venetia_sassy | Random unedited snippet (Reply)

Ray/Greta/Mikey soon after the three of them get together. Mikey and Greta have been together for awhile. All in their mid- to late-twenties. Basic 'verse information here.

Ray tried not ask constant questions but he was enjoying finally having the permission to ask. He knew that Greta, Mikey and the others had always told the truth where they could but they were also very good at making certain questions off-limits. Or giving half-answers and no more. Ray had backed off many a time. But now he could sit on the back porch with Greta, laughing at the full story of Gerard, Frank, a dopey Doberman mix and why dogs and Tk were not a good combination.

Ray was snickering over Frank's various animal disasters over the years and Greta was giggling, cuddled up against him.

"I guess animal welfare was kind of inevitable for Frank."

Greta laughed. "We all figured it out way before he did. He had this idea that he had to have a 'respectable' career - hence the accounting. But he uses that for us and why should he work a job he doesn't enjoy if he doesn't have to? We didn't escape to be miserable."

"Why aged care for you?" Ray asked. "I remember asking before and you just said you liked taking care of people but I always thought there was more to it ..."

The laughter in Greta's face died away and she looked out at the dark garden. "There is," she said quietly. "It's reparation."

Ray frowned at that, wondering if he'd heard correctly, only to jump at the sharp voice from the doorway.

"No, Greta," said Mikey. Ray had never heard that tone from Mikey before, had never even heard him speak sharply to Greta and he looked at him, seeing the set jaw, the fierce eyes.

Greta shook her head but Mikey strode over to them and took her wrists in a firm grip. "You were a child, Greta, a child doing what she was told. You'd never known anything else but you still started to question what was happening and thought about it, which is more than any of the adults around you were doing."

Greta glanced at Ray, then quickly away, up at Mikey. "I still took part in it Mikey. Even after I started questioning."

"What else were you supposed to do? Refuse and be rehabilitated yourself? Who would that have helped? When Gee showed you another choice you took it, even knowing you could die." Mikey slid his grip to her hands and raised them to his lips, "You don't need to make reparation, Greta."

She leaned forward, resting her forehead against his chest. Her voice was muffled but Ray could still hear her, "I still hear the screaming, Mikey. I just want help people now, not hurt them. Not anymore."