The Grey Tower

A kiss! It was a struggle not to act like a giddy girl at a fair. The rational side of her tried to argue that it was general tiredness and the other exhaustions from today that was muddling her thoughts. Yet her heart seemed more alive in this moment than it had in a very long time. Elia reacted with a smile and a returned squeeze of Dax's hand. They were such stupid gestures of... Light, she didn't even know what, but they were small and stupid gestures. Nothing to get excited over for goodness sake! The rebuke really did do much to change anything.

"I don't know," she said in response to his questions. "But I'm happy staying here for the moment." She paused, then chuckled very softly. "I'll need some proper sleep soon, and I'd rather not be on my own. I'll let the Yellows look after me, at least for a night."

Elia found herself lost in Dax's eyes after saying that. She hadn't noticed how incredibly blue they were before, nor how gentle his gaze seemed to be. It was simple just to smile back, wondering what it was he was seeing in her look.

Pain creeped into her awareness. Elia broke the mutual observation to glance towards the source of her discomfort. Her blackened limb was bent at the elbow and she was subconsciously rubbing a thumb over her midriff. Regardless of the pain it caused, she found herself wishing to keep it up. "I guess I can say the Yellows can look after us for a night."

Dax nodded slow acceptance. If Maever had anything to do with the Indigo’s care the Aes Sedai would lack for nothing in the night ahead, which was perhaps for the best given the events at Vaidulo. And pregnancy…now he had time to think it surprised him she had not known earlier. Surely someone as self-aware as Elia seemed to be would have notice of the changes in her body?

The woman in question shifted in such a manner that it captured his total attention then, green eyes large and vulnerable in her ageless face. He knew that look and it wreaked havoc on his mind (although he was certainly more accustomed to seeing it in brown eyes, not green). If Katrie lay on that bed he would have known exactly what to say and do, but his mind insisted he could not treat Elia as he had his former wife.

Or could he? The Gaidin’s head tilted a little as he thought about that possibility. The Shienaran needed reassurance and Dax knew how to give it. Perhaps she would like it, perhaps she wouldn’t, but the offer at least should be worth something. Unsurprisingly, Jem did not like the idea; equally unsurprisingly the dead man’s opinion simply hardened the Tairen’s resolve.

He exhaled through his lips, his hand covering hers where it rested on her belly. She winced, and he shifted to put less pressure on her damaged arm. “The Yellow Ajah will certainly care for your health in every way the three of you may require,” he agreed easily. Then he smiled, a lazy, self-assured expression that had gotten him into trouble more times than it hadn’t. “And a Blademaster will look after your safety. Sleep, Elia. I’m not going anywhere.”

It wasn’t exactly how he had planned to spend his evening, but...plans changed.