Zoe awakens in time

You waited for a few anxious hours. If Zoe couldn't find the energy to bring herself together, you wondered if you needed to wear her the same way that Shaw had. But you didn't want to put Zoe through anything like that again, not unless her life depended on it. You waited, using one of her lab microscopes to check her cellular structure, making sure she was still alive. By all accounts, she was fine, just dormant.

By the first hour, Zoe began to regain a bit of a shape to her body, no longer looking completely flat, but still looking slightly deflated. Her seams all over her body were still open as well.

It wasn't until the third hour that she began to twitch and move, just small indicators that she was fighting for her recovery. That disruptor was particularly nasty... you wonder how and why Shaw had such technology. Had this been hidden Hideki tech that he found before Zoe and you arrived that morning, or had Shaw somehow known enough about what Zoe was to premeditate this whole ordeal?

Hour four was the most encouraging. You sat with Zoe, holding her head in your lap. She was able to retain most of her shape, although she still hadn't been able to seal up her body in a variety of places. You tried to be gentle with her, but she could look at you and smile, a sight you wholeheartedly welcomed with a sigh of relief.

By the fifth hour, Zoe had the ability to pull herself together again, fully sealing up, though she still seemed too weak to do much more than just talk. You leaned down to kiss her softly, and she reciprocated, just as you remembered she could.

"Are we still going to have pasta tonight?" She asked, and you both shared a laugh together, as you hugged against her. Even after all that, she had her sense of humor, and it helped keep you grounded.

"All the pasta you want," you said, barely above a whisper.

"I'm so glad you came back. My heart sank when you left, though you did the right thing. Chloe was the right person to talk to, anything else might have gone wrong. I was seriously thinking that I was going to end up spending months or even longer under Shaw's control. That would be living a nightmare... he kept talking about all the people he was going to make me be with. The videos he would film, the pictures he would take... he wanted to use me for all kinds of lewd and disgusting ideas of his, I don't know that I could stand it."

You nodded, running your hand through Zoe's hair. "Well, I'm sorry you had to spend any time like that at all, but I'm glad it was brief."

Zoe nodded, and then turned away. "I'm a little worried now. About if others could do what he did. I... I'd feel much safer if I could spend some more time being worn by you this week."

"I'll keep you on however long you like. Maybe it's time for us to take a vacation together."