You think I've never thought about leaving? [ Rex hisses back, still quiet, still not wanting Poe to hear. He'd tried to see if they wanted him to leave more than once, had brought up every reason they had to leave him, and they didn't. Now, there's an even better reason to leave: so that he won't subject them to the same cruelty any clone subjects any natural-borns to. ] I even told my commanding officer not to get attached. Now look at where we are.
[ He lost something along the way. A little of his edge, he supposes, the sharpness he used to carry around with him, protecting himself as much as it was protecting others, that in-born desire for camaraderie warring with the desire to keep others at arm's length, knowing how their lives could be swiftly brought to an end at any time. He rises to his feet. ]
It's too late. If either of us were to leave, we should've done it months ago. But that would hurt that man in there far more than if we were to stay and he were to lose us that way. And I don't -- [ He wrinkles his nose, scowling. He so rarely has had the opportunity to think about what he wants; his impulse is still that it's a selfish thing, to declare what you want and to go out and take it. ] And I don't want to.
[ And deep down, he doesn't know that Andy wants to either. He reaches out and grasps at her wrist, half supporting her, half confronting her. ]
So. What you're supposed to do with that is you're supposed to stay. And you're going to tell him that without it sounding like you're trying to rip off your own skin. I've never known you to be a coward. And I'm no coward either. So we face this for what it is. And we face it together, just as we've faced every other thing that's come our way.
no subject
[ He lost something along the way. A little of his edge, he supposes, the sharpness he used to carry around with him, protecting himself as much as it was protecting others, that in-born desire for camaraderie warring with the desire to keep others at arm's length, knowing how their lives could be swiftly brought to an end at any time. He rises to his feet. ]
It's too late. If either of us were to leave, we should've done it months ago. But that would hurt that man in there far more than if we were to stay and he were to lose us that way. And I don't -- [ He wrinkles his nose, scowling. He so rarely has had the opportunity to think about what he wants; his impulse is still that it's a selfish thing, to declare what you want and to go out and take it. ] And I don't want to.
[ And deep down, he doesn't know that Andy wants to either. He reaches out and grasps at her wrist, half supporting her, half confronting her. ]
So. What you're supposed to do with that is you're supposed to stay. And you're going to tell him that without it sounding like you're trying to rip off your own skin. I've never known you to be a coward. And I'm no coward either. So we face this for what it is. And we face it together, just as we've faced every other thing that's come our way.