Those Blue Green Eyes

by Somebody's Dark Angel

Back when Nav was the only female crew member, Buffer and Nav had enjoyed a special relationship...But then Thor had been stolen, and in the wake of that fateful voyage everything changed. Between Friends Close, Enemies Closer and Soldiers of War.

Those Blue-Green Eyes

By Somebody's Angel

Buffer was sitting alone in the senior sailors' mess, finishing up a report. Well, actually he was staring at the wall, twirling his pen in his fingers. Anyone looking in would assume he was thinking about his recent ordeal but he wasn't – he was thinking about a certain brunette with blue-green eyes.

He would never think of her as his sister, for the simple reason that the thought of kissing her didn't revolt him. For the most part he had banished her from his dreams, though he'd be lying if he said he didn't think about her occasionally. He had to admit he'd been jealous of the way she looked at ET, especially when the technician's life was in danger – she'd never looked at him like that.

If there was one thing Buffer regretted about telling Nav how he felt, it was that she'd been overly cautious about touching him afterwards. Prior to his revelation she had thought nothing of hitting him in jest or steadying herself on his shoulder, but immediately afterward she would go out of her way to not even touch his fingers when passing him something. He wasn't sure she even realised it, as she didn't act any differently around him otherwise. But in the week since his near-death experience any previous skittishness had gone out the window. Now she looked for excuses to touch him, whether it was volunteering to clear plates after meals or standing behind him and leaning on his shoulder.

And while he had been distressed at the strained friendship, he didn't like this new touchy-feely Nav and more than the distant one. He wasn't fool enough to think that the touches were anything other than friendship, however he still wasn't entirely comfortable with it.

They hadn't spoke as friends since his ordeal, and while the large majority of his thoughts were devoted to creating new and inventive ways of killing Ray Walsman, the remainder of his wakeful hours were spent trying to figure out a way to repair the friendship he feared he had irrevocably changed.

Back when Nav was the only female crew member, Buffer and Nav had enjoyed a special relationship; they were one another's confidants, able to talk about anything and everything. They had discussed Nav's career aspirations, Buffer's rise through the ranks, and their respective family issues. She was the youngest of five, he an only child; her family was almost too close, his was…well estranged was putting it politely. She had been in the top of her class at ADFA, he had barely made it through year 10; she used words to express herself, he used actions. They were as different as night and day, and yet they were brought together at two specific times; to be there for their friends, and for the Navy. Loyalty was the attribute they both revered above all else, and it was this that forged a kinship deeper and their outward differences would belie.

After Kate had joined the crew most of their conversations began with her latest actions, from interfering with Nav's course planning to hitting objects with the ship. Though they shared a cabin the two women didn't seem to get along past the formalities of their job, and thus Buffer was treated to ever-amusing rants about the X's latest escapades on the bridge.

But then they had met Claire Watts, and suddenly Nav and X were friends; brought together by their mutual hatred of the female yachtsman and her effect on the rest of the crew. Following the experience Nav's off-duty time was spent with the X as well as ET, thus she was twice as hard to pin down when Buffer wanted to talk. And while she didn't exactly blow him off for her new friend, their conversations became shorter and less frequent.

But then Thor had been stolen, and in the wake of that fateful voyage everything changed. Not only was his friendship with Nav strained, ET wouldn't speak to him outside the job, and Spider hadn't looked him in the eye since he'd played Mrs Neptune. He knew that ET was annoyed about the threats he'd made, more specifically that they'd been motivated by jealousy rather than protectiveness. But he couldn't control his feelings any more than ET could control his own; the only difference was that ET seemed to have come to some sort of understanding with the object of both of their affections, for not only was the fight over, but they were more flirtatious than ever.

As always with boys, everything was eventually OK between them, even though no words were spoken about it. ET challenged Buffer to a game of pool one night at the pub, and the disagreement was forgotten before the first ball was sunk.

Nav was another matter – while she was generally considered "one of the boys", she was technically a female, thus there would be no getting over it unless he actually made an effort. He tried to talk to her, and though she didn't rebuff him, the conversations weren't as easy-going as they once were. She avoided any mention of his declaration, and changed the subject every time he brought up ET. He found himself leaving out stuff he would have previously told her – she had no idea his mother's cancer had relapsed, or anything about his new love interest.

Things got better when they were assigned to the new ship and ET wasn't there. Though she was almost always happy, practically floating on air every time she got an email from him, Buffer was pleased that she was telling him about the emails at all – they were getting back on track.

Then ET came back to the ship and she stopped floating, but it seemed she was doing her best to avoid him, thus found even more time for Buffer.

Even after the bird-flu scare, as it had become known – all mentions of ET's close call were off limits by unspoken unanimous agreement – when she avoided every male on the ship, she eventually opened up to Buffer.

…FLASHBACK…

It had been a week since The Incident and Buffer had yet to see Nav sit down to eat with the rest of the senior sailors. He had seen her eat – not much, mind you, but enough that he wasn't worried about that – but what concerned him was the separation from the others.

The day afterwards she had snapped at Charge, and nearly taken RO's head off when he touched her shoulder to get her attention. Since then every male on the ship had given her a wide berth, however the X didn't seem to fear the same treatment. Indeed all three female sailors seemed to have formed a close bond, with Bomber and X both extremely protective of Nav – some would say they were overly protective.

The captain was either oblivious to the goings on, or he knew the reason behind Nav's behaviour…and Buffer knew Mike wasn't dense, not by any description. Nevertheless he allowed the navigator to distance herself from the rest of the crew, even going so far as to schedule either X or Bomber with her on watch. Obviously something had happened to make Buffer's fearless, independent Nav scared of being alone with men – something significant enough to make her distrust even those men she had lived with for years.

He was doing a circuit of the main deck before the ship was locked down for the night when he saw her. She was on the foredeck, beating up ET's punching bag.

He stood in the shadows for a while, watching as she mercilessly pummelled the leather, and pondered the reason for it. Buffer knew why ET had hung it up there; not difficult to deduce, given that the technician gravitated to it after most non-official interactions with Nav. He wondered if she was using it to release the same sexual tension; ET was still on bed rest due to his injury, and the blonde was the only male Nav seemed comfortable around thus she had been spending a significant amount of time with him in recent days. But her kicks and punches lacked the finesse Buffer knew she possessed; they seemed to be motivated by anger rather than frustration.

She was silent in her movements, other than the occasional grunt, so there was no clue to be gained from listening. Thus he moved closer and waited until she took a breather before revealing himself. "Nav."

At the sound of a male voice Nav turned, using her body's momentum to swing a punch in his direction. Anticipating this response Buffer had stationed himself two arms lengths away, and watched as she nearly toppled over when her fist didn't connect with flesh as expected.

"The bag won't hit back." He observed, moving forward when he saw she wouldn't swing again.

"I know. Makes it hard to practice defending myself." Her voice was oddly flat, with none of the cheeriness he had always associated with the young lieutenant.

"From where I was standing, it looked like you were doing a pretty good job of attacking though." He sat beside her as she patted her sweaty face with a towel.

She didn't respond, taking a huge gulp of water instead. But she was breathing too hard and the liquid went down the wrong way, causing her to cough.

Despite the experience of the past few days, instinct caused Buffer to reach out to her as she bent over double, trying to get air into her lungs. But she flinched when his hand touched her, so he pulled away reluctantly.

When she regained her breath he spoke again, making sure no part of his body was touching hers. "So what's up, Nikki?"

She looked at him strangely for a minute before responding. "You're right, it's weird when you call me Nikki."

Such was the depth of their connection that he instantly knew she was talking about That Day, when her use of his first name caused the change in their relationship. But he wasn't about to be dissuaded. "Why are you beating up on the punching bag in the dead of night?"

"Taking out my anger at what happened." She looked out over the sea, avoiding looking into his eyes.

"You mean the Fisheries guy trying to kill ET?" Buffer acted intentionally dense, in the hope that she would open up a little.

She started – obviously that wasn't the reason for her anger – and looked back at him. "Um…yeah, that's why."

He stared into her teal-coloured eyes, "That's not really the reason, though. Why have you been pulling away from everyone? And what's with the Sisterhood of the Grey Overalls?"

Using the term Spider had coined for the newfound friendship between the female sailors garnered the reaction Buffer was after – Nav giggled, and he relished the sound, having not heard it in way too long.

"The what?"

"The Sisterhood of the Grey Overalls – Bomber and the X banding together to protect you from us menfolk."

She nodded seriously, "I could talk to them about it…what happened…I know you guys want to help, but I just…" She trailed off and looked away.

"I get that, but do you really think distancing yourself from the rest of us is the right way to deal with it?"

She shook her head and looked down at her hands, twisting the water bottle absently.

They continued to talk, and though she studiously avoided the specifics of what had actually happened, he eventually gathered enough bits and pieces to understand that the Fisheries scumbag hadn't taken no for an answer. The mere thought of anyone doing that to one of his best friend incensed him, and it was only the tears in her eyes that stopped him searching out the guy. That night was the first night she had hugged him in almost a year, and the moment her arms went around him he realised why she had told him. He had accepted her rebuff and taken her friendship as offered, where the Fulton bastard hadn't.

…END FLASHBACK…

"Hey Buff?" A voice broke through Buffer's musings, and he looked up to see the object of his thoughts standing in the doorway.

"Nav." He replied, setting his pen on the table.

She didn't wait for an invitation, sliding into the booth as soon as he acknowledged her presence. But where the Nav of eight days ago would have sat opposite him, today's Nav sat beside him, closer than Buffer was comfortable with. He suppressed the urge to squirm or move away, but he did call her on it.

"Hello? Ever hear of a thing called personal space?" He waved at the small space between their bodies, causing her to blush and move away. "Explain it to me."

She shook her head in confusion, "Huh?"

"What's with the touchy feely lately? Making up for lost time or what?" The brunette still looked confused, so he elaborated. "In the past week you've touched me more than you have in the year before that. Ever since I-since you hurt your ankle on the Fremantle Hammersley you've avoided touching me, but in the past week you've been doing that-" indicating the small space between them, "-a lot."

She looked at the wall, thinking about what her friend had said. "I never thought about it…I didn't do it intentionally…I just…I can't stop thinking about how close you came to-"

"-Death." Buffer finished when she hesitated – he hated tiptoeing around facts.

She nodded, "So many of you have come close to death in the past couple of months…I couldn't stand losing any of you. I keep having nightmares about what would have happened if the cavalry hadn't arrived in time…Charge, ET, X, now you…" Now Nav was the one who was fiddling with the pen, that is until Buffer took it off her and held her hands in his.

"Na-Nikki. We're all alive and well. You're right we have had some close calls recently, but as you said, the cavalry arrived in time. Everything is fine."

She gave him a Look, "So you're sleeping just fine, are you?"

He smiled wryly, "You've been talking to Charge. I'll admit, I've had nightmares…but we're in the Navy, risking our lives is a part of the job."

"Yeah, I know. It's just…it seems different these days, more dangerous."

"Well we'll just have to make sure we watch one another's backs, won't we?" He asked, pulling her to his side and draping an arm around her shoulders. They would look out for one another, just as they always had, and in time things would go back to normal.

THE END

So this started out as Buffer finding out about Nav's assault in Birds, but then exploded into a full-on study of their relationship throughout the whole series. I was kinda concerned it was getting to be OOC – couldn't find any non-official conversations between Nav and Buffer other than Under the Hammer, so it's not like I really had anything to go on.