When the rains may come (Science Fiction)

42. Strong are the liars (part 2)

That was bad news. Cathy wasn't sure how good she'd be at handling this on her own. She wasn't too well trained at changing diapers. Lisa had shown her how to do it just in case there would be a need for it. Still, doing this repeatedly would be a disaster. When she looked at her work on the baby girl, she didn't feel too impressed with herself.

But she pushed away that thought. She was already moving on to doing what Gemma's notes had said. Diarrhea and vomiting would mean that the baby is losing water. She would need to keep the child hydrated. She found the packet of electrolyte powder in the kitchen cabinet, mixed it in a glass of water and carried it upstairs to feed it to the baby.

The child was already crying by the time she arrived. She had soiled another diaper.

#

Lisa passed the first aid box back to Erik after she was done with dressing the wound on her leg. He finally decided to take care of the cut on his jaw.

The cut was long. The entire left side of his neck was sticky with all the blood that he had lost before it streamed down and soaked into his shirt. Lisa felt her chest tighten with guilt when she looked at the wound she'd given him.

And the guilt only seemed to get worse when she saw the difficulty he was having trying to dress the wound on his own.

"Stop," she said, "you can't see your own face without a mirror to patch that wound. Let me help." She got up to her feet. Her right leg stung a little with the effort.

Erik stared at her for a moment before shrugging, "Okay."

Lisa was about to limp closer to him when he stopped her and instead dragged his own chair near the cot and settled down in front of her. Lisa nodded and started to clean his wound.

Erik had barely any reaction to either her touch or the sting of ointment on the bleeding cut. He sat quietly as Lisa did her job. She frowned at his nonchalance.

"Why did you do it?" She said as she was putting butterfly closures on his jaw to seal the wound. "You could've indeed crippled me if you wanted. Why did you let me hurt you?"

"I wanted to see how far you'd go," he said, "you didn't seem like the Lisa Neville I knew. You don't seem like the same person ever since the massacre."

Lisa's frown deepened. "You think I would've killed you if you'd let me?"

"Would you?"

Lisa stopped altogether and leaned back, staring at him in disbelief. "I wouldn't! Just because I did a thing that you all didn't like doesn't mean that I'm some monster who will kill anyone she sees!"

Erik leaned back in his chair as well. The gesture seemed more out of exhaustion rather than apprehension from the woman.

"So you do care about your fellow comrades?"

"Yes!" Lisa snapped. "I do! Even if I was attacking you like a lunatic upstairs, I still care about you. I just don't like the fact that you are pushing me off the team. I don't like that you helped me practice on the truck for so long only to kick me out!"

"Then why don't you just accept your mistake, Lisa?" He said. "Why don't you accept what you did was wrong?"

"Would you let me stay in Last Hand if I do?"

"Only if you promise not to do it again."

Lisa's face twitched. She grit her teeth.

Erik leaned in. He held out his hand towards her. "Can you make that promise, Lisa?"