There was hesitancy in her steps, they faltered on the cold floor. She didn't want to walk the way she was, her feet moving of their own accord, much like the lights that flickered around her. He was going to be predictable. That was one of the things she admired in him, his constancy and his reason. But they had become staid, gloomy and needed to be reassessed in the times that faced them. She turned the handle slowly, taking in the room as best she could, judging his mood before anything else could change. There was a stack of unread reports, probably on the capacity of ships and the numbers of sentinels that had been in different areas lately. He had always been determined that if he couldn't jack in, he must be able to know all he humanly could anyway he could. That hadn't changed.
He wasn't looking at the door as she closed it with a soft clank, that was the problem with metal. It clanked no matter how softly you closed it, there was always a noise to make you realise that you weren't sleeping in a fake world where they still had rubber seals. The thought made her smile slightly and it was that he caught as he turned to her. He didn't say anything, simply gestured to her seat, next to his. That had been the way it had always been with them, eye contact wasn't enough without the hand gestures too. That was one thing she missed, the silent communications through glances. She settled her tired muscles in the chair, sighing as she sank gratefully into the fabric. She missed fabric while she was away. She missed a lot of things. Like food that required chewing. Something touched her lap and she opened her dark eyes, looking down. There was a plate before her, a single serve, which required much chewing. She smiled, eyes meeting his. Yes, he was staid and yes he was infuriating when he told her what she couldn't do with her baby because they were both too small. But then again… She was going to find a way to prove him wrong, there had to be a way and she would find it. She talked with him for some time, between mouthfuls of the delicious food. Her answers were as he expected and nothing in her raised the suspicion that she was looking for what she had had so long ago. He tucked her into the cot she had to herself. It was one of the idiosyncrasies that always made her smile about that man. He was so strong and cold when he was a leader and yet, when it was the two of them, he was the most caring man she had met. Bar one. And that one had spoken and gained the people's trust, given hope to those who could not help in the fighting that was to come. The door clanked as he left. It had been that way for the last few visits, he would only stay if she asked him to.
She sighed, wriggling to get the most comfortable spot on the mattress. The other man would have settled behind her and let her rest her weary head against his strong chest. He would have enfolded her in his warm arms even if she didn't know she needed it and make her realise that she had missed so much by not understanding until now. Until she had seen that pale skinned, black haired, brown-eyed man found just in time. She had seen the people bow to him, his shocked expression barely concealing the panic he had obviously felt. There was nothing more than that to this new coppertop. 'No', she corrected herself, 'he's not a coppertop anymore, he's just what he is. And if that's enough for me to believe in him.' That would have made the other man smile and made the one who had left frown. One believed and the other didn't. One could understand and accept the disbelief and one could not comprehend the belief. She rolled over, instinctively reaching her fingers to the edge of her bed, checking that her dreams had not manifested themselves into reality. That could have caused the need for some very interesting explanations. Why, exactly, did two captains who had been together and then grown apart fall into the same bed, on the same ship when up at broadcast, one leaving their ship? She held back laughter. It wasn't that she would mind terribly if they did end up in the same bed, but being so would mean they might have to abandon one of the two ships and she knew how much those hunks of metal meant to them both. They were the dreamed links to everyone else. And if they needed to talk, had to hear the other's voice, there was something to discuss; squidees, ship maintenance, Zionian news, training programs. They could even talk Zen if they had nothing else to discuss. The smile stayed on her lips as the darkness of sleep finally claimed her tired mind. The smile was still there when she awoke alone the next morning, the name on her lips not that of her lover, but of the man she loved.
~Morpheus~
~*~ Fin ~*~