She nods, pointlessly. "Be safe," she says, surprisingly emphatically.

"I will. See you soon."

"Have a good trip, Love."

"Mmhmm. See you soon." There's a click, and then silence, and a hug from Pradnakt.

Rhoda hugs back, cuddling slightly into Pradnakt's side.

She gives her a squeeze. I'm not sure what you're worried about exactly, but she's done this every month for years, usually nothing bad happens at all and she's never been hurt.

I don't know either, she sounds somewhat confused. I- I'm not Seeing anything. But. I just. But...you're sure she'll be fine?

Mmhmm. Even if she is hurt, I can fix almost anything that could happen to her. But there's no reason to think she will be.

Good. That's good. Her stomach chooses that moment to announce that it's hungry.

Ready for breakfast?

I can- she starts and then stops, frowns to herself, and starts again. I could eat.

All right. I'm in the mood for scrambled eggs; you?

She thinks (ignores the thought of 'whatever's easiest'), half-shrugs. Scrambled eggs is fine.

All right. Hash browns? Pancakes? She scoots off the end of the bed and heads into the back room.

Hash browns? she requests, following.

Sure. She grabs an outfit from the aclove.

Oh. She retreats back towards the bedroom to give Pradnakt privacy to change.

It doesn't take her long, and then she heads for the main room. I bet you're really looking forward to having a change of clothes, huh.

She thinks about that. Yes. Pause. I-I didn't have- many before but. Nice to change.

Yeah. Well, soon. Eggs! Hash browns! Showing her how this goes, again. I think we'll wait on actually having you use the stove - it's hard to get burnt badly, but little spatters are kind of unavoidable, and that seems - not great, for you.

She watches avidly, but shrugs slightly when the comment about the stove comes up. The engines were- she can't think about that. About how much the engines being temperamental could be dangerous and painful, and about how easy it was to forget that some parts were far too warm. I'd...be okay. Probably.

I'm sure you would, but part of the idea is that you don't have to put up with that any more. If you want to learn, I'm not going to stop you, but you don't have to, and I'm not going to suggest it when there's something like that.

You really shouldn't have to put up with being in pain at all; as soon as I'm sure we don't have a nasty surprise lurking I intend to do something about that.

She blinks, and looks sideways. I- it's. Fine. She barely even notices the fact that some things continue to still hurt most days, unless she moves just wrong. And it sounds like it might take a lot out of Pradnakt (why else would she be waiting till she was sure they were safe?), which is just... She can cope with it. She doesn't have clear memories of not being in pain.

It's really not. And it won't hurt me to fix it, it'll just make me weaker in a fight for a little while. If you don't want it - it's your body, it's your call. But I would rather fix it than not, just as soon as it's safe.

She thinks about that. I- she wants to just agree to it, but thinks that might upset Pradnakt, possibly more than Rhoda refusing to let her fix it. I- can I think about it?

Sure.

She relaxes some. And goes back to watching cooking - which might be nearly done?