A few theories I have for Goliath in fanfic format. Also, I don't own this. I wish.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Deryn addressed the count.

Count Volger looked up from what looked like his careful inventory of Alek's belongings and gave a curt nod.

"Ah yes. Mr. Sharp. Do come in."

Deryn rolled her eyes and stepped inside the room, pushing the door to close behind her.

She stood, much as she would at attention and the count seemed content to let her stand while he continued with his review of Alek's belongings. For a moment, Deryn let her mind wander. They saved the barking fencing equipment over another one of those gold bars? The daft ninnies! But she grew impatient standing there, while the count ignored her and so finally said, "Sorry, but was there something your countship wanted to see me for? Or did you just want an audience while you counted your things?"

"Yes as a matter of fact, there is something I wished to see you for, Mr. Sharp."

Deryn swallowed. "What's it to be this time? Treason? Treachery? Am I to turn the ship off course from Japan to drop you off back at your ice castle?"

The wildcount smiled grimly. Deryn found it only made him look even more intimidating.

"Don't be absurd, I think we both know piloting the Leviathan is beyond your capabilities. As for treason and treachery, I have nothing of the sort to offer you today."

Deryn bristled. Offering treachery. The bum-rag. And she hadn't missed the slight at her piloting capabilities. It was true she probably couldn't pilot the Leviathan on her own, but she wasn't completely hopeless in the air, she was a midshipman after all, and a barking good one, a decorated one, for that matter, in the British Air Service.

"Then if you don't mind my asking -"

"You are approximately Alek's age, are you not? Fifteen, sixteen...?

"I -"

"And you are, like it or not, growing into a young woman, not a young man."

Hadn't they been over this bit? He knew her secret, he'd made that clear. "I -"

"As I said before, your outbursts on Alek's behalf have been revealing. Touching really. Had I not figured out your little secret, I might have been tempted to think what a loyal friend Alek had in you."

"He does," Deryn said, the steel she'd wanted to have in her voice melting under the count's glare.

The count smiled his grim smile even wider. "Perhaps. There is a problem with that theory, however."

Deryn's mouth was dry.

"You see, I don't believe you've been a very good friend as of late."

"Sir?"

"I'm referring to your convincing Alek to come back aboard, Mr. Sharp."

"But -"

"Alek tells me it was you. Now I can't help but wonder, why it is you would do that. He needed to escape. For his own safety and the future of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He could have escaped, there was no need for him to come back aboard. Things are rather complicated now that Britain is at war with Austria-Hungary, as I'm sure you must have guessed. I'm just not certain how it is that it was best for Alek to come back aboard the Leviathan."

"He's safer here," Deryn whispered. "He... he might not have made it past those other Clankers." Her voice was getting a little stronger now. "It's safer. He's alive at least, isn't he?" He's safe here where the other Clankers can't get him, she thought. Safe where I can make sure he's safe.

"Mmm, alive he is. I'm just not sure that 'safe' is the appropriate term."

Deryn bit her lip. She hated that the count had such a tongue-tying effect on her.

"What is your real name, girl?"

Deryn narrowed her eyes. "What do you need to know that for?"

Volger shook his head. "I don't, I suppose. I'm assuming it isn't Dylan."

Deryn shook her head.

Volger made a show of turning his back to her and folding his hands together behind his back, and took a long, laborious sort of frustrated sigh. "I'll be blunt, Miss Sharp. Alek is the son of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. And while some may consider his mother's blood enough cause to deny him the Austro-Hungarian throne, his father's blood alone dictates a life that will be dominated by politics. He may not inherit an empire, but he will inherit a number of responsibilities, duties, difficulties and complications. Many, if not all decisions made in his life will likely have to be made based on the potential for perceived political gain. This will very likely include marriage. Do you understand?"

He might as well have punched her in the gut. "I -"

He looked away from the window and half turned toward her again, looking her in the eye now. "Your affections for Alek are... charming, Miss Sharp. But make no mistake, Alek, impulsive and reckless as he may be at times, seems to have more sense when it comes to these things than his father did, having first-hand suffered the consequences of an ill-received royal marriage. Alek will not put his future children in the same position he has been in."

Deryn swallowed, bit her lip, then swallowed again her eyes stinging. The words choked out as she said them, almost as though she were speaking through a bad throat ache. "Then I suppose it's best he still thinks I'm a lad, aye?"

Volger studied her for a long moment. "Yes. I suppose it is."

"Suppose it is," a voice repeated and Deryn whipped around to see Bovril crossing the room, jumping up onto a table to get close to Deryn. How had she not seen him in here before? Unless he'd not been and... but she could have sworn she'd shut the door and if Bovril was here then Alek...

He entered the room and his expression told her in an instant that he'd heard everything. "Mr. Sharp," Bovril then interjected into the silence, climbing from the table onto her shoulder. Deryn felt like she could practically see the gears turning inside Alek's head, whirring to a great, greasy roar just like the Clanker engines he worked on.

He opened his mouth to speak, and Deryn did as well, hoping to stem his questioning, any betrayal he might feel with a preemptive strike of apologies and explaining.

But Volger was faster. "Ah, Alek. Have a seat. Rest a moment, I expect you're tired from working on the engines. Then, if you please, there are a few things we need to discuss."

Deryn panicked. "Alek, I -"

"That will be all, Mr. Sharp."

"Mr. Sharp," Bovril repeated.

"Shut it you," Deryn muttered at the beastie.

"Good day, Mr. Sharp."

"But -"

"Please shut the door behind you." Another cold reminder of her foolishness, how could she have forgotten to make sure the door had latched? She chanced a last pleading glance at Alek, at the hurt and confusion in his eyes that refused to meet hers, and left, barely resisting the temptation to slam the door behind her.

Of course, she'd been a fool not to realize, the clever-boots count had planned the whole barking thing! He must have known Alek was due back any moment, and had staged the conversation so. But why? Had he thought that once Alek knew he wouldn't trust her? If so, she figured that plan of his had been a barking brilliant success. The look on Alek's face had said enough, she would no longer be his confidant. He'd never trust her with a squick of anything ever again.

"Barking clever-boots counts," she cursed, stamping off. "Ought to have chucked him out the barking window over one of those fancy gold-bars."

"Mr. Sharp," Bovril repeated from his perch on her shoulder.

"Shut it you," she muttered. "Or I'll chuck you out the window as well."

Reviews are, as Deryn would say, "barking brilliant". Please leave them if you feel so inclined.