Sister Cities

Part 53: Caitlyn

"I'm sure I have something you can tolerate."

She pushes her finger down farther, to the point where I have to look away.

"You're covered in dust, Jinx. Your feet are gray on the bottom."

She lifts one foot and examines it. "Fine," she spits, and follows me up the stairs. I show her to one of the guest rooms, where I convince her to put down Innovation, and then to the guest bathroom, where I try to teach her the proper use of each bottle and get interrupted immediately with: "I don't care."

"Suit yourself," I say, remembering precisely why I found it odd to have missed her. "I'll drop your clothes off for after you're done."

I'm at the door when I remember to warn her about the temperature. Halfway through the sentence, turning back reflexively to face her, I stop— she had her top partly off, but she yanks it back down, covering the mark I swore I saw against her translucent skin.

"Screw off, you perverted harpy."

"What was that on your side?" Against my better judgment, I tiptoe closer. "It looked like a cigar burn."

"You're just cuckoo," she says, twirling her fingers by her ears. "Cuckoo cupcake. I'd get that checked out if I were you."

"Did someone hurt you at Stillwater?"

"No. They weren't allowed to hurt me. Duh."

I'm positive now that I saw exactly what I thought I did. "Jinx, if something happened—"

"Nothing happened! Mind your own beeswax."

"Fine." If she's well enough to climb around in air ducts, it doesn't need discussing this minute. "Make sure not to push that handle all the way over, or you'll be scalded."

"Mm-hmm."

I grab my comm and let Ekko know that I've found her. He's back at the fort by now, having realized he couldn't succeed in removing her from the ducts. He left the handcuffs. "She's gonna try to escape again," he warns me, but in all honesty, there's no point worrying— if she truly wants out, she'll get out, and we won't be able to stop her.

Still, I run downstairs to make her a snack— one of the cheeses she attempted to steal with crackers— that will hopefully entice her into staying put. Mum calls from the parlor: "Caitlyn?"

"Yes?"

"Who's using the shower?"

"Jinx. She's spending the night, and it isn't up for debate."

Wheels rattle and Mum appears in the kitchen doorway, apoplectic. "I told you numerous times that I will not accept—"

"Mum." I pick up the plate I made and turn around, and she must see something, perhaps the utter exhaustion, on my face, because her frown softens. "It's only for tonight. She has no access to weapons and she will be chained down; she can't cause any harm."

Mum counts to ten under her breath and says, "Very well."

I drop the plate off on Jinx's desk and head to my own room. Vi sleeps soundly on her side with her hands loose and her lips parted; I take her temperature and nearly laugh when I see that it's gone down to 106.1. Her heart rate is decreasing too. Dad said the tranquilizer might have a minor effect on her Shimmer rejection, but we're counting on the hope that she's naturally on the mend in the first place.

I sort through my closet carefully. Given what I've been able to glean thus far, there's next to nothing in my arsenal that will appeal to Jinx, and she's a head shorter than me with a different body type. Eventually I come up with black stockings and a black camisole that will be a mini dress on her, and I let her have Vi's (very empty) arm sheath to help her feel more like a trencher; she seems to like stripes, and she has no shoes, so I find a pair of socks in muted blue and green that she can layer over the stockings or perhaps turn into arm warmers. I don't know why, but I get the idea that she enjoys making her own clothes.