<em>~ Maddi, going to get water ~</em><br/><br/>Maddi  felt easier that she was leaving Desmond for a few minutes now, as he was talking fine and was actually being quite nice, which showed he was making an effort too.  She smiled, particularly as his first responses had been so off hand.  And then the smile deepened as she responded to his banter, he was a handsome guy too, she bet he normally had all the girls chasing after him and it was easy to get all cocky and even a bit belligerent in the kind of world it sounded like he came from.<br/><br/>"Sure Desmond, you can call yourself a philosopher if you want to," she teased, "But I'm not sure if the label will stick!" She grinned, "Doesn't sound like much would rub off on you unless you wanted it that way."<br/><br/>He may think he was OK, but Maddi would make sure he got back safely, it would be easy to make up an excuse that she had to look for the girls to save his pride, if necessary.  There was still a dam good chance he'd just drop off anyway, sleep was the best healer and sometimes it had a habit of taking what it needed too.<br/><br/>She waved her free hand at him as she turned.  Then as he started to chant she laughed, raising her hands, and the container above her head and swinging her hips to his beat as she walked in an exaggerated grind. Even as she left his line of sight and carried on along the beach, putting her arms down, she was still chuckling.  Looked like one of the the guys knew how to party anyhow.<br/><br/>She angled off slightly through the trees, working out the line she'd need to take to get to the stream the quickest.    She thought about what Desmond had said as she went, and chuckled again at the words "boring white men" one thing she wouldn't describe one of the white men she'd met so far was 'boring.'  Elijah.  He was a complete enigma, a puzzle that Maddi actually had an itch to solve.  There was something about him that was both hard and vulnerable at the same time, weird and wonderful.  She laughed at herself again, the way her mind worked she'd be in trouble knee deep if she wasn't careful.<br/><br/>She could hear the stream now and found she had to push her way through a few bushes to get to it.  As she eased her way through to other side the person she had just been thinking of was conjured right in front of her. He swung to face her, holding a small pipe to his lips.  She felt a slight sting against the back of her hand and realised with a shock, from his movements and the brief flare of the projectile, that he'd fired something at her.<br/><br/>Her eyes wide with shock she stared at him.  Had he meant to hurt her or was it an accident?  She could feel her hand ache, and her fingers grow heavy and she dropped the water container stuttering, "E..............Elijah?  What's going on?"<br/><br/>Her hand grew heavier still and her arm ached like someone had just put a line into her and she cradled her hurt hand with her good one, not quite wanting to believe that she could feel a numbness in it and took a step towards him, and then another.  Her stomach rolled and she nearly threw up, so troubled by the thoughts going through her head like wildfire she couldn't speak.<br/>