin' steady. In rhythm with mine. Slow and steady. "Lily wasn't really wantin' to marry me. It was to hide her own broken heart... The one for Gallagher." I squeezed her little hand in my big one. "I knew I had to talk to Lily.... B'fore we both made a bad mistake. When Lily said she'd sent AuroraBLue to me later that day, I wasn't happy. She never made it to me. I decided to head to the mines. Lily could come or not.... Her choice. Nothin' like a good dose of mad and worry to spur you to move fast. Got deep down into the mines pretty quick... And there she was. My little one... grown a little more. She was taller. Her hair seemed a little darker then a few days earlier.... she wanted to show me her new mask..."Looked a lot like Lily. "Had to chuckle at that. It was cute. Then she wanted to show me her new dress for the weddin'..."

"She went into a side tunnel and changed.... While she did, she told me somethin' that got me real riled up. Lily took her to an adoption agency. To give her away. That was somethin' she had no real right to do. She'd have had to talk with me and Seana on that first. I told AuroraBlue, no way was I givin' her up. It hurt to even think of my AuroraBlue taken away. Lily'd gone too far this time. That was 'bout when she came out of the tunnel in her dress. She was growin' into a beautiful young lady. For the first time I was taken aback... Like puzzle peices... scattered fallin' into place. I told AuroraBlue... no, promised her, I'd never leave her. My proof of what I meant was all made up into one bracelet. Silver and gold. What all I had left of my stash went into makin' it. Put my name on it too.... Wasn't sure why I made it at first... maybe to keep my own self busy while I figured what all to say to Lily. But at that moment I knew I'd made it for her.. for AuroraBlue."

"She looked at it and put it right on. When she said she was Aurora Winterwolf, there was nothin' else. What all could I say. Bein' blind and seein' the sun for the first time. Gravity shifted. My world fell into orbit. there was nothin' else. The Sun shone beyond time itself. Her eyes were not the eyes of a child." I rubbed my eyes with my free hand knowin' it all sounded too far fetched. "Now gravity was goin' to change my life forever. It wasn't Lily. She was the hydrogen, the spark that set the Sun to burnin' so powerful. In turn it created the gravity that caught me. Stopped my spinnin' 'bout."I shook my head thinkin' of how it all sounded. "Now b'fore you go to judgin' this, you best listen careful! AuroraBlue was a baby not all that far back. She grew fast. Not like a regular baby. She could talk well b'fore most youngin's can walk. She could read through a manual as fast as me. Her growin' is part of who she is.. and will be. I watched as she grew a foot in a day. Felt her pain when she screamed as her bones stretched."

"AuroraBlue'll be a teen b'fore long. Then a grown woman in as much time. She's been workin' out information as fast as she can b'fore then. She knows she'll be older soon. It's what she's meant to be. Nothin' any of us can to do stop that growth> For now I'd be her friend and guardian. Whatever she needed me to be." I looked back up at her, prayin' she'd wake up soon. Needin' for her to. "Seein' her so still....."I swiped at the tear. "I said I'd stay with her. I meant it. What got us in this spot tonight? Like I was sayin' earlier.... I needed to talk to Lily.. to stop somethin' we'd both end up regrettin' in the end. Lily showed up in her white gown... She looked nice. But it still wasn't what I was seein' at that point. I wanted some answers.. Some truth. I'd always been honest with her. Told her stuff.... Here she was, plannin' on takin' AuroraBlue away. I wanted to hear her explain. I knew Anna was up on the roof... But not on that gorram old ship... Lily was out the door to go get her. Next thing I know She's askin' me to hurry out to help her. My whole world spun out of orbit.. wobbled in its gravity... There was AuroraBLue layin' on the ground all broken and bleedin'.. She'd fallen off the ship and landed on the ground next to Fook's. Three stories up."

I could see no changes in her as she lay there. "I picked her up like she was a fractured glass egg. Lily ran to call for help while I moved slowly with my little one. B'fore long Sentry, Yanto, and Venice showed up. They worked on her best they could... When Sentry told me how bad she was hurt.... It felt like that nova was goin' to crush the life out of me... and send me spinnin' out of control. Broken bones, damaged vertebrae, ruptured organs. Yanto used somethin' to stop the bleedin' inside. Two things mixed to help... Then she started to heal. her body was respondin'.. my world started to spin back into orbit again. Sentry scanned her again while Yanto and Venice checked vitals and wrapped her injuries. All I could do was stand back and watch. Tillery showed up offerein' any help he could too.

"Later, Lily finally decided to come and check on AuroraBlue. She was quiet and distant when she saw me. She didn't ask much... just how the cub was.... then she said some stuff. Stuff 'bout how wakin' and sleepin' you saw only that one person. Like knowin' their scent. Workin' together like night and day. all the while she was pullin' off the weddin' dress and tossin' it to the ground. Like she was sheddin' her old self for somethin new." Lily had it right. "I knew AuroraBlue imprinted on me when she was a baby. It was somethin' that no one of us had control over. It happened. But I knew she was a part of me. She was whole cause a part of my soul was livin' in her. Blue knew it. When I went into that big reactor all that long ago to get Lily... I aughta have died that day. But it was Blue who protected me. Needed me to do the right thing. I was willin' to die to save Lily. That small part of me was saved to finish the puzzle that was AuroraBlue. Lily didn't know at the time. She found out later I think. Cause then she told me."

"Gravity does some strange things. Alters tides, changes seasons, keeps the atmo around the world. The sun warms it, helps it to grow and bring new life. Keeps it stable. Holds everythin' together in the verse." And that verse just got a lot brighter.