It Happens in a Blink

Rating: T (just to be on the safe side)

Pairing: TelfordOC, very slight.

Summary: In the end, no one was surprised that it was Rush who finally coaxed the girl off the platform.

The girl stood facing the shield, hanging onto a pillar as she tried to gather her courage. She glanced down; it was a long way to the next floor. It should be enough. More than enough, most likely. Life on the Destiny had become monotonous and depressing. Mortal peril was possible every day. If it wasn't the drinking water being contaminated with a horrible alien virus, it was the air scrubbers breaking, or the food starting to run out. Not to mention the constant threat of another alien ship. There was no easy way to cope with the fact that every day could be your last. And if death was coming anyway, why delay it?

"Evaline O'Shay, what are you doing?" TJ demanded, a little frantically, from behind her. Eva turned to face her. TJ's face was white. "You're going to jump, aren't you?"

"Why not?" Eva shrugged. "Every day it's the same thing. Will there be enough water? Food? Air? Spencer's already committed suicide and no one seems to care, so what's one more? With me gone, the food will go further. I even brought a kino so that there would be no doubt about who killed me." She nodded to where the floating camera ball was a few feet away, innocently recording the whole thing.

"Please don't do it, Eva," TJ begged. "You're twenty-four, and you have a family waiting at home for you. Once you jump, you're dead. There's no coming back."

"What's going on-whoa!" Eli stopped dead in his tracks. "Eva, what on earth-? Don't do it. Just don't. We'd miss you too much." He looked so sincere that Eva's resolve wavered a bit before she closed her eyes and reminded herself what life was like onboard the ship.

"I'm sorry, Eli," Eva said softly. "It's just not worth living."

"Eli, what are you-" Rush broke off midsentence as he saw the three of them. His dark eyes swiftly took everything in. "Miss O'Shay," he said cheerfully.

Eva swallowed hard. Everyone onboard knew the Scotsman's temper and she hoped he wasn't about it unleash it on her for detaining his favorite assistant. "It wasn't my fault, I was just in here minding my own business and he stopped in. I didn't call him here, and he's getting in the way of my jump, so if you don't mind removing him-"

"Why are you up on that rail?" Rush interrupted, his eyes narrowing suddenly. "You're going to kill yourself, aren't you?" Eva nodded wordlessly, unable to meet his blunt stare. "Don't. You have your whole life ahead of you."

"I already tried to tell her that," TJ told Rush, who ignored her.

"May I ask why you want to kill yourself?"

Eva sighed impatiently. Why couldn't everyone just let her be so she could jump in peace? "I already told TJ, life is too hectic and unpredictable aboard this ship. Each day could be my last, so why wait? I mean, if death's coming anyway…" she shrugged. "It doesn't matter, right?"

Rush smiled slightly. "Oh, I think you'd find it does." He leaned against the doorway, folding his arms.

Telford walked in, and he immediately understood what was going on. "Evaline, get off that railing right now," he said firmly, walking forward and reaching out as if to grab her arm. Eva jerked back out of his reach and TJ grabbed him.

"You're not helping, Colonel," the medic hissed. "Just shut up and help us get her down." He looked down at TJ in surprise.

Eva smiled. "An audience. Tell my parents what happened, will you?"

"Your parents," Telford said softly. Eva paused, glancing at him. His eyes flicked up to hers, challenging and dark. She swallowed hard again. Why did he have to be so intense? "And what are we supposed to tell them, that you took the coward's way out? That you killed yourself so you wouldn't have to face tomorrow?"

Eva glared. "I'm not a cow-"

Rush kept going where Telford left off as if she hadn't spoken. "It doesn't surprise me. You women are all alike. You're fearful, spineless people who can't take the future being dangerous and not knowing about tomorrow. I'm surprised you made it this long." Telford sent a surprised glance at him, but made no comment.

TJ was now glaring at the doctor as well. "You're not helping, either," she said tightly.

Rush ignored her a second time, watching as Telford began walking forward slowly. "Why are you really going to jump, Evaline?" Telford asked. "It's not the day-to-day life aboard the Destiny. What's the real reason?"

"I'd rather not die of thirst, starvation or asphyxiation, thank you very much," Eva replied primly as she tried to ignore the intensity of Telford's gaze. "A broken neck is a much quicker way to go, don't you agree?"

"A broken neck is definitely a faster death," Telford agreed, making TJ shoot him yet another glare. He ignored her yet again. "But you have no guarantee that the water, food or air will run out anytime soon. I think you simply can't handle the stress of not knowing what's going to happen."

Eva finally broke. "That's true. That's definitely part of it."

Telford smiled, triumph hiding beneath those ever so dark brown eyes. "Then you really are a coward. Do you not realize that life back on Earth is the same way, unpredictable? That you could die on your way to work in a freak car accident? That a tornado could hit at any time and kill you with a runaway piece of debris? That a gunman could appear in your workplace and shoot you for no other reason than that he has had a bad year or day?"

Eva's eyes started to tear up, and she forced them away, letting go of the pillar with one hand and angling herself backward slightly, ready to fall that way. "I'm not a coward," she hissed angrily.

"Telford," Rush started, but the colonel held up one finger and the doctor fell silent.

"Then prove it," Telford said softly. He stopped two feet in front of her, folding his arms once more. "Show me you're not a coward." His gaze was challenging again. "Prove to me that your parents deserve to have you come home alive. Give some indication that you have some strength of character." Quietly, he added, "An innocent man, a senator, died to save your life, Evaline. Prove that you're worth saving."

Eva was now torn. "I don't know," she said, taking hold of the pillar once more with both hands.

Rush spoke quietly enough that the others couldn't hear him. "My parents both died," he said. "And it nearly killed me. I imagine it would be the same for them. Don't force someone else to tell them that that you're dead. Don't force them to go through the heartbreak of losing a child."

Mentioning her parents had the desired effect. The tears finally broke through Eva's floodgates and started streaming down her cheeks, and she began sobbing. "It would kill my mother," she answered in a tear-choked voice.

Telford held out one hand. "Don't put her through that, then."

Eva took his hand and stepped off the railing and against his chest, bawling her eyes out. She hadn't cried this hard in years. Telford gently put one arm around her and steered her towards TJ. "TJ is going to take you back to your quarters. Try to get some sleep."

TJ took Eva's arm as Telford handed her over and shot him a thankful glance, then began leading Eva to the room she'd been assigned. "Take a nice long nap, Eva," TJ said. "I'll talk to Colonel Young and get you off duty for a while, okay?"

Eva nodded, the tears still falling, and curled up on her bed to cry herself to sleep.

A while later, after she'd woken up and made sure that the redness was gone from her eyes, she left her quarters and went down to where Rush could always be found working on the computer to unlock the ship. He stood with his back to the door, tapping his fingers absently on the panel in front of him and staring at the screen. "Dr. Rush," Eva said softly.

Rush paused in his tapping, addressing her while watching the screen. "Miss O'Shay. Shouldn't you be asleep?"

Eva blushed, stepping up next to him and smiling as he turned to regard her with calm brown eyes. "I couldn't sleep any more. I wanted to come and thank you for preventing me from making the biggest mistake of my entire life, Dr. Rush."

"It was nothing; don't mention it," Rush replied quickly, turning back to the panel in front of him.

"It wasn't nothing," Eva persisted. "You saved my life, and I will never forget that." Then she turned and left the room to find Telford. He was on the observation deck, watching the lights of FTL dance across the horizon. "Colonel?" Eva asked tentatively.

Telford turned. "Evaline," he smiled, nodding for her to join him. His dark eyes were friendly and worried, and Eva shivered slightly. She hoped he didn't notice. "Feel better now?"

Eva nodded. "Yes, I do. Thank you for talking me out of it, Colonel. It would have been the biggest mistake of my life." He patted her hand, which was next to his on the rail, but didn't speak. She smiled at him, then turned and walked away, deciding to get a better outlook on life and to live for her parents from now on.

Eli and TJ told the whole story at the nightly poker game. In the end, no one was really surprised that it was Rush who finally coaxed the girl off the platform. He was good at getting people to do what he wanted. He probably thought that she would be useful in some way. But it was Telford's involvement that got people talking. Sure, he was a nice guy. But the way Eli described it, Telford had been almost desperate to save Eva's life. Speculation flew around the ship like wildfire. Most decided that Telford liked Eva in a more-than-a-friend kind of way, but they couldn't be sure. So they set up a discreet spy network and kept tabs on both. Eventually, most gave up when neither made any kind of move towards the other. TJ, however, noticed looks that Telford sent Eva when he thought nobody, including the girl in question, was looking. She smiled to herself, but didn't alert anyone else. No need to scare him off.