Planet of the Apes
Jun. 6th, 2008 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
veiledndarknessTitle: In Thade We Trust – Chapter 9
Author: veiledndarkness
Warning: The usual disclaimer, not my property, just playing with the characters. Takes place shortly after the end of Planet of the Apes (2001).
Summary: In the darkest parts of the human mind lies the ability to be needlessly cruel and inhuman, a baser nature that separates us from the animals.
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Naira studied long into the night, Leo's whispered words echoing in his ears. He poured over his textbooks, researching with an almost frantic need to explain Leo's appearance, to explain how he could have survived a theoretical jump through a wormhole. He rubbed at his wrinkled forehead with his fingers, a weary look of exhaustion to his face.
With a sigh, Naira reached for another book as his door slid open, Ari slipping inside the room. "It's rather late for a visit, is it not?" he murmured, squinting while he skimmed the list of contents.
Ari sat in the chair across from him, her dark eyes studying Naira. "Put your glasses on," she replied.
He sniffed and turned one page slowly. "I don't need them for everyday reading."
Ari's lips twitched. "Don't be stubborn," she pointed to the glasses that were neatly folded on a short pile of books near the edge of the table. "Just put them on, your eyesight will thank you."
"My eyesight is the problem in the first place," Naira remarked dryly, though he reached for the glasses and slid them on his face. "What brings you to this end of the residences so late?"
Ari rested her chin in one palm. "You once would have enjoyed my visits without question," she said. "Have things changed so much?"
"You and I both know the answer to that question," he said, scribbling down jot notes in on his writing pad. "Things are best left as they are."
"Naira..."
He glanced at her. "Don't Ari...Leave things as they are, please?"
She made a soft sound in her throat. "I know things have not been easy in the past years, but I wanted you to know..."
"Know what?" he snapped. "That you and your team are determined to bring this research facility to the ground? That you've sabotaged countless experiments and freed humans and protested my efforts at every turn? You made your decision, Ari. Don't ask me for sympathy after all this."
Her eyes gleamed with unshed tears. "I never wanted you to be hurt by my efforts," she whispered.
"It's a shame then," Naira muttered bitterly. "You've done smashingly well. You, Ari, have single handedly slowed progress at this facility by several years."
After a few minutes of silence, Ari tilted her head to the side. "You saw my side once," she said.
"I was young and naïve," Naira put his pen down. "I need to get back to my research, Ari, if you wouldn't mind."
"You can't brush me off so easily," she said. "I know you believed in my cause before."
Naira leaned back in his chair and folded his fingers under his chin. "I believe that humans are meant for more than the lot that we have given them in life," he said slowly. "Though my beliefs are shared with you alone, I'm aware that I am being monitored. I can not and will not jeopardize my research because of your desire to turn our society on its head."
"If you could free Leo, would you?" Ari shot back.
"You know the answer to that," Naira said reproachfully. "Leo...is different. His case is different, Thade knows I'm doing my very best to help him."
"It seems to me that you're pursing what's best for yourself and the other slave drivers in this country," Ari narrowed her eyes at him.
"Choose your words wisely, Ari," Naira tapped one stack of books. "I want to help him, but if you knew just how complicated this...circus," he waved one hand emphatically, "has become, you would understand the risks involved."
"You're a bitter soul now," she said. "You care more for facts and statistics, more about what Leo can prove for you than you do about his well-being! This excuse for a life is killing him slowly. He is no animal and no animal should ever endure what they've done to him!"
Naira clenched his teeth. "I care for Leo's well being, do not doubt me, Ari. These tests have given us vaccines, cures to save our kind! That is what's important. The outdated tests have been stopped mainly, and we use the computer trials as often as possible. Most of us are not evil; you must stop looking at it as so!"
"We all have our parts to play," she said. "I act the role of the spirited protestor and you, the good, put-upon scientist who rebuffs her attempts to free the human. You sicken me," she spat.
"You made your choice!" he managed to say without screaming. "You made your decision and I made mine. My path is not yours, it never will be!"
Ari stood abruptly, her fingers curled with indignant fury. "More the pity then that you're blinded by your research," she said stiffly. "If you won't help Leo, then I will. Come hell or high water, I will free him."
Naira stood as well. "Do you really think I'll allow you to do that? You overestimate what advantages I've given you. Back off now, Ari before you make a very big error."
"This isn't right, Naira. I expected better of you, truly," she leaned forward.
"And if I just happen to leave the door open? Let Leo scamper off into the wilderness of a world that he doesn't know? Then what?" he demanded. "He would die in less than a week. The hunters would capture him and bring him back as a slave. It would be a miracle if he wasn't killed."
Ari sat back down, her eyes wide. "Naira...we must do something, we can't...we can't just keep him forever," she whispered thickly. "He is no pet."
Naira gestured to his wall, the spilt coffee wiped up, but the holes and shards' imprint still visible. "I assure you, Leo is no animal. He has quite the temper if you provoke him."
Ari covered her mouth with one hand, her long fingers shaking slightly. "What...what are you researching?" she looked down at the books piled high on the desk.
Naira sat down heavily. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said. "Do you want some coffee? I expect that I’ll be up for some time yet."
"No, thank you," she murmured. "Please? Tell me."
Naira tented his fingers, gathering his thoughts. "Leo's arrival here was...unusual at best," he began. "I'm sure you're aware that the press refers to him as the human who fell from the sky. The media...they've made Leo sound like a fallen angel for Thade's sake, if that isn’t the most ridiculous statement I've ever heard."
Ari nodded. "What do you believe?"
"Frankly, I don't know," he sighed. "Leo seems to believe that he came through a wormhole in space."
"A wormhole?" Ari whispered. "You...You're serious?"
"He believes that his space station was involved in some kind of electromagnetic storm and that both he and his training chimp, Pericles along with the station ended up pulled into the wormhole," Naira explained, giving her a brief outline.
"So...he thinks Thade changed something on Earth from what it should have been?" Ari asked when he'd finished speaking. She rubbed her fingers along her furry arms and tugged at her short sleeved shirt, chilled by the details of what she'd heard.
Naira nodded solemnly. "Leo believes so, yes. Whether or not this is even possible, I don’t know. I know of the theories, I have the books and research but no actual proof aside from Leo's words."
"Evidently, we were the lab animals, and humans controlled the earth," Naira said softly and closed the book near him. "This world is his, only backwards, in his opinion."
"That...cannot be," Ari said, awed by the implications.
"Can't it?" Naira smoothed his palm over his head, "theoretically speaking, of course. What if this world, our Earth really is the Earth that Leo speaks of? He claims it was 2029 when he was aboard his space station. It's 2029 here."
Ari blinked slowly. "A parallel world to his, could that be?"
Naira nodded. "I have considered that, along with the wormhole belief. Everything I have on wormholes says the same, in which no being could travel through one without facing numerous risks."
"Such as...?"
"Incineration from high amounts of radiation," Naira ticked off on his fingers. "The threat of the body being ripped apart by gravitational tidal-like forces, or you could die of old age as you attempt to travel through it."
Ari closed her eyes and breathed out, the silence heavy between them. "And Leo truly believes that he was able to survive such a thing?"
Naira nodded. "If indeed, we were to entertain this belief that the wormhole existed, it could have the two worlds connected, that he has traveled between the worlds with no idea on how to return to his own and that our world is possibly very much the same as his or is his planet but with the dynamics greatly changed."
"It's so..." Ari waved one hand. "Overwhelming..."
Naira took his glasses off, rubbing at his eyes. "Indeed, this theory, this is what the physics scientists have been trying to understand for the better part of the last century," he said.
"Have you discussed this...theory with Leo?' Ari asked after a moment of thought.
"Yes, have you seen my wall?" Naira waved his arm in the general direction. "He re-decorated it for me."
Ari stared at the imbedded shards. "He did that?"
"Mhm, and then some," Naira murmured. "He was quite upset when I suggested that he go and calm down in his room after our discussion of his wormhole theory."
"Naira!"
"What?" he frowned, "I simply suggested that he go and calm down! He was very upset that I didn't immediately agree with him about his wormhole theory..."
"You cannot treat Leo like that," Ari chided him. "He is not a naughty child. If anything, I'm surprised that he hasn't lashed out at you previously."
"Well he was certainly behaving like a wayward young teen with a temper fit like that," Naira protested. "I cannot have him throwing things when he gets upset, I'll have to keep him in restraints, and I assured him that the restraints would only be used in extreme situations."
Ari shook her head. "And where is Leo now?"
Naira fiddled with his pen. "In a deep sleep," he said softly.
"Did you sedate him?!" Ari hissed. When Naira wouldn't meet her eyes, she stood up, huffing angrily. "Naira, how could you do that to him?"
"He left me no other choice when he lashed out like that!" Naira snapped. "Am I to allow him to go on a rampage every time we disagree? I should think not! I will not tolerate such behavior from a...a..." he faltered under Ari's fierce glare. "Stop that!"
"From what exactly, Naira?" Ari demanded.
"Stop giving me that look!" Naira grumbled.
"Leo's behavior is your responsibility," Ari said. "Thade, even dogs are treated better than the humans in this facility!"
"Ari, I've had more than enough of your scolding for one evening," Naira said as he stood once more.
"You're more upset that I'm telling you the truth!" Ari pointed to the wall. "This...display of anger is Leo's way of telling you when he's been pushed too far. You simply cannot treat him like a naughty child."
"What would you have me do?" Naira fumed. "If I can't punish him, what other options do I have left?"
Ari sighed in frustration. "Naira, for as brilliant as you are, you truly are thick headed," she rested her fingers on the table. "Talk to him. He communicates well with you. If you insist on this behavior, he will only withdraw more from you; I've seen it happen with the human slaves that my team and I rescued."
"Rescued, kidnapped, what's the difference, eh?" Naira muttered under his breath.
"Fine, liberated!" Ari waved her arm. "The point is that you must tread lightly."
"Thank you ever so much for your advice, Ari," Naira drawled. "Run along now, dear girl."
She scowled at him as she moved towards the door. Naira's tight smile faded as a thought occurred to him. "Ari?"
"Yes?" she rested her hand on the doorframe.
Naira hesitated a moment. "Does the word 'Calima' mean anything to you?"
Ari stared at him, recognition flickering in her eyes, a distant thought. "How do you know that word?" she near whispered.
"Leo," Naira said simply. "When I checked on him after a few hours to unhook his restraints," he said, ignoring the dirty look from Ari. "He was still in a drugged stupor. He was whispering 'Calima' over and over until he fell into a deep sleep."
Ari fidgeted with her hands. "Naira, you mustn't tell anyone that you heard that word," she implored him.
Naira studied her face, his eyes widening when the realization occurred. "You know of it, don't you? You know what Calima means."
Ari made a sound of distress and shook her head. "No, no not exactly," she said. "But the word, I read some of the files my father kept in his private cabinets and it was mentioned in one file."
Naira's lips curled into a smirk. "I see. Tell me, Ari, would you be able to lift the information for me?"
Ari shook her head silently. "No...Don't ask me that, Naira. I can't."
"You can, in fact, I know you can," Naira coaxed. "Come now, if Leo knows of the word, then surely this could be used in helping us piece the puzzle together."
"Don't you use my concern for Leo against me," Ari crossed her arms.
"Ari, I'm not asking for very much and I highly doubt the blissfully ignorant Senator will miss one file from a cabinet that likely has dust on it from the last time he concerned himself with such matters," Naira continued.
"Naira, you ask too much of me," Ari whispered, her gaze falling to the floor.
Naira crossed the distance to her slowly. He tilted her chin up, his eyes on hers. "Please?" he murmured. "For Leo's sake?"
Ari sighed and nodded after a long moment of inner debate. "I will."
"Thank you," Naira rubbed his forefinger along her cheekbone, the air thick with tension.
Ari pulled back and nodded, her fingers pushing the door panel, the sound of it opening startling them both. "I...I will bring you the files, Naira, as soon as possible," she said.
Naira dipped his head to the side. "Contact me by phone first, I'll let you know when to bring it down," he said.
Ari darted out of the room and hurried down the hallway. Naira watched her go, a pang of loss washing over him. He stepped back, letting the door slide shut. He walked past his table, past the books and down the hallway, hesitating in front of Leo's door.
The door slid open, the sound muffled. Leo lay on his side, his breaths even and quiet, the lines of stress and anger on his face faded away as he slept. Naira watched him sleep, his fingers tracing through the strands of hair that were slowly growing in thicker on Leo's head.
Leo sighed in his sleep and turned towards the comforting gesture. Naira closed his eyes and gentled his touch, the guilt over his actions nagging him still.
xx
Author: veiledndarkness
Warning: The usual disclaimer, not my property, just playing with the characters. Takes place shortly after the end of Planet of the Apes (2001).
Summary: In the darkest parts of the human mind lies the ability to be needlessly cruel and inhuman, a baser nature that separates us from the animals.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
xx
Naira studied long into the night, Leo's whispered words echoing in his ears. He poured over his textbooks, researching with an almost frantic need to explain Leo's appearance, to explain how he could have survived a theoretical jump through a wormhole. He rubbed at his wrinkled forehead with his fingers, a weary look of exhaustion to his face.
With a sigh, Naira reached for another book as his door slid open, Ari slipping inside the room. "It's rather late for a visit, is it not?" he murmured, squinting while he skimmed the list of contents.
Ari sat in the chair across from him, her dark eyes studying Naira. "Put your glasses on," she replied.
He sniffed and turned one page slowly. "I don't need them for everyday reading."
Ari's lips twitched. "Don't be stubborn," she pointed to the glasses that were neatly folded on a short pile of books near the edge of the table. "Just put them on, your eyesight will thank you."
"My eyesight is the problem in the first place," Naira remarked dryly, though he reached for the glasses and slid them on his face. "What brings you to this end of the residences so late?"
Ari rested her chin in one palm. "You once would have enjoyed my visits without question," she said. "Have things changed so much?"
"You and I both know the answer to that question," he said, scribbling down jot notes in on his writing pad. "Things are best left as they are."
"Naira..."
He glanced at her. "Don't Ari...Leave things as they are, please?"
She made a soft sound in her throat. "I know things have not been easy in the past years, but I wanted you to know..."
"Know what?" he snapped. "That you and your team are determined to bring this research facility to the ground? That you've sabotaged countless experiments and freed humans and protested my efforts at every turn? You made your decision, Ari. Don't ask me for sympathy after all this."
Her eyes gleamed with unshed tears. "I never wanted you to be hurt by my efforts," she whispered.
"It's a shame then," Naira muttered bitterly. "You've done smashingly well. You, Ari, have single handedly slowed progress at this facility by several years."
After a few minutes of silence, Ari tilted her head to the side. "You saw my side once," she said.
"I was young and naïve," Naira put his pen down. "I need to get back to my research, Ari, if you wouldn't mind."
"You can't brush me off so easily," she said. "I know you believed in my cause before."
Naira leaned back in his chair and folded his fingers under his chin. "I believe that humans are meant for more than the lot that we have given them in life," he said slowly. "Though my beliefs are shared with you alone, I'm aware that I am being monitored. I can not and will not jeopardize my research because of your desire to turn our society on its head."
"If you could free Leo, would you?" Ari shot back.
"You know the answer to that," Naira said reproachfully. "Leo...is different. His case is different, Thade knows I'm doing my very best to help him."
"It seems to me that you're pursing what's best for yourself and the other slave drivers in this country," Ari narrowed her eyes at him.
"Choose your words wisely, Ari," Naira tapped one stack of books. "I want to help him, but if you knew just how complicated this...circus," he waved one hand emphatically, "has become, you would understand the risks involved."
"You're a bitter soul now," she said. "You care more for facts and statistics, more about what Leo can prove for you than you do about his well-being! This excuse for a life is killing him slowly. He is no animal and no animal should ever endure what they've done to him!"
Naira clenched his teeth. "I care for Leo's well being, do not doubt me, Ari. These tests have given us vaccines, cures to save our kind! That is what's important. The outdated tests have been stopped mainly, and we use the computer trials as often as possible. Most of us are not evil; you must stop looking at it as so!"
"We all have our parts to play," she said. "I act the role of the spirited protestor and you, the good, put-upon scientist who rebuffs her attempts to free the human. You sicken me," she spat.
"You made your choice!" he managed to say without screaming. "You made your decision and I made mine. My path is not yours, it never will be!"
Ari stood abruptly, her fingers curled with indignant fury. "More the pity then that you're blinded by your research," she said stiffly. "If you won't help Leo, then I will. Come hell or high water, I will free him."
Naira stood as well. "Do you really think I'll allow you to do that? You overestimate what advantages I've given you. Back off now, Ari before you make a very big error."
"This isn't right, Naira. I expected better of you, truly," she leaned forward.
"And if I just happen to leave the door open? Let Leo scamper off into the wilderness of a world that he doesn't know? Then what?" he demanded. "He would die in less than a week. The hunters would capture him and bring him back as a slave. It would be a miracle if he wasn't killed."
Ari sat back down, her eyes wide. "Naira...we must do something, we can't...we can't just keep him forever," she whispered thickly. "He is no pet."
Naira gestured to his wall, the spilt coffee wiped up, but the holes and shards' imprint still visible. "I assure you, Leo is no animal. He has quite the temper if you provoke him."
Ari covered her mouth with one hand, her long fingers shaking slightly. "What...what are you researching?" she looked down at the books piled high on the desk.
Naira sat down heavily. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said. "Do you want some coffee? I expect that I’ll be up for some time yet."
"No, thank you," she murmured. "Please? Tell me."
Naira tented his fingers, gathering his thoughts. "Leo's arrival here was...unusual at best," he began. "I'm sure you're aware that the press refers to him as the human who fell from the sky. The media...they've made Leo sound like a fallen angel for Thade's sake, if that isn’t the most ridiculous statement I've ever heard."
Ari nodded. "What do you believe?"
"Frankly, I don't know," he sighed. "Leo seems to believe that he came through a wormhole in space."
"A wormhole?" Ari whispered. "You...You're serious?"
"He believes that his space station was involved in some kind of electromagnetic storm and that both he and his training chimp, Pericles along with the station ended up pulled into the wormhole," Naira explained, giving her a brief outline.
"So...he thinks Thade changed something on Earth from what it should have been?" Ari asked when he'd finished speaking. She rubbed her fingers along her furry arms and tugged at her short sleeved shirt, chilled by the details of what she'd heard.
Naira nodded solemnly. "Leo believes so, yes. Whether or not this is even possible, I don’t know. I know of the theories, I have the books and research but no actual proof aside from Leo's words."
"Evidently, we were the lab animals, and humans controlled the earth," Naira said softly and closed the book near him. "This world is his, only backwards, in his opinion."
"That...cannot be," Ari said, awed by the implications.
"Can't it?" Naira smoothed his palm over his head, "theoretically speaking, of course. What if this world, our Earth really is the Earth that Leo speaks of? He claims it was 2029 when he was aboard his space station. It's 2029 here."
Ari blinked slowly. "A parallel world to his, could that be?"
Naira nodded. "I have considered that, along with the wormhole belief. Everything I have on wormholes says the same, in which no being could travel through one without facing numerous risks."
"Such as...?"
"Incineration from high amounts of radiation," Naira ticked off on his fingers. "The threat of the body being ripped apart by gravitational tidal-like forces, or you could die of old age as you attempt to travel through it."
Ari closed her eyes and breathed out, the silence heavy between them. "And Leo truly believes that he was able to survive such a thing?"
Naira nodded. "If indeed, we were to entertain this belief that the wormhole existed, it could have the two worlds connected, that he has traveled between the worlds with no idea on how to return to his own and that our world is possibly very much the same as his or is his planet but with the dynamics greatly changed."
"It's so..." Ari waved one hand. "Overwhelming..."
Naira took his glasses off, rubbing at his eyes. "Indeed, this theory, this is what the physics scientists have been trying to understand for the better part of the last century," he said.
"Have you discussed this...theory with Leo?' Ari asked after a moment of thought.
"Yes, have you seen my wall?" Naira waved his arm in the general direction. "He re-decorated it for me."
Ari stared at the imbedded shards. "He did that?"
"Mhm, and then some," Naira murmured. "He was quite upset when I suggested that he go and calm down in his room after our discussion of his wormhole theory."
"Naira!"
"What?" he frowned, "I simply suggested that he go and calm down! He was very upset that I didn't immediately agree with him about his wormhole theory..."
"You cannot treat Leo like that," Ari chided him. "He is not a naughty child. If anything, I'm surprised that he hasn't lashed out at you previously."
"Well he was certainly behaving like a wayward young teen with a temper fit like that," Naira protested. "I cannot have him throwing things when he gets upset, I'll have to keep him in restraints, and I assured him that the restraints would only be used in extreme situations."
Ari shook her head. "And where is Leo now?"
Naira fiddled with his pen. "In a deep sleep," he said softly.
"Did you sedate him?!" Ari hissed. When Naira wouldn't meet her eyes, she stood up, huffing angrily. "Naira, how could you do that to him?"
"He left me no other choice when he lashed out like that!" Naira snapped. "Am I to allow him to go on a rampage every time we disagree? I should think not! I will not tolerate such behavior from a...a..." he faltered under Ari's fierce glare. "Stop that!"
"From what exactly, Naira?" Ari demanded.
"Stop giving me that look!" Naira grumbled.
"Leo's behavior is your responsibility," Ari said. "Thade, even dogs are treated better than the humans in this facility!"
"Ari, I've had more than enough of your scolding for one evening," Naira said as he stood once more.
"You're more upset that I'm telling you the truth!" Ari pointed to the wall. "This...display of anger is Leo's way of telling you when he's been pushed too far. You simply cannot treat him like a naughty child."
"What would you have me do?" Naira fumed. "If I can't punish him, what other options do I have left?"
Ari sighed in frustration. "Naira, for as brilliant as you are, you truly are thick headed," she rested her fingers on the table. "Talk to him. He communicates well with you. If you insist on this behavior, he will only withdraw more from you; I've seen it happen with the human slaves that my team and I rescued."
"Rescued, kidnapped, what's the difference, eh?" Naira muttered under his breath.
"Fine, liberated!" Ari waved her arm. "The point is that you must tread lightly."
"Thank you ever so much for your advice, Ari," Naira drawled. "Run along now, dear girl."
She scowled at him as she moved towards the door. Naira's tight smile faded as a thought occurred to him. "Ari?"
"Yes?" she rested her hand on the doorframe.
Naira hesitated a moment. "Does the word 'Calima' mean anything to you?"
Ari stared at him, recognition flickering in her eyes, a distant thought. "How do you know that word?" she near whispered.
"Leo," Naira said simply. "When I checked on him after a few hours to unhook his restraints," he said, ignoring the dirty look from Ari. "He was still in a drugged stupor. He was whispering 'Calima' over and over until he fell into a deep sleep."
Ari fidgeted with her hands. "Naira, you mustn't tell anyone that you heard that word," she implored him.
Naira studied her face, his eyes widening when the realization occurred. "You know of it, don't you? You know what Calima means."
Ari made a sound of distress and shook her head. "No, no not exactly," she said. "But the word, I read some of the files my father kept in his private cabinets and it was mentioned in one file."
Naira's lips curled into a smirk. "I see. Tell me, Ari, would you be able to lift the information for me?"
Ari shook her head silently. "No...Don't ask me that, Naira. I can't."
"You can, in fact, I know you can," Naira coaxed. "Come now, if Leo knows of the word, then surely this could be used in helping us piece the puzzle together."
"Don't you use my concern for Leo against me," Ari crossed her arms.
"Ari, I'm not asking for very much and I highly doubt the blissfully ignorant Senator will miss one file from a cabinet that likely has dust on it from the last time he concerned himself with such matters," Naira continued.
"Naira, you ask too much of me," Ari whispered, her gaze falling to the floor.
Naira crossed the distance to her slowly. He tilted her chin up, his eyes on hers. "Please?" he murmured. "For Leo's sake?"
Ari sighed and nodded after a long moment of inner debate. "I will."
"Thank you," Naira rubbed his forefinger along her cheekbone, the air thick with tension.
Ari pulled back and nodded, her fingers pushing the door panel, the sound of it opening startling them both. "I...I will bring you the files, Naira, as soon as possible," she said.
Naira dipped his head to the side. "Contact me by phone first, I'll let you know when to bring it down," he said.
Ari darted out of the room and hurried down the hallway. Naira watched her go, a pang of loss washing over him. He stepped back, letting the door slide shut. He walked past his table, past the books and down the hallway, hesitating in front of Leo's door.
The door slid open, the sound muffled. Leo lay on his side, his breaths even and quiet, the lines of stress and anger on his face faded away as he slept. Naira watched him sleep, his fingers tracing through the strands of hair that were slowly growing in thicker on Leo's head.
Leo sighed in his sleep and turned towards the comforting gesture. Naira closed his eyes and gentled his touch, the guilt over his actions nagging him still.
xx
