Blood and Water | Neteyam

Can One Be Loyal to a Fault? ∼ 36

Tcelia was abruptly awoken by a loud noise, causing her to jolt upright. The rough rope binding her wrists dug into her skin as she instinctively tried to move away from the source of the sound, managing to pull a grunt of pain out of her. She was becoming extremely tired of the whole being captured aspect of it all. Her eyes flickered over to where the noise had come from, her whole body rigid and ready to fight.

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she could make out the shape of Spider next to her. He looked equally startled, and she could see the guilt in his eyes as he reached out to touch her shoulder, his eyes wide, "Shit, I'm sorry Tcelia," he hurried, "I was trying not to fall asleep and I jerked and accidentally kicked the lamp away-"

"Hey!" someone yelled, "English only, I don't want to hear that Na'vi nonsense." Tcelia narrowed her eyes, her sight slowly adjusting to the dark. The soldier that had accompanied Spider down here, was standing off to the side, leaning up against a large crate, polishing a knife tauntingly, probably trying to come off as intimidating.

Trying to ignore the soldier's taunts, Tcelia leaned back against the wall and squeezed her eyes shut, her legs splayed out in front of her. Her head was pounding, and she could feel a throbbing ache on her cheekbone.

"It's alright, I'm fine." She sighed, reassuring Spider who had still been looking at her with a guilt-ridden expression. Tcelia had promised herself that she wouldn't fall asleep. In fact, she hadn't even thought it possible with everything that was going on. Perhaps the punch to the face had affected her more than she had thought. Her cheek still burned from when Quaritch's hand had made contact with her skin, and she was undoubtably going to have a very nice bruise to prove it.

"How long was I out?" She asked Spider, afraid of the answer she would receive.

"Barely four hours. I wanted to let you sleep." She could hear him chuckle dryly, "Guess I managed to mess that up though. It's four in the morning."

Tcelia swallowed, tilting her head down so that she could drag a hand over her face. Then she looked up at Spider. He had adjusted himself so that his back was leaning up against the wall as well, though he wasn't close enough for them to touch. She thought back to the hand that had been reaching for her shoulder, though she had never felt the weight of it on her body. Perhaps Spider had been ordered not to make any physical contact with her.

"Thank you." She whispered, "For staying with me."

Spider's eyes softened, "I would never leave you. Not like this," he shook his head minutely, "Not if I didn't know if you would be okay."

Guilt shot through Tcelia like a lightning bolt, numbing her senses completely. Suddenly tears threatened to spill, and she swallowed hard, words welling up in her throat, words that she had longed to say ever since they had left the forest behind. "I am so sorry," she managed to choke out, "I am so sorry that we didn't come for you, that you have been here, with them," she sneered in the direction of the guard, "for so long."

"Don't apologize," Spider began, lifting his hand as if he wanted to reach for Tcelia, but then in the last moment remembering that he wasn't allowed to. He let it fall, letting it rest in the space between them. "I understand why you left. Jake needed to protect his family." There was no bitter tone to the statement, which only made Tcelia's heart hurt even more.

Tcelia scrambled for words to say to the boy, to assure him that he was a part of the family. But she knew they would be empty words, and it would probably only hurt Spider more if she lied. They both knew that Jake would never have left Neteyam, Kiri, Lo'ak or Tuk with the RDA and moved away. Even though the kids had bonded and become a family with Tcelia and Spider, it was not the same for Neytiri and Jake. Jake and Neytiri were not truly their parents, even though Tcelia forgot it sometimes. Tcelia even doubted that Jake would have come for her if she had been the one taken by Quaritch and his goons.