Sunrise over the tango factory's A/N: A short little story. I was in the car with my mother, who put a Paul Young tape on…yes, pity me…anyway, there was this song 'Come back and stay' which had quite interesting lyrics and that got the creative juices flowing so to speak! I was on the computer later, waiting for Rage to return to her MSN, when I thought 'oh, why don't I write something'. This story is quite angsty, but enjoy anyway. Feedback appreciated.
Sunrise
It has often been said that you only truly appreciate something when it's gone. When it's there, you're not excited by its presence; you don't wake up every morning glad that its there, you don't tell yourself how lucky you are to have this things around, the truth is you take it for granted.
That's why it's such a shock to a persons system when a thing that they've become so accustomed to having around suddenly isn't there any more.
This was the only way Lister could possible begin to describe how he felt.
Rimmer had been gone nearly a month, and yet he still found himself calling out his name when something was happening, he still found himself saying 'good morning' to an empty bunk, he still found himself making 3 cups of coffee, one for him, one for cat…one for Rimmer.
He groaned as he realised how silly it all was.
He hated Rimmer when he was here, couldn't stand the sight of him…but now, a month after his departure…why was he feeling like he'd lost a part of himself.
He'd tried carrying on as normal, tried to pretend Rimmer was else where onboard the ship. Sometimes he tried pretending Rimmer never existed, but that always made him feel guilty, as if he were trying to change everything.
Kryten and Cat weren't making things easier. Cat never hid his displeasure towards Rimmer and now that he was gone, Cat was nastier then ever. Kryten was the complete opposite; he rarely brought Rimmer into conversation, and said very little on the matter if it did crop up.
Lister smiled faintly as he remembered loosing his temper with them one night. It had started out fairly normal.
Cat was ranting and raving about why Rimmer never deserved to live in the first place, with each passing second Lister was getting more and more wound up.
All right, the things Cat was saying were true, but he was not only overstepping the mark, he was dancing on it. It wasn't just the insults that were irritating Lister, Cat kept using the word 'was'; he made it sound as if Rimmer was gone forever.
After nearly 10 minutes of trying to keep his anger bottled up, Lister finally snapped.
"STOP TALKING ABOUT HIM AS IF HE'S DEAD!" he found himself shouting,
Cat and Kryten blinked in surprise.
"But buddy…he is dead, even before he died the second time he was dead. He can't be deader…thank God!" said the Cat,
It was at that point that Lister had to leave the room, for fear of showing how he really felt.
He was now staring sullenly out of Starbug's viewport window, watching the dark abyss move by.
He wondered where Rimmer was. He tried to imagine what he'd be doing at this precise moment in time…probably doing 'Ace' type things, saving damsels in distress, fighting bad guys, saving civilisations, having his hair made to look fantastic 24/7.
The consolation that Rimmer was probably having a great time being Ace didn't stop Lister's loneliness.
The worse part was when Lister recalled all the mean things he'd ever done or said to Rimmer, all he wanted to do was say sorry…
Lister felt a tear run down his cheek as he ran his fingers down the glass of the vierport window.
"Please come back, man," he whispered, "please…I need you…"