Burnt to Ashes Chapter 4
Okay, this is going to be a short chapter, but it is the what I've had requests for - Dylan and the rest of the crew and their reactions to Rommie's departure. This should be followed, all things going to plan, by a longer chapter on Tuesday/Wednesday because I have the day off Tuesday. This does, however, mean that Wednesdays chapter won't be the last chapter as planned because this chapter was supposed to be part Dylan and crew and part Rommie.
Six months since Rommie's departure... (yes, we've gone forward in time)
On the Andromeda...
He couldn't believe that six months had past. Six months and no word. She hadn't even let them know she was okay.
They'd all reacted differently to her departure.
Tyr had seemed almost indifferent, he did miss her efficiency though and her ability to keep Harper in check. Tyr had been the last person to spend any amount of time with Rommie and yet he could spread no light on her departure.
Dylan had felt that maybe he was holding something back but Tyr maintained that he knew nothing.
Beka acted as he had expected Beka would. Secretly sad and worried about her, but trying to keep the rest of the crew's spirits up by maintaining that she would come back and that she could take care of herself. She was a grown woman after all.
Trance.. well, it was hard to tell with Trance. She had seemed upset but was more concerned with Harper's reaction. He supposed they all were, it had affected Harper the worst, well, maybe with the exception of the Andromeda.
Harper was devastated when Rommie left. He felt that he'd now lost three of his friends, Rev, Trance (well, she wasn't the same to him) and Rommie. He was depressed. He spent long hours in his machine shop, working on anything he could find. He talked very little to anyone and completely ignored Trance now.
It was as if he blamed her in some way for all that had happened. Dylan tried talking to him, Beka tried talking to him. Even Tyr, though it didn't do any good. Eventually he stopped blaming Trance for what had happened but he placed his blame elsewhere.
First it was on Tyr, for whatever it was that he must have done to Rommie that caused her to leave after they'd gotten back. He ignored him, refused to fix anything for him and generally tried to make his life hell. It lasted for over a month and no-one not Beka, not Trance who he had now begun to accept and not even Dylan could talk him out of it.
Then abruptly it changed. He began to blame himself. He convinced himself that he had somehow driven her away, made her life unbearable enough for her to want to leave. He locked himself in his machine shop for days on end. Drinking whatever alcohol he could find.
This lasted the longest Dylan thought. Harper just went from one extreme to another. And it was destroying his crew. Beka and Trance were constantly worried about him, trying new idea to get him to stop blaming himself. Nothing else mattered to them.
Tyr was the one who eventually put an end to it. He went and talked to Harper, he was only in there half an hour. Dylan didn't know what was said. But Harper appeared back to normal very quickly. Beka and Trance were very relieved, so was Andromeda.
But whatever it was that Tyr said is now very important because though Dylan was hoping Harper's blame would end, it didn't, it turned on him. He don't know what exactly it was he had done and he'd have been trying to find out from Harper but he's barely speaking to him.
Dylan had never realised that they needed Rommie so much. But he supposed you never know what you had until you lost it. He wanted to know that she was okay, everyone did. If he knew why she'd left, then maybe he could fix things, make things better and she could come back.
He would have gone after her but the message was clear, she didn't want to be here and she wouldn't be talked out of it. Maybe Harper resents him because he let her go, like he let Rev go. Or maybe it is something else, the one thing he was not willing to face.
That's why he wouldn't speak to Tyr. He was too afraid that Tyr would confirm his suspicions.
As he considered this he thought 'What a fearless Highguard officer I am, afraid of the truth, afraid of emotions, afraid of love.
Maybe I do love Rommie but not the way I think she wants me to. So I pretend, I pretend I don't know. I didn't want to hurt her but maybe by trying not to hurt her, I managed to hurt her more.'
He missed her. They all missed her. He wished he could tell her how sorry he was. He wished he knew that she was okay. They all did.
. . .
Okay, if the tenses all sound wrong then it's probably because I think I started writing in first person halfway through and tried to correct it. I'm just really tired, I was at an Amnesty conference all yesterday. So I'm all for human rights, anti-racism and tic-tac hockey. Oh and please review! And thanks for all the reviews so far!