recinerate | ic

"I think I have enough to worry about in this place," she says, pragmatically, as she tries to see what the animal does when she scratches it underneath its chin.

"Why? Would you give me one, otherwise?"

The cat closes her eyes and leans into the touch, purring louder, a deep rumbling that seems paradoxically large in relation to how small she is.

"If you'd like, yes. Cats do require some attention, but they're also fairly self-reliant. And ... sometimes it's nice to have a companion who doesn't demand much from you." Unlike people; a cat's needs are simple, straightforward.

"Cassel, my warden, gave her to me. It was not very long after I'd first arrived - before we were even assigned, actually. He said that sometimes, people who haven't been taken care of properly are the best at taking care of someone else." Beyond smiles wistfully at the memory. In some ways, even though he was younger, Cassel was far wiser. "You wouldn't think that would be true, but - I don't think he was wrong, at least in my case."

"Is that what you think about me?" She doesn't sound angry- in fact, she seems faintly amused. "That I'm someone who hasn't been properly taken care of?"

Beyond takes a moment to consider his answer before he replies. "I think that's probably true in some respect of everyone who ends up here," he finally says, "though more so for some of us than others." He knows it's true for himself, and he knows it's true for Shiro. Elizabeth, on the other hand ... he doesn't know enough about her to draw the same conclusion.

"But I'm not judging you, Elizabeth. That's not what I'm here for."

"And I wouldn't care if you did," she points out, resettling as his cat puts her paws on her thigh and stretches.

"But I'm not that kind of a person. I've been taken care of, Beyond. I haven't been alone."

Though she thinks of the way she grew up: no father, a mother who was ill, always struggling for money; and later, in a strange country, living with a strange man, with only really herself to rely on. So maybe it's true, in a way: she hasn't been taken care of by other people. But she's always taken excellent care of herself.

"And you're also a caretaker yourself." A mother, with two children of her own to look after, and quite dedicated to them, from what Beyond has seen of how she's spoken of them.

The cat finishes stretching and hops down off the bed, slinking off to another part of the room. Beyond watches her until she disappears out of sight, then refocuses on Elizabeth. "I don't think that necessarily means that a person can't or shouldn't still be taken care of by someone else. It's not as if there's a quota on caretaking, after all."

"The problem is that you seem to think I need taking care of now. You have no idea what my life has been like, no idea about what I can or can't do."

It's disrespectful, and it makes her eyes flash with anger now. It's so easy to come to the surface, when it's roiling underneath her skin all the time.

She's right; of course she's right. He doesn't know much about her, only the things she's chosen to disclose about herself already. Beyond nods in acknowledgement.

"It's merely an offer, Elizabeth. I'm sure I've said this before - I have no designs on forcing you to do anything, and that hasn't changed with this assignment. I'd like to know more about you, of course, but that's entirely dependent on you."

"You wouldn't know what to do with it if I told you," she says, scoffing a little before standing up, straightening her clothes a little.

"But I can assure you, Beyond, that no part of it means I need to be taken care of. Never mind the assignment."

He could argue that point, of course; the man he used to be might have challenged her to prove it, to tell him, to show her work. But being right isn't the priority it once was, so he simply nods his concession, saying "As you wish." He's serious about not pushing her into something she isn't comfortable with; the Barge has ways of making that happen anyway.

"I'll let you know what I hear back from the Admiral. And - if you do think of anything else you need, please let me know."

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