It had been a long day. It was cold up on the base, it was always cold. The temperature did not bother him too much but the solitude did. He wasn't used to not having Harrison there and without the other man he felt vulnerable and exposed, even the fundamentally harmless flora and fauna, what there was of it seemed dangerous. He often forgot to eat when he was supposed to and his sleep was interspersed with old nightmares, finding himself facing down the portal with Killzone, the War horseman that had maimed his shoulder and even the endless, dark sky that had haunted him - blood on his hands - for weeks.

During the day he found himself talking more to Tracey just to keep his spirits up as he worked, chatting about anything and nothing. It was hard to find any meaningful anecdotes to tell when both of you did every single thing together.They'd not been talking as much in recent months but primarily for this reason. Still, there was no one else out here and they made do with discussing their respective opinions about the other hunters on the island, it killed a few hours and Rep found out that Tracey's opinions for the most part were in line with his own. They disagreed on a few points however, and there was a bit of an argument that broke out when Rep found out that Tracey didn't mind Taym or Dwight half as much as he did and fancied getting Peyton to give the redhead a makeover.

Eventually Rep gave up on that topic and went off in search of others.

As he went about shoveling snow to repair the outer fence behind it he found himself instead thinking about Marie. He'd become so used to her looming presence that he could no longer remember how he had felt before, her intervention had become an expected response when he lashed out and the initial fear he'd felt at having her with him and the danger of what she was capable of had all but diminished.

"I wonder if you can hear me." he said out loud. "I mean, I don't think you can hear my thoughts. Or like, if you can you don't say anything about it. But like. I was thinking like, I know you are not like ..chatty or anything, and I know you don't give a ******** about me. But I figure it is only right someone pays you some dues now and then that aren't just like, fear. You've saved my a** a few times now. Not intentionally I know. But still. Thanks."

He felt it probably wasn't the level of interaction she was used to, but it was better than nothing. He was no H (and thank god for that), he knew what gratitude meant.

Tracey said huffily, but Rep knew even the angel had gotten somewhat used to the strangling restrictive effects of the other weapon.

<> he said.



On the whole it was too much time to dwell and think, far too much time, he felt. He found himself thinking about other things as well. About Melvin who was heading for almost certain trouble, about Clarice who had seemingly come to people for help yet in some gut way didn't quite feel right.

There were so many things to worry about, and nothing he could do about them, all because once again he'd managed to let his hurt and temper get the best of him.

It started to snow again.

It was going to be a long few weeks, he thought