It was undeserved, and Fred had felt bad about it afterwards, but at the time… Well, what had he been supposed to think, seeing that Arawak native standing over Ben and pointing that weird gizmo at him? So he’d reacted, grabbed the guy, spun him around, and punched him, knocking him down…

Part of him had expected the guy to fight back, to come up swinging, or at the very least to make a break for it, try to escape, but he hadn’t, and it wasn’t that he was surrounded. Fred was pretty sure he could’ve gotten away if he’d wanted to, but he’d held his ground, wary, ready to bolt if they’d threatened him further, but waiting, perhaps to see what they’d do next.

It was ancient history now, of course; the Arawak had turned out to be nothing of the sort, a man, a healer, from the future, cunningly disguised for his own safety, and he’d readily forgiven Fred for hitting him. Fred wasn’t sure he would have been so understanding if someone had punched him for no good reason, but that was Varian for you.

They were friends now, which was less surprising since both of them were physicians in their own ways. That had provided a solid foundation for them to build on, but still…

“Why’d you just let me hit you that time?”

Varian laughed. “How should I have stopped you?”

“Okay, fair point.” As a pacifist, Varian would never resort to violence. “But you could’a ducked, or made a break for it.”

“Made a… Oh!” Twentieth century colloquialisms were something Varian was still working on. “There didn’t seem much point in trying to escape. I didn’t know if you had weapons, and I wasn’t eager to be shot at.”

“Yeah, I can understand that.”


The End