Title: Challengers: Good Reasons

Rating: K+

Category: gen, het

Characters: Davenport/Goddard banter, tension, and emotional dysfunction. Sometimes I think those two deserve each other.

Note/Disclaimer: Takes place during "We Gotta Get Out of This Place." Copied from my old LJ and spruced up a bit. I don't own Space Cases.

Summary: Ever wonder how Commander Goddard convinced Miss Davenport to first set foot on The Christa? Yeah, me too. Here's a possibility.

Challengers: Good Reasons

Davenport found herself banging on the door to Commander Goddard's quarters. Other faculty members peered into the hallway to stare, but she didn't pay them much mind. She would not be the subject of ridicule in this scenario, so she had no reason to be embarrassed.

The Commander finally answered after five minutes, still in his pajamas, bleary-eyed, with a comical case of bedhead. He knew Davenport would come looking for him, but he hoped she would give up after the first minute of incessant knocking. Yet there she stood with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

"Late night?" she wondered.

Her voice was even more grating than usual. Goddard squinted as the harsh light from the hall assaulted his eyes. "Can't you let me sleep off a hangover in peace?" he grumbled.

"No, I most certainly cannot," was her answer. "It is 1200 hours, and you are supposed to be teaching a class. Now hop to it. I will wait outside this door until you emerge in full uniform, ready to start the day."

Goddard groaned as he jabbed at the control panel and the door shut in Davenport's face. He lazily dressed himself, combed his hair, and brushed his teeth. Ten minutes later, he peered out of the safe haven of his room to find her still standing there, tapping her foot impatiently. She glared at him as they walked the halls in silence. As they approached the classroom, Goddard finally spoke up in an attempt to justify his actions.

"These kids are going to flunk out anyway," he rationalized. "I really don't see any point in trying to teach them."

"They should be given a fair chance to redeem themselves," Davenport countered. "If they screw up again, that is their prerogative. But I will not allow them to fail because of someone else's recklessness."

Goddard shook his head as he opened the classroom doors, unsure whether they were still discussing the "space cases" or his own predicament with the law. "Trying to teach them anything is tough enough, Miss Davenport. And now you expect me to babysit them during their…" Goddard trailed off as he looked around the empty room.

Davenport sighed. It was typical for the students to run off the moment they were left without supervision. Certainly it had happened before, and she had grown accustomed to retrieving them every single time without the principal getting wind of Goddard's negligence.

She watched the Commander walk further into the deserted room and glance out the window. Panic washed over his face as he hurried back out the door, his hangover suddenly forgotten. T.J.'s heart leapt into her throat when she, too, caught a glimpse of the strange alien vessel connected to the school. She glanced back and forth between the Commander and the window as she followed Goddard down the hall.

"What are you doing?" she called as she ran after him. "We should alert the principal immediately, send security to investigate the ship, and put the school on lockdown. There are rules and procedures for this sort of thing!"

Goddard stopped suddenly and whirled around, causing Davenport to skid into him. She jumped back with a small surprised yelp and smoothed down her uniform as her face flushed. "Don't do that!" she yelled at him in exasperation.

Goddard rolled his eyes. "Don't do this. Don't do that," he mocked her. "Look, by the time we get to the principal and alert Starcademy security, those kids might be dead. We don't know why the ship flew so close to the school, and we don't know who or what might be onboard."

"That is exactly why we should alert security and leave this matter to the professionals," Davenport countered. "I have no intention of being slaughtered by an unknown, hostile alien race today. For once, just once, I wish you would listen to me."

Goddard just shook his head. "I still don't understand why you care so much about trying to reform me, T.J. You're wasting your time. And now you're wasting mine."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You have two choices: you can either back me up, or you can run to the principal and tattle on me. Which is it gonna be?"

The Commander knew how to push her buttons, and it frustrated Davenport to no end. She glanced over her shoulder—in the direction of the administrative offices—before turning back to Goddard and gathering as much courage as she could muster. "Shall we?" She tried to march ahead of him, but he held her back.

"I'll go in first," he ordered. "Watch my six."

She followed him into the spaceway, looking over her shoulder every few seconds. "I had to watch the students because you failed to show up for class today," she continued in a forced whisper. "It was only after I left to find you that the kids ran off. And I'll have you know that I was scheduled to be in an administrative meeting all morning, but because of your shenanigans, I could not even find the time to make an appearance! It was because I was trying to save your sorry arse again that we're in this fix! Do you really hate teaching so much that you would sabotage your job and risk jail time as an alternative punishment?"

Goddard stopped as he crossed over the threshold of the airlock, and so did Davenport's diatribe. The inside of the alien vessel was unlike anything they had ever seen before. Veiny violet walls seemed to pulse with life as they forked in three different directions. Davenport's jaw went slack as she took in the sight before her. She had never set foot on a ship like this one. She sorted through her mental databank of alien technology but couldn't seem to match this particular ship's design to any she had studied.

Goddard picked a direction at random, and Davenport followed, not wanting to get left behind. A feeling of foreboding overtook her, but instead of allowing the Commander to see how frightened she really was, she took the opportunity to continue berating him.

"The headmistress will be furious with me," she complained. "I am going to get fired, I just know it! You too, for not watching the students. Yes, you will be going to jail for sure. Oh, this is all your fault!"

Goddard rolled his eyes. "They sneak off the Starcademy, onto this ship, and it's my fault?"

"You should have been watching them!" Davenport countered. "If someone were to call himself a teacher…"

"No!" he barked. "What I call myself is a former starship captain busted in rank for no good reason and reassigned as a fleet instructor."

Davenport huffed and folded her arms across her chest. "No good reason? That's not what I hear."

"Well whatever you heard, you heard wrong!" Goddard fired back.

They turned away from each other, leaning on opposite walls. As soon as they made contact with the ship, a cacophony or haunting notes filled the hall, as if the corridors were screaming at them. Davenport screamed too, and she stumbled back into Goddard before letting out another terrified shriek. When she realized the two of them were the only ones in the hallway, she let out a sigh of relief, albeit a shaky one. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Goddard was relaxing out of a fighting stance.

"Were you going to punch me?" she wondered.

"I still might," Goddard muttered through clenched teeth.

"All right, that's it! I've had enough!" Davenport exploded. "I have had about enough of your attitude! I have done nothing but stick my neck out for you, and how do you repay me? By trying to order me around and make me feel inferior. Believe me, I am counting the days until you have paid your debt to society and are no longer my responsibility."

"I've been keeping track too," Goddard told her. "Twenty-one more days, and I will be more than happy to leave you, the students, and the Starcademy without ever looking back!"

His words were like a slap in the face, and Davenport felt sick to her stomach as she finally realized how intensely he hated her. But why did it bother her so much? She couldn't stand him either. And now, it seemed, she couldn't even stand the sight of him because she found herself looking away.

"But maybe you're right about one thing," he conceded. "Maybe this is my fault. And maybe I'd like the chance to fix my mistake."

Davenport scoffed in reply.

"Not that I care about redeeming myself," Goddard quickly clarified. "I just can't stand the thought of something horrible happening to those kids because of me. So feel free to go to the principal. Hide behind your rulebook if you want, but I'm going to stay here until I find the students."

The Commander was giving her a way out. His was a tempting offer, but Davenport didn't know that she wanted to take it. At that moment, more than anything, she wanted to prove—not to him, of course, but to herself—that she wasn't afraid to step out of her comfort zone.

"Come along now," T.J. ordered, holding her head high. "Not that I care about redeeming myself," she added pointedly.

Davenport started to venture further into the ship, but Goddard grabbed her by the arm in an effort to stop her. She jerked away from him and forged ahead, leaving him thoroughly confused and more than a little worried about her state of mind.

The Commander followed after her, bewildered. God forbid she got herself killed while trying to prove a point—or worse, in order to prove a point. T.J. Davenport was the only woman who ever tried to change him for his own good, to challenge him to be a better person. In fact, she was the only woman brave enough to challenge him at anything (and lately, it seemed, everything).

Maybe I've finally met my match, Goddard mused, allowing a smirk to tug at the corner of his mouth. Who'd have thought? After all, Commander Seth Goddard was never one to pass up a challenge.