Despair finally brought sleep, in the odd, uncomforting way Sabrina remembered dimly from the days after her parents' deaths. Well, this was the same thing, she thought as she drifted off. Only with no Scotty, no fellow sufferer. It wasn't quite the same for Tirqwin and Khediva; they had so many others to call family.
Ford shook her awake an uncounted length of time later. "They've been trying simple learning algorithms with him, but they don't seem to be working. They want to try something more familiar to him."
"Like what?" she murmured, rubbing at her eyes.
"Songs, rhymes, anything with a rhythm or structure that makes it easy to remember."
"They want me to sing to him?"
"Partly, yes."
Sabrina buried her face in her pillow. She wanted to weep, but she had no tears. The thought of trying to sing in the face of her brother's dissociation numbed her. She knew she could not do it. "Khediva has recordings of me singing," she mumbled after a moment.
"We tried that," Ford said. "They think you need to be there in person, for him to focus on."
"I can't," she wailed into the pillow.
There was a pause, during which Sabrina knew she ought to feel sorry for disappointing him. But she couldn't seem to feel anything.
A quiet sigh escaped Ford, and he reached out to brush a strand of hair away from her cheek and tuck it behind her ear. "Poor sweetheart," he said, "you're just about at the end of your rope, aren't you?"
"I'm there already, Ford." But she turned her head so she could look at him. Maybe there was something he could give her, to make her strong enough to endure this, she thought. He was looking so intently at her, bending forward so their faces were closer to the same level. "Are you going to hypnotize me again?" she asked, with more curiosity than concern.
"No. I just want to make you believe me when I tell you that you are not alone, and that you're never going to be, no matter what happens here."
"I know," she said after a moment.
"You know it, but you don't feel it," Ford said. He laid a hand on her cheek. "There's an ancient Miahn tradition, probably going back to Miah herself, that once you've linked with someone, for whatever reason, you can never entirely absolve yourself of responsibility for their wellbeing. No matter what they do, no matter how much trouble they're in, you have to try to help them."
"I don't want to be your duty, Ford."
"I'm not talking about duty. It's more elemental than that. It's more like...with every link, you leave a little bit of yourself behind. That's why it's not done lightly. So, for the rest of our lives, there's that tiny bit of me in you that I'm responsible for, and I will always be drawn to act for your welfare, because if I don't, I lose that piece of myself. And no one wants to be diminished like that. Am I making any sense to you?"
"Yes, a little. In short, you're stuck with me. I'm sorry."
"Don't be. We saved each other on Stanos, Sabrina. That enabled us to save Mother and Father and everyone else. Besides, I benefit from this, too. You may not have the Miahn imperative working in your case, but you have a strong sense of loyalty. I know that when I need you, you'll be there."
Sabrina pulled herself up a little and rested her chin on her arm. "Oh, Ford. You have crowds of people there if you need someone. What could I ever do for you that they couldn't?"
"Tell me that I'm better than I think I am, for one," he smiled.
"Anyone could tell you that."
"But no one has ever said it with such belief in their eyes that I really wanted to make it true." He squeezed her hand. "We are family, Sabrina. Not because of any adoption decree, and not because we choose to be—because those things can be reversed. But just because we are. It's that basic."
She looked at him for a long time, finding truth in his eyes, and strength in that truth. Then she closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. "Will you come with me while I do this?"
"Yes." He helped her out of bed.
"And...you won't laugh at my singing?"
Ford chuckled. "Only if you laugh first."
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So she went back into the room where her brother faded in and out, and sang. She sang everything she could think of, including commercial jingles, some of which she could tell, from the look on Ford's face, that she was going to have to explain later. She tried well-worn jokes, some of which Scotty could actually supply punchlines for. He seemed to be able to keep up with her for a short time, but then he would get lost again. He did better if he actually began singing with her.
Once she thought she'd done it, when she started to sing the Air Force anthem and then realized she didn't know the words, beyond some facetious lyrics Cynthia had once made up to the tune—and after Ford's difficulty keeping a straight face during "Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog," she was not going to treat him to Cynthia's brand of humor. But Scotty picked up the lyrics where she left off, and sang it through to the end while Sabrina watched, afraid to breathe.
Ford jumped in as soon as he finished, trying to get Scotty to make a simple association. "Scotty, where'd you learn that?"
Scotty frowned. "I—we sang it at—" He trailed off into perplexed silence, then looked at them and said, "Sabrina? Who's that with you?"
Sabrina slumped against Ford's shoulder, leaving him to introduce himself yet again.
——————————
Later, they met with Dr. Renkayta to assess the situation and decide what to do next.
"It appears," Renkayta said, "that his memories exist, in retrievable form, and with some coherence. However, he cannot seem to process them in any meaningful way, or relate one to another. None of the re-learning techniques we know have helped him."
Tirqwin said, "You don't think he can be helped, do you?"
"Not by anything we know to do," she replied. "We can keep trying if you like, but frankly, I think the chances of repairing his mental processes are negligible."
Tirqwin frowned, glancing at Sabrina. She sat with her head bowed, staring at the table, silent and quiescent. "Then you have no objection to our taking him back to Praxatillus?"
Renkayta looked surprised. "No. But I am unsure as to the legal ramifications of releasing him—"
"I have looked into this," Tirqwin informed her. "Scotty has been formally declared a ward of House Yanklozhquar, and is my responsibility."
"Well then, it is entirely your choice," Renkayta said. "I take it you intend to see whether the Guardian can help him?"
"She has asked to do so, if no cure could be found here," Tirqwin said.
Renkayta nodded. "I understand that very little information about the Guardian's activities is ever released, but I would appreciate being informed of at least the outcome of her efforts."
"I think we can arrange that," Tirqwin said. "We intend to leave immediately, if that will not inconvenience you."
"No. I will have Scotty sedated for transfer," she said. "I am sorry we were not able to do more. But at least we have gained a great deal of information about memory processes in humans and human/Wayfarer hybrids. Not useful in general, perhaps, but if you should ever need to access it, it will be here."
"Thank you," Tirqwin said. "And thank you for your efforts. We appreciate all your hard work, and that of your staff."
Renkayta nodded as she left. Tirqwin turned to Ford. "You had better get started; you will have to go through more checkpoints than Khediva and I."
Ford grimaced, then turned to Sabrina. "I'll see you at home—"
Tirqwin interrupted him. "No, Sabrina goes with you."
Sabrina looked up. "What? No, I'm going with you and Scotty!"
"We will have our hands full with Scotty. You are better off with Niavar. You can get some rest," Tirqwin told her.
"But—"
"Sabrina, the sooner we quit arguing about this, the sooner Mara can help Scotty."
Ford pulled at her arm. "Come on, Sabrina. You can use the break; admit it and let's go."
Sabrina sighed, hugged Tirqwin good-bye, and followed Ford out.