Some Things Never Change

Writers: Dana, Eimi
Date Posted: 22nd October 2005

Characters: Traelyn, B'ram
Description: Traelyn recieves some shocking news about her sister and confronts B'ram about it
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 8, day 12 of Turn 3

B'ram

Traelyn had just settled herself at her desk, ready to go over the last of her notes for the evening when she suddenly heard a flutter of wings
overhead. Surprised, she glanced up, and found herself staring into the
whirling eyes of a very familiar-looking bronze flit.

"I certainly wasn't expecting you here tonight, Bren!" she told him with a wide smile, holding out her arm to her father's fire-lizard.

The bronze chirped an enthusiastic greeting and alighted, taking the time
to nuzzle her chin before sticking his leg out. She caressed his long
wings as she unrolled the hide. **At last,** she thought as her eyes fell on her father's scrawling hand, and this time she didn't even bother to force the sudden lump in her throat back.

Shards. She missed him so much.

Sensing her mood, Bren walked up her arm to perch on her shoulder, running his little nose through her hair; preening her, like he used to do when she was just a girl. **Some things never change,** Trae thought with a small smile as she settled back in her chair to read.

~*~

Traelyn's nails bit into her palms as she clenched her fists. He hadn't
_told_ her! He hadn't even sharding _mentioned_ it to her! The
sharding bastard! And he had left her in such a condition? Did the man
have no _scruples_? Growling, she shoved her chair back with such force
that Bren took to the air with a squawk.

Enough was enough. She was going to find that sharding ass of a
brownrider, and she was going to find him _now_.

B'ram opened the door, holding a sheet closed around himself. When he saw who it was he groaned. "Can I help you, Weyrwoman? I'm a little busy at the moment..."

She didn't sharding _care_ if she had interrupted him bedding a woman.
Her eyes raked him up and down. Which, by the looks of things, she had.
"You and I need to talk. _Now_."

The brownrider looked at her in angry frustration. "Shard it all,
Traelyn, this really can't _wait_?"

Her upper lip curled, her blazing eyes just _daring_ him to argue with
her, to dismiss her.

"Ah, shell cracks," he muttered as he ran his fingers through his hair.
"Just give me a minute at least, will you?"

She fought back a biting reply and instead nodded stiffly before turning
her back on him. Her teeth hurt. Shards, her whole jaw ached.

B'ram turned back into his weyr and closed the door. The Weyrwoman could
hear hurried whispers. The door was flung open to reveal the man still
buttoning his trousers as a rather disgusted looking crafter slithered
past her, adjusting her tunic and muttering under her breath.

The brownrider turned annoyed eyes on Traelyn. "All right, Weyrwoman, it
seems you have achieved attaining my undivided attention. Come on in."

It took all of Trae's will not to bare her teeth at him as she passed
through into his weyr. But once they reached the couch, she whirled
around to face him, her eyes hard. "Why didn't you _tell_ me Atreyn was
scored, B'ram?" Her voice had suddenly gone too quiet, too calm.

"You're her _sister_, Traelyn. Why should I have to tell you what is
happening in her life?" He through his arms through the sleeves of his
shirt and only bothered with the bottom two buttons. "I need a drink and
it would be rude of me not to ask if you want one." **Although politeness doesn't seem to be _your_ number one concern...**

She followed him to the cabinet where he kept the alcohol, infuriated that he didn't seem to be taking this sharding seriously. "You should've told me! But instead you _lied_. You _told_ me that she was 'just fine' the last time you saw her! Shards, B'ram! I don't think I'd call Atreyn 'just fine' when she's laid up in the sharding Infirmary because of Thread!"

"What! I thought you knew! Why should I have to tell you the news?
She's your sharding sister, Traelyn." He pulled out a bottle at random,
pulled the plug and took a swig.

"I think it's sharding damn obvious that I _didn't_ know because I _asked_ you," she growled, seething.

"You asked me how she was doing and I _told_ you!" He took another swig
and passed her the bottle. The Weyrwoman looked like she could use a
drink. He flopped walked back over to the couch and flopped back on it
unceremoniously. "She was fine the last time I saw her. The Healers had
saved her leg, and it looks like Onesanth's wing will heal in time. She
should be back in her own weyr in a couple sevendays."

**They saved her _leg_?** Fuming, she raised the bottle to her lips and
took a long swig. She winced as she felt the alcohol burn down her throat as she stood where she was, staring at him, searching his sharding, impassive face. Then she said very quietly, "You sharding left her, B'ram."

"I left her?" He gave a small sarcastic chuckle. "What was there to
leave, Traelyn? We were over! We were over months before she was
injured."

She glared at him.

"What did you want me to do, huh? Pine away for her all my life?"

"You don't have the heart in you to sharding _pine_ for anything."

"Yeah, your sister saw to that," B'ram snorted. "Give me the sharding
bottle."

He was bloody _impossible_. Trae took another swig and walked over to
him, all but thrusting it into his waiting hand. She glared down at him
as she watched him drink. **Some things sharding never change.**

"So I take it your heard from your family today," the brownrider said when he finally took the bottle away from his lips. "Well, what did they say? About Atreyn." His eyes and voice softened as he said the woman's name.

Deciding to push her building frustration out of the way - for now -
Traelyn came around and sat on the opposite side of the sofa. "They said
that the healers are planning to start having her try to walk next month," she told him, her voice quiet.

"That's good then." He took another long swig from the bottle. "And
did... did they saying anything about _him_? About U'falo?"

"About who?"

"U'falo, that sharding bronzerider who's oh so _kind_, and _gentle_ and
_smart_ and _mature_..." he slammed the bottle into the cushion,
emphasising the words he off in drunken frustration.

One pale brow rose. So _this_ was the reason behind B'ram and her
sister... "No...he wasn't mentioned, B'ram."

"Two and a half turns," he muttered, not even noticing the goldrider
anymore. "Two and a half turns it took her to figure out that I wasn't
good enough for her. Sharding bronzerider..." B'ram drained a quarter of the bottle in one long pull.

Her eyes narrowed but she didn't say anything. What could she say? Trae
hoped for his sake that he wasn't going to start bad-mouthing her
sister...or there would be some _serious_ trouble.

"You know," the brownrider mumbled as he got shakily to his feet, bottle
in hand. "You know, we're not as dumb as you womens thinks we are...
Men, I mean. We're not... we're not so stoopid. I know wha it meant.
'Oh, B'ram, you're too good for me...' What a bunch of wherry dung! Why
du'nt she juss say it? Huh? 'B'ram, I found some'un better than you'.
'B'ram, you're juss not good 'nuff fur me a'ymore'..."

She watched him walk shakily as he continued his rant, eyeing the way he
held that bottle. A man could do serious damage to himself when drunk,
and though she was far from _liking_ the brownrider, she didn't want him
to gouge himself. Traelyn stood and slowly advanced towards him. When
she was in an arm's length of him, she slowly reached out. "Just give me
the bottle, B'ram," she said quietly.

"I'm good 'nuff, Traelyn." He drained the rest of the bottle and handed
it to her. B'ram then started stripping of his shirt. "Look at me,
Traelyn. What's not good 'nuff? Huh?" He lost his trousers next as he
stomped them into an angry pile on the floor. "Look at me! I'm strong!
I'm big enough! I'm good! Juss asks the girl who leff here. Juss
asks... oh shards, I forget her name... But I was good enough fur her!
Why wasn't I good enough for your siser, huh? She liked it, you know.
For two and a half turns she couldn't keep her hans off me!"

She kept her face a neutral mask as she gazed at him. And suddenly she
felt something rise inside of her - something that she'd never felt for
him before. Pity. Carefully she set the empty bottle on the table and
took a step closer to him. "B'ram."

Shards, but she looked like her sister when she looked at him that way.
He shook his head as he took a step back. "And you... and you come here
and you say to me... that _I_ left _her_..."

She winced inwardly but didn't try to defend herself, and instead
reached over, grabbing the discarded sheet from earlier off the back of
the couch and extended her arm to him.

He hesitated, looking at her with glazed and glistening eyes that looked
almost pleading. But soon the brownrider's eyes grew hard and he
whispered through cletched teeth, "Get out of my weyr."

Traelyn didn't need to be told twice. And she didn't look back when she
closed the door behind her.

Last updated on the October 22nd 2005

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Some Things Never Change