Author's note: Thank you to all my reviewers, especially those of you who've reviewed twice! So thank you to iorekbyrn, Callie-Cat, Kitty15, and prin59!
Chapter Three: The Tattoo
"Oh, Bobby!"
"Oh, Bobby," Allie mimicked from where she was sitting, sipping a Sparky. That was the only good thing about Bobby Jenkins' presence--Beka didn't pay attention to what Allie drank. She didn't pay attention to Allie at all, in fact, which was only one item in the long list of bad things about Bobby's presence. Allie could be sitting in the middle of the slipstream drive instead of at the top of the ladder to the cargo bay and Beka wouldn't even notice. She'd just go on doing whatever they did in her bedroom. "Gross."
"What's gross?" Allie looked down to see Vex climbing up the ladder, and smiled. At least she had Vex, the lanky human who had, from what she could gather, worked with Beka's dad and extended his service to Beka as well.
"Beka and Bobby," Allie told him, making a face. "I can't sleep whenever they're doing...what do they do in there, Vex?"
He laughed. "That's not a question for me, cherry blossom," he said with a grin, using her nickname. He had about a billion of them, and all of them had something to do with the color red.
"Why not?" she complained. "I mean, last night, Beka started screaming and I thought she was dying, and I was going to go in there but then Bobby started shouting something too and I just came up--why are you laughing at me?"
"You'll learn eventually, strawberry," Vex told her, mussing her hair. She made a face at him, which made him laugh harder.
"You suck, Vexpag," Allie said, well and truly annoyed. She had the strongest feeling that Vex never took her seriously. Maybe it was because she was short, maybe it was because she was a girl, maybe it was because she was thirteen, but he didn't take her seriously. She didn't know why he shouldn't. She helped out around the Maruwell enough, doing odd jobs; she cooked--with Vex, who was teaching her how to cook better than anyone at the monastery had, claiming that her food was the blandest crap he'd ever tasted, which was why Allie had laughed when Beka chewed him out over never telling her he could cook--and she patched up whoever needed patching up, even Bobby when he was at the exact place between sober and trashed where he would let her. But Vex didn't take her seriously, and neither did Bobby--but then again, she didn't expect it from Bobby. The only respect on the ship that she got was from Rev, who respected everyone, including newborn babies, and from Beka when Bobby wasn't around.
She had really liked being on the Maruuntil Bobby showed up. Beka had been fun to be around, unless she was having a temper fit, and they did exciting things that Allie couldn't have even imagined when she'd been living at the monastery. Her life had been deathly boring compared to Beka's life, even on Beka's boring days. But then Bobby had shown up. Allie remembered him from their talks on planet--she'd thought it pretty clear that Beka hated him. And Beka had hated him, right up until she'd stopped yelling and started kissing him so much it almost made Allie physically sick. Then things had gotten horrible. Allie realized right away why Beka had hated Bobby--he was a lying wacko who thought he owned the Maru, and Beka, and who drank as often as Beka would allow it. He also hated Allie and had tried to get Beka to kick her out, but Beka had refused, the last bit of attentioned she'd paid to her cousin. So Bobby contented himself with mostly ignoring Allie, and when he absolutely couldn't, bashing her around a little bit. Not enough to really hurt her, but plenty to convince her to stay clear of him.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Vex's hand under her chin, and she raised her eyes to meet his. "What are you thinking about, supernova?"
"What do you think I'm thinking about?" she retorted, but smiled a little. He might not take her seriously, but he cared, and that was really all she needed.
He was quiet for a few seconds, then flashed a big grin at her. "Firecracker, when's your birthday?"
"Ummm...I'll be fourteen in five months."
"Did I get you anything for your thirteenth birthday?"
"No," she said, shaking her head, "but that's because I'd only just met you."
His grin got wider. "Come on, then."
Allie left Beka a note on the off chance she came to her senses, kicked Bobby out, and realized that there were other people who lived on the Maru, then allowed Vex to lead her through the Drift they were currently docked at to a dingy, dark little place deep down in an area of the Drift Beka wouldn't approve of. Allie didn't really care; Beka had given up to right to approve of what Allie did as soon as Beka had allowed Bobby to take over her entire being. The woman greeted them with a lecherous grin, which Vex returned. "Fred, what you got there? Little chick, ain't she?"
"Little apple, sure, but I think she's old enough."
"Old enough for what, Vex?" Allie asked, eyes widening as she looked around.
"A tattoo, little red," he told her, showing her a book. "Here. Pick one out, and then tell Macy over there where you want it done and in somewhere around an hour, you'll have a lovely tattoo to show off to the guys."
Allie made a face as she looked in the book. "I don't want to show off to guys."
"Girls, then?"
She stuck her tongue out at him, and pointed to a blue butterfly. "That one. On my ankle."
A little over an hour later, Vex was helping Allie limp out of the tattoo parlour, sporting a brand new blue butterfly on her ankle, a slightly whiter face, and a happy smile. "You were real brave, pepperoni. I've seen full grown men show more pain than you and getting smaller tattoos, at that."
"It didn't hurt that much, Vex," she said gamely, absolutely loving her new tattoo--partly because it was the coolest thing she'd ever seen and partly because she knew Beka would hate it if she found out. "Thank you."
"No problem. Just don't expect a fourteenth birthday present."
She grinned as they walked back to the Maru. "I won't." And even though Beka and Bobby were still making weird noises when they got back, Allie was happy for the first time since Bobby'd come onboard.
To Be Continued…