Summary: Tarrant tries to take advantage of Vila's Delta status and Avon intervenes. Protective!Avon. Not for fans of Tarrant...
Note: Inspired by the brilliant fanfics of Jane Carnell - in particular, it follows a similar concept to All Alone (which is simply one of the greatest fics ever written). Also inspired by Nicola Mody's excellent work.
Avon's room was next door to Vila's. While the walls on the Liberator were not 'thin' exactly, they were not sound-proof either, but Vila and Avon didn't usually bother each other as neighbours.
That's why when Avon heard a thump from the room next door and what sounded like muffled cries, he looked up from what he was reading and his gaze wandered to the wall separating their rooms. It could be a bad nightmare; Vila had those sometimes...but he didn't think so.
He got up and stood outside Vila's door, which was unlocked, and went in. He saw Tarrant, holding Vila down on the floor, forcibly taking his clothes while the thief struggled futilely under his weight.
He was almost frozen in shock but anger followed very quickly afterwards.
He grabbed Tarrant and threw him bodily against a wall. "What the HELL do you think you're doing?" He snarled at him. In the corner of his eye he saw Vila fly to a corner where he sat huddled, and shaking with fear.
"What does it look like?" Tarrant said, obviously baffled by Avon's reaction. "Vila has to earn his keep somehow. Or are you demanding exclusive use of the Delta? Because that's hardly fair when there's only one on board."
Avon's grip on him became painful.
Even Tarrant, whose astonishing arrogance usually made him immune to Avon's contempt, recoiled a little under the intensity of loathing in Avon's expression.
"How dare you." Avon snarled out. "I want you off this ship. Count yourself lucky I don't throw you out of an airlock. I knew you were an unpleasant individual but I never thought you'd sink so low as trying to rape a fellow crewmember"
"Rape? Deltas are legally obliged to service their superiors, Avon. Have you been off Earth so long you've forgotten the rules? You can't rape a delta that's what they're *there* for, for heaven's sake! Vila's certainly no other use to us"
By now the ruccus had brought the attention of Dayna, who was not far away, and Cally, who had felt the emotional turmoil from across the ship.
"What's going on?" Dayna asked.
"Tarrant just tried to rape Vila."
"What?" Dayna asked in utter disbelief.
Cally looked confused, she didn't understand what the word meant. It was not a concept known on Auronar. "What do you mean?" She asked
"It means he tried to force sex on Vila without his consent." Dayna explained.
Cally looked at Tarrant in shock. Then at Vila, still huddled in the corner, tear tracks visible.
"For God's sake he's a delta! Vila, you can't tell me you've never serviced anyone else."
They all turned their attention to Vila then, who closed his eyes tightly, and looked down in shame, tears starting again. It was the last straw for Avon. He grabbed Tarrant and pushed him out into the corridor, before punching him. The ensuing fight lasted some minutes, during which time both gained some bruises, but ultimately Avon's rage won out and after dislocating Tarrant's shoulder, he trod on his arm without restraint, satisfied to hear the crack.
"Avon that's enough, you'll kill him!" Dayna said, trying to hold him back.
"Give me one good reason why not."
In the meantime, Cally went to see Vila.
"Vila." she said gently, compassion evident in her voice. He didn't reply. She looked him over and saw the painful looking bruises on his arms and wrists, where Tarrant had held him down.
"Let me look at those." she said, gesturing to them. Vila just curled up tighter.
"I want to be alone." he whispered.
Cally didn't like to leave him alone in this state but also wanted to respect his wishes. She hesitated, but decided it would be good for Vila to feel like he had some kind of control and autonomy, so she said "All right. I'll be here when you're ready."
"I'll be ok. Always am." Vila said, muffled slightly as he stayed curled in a ball with his eyes closed.
Cally sighed sadly and left.
Cally heard Avon's last remark as she left the room.
"Give me one good reason why not."
"He deserves worse." Cally supplied.
"Yes... " Avon said, with a chilling smile as an idea occurred to him.
"Are we sure he is Tarrant?" Dayna said. "I don't understand why he would do something like that..." she said, still struggling to connect her friend to the crime.
"You have to understand the rules are different on Earth Dayna, I didn't know it wasn't the same here. Now I know."
"For God's sake Tarrant, Vila's a human being." Dayna said angrily.
"Then why do you all treat him like a delta? He's a thief, he has no use here except to annoy everyone. You all talk to him and treat him as though he's expendable and a hindrance. So why do I get the blame for treating him like one?"
Avon dragged him to his feet, too angry to speak as Dayna and Cally followed. He took Tarrant to one of the lockable cell rooms on board, threw him in and locked the door. He stalked off towards the flight deck and the others followed.
Vila stayed in the corner for 10 minutes or so and then took a deep breath and cautiously uncurled himself. He locked the door, had a shot of brandy to try and calm his nerves, and went into the shower. He scrubbed himself with soap and got into some new clothes, taking another shot of brandy.
He didn't want to think about it right now.
He sat down at his desk, turned the light on and took out one of his most complex locks.
Very carefully he started taking it apart...knowing it was familiar enough to be soothing, complex enough to demand all of his attention and concentration, and had nothing in it to remind him of the things he wanted to forget about.
After 15 minutes he stopped, unable to stop the one thought echoing in the background of his mind.
Avon.
Avon had not just stopped Tarrant, he'd been furious with him. Vila would never have expected that; in his experience of Alphas they were all the same when it came right down to it. They all thought deltas could be used and abused at their whim.
Avon always seemed to uncompromising. He played his cards close to his chest to put it mildly... but Vila had always quietly hoped that there might be some semblance of friendship between them, some latent fondness. He never thought it would go so far as Avon taking his side over Tarrant's though. Over Earth Law.
Could it be that they were so naive they didn't understand what it meant to be delta-class? Blake and Jenna had certainly always known, they ordered him around when they wanted something, and treated him like dirt when they didn't. Avon did too, but not because he was a delta...he did it to everyone equally.
No one had ever done something like that for him before. Stood up for him, been angry on his behalf, saved him from...
He owed Avon for this. Anyway. Now they all knew the things he had done to survive in his life, thanks to Tarrant blurting it out. He didn't like talking about, or thinking about his past, and would have preferred they didn't know, didn't think of him that way. Still. They despised him for being weak already, he supposed it wouldn't make any difference.
What would they do with Tarrant? he wondered. They still needed a pilot.
He sighed and went back to deconstructing the lock.
"What are we going to do with him?"
Dayna, Cally and Avon were on the flight deck discussing their options.
"The problem is we do need a pilot." Dayna observed.
"I don't want him anywhere near Vila." Cally said.
"If we put him down somewhere, what's to stop him running straight to the Federation?" Dayna said. "And I know what he did was horrible, but I don't think we can kill him in cold blood. After all, Tarrant has saved our lives on a few occasions."
"Are you suggesting we tell Vila to leave instead?" Cally said with a dangerous anger in her voice.
"Of course not!" Dayna said indignantly. "But what do you suggest we do?"
Cally stayed silent for a moment. "We could pick up another pilot for hire on the nearest space station."
"That's risky, and it doesn't help with what to do with Tarrant. And what if Vila doesn't recover?"
"He will. He's stronger than you think." Cally said confidently.
She realised that Avon had remained deep in thought all this time. "Avon, what do you suggest?"
He looked at them as though he hadn't noticed them there before, and said with finality:
"We let Vila decide."
He stood up. "If Vila wants Tarrant to leave, he leaves."
"And if Vila wants to kill Tarrant?" Dayna said in concern.
Avon gave a cold smile. "Like I said, we will let Vila decide." He got up to leave. "In the meantime, you may as well fix up Tarrant's arm."
Avon left.
"He won't want to kill him." Cally reassured Dayna. "Vila's not like that."
The splints and healing packs were in place when Tarrant started to come round. His non-broken arm was handcuffed to the side of the bed.
"Please tell me you're under Federation mind control or you're a clone or something like that." Dayna said when he became aware of his surroundings.
"I never dreamed all of you would take Vila's side over mine."
"You really don't think you've done anything wrong, do you?" Cally said in astonishment.
"I'm beginning to get the message." Tarrant said miserably.
"Tarrant, how would you feel if someone bigger and stronger than you tried to do to you what you did to Vila?" Cally said.
"I..." Tarrant floundered. "I suppose I never really thought about it."
"Well think about it." Dayna said. Tarrant fell silent and looked away.
There was a chime at Vila's door.
"Who is it?" he called.
"Avon."
He pressed a switch to open the door from where he sat, and as Avon walked in, turned to him, still with a lock fragment in his hand. Avon looked at the desk of small, intricate lock parts laid out carefully to preserve their order. It looked too neat and methodical for Vila, but he had learned long ago not to be surprised by anything the thief did or didn't do. He was surprisingly unpredictable.
He looked at Vila and observed that he had showered and changed. He didn't look shaken any more, he had recovered fairly quickly, though he did look a little tired and vaguely...lost. Vila met his eyes briefly then looked down at the lock part and fiddled with the end of it.
"Avon?" he said not looking at him.
"Yes?"
"Thank you."
Vila looked up then so Avon could see the sincerity of gratitude in his eyes. But Avon was puzzled by the hint of something else in his expression...something like, guilt? No. It was...shame.
Avon nodded his acceptance. He didn't want to study his feelings too closely, or concede why he had felt so much rage and protectiveness of Vila. If he did, he might have to admit to himself that Vila had become a friend... and that scared him.
"Tarrant is in the Medical Unit." he opened.
"Oh? What happened?" Vila asked, half-heartedly feigning interest.
"I broke his arm."
Vila looked up at him in surprise. Avon smiled a little.
"Don't look so surprised. He's lucky I didn't kill him."
This only made Vila look more surprised though.
"Avon, you... you didn't grow up on Earth, did you?"
"No. I grew up on the colony on Titan. We moved to Earth when I was a teenager so I could attend the University there."
Vila nodded. It made more sense now.
"I take it this sort of thing is a regular occurrence on Earth."
"On Earth, I would have been breaking the law. For fighting back."
Avon looked away, trying to imagine that. He had always been a loner, an outsider, but he had never appreciated just how out of touch with the real world he could be until then. On Earth, he hadn't paid attention to anything except his studies. And Vila, for all his cowardice, had behaved with spirit when you considered his background.
"What are you planning to do with him?"
"I thought I would leave that up to you."
"Me?"
"I will support whatever you decide."
Avon stood up. Vila carefully put the lock part down on the desk next to the other parts.
Avon caught sight of the darkening bruises on Vila's wrist and consciously looked away. Vila looked worried...he didn't like this kind of responsibility. It made him nervous.
"Let's go to Medical and see Tarrant. Then you can decide what you want to do."
"Can't you decide Avon?"
"It is not my decision to make, Vila." For some reason, Avon felt it was important for Vila to make this call. To prove to Vila that he had a voice, that he was their equal. "Come on." he said, and Vila followed him reluctantly.
There was a distinctly awkward silence when Vila and Avon appeared in Medical to meet Tarrant, Cally, and Dayna.
"Vila..." Tarrant said. "I'm...sorry. It didn't occur to me that what I was doing was wrong. Even though it seems so obvious now. I can't expect you to ever forgive me for what I did, I know I won't forgive myself for it. If you want me to leave I will."
Vila realised that strangely, he was the only one here who could really understand what Tarrant meant. They both came from a place where it was common, legal, normal for Alphas to abuse Deltas...and people internalised those concepts with little or no critical thought. It just was.
To Cally, Avon and Dayna perhaps it was unthinkable, but it was different on Earth.
"Vila?" Avon prompted after the thief had stared at Tarrant for some time without saying anything.
"You won't do it again? To me or any other delta?" Vila said, still not taking his eyes off Tarrant.
"You have my word."
"Do you want him to leave?" Cally asked after Vila once more lapsed into thoughtful silence.
"What I want is for Tarrant to experience life as a Delta for a month or two. But that's not possible is it? Besides, I don't think you'd last very long." he sighed. "You can stay or go or do what you like, just don't come near me again."
Vila left. Avon was not really surprised, he already knew that Vila was remarkably forgiving. But he didn't like the feeling of Tarrant getting away with it.
Avon stared with distaste at the pilot.
"If you ever touch him again, Tarrant, I will kill you. That's not a threat, it is a fact."
Tarrant looked at Dayna, perhaps hoping for some support. "I'll be next in line." she said coolly, and left. Cally gathered up some medical supplies. "I'm going to see Vila." she said. She and Avon left together.
Tarrant was left alone with his thoughts as he re-examined the things he had grown up taking for granted.
Cally attended to the bruises on Vila.
"How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine. Not exactly the first time...like Tarrant so helpfully pointed out."
"None of us think any less of you, you know." Cally said astutely.
Vila laughed. "Don't think that's possible is it?"
"Vila" she admonished. "I'm sorry I didn't realise before how difficult it must have been, growing up like you did. And how isolated you must have felt all this time on the Liberator."
"But it turns out I wasn't so alone after all. I never thought Avon would come to my rescue like that."
Cally smiled. "Avon has always liked you. No matter how hard he tries to deny it. Even to himself"
"No one's ever done something like that for me before Cally."
She looked at him with compassion. "I'm sorry, Vila. You deserved better than that."
He looked at her in bewilderment, and tried to joke away the confusion and embarassment he felt.
"Well, maybe when the Great Revolution comes there won't be any more grades eh? No more Alphas and Deltas. Just people."
"I hope so."
"You really think it's possible?"
"I know it is." she finished applying the healing gel and gave his arm a reassuring pat. "I'll be on shift on the flight deck if you need me." she said. "Why not try to get some rest?"
"Thanks Cally." he said, smiling at her fondly.