Getting to know you

it's such a clever innocence


with which you show your self to me


it's as if somehow the years just bowed


and let that young girl go free....






i thought i was a child until you turned and smiled
i thought i knew where i was goin' until i heard your laughter flowin'
and came upon the wisdom in your eyes.
surprise.


Lily Reborn

Lily said her goodbyes and made her way to Al Raquis, to find one Mister A. Barbosa, a man with whom she was real familiar. Her hope was that he would put the past aside - the past being her taking a shot a him and his friend during a little misunderstanding - and take her on as a client. She had it all planned. She would sell herself for parts, and the money would be sent home to Cody, Gallagher and Krenshar.

She didn't know that in the back channels, BlueSun had already been busy convincing Mister Barbosa and his first to take Lily, and her money, and "auction" her off - to young Cody. She didn't know that one of the Companions had already paid a visit to said Mister and offered him a priceless painting, all part of an elaborate scheme to make sure he understood that BlueSun was not to be trifled with in matters of the heart. And Lily was one such matter.

There was some question as to whether or not the gentleman would hold to his agreement, but as it turned out, Barbosa seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. The face of Al Raquis, the moon, and Orion as well. It was as if all trace of him suddenly ceased to exist.

So, when Lily arrived, she arrived to an empty house. Not one to be deterred, she made her way to Botany Bay, where she convinced a trader to sell her, etc. etc. etc. Or so she thought. After an extensive interview and "indoctrination" process, during which Blue held up one electric finger after another, pushing the machines impulses away almost as if he was swatting flies, Lily was the property of one man.

That man took her to an isolated place in space, got down on one knee, and proposed to Lily as he revealed his identity. Prince Charming was none other than Cody Winterwolf. Before Lily could fully respond, he took advantage of his position close to her foot, and pushed her in the most private of places - her reset switch.

He heard only her "yes" as she shut down, clicking and blinking, and then, nothing. Now yes, means different things to different people. To Cody, it was an answer to his proposal. Who knows what Lily was about to say. No one ever will, because Cody did what had to be done.

He brought AuroraBlue to her mother and placed the little one on her lap. Gallagher off to one side, Seana behind her, and Cody trying to kneel and reset, that's pretty much the picture as one LilyBell Snoodle came back online. The first thing she saw was the cub. The imprint was immediate. Was it enough to wipe out Gallagher from the inside of those eyelids? One would like to think so, and one would have thought so, until she turned in his direction and made one clicking sound, exactly as she had made when she registered the cub. Oh, Gallagher tried to hide his face, and to be sure, if there is anything left, it will be pretty much overwritten by AuroraBlue. But will it be overwritten enough that Lily will forget the one main reason she was determined to sell herself off for parts - "Gallagher lied". Or would his image linger there, not quite in focus, but enough to keep their bond unbreakable.

Next, Lily looked at Cody, down on his knees, and clicked twice.

Then, she was lost in the scent of the cub, the softness of its skin, the texture of its hair, the feel of it heavy on her lap, and the syncrhonization of heartbeats as they continued and completed the intial bonding process.

Blue was there. How could he not be there. He presented the girls to Seana, one her adopted daughter and one carrying her own DNA, the key to the future she had only hoped for, with two words. "Merry Christmas".

Absent from all of this was the one who had made it possible. Krenshar. The one the cub continued to call out for.

"Kin sha. Kin sha. Da da da"

Such wisdom in those eyes.