Dylan couldn't wait any longer. "Rommie, we are going to find her NOW!"

"Ummm... isn't that what we've been trying to do for the past month?"

"AAAAHHHHHH!!!!" he threw a paperweight at the wall. Rommie just raised her eyebrow and left. As the door swung shut, a guilty-looking Harper walked in.

"Harper, whatever you did, I'm not in the mood for it."

"Well, um, as much as you're going to hate me, I think you'll want to hear this one.

He just gave him a "this better be good" look.

"Well ya see, one of my biggest fears was always getting separated from Beka. So just in case, I built us a sort of walkie-talkie. No matter where we are, we'll be able to reach each other through this thing. I press this button here and say something, and it starts to buzz on her end until she picks it up and presses the button. We can talk from there."

Dylan looked ready to kill. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Because I built it years before we ever met you and I'd completely forgotten about it until about five minutes ago. Besides, there's no guarantee it will still work or that she'll still have it."

"It's worth a shot. How fast can you try?"

"Give me about 10 minutes."

XXXXXXXXXX

He paced on the Hercules for what seemed to be hours, muttering to himself. "She didn't do it. She didn't kill him. Dammit!"
He called a crewmember in. "Get me Beka Valentine!"

"Aye, sir."

That tracking device he'd slipped onto her shirt had paid off after all. She came in.

"What do you want? I did my job, I can never speak to my family again. Shouldn't you be happy?"

"I would be if this was the case."

Beka looked confused. "What do you mean by that?"

"Telemachus Rhade was stabbed one month ago. However, Trance Gemini barely managed to pull him through."

Beka managed a half-smile at this, until she heard what he had to say.

"One week, or my old threat takes action. You did not fulfill your end of the bargain."

She turned pale. "Valentine out."

XXXXXXXXXX

What could she do? She just didn't know anymore... she couldn't go back, that much she knew. But she had to. Why? In order to kill someone she thought of as family and who had just admitted that he was in love with her. Joy. She was going crazy, she was even hearing crazy noises in her head. But wait, was that in her head? She got up and walked around the Maru, and pulled out an odd object from under the pilot's chair.

"No, this couldn't be..." she pressed the button.

"Hello?"

"Beka! Thank god! I thought I'd never see you again!" She could hear the relief in the little engineer's voice.

"Harper, I can't talk."

"Beka, please, I'm lost without you! Come back!"

"After what happened, I'm not sure that anyone wants me back."

"Trust me, we do! We want to know why you did it, and I'm sure you'll be in some trouble. But we need you back."

"Okay Harper, here's the deal. I'll meet you and only you on Talamasca drift in three days. 6:00. Deal?"

"You got it boss!"

"Valentine out."

XXXXXXXXXX

He just sat and thought. What this woman had done made him who he was today. Because she chose to be a flash addict, he was forced into being a thief. A regular, petty thief. But he had gotten good at it. He had learned so much from so many people, picked up so many trades. That's how he acquired this ship, he had stolen all the parts and built it from scrach. More powerful than the Andromeda. The Hercules was beautiful. And he would finally get his revenge on Beka Valentine.

XXXXXXXXXX

Harper's POV

He had wanted to. He had wanted to so bad. The gun just sat in front of him for hours. But then he remembered... there may be a way. And that way had worked. He was going to see Beka in three days. He just had to be able to help her with whatever it was, he was determined. And it gave him so much hope to know that she trusted him...