A/N- Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I got the message no more
cliffhangers (hehehe)
Warning- (should have put this in the first section sorry) this story deals with controlling relationships and abuse has a little kissing and some umm other stuff (maybe).
~~~~*~~~~
Harper froze in the crowd as he watched the scene in front of him. He saw Bobby step in front of Beka as she turned in the crowd. He saw him grab her. Harper sped up his pace. Harper knew men like Bobby had no problems beating a woman if she got in his way. No one in this crowd would ever stop to help a stranger so Harper knew it was up to him. He might last long enough to let Beka get away. As he came up from behind Bobby pulled Beka towards him and kiss her on the lips. Harper saw her eyes widen as she recognized him and then start to melt into his arms. They broke apart and Harper slowly approached them from behind standing a short enough distance away that he was forgotten but not too far away that he couldn't see and hear what was happening.
~~~~*~~~~
Beka felt herself relax and give in to Bobby's kiss. Man she had missed him; missed his sweet kisses and their long debates over what to ship where. Harper was just another crew member, she wasn't sure if they even qualified as friends yet. But Bobby was different he had been through it all with her. He knew what the past years had been like. This was the man she had poured her soul out to on numerous occasions. She deepened the kiss and found herself enjoying the present of her former boyfriend and shipmate. Some passerby bumped into the couple breaking the kiss and bringing Beka back to reality. She took a step back from Bobby she should be mad at him. He lied to her; put her and her ship in danger. But man could he kiss and it was for a good cause. But he broke her rules he should be off the ship.
"Baby how I have missed you." Bobby said breaking her train of thoughts. "I'm so sorry."
"You lied to me Bobby."
"I know. I should have told you the truth but you never would have done it and it was for a good cause."
"A good cause I'm glad to know you put me and my ship in danger for a good cause."
"I never should have done it Beka. I release how wrong I was. Could you even find it in you heart to forgive me? I don't deserver it but I see my mistake now and I will never go behind your back again."
"Bobby you broke the rules"
"I know, but someone once told me 'rules were made to be broken'"
"Not my rules"
"But Beka this is me, and you and me had something special. Don't you miss that?" Beka soon discovered that through the whole conversation Bobby had been moving closer to her and now had his arms wrapped around her waist. She started to break away but it felt so good.
~~~~*~~~~
Harper could see that Beka was falling to Bobby's charms. It looked like rules or no rules Bobby was coming back to the ship. With Bobby back Harper knew he was out. Should he slip off into the crowd now or wait. Beka was a strong woman. He had learned a lot about her in the last month on the ship.
Beka was strong but she also had a big heart. A few weeks ago he managed to shatter a part and cut-up his hand pretty good while they were both in command. When she saw what happen she rushed over to him but instead of the hit and lecture all his other bosses would have given him, she brought him up to the main room and cleaned a bandaged his hand. She never mentioned the destroyed part and didn't let him work for the rest of the day. The two of them just sat in the main room talking. Without Bobby around this had been the best job Harper had even had. A roof and food for engineering services, sure the situation wasn't new but the working conditions… well he had almost stopped ducking every time Beka raised her hand when they were working together.
Bobby was another story. He was just like every other boss Harper had ever had. He pulled him out of that prison with the deal that he would break in and steals the missiles. The whole time they were together Harper found himself ducking and avoiding Bobby and his temper. But Beka had to know all this. She was smart enough to see through Bobby's charms. At least Harper hoped she was. He would stay. Nothing on this space station would be any better. And maybe Bobby wasn't as bad when Beka was around.
"Please Beka," Bobby begged. "I know I don't deserver it or but I love you and I miss you and please take me back Beka…"
"Alright Bobby," with that Beka wrapped her arms around Bobby's neck and planted a kiss on his lips.
With that kiss Harper knew that he was facing a new life on the Maru. The cushy times were over. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad. Beka was too strong to fall for a guy like Bobby forever.
~~~~*~~~~ (week later)
Harper turned off the nano-welder for a second to wipe the sweat off of his forehead. He had been working on the slipdrive all day. He had lost track of time which wasn't a new thing on the Maru but normally Beka came wandering in every hour or two to talk to him and tell him to take a break. He missed her way of just showing up with a can of sparky cola when he was getting tired of working. It was so different to have someone who cared for him. Sure his parents and Brendan always took care of him but no one outside of the family cared if he lived or died. Beka was a different story but she had been busy in the arms of Bobby for the last week. She showed up long enough to give him a list of repairs and then inspect them at the end of the day. Other than that she was always off with Bobby. Debating over where to go next, whatever next shipment Bobby wanted Beka clearly didn't want to do it but Bobby it seemed was wearing her down. All his talks about a noble cause and helping the struggling rebels, as a former struggling rebel he doubted it.
With a sigh Harper jerked his head so his goggles fell back into place and turned his nano-welder back on. Their next shipment was Beka's choice not his. The drive was in pretty good shape but Harper wanted to get it running better for the next shipment. Beka was a good pilot but hard on the engines. The better they started out the less repair work there would be later. Over the hum of the welder he heard footsteps. Again he turned off the welder and looked to see who was coming. Before the person came into view he hear Bobby's voice
"Why did you stop?"
"Just seeing who was coming. I'll get right back to work."
"See that you do this is no free ride mudfoot." Harper nodded and turned back to the drive. He was going to start up the welder again when Bobby grabbed him and pulled him out of the hole Harper was working in. Harper's head met with one of the pipes and he had to bite his tongue to keep for crying out. Bobby pulled him to a standing position and whipped Harper around so they were standing face to face. Harper could smell the liquor on Bobby's breath. "You listening to me Mudfoot."
"Yes, sir, I heard you, sir"
"Good, don't let me catch you disrespecting me again." Harper nodded his head which wasn't good enough for Bobby. He grabbed the front of Harper's shirt, "I said don't disrespect me mudfoot."
"Yes, sir," Harper planted his feet on the deck ready to run the moment Bobby let him go. This was going to get ugly fast.
"Boby, let go of Haper" A drunk Beka called walking into engineering. Bobby let go of Harper and pushed him to the deck. He felt his head connect with another pipe as he fell. The started to fade out and he felt what felt like a warm substance flowing down his neck. He heard Beka yelling a Bobby. His last though was maybe it would have been better to have stayed on the station.
~~~*~~~
"Bobby, what are you doing?" You beat up the crew and we don't have a crew. He's the best damn engineer I have found…"
"I found him Beka. He's mine."
"No he's my crew, just like you."
"He's a mudfoot he's nothing like me."
"Bobby what's gotten into you?"
"Nothing, listen let's not ague."
"Yeah you're right, help me get him up."
"He'll be fine."
"Bobby he is bleeding all over the deck. At least grab me the med kit."
"Here, why do you care about a useless mudfoot?"
"He isn't a mudfoot anymore." With that Bobby threw the med kit from the wall in the general direction of Beka. She picked up the kit and started bandaging the back of the kid's head. He had a small cut on the back of his head. It didn't look too bad. Although right now Beka head was swimming. She shouldn't have drunk that whole bottle of wine with Bobby at dinner. But they were talking and one thing lead to another. What had he done to piss Bobby off like that? Harper never seemed to say anything to Bobby when Beka was around. Well what was she talking about he never talked. When he did he just rambled but never really told you anything. Beka had gotten use to the mindless chatter when it was just the two of them on the Maru. It seemed to fill the empty spaces after Bobby left. Well he must have pissed him off pretty well; it took a lot to get Bobby mad, most of the time.
~~~*~~~
The first thing Harper felt was the soft warmth of a bed on the Maru. The second thing was the pounding headache he had that almost seemed to out weight the burning feeling at the base of his skull. He started to lift his head up and then his head decided it wasn't such a good idea.
He decided to start small and open his eyes. The light in the room wasn't too bright. He wasn't in the crew quarters or the main room. The only other place on the Maru with a bed he knew of was Beka's quarters. Why was he in Beka's quarters? Yesterday came back to him. Guess it was closer to engineering although the jester was not lost on him. As he looked around he was having trouble deciding which was less painful squinting and having his head pound, or just having his eyes open and let them be added to his list of aches and pains when he heard Beka's voice.
"So your finally awake kid?" Her voice was husky. Apparently last nights liquor had faded off and left her with one hell of a hangover. That was sort of how he felt right now. Too bad he hadn't had the up to come with the down.
"Yeah," Harper said surprised how horse his voice was. He cleared his throat and tried again. "I'm up. How long was I out for?"
"All last night and half of this morning. Had me worried. What did you do to piss him off?"
"Nothing," through the fog of his headache he could see Beka's doubting look. Clearly she sided with Bobby on this one. Although she had patched him up and put him in her bunk. She had been waiting for him to wake-up; maybe she was just trying to figure out what happened. "I swear boss I did nothing."
"Harper, Bobby just doesn't going around beating up my crew."
"Whatever you say Boss, but I haven't been lying in this bed for a day and a half because I slammed my own head into the slip-drive."
"Listen I know Bobby and I know he didn't mean to hurt you. It was an accident, heat of the moment type of thing. Forgive and forget." Harper did his best not to sigh. Clearly Beka would never see what really happened. She was rather trashed at the time. He had never seen her drink before. Although it's not he not drank anything in the past month either. He just wondered. The hardest substance they had on the ship was sparky cola and coffee. Some told him both him and Beka could use a cup of that right now.
"Yeah I'm sure it won't happen again." Harper tried to cover the sarcasm in his voice as he lifted his head off the bed and tried to sit up. He stopped as he felt the world going black again but it stopped and he felt Beka's hands on his back keeping him from falling backwards into the bed.
"Careful, we still have repairs that need to be done before our job." Harper tried not to groan. He could barely lift his head not to mention a tool. The wiring of the Maru was so pieced together it was a fun challenged most days but today he didn't know if he could managed figuring it all out with his head pounding like this. He was more likely to fry the ships electrical systems on a day like this then repair them.
"I'll get right on that boss." Harper said starting to move his feet off the side of his bed.
"Not right now. You are barely sitting up straight. Wait a day. Bobby is working on finishing up some of the repairs." Beka was now sitting on the bed next to him supporting most of his weight, one arm around his back, the other on his arm.
"Thanks boss."
"Sure if I kill you I lose the only engineer who has ever managed to fit in every nook and cranny this place has. You want something to eat?"
"Yeah I guess so."
"Think you could make it to the mess."
"No breakfast in bed?"
"Not in the middle of the afternoon."
"Beka's it's the middle of space how do you know if it is morning or the middle of the day."
"After a while you just do, come on you have to work for you food."
"But I thought you said repairs…"
"I meant you have to walk to the mess if you want to eat. We aren't going to hurt you here. Bobby really isn't like that." Harper slowly stood with Beka's help and started walking towards the main room. He had no sense of balance so Beka had to keep him from falling. When they got to the main room Beka sat him down in one of the chairs at the table. Harper put his elbows on the table and began to rub his temples. His head hurt and he knew that this was no accident. This was going to get worst before it got better it always did.
Warning- (should have put this in the first section sorry) this story deals with controlling relationships and abuse has a little kissing and some umm other stuff (maybe).
~~~~*~~~~
Harper froze in the crowd as he watched the scene in front of him. He saw Bobby step in front of Beka as she turned in the crowd. He saw him grab her. Harper sped up his pace. Harper knew men like Bobby had no problems beating a woman if she got in his way. No one in this crowd would ever stop to help a stranger so Harper knew it was up to him. He might last long enough to let Beka get away. As he came up from behind Bobby pulled Beka towards him and kiss her on the lips. Harper saw her eyes widen as she recognized him and then start to melt into his arms. They broke apart and Harper slowly approached them from behind standing a short enough distance away that he was forgotten but not too far away that he couldn't see and hear what was happening.
~~~~*~~~~
Beka felt herself relax and give in to Bobby's kiss. Man she had missed him; missed his sweet kisses and their long debates over what to ship where. Harper was just another crew member, she wasn't sure if they even qualified as friends yet. But Bobby was different he had been through it all with her. He knew what the past years had been like. This was the man she had poured her soul out to on numerous occasions. She deepened the kiss and found herself enjoying the present of her former boyfriend and shipmate. Some passerby bumped into the couple breaking the kiss and bringing Beka back to reality. She took a step back from Bobby she should be mad at him. He lied to her; put her and her ship in danger. But man could he kiss and it was for a good cause. But he broke her rules he should be off the ship.
"Baby how I have missed you." Bobby said breaking her train of thoughts. "I'm so sorry."
"You lied to me Bobby."
"I know. I should have told you the truth but you never would have done it and it was for a good cause."
"A good cause I'm glad to know you put me and my ship in danger for a good cause."
"I never should have done it Beka. I release how wrong I was. Could you even find it in you heart to forgive me? I don't deserver it but I see my mistake now and I will never go behind your back again."
"Bobby you broke the rules"
"I know, but someone once told me 'rules were made to be broken'"
"Not my rules"
"But Beka this is me, and you and me had something special. Don't you miss that?" Beka soon discovered that through the whole conversation Bobby had been moving closer to her and now had his arms wrapped around her waist. She started to break away but it felt so good.
~~~~*~~~~
Harper could see that Beka was falling to Bobby's charms. It looked like rules or no rules Bobby was coming back to the ship. With Bobby back Harper knew he was out. Should he slip off into the crowd now or wait. Beka was a strong woman. He had learned a lot about her in the last month on the ship.
Beka was strong but she also had a big heart. A few weeks ago he managed to shatter a part and cut-up his hand pretty good while they were both in command. When she saw what happen she rushed over to him but instead of the hit and lecture all his other bosses would have given him, she brought him up to the main room and cleaned a bandaged his hand. She never mentioned the destroyed part and didn't let him work for the rest of the day. The two of them just sat in the main room talking. Without Bobby around this had been the best job Harper had even had. A roof and food for engineering services, sure the situation wasn't new but the working conditions… well he had almost stopped ducking every time Beka raised her hand when they were working together.
Bobby was another story. He was just like every other boss Harper had ever had. He pulled him out of that prison with the deal that he would break in and steals the missiles. The whole time they were together Harper found himself ducking and avoiding Bobby and his temper. But Beka had to know all this. She was smart enough to see through Bobby's charms. At least Harper hoped she was. He would stay. Nothing on this space station would be any better. And maybe Bobby wasn't as bad when Beka was around.
"Please Beka," Bobby begged. "I know I don't deserver it or but I love you and I miss you and please take me back Beka…"
"Alright Bobby," with that Beka wrapped her arms around Bobby's neck and planted a kiss on his lips.
With that kiss Harper knew that he was facing a new life on the Maru. The cushy times were over. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad. Beka was too strong to fall for a guy like Bobby forever.
~~~~*~~~~ (week later)
Harper turned off the nano-welder for a second to wipe the sweat off of his forehead. He had been working on the slipdrive all day. He had lost track of time which wasn't a new thing on the Maru but normally Beka came wandering in every hour or two to talk to him and tell him to take a break. He missed her way of just showing up with a can of sparky cola when he was getting tired of working. It was so different to have someone who cared for him. Sure his parents and Brendan always took care of him but no one outside of the family cared if he lived or died. Beka was a different story but she had been busy in the arms of Bobby for the last week. She showed up long enough to give him a list of repairs and then inspect them at the end of the day. Other than that she was always off with Bobby. Debating over where to go next, whatever next shipment Bobby wanted Beka clearly didn't want to do it but Bobby it seemed was wearing her down. All his talks about a noble cause and helping the struggling rebels, as a former struggling rebel he doubted it.
With a sigh Harper jerked his head so his goggles fell back into place and turned his nano-welder back on. Their next shipment was Beka's choice not his. The drive was in pretty good shape but Harper wanted to get it running better for the next shipment. Beka was a good pilot but hard on the engines. The better they started out the less repair work there would be later. Over the hum of the welder he heard footsteps. Again he turned off the welder and looked to see who was coming. Before the person came into view he hear Bobby's voice
"Why did you stop?"
"Just seeing who was coming. I'll get right back to work."
"See that you do this is no free ride mudfoot." Harper nodded and turned back to the drive. He was going to start up the welder again when Bobby grabbed him and pulled him out of the hole Harper was working in. Harper's head met with one of the pipes and he had to bite his tongue to keep for crying out. Bobby pulled him to a standing position and whipped Harper around so they were standing face to face. Harper could smell the liquor on Bobby's breath. "You listening to me Mudfoot."
"Yes, sir, I heard you, sir"
"Good, don't let me catch you disrespecting me again." Harper nodded his head which wasn't good enough for Bobby. He grabbed the front of Harper's shirt, "I said don't disrespect me mudfoot."
"Yes, sir," Harper planted his feet on the deck ready to run the moment Bobby let him go. This was going to get ugly fast.
"Boby, let go of Haper" A drunk Beka called walking into engineering. Bobby let go of Harper and pushed him to the deck. He felt his head connect with another pipe as he fell. The started to fade out and he felt what felt like a warm substance flowing down his neck. He heard Beka yelling a Bobby. His last though was maybe it would have been better to have stayed on the station.
~~~*~~~
"Bobby, what are you doing?" You beat up the crew and we don't have a crew. He's the best damn engineer I have found…"
"I found him Beka. He's mine."
"No he's my crew, just like you."
"He's a mudfoot he's nothing like me."
"Bobby what's gotten into you?"
"Nothing, listen let's not ague."
"Yeah you're right, help me get him up."
"He'll be fine."
"Bobby he is bleeding all over the deck. At least grab me the med kit."
"Here, why do you care about a useless mudfoot?"
"He isn't a mudfoot anymore." With that Bobby threw the med kit from the wall in the general direction of Beka. She picked up the kit and started bandaging the back of the kid's head. He had a small cut on the back of his head. It didn't look too bad. Although right now Beka head was swimming. She shouldn't have drunk that whole bottle of wine with Bobby at dinner. But they were talking and one thing lead to another. What had he done to piss Bobby off like that? Harper never seemed to say anything to Bobby when Beka was around. Well what was she talking about he never talked. When he did he just rambled but never really told you anything. Beka had gotten use to the mindless chatter when it was just the two of them on the Maru. It seemed to fill the empty spaces after Bobby left. Well he must have pissed him off pretty well; it took a lot to get Bobby mad, most of the time.
~~~*~~~
The first thing Harper felt was the soft warmth of a bed on the Maru. The second thing was the pounding headache he had that almost seemed to out weight the burning feeling at the base of his skull. He started to lift his head up and then his head decided it wasn't such a good idea.
He decided to start small and open his eyes. The light in the room wasn't too bright. He wasn't in the crew quarters or the main room. The only other place on the Maru with a bed he knew of was Beka's quarters. Why was he in Beka's quarters? Yesterday came back to him. Guess it was closer to engineering although the jester was not lost on him. As he looked around he was having trouble deciding which was less painful squinting and having his head pound, or just having his eyes open and let them be added to his list of aches and pains when he heard Beka's voice.
"So your finally awake kid?" Her voice was husky. Apparently last nights liquor had faded off and left her with one hell of a hangover. That was sort of how he felt right now. Too bad he hadn't had the up to come with the down.
"Yeah," Harper said surprised how horse his voice was. He cleared his throat and tried again. "I'm up. How long was I out for?"
"All last night and half of this morning. Had me worried. What did you do to piss him off?"
"Nothing," through the fog of his headache he could see Beka's doubting look. Clearly she sided with Bobby on this one. Although she had patched him up and put him in her bunk. She had been waiting for him to wake-up; maybe she was just trying to figure out what happened. "I swear boss I did nothing."
"Harper, Bobby just doesn't going around beating up my crew."
"Whatever you say Boss, but I haven't been lying in this bed for a day and a half because I slammed my own head into the slip-drive."
"Listen I know Bobby and I know he didn't mean to hurt you. It was an accident, heat of the moment type of thing. Forgive and forget." Harper did his best not to sigh. Clearly Beka would never see what really happened. She was rather trashed at the time. He had never seen her drink before. Although it's not he not drank anything in the past month either. He just wondered. The hardest substance they had on the ship was sparky cola and coffee. Some told him both him and Beka could use a cup of that right now.
"Yeah I'm sure it won't happen again." Harper tried to cover the sarcasm in his voice as he lifted his head off the bed and tried to sit up. He stopped as he felt the world going black again but it stopped and he felt Beka's hands on his back keeping him from falling backwards into the bed.
"Careful, we still have repairs that need to be done before our job." Harper tried not to groan. He could barely lift his head not to mention a tool. The wiring of the Maru was so pieced together it was a fun challenged most days but today he didn't know if he could managed figuring it all out with his head pounding like this. He was more likely to fry the ships electrical systems on a day like this then repair them.
"I'll get right on that boss." Harper said starting to move his feet off the side of his bed.
"Not right now. You are barely sitting up straight. Wait a day. Bobby is working on finishing up some of the repairs." Beka was now sitting on the bed next to him supporting most of his weight, one arm around his back, the other on his arm.
"Thanks boss."
"Sure if I kill you I lose the only engineer who has ever managed to fit in every nook and cranny this place has. You want something to eat?"
"Yeah I guess so."
"Think you could make it to the mess."
"No breakfast in bed?"
"Not in the middle of the afternoon."
"Beka's it's the middle of space how do you know if it is morning or the middle of the day."
"After a while you just do, come on you have to work for you food."
"But I thought you said repairs…"
"I meant you have to walk to the mess if you want to eat. We aren't going to hurt you here. Bobby really isn't like that." Harper slowly stood with Beka's help and started walking towards the main room. He had no sense of balance so Beka had to keep him from falling. When they got to the main room Beka sat him down in one of the chairs at the table. Harper put his elbows on the table and began to rub his temples. His head hurt and he knew that this was no accident. This was going to get worst before it got better it always did.