The Way to Eden

Shane lay on his back staring up at the ceiling. Being confined like this was driving him up the wall. Well, it would if he could actually climb the wall. Damned crazy snakelike women! He was still mentally kicking himself for getting caught unawares like that. How could he have let that happen, anyway? It wasn't like he'd never seen a pretty girl before. He was still fuming and almost didn't hear his door open. But he turned just in time to see a girl with short dark hair peak inside. When she met his eyes he shut the door quickly.

"Hey!" Shane called out, raising his upper body carefully. "Please come back!"

He waited a few minutes and finally decided his "caretaker" for the evening had left when the door slowly opened again and the girl limped carefully into the room. She really was a girl, he thought silently. Couldn't be more than seventeen or so. She was dressed in a baggy green sweatshirt and grey shorts. Her hair was a shade or two brighter than Shane had originally thought it was, and she regarded him with piercing hazel eyes.

"Miss Boa, I presume?" he said trying to keep his tone light, expecting the unstable wreck her sister had intimated she was.

"Marina," she said quietly. "Are you all right?"

"Awright?" he asked in shock. "No, but tha's not th' issue right now."

"I'm very sorry my sister dragged you into this," she offered sadly, shutting the door and limping over to sit on the end of the bed.

"Aincha worried I could escape witchew ova here?"

"No," she said looking down guiltily. "Alina hurt you bad enough to keep you bedridden for at least a few days."

"I see," he said barely keeping his rage in check. "Ya 'elp 'er withat?"

"No!" she cried looking up at him. "She did it before she brought you home. I yelled at her for doing it! I don't want anyone getting hurt because of me."

"Well, yo' sista led me ta believe othawise."

"I'm not surprised," Marina sighed. "She thinks I'm mourning my career."

"Yo' no' then?"

"No," she said looking away again. "I never wanted it to begin with. Fighting's her passion, not mine."

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"You were fired?!" Sin cried in shock. "When? How?"

"Yestaday," Jeff sighed, holding her tighter. "Onna phone."

"On the PHONE?"

"I's awright, baby," he assured her. "I been thinkin' o' takin' some time off fo' a while."

"But fired?"

"No' like I didn' see it comin'."

"What does Tara say?"

"O' she's Tara now, is she?" Jeff teased, trying to lighten the moment. "Wha' can she say? She's sad fo' me, but she trusts me ta 'andle it my way."

"Well, I think it sucks."

Jeff laughed at that. "Do ya now, Sin, baby?" He cuddled her again and heard a sigh emanate from beneath him.

"Eden," she said softly.

"I'm sorra, what?" he said, unsure he'd heard her.

"My name is Eden," she said a bit more clearly now. "At least I think it is."

Elation shot through Jeff, but he managed to contain it. He instinctively knew that getting her to trust him meant calmly drawing her out. In this regard, she wasn't much like Tara. He now knew that Shannon's shotgun approach was the only thing that would have worked on that woman. Now, though, he wanted to hear more from this woman. His woman, he decided just then. He knew he would fall for her sometime, now he just needed to keep himself from scaring her away before he could get her to see what they had.

"I's a beautiful name," he said. "Why aren' ya sure?"

He felt her shrug and pulled her up to look at him.

"Baby?" he tried again.

She looked away for a moment then brought her deep brown eyes up to his green ones. He could see the inner debate play out on her pretty features and he longed to ease her mind. But she would have to come to the decision on her own. Finally, she did.

"I was sold for some stash to a drug dealer when I was four by my mother," she said with glistening eyes. "My trainer, Samuel, found me alone in an abandoned building after the dealer left to find a new buyer for me."

"Son ova . . ." Jeff muttered, feeling his own eyes tear. But he kept from stopping her and waited for her to continue.

"He took it upon himself to raise me, but he didn't know my name, so he gave me one," she said.

"Paradise," Jeff murmured, stroking her hair.

"Some paradise," she sighed. "He put me through the worst hell growing up. Taught me to hurt. Taught me not to feel."

"He failed a' that," Jeff pointed out.

"And because of that, he'll feel that I failed," she let the tears fall anew and slumped against Jeff's shoulder. "And he'll come to kill me."

"He ain't gonna git th' chance," Jeff vowed.

"I told her and I'll tell you," Eden sighed. "He won't be stopped."

"Oh, yes 'e will!" he answered in a guttural growl.

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"So, 'ow come ya letter talk ya inta fightin' then?" Shane asked Marina. He was beyond the point of trying to keep her talking. He was genuinely intrigued now.

Marina stopped from her task for a moment to regard him curiously. She'd left him to get him a roast beef sandwich and a few medical supplies to she could wrap his leg for him. He was feeling a little better now that he'd eaten.

"She's obsessed with taking care of me," she said sadly. "Ever since Mom died, she's made sure she's taken care of me, so the state wouldn't take me away from her."

"Mo' orphans?" Shane griped. "I only seem ta 'ave trouble when I meet orphans."

"Sorry," Marina replied. "Anyway, sometimes I think I'm her last link to sanity."

"No offense, but are ya sure 'bout that?"

Marina gave him a small smile. "I know you think she's crazy, but she isn't."

Shane said nothing but looked pointedly at his leg.

"Okay, that wasn't one of her brightest moments," Marina conceded, restarting her task. "She snapped when Sin hurt me. I'm still trying to get her see reason."

"We could gitter ta see it quicka if ya lemme go," Shane said hopefully.

"I'm sorry, Shane," Marina said assuming her guilty look again. "I can't do that until I reach her. She would only chase you down and then the police would get her."

"And . . .?"

"She's my sister," Marina said, snapping her head back to his. "I can't let that happen. Please, just be patient for a little while. I promise to keep her from you until I can get her to see reason."

"I have ta git back ta work!"

"You can't until you heal," Marina pointed out. "Please, Shane. I'll call whoever you want me to and let them know you're safe."

"I's not like I 'ave a choice," he grumbled.

"I'm sorry," she said again. "I really am."

"I kno' YOU are."

"She will be, too," Marina said encouragingly. "You'll see."

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"He's too sneaky," Eden said, wiping her eyes. "He'll get me and if you get in his way, he'll get you."

"No, 'e won'," Jeff insisted stubbornly.

Eden couldn't believe Jeff was trying to save her after all she'd put him through. Not only that, he was determined to change her opinion of herself, as well. She would be let him, too, if she didn't believe her presence would get him killed for real this time.

"Jeff, listen to me," she said calmly. "He is coming. The only way I can protect all of you is to get as far from you as possible."

"NO WAY!" he bellowed. "Yaw no' sacrificin' yo'self."

"I have to."

"No you don't," said a female voice from the doorway.

Both Eden and Jeff looked up to see Tara and Todd in the doorway.

"We're sorry to interrupt," Todd said apologetically, looking at Jeff.

"We couldn't help but overhear that last part, though," Tara added, frowning deeply. She and Todd walked into the room followed by a confused- looking Nora and a determined-looking Sven.

"You will not seek him out, my dear," the blonde man said quietly but firmly to Eden. "You will never be his prey again."

Eden looked at him askance, wondering what he was talking about. She directed her attention back to Tara hoping for an answer.

"I told you you'd see," Tara said.

"What?" Eden asked in confusion.

"Yeah, what?" Nora echoed.

"You no longer need to worry about your trainer," Sven answered. "You are with your family now."

"WHAT?" Eden cried.

Jeff sat silently, grinning like an idiot. Eden could only wonder what was going through his mind.

"Sven adopts troubled orphans," Todd said helpfully. "Just call him 'Mom', like the rest of us."

"I'm not a kid anymore," Eden shrieked.

"I was older than you when it happened to me," Tara shrugged. "Semantics. You're his kid now."

"Yes," Sven nodded.

Eden regarded them all like she would a bunch of aliens. They must all be crazy. She tried to help a man kill one of them to destroy them all and they took her in as one of their own. Don't they know what she is? What she can do?

"No, you're not," Tara said to her knowingly.

"Not what?"

"What you think you are."

"I almost . . ."

"You didn'," Jeff hissed into her ear.

"But I could . . ."

"Not yet, but with a little retraining, perhaps," Sven said.

"Yeah, but that's on the back burner for now," Tara said, nodding to Eden's bandages. "Sorry, by the way."

"Are you ALL crazy?" Eden cried.

"Not me," Nora piped up. "But I did come along for the ride."

"You're not the cold robot you think you are," Tara insisted. "I know. I was further along than you before I was dragged out of that life. We're going to help you and then you can see how you feel about us."

"Ya still no' goin' back there, tho'," Jeff growled, holding her tighter.

Eden could only look around her in wonder. So this was what freedom felt like.