A shadow of a smile crossed my face as I held out my wrists, stretching out my shoulders once they were free. I walked further into the room and inspected it before turning back to my crew who had now entered as well.

“We’ll be stationed outside this door. We’ve requested some food is brought down.”

“Thank you.” I nodded once.

They took that as a dismissal and left the room, shutting the door behind them. We were finally alone together. It had been so long.

I looked around at my crew, taking in the careful way Cas was holding himself, the way Peggy’s arms were wrapped around herself, her nails digging into her upper arms. Cory was staring at Gem again, as if still not certain she was real. And Gem. Her eyes were flickering around the room, trying to take everything in, and always coming back to Cory but not staying on his for more than a second. They landed on my face and she smiled. A true, genuinely happy smile that made my heart soar.

They said there’s a camera up in the left corner. Are there any others? I asked Cory.

My mods could have picked up some of the other cameras but I didn’t have x-rays and we’d only just got them put in a little while ago. Cory’s had his eye mods for years, he was much better with them.

He blinked, looking slowly around the room and trying to appear as if he was just glancing around the room, not scanning it.

Some sort of transmitter in the desk behind you, another one in the desk by the door. I’m assuming listening devices.

That would make sense. It’s our first time together since everything happened. We need to make it seem like it, we can’t give any indication that we have mods. I ordered.

“I missed you all so so much.” Gem said her eyes landing on each of our faces briefly before moving on.

“We missed you. What happened after we landed? We were told you were dead!” Peggy played along but her eyes were flitting towards the door fearfully.

“It must have been a misunderstanding.” She lied with a shrug. “My heart did stop a couple of times when they were operating on me so someone must have misheard them or something but I’m basically fine now.”

I saw Cory’s hand tighten on hers visibly.

“I can’t believe how close we came to losing you.” He whispered, echoing my thoughts.

She forced laughed but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. There was something cold in there. It was her hatred for the Council.

“I’m okay now. How are you all doing?”

Really? She added.

“Things have been... tough here…” Peggy said hesitantly, cautious not to let herself look at the camera despite clearly wanting to.

“Yeah, what the hell happened to your hands Cas? They look so painful!”

A look of tired anger crept over his face for just a second but it faded away quickly.

“I didn’t give my father the information he wanted.”

“What information did he want?” The words came out of my mouth harshly.

He shrugged but I saw the pain in his eyes.

“Enough to damn us all.”

“He did this to you?” Anger simmered in Gem’s voice and her free hand clenched into a fist.

“Not really... It was mostly the Guardians, he only hit me a few times really.”

My heart sunk and my hands itched to reach out to him even as fury clawed inside of me.

“At least let me have a look at them. If they heal crooked, it might impact your ability to fly.” Cory said stepping forwards.

You okay for me to scan you?

Cas nodded once.

“Yeah, you should probably have a look at all of them. It seems no one got out of this unscathed.” Gem tried to make her voice sound light but it sounded more like she wanted to hit someone.

Cas pulled himself slowly onto one of the tables, his legs dangling.

I edged closer, forcing myself to watch as Cory examined his hands and trying not to wince.

“Definitely some broken fingers. You’ve done well with the splints but we’ll need more.” He muttered almost to himself.

A movement caught my eye. Gem had nodded decisively and thrown her shoulders back before walking to the door and rapping loudly on it.

“Yes?” The Guardian asked unsurely, having opened the door.

“We need medical equipment. Material to make splints, painkillers, anti-inflammatory, rapidheal.”

Anything else? She asked Cory.

Antibiotics, ideally.

“Ah and antibiotics. Immediately please.” Her voice was pleasant, as if it was a request and not an order.

“I’m not sure if we can get all of that...”

The Guardian trailed off at the look on her face.

“I’ll go to the medBay and see what I can find.” He said, looking down.

“Thank you. And some food would be great.”

He nodded rushing off even closing the door behind him.

I stared at Gem in shock as she shut the door and walked back to us.

“That was amazing!”

She said nothing, her eyes still steely.

I can’t believe they treated you like this. That’s not okay, surely? She thought to us.

It’s not but it is legal. Peggy replied, staring blankly ahead unblinking.

How could this be legal? Gem’s eyes flittered pointedly to Cas.

Peggy didn’t reply. She probably didn’t want to recite the Council’s stance on torture. They were clearly completely fine with it.

I’ve looked it up since we came back. I guess I was trying to answer the question of how could they do that to us. Whereas the Space Corps motto is to help those who cannot help themselves, the Guardians motto is to follow Council orders and create a better world. Apparently, the world is better when people can be tortured. It’s quite alarming really. There is no limit to what the Council can order and the Guardians just have to follow it. That explains a lot of things.

Cas was staring intently at the wall opposite him as Cory unwrapped his fingers, his face ashen.

“Hey,” I said quietly as I lifted myself onto the table next to him, taking care not to knock into him.

“Hey.” His eyes darted towards me before going back to the wall.

My eyes traced his face, taking in the fluff on his cheeks and the crease in between his eyebrows.

“You remember the first time you had n’hitel in that dive bar out by Dy’toval? How you only ordered it because it had a Council warning next to it?” I smiled at the memory, resting my head gently on Cas’ shoulder.

He briefly pressed his lips against the top of my head.

“That was good.”

“Yeah and then you made us go back the next week but the bar had already moved on? And you were so pissed you made us fly around the whole district looking for it?”

His shoulder moved under me as he chuckled slightly.

“But then we found that awesome Sutai place?”

Cory had finished splinting Cas’ left hand and he slipped it around my waist, pulling me closer. I snuggled into him without hesitation, ignoring the angry ache in my side.

A gentle knock at the door came and I barely heard the Guardian’s muttered apology for taking so long. Gem replied politely and brought the supplies over to us.

“Take these,” Cory ordered gently, holding out a handful of pills to Cas and a bottle of water.

Scan the others before you do my other hand, please?

Cory looked at Cas scrutinisingly.

I wasn’t sure if Cas needed a break from the pain or if he was just worried about the rest of us and blamed himself for what had happened to us. Probably both.

Cory nodded before turning to me.

Can I scan you?

I swallowed, not wanting to know the extent of the damage myself and definitely not wanting the rest of my crew to know.

Sure. I thought hesitantly.

He blinked once before his eyes swept over me.

“Mmm… you seem like you might need some of these?” He shook the pill bottles slightly at me.

He’d tried to make it sound like he wasn’t sure how injured I was but I knew it was just for the cameras. I accepted the handful he held out and the bottle of water from Cas.

Why? Are you okay? Cas asked, his hand tightening slightly on me.

I’m fine. Not as bad as you clearly are, I tried to tease as I swallowed them.

Cas’ eyebrows furrow even more as he stared down at me, trying to work out how badly injured I was. I felt a slight hint of gratitude that we’d decided against the x-ray capabilities because he would have been able to see how bad it was. I didn’t want him to worry.

“What about you, Peg, do you need any meds?” Cory turned to look at Peggy who was still sitting on a mattress on the floor.

Do you want me to scan you?

“Probably a good idea,” She replied, her voice shaking slightly.

My head snapped up at her words and I watched intently as Cory scanned her before turning back to the pill bottles on the table, anger briefly crossing his face before holding some out to Peggy.

“Here. Take two of those and one of those.” He said with a gentle smile.

She took them before wrapping her arms back around herself.

Cory swallowed a few pills before reaching out for Cas’ other hand and starting to rewrap his fingers.

Gem watched us, heartbreak and fury evident on her face. She shook her head before forcing a smile onto her face.

“Do you remember that activity ship that had that ridiculous obstacle course where we had to grapple the full length of the ship?” She reminisced.

“That was great. I still can’t believe that Aries and me beat the three of you.” Cas looked up from his fingers and smiled briefly.

“That was good,” Peggy muttered from the floor.

Gem dropped down to sit next to her, her shoulder barely touching Peggy’s.

“I missed you,” She whispered and Peggy smiled briefly in response.

“I think my favourite part was the laser disco. I can’t believe they accepted our IDs and actually served us!” Gem’s eyes flickered to the corner of the room where the camera was before she quickly continued talking. “They did the best juice there… Real fruit…”

She trailed off with a wince and looked at us with an embarrassed shrug.

It had not been juice. It had definitely been alcohol. Cas and Cory had gotten very drunk and danced on the bar with some other random crew from Seqona. It had been so funny.

Peggy’s lips twitched into a slight smile and I nudged Cas in the side.

Yeah. It was a good job they had a hotel on board after all the juice…

He grinned at me goofily and I felt my heart squeeze in response. For just a moment, he looked exactly like he used to before we’d been imprisoned but then his face darkened and he looked down at his hands.

“Okay, I’m done. That’s the best I can do for now.” Cory said, letting go of Cas’ newly bandaged hand.

“Good timing,” Cas said, his eyes flicked towards the door where we could hear the gentle brush of trollies being pushed closer.

I waited, not wanting to pull away from Cas just yet, until the Guardian came into view through the door.

“I brought you lunch…” The Guardian announced hesitatingly.

My nose flared as the smell reached me.

“That isn’t veggie mush?” I asked slowly as the flavours wafted through the air.

“No. It’s out of hours for the kitchens so I had to bring you food from the officers’ canteen.” The Guardian was speaking carefully but I couldn’t work out what they were trying to tell us.

“It’s out of hours?” Gem asked confused.

“Yeah. The jail kitchen is only open at certain times, it closed about half an hour ago…”

We’ve been here for over half an hour, right? Do you think they did that on purpose? Peggy asked, confused.

“Oh… that’s a shame.” My mouth had begun to water at the rich aromas travelling towards me.

“It is. I’m not sure what you all wanted so I brought a selection.” He disappeared through the door, returning with another cart covered with smudged silver serving platters.

I almost moaned in longing at the smell.

No hint of poison or anything bad. Cas whispered hungrily, his tongue wetting his lips subconsciously.

“Thank you,” I said, my eyes barely straying from the food.

The Guardian left and, as one, we stood and stepped towards the cart. I swallowed and looked around my crew, their eyes fixed on the food.

“Peggy and Cas first,” I commanded, stepping back slightly.

They seemed the hungriest, their eyes the most sunken, their movements sluggish. Gem nodded and stepped out of the way too. We couldn’t help but lean forwards as they lifted the cloches off the food. It didn’t look quite as good as the food on the base but after over three months of just mush, I could barely stop myself from grabbing it and shoving it all into my mouth immediately. Peggy barely filled her plate before retreating back to her mattress. Cas followed shortly after, his arms straining under the weight of his plate.

“Okay, you two next,” I said, gesturing with my head for Gem and Cory to get their food.

“No.”

I looked up at Gem in confusion. She’d never refused an order before, even though this wasn’t a proper order.

“You clearly need it more than me. You go first.”

I knew she was right. She looked like she’d been fed better in hospital than we had, her cheeks were barely sunken but still, I hesitated.

Are you sure? I asked, feeling weird about putting my needs before a member of my crew’s.

Yes! It’ll be like thirty seconds before I eat anyway. It doesn’t make any difference to me.

I stepped forwards unsurely, grabbing a still slightly warm plate and began loading it. I tried not to take too much, knowing there was easily enough for us to have second helpings if we wanted but even so my hands shook as I carried the plate back to the mattress. I dropped down next to Cas, who moved slightly so his leg was resting against mine and started eating.

Fuck I missed real food. I sighed happily.

I know. Look, it’s real daikon! Cas bit into the salad, his eyes closing in delight.

Be careful not to eat too quickly, we aren’t used to it. You could get sick. Cory warned, cutting his food meticulously.

Gem rolled her eyes and teasingly took a huge bite of her pasta.

Damn, this is so good.