Unbreakable - A Beautiful Lie · (Roswell Fanfiction) · √

EIGHTY-FOUR

Nancy had retreated to a corner, angling her young daughter behind her, a fierce determination in her stance and fire in her eyes as she stared Steven down.

Her voice was a sneer, a warning hiss, "Leave her alone. She's just a child."

I could only assume that Sarge had attempted to erase young Elizabeth's mind of what had just transpired after I had left the room to find Diane. To remove her memories of the contact with Sarge, of the weakness of her mother, of the healing I had just performed.

Nancy's eyes flickered towards me and I could see the fear intensify around her. My presence just inside the door was making her feel even more trapped, literally backed up into the corner she had gravitated towards.

Not enjoying this cat-and-mouse game the least, I moved away from the entrance - towards Sarge - my eyes on the small child as her whisper was just as loud as children's whispers generally were.

"Mommy, let's go."

Sarge tensed next to me, growling, "Then you shouldn't have brought her here, Nancy."

I watched Elizabeth shrink behind her mother's leg, her aura pulsating with a sickly grey color. I had never seen it like that before. Not even when I had visited her at her home, taking her blood. My instinct was telling me to walk straight up to the child and remove her from her mother, so that her mind could be quickly erased, instead of the child continuing to be frightened by the circumstances.

I kept my eyes on the child as Nancy bit acidly, "You didn't really give me much choice, did you?" Elizabeth tried to melt into Nancy's pants as Nancy added, her voice turning pleading, "She's too young to remember. I'll explain it to her."

Sarge laughed and I inhaled deeply. What the hell was up with all this taunting? What did Sarge get out of it? Out of all the human feelings to pick up, Sarge had decided to add sarcasm and anger to his repertoire.

I had the sudden itch to clap my hands loudly - like some overexcited human school teacher attempting to regain the attention of a class of disobedient students - and interrupt both the emotions and the conversation. To get things to move on.

Nancy needed to have her mind erased. Elizabeth needed to have her mind erased. That was it. End of story. No need to make Nancy feel horrible in the meantime. No need to prolong it. It was not as if Sarge would be convinced. By law, he had no right to go along with Nancy's plea and not erase her memories of the most recent event. So why was he letting this go on? He was making this personal.

Idiot, I grumbled silently to myself.

But I was in no position to interrupt. He had a higher rank.

The man with the higher rank, but obviously the lower intelligence, said, "You talk like you have a say in this. When did you ever have a say in this?"

Nancy's aura flickered threateningly (if only Sarge could see it; it might have made him reconsider the game he was playing) as she exploded, "I have a say in what happens to my daughter!"

I watched the young girl jump as Nancy brushed an upset hand over her daughter's head in an attempt to comfort Elizabeth in light of Nancy's display of anger.

"You're only postponing the inevitable," I told Nancy, hoping that she would give in. Make this short. So that she could go on with her life and we could go on with ours. But of course, her past memories were continuously erased - by us - so it was no wonder that she didn't know that it was always more efficient to just let us have our way.