Seventh 2 Survive (WAYHAUGHT)

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The monk studied the results as they appeared on the screen. "Ah, measles."

Waverly exhaled. "Why do you...why is Haught hooked on yellows?"

The woman stopped what she was doing, looking over. "Is she?"

"I mean, not hooked, hooked. Why do you take them?"

"They help. Imagine a lot of people all together, all the time on what essentially is a ship."

"Oh. Oh, right. The future is so not how I expected."

The woman continued to look through her stock of medicines. "The future is not how a lot of us expected it to be. We've made some advances, but not enough."

"Who is Haught? In your world."

"Why do you ask?"

"Curious I guess. There's something about her I can't work out."

"Does she need working out?"

Waverly picked up an empty glass beaker from the counter, looking through it at her feet. "Guess not."

"If you will allow me to speak my truth."

"All ears."

"Any interest you have in Haught is not part of this mission. When we leave your memory of her will be removed to ensure our presence will not influence your realigned future."

Waverly's stomach tightened. She'd already worked out she too would be blanked. It was obvious. But, the thought of forgetting her time travelling companion, and the strength of her feelings for someone she'd only just met. That's what got her thinking, and guessing, and suspecting why someone who was a complete stranger had made her feel things which ran deep.

She could count her sexual experiences with a woman on one hand, two fingers if she was being honest, aside from Haught, knowing her life had shifted on its axis because a certain flame-haired professor mysteriously appeared one day changing everything in the most surreal way possible. They say it takes a big life event to make you change what you're doing. Being told by a time traveller you are going to die in a matter of days kind of fell into that category. Yet, there was something else, in addition to impending death, pulling her towards Haught, drawing her in. A memory, perhaps. A whisper in her ear.

Waverly knew there was something about her life she couldn't quite put her finger on, something setting her apart, something calling to her beyond the life she had in her home town. Until now, she assumed it must be to do with her sexual curiosity, her desire to explore what it meant, knowing in the town where she grew up everyone referred to her as Champ's girlfriend. Except, she was more than that, more than someone's girlfriend, more than someone's ex-girlfriend. She simply didn't know what.

Her move to England to study was, in part, to remove herself from her community, a community who only saw her one way, hoping to meet a new circle of friends who would allow her to explore those sides she kept hidden for fear of judgment, for fear of alienation within a community that might not accept the feelings she had for others. Her friend Chrissy became a staunch ally, meeting at a university welcome party, the two hitting it off immediately recognising they had a friendship first and foremost. A clumsy kiss one night after a boozy pub outing confirmed what they both suspected, friends with benefits just wouldn't work for them.

Waverly placed the glass container back where she found it. "So, it doesn't matter what you tell me if I'm going to have to forget it all."

The older woman looked over, smiling. "You are correct, it won't matter. Haught is a Myling."