TITLE: Break

NOTES: Again, a double post because I couldn't get onto the site :( I also post this fic at www.exisle.net if you notice I haven't updated in a while, you might find new chapters there. Thanks for the reviews!

CHAPTER TEN ~ By All Means

"Never pick a fight with the universe; the universe never gets tired of hitting you with everything it's got."

Enethan Argal, on the day of his capture

CY 9331

^~*~^Harper was worried. Trance knew and saw things that other people didn't, and now she wanted to get him alone. He had told her he needed his jacket from his room, and that's where he was now, with Trance waiting downstairs.

"So what's the plan? Lie some more? 'Cause that always helps," Lane said from behind him. Harper tensed. The last time he had dismissed Lane as a delusion, and she had proved him painfully wrong.

"What happened to your head?"

"You should know, you live in it," Harper said back. He continued scanning the room for the leather wallet, while keeping a close eye on Lane. It had been hours since his last hit, and it dismayed him to find the effects were dying down already. He needed a fix.

"It's not here," Lane sang.

Harper ignored her. It had to be here somewhere. He had seen it only twenty minutes ago when....

"When the android found it?" Lane finished Harper's thought for him.

"Oh no....oh no, no, no...." Harper uttered. Rommie still had the syringes. "This is not happening," he breathed weakly. If Rommie found the wallet it would all be over. She would figure it out, she was smart, he had made her that way. He had to get them back....as soon as he finished explaining himself to Trance.


Trance waited patiently in reception until Harper eventually showed up, missing something. "Where's your jacket?" she asked.

Harper froze for a moment. "Couldn't find it," he lied plausibly.

Trance paused for a moment and decided to let it go, though she knew a lie when she heard one. "So, when are you going to see the doctor?"

"What?"

"Rommie said you had an infection," Trance said. "Don't people with infections usually go to see a doctor?" she finished sarcastically.

"Oh. Yeah, sure. I'll go...later," Harper replied.

"Okay, that's it, what is going on with you?" Trance broke.

Harper was taken aback. He expected Trance to be more subtle than this. They weren't even out of the building yet, for heavens sake. He realised that she would not be satisfied with anything less than the truth. So he decided to give it to her. Part of it, anyway. "This isn't easy for me, Trance," he began in a tone he didn't use very often. It was open and honest, which in Harper's eyes made him vulnerable, something he despised being.

"I did something that won't stop haunting me for as long as I live. I killed someone, and it wasn't a bad guy. It was good guy. And now I've got you all lying for me. Dylan's been in front of his bosses lying through his teeth because of me. If this gets out in the open, he's gonna lose everything, all because of me."

Trance hadn't expected Harper's outburst, but by the sound of it it had been brewing inside of him for some time, he just needed a trigger. She decided upon responding with logic rather than emotional support, seeing that Harper was probably sick of hearing 'Everything's going to be okay'. "It won't get out in the open," she assured. "Lane Farrow went to prison for the murder so in everyone's eyes it's over and done with."

"That's not the point," Harper returned, having cringed at hearing Lane's name.

"We all accepted the risks that came with protecting you. We made a choice and we will stick by it," Trance finished, meaning every word.

"I know," Harper replied, trying to sound as sincere as possible, but there was no time for this. In the forefront of Harper's mind throughout the entire conversation was the leather wallet, or to be more specific, its contents. Contents that would make this entire mess collapse in on itself. He hoped the little heart to heart would keep Trance off his back long enough before she began to get suspicious again.

"Listen, I'm gonna go to the hospital now, get it over and done with," Harper lied. He had no intention of setting foot anywhere near a hospital. It was with great effort he could even walk past med-deck on Andromeda without having rancid flashbacks of all the times he had ended up in there.

"I'll come with you," Trance offered.

"It's okay, you go, look at...shrubs. Have fun," Harper replied quickly. It appeared the talk had done the job, and Trance's suspicions had subsided - for the moment. Now it was time to find Rommie.


"You know what's weird?" Dylan mused. "Harper was the last person I would have expected to do what he did," He danced around the actual words describing Harper's act, partly for fear of someone over-hearing, partly because he still didn't want to think about it too hard. He and Rommie were wandering the streets. Dylan couldn't seem to get enough of the Ostarian architecture.

Rommie knew precisely what he meant. "I always knew his past wasn't exactly a pretty picture, but part of me still can't believe it." Even seeing Harper's crime with her own eyes was difficult to take in. She had been there, experienced it in all the detail Harper remembered.

"And no-one knew. Not even Beka," Dylan went on.

It wasn't the first discussion of this sort to occur in the past few weeks. It was difficult to know something so shocking and not talk about it. Talking about it helped to comprehend it - in theory.

"Well I'm sure in time everyone will pretend it never happened, in that curious way humans do."

Dylan couldn't fault her perception. The most common way humans dealt with problems was to just forget about them, pretend they didn't exist. It wasn't very logical, but then, humans were rarely a very logical race. Dylan had always tried to face up to his problems - but this wasn't his problem, which was probably what made it more difficult.


Harper was pacing. He had been subconsciously balling up his fists again and again while he thought of how to get the wallet from Rommie. Aside from keeping his secret, he wanted it back because his body was telling him it needed another fix. He eventually thought of something, and called Rommie on his com.

"Rommie? Where are you?"

"Outside the Ostara Royal Bank. Is something the matter?" Rommie replied, stopping in her tracks.

"No nothing, I think you picked up my wallet by mistake. When you found me," Harper replied, as casually as he could. Theoretically there was no reason for Rommie to look inside the wallet, just acknowledge that she had it.

"Oh, yes, here it is," she answered, pulling it out of her wallet. Harper half-expected a shocked silence to followed by a stern 'Harper, get your ass down here, now', but instead -

"Do you need it now?" came the response.

"Yeah," Harper answered truthfully.

"Meet us outside the bank and I'll give it back to you," Rommie instructed.

Harper acknowledged and set off in the direction of the bank. Even though his plan appeared to be working, he couldn't rest until he had the wallet back - quite literally.


"Apart from this infection, Harper *seems* fine....doesn't he?" Rommie asked. There was something she couldn't identify that cast the slightest shadow of a doubt on her mind.

"I think so," Dylan replied. "He's quieter, I can't blame him for that, but he's a survivor. He'll get through this, we all will."

There were those key words again. It seemed to be 'We'll get through this' month. Maybe they should get tee-shirts printed. Dylan just wanted the 'getting over it' to be done with - to have his ship back, and his crew. But why did time have to move so damn slowly?

Before long Harper had arrived. Rommie handed over his wallet without a second thought. It was strange - she didn't remember picking it up, and seeing that she remembered everything, she decided to run a self-diagnostic. It shouldn't take long and she wouldn't have to shut down unless there was a problem.

"Thanks Rom, doll," Harper smiled.

"Are you alright Harper? You don't look so good," Dylan asked, concerned - this time for Harper's physical rather than mental state.

"Just this damn infection, you know. Of all the times, huh?"

"Oh that's right, I forgot to tell you. Rommie found out that a medical condition - however serious - excuses you from giving evidence," Dylan remembered.

Harper sighed internally. Thank the Divine for small mercies. He couldn't go in front of those people again. It would probably finish him off.

"All they need is a medical certificate, which you can get from the hospital as soon as you're checked out," Dylan finished.

Harper's face fell. It seemed the Divine had had a mood swing.


End of chapter ten