Chapter 2

Eden 5

After the meal, they sat around on the deck for a while, relaxing and letting the meal digest, before they made their way inside and reconvened at the lounge. There Gaige began regaling them with stories of her time on the road, though Deathtrap occasionally stepped in with an alteration to her memory. Thought Gaige jumped all over the place with her tales, none of her audience minded, each one listening with a different outlook.

Her dad beamed with pride as she used her wits and robotics knowledge to thwart her foes. Her mom fretted as her daughter faced dangers she couldn't imagine. And Artemis was happy to find out parts of the other girls' life before they had met.

It wasn't long before Gaige felt that she had to tell her parents about how the two girls had met, as well as what had happened since. She knew there would be more time for telling them everything, all the other adventures, exciting and not, but she knew that they needed to hear about how much the other girl had helped her. How she had been there when Gaige needed her, more than she knew. How she had got her back to them, at great personal sacrifice. So she told them, even as she could see the expression on the other girl's face twist.

For Artemis, the stories that Gaige was telling about them sounded made up, or at the least, they exaggerated Artemis's exploits, making her sound heroic when she had been anything but. Every time that she tried to interject, to tell them that it hadn't been like that, Deathtrap placed his hand on her shoulder and shook his head. She didn't get it, it was almost like he was telling her that Gaige was right, that she was telling it how it had happened, even though they all knew that it hadn't been like that. In the end, she was forced to sit there, squirming in her seat, as the nearly fictional exploits were spun.

Eventually Gaige got to them paying off the debt and paused to take a drink as her parents sat in silence.

Artemis finally had enough and broke the silence "Not to be rude, but that's not how I remember things happening."

"What? That's exactly how they happened."

"No, I seem to remember you doing a lot more and me standing around uselessly while you worked."

"You didn't stand around uselessly."

"Only every time you worked on a door, or a machine, or we had to solve a problem."

"And I ended up standing around all the times you were doing the important stuff, like crawling through vents and"

"That's because I made you wait around while I took too long screwing up."

"Ugggur"

"Sorry." They said in unison, hanging their heads like chastised children, which elected a chuckle from Gaige's parents.

"Well, it's getting late." Gaige said standing up "We should be getting back to the ship."

"Already? You just got here. How long are you going to be staying in the area for?"

"Well, probably about a week." Artemis answered, surprising Gaige.

"We don't want to be a burden." Gaige added "I don't want to put you out, dropping in suddenly and all."

"Nonsense." Her dad countered "You should stay here. We left your room just the way you left it."

"Well, I did do your laundry and put them away." Her mother added.

"Well, yes that, but other than that, everything's the same. You should stay here tonight, your friend can take the guest room."

"But, we really didn't plan on it. I mean we left our stuff on the ship."

"You can get it in the morning then, besides, it's dark out."

Artemis cocked her head and stared at him "And there's something in that dark that should worry us?"

"Well, no, but..."

"Fine, we can stay the night." Gaige said, realizing that her dad would keep on them until they relented.

"Great." He said happily "You can go back to your ship while we're at work. I'll give you the spare key. What else were you thinking of doing while you're back?"

"I hadn't really thought about that." Gaige said, realizing that her plans had never gotten past her getting to the front door.

"Well, think about it and let me know in the morning, I'll see what I can do."

"Alright, why don't you show Artemis the guest room and facilities while I go check out my old room." Seeing the other girls face, she added softly "I think this is something that I need to do alone."

Leaving the girl with her parents, Gaige started up the stairs and soon found herself standing in front of a door covered in warning labels and caution tape. Sighing at the juvenileness of it she opened the door and stepped in.

Her parents had been right, with the exception of the clothes no longer being scattered across the floor, the room was like stepping into a time machine.

Nothing was different, from the posters on the walls to the calendar pinned next to them, with the date of the science fair circled in red. The shelves practically bulged with toys and robotics projects. A few stuffed toys were hidden against one wall and on her desk were notebooks containing everything from the plans and ideas for Deathtrap, to her old homework that would never be finished. Her bed looked so small against the wall that she wondered if she would even fit on it anymore.

Her old backpack was sitting on the desk chair, undoubtedly where her father had left it after retrieving it from the school.

Gaige stood in the doorway, looking at all the things from her old life, the things that had defined her and had been so important for so long and felt a sense of profound loneliness sweep over her, until a hand landed on her shoulder.

Turning she found Deathtrap floating behind her. He nodded and patted her shoulder again, which finally got a small smile from her.

"I'm OK." She said "It's just, well, it's like looking into a barely remembered dream. Like I know all this stuff, like each thing I see, I'm like 'Oh, I remember that'. But it all seems so far away, like I can hardly recognize the girl who owned it."

He patted her on the shoulder again, letting her take her time in silence, which she was grateful for.

Eventually she took a step into the room and picked the old book-bag off the chair. Clutching it to her chest, she sat down and slowly spun the chair, taking in everything.

After a few minutes she suddenly stood up and walked to the corner, where the stuffed animals were hiding and dug behind them. Coming up with what she wanted she walked out of the room and went back downstairs. Hearing her parents in the kitchen, undoubtedly talking about what their daughter had become, she resisted the urge to eavesdrop and instead went to a door just down a hall and knocked on it.

A moment later it cracked open and a familiar face showed through the crack. Seeing who it was, Artemis opened it the rest of the way.

"How's it going?" She asked in a low voice.

"Good. Weird. I don't know." She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and then, as if remembering why she was there in the first place, brought out what she had taken from her room.

"I just wanted to show you something." She said holding up an old Equine toy "Like I said, I had most of them."

Artemis looked at the other girl in confusion, before taking the toy gently and looking it over.

"I don't know why I thought of that, but I wanted to show you."

"Thank you." Artemis said, carefully handing it back "But what you really wanted to do was to talk, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess. It's just so strange, being home I mean. It's like, nothing's changed, but it's, well..."

"Like you don't know if you belong anymore?"

"Yeah, kinda. I mean, my parents look, well, older. Not old, mind you, but older, and I know that it's been about eight years now, but I have this mental image of them, like they didn't change from my memory, and suddenly, they seem old."

"Still, not as bad as you were afraid it would be, is it?"

"No, but I haven't told them about quitting my job yet either. Oh, and speaking of being a bum, you really think we should stay here for a week? I mean, don't get me wrong, I wanna see my parents, but do we really want to impose on them for that long?"

"How would I know, it's not like I've ever been over at someone's house before. I was just thinking that would give you enough time to spend with them and take care of stuff around here."

"Sorry. You're right, thanks. But what are you gonna be doing in that time? I mean, I know that you don't want to be part of all the family talks and stuff. And besides, both of my parents will be going to work during the day, so even I won't have something to do for a good part of the time."

"Um, well, I hadn't really thought about it. For tomorrow at least, we can go back to the ship and collect our stuff."

"And then? I mean, that's gonna take an hour, and that's if we stretch it. What are we gonna do for the rest of the day?"

"I donno, I guess I didn't think about that, still, all the more reason for us to stay longer."

Seeing the confusion on Gaige's face she continued "You'll only have evenings to talk to your parents, so it won't be as much time per day."

"Ah. Right."

"Oh, and when we get to the ship tomorrow, we should check in with A.I. ngel. It'll be evening there, but we should let her know that we got here safe and all."

"Right, well, I should be getting out of here, let you get some sleep. See you tomorrow."

"Night."

Gaige walked back upstairs, clutching the Equine to her chest, and after a bit of prep, made for her old bed. Turning back the covers, she could smell the familiar scent of her mother's preferred detergent on the sheets, belying their protests from earlier. It seemed that the old clothes weren't the only things that she had washed, and that they had put fresh sheets on her bed, in anticipation of her arrival.

Just as she was about to slip between the sheets, there was a knock on the door. When she called out that it was OK to enter, the door opened and her dad poked his head in.

"What's up?" She asked him.

"Just making sure that you're all set. You don't need anything do you?"

"Only stuff that I'll need to pick up tomorrow."

"Alright, sleep well. Oh, and I brought you this." He said stepping in and holding out a steaming mug. Looking at it, Gaige couldn't help but to smile. It was filled with hot chocolate.

"Thanks." Gaige said, taking a sip.

"I wasn't sure if you outgrew hot cocoa or not, but if you didn't want it, I would have drunk it."

"I learned that you're never too old for hot cocoa." She said with a melancholy smile.

"Sounds like there's a story there."

"There is. But for now, let's just say that Artemis had the same idea as you. She served me hot cocoa on my first night on her ship. And it took me a little while to admit that it had been too long since I'd allowed myself to enjoy a mug.

"She seems like a good kid."

"She is."

"Well, I should let you get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Night dad."

He paused in the doorway and looked back at her for a moment, before adding "It's really good to have you home." With that he closed the door behind him.

After she finished the mug, and brushed her teeth, she snuggled in her old bed, pulling the sheets up and sighing. After so many years, she was home. Despite that, she found sleep evading her for a good while that night.

The Next Morning

Artemis woke early and after using the bathroom, padded silently out of the guest room. She didn't have any particular reason for being up so early, she had slept fine, but still had woken early. It wasn't like she was a morning person, nor was she a distinctly non-morning person, she tended to wake when she did and thought nothing of it. It was also hard to be any kind of person, morning or not, when you were constantly jumping planet to planet, so she had learned to adapt.

She stepped into the hall and stopped, unsure of what she was doing. She didn't want to get caught wandering around and give some kind of wrong impression to her hosts, but she couldn't spend the morning cooped up in the guest room, waiting for Gaige to get up either. In the end, she followed the smell of coffee to the kitchen, where she found Gaige's dad sitting at the table.

"Oh, didn't take you for a morning person." He said, spotting her in the doorway "Sit down, have some breakfast. We've got cereal, eggs, toast, and probably something else in the fridge."

"Thanks? I think I'll wait and have Deathtrap whip me up an omelet after he comes down."

"He cooks now?"

"He does. Rather well, truth be told. He actually helped with last nights' meal."

"Thanks for that. I don't know if I said that last night, but it was really good. Not trying to capture someone's heart with your cooking, are you?"

"Wha, no."

"I'm teasing. Please sit down, even if you aren't eating anything, keep me company while I finish up. Got a little bit of time before I have to go to work. Still, you're up early, couldn't sleep? Bed not comfortable? Something else we can do to make your stay comfortable?"

"No, no, it's not that. The bed was fine. And I slept alright, a strange house is no different from sleeping in the forest for me. It's one of the first things you pick up. Being able to sleep wherever, I mean. You learn to catch what sleep you can, wherever you can."

"Seems useful, I think I've got a coworker with that skill."

As Artemis sat down in the chair, he spotted the fact that even inside, on this peaceful of a planet, she still had her pistol and shield on her. He wanted to say something, but even he knew that people like her couldn't relax, they never let their guard down, since it was a good way to die in the rest of the galaxy. Still, he worried that his daughter was much the same, unable to ever let her guard down for the rest of her life.

He looked at his guest, over his coffee mug, and sighed. Setting the mug down he looked her straight in the eye and said "We need to talk."

Artemis froze "About what?"

"A number of things. Things that I don't want my daughter to overhear, and I don't think you want her to either."

Seeing the look on the girls face he relented slightly "Relax, there's just some things I want to clarify. First off, last night, when you said you wanted to stay a week, Gaige seemed surprised. That seemed odd to me. Mind telling me why you want to stay that long?"

"Well, I uh...I kinda, wanted her to, um, celebrate her, well, her birthday, with her family. I think she's, well, forgotten about it, honestly. So, I kinda, well, I wanted to surprise her with it, you know?"

He nodded "That's what I thought. I'll tell the missus that we were right about that. Second, yesterday you seemed to imply that my daughter had a, well, I guess, a drinking problem."

"Not really a problem, more of a, well, Idonno."

"Tell me about it, if you could. I want to be able to help her while she's here. Also, does she have any other problems like that that I should be aware of?"

"I don't know if it's my place to say..."

"Just tell me what you can, even if it's just enough that I can avoid a repeat of last night."

Sighing, Artemis told him, in brief, about Gaige's drinking. In the end, she wound up telling him about nearly the whole Jaka 4 debacle, only realizing near the end that she was probably saying too much, so she ended with "Please don't tell her I said any of that."

"I'll try." He said, sounding somewhere between relieved to know what had happened and worried about what had happened before the girls had met. Resolving to talk to Deathtrap about that later, he continued "But I don't think that I want her to know that I've been talking behind her back any more than you do."

Getting a guilty looking nod from the girl, he continued "Gaige doesn't know about you, does she?"

He got a look of genuine confusion "What do you mean?"

"Well, that you like her."

"I told her that."

"Yeah, but she didn't take it the way you meant, did she?"

He watched as the girl froze up, her eyes wide in either shock or panic. She even seemed to have stopped breathing. After a good few seconds, she managed to squeak out the most unconvincing "Wha...I don't, I mean, she, me..." She cleared her throat and tried again with a bit more success "It's not like that, I don't think of her that way. I mean, we're just friends."

"I'm sorry, I must have been mistaken." He said, clearly not meaning it. Dropping it he switched to a neutral subject while picking his dishes up "Well, that's enough of that. What do you girls have planned for today?"

The girl was still too stunned to give much of an answer, but still managed to get out "We're goin to the ship."

"Well, if you find yourselves with time on your hands, you can have Gaige show you around town, or maybe you two can use her old workshop for something. Tell her that I left it just the way it was."

"I, uh, will."

He placed his dishes in the machine and started to walk out when he stopped and looked at her. "Remember what we talked about." Then almost as an afterthought, he pointed to her belt and said "Hey, I recognize that, one of those Friendly Equine or something right? Gaige has a bunch of them in her room."

"She showed me."

"Good for her, I'm glad that some things haven't changed."

He nodded to her and stepped out into the hall, before poking his head back and adding "Sorry if I seem a bit harsh on you. I really want to thank you for helping her. And more than that, for being her friend. To tell you the truth, you're the first person that she's ever brought home to meet us. So I'm glad that you seem to be alright. Well, tell Gaige I'll see her tonight and have a good day. Both of you."

And with that he was gone. A minute later she heard the front door close, leaving her sitting at the table alone and confused.

A Bit More Than An Hour Later

Artemis had still been sitting at the table, staring off into space, when Deathtrap had come down and offered to make her something to eat. She found that she didn't really have much of an appetite at that moment, so she thanked him, but asked him to wait till Gaige got down before starting.

It was about half an hour later when she heard the stairs groan ever so slightly as Gaige came down. When she entered the kitchen, Artemis almost didn't recognize her. Her hair was down, she wasn't wearing any of her jewelry and most striking, she was wearing an old T-shirt. One that might have been OK when she left, but was now a bit tight, causing Artemis to blush and look away.

Noticing the discomfort of her friend and completely misunderstanding it, Gaige tugged at the shirt and said "I swear this was baggy when I left. Mom must have washed it wrong or something. Oh well, it'll do until we get back to the ship."

As Deathtrap got to work in the kitchen, Gaige plopped down across from Artemis, in the seat her father had vacated and looked around. "You're up early. I mean, I get it, strange house and all that." Then almost as an aside she added "Man is it weird to be back."

"Odd, your father said almost the same thing. The early part I mean, not the weird part."

"What? You mean he already left for work? Dang it, I wanted to see him off. Guess I'll need to set an alarm to do that. So, how was he?"

"Huh?"

"Well, you did talk to him didn't you."

Seeing the other girls' reaction, Gaige's eyes narrowed and she asked in a low voice "What'd he say to you?"

"Wha..."

"You're no good at hiding things, he said something to you, didn't he?"

Artemis sighed "He asked me a couple of questions, that I won't be repeating." Catching the look on Gaige's face she quickly added "Nothing too bad, just stuff that he couldn't really ask you, I think."

"Oh, and what couldn't he ask me? And no, I'm not gonna stop pestering you about this, so fess up."

"Well..." Artemis quickly racked her brain and decided to be as honest as she could, without letting anything important slip. "He wanted to know about the, um, alcohol thing, and if, well, there was anything else like that, that he should know about."

"And what'd you tell him?"

"I kinda told him about Jaka." Artemis said trailing off, looking down like a guilty child.

Gaige sighed "How much of it did you tell him? I mean I kinda skimmed over it last night."

"All of it." Came the barely audible reply.

"Well, he knows about it now, but at least that story ends with you saving the day. You did tell him that part, right? Wait, did you mention 'Him'?"

"I kinda left him out. I just ended with you getting drunk and us having to carry you back."

Gaige sighed and held her head in her hands "I don't know whether to be glad or angry at you. I mean, I don't want him worrying about me out there, well any more then he already would. But I want him to think well of you, and that was one of your moments."

"I just didn't want him to know how close you came to, well, you know."

"Thanks. I get where you're coming from. I'll have to decide later."

"Decide what?"

"I donno, whether to be angry at you or grateful, what to tell him about the rest of it, you know, all that stuff."

"Oh, OK. Oh right, speaking of your father, he wanted me to relay a couple of things. First, he'll see you tonight and that he wants you to have a good day."

"Well duh."

"Just passing it along."

"I know, was there anything else?"

"Yes, that's why I started with 'First'."

"Bitch."

"Anyway, second. He wanted me to tell you that he thought that if we were bored you could show me around town, or maybe we could work on something in your old workshop, which was the final thing. He said to let you know that he left it just as it was."

"Really? Wow, we should check that out later. But right now, food." She said as Deathtrap set their plates in front of them.