"Come on, Alexis, I'll show you around the castle," Jeshua says.

"Be careful, stay in rooms already cleared," is all Grey said as the two left.

Jeshua escorts Alexis out of the room. "We can start on this floor I guess. Not many of the rooms have been cleared here though. That room was the one Ari shared with her father. I don't blame her for not wanting to stay the night. Grey gets tight lipped about things but I think her father abused her." Jeshua is almost sure of it after seeing only one bedroom.

The two spend some time just exploring the castle when they come upon the main bathing pool. Jeshua gets a wicked little smile, "I'm hot, I think I'll take a bath."

"A bath Jeshua? Really? And what am I supposed to do while you're bathing?" Alexis says a little miffed. She thought they'd been having a good time.

"You could join me." Alexis looks startled at Jeshua's suggestion. She hadn't thought of that. "It's said that the men and women weren't separated when bathing," Jeshua says.

Still Alexis hesitates. She has scars of her own and Jeshua is known for his taste in women.

Jeshua can see that she wants to but that something is holding her back. "If you really don't want to, we don't have to. I'll come back some other time to use them." He's pretty sure that he can get permission from Grey.

"I do, the water looks inviting and all. It's just," she sighs. "We've seen each other around camp Lt. but you've never asked me out. Your reputation of a womanizer is almost if not as bad as that of general Grey's. In spite of that I like you."

Jeshua knows there's a but coming. He's a little lost on things. He's learned that if he's patient women usually tell him what's bothering them and so he waits.

"Ari, general Grey's prisoner, her body is covered in scars from abuse. She was badly hurt several times over a span of years. She isn't the only one.

"I don't go showing my scars to everyone Lt. Mine aren't as extensive as Ari's but they are ugly." Alexis turns from him. So much truth to someone she hasn't spent much time with was difficult.

For Jeshua's part he's angry. Angry that someone would do that. He'd suspected about Ari but Alexis's confirmation doesn't help. Her revelation that she herself was abused makes him furious. But he controls his anger. He's seen how Ari reacts around angry men and he doesn't want Alexis afraid of him.

"So you're saying that it's too soon to show me your scars? That's alright Alexis. We'll go find something else to do. We can start our way back up it's getting close to the hour general Grey specified anyway. If it's alright with you I'll walk you back to your tent?"

Alexis breathes a little easier. She smiles at him and happily joins him. "I see that your reputation is well earned." Jeshua tucks her arm in his and smiles but he's beginning to hate the reputation he's so rightly earned.

Desperate to change the subject Jeshua finally lands on one after they get to the apartment. When they see that it is indeed empty they quickly gather up the trays and all and leave. Jeshua makes sure that the door is completely closed before he says anything.

"It's general Grey that I feel sorry for." He says to break the silence that they'd been walking in. He keeps his voice down, Grey has a bad habit of turning up unexpectedly when you talk about him.

Alexis wants to keep the conversation going, as long as it isn't about her. "Oh, why's that Lt?"

"Call me Jeshua, Lt. We're the same rank no need to call me by it. Any way I feel sorry for Grey because he's fallen hard for Ari. I don't think he's even realized it yet." Jeshua says as they slowly make their way back to camp.

Alexis frowns. "I don't see it Jeshua. I've watched him with her. He treats her with far more kindness than most prisoners, but then I don't think he sees her as a prisoner, but as a victim. I think he's only holding her prisoner out of orders and he's not happy about it or the trial that's coming up."

"That's just it. Grey has no problem with most females. But when there's one hurt, suffered abuse like you've described he becomes protective of her. The fact that he has to turn her over for trial is killing him. Even with other females that have been hurt he hasn't acted like he has with her. He is far more patient with her than any female I've ever seen. But she's dying, he knows it and she knows it." Jeshua says sadly. He's come to like Ari. She's strong in her way, and smart, almost terrifyingly smart. But most of all she's nice. So rare to find such combinations with abuse victims.

"The anti dotes, aren't working are they?" Alexis asks.

"No. If the trial isn't the day after tomorrow it may take place too late to try her." Jeshua is with Ari. It's a kangaroo court out for her blood. But if she is tried and sentenced quickly then she won't suffer.

They reach the mess tent and Jeshua ushers Alexis inside. He scrapes the food trays and stacks them. They leave and Jeshua turns towards her tent. "Such a beautiful night to talk about such an ugly thing."

Alexis had been thinking much along the same line.

The peace of the night is shattered as some soldiers jump out at them and swing a two by four at them. Jeshua steps in front of Alexis and takes the blow full on his arm. He hears the wood snap, but feels his arm snap as well.

"Stand back Alexis. Get your back to a solid surface so they can't come at you from behind." Jeshua says not taking his eyes off the five men that attacked him. All enlisted men. He's seen some of them around the camp but doesn't remember offending any of them.

Without looking Jeshua reaches down and grabs his knife. His left arm is throbbing like a hot ball of flame, but he can't let these men hurt Alexis.

The men seeing Jeshua hurt come after him all together confident that hurt they could easily overwhelm him. But Jeshua has been in situations where he'd been hurt and had to fight for his life.

He kicks one man who goes down as he hits his head fairly hard on the ground. Fends off two others with his hurt arm as a shield and stabs out with his right.

Another man goes down as the knife takes him in the gut. When Jeshua took the knife out he'd started turning away so the knife ended up slicing as well as stabbing.

He manages to stab another one in the shoulder. He really is trying not to kill them. Grey frowns on deaths in fights. He'd be courtmartialed and likely found innocent, but he doesn't want the courtmartial.

The two others circle him warily. They hadn't expected this much trouble from him.

But the fight had generated enough noise that people were coming to check it out. MP's come investigate the source of the noise.

"Hold it!" Jeshua stops as the two attacking him stop.

"Lt. what happened?" The senior MP asks.

"These five men came out of nowhere and attacked me and Lt. Alexis here. I think that first blow broke my arm." Jeshua says grimacing in pain, when he really wants to shout in agony. "I managed to keep the others at bay. One is unconscious the other two need medical attention. One badly. I had to use my pot sticker here." Jeshua says and when the MP holds his hand out for it Jeshua hands it over. "Careful with that it's a gift from my mom." The MP sticks it in an evidence bag and takes the broken two by four as well.

The other MP calls for medics to come for the three downed men as the other two are handcuffed and led to the jeep.

Jeshua knows that they don't have adequate facilities to house the men. "Take them to the castle and throw them in the dungeon next to the whore. General Grey will take care of them tomorrow."

The MP salutes him and Jeshua almost sinks to his knees as the MP turns away. Alexis hurries over to grab him. She'd been giving her statement to the other MP.

"He said we're free to go. Let's get you to the infirmary." Alexis says and helps him walk the short distance to the infirmary.

"Hopefully some other doctor was called to take care of those fools, I'm paging Dr. Jaylen. She's good and she'll get you fixed up without a fuss." Alexis sits him down where he wouldn't likely fall over as she calls Dr. Jaylen.

She comes over and hands Jeshua water. "I'm sorry, I can't give you any pain pills yet. Dr. Jaylen needs to check your arm first."

"I know the drill. I've had more broken bones than I care to think about. And this one is definitely broken. I can feel the bones scraping each other." And indeed just looking at it you could see the arm was deformed.

"Hell of an end to the evening. Sorry Alexis," Jeshua says through gritted teeth. The pain was definitely getting worse as the adrenaline wears off.

The next few hours weren't the happiest for Jeshua. The xrays showed both the ulna and radius were broken. The breaks are bad. Jaylen wants to put in screws but Jeshua talks her out of it. "My bones will heal right without the screws." Jaylen isn't convinced but she can't force Jeshua to allow them to put the screws in. Against her better judgement she sets the break and casts the arm.

Jeshua isn't happy with the full arm cast but takes it in stride. Word comes that the man he sliced didn't make it. "Dammit!" Is all he said. Grey wasn't going to be happy about that.

He'd better wear his dress uniform. Grey will most likely hold his courtmartial right after the trial for Sheila. "Alexis will you send someone to get my dress uniform? General Grey isn't going to be happy about this and will want the courtmartial out of the way and since we'll all be gathered there anyway, it's likely he'll hold it just after the other trial." Jeshua says and sighs. He is in a lot of pain but doesn't dare take the full dose of pain reliever offered because he needs to remain clear headed. It's almost time to go to breakfast.

"You really think he'll hold a court martial that fast? He doesn't even know about it yet. Or he might not," Alexis says uncertainly.

"I wouldn't bet against it. You should probably dress in your dress uniform as well. You'll likely be called as a witness." Jeshua isn't happy. If that man hadn't died the men would have been courtmartialed and Alexis could have been left out of it.

Alexis sighs, General Grey scares her more than a little. But Jeshua is probably right. General Grey doesn't like courtmartials, he'll get it out of the way as soon as possible.