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“Why do you think he did it?” Anya murmured to Swansea as she washed their captain’s blood off of her hands. “What reason did he have?”
“Reckon the bastard decided we’d be better off dead than losing our jobs. Can’t say I fully disagree with the economy being what it is.”
Anya sighed deeply, turning the knob of the spigot to the ‘off’ position. “I don’t know… that seems unlike Curly, don’t you think?”
The older man snorted. “Well, I thought so too, but here we are.”
“...Right.” Anya dried her hands on the towel nearby, then rolled the sleeves of her uniform back down to their regular position. “I can’t think of anything else, either. I just can’t believe he’d try to kill us all like that. I thought I knew him.”
“We all thought that.”
A few moments of silence passed between them. Anya looked down at her feet and cleared her throat, aware that what she was about to say would sound crazy to Swansea. “What if it wasn’t Curly who did it?”
Swansea scoffed as soon as the words were out of her mouth. “What, are you saying it was one of us? Our dear captain was the one in the cockpit. Who else could it have been?”
Anya felt her gut twist. She knew damn well who else it could have been, and wondered for a second if she should tell Swansea her suspicions and what Jimmy had done to her… but no. Curly was the only person on the ship she trusted enough to tell what Jimmy had done, but he had hesitated and struggled to believe that his friend could have done such a horrible thing. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe her- Anya could tell that he knew she wasn’t lying. As far as she could tell, it was more that he was struggling to process it all.
Maybe if he’d had just a little longer before the ship crashed, he would have been able to finally act. But that was just useless speculation now, seeing as their captain’s physical condition at the moment was… far from ideal.
She couldn’t tell Swansea. Not yet. She wasn’t confident that Swansea would even believe her or listen. Furthermore, without Curly’s backup, what could Swansea even do about it? He was getting older, and Jimmy was still quite young. Anya herself wouldn’t be much good in a fight; she was trained to heal, not hurt, and she had never really learned self-defense. Daisuke wouldn’t be of much help either considering his lack of muscle or arm strength. For fuck’s sake, he’d had to work up to to using Swansea’s tools over the course of a month or so.
“Anya. You doin okay?”
Swansea’s voice snapped her out of her stupor. She whipped her head back up to face the man, who looked a little concerned beneath the permanent disgruntled expression he wore.
“I’m okay as I can be, considering the circumstances,” she managed to say.
Swansea bit his lip. “Right. Well… I ain’t much one for medical things, but if you need help holding him down…”
Anya’s throat clenched in immediate protest at the idea. “I… Thank you for the offer, but that won’t be necessary.”
“Alright. Well, can’t say I didn’t offer.” He turned to leave, assumedly heading off to attend to one of the many, many leaks in the pipes that must have been created in the crash. “I never thought I’d live to see Grant fucking Curly of all people meet his downfall. What a shitshow.”
Anya watched as he walked off. Just as she was about to turn to check on Curly, an all-too-familiar shadow passed across the doorway. She tried and failed to hide her involuntary flinch as Jimmy entered. And he certainly did not look happy.
“Is he still alive?” Jimmy snapped, looking incredulous. “How the fuck is that possible?”
Anya took a step back. “His injuries are certainly extensive, but with some effort he can survive,” she said defensively.
“Anya, his skin looks like beef jerky,” Jimmy hissed. “What’s the point? Just end his suffering.”
“I can’t and won’t do that,” Anya said, an edge in her voice. “He still has a chance. It wouldn’t be fair to end his life like that!”
“I fail to see how that thing could be considered alive at this point.”
Alright, that was enough. “Get out,” Anya snapped.
Jimmy glared at her. “Why should I? He deserves to die anyway. He crashed the ship and doomed us all, Anya!”
“I said get out .”
“Or what?” Jimmy taunted, taking a few steps forward. “What’ll you do?”
Anya’s hand darted for the bloody bone saw on the counter next to her before Jimmy could so much as blink. She brandished the tool at him like a weapon, even as Curly’s blood still dripped from it. “Get the fuck out of here unless you want to end up like him or worse, you monster !”
Jimmy’s eyes widened in shock as Anya advanced towards him with the saw in hand. He scrambled backwards towards the door just as she took a swipe at him. “Are you fucking insane?!” Jimmy yelped.
“Think whatever you want about me as long as you stay the hell out of this room, stay away from me , and stay away from him .”
The copilot scowled, giving Anya a nasty look. “Whatever. I suppose if we keep him alive long enough he can give us something to eat when our food supply runs low.”
As soon as Jimmy was out of the room, Anya slammed the toggle switch with her fist, closing the door between the medbay and the rest of the ship tightly, locking Jimmy and the others out.
Shaking, Anya staggered over to the counter and laid down the bone saw. She didn’t know she had it in her to challenge Jimmy like that. She’d have to deal with him screaming at her later for it, she was sure- but if it kept her and Curly safe from him, she could take it.
Still trembling, Anya slowly turned to face their captain. “Curly?” She murmured. “I- can you still hear? Can you hear me?”
All she got in response was a few squeaks and whimpers as his body struggled to produce words. Without lips, there wasn’t much he could actually do in terms of speaking, presumably.
“It’s okay. Don’t try to talk yet.” She sighed softly. “At least you can hear me.” She rubbed the back of her hand across her face. “Are you feeling okay?”
She got a laugh from him this time, albeit one that soon devolved into sobs and whimpers.
“Hey, hey! Curly, don’t—” She walked up to him, forcing herself to look down at the damage, to look him in the eye. “Listen to me. Are you listening?” She waited a few seconds for him to nod, which looked like it took monumental effort on his part. “Curly, I… I don’t know how all this will turn out. But I can promise you that I’ll take care of you. I’ll keep you company. And I’ll– I’ll keep Jimmy away from you. Okay? All you need to do is rest and… recover as much as you can.” She forced a smile, despite the sight of the extensive burns on their captain’s body making her want to retch.
His jaw moved for a few seconds as he tried again to form words. This time, he was able to produce something that was… almost intelligible.
“I… sah…ee.”
Anya blinked. This was not at all what she was expecting his first words after the crash to be.
“Mih…tayk. I mest… of,” Curly managed to croak in between whimpers. “I… sahee.”
He was… apologizing.
“Are you talking about the crash?” She asked hesitantly.
“Oh. Oht ash sip. Ji…mee. I sah ee. Mih…tayk.”
Anya’s heart skipped a beat. “You’re saying you didn’t crash the ship? That it was Jimmy?”
He nodded slowly, cringing in pain as he did so. “Ji…mee… ad er son. I… mest… of.”
Though she could barely tell what Curly was trying to say, she could at least make out that he was apologizing for… for not acting sooner to stop Jimmy. Furthermore, he was saying that Jimmy crashed the ship, not him. This pretty much confirmed her suspicions, but more importantly…
“Curly, I… you don’t have to apologize, it’s okay. I’ll be okay.”
A few seconds later, she noticed that he was trying to move his arm. She almost reached out to push it back down, but thought the better of it, realizing that would only hurt him more. “Don’t move too much, captain. You need to rest and let your body mend a bit.”
It was at this point that she noticed tears were forming in his remaining eye- though whether that was from agony, guilt, or both was uncertain. She could only guess at the thoughts that were running through his mind, but she imagined that mingled with the guilt and overwhelming pain was fear and uncertainty. His body had been pretty thoroughly destroyed by the explosion, after all, and she was sure he was well aware of this. The shrapnel and fire had taken much from him- his right eye, his nose, his face, much of the external structure of his ears, and significant portions of each limb.
She’d had to cut off a lot of tissue in the operation. Far more than she would ever have wanted to. Even with the painkillers, he’d been screaming and wailing. She honestly wasn’t quite sure if she’d be able to save his life in the long term, considering how extensive the damage to his body was… but she had to at least try.
“It’ll be okay, Grant,” she managed to choke out through tears, using his real name for once. “We’ll make it out. We’ll figure out something.” She wanted so badly to place a hand on his shaking arm, but thought better of it.
“We all have to get through this. Swansea, Daisuke, you, and I. If nothing else, we… we’ll do it so we can outlive that bastard Jimmy.”