It's Getting Crowded

[Sam Paige]

Coruscant​

[member="Benedict Ortega"]​

Sam hadn't really considered what she was getting into. It was both thrilling and terrifying in equal measures.

Okay. Maybe a little more terrifying, but that was mostly because Sam went through most of her life with a low level of vaguely fascinated terror in all things.

Her ship, The Messenger, was now home to almost a dozen people. A dozen people who were going to, of all things, hunt sith together. A dozen people who were all stronger, louder, and more confident than the red head imagined she would ever be. It was like dealing with nicer, but more baffling versions, of her sisters.

Also there were more of them.

A lot more.

Despite the cavernous size of the Messenger, Sam found herself getting increasingly overwhelmed and claustrophobic. She loved spending time with them, even if she rarely spoke, and even then wasn't always heard when she did- but sometimes it simply became too much, and she had to find her way somewhere, anywhere else, for a little quiet.

Corsucant wasn't someplace another person might consider a good choice for quiet contemplation. But she had grown up here, and at least in the nicer levels of the city, she knew that the anonymity of a crowd of strangers was almost as good as a silent ship.

Almost.

But she couldn't ask them all to go away for the afternoon. To stop poking their heads into the engine room sometimes- they meant well! And she was touched as each other them (some more than others), continued with the daily parade of trying to make sure she was included. Some of them were gentler about it than others.

If she were being honest about it, some of them scared her a little. Not necessarily in a bad way. But something about the way Tegan looked at her made her feel weird, and the weirder it got, the more she seemed to do it. So the best solution, she found, was to simply get some time away from the ship.

She was dressed a little nicer than usual- mostly in the sense that she was wearing clean coveralls and was pretty sure there weren't any engine grease smudges on her face. She'd checked before leaving, but they had a habit of just showing up. Dark red hair was loose around her face- how she wore it in public because it was easier to hide behind. Deep blue eyes peered out from behind her glasses as she pushed them up her nose, threading through the crowd.

She could have just wandered the streets. But Yvana had caught her at the last minute, asking where she was headed. Not in a nosy way, just curious. To look at some parts, she had replied without thought. And she wasn't going to lie to Yvana. Once she'd said it, well, that was all there was for it.
​Sam was going to look for engine parts.

Not that she minded in the least.

Pausing at the corner, she looked up at the numbers on the avenue. She wasn't that familiar with this particular neighborhood, but it looked like she needed to go a few levels down to reach the shop she wanted. It was small, out of the way, and specialized in used and difficult to find 'vintage' parts. She hadn't been there before, but had been hoping to make a trip for some time. This was as good of an excuse as any.

As she slipped and paused and stepped back twice and stepped to the side once, murmuring apologies and not making eye contact as she tried to make headway through the crowd that she was certain barely noticed her- she didn't realize she was being watched. Her mind entirely on repeating the list of items she hoped to find today over and over in her head (there was no way she would forget, but what if she did?), she didn't notice when someone peeled off from the corner of a building and fell into step just a few meters behind her as she headed toward the lifts to the lower level.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

C O R U S C A N T​

​

[member="Sam Paige"]​

​

Level 1451 was a progressively cleaner cut of the Coruscanti underworld, but even here the streets turned into a cryptic mess of corners, edges blending into one another and thugs clinging to the vertical surfaces of the corridors. Business was done every single moment of the day, even if it didn't seem like it. A death stick dealer here, an outlaw tech offering cutting-edge if illegal weapon mods there, ladies behind tinted windows dancing- 1451 knew exactly how to cater to its clientele. The bustle of the crowd was thickening and it reminded Benedict of a sentient organism, as it pushed and pulled, sighed and yawned... it was disgusting and exciting both at the very same time. But that was the way it went.

Benedict Ortega wasn't here to sample the wares, nor to bust them up. It was illegal after all. But even the Alliance's stretched-out arm couldn't pacify an entire planet's worth of crime in under a decade.

Especially not when they were fighting a losing battle through fragile compromises and weak excuses.

He had arrived here to make an alliance.

Away from the oppressive eyes of the SIS, the Jedi and the pacifists of naval intelligence, but his contact was running late. Maybe he had been knifed on the way here, mugged and left to bleed out. That wouldn't be a surprise to Ortega, not with the way the hungry eyes were flashing. There didn't seem to be a single soul out there that wasn't in some way looking for a cut.

Until Sam Paige arrived anyway.

The change in the local atmosphere changed almost immediately. Strange how she didn't notice how the crowd noticeably started to swim around her, like an ocean maneuvering around an obstacle instead of attempting to breach it.

Some were eyeing her, but then Ortega noticed a single humanoid pushing himself off the corner of the street.

Benedict frowned.

It was clear what was about to happen or would happen relatively soon anyway, but he had a mission here. If he left and the contact didn't find him here, he doubted that they would wait on him. He cursed once he noticed his own body moving, steps growing taller to make gains towards the lengthy distance. This wasn't how it was supposed to go, but right now?

There was no other choice open to him.

 

[Sam Paige]

Sam was still oblivious to the fact that she was being followed when she turned into the lift building. A bank of them stretched out, a round half dozen to accomadate the flow of travelers at the busiest times of the day. It was relatively quiet at the moment, however, with only a small handful of sentients milling about. The largest group stepped into the far lift before she could scurry over and catch it. Honestly, she was just as happy to not be in a crowded lift with a bunch of strangers.

It wasn't until she was waiting for the next lift that things started to become actually uncomfortable, instead of the usual low level of discomfort that she was familiar with.

She didn't look behind her, but she didn't have to in order to feel when someone stepped up- way too close, like yikes- to her back. She moved a step forward, to give herself some room. And then the person stepped forward too. Sam clenched her fingers into her palms.

"Sorry, um, didn't mean to be in the way," she murmured, and then side stepped- obviously he wanted to get to the lift first, and he was frankly welcome to.

"No need to apologize, sweet heart," came a drawling, lazy voice. The way he said sweet heart made her skin crawl but she didn't really know why, and just chalked it up to her own nervousness instead of the fact that the tone was actually objectively creepy.

He didn't move to close the gap again however, so that gave her some relief.

"So where you headed, doll?"

Great Ghosts, he was going to try to make conversation.

"Um. J-Jerith's Finds. It's, um-"

"Engine parts," he interjected and she nodded, used to people not being willing to wait while she stammered through a sentence.

"Specialized stuff there. Expensive. On an errand for your boyfriend?"

"Um. What? No. Um. For my- my ship. And it's n-not too expensive."

She didn't see his eyes travel up and down her form. If she had, it would have made her a different kind of uncomfortable than when Tegan did it. She didn't realize how many things had been given away with such a simple sentence.

The lift opened and she stepped inside. She didn't see the entirely unpleasant smile on his face as he followed suit.

[member="Benedict Ortega"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sam Paige"]

Atmosphere was a tangible thing as far as Benedict was concerned.

There was a distance between himself, Sam and the unscrupulous human up to no good. It was a distance that was picked on its own and continued out of a sense of curiosity - how far was the thug going to go? Was it a robbery? Was it an extension of blackmail? Was there something more vile going on here that would have forced any righteous man to act, regardless of their current affiliation to one party or the other?

It was the tone, the set of the shoulders, the knees aimed inwards, that made Ortega realize just how Paige was in for. But it didn't seem as if she realized.... or want to realize anyway.

The set of doors opened: Sam entered, followed closely by the Tionese thief with scars and tattoos ( the tattoos told the story of his crimes, but neither of them could read them as simply as that), concluded by the entry of Benedict himself. He made sure to step in between Sam and the thug.

Then he stayed silent as the doors closed of the lift.

Within himself Benedict strength build up - there was violence in the air, from the way the scowl rang high and implied that he had made a mistake of interfering.

 

[Sam Paige]

The air in the lift was thick with something Sam had no experience with, and certainly couldn't put a name to. But someone less sheltered might have- it went from warmly predatory to a heavy chill of low anger as [member="Benedict Ortega"] entered just before the doors closed.

Sam stepped to the back of the lift, giving her self maximum distance between the two men. Not that the maximum distance was actually very much. She kept her head down, so she didn't see the look that passed from the first man to second.

Whatever had been about to happen was forestalled. As far as the thief was concerned, only postponed. Getting into a fight with a random person wasn't really in his M.O., after all. If he interfered however.... He was an ambush predator. And it wasn't every day someone with enough money to shop at Jerith's, wandered, alone, through this area of town. His hand subconsciously brushed the place beneath his jacket where the knife was. Of course, those details discovered in that one, stammered sentence, weren't why he'd followed her. But it was certainly icing. Two levels down where the shop she wanted was, there would be even less people who gave a damn if he simply knifed this bozo (assuming he even had the guts to follow them), and stop him.

No good Samaritans that far down.

​He liked that.

Beyond the tension, Sam was completely unaware of the undercurrents. She just wanted to be left alone, unnoticed, and usually, if she tried hard enough to be unobtrusive, that happened naturally on its own.

But this situation was like nothing she had ever experienced before, and no amount of wishing was going to make it work that way.

[member="Benedict Ortega"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sam Paige"]​

The lift was barely comfortable for the three of them, but perhaps that lack of comfort came from the thick cloud of aggression and less from the actual literal space.

From the edge of his peripheral vision Benedict could make out the brush towards the knife. A message and a statement of intent, but not one that would erupt into violence right at this very minute. The set of his shoulders were wrong for that, the positioning of his feet not allowing for any manipulation of his weight to increase the momentum of the stab, even the tilt of the head suggested a warning rather than a preparation. This was fine as far as Ortega was concerned. He hadn't wanted to fight in a little lift like this anyway, too much risk that they'd hurt the girl in their fight.

So instead Benedict hummed softly to himself, almost suggesting that he wasn't paying even a single dime of attention towards the goon, instead those eyes fixated towards the screen above the lift-doors.

Numbers lit up as they passed levels and descended further into the depths of the underworld.

Bing.

1449 popped up and the doors hissed open, revealing the dim light of artificial neon and the soft cries in the distance, gaggles of entrepreneurs marketing their wares, no doubt. He didn't wait for either of them to step out first, instead the soldier exited and seemingly left the scene. His form choked by the shadows once the alley was entered properly.

That was what it looked like anyway.

 

[Sam Paige]

The glint in his eyes when [member="Benedict Ortega"] exitted the lift was shades of 'yeah, you better'. He paused in the lift entry, ostensibly holding the doors open for her, but in truth forcing her to move awkwardly past him in order to get out. He stood in the middle, watching, the expression on his face smiling, but unpleasant.

Sam didn't look up. Don't make eye contact, and they'll eventually forget you're there. The sheltered, safe life she'd lived, it worked there. Busy parents and bored sisters, it was good enough, and there was no reason for her to move out of that in the here and now.

Her shoulders hunched slightly though when she realized he was holding the doors for her. Must have been unintentional that he hadn't given her enough room to get passed without brushing by him. She stepped forward, stepped back, then forward and from side to side before-

"Um. Thank you. Excuse me?" she mumbled. She didn't see the grin on his face widen.

"Don't need to thank me," he drawled, "Always a pleasure to give someone a hand."

He still didn't move.

Oh gosh, was she being rude here? He was doing something helpful, standing there and waiting for her to leave the lift. She was holding him up!

She danced back and forth for another moment before making herself move. He stayed still as she squeezed past, just watching her. Then he let go of the doors and fell into step beside her.

"So, what's your name?"

Sam really, really wanted him to go away. Every time he talked, she felt her shoulders go up a little further around her ears, hands shoving deeper into her pockets and back teeth clenching slightly harder. But she'd been taught that it was rude to not appreciate favors offered, or to ignore questions. And doing things like answering promptly and saying thank you were usually the road to people leaving her alone, whereas being rude in her family only brought unwanted attention.

"Er. Um. Sam."

"Well, Er Um Sam, I'll walk you to Jerith's. I know a short cut."

It wasn't a request, which made declining, saying 'no thank you' impossible for Sam. And she figured if it was a short cut, then so much the better- less time walking and talking with him. Maybe she'd call Maiev or Tegan when she got to the shop (she'd left her comm behind, so she could have some privacy, a choice she was regretting now) and ask them to meet her when she was done. Those two were a little scary, but she thought that maybe that would be a good thing right now.

Not that he'd done anything to her or anything. Just. Talked. Walked a little too close. Was this looming? Might be looming. He stayed just half a step to her right and ever so slightly behind, subtly guiding her through the streets. He was just being helpful- and probably didn't know that it was making her so uncomfortable. Sam knew she was shy, that she didn't like people in her personal space- it wasn't his fault he didn't know that.

"Um. Jerith's- it's um, I think it's this way?"

He looked down at the top of her head, one side of his mouth curling up in a smirk as he put a heavy hand on the small of her back and propelled her, physically, into the mouth of an alley.

"Like I said sweetheart, it's a short cut."

Glancing around behind them, no one noticed the push. Or if they had, well, in this area it wasn't like any of them cared.

Kark he loved Coruscant.

With Sam a few steps ahead of him, head still down and walking (a little faster now? That wouldn't do) his hand slipped under his coat, drawing out the knife. Silently, with one hand, he thumbed the blade open.

He wasn't going to hurt her. Probably. Maybe. Eh, it could go either way. Longer legs closed the distance in only a few steps and with a practiced casualness, one of his hands grasped her shoulder, pulling her back against him as the other reached around, the blade reflecting neon light from a sign far above in front of her eyes just before he brought it down in front of her throat.

As expected, the girl stepped back from the knife- she wasn't a fighter, and he knew it, not that it was hard to see, and human nature was to step away from a threat- pressing the line of her back fully against him. His smile widened. She sucked in a breath, probably to scream-

"Now now Sam- no need to scream Sam," he whispered against her hair, using her name with heavy inflection, too often, but by design. This wasn't his first rodeo, after all.

"If you're quiet, I won't hurt you, Sam. We'll just have a little fun." He breathed in deeply, letting out a long, slow sigh. "But then again, if you're not quiet.... I don't mind that either."

Sam was frozen, eyes squeezing shut as he touched the knife to her skin, a cold, sharp kiss of steel.

"P-please. Please don't- I h-have money- just- you can h-have-"

"Oh," he whispered, slowly walking them further into the shadows. "Oh Sam. I'll have that too."

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sam Paige"]​

​

See.

A robbery would have been one thing.

Oh, Benedict would have stopped that as well, because it was simply the right thing to do. But there wouldn't have been any emotions involved with that. This was different in so many ways that the man had to take a deep breath just before he stepped in. From the shadows his form melted into the scene. He didn't think, didn't wonder, it was all instinctual white-hot fury burning at the very pit of his stomach and powering him through it.

His fist connected with the side of the thug's neck, something snapped under the pressure of his knuckles. From there it was a blur of actions: the man doubled over and the knife disappeared away from Sam's throat, she would feel that the pressure around her neck was completely gone now.

The right moment to get the feth outta dodge.

The airway was restricted now as his windpipe collapsed under the sheer weight of the punch. Hitched breath, stuck and incapable of being fed back into his lungs. But Benedict wasn't nearly done with him, instead he reinforced his footing on the ground. From the floor up he drew force out of the stability, his hip rotated and then his foot went up, then down in a sharp angle. It rammed itself straight into the thug's knee.

Snap.

It was a visceral sound that hitched straight through the alleyway and caused him to fall over - he tried to scream, but there was only figments of dry air forced through little spaces in his airway. Then Benedict kicked the man in the face, twice, and the dry air halted in its tracks.

Night, shadows fell over the limp body now.

Too dark to tell that the neck was in the wrong angle. Too dark for Sam anyway, but Ortega knew what had happened in that last little second.

"You okay?" The lad asked, after breathing out and letting the pressure escape his chest.

His hands were still shaking. Even balled up in fists.

 

[Sam Paige]

Sam didn't scream. It wasn't her go to place when she was afraid. And not the low level of contained terror she felt basically every moment she was out around other people, but truly and immediately *afraid*. It didn't happen often. Usually regular anxiety covered it. And it had never been like this before.

It all happened too fast. When the shadow blurred out at them she had just enough air in her lungs to let out a strangled whimper (the words If your quiet I won't hurt you Sam had burned in hot white letters into her mind, and she'd never forget). The feeling of his grip falling away- the knife flashing off into the darkness-

Sam had moved. She ducked, scurrying to press against the wall. Disappear, vanish, become quiet enough and small enough that she was forgotten. Too paralyzed by fear to think clearly- to run- it didn't help that every muscle in her body trembled so hard that she thought her knees would give out. She crouched there, shoulders shaking harder than the rest of her as she tried to simply breath.

It was hard to remember how to again.

She didn't look up at him when his voice (not his, thanks gods) called out. She nodded, almost convulsively- she knew on some level that physically she was just fine.

The enormity of what had almost just happened (no illusions, no pretending good intentions now) crashed over her.

She shook her head, then, hard enough to send red hair flying. A sob rose up in her throat, and she covered her face, hands shaking so hard she almost couldn't bring them all the way up.

"P-please-"

Please what? It was just what she had said before, but now it was clear that she was fighting back tears. Did she think he was going to try to hurt her too? It wasn't clear at first, that was how hard she shook as she covered her face.

"Is-is he...."

Gone? Stopped? Dead? That also wasn't clear. But it did make it obvious that her please hadn't been aimed at him as a plea. Which was something at least.

[member="Benedict Ortega"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sam Paige"]​

​

This wasn't something that Benedict had experience with.

This.

People.

He carefully, cautiously and slowly stepped over the body and towards Sam, before petting her on the shoulder. It was an awkward pet, almost as if he was handling an aggressive animal, instead of a woman in need of support. But that was the way of it for him and Ortega couldn't really help it.

Give him a target to kill and that switch was turned over within two seconds, but tell him to comfort another human being and it felt like his brain suddenly turned to mush.

"Unconscious." A white lie, because for some reason Ben doubted that she could handle it. Would she be one of those who would try to carry the kill on her shoulders for her entire life? His blood on my hands, even with what he tried to do, a life snuffed out like a simple candle in the night.

Would that be her thoughts?

Better not to test it now, she was already sobbing more than Ben was comfortable with.

"There, there." The tone was even awkward, as he tried to give her something to help her. "I am... sorry, I am not good at this. What can I do?"

 

[Sam Paige]

Unconscious. The word rang through her brain and lit up every possible place it could. It was the best thing he could have said in that moment, even if she couldn't fully appreciate it consciously.

Maybe it was the awkwardness in his own actions. Maybe it was the words he chose. Maybe it was just that after something like that, there was nothing more useful and comforting than a clearly sympathetic voice. Despite how bad it *looked* from the outside, the fact that she turned into him and pressed her face against his chest and started to *sob* was actually a good thing.

Catharsis.

Trying to keep it in would have only brought rot and fester. Instead, the fear and anger (even if it was very small and low beneath the fear) flowed out.

Of course, that probably didn't help [member="Benedict Ortega"] in this situation in the least.

"I j-just want to get o-out of here," she finally managed to get out. "Somewhere I can call someone- t-to come get me."

She didn't give a damn for getting to that shop now. There was nothing there she cared about. Despite wanting not that long ago to get some quiet and time to herself, her first instinct was not simply to return to The Messenger- but to the people in it.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sam Paige"]

It was all that Ben could do to simply stand there awkwardly with his arms wrapped around her. It seemed to help her, so he tried his very best to continue to do whatever he was doing that helped. At one point he even stopped breathing for a little while. Thinking that it was only distracting her from... whatever... she was currently doing.

The sobbing started to subside and that was a good thing. Because Ben wasn't sure how long he could keep on petting her back like that, before his arm would grow completely numb.

"We.... can, yeah." He started to visualize where they were right now and didn't much like what was coming back to him in response. It would have been safer on one of the higher levels, instead of this filth-infested cesspit.

"Might be better if I walked you back to your ship though?" The offer was made gently, even though he didn't even know if she had a ship here. Or in what shape it could be or if it wouldn't be safer to just drop her at the precinct at the higher level.

Ben really didn't know what the best course here was.

 

[Sam Paige]

It wasn't that she thought he was going to do anything to her. Not really. But the idea of walking all the way back to The Messenger with a stranger was simply too much for the already overwhelmed Sam. So she shook her head, face still against his chest. It took a second to gather her thoughts, but in fairness, that wasn't uncommon for Sam anyway.

"N-no. Please. If it's okay- I just... I want to call my friends.... to m-meet me. I don't- I can't."

She lost the thread of it a little and just shook her head against him again.

Then for the first time, she looked up at him. Her eyes were red from crying, and her glasses were a little fogged up. She bit her lower lip and shook her head a third time, red hair falling back from her face.

"Please? I'm sorry. I just- I think- I just want to call my friends. If-if it's not too much trouble."

Even here, now, with what had happened, she was apologizing. Trying to make sure she wasn't too much of a bother.

Trying to take up as little space as possible.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sam Paige"]

Ben looked back at that face and... gulped.

Not the time nor the place, Ortega, get your head back in the game.

The problem was that he hadn't actually gotten a good look on her face, before getting involved. All that Ben had seen was a moderately (frighteningly) naive lady drawing all kinds of attention on herself as she walked through one of the filthiest levels that Coruscant had to offer. At that point he decided to get involved, but now that he actually saw how... attractive she looked like, his brain short-wired for a moment.

She tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

"Wh-what? Oh. Yeah, sorry. Yeah." He coughed softly and then released her from the embrace in a more subtle fashion. Instead of just letting her go, his hands disengaged to give her a polite out, if she needed one. That way it would look less awkward for everyone involved, feel less awkward and hopefully not remind her of what had happened just a moment ago.

"You don't need to apologize, I..." Benedict thought about it for a second, before nodding. "We will need to go one level up, if you can? I know a medic there. Her place is relatively safe and nobody will try to mess with us there."

"You can call your friends and we can wait for them there."

Ortega wasn't exactly comfortable waiting for them here. Not with the corpse, not with the atmosphere hanging thickly in the air from the moment he had arrived on this level, he wouldn't be surprised if they'd get jumped again.

If they waited long enough.

 

[Sam Paige]

Sam was completely oblivious to his reaction, which was probably just as well in that moment. She nodded, ducking her head again, hair falling back into her face. Despite letting go of her, she didn't move far from [member="Benedict Ortega"] as they moved out of the alley. She didn't look once at the 'unconscious' body of the man they left in the shadows.

In a way, her usual posture was a blessing. She'd never even seen his face during the whole ordeal.

She stayed right up against his side as they moved through the streets and back toward the lift bank. It made things a little awkward walking wise, but then, almost everything Sam did outside of an engine room was awkward.

It wasn't until they actually stepped into one of the lifts (alone, for some reason, no one else tried to go up with them, despite several people waiting. Of course, Sam couldn't see the look Benedict was giving all of them) that she realized it. There had been too many distractions, but she recognized his shoes now where she'd seen them last.

"You followed us down," she said, looking up at him again after the doors closed. "I... I don't..... why?"

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sam Paige"]

It turned out the lady was more perceptive than she let on by a wide stretch.

The fact that she recognized him, while not even looking straight forward at any particular moment impressed him, but it also made Benedict wonder if he was too obvious? That could get a man killed in the underworld, if he didn't watch himself. He resolved to be more careful in the future - it probably would have made him chuckle, if she had mentioned it were his shoes that she remembered.

"Realized what was going to happen." Benedict responded with a shrug. "Spend long enough time fighting bad guys and you start recognizing them by just a glance."

Usually it were a different kind of bad guy flavor, but it couldn't always be a masterminded plot to take over a world or blow it up. Didn't make it less bad or make helping the girl less worthy though. Sometimes you just needed a reminder what you were fighting for and if it weren't the little people like Sam?

What was the point.

"Caught your breath a bit?"

Metal frames flashed past their vision as they left the previous level behind and the new one started to come into view.

 

[Sam Paige]

"I didn't know. I should have."

Even if she had been the most perceptive person in the world, had been raised in a way that didn't shelter her beyond imagining for most of the people she was meeting, it still wouldn't have made what happened her fault.

It was entirely ridiculous for Sam to start blaming herself then, and yet, the mind is a funny place.

Because if he, a stranger and uninvolved had seen and understood what was going on, then why hadn't she? The fact that she *had* registered her own discomfort, made plans to call back to the Messenger when she reached the shop- those were being smothered by the fact that she hadn't done anything else. She'd just gone along because the idea of doing anything else seemed far more frightening at the time than anything else. And up until this point in her life, certain defense mechanisms had been more than adequate.

Be polite.

Don't speak unless spoken to.

If someone acts rude, the best thing to do is nothing, and eventually they will go away.....

But that was dealing with people who didn't want to hurt her. Her childhood had been in no way abusive. Far from it. But the lessons learned there had never been challenged, and had prepared her poorly for anything outside. Learning to deal with slightly bullying sisters who would wander off when bored did nothing for her now.

She nodded at his question, frowning and brows furrowed as she looked down at the floor. She should have known better.

But if someone had asked her, in that moment just *what* she should have known, other than a vague 'better', she wouldn't have been able to actually tell them.

[member="Benedict Ortega"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sam Paige"]

He pondered about those words.

More often than not it was the standard response of victims - blaming themselves, because that was their to-go-to instinctive behavioral reflex.

"Don't blame yourself." Benedict interjected through her stream of thought. "In a perfect world a nice innocent woman could walk through a dark alley at night without any worry or concern, but it isn't a perfect world. That does not mean that the actions of others are somehow your burden to carry."

A shrug of the shoulders as the lift-doors hissed open and allowed them entry to the outside.

"Could you have been more cautious? More proactive and less willing to excuse unacceptable behavior as acceptable, because that's what you have always been taught through experience? Maybe, but that's a lesson learned, an opportunity to do better if danger comes knocking next time."

He looked over to her, as they pushed out of the lift and turned a corner. In the distance the streets were mostly empty, some strays in the corners and alleys, but they stayed clear now. Benedict wasn't a man you followed to try and shiv, it was the kind of presence that you circled around of, hoping that you wouldn't be caught in its wake.

"Learn, ma'am, but don't poison yourself by self-blame. That will only hurt you more." Ma'am. He didn't actually know how the lady was called.

 

[Sam Paige]

As he spoke, she shrunk. It was subtle and in stages, but her shoulders slowly came back up, and she just nodded.

'Well, just be better and you'll stop being so not better' was a message she'd heard, again and again, from her sisters. So his second part fit snuggly into well worn pathways of 'why can't you just be not whatever it is you are being right now?'

"Sure, could you have?" made her feel very small indeed.

She didn't say anything else right then. What was there to say? He was right. She could have done better. And that part of his speech was what stuck in the well walked path already laid so thoroughly down.

They reached the place he'd been talking about without another word from Sam. The medic was kind, gentle- though Sam got the feeling she could be gruff when she needed to be- and settled Sam down with a cup of something warm and a blanket around shoulders before handing her a comm.

"Um. Tegan? It's. Um. It's Sam..... something h-happened. No. No. I'm okay. Please stop cursing- I just. Can you come? Meet me? I- I don't want to walk back to the ship alone. I'm somewhere safe, yeah."

She relayed directions haltingly, coaxed on by Ben's friend, before hanging up.

"She's coming, but it'll take a bit," Sam said, looking down at her hands clasped in her lap around the warm mug.

[member="Benedict Ortega"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sam Paige"]

Benedict nodded and was gonna sit down, but Chris pulled at his sleeve, gesturing towards the hall. It was clear that she wanted to talk about something, but didn't want Sam to hear for some reason. It was probably a good reason knowing her, so he excused himself with her and walked out of the room for a moment.

The door was closed and Chris was already leaning against the wall, eyes closed and rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"What happened?" She softly asked, before looking over his shoulder to the door. Chris was a smart lady and one of the best medics he had ever had the pleasure of knowing, but she was also a direct shooter. The fact that Sam was under stress, shaking and the sort was enough for her to take care of her, but she needed to know if there was more that needed to be done.

"Nothing you can help with." Ben replied after a while. Didn't seem like it was enough to convince her though. "Girl got a knife to her throat in one of the under-levels, I stepped in, but I don't think she ever considered it a possibility. Sheltered? There's more, but you don't need to know."

"Alright, I am gonna go back to the shop, let me know if you need any more help."

Benedict just nodded, before Chris passed past him, touching his shoulder briefly and then left the hall. Took the man a few more minutes to collect his thoughts, before he returned to Sam. He settled down in a chair across her and sighed softly.

"How long until your friend gets here?"