Welcome to Gaia! ::

Obediently, Serafima clenched her fist and her gaze locked on a middle distance just past the edge of her physician's ear. He probably hadn't meant for her to close so hard that her knuckles went white but she was, none the less. After a suitable amount of time slipped by, she finally answered, voice quiet and cool, "That was her own idea, Doctor. I assure you. I had no idea she was planning such a ridiculous line of study until she asked me to take her to the HQ and I helped her hang the advertisement."

"She is a feien. Not a fairy. Fairies don't exist. Not as such." Pulling her arm away from him, Serafima slipped from her perch on the barstool. She seemed oblivious to how little actual sense her words were making in the face of reality. Clearly, her grasp of language was erring on the technical side of things though it was hard to picture anyone less likely to know the details of the Daoine Sidhe than Captain Rabik. "Galatea is not one of the so-called Little People."

Scratch that, life. Captain Rabik was unnervingly familiar with old Earth concepts.

Her nimble fingers went to the buttons of her tailored white blouse as she added, "As for magic, she has never shown any interest or talent in it thus far." Within seconds, all of the buttons had come undone and she half-turned to set the removed shirt down neatly. Just like her carriage, Serafima's underclothes were military grade - a very uninspiring but serviceable gun-metal grey. She shifted her dark-eyed gaze back to the good doctor, expectant but controlled. "I suppose she is free to do as she sees fit, though. She is an intelligent creature."

"As you wish." Somehow, despite the perfect politeness of the phrase, the three words sounded almost angry, a rare thing indeed for Serafima. Usually she saved the proper emotions for when duty demanded. God, how she missed field work. "Dr. Beckham, if you think I'm doing such a poor job in caring for Galatea, then I would dearly love to know why you ever gave her to me in the first place," she continued and the edge was now coated with a fine layer of sarcasm. "You obviously have a very clear idea of who is and isn't fit to protect and bond with feien. Just as obviously, you think I'm a lousy human being. So to speak. Why risk Galatea's well-being on me?"

She turned slightly to better offer him her back. "You're too much of an optimist, Doctor." She knotted her hands together in front of her, completely unaware of how often Galatea had mimicked that position. "Though I'll correct you on one point. I have never demanded Galatea ever do anything other than what pleases her. Unless you count a request to be tidy and considerate an imposition?"

"Now that is ridiculous." Turning her head to look over her shoulder, Serafima's dark eyes studied Beckham for a long moment. "How will she ever be able to do anything if she doesn't have her own self-confidence? She's too intelligent to risk basing her self image on the whims of someone else. If she gives up anything because she thinks I wish her to, then I'm afraid she is beyond even your tender psychochat, Beckham."

Serafima didn't flinch at either his touch or his words. She merely continued to look at him over one tanned, strong shoulder. Finally, she looked away. "You worry for nothing," she said lowly. "She doesn't even spend much time in our quarters lately. Not since she completed her home. I believe she is out at this moment, visiting one of the other feien." She paused. "Three of them, actually, since she took the package she has been working on. Their names... Silva and Ruby Soho and Aleric?"

Serafima's head turned forward again and she half-shrugged. "Is she? I don't believe I've met any of them. The only one of her... Friends that I've met was named Hadrian. He helped her build her home." Her tone turned dry and, for the first time, there was no adversarial taint directed at the doctor. "I believe he is the one who gave her the paper heart she hung near her bed."

A tiny shudder ran through the captain's muscles at his manipulation but she smothered the instinctive grunt of pain. Only when she re-centered her mind once more did she make a strange derisive sound in the back of her throat. "If you are thinking what I think you're thinking, Doctor, you would be wrong. They are merely friends and she respects him. Something about his..." She stopped suddenly and grimaced, unseen. Dammit, she hated admitting the man could be right about things.

"Hadrian is some kind of fire feien with a high level of control," she hedged. "She mentioned that after he left."