I am terribly sorry for the long wait. I have been so busy these passed couple of weeks. Thanks for the patience, if you're still with me, and if you're not... I'M SORRY!!! Yeah... Oh, and this would be indented on the first line of every new paragraph like it usually is, but fanfiction isn't cooperating with me... So, uh... Here's the next (and last) installment...

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Beka did exactly what Harper said to do; she followed his trail of blood to the spot where his fight with Bobby must have taken place. Only Bobby wasn't there anymore. He must have come to and ran off. 'The cowardly bastard,' she thought angrily. 'Probably didn't think Harper could do much damage, especially with a hole in his shoulder.' She searched the area for a moment before she decided to check all the bars in the area. Knowing Bobby, she figured he'd probably run off to some tavern or pub to drink away the pain of Harper's beating.

Just as she suspected, she found Bobby in a dark, dank little tavern not three blocks from where his fight with Harper had taken place. He was sitting at the bar, partially slumped over the counter, with a glass full of liquid in one hand and a bloody white handkerchief in the other. She couldn't help but laugh at him. He really was pathetic, for such a "tough" guy. Pushing her red hair behind her ears, she sauntered over to him and tried her hardest to look very upset.

"Bobby?" she said quietly. He looked up at her and swallowed, unsure of her intentions. "Bobby, I want you back on the ship." She forced fake tears to brim the bottom of her eyes and sat down on the bar stool next to Bobby. "Somebody killed Harper..."

"What?" Bobby asked in disbelief. 'I actually killed that little rat?' he thought to himself. His look of shock turned into one of feigned sympathy and he reached out to hold her hand. "Aw... I'm sorry baby. Do you know who it was?"

Beka nodded and his breath caught in his throat. "He was mugged by some Nightsider bastard," she replied. His breath rushed out of his lungs in a sigh of relief. "Please, Bobby. Come back to the ship now."

"Okay, doll. Let's go," he said, standing up (with the support of the bar counter) and taking Beka's hand to help her up. She stood and walked in front of him, trying her hardest to hide her mischievous smile. As soon as they were outside and a few feet away from the tavern, she stopped walking and swung her fist at him, catching him on his cheekbone.

"He's not dead, Bobby," she said, emphasizing his name in a mocking tone. "He got back to the ship before he passed out and Trance fixed him up." She kicked him in the gut, forcing him to double over, then jammed her elbow into his spine and kneed him in the face, knocking him to the ground. Once he was down, she kicked him in the face. "You stupid son of a bitch... Did you really think killing him would make me love you again? You know, I still had feelings for you after you left, but now... Now the only feeling I have for you is this burning in my stomach that makes me want to kill you slowly and painfully."

"Beka, I..." Bobby started to say, but Beka kicked his ribs a few more times before pulling her gun out of its holster on her side. She charged it and pressed it against his temple.

"Or I could just shoot you in the head and make it quick so I don't have to listen to your whining." She stayed like this for quite a while, with her gun pressed firmly against his temple. People walking by looked completely shocked, but not one of them seemed to want to get in Beka's way. Finally, she spoke again. "I don't want to have anything to do with you ever again. Do you hear me? If I find you anywhere near my ship or my crew again, I will personally castrate you and then tie you to the back of the ship and leave you back there when we take off. Got it?" Bobby nodded quickly, tears now flowing freely from his eyes. "Good. You have a horrible life, now." She removed her gun from his temple and clicked the safety back on, slipping it back into its holster. She ignored all of the people that moved out of her way as she headed back toward the Maru, a smug smile on her face and a bounce in her step.

Four Days Later

Harper looked up from his position on the floor of the machine shop and sighed. Beka had come to drag him back to his quarters. Again. Why couldn't he just do simple tasks like check all the parts he'd bought and dropped that day that Bobby had shot him to make sure they weren't broken in their fall? He tried to ignore her and continued to work on the part in front of him, but she stood in front of him and tapped her foot, annoying the hell out of him.

"Beka!" he yelled, finally looking back up at her. She stopped tapping her foot and laughed at his frustration.

"Relax, shorty," she said as she sat down in front of him, "I'm not here to drag you, kicking and screaming, back to your room. Trance says it's okay if you spend a few hours down here doing simple stuff like this... Whatever it is you're doing..." Harper sighed in relief and put the part on the floor next to him, drawing his knees to his chest. "How're you doing today?"

"Better, I suppose," Harper answered quietly. "It still hurts, but it's from the nanobots more than it is the wound." He leaned his head against the wall behind him and closed his eyes. "I'm still exhausted from it all."

Beka's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "You're actually admitting to me that you're tired?" she asked in disbelief. He opened his eyes and rolled them at her, laughing a little and smiling broadly.

"Don't tell Trance," he warned. There was a strange silence between the two. Harper could tell there was something on Beka's mind, but he didn't want to say anything for fear of getting too nosey. On Earth, you minded your own business, and on the slave ship, if you got nosey, you got beaten. Finally the silence was too much for Beka to handle and she crossed her legs so she was sitting Indian style.

"I've been keeping this to myself for a few days now, because I didn't want to send you into any memories that you'd rather not have, but it's really bugging me now... I know that some of those scars on your body aren't from your former employer. They look more like..."

"Self-inflicted wounds?" he finished for her. She bit her lower lip and nodded slowly, wincing at the harshness in his voice. "Maybe that's because they are." A few seconds went by and neither of them said anything. Harper carefully removed the makeshift sling Trance was forcing him to wear and rolled up both of the sleeves on his long-sleeved shirt. He searched his forearms for the telltale marks he'd inflicted upon himself during his time on Earth. "You get so used to getting hurt on Earth that sometimes you need it. That's when this happens." He pointed out some particularly dark scars close to the under side of his elbow. "Pain becomes an addiction that needs to be fed every once in a while. Most of the time I went out during the Nietzschean patrol and caused trouble just so they would hit me or kick me to the ground, but sometimes I would just cut myself. I never did it with the intention of killing myself, but sometimes... Sometimes things got so bad that I almost did wish I had the guts to cut deep enough, but I never did."

"Do you still...?" Beka couldn't say it. She'd always thought that suicide was the cheap way out, but she never knew that there was other reasons people hurt themselves. Still, she couldn't bring herself to finish her question.

Harper shook his head and creased his brow in concentration. A weak smile crept across his face and he looked up at her with his baby blues. "I think I've had enough pain since I left Earth to last me a while. Plus..." He hesitated, trying to find the right words to say. "I think I've finally found a place where I can be happy without pain." Beka smiled broadly and wiped away the few tears that had leaked from her eyes. Then she realized something; even after everything Harper had been through since he'd been on the Maru and even after everything he said he'd been through before he came to this planet, she'd never once seen him cry. His eyes never watered like he was going to cry either. She supposed that this was probably a survival technique he'd learned on Earth, that he saw crying as a sign of weakness, but then again... He didn't look at her like she was weak when she cried. He always looked at her with pure sympathy and compassion in his expression. At this moment, he was giving her that same look and he reached out and took hold of her hand. "It's not that sad, boss."

"I'm not sad, Harper, I'm so incredibly happy. I'm glad you're still with us, shorty," she said with a smile.

"Can't resist my charm, can ya?" he asked with a cocky grin. He winked at her and wiggled his eyebrows a bit. Beka laughed and roughed his hair up before standing up to leave. "Hey! Watch the hair, boss. I spent years perfecting this style..."

"I bet you did, shorty. I bet you did..." With that, Beka left the machine shop. Harper stared after her for a while before smiling contentedly and going back to work on the parts.

He was finally home.

The End

YYYAAAYYYYY!!!!!!! I finished, I finished... I'm doing a happy dance, can't you see me? I'm so proud of myself. So... Tell me what you think. I'll have another story soon. It'll probably be a comedy and it will have the return of my original character, Felix B. Clark. ...Sniffs the air... I smell changes comin'...