5.2 - Orbital Pivot

"Jackson, why'd you bring us to Pivot? What about Orbital Academy?" Preston reached across Missy and flicked the cruiser's autopilot off, beginning to manually pilot their cruiser in line with the other squadmates'.

"Rookie Preston, please cut the comm chatter, we wouldn't want to crowd Orbital Pivot's comm channels," Jackson's voice crackled into the small space. The message was clear; We're being listened to. I can either trust Jackson or come up with my own plan. Preston and Missy exchanged looks, and she nodded, her brown ringlets bouncing with the motion. Preston shrugged. He probably would've trusted Jackson on his own, but he trusted Missy at his core. Pulling up the fine-navigation controls, he prepared to land the craft.

Although he had seen it before a handful of times, this was the first time he was actually landing a ship in the hangar bay. Orbital Pivot's hangar was much larger that Orbital Academy's, containing expanded bays to allow Pivot to supply ships to every Orbital in the orbit. Although it was easier for Preston to move the ship in, the smooth and practiced action was unsettling. It feels wrong somehow. The ship settled down behind Alex's heavy cruiser, and Preston did his checks of the gauges without thinking about it. It wasn't until the canopy swung upward that Preston realized how many people crowded the large hangar bay. The normal scrub teams were moving in to hook up fueling lines and coolant cells, but there were more small groups scattered throughout the hangar. Jackson was already climbing down from his cruiser at the front of the line of ships, and the largest of the groups were waiting for him. Preston helped Missy down and they walked forward to join their squadmate, just as the man in front of the group spoke.

"Good evening Rookies. I'm General Hunter, and I'm in charge of this orbital. I checked over the flight logs before I came down, and I wasn't informed of any ships scheduled to dock today." The General was tall and muscled, with salt-and-pepper hair in a short buzzcut. Despite his slightly suspicious tone, his stare seemed focused and attentive rather than aggressive. He's a military type, Preston decided, hoping Jackson had also picked up on the vibe,  strict protocol, law and order type.

"We're unscheduled sir," Jackson answered for the group as Li, Aimee, Marcus and Alex joined them, "we've just returned from the surface. From a rescue mission, in fact, to retrieve our squaddies that were left behind on a planetary. We managed to save all but two." The General raised an eyebrow, while behind him two of his men immediately began typing into their screens.

"I haven't ever heard of a rescue mission being undertaken, much less successfully," he commented, holding out a hand, "nor was I aware Academy was sending rookies down to the surface these days." One of the men behind him placed his screen into the General's waiting hand, which he glanced at briefly before returning it, "I see the Planetary authorized, but not the rescue mission."

"It was...unauthorized," Jackson admitted, "but we have reason to believe there are members of Academy who didn't want us to live through the Planetary. That's also why we landed on Pivot rather than Academy"

The General looked back and forth between the faces of the squadmates, his face neutral. The silence stretched, and Preston noticed suddenly how many of the people around the General were carrying heavy assault rifles and non-lethal riot pistols. His view on the scene suddenly shifted. Fuck...we aren't a group of rookies facing a slap on the wrist here... we could be in as much trouble here as on the planetary. He took another, more specific headcount now, noting the composition of the group in front of them. Flanking General Hunter were his two henchmen with the screens, but the four men and women surrounding them were heavily armed and armored. Preston hadn't ever been in a situation where someone might view him as an adult threat, not just a mischievous child. His hands were at his sides, and he moved his thumb subtly to make sure the pistol Missy had given him was still stuck in the waistband of his loose pants.

"Why don't you keep your hand away from that weapon, son," the General said quietly, without turning his head, "it'll make this conversation a little easier I think." The guards with weapons shifted at his words, raising weapons carefully but quickly, and Preston put his hands up slowly.

"General," the man on Hunter's left handed him the screen, "it's General Auspus from Orbital Academy for you sir." Preston's stomach clenched.

"Yes," General Hunder murmured, "I thought he might want to talk to me."

"General Auspus," Hunter held the screen in front of his face with his left hand. Missy's fingers dug into Preston's arm as their General's calm voice came from the screen.

"Hello General Hunter. I understand some of my rookies landed in your hangar bay a few minutes ago."

"They certainly did Auspus, we have them in the brig right now," General Hunter fixed them with a stare as if challenging any of them to say a word, "anything I should know about them?"

"I'm glad you took that action. Keeping them isolated is certainly the best option to keep Orbital Pivot safe.They're quite a dangerous bunch."

"Are they now?" General Hunter's expression didn't change, but Preston noted with concern that his right hand moved casually to the butt of his pistol.

"We aren't quite sure what their end goal is, but we suspect they intend to form a rebellion against the Orbit." Preston ground his teeth at the smooth calm with which Auspus mangled the truth, "they dipped into the fog after they left, and we tracked their progress to Pivot, so whatever their story, it will involve the deception that they visited the planet."

"But that's a lie, of course?" General Hunter moved as he asked, his eyes sweeping across the group of rookies as he stepped in among them, "they came straight from Academy to Pivot?"

"Of course," Auspus' voice contained just the right amount of annoyance to sell the story. Out of the corner of his eye Preston saw Missy open her mouth, and he grabbed her hand and squeezed. She stayed silent, with a look of barely concealed rage on her face, as the General stopped directly in front of Preston.

"Hmm." General Hunter said noncommittally, and Preston had to force himself not to move as the aged man reached out and grabbed him by the arm. "You've given me a lot to think about General Auspus," General Hunter mused aloud, rubbing the material of Preston's shirt between calloused fingers.

The Terrans' prison clothes! Preston realized with a start, looking down at the rough and coarse clothes he was wearing, the Orbitals don't have material like this, and Auspus doesn't know the Terrans captured us!

Although General Hunter's expression never changed, his hand moved off of his sidearm as he made his way back to the front of the rookies, speaking into the screen.

"Aren't your rookie squads usually made up of nine rookies and a Captain? There are only four rookies here."

Preston glanced at his squadmates. Missy and I, Jackson, Alex, Marcus, Li, Aimee... he counted before the realization hit him, it's a test. He's only counting the ones in Academy flightsuits...the ones Auspus knows made it.

"Yes General Hunter, that's correct," Auspus didn't hesitate for a moment, "their Captain wasn't involved in their little rebellion, thankfully, and we were able to safely capture the remaining five of their group before they took off. They're safely detained here in Academy."

"I'm glad to hear it," a hint of expression had finally appeared on General Hunter's face as he surveyed the seven squaddies, an unforgiving hardness. Preston found it encouraging.

"When will you be able to ship them back to the Academy for processing?" Auspus' question was casual.

"I'll have to square things away here first," General Hunter answered noncommittally, "but I'll get back to you." He closed the screen and passed it back to his henchman.

"So..." the General seemed to be mulling things over in his head, "I'm assuming when you said "someone in power, you were referring to your captain and your general?"

"Just the General, sir," Jackson replied, "I'm pretty sure the Captain wasn't involved."

"Well now, isn't this problematic?" The General ran a hand through the stubble on his head and blew out a breath. "If I'm following the letter of the Orbit's law I'd ship you all back in a containment cell before the end of the day." Preston felt the urge to reach for his gun again, but he restrained himself. Shooting people won't help our case.

"On the other hand, it's clear that there's more going on here than it seems," General Hunter growled, "your story might be a lie, might now, but it's clear that General Auspus' certainly is." Hunter stroked his chin for a few more moments.

"I'm not throwing you back to Auspus before I've had the chance to think about this," he said finally, "But I'm not about to give you full run of the orbital either. I'm confining you to cells, and then I'm going to give a long hard think, then I'll talk to a few of you. Does that seem fair?"

"Very fair, sir," Jackson said respectfully. Preston let the guards remove the gun from his waistband before he spoke.

"General, some of us have been separated from loved ones for quite some time. If you would be so kind, if we could be locked in cells together..."

"I don't like the idea of you all in the same place, able to plot and scheme," the General shook his head, "three of you to a cell, max." He made a motion, and Preston found himself being escorted down the long hangarbay. Missy clung to his arm, and he put a hand around her waist protectively, even though he knew the guards wouldn't be rough. He had grown up on Orbital Pivot; roughness wasn't their way.

It was good to be back on Pivot. It felt like a lifetime ago since he had last walked the long hallways, and the tiny luxuries he had grown up with seemed so much more vivid now that he was back. The guards and squaddies' footfalls were muffled by carpeting, and the walls were rich colors instead of the bare metal of the Academy. Where the cold was an ever-constant hardship on Orbital Academy, here the air was warm and pleasant. Preston may have been worried about his future and the fate of his squadmates, but in the meantime it didn't hurt to enjoy the little things he had left behind.

"First cell," one of the guards thumbed a keypad to open the door and stood to one side, "you heard the General, three max."

"Will you two be alright on your own?" Jackson asked quietly. Preston nodded,

"Orbital Pivot treats their prisoners alright," he said, "we'll all be fine until the General makes a decision. And even then, General Hunter isn't the type to surprise you. We'll know what will happen to us as soon as he comes to a decision."

Preston and Missy stepped inside of the dark cell, and the door closed behind them, hissing as the room was hermetically sealed.

"Now all we have to do is wait," Preston let go of Missy and leaned against the door, "hopefully we won't have to wait for more than a day or two, the General probably has a lot that he needs to take care of- what's wrong?" For the first time he noticed the dumbfounded expression on Missy's face, as the soft lights in the room slowly rose.

"THIS is Pivot's prison?" she asked. Preston glanced around the room. It was about the size of the entire Academy barracks that housed his nine-man squad, although there was only one bed in the corner. Queen-sized, Preston noted, although the cells are probably only set up for one prisoner, so that's not intended as a hardship. A fire crackled in the fireplace on one wall, and on another a huge window gave a picturesque view of the moon that lazily followed the Orbital's progress around the planet. His eyes moved from the high ceiling to the plush carpet on the floor, and he finally shrugged,

"Well, yea I suppose it's a little comfy compared to the Academy-"

"A little comfy?" Missy hesitantly stepped into the room, as if she would break something simply by moving, "this is the most luxurious room I've ever been in. Ever. In my entire life. how is this…what?" She spluttered.

"Okay, sure it's alright," Preston was starting to grow uncomfortable, "but we've been on Orbital Academy for five months Missy, anything would seem luxurious to us..." he trailed off at the look Missy was giving him.

"Just how comfortable was your life before coming to the Academy Preston? If this," she made a sweeping motion around her, "is Pivot's definition of the barest necessities."

"It was...fine. It was okay," Preston mumbled. He didn't like the direction this conversation was going, "I mean it was better than this but..." Defensiveness gave his words more of an edge than he meant them to have, "why is it such a big deal? We're all squaddies no matter where we came from, aren't we? And you and I, we're partners who love each other, aren't we? Who cares about what our childhood was like? What does it matter?"

"It matters when I find out my boyfriend was a spoiled rich kid," Missy muttered, looking around her. Preston reddened, but he didn't respond. We don't need to be arguing right now, especially not about something as trivial as this. Instead he turned to the wide window and stared at the moon that drifted in the distance. After a few moments Missy joined him, wrapping slender arms around his waist.

"I'm sorry," she said, "you're right, it doesn't change anything about you. Or us."

"Look at it this way," Preston said dryly, "whatever comforts I might've had as a child, they make it that much harder to adjust to life at the Academy."

"Oh you poor thing!" Missy gasped, and Preston grinned at her tone. He couldn't see her face, but he could tell she was about to tease him. "You mean you're forced to sleep in a bed with only one pillow?"

"Now that's not fair-" Preston began, but Missy turned his head to look at the prison bed in the corner. There were four plump pillows on the heavy coverlet. Preston scowled as Missy burst into peals of laughter.

"Well at the very least we'll be able to enjoy ourselves while the General is thinking about what to do with us," Preston stepped over to the bed and threw himself backward on it. The coverlet enveloped him as he stared at the ceiling. Missy settled next to him and laying her head on his chest.

"Do you think he'll believe us?" Missy asked. Preston played with her brown curls as he considered the question.

"I've always heard Hunter was cool and levelheaded," he said finally, "and Auspus dug himself a pretty big hole with his lies. We've got the crystal, so if he believes us in the slightest we can have his help in deciphering what he's trying to hide."

"I hate him." Missy spoke quietly, but her voice was venomous. "We weren't hurting anyone, we weren't doing anything, and he tried to break us apart, tried to kill you." The anger in her voice was unlike her, and Preston frowned to hear it. He tried his standard tactic of switching her attention; telling a dirty joke.

"Well, I wasn't hurting anything, but I was definitely doing someone," he said, giving a lock of her hair an affectionate tug. He expected a gentle smack on the stomach, but instead Missy just sighed and ran her hand up and down his leg.

"You know..." Missy said, "...I do owe you for back in the cruiser." Preston bit back a response. He had come far enough to know that he shouldn't agree, that he shouldn't think of sex as owing each other. He hoped someday he wouldn't think it, but in the meantime he could at least avoid saying it.

"If you like," he shrugged, "it's not like you have to."

"Preston," Missy turned, her face inches away from his, "I thought you were dead. I thought I'd never see you again. You told me you loved me an hour ago. You gave me an amazing...a lot of fun in the cruiser."

"You still can't talk about sex without blushing unless we are in the middle of having sex," Preston chuckled. Missy was indeed blushing, her whole face red, but she looked resolute. When she didn't move for a few moments, Preston cocked his head to one side. It was somehow different this time, as if Missy were processing emotions she didn't normally have to deal with. When she spoke she was quiet, but there was an unsettling steel to it that Preston hadn't heard before.

"Fine," she said, and when she looked straight into Preston's eyes with a steady gaze, her blush was gone. What just happened? Did I go too far?

"Listen, Missy, I didn't mean-"

"Shut up. You want to hear me talk straight, fine. I thought you were dead," she listed on her fingers, still holding his gaze, "I thought I'd never see you again. You told me you loved me. And on top of all of that, I haven't been fucked in a week. You made me cum, hard, in that cruiser, when I really needed to cum. Now I'm going to return the favor." She grabbed the front of his shirt and leaned in closer, dropping her voice to a whisper, "and I'm not going to stop at just one. I'm going to fuck you, Preston, until you are physically incapable of having another orgasm, and then I'm going to fuck you one more time."

"I...um" Preston stammered. This was like their first time all over again, she was acting completely out of character from the petite innocent Missy that he was used to, and he was both confused and incredibly turned on.

"No stammering," Missy leaned back, "the first time we're going to do it like this. You're the big confident rich kid, and I'm just a naive little rookie from Orbital Academy." The innocence was back, exaggerated in all the right ways. Missy looked up through her lashes at him with the smallest of pouts, leaning back far enough that the stomach of her flightsuit made a pleasant arch up to her breasts. "So what exactly are you going to do to me, big bad rich boy?" She asked. Preston leaned forward, grabbing a handful of her curls in one hand as he fumbled for the sealing tab on her flightsuit with the other. "Oh Preston, what are you doing?" Missy said in a shocked voice, the effect somewhat ruined by the grin on her face. Preston slid the sealing tab down with a single quick motion, planting a kiss between her breasts before answering.

"I'm going to fuck you senseless you silly girl," he grinned right back, yanking her suit off of her shoulders. Smiling at the way she gasped, Preston looked his girlfriend over. On the Academy the constant cold would make her nipples harden right away, but Orbital Pivot was kept warm enough that he was deprived of that sight. Even so, he couldn't help but admire Missy's body as she shrugged her arms out of the sleeves of the flightsuit, letting it slip down to her hips.

"But Preston, how will you do that with your clothes on?" Missy asked putting a finger to her lips. Preston rolled his eyes at the overblown innocent act, but even knowing it was exaggerated, his cock hardened against the soft material of his Terran prison clothes.

He used the firm grip on her hair to pull Missy down next to him on the bed, standing and yanking his shirt off. She watched him with heavily lidded eyes, taking in his every motion as he next stripped out of his pants.

"You are entirely overdressed," Preston said huskily, and Missy obligingly lifted her rear and shifted her legs out of the flightsuit, kicking it onto the bed. She sprawled on the bedcovers in front of him, pale skin against white coverlet, her pink nipples and the dark patch of hair between her legs the only contrast.

Preston grabbed her ankles and yanked her towards the edge of the bed until her butt hung half-off of it. Missy squeaked, but Preston held her legs behind the knees as he knelt between them. She was so wet that he could see the juices on her pink pussy, and he enjoyed the sight for a moment before he gently licked it clean.

"Oooh Preston," Missy moaned, all sign of acting gone. Preston smiled and kept on licking, lapping up her juices and reveling in the tangy taste and scent. "This is supposed to be about you, s-stop it," Missy breathed, and Preston chuckled again.

He rose, barely pausing to nip at her breast on his way up. Missy had already reached down to grab his member, stroking it and sliding his head between her lips, and he thrust into her with a powerful, hard motion. Missy threw her head back, her mouth open in a wordless moan. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, and suddenly her slit was trembling around his length. Preston would've been proud of giving her an orgasm with a single thrust, but her wet, warm cunt gripping his shaft felt so good he knew he wasn't going to last long himself. He thrust a few more times, enjoying the wet sounds of sex and her shuddering breaths almost as much as the feeling of her tight sex. When he came he felt explosive, and he slammed into Missy's body so hard and so deep that it left them both in a heap on the bed, panting and gasping.

Preston stroked Missy's hair as he tried to catch his breath, unwilling to slide out of her again. For her own part, Missy was looking up at him with mingled lust and love, and Preston decided he quite liked the look.

"Mmm that was far too fast," she smiled, "we'll have to do that again."

"Um...I'm going to need a few minutes before we do that again," Preston laughed.

"I don't like that answer," Missy said, and before Preston could ask what she meant, she had pushed him off and onto his back, holding his arms down.

"What are you-" he protested, but quickly silenced when she began planting gentle kissing along his stomach. Her mouth traveled downward, slightly glancing against his abs until she reached the base of his limp cock.

"So you'll need a few minutes?" Missy purred looking up at him through a curtain of brown ringlets.

"I...think so?" Preston didn't mean for it to come out as a question. He wanted to take control, but the young woman staring up at him with those brown eyes could do anything she liked as far as he was concerned.

"Well then, I'll have to take that time to clean this up then," she said. Very slowly and deliberately, Missy slid the tip of her small tongue from the base of Preston's shaft up his entire length. Preston grabbed at the sheets and gasped. His member was still sensitive from his orgasm, and her tongue felt at the same time soothing and electric.

She kept up her slow assault, carefully lapping every drop of his semen and her juices off of his cock. Preston moaned, wanting to throw his head back but unable to look away from his girlfriend's skillful manipulation of his body. Her tongue never slid over his sensitive head for too long, moving back to his shaft, his balls, occasionally even flicking over his thighs or abs before returning to her work. Patient and attentive, Missy kept licking for long minutes, grinning as he very slowly began to grow hard again. Smiling up at him sweetly over his now-rigid member, Missy went at her work with renewed energy, flicking her tongue across him and using her hands to lightly touch and massage the base of his cock. He was surprised it took the few minutes that it did for the orgasm to build in him again, but when it did it hit him so hard that he let out a yell. His seed spurted from his tip, falling in strands across Missy's face and hair and hands, but she didn't hesitate or stop her licking, until finally his orgasm subsided. She gave his softening member a few more gentle licks, and then leaned back, a smug look on a face covered in his cum.

"I'm going to shower now, because you've made quite a mess," she said lightly, standing and stretching. Even in his post-orgasmic state, Preston's cock twitched at the sight of her body when she stretched, brown curls falling over her taut breasts. "Come and join me when you're ready."

He watched her walk across the large room to the bathroom door, admiring the way her proud strut made her butt look.

"Oh, and by the way," she said over her shoulder, "by 'when you're ready', I mean 'when you're hard again', because I expect you to be able to fuck me hard in the shower."

Preston grinned and leaned back against the coverlet as he listened to the shower stream cut on.

"Holy shit, there are four showerheads in here! With sonics and water!" Missy's voice came from the bathroom, and Preston chuckled.  The light in the room was soft and the blanket beneath him warm, except for the small damp spot where Missy had been laying when he ate her out. I should do that again, for longer next time, he thought idly, maybe use my fingers at the same time- A small alarm pinged through the room, interrupting his thoughts.

"Prisoners, are you decent?" A firm but not unfriendly voice asked over the comm.

"Um..no, not at all, hold on," Preston scrambled for the small dresser by the bed, yanking a drawer open and pulling out the white suit that was provided for the prisoners.

"Someone at the door?" Missy emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her, and Preston had to wrest his attention from a particularly intriguing droplet of water that was slowly sliding from her damp hair down her neck.

"We're covered up now...more or less," he called distractedly, and the door slid open. The guard stepped to one side and Aimee stepped in, the door immediately shutting behind her.

"Preston, oh it's so good to see you guys together again," Aimee wrapped Preston in a hug, and then did the same for Missy.

"Aren't you sharing a cell with Li?" Missy asked, returning the hug with one arm while holding her towel around her.

"We are, but they'll only let three of us together max and I thought we had better investigate this while we had some time alone." Aimee drew the blue crystal from a pouch in her flightsuit, and Preston and Missy instantly sobered. The crystal was almost exactly like the one they had seen General Auspus using weeks before, different only in the shape of the finer edges and in its color, a deep blue instead of the purple.

"So what is it? And what does the General do with it?" Aimee asked. Preston sat on the edge of the bed, trying to wrap his mind around the memory.

"He just set it in front of him, and it started sparking."

"Well then, let's try it," Aimee set the crystal down on the floor and sat down in front of it. Missy joined her, sitting crosslegged so that the towel covered her chest and legs.

"Now what?" Preston asked. The crystal sat between them, dull and lifeless.

"Now we talk about what to do." Aimee answered. "We got this from the Terrans, and the General has one of these, and he knows how to use it. Is it possible he's a Terran?"

"Not likely," Missy shook her head, "people have known him since he was a Pilot-level, and it's not as if anyone can just show up somewhere without birth records from Orbital Basura."

"Is this something the military captured from the Terrans then?" Aimee ventured, "maybe it's not as sinister as we've been thinking, it could be some military secret."

"That he would threaten me and Preston over? That he would lie to General Hunter about? No," The hard edge had returned to Missy's voice again, "whatever the crystal means to him, he doesn't want anyone to find out about it. He's terrified that we'll tell someone about it. Terrified enough to kill eight innocent squaddies to shut the mouths of the two who know."

"Speaking of innocent squaddies...Captain Appet will be safe, won't she?" Preston's brow furrowed at Aimee's question. The thought hadn't occurred to him, and now that he finally did think it, he was ashamed that he hadn't thought of her until now.

"I don't think he'll hurt her," Missy said confidently, "Rookies dying on a planetary run, that's one thing. A Captain dying? On an Orbital? There's no way that will happen without inquiries." The three remained silent, each pensive.

"So what's his move?" Preston spoke quietly, "if General Hunter sends us back, that's the end for us. But if he doesn't...what's Auspus' next move?"

"I hate him." Preston glanced away from the bitterness in Missy's face. The differences in her character when she was horny were fun and exciting, the differences when she filled with hate for the General were disturbing. "I wish there was some way..." she started, and then stopped. When she spoke again it was so quiet he almost didn't hear her, "...I wish there was some way to hurt him as bad as he tried to hurt us."

The crystal was bright, and Preston wasn't quite sure when it had lit up. He had the uncomfortable feeling that it had been glowing for a while and that he was only now noticing it. It gave off an almost imperceptible hiss, like a single droplet of water being dropped on a hot cruiser engine, at the same time kicking a single blue spark into the air. Preston's eye stayed locked on the spark as it arced lazily toward Missy, who shrieked and threw herself backward. As if it had read the future and chosen its arc accordingly, the blue spark landed on Missy's throat just as she sprawled, settling into the hollow between her collarbones and then vanishing into her skin. Preston lept from the bed, kicking the crystal across the floor and rushing to where Missy lay naked on the floor. There was nothing he could do; the spark was already gone. Missy swatted and rubbed at the spot like a burn.

"Missy! Missy are you alright? Damnit tell me you're okay?"

"I-I'm fine, I'm okay," Missy reassured him, but her hands shook, "I was just startled, that's all."

"What the fuck was that? What just happened?" Preston looked around the room, at the crystal laying dull on the floor, at Aimee, and back to Missy, willing someone to give him the answers.

"You know what that was Preston," Missy grabbed him by the shoulders, "calm down. Preston!" She shouted, and it was enough to regain Preston's focus. He took a deep breath as she continued, "whatever the sparks do, it didn't kill the General. He wouldn't do something detrimental to himself, so whatever it is, it's a good thing."

"Right," Preston shook himself. There were a million reasons she might be wrong, of course. There could be some other component that Auspus protected himself with, or it might be one half of a delicate chemical formula. However, there was nothing they could do about it if that were the case, so he could only hope for the best. When he turned, Aimee's expression made him pause. "Horror" was too strong a word, but Aimee was disturbed, and a large part of Preston didn't want to turn around to see what had happened. He forced himself to, moving slowly and bracing himself for what he might find. His girlfriend lay on the floor on top of her rumpled towel, looking up at them with a questioning look on her face. Her naked skin was pale, contrasting against the brown ringlets with a single streak of cobalt blue that fell across her face.

***

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