Bring The Heat

17. Second-Hand

"I gotta respect the balls, though. You just came up to me and blew your hand off... I was surrendering, yknow!" Metal laughed.

"What!? You gotta be fucking kidding me! Now I got a plant hand for nothing..." Wren complained.

Wren's badmouthing of Lewis's work stung. She swiveled around in her chair.

"Ok. I gotta run some things by Wrennie. Alone. Leave, please." she spat, like her words were venom.

Metal gave her a funny look, and before he left, said:

"Ok, jeez. Where's the hospitality around here..."

"I did say 'please'..." Lewis muttered under her breath.

Once Metal was gone, she turned her gaze to Wren, and rolled over to her in her chair, grabbing her plant hand and examining it again.

"Hey, so, what's your deal?" Wren asked.

"Hm? Oh. I'm single, yes. I think you're pretty, and I'm 18, but I would like to get to know you a bit better before we start dating. Or if you just meant casual sex, I wouldn't mind that. You might want to leave your hand to recover for a bit, though, and I don't really feel like it if you're not gonna hold up on your end."

Lewis said it so casually that it took a moment for what she had just said to register for Wren, but when it did, she turned bright red, and looked at Lewis, flustered.

"Oh, sorry. Did you mean my ability? I can construct complex or simple plant organism structures. I can do more than just heal you, but yknow. The old ball and chain."

Neither of them knew what that saying meant.

"W- well, no, no. I meant, why are you so mean?" Wren elaborated, collecting herself.

"Ohhhh... oh. Well you don't seem too nice either, Wrennie."

An awkward silence fell over the two.

"Sorry... I lash out. I don't like being called mean. I'm not, at least I don't think. Just direct, and honest."

Wren suddenly felt a bit guilty for asking that question.

"I wasn't honest before, though. I still need to run diagnostics, I don't need you just yet. It just makes me jealous to see you talking to other people." Lewis continued.

Oh wow. She really is direct, huh? Wren found herself blushing again, and said nothing in response as Lewis turned back to her terminal, typing away.

"U- um... thanks for hand, by the way."

Lewis smiled, and found herself blushing too. Everyone always took her work for granted. That was... one of the reasons why she left last time.

"Don't worry about it, Wrennie. Just don't get too confident, now - I can replace limbs, organs, whatever. But things like blood, or the soul inside your brain? Nada. Anyway, you can make it up to me however you want. No handouts!"

It was strange; Lewis hadn't warmed up to anyone so easily before. But Wren had a lot of subconscious charm...

The door to the medbay slammed open.

"WREEEEEEEEEEN!" came a loud, energetic yell. Lewis screwed up her face and covered her ears, swiveling around in her chair.

Tenson was standing in the doorway, in some kind of primal energy pose, with wide eyes and a wild grin.

"TENSON!" Wren hollered, throwing her hands up in the air before launching out of bed at him.

Ugh. Nevermind...