Family Ties

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The first thing she realized when she woke up was that her head was killing her. The second thing she realized was that she was crying.

Wiping her face, a black smear of makeup transferring to the back of her hand, Lilaena looked around. She was lying on a bunk, a thin grey blanket thrown over her. She was wearing the filthy clothes that she'd been wearing on Duros.

Duros.

Jax!

She sat up, nearly hitting her head on the ceiling of the niche the bunk was built into. Surrounded by the hum of a ship's engines, she realized that she was not on My Vengence, her TIE Avenger, headed towards Onderon and Silus Xilarian. Nor was Jax, her five year old son, anywhere nearby. Probably not on the ship at all.

She turned slowly and painfully to her side, looking out into the small cabin, seeing a shadowy figure seated across the room from her. Lilaena drew back, pressing against the bulkhead behind her. Who was it? What had happened there at the end, on Duros?

[Pierce Tondry]

"Awake now?" Pierce queried his sometime wife from the chair across the way. "Good. You and I need to talk."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The voice of her ex-husband sliced through the air between them, and Lilaena stiffened, her bruised and battered body protesting as her muscles tightened. Pierce?! She felt the need to get out in the open, away from the trapped claustrophobia of the bunk, but realized that she had nowhere to go.

He had left her free to move around, knowing that after battling Darth Vader, Lady Vader's bastard clone of a husband, she was too exhausted to put up much of a struggle. Try as she might, however, she couldn't recall what had transpired that had led to her being a guest on Tondry's ship.

"Jax... is safe?" Lilaena croaked, putting a hand to her bruised throat. If those drokking Sith Order flunkies had gotten their hands on him she'd never forgive herself, or Pierce.

[Pierce Tondry]

"Last I heard from Figrin, he's hurt but he'll be fine." Pierce shook his head. "His arm's injured. Maybe broken, but mendable. Figrin really couldn't tell. A lot better than what could have happened to him."

Despite being spoken with no emotion, the last words hung in the air of the small cabin. The sentence/not-quite-accusation did little to ease the tension.

Which was why it was a surprise when Pierce stood and continued in a far more gentle tone. "Let me get you some water. You're banged up pretty bad."

Lilaena coughed and lay back in the bunk. "Duros." she managed. "What happened?"

"You put yourself in a pretty bad spot," Pierce answered over the water running from the cabin sink. "There was one point where you were pretty much attacking anything that moved. I was very afraid for Jax."

The sound of breath catching in Lilaena's throat was audible, even above the water. "Did... was I the one?" she began.

"No," Pierce shook his head as he turned from the sink. "You did not hurt our son."

He approached the bed and extended the glass of water to Lilaena. It was as much an olive branch as it was an offer of sustenance. "How do you feel?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Sore," she groaned, taking the offered glass with a shaking hand. His patronizing tone was as grating as ever. As if she would have allowed Jax to come to harm. If that Jedi bitch hadn't shown up, she'd be halfway to Onderon by now with Jax safely in hand.

The bubbling anger threatened her calm, and with effort Lilaena shoved it down. "Spare me your preaching," she said quietly, "Perhaps he would have been safer on Coruscant, but even you are not without your enemies, Pierce." She sipped the water again, letting the cool liquid quench her thirst and loosen her voice.

[Pierce Tondry]

"Most of my enemies don't have the ability to tear things apart with their mind." Pierce stated pointedly. "They have a gun and a half-assed plan to do something selfish or stupid. Either way, if you had escaped with Jax, he'd be no safer with you than with me and you know it."

Lilaena rolled her eyes. "If you brought me here to-"

"I brought you here because I was saving your life at the time," Pierce cut into whatever petty retort she'd begun. "And now that you are here, I was hoping we could have a reasonable discussion about our son's future."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Fine, you want to discuss, then lets discuss." Lilaena wriggled painfully into a more upright position. "You want to keep him with the Jedi, and keep me out of his life forever."

Her eyes teared up, but she angrily dashed the liquid away with a swipe of her hand. "It is not fair to keep playing tug of war with him. I... I want the best for him, but I want to be there, too." Lilaena's lips twisted, and her hand tightened on the glass of water until her knuckles whitened.

[Pierce Tondry]

"Can you actually be there?" Pierce asked quietly. "Can you really be there without other things getting in the way? Can you be there without bringing the rest of your life with you?"

Pierce sighed; the sound of a man with too many questions and not enough answers. "I want you to be part of his life, but I don't want you to bring the rest of your life with you. Can that even happen?"

"Of course," she snapped, but she didn't mean it. He was right.

"You don't believe that." Pierce shook his head. "I can feel it."

One of his hands reached towards Lilaena's, but he stopped it not wishing to provoke her. "I don't know what to do. The last thing I want to do is take anyone's mother away from them, let alone my own son's."

He smiled briefly at Lilaena. "He's a strong boy though. I think you'd be proud at how strong he is."

"He could be stronger," she said, her voice soft. There was an edge of steel in it, however. She downed the rest of the water and set the glass down on the bunk next to her. After a moment she swung her legs over the side, letting them dangle. "This isn't going to work. Besides, shouldn't Jax choose for himself?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"You're serious," Pierce was incredulous. How could she even suggest that? "As much as I love my son, he has no concept of the kind of choice we'd be asking him to make. Hell, grown adults have more trouble picking what shoes to wear. We can't possibly ask Jax to choose between parents. Would you want to have to make that choice?"

Her face hardened. "I would have been thrilled to have parents to choose between."

"Hah," Pierce snorted. "That's just dodging the question. Just because you didn't grow up with them doesn't mean you didn't have parents. Everyone is someone's child, Lilaena."

How could he say that? "I'm sorry if I was too busy being molested in an orphanage -" Lilaena stopped herself mid sentence before her hurt and anger could rise any further. "Just keep him, okay? That's what you've always wanted. You have your son, and you don't need me anymore."

She glared, "So why am I really here?"

[Pierce Tondry]

“Why are you-?” Pierce choked on his sentence. “Because of Duros-“

Abruptly he turned away, slamming a closed fist into the low ceiling of the room. Being an ex-Imperial sniper turned-Jedi, there wasn’t much that could get to him. No matter how he tried, however, he couldn’t cross his quasi-wife off that short list. It was as though she didn’t appreciate anything at all that he had been through.

It all came back to him in a flash – all the agony over the past few days at his son being missing, all the emotions broiling as he was taken off all his duties, nearly confined to quarters like one of the dangerous prisoners he’d helped lock up, all culminating in that oh-so-fateful display on Duros.

’Duros.’

Lilaena moved behind him and Pierce could almost hear the anger boiling off her in waves. “What about Duros?”

Then it hit him. Of course she didn’t care what he’d been through. She didn’t know. She was so focused on how she felt that everything not related to her wants and needs was automatically excluded. While some of that might have been due to her practicing Dark arts, Pierce saw in a heartbeat the thing that had been missing all along. Lilaena’s ability to care about others required that they care about her first. For all she knew, not only did he not care about her after their falling out, he was out to get revenge by taking her son away.

When was the last time they had talked? Really talked, with a mind opened to what the other had to say?

Pierce spun on Lilaena. “Do you really want to know?”

She was clearly taken aback, but pride, or perhaps curiosity, would not let her back down. “Yes. Tell me what was so all-important about Duros.”

Pierce pulled a chair over. “I can’t.”

“Wha-? I knew-”

“I can’t tell you,” Pierce cut her off. “I have to show you.”

He extended his hand. “I’m not very good with sharing memories, but Duros being fresh – and it being you – I think I can do it.”

Lilaena stared at the extended hand, as though it were a demon offering a pact and maybe something worse besides. His last statement hung in the air between them, she considering it and he awaiting the answer. Finally, he could wait no longer. “If you really want to know what happened on Duros, you will see what I have to show.”

As though spurred on by the challenge, his wife reached out and took his hand in hers. “Show me.”

Drawing a sharp breath and settling the last of his turbulent emotions, Pierce went backwards – not to the beginning of Duros, but to the beginning of its end.

######

Vega’s lightsaber hummed to life, a glaring beam of death seeking Pierce’s heart. And yet, for all his strength and animal ferocity, Vega lacked the quickness born of ceaseless training that Pierce embodied. The Sith’s weapon struck out and missed its intended target as Pierce scrambled to the other side of the pillar.

A howl of pure bestial fury was the only warning Pierce had, but it was more than enough. He dove away from the pillar as the red beam slashed through it multiple times, eventually cutting it to chunks.

Unstable chunks.

As Vega stalked around the pillar, his eyes of pure menace widened with surprise as the support gave way. The pillar slid diagonally off its base and plunged through the floor, causing Vega to tumble to the ground. The Sith’s clamber back to his feet was interrupted by large metal plates falling from the now-damaged walkway above.

“That’s Vega Van-Derveld for you,” Pierce jeered at his opponent. “Always making the BIG mistakes!”

Vega shouldered the plating off him with renewed vigor, flinging pieces in Pierce’s direction that prevented Pierce from capitalizing on the situation. Pierce barely had time to register that he might have made the mistake this time before his foe was upon him again, this time openly hammering his lightsaber against Pierce’s defense with all the strength he could muster. Try though he might, Pierce could not edge past or away from Vega. Van-Derveld’s forward onslaught was the inexorable movement of a disposal compactor’s wall, and Pierce was the trash about to be crushed. Though Jax was somewhere close, Vega stood firmly in the way. ‘Hold out, Jax!’ he thought. ‘I will find a way to you.’

Vega’s latest swing altered in midair and caught Pierce’s blade from an unexpected angle. With a tug, Pierce’s weapon soared cleanly from his hands and over the nearby guardrail. Pierce’s attention had faltered, leaving a hole in his defense that Vega exploited. Vega attacked again with a too-wide swing, but with no weapon to meet his opponent’s blade Pierce threw himself backwards onto the floor. With a guttural growl of impending victory, the juggernaut lashed out with a stab that would skewer his elusive prey.

Suddenly, Pierce’s right hand touched loose metal and he had a weapon again. His left arm shot out and latched onto Vega’s weapon hand, pulling him forward. At the same time, his torso twisted, causing the Sith’s lightsaber to miss his chest to the side and plunge into the floor. Vega shifted gears, applying his brute strength to stopping his forward motion. He turned to look at Pierce just as Pierce’s own attack connected.

The section of sheet metal thrown by Vega’s earlier fit hit the one who had maltreated it square in the face with a resounding CLANG! Vega tumbled to the side with a dazed expression, slumping against the guardrail. Releasing the makeshift weapon and Vega’s wrist, Pierce planted both hands on the ground, drew his legs in, and then kicked out with both feet. His heels caught Vega’s chest and pushed Vega up, over the top of the rail he was leaning on. For a moment the question of victory hung in the air - Vega’s lightsaber flailed, his hand grasped for purchase against his movement - and then was answered as the juggernaut went up, over, and then fell down the other side of the railing and out of sight.

For a moment, Pierce was in shock. Had he managed to kill a Sith opponent? He scrambled to his feet, peering over the railing.

Instead of seeing Vega’s body still falling into a plunge of inevitable death, he saw the crumpled form of his opponent about 40 feet below on another walkway. It would have killed a human, but for a trained Sith Pierce suspected the fall would only incapacitate him. Vega twitched reflexively where he lay. He was likely wounded and unconscious. In such a state, it wouldn’t be hard to take the Sith’s own lightsaber and finish him once and for all.

However, that would take precious time away from his search for Jax, in a now when every tiny grasping moment could make a difference.

Pierce spied his own lightsaber on a nearby bridgeway; it lay on a walk unconnected with the site where Vega had fallen. Easing out off the rail, Pierce dropped safely to the walk below and retrieved his weapon. A sense of wholeness came over Pierce as he clipped it to his utility belt.

A high shriek caught his attention. Now no longer unarmed, Pierce dashed off towards it. It could not possibly have been Jax, but maybe it was…

‘Lilaena.’

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Show me."

Lilaena took Pierce's hand, feeling the familiar roughness of it. What she was allowing him to do was insane. Her abilities in the Force were many, but telepathy was not one of them. Not only was she unable to influence even the smallest thought, but she kept her mind blocked up behind formidable mental walls. Because she could not control the mental aspect of the Force, it was in turn uncontrollable. If her walls fell disaster could happen - and had in the past.

Her mind could undergo irreperable damage, or do the same damage to Pierce. But, underneath all the talk and the hurt, she trusted him.

So she put her hand in his, closed her eyes, and opened herself up to his memories. Almost immediately she was beseiged by a blinding headache, but the images flitted by her mind's eye, and she was seeing what Pierce had experienced on Duros.

A tear trickled from the corner of her eye, but she kept the contact steady, her hand gripping his perhaps a little tighter as the pain in her head grew.

[Pierce Tondry]

The shriek sounded again, and then again, multiple releases of pure fury. Pierce’s blood iced over. If Lilaena was that enraged-

Pierce chopped his thought in two, letting the end fall away. If he was to do anything, he could not let himself be deterred by anything, least of all himself. He was here to save those who could be saved.

Rounding a corner, Pierce could make out figures and ‘saber blades among the smog and bad lighting at the end of the long corridor he was now in. At the far end of the hallway where it opened out into the promenade, he could see Lilaena in a whirling maelstrom of smoke and flying objects. She lashed out again and again and in her concentration the Force cracked like a whip, scattering the things flying around her. One of them smacked into the wall above Jax’s head and he whimpered.

It took Pierce a moment to comprehend that she was not actually using telekinesis to defend herself, but to break the attack being made against her. And it wasn’t Figrin either; the Jedi Master lay on the floor awake, but clearly injured. As Pierce watched, Figrin shifted as if to move towards Jax, only to have something swiftly strike the floor near his hand. Lilaena shrieked again as something clipped her hand; with a look of pure venom she turned and glared at-

‘Darth Vader.’

The two were locked in a telekinetic battle of wills with the nearby surroundings witness to the sheer destructive force they were turning on each other in an attempt to obliterate the forces that blocked their way. What would otherwise have been a market street at the stationwaist was instead a landscape of desolation; everything from shattered glass windows and upturned tables to crumpled fixtures and bent guardrails littered the area. A wooden bench lifted from the ground and threw itself at Lilaena but before it reached her, the bench shattered into splinters that imploded into dust in their turn.

The metal bench studs, however, were far more durable. They flew at Lilaena, then burst outward from her form. Several buried themselves in the wall above where his son crouched in hiding.

The maelstrom swirled faster and the destruction came even more quickly. Lilaena was unleashing everything she had in an effort to destroy Vader now, sparing no effort to hurl things at or towards his statuesque form, a dance that drove the two of them farther out into the promenade and fortunately away from Figrin and Jax. The intensity of their combat reached a fever pitch as larger and larger objects very nearly exploded between them. Suddenly a pointed shape flitted up from the floor and sunk into Lilaena’s form. She shrieked again, a heart-rending sound of pain and the despair of impending loss, and then collapsed to the ground as something struck her head.

At that moment, Pierce felt something shift inside himself. Though he was still twenty yards away, everything seemed to slow. The entirety of his vision and senses were focused on the spot where he most desired to be.

The maelstrom dissipated, leaving Vader’s labored breathing as the only sound. “A worthy effort, but futile,” he proclaimed. A fallen lightsaber rose from the floor to its master’s hand. “Now your failure is complete!”

The weapon raised and fell.

And somehow, at the last second, Pierce found himself between his fallen wife and the indomitable Lord of the Sith.

[Pierce Tondry]

The moment of intervention hung as though the galaxy itself were awaiting an outcome with indrawn breath. Pierce’s bright blue lightsaber crackled against Vader’s, his eyes locked in a gaze over the two blades. The forward momentum of his attack carried him into his opponent’s weight and Vader slid backwards.

The Sith Lord’s eyes widened with as much surprise as they were able. “You think to-”

Pierce did not let him finish. Instantly his lightsaber was on the attack, slashing and dipping in moves designed to prevent his opponent from bringing full strength to bear. His face was emotionless, his weapon strikes absolutely precise. Each step was a complex contest in and of itself, Pierce’s goal for which was not winning but the absolute and utter denial of losing. Jax, Lilaena, a fellow Jedi: everything that composed Pierce’s life lay behind his defense and it could be no less than perfect.

Again and again Pierce struck, finesse and quickness the true tools of his attack. In spite of having overcome Vega Van-Derveld earlier Pierce was in prime fighting condition: strong, healthy, and truly attuned to the Force’s guidance. On the other hand, the Sith Lord’s infernal power had already been taxed before engaging Pierce. His strokes were a thousand darts trying to pop the over-inflated balloon that was Vader’s tired defense. Sparks flew fast and furious at the intersection of each weapon clash, leaving both Pierce and Vader with blackened burn marks on their clothing.

Then suddenly, in what must have been the summoning of Vader’s final reserve of will, Pierce felt himself thrown away. An invisible vice gripped his neck and slammed him into a nearby statue. Pain shot through his shoulder blade and cracked into his psyche. He collapsed to the floor, trying to pull himself together enough not to fall completely defenseless.

Vader strode towards his fallen adversary, his steps an inexorable, but slow doom. Pierce brought his lightsaber between himself and his opponent, but Vader was not put off. “Yield, Jedi, and I will make it quick.”

Pierce’s response was a wide, backward arcing swing. Vader easily caught the weapon strike on his own blade and turned it away, then backed away. Pierce rolled with the parry, out and away from where the statue had been cut from its base. Behind him, the monument tumbled down into the space where he had been pinned, now blocking Vader’s immediate access to him.

In a single, fluid motion, Pierce tumbled to a sprinter’s start and took off. He ran past Lilaena’s fallen form and scooped her up over his shoulder, wincing as he did so. Jax and Figrin were nowhere to be seen; clearly the older Jedi Master had taken full advantage of Pierce’s sudden assault to get his son clear. As he ran inside from the promenade, he stabbed a nearby blast door panel. With an electronic screech and the grinding of metal on metal, two-foot thick walls rolled into placed behind him, effectively cutting him off from Vader.

Lilaena let out a low moan. Unconscious, Pierce could feel turmoil inside her closed mind. Her moan was that of a mother who knew even without seeing that she had failed her child. Instantly, almost instinctively, Pierce’s heart leapt out to her. He knew better than anyone in the galaxy exactly how she felt at that moment.

But she needn’t worry; they were safe. Pierce Tondry, pushed to his absolute capacity, had become a human rubber band who would forever stretch himself beyond his limits to keep the things he loved.

Which even included Lilaena De’Ville.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The contact eased, and Lilaena's knees buckled. She found a chair behind her and sat, trying to disguise her discomfort. She took her hand away from his slowly, and rubbed her temples as her headache grew worse, if anything.

Her eyes were wet. Normally she would curse the weakness that tears indicated. A small trickle of blood issued from her left nostril, but she was unaware of it as her heart raced and she looked down at the decking. She felt a little like a trapped animal, confronted by a predator.

There was nowhere to run anymore.

"I didn't know..." she said softly, eyes still down. Didn't know he still loved her. The depth of it, to be sustained despite everything that had happened between them. She felt faint. Dirty. Unworthy.

Silus. The thought popped up, unbidden. Her lover, back on Onderon. How he would laugh at this situation. She had made her peace with the end of her marriage to Tondry years ago.

Hadn't she? But in that sharing of memory, in that moment of nakedness... he would know the truth. Deep in her bitterness, buried under anger over his asking for a divorce, nearly consumed by the Dark side - the kernel of her true feelings for him remained.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce gazed at his ex-wife with new eyes, or maybe old ones. The trip back through his own memory, almost from the view of an observer, helped him make those connections that were too close for him to see before. In spite of the fighting, the vicious tug-of-war over their child, and the different paths they'd taken, Pierce still saw something good inside Lilaena. Something that, when given a choice, he'd chosen to preserve. Few beings would have risked themselves for Lilaena De'ville. Fewer still would have done so against the Dark Lord of the Sith. Pierce had done both and more besides.

And somewhere, deep down, he knew Lilaena felt the same way.

"I'm sorry, Lily." His choice of nickname deliberate, his voice quiet, as though he was trying hard not to scare away a tense animal. "For the longest time, I couldn't see through my own hurt from the way things ended. For all the effort I put into spreading justice to others, I wasn't fair to you and it should have been completely the opposite. I should have tried more to make it work, not less. I failed you."

"Can you forgive me?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Forgive you? Forgive you?" A laugh bubbled up unbidden, a nearly hysterical response to his question.

"I... I can't do this." Lilaena's eyes were bright with tears that she refused to let fall. She looked to the side, her chin held up high as she tried not to blink. Forgive him?

Never, whispered a small voice in her soul. Your hatred has made you strong. Do not allow this so-called love make you weak.

"I can't..." It felt like her heart was breaking all over again. The tears spilled down her cheeks but she didn't wipe them away, as if by ignoring them they didn't exist.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce reached up and gently wiped Lily's tears away.

"It's okay," he said. And it was.

He regarded her for a moment. Lilaena De'Ville, as hard as nails and twice as vicious as anyone he'd ever met, sat across from him lost and crying. Part of him wanted to reach out and grab this opportunity, to continue to push and batter against her defenses in an attempt to reach that core of good within her that just had to exist. But that was the tactical part of his brain meeting the selfish part; the parts of him that would go after his identified objective without hesitation. It was a mindset that worked in war, because it allowed him to shut everything else out and focus on the needed victory with an all-consuming intensity. However this not war and there was no victory to be won or lost in the space of his passenger cabin.

This was love, true and genuine.

In spite of the distress, or perhaps because of it, Pierce saw something deeply human about Lilaena in that moment. Pierce knew her history. Right from the beginning, she'd suffered mistreatment and anguish. From her youth at the orphanage, to her days as a soldier for the Empire, to her work for the Hutts, and finally to the long path she'd taken as a Dark Jedi, there was no point in her past that ever proved a haven for her. Inevitably, anything that seemed to offer an alternative to pain and suffering wound up hurting even worse when it collapsed in on itself. To her, the galaxy was a cruel and unjust place because that was all she'd ever seen of it. Even what he'd said to her here could be construed as just another way the galaxy saw fit to kick her when she was down.

And to think of everything that way hurt her.

Pierce tucked a loose strand of hair behind Lilaena's ear as she continued to cry. No, this was not some soulless Sith monster. Just a human who had never had a real chance at being happy.

Suddenly, Pierce's earlier words came back to him: everyone is someone's child, Lilaena. He'd meant it as the counterpoint to her argument about lacking parents in her life, but the phrase had suddenly taken on new meaning. Everyone started out young with a clean slate. Anger, pain, suffering, and the negative reactions to it were things learned. No one was ever born despising everyone and everything. Everyone was someone's child, and in a just universe they deserved a fair chance at happiness.

Could Pierce Tondry, a man for whom justice had always been a defining feature of his life, ever see justice in the military way he had before faced with this connection?

'She deserves fairness, And I will make an opportunity for that.'

"Lily," Pierce's words drew her tearstained attention. "I don't want this to end the same as last time. Figrin knows I rescued you, but I'm not taking you to any authorities, not forcibly. I want you to have the chance of whatever life you choose. I will take you anywhere you want to go, even to Vjun if that's what you want. I don't want anything to get in the way of how you want your life to go from here. I want you to have a chance to decide what comes next."

"I love you. I-" Pierce hesitated only briefly; the pause of someone searching for the right thing to say and finding it. "I want you to be happy even if it isn't with me."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She took in a deep, shuddering breath, averting her eyes once more. Happy? Happy? How could she be happy without her son?

How could she be happy with her son?

Back on Onderon everything had seemed so black and white. She wanted Jax with her, so she went and got him. But life wasn't black and white. It was all different shades of gray.

Lilaena angrily turned away, her tears bitter where they dripped onto her lips. "Happy." Her voice was dull. "Right." It seemed like some huge cosmic joke, and any moment some holonet host was going to pop out of nowhere and the canned laughter would play.

"Cloud City," she managed. "I can find my way home from there." She looked at him, her tears drying up. "I can't tell you more than I have already said. It has all been said. On Ithor. On Chandrila. And it could not keep us together."

[Pierce Tondry]

Again, the rejection. The way Lilaena spoke, she seemed back at the mindset that any happiness between them was a lie. It took him back to the day when the ties between them had snapped. That day, the feeling was mutual.

But it wasn't anymore. He'd grown since that day and through his moments here with Lilaena, he felt in her a relentless good that would not die no matter how it was trampled underfoot. She wrongly thought of it as a weakness; it wasn't. It was the source of all her strength and the focus of all her pain.

It was her hope.

It was something he would not forget.

She was wrong on something else too. Not everything had been said between the two of them. Pierce placed a hand on Lilaena's shoulder and squeezed. "When the rest of the galaxy turns its back on you, I won't. Don't lose hope, and don't cry."

Lilaena did not shake his hand away, nor did she speak. Pierce left the room, pausing only once to look back at her from the doorway and wonder at whether those ethereal family ties between them would push them apart or draw them together.

'Oh baby, don't cry.'

######

You're in my mind all of the time
I know that's not enough
Well if the sky can crack there must be some way back
To love and only love

Baby don't cry.