Author: Kat
Title: Comfort
Story: In the Heart - EPIC PIRATE AU
Colors: Admin yellow 29 (I lose my patience when I get shot.)
Supplies and Materials: Graffiti (Lilith Fair Village Stage: Childhood Dreams, Nelly Furtado), glitter ("Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." – Ralph Waldo Emerson), pastels (historical fiction), novelty beads (In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these. - Paul Harvey), eraser (EPIC PIRATE AU)
Word Count: 823
Rating: PG
Summary: Gina gets shot.
Warnings: none.
Notes: There's no actual violence in this; just aftermath.


Gina adored Ivy, she really did, but there were times when her fussing was simply ridiculous.

"I'm fine," she said, for what was about the thirteenth time that day. "Dear heart, stop worrying."

"And how," Ivy demanded, her fists propped on her hips, "am I supposed to do that?"

An excellent question. Gina sighed, and did not answer it.

Instead, she sat up in the little enclosed bed she shared with her lover, hooked her hand behind Ivy's neck and drew her down for a kiss, gentle and chaste. She could feel the tension in Ivy's muscles, though it eased a little under her hands and mouth, and when she took her mouth away Ivy let out a long sigh.

"I'm still worried," she said.

Gina bit back a smile. "I didn't mean to make you stop worrying," she told Ivy, and stroked her thumb along the sharp line of Ivy's jaw. "Only to reassure you a little. Come and sit with me."

She meant it as a request, but it came out more as a command. Not that Ivy minded, it seemed; she let out another long sigh and collapsed boneless onto the bed, curling up catlike beside Gina's leg and tucking her head into the curve where her hip joined her thigh. Gina rested her hand on the copper-fire curls springing loose from Ivy's braid, and felt her lover smile against her skin.

"This isn't sitting," she said, just to be contrary.

Ivy snorted, a puff of warm breath against her skin. "Since when do I follow orders? I'll thank you to remember who is the captain on this boat."

"Tch." Gina rolled her eyes, passing her thumb over Ivy's temple. "You took orders quite well last night."

Ivy snickered. "That's a little different."

"Of course," Gina said, in her driest voice.

Ivy subsided then, and lay pressed against her leg for a while, breathing softly and evenly. The mood softened, and turned nearly sorrowful.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, and closed her hand a little over Gina's calf. "I should have been there."

"You were there," Gina said, but it was the wrong tone to take. Ivy's face shuttered a little. She said nothing in response, only tightened her hand. Gina followed her eyes, and found she was looking at the bandage high on her hip. Of course.

It hadn't been Ivy's fault. A stray shot in the chaos of battle; how could anyone have predicted where it would go or what it would do? It could have been anyone shot. It could have been Aaron, or God forbid Summer, or even Ivy herself. But it had struck Gina, a line of hot pain across her hip, and buried itself in the cabin wall behind her.

She closed her eyes, sighed, and opened them. "It was barely a graze. I hardly felt it then, and I don't feel it at all now. It wasn't your fault, sweetheart."

Ivy pushed herself up and slowly, deliberately, leaned forward and dropped a featherlight kiss on the bandage. Then she crossed her arms over Gina's legs, and propped her chin on them, resting her head against Gina's stomach. "I should have been there," she said, again. "I should have made sure you were safe before I did anything. I promised to protect you."

"And so you have," Gina said. She sank her hands into Ivy's hair again, enjoying the texture as it snagged and tangled around her fingers. Ivy, well used to this, didn't even flinch. "Have I ever been hurt before? Have you got me with child? You saved me from childbed as surely as anything else."

Ivy's own mother had nearly died in childbirth-- she understood the dangers as well as anyone could. "Yes," she said, slowly. "But I've just put you in more danger."

Gina shrugged. "What of it? I knew when I chose this life that there would be violence. Remember that, love. I chose this. I chose you. I don't regret a moment of this."

A smile ghosted across Ivy's face. "Not even getting shot?"

"Not even that." She paused. "Do you remember, when we first met? What you said to me."

"Come with me," Ivy said, without hesitation.

"Come with me," Gina confirmed. She bent down, lifted Ivy's chin, and kissed her. "You said, come with me, and be free. Well, I did, and I am, and it would take a thousand bullets to take me away from you now."

Ivy sat up abruptly, cupped Gina's face in both her palms, and kissed her, unexpectedly soft. When she pulled back, she said softly, "I won't forget this, you know."

Gina didn't expect her to, and she said so. "But I do expect you'll forgive yourself," she added.

Ivy sighed. "I'll try," she said, which was not reassuring, and then, "I love you," which was.

"I love you," Gina replied, and kissed her again, for the comfort of it.