Grey goes before Ari and takes her hands in his. They are so cold. He rubs them to warm them as he had before. "Your cousin? Are you sure?"

"Yes, I hear the trees talking. He's dead." Ari says crying. Again Grey feels a pain in his chest and doesn't know why. He rubs it hoping that might help but it doesn't go away.

"Would you like to go to his room now?" Grey asks. He doubts that she will eat anything else and he'd lost his appetite.

She doesn't speak only nods. Grey goes over to her and lifts her up. He doesn't want her walking, not if she is still dizzy. "Where do we go?"

"Do you remember how to get to the old one's room? Grandmother I guess I should call her. His room is across the hall. I've never been in it, but I imagine it's more or less like hers." Ari says trying hard not to cry.

"This way right? Here we go." Grey says, he doesn't want to see her cry again tonight.

Ari nods not trusting her voice. "Why didn't he accept the chance at life? I don't understand."

Grey does though. "If you had to live alone in the forest with all your people dead would you accept that or would you rather die? Perhaps he feels guilty for not taking his place at the trial. I don't know, but one thing you can be sure is that he took revenge on the ones that hurt you for so long." And Grey feels a great deal of satisfaction at that although he's known Ari for such a short time. What is wrong with him?

"That door there. Yes, that should be the one to the sitting room." Ari says as they come to the hall. Grey sets her down and she takes a deep breath before opening the door.

She's never been in there before but it feels strangely familiar. A flash of memory, Hatchi carrying her. But he's never done that before. She looks around the chairs and couch resting while Hatchi left the room.

She gets dizzy and her head aches. Grey steadies her so she doesn't fall. She grasps onto his arm as she moves forward. Flashes here and there. A picture of herself smiling at Hatchi's unsmiling face.

She goes into the bedroom. Hatchi bending over her as she lies on the bed, he kisses her like he had in the forest earlier that day.

This time when she nearly falls Grey frowns and picks her up. He takes her to the bed and sets her down there. On a table by the bed is a book and a translator. Grey picks them up and hands them to her. "I think these are what the prince was talking about Ari. I'll just be in the other room if you need me."

Grey turns on the light as he leaves the room. It's not yet dark but it won't be long before it is. He doesn't know how long it will take her to read the diary Hatchi left for her, but he suspects it will be longer than the hour of daylight that's left.

He goes back to the sitting room and makes himself comfortable. Somehow he knows that this is going to be a long night. He closes his eyes and the silence lulls him to sleep. The sound of a muffled sob and a falling book wake him from uneasy dreams. Grey runs into the bedroom to find Ari sobbing and the book on the floor.

Grey goes to her and holds her. He rubs her back trying to get her calmed down. He doesn't say anything he figures if she wants to tell him she will.

"I-I have been in here." She says as she sobs. "He brought me." Grey doesn't like the sound of that. The only way he could have brought her here without repercussions would be if he raped her.

"He writes-" Ari says crying harder than ever. Grey feels helpless, all he can do is continue rubbing her back as she lets out the pain.

Ari manages to get her breath back and continue her tale. "He writes that he found me passed out on the passage, a corridor between the walls. I went there sometimes to hide. He said that there was an empty drink container by my side. That he brought me here. He said that I was only half awake, but I smiled at him, kissed him you know like this morning.

"He said that I pushed him, that when he tried to stop I wouldn't let him." Ari cries for a bit longer before she could continue.

"I remember flashes of things bits and pieces. I remember him looking down at me as he kissed me. I remember that he wasn't clothed, that I wasn't..." Ari cries even more. If the queen had seen Hatchi taking her in here unconscious than she would assume that he was going to rape her. She doesn't remember that night other than those pieces.

"I don't remember it general. Why don't I remember it?" Ari cries. She wants to remember it.

"I'm not sure why for certain, but I have some idea. Humans sometimes use a drug called GHB. For guys they say it gets them high. But on girls, it can knock them out for anywhere from a short time to days. In high enough doses it can cause death. But memory loss for that time is extremely common. They call it a date rape drug. It sounds like this might be something like that."

Ari throws herself in Grey's arms and cries. Grey is caught off guard at first but then pulls her to him. It isn't easy learning that something you believed in was a lie. And she had little to believe in.

She looks up at him with her tears still falling. "Why would he do that?" He doesn't have an answer that he can give. He thinks he knows why. Hatchi had been watching over her as much as he could because he loved her. He also knew that his mother would never let him be with her. He took her that way as the only way he could.

How could he say something like that to her? As he looks at her tear stained face all he can think of to do is lean down and kiss her. He didn't mean to make it anything other than a kiss of comfort; he soon was kissing her deeper and she was kissing him back.

All thought is lost as they give and take comfort in each others arms. Sometime later silence has fallen in the castle and the crickets are chirping outside the window. "I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry Ariele." Even as he says the words he can't help but run his hand up and down her back.

Ariele leans up on an elbow, "Why are you sorry?" To Ariele it was wonderful. She felt beautiful for the first time ever. She doesn't feel dirty or used. "I'm not."

Grey leans over and kisses her again. "I shouldn't have done that because you are under my protection, I'm supposed to protect you from things like that happening." He takes time to thoroughly kiss her again. "To keep you from being raped."

Ari snorts. "General, I know what being raped feels like and this wasn't it. Believe me, even though you don't really like me I'm glad we did this. I'd heard that sex was different, I just never thought that I'd get to experience it."

"I think you've earned the right to call me by my name Ari. And technically it was rape. It may not feel like it, but since you're under my care..."

"Prisoner you mean? Look general call a spade a spade already. I know I'm your prisoner, but I wanted this. If I hadn't you would've stopped. All I would've had to say was no and you would have stopped. You might not have liked it, but you wouldn't have forced me.

"Those I lived with didn't care if I said no. My fellow students, my teachers, anyone walking down the friggin' hall, it didn't matter. And it sure as hell didn't matter to my father. I don't remember being with Hatchi that night. I don't know if he was the one to give me the drug, or if he truly just found me. But I will remember this night. At least until the day I die. And for that I thank you." Ari kisses him and turns out the light.

Neither of them got much sleep that night and Grey was up with the first light. He has a long day ahead of him. They both do.

"You should put me in the dungeon when the tribunal judges come. They won't like that you are keeping me so free." Ari says stretching beside Grey.

"I don't give a tinker's damn what they think." Grey says kissing her.

Sometime later they finish. "Join me in the pool?" Grey asks her. Ari is surprised by the question but joins him with alacrity.

"If you don't hurry we're going to be late." Ari says a little smugly. They had stopped by her old apartment and she'd gotten some clean clothing on. Grey on the other hand was having trouble putting on his uniform.

Personally she didn't care if they were late but Grey has to show that he's feeding her or there would be trouble for him. She doesn't want trouble for him, not after what he's done for her. She knows that he doesn't love her, but it's nice to pretend. There has never been anyone she could pretend about before. Hatchi was the closest.

Grey finishes putting his uniform on. He looks over and sees the sadness that comes on Ari's face. Almost matching her thoughts he said, "I'm sure that he loved you Ari. I don't think he thought of your time together as rape, he just took the only opportunity he could to be with you.

"Did you finish the book?" Grey asks more softly as tears gather in her eyes.

Ari shakes her head. "After I got to the part I told you about I stopped. I don't know if I could bear the truth now. I'll read it later." Part of her at least doesn't want her to read it, but she can't put it off for very long. Soon her time will come and she'll be like the others, dead.

Grey stops fiddling with his uniform and it falls into place. "I'll do it Ari. When the time comes for your death I'll be the one to take your life."

But that doesn't stop Grey from hoping that it wouldn't come to that. He doesn't want to kill Ari. He's not sure what he wants from her, but he wants a chance to find out.

"It's fine general. Now stop fiddling and lets go. We'll barely make breakfast before we have to get to the trial." Ari says impatiently.

Grey stops fiddling and goes to her and picks her up. "Hungry are you?" He meant it the non food way and Ari knows that.

"Not now general. Not if you want to make breakfast. Okay, poor choice of words there. If you want me to eat food, we have to leave now." Ari says feeling a little breathless as Grey holds her.

"Grey why are you holding me like that?" Ari asks.

"Don't you feel safe with me carrying you like this?" Grey is thrilled that she used his name and not rank this time. Ari doesn't say anything.

They get down to the main entrance and find no wheelchair. "I'm going to find out who took that chair and I'm going to flay them." Grey is only partially upset. Ari doesn't weigh much and it won't be difficult for him to carry her that far, quite pleasurable actually, but it would be better if she were seen in the wheelchair.

They enter the mess tent and get their food. Or rather Grey sets her at a table and he gets them their food. He ignores the looks everyone is shooting at him. But as he eats Jeshua comes in and he can't ignore him.

"What the hell happened to you?" Grey says very unhappy.

Jeshua shrugs, "Last night as I was returning the trays and escorting Lt. Alexis back from the castle we were jumped. I took a two by four on the arm hence the cast. Unfortunately one of the attackers died from my defense. I figured you'd want to do the court martial after Sheila's trial, so I dressed for it." Well sort of. He couldn't put his uniform top on correctly so he draped it over his shoulder. He doesn't really care for the undershirt but in this case he's glad that he has something on that fits over that blasted cast.

Grey rubs his temples. It's going to be one of those days and he didn't get enough sleep to be able to handle it very gracefully. "I assume there will be a report on my desk from the MP's." Grey sighs. "You're right. The courtmartial will be held right after the trial. Do you have any idea why they jumped you?"

"None sir. I've seen them around camp but have had no real contact with them. We just recently finished putting me back together and I haven't even had time to see them. I had the MP's put them in the dungeon with Sheila," Jeshua reports.

"Very well Lt. I guess it couldn't be helped, but did you really have to kill that man?" Grey hates dealing with unnecessary deaths.

"I tried to pull things but, I was fighting against four people at that time and needed to take them out as quickly as I could." Grey waves off his explanation.

"I'm sure you did the best you could. I won't second guess you seeing as how I wasn't even there. You are the expert in close quarters combat, if you tried and I imagine you did, you can explain it at the courtmartial." Now Grey has to go to his tent and change while trying to read the report about the fight.

"Lt. Alexis. Someone stole the wheelchair from where we had left it. Would you be so kind as to obtain another for us before the trial?" Grey asks. When Alexis nods Grey starts shoveling in the food as fast as he can.

Ari eats what she can and still finishes before Grey. She watches fascinated as he ingests more than she even has on her tray. Grey sets down his fork.

"Ari, it's a long time until we eat again. Please eat some more. People think I'm starving you," Grey urges.

Ari smiles at Grey. "I've eaten as much as I can Grey. Truly, I've eaten more in the last few days than I ate in a weeks worth of meals with the Aelven. I honestly can't eat more and I don't like to eat midday meals. I only do because of you. Now I think you said something about returning to the tent?"

That reminds Grey that he has to change his uniform and he finishes the last of his meal and takes the trays. He comes back and picks up Ari and heads to the tent.

Grey sets her down on a stool and starts undressing. "I'd rather be taking this off because I'd be making love to you," he grumbles.

"You don't love me Grey. How could you make love to me when you don't love me? But the sex is very nice." Ari says with a smile on her face at the memories of the previous night. "You hide your dislike of me very well Grey. If I didn't know better I would think that you did like me, at least a little."

Grey stops changing and turns to her. "What makes you think I don't like you?"

Ari laughs bitterly. "I read people better than a book. I've had to learn. You don't like me but you hide it very well. There are times when I forget that you don't like me. Last night it was very hard for me to remember that you didn't like me, but you didn't use me or hurt me either. You made me feel beautiful. It was nice for a change." Ari looks down sad. If only he liked her.

Grey finishes doing up his uniform and faces Ari. "I like you Ari. You confuse me at times, but I do like you. And more than just for sex." He wishes that they would have more time together. She is fascinating to him.

Ari smiles sadly. Grey answers the knock on the door. "Ah Alexis. Thank you. Would you like to accompany us to the trial?"