Rosa

by awf

Chapter 42: To Move On

The newspaper wasn't very encouraging. 'Daughter of U.S. Senator Still Missing!' was the headline. Rosa quickly scanned the article to see if there were any clues, but it was more or less what she had expected from the heading. The Boones were distraught, the police were baffled and the whole city, it seemed, was worried. No ransom demand had come forth, which Rosa couldn't decide whether it was good news or bad. A kidnapping would have been horrible, but at least she'd know Lillian was alive. As things were, Rosa simply didn't know, which was perhaps worse. Not knowing left a cold, dark ball in her belly, making Rosa feel as if she wanted to puke, but something was blocking it. The feeling was so bad that Rosa didn't want her coffee anymore and left her cup practically untouched.

"Lillian," she whispered to herself with a dejected slump in her shoulders and her ears almost completely down, while Sky Light stood beside.

"She's going to be fine," she assured Rosa, but her voice didn't hold much conviction.

Rosa hardly even noticed when the other ponies joined them on the grass in front of the truck stop.

The first one to brush her side was Velvet. "Morning, Rosa!" she said happily. Shortly after, she changed her tone to one of worry and fear. "Oh dear, what's happened?!"

Rosa couldn't quite speak, but luckily Sky Light answered instead. "That senator's daughter in the news. Rosa was her guardian. Well, until she got a cutie mark and... well, it's a long story."

What Sky Light hadn't said, much to Rosa's relief, was that Lillian having run away was her fault. All Rosa could see was the picture in the paper. The girl looked so happy there!

"Don't worry, hot stuff," came a deeper, unwelcome voice from her other side, "I know how to cheer you up."

Before Rosa could really react Butch nipped her ear, which drew a sharp hiss from the mare and made her jump away. She opened her mouth to yell at him, but Velvet beat her to it and gave the pushy stallion a firm kick in his rump. It was strong enough for the jerk to fall flat on his muzzle.

"Idiot," muttered Velvet and placed herself between him and Rosa. "Don't mind him," she went on while she rubbed her flank against the younger mare. "He's just an idiot."

There was uncomfortable silence while none of the ponies looked at Butch. Finally Bluegrass cleared his throat. "Anyway, I went on the Internet for that government thing..."

Rosa was still distraught by her horrible imagination of what might have happened to Lillian, but Sky Light stepped closer to the stallion and picked up the conversation: "Okay, did you find anything?"

The answer flew past Rosa without really registering. She had stopped paying attention to them, certain that if there was anything important, Sky Light would tell her later. Maribelle could wait - Lillian was more important. Crazy schemes of getting the pegasus to lead her there were popping up in Rosa's head. Maybe she hadn't looked closely enough and the girl really was hiding somewhere in the fields. If not, Rosa could search the forest. She would eat grass if she had to!

"You okay sweetie?" Velvet asked, again nuzzling Rosa who was barely aware that Velvet was standing almost protectively beside her. A glance told Rosa that Butch had crawled away and was sitting there, watching them with some kind of a weird, scary little grin. It made her shiver.

"Why do you stay around him?" Rosa asked absently, mainly for something to say.

Velvet followed her gaze, then shrugged. "Eh, he's not so bad when you get to know him. Just make sure you never turn your back on him and you'll be fine."

"That's stupid."

The mare giggled a little. "I guess it is. You have to remember, it's just us on the street. No one will help us. You make the best of it."

Rosa opened her mouth to ask if the stallion was... having his way with Velvet, but then she shut it and shook her head. She didn't really want to know. It had been such a piece of luck that Rosa had ran into Sky Light and Terry, rather than someone like Butch, or those teenagers from the previous night. She started listening to what the pegasus and Bluegrass were saying.

"... like Area 51 or something!" the stallion was explaining in a quiet, rushed voice. "The web page said they do secret experiments on ponies there! It's shady as fuck and probably illegal, but you know they don't care!"

It really did sound like he had found something. Sky Light was nodding to herself, but when she noticed Rosa looking she gave her a wry grin and rolled her eyes. "Okay, can you give me an address?" she asked Bluegrass.

The stallion looked around, as if imparting a great secret. Rosa focused her ears in case it was something important for her to remember. "Somewhere out in Death Valley. No one knows for sure, but the blog said that's where it is!"

"Death Valley. Gotcha," Sky Light said, flashing Rosa another smile. She then wrapped her wing around the stallion, who looked incredibly proud of himself, and whispered something in his ear. It was making him smile widely and blush a fantastic pink.

Rosa was done socializing. The sun was rising and she wanted to be out and doing something about Lillian already, so she stood up and took a step toward the pegasus. A hoof tapped her on her back. "Rosa? You forgot your coffee," Velvet pointed out.

"Huh?" Rosa didn't care about that thing in the slightest. She didn't have any real appetite left, so she shrugged and forced a smile for the mare. "It's yours," she said graciously.

"Oh wow? Really?!" Velvet gasped in delight.

"Yeah, sorry it's gotten cold..." Rosa began, but didn't get much further because the other mare hugged her.

"Thanks! You're awesome, Rosa!"

Luckily her embrace didn't last too long - she was too eager to get to her beverage. Rosa nodded at her absently, already forgetting the coffee, and made her way to Bluegrass and Sky Light. "Um, we should go?" she suggested.

The pegasus leaned her head to the side, a bit curious but mostly worried. She obviously didn't like the expression on her friend's face, but Rosa didn't care care about that either.

"Okay," Sky said slowly and patted the stallion on his shoulder. "Good job, Bluegrass. Keep looking, see if you can find anything more exact, okay?"

He nearly saluted in reply. "Will do!"

Rosa could see that he was still blushing a little, but she didn't want to spend energy wondering about it. She just started walking away, barely glancing around to see if Sky Light was following. Velvet waved a hoof goodbye and so did Pepper. Butch just kept staring and grinning, which made Rosa shiver a little in discomfort. She made a mental note never be alone with that guy!

Her thoughts were interrupted when Sky Light spoke up: "Okay, your tail on fire or something?"

"No, I- huh? What?"

The mare rolled her eyes at Rosa's distracted, bemused stare. "What's the hurry?"

"Oh. I was thinking we could go- and the forest... Lillian might be hiding in the forest, we should search there."

Before Rosa could take one more step Sky Light hurried up and planted herself in front of her. Their noses almost touched before she could stop.

"Hey-"

"Don't you 'hey' me!" Sky Light almost hissed. "We're done with that stuff, understand?! I don't like what it's doing to you, so just snap out of it!"

"B-But... Lillian-"

"Enough," the mare interrupted again. "It's not healthy. You have an obsession, Rosa and it's going to kill you."

Rosa somehow knew what she was trying to say. She wouldn't help her anymore and she wouldn't let Rosa do it on her own. After her promise to Sky Light, Rosa couldn't just run away again, either. Even if she did, she would never make it on her own, and that fact was almost physically painful.

"B-But..." Rosa didn't even try to stem the flow of tears.

"No," Sky Light said firmly, but gently. "No butts, rumps or flanks, got it? It's done. We did what we could. Hell, we went above and beyond."

She started pacing up and down, but Rosa didn't move, keeping her eyes on the ground between them.

"An army of humans didn't find her and they have cars and phones and helicopters and shit. We can't do any better and trying will just end up in tears," the mare was telling Rosa. She corrected after a moment: "More tears, anyway."

Rosa didn't say anything, because in some way, deep down, she knew Sky Light was right.

"I know it sucks, Rosa, but it's time to let it go. We can still hope she'll be okay, but no more searching, okay? It's time to look after ourselves!"

It felt like betrayal, but Rosa nodded. Then the waterworks well and truly opened. She was hardly aware of wings hugging her.

"There. Cry it out and then you'll feel better, you'll see. We'll get the paper again tomorrow - maybe they'll find her, okay?"

Rosa managed another nod. The grief was hitting her hard, but Sky Light's presence was helping. Eventually she was able to climb back up to her hooves, even if she was standing a little shakily.

"Good. Meanwhile, let's get to the library. Don't worry, I'll do all the talking - you just keep looking like that. Maybe we can pay off Viktor and be done with it, right?"

Rosa didn't really care about that, but she nodded anyway. She had promised Sky Light to help her out, after all. She probably knew Rosa didn't give a rat's ass about her debt at the moment, but she didn't mind. The mare could see what this Lillian thing was doing to Rosa and she gave her friend a very welcome, comforting nuzzle.

"We'll keep trying to find your other friend, right? Another week and some of the truckers will be back, maybe they'll have news. If we find out for sure where this place is, we're sneaking in, okay?"

She was trying to cheer Rosa up and it was painfully transparent. It was obvious Sky Light didn't believe they would ever get anything concrete, so it was a safe promise for her to make. Rosa was a bit miffed at how well it was working, though. If she had failed Lillian, she at least had to try and do right by Maribelle! Rosa wiped some of her tears away with a hoof and gave another nod.

"O-Okay..."

"Good girl. Now let's keep going. Try to look sad while we mooch, it really helps. Might as well use it, right?"

Rosa remembered something from earlier and focused on it, hoping she would stop thinking about Lillian for a while. "W-What did you tell Blue-Bluegrass?" she asked, then clarified it a little: "When you whispered to h-him?"

Sky Light grinned. "I told him if he finds out more by tomorrow, I'll lift my tail for him."

It was so shocking and unexpected that it worked flawlessly. All thoughts of Lillian and the search flew right out of Rosa's mind as she gasped. "What?! Why would you do that? You didn't have to do that!"

The other mare chuckled at her friend's expression. "Don't worry, I was gonna do it anyway. I told you Terry isn't quite... filling enough. Now a colt like Bluegrass... Mmm, so cute when he's embarrassed. Oh, and so eager. I love me some young flank - don't tell him that!"

That mare...

Rosa shook her head, but couldn't help grinning in exasperation, even through her tears. Would she ever get like that herself? Probably not. Rosa couldn't stop thinking about Paolo for some reason. She really wanted to see that colt and just... talk. There was so much Rosa wanted to tell him and even more she wanted to ask. Mainly - did he still like her?

Sky Light interrupted Rosa's thoughts: "Come on, let's keep going. Library is usually best before lunch - then it's the parking meter afterwards, except on weekends. Restaurant row is best on weekends, but you gotta get there early to find a good spot."

Rosa was not really listening, but she nodded and made affirmative noises while the pegasus chattered as she led the way.