Summary: Beka and Harper fix things after the events of "Belly of the Beast."
Pairings: Discussed Beka/Tyr.
Disclaimer: Tribune owns all rights to Andromeda. All I did was borrow it for use in my twisted little tale.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: "Belly of the Beast."
Setting: Immediately after "Belly of the Beast."
Feedback: Please! Praise and constructive criticism welcome. Flames will be used to excavate my mailbox from the snow mounds.
Archive: Ask first and I'll probably say yes.
Author's Note: I was reading through some old reviews of the series and the reviewer was pointing out what s/he perceived as mistakes in the way certain parts of the episode were handled. It started to bother me, too, so I fixed it.
Necessary Repairs
By B.L.A. the Mouse
"I still can't believe," Beka said as she handed Harper the replacement part, "that Dylan was going to do his little kamikaze run in my ship. There was no way that was going to end well."
"Like ejecting the core would?" Harper shook his head as he fit the part in place. "Face it, Beka, we're all lucky we're not monster chow or itty-bitty broken pieces after that. Besides, are you more annoyed that he was risking their lives or your ship?"
"Both." He gave her a fish-eyed look. "What?"
He just shook his head and closed the panel. Half the systems in this corridor needed fixed and he didn't want to linger too long at any one section just for the sake of argument, especially since they had to get through a lot more small repairs before the Maru returned with more fuel and the materials to rebuild the core. They picked up and moved to the next spot, Beka continuing, "I am glad that everyone got through in one piece. Especially since we couldn't find you after we vented. Do you know how worried I was when I realized you weren't in the core?"
Harper froze. "You vented?! That was you venting? I thought it was a hull breach!"
"It might have been! We had enough of them," she said defensively. "We weren't trying to blow you out an airlock— not this time, at least— but we had to put out the fires and we weren't venting deck 12. At least, deck 12 wasn't supposed to be vented, but with how messed up the ship was…"
Harper groaned, not entirely from the effort involved in prying off the next panel. "I had to go a different way. The acid was melting things all over the place."
"I'm sorry." She took the panel from him and set it aside. "I wish I'd realized. Or that we had the comms to check."
"It's all right, I guess. You did what you had to do. What you should apologize for is bouncing me around like that when you ejected the core. That time you could have warned a guy!" His voice echoed on the last few words as he crawled into the compartment.
"That one is so not my fault. Tyr pressed the button!"
"There's no way Mister Survival decided to do that all by himself. You had something to do with it even if you weren't the one to press the button." He glanced around the wall segment at her. "You two have got to stop flirting before you kill us all."
Beka took the mass of wires he handed out to her and tried to decide if they were at all salvageable or if they were too melted to reuse. "We were not flirting. There's a difference between flirting and trying to persuade him to do the right thing." She ignored the snort of disbelief. "Besides, you have no room to talk. Rommie said that you were going to do the exact same thing just because she asked you to."
"I— That is not true! How about a little loyalty here?" Andromeda did not respond to the last comment, even though it was aimed at her. He switched back to addressing Beka. "Besides, I was going to warn you before I did it. If I had done it, I mean."
"Fine." Beka sighed. "I apologize for surprising you when Tyr and I saved your butt. Okay?" She waited for a response.
"That didn't sound very sincere."
"I can take it back."
"Then again, I'm used to insincere, with all the politicians around lately." She nodded and they worked in silence for a second before Harper said, "Just let me know when the wedding is so I can plan the party."
Beka groaned and rolled her eyes.
The End
