Chapter 17

Molly's mouth went dry. Sarabi? The Queen of the Pridelands? That was who Scar had loved so much he was willing to KILL for her? She felt as if maybe there were other, more important aspects to the story that she should be more concerned about, but she really couldn't give them any thought right now.

"S-Sarabi? The same Sarabi I... Wh...why is she with your brother now?" she finally managed.

Claws extending and retracting, Scar said, "I don't know. I can only guess that after she lost Pacha, she moved on."

"But Rafiki said that he wasn't a threat to Mufasa, that your brother wouldn't care about the news of him returning!"

Nodding, Scar shrugged, "Mufasa and Sarabi are in love. I've seen it. As much as she claimed to love Pacha and I, she now loves Mufasa. Pacha is also no match for Mufasa. If I can defeat him, Mufasa would have no problem."

Head reeling, Molly tried to remind herself of the more important parts of the story, "When you left Pacha to die...did you really go back to check on him?"

Head whipping round to look at her with wide eyes, Scar looked surprised and hurt, "What do you mean?"

"Were you going back because you were worried for your friend, or were you going back because you wanted to see he'd truly died?"

...

It was Scar's turn to stare in shocked silence. How had she...?

"I went back to check on him," he asserted, "Why would you think-"

"You promised to tell me the truth, Scar. You also warned me that I might not stay after you told me the truth. The story you gave me paints you as a villain, maybe, but it doesn't make you out to be evil enough for me to walk away. So what's the part you're not telling me?"

Her blue eyes bore into him, pinning him to the spot. Scar would have rather faced down a stampede of elephants than be caught in that stare. He'd tried to choose his words so carefully. He'd left out the most horrid bits of his story in hopes that she wouldn't hate him, and yet...

"I...wanted to see him dead," he admitted, "I wanted to know he couldn't cause me anymore grief."

Molly's eyes closed, and she turned away, facing Pride Rock.

Worried what her next words might be, Scar waited. He was afraid she would turn and leave at any moment. She had seemed especially hurt by the fact that Sarabi had been the one he'd thrown his life away for.

"Scar," she spoke softly, voice wavering, "Do you still love Sarabi?"

"No," he said urgently, "I stopped loving her the moment she chose Pacha. She used me, Molly. For her own selfish amusement, she trailed me along all those years. How could I love someone like that?"

Still not looking at him, Molly nodded, "And you really think Pacha has come back for revenge on you?"

Thinking, Scar said, "Yes. I don't see any other reason why he'd return."

"You don't think he's after Sarabi? You don't think she'll leave your brother for her first love?"

"No. I think Sarabi is different than she was when we were young. Like I said, I truly believe she loves my brother. Besides, she's Queen. Even if she did still have feelings for Pacha, she wouldn't set aside her status to follow him out to the Outlands."

"So the only way he can do any harm to any of you, is to take ME from YOU?"

"I won't let him do that, Molly."

"But you think that will be his goal?"

"...Yes."

Exhaling, Molly lifted her head to look at the stars, "Then I guess we'd better get back to training, huh?"

Shocked, Scar wasn't sure he'd heard her correctly, "Molly? You want to learn to fight still?"

"Yeah," she turned and gave him a lopsided grin, "I may not face off with this Pacha guy, but now I've got a bone to pick with Sarabi."

...

Scar stared at her in disbelief.

"What?" she shrugged, "You asked me a couple days ago whether I'd fight for you. I didn't have an answer then. You knew it might come to this, to me finding out about Sarabi. Why else would you have asked me?"

No answer, just those big green eyes staring into hers.

"I'm not going to try to start anything, Scar, don't worry. I just want to know I can handle myself if the need arises. I don't particularly trust Sarabi, or ANY of your brother's pride for that matter. If you all can turn on each other the way your story lead on..." she felt bad for lumping him in with them, but it was true from his own admission, "I'm not taking any chances."

Rising to his feet, Scar came towards her, eyes never leaving hers. At first she thought he was going to give her another body rub, or a cheek lick, but he halted right in front of her and continued to stare.

"Scar? What-?"

"Molly...I-" he hesitated, his eyes flickering between emotions Molly wasn't sure she could name, "Thank you," he finally said at length.

"For..?"

"For staying. For wanting to fight for me. No one...has ever done that for me before."

Smiling gently, Molly rubbed her head up under his chin and purred, "I'm here for you, Scar. Whatever you did in your past, it's done. We can't jump in a time machine and fix it," his quizzical look made her giggle, "Oh, never mind, you get what I mean. You're here now, with me. We'll be okay."

...

Scar lead her down the rock as the sky started to grow lighter. Their hunt had taken much of the night away, and then their heart-to-heart had taken the rest. It was too late for them to start her training up again tonight. Not to mention he felt drained, like he'd been running for days. A thought occurred to him that she hadn't mentioned her own family through any of this. They had to be better than the lions.

"Molly?"

"Hmm?" she yawned and blinked at him.

"I'm curious...about your human family. What are they like?"

Her eyes became more awake and focused, but she swallowed hard and glanced away quickly, "My...family... I don't have one anymore."

"What?"

Sighing heavily, Molly said, "My family's gone, Scar."

Did she mean because she was here, with him as a lion? Or did she mean...?

"Alright, fair's fair," she gave a hollow laugh, "You told me your deepest, darkest secret, so I guess I'll tell you mine. My mother died giving birth to me... Dad raised me by himself. He...died...last year."

Scar felt his heart go out to her. Why did he have to ask?

"Molly, I'm sorry-"

"It's ok," Molly gave him a forced smile, "It's in the past, right? Can't go changing it now."

"Right," Scar reluctantly turned back to descending the path, "You can't change the past."

...

The memories of her life as a human hadn't been bothering Molly during her time here. She had learned to not think of her mother too much, seeing as she'd never really known her. Dad had told her a few stories, and she'd never had any grandparents to supplement what he wouldn't tell her. Or didn't WANT to tell her. Molly knew he had loved her mother more than anything, and she'd always felt guilty for taking his wife from him. Molly's father wasn't the blaming type. He'd never made Molly feel like it was her fault, and had often convinced her otherwise when she'd wake crying from a nightmare. Her dad had been her everything.

Then the cancer had crept in and her whole world fell apart.

Fighting back the tears that now threatened to flow, Molly closed her eyes against them and ran into Scar who had stopped at the bottom.

"Molly?"

"S-sorry," she sniffled.

"Molly? Are you-"

"I'm fine," she said before he could ask and bounded past him into their cave. Curling up into a ball on the stone floor, willing the tears and the unbidden memories to leave her alone.

Scar's footfalls were gentle and slow as he came up behind her, "Molly."

She didn't want to hear it, didn't want the 'I'm sorry' and the 'are you alright?' She was surprised when he simply curled his body around hers, leaning against her for comfort, his head slumping over her shoulders. He didn't say a thing, just let her know he was there with his touch. Closing her eyes, Molly slowly drifted off to sleep.

...

My body is starting to hate me for all the time I've been spending at the computer, but I won't let it keep me down! I'm loving this groove I've got myself into.

I'm convinced some of you have found a way to rummage around in my brain btw... O_o

So glad everyone is still enjoying the ride! Thank you all again for your kind words AND polite critiques! I hadn't realized I still had the story in the humor category before one of you guys pointed it out, so don't hesitate to keep me in line! ;)

Thanks for reading! Love you all! 3