Okay, I'd just like to say this before I get any farther on in the story – I have this entire thing plotted out in my head (I have had this planned out since about chapter three), so any resemblance to other works of fanfiction, on here or anywhere else, is purely coincidental. *Sounds like something at the end of a movie or beginning of a book*

Ahem… well, I am really, really sorry for not posting this sooner. For some reason, this chapter has been excruciatingly hard to write, and I went through numerous versions of it, before settling with this one. Not really much action in it, mind you, but there's a bit of explaining of Adelaide's past. I had to get this out of the way, though – after this, I actually do know what's going to happen, so it will be done quicker (hopefully – no guarantees though :P)

Anyways, please ignore any OOC-ness – I've tried to keep it semi-not-OOC, but I can never tell if my own writing is in character or not. Plus, I've done so many re-writes that I can't even remember exactly what I've written. But please, read and enjoy (if you can :P)

(Also, just to show how long it has been since I updated anything - all the documents that were in my document manager are no longer there. Wow, I suck at updating.)

If Rimmer were to look back on his life and try to find all the good things that had happened to him, he'd be able to count them off on one hand. Life had been hard on him – he'd never gotten the breaks he wanted, and the whole world had seemed to turn its back on him. And he had never told a soul about most of his inner demons, the ones that gave him nightmares regularly.

Until now.

At first he had been somewhat reluctant – he had always been a bit unwilling to talk about the harshest parts of his adolescence. But, as he talked, and as she listened, he started to open up more, becoming more comfortable and talking to her as if he had known her for years.

"… Wait a second. He bought a what?" Adelaide had asked, horror and shock on her face.

"A traction machine." Rimmer had replied with a humourless smile on his face. "So he could stretch us."

"You serious?"

"Could I have made that up?"

Adelaide opened her mouth, then shook her head. "No, I guess not."

"He'd measure us every morning," Rimmer continued. "And if we hadn't grown, it was back on the rack for us."

Rimmer had kept on telling his stories, of how he was beaten by his father for bad grades or a dirty uniform, of his many failures with the opposite sex, and how he had stayed on the bottom rung career-wise for his entire adult life. Then, as the night wore on, he had started to talk about the deeper things, things that haunted his mind and prevented him from ever being happy. All his neuroses, his self loathing, every one of his flaws were laid out for her to see, showing her exactly why he was the person he was. He spilled everything, leaving nothing out, still not one hundred percent sure why. And she listened. She listened intently, and not just because she had to, but because she wanted to. On several occasions, the recall of memories had become too much for him, and he had broken down, crying. Adelaide had proceeded to comfort him, either by holding him while he sobbed, or by talking to him, trying to help soothe his demons away.

Two hours passed, then three, then five, and eventually, eight hours later, Rimmer was done, a weight off his chest that had been there for far too long. He coughed, wiping tears off his puffy red face, and looked up at Adelaide. They had moved their discussion to the bunks, which were far more comfortable than the stiff metal chairs, and she sat there, one leg hanging off the side of the bed, the other folded underneath her, her hands resting on her calf.

"Look, what I told you tonight… I'd appreciate it if it didn't go anywhere." He said, slightly worried that he'd be betrayed by her.

"I promise. My lips are sealed. Nothing leaves this room without your permission."

He nodded, unsure of what to say now. It was as if he had been in a trance for the past eight hours, his need for a shoulder to cry on finally overcoming anything and everything else and making him share things that, under different circumstances, he wouldn't have even dared to divulge. And now he felt drained, exhausted, and completely embarrassed that he had let his guard down like that.

"Rimmer?"

Adelaide's voice, although quiet, rang clearly through the room, yanking Rimmer out of his thoughts. He looked up.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

He shook his head, waiting for her to continue.

"Well…" She said, biting her lip. "From what you've told me, about the traction machine and the mealtime revision… I've come to the conclusion that you didn't join the Space Corps because you wanted to, but because your parents wanted you to. Am I right in thinking that?"

Rimmer stared at her for a second. Had she really asked him that? Of course he had joined because he wanted to! It wasn't because his parents had drilled it into his head from day one that unless he was an officer in the Space Corps, he was nothing, or because every person in his family had been expecting him to be in the Space Corps… was it?

Come to think of it, he had never really thought about it that much. All he knew was that he wanted to be an officer. But why?

"Of course I wanted to." Rimmer answered, more to convince himself that was true, instead of Adelaide.

They were silent for a minute, each thinking.

"I, for one, never joined the Space Corps because it was my life's ambition." She said, breaking the silence. "I only really joined because I needed some cash and it seemed like an easy place to get hired."

"Why the Space Corps? There are hundreds of easy jobs out there that are much easier and far less dangerous."

"Well, there were a few reasons. They were always looking for new people, so I wouldn't have to wait for months on end to get a reply saying I'd been rejected for the job, but thanks for applying. The money was really good, and it's not like I'd be doing that difficult of a job – I was just doing janitorial work. And… well, this is going to sound really stupid… but I always wanted to explore. To be able to see new places, places I'd never been before. And this was a job that would allow me to do that, to an extent. Even if I hated the work I was doing, at least I'd have a view. As a child, I never really got to do that – travel places and such. So as an adult, I made the most of it, hardly ever staying in one place for more than a couple months."

"Where did you go?" Rimmer said without thinking, curious.

"Well, lots of places - Triton, Ganymede, Venus, Io, Titan, Jupiter – I even stayed for a bit on Mimas. Dirty little moon, tons of bliss dealers and brothels and all that junk." She said. At that, Rimmer blushed, remembering his little excursion in the hopper where he had first met Lister whilst pretending to be a high-ranking officer, and how he had almost had his privates violently ripped off by a robotic hooker. Thankfully, Adelaide didn't notice.

"I started my travels when I was twenty, and by the time I was twenty-two, I had lived on 14 different moons and 6 different planets. I was left with a ton of memories, many new friends, and about three cents to my name. So, I packed all my junk up and moved back in with my father."

"Why not with your mother?"

Adelaide's eyebrows shot up, and her eyes looked down at her hands.

"Well… because she's dead. Died when I was born."

Rimmer's face paled. "Oh, God… I… I'm sorry, I didn't know… I shouldn't have asked…"

"Ehhh, don't worry about it. You said it yourself – you didn't know. It's not like you meant anything by it." She said.

"How did she die?" Rimmer asked hesitantly after a few moments of contemplation.

"Obstetrical hemorrhaging. . Internal bleeding. Apparently, my father said it's a fairly common cause of death at childbirth.

"He didn't blame you?" Rimmer said, momentarily thinking back to his adolescent years, being blamed for many things that weren't even his fault.

"I don't think he did. I mean, he never outright said it to me. But sometimes, I wondered if… if he would have rather had her live than me."

"I'm sure he didn't…"

"He might not have," Adelaide interrupted. "But I could always tell that he missed mum terribly. It didn't help any that I was almost a carbon copy of her – looks, mannerisms, everything. I was just like her, he'd tell me. It always made me feel awful, when he'd mention it. As if he were expecting me to just… change my looks and not look like her, or change my personality so I wasn't a constant reminder of what he could have had…" She said, sounding angrier as she carried on.

Rimmer stared at the woman in front of him, her eyes staring down at her knees, and instead saw a small child that had always been compared to someone else, expectations for her already set high, but never being seen for who she really was.

She yawned, covering her mouth with her hand, and her eyes rolled over to the clock beside her bed. "Whoa, where'd the time go – it's already five in the morning."

Rimmer followed her stare, reading the time on the clock that reflected red against the table – 5.17 am.

He saw Adelaide stretch out of the corner of his eye, her arms extended above her head with her fingers linked. She flopped down on her back, closing her eyes and sighing.

"I'm just going to close my eyes for a few minutes, mkay? Then we'll keep talking. If I fall asleep, wake me up in 10 minutes…" She said, trailing off.

Rimmer nodded, even though she couldn't see it, and laid down on the bed as well, his head resting up by the wall uncomfortably and his legs hanging off the edge and resting on the floor, about three feet away from Adelaide. Involuntarily, his eyelids began to droop, and he kept shaking himself awake, as one does when they don't want to fall asleep. But eventually, he lost the battle, his eyes remaining shut for the rest of the night.

Please, please, please review! Not to sound demanding or needy or anything, but I'd really like to know what you readers all think of this chapter – Good, bad, or excruciatingly horrific. So please, take the time to tell me what you think!

Carly

(PS: Sorry if any of the AN sounds rambly or doesn't make sense – it's 5 in the morning and I really should be getting to bed, before I start making even less sense. :P)