/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
BANG! BANG! BANG! "Hey, Bek, I know you're in there! I'll hack my way in if I have to!" Harper's muffled voice and loud bangs echoed throughout the Eureka Maru, but Beka didn't hear. She wasn't hearing much at the moment.
Once Beka had started crying, she couldn't stop. She had cried for all those years she hadn't been able to, cried for every time someone had hurt her, cried for every injury she had ever received. Every time she thought she was finished, she was reminded of some other mistake she had made in her life, and had just started over. Beka Valentine, the girl who never cried, had spent a day doing just that, and she hated herself for it. But that only made her cry more.
And so she had cried, and cried, and cried, until she couldn't cry anymore, and even after that she still sobbed, body shaking. But finally, she had been able to stop. And then her pet demons had come back to haunt her, and she had started crying all over again.
At the moment, she was curled up in the pilot chair of the Maru, eyes red and puffy, face and hair a mess, voice raspy, just rocking back and forth, back and forth, incoherent and incapable of all rational thought, unable to do anything but rock, feeling like a little girl again. It's okay, Daddy's gonna come get you now, isn't he? Gonna wrap his arms around you and tell you everything's gonna be alright? Tell you that he loves you, and that he'd never ever go away?Ha, I don't think so. He's gonna be mad at you, mad at you for crying, he isn't gonna love you anymore, nobody is. Nobody never ever ever ever again.
"Beka? Beka, c'mon, you've been in there almost two days, you have to come out sometime! Everyone's worried about you, especially Trance! Tyr's threatening to break down the door!" Harper's voice sounded again. "Please, Bek! If you don't come out, you'll die of dehydration! Or you'll starve to death! Please, Beka, just come out here!"
Something in his voice snapped her out of her crying-induced trance, and she tried to respond. After all, ya don't want someone to come in here and see ya like this. After a few false starts, she called back, "I'll be out in fifteen minutes, okay, Seamus?"
Silence.
Finally, he responded, "Alrighty, Beka. I'll wait."
Fifteen minutes until she had to face the world. She got up and nearly fell down again as her legs protested against being used for the first time in two days. "Brush your hair...wash your face...splash cold water on your eyes...drink some water..." Talking to herself seemed to help fill the silence that threatened to overwhelm her. "But what are you going to say to them? Hmmm...believable story now...can't tell them the truth. 'I needed some alone time-' nah, sounds stupid. 'I fell asleep?' For two days? Yeah, right. 'I was working on the Maru and lost track of the time'-better, I'll use that one."
Feeling somewhat presentable, she gave the command to open the door, feeling the adrenaline rush as she prepared to face the world once more. She closed her eyes...
...and when she opened them, Harper was staring in her face.
"God, Beka, you look awful."
So she hadn't done as good a job freshening up as she thought. "I'm fine, Harper." And she did feel fine. Giddy, even. Seeing the unconvinced look in his eyes, she tried again. "Really, I feel great."
"Um...are you sure, Beka?" Harper asked, looking concerned.
Beka had no idea why. She felt the best she had in a long time. Her hand didn't hurt. Her eyes didn't hurt. She didn't even have that damned headache that had been plaguing her. Her only problem was that she felt...light...and...airy. But that felt good too. And then she wondered suddenly why her world was moving when she was sure she hadn't, and she wondered if she was flying. She saw Harper's white and worried face, heard him shout something, wondered if he was sick again, and she was about to tell him to go to Medical when her world went black.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Author's Note: This would have been longer, but, well, I know what I
want to do in the next part, but I don't know how to say it. It'll
be up soon. School usually helps me write, because I'm so bored I
have nothing else to do. Please review!