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her, he shoved her harder than he meant to. She collapsed backward and gave him a hurt look. He bit back an apology and headed into the med bay.
    Glass bit into the bottom of his feet almost the instant he crossed the threshold. He swallowed a curse, not wanting to give the girl any reason to follow him. It hurt like hell, and it was all he could do not to scream. He took a couple slow breaths, trying to force the pain to the back of his mind, and slowly walked toward the mess near the center of the room.
    There were plenty of materials for bandaging up the cuts already bleeding through the soft soles of his shoes, and he was pretty sure he could make a halfway decent splint. But there were no painkillers that he could see. Granted, he didn’t have anything resembling a working knowledge of drugs and medicines, but he remembered a couple of the ones Dr. Geddes had given him for the various bones he’d broken over the years, and all he could find of those were a couple empty bottles. There might be some in the mess on the floor, but Tron knew better than to try guessing about that. The last thing they needed was to be popping mystery drugs. He didn’t particularly fancy the idea of combing through the glass for them, anyway. So, with nothing but the most basic of supplies, he headed back to Kivi , all the time being careful never to look at the dead man in the corner.
    This time she was where he’d left her. He was relieved. Tron wasn’t sure how much more walking he was good for, with his throbbing feet. The minute she saw him, she held out a hand like she expected him to drop some magical medicine into it. He grimaced.
    “I didn’t find any pills.”
    “There are lots of pills,” she said.
    Tron barely managed to swallow his growl. “Yeah, well, you’re welcome to go in there and guess about what they might be, but I prefer to know what I’m swallowing. I checked every cabinet, and every bottle with a name I recognized was empty.”
    “You don’t know much about medicine.”
    “Yeah?” He snapped. “And I suppose you’re an expert?”
    “No.”
    He wanted to be pissed at her, but it was clear she wasn’t saying any of this to be a pain. She was just making observations. Normally that was plenty to be angry about. There was a reason he’d avoided her just as much as everyone else did. But Tron just couldn’t convince himself it was worth the risk of alienating her. He needed her to stick around, at least until they found Jay. He didn’t think she’d do that if he got bent out of shape when she was just doing what she always did.
    “I don’t want pills,” she said after a while. “I want the bandages.”
    Tron blinked and looked down at what he was holding. “I’ll wrap your leg.”
    She shook her head. “Not for me. For you.” Kivi point ed at his feet. He flinched as he saw the bloody footprints leading up to where he stood. He was surprised she noticed. He’d never seen her pay any attention to people unless they were asking something from her. He certainly didn’t expect her to offer to tape up his feet. “I got it.”
    She made a face at him. It might be the first time he’d ever seen her do that. She opened her hand again and wiggled her fingers insistently. “Don’t be dumb. I can help you too.”
    Half out of shock, Tron dropped the bandages into her hand. Then, again mostly because she surprised him, he plopped down when she shoved him backward. Kivi got to work yanking off his shoes without another word. He couldn’t believe how carefully she examined his injuries. He didn’t think she was quite so delicate about yanking out the bits of glass still stuck in his skin, but once she was wrapping up his feet he started to feel bad again.
    “Sorry I pushed you.” He said it mostly because of the silence. The quiet of the Lucy now was unbearable. Even down in storage, the sounds of distant conversations and the hum of the engine filled every second. Now there wasn’t even the