"What you need to do," Rene replied judiciously, "is rest." The statement was probably in vain as though she might be tired it was clear from the strength of her nightmare that mere physical sleep was unlikely to help. Time would cure the wounds on her psyche if anything wood, though if Rene had access to the sort of rejuvination chamber he had used on New Concordia he would have put her in one immediately. For a moment he toyed with returning to New Concordia and doing just that, but there was no way to know if the facility would be safe, and shooting it out with with the GIDs seemed likely to be counter productive at best.

"Fine," Rene said with a sigh, perhaps conducting the kind of business she liked, diplomacy and politics, would be a better balm than anything else he could come up with at the moment.

"But not just yet," he told Mia. Crossing to the refresher he fetched bowl of warm water and a sponge and returned to Solae. Sitting her up on the edge of the bed he dipped the sponge into the water and began to bathe her, rubbing the warm water gently over her skin with as much gentle precision as he could muster. The simple act of cleaning was an incredibly intimate one, and even dhisheveld by her wounds, Solae's beauty all but took his breath away. Carefully he rubbed and scrubbed away the remnants of medical gels and the sweat of sleep, calloused fingers gently massaging tight muscles as he went, the pressure of his finger tips drawing tension from her as he worked. He moved slowly enough that the air dried her body, leaving her with that peculiarly warm sensation that a towel or sonic dry cheated a person of. He moved slowly from her face down her body, being especially gentle with her wounded legs until she had been completely cleansed.

"You will have to forgive me but marine training didn't focus much on styling hair," he told her with a smile.

"But if you direct me I believe we have a skirt and blouse that might serve as receiving clothes."