Chapter Five: Maybe We Were Dancing
"Another boring day."
Vex grinned from where he was sitting, sipping a cup of coffee. "What's our eta, stop light?"
"I hate it when you use words wrong because you think I won't know what they mean. I know perfectly well that an eta is the estimated time of arrival," Allie said, giving him a look as she drank her milk.
"Well, look at you. A regular spacer, now," he teased, earning himself a smack on the shoulder.
"You're horrible. And for your information, Beka was teaching me. Before Bobby came back again," she muttered as she pushed her breakfast around on her plate. "Why does she keep taking him back, Vex?"
He shrugged. "Who knows why the infamous Captain Valentine does what she does? But just between you and me, candy cane, I think it's because he's a lot like her dad. Rarely sober, sometimes Flash fried, possessive, but loves her." Allie must have made a face, because Vex said, "Yes, he does love her. He might have a weird, twisted way of showing it, but he does."
"What does she need him to love her for? I love her, and you and Rev love her. Isn't that enough?"
"Not quite, little heart. You're not old enough to understand it yet, but--"
"I'm thirteen."
"Like I said, not quite old enough, but there's a different kind of love between a man and a woman who have a relationship like Beka and Bobby do."
"Does it have something to do with the sounds they make when they're together in Beka's room?"
Vex laughed. "Something, baby sun. Something. Listen, I gotta go do some shopping; whether Beka's involved with Bobby or not, she'll notice if the kitchen's not stocked. Want to come?"
Allie wanted that more than anything. "I can't, Vex. I have some work I'm supposed to be doing, and Bobby will kill me if it's not done."
"I thought I told you not to be alone with him."
"Vex, I can't avoid him all the time. I mean, it's not like the Maru's huge with unlimited space," Allie said sarcastically, something she'd learned from Beka. Sarcasm would be Beka's middle name if it wasn't Elizabeth. "He cornered me this morning on my way to the shower and told me unless I did all the things on his flexi, I wasn't going to live to see tomorrow. So I figure it's better to do it rather than risk death, even if he will be too drunk to shoot properly by the time he remembers I exist. There's always a chance he won't miss, and I'm not in a hurry to get another gunshot wound."
"It would get rid of him..."
Allie smacked him and went off to try and figure out what Bobby wanted her to do. Most of it was badly spelled, drunken scribble, and the rest used spacer terms she didn't know yet, but by looking things up in the Maru's database, she managed to work out most of it and got started. Half of it was done as well as she could do it by lunch, and there she stopped, because she was hungry and tired and just plain fed up with work she shouldn't have to be doing. "Stupid Bobby," she muttered angrily, getting up and brushing at the goop that always seemed to stick to her any time she worked on the Maru. "Stupid Bobby and stupid Beka." She stalked towards the kitchen, muttering to herself, and only stopped when she ran into the very people she was muttering about--dressed only in the same blanket. Beka turned a brilliant shade of red, and Allie shrieked and ran away.
When Beka found her, dressed in normal clothes by now, Allie was huddled up in a recess in the wall with her sketchbook and pencil, the two items most dear to her. "Hey, Allie. Watcha doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing."
Beka sighed. "Allie, I'm sorry about that. I thought you went shopping with Vex."
"I didn't."
"Yeah...I guess that was obvious. Why were you on the Maru?"
Allie glowered at her. "I was doing the work that stupid Bobby left me."
"I'll...I'll talk to him about that, okay? I'm really sorry," Beka said, sighing again.
"What were you doing, anyway?"
"We were...maybe we were...dancing. Yeah. We were dancing."
"Without any clothes on?"
"Listen, Allie, stay out of matters that you don't know anything about, okay?" Beka said, getting fed up with her. The kid was only thirteen, for god's sake.
"Matters I don't know about?" Allie exclaimed, equally as fed up. "Want to know what I do know about? I know that every time Bobby comes to live on the Maru, you completely ignore me and Vex and Rev! You forget that we exist!"
"I do not!"
"Yes, you do! Every single time. You only see him, and he's a freaking drunk idiot who likes to threaten little girls and who thinks he owns you and the Maruand everything on it. Go on. Say that's not true, either."
Beka sat back, deflated. "I'm sorry, Allie. But I love him...you don't understand that. You can't."
"I'm sick of everyone saying that," Allie mumbled, crawling out of the wall. "I'm going to find Vex. You go back to your stupid Bobby and your dancing." She stalked to the entrance of the Maru, then turned. "I don't want you to have to choose between him and me, because I know what your choice would be, so I'm going to leave before it comes to that. Just keep that in mind. It'll probably come soon."
"Allie..." Beka had a shocked epression on her face.
"I'm not so young, after all. Am I." With that, she left, leaving Beka to stare after her and wonder if she was right.
To Be Continued…