Disclaimer: I'm not sure who these characters now belong to, but it's certainly not me.

Author's note: This is/will be a Trip/Katie fic. I'm using Vespera's 40 Ranger Romance Themes to write a Trip/Katie romance, or at least try to write one. I'll try to come out with new parts every so often, but I do want to get "Arrogance" done. (Though I have to admit, awkward Xybrians are far easier to deal with than possessed Japanese teenagers...)

Over the Borderline
by Selma McCrory
c 2005

1. Friends

He dreams of her, sometimes.

In his dreams, he is stronger than he is. He isn't the team's geek, the team's technician, the funny green-haired alien who can't lie. Someone for her and the rest of his team to take care of.

He dreams of having her strength, and the confidence to use it. She is so graceful, so understanding of her strength in ways that he can't imagine. He knows she's been loved, her abilities chosen so that she'd be strong in other ways. She isn't like him, she isn't a bumbler.

Trip is glad that she thinks of him only as a friend. He can't bear to let her know he loves her, or thinks he does. He can only take so much teasing. It helps that Xybrians are reputed to be such poor liars; unless she or somebody else asks, she'll never know.

It's best that she doesn't know.

2. Dare

"So, what's it called again?" Trip asked. He wasn't sure he liked the name and what it implied.

"Truth or Dare," Wes explained. "I'm surprised it didn't survive to the thirtieth century; it's pretty simple. We choose someone to start first, they choose another person. That person either has to tell the truth, or the other person can dare them to do something."

"Hey, Trip, you'd win easily," Katie pointed out.

Trip blushed. "Um..." While he was glad that Katie had so much confidence in him, he knew that if someone asked him the right question, he'd be toast. Xybrians didn't lie much, but he also didn't volunteer things that he didn't want to talk about. It was hard to lie about something you weren't asked.

"Are you blushing?" she asked lightly. She meant it as a teammate, an officer, and a friend, but if she didn't stop looking at him, he really would start blushing where everybody could see it.

"Um... let's play!" he said, sitting down. He was getting better at avoiding answers.

3. Secrets

Trip wasn't all that great a liar. Everything she learned said that Xybrians couldn't lie, having been born into a world where everybody could read thoughts. But she got the impression as she watched him that Xybrians had their secrets, too, it was just that everybody knew them anyway on his home world, and the Xybrians just assumed the rest of the universe was the same way.

It was the way that Trip blushed and stammered that made her wonder what secret he was keeping up there. She could hardly ask him what it was, because she didn't want to hurt him, distress him, or violate a Xybrian taboo. He'd taken many more dares than she'd expected him to in the game earlier that evening, and she had to wonder why.

And after that, he'd retreated to his tools and his electronics, and was studiously avoiding talking to anybody. He was rattled, and he was showing it, and she wished she could go and comfort him.

If she only knew how...

4. Youth

"How old is Trip?" Wes asked Katie as the two of them put together the evening meal. It was a bit more spare than either of them would have liked, but then again, the workload, and therefore the money, had been a bit scarcer than unsual.

Katie paused to think. "About twenty," she said. "Xybrians have about the same lifespan as humans, maybe a little bit longer, so... yeah, about twenty."

"I thought so," Wes said. "You noticed something's bothering him lately?" He looked over to where Trip was talking to Circuit.

"I noticed... I just don't know where to start asking him," she said honestly. "Even having worked with him, I don't know a whole lot about Xybrians."

"He's been stammering a lot," Wes said thoughtfully. "I wondered... maybe he's falling in love?"

Katie looked thoughtful. Trip? In love? And, as she thought about it, probably for the first time, too. "Maybe he is."

As she watched him animatedly talk to Circuit, she started to plan.

5. Patience

"Hi, Trip," Katie said, sitting down beside him. Trip offered her a shy smile, the same awkward one he'd been giving her all week.

"Hi, Katie." He tapped something on the keyboard, calling some data up. Katie was no technician; she didn't understand what he was doing, and didn't pretend to understand.

"What are you doing?" she asked. She wanted to ease him into the conversation, if she could. Despite his protest that he didn't read minds or use his powers unless he needed to, she had to confess it unnerved her that he could probably read her thoughts in a second, and know what she was aiming to ask him.

He probably would think she was interfereing, like her brother had. Was it her fault that she wanted to make things better?

She felt a pang of homesickness as she waited for him to answer.

"Um. Just... working on the database," he said, hesitantly answering her question, his response fast, as if he wanted to evade something. Maybe he knew that she thought he was in love, and he didn't want to feel stupid.

Of course, since he was an alien, all bets were off, though she was willing to guess that he was a lot like human guys in some ways.

"Oh," she said. "Is there... anything I can do?" she asked. What she really wanted to ask about was who he was in love with, but it was far too soon. Trip might open up about it, he might not, but if she moved at the wrong moment, he might shut up completely.

"Not really," Trip said, avoiding looking at her. "Um. Circuit and I can handle it."

"If you're sure..."

"I'm sure," he said, typing something in. "But thanks, Katie."

She smiled at him, and got up. The invitation was out there. All she had to do was wait.

-tbc