[Fiction] Salvador

[z-Sean McCline]

She won't stop calling him Salvador. Sean has told her a hundred times that his name is Sean, but she insists on calling him Salvador. He's given up and just started to answer to it.

Part of him thinks that he should be heading toward Angie and Long, where ever they might be but that would mean leaving Iharra somewhere.

At least, he sighs to himself as he checks the boats course again, I think her name is Iharra. She didn't speak any English beyond the broken thank you that she had given him in the hospital. She still spoke English better than he spoke Spanish.

"Salvador! Salvador!" Her cries bring his head snapping up with concern. The closer they get to port, the more nervous he becomes, but she's just pointing to the lone gull hanging over the boat and shouting excitedly. "¡Mire el pájaro blanco bonito!"

Sean nods and grins at her. "It means we're close to land," he tells her. Her expression doesn't change; she just smiles at him. She hadn't stopped since yesterday.

Before yesterday she wouldn't stop crying. In some ways, he liked the crying better because that he could understand. One tends to cry when your village has been ransacked by Teragen. One will weep for days when everyone but you has died. And Sean can understand the heartbreaking sobs when you live through what Sean had found her living through.

But smiling at him like that? It makes him nervous. "We'll be there soon." Still that same smile. She doesn't understand a damned word he's saying. "And then we'll get some help, ok?"

As the dark smear of Barcelona comes into view, Iharra moves next to him to smile up at him. Sean smiles back and puts a hand on her shoulder, wondering what the hell he's going to do with a little girl.

[z-Sean McCline]

Sean is very glad that he'd liked Barcelona enough to make it a regular stopping point before the Ibiza mess, because it means that Papa Pedro still owes him one. "It's just for a few hours," Sean says loudly, drowning out Pedro's nervous exclamations.

"Why you come to Barcelona, Senor Chaos?" Pedro moans. "The government no likes you Novas being here; they arrest me! My family starve!"

Sean snorts. "Whatever. I know you have more friends in the government than Pax has in Utopia," he grunts as Pedro moans louder. "I'm looking for someone and then I'll be gone. And I won't return."

Pedro moans louder. "And you want refund on dock fee!" he cries. "My childen, Madre de Dios, my children!"

"No, I'm giving up the fee," Sean says, smiling smuggly.

Pedro stops moaning. "You not take back rest of docking fee?"

"Nope, you can have the remaining six months-"

"Four! It only four!" Pedro barks. "You late with January payment."

"The remaining four months are yours," Sean tries again, "and you can lease the slip out again. Double the profit. So can I dock?"

Pedro is counting the profits in his head; Sean can almost see the dollar signs flowing through his skull. "Fine. Four hours. One hour for each month."

Sean shakes his head. "I'll stay as long as it takes," he retorts. He waits out Pedro's curses and moans and finally gets an agreement to his terms.

Sean flies back to the boat; when his feet hit the deck, Iharra dashes from below deck and grabs his leg, shaking. "Hey," Sean murmurs soothingly, rubbing her back, "I came back. I'm right here."

"Salvador," she whispers and Sean sighs.

Once he has The Freedom - possibly the worse name he's ever come up with for anything, and that includes his goldfish Goldie - docked, Sean squats down on the deck. "Ok, Iharra, hop on," he says. It takes a few moments of pantomine, but she finally climbs up. Sean feels his stomach clench as he realizes how tiny and light she is - So fragile. What the hell am I doing anyway?

Sean leaps off The Freedom and lands on the dock easily. He shifts his Eufiber to blue jeans and a white t-shirt, drawing a squeal of surprise from Iharra. A last bit of his Eufiber curls up on his face to form sunglasses, and Sean's ready.

Flying to Madrid takes time, but Sean's not worried. He's pretty good at hiding while flying low. Iharra seems to be terrified and thrilled all at the same time.

Mingling in the heart of Madrid is also easy. What's hard is finding her in the mass of humanity. This would be easier if he could fly, but he's trying to keep a low profile. A red-headed Irish-Caucasian carrying a young Peruvian girl on his back was bound to draw attention anyway; if he could avoid some, so much the better.

Iharra seems to enjoy the ride on his back. He can carry her easily, and if he has to run, he doesn't have to grab her first. In a few more years, he could have done this with Eileen, but Sean ignore that train of thought. It was not meant to be, and for the first time, he's at peace with that. Not completely at peace, but closer than the big red-head has been in years.

It takes a few hours of discreet inquiries, but Sean finally finds himself in a dark alley. On his back, Iharra whimpers uneasily and clings a little tighter to him. Ahead, a woman picks through the garage, mumbling in Spanish under her breath.

"Excuse me," Sean says softly as he steps closer, "but are you Exile?"

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

"Who's asking?" the woman replies in accented English, not looking up from her scavenging. She is heroin-junkie thin with tangled dark brown hair and smudges on her olive skin, her clothing ripped and dirty.

She finally finds a half-eaten hamburger and wolfs it down with the kind of hunger only a nova could manage.

[z-Sean McCline]

"Chaos," Sean replies; aliases are always a good start when you're first dealing with other Novas. "I have a job offer for you."

"¡Esa mujer está comiendo la basura!" Iharra chirps, pointing over Sean's shoulder at Exile.

"And that's the job," Sean sighs resettling her on his shoulders. "She can say, 'Thank you' and 'You save me.' And my Spanish is worse than her English. I need someone to both translate and teach English and Spanish."

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

Exile turns with difficulty, watching Chaos and the child with wary dark eyes. Her face might be pretty if she were not so thin and through the tattered fabric of her jeans, hideous scarring can be seen along her right leg. She rises slowly, raking her tangled hair back with claw-like fingers.

"Okay; I want a meal, a shower and some clothing before we talk," she answers brusquely. "Barieri International's cheap. 16 euros a day, I get a shower, bed and food there. There's plenty of secondhand clothing stalls in the markets. I'm not fussy - jacket, jeans, t-shirt, shoes and underwear will do. I just want them to be clean and untorn. Sound good to you?"

[z-Sean McCline]

"Lead the way," Chaos smiles. He's glad the sunglasses cover his eyes - she's can't see the horror at her circumstances in them. Iharra is still whimpering, and he pats her leg and smiles back at her. Her eyes are fastened on the strange woman and she's no doubt terrified by the dirty nature of the woman and her twisted leg. Sean really wishes that he could tell her not to stare, but if he could do that, he'd be in Baltimore already, trying to explain what happened to Mom.

Exile leads him to the markets and begins to rifle through the second-hand stalls. Watching her reminds Sean that Iharra only has what they found in the rubble of her cottage. Most of it was suitable for a poor Peruvian; she's going to need something more modern. "I need to find some things for her, too," Sean says to Exile. "I just don't want you to think we're running off, ok?"

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

"No worries; just give me sixty-six euros now," Exile replied instantly. "No se preocupe, la pequeña, yo no comen a cabritos," she adds to the little girl in Spanish.

"You see me at the Barieri in two hours?"

[z-Sean McCline]

Sean's eyes narrow behind his glasses. He's about to ask whether she thought he was born yesterday, but Iharra bursts out in a stream of Spanish, babbling to Exile.

To Sean, it's a musical flow of pretty sounds; to Exile, it a girl's desperate attempt to communicate everything she wants to tell Chaos:

"You can talk! Please tell Salvador that I'm glad that he saved my life and made me feel better in the hospital and that I'm glad he drove the bad people away and saved me again and can you please tell him that I like his boat and that he's taking care of me and I never, ever want him to go away and I love him!" All of this is delivered in one exhaustive breath, rushing out of the girl's mouth with the force of a tidal wave.

Chaos is blinking over his shoulder at the girl. "I'm... impressed," he says. "I knew that she could talk, but damn!" He tilts his head down and looks at Exile over his sunglasses, letting her see his unnatural eyes. "What did all that mean, anyway?"

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

Exile provides a rapid translation of Iharra's words, a smile crossing her filthy face. When she is finished, the thin Spanish woman looks him over. "A Terat saving a child? What's next, the moon turning pink with purple polka-dots?"

[z-Sean McCline]

Sean blinks and fights an irrational blush. He struggles with how to respond and finally decides to defuse it with humor. "Well," he grins, giving her the smile that never falls to charm, "I guess its only as silly as a Terat giving a child a piggyback ride."

To further distact her, Sean digs into his wallet and pulls out a wad of cash. "A hundred American enough?" he asks. "I didn't have a chance to exchange it - I was just going to use my card for your clothes."

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

Exile nods quickly. "Si, it'll do. Try to stay out of trouble - I wasn't joking on the boards about how the policia are dealing with novas these days."

She holds out her hand for the money.

[z-Sean McCline]

Sean puts most of the cash in her hand; a mixture of ones, fives and tens. "Barieri International, two hours," he affirms, and moves away into the crowd, trying to convince himself that he hasn't been had.

He occupies himself by shopping for Iharra. In addition to clothes, he buys her a stuffed animal that she seems to want. Iharra hugs the stuffed matador’s horse to her chest as Sean carries their bags to the Barieri.

He enters the hotel - more of a hostel - and glances around the lobby and cafe area for Exile.

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

Exile emerges a little while later, looking much better in a faded denim jacket with the name of some Spanish band embroidered on the back, equally worn jeans, a peach-coloured t-shirt with Spanish words printed on it and off-white sneakers with a hint of pink socks showing. A stained and sun-bleached black backpack on her back looks stuffed with more clothing and she is munching on a tapa, the Spanish equivalent of a sandwich.

But the biggest change is in her physical appearance. Still the next thing to skeletal, she is proven to be quite an attractive woman under the dirt, with olive skin and wavy brown hair, her features delicate and almost angular.

"Si, there you are," she says with a smile that lights up her face.

[z-Sean McCline]

I am in trouble, Sean thinks as he gulps. He had seen the potential for Exile's beauty under the dirt, but he had underestimated it. He tightens areas of his Eufiber and waits for the discomfort to take care of other automatic problems.

"Yep, and there you are," he says as he flashes that same easy grin. Random thoughts rove through his brain regarding Exile, and the Eufiber trick doesn't seem to be working. But Iharra, who was playing on the floor with her new toy, leans against his knee and smiles up at him, and thoughts of Exile flash from his mind as Iharra's needs come first.

Exile can see the affection that the Terat holds for the child; when the girl leans against him, Chaos gently returns her smile and lightly rests his hand on her head.

"Anyway," Chaos says after a moment, "is there somewhere safe we can talk?"

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

"Safe, in Madrid?" Exile laughs softly. "Best I can arrange is a quiet spot in an alley somewhere."

She gestures with the tapa. "You and the girl hungry? There's a tapa bar down the road. You should try one. Quick, cheap and easy."

[z-Sean McCline]

"Oh, I ate a couple of hours ago, a small pizza would be nice," Sean grins. "How about it Iharra?" Sean asks the girl. "You hungry?" He pantomines eating and the girl nods.

The three walk down the tapa bar. Sean buys enough tapas for all of them to have a decent meal - for a baseline. They make their way to an open area where they can talk without being over heard, and Sean turns to Exile.

"Ok, you get room, board and a trip out of Spain," Sean says, "plus I'll try to pay you a salary - how much depends on how much money I can clear. You'll get the big bedroom below deck, and I'll sail where you want me to take you. You'll teach Iharra to speak, read and write English and me Spanish, and translate until we can talk to each other. What do you say?"

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

"Si, sounds good," Exile replies, offering her hand to Sean. "Call me Anna if we're going to be living together."

The thought of regular meals, a real bed and an easy job had brightened her disposition considerably, the difference showing in her smile.

[z-Carver]

...

[z-Sean McCline]

I'm so fucking screwed, Sean thinks to himself as he shakes her hand. His eyes linger on her delicate face as he confirms, So very, very screwed.

"We need to get to Barcelona," he says aloud. "I could fly us there. Do you have a way that involves less invasion of personal space?" Frankly, if he cradled her in his arms for the whole flight, he'd be a fuckin' wreck by the time they got to the boat.

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

"You got enough for a bus?" Anna asks, cheerfulness virtually radiating out from her as she withdraws her hand. "If not, we'll have to fly."

She wolfs down another tapa before speaking. "I'm a good cook too, so you and the little one won't look as skinny as me." She manages to laugh.

[z-Sean McCline]

"Ah, you'll put the weight back on soon enough," Sean says, and then realizes that he just told her she'd be getting fat. He covers his faux paus by counting his cash.

"How much is the bus?" he asks; when Exile tells him, he winces. "I'm out of cash and they won't take card, right?" She laughs as an answer.

Sean sighs and rubs his forehead, wishing he still had a joint. "Let's walk out of town and I'll fly us the rest of the way."

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

"Apologías for costing you so much," Anna replies, truly sounding apologetic. "I wish I could call one of my Vasco cousins, but they'd probably want you to join ETA or something like that. ¡No, realmente! They got realmente enojado about it when I said I couldn't join, because mis energías no trabajaron en la gente. Trabajan solamente en las Novas."

As she speaks, Anna's voice becomes more excited and liberally spiced with Spanish words. She stops for a moment and flushes with embarrassment. "Apologías again. I have not been able to talk to a nova before. It spilt out."

[z-Sean McCline]

"No, no," Sean assures her. "It's fine. Believe me, I'm enjoying having full conversations again. Iharra didn't talk a lot at first, and then I couldn't talk to her anyway. It was a long boatride from Brazil."

"And don't worry about money, I'll just..." Sean's voice trails off as he realizes that he wasn't just going to sell some extra drugs; all of his clients were in the Primacy. And they would be pissed at him soon if they weren't already. "Just get some more money." He wasn't sure how, but he'd find a way.

They walk out of Madrid and move behind an abandoned barn. Sean turns to her and asks, “So, how do you want me to carry you? I’m willing to do what it takes for maximum comfort for all involved. Except, probably, me.

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

"I am stronger than I look; you carry Iharra and I'll hang onto you," Anna assured him with a smile. "And no worries about money - maybe I can get back on my feet and start cooking again. I am good, and I'll make lots of money."

[z-Sean McCline]

"Sure," Sean agrees. That actually sounded like a great idea; if she were behind him...

Much more comfortable.

And so they flew quietly back to Barcelona. Sean held Iharra, who seemed to enjoy spreading her arms out and pretending she was flying. Exile clung to his back.

Outside of Barcelona, Sean set down and put Exile down. "Come on, we need to get the docks, and the sooner we do, the sooner we get out of Spain." He smiles at Exile as a thought occurs to him. "Would you like to see a man in Baltimore about your leg? I need to talk to Neil Preston anyway."

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

Anna smiles at Sean in reply. "No, los doctores que tiraron de mí fuera de dicho que la pierna fue dejada demasiado larga para curar correctamente. The leg is bad. The doctors say it was left too long."

She shrugs. "¿Por qué incomodidad? But hey, you want to go to Baltimore, fino por mí."

[z-Sean McCline]

"Yeah, I thought so, when I didn't, uh," he smiles uneasily. "I can heal," he admits, "that's part of why I have Iharra. I found her injured... a couple of times. Long story.

"My Mom lives in Baltimore; I should check in with her because the last time she saw me, an Elite named Long threatened to kill me," Sean says. "I've talked to her since, but she worries." He glances at Exile. "Is Baltimore really ok?"

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

"Sí, ningún se preocupa," Exile replies with a wave of her hand. "Su barco, su opción."

She tilts her head at him. "So, where the barco?"

[z-Sean McCline]

"That means boat, right?" Sean asks, frowning as he tries to follow the conversation. She nods with that same lovely smile and Sean waves toward the ocean. "Follow me."

,,

They move through the city, careful to seem as tourists out for a day on the town. “Papa Pedro had better have filled up my boat,” Sean mutters to himself at one point. Exile glances at him but offers no advice.

Finally he’s walking down the slip to The Freedom. Instead of being relieved, Sean only becomes more tense because if it went to hell, this would be the moment. “This is the bo- eh, the barco,” he tells Exile, “your new home.” Well, that wasn’t creepy. Nice job, Sean.

The long white boat sits prettily in her slip, rolling gently up and down. The words, The Freedom were emblazed across the back. “It has two cabins and two heads; you can have the master cabin – I’ve got my stuff out of there,” Sean says. He starts to hop onto the boat when he realizes that he hasn’t extended the gangway. It will be a tough hop for Exile.

“Uh, I’ll need to hop you over, because I’ve never used the gangplank and I have no idea where it is,” Sean admits. “Let me take Iharra over and I’ll come back, ok?” He jumps over and sets the girl down, then casually hops back, his superhuman strength evident. “You want to get up on my back again?”

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

Exile nods and wraps her arms around Chaos' waist. "Listo - ready," she replies.

She braces herself as Chaos jumps across to the boat, trying not to wince as her bad leg is accidently knocked.

"Gracias," she says through gritted teeth.

[z-Sean McCline]

"Shit, I'm sorry," Sean mutters, feeling like a total heel. "Can I get you something for that?" He touches her arm, trying to offer comfort, and the warmth builds in his hands. Happily, eagerly, he pushes the power into her, for once not minding the remorse and sorrow that pushes at him.

His hand is hot on her arm and Exile hears a hint of a cry or a sob as the pain in her leg eases. "Better?" Sean asks, smiling gently.

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

"Si, gracias," Anna replies with a smile, "¿Dónde usted aprendió curar como eso? Umm... Where did you learn to heal like that?"

She looks over at Iharra and grins. "¿Salvador es buen curador, no es él?" she asks the little girl.

[z-Sean McCline]

"Si," Iharra replies, "él es maravilloso. Él ahorró mi vida dos veces."

Sean grins at seeing Iharra talking so happily. "I just kinda picked it up," he answers Exile. "I wanted to heal Iharra - she was dying - and I did." He keeps his voice light, but Exile can see that there is something more to the story. "I have to make sure that Pedro filled up the kitchen and the tank before we leave, so give me a few minutes and we'll be underway." Sean flees before the questions get more personal.

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

Exile takes Iharra by the hand and follows Chaos. She wants to see what his kitchen is like.

[z-Sean McCline]

Sean is just starting to relax as he goes through his cabinet. Then he hears them behind him, and he turns around to see Iharra and Exile to come down the stairs. "Yeah, welcome below decks," he starts and then realizes that he just said something stupid.

"This is the kitchen/dining area," he says, waving around this section of the room. There is a small refridgerator and stove; a table is folded up against the wall, and four small chairs are secured to the floor.

He points further down the boat, where a couch and softer chairs sit in a horseshoe shape. "That's the living room; the coffee table has an OpNet terminal linked via sattelite," he explains. "The door leads to the cabins and they have a bathroom between them. The master cabin's bathroom isn't accessible from the hallway, so that's yours."

He does a small turn and looks back at her. "You like?"

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

"Si, very nice," Exile says admiringly. "Good kitchen; not my kitchen at the restaurant, but not bad either."

She smiles brightly at the thought of cooking again. "So, you have any plans beyond going to Baltimore?"

[z-Sean McCline]

Sean blinks and then rubs his hair as he says, "I have to go to Chicago at some point - I have another man to see there. But not really, no." He shrugs, looking uncomfortable. "I've been kinda reacting to... stuff... that's been happening to me over the last couple of months and I haven't thought about the future much."

Sean looks tired as he talks about his past, but he shakes it off. "Check and see if you need anything before we leave port, ok?" he says. "If you need something, I think that I have some room still on my card." No way to pay off the card - thank God I stole the boa - fuck. I did steal this boat and had it repapered. Damn, that was probably not the right thing to do.

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

"I will make do with what I have. We can stop in other ports, si?" Exile asks as she wanders around the kitchen with a dreamy smile. "I want to leave Spain for a long time, if not forever."

[z-Sean McCline]

"Then I'll get on the way," Sean smiles. "I'll check the tank and the engine, and we'll under way soon."

He heads to the very front of the below decks were a small wheel and console looks out over the ocean though the forward window. He checks the fuel levels and nods, then turns on the engine. It roars to life and settles into an idle. "I'll go cast off and we'll be gone." He gives her another smile and jumps back up to the deck, not touching the stairs.

"He's too jumpy," Iharra sighs in Spanish. "My Mama would say that he's full of fleas." She looks harder at Exile. "Are you coming with us now?"

[Anna 'Quanta' Alameda]

"Si," Exile agrees calmly as she begins to gather ingredients to cook a proper meal. Rice, onions, saffron, red and green peppers, chicken breast, tomato sauce... She cooks up enough paella to last a few days, even for novas, and mentally notes to have Sean stop into another port in Spain before they leave for America.

She discovers that she somehow instinctively knows what to do to make the paella perfect as she cooks, and realises that she might just have a way to keep all three of them fed...