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“You’re okay now,” Fal’ran murmured again, to himself as much as to Patrick, and pressed a kiss to his forehead.
Patrick’s eyes closed, and he leaned into Fal’ran’s chest. Fuck. Fal’ran squeezed him, holding him as tight as was possible without rubbing against his open wounds. How badly had they hurt him for him to accept comfort in front of the others? Fal’ran needed to get him away.
“Bar’in,” he looked over his shoulder to see Bar’in giving an Insect a meaningful look until they shrank away from the cilia lined wall. “You got them under control?”
“Oh, definitely.” Bar’in grinned at the newly obedient Insect. He jerked his chin at the woman who sat in the center of the group, glaring at Bar’in. “This one here can translate, and she has informed them all that if any of them so much as twitch an antenna at one of their creepy walls, Tar here will rip it off.”
Tar growled in acknowledgement and crossed his arms in a classically threatening way that Fal’ran had no doubt he’d used to great effect in his previous life on the projects.
“Great.” Fal’ran hoisted Patrick up into his arms, his chest twinging as Patrick winced in pain. “Sazahk, we still good over there?”
“As far as I can tell.” Sazahk waved a hand over his shoulder, bent double over a control panel. “We haven’t altered course, and the ship obviously hasn’t taken any defensive measures against us.”
“Good. First priority is contacting Base Givast.”
“Right, right, of course.” Sazahk straightened and pulled out his tablet. “We should be more than far enough from the Dead Zone now and I suppose we don’t have any real reason to believe outgoing transmissions would trigger the ship in any way…”
Fal’ran ignored that trailing sentence and carried Patrick toward the open door they’d stormed the control room through. He whispered as he passed Bar’in. “Just give me a few minutes with him.”
“Of course.” Bar’in’s eyes flicked to Patrick and away again, the smell of embarrassment and concern wafting off him. “Take care of him.”
Fal’ran nodded and carried Patrick out of the room.
“I’m okay,” Patrick muttered as soon as they left.
“I know.” Fal’ran’s lips twitched at the petulance in the grown man’s voice. He carried him through the short hall and around a corner.
“Put me down, Fal’ran.” Patrick shifted in Fal’ran’s arms and Fal’ran picked up his pace.
“I will.”
“Fal’ran—”
“I will. We’re here.” Fal’ran ducked into the small side room they’d hidden in as the ship had taken off, and carefully set Patrick on his feet.
Patrick swayed but kept his balance. “Where are we?” He rubbed his temples. “How are you even here?”
“Followed you.” Fal’ran found the pack they’d hidden before their assault.
“I told you to get them out.” Patrick’s stubbornness and steel reemerged, and Fal’ran breathed a sigh of relief. “You could have died.”
“But we didn’t die.” Fal’ran pulled out the medkit. He hoped the catch-all antimicrobial cream helped with Insect acid burns. “We couldn’t leave you, Patrick. I couldn’t—”
Fal’ran's words died on his tongue when he looked back and saw Patrick standing there looking…vulnerable. So fucking vulnerable. Naked and shaking, blood dripping down his cheek, and shiny strips of raw flesh tracking over his dirty chest. Patrick shrank under his gaze and crossed an arm over his chest.
“—couldn’t leave you,” Fal’ran finished. “Come here.”
Patrick dropped his arm and shuffled closer. “How did you sneak onto the ship? Why didn’t it tell the Insects?”
“Sazahk thinks they had to silence the ship’s immune response to outsiders in order to get you on board.” Fal’ran squeezed a dollop of antimicrobial ointment into his hand. “This’ll hurt.”
Patrick shrugged a shoulder. “Not more than it hurt before.”
“Fucking bastards,” Fal’ran muttered. As gently as possible, he smeared the lotion over the shiny, open wounds down Patrick’s neck. Patrick hissed through gritted teeth, but otherwise didn’t move, despite the pain obvious in the strain of his jaw. “Damn, you’re hot.”
“What?” Patrick’s surprised laugh burst out of him. “Liar.”
“I’m serious.” Fal’ran dragged his thumb over Patrick’s collarbone, spreading the medicine over his raw skin. “What you withstood…” He shook his head. “They were interrogating you, right?”
