Guardswomen's secrets

[Nicolette Carmichael]

Nicolette paced around her room for almost half an hour not sure whether or not she wanted to go see Aurora and get her uniform fixed. But she had to get it fixed at some point. She didn't know how, and her hands were too shaky from her experience to get anything done. She HAD to get it fixed to look presentable for her next shift or else she was going to get a talking too, and she did not need that right now. 
She took a really deep breath and gathered her uniform, hugging it to her body. She was afraid to go outside in case he would be waiting, but she had to be brave. 
Walking along the corridors her eyes flicked to every single surface that she could see, before her and behind her. So far she hadn't come across anything except for a few stragglers going home from a shift. But they were staring at her as she walked past. The big open gash on her face was visible, but she tried to ignore their stares, nothing good came from thinking about these things. 


She made it outside the Blake residence and stood for a moment, holding her hand up to the door. Do it, she encouraged herself. "Do it." She said aloud, coaxing herself to knock on the door. Bellamy had encouraged her to go to his mother if she ever needed anything fixed, and this was the first time she had taken up the offer, as she kept her uniform in relatively good condition. 
The nerves had started to fade as she knocked loudly on the door. "Aurora?" She asked through the door. 


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Aurora Blake

[Aurora Blake]

When she heard a knock on the door, Aurora immediately jumped into action, as always. With her work and who was in the room with her usually, she had to always act quickly. Now today was easier, due to practice. The room was presentable within mere moments, allowing for Aurora to put on a smile and to go answer the door. As she opened it she saw a woman, who was at first glance clearly hurt. At second apparently a customer, both of which warranted her allowing the girl to come in. This was no conversation to be had just like that, so she stepped aside. 

“Come in.” She offered. Her arm immediately pointed to the only table. Presentable in this case meant that the unregistered occupant was gone, but her table was still full of things she needed to make or fixed, sorted by the urgency of things. Aurora worked fast and she was good at this thanks to her grandmother. Sitting back down, she hoped the girl took it as an invitation to sit as well. “What can I help you with?” She asked her. She would offer her something, like water, but she barely made enough to feed her own family. “Mind if I ask what happened to you? Did you have it checked out?”

Nicolette Carmichael

[Nicolette Carmichael]

The door opened and Bellamy's mother stood in front of her, smiling. Her eyes flicked to the injury to Nic's face and then to the bundle in her arms. She invited her inside and quickly sat down. Nic hesitantly walked inside, glancing around quickly. It was quite small in here, but she wasn't judging. She sat down and glanced at the woman. "What can I help you with?" Aurora asked her. 
She handed the woman her bundle. "Need to get my uniform fixed. Small accident you see." She told her, she probably didn't need to explain why it needed to be fixed, but she felt like she should. She was nervous. Not that this woman intimidated her, but because she was still on edge from her accident. Well it wasn't an accident. It was an attack, but she didn't really want to admit it to anyone, let alone herself. 

“Mind if I ask what happened to you? Did you have it checked out?”
The woman asked. The question she had dreaded. 
Nic cringed lightly. "Oh. No. I'm fine. It was just an accident, I fell over some sheets of metal." She said quickly. Of course this was NOT the truth. But she wasn't going to tell a stranger that. No way. She wasn't going to tell anyone. Ever. "Are you able to fix my uniform?" She asked. She wanted to be out of here as quickly as possible and go for a long, long walk. She doubted she could sleep tonight. 


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Aurora Blake

[Aurora Blake]

Ah the uniform. Aurora learned early on when she was in the cadet program herself why the uniform needed to be in tip top shape. It was to protect the guards from attacks, to give them authority by giving them this shape that would tell everyone this person ahead was a guard just by the silhouette. Between her own time as cadet and now she had repaired Bellamys once or twice. She remembered the hard times again, before she was in active cadet work. It felt so far behind her now that her son was all grown up and ready to be a guard herself. She was so very proud of him. 

While Aurora turned the uniform over in her hand to inspect it she heard the girls explanation. The dark haired mother sighed. She knew instances in which women got hurt in the guard, due to how men thought things would happen and should happen in their lives. She was glad Bellamy was not one of those. She had raised him right, she thought, but she was sure Octavia played an even greater part in that than she did. “Are you sure they were sheets of metal or very alive sheets of metal thinking they were better than women? At least at my time those sheets of metal were more likely to be the cause of those marks.” She wouldn’t fault her or poke her any further, she guessed, but right now there was something more important to deal with: The uniform.

“Yes. I will have to insert a bit of fabric for this one, but that should be no problem at all. Unless they have changed the rules about that. Have they?”

Nicolette Carmichael

[Nicolette Carmichael]

Nic felt slightly awkward standing around, as Aurora assessed the damage, and questioned Nic's answer. She didn't know what to say, there was a lump in her throat. Of course the sheets were a lie, but she could not for the life of her tell anyone about what had happened to her. Nobody would know. Certainly not a stranger. Aurora's response hinted that she had knew roughly what had happened, but Nic couldn't admit that. In case something awful were to happen again. "No. Nothing like that. Just normal sheets of metal, ones who can't talk." She replied, softly, looking away from the woman. She immediately regretted answering, knowing she sounded nervous, her voice slightly shaky.
She hated feeling like this, but she knew nothing else right now. She was scared, in pain, upset. Nothing good. She felt as if her body were just a shell, a mask, her insides a dark shadow trying to consume her.

“Yes. I will have to insert a bit of fabric for this one, but that should be no problem at all. Unless they have changed the rules about that. Have they?” Aurora asked her, focusing on her uniform.
"No, they haven't." Nic replied, short and sweet. She didn't want to spend too much time here, not because she didn't like Aurora, she seemed like a nice lady, from what she had heard from Bellamy, but she just couldn't shake the feeling something bad was going to happen. To her. She was a bundle of energy, and she needed to do something about it. She just didn't know what. But the uniform was more important. That had to be fixed first before Nic could focus on herself.

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Aurora Blake

[Aurora Blake]

Aurora didn’t believe that, not only for the placement of the tears, but also because of her voice. The nervousness gave it away in many ways. Of course Aurora was a stranger to this girl, she had not yet managed to build trust towards her, probably didn’t even know that Aurora had once trained to really become a guard once herself. That was all in the past now, though. The future held different promises for her, like being a mother, death, maybe even a grandchild, hatred in many ways. It was not her place to comment on that any further on what she was saying. It was her decision, but Aurora couldn’t expect immediate trust, nor did she want it, she could not offer it at all either. She had her own secrets to keep.

“Good.” With the rules about that not changed, there would be no problem with fixing it and if there was no problem for Aurora to fix it, there should be no problem for the girl to live through the scrutineering of the uniform. All would be well and the material would hold as tightly as it was supposed to hold, if not tighter, because Aurora was thorough with her work. “If you want, you can stay, have a drink or something. You can also leave. I’m guessing it will take me three to five hours, depending on what’s going on today. It would be best if you called in before, so I can make sure you get what you need. You don’t need it in the next two hours, right?”

Nicolette Carmichael

[Nicolette Carmichael]

The woman didn't say anything further about the topic, but Nic could tell that she wanted to say more. Nic appreciated it, if she had continued to talk about it, she may just break down right there. She was that fragile right now. Of course she tried her hardest not to show it. This was tough. She was a cadet after all. There was no time to feel like this. She had a duty to the Ark. 


“If you want, you can stay, have a drink or something. You can also leave. I’m guessing it will take me three to five hours, depending on what’s going on today. It would be best if you called in before, so I can make sure you get what you need. You don’t need it in the next two hours, right?”
Aurora asked her. 
She took a moment to decide. "A drink would be nice." She confirmed. Maybe it would be safer here, rather than home or wandering the corridors. She needed to feel safe. "I'm done for the night, so it's ok, take as long as you need." Nic told her with a small smile. She would try and be safe for those hours. She doubted she would have gotten any sleep if she was lying in her own bed. This definitely was the next best thing, even if she felt a little awkward. 


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Aurora Blake