Just hold her.

Sarah twisted her body and laid Maria gently on her legs, the woman's abused skin pulling slightly and making her gasp. Sarah considered asking one of the other enlisted women to feel Maria up, or doing it herself, just to get the poor woman to relax, but she could see that it would do more harm than good. For someone like Marcus, it might help her clear her mind and keep her focused on preserving herself, but Maria had been hurt far too badly for that.

She rubbed Maria's shoulders, one of the few parts of her torso that hadn't been savaged. The woman stared straight up, her eyes unfocused but not lost like she had been earlier. Sarah smoothed her hair out and tried to ignore the deep ache in her abused ass as she sat on the hard concrete. Comforting Maria was helping her keep her mind off her own ordeal, too. Unlike most of the other women, she had been here before; a tiny voice that she fought to ignore was screaming in panic to run, hide, curl up in a ball like Silva. She held it down at the bottom of her brain and focused more on Silva. The battered woman hissed suddenly as Sarah's hands clenched on her shoulders unconsciously.

"I'm sorry, Maria. My head got away from me. I'll be careful." The beleaguered trooper nodded weakly, and her eyes began to drift shut. Astonishingly rapidly, she seemed to be asleep.

Mara made her way back over to Sarah when she saw Maria drop off. "I don't know how you do it, Sarah. All I could do was hold her, but she's sleeping like a baby for you now."

Sarah grimaced. "She is now. She won't be after she wakes up with the nightmares, though. I'm in for a long night. How's Marcus?"

Mara nodded. "She's gonna be okay. Seems Teass roughed up the one that caught Marcus after he brought Jen down, and he wasn't around last night, so he was worse tonight. First time as a prisoner is always the worst, and having you there didn't make it better. I think you were both the best and worst person for her to be with for that. You're you, but you're also her commander. She's gotten that figured out now. You should talk to her at some point before.. tomorrow night."

"I'm not the commander now, Mara. I'll put the word around. I'm just Sarah. I'll take responsibility for these ladies, but I'm not having them take it for me."

Mara sat down at Sarah's side, leaning into Sarah's shoulder as the lieutenant leaned back. They braced each other, allowing them both to rest a little. "Alright, Sarah. I'll let 'em know. Tomorrow I'll see about talking to some of the others that were here before us. We're not planning on waiting this out, right?"

Sarah smiled tiredly. "No, Mara, we are not. We're not gonna lose our heads, though. We're gonna do this right." Her voice trailed off for a moment. "Mara? You said the first time's the hardest. But you've never been in stockade. When did you...?"

"'Bout two and a half years ago." Her voice was tired. "I was younger and dumb. Me and my sarge got cut off, and grabbed by a couple of bucks even dumber than me. They thought they were safe enough to enjoy us. Too horny for their own good. Another unit of ours came upon them as they were trying to get back to our lines. They pulled us out, but not soon enough. At least I was brought back over the lines; wound up preg with a little girl who'll get to fight for her sisters one day, 'stead of getting bred all her life from her first period 'til she dies." She was silent for a little while.

After a minute, though, she leaned in and laid a soft, slow kiss on Sarah's shoulder. Sarah didn't say anything. Mara smiled. "Mmm, it's Sarah, right, not Lieutenant?" She leaned in again, this time moving towards Sarah's neck. Sarah smiled, but raised a quiet hand to stop her. "Not right now..." As if to punctuate her warning, Maria's eyes tightened and she whimpered quietly in her increasingly restless sleep. Mara quickly slid behind Sarah and leaned her nude back on Sarah's, adding her warmth and support through the smooth skin. Sarah leaned forward to awaken Maria from her night mare as she sighed, anticipating a long night.