Trying (1)

Writers: AL, Devin
Date Posted: 29th March 2009

Characters: Jerroll, Edele
Description: When Jerroll gets back to the ship, he and Edele have an argument.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 2, day 5 of Turn 5
Notes: Silver Sails

Edele scrubbed at the pot wit tight, vigorous strokes. Her mind whirred with what she had witnessed and she still wasn't sure what to do about it. Jerroll had been flirting, that had been painfully obvious. Then he had gone off with the woman. It wasn't until she was halfway back to the ship that Edele realised she probably should have followed them to really see if he was going to do what she thought he was. Maybe he wasn't. Maybe they were simply going to talk.

But Edele doubt that. Their conversation wouldn't be the kind done with words.

She attacked the pot again, wishing she hadn't been so careless as to leave it on the stove with so little water that it had boiled off and burned. It would come clean, but she was going to have to work hard at it. She knew the relationship with Jerroll was going to take work too, but she had thought that he was going to work at it, not just toss her aside when another pretty face came along.

Jerroll breezed into the galley and poked his head into the kitchen area. "Hello, dear cook."

"Hello Jerroll." Edele was surprised at how light and cheery her own voice sounded. She cast a small smile upon him then went back to scrubbing her pot. "I tried finding you - where did you go?"

"I looked up a merchant I know. I got a little something for you." He took a pouch from his waist and pulled out a necklace.

Edele straightened and looked at the necklace, then to Jerroll. "A merchant you know? An old friend? Did you have fun with her?"

"Her?" Jerroll lifted an eyebrow. "I didn't say it was a her." Had Edele seen him with Sehana?

"I saw you with her." Edele turned back to her pot and began to scrub again in earnest. "She's pretty."

How much had she seen? How much had she _heard_? "It was business, Edele."

"Didn't sound like business." Edele muttered as she continued to focus on the pot, pointedly refusing to look at Jerroll. "But if you say that's all it was, then I'll take your word for it."

"Edele ..." He put a hand on her arm. "Look at me."

Biting back a sigh, Edele did as he bid her and stared straight into his eyes.

"I know what it must have looked like. Yes, we were flirting, but this time it was no more than that. It's part of the game. I can get better deals that way," he explained.

Would she be able to tell if he was lying? Edele didn't think so - Jerroll was an old hand at it and he'd be able to hide the truth from her easily. Yet, what kind of relatinoship were they going to have if she didn't afford him some trust? It was hard, she had to admit, not to be suspicious. Before she had chosen to go with him, he had made mention that he was not easily monogamous. When she had chosen him, he had simply said he would 'try' and that had only instilled some fear and doubt into her. Yet, she didn't want to leave him. She loved him. If he said it was nothing more than what he said it was, she needed to trust him. Another small, but that time more genuine smile slipped over her features and she nodded. "Okay."

He kissed her softly. "I'm not perfect. Someday I might slip." He could almost guarantee that. Bed hopping was in his nature, ingrained by decades of a roaming lifestyle. "But not today."

His admission made her pull back. "Jerroll...I love you, but if you do slip, I won't be able to stay."

"That's a lot of pressure. No room for mistakes." So he had to be perfect, or she would throw it all away?

"Would you come back to me if I broke your trust?" Edele asked softly. "For instance, what if I told authorities what this ship really did. Would you still want to be with me?"

"That's not the same thing." Exaggeration wasn't a good sign.

"How is it not?"

"This ship is my family. Deliberately turning my family over to be sent to the mines, or worse, is not even close to the same thing as slipping up." How could she even compare them?

"How does one just 'slip up' with another woman?' He didn't get it, he didn't get it at all. "If you've done it, you make a choice to do it. You choose to follow through. If I tell someone about this ship, I've betrayed your trust. If you are with another woman, you've betrayed mine."

"That's like saying stealing a man's marks is the same thing as leaving his family out for Thread."

"How much have you given up for this ship?" Edele lifted her eyes to look about the galley. "How much _would_ you give up for it?"

"Everything," he said.

"And that's exactly what I did for you."

Last updated on the March 29th 2009

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Trying (1)