Jack's eyebrows knit together in concern and he shifted so he was sat up. He bit his lip. "But you tried, that's all that matters, right?" Jack tried, though he knew it probably wouldn't help much. The whole point had been for Mark to prove himself. Jack gave Mark a lopsided smile and nudged Mark's side a bit with a finger, making sure he was careful.

"Besides, you did a lot more than I thought you would. Even if it took forever, you still made it pretty far."

"Yeah." Mark replied, but his heart wasn't in it. He didn't even react when Jack nudged him. Mark sat up, crossing his arms and placing them on his knees as he moped. "Look, just forget it. Put me on the table and let's eat some stupid waffles."

Jack frowned, but complied. He stood up and set Mark down on the table, before going over to the fridge and grabbing the almost empty box of waffles. Thankfully, there was three left. Two for Jack and one for Mark, even if Mark couldn't eat all of it. He placed them in the toaster and waited a minute, glancing at Mark who was still moping on the table. He sighed as he took the waffles out and set them on plates. This was not how he wanted this morning to go.

"Breakfast is served!" Jack cried cheerfully, hoping to lighten the mood. He set the plates down and grabbed some syrup from the cabinet before taking a seat at the head of the table.

Mark stood up and went over to what clearly was his plate, taking out his knife to cut off chunks of waffle. It was kind of stiff and difficult to break, but Mark managed. There was no way he was going to ask Jack to cut up his waffle for him too. Mark glared at the food before tearing a bite off with his teeth.

"Do ya want some syrup with it?" Jack offered, holding up the bottle after he had poured some on his own waffles.

"Yeah, sure." Mark accepted his offer, hoping the syrup would help soften the thick waffle to be more manageable. Not to mention, syrup is freakin' delicious.

"Great!" Jack reached over and started pouring the syrup on his waffle but his arm kind of slipped on the table and made his arm jerk over Mark, pouring the syrup on him. Jack yelped and quickly righted himself and the bottle, but Mark was already covered.

"Whoops."

"Jack!" Mark yelled indignantly. "What the heck, dude?!" He shook his arms to try and get some off, but the syrup was too sticky. Not to mention, he was now soaked head to toe. Some morning this was turning out to be.

Jack winced, this morning was definitely not going well. Jack was about to apologize when he got a playful idea. Maybe something to cheer the both of them up. Jack grinned and pinched the back of Mark's shirt, picking him up and stopping him in front of his face. He chuckled.

"Ya look sweeter than the waffle now! Probably taste sweeter too." Jack licked his lips to sell the part.

"Uh...w-what?" Mark felt all the color drain from his face at Jack's words, dangling right in front of his mouth. That fight-or-flight instinct was kicking in at the mere implication. God, he hoped Jack was joking.

"And ya are the perfect size as well." Jack said it as if he was saying it more to himself. "I probably wouldn't even ruin my appetite." He said, trying hard not to laugh. He was having too much fun with this. He brought Mark slightly closer.

"S-stop!" Mark put his hands out in front of him, beginning to flail about as Jack really began to scare him. "Jack, please!" Mark was full-on panicking now, knowing that if Jack was serious there was nothing he could do to stop him. Mark tried not to cry as he was brought closer to his almost-friend's mouth.

Jack froze at Mark's panicked tone and flailing arms. Oh no, he thought as guilt settled in his gut. That was not the reaction he had been expecting. He moved Mark away from his face and cupped him in his hands instead of dangling him in the air. His hands were getting sticky, but he didn't care. He felt awful when he noticed a few tears on Mark's face.

"No! No, I didn't mean to-I wasn't actually gonna eat ya!" Jack said, trying to explain himself and calm Mark down. He was stupid to think this would be a good idea.

"Then what the hell were you doing?!" Mark shrieked, trying to calm his racing heart. He tried to rub his eyes clear but only ended up getting them covered in more syrup.

"I-I was trying to cheer you up! Ya know, just messing around and….stuff…" He trailed off, seeing how his 'messing around' was actually affecting Mark. His messing around really messed things up.

"Oh my god, Jack." Mark sighed. He was beginning to calm down, but there was still a bit of leftover adrenaline in his veins. "Do not scare me like that again. Ever." Jack's actions did seem to have one positive effect- Mark wasn't feeling mopey anymore. Instead, he felt scared to death.

Jack winced and looked down in guilt. "I'm sorry," he wondered how effective those words were. He sighed and looked down at his uneaten plate of waffles. He groaned. He didn't feel like eating anymore. He cleared his throat and turned back to Mark.

"Um, do ya wanna get cleaned up?" He really wished he hadn't been so clumsy, then this whole situation wouldn't have happened.

"No,I want to stay covered in syrup all day." Mark retorted, feeling sassy. He crossed his eyes as he watched a few droplets drip from his hair. "Yes, I'd like to get cleaned up." Unfortunately, he knew cleaning up would be something he'd need Jack's help with, as the ship's shower would not work without power.

Jack chuckled a bit, happy Mark was okay enough to sass at him, but still not feeling any less guilty.

"Right." He frowned. "Any ideas on how to do this?" Jack asked.

Mark frowned as well, looking around the room before being struck with an idea.

"If you run the faucet, I could probably treat it like a shower and get the majority off." Mark suggested. "I've got some spare clothes in my ship, so we can just go back to your room after."

"Oh! Yeah that sounds good." He turned towards the kitchen sink, but stopped when he saw all the dirty dishes.

"I forgot about those." He groaned. He never had a chance to finish them, after everything that happened yesterday.

"We'll have to go into the bathroom." He said before starting to walk there, it was back down the hallway and next to his room. With his hands full with Mark and dripping with syrup, he bumped the door open and entered to bathroom. He set Mark down on the counter and turned on the faucet washing his hands first. After his hands were clean, he kept the water running on a lower pressure and made sure it wasn't too hot or cold. He turned to Mark.

"Do you, uh, need help?" Jack asked.

"No, I'm good." Mark said, sliding down the edge of the sink and into the spray of water. It was similar to having buckets of water poured on him repeatedly, due to the sheer volume. Scrubbing viciously, Mark removed most of the syrup until he felt satisfied. Now mostly un-sticky, Mark went to climb back out only to realize the walls were too steep. Mark tried his best but just came sliding back down.

"Okay, I might need help." Mark said, looking up at Jack sheepishly.

Jack laughed and grabbed a washcloth that was close by, scooping Mark into it and wrapping him in it. He walked back into his room and set Mark down on the nightstand near his ship, the washcloth still around him so he could finish drying himself off.

Mark rubbed at his hair, floofing it up as he dried it. When he was mostly dry, Mark entered the ship and went back into his chambers. He changed into a clean suit, hanging up the wet one to dry on the back of a chair.

"Much better." Mark smiled, coming back out to give Jack a smile.

Meanwhile…..

"Ethan, how far are we from Mark's last known coordinates?" Tyler asked, standing next to Amy at the helm. Katherine and Ethan sat either side at their personal command modules.

"Um, about 3 lightyears. We should make it there in about 5 or so hours?" Ethan said, pushing some buttons on his computer. He bit his lip and turned to everyone. "Hey guys?"

"What's wrong, Ethan?" Katherine said, turning to him.

Ethan looked down. "I-I'm worried about what Mark's message said. What do you think we're going to find when we get there?" He turned to Amy, who bit her lip and in turn, focused on Tyler for the answer.

"I don't know, Ethan." Tyler admitted. "But we can't turn our back on Mark. No matter what awaits us down there, as a team we can overcome anything."

"But what if we can't!" Amy spoke up. "We don't know what's down there! And whatever it was Mark was really freaking out about it! Like full on panicking!" She had never seen her boyfriend so scared before. She shook just thinking about the thing that had made Mark that scared.

"Amy, calm down!" Katherine advised her. "Worrying won't help Mark, it won't change anything."

"Everybody needs to calm down." Tyler advised. "It's still going to be a long flight."